Our home PC appears to have died yesterday. It may still be resurrected, but its symptoms worsened over the past couple of days. After I rebooted, it didn't come back up. Not even the POST beep thingy upon boot. :(
A couple of days ago, IE crashed. Which I didn't think much of because IE always crashes... So I let it close, sent the data to Microsoft like a good employee and got some not-so-helpful info from Microsoft about installing some Service Pack or fix for IE which I'm pretty sure I already had since we have the Automatic Windows Updates turned on.
Short exhortation from a Microsoft employee:
1. Turn on your Windows Update settings to at least automatically download fixes, if you're not comfortable with Windows installing them for your automatically. It might save you from a bad virus or other weirdness down the road. Plus then you don't have to think about patching your computer - Windows will pick it up for you and you'll be up-to-date.
2. When something crashes, always click "Send" when Microsoft asks you to send the data back. Your data sent is not personally identifiable and Microsoft isn't trying to spy on you. We collect the data, try to categorize "types" of errors, and provide it to the product groups. Fixing Error Reporting crashes is one of the big things that happens before a new product releases. The more data we get, the better we know what problems customers are running into.
Anyway, back to my PC. Yesterday I noticed that the time was messed up - it was about 3 hours fast. Then I looked at the date, and it said June 6, 2207. I had suddenly been transported 202 years into the future. Woo hoo! It's nice to know TJ and I will be together for that long.
So we decided to reboot. And then our computer never came back. Not even after we let it "rest" for the evening. We (mostly TJ probably) will poke at it this weekend to see if it's the hard drive or something, but it's likely to be dead. We bought it for $700 from Tiger Direct a couple of years ago so it wasn't too expensive. I think the next one will be from Dell. It's probably not any better quality but it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling that it might be more reliable.
Have a good Friday everyone! I can't believe it's the weekend already.
I vote for a new Dell. And get the 3 yr service plan. It rocks! I call them all the time (OK, maybe once a year) and they always fix stuff in 5 min. They also send a nice FedEx guy out with a box to take away your computer if it breaks and it magically reappears about 4 days later all better or replaced. I only had to do that once, but it was very satisfying. I have also dropped my Dell laptops and spilled about a gallon of water on them while they were on, and they always came back on after they had a chance to dry out and rest. An - Feel free to give Dell my address so they know where to send the check after they read this. Kristin
ReplyDeleteRaine - you could donate it to a school or other organization which may have the funds to get it fixed but not buy a new one. That might make you feel better :)
ReplyDeleteK$ - I voted for Dell but we got an iBM instead since TJ had some discount from his dad. At least it's a name brand one this time. No more Tiger Direct Special for me!