Sprinklers Half-Way Fixed!

Worked on the backyard sprinklers some more today. Picked up three replacement Hardie sprinkler valve diaphragms from Normac and that actually got the valves working manually. It cost me like $50, though! I could have bought three entirely new valves for like $25 (with coupon), but then I'd have to cut apart all the PVC lines and buy replacement PVC pieces and glue them all together, working in that small little area without much room to maneuver in... so yeah, an extra $25 was worth not spending all that time and effort.

So after getting them working using the manual release, I tried activating them electrically through the control box, but that didn't work. There are two wires running from the side of the house to the backyard control valves, but only one is actually connected to the valves, and I accidentally broke one in two different places while searching for the valves, but I didn't know if I had broke the live one or the dummy one. And since my test didn't work, I figured I had broke the live one, so I fixed it, then tried again, but it still didn't work. So tomorrow I'm gonna need to go get a multimeter and hopefully that will help me locate where the issue lies.

In an unrelated topic, for a little while now I've been having these seemingly random connection issues with my internet whereby I'd visit a site and the browser would return with some kind of error like "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage" (IE8), "The connection was reset" (Firefox), or "Error 101 (net::ERR_CONNECTION_RESET): Unknown error" (Chrome). It's a common error that I've been able to find mentioned many places with many suggested fixes, but my issue was more rare in that it was not constant, and reloading the page one or more times would eventually get it to show up, though sometimes only partially, like it would load the content but not the stylesheet.

Well, I tried every suggested fix mentioned on every page I could find, and none of them worked. Then, several days ago I finally made the connection that it isn't random, it happens when my DVD drive is either ripping or burning a DVD. This should tell me something, but what, I do not know. I have tried searching the web for anyone else with the same problem, but can't find a single mention of it. I tried to update the firmware for my Optiarc AD-5170S DVD drive, but unfortunately I can't because mine is a Dell OEM one which cannot be upgraded with the official firmware, only Dell's firmware, and Dell does not provide a firmware update for this drive. Thank you Dell, for making life harder. Anyway, so I guess until I get a new DVD drive I just have to stay off the 'net while it's doing its thing.