brett crockett: I Heart Windows

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

I Heart Windows

While working thismorning, my lappy started bogging down, so I decided to re-boot. It took nearly a half hour to save the document I was working on, and shut down iTunes. Then, I went to the Start menu to restart, and for over 5 minutes, nothing happened. At that point, I CTRL+ALT+DEL'd and still, nothing happened. Finally, I decided the only way to "fix" my problems would be to take out the battery and unplug the power. So, that's what I did. Then in calssic 8-bit Nintendo fashion, I blew into all the openings in the computer that I could find. Mic plugs, CD-ROM, USB jacks, headphones, and a couple of those PCMCIA slots were all subjected to this technique for an average of three seconds.

Then, the re-boot. Then, the horror.

I tried restarting in Safe Mode, Last Known Good Configuration, etc. THe whole kit-n-kaboodle. And nothing. It just flashes a quick blue screen and goes into a restart loop.

Scott suggested it may have caught "the mexican virus." He could be right, but are these the symptoms? I'm opening up to what others might have to contribute as far as diagnosis goes. Feel free to comment. For your effort, I'll send you a fragment of the HD if I can't get it fixed.

posted by Brett Crockett @ 11:12 AM

6 Comments:

At 12:09 PM, Scott Brown said…

Just a clarification on my "Mexican Virus" theory. I got the following email this morning:

BUENOS DIAS!!!

JOU HAVE YUST RECEIBED A MEHICAN BYRUS.

SIN WE NO HABE SO GOOD TECHNIOLOGICALLY ADBANCE IN MEHICO, DEES IS A
MANUAL BYRUS.

PLEESE DELETE ALL JOUR FILES ON JOUR HARD-DRIVE JOURSELF AND SEND THEES
E-MAIL TO EBERYONE JOU KNOW.

TANK JOU FOR HALPING ME.

JULIO MANUEL JOSE RODRIGUEZ-GARCIA
----MEHECAN HACKAR

Hard to tell if this is a joke or not. Just as a precaution, I would ignore it. Brett...did you ignore it?
At 1:11 PM, Brett Crockett said…

I would have ignored it because it sounded a little fishy to me- but it was fowarded to me by my mom's friend who saved my life by warning me of the gang initiation flashing headlights thing a couple years ago. (I saw a car with no headlights on that very night), so I figured it was from a reputable source.

Are you saying Julio Manuel Jose Rodriguez-Garcia was really just trying to ruin my life on a budget?
At 12:24 AM, jm said…

I'm sorry to hear that your PC isn't working the way you would like it to. It sounds like you might be able to benefit from the following link:

http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/

Good luck.
At 10:30 PM, Canadian Chick said…

I come to your site from time to time.

Good luck with fixing your computer issues. I hope that you are able to recover your files.
At 10:05 PM, Brett Crockett said…

Julie-
Thanks for the advice. I'm now accepting sponsorships for a MacBook Pro. Please let me know which sponsorship package you'd like to go with (Gold comes with a free keychain that says "I helped Brett extricate himself from a miserable situation." Platinum comes with the forementioned keychain, but also a mesh hat that says "31st Ward Softball - 1993."

and Canadaian Chick-
Thanks for visiting.
I took my lappy to a computer geek (no offense, Jake) tonight and he tried all sorts of things. Unfortunately, it looks like I'm going to need a new hard drive, but the good news is- he might be able to get most of my files off of it. Until then, I think I'm going to do some boondoggle.

I'll be sure to let you know how it turns out.
At 10:32 PM, Canadian Chick said…

Hi Brett;

I appreciate that you took the time to read my poems and your comment really brightened up my day. I know what it is like to have computer problems. I lost a good chunk of my poetry collection while reformatting the hard drive. Live and learn was my lesson. I know now to always back up my files. Especially important ones. I had pretty much given up posting on that blog, but now I think I will stick to it. Thanks for your encouragement.