HarryO Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Morning all, My PC was fried by lightning Saturday afternoon. It got my microwave, fridge, dishwasher, and a couple of other small items. Hopefully that's all. The bolt hit my back porch just a couple of feet from my back door. It blew a hole in the concrete on my porch. It also fried my power conditioners. My audio equipment seems ok so far. I bought a new PC. It's got the Vista OS on it. How could Windows actually think this is an Operating System that anyone could like? This IMHO has to be worse than Windows ME. What a step back for them. Compatability is horrible. Every click finds you having to give permission to continue with your choices. I've got this thing running just enough to say hi and I'm going to wipe this crappy OS off and reload my XP Pro back. I'll reload tonight and hopefully all will be back to normal tomorrow. HarryO Harry 1 317 695-9062 if you need to contact me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldbuckster Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Boy Harry, you've had a run of bad luck lately................Ride it out Big Guy, it will turn the other way, soon............ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryO Posted June 5, 2007 Author Share Posted June 5, 2007 Thanks OB. Just "another day at the office". No big deal. I guess it's been my turn to bite the "sh.. stick". I've got a mouthful lately. My insurance company and adjuster have been great. I've been with them for over 20 years and this is only my second claim. In all fairness I think Vista has some good ideas from a security standpoint but I doubt it will be tolerated by the average user. I know I'm trashing this unfriendly OS. Harry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Harry, Glad your audio gear seems to be ok after the lightning strike. Devastating power on that one. on Vista, I thought it was interesting that this is the first OS, which after introduction, Dell has gone back to offering the preceeding OS, XP as an option for buyers who don't want Vista. Vista is the default, but it's nice that one can still have xp if desired. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xdetroitx Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 I have vista and after some toying around with the defaults I really like it. As far as compatibility issues it has a place where you can go in and tell the OS to run as XP for backward compatibility. Vista was a completely new system, all prior OS still had a dos plateform in one way or another. Vista does not. Give the industry some time to catch up with vista and you will like it. It is much more like a mac than a windows and I am a mac user and once you go mac you never go back. But, for a laptop I did not feel like shelling out $2400. Good to hear you audio equipment made it out alive. I need to make my wife read this post since she thinks a $200 "strip plug" is outrageous. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oscarsear Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Many insurance companies consider a lighting strike to be an "act of god" not to be covered by any policy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryO Posted June 5, 2007 Author Share Posted June 5, 2007 I'm sure most of the problems are just unfamiliar territory for me. Still there are compatability issues. Software incompatability on my cameras and scanner. Also it's picky about virus protection and malware searches. I've had loading issues that no matter where the settings are placed downloads are blocked or stopped. Even when download is complete it reads some files as invalad domain. I'm not sure they have all the bugs out of the OS just yet. I'll wait another 5 years or so and try it again maybe. (yea right). I used to use the Mac in the office and I like Mac alot but again price is an issue at times. Laptops are out of the question for these old hands. To get a large enough keyboard I might as well carry around a standard sized one. This is the second time these power conditioners have been hit. They've saved my amps and gear twice in the last 6 weeks or so. They were quite a bit more than $200 each though. On the one that burnt up I had a surge protector after the conditioner. I was also using Variacs for power safety and regulation on some of my other gear. The strike also fried the strip/surge protector. I'm not plugging in my equipment until I replace the conditioners so I won't find out for sure if my equipment is 100% ok. I plugged them in just long enough to power them up and give them a quick test. Crossing my fingers all is well. I was told that once they have been hit like this they should be replaced as they have already substained damage to the protection circuits. For real? Even if they seem to work alright? Harry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldbuckster Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Harry, Some days you bite the Bear............Some days the Bear bites YOU.........Hang in there Bud........... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryO Posted June 5, 2007 Author Share Posted June 5, 2007 Many insurance companies consider a lighting strike to be an "act of god" not to be covered by any policy. I'm not so sure some insurance companies don't make up the rules as they go. They seem to have a bit of leeway in "interpretation" as it were! Harry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryO Posted June 5, 2007 Author Share Posted June 5, 2007 LOL OB, Hope the SOB gets sick next time he bites me. The dirty rotten #$^!