computer hell

Nothing is more frustrating to me than sorting out computer problems. In the eighties and nineties I was considered to be something of a computer hardware and software guru, but my skills have long ago become obsolete. I suppose it is no different than what’s happening in the rest of my life.

This morning I woke reluctantly from a dream and while I tried to open my eyes, I could see a desktop clearly laid out in my mind. It was a bit chaotic, but there was obviously some functioning order to it. I need to get these external systems coaxed into some kind of synergy with my biological hardware.

We currently have five separate boxes that could be classed as computers. These include two units running on Windows 2000, two on Windows XP and one palmtop running with Windows CE. Neither of the two Windows 2000 systems is working properly and their software disks seem to be corrupt. One of these machines (my main computer for the past few years) fell prey to a couple of separate virus attacks. It is currently virus free, but many files have become damaged along with the master boot record. Most of my important work is on this system. I have not identified all of the problem files yet, but I find one or two daily. The other Windows 2000 machine is not working at all. We intend to keep it to run legacy programs and house the hardware which is no longer compatible with the newer machines (zip and floppy drives). I may have to install Windows 98 on it to get it working. I have reformatted the hard drive, but I can’t get the Windows installation to complete. Maybe I’ll feel more like working on it when the weather is warmer.

I am writing this on a laptop I bought in the States a little over a year ago. It is a pretty clean machine running Windows XP. Its major problem is that it came with a US keyboard and I am working with documents that were created on the other machine with a UK keyboard. I installed Microsoft Office for 2000 and it doesn’t seem to be that compatible with XP. When I was working, I used Office XP on Windows XP and it seemed quite different.

I miss having experts in the other room I can talk to.