Today I was suppose to get a whole lot more accomplished than I did, unfortunately my computer (yes my new computer) decided to have issues. Now I am not sure any of you are aware but the “blue screen of death” that Windows 95-Windows 2000 users are use to still exist and I know this for a fact. Every time I would try and watch a DVD my computer would crash into one of those screens. It would then proceed to reboot and act as though nothing had happened. Then randomly it would do the same thing. Well I got sick of it so I call Dell (which by the way has an awesome customer support department although it would be nice if they spoke English) to get the matter resolved. Well they asked me the simple question of what the error message was, I told them that the infamous blue screen still exists. The only problem is that it would go by so fast that I couldn’t copy down what the stupid error message was. It finally crashed again and this time I had the brilliant idea of taking a picture of it with my camera phone (see picture below) so they would know what I was talking about. I was rather impressed that I thought of this because normally I would just try to copy it down but it would take so long to write it that there was no point. Anyway, so I sent them the picture while we were trying to trouble shoot and we came to the part that I like least when it comes to fixing things with tech support: the part where they “hang up” because inevitably something always happens that you have no clue of what to do. You’re not sure that if you push that button (you know the one I am talking about) that if you push that button that your computer will have a meltdown. So after the tech support person (I do not know if it was a woman or a man at this point because it was via chat) had given me the final instructions of what to do she left and it was up to me to accomplish the mission. It started to feel like Mission Impossible as I did not have a screwdriver and the task I was about to undertake would require one. Now, some of you who know me which there is a select few of you who do know me, know that I practically live at Panera. There is a really great reason for my obsession with Panera they have good food, free internet and it is out of my parents house, which is all I need to be perfectly happy.
So I set out on the task to obtain a screwdriver in the mall, not hard you may think but significantly more difficult considering the size of the screwdriver I need. It began to felt like Goldie Lochs and the three bears for a moment. I went to the jewelry store they only had screwdrivers that would work on eyeglasses and watches which were a bit too small. Then I went back to Panera and asked them if they had a screwdriver that I could use, the man was kind enough to lend me one but it was too big. I then asked some people that were sitting at Panera that had a laptop and they suggest I would go to Sears which was at the entire other end of the mall. I knew I really didn’t have time for that. At about this point I just about gave up hope but out of sheer resourcefulness I went over to Lenscrafters and wouldn’t you know it they had a screwdriver that fit perfectly. The man was nice enough to let me hold on to it for a while, while I worked on my computer. Now the goal of the current mission was to take both memory modules and try them in both slots to see if it was the memory that was causing the meltdowns or if it was the motherboard. I won’t go into the process because that would be painful for me to type and even more painful for you to read so I will just say it was a pain in the butt to say the least. The tech support person told me she would call me back in an hour (now this was most excellent because my unlimited cell phone minutes don’t start until after 7:00 PM and I frankly didn’t want to use my precious minutes on tech support if I could help it). Well she was late calling me back which worked out quite well because I was just barely finishing all the work I had to do in time for her to call me. She then walked me through a few more tests to see if there was anything wrong with the memory (which there wasn’t). This whole scenario reminds me of the whole car mechanic rule: your car will only make a noise or demonstrate a problem as long as there is NOT a licensed mechanic anywhere near it. If for some reason you bring it within fifty feet of a mechanic your car decides to work as though nothing is wrong making you look like you are either one an idiot or two going insane. Your vehicle is trying to look like a child that just got caught doing something that it should but trying to look innocent none the less. However, once you are away from the mechanic the car then continues its problem as though it had never stopped. So it is with computers and tech support. I could not duplicate the problem to save my life throughout this time no matter what I did so she is going to call me on Sunday to help me diagnose the problem further (which is good because I have my unlimited minutes on the weekend). Which brings me to the funny text that Domina sent me after everything was done and it said “Your computer is shy – it doesn’t like performing for audiences.” I sent her one back saying “Yeah well it better get over its stage fright or we’re going to have words”. Well that was my day and although you got a fairly interesting blog out of it this was not what I was hoping to write about. Perhaps tomorrow my computer will behave long enough to allow me to make some head way with something other than its self. I won’t hold my breath.
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