*&$% Harry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZAKO Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Oscarsear.....The insurance companys will have hard time useing that excuse to an atheist....I know one insurance co that got creamed on that excuse. The argument was on weather science ....The ins co. tried to pull that at Katrina hurricane. what came first the wind or the flood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mas Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Harry, Glad your audio gear seems to be ok after the lightning strike. Devastating power on that one. on Vista, I thought it was interesting that this is the first OS, which after introduction, Dell has gone back to offering the preceeding OS, XP as an option for buyers who don't want Vista. Vista is the default, but it's nice that one can still have xp if desired. Ditto. As far as offering XP, you're right. I think the main reason is that they are offering many scaled down systems that are simply too resource constrained to adequately run Vista, plus the fact that many are requesting it. It is not very forgiving of the 'smaller' systems, especially if the max RAM is still 512MB as on many smaller or older laptops. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbart Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Good to hear you have a big one, but getting bit down there.... Ouch! I just cringe thinking about it. I would reccomend you stop hanging around with this Vista woman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryO Posted June 5, 2007 Author Share Posted June 5, 2007 System size isnt an issue at all. 2 gb ram, 360gb hd, big AMD 64 Live Pro duo processor, Gforce GT, Lightscribe writers, Nvidia, 9 USBs, yadda, yadda, yadda. More than I or the Vista need. It's just not usable for my applications. It is fine I'm sure for most applications just not "my cup o' tea". If I went out and spent another $500-$1000 on peripherals I'm sure it could be compatable. Like was stated. Give the industry time to catch up. I checked on compatability and was assured it would all work fine. Boy, did they ever see me coming! I bought it at Circuit Schitty. Good price. $1199 demo for less than $500 after rebates. Hd was scrubbed off the Firedog and fresh load on the Vista. I'm still trying to patch and adjust settings but there's always another bridge or roadblock in my path. I'ts easy to use just there's a lot of garbage I have no use for nor want to use. I doubt the average user will need all this extra STUFF either. I sure don't like it. Harry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colterphoto1 Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Good of you to check in Harry. And glad that rack-o-tubes didn't get scathed. WOW- hit the porch, that's some serious business. Best luck with the PC thing, I hate em. Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy W Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Many insurance companies consider a lighting strike to be an "act of god" not to be covered by any policy. I would NEVER buy any homeowners insurance that didn't cover "acts of God." What good would it be? Tornado? Hailstorm? Lighning killed all your electronics? My insurance covers lightning. Aside from a car driving through the house, an airplane falling on it, or a burgler (things that are far less likely to happen than acts of god) what WOULD they cover? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbart Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Many insurance companies consider a lighting strike to be an "act of god" not to be covered by any policy. I would NEVER buy any homeowners insurance that didn't cover "acts of God." What good would it be? Tornado? Hailstorm? Lighning killed all your electronics? My insurance covers lightning. Aside from a car driving through the house, an airplane falling on it, or a burgler (things that are far less likely to happen than acts of god) what WOULD they cover? well not flooding for sure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbart Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Many insurance companies consider a lighting strike to be an "act of god" not to be covered by any policy. I would NEVER buy any homeowners insurance that didn't cover "acts of God." What good would it be? Tornado? Hailstorm? Lighning killed all your electronics? My insurance covers lightning. Aside from a car driving through the house, an airplane falling on it, or a burgler (things that are far less likely to happen than acts of god) what WOULD they cover? well not flooding for sure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Well. like Payden says in "Silverado"----"Bad luck". JJK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryO Posted June 8, 2007 Author Share Posted June 8, 2007 Well. like Payden says in "Silverado"----"Bad luck". Things have been going well for me this last year or so. Business is good, health good considering the alternative, Kid is happy, I'm happy. A small storm won't get me down. Everything I lost can be replaced. We weren't hurt. I'm thankful the results are what they are. I lost my wife a few years back. I realized then if your problems are money then you really don't have problems. The way I look at this is I'm lucky for what didn't get damaged or what I didn't lose. There probably isn't a lot of audio gear or electronics on this forum that can't be replaced with money. Or at least substituted in some form or another. The things that are important to me came through just fine. If I have to replace any gear I think of the fun I'll have buying, setting up, playing, and yakking about the new stuff. I'm not worried about what I don't have or what it's going to cost. I'll figure that all out somehow as I go. Besides, some of you guys will have something super cool for sale eventually I'll get to play with. To put this in perspective, New Orleans and the gulf area had a storm a while back. That was a storm. There was alot more lost than a PC and a couple of electronic pieces and appliances. "Bad Luck?" Thanks for the input guys. It helps keep my mind on an even keel while I mess around with this da....d Vista I did spend another $500 on a camera, scanner/printer/copier. Incompatable software with my old equipment. Man, Vista bites the big one. Harry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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