Misadventures In Geekery

A friend of mine was recently 'gifted' a laptop computer.  There were two major problems with this computer.  Number one, it had Vista as an OS and number two it was infected with enumerable viruses and malware.  I brought this computer home for Will to remedy which was the start of two days of misadventures.  He got kind of ticked off at me for loaning the boss man my flash drive as he would have to create a DVD with his security programs to see if the laptop could indeed be remedied.  As it was received, the computer would not connect to the Internet, no would it even load IE (not to mention that it did not have FF which is the preferred browser around here).  When Will went to boot it into Safe Mode, he discovered the computer not only had the dreaded Vista OS, but two copies of it.  The instructions from the owner of this computer was that the data on it be preserved rather than just wiping the drive and starting over which would have simplified the remedy.  The one copy labeled MS Windows Vista was unaffected, however it also had no data on it either.  The other copy labeled simply Windows Vista had the data that the original owner wanted preserved but also any number of other problems due to the abundance of virus and malware applications infecting it.  MSConfig and the Task Manager would not load and nothing seemed to want to work.  Will had to boot it into safe mode and disable any start ups that were unnecessary or seemed unkosher just to be able to load his security programs onto the HDD.  Again he had to boot into Safe Mode to load the programs, however, Avast, Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebites were still locked out from executing.  They could not even be executed from the command prompt.  As Will is moderately familiar with most malware applications and services, in Safe Mode through MSConfig, he disabled all startups, executables and services which he either recognized as malware or did not recognize as Windows Services.  After doing this and rebooting into normal mode, he could connect to the Internet to run the Chameleon mode of Malwarebites which loads from a web page to remove a lot of the malware and invalid or infected registry keys.  He ran three separate scans of Malwarebites which discovered more than 200 malware installations.  After two quick scans with MSE that discovered nothing, he ran a full scan with MSE  that ran all night but discovered additional items needing to be removed or reconfigured.  Once that process was complete the computer booted correctly, the data was preserved and it was once again ready to use. 

Most of you know that Will is a Gamer and those of you who are also Gamers are probably aware of the Steam Summer Sale.  Will bought Saints Row 3 and all available DLC for the game at the Summer Sale and was excited to play the game.  However, when he went to load the game, he got the BSOD and his computer locked up.  This frustrated him to no end as he was in the midst of trying to repair the laptop at the same time.  He discovered the problem with the game was he needed to do a software update to his BIOS.  He also found an updated driver for his sound card that could also be applied.  He was reluctant to do the BIOS update because if anything happened during the process (like a power outage, etc), then basically his computer was dead in the water and virtually unusable.  When he first tried the automatic BIOS update, it tried to apply the update for the 1.0 motherboard instead of the 1.1 motherboard he actually has so he had to manually download and install the correct update which was eventually successful.  Not so successful was the update to his sound card driver.  The update went OK, but it changed all his sound settings causing the game sounds from SR3 to play only through the speakers even though he had the headset plugged in.  He eventually solved this problem also and now his computer is back up to speed and he is happily able to play his game with the sounds playing through the headset as desired.  The whole experience was a gigantic pain in the ass at the time it was happening. It was, however, also painfully amusing in the retelling amongst our friends on Skype who both laughed alongside him and commiserated with him at the same time.  All's well that ends well, but as always there is the story to tell which I hope you have enjoyed as well. 

For today's music video I have selections from the Hortulus Chelicus Suites for Violin and Basso Continuo written in 1688 by Johann Jakob Walther.  The performance is by Les Plaisirs Du Parnassa featuring David Plantier both conducting and on Violin, Maya Amrein on Cello, Shizuko Noiri on Theorbo and Andrea Marchiol on Chamber Organ. The complete play list can be found in the video description on You Tube.

I was feeling rather lascivious when I got around to the photo selection process this morning.  For this reason, I chose to bring you a special edition of Hot and Horny with lots of hot, naked and aroused men ready to or already engaged in their horny pursuits of happiness.  This should inspire your own desire and give a lift to your libido for a tremendous Tuesday.  Thanks for the visit, see you again soon.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!