You Can Do Anything You Put Your Mind Too

You Can Do Anything You Put Your Mind To

All my life I had it instilled in me that I could do anything I put my mind to. To this day I have yet to prove this statement untrue and what you are about to read made my belief even stronger. The following is a story of a time in my life that I took on a very difficult task and accomplished it all on my own with a lot of hard work and dedication. After reading my story I hope for you to believe that you can do anything you put your mind to.

            In 1997, when I was 21 years old, a friend gave me a Gateway 486 DX33 computer tower with all of the hardware in it except for the hard drive. It did not take me long and I acquired a hard drive for it and was ready to start loading it with software so I could get it up and running. So I loaded the software driver for the mother board that I downloaded to floppy disk from the internet using my quite a bit older 386. Then I loaded the software driver that came with the hard drive. Next I had to load the operating systems so I could get the computer somewhat operational.

Once I got the hard drive configured I was able to load MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1 operating systems using the two floppy drives that the computer was able to automatically detect on boot up. This means the computer already had the appropriate software drivers attached to the Motherboard to recognize these drives. These days the computer is capable of automatically recognizing the hard drive, the CD-Rom drive, and USB ports. This was the first time I had ever loaded an operating system on a computer and I had to load two separate operating systems. Since I had really no idea of what I was doing I sat down and read both operating systems books pretty much all of the way through. As many people know these are not small books.  So after I read and read I installed the two operating systems and the computer was somewhat operational. Now it was time to get the other components working.

Like I said this computer had all of the hardware and no software. This meant I had to locate the appropriate software driver for each piece of hardware. This included the CD-ROM drive, soundcard, hard drive, motherboard, mouse, and the touch screen that hooked on to the monitor. Touch screens were not that common in that day and age. Let me tell you this, technology has come a far ways compared to what the touch screen was capable of doing at that time.

I used the Internet to locate most of the drivers for the hardware. The Internet then was nothing compared to what it is now. However, I was able to find everything that I needed online and they all worked properly, except for the CD-ROM Driver and the soundcard driver. That was the biggest problem I ran into. The real tricky part was, even though they each required their own software driver, they worked together as one unit. This was called a multimedia package, which meant in order for one to work the other had to work as well. The real interesting thing was that they were manufactured by different manufacturers. The soundcard was produced by Creative Laboratories and the CD-ROM drive was made by Sony.  The drivers that I downloaded were the only drivers that I was able to find online that was even a close match. Yet they still did not work. This meant I had to contact the manufacturers and they told me the drivers I downloaded would work. However, in order for them to work I would have to change commands in the config.sys and autoexec.bat file. Sounds pretty easy, yet it is very intricate. The smallest error could make the computer not work at all. So I sat down and read the MS-DOS book and Windows book for the second time. I was then able to get the CD-ROM and sound card up and running.

Once I had the CD-ROM drive working, I was then able to load Windows 95. This was the most popular operating system on the market at this time. Now, I started adding peripheral devices such as the touch screen, printer, and scanner. Printers and scanners were separate units at this time. In fact scanners had only been on the market for about six months to a year when I installed one onto this computer. Along with adding these devices, I started installing software programs such as applications, utilities, and games. I had done it! The computer was up and running.

I spent somewhere between four and five hundred hours in about three to four months but I had finally done it. The computer was running and running good. I almost couldn’t believe that I had accomplished such a great achievement. Let me tell you, this was one sweet computer for this time. I was very proud of myself and 14 years later I still have great pride in what I was able to do.

This was a learning experience that gave me a lot more confidence within myself. It also led me to love computers that much more. This was only the first of around a hundred computers that I have had to troubleshoot both software and hardware problems, replace hardware, and reinstall the required software to make the computer work. I have worked on both laptops and personal computers. I have also learned a bit about setting up small networks and troubleshooting network problems. I have researched and broadened my knowledge as technology grew on my own over the last 14 years. Until now I have never had schooling for this trade. I started taking my computer classes in the fall. However, I am finding that there is a lot more to computers than what I have learned over the last 14 years. The knowledge I did have already has helped quite a bit though. I am very interested in what I am going to learn over the next couple of years here at Olympic College.