SWC75
Bored Historian
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 33,543
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- 64,569
Here's what happened, for those that are interested.
Two weeks ago I started getting what is known as the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Screen_of_Death
All I could do with it was to turn the machine off with the power button and then turn it back on. I got it three times on Tuesday night. The next day I ran a full system scan which took all day but found no virus of any kind: just a few cookies. On Thursday I called the Geek Squad, (the tech service offered by Best Buy) and they established remote access. Their agent also did a scan and was engaged in a clean-up of the computer, (it's a full PC, not a lap-top), when the blue screen popped up again. While calling them back I turned the machine off and on again. I was still on hold when the blue screen re-appeared. the Geek told me he had found nothing wrong with the software so there must be something with the hardware and I should take into the local Best Buy where they could work on the hardware.
I brought it in on Friday and pretty, smiling clerk cheerfully told me it would be ready on Sunday. I got home and the work order, (which identified the problem as "B.S.O.D.", which either meant "Blue Screen of Death" or that the machine had OD'd on BS), said the expected completion date was 1/14/13, which was Monday. But I didn't hear from them until Tuesday, when they said they needed a disc that came with the machine so they could restore it to an earlier version of itself. They'd isolated it to a corrupted driver that helps Windows boot up but had not been able to install a new one. I brought it down and they said it would be ready sometime on Wednesday. I waited all day Wednesday and didn't hear anything so I called in that evening. They said it would be done by Noon Thursday. I didn't hear anything by then so I called them again and was told it was taking a long time to "download the updates" and I could pick it up on Friday. On Friday I drove down and was told they'd been unable to restore it, (every time they thought it was done they got a screen asking if they wanted to restore it all over again). They asked if I wanted it back "as is". I asked them to hook it up to a monitor to show me what the definition of 'is' was. They couldn't even boot it up. I told them they could have it for recycling and walked over to the sale department to buy a new machine.
People keep urging me to "get a Mac". The Macs they had on display cost 3-4 times as much as the CPUs and lacked the capability to insert the CD-RW I had saved all my writings on. I was told I'd need to buy something extra for that. I hadn't been able to transfer anything from my first computer to my second back in 2003 because of a compatibility problem. I didn't want to go through that again so I opted for another PC. The clerk said Dells had a bad reputation these days, (my first Dell last 6 1/2 years and still worked- it just didn't have enough RAM-, this one lass than 3), so I bought a Hewlett-Packard. They have a service where a Geek will come out to your house and hook everything up for you, which I requested since I have the technical skill of a Neanderthal. Because of the games and Saturday and Monday, I couldn't get an appointment until today and I'm finally back on line.
Unfortunately, I've run into a glitch in transferring my files to the new computer. My second computer had WORD and when the disc I made for that one was inserted into my third computer, which had WORKS, It made a WORKS copy of it for storage on the new machine. But this machine has WORD and WORD doesn't seem to like anything done on WORKS. I've found I can open a document using WORD but not keep it. But I can highlight, copy and then paste onto a WORD page and it will save that if I ask it to. So I've got a lot of work to do the next few days.
The vacation from the internet hasn't been all bad. I've gotten around to doing several of the chores I never got to because I was ODing on the BS here. I've got the cleanest closets in North Syracuse. Now I can get back to being useless.
Two weeks ago I started getting what is known as the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Screen_of_Death
All I could do with it was to turn the machine off with the power button and then turn it back on. I got it three times on Tuesday night. The next day I ran a full system scan which took all day but found no virus of any kind: just a few cookies. On Thursday I called the Geek Squad, (the tech service offered by Best Buy) and they established remote access. Their agent also did a scan and was engaged in a clean-up of the computer, (it's a full PC, not a lap-top), when the blue screen popped up again. While calling them back I turned the machine off and on again. I was still on hold when the blue screen re-appeared. the Geek told me he had found nothing wrong with the software so there must be something with the hardware and I should take into the local Best Buy where they could work on the hardware.
I brought it in on Friday and pretty, smiling clerk cheerfully told me it would be ready on Sunday. I got home and the work order, (which identified the problem as "B.S.O.D.", which either meant "Blue Screen of Death" or that the machine had OD'd on BS), said the expected completion date was 1/14/13, which was Monday. But I didn't hear from them until Tuesday, when they said they needed a disc that came with the machine so they could restore it to an earlier version of itself. They'd isolated it to a corrupted driver that helps Windows boot up but had not been able to install a new one. I brought it down and they said it would be ready sometime on Wednesday. I waited all day Wednesday and didn't hear anything so I called in that evening. They said it would be done by Noon Thursday. I didn't hear anything by then so I called them again and was told it was taking a long time to "download the updates" and I could pick it up on Friday. On Friday I drove down and was told they'd been unable to restore it, (every time they thought it was done they got a screen asking if they wanted to restore it all over again). They asked if I wanted it back "as is". I asked them to hook it up to a monitor to show me what the definition of 'is' was. They couldn't even boot it up. I told them they could have it for recycling and walked over to the sale department to buy a new machine.
People keep urging me to "get a Mac". The Macs they had on display cost 3-4 times as much as the CPUs and lacked the capability to insert the CD-RW I had saved all my writings on. I was told I'd need to buy something extra for that. I hadn't been able to transfer anything from my first computer to my second back in 2003 because of a compatibility problem. I didn't want to go through that again so I opted for another PC. The clerk said Dells had a bad reputation these days, (my first Dell last 6 1/2 years and still worked- it just didn't have enough RAM-, this one lass than 3), so I bought a Hewlett-Packard. They have a service where a Geek will come out to your house and hook everything up for you, which I requested since I have the technical skill of a Neanderthal. Because of the games and Saturday and Monday, I couldn't get an appointment until today and I'm finally back on line.
Unfortunately, I've run into a glitch in transferring my files to the new computer. My second computer had WORD and when the disc I made for that one was inserted into my third computer, which had WORKS, It made a WORKS copy of it for storage on the new machine. But this machine has WORD and WORD doesn't seem to like anything done on WORKS. I've found I can open a document using WORD but not keep it. But I can highlight, copy and then paste onto a WORD page and it will save that if I ask it to. So I've got a lot of work to do the next few days.
The vacation from the internet hasn't been all bad. I've gotten around to doing several of the chores I never got to because I was ODing on the BS here. I've got the cleanest closets in North Syracuse. Now I can get back to being useless.
