The Official PC building thread - 4th Edition

I won't speak badly about AOL. But it is extra software, that one has to pay extra for. At least in my mothers case. I found a long time ago, that my systems run better without it. Multiple AOL processes running in my background don't appeal to me. Especially when I'm not even running the software. My mothers Brand new computer seems to run it well though. I won't speak badly about it. We all have our own preferences.

 

Russ's problem could have happened to you just as easily or to any of us for that matter. However hopefully your protection catches it before laying the nasty, in Russ's case he wasn't that lucky. As to solving his problem it can be done bring the putter over and we will give it a shot.

AOL is a resource hog, bloatware, and nonsense one just doesn't need, so sorry Fred no sympathy here, nor will I say it is OK, it is not. Why you don't like anything else has to be that you’re comfortable with AOL and change is not good because almost anything else is better. Enough said with that.

 

AOL is a resource hog, bloatware, and nonsense one just doesn't need, so sorry Fred no sympathy here, nor will I say it is OK, it is not. Why you don't like anything else has to be that you're comfortable with AOL and change is not good because almost anything else is better. Enough said with that.
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Your right, it is, it's also how you look at it, does it slow me down drastically, no it doesn't, does it throw a lot of crap on me, no it doesn't, is it comfortable, of course it is, it doesn't give me problems and it's easy to use, I am not trying to convince anybody here to change, I would not be that stupid, it just gets a little tiring after one's using of aol as foolish, stupid etc.

For the longest time I read or hear so much nonsense about this issue, I'll give you an example, bloatware, it might take several more seconds to load up than others, I can live with that, I'm in no rush, I'm not in no instant gratification mode, viruses, what viruses, 99% of the time when people catch them it's because of their own negligence not what browser your using, my aol catches spam at least 90% of the time right in the spam folder where it belongs, it does a great job without me setting up any extra's, were to lazy or to scared to change, sorry, done that, it's time has come, it's gonna die very soon and good riddance, I heard that 8 years ago, it's still here and probably will for more years to come.

Why did I come back to it? simple, it's easy to use, I like it's layout, I like how I can view the news, the weather, sports, I like how it spell checks, I like how easy it is to I.M. with my kids, etc. etc. all right in front of me, does it have bullcrap articles, sure, just avoid them, and what browser doesn't, I don't down anybody else using whatever they use, I never see or hear anybody else using anything other than aol get flack, once people hear you are still using aol you just opened yourself to a brunt of jokes, I don't have any problems with it, my friends that use it don't have any either, but on the other hand I sure as hell know of many that have had problems using others, have seen it first hand.

Iv' e seen Russ get flack hear by sticking with XP, everybody thinks he's to stubborn to change, he has changed to 7, and went back, why, cause it become a pain in the ass, caused him to may problems, but still nobody would give him the benefit of doubt, why is that so hard to understand, or do I have to go down town a ring the liberty bell to announce it lol. I'm just tired of aol getting so much bad rap, probably because some years ago a bunch of geek's announce how silly it was to use and everybody else followed suit, oh since they said it than it must be true, yeah right, I'm very glad everybody that uses whatever they use are happy with it, by all means stay with it, just don't think I or anybody else that uses it should be labeled, Oh I can't believe you still use it, I can easily throw a vise versa on all the others, but I don't.

And sympathy I don't need, however I do sympathize with so many others with some of the other crappy browsers I experienced and those people that have so many problems with.

 

Steve,

I personally didn't have any problem because I never open any HTML files unless I know for sure who they are from, and I know it's coming. I always delete No Subject emails. I just wish you could use Eraser on it, but you can only delete them! Rick was the only one I know who opened one and had a problem. My other friend Rick, also in Florida (maybe it's the heat!) opened one and when it did nothing, he immediately ran a virus scan which removed it. It's cost Rick Blackman 3 large HDDs so far! It trashes the bios in the HDD, and the drive vanishes from the setup! Only cure is a new board for the drive, which the manufacturers doesn't sell or replace! They will give you a new drive if it's under warranty, but they won't replace the board. The only solution I can see is to pay for an advanced replacement drive at big dollars, use the board from the new one so you can recover the files, then switch it back and send the old drive back. Be aware that an advanced replacement price from a manufacturer is much higher that buying one from Newegg. They make it expensive enough that you will send it back!

Russ

 

EMAIL
I use email a lot and have only once in 30 years been hit by a nasty in an email however I don't open up suspicious attachments or emails with no subject line.

BANKING
I also have done online banking on my Windows machines since it has been possible and again never had any problems with my personal info being stolen. The only time I got hit at the bank was with an online purchase where my bank account was compromised and I had to change my account. I do thousands and thousands of transactions across the web so the percentage of incidence is way less than %1 of problems, way less.

PHISHING
I have had several attempts made to phish my personal information, many!, and the only time I got hit by this was with a eBay phish. I was stupid on that one and should of known better but got hit and my eBay account was compromised.

WINDOWS XP
As to XP it is arguably Microsoft’s best OS ever and is still a great OS. I can't fault anyone for using it or changing as it is still very functional and in some areas better than Seven. That will change but for now if you are happy with XP and don't need some of the new bells and whistles why change!

USB FLASH DRIVES
USB sticks and their problems; some businesses address this buy disallowing USB devices in Security Policies but you can also turn off Autoplay to prevent nasty’s. Again a good AV program which is needed these days and you’re pretty safe with a little common sense too, which I know is lacking these days.

Russ,

There are something(s) I don’t understand from Rick’s problem.

