The first part of February started with Charlie coming in and saying “My computer just crashed”, words that none of us who use these things want to hear. Not only does it take us away from our “stuff”, but we have to either get it fixed or buy a new one. Both entail spending time and money that we’d rather be spending somewhere else or just holding on to.
After a couple of weeks of babying the computer along, doing scans, getting the hardware checked, etc., Charlie went out on President’s Day weekend and found a good bargain on a new computer.
While he was agonizing I was doing fine, quietly thankful that it was not my computer that went belly up. But, my turn was about to come.
On March 1, I turned my computer on and it would not load anything. Charlie spent several days trying to get it to work. He took it in to the computer guys and they also had no luck. Long story short, we went out last Friday and bought a new computer.
Charlie set it up, loaded software, and then declared “There’s something wrong here.” I couldn’t believe it. This was a new computer. Everything went well until he opened Internet Explorer (the web browser). It gave strange errors, or went into waiting mode and stayed there. Sometimes it would load a page from the internet – sometimes it would return pure unintelligible garbage.
He called Cox cable. No problem with the connection. He called Motorola, the modem/router company. They did some diagnostics and confirmed that there was a good internet connection even if the new computer didn’t seem to understand it was there. The problem seemed to be with Internet Explorer.
Then he called HP, the computer manufacturer. He was surprised when he got a HUMAN voice after only about 15 minutes of waiting. “Sara” did not know what she was in for. Her accent was a little hard to understand, but not as bad as some techs he’s talked to on the phone.
The only word that really stumped him was “tombs”. “Tombs?” he kept repeating, and then she’d repeat it and it still sounded like “tombs”. He finally said “Spell it” and she spelled out “T-o-o-l-s”. I’ve said before, my husband has the “Patience of Job”.
She put him through steps to diagnose the problem. He had already done the steps before calling her. The browser still would not work. Something was stopping traffic. After an hour, they shut the computer down, started it again and installed recovery software which came with the computer.
Finally, everything was set back to where it was when we brought the computer home. Internet Explorer still did not work!
“Sara” then changed from her “let’s fix it” mode to “let’s get this dude off the phone ASAP” mode because we had obviously bought a bum computer. She announced that the recovery module itself must be corrupted and offered the suggestion that he run the recovery module and create the three recovery discs needed to go through a second recovery attempt, as if that had solved the problem. Maybe her problem, but not ours. Charlie pointed out that seconds before, she had told him that the recovery module was corrupted. Wouldn’t the discs that it would create, also likely be corrupted?
Then she offered to mail us a set of good recovery discs, absolutely free. He politely declined, and told her that what he really wanted was to return this broken piece of you know what, to the store and have it replaced. Her “script” probably told her not to offer that solution, but since he was asking, she admitted that perhaps that would work.
Before “Sara” had finished her closing remarks, Charlie was packing the computer back in the box. It was about 7:00 p.m. and the store was open until 9:00 p.m. We jumped in the car and headed for the store. We did the exchange and brought home a new computer like the first one.
The next morning while Charlie was setting up the new, new computer, I went over to the vet’s to pick up “Jonesie”. He had his front paws declawed. When I got home, my new computer was in the foyer, in the box. I said “Is it dead too?” This would be the fourth computer death within the month.
To make a long story even shorter, Charlie reached the exact point as with the last computer and began having the same problems. He took it back to the store. He was waited on by the same employee, Marissa, who had done the exchange the night before. She recognized him and her eyebrows went up. “Yep”, he said, “this one doesn’t work either.”
This time he wanted a refund, but if a tech was available he wanted one to check out the computer and vindicate him for not being able to get the computer to work.
The tech started the computer and it complained it had no internet connection, even after a different browser was installed. He said “Hmmmm.” Marissa couldn’t stand it anymore. “So, is it working?” The tech said, “Well….sorta…no.” Charlie was vindicated!
Why two computers of the same brand and model would both break with the same symptoms will likely remain a mystery. R.I.P.
Bottom line is, Charlie came home with another new computer, different brand and model, hooked it up and it is now working great. It’s more powerful than my old one. I still have files and pictures, etc. to get situated. I lost all of my bookmarks/favorites. Some of them were places that I’d frequented for years, but I’ll gradually get them back as I require them.
Charlie had backed up my emails and other files so I didn’t lose anything when my computer crashed. We have our pictures on an external drive so we didn’t lose them. Those would have been the biggest loss to me.
Mr. and Mrs. Happy
And Charlie is happy now too. He has his room back. When my computer died, I set myself up in his room, using an “old and slow” computer that he has in there. I know I was invading his privacy by being there (he says “no, not at all” (Really?) because I was always telling him I was having a problem with this or a problem with that, or I wanted to listen to the radio on line, or all of the cats would show up and want to sit on the desk or in our laps, etc. They all tend to congregate wherever I am and when both of us are together, well that makes it twice as much fun for them.
The gathering of fur balls in the Bell kitchen
Virginia 2002
More later……….
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