HEY GUESS WHAT

[hat_plays_sims]

I got my desktop reassembled!

Couple of minor hiccups with things like having to go into BIOS and change a setting I did not and still kinda don't understand so Vista installation would finish, six years worth of Windows updates having to install at once, and so many drivers, but I'm up and running and a good chunk of tomorrow will be spent installing Sims 2 and possibly SC4. ... And all my Sims-related programs. I honestly might have more programs for Sims management and customization than I do for anything else I do on the computer. SimPE and a mess of plugins, Wardrobe Wrangler, Compressorizer, HomeCrafter, Hack Conflict Detection Utility, Delphy's Download Organizer, Clean Installer, Collection Creator, NPC Replacer, and I keep thinking I should get the Lot Resizer. Shoot, a bunch of my non-Sims programs, I got for Sims-related purposes (Irfanview, Bulk Rename Utility, Audacity, frickin' Photoshop).

I am so, so ready to be able to make things properly again. Full-sized keyboard, enormous monitor (the laptop is kinda letterboxed, so I can see a lot from side-to-side but I scroll a lot), comfy sitting arrangement, all the RAM, and I know all the old mistakes I made and I'm totally ready to never make those again and instead make all new mistakes.

And after a basically-five-month enforced hiatus from Serious Sims Creation, I bring lessons you can learn from my misfortune!

1. I am not sure how often you should blast the dust out of your tower, but it's evidently more often than I was doing it. Get some canned air and don't let your computer's innards turn into the Haunted Mansion.

2. Anti-static wrist straps cost eight bucks at Radio Shack and seventy-five cents shipped from China from a lot of eBay sellers. If your computer is not currently having an issue, you're in an excellent position to plonk down some spare change and wait patiently for an I Am Not Thor bracelet.

3. I got a passport drive for Christmas a few years back, and let me tell you internets, if it is remotely possible, get yourself a nice external hard drive and back up everything. Not just your Sims stuff (but back that up, too, a lot of TS2 links are going dead), but your taxes, your art, your fine collection of cat macros, your personal photos, your IM logs, your bookmarks, the unpackers for all those programs you've downloaded, the fanfic you're working on, old fanfic you've already posted. Back up your files as you go and you'll never have to pay for file recovery services.

4. Find out all the specs of your computer. All of them. Even if you don't understand them. It will help later when you're having to buy parts and there's a salesperson or a drop-down menu asking you what it is you're trying to fix.

5. I saved my graphics card's drivers! And then I didn't put them in a nice labeled subfolder on my passport drive, so I had to hunt for them and re-download. Also, I got Photoshop CS5 working, but I USED to have Photoshop 6 installed on this machine, too. If installation was a tricky process, write down what you did, and executables rarely come with descriptive filenames, so user-end labeling is key.

6. If it's remotely possible, try to own more than one device capable of browsing the internet. I don't know what I would've done without the ability to google 'my computer is freaking out what do' on a computer that was not freaking out. It was also nice to be able to google a fix for my installation issue (had to change a thing in the BIOS. Installed like a charm after that).

7. Recovery disks are not installation disks. Obtain an installation disk for your OS. If you're buying a new computer, you should be able to get one from the manufacturer or retailer, possibly for a small fee. I had to buy a disk meant for IT folks because I didn't know that six and a half years ago, when I got this well-loved box. Write down your product key and keep it with the installation disk, because chances are good it's in a spot that'll be hard to look at when you need to type it in.

8. Put the crevice tool or the upholstery tool on your vacuum and clean out your keyboard. It probably needs it.

9. Your hard drive may be held in the hard drive bay with two screws; mine was held in with four. Two of them appeared to be inaccessible against a non-removable tower wall... until I found the secret lever that released the entire hard drive bay and made switching out the drives super-easy. Check for secret levers.

10. Open your computer and check out your RAM setup before you buy more RAM. I was going to have two more gigs... but all my slots are full, so I ended up pulling a one gig stick and replacing it with the two gig stick. Kind of a 'half a loaf' moment, right there.

