I haven't posted in while mainly because I was without internet here is a log of my experience. Also let me be clear. Everything else was working fine so did not want to do a clean install and risk losing programs and documents. Also since I am writing this from memory the dates are approximate.
4/30 - Fuse Blows
Yeah my folk's house was built like 40 years ago and we haven't had a major electrical overhaul in that time. Which means it's not designed to take a modern electrical load. Sometimes you can work on a computer and watch Netflix over Xbox at the same time. Sometimes you can't.
4/30 - Fuse Blows Again During Start Up
Yeah because I was watching a good episode of Eureka, I decided to start the Xbox and computer at the same time and hope for the best. Of course some registry and/or system files went caploe.
Also for a long while my restore points have been acting wonky so that wasn't an option.
4/30 - Start randomly checking plugs and adapters
I should have just gone with what my instincts were telling me. I had a software not a hardware problem. Checking the plugs and restarting the modem and router didn't help so I decided to give up and just. watch TV the old fashioned way. Through Comcast on demand. Cool beans I discovered the magic of True Blood.
4/31 - Borrow dad's laptop and see if I can't find a fix.
4/31 - Reinstall drivers for network adapter.
Didn't work.
5/1 - Call Tech Support
A. Microsoft - Why do they make you pay for that crap. I remember the days where as long as you registered your product to prove you paid for it support was free.
B.HP- My cell was running out of power so I only got half way through the machine phone stuff.
C. Geek Squad - My parents bought geek squad protection for my computer but I really don't trust them so I called only as a last resort. They told me what I already knew. That there was no reason why my internet should malfunctioning from at least an ISP and adapter perspective. Everything else was getting internet and the green light in the back of computer by the adapter was on. They wanted me to bring it in for a diagnostic. Deserved reputation or not, I just don't trust them with what I often call my right arm.
5/1 Reset windows Socket
Prior to this my computer couldn't even detect my network. Now it at least saw it and connected to it with limited access but alas no internet.
5/2 - Discover that DCPH Client service doesn't start
Huge break though. Those not in the know this is the thing that lets your computer automatically get ip addresses from your router. I was getting a error 1079 when I tried to start it in services.
5/2 - Uninstall Norton 360
Don't ask me why I tried it but it didn't work.
5/2 - Mess around in the registry to make sure everything had the right permissions. Did not help or hurt me. And yes just for the record do not mess around in the registry if you can avoid it, especially if you don't know what you're doing.
5/2 - Decided I needed to do repair install of windows but didn't have an install disk.
Same deal as with tech support. I still have the windows 95 disk that came with my first computer. This stuff used to be free with the product as it should be. Anyway I spent my twilight hours trying to map out a way to pay for a new copy of Windows 7.
5/3 Order a new copy of Windows 7 from Amazon
5/4 Back up documents on an external hard drive.
I knew that a repair install should leave everything intact but I didn't want to take any chances.
5/4- Windows comes. I asked for one day shipping.
5/4 - I find out I need to install Service pack 1 in order to install a new version of Windows 7.
Figuring out how to do that without internet took some thinking. I considered ordering an install disk of it from Microsoft. Ultimately I downloaded an iso of it from the Microsoft Download center on my dad's computer put it on a flash drive and mounted the image.
5/4 - Uninstall Age of Empires III and Freedom Force
The repair install told me these programs would have issues. To be fair they always have on Windows 7. And I almost never play those games.
5/4- Do the repair install
For other folks who need to do this instructions can be found here and here.
5/5 Reinstall the programs I uninstalled and update windows.
Doing the repair install took pretty much all night so I spent the morning trying to get my computer back into a state of normalcy.
5/6 Update Firefox
Less to do with the repair install and more to stop it from acting wonky and telling me that I should.
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