Off Topic - No Fun

[scruffy]

Harv? RobertN?
Any of you MS ME officionado's feel free to jump in here any time!
Question: How do you get to Safe Mode on this *&(^%$#@ ME edition? I loaded it last night for the wife and it came out smelling like a rose. Loaded it on my computer, and was fine, until the drivers for the internal modem were loaded...now it errors out if you try to enter the control panel. This minor glitch prevents one from getting into the modem button to delete the internal modem (I also run a U.S. Robo Tics 56K external modem) driver. The Boot disk brings you to the A:\ drive prompt, F8 gets me no where, so what other little trick am I missing here?
I need to find a way to get to the driver to blow it away, or do it in the registry?

 

[Harv]

Scruffy -

I'm always in Safe Mode -- I use Macintosh. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

(Don't tell anybody, but I recently bought a PC w/Win98 just so's I can test my stuff across platforms. Not enough expertise to help you, though. /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif)

 

[scruffy]

Harv, found an answer to part of the problem.
Just for information, on MS Winders ME, hold the ctrl key while rebooting, keep it down and it will boot into safe mode (Windows was always the F8 key). Got rid of what I could, (control panel still takes a dump) by right clicking on My Computer, selecting devices, deleting the modem, but it still doesn't allow an in depth scorging of the drivers and other settings. I'm living with it for now, but there's an answer here somewhere.
Thanks for the MAC Attack! Never tried one, as I don't get into all the graphics etc that you do, and never had the need. Main frames are more predictable, and don't do as much at the server level...the Alpha's also need remedial math courses! (At least that's been my experience!)

 

[Harv]

Scruffy -

Although I enjoyed zingin' you with the "Mac Attack", I don't really promote any particular computer. My last 9 corporate years were as a Mac software developer, so I wound up using them at home. I do believe they are fine machines and their OS has had some distinct advantages over some others, but Apple is certainly having its problems these days.

Over the last 30 years I have spent considerable time on a variety of mainframes and desktops, and each had their own pluses and minuses. My Windows machine really rips with a 600 MHz Pentium III, but the OS itself takes a lot of patience sometimes. I suppose it all depends on what you're used to, but deep down I sometimes think the Micro$oft is just in it for the money. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[RobertN]

Scruffy,
I do not know. My knowledge is pretty limited in that area. For working at a big microprocessor/chip company, I do mostly mechanical stuff... My PC/Win skills are really limited

RobertN in Shingle Springs Calif

 

[ronjhall]

Ok I need to ask how the Christmas tree lights are powered. Do they run off 12-volt battery or solar power? Is the blinking to conserve power or just for looks? Had to go back a couple of day to find when the tree and cap were added. Nice job.

ronh/w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif

 

[scruffy]

Harv, I know the PC / Mac platforms have equalled out quite abit the last 3 to 5 years in abilities, but they each have their strong suites. I run the old standard Athlon 700mhz cpu and 256 meg of ram. Does alright for me. Was a royal pain when I built it due to having gotten a flakey video card. Like to drove me nuts before I figured out that brand new 32 meg ATI Rage card was a bummer. Been very stable with 98, but this MS WIN ME just may be a problem to it....won't know until I can find a way to resolve this issue. It works just fine in all respects but Control Panel, which has now settled down to an instant Explorer error when I try it. Oh well, something else to play with.

P.S. Like your duded up tractor...what is that, a HoHOBota?

 

[Harv]

RonH -

<font color=blue>Ok I need to ask how the Christmas tree lights are powered.</font color=blue>

Why, they're hydraulic of course. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

You have to understand -- I only get to see my tractor a couple of times a month. When my tinkerin' withdrawal gets too bad, I futz with my tractor pixels.

Can't hurt to add a little seasonal touch now and then, can it? /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

 

[JonE]

Harv, I like it I like it!
I have MS ME that came with an HP Pavilion I just got. I tried to install it on my other pc but it must have a bootstrap file in cmos (or something) that indicates the pc is or is not an HP pavilion. Bottom line is that it tells me it cannot load onto the pc because it is not an HP. Any ideas how I can get this to work? Anyone ever try to "burn" a new cmos prom?

 

[Harv]

JonE -

Like I said, I ain't no Windows guru, but I have observed that your buddy, Bill Gates, will take every opportunity to make sure you have to buy separate copies of just about everything, if possible.

Most computer systems provide a way for software to figure out what hardware configuration it's running on. But I'm too naive about pc's to know what there is about MS ME that's hardware specific.

I'm sure somebody out there can provide an actual answer.