apparently, it;'s my turn
Feb. 12th, 2008 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sorrowmonkeySo...
I don't want any of you out there suffering from computer problems to think that I was mocking you secretly. My actual thinking was something more like 'shit! that sucks, but better you than me'
Well, I installed a bunch of updates from Windows Update, rebooted the computer, and wandered into the kitchen. I came back, and it hadn't rebooted. I've actually had that sort of problem before. When I tried to start it up though, there was the sound of the hard disk spinning up, then a beep and all dark.
After the initial panic that the drive had crashed (I only back up the most critical files), I got onto the Dell Support site, and ran through some pretty extensive troubleshooting routines. At one point, I had everything removed from the laptop except the keyboard, the lcd, and the motherboard. Obviously, that pretty much means it's the motherboard.
You can guess that there was a fair amount of swearing at that point. As it turns out, the market value of the laptop is still about $1200. That pretty much justifies (to me at least), the price that Dell wants for a new motherboard. So, I'm inclined to pay the $450 for them to do that. As if that wasn't enough, I have to wait about two weeks as week. Damn.
So, I'm afraid the backup laptop isn't available for lending, since now I'm stuck with it. It turns out it has Ubuntu on it instead of XP anyway. So, I'm watching it upgrade (it's been about a year) so that I can use it until the other one comes back. I feel like a cripple without my usual laptop. Ah well.
I don't want any of you out there suffering from computer problems to think that I was mocking you secretly. My actual thinking was something more like 'shit! that sucks, but better you than me'
Well, I installed a bunch of updates from Windows Update, rebooted the computer, and wandered into the kitchen. I came back, and it hadn't rebooted. I've actually had that sort of problem before. When I tried to start it up though, there was the sound of the hard disk spinning up, then a beep and all dark.
After the initial panic that the drive had crashed (I only back up the most critical files), I got onto the Dell Support site, and ran through some pretty extensive troubleshooting routines. At one point, I had everything removed from the laptop except the keyboard, the lcd, and the motherboard. Obviously, that pretty much means it's the motherboard.
You can guess that there was a fair amount of swearing at that point. As it turns out, the market value of the laptop is still about $1200. That pretty much justifies (to me at least), the price that Dell wants for a new motherboard. So, I'm inclined to pay the $450 for them to do that. As if that wasn't enough, I have to wait about two weeks as week. Damn.
So, I'm afraid the backup laptop isn't available for lending, since now I'm stuck with it. It turns out it has Ubuntu on it instead of XP anyway. So, I'm watching it upgrade (it's been about a year) so that I can use it until the other one comes back. I feel like a cripple without my usual laptop. Ah well.
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Dude.
Date: 2008-02-13 12:33 pm (UTC)I wouldn't computer hell on any one.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-13 12:50 pm (UTC)So I did. Repeatedly. To no effect. Couldn't get the computer to boot up at all, so no way to look for trouble shooting info. The Geek Squad wanted an unconscionable amount of money to even look at it, and their only idea was to completely reformat the whole thing--losing all our music files, all our pictures, all my SCA stuff, and thousands of embroidery designs. Yeah. Not if I can help it.
Corwyn came over with a Linux-based OS on CD, and was able to get into it and transfer all the important files onto our shiny new external hard drive, and then copy them on to the new computer. Sigh. Suckage for the expense. (But yay for shiny new computer!) I
ve learned my lesson and will back up things considerably more often now...