11. Changing a hard drive is a completely doable thing! It's like Advanced Lego. I found a bunch of tutorials so I'm not going to tell you how to do it, but what it TAKES to do it? You have to be able to physically lift your computer tower. You have to be able to use a hand screwdriver (my computer's screws accept flatheads or a size of allen wrench I do not have in my toolbox). You have to be able to unplug and re-plug cables that may be very firmly attached. You may need to be able to spot a secret lever (it was in plain sight, honestly, it just didn't happen to say PRESS HERE. I admit I kinda wish I'd marked it somehow while I had the case open). You'll need to be able to unplug all the cords and cables from the back of your computer before you start, and plug them all back in in the right spots when you're done. And although I had an installation hiccup (a Vista thing), reinstalling Windows was easier and more idiot-proof (if a little more high stakes) than a lot of things I've fiddled with in SimPE.

The chances are very good that you can fix it, if it happens to you. The chances are also very good that you can upgrade as you fix. I have a terabyte of hard drive space now, it feels positively luxurious, and everything is SO FAST I can transfer files from the passport to the new HD at about a gig a minute.

I feel like I've got more of my life in order than usual, it's nice.

(Also we got a kitten, because there was a cat-shaped gap in the household and it's been years since we've had a kitten. Her name is Penelope and I could babble about her, but this week her most fantastic feat has been jumping five feet straight up into the air to climb onto my computer armoire. We've had cats for as long as I can remember-- sometimes a lot of cats, I'm thirty-six and the late 80s and early 90s saw a lot of unfixed kitties at my house-- and I have never lived with one as dedicated to 'find the highest point of all the things' as Penelope.)

Comments

YES!!!!!

[gayars]

Awesome! So glad you got it up and running!

I had to replace my hard drive twice recently. Turned out my motherboard was going out and kept crashing the computer which killed the hard drive.

Sooo now I am getting money together for a new computer. At least the last hard drive is still good so all I have to do is hook it up as a secondary. I know this because the computer still will come up for about three minutes before shutting down and rebooting...:/ back up back up back up...

Re: YES!!!!!

[hat_plays_sims]

And finally running smoothly! Seriously, six years worth of updates is a lot to manage at once. Still, it's actually really, really nice to finally be rid of all the bloatware and try-me software that originally shipped with this PC-- I was never sure what was really, really safe to uninstall and what wasn't. (I think I'm missing drivers for something, though. The video controls on my keyboard don't seem to affect my DVD drive like they should, which is a minor annoyance. That eject button is handy.)

Also, ouch. I'm sorry to hear about your motherboard! Can you save anything else, like your graphics card or your RAM? Soup up that new computer as soon as it arrives?

Backups: a seven letter word for peace of mind.

Re: YES!!!!!

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, nicer graphics card and power supply can be slid into new one when it comes along. Sounds like you are missing your keyboard drivers maybe for that particular keyboard? Do you have a CD that came with it or know what the make/model number is to look it up? It is just a guess!

Re: YES!!!!!

[hat_plays_sims]

I might still have the CD that came with things, if a CD came with things, but if it did and I do, it's not in the box with the rest of my non-game software. The keyboard came with the computer, so the only other place a CD might be is in the box everything came in, and hell if I know where I stashed that. (If it's in the closet under the stairs, I'll just live with it.)

*flips keyboard over* ... how is this still raining gunk... Oh hey a model number! Honestly that's super inconveniently placed. Thanks for the advice, I'll see what I can find!

[(Anonymous)]

You use Audacity for sims related ventures? *curious* Also, this post is insanely useful if I ever decide to switch back to a desktop, at the moment I'm using a laptop for sims stuff only because I like how non-cluttery it is.

And "Check for secret levers."? Useful for both adventures and tech work I guess!

