never trust an IT guy: part II

It seems that I finally know what is wrong with my pc now. The amount of money which I spent is not worth it at all because the problem is not with the power supply or the hardisk.

I came across a website which provide me with the solution.

pci.sys and ntfs.sys error messages when booting

"Recently I ran into an issue with a WinXP box booting up. I kept getting "pci.sys" errors…and if, after cold booting a few times, I was lucky enough to get past that error, I would get the "ntfs.sys" error. Turns out I had a bad memory card. Dropping in a new card resolved ALL issues."

So I'm going to get a new memory card and see if it works. Now, how much is the memory card...

Lesson learnt: In some cases, it is better to learn to solve the problem yourself rather than depending on people who make you pay extra for nothing.

never trust an IT guy

Recently my home PC broke down after I've installed Sims 2 game. When I restarted the computer, an error message came out as something like this: system32/drivers/pci.exe missing or corrupt file. It says that I have to restart the computer with the original Window Setup CD (which I don't have the original) and press 'r' to repair. I tried with the pirated ones but it just couldn't work.

So I called up an IT guy, Kee, whom I came to know about through an advertisement in The Star newspaper. As I need the PC urgently to do my work and I don't have time to do research and fix it on my own, I leave it to his expertise. He convinced me that something is wrong with my hardisk and I agreed to change a new one. He brought back the PC to his office to fix it. When my PC came back, he told me he changed the power supply as well (which he haven't even ask my permission or explain to me about the faulty yet). End up I have to forked out RM320.

I thought the PC was ok until today. About two weeks after the repair, it seems that my problem is back to square one. I'm facing the same problem again. I think I've been duped. I called the IT guy just now and told him the problem. I was patient (after a few classes of meditation) enough and in fact I was surprised I did not curse at him. I just told him that I'll look for somebody else to fix it instead of paying him another RM90 (could be more!) to come over and doing nothing.

I wonder if most IT guys are unethical and look for fast money...

Amazing Race 8: where are the family values?

The winning family has been predicted correctly. The Linz family won the eighth season. No surprise at all because the result leaked several months ago.

The Amazing Race 8 is a Family Edition. However, very sad to say, I don't see any good American family values in this show. Gone are the Brady Bunch or Growing Pains days. What I saw was a bunch of young people (and even parents) who doesn't know how to respect their family members and other people. In fact, parents never try to do anything to educate the young ones to show respect to one another.

While we Asians can still be proud of our family values, the American are living the nightmares of sarcastic families like the Paolos and Godlewskies.

If you have been catching up with AR8, you know what I mean. The Linzes have been continuously calling Linda Weaver names which I think is totally rude. Yesterday, we saw the Linzes and Bransens completely alienated the Weaver family during lunch (this is not the first time). I was surprised because Dad Bransen did nothing to advise his daughters and the young Linzes. If I'm not wrong, one of his daughter was calling Linda Weaver wacky. Instead of advising her to be more polite, Dad Bransen joined the crowd to sabotage the Weaver family.

I must give credit to Linda Weaver for keeping her family together and race until the finishing line. Despite being sidelined by other teams she was strong, protective and did her best to encourage her kids. She is definitely the Mom of the Year. I have a lot for respect for her.

Can't wait for the next AR in February. I need a good dosage of AR9 to make up for this season which is a complete disaster.