by Magi the magical poet is riding the wind again
Member since:
March 29, 2006

FYI - My computer is dying

June 02, 2007 10:55 PM EDT
views: 46 | rating: 10/10 (12 votes) | comments: 28

 

Friends, this is not my usual madness - I blame it on the full moon.

 

My computer needs to go to the emergency department of the computer hospital, where treatment in intensive care may keep it from going straight to the undertakers.  I am hopeful that shock therapy will jolt it into hanging on for a little while longer.  But if it dies, the funeral will be soon; however, I won't be attending this traumatic event.   I will observe a period of enforced mourning - until I can afford to adopt an orphaned PC, with or without bells and whistles.

For the moment, ask not, dear little computer, for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Comments: 28

Trudy P. Jun 2, 2007, 11:00pm EDT
RIP dear little computer!
Friends, as my PC slides towards the abyss and the waiting burning pits, I can only navigate on Gather via hyperlinks left in comments and emails. And I don't know for how much longer that this sick puppy of a PC will allow even that. Even a big smear of Vegemite medicine on the keyboard has not helped matters.

I might well be absent of a while.
Trudy, I'd much rather see it rise from its deathbed and cheerfully ask: 'Why the long faces?' But thanks for the thought.
Dannielle S. Jun 2, 2007, 11:05pm EDT
Oh, Magi -- I know exactly what you're going through!! Last month, just as I retired my primordial-slime-powered dinosaur computer, the "new" computer crashed and burned. I lost everything!

The good news is, Webwriter directed my husband to a site for a new PC, and I have a marvelous new machine. Perhaps such a delight is in your near future as well. I do hope you're able to back-up and save your writings!!
jessie voigts Jun 2, 2007, 11:13pm EDT
cripes! yahoo on the new computer, dannielle!! good luck, magi!
Lydia O. Jun 2, 2007, 11:17pm EDT
At least anything that's here on Gather will be here when you get back! Stasheff had a charming fantasy a few years back with a patron saint of technology, St. Vidicon--I have a mental picture of him rebuking Murphy on your behalf! I hope everything turns out well and that your silicon-chipped buddy does, indeed, rise and walk. :)
Sheila Deeth Jun 3, 2007, 12:09am EDT
Please say you've got everything backed up Magi! Would hate to lose any of your writing. Best wishes for a short absense and a happily working machine.
Wilma M. Jun 3, 2007, 12:16am EDT
Hopefully a visit to the intensive care unit will revive your little writing companion so that he can once again have a productive life.
Dannielle, these instruments of the Devil deserve to be in the burning pits when they die! LOL I'm hoping that mine will hang on until Christmas, when I can afford to replace it. But I have backed up all of my work. The frustration is not really being able to readily navigate. And things might get worse still.
Thanks, Jessie.
Thank you, Lydia. I have had a word with Saint Jude about the PC - he referred me to Dear old Mr Beelzebub.
Thank you, Sheila, for your best wishes.
Wilma, my little writing companion might, just might, still have some life in it. If not, the ungrateful little bugger is going to Mr Beelzebub's office in the burning pits.
Ron (in complete sheeple overload) W. Jun 3, 2007, 1:00am EDT
That's software, not hardware. Reinstall your web browser.
elizabeth e. Jun 3, 2007, 1:33am EDT
Oh my...know just how you feel...remeber 6 weeks ago when I wrote my story, "I Did Not Mourn for HP"...someone actually thought I was writing about a person. Hopefully...yours can be fixed...mine was just DEAD!
St. Ron - I've spent hours trying to do just that, including throwing the Google toolbar installer into the mix. I've only just rebooted for the umpteenth time - whatever I just did, suddenly all of my bookmarks are back. Except now they're called favourites, so I don't know what the hell it is that I'm running - I think it is Internet Explorer. But the spell checker icon is gone from the tool bar, as are various are nifty things that were once there.
Faith H. Jun 3, 2007, 8:24am EDT
Magi, so sorry to hear of your computer woes. I know I would not be where I am without my geeky son, who knows all. I wish I could export him to Perth, Oz to help you!
Laurie White Jun 3, 2007, 12:29pm EDT
Oh no, good luck Magi! It's so frustrating when the computer is on the fritz. Hope you can get it fixed.
julian 'blighted karma' three Jun 3, 2007, 1:30pm EDT
Perhaps a local 14 year old gigawizard can put things right for you for the price of a few pizzas and a new videogame? At any rate please do back- up anything you can just in case.... I don't stay current but I DO hvae several CDs ful of my basic 'stuff' following a horrific crash a year or so ago. All the best wishes to you.
Thank you for your best wishes, Faith, Laurie and Julian. After many frustrating hours, I've managed to get it going again; and then more hours of of starting off from scratch to bookmark connections such as yourself and groups. Even now I'm not sure that everything is OK.
Bart H. Jun 5, 2007, 9:25pm EDT
LOOK WHO'S BACK!
Finally, Bart, finally! To get Firefox working again as it should was a nightmare, and took untold hours.
William Dotani Jun 7, 2007, 3:30am EDT
I have a $538 Compaq PC I bought 4 years ago at Sam's Club and it works fine. From my experiences, there are 3 things that slow a PC down. Numero uno is overuse of memory. Delete the files from your browser after you go back to your desktop and once a week go to Run, type in prefetch, select all on the page, then delete everything. Second is defrag your PC at least once a week. Third, you need a program that will remove the excess garbage. I use Easy Cleaner 2.0 by ToniArts. It's freeware and easy to install and use. Just click on unnecessary files, click every box and run it. It will safely delete everything you don't need, or ever wil need. Hope this helps.
Thank you, William. This PC of mine has 500 megs of Ram - its memory limitation is due to the capacity of the hard drive: not all that much spare memory there but sufficient if I watch it. I was unaware of pre-fetch - does that apply to XP Windows? I use CrapCleaner to get rid of temp files, cookies and the like. I also defragment the drive, but I must be more diligent in future.

I think the real problem was that Firefox became corrupted. When I finally managed to install a newly downloaded version of it (having got rid of the sick one), everything was back to normal.

Thank you for sharing the information that you have. I'm pretty hopeless when it comes to things computing.
William Dotani Sep 9, 2008, 12:18am EDT
Yes, prefetch applies to XP Windows and is a little known memory hog.
My so now has the PC I stated above and I went into the attic and pulled out a 1999 Compaq. It's working, but I realize its age is in mayfly years. I heard crap cleaner is good software. By the way, turning off hibernation and stand by can give you lots more memory.
Bill, this computer of mine is really well past its use-by-date...soon, I hope to have a new one with a huge hard drive and lots of memory. Hopefully, that will fix all of the memory problems I've experienced ... not from creeping senility, I hasten to add.
ashish j. Jul 5, 2009, 1:00am EDT

plz  convey my best wish to the departing soul:))

I will, Ashish, I will.

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