clearly

Adela Chang cannot live without her computer

this is a very bad sign

So I would like to point out that Microsoft is utterly paranoid, pointless, and not thorough at all with their work by detailing the current ailment of my sad sad laptop, which is still in its dying throes as we speak.

To begin with, it simply choked on itself and died one day, without me doing anything. I left to take a nap, for goodness' sake, and when I came back it was frozen. This is nothing too serious, so I shut off the power, rebooted, tried to restart normally, and - it promptly hung at the startup screen.

I tried again using Startup Repair, and - you guessed it - it hung at Startup Repair. Or maybe it was just taking abysmally long, I don't know.

Tried again using Safe, Safe with Networking, Safe with Command Prompt, Last Known Good Configuration, Directory Service Restore - no, no, no, no, and no.

(starting to get a little annoyed at this point)

Resorted to Windows Kernel Debugger (aka Debugging Mode), which went through C: and removed something called ws2_32.dll twice, as well as some other unspecified files, and went through D: and cleaned up some unspecified files, then finished "debugging" and attempted to self-reboot... and promptly hung again.

(starting to get REALLY annoyed at this point)

Rebooted various times under various modes (which was probably unnecessary) until at some point Startup Repair worked and went along doing its thang and when it finally finished windows booted up and loads and out pops the error message: "Missing file ws2_32.dll". But windows keeps on loading and all is well until you click into the computer and realize that there is absolutely no internet, LAN or wireless alike. Googled ws2_32.dll and found it to be a "file that contains the Windows Sockets API used by most Internet and network applications to handle network connections." Fairly straightforward, why Kernel Debugger chose to delete such an important file I have no clue, checked windows and found ws2_32.dll in SysWOW64 but not System32 or winsxs, went online and downloaded the latest version of ws2_32.dll --

OH SNAP YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO TOUCH ANYTHING IN WINSXS because it's all protected by Microsoft's freakishly new high security with permissions not given to Administrator but a random entity named TrustedInstaller, oh, and guess what? The only overrides for this don't work because, presumably, it involves a command line input which starts with "net" (as in "net user administrator active:yes") and anything that involves networks don't work right now because ws2_32.dll is missing.

For some reason System32 does allow you to drag and drop new files in with Admin Permission, even though it doesn't allow you to change or delete anything. Put ws2_32.dll in which got rid of the "missing file" error but replaced with a 07bx00000 or something of the sort error, presumably because ws2_32.dll is missing from winsxs still, in short,

STUPIDEST PROBLEM EVER

Oh, and this all started from a crash that came out of nowhere. Excusez moi Microsoft nobody wants to steal your fucking system files anyway because your system sucks. And the whole user protection thing is bullshit, this would have been fixed in no time at all on XP, I really don't see the point of forcing users to use the original installation disc to fix things seeing as said users may be students who don't have the disc with them, and also seeing as your self-fix programs often suck and don't work anyway.

/cranky


In other news, classes have ended, much partying ensued (sans and avec alcohol), it is now Monday and dead week has begun which is why I'm cooped up in the library not working on my 15 page research paper. Before I go I have one more thing to say (on parties), which is that I find it sad how such a huge, castle-like building



would choose to host a dance (to which they proudly proclaim over 1000 people attends annually) and offer only one room, even smaller than Foothill's Dining Commons. Half the blacklights broke, the speakers failed, and the cops came not because there was alcohol but because there were too many people and it was a fire hazard. Which is actually pretty funny, when you think about it.

I'm just all complaints today. This is what happens when I don't sleep enough.

Forward, the Light Brigade!

edit: So I have ascertained exactly where I am missing the two files, AND obtained the correct files (I thought I had the most updated version but I didn't), and... I still can't access winsxs. /kicks something

(If the installation disc doesn't fix this and I have to reformat, I'm going to cry.)