Friday, January 27, 2012

TECHNICAL BREAKDOWN

I had a bit of a breakdown with my desktop computer yesterday.  It shut itself off several times, wouldn't re-load Windows when I turned it back on and finally presented me with only a black screen.  So off it went to the guy who built it and maintains it.  As I watched and waited, he fiddled with it.  Finally he got it back to normal.  (supposedly).  I took it home, got it on, then it turned itself off again and I was back to the same problem.  I took it back to my man and he said he'd have to observe it for awhile.  So, I patted the top of it and left it with him, sadness writ large on my face, I imagine.

I waited as long as I could stand it, then went back this afternoon.  He said one of the memory cards was going out so he'd switched the slots around and it had been working fine ever since.  (By the way, I have no knowledge that leads me to understand what he was talking about.)  But he didn't charge me any more than the 30 bucks he hit me for yesterday.  And it's home in it's accustomed spot and working fine.  So far.

It used to be that when my computer went into the shop I went into severe withdrawal.  But a year or so ago I bought my wife a laptop for Christmas so that's available as a back-up.  And this year she got me a Kindle Fire for Christmas.  So I've really got two backups.  So this vacation wasn't as bad as those in the past.

SWMBO suggested that the next time the desktop crashes and I need to get a new computer I should get a laptop also.  I'm not convinced of that yet.  I'm not happy with the display or the keyboard on hers.  But we'll see.

There was another customer in the store and he was told his 20 megabite hard drive was so full there's not even a line on the display.  Tom (my genius) said 20 megabites is a really small hard drive.  I commented that I remembered when that was considered a huge drive.  He agreed.  But times . . and the myriad worlds of the Internets . . have changed.

I also remember that we once were led to believe that computers would simplify our lives.  HA!

6 comments:

  1. My sympathies. I once thought computers would make writing easier and in some ways it does, but I am now capable of making thousands of mistakes I couldn't have imagined back when I used to take pen to paper, or even typed.

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  2. Indeed we understand.

    Lived with a lap top from my old black G3 Wall Street
    mac. A power book, macbook pro and I've just begun with an IMac. A keyboard and mouse made the laptops
    better for frequent desk work. I like the larger screen and angle of my neck with the IMac, though there are ways of rigging laptop displays to correct that.

    Good Luck. Glad you are back at the mother ship!

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  3. Mike has a laptop & I use the desktop. I must say I'm spoiled by it :)

    I remember a job I had in the late 80s. It was for a nonprofit so they had cast-off computers that people had donated. The one I used didn't even HAVE a hard drive - you had to put the program floppy disk in, start it, & then put the data disk in to get your data. Now THAT was primitive :)

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  4. Computer problems are no fun. Don't want to mention the frustations I have had. Best forgotten.

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  5. You are blessed to have an expert around who can build 'em and maintain 'em for you.

    My first machine was an IBM 64K. With a big floppy drive.

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  6. Depending on what for you are using your computer: a notebook has been a bless for me these last months. An external backup hard drive being a must...

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