As I sat at my computer to begin working, I noticed something funny: It was dead.
There is no humor in death, of course. Well, not right away. Death can be mighty funny after the fact, downright hilarious at times.
No, when tragedy strikes your PC, the best thing to do is deal with it and then laugh later. That’s why when I originally wrote the Undeleting a File chapter in DOS For Dummies, I got right down to business first, then joked about it after addressing the fix.
My PC was off, which is unusual because I leave it on all the time. So I tried turning it on. The Windows Recovery text screen appeared. I chose “Normal Startup,” figuring that who-knows-what turned the PC off. Windows never came up; the PC turned itself off again.
I tried turning the PC on a few more times. Nothing. It just wouldn’t start.
At this point I could have panicked. The PC in question is my writing computer. All I do is run Word on that computer and write my books. As I’m in the middle of a big project, my writing PC is important to me. Still, I had just turned in a chunk of stuff, so it wasn’t like I lost everything.
Further, I backup my computer. Daily. I knew that the external hard drive held everything I’d written all week (providing the system didn’t die before 1:00 AM when the automatic backup happens). So I wasn’t panicked, but I was curious.
I phoned tech support.
The PC is a Lenovo. I’ve been buying IBM/Lenovo computers for decades. One of the main reasons I do is that their support is excellent. I’ve had dead computers fixed literally on my kitchen table the day after they died. And I live in the remote wilderness of Idaho.
It turns out that the motherboard on my Lenovo ThinkCentre PC is known to have issues. I merely had to read the serial number to the tech support lady (who was in Atlanta). She immediately told me that my motherboard needs to be replaced and that a tech would be phoning me tomorrow (which is today, Friday).
My dead PC could be fixed Friday or, more likely, it will be fixed next week. Until then, I’m using my laptop as my desktop computer. Yes, the same doggy slow laptop I wrote about earlier this week.
The laptop is now connected to the desktop PC’s monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Further, I attached the desktop PC’s external backup hard drive. After some minor configuration, I was able to restore everything I’d written this past week, up until last night before I went to bed. So I’m happy, and I can continue to work.
What are the lessons of this story? Only one: Backup your stuff! External hard drives are so dang inexpensive that it’s just silly not to use one for backup. I mean it! Backup your stuff! You’ll thank me someday.
‘Empathy’ is a word I seldom use, Dan but, while reading your account here, it was the first emotion that came to mind. Heck, maybe it’s the very first chance I ever got to use it but in your case I’m putting that feeling to good use. I also suffered the same fate a time or two. Thankfully, my present desktop is working fine but I’m only too aware that it could decide sometime in future that it has suffered enough abuse at my hands, or maybe my fingers.
Anyway, after reading about your experience, I went out and bought an external hard drive and then copied the contents of the hard drive over to the newcomer. It took six hours using a USB connection, but I think I made a prudent investment. The new drive cost me €80, which is about $110 in your money and I know it would cost at least that much to get a technician to recover the hard disk’s contents if the worst should come to the worst.
I had considered doing what you suggested some months back and installing a second hard drive and then cloning it from the first one but I held back from doing this because it would be very easy to screw things up. I’m happy that I have taken positive steps to cope with any disaster that most likely will happen sometime and if it does, it won’t be the first time.
Another thing you mentioned interests me; you say that you use a desktop’s monitor when working on your laptop. I have a laptop and it’s monitor have packed it in. Maybe if I connected it to my desktop, I could manage to salvage the contents. How does one go about doing this?
Until I read your blog, I thought all was lost.
I’d be very grateful if you couls tell me.
As always, Dan, since I first read ‘Dos for Dummies,’ I have enjoyed both your writing style and the subjects you write about.
Keep up the good work and as we say in Ireland,; “Beir bua.” Loosely translated, that means something like may you be successful in whatever you undertake.
Comment by fehenry — June 20, 2009 @ 6:38 pm
Thanks.
Regarding the laptop: As long as you have a way to activate the external monitor signal, it will work. On my laptop, I press Fn+7 to give me a menu of external monitor options. I just told the laptop to use the external monitor exclusively, also to ensure that the laptop “does nothing” when I close the lid.
The tech guy did not call on Friday. I got mixed signals. First I heard from the phone rep that my motherboard was backordered. Then I heard that the part was in stock and to expect the tech guy Friday. Nothing. Now I wait until Monday, but the laptop setup is working nicely.
Comment by admin — June 20, 2009 @ 6:57 pm
Thanks to your advice I have been in the habit of backing up regularly.
A few years back my PC wouldn’t start and I discovered that the intake vent was clogged and the motherboard had fried and died.
I was able to get some hands on experience with the replace/rebuild.
Something I learned is that if there is a problem detected with the cooling fan for the CPU the system will shut down to protect the processor.
If I remember correctly, you mentioned building a PC.
You may find a better explanation in the manuals for it’s MB and other parts.
You did keep the manuals, didn’t you?
Comment by towwad — June 21, 2009 @ 11:09 am
Yeah, I have all my manuals, but these days they’re next to useless. I remember the days when manuals actually had pin-outs and schematics . . .
The inside of my ThinkCentre looked fine, no dust or clogged vents. My son’s PC was having problems restarting recently. I took an old Radio Shack cooling fan I had and installed it myself inside his console. I bolted it to the back vents where there was a spot for an extra cooling fan. That still didn’t prevent the crashes, so I figured that the cause was something else. Then I upgraded his RAM from 1GB to 4GB (the max for his system). The thing flies now, especially because it’s a Windows XP box. He’s very happy. 🙂
Comment by admin — June 21, 2009 @ 11:18 am
My little P3 450 zips along fine… running Windows NT 4.0 😀 I do have XP on another hard drive for it, though.
On the note of dead motherboards, we had a Dell sort of die on us at school (Dead computer scores: HP: 3 dead, Dell: 1 dead): it seemed every time I tried to use it, it looked like it was asleep and wouldn’t wake up, so I’d restart it, to no effect. Every time I reported it to IT, they were able to get it working… until it finally decided that it was dead, and wouldn’t turn on properly for the IT staff. Dubbed Mr. Dodgy, he was taken away, and within three days, a Dell techie had come to the school, and given Mr. Dodgy the new motherboard and PSU he wanted.
Dell Support in Australia is, by far, some of the best I have ever used. I’m looking at buying a Lenovo Thinkpad myself in a month or so (once I get my tax return done), and I hope that their support is as good over here as it is over in your neck of the woods, Dan.
Comment by Douglas — June 22, 2009 @ 3:33 am