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Buffistechnology 2: You Made Her So She Growls?  

Got a question about technology? Ask it here. Discussion of hardware, software, TiVos, multi-region DVDs, Windows, Macs, LINUX, hand-helds, iPods, anything tech related. Better than any helpdesk!


Cybervixen - Oct 06, 2006 6:47:07 pm PDT #9169 of 10003
Queen of the Drive-By

Ok, restarting worked. To my credit, I DID think of that, but I was afraid that would mess up the EHD just like disconnecting it without ejecting would... But since you both said I should, I did, and it ejected fine after restart. Now, how do I do that defrag thing??


DCJensen - Oct 06, 2006 6:59:51 pm PDT #9170 of 10003
All is well that ends in pizza.

Hmm, Apple says it doesn't really need it so much any more... [link]

..so they tend to go for 3rd party solutions, I guess.


Cybervixen - Oct 06, 2006 7:13:42 pm PDT #9171 of 10003
Queen of the Drive-By

Ok, yeah, that makes sense, because I don't think I've done that defragmenting thing since my very first Mac, back in 1995 or so... When you mentioned it, I was thinking, "Oh crap! I probably should have been doing that all along!" I'm relieved to hear it isn't really necessary. I'm running OSX 10.4.8, so I think I'm good. I'm just going to shut down, hopefully when I start up tomorrow, my computer will be performing like a rock star, what with that gazillion trillion GB of memory I added and the approx. 8MB free disk space I have now! I'm hoping that these relatively low cost "upgrades" will keep me happy, cause I won't be able to buy that Intel Mac I'm coveting until AFTER my wedding next summer...

Thanks for the help guys. I didn't even know this thread existed until today - I came here planning to whine in Natter until someone took pity on me. It's so nice to have this thread here, filled with Buffista Techno Geeks (I hope you understand that is NOT derogatory, in my mind your right up there with Superman...) that I trust not to lead me askew. I am sure I'll be back. I don't have lots of time to chat these days, but I've always got some sort of computer issue or I'm looking for someone to geek out with after learning about some new must have gadget. I'm a budding computer geek - I ask stupid questions, but I usually remember things once I learn them. And looking at the specs for some great new piece of equipment (such as the aforementioned Intel Mac) makes me salivate, and that's one of the primary requirements to geekdom, right?

Shutting up now. Night.


Jesse - Oct 07, 2006 10:15:15 am PDT #9172 of 10003
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

I have a mystery question. An innocuous blog has been crashing my browser (IE, XP) for a couple of days now. For a while, there was an error message, something C++ Visual Library or something...

Runtime Error!
Program: C:Program FilesInternet Exploreriexplore.exe.
R6025 - pure virtual function call
Microsoft suggested I install updates and check brower add-ons. So I did the updates and disabled the one weird-looking IE add-on. I ran Norton AntiVirus, Ad-Alert and Spybot, and no help. Googling suggests it's a problem with the site, but it worked fine from my work computer. Any other ideas of places to look for the problem?


tommyrot - Oct 07, 2006 10:26:40 am PDT #9173 of 10003
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Have you seen this? [link]

They recommend this:

More searching lead me to this Usenet post where one of Microsoft’s MVPs explained three things that lead IE to crash, and that one of them can be any of BHOs installed. BHO stands for Browser Helper Object - things like Google toolbar. The man recommends:

1. open Tools / Internet Options, Advanced tab
2. uncheck “enable third party browser extensions” - this will turn off all BHOs


Jesse - Oct 07, 2006 10:35:44 am PDT #9174 of 10003
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

I'd rather not turn everything off, though. Hmph. I guess I'll do the one-at-a-time turn everything off troubleshooting method.


Jesse - Oct 07, 2006 10:58:35 am PDT #9175 of 10003
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

I think I fixed it, but I'm not sure how/why. Ah well. All's well that ends well?


tommyrot - Oct 08, 2006 7:11:23 am PDT #9176 of 10003
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

I need a 5.25" double density USB floppy drive. Although I suppose such a thing does not exits.

Let's see - can I take a 15 year old 5.25" double density (not high-density) floppy drive and stick it in a modern PC, using the built-in floppy controller?

eta: Oh, and access the drive with Linux?


DXMachina - Oct 08, 2006 7:58:09 am PDT #9177 of 10003
You always do this. We get tipsy, and you take advantage of my love of the scientific method.

Let's see - can I take a 15 year old 5.25" double density (not high-density) floppy drive and stick it in a modern PC, using the built-in floppy controller?

You'll need a ribbon cable with the old-style connector (card connector instead of pins) on the drive end of the cable. Also, high density floppy drives could still read double density disks, couldn't they?


tommyrot - Oct 08, 2006 8:07:16 am PDT #9178 of 10003
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Also, high density floppy drives could still read double density disks, couldn't they?

Yes. Writing to a double-density disk with a high-density drive is problematic, but I just need to read stuff. However, I don't have any high-density 5.25" drives.

I'll have to see what floppy cables I have.

I also found a service that'll copy info off of 5.25" floppies - at $5 per floppy. Je-sus.