En panne. Kaput. "Dead in the water." I think it's not worth repairing. That's the story of my life right now. First it was the car's speedometer. Then the kitchen stove. Now it's my computer.
It all started two or three days ago when I suddenly saw an error message on the screen during startup. "Your system battery is very low," it said, or something like that. Okay, no problem, right? I turned the computer off, unplugged it, and took the battery out. I went to the store and bought a new battery.
There's only so much tinkering I can do. I give up.
Ever since, I haven't been able to get the computer to start up again. When you take the battery out, all the computer's configuration settings revert to the factory defaults. So if you've customized them, you need to re-enter your specific settings. My problem is that I can't even get the computer to go into its setup mode, so I'm stuck.
Maybe it's bugs like these that have gotten into my old Dell desktop.
I've got 15 years' worth of photos are on the hard disk, but I have no reason to believe I've lost anything. Anyway, I also have nearly everything backed up on an external drive that I can plug into the laptop. And also on CDs and DVDs. I'm not too worried.
I should be outside smelling the roses or, in this case, the peach blossoms, instead of tinkering with an old computer.
So I'll be buying a new computer. Maybe today. I've been doing research for a few days. Wish me luck. The Dell computer that's en panne will be seven years old in June. I'm sure it's time to replace it.
Mega sympathies. A new computer won't do your blood pressure any good at all. Poor Simon is wading his way through sorting ours out.
ReplyDeleteIt's strange what's going on with my computer. Three or four times over the past few days I've succeeded in getting it to go into setup mode. But then when I restart it I find myself right back where I started: frozen before Windows even starts to load. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteKen: possibly disk corruption in some system/boot files.
ReplyDeleteWalt: that's the third friend's computer that's died in last two weeks - and you are the only one with backups. The others had vital work ( artistic and documents ) on theirs that required scraping off damaged hard disks.
I can't believe how many people still don't back up. I also make sure my day to day files are synced with OneDrive, DropBox etc
My thoughts are with you...
ReplyDeletethis ten year OLD Dell laptop now has a 32Gig Memory Stick plugged in the back...
incedentally more than dubblin' its capability...
because the power supply went down eighteen months ago.
There is a very nice gentleman in Mezziers en Brenne...
Geek Garage...
and speaks Fringlish...
who got it going at much less than the price of a new one...
but we still need to replace this at some point.
It has, at the moment, some 50Gig of memory stuck in varicose veins around the machine...
including MicroSD and another USB stick.
May your choice this time last longer!
And why not consider a network drive box for the hard diskz out of your boite morte...
What I can not understand is why...
when a cheap electronic "notebook" I have had for fifteen years...
has two battery slots, side by side, and allows you to insert a new battery and THEN take out the old...
that this system has NOT been inserted inside big box computers...
unless it is deliberate....
to MAKE you buy new.
HURRUMPH!!
[Apologies for all the shouting...
you jiggled my soapbox!]
Tim's got some good ideas! I got a network drive (WD MY CLOUD with 3 terabytes) for Christmas and now just store everything there instead of in Paul's laptop or my notebook or the phone. My old laptop is as good as dead. It's sitting on my desk, but I haven't turned it on in about a year and it was showing signs of dying. I should boot it up and reformat the disk to clean it out and then get rid of it. It's an XP platform and, of course, Microsoft no longer support XP.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in Tim's notebook with the two battery slots. My ASUS just has one and having the option of using two batteries looks good, especially if you can insert the second one without taking out the first.
not the computer! sorry. i hate that. onward and upward!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteYow. Best of luck to you on this. I was going to say that you'll love your new computer (speed, for example), but then I read Susan's comment. Is it the new operating system that's frustrating, Susan?
Speaking of the OS, now I have to decide whether to go with Windows 8.1 or "downgrade" back to Windows 7, which I have really liked. I keep reading troubleshooting forums on the 'net and futzing with the old Dell, but I'm making no progress. R.I.P., E521. Faithful but flawed...
ReplyDeleteRIP, ole buddy of yours and ours too!- glad you backed up stuff. Must be the season. Lewis has two friends with new computers and he woes that go with their setup.
ReplyDeleteHi Evelyn, Lewis has my sympathy. My new computer will arrive on Monday. Then the fun will begin. And then it'll be just two weeks before I arrive in N.C.
ReplyDeleteI think I see your problem. That cable on the right is unplugged and the computer's lifeblood is spilling out!!! Have fun with the new one!
ReplyDeleteEllen, the reason "notebook" is in inverted commas is...
ReplyDeletebecause it is not a computer as such...
it is a basic calculator, text file notebook, calendar, addressbook,etc....
and, while somesort of chip operates it...
'tis not a computer.
But the idea was well thought out...
and you don't lose the addresses, etc.
The other, very simple way of keeping those settings would be a Sim-type card that you could also transfer between computers when you upgraded...
and software in the new computer that analyzes the data and sets the new computer up with the nearest capabilities/settings...
that would save many broken office windows and domestic upheavals...
not to forget premature hair loss.
I think my PC is about the bite the dust. It started giving me strange error messages a while back. It has stopped for now but is that like the quiet before the storm? It's an HP Smartouch (an all-in-one type).
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