Last weekend my laptop died. This happens to everyone at some time. Knowing that others feel my pain doesn’t help alleviate it at all. I was depressed, discombobulated, edgy. Am I an addict to the computer? Sure felt like it. How did I get so dependent on computers?
We have a netbook and I was able to use that for my email. That helped my withdrawal symptoms a little. But the netbook doesn’t have Word. I’m a writer. Cutting off Word is like cutting off an arm.
I’d finished a short story and needed to polish it. Without Word I couldn’t do it. Besides being depressed and edgy, I was imagining my so-called writing career imploding before it even really got started. I got increasingly more upset. Someone recommended a program called Open Office which is a word processing system compatible with Word. I uploaded it onto the netbook. Open Office is very hard to use. I couldn’t figure it out. I thought I could put my flash drive into the netbook and use Open Office to write and it would be just like Word. It’s not compatible with Word. You can’t format in Open Office the way you can with Word. There was no way to shut off widow and orphan control, no spell check. I got more depressed.
We called Toshiba, we called the Geek Squad. They all tried to help on the phone, but the laptop remained dead. We took it into the Geek Squad at Best Buy. The tech turned it on and saw the problem immediately. The entire computer wasn’t dead, just the screen, much like a monitor dying on a desk top. To fix it would cost as much as a new laptop. We decided we’d shop for a new laptop, but that didn’t solve my immediate problem. I needed Word. The tech suggested we connect the laptop to an old monitor if we had one. We did. When we got home, we hooked up the laptop to an old monitor from a dead desktop computer, and Voila!, I had my computer back. More importantly, I had Word. I’m using the laptop/monitor combo now.
We still need a new laptop but now we have time to research and decide which one we want. The tech said the average lifespan of a laptop is three to four years. My laptop is three and a half years old. Luckily, the hard drive is intact and we were able to transfer the hard drive to an external HD just in case the laptop goes totally kaput before we get another one.
I spent three-fourths of my life without a computer and now I’m ready to go bonkers if I don’t have my computer. How crazy is that? How do you feel when your computer dies?
8 comments:
I have a netbook as well, and I use the student version of Office on it. I didn't like Open Office either.
Since I always have two computers with both backed up to two external hard drives, I can manage if one of them dies.
Earlier this year, I was trying to followup on some Google Alerts on pirated ebooks and got infected (thanks a lot, Comcast's McAfee) with 40 plus viruses and two Trojans. It took the Geek Squad about 4-5 days to clean it up. Then it took PCweb Doctor to remove McAfee so that I could put Trend Micro on the mini. (It was the mini that was infected.)
Once in a while I go to KY to visit my mom and leave both computers at home, but then I get withdrawal symptoms and have to run up the hall to my half-sister's apartment and check my e-mail on her computer.
Who knew when Bill Gates introduced the "PC" back in...whenever it was...that we'd become so addicted.
Marie-Nicole,
Thanks for posting. About 18 months ago we paid Geek Squad $600 to revive the laptop after a virus killed it. People thought we were nuts to pay that and said we should have gotten a new laptop. But the virus ate our hard drive and we needed it back. It took two techs all day but they restored everything. That's when we bought the external hard drive.
Carolyn--I have an Asus netbook and downloaded Word to it. I recommend you do so, too, as backup.
When my laptop dies, I go into total separation anxiety. I'm on my fourth laptop in six years. Guess I use them to death. I don't care. Can't live without one. You have my total empathy.
Ack. I'd go crazy. My laptop is only 2 years old. I have a great back up system so that's not the problem and fortunately, I have more than one computer but it would still drive me mad not to have the mobility. I wondered what happened to you:)
I learned to backup after I lost 14k words of my first ms.
Fortunately I had enough in hardcopy and bits and pieces on floppies to reconstruct it.
Kim and Adele,
Thanks for visiting. I know I need a better backup. Since we not the netbook, I've been saying I should get Word on it, but I waited.
Amazing how computers have changed our worlds. I remember starting my legal assistant career with a selectric typewriter. I write on my home computer and when I have a story going, I save it to a floppy - kind of old hat, but if something happens, I have all that on floppies so I can survive the catastrophe. I have a laptop but don't use it much as the keyboard drives me crazy. Just doesn't feel like a computer keyboard.
Patsy,
Thanks for posting. I remember using a Selectric. I would still be a secretary if we'd had computers then, but I made so many typing errors I needed a new line of work.
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