I have issues with my computers.

You see, I have two computers that are mine. My desktop computer is primarily for personal and school use. I do all our home school stuff & checkbook on it. Then I have my laptop that I use for my business.

My Laptop is about 3 years old… the hard drive is filling up fast. Yes, I have an external drive for back ups but still … things are running slowly now. Normally, I would wipe everything and reload Windows, but that seems to be complicated because it’s a Dell Inspiron & it comes with manufacturer disks that seem to be “Dell” proprietary. I don’t have time to sit and sort through all that & I no longer have Dell Support to do it for me.

My desktop has parts that are old and others that aren’t so old. We built it up ourselves. It has been really nice… but I now have critical issues with it, which scare me. The original problem was that I was getting no video feed to the monitor. Sometimes it worked & sometimes it didn’t.  If the machine was shut off for a time & then restarted we could boot up fine. But if the machine was left on for too long, video would go bye-bye & I would be left powering down without Windows help. So, basically doing a cold boot. Not fun!

Anyway, we started thinking maybe we needed a new monitor… So we get one, but now we get the following message:

“Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll.
Please re-install a copy of the above file.”

Great! Yet another issue! Yeah, well this one could be because of the powering down cold… OR it could be a virus…

Well, I do know how to fix this error, if its not a virus. I’ve had to do it before. However, you have to be able to get to a command line prompt. I am not able to boot into Safe Mode either… because hal.dll is either missing or corrupt. Ugh!

The only other thing I can do is load my Windows XP CD to run the Restore/Repair option.

Now, I have to go into my CMOS & changed the boot order so I can boot from CD.  I put my CD in & boot up, but after a very long time of running through all the set up files I finally get to the screen that allows me to hit the “R” to Restore. I get the beginning screen…

… but my command line prompt NEVER showed up. I let it sit, thinking maybe it is just slow… No, it just won’t load. So, I reboot again. Nothing! Not even my CMOS prompt. So, now I am wondering if,

1. Maybe the video card is fried
2. Maybe my machine is overheated
3. Maybe it needs a thorough cleaning
4. Maybe there’s a virus

Well, we’ve cleaned the machine, checked all the fans, everything seems to be o.k. there. I can’t check for viruses until I can get the machine to boot from CD…. So the only other thing I can think of is the video card is toast. So, now we’re off to buy more hardware.

I’ll have to update this story after we find another video card.

– More later.

Technorati Tags: Computers, Windows XP

I have had this beautiful blog set up for quite some time and I have had a goal to write in it but… what do I write about. I have changed my title of my blog so many times, my head is spinning. Currently, it is, “Chaotic Ramblings of Heidi’s Mind” and that is what this blog is becoming.

My original idea was to blog about skills I pick up as I build web sites. However, now I have the problem of people emailing me asking me how life is or how’s home schooling or what books am I reading. So, I started several different blogs for several different functions. OMG! That takes more time to keep those up… So, I began to read these other blogs that I stay current on, and I am finding that they are just as busy as I am, but they only have one blog to cover it all. Why shouldn’t I? My Twitter account is for everything, why shouldn’t my blog do the same?

Well, if you subscribe to this blog, you’ll get a little of this and a little of that until I get a little more time to keep up other blogs. Personally, I think it is better this way. You’ll know its me and not some bot or some marketing ploy… I hope.

Primarily, I am a web designer but along with that, I home school our boys. You can read more on that in my About Me page.

So in this blog, you’re going to see a lot of different bits of what’s going on.

I hope by making my blog more general, I’ll write more. Here’s hoping…

– More Later!

Technorati Tags: Personal Note

The other day, I took on a challenge for the first time. As usual, I have to blog about it.

A client of mine has (had) a Blogspot blog that she wanted transferred over to a WordPress blog. I have researched this before and didn’t find any useful information on how to do this until recently. That is not to say the information isn’t out there, you just need to use the right search criterion.

Anyway, to do this export from Blogger/Blogspot and import to WordPress you need to do a few things.

1. To start, you need to have WordPress installed and configured before you can begin.

2. Log into your WordPress Dashboard area.

3. Choose Tools > Import. On the page that appears, there are fifteen different blogging systems to choose from that WordPress has more or less automated. For this instance, click on Blogger.

Important Note: In order to proceed, you must have a Google account. If you have the old style Blogger account, you do need to upgrade to the new Google version of Blogger which is hosted on Blogspot.

4. Click link that says “Authorize.” This tells Blogger to let WordPress access your Blogger account. You will be sent back to this page after providing authorization.

5. Select the blog you want to import. Next to each blog in your Blogger account, there will be “Magic Button” that says, “Import.” Chose which blog to import and click the magic button.

6. Author Mapping. This is so that the username on your Blogger account can be matched to your username on your WordPress account.

Once you’ve completed these steps, it is all automatic.

Personally, I was surprised that it went so easily. However, I was not impressed that all (or most) formatting did not stay intact. We ended up with text and images all misaligned. When you have tons of posts, this is just too big of a job to try to correct. But on the bright side, we got all the posts to move over. I would love it if someone could tell me what more I could do to realign text and images. Please leave me a comment.

– More later

Technorati Tags: Blogs, WordPress

The last couple of days I have spent looking for just the right image or just the right music to fit the web sites that I am building. As you’re aware, it is a REALLY BAD IDEA to steal artwork or music from another website. People frown upon you stealing their work… So, I spent the better part of today and yesterday looking for royalty free stuff. It can be really tough to look for just the right piece.

I have to explain to people that I build websites for, and to those that I just consult that it is very bad form to right click on an image and save it for use at a later date. Now, there are a lot of websites out there on the Internet that allow you to use their clip art, but you have to be very careful to read the disclaimers on the sites.

This time, I had to search for music. You can’t just use music off your CD without the artist’s permission… So, I decided to browse some “Royalty Free” websites that will sell you their music clips for a reasonable price. No problem there. I started with Google to give me a list of sites to browse, and as I began my search, I tweeted about what I was doing. I received multiple tweets back from people who either shop for royalty free stuff or they own the sites… but it was cool to find all these sites to peruse. (You can follow me on Twitter.)

Here are some sites that I visited and found some very useful, royalty-free stuff. This is not free stuff… you still have to buy it, but the license allows you to use it on your websites.

iStockphoto
Audio Micro
Premiumbeat
Freeplay Music
Music Bakery
Accent Music Productions

Well that’s just a few… Have fun!

– More Later!

Technorati Tags: Tips & Tricks!, Web Design, Web Pages