Little posting cause I’ve been in PC hell.
Figured it was time to move from my old Compaq Win98SE desktop so bought a new Compag desktop at Best Buy this past week. All the bells and whistles, 1GB memory, 250GB hard drive, XP Profesional, etc., etc. Even started planning ahead on getting software, etc., moved over. Knew I couldn’t devote much time to it until Saturday.
Saturday comes, finally get PC ready to install my own software. As I attempt to install my internet security software, I discover that once I go to any one page on the internet I can go no where else. Any effort to go elsewhere gives me a “Server Not Found” error message. In fact, the only way I can even get to one web page is to reboot my cable modem and restart the PC. Spent 30 minutes or so on three different calls to Midcontinent. A hat tip to them as they were quite helpful and narrowed it down to a hardware/software problem on the PC.
I then spent 2 hours or more talking to four different Compaq customer support people in India. I even ended up blowing away everything on the PC and reinstalling it all. Long story short, I had a bad Ethernet card and Compaq innovatively integrated it into the motherboard. In other words, instead of just replacing the card, you have to replace the entire motherboard. They offered to ship me a new motherboard but I’d either have to put it in myself or hire someone to do it. Decided it’s easier just to return the PC to Best Buy but by now it’s after 6 p.m. with a hockey game to go to.
This morning I head off to Best Buy with the PC. Of course, they don’t have any of what I bought in stock and can’t get any more. I end up with an HP that is similar (smaller hard drive but Intel Pentium 4 instead of an AMD processor). Of course, the monitor I bought with the Compaq won’t work with the HP for the package rebates, so I have to buy a monitor to cut the price. I now have two monitors for one new computer (but will either return the first one or keep the old PC around for awhile).
Get this one up and running rather quickly with no internet problems. But then I had to start trying to transfer programs and data from the old PC to the new one. It’s really been a pain. Plus my router is acting up and it’s just been a helluva lot of fun. In fact, other than a couple long walks so the wonderful weather didn’t slip by entirely, I’ve spent most of my time screwing around with these PCs, there’s still plenty to do and the weekend is basically gone. Still plenty of stuff to install but at least I’m connected to the web at this point.
My long explanation for why no posts and little accomplished.
A computer is like an Old Testament god, with a lot of rules and no mercy.
Joseph Campbell
