Amazing

[intumult]

Now, I realise I am a little bit out of date with computers and the latest, state of the art technology BUT what happened over the last few days has astounded me.

The ex g/f needed a new computer for Karaoke and dance music for her work so we went and bough a reasonable computer for a good price. I installed Xp and split the drive into 2 partitions etc. No internet needed. She had the Karoake prog installed (all in Thai so I could not do that for her).

Next thing, a friend of hers links his mobile phone to the computer and gives her a couple of dozen Trojans and viruses. I dutifully downloaded AVG and its updates to my comp and to CD along with trojan killers. As some of the viruses could not be removed I re-formatted the system, partitioned the drive into 30 GB and 50 Gb and installed the anti-virus and other needed software and drivers.

The system - basically :-

1.6 chip

80 GB Sata 2 HDD

512 MB DDR2 Ram

decent sound and graphics

XP service pack2

More than adequate for Karaoke and Music for her dancers.

So, she took the computer back to her friend to install the Karaoke and music. He re-formatted the drive into 16 GB for the C drive and the rest the D drive. Installed Xp and all the music and Karaoke progs onto the C drive.

When she went to play music at some do or other here was so little room left on the drive the computer ran very slowly. May have been a lot of temp files etc there too.

She asked me to look and I advised her the guy is an idiot and to have the computer re partitioned and formatted etc with the music on the D drive with her Karaoke in case the C drive ever went down and a quick install of XP etc would fix that.

What I saw this morning is the bit that astounded me. I looked at the unit in spite of her protests. Hard drive? now a 6GB unit with ME installed and all the music and karaoke on there too with the Sata2 drive disconnected. !!!

Free space on the unit is less than 1GB

Her explanation to me was that Cakewalk pro would not work on the Sata 80GB drive and that as she spoke Thai - as did the same guy who installed the new 6GB drive and the software - that they knew better than me and that the computer would now work quicker.

There are no sound drivers installed or other system drivers either. So now I am waiting for her to call and ask for help as she has another party to do tomorrow and she will be lucky if the system does not crash on her. I think my phone will be out of order

[hp8000]

512 MB DDR2 Ram

1GB could not harm and the RAM is cheap nowadays.

He re-formatted the drive into 16 GB for the C drive and the rest the D drive

Not bad, more than enough room for XP and the updates, as you say she only use this PC for karaoke it seems right ... in case all the music (datas) are stored on the second larger partition. Never mix datas and OS is a rule.

What I saw this morning is the bit that astounded me. I looked at the unit in spite of her protests. Hard drive? now a 6GB unit with ME installed and all the music and karaoke on there too with the Sata2 drive disconnected. !!!

The guy is a <deleted>, ME is the worst ever OS produced on this planet. He is a real professional <deleted>, like many thais when dealing with computers.

[malcolmswaine]

Nightmare!!! Would I be correct in assuming that :

1) He tried to reinstall the OS but didn’t have the SATA drivers so just stuck something in that worked

2) The karaoke software is a little outdated and only runs on 95, 98 and ME OS's

I'd take control of the situation if I was you. Find out what she wants to play. If it’s karaoke then it’s just VCD's right? Are they stored as images on hard disk and songs scheduled to play or something? I'm sure there’s a million alternatives out there for that kind of thing, some probably with Thai language packs.

And give her some dop-salop-salay while you're at it

Edited March 25, 2008 by malcolmswaine

[nikster]

The important bit here is: It's the ex gf. Therefore, have a beer and forget about the whole thing.

I do appreciate the story, pretty good one. Esp. installing ME!! I mean... wow.

Edited March 25, 2008 by nikster