[dba-Tech] R.I.P. Guinevere

[Arthur Fuller]

She's a poor little duck and everything I have tried has failed to revive
her. I think that she is gone, my beloved Guinevere. Now the question is,
what do I do with her remains? Specifically, her RAM and hard drives? The
RAM may be of no use but the hard drives work -- I think.

So what? Do I build a coffin and bury her, which is exactly what I did with
an old cat named Scotia -- took two days to build her coffin  and then
interred her while surrounded by a group of friends who loved her.

I don't think any of my friends loved Guinevere the way I did, They just
tell me to move on and get a new wife. It's not that easy. I wrote several
books and hundreds of magazine articles with her help, and even though I
have backups, that's not the issue.

It's heart-breaking. I can't just toss her into a recycle-bin. I can't do
that. I guess that I have defined the definition of a geek/nerd --someone
who weeps at the death of a computer.

Everyone says, it's just a chunk of metal; move on, get over her. there are
lots of tuna in the ocean, and stuff like that. That doesn't erase the pain
of her demise.

Can anyone advise an amateur on how to determine which part is failing? I
could replace that part and Guinevere might recover from her illness,
perhaps only to be demoted to "Email/Printer Server" or somesuch. For about
$120 CDN, I can replace her with much more contemporary equipment, but
that's not the point. Much as adults hesitate to place their parents in a
retirement home, I hesitate as well.

There's another issue, albeit a side issue. Several times over the past ~30
years, especially in the early days, when something broke or was replaced
by something faster and smarter, I tossed the older stuff into the bin...
only to discover that it was now worth many times what I paid originally. I
was young and stupid, and don't want to repeat that error again.

On Fri, Oct 28, 2016 at 5:17 PM, Jim Lawrence <accessd at shaw.ca> wrote:

> Arthur, I am the king of rebuilding computers but sometimes these old
> boxes have to be retired...technology has moved on so far in twenty years
> that most modern software wouldn't work...regardless of the OS.
>
> Jim
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Arthur Fuller" <fuller.artful at gmail.com>
> To: "Discussion of Hardware and Software issues" <
> dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>
> Sent: Friday, October 28, 2016 8:59:47 AM
> Subject: [dba-Tech] R.I.P. Guinevere
>
> My ancient HP Millennium computer appears finally to have bitten the dust.
> She has performed superbly for -- I can't even remember, now, something
> like 20 years. Since I bought her, I've done a couple of upgrades (replaced
> the motherboard, added a hard disk, and of course the usual OS upgrades.)
> Now she powers on and I can hear the fan running, and the hard-disk light
> blinking, but nothing else happens.
>
> I'm going to try a couple of things over the weekend. First is to see if I
> can boot from an Ubuntu disk, and if that works, then I'm totally prepared
> to make her a Linux woman, Since I no longer write code for a living, but
> just as a hobby, most of the Linux stuff I do is just simple email and
> browsing.
>
> The ethical dilemma I'm facing is that to repair her might cost more than a
> refurbished desktop from my favourite store. I just recently purchased a
> refurbished Lenovo for my best friend Audra's birthday, and her boyfriend
> kicked in 50%, so net, net, net it cost us each about $60.
>
> I'm torn between emotion and economics. It might ultimately be cheaper to
> replace Guinevere, but that sounds more like a Trumpism than I'm
> comfortable with. Until recently, she has performed admirably. Even despite
> her mere 4 GB of RAM and about 500 GB of disk storage, she has performed
> very well and I don't want to pull the plug.
>
> The computer I work on every day is called Avalon. And I also have a tablet
> called Lancelot. You may be able to guess from whence these names derive.
>
> What should I do about Guinevere? Emotions or economics?
>
> --
> Arthur
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-- 
Arthur