126 lines
7.7 KiB
Plaintext
126 lines
7.7 KiB
Plaintext
Sub: Out of the Box with Win95
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Folks-Here's my out of the box experience with Win95.
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8/24/95 12:01AM-I am at ComputerCity trying to be one of the first to get Win95
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and also to see if the number of folks at the store meets expectations. About
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50 folks are in the store and perhaps 35 are congregating around the Win95
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display, waiting for the shrinkwrap to be broken. It is, I grab a copy, stand
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in line for 20 minutes waiting to be checked out and then head home to get some
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much needed rest. I love this business.
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8/25/95 11:30PM I was out of out of town the last day and a half and was unable
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to try to install Win95. Now I'm back at home ready to install it on my Dell
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Precision 60 (a 60MHz Pentium with 32 MB of RAM, STB Express PCI video card,
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Soundblaster16 card, 3Com 3C509 Etherlink III card and double-speed CD-ROM
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drive). I currently have Windows for Workgroups 3.11 on my machine and I'll
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install Win95 over it. I slip the CD in and double-click setup. All goes fine
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until the setup program asks me for my serial # on the CD. I type it in and
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I'm greeted by the message "SUWIN caused a general protection fault in Module
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AL3164P.DRV at 0001:1909." The machine is locked tight, so I power it off and
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try again.
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8/26/95 12:45AM After three more tries with the same outcome, I decide to bag
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it and start fresh the next morning.
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8/26/95 7:45AM I power up my Dell with renewed spirit, intent on getting Win95
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up and running. I go through the same procedure as the night before with the
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same results. After three tries I reluctantly conclude that I should seek help
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(mistakenly not for me-for the computer).
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8/26/95 9:00AM I dial Microsoft's Win95 toll support line. The phone rings and
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it is answered by the usual voice mail greeting instructing me to press a
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number to get technical support. I follow the instructions and and I'm
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transferred to a support engineer (or so I thought). After a few clicks I get
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a busy signal and the line goes dead, back to a dial tone (so far the most
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helpful sound I've heard). I try again four more times with same result. Must
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really be something to this Plug and Play.
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8/26/95 9:17AM On the sixth try, the phone actually rings when I'm transferred
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(Yippee!). However, my jubilation is soon replaced by the somber realization
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that I will be on hold for a very long time as the phone is answered and smooth
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jazz music plays in the background. A fellow who identifies himself as Russ
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Craig announces that 'We're pleased to have you on the Microsoft Support line,
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your call is important to us and we're trying hard to get a support engineer to
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you just as fast as possible. There are currently 267 customers on hold with
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the longest waiting 49 minutes. Your wait time may be shorter than this so
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please stay on the line. Next up is Miles Davis with more cool jazz.' I got to
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know Craig very well over the next 3 hours. He played music from Steely Dan,
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Grover Washington, Dinah Shore, Laurie Carson, Herb Alpert and many, many
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others.
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8/26/95 11:35AM I've been on hold for quite some time and I'm really getting
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into this smooth jazz music. I resolve to go out buy some Miles Davis CDs just
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as soon I get Win95 installed. In the meantime, I've balanced my checkbook,
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paid my weekly bills, downloaded from E<>world the latest quotes for the stocks
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in my portfolio, updated my ClarisWorks business mileage spreadsheet and
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reconciled my 401K statement on my other computer. In fact, I've found waiting
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on hold is a real productivity booster since I can't go anywhere (for fear of
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dropping out of the queue and being force to endure the angst of calling in
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again). So I might as well take care of all those tasks I've been putting off
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for weeks or months and get some real work done. Russ Craig pipes up for the
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umpteenth time, 'We're pleased to have you on the Microsoft Support line, your
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call is important to us and we're trying hard to get a support engineer to you
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just as fast as possible. There are currently 87 customers on hold with the
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longest waiting 115 minutes. Your wait time may be shorter than this so please
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stay on the line. Next up is Sade so relax and enjoy.'
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8/26/95 12:16PM I'm stunned when a human voice interrupts Russ Craig's latest
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gruesome hold statistics and announces that he wants to help me. After 3 hours
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of hold time I'm naturally suspicious of such statements but I play along
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anyway. He asks 'What seems to be the problem?' (Problem? What was I calling
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about anyway? Actually, if I only been a hold a little longer I could've
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balanced the federal budget and cured the common cold). I relate my sad tale to
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this good natured fellow and he tells me he must put me on hold again and
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research this "issue". After about 15 minutes he is back and suggests that my
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video card is at fault. I should change my video driver to VGA (640x480 at 16
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colors). I point out that Dell shipped this machine with the STB Express card
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so that multi-media titles would look good in the STB's millions of colors. I
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asked if there was a Win95 driver for the STB card. He puts me back on hold
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for a few more minutes and then announced that no Win95 drivers for the STB
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card are included with the CD. BUMMER. He suggests that I call STB to get
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their latest drivers(later I check their BBS only to find that there are no
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Win95 drivers for my card).
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8/26/95 12:40PM Before I'll let my technical gold mine hang up, I insist that
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we walk through the install and see if switching back to VGA cures my problems.
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We do the install and when I type in my serial # my Dell reboots. I have to
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admit this is a more interesting way to reset my machine, but I'm still no
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closer to getting Win95 installed than I was 12 hours ago. My technical wizard
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suggests we try again. Same result- a long-winded version of the three finger
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salute. Next, Mr. Support proposes that we try the install from DOS. I
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dutifully follow his instructions and after running setup from DOS, Scandisk
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automatically runs and reports that I have some file fragments that need to be
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fixed. I should run Scandisk for Windows. But I don't have Scandisk for
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Windows (by now readers familiar with computers should recognize this situation
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as a variation of Pournelle's Law-Every time you want to do something on a
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computer you have to do two other things first, one of which is impossible).
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8/26/95 1:00PM Mr. Support instructs me to continue with the installation even
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though I haven't run Scandisk for Windows. I follow his orders. I get to the
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point where I have to put in my serial # and with great hope, type it in. A
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new dialog box informs that QEMM is running and Win95 will have difficulty
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recognizing my hardware unless I disable QEMM. Mr. Support informs that I
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should make it so. I quit the installation and head back to DOS to fine tune
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my autoexec.bat and config.sys editing skills. I sure will be glad when I get
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Win95 installed and I'll never have to edit those pesky critters again. I
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carefully REM (remark) out every hint of QEMM in all of my configuration files
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and start my Win95 installation up for the umpteenth time.
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8/26/95 1:16PM I type in my serial # and Voil<69>! Win95 proceeds with the
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installation. After 20 minutes of copying files I bid Mr. Support adieu since
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he has many, many other poor souls to help on their path to computing Nirvana
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(no pain, no gain). The Win95 setup program informs me that it is time to
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restart my machine and boot up with Win95 for the first time. Some how this
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first time just isn't as exciting as it would have been if it had happened 13
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hours earlier.
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8/26/95 1:38PM My machine reboots and in a few minutes I'm up and running
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Win95. Unfortunately, I've got to mow the lawn, pick up my shirts at the
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laundry, get some groceries and help my son with his homework. So...using
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Win95 will have to wait.
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Sell Internet Servers,
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Dreux
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