Wednesday, January 09, 2008

so NOT loving my new computer

I bought a new computer a few weeks ago. It was a book release present to myself because my old computer was old, slow and I was running out of patience with all its idiocincracies. Well the new computer has been a nightmare. It woos and flirts with me with its massive flat screen beauty but it fails me time and time again. It's like dating a brainless cabana boy; fun for a few minutes but eventually you may need it for more than looking good.

At least once a day my Vista tells me that I have an update and need to restart my computer. I ignore these updates for as long as possible but eventually it shuts down and does them anyway. Every single time it adds these updates it reverts to being just new out of the box. Everything is lost including MICROSOFT WORD! When I say lost I mean not even an icon for Word and when you go to the start menu Word is not even listed as an available program anywhere. Obviously the computer hates me. I've had Mr. Computer Geek at my house twice. The last time he was here for five hours and pronounced it fixed. He'd been gone less than five minutes before the exact same problem happened. I haven't called him yet. I hate to see a grown man cry.

The good news is that Mr. Computer Geek also updated, cleaned up and pimped up my old computer so now it runs like clockwork. As soon as I find a spare minute I'll call Mr. Computer Geek and force him to show up again. If it fails once more, the machine is going back in the box and returned to Dell Hell.

Has anyone else suffered the pain of a new computer?

8 comments:

Rachel Vincent said...

I had a lot of trouble with my Dell laptop. And it wasn't even running Vista. There were constant requests to recalibrate the battery, which lasted less than twenty minutes, it froze up all the time, and ran slower than time itself.

When I fried the processor this past summer (the computer was only 2.5 years old), I replaced it with a Gateway, which I love. ;-)

Wendy Roberts said...

I'm making a note to myself to check out Gateway next time!

Barbara Martin said...

Last spring, I bought a new computer, a Toshiba laptop which has been going great. There are only a few things I find irritating which are when it's plugged into an electrical outlet it begins to overheat unless I keep the Power Source Profile at Normal instead of High Power, and I keep it on Normal when I'm using the battery too. If it overheats or I use the computer for an extended period of time, say four hours, I have difficulty starting it and have to press the ON button again while asking my guardian angel to help. So far this has worked. Other than that it's working fine.

I have a friend whose Toshiba also heated up and the motherboard burned out in 3 months. When I heard that, I began keeping the Profile on Normal. So far so good.

Wendy Roberts said...

Barbara that heating up thing is scary! I plan on buying a laptop this summer for when I travel. Would you recomment the Toshiba otherwise? Is it powerful enough?

Holly Kennedy said...

Love the picture!
Also love "Dell Hell."

My husband has had a ton of trouble with his, too.

My old system is on the verge of exhaustion and I'll be shopping for a new one soon. I'll make sure to keep Dell off the list!

Wendy said...

Agh, computer problems - what a pain! I've heard that Vista sucks and that it has a lot of problems.

My desktop is giving me problems too but at least I know why and can temporarily fixed it. I have a Toshiba laptop and the same things happens to it, its heats and has even shut down all by itself a few times. The battery died months ago but I haven't replaced since I barely use it anyway.

Wendy, I hope Mr. Computer Geek fixes you computer! Permanently. :)

Wendy Roberts said...

Holly, sorry to hear your hubby is also in Dell Hell. Hope you have better luck!

Okay, Wendy, I've crossed Toshiba off my list :/

Spy Scribbler said...

They don't seem to make computers like they used to. About fifteen years ago, I got an IBM. That puppy never had one blip. Lasted a good eight years, and I even upgraded it several times myself.

Since then, I've had Sony Hell, Compaq hell, HP hell, and Toshiba Hell. Sadly, you almost have to get the extended warranty, nowadays.