We're Ba-ack!

[John W. Love]

Hello guys and gals,

Just thought I'd drop a note here and let you all know that we haven't given up on our laser business...we just hit a major snag in the road! We've had a lot of computer troubles here in the last year, to the point where we went from having 4 working computers in the house to only having one (that belongs to my daughter and she wasn't sharing lol). The last machine to fail was the business computer and we haven't been able to get a machine up and running to even sell any jobs till the last couple of days. The machine we are running won't run our old hard drive so we've lost all our fonts, graphics, and previous layouts until we can run enough jobs to pay for a new motherboard and processor for the computer that was running the laser, but at least we now have a computer that will run it even if it takes 3 times as long to produce anything due to having to search for graphics and fonts and re-layout our designs of things so basic as 8x10 picture frames. It's tough to buy computer components when I'm still unemployed...and the business can't afford to buy them without jobs to run, the old catch 22. Add to all that that it's been 63 days so far this year over 100 degrees and our laser was in the garage until yesterday when we decided to move it into the house because the only time it would be safe to run it was between like 10pm and 7 am.

Since I'm still not getting any response from my resumes that I've sent out (literally hundreds of them) I'm going to be focusing more on trying to actually make a profit from our business. Heck if I could even just manage to get the machine to pay for itself I'd be thrilled. We actually did do enough jobs in June to almost make the payment and that's the best month we've had so far, but I had to do all the engraving in the middle of the night lol.

Anyway, just wanted to post and say we are still here, and I'm glad to see that many of you are as well. I see from browsing the boards that many have been having a difficult time during this economic slump, but hopefully we will all pull through this soon!

~Alicia

[Darren Null]

Good to see you back John. Having just spent 6 months without electricity, and typing this on a frankenstein machine made from 4 dead laptops; I can definitely identify with you.

The machine we are running won't run our old hard drive so we've lost all our fonts, graphics, and previous layouts until we can run enough jobs to pay for a new motherboard and processor for the computer that was running the laser
Don't do that- hoick the HDD out of the old machine and get a case for it so you can stuff the data in through the USB port. They did cost about €30 last time I bought one (quite a while ago, so should be cheaper now); but it's a lot cheaper than buying and installing an obsolete motherboard and processor. And then you can still use the old HDD for backups. Just make sure you get the right case if you go through ebay or anything difficult to return. IDE or SATA or whatever. Go local and take the HDD is the easiest way. If they don't do it in the shop, all you have to do is open the case, plug the HDD in, and do everything up again. Job done.

The price of laptops these days; it's not economic to repair old puters.

Hang in there and good luck!

[Steve Clarkson]

Alicia,

I swear it was two days ago that I said to myself.......where the heck are the Loves? I was planning to send you a note, but it kept getting put on the back burner.

Sorry to hear about the job and computer......but sure glad to have you back!

If you need anything, graphics/layout.....don't hesitate to ask!

[Garrett Nors]

We drove right by Hutto not too long ago, cool to see so many fellow Texans on the board. I know we have some from Houston, I think Victoria, etc.

Good luck with the computer mess! Like Steve said, if you guys need anything let us know :)

[John W. Love]

We bought an old computer from John's employer for $50.00 but it won't run our SATA drive. We tried buying adapters that were supposed to make it work but didn't. We also tried an adapter that was supposed to make it run from the usb but weren't able to make that work either. I searched the error we were getting on our old machine on the internet and found that error is related to failure of the HD or overheating of the cpu. We replaced the ram (DDR2 ram is sooooo cheap now we were able to get 2 gig for only 25 bucks) and we have all other parts that are in known good condition...so we know it has to be the motherboard or the processor (yes, we are both computer geeks lol). I can buy a motherboard that will run all of our known good components and still support an intel core 2 quad 2.6 ghz processor which as far as I can tell is just one step down from the latest and greatest core i7 processors for about 220 bucks. I think this is the route we are going to go, but I need to get a few more jobs first lol. I'm running one right now and will be working on another as soon as I finish this one so I'm almost halfway to that purchase. We didn't see a case type thing for the HD though, maybe I will go back to the electronics store and look for that...the adapter that we bought was for a laptop and then it won't even work with our laptop which won't run the laser anyway since it has no parallel port and isn't powerful enough to run Corel, but we thought if we could get the HD hooked up even there we could have copied the files onto a dvd and transferred them that way.

And Steve? *evil grin* of course we won't hesitate to ask if we need graphics or anything, I'm just so grateful to all the folks on here who've helped us out time and again and I'm bummed that at least for the time being I've lost all the files I had that I might be able to use to return the favor. I spent last night until about 5 am searching on here for graphics that I am using to run the picture frame that I've got sold for a wedding. This is by far the most valuable website for our business that we've come across! I hope soon that our financial position improves enough so that we can finally become contributors!

Garrett, I'm a native Houstonian transplanted to Hutto, but I love it here! Thanks for the good wishes!

~Alicia

[Darren Null]

We also tried an adapter that was supposed to make it run from the usb but weren't able to make that work either. I searched the error we were getting on our old machine on the internet and found that error is related to failure of the HD or overheating of the cpu.
If your HDD is toasted, a new CPU won't help. Seriously, you need to try out your HDD in another adapter to determine whether it's toasted as that will affect what's the best way to go from there. With a bit of sweet-talking, you may be able to try it out in the shop, if you take a (probably smallish phillips) screwdriver in with you.

$220'll get you most of the way to a new netbook-type laptop if you shop around.

If you buy a new motherboard and CPU, and THEN find out your HDD is trashed, you would have spent the equivalent of a new Acer-level laptop (with guarantee). Just a thought for your consideration.

After having 6 expensive machines trashed by the Spanish electricity system, I don't buy or use anything but laptops now.