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jamesqBeing a computer nerd, I'm often asked to do tech support for the less technically proficient. Like ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
stephtopia's mom M.
M has an ancient computer that she'd been using to access the Internet. Her sister (stephtopia's aunt) B had bought her a refurbished IBM Thinkpad. The former was very slow and the latter wasn't booting up at all. And so I set to work on getting them up and running.
The Thinkpad just needed some BIOS settings set correctly and it booted up just fine. Then I had to talk to the local Internet provider to get it talking. There were some cable difficulties (solved), The connection needed to be set up (also solved) and finally, the long slog of getting the system up to date and not vulnerable to viruses.
I was loading Firefox when it shit the bed. The power cut out and it started making alarming beeping noises. After a reboot it seemed to work - for about five minutes, then it did it again with the addition of vertical rainbow stripes on the monitor. This usually means a main-board failure (though sometimes it's just faulty memory - given that the single USB port also didn't work, I suspect it's not the memory). This certain sucks for M and B. I, on the other hand, silently did a mental "Woo Hoo!" (with fist pump) when I realised I didn't have to work on this POS any more (it was a Pentium III/800 laptop that B had bought for way more then it was worth).
Of course, the other computer (a ten year-old desktop) was even worse, but had the advantage that it at least worked. However, running Win2K with 256MB of RAM means anything is going to be slow going.
I've offered to take them computer shopping tomorrow. I imagine any computer sold by Futureshop or Costco willmeat meet M's needs. A netbook would meet her needs, except that her eyesight isn't the best.
stephtopia's mom M.M has an ancient computer that she'd been using to access the Internet. Her sister (
stephtopia's aunt) B had bought her a refurbished IBM Thinkpad. The former was very slow and the latter wasn't booting up at all. And so I set to work on getting them up and running.The Thinkpad just needed some BIOS settings set correctly and it booted up just fine. Then I had to talk to the local Internet provider to get it talking. There were some cable difficulties (solved), The connection needed to be set up (also solved) and finally, the long slog of getting the system up to date and not vulnerable to viruses.
I was loading Firefox when it shit the bed. The power cut out and it started making alarming beeping noises. After a reboot it seemed to work - for about five minutes, then it did it again with the addition of vertical rainbow stripes on the monitor. This usually means a main-board failure (though sometimes it's just faulty memory - given that the single USB port also didn't work, I suspect it's not the memory). This certain sucks for M and B. I, on the other hand, silently did a mental "Woo Hoo!" (with fist pump) when I realised I didn't have to work on this POS any more (it was a Pentium III/800 laptop that B had bought for way more then it was worth).
Of course, the other computer (a ten year-old desktop) was even worse, but had the advantage that it at least worked. However, running Win2K with 256MB of RAM means anything is going to be slow going.
I've offered to take them computer shopping tomorrow. I imagine any computer sold by Futureshop or Costco will
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-25 04:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-27 03:23 am (UTC)You said "meat". *giggle, snicker*