Aaack...

I know...I know...I started something and it stands out there unfinished. But I have a good excuse: the dog ate my homework. No, actually I do have a good excuse: computer problems. First, my 6 month old ASUS stopped recognizing its hard drive. I ordered a new one (a great big 2TB Samsung SATA), but, when it arrived, there was no joy. The ASUS still wouldn't recognize this one either. So, I took drives and computer to Roger at PC Warehouse (Roger has helped me in the past with computer repairs beyond my ability) and he confirmed that the computer was, in fact, OK, and that it was the drives that were not working correctly. Fine.

I sent the Samsung back to the vendor with a request to replace. The replacement arrived and it too would not work. The ASUS BIOS kept giving me varying information about the capacity of the drive. It got it right about 3/4 of the time. But, when I tried to load Windows from the DVD, the setup program steadfastly refused to recognize the drive. So, with tears in my eyes, I sent this one back to Samsung with a request for a drive that actually has been tested and is known to work. When that one comes, I'll put it in the ASUS and determine once and for all whether it is the drive or the computer that is failing on me.

Howver, this is not the end of my problems. While the ASUS is doing a strong imitation of a doorstop, I have fallen back to using my 8 year old (MOL) Dell as my primary computer. Until yesterday. Yesterday, we had a power outage that, for the computer at least, lasted about 5 hours. (I unplugged it when the power failed, then spiked on and failed again. I didn't want surges to damage anything...) So, when I got home from work for dinner and plugged it in...nada! My guess is that the battery backup for the BIOS failed. (I am guessing that because I did get a warning about low battery the last time I turned the machine completely off.)

So, I am now down to my Linux laptop. All my stuff that I had on my Windows machines is locked up on HD's that I cannot get to. This is what I get for ignoring battery warnings and for not having this machine connected to my Windows network.

I'm going to give Roger a call to see if there is anyway he can get the old Dell back up and running. If that is a "yes", maybe by the end of the week, I'll be back in business. Also, the suspect HD reached Samsung yesterday, so, maybe, I'll have my replacement back by the end of the week as well.

Oh yeah, and my desk chair also died. I am not having a good month so far...I will get back to discussing the failings of the Tea Party as soon as I get past all of this...damn.