My Computer

My laptop has been giving me issues for some time now. It crashes now and then and it takes forever to start up. In fact, it's been slow at starting up from the beginning and I'm inclined to blame the friend who helped me get it started. Something he put in from the start messed things up.

Anyway...yesterday was very bad. At the end of classes, when I shut it down, it crashed. Later in the evening I tried turning it on. It got into a "scanning all systems" loop that found errors and then found them again...eventually it started, though. I left it on last night and it ran the virus scan. This morning I found that somehow I had acquired 4 "issues" so I hit the "quarantine" button. The computer crashed again. It gave me a lot of troubles starting up again, and eventually I unplugged it to bring it with me to breakfast. At breakfast, after I tried a couple more times, it eventually started up again. I packed it up (without turning it off) and brought it to the classroom so I could check if the "issues" had been dealt with. By the time I got to the classroom, the battery had died and I had to start it up again. It refused; all I got was a message that the start-up or something was corrupted or not there and the computer could not start.

This was a bit of a problem since at the end of each morning class we have time to type up our notes. The professor was very understanding and at note-typing he allowed me to leave to see if IT could do anything. This was about 11:30 (class ends at 12:30). I finally found the computer services building only to learn that they open at 1:00. Yeah. I used my free time to get some paperwork done at the international student office and then check email and such in the library. Lunch was at 12:30 and at 12:55 I was back looking for an IT guy.

He was a very nice guy who listened to me, looked at my computer, and told me that he didn't know how much he could do but he would try. I understood that it was really broken and old and needed to be replaced, but I only needed it to last a few more days! In the end he was able to get past the "I will not start" page (by pressing buttons and making it beep loudly and in different tones). Then he explained that all he could do was reformat my hard drive (I think that's the right term) and that everything would go back to the original settings. Translations: I would lose everything, but I could use the computer again.

Because of the issues I'd been having, I had backed up most of my church and school notes (as well as several other, random files) onto a separate storage device not long before I left for school. Last night I had also emailed myself most of the notes I had taken this week and I knew that I could get the rest from someone, so I told him to go ahead and do it. He checked with me twice, and again when the computer wanted him to confirm that this was the desired action.

I had to get to class before it was done so I came back during our first break (because they close before we finish classes, and I have wonderful professors; when I explained that I had to go to IT for my computer and might be a couple minutes late getting back, the prof was totally okay with it and just talked with the class until I returned). The IT guy was downloading an anti-virus for me (because of course I lost that too) so that I could get wireless access (the system won't let you in without an approved anti-virus).

And now my computer works again. I'm missing some stuff and I had to download Open Office since I lost Windows, but that's fine. The best part is, whatever was slowing down my computer is also gone! Now I no longer have the world's slowest laptop, so I figure I'll just be thankful for that and the IT guy!