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Why have I not posted until now? Want to hear a horror, or rather almost-horror computer story?
My computer is an older one, built in 2000. When I purchased a USB hub for it, I discovered it didn’t have a hi-speed USB host controller. I took it to a computer store for them to install….and they “lost” the panel side of my computer! It got thrown out in the trash and compacted!
They had to then put it into a new case and so I didn’t get it back until now. A hassle but at least everything works okay. Can you hear a big sigh of relief coming to you all the way from Nebraska???
I’m sure your horror stories of problems with your computer or near misses you have can make mine look like a minor inconvenience….
Want to make me feel better and tell me YOUR story…..
Filed in: Jaunty Post
Dec 30th
2006
3:18 pm
Haven Rich Said:
OH Man! That stinks!
But yeah, it sounds more like an inconvenience than a horror haha.
A few years back I lost 18 chapters due to a virus. I was sitting there working on my chapter..a really exciting chapter, might I add..and then blue screen. It restarted and went to a blue screen and then restarted…again and again. I freaked!
That time in my life was really hard as well. I had just gotten out of the hospital, a stay that was about 25 days long. I was to have surgery in 3 days. Felt like dirt and my pc gets a horrid virus that killed everything.
Now last night we had a power outage. I was annoyed to say the least. But power came back on around 3am.
I hope your pc (in new clothing) works better than ever!
Have a Happy and Safe New Year!
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Dec 30th
2006
4:44 pm
Shana Said:
Ugh! Sorry, Cindy.
I just got a new computer for Christmas. Thank goodness. My refurbished computer is over 7 years old. I know it’s going to go any day. Now the big chore is to transfer everything from my desktop to email so I can download it to the new computer. My old computer is too old to have a USB port, so I can use a flash drive; it doesn’t have a CD-writer, so I can’t do that. It does have a disk drive, but the new computer doesn’t. It looks like I’m in for hours and hours of emailing files to myself.
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Dec 30th
2006
5:00 pm
Cindy Kirk Said:
Haven,
Losing 18 chapters makes me shudder….you win the prize (I’m not sure what prize that is ) for the worst story so far.
Shane,
I don’t envy you. That’s why I’m putting off getting a new computer. It just seems like it takes so much time to break in a new one.
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Dec 30th
2006
6:19 pm
Isabel Said:
I’m sorry to hear that, Cindy. We just bought a new computer and changed once and for all from PC to Mac. Ol’ Frankie as my old pc used to be known came to us about five years ago. It finally kicked the bucket back in October. But not before taking, precioius pictures, inspirational quotes and the starting notes and chapters for TWO books. The most I’ve lost altogether in books is about 100 pages. Not as much as Haven’s, just thinking about it could make cry, but still it was heartbreaking to see it all go.
I hope it all works out for you Cindy, and for you too, Shane
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Dec 30th
2006
6:31 pm
Estella Said:
I am not computer smart. I ordered a new computer and when it arrived I got it hooked up and found they hadn’t installed the Windows drivers. Called the company and they talked me through wiping everything on it off and completely re-installing it. Talk about a nervous wreck!
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Dec 30th
2006
11:05 pm
Lacey Said:
Ack! This sounds horrible, ladies! I’m lucky in that I’ve never lost anything – never had so much as a blip. Crossing my fingers that I never will!
I think I’m ready for a catastrophic failure, though. I have a 2GB USB drive that, embarrassingly, backs up EVERYTHING on my laptop. I say embarrassingly because most people I know have 30GB of just music. Hey, what can I say? I’m easy.
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Dec 30th
2006
11:42 pm
Jenna Petersen Said:
When I wrote my first book in 1996, I had no sooner printed out the final page when the computer ate it. Gone. Finito. Somehow I kept that raggedy hard copy during moves and marriage and etc and dug it out in 1999 to retype it in. That began my journey to writing.
So thank goodness I’d printed it out!!
Now I do backups all over. A copy to an email account I only access through the internet (so I can get the books anywhere), one on my new laptop, a CD backup and copies on my desktop. Oh, and I still print a copy. LOL
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Dec 31st
2006
11:56 am
Karen H in NC Said:
Hi Ladies,
I guess we have all had our computer problems. I have had a few myself lately…talk about stupid computer tricks…geez, now lemme tell my sob stories:
It started in mid-October; I have BellSouth DSL (always on) internet service and I suddenly had problems accessing some webpages; getting strange messages saying goofy things. After a few days of this crap, I did a reboot…Big Mistake…BIG!! Got the blue screen. So I called the Geek Squad and they sent a tech out 2 days later. Took him all of 5 minutes to find and fix the problem (a corrupted file caused the crash) but took time (2 hours) to clean up my computer all for $249.00.
Then in December, I started getting different messages indicated a modem/connection problem. So, I reset my modem…another big mistake…REALLY BIG! Didn’t fix the problem and this action actually masked it. Finally talked with a BellSouth Tech person for over 2 hours; when he couldn’t find a problem, he referred me to Microsoft Tech because it looked like a software problem. After talking with a MS Tech for 2.5 hours ($35.00 fee), when he suggested I unistall SP2, I threw my hands up in dispare because this guy was like a fish out of water without a clue as to what the problem was. Called Geek Squad (my new best friends) again. 2 days later, the tech was out and got the problem fixed ($129.00 reduced rates??) and said the problem was with my modem and if it happens again, to not reset it but to call BellSouth immediately. Well 2 days later, it happened again…called BellSouth and they sent me a new modem. Finally, problems solved (knock wood) for the time being!! And since I spend many hours on the computer, I must say thanks to the downloaded,crossword puzzles and 1001 Solitaire card games..only thing that kept me sane when my computer called in sick.