[hat_plays_sims]

I do! I have a mess of MP3s I use for a soundtrack "mod" (if you can't default replace 'em, just customize the radio's playlists) and Audacity was recommended to me as a great way to make the quiet songs audible and clean things up and cut out a few musicians tacking messages and "THANK YOU AND GOODNIGHT!" in English onto the end of a track. Then I started using it to clean up Halloween music from various places and haven't looked back. I don't use it a lot, but I do love it.

Laptops are fantastic, but when I got mine, it was for travel-- I did not spend the money to get a gaming laptop. (I do kinda wish I'd spent the money to get the one with the blu ray drive, though.)

And there's totally a secret lever! You press on it and the whole bay just lifts right out!

[gayars]

If you do not have the CD, chances are it came preloaded on the computer since it is the keyboard that came with computer.

I plan on having an external hard drive to back everything up once this is all said and done. My Dropbox and overdrive are kind of full of important sims things right now.

I am just so happy for you, back online and with new kitty! Sorry to hear about your other precious baby.:( New kitten sounds like a hoot! I have a couple that think they are neck warmers.

[hat_plays_sims]

Found it on the website! Drivers downloaded, and I'll install 'em once I finish going through my Buy Mode stuff. It's been so long since I've seen all of you, Buy Mode Stuff. I've missed you.

Penelope is trying to drive me mad today. Her first month here, the computer armoire was basically constantly closed, so now that it's open and in use, she wants to be in it. It was cute when she just wanted to curl up near my feet in the printer shelf I don't use (because 'directly under the keyboard' is a ridiculous place for a printer but a comfy place to put your feet up, and also because my printer won't print anymore), but she graduated to 'crawling through every cubbyhole' and managed to stomp on the tower's power button hard enough to turn it off THREE TIMES. We are working very hard on "no" today.

[gayars]

Oh I hate that when they turn it off! I rue the day the power button got moved to the top...

[hat_plays_sims]

I need one of those automatic laser pointers, that's what I need.

[nixed_sims]

I am so woefully behind here, it's not even funny, but YAY at getting your computer up and running! :D And good points up there for people who don't usually mess around in their 'puter's innards, and for people who do as well. (I'm a habitual innards-messer myself, although less so than I used to be since my left arm started acting up. Pushing things into slots is much harder with one hand (well, one and a half) than it is with two. :/)

Also, yay at new kitten, but I'm so very sorry to hear Harley is no longer with us. :(

[hat_plays_sims]

Thank you! I've spent the month since this post banging away on the religion mod (90% ready to upload and I'm about ready to leave the bits that aren't working the way I want as a 'testers wanted' thing). Sorry to hear about the arm-- stuff like that is why I included being physically able to lift the tower as a requirement for messing with computer innards yourself. As I was doing it I kept thinking "Mom had a shoulder replacement. Mom would find this really, really difficult."

I do still miss Harley. I probably will for a very long time-- she was special. Penelope's a very different personality, lovey and exasperating in all-new ways. (Also the first shorthaired cat I've lived with in more than a decade. It's so weird. All sleek and no floof, like the feline version of a pixie haircut.)

[nixed_sims]

Actually, as long as you're able to sit on the floor (and bending/twisting your body a bit if necessary), being able to lift the tower isn't a requirement. Trust me. ;) That's how I've been doing my innards-messing for a while now; I can still lift the tower, but it's a bit of a struggle and the chance of me dropping it because my arm decides to take a coffee break is too great for me to risk it. So I just tip the tower over (carefully!) and do my stuff sitting on the floor instead. Yes, it does mean you won't have the same muscle power when pushing/pulling things as you would have had if you'd been standing up and had the computer on a table, but for me at least that doesn't really matter since I'd just be wobbly standing up anyway.

Please give Penelope a cuddle (or scritch or whatever she prefers) from me. :)

[hat_plays_sims]

I lifted mine up onto a stable TV tray and sat, so, creativity for the win? It's a lot easier to keep Penelope out of an Open Box The Human Is Paying Attention To on a table than on the floor, and I figured the last thing any computer needs is an internal kitten. (This was before she got old enough for me to stop feeling guilty about shutting her out of a room for a while.)

