Catch 22

Yes, time does fly when you are busy with trying to sort out a computer that doesn't want to work. Our desk top had a problem shortly after we bought it whereby it was just turning itself off and would not turn back on for a while. We worked out it was overheating as the problem increased the warmer the weather got! So we contacted the manufacturer (via email as I hate long boring phone conversations with someone in India. It's not that I can't understand them, or them me, but it does take time and often doesn't solve the issue) and of course, as we had tried all the ways they said to solve it, the computer had to go away for repair. That it did (while we were in CA on holiday) and came back repaired but back to factory settings. Luckily I had been able to back everything up to the external hard drive I have, so no big deal.

Anyway, now it is having a power problem in as much as it won't switch on. There is power to the unit but the on/off switch will not power up the unit. Of course, there are solutions to try listed on the website (don't you love that, you have a computer problem, but need a computer to get to a website to see how to cure it? Is that a Catch 22 or what?) The computer will power up sometimes and stay working correctly for days and then from nowhere the problem starts again. Which is what happened Monday, so I contacted the maker and of course it has to go away again and, of course, they say to back up anything before you send it as they may have to set it back to factory settings-all very well if I could get it turned on!

Luckily I have actually been backing everything important to the external hard drive and saving very little on the computer, but there were a couple of things I hadn't backed up, like the magazine text I am working on with a January 15 deadline! Most of it was on the backed up version, thank goodness, but it was little things that I had corrected, added that were missing. This is what has been taking my time as I have been reconstructing the information I needed from emails and memory. I think I am where I was and I know that if I try and power up the main computer that it will now mysteriously work, seeing I have spent two days working on things I have already completed.

It has been a good thing to have a laptop to work with and a new one at that. We got the new laptop when the other computer was playing up the first time. My husband wanted to use the old laptop to do something and could not believe how long it took to do it, so we went shopping for a nice new one which is fast and light weight and I love it! It is a touch screen model and once I find more time (!) I can teach it to recognise my handwriting, so I can write on the screen and it will convert it to text!

Not that my older laptop has been discarded, no far from it. I have that upstairs hooked up to my embroidery machine. It means I can download the embroidery designs from purchased discs and transfer them from the computer straight to the sewing machine and then the machine stitches them out. I can also play with the design on the computer and save it, then transfer it to the machine. So I don't have to take the new laptop up there and it doesn't matter that the old one is a bit slower, as it does the job just as well. I can also surf the Internet up there when the machine is stitching as we have wireless and it works all over the house and garden.

Modern technology can't live with out it, can't always live with it!