March 23, 2018
Dear Everyone:
HP killed my computer!!!
Specifically, HP (Hewlett Packard) killed
Sebastian, the computer I got
last December to replace
Hermione, which I had obtained the previous
June to replace Oberon, who was only a year old, but whose transceiver
was disintegrating and frankly, Oberon was getting to be slower than
molasses in January.
Yes, all my laptop computers are named after characters in
Shakespearean
plays. What did you think?
Many, many years ago, when I was working on a project with the imbedded
Information Technology (IT) group in my department, everyone worked with
computers that stood under the desk, but which were called “desktop
computers” to differentiate them from the much-more-expensive
laptop
computers. The IT people
also had a number of laptops, some assigned to personnel who had a need
to walk down the hallway with their computer balanced on their arms.
And there were some “loaner” laptops that could be temporarily
assigned to people as needed.
At one point, I was assigned such a laptop.
That’s when I discovered that the IT people had come up with a
clever way to identify and keep track of all these identical laptops.
Someone had images of
Walt Disney animated characters, along with
access to a color printer (remember, this was a couple of decades ago)
that allowed printing on clear sheets of plastic.
They printed these characters and glued them to the outside cover of
each laptop. Hence, you
might be assigned “Jiminy Cricket”, or “Bambi”, or “Thumper”.
This was much easier than remembering a Serial Number.
#/media/File:Bambi2-bambi-excited.png){kind=link}
So I’m not the only one who names their laptops.
As for Sebastian (twin brother to
Viola in
Twelfth Night), I noticed last
Monday that there was an “urgent” upgrade coming from HP that needed to
be run “as soon as possible”.
I added an item to my “To Do” list in
Outlook, to remember to
back up all my documents and run the “urgent” upgrade on Tuesday.
When I came out into the living room Tuesday morning, Sebastian, whom I
had certainly shut down the evening before, had already turned himself
on, with an “urgent” request to run that terribly important upgrade Now!
Now! Now!
So I went ahead and ran the upgrade.
Something to do with a new
BIOS.
(“Basic In/Out System”; this is what tells your computer how to
start up. Sort of
essential.)
Everything seemed to go fine until it was time for me to log in again.
I entered my
PIN and got: “Something went wrong (code
0x8009002d).
Restart your
device to see if that fixes the problem.”
Needless to say, it didn’t fix the problem.
I tried going to the manufacturer’s website, in the Support section,
thinking “I’ll bet I’m not the only one to see this problem.”
No such luck. So I
figured I’d try taking it to the Big Blue Electronics Warehouse Store
and throw myself on the mercy of their in-house repair team.
However, "Jeanie" advised me to “call ahead first” and make an appointment.
It was while I was searching their website for information on the
nearest retail store that I realized I could schedule an appointment
right from there. In fact,
the Service department offered several openings in different stores.
I could wait until Friday afternoon at the store nearest me, in
Dublin. Or the following
week at the one nearest "Jeannie".
Or that very night, if I wanted to drive to
Union City, a mere 27
miles away.
I opted for this afternoon in Dublin.
The follow-up email confirming my appointment advised getting
there 5 minutes before the assigned time of “4:20-4:40”.
I made darned sure I got there in plenty of time.
Got into line, no waiting, took the technician all of 10 minutes to
figure out and solve the problem.
It may be that the upgrade somehow damaged the file that held my
login PIN. Or it could have
been a complete coincidence.
In any case, no charge for the “consultation”.
Yippee!!!
On the Plus Side, although I didn’t back up all my documents before the
fatal upgrade, it turns out I had copied everything to a
flash drive the
Friday before. Something I’m
thinking I may make a weekly habit.
(It’s Friday night!
Do you know where your documents are?)
What few updates I had made between Friday and the following
Monday, I was able to recreate, plinking away on
Petruchio, a
tablet
that is as old as Oberon, but considerably more resilient.
Possibly because I generally use it only to play computer games
and look up things when I’m too lazy to get up and walk over to
Sebastian.
Which is as good an excuse as any to have Petruchio as a backup, right?
I might just go back to the Big Blue Electronics Warehouse Store
and pick up another tablet, just in case.
Plus they’re really good for assembling virtual
jigsaw puzzles.
Love, as always,
Pete
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