I was minding my own business yesterday, doing a little computer stuff and uploading some files to PI, when WinXP decided to download some updates. And when WinXP wants to download updates, it wants complete control and it doesn’t stop to ask please even if you tell it to. I’ve had this happen twice before (update download during upload to web), and both times XP has been damaged.

This time my (nice, well-behaved, well-protected, working) computer has been turned in to a large doorstop. It’s a pretty, flashy, glowing doorstop, but a doorstop nonetheless.

Yep, it’s deader than Marley’s ghost. Deader than a doornail. Dead.

Try to boot: Cannot boot. System files corrupted or missing.

Try to repair: Blue Screen Of Death, BAD_POOL_CALLER

Say what?

In the end, I had to resort to reinstalling XP from scratch, which means I lost Windows knowledge of all of the software I have installed, some of which I need and use every day. Some of which gets me to the Internets. I tried something to “fix” it, and it’s gone back to being dead. No reason giving. Just won’t boot. So I will reinstall again. I have a backup that’s about 4 months old. It should be reasonably close. I haven’t done that many new things since then. So, reinstall again, and then restore, and then we’ll see.

I tried to use #1 Son’s (newly working) computer last night to check my e-mail, and I couldn’t get to the web on his computer either. And I couldn’t figure out why, I tried and tried and tried everything I knew. I worked at it for 2 hours last night (e-mail is a powerful incentive). I could talk to the network router, but that’s as far as I could go. It was very mysterious.

This morning I tried again. Still no go.

Then I went back to my desk to get something and noticed that the modem wasn’t working. See, it’s powered through the battery backup that my computer is on. And I’d turned it off when I shut down the doorstop.

That’s right, gentle reader, it does indeed work better if you plug it in.

Three hours killed to learn that little lesson. Ah well.

I planned on showing you knitting progress today. But, alas, the pictures are on my damn computer. There will be no pictures until I can get my computer talking to the world again.

You will have to trust me when I say that the Fixation socks are coming along nicely, I’m almost ready to start working on the Rainbow socks again, and all that STR is yelling knit me, knit me.

[sigh] Computer things seem to come in waves. Once I get past this, it should settle down for awhile again. Here’s hoping!