1st – You say the BIOS gets spanked but ONLY the HDD’s in the BIOS. I’ve never heard of just one section of a BIOS getting corrupted, normally if the BIOS is corrupted all of it is damaged. If it is true only the HDD’s have been affected then you should be able to re-flash the BIOS to get your HDD’s back.

2nd – Does the board Post? If it does it could be the HDD’s themselves that are at issue and not the BIOS or even a RootKit virus.

3rd - Can you pull the HDD’s out and connect them to another PC and read the drives?

These are some of the question I would have but reserved to more depending.

Where does the other Rick live in Florida I have a Condo in Fort Myers?

Board replacement from the manufacture - You can get a board replacement for around $30 I just did that about a year ago on a system where part of the board went bad. It was questionable whether to buy new or replace but such is life.

Stevo

 

Although people shouldn't need to be tech savvy that is a nice wish but far from true today. More than ever people need to be aware of their surroundings when online. It is unfortunate but there is no way around it. This lack of awareness is why we have so many people social networking and putting all of their personal info out there for the crooks to take advantage of. I think in some ways society is dumbing down, social networking is a prime example of that, so when you say people shouldn't have to know better I disagree, no surprise there though.

 

Steve,

I'm talking about completely wiping the bios chip on the board of the HDD, not the MB system bios! They don't show up on any computer. You can't access them from Killdisk II. It's just like there is no drive there! You can't flash them with any firmware either. It just vanishes!

Rick lives way north of you in Tampa.

I moved to Fla. in 72, and lived with my Grandparents in Sarasota for a month until I got a place of my own. Too humid for me! LOL!!

Russ

 

That makes more sense but is the worst of the scenarios as recovering his data would be much more difficult than a MB BIOS corrupted. If all of the drives are the same and he could get a replacement board for at least one of them he could possibly recover all of his HDD's. What a bummer!

Tampa is nice and they get the Air shows up there that I like to go to so I do get up there on occasion. It is too humid in Florida though! Being from Minnesota I love it when it is 55-60F and everyone has their winter coats on but I'm running around in shorts perfectly comfortable. LOL

 

I guess I didn't fully understand what you were conveying, but I definitely and fully agree with you.

 

creaky,

I want nothing to do with Social Networking! It's constantly monitored by Homeland Security and even other Government agencies. You can make the wrong joke and wind up being taken away by Homeland Security, with absolutely no rights at all. The longest they have held someone is 7 years. To this day he has no idea what they were holding him for other then he was being held under the Patriot Act as a matter of national Security. He tried to sue, but that's against the law. No one is held accountable for anything! Isn't freedom wonderful?

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Isn't that horrible they should never be able to do such things, terrorists or not. The Patriot Act was one of the worst things we've ever passed, and Government is way too big but that's another subject.

 

creaky,

People in general are stupid! Some can't go to the bathroom these days without telling someone all about it. I cut people off cold when they start to tell me things about other people we both know. I always say that I'm not interested as it's none of my business. The look at you like you are from mars! Then there's Texting, another thing that is monitored. You can't even begin to believe how many lives have been lost because someone was texting instead of doing their job. Bus Drivers, Railroad Engineers and just ordinary drivers. People just seem to have to tell everybody what they are doing! They're addicted. We are far from the limits of how stupid people can be yet!

I've graduated from a tin foil hat to the new Titanium foil model. It makes the brain probes in the Satellites unable to spy on your brain waves! ROFL!!

Russ

 

Man did all you guys hit the nail on the head about this myface or facebook whatever the hell they call it thing, I joined one a couple of years ago after all my kids and their friends hounded me Poppy you need to get into the new world, after getting on it I couldn't believe all the things people were posting about themselves, I warned my kids about it, oh Dad your just paranoid, you set everything in the private mode and all is well, ok, so you want to believe that, I tell them, you young wipper snappers have no idea.

Last year I think it was facebook, my daughter got the flu and needed to take time of work, she also needed a note from the doc because of it, he gave her like a 4 or 5 day reprieve, well by the end of the week she was feeling better and went out with all her friends to this rave thing as the kids call it now a days, it was a firday night, they all posted themselves with pic's and all, Monday morning getting back to work didn't she get called in the office by her boss, she caught some hell, he told her it sure didn't look like you were that sick to me, why didn't you come in on Friday.

She couldn't understand how they found out, oh you think, just because you kids have the settings on private you really think people still can't figure out how to get in especially if they know how to get around things, and how about how people love to gossip, just like the creak and Russ said you can't take a crap without other people posting about you, with all this texting etc. you have snitches all around you, oh jeez I never thought about it that way, jee Dad I think you were right, us old farts we don't know anything.

Those things can be fun, I don't fully fault those sites, it's the people that screw it up, I always try to warn my kids never post anything on those sites that can bite you in the ass later, times they listen and times they don't, I don't know maybe I'm being biased, when we were growing up I feel we had more street smarts, and what really gets me more and more adults are doing the same thing, go figure, maybe as they say the dumming down of America might have some truth in it.

 

The build went well. Smooth as butter. One thing surprised me though. No IDE ports. Rather careless of me to not note that before purchasing/deciding on the build. I was gonna put one of my old IDE Dvd drives in it. Obviously that's not gonna happen. Honestly though? I'm not that upset about it. Sata is here to stay for now. Until of course the next standard. If one is really needed, eh?
I'm sure it'll be everything he hopes. I put some... eh hem, pictures in his picture folder, and set them as the background. I'm sure he'll like them

He gave me 450$(Keep the change), I spent 446 on the build, including my Nas enclosure. So the way I see it, I got the NAS enclosure for free. Or rather I only had to spend some time on the build. Which is fine. I love building

 

Yeah you don't get any IDEs on Sandy bridge systems, haha. I forgot about that when helping someone outline a system!