What a nightmare this has been.
After the old one crashed and I thought I’d lost my files, I ordered a new desktop. It arrived on June 26th and I loaded the old files my husband had cleverly recovered for me while we waited.
Then bad, bad things started happening with the new computer. I tried running various diagnostics myself, but finally started an online chat with Dell. It took a long, long time. In the end, I gave over control of the computer to the Dell technician, probably in India, and let him wipe out my files and return the machine to its factory state.
Then I started over with setup.
And bad, bad stuff happened again.
This time I went to the Microsoft site and opened a chat with a Microsoft technician. It took a long, long time. In the end, I gave over control of the computer to her and she ran all kinds of diagnostics, repaired seven corrupted files in the operating system, helped me with my Office downloads, and gave me back a computer that seems to be working great.
So far, so good.
Tomorrow, if all is still well, I’ll retrieve some of my Word files and get back to writing.
I hope.
Anyway, I have a guest blogger for you on Thursday I think you’ll enjoy. Patricia Smith Wood, author of The Easter Egg Murder and Murder on Sagebrush Lane will be here. Please join us.
Good luck with the new computer. It is so frustrating when things don’t work the way it’s supposed to.
Susan Says
Thanks, Susan. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that all problems are now fixed and I can get back to work. Frustrating is definitely the right word.
You’re lucky, Alex. I learned just enough with this experience to be very, very dangerous — doing my own reformat and reinstall would probably destroy the computer. I’ll leave the tricky stuff to the experts and trust them to do what’s right. 😀
That’s always scary when you have to relinquish control to someone else. I’ve been fortunate that I know enough about computers that I can fix it myself. Which has been a reformat and reinstall before.