Help me I'm going insane.
Started classes, those are fine, it's actually not too bad having them all in a row with only 1 hr sessions.
So why am I going insane?
On Monday before I even made it to PSU, work started calling... the accounting/tracking system for our daycare center was all out of whack, and unusable. This is bad, it brings in a significant portion of the school district's revenue, and that system needs to be working throughout the day. So I go to my 2 back to back morning classes, get out at 11:30am, and have Subway for lunch. Then I brace myself and start the phone calls.
Database corruption. Program can't repair it (it usually can). Other people are having issues with email and network printing.
The thought in my head? "FUCK MONDAY!#@$@!"
So I head to one of the computer labs to do some remote checking, see what the hell is going on. I try to do a database repair. No dice. I use my emergency repair utility. Still no dice. Fuck me. I use my absolute-last-resort emergency utility, and it works...or does it? I have the secretary try out the program...it seems to be working, she modifies some records...BAM! Crashed again.
FUCK!
I spend 30 minutes on my cell phone, in a computer lab (in a corner luckily, and some other people were talking quietly so I wasn't too much of a disturbance)...trying to walk through potential fixes. One by one the database just laughed at my fixes, everything I tried would only work for about a minute. I hang up and try other methods, just on the server...thinking maybe it's just the clients. I run the repair again, compress the database...it seems to work on the server, things are checking out. So I label that working backup #1 and copy/paste it elsewhere. Then it was time for class, so I sit through my last class, then bail over to my office at 3pm.
I then spend 6 fucking hours trying every god damn thing I can think of to get the program to work on the clients. With no idea what is causing the problems, I try it on multiple computers, different locations.
I notice a trend. The front desk computer at my Vancouver campus crashes the database the fastest. By that time, however, it was like 9:30pm, so I went home.
Enter Tuesday. I had stayed up till 2am playing games and shooting the fuck out of people to relieve stress. I sleep through my 2 alarms going off every 15 minutes from 7:30am until I finally get up at 10:30am, after having really weird dreams. Then my ringing cell phone reminds me I have work to do. Another clue to the puzzle comes up, another computer at the Vancouver campus is having network problems. I'm confused, still not piecing everything together.
So I bail over to the Vancouver campus, and for 5 more hours I hammer away at the server and clients. I even call tech support...what a fucking joke. I then notice the specific error on the one win2k machine over there (the rest are 98se)... it's in the event logs. A bit of cross referencing, and I come up with a known Win2k bug.
Yay! That MUST be it! So I put in a support request with Microsoft so they can email me the fix, and instruct the employees to not use the database program on that machine. I make sure it's working on their other machines, and at 5pm decide it's lunchtime. So I start driving back over to my office in Portland, and stop at Subway for a sandwich. When I get back out to my car, there's a message on my voicemail.
The database is corrupted again.
FUCK!@#$
Frustrated as all holy hell, I mutter to myself while driving to my office. Then I take a break from it to eat my food, answer some easy questions, drink a Mt. Dew...
Then I start putting things together... multiple machines make it crash... it doesn't crash when I use it only on the server... NETWORK! It's gotta be something with the network...but WHAT??? Is it some random network card fucking up? Did someone punch through a wall and splice some wiring?
So I decide to try something... I run the program at the other elementary campus, because that only runs through my T1 connection to the Vancouver switch, directly to the server. Strangely enough, it works just fine. No problems whatsoever. Hmmmmm...
I try to remote connect to one of the machines at the Vancouver campus, and... nothing. I can't connect... I can ping, traceroute, whatever. But I can't establish a connection. I try another machine over there... same thing. I try the server, no problems with it.
Jesus god... what if... aw fuck. The pieces are falling together. I think I have a rogue 24-port Intel hub. The machines that I can't connect to are all connected to that hub, which is then plugged into the switch... since the server is on the switch, I can get to it just fine.
That's where I stand right now. With a potentially dead $300 hub. Tomorrow I test out this theory, and god fucking damnit I hope I'm right... it took me this long to come to this solution. Besides, they have to run billing tomorrow.... I'm right down to the wire on this one.
To be continued.
Started classes, those are fine, it's actually not too bad having them all in a row with only 1 hr sessions.
