Oh, my faithful readers, it's good to be back. To explain my lengthy absence, need I say more than this?
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The dreaded blue screen of death. Many have heard the terrifying tales, but few have actually experienced its deadly wrath. On Tuesday evening, all of my worst fears are realized in these words, "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer." Well, the damage had already been done. After at least an hour on the phone on Wednesday morning with Enrique of Dell Technical Service India (my best guess), we determined that my computer was not recognizing the hard drive. Not good. The first of the tears came soon after. (My tears, not Enrique's. He didn't seem bothered in the least.) Have I mentioned yet that we just got this computer in January 2008? Anyway, Enrique, from some distant country, set up soem guy here in Omaha to come out and replace the hard drive. He showed up on Thursday morning with the new hard drive. My hero. Now wouldn't it be just peachy if the story ended right there and we lived happily ever after? Come on, people, it's me we're talking about here. Nothing ever happens quite that easily. And now for the rest of the story...
After Mr. Hard Drive Replacer installed the new hard drive, I came downstairs to check on the progress. He said it would take about an hour for setup to complete. He hadn't even left the driveway yet when I was out there tapping on his window telling him it was already displaying an error message. He pretty much said, "Too bad. I just replace the hardward. You'll have to call Dell again." Could he be serious? Was he just going to leave me here to drown in the misery rising up from our basement? Yes, he was, and yes, he did. Jerk.
So, after another hour on the phone with Lee of Dell Technical Service Canada, he decided it was still broken. I told him that much when he picked up the phone. When all of his suggestions didn't work, I called my salesperson (who probably wishes she'd never left me that message with her direct phone number). I left her a mesage basically saying, "Fix this issue or face my wrath." OK, I didn't say that, but I was thinking it really hard. She called back and said they were sending me a whole new computer. Yes! Well, it got here on Friday, my friend, Joe, came over to set it all up for me last night, and we're back up and running today. I had forgotten how hard it is to live without a computer. I almost had to have Julie set up our fantasy NASCAR drivers for the week. Good thing we're back online. Our secret fantasy NASCAR driver-choosing techniques could have been compromised.
7 comments:
OK ... I'm completely freaked out. I'm sitting here reading your blog. Picture my office ... I have two computers up and running side-by-side. One is a few years old (mine). The other is a brand new Dell (yeah, Jan. 2008). Only the kids have been using it so far. LITERALLY, I'm reading your blog on my old (but functioning) computer, I look over at brand new Dell. What do I see? Blue screen. "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer." The rest of the screen is not identical to yours ... but holy crud! This is SERIOUSLY the first time I have seen this blue screen! I think I'll request that they skip Mr. Hard Drive installer and go straight to the new computer. Yeah, right! Chris Totten
dude that comment above is really weird.
Anyway, i'm so glad the computer is back and running. I would have kept all of your fantasy techniques secret. I understand how awful it is to not have a computer and I promise I would never, ever use your misery to my advantage. :) Oh and riggs just wrecked. Great. Im sure you will be calling to rub it in soon.
Jules
Oh Amy thank you for the giggle - not on your behalf, but on the humorous writing! I can't imagine how you have survived this long. I almost didn't check for an update since I thought you'd be out another week!
At least your computer was under warranty. I got the blue screen of death PLUS a buzzing sound from my weather bug ... and my hard drive DIED burying all my photos from forever cuz I didn't have all of them backed up (Korea trip, funerals, kid's growing up photos, etc.) Now that's a SAD story.
Laura from sads'ville ....
AARRGGHHHH.... that is horrible! I cannot survive without a computer, although Jared thinks otherwise, haha. I just ordered a new Dell Laptop last week and it is supposed to be delivered at the end of this month. Wish me luck!
That really sucks! I'm pretty sure I would have just cried. Hopefully you're getting things worked out.
hey glad to see you are back!! Why is it that every time you need computer help that the person that answers the phone barely speaks English? who came with that great idea? as if you aren't already freaking out that your computer is broken, now you have to decipher someone's recently learned English! The last time I had trouble I called a bunch of times and finally got someone who was American...but of course they told me that they couldn't always answer the phone if I called back, and so then I would get someone else....CRAZY! I think I would be willing to pay a couple extra dollars every month just to be able to understand the person on the other end of the line!!! Anyway, glad to see you back!
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