Computer Crash Blues

Sounds like a song but it sure isn't sweet music.

More correctly, I suppose I should say Windows Vista crash blues. Yesterday for no reason I can figure my computer went to sleep and didn't wake up. Many efforts and scary screens with uncomfortable messages later, I gave up and called Tech Support. And yes, for the fee of $100 plus tax, the young man would be glad to assist me. I am now the proud owner of the questionably valuable HP tech support for one year.

I will say that this tech seemed to care about not losing my files. We weren't successful in that goal, and I thank my stars that I had most photos and important documents on an external hard drive as backup. At work, I save everything to a thumb drive so I can take it with me as needed. At home, I'm not so careful but do try to back up to the external drive every month and more often if I remember. So I lost a few things but it was not the disaster it could have been. The biggest loss was Microsoft Word, and I ordered the new Word 7 anyway so that's not a big problem either.

The worst headache was this: since my computer was restored to its new-out-of-the-box state, there were many updates that needed to be installed. The HP tech promised to call me this morning so we could install only the necessary updates. He didn't call and I had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon, so I called Tech Support again. Got a different guy and we had a serious language-understanding-compatibility issue. I don't speak his language and he sure didn't speak West Virginian.

After a frustrating hour, he said I did not have to install ANY of the updates. Now every one was listed as a "security update" to prevent someone from doing something bad to my computer. I didn't need them? I was pretty sure I did! I figured some newer ones pre-empted earlier updates and that was what I needed to know. I got nowhere with the tech, so tonight on my own I uploaded the damn things. Enough to make a granny cuss, but it's done and I hope I didn't mess anything up.

Oddly, even with the crash, my internet still works. I'm not sure why that is so, and will call my satellite company tomorrow to be sure everything is okay--I mean, the guy told me I would lose all software installed after I bought the computer, so I'm not sure just how this satellite thingie works. I have a CD so I assume it operates by software?

Then there's the printer to re-install. And when the Word CDs arrive, I'll have to get that installed. After that, I should be back to somewhere near normal.

You know, never in my life did I want to learn computer stuff. But if I don't do it I'm stuck, so learn and fumble I do. I tell myself this will prevent me from getting Alzheimer's. Reckon it's true? There has to be some reward for such aggravation!