So why am I going insane?
On Monday before I even made it to PSU, work started calling... the accounting/tracking system for our daycare center was all out of whack, and unusable. This is bad, it brings in a significant portion of the school district's revenue, and that system needs to be working throughout the day. So I go to my 2 back to back morning classes, get out at 11:30am, and have Subway for lunch. Then I brace myself and start the phone calls.
Database corruption. Program can't repair it (it usually can). Other people are having issues with email and network printing.
The thought in my head? "FUCK MONDAY!#@$@!"
So I head to one of the computer labs to do some remote checking, see what the hell is going on. I try to do a database repair. No dice. I use my emergency repair utility. Still no dice. Fuck me. I use my absolute-last-resort emergency utility, and it works...or does it? I have the secretary try out the program...it seems to be working, she modifies some records...BAM! Crashed again.
FUCK!
I spend 30 minutes on my cell phone, in a computer lab (in a corner luckily, and some other people were talking quietly so I wasn't too much of a disturbance)...trying to walk through potential fixes. One by one the database just laughed at my fixes, everything I tried would only work for about a minute. I hang up and try other methods, just on the server...thinking maybe it's just the clients. I run the repair again, compress the database...it seems to work on the server, things are checking out. So I label that working backup #1 and copy/paste it elsewhere. Then it was time for class, so I sit through my last class, then bail over to my office at 3pm.
I then spend 6 fucking hours trying every god damn thing I can think of to get the program to work on the clients. With no idea what is causing the problems, I try it on multiple computers, different locations.
I notice a trend. The front desk computer at my Vancouver campus crashes the database the fastest. By that time, however, it was like 9:30pm, so I went home.
Enter Tuesday. I had stayed up till 2am playing games and shooting the fuck out of people to relieve stress. I sleep through my 2 alarms going off every 15 minutes from 7:30am until I finally get up at 10:30am, after having really weird dreams. Then my ringing cell phone reminds me I have work to do. Another clue to the puzzle comes up, another computer at the Vancouver campus is having network problems. I'm confused, still not piecing everything together.
So I bail over to the Vancouver campus, and for 5 more hours I hammer away at the server and clients. I even call tech support...what a fucking joke. I then notice the specific error on the one win2k machine over there (the rest are 98se)... it's in the event logs. A bit of cross referencing, and I come up with a known Win2k bug.
Yay! That MUST be it! So I put in a support request with Microsoft so they can email me the fix, and instruct the employees to not use the database program on that machine. I make sure it's working on their other machines, and at 5pm decide it's lunchtime. So I start driving back over to my office in Portland, and stop at Subway for a sandwich. When I get back out to my car, there's a message on my voicemail.
The database is corrupted again.
FUCK!@#$
Frustrated as all holy hell, I mutter to myself while driving to my office. Then I take a break from it to eat my food, answer some easy questions, drink a Mt. Dew...
Then I start putting things together... multiple machines make it crash... it doesn't crash when I use it only on the server... NETWORK! It's gotta be something with the network...but WHAT??? Is it some random network card fucking up? Did someone punch through a wall and splice some wiring?
So I decide to try something... I run the program at the other elementary campus, because that only runs through my T1 connection to the Vancouver switch, directly to the server. Strangely enough, it works just fine. No problems whatsoever. Hmmmmm...
I try to remote connect to one of the machines at the Vancouver campus, and... nothing. I can't connect... I can ping, traceroute, whatever. But I can't establish a connection. I try another machine over there... same thing. I try the server, no problems with it.
Jesus god... what if... aw fuck. The pieces are falling together. I think I have a rogue 24-port Intel hub. The machines that I can't connect to are all connected to that hub, which is then plugged into the switch... since the server is on the switch, I can get to it just fine.
That's where I stand right now. With a potentially dead $300 hub. Tomorrow I test out this theory, and god fucking damnit I hope I'm right... it took me this long to come to this solution. Besides, they have to run billing tomorrow.... I'm right down to the wire on this one.
To be continued.
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
As a complete techno-idiot I am impressed.
Go get 'em Tiger!
i didnt know you went to PSU yo, when are you on campus? we should meet up and grab some pizza or something.