Yup.. I am boned

[meaty-btz]

6 bulging caps in the main board and 1 actually leaking.

For a while now my computer would just up and cut power, now I know why. However usually I could get reasonable function... that was until Windows 7 decided to run an update. Now its all buggerd up. No problem, I have my disk and key... no.. no I don't. Must have gotten lost in the move.. of all things.

SO now I am ubunting, not by choice. I am mildly pissed. Oddly enough for whatever reason Ubuntu does not tax my system enough to force the power cut. So I need a new computer but have no money for it, but I think I can limp along for a while longer.

Holes in my sox, holes in shoes, holes in my shirts, holes in my pants, holes in Capacitors. At some point the few things I have that are not full of holes and worn out will be. Gotta get better at some point.

[Dreaded Claymore]

I feel for you, Meaty-btz. I remember the pain of having my computer fail, and so does my sister from when she spilled tea all over her brand new laptop. I hope things look up for your electronic life.

[dotalchemy]

Linux > Windows.

Begin war.

[meaty-btz]

Linux > Windows.

Begin war.

Unity is horking me off at the moment.... I know they did it for more commonality for linux across platforms from desktops to laptops to tablet devices... but still.

Oh yeah, also my really nice logitech illuminated keyboard has two broken keys on it. f'yeah!

Gotta get better at some point...

[Fatstackz]

They are fairly easy to find at radio shack. They are not extremley hard to replace if you have some basic soldering skills and tools. If not, you might know someone that does.

[zfields]

with how easy it is to get a working cracked OS, I dont know why you are complaining about linux... If the drive is even bootable,or using an enclosure on a diff computer, you can pull your key and just DL an retail disc and use your old key to reg it.

[rkt88edmo]

yeah apparently the whole bad cap electrolyte is a widespread problem, what have you got to lose trying to replace them yourself?

[meaty-btz]

Radioshack never carries the caps needed for mainboards. I have replaced bad-caps before in various products. In every case from mainboard to powerboards I have always had to special order my caps by mail.

Even with win7 there are different disks for different keysets. Mine is an edu license, which if I remember correctly works with an MSDN disk, not a retail, or a VOL key disk.

I don't crack OSes. I don't pirate. Its just one of those things. I really couldn't give two ****s about the law but about a decade ago I just.. dunno got bored pirating. Everything I own is licensed and registered to me. I found out that you can get certain things for free and or cheaply and still be a valid product w/o anything shady so the pull of piracy diminished.

Got my wacom working correctly under linux now so I don't know how eager I am to go back to windows. Windows had just my games, which I am bored to tears on and my photoshop cs1 which I can WINE and my office suite. Hell 99% of the time I played APB was to just troll and cause problems for others. That gets old.

[Coded-Dude]

Did you build it or buy it(the computer). If you bought it the License Key should be on teh PC somewhere(the windows sticker). I lost my disk, but had my key, so I downloaded a dell disc(for a vaio), and it recognized my machine was a vaio and installed the vaio desktop backgrounds. Been spending the last couple of days re-installing all my software. FUN STUFF!

[meaty-btz]

My computer is an old vista box from HP. My Win7 licenses is an educational license given out by universities to students and staff. If I didn't care about licensing I would just haul the box to work and whack it with my WDS Server and dump office 2010 on it at the same time but that is stealing and not really my way of doing things.

[Coded-Dude]

ewww vista. I have a similar problem. Got an old HP-UX workstation(J2240 from the mid ninties) with a bad power button/connection that I cannot isolate. Its hard to find replacement parts for these old things. So now instead of having a reliable unix server, I hav ea huge and heavy boat anchor. The system runs fine, I just can't get it to power on.

[d4v0s]

i have a copy of the edu license win7 pro.. 64bit and 32 bit. I would be happy to mail you a copy.

[glock_this]

damn dude.. lost serial # keys, broken keyboards, busted mother board, holes in your socks, holes in your shoes, holes in your shirts, holes in your pants.. you need to take better care of your stuff

[steven_m64]

I don't crack OSes. I don't pirate. Its just one of those things..

I also don't pirate its one of the reasons i switched to ubuntu a while ago, tired of windows.

BUT

As long as you actually paid the windows tax and know you have had a legal copy before who cares if you crack the OS when you re-install. a retail full copy of windows runs around 200$ it would be insane to pay another 200$ just because you lost the disc and key. its not like you are installing multiple copies on a number of different computers, you are just re-installing your legal copy of the software and bypassing the stupidity of the copyright protection system.

[meaty-btz]

Who said I am paying? My license was free. I just need to replace it the disk with the proper key series disk and I am golden.

d4v0s, which contract? EDU VOL or EDU Contract? (contract is like MSDN but it is handed out via contractual 3rd parties who contract with the school and microsoft for product distribution rights and is all handled electronically).

Glock-this, naww just the end result of years of pay cuts, hours cuts, no raises, and putting the wife through school and then her subsequent job loss. Its been a long spiral down. You wouldn't know it to look at me, wife is great at mending and patching! I call it "American Poor", sort of like how it was at the end of the .com crash. People sleeping in their cars (BMW, Jags, etc) in fine italian suits, etc. The oddity of a homeless person driving a Jag or in my case a worn out just about in the poor house guy driving a GTO. I made a contract with the lender to buy the car, I pay my debts. Car is still for sale but no buyers so I pay. Just does not leave much left over for food, clothes, essentials. The absurdity that is our country these days.