I shall indeed, once she's in the mood for affection rather than scattering styrofoam peanuts all over my floor.

[(Anonymous)]

Hooray for kitties!

Sorry for the annoying wcif comment... but where did you find the Compressorizer? I've been searching for it cause Jfade's site is defunct and I can't live without it. :(

[hat_plays_sims]

I should go add it to my resource post-- I never throw out my zip files anymore, but the first time Jfade's site went down, I uploaded it here.

[(Anonymous)]

So Thrilled to see that you are back. I just found your site a few days ago by serendipity. I followed a link from either Plumb Bob Keep or The Medieval Smithy. just a few minutes ago found this post. I have been diligently trying to download all your stuff. I had just recently decided to try the Medieval Charter Challenge after my longtime savegame got corrupted. I've been busy downloading everything medieval that I can find since.

I love not only your mods but all the gorgeous pics you take and the loads of information you give too. Thanks so much for sharing all your stuff with us.

Congrats on your new kitten. Cats can be a constant delight. Of course they can also cause a lot of hair pulling but they are worth it. I have 4 but like you I have had many more than that in the past. They can multiply almost as fast as rabbits. LOL

hedgekat

[hat_plays_sims]

Thank you, that's so flattering! The way to my heart is compliments on my writing. I'm glad you've liked what you've found so far! I'm also going to have to look up the Medieval Charter Challenge-- is it different from the old Medieval Kingdom Challenge?

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not familiar with the Medieval Kingdom challenge. I found the MCC at MTS. Plumb Bob Keep was started to make stuff for it I think. It's apparently been around for quite a while from dates on the posts but I had never gotten into it before. Back in TS1 I had medieval neighborhoods and Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian and even StoneAge. But with TS2 I was so enthralled by the genetics part that was all I concentrated on. I did have a few themed hoods but they were all modern era. The closest I came to a historical hood was one I began in 1870 and played up to 1955. Took me 7 years. I started with 8 families for a total of 14 people. And they multiplied. I recently tried to revive it but random characters kept getting corrupted so I have given up on it for a while.

I've been intrigued by the few things you have said about your playstyle and would love to hear more about it. In one post you mentioned girls rolling to see if they wanted to become knights.

Oh, and a question. Do you ever share the Sims you have created? There is one of your male sims I would love to have. The model for your beard dump plus many of your hairs. He reminds me so much of someone I know and also of the actor Vincent D'Onofrio from Law and Order-Criminal Intent.

hedgekat

[hat_plays_sims]

Yeah, it turns out the old challenge I was thinking of is the Royal Kingdom Challenge, so old I had to use the Wayback Machine to find it. As far as I recall from back in the day, the Keep was started because Sunni wanted a site that was dedicated to Medieval stuff-- I don't remember her mentioning the Charter Challenge, but they happened the same year, it looks like.

I'm trying to think what I'd say about my playstyle and mostly coming up with "research all the things." I'm not sure how egalitarian things are going to be yet, and I know 'move up through the nobility ranks' isn't going to be a goal for me-- it's not realistic for everyone to do that, even if it's possible to a degree-- but I basically have lists of rules about everything. I got rules about marriage, rules about class, rules about trade, rules about ecology, rules about taxes that I haven't fully tested, rules about religion, rules about names... Is there something specific you want me to go on about, besides lady knights? Cos that's the egalitarian thing I haven't decided about yet-- my Athletic career default (career defaults are works in progress) is Knighthood, which is probably why it came up. Probably instead of rolling a die or flipping a coin, I'd just go with it if that were a young maid's first lifetime want.

I'm usually sort-of willing to share Sims-- it gets complicated cos I bundle my hairs once I've uploaded them-- but that particular Sim is an edit of one that isn't one I made-- he was sent to me by someone I'm no longer friends with, so I'm not super-comfortable sharing him (since I don't talk to her anymore to ask her permission).