After that, I won’t even go into the virus I got in 2000 that totally wiped out my computer….everything gone, finito…I hope I never have to live through that type of thing again!!!
Shana, Congrats on your new computer and I know it is a gigantic pain to have to transfer data from old to new, but have you heard about program transfer product called ‘IntelliMover by Detto’? I heard about it when I bought my Dell 2.5 years ago. Rather than buy the product from Dell, I researched it and found a copy on Half.com and bought it there. It cuts transfer time to a heartbeat, very easy & convenient to use. It is available on eBay right now or check out their website at
http://www.detto.com
Give it a thought, it’s an excellent tool for this purpose.
Happy New Year to everyone on this board. Authors….keep those talented fingers typing away to pump out more excellent reading for all us voracious readers!!
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Dec 31st
2006
12:20 pm
Rainy Said:
Well, I do have one horror/funny computer story. In one of my office jobs, my friend and I (she was in the office right next to mine) somehow started emailing a romance/soap operatic story back and forth to each other. She’d send me a story with a cliff-hanger and I’d start from there with a new cliff-hanger and so on. Our tales became quite inventive and somewhat strange, depending on how crazy our day was. While writing on our breaks, we’d quickly change the screen if someone should walk by. (Of course, this was before companies had strict policies about using computers.) Anyway, at the end of the day and finishing one story with our heroine torn between two lovers or dangling from a cliff, my friend shut down her computer in a rush when someone came by. The next day when she turned her computer on, her story was on the screen, flashing! She had a complete meltdown but managed to call our computer guru and fixed it over the phone.
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Dec 31st
2006
5:51 pm
Kimberly Logan Said:
Yipes! So sorry you had to go through so much trouble, Cindy. I’ve never had much luck with computers myself. Probably because I didn’t get one until around 2000 and I am still pretty clueless about a lot of stuff.
I’ve had two major computer malfunctions within the last few years, one of which was my own fault. It happened around the time I was finishing up work on Sins of Midnight. I had just completed several chapters that had been particularly difficult for me to get through and I was already running behind, per usual. I was getting ready to save when I must have hit the wrong key on my keyboard, and I completely lost all of the chapters I had just finished. I was never able to figure out what I had done and I never could retrieve those chapters, so I wound up having to rewrite them. I’m sure my JQ sisters can remember me panicking and whining to them all about it as I threatened to drown my sorrows at the local Mexican cafe’s dollar margarita night, but they were able to talk me down from the ledge and I got back on track.
The second snafu was entirely my computer’s fault. It was back in 2003, and I had just received the request for the full manuscript of A Kiss in the Dark from Avon when my computer suddenly stopped working. No reason. I just suddenly couldn’t access any of my files, nor could I use Microsoft Word to type anything else. And I had quite a few chapters left before the manuscript was completed! Talk about utter panic. It took two weeks to get it fixed, and I was biting my nails the whole time, afraid that Avon would decide I was taking too long and change their minds. Of course, that tale had a happy ending, thank goodness!
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Dec 31st
2006
6:00 pm
Cindy Kirk Said:
Every one of these stories sent a chill up my spine…probably because I can imagine how devastated I’d be if I found myself in the same position.
I’m thinking of getting an external hard drive and having it back up all my word files twice a week. Anyone have any experience with using one? Best Buy has them on sale for $99.
And, hey, I’d still like to hear some more computer horror stories….
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Jan 1st
2007
11:14 am
Colleen Gleason Said:
The trash compactor??? Yeeks!
Well, my computer horror story is that I woke up the Friday before Christmas to the Blue Screen of Death on my PC.
The second time in two years my hard drive had crashed and wasn’t repairable (except for reformatting the durn thing).
My computer was almost four years old, and I’d been thinking about getting a new one anyway…so I made one last expense/purchase for 06 and bought an iMac.
No more PCs for me, and a nice white sleek Mac instead.
I was able to get all my data off the hard drive (most of it had been backed up anyway), but I can’t see myself going back to a PC. I’ve just had too many problems with them!
Happy new year.
Oh, and for an external hard drive…you can get them for pretty cheap at Best Buy or other electronic stores and they will automatically back up your files every day. Yay!
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Jan 1st
2007
11:42 am
Cindy Kirk Said:
OMG, Colleen….what an absolutely horrible Christmas gift!!
I’m so happy you didn’t lose much…once I dig out from the snow…I’m heading to Best Buy.
Hope you enjoy your Mac!
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Nov 4th
2010
3:37 am
Thermostatic Shower · Said:
refurbished computers might be based from an old technology but you can buy them in bargain prices “”
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Dec 3rd
2010
2:00 am
Paving Slabs Said:
actually, it is not a good idea to buy refurbished computers coz the price of brand new computers is so low -*-
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