Early in 2005, when spousal abuse among the Elderly in my family became a huge issue, it was clear that living arrangements had to be made and quickly for our Patriarch. Since stairs are a problem, moving in with me was (thankfully) not possible. The place we ended up getting was and is a very wonderful place to live. The one stickler was, there was no furniture in it. Now hanging out in a spacious spot is cool but everyone needs to sit down sometimes.
So I engaged my shopping on the cheap gene, and got to work. It looks pretty darned nice in there.
Believe it or not, our Patriarch was pouting over leaving his computer (bought 2 years before) at the home front EVEN THOUGH he never actually uses the darned thing. It was such a silly point to be stuck on so I decided to get him a machine that was suited to his needs. I got an Aptiva for $5 and installed a clean version of WIN98, and asked him to buy more RAM for it.
He did. And promptly decided it was a piece of crap. Now remember, we are talking about someone who uses the computer as a slide show only. My pictures screensaver is the big deal.
This was so ridiculous that in a moment of madness I said TAKE MINE and installed my beloved at it's new address. And the Aptiva? It is mine, baby. *crash*
I do not mind this little machine although Win98SE is an unhappy OS.
What I do mind is the way my system settings get arbitrarly overwritten in updates.
Suddenly, my USB ports no longer work.
Suddenly, I cannot plug in my Digicam.
Suddenly, my webcam is not recognised.
Suddenly, my flash drive does not show up as a harddrive.
*arg*
I got so frustrated, especially since last week the other machine became a worm farm and required an unseemly amount of hours to decontaminate. (!!!)
God Bless my dear friends all over the world.
This week it was Aylen's turn to hold my hand and try to convince me how to work my magic over device driver. Apparantly I do not HAVE any magicks. *sulk*
I decided all on my own that since the big error revolved around the VMM32.VXD file it obviously should be moved from system32 to system. Hey at least I did not delete it.
All went well until my next crash.
Aptiva crashes about 4 times per day. On a good day.
Imagine my horror when the system displayed the dreaded "VMM32.VXD is required to load windows. If this file is not in your path you may need to reinstall Windows."
After a few loud shouts of *buggerbuggerbugger* and *bullockybuggerybuggerbugger* I rummaged about for the boot disk. No boot disk. No buggery boot disk buggerbuggerit.
Plan B was get the CD and boot from it.
No bullockybuggery CD anywhere to be found.
Plan C was get one of my dinosaur backup computers out and make a Boot Disk.
Great until the "insert Windows98SE in your CD drive."
Bugger turned to shit turned to fuck and worse. Oh yes, I can wield that Anglo Saxon with my wicked tongue, yes, yes I can.
Believe it or not even Plan D failed. The old computers do not HAVE the VMM32.VDX file on them. Or VMM32.VXD for that matter. They are not 98SE. (scream)
So tonight Plan 9 from Outer Space.
I actually remembered DOS.
Yes yes I did so!
CD windows
CD System32
CD Drivers
copy VMM32.VXD C:\windows\system
cd..
cd..
win
*cheer cheer cheer
Ok so it doesn't sound like much.
But oh baby HOW I am smiling.
I love myself today!!
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--attribute this to that silly need to crow
*COCK A DOODLE DOO*
