On the last day till Christmas Eve,
My colleague gave to me…
A Christmas ornament and holiday cheer,
With thanks and joy throughout the year.

So ends another countdown year,
I hope we’ve found the Christmas Cheer.
For Santa visits only those who were nice,
His sleigh dashing through snow and ice.
So with these words I bid farewell,
And have but one thing left to tell…

A very Marry Christmas to you,
And a Happy New Year Too.

On my countdown to Christmas Eve,
my colleague gave to me…
Two Christmas balls,
For decking your Christmas halls.

On my countdown to Christmas Eve,
My colleague gave to me…
Three sparkling stars,
Their twinkle reaches far…

On my countdown to Christmas Eve,
My colleague gave to me…
Four Christmas drums,
For all your Christmas hums…

So I log onto my desktop tonight… and of course, why would one computer work when the other one doesn’t…
I had a virus, well I had 21 viruses that I THINK I’ve gotten rid of. Time will tell. The scan comes out clean now but who knows if it’s just not in a creative hiding spot. So I’ve spent about an hour and a half trying to get the shit off of the computer. You know I’m someone who knows quite a bit about machines, but either I’m too hard on them or I have probably the worst luck in the world with them.

So anyway I’ve got the laptop at my parents the tech never came today and my desktop seems to be working, but I’ve downloaded google chrome for browsing instead of IE.

On my countdown till Christmas Eve,
my colleague gave to me…
Five red & green tacks,
no rewraps or give backs…

So I do have a story to post that’s in regards to my laptop computer. I’m at my parents for the weekend, I arrived on Friday night. This, by the way, is why you are seeing back dated entries for the countdown to Christmas. At least the story is the reason.

Friday night I sit down on my parents new couch, they had an addition built on the back of the house, and this thing remarkably went up in under 30days. It was absolutely amazing to see it happen. From start to finish they had this back room built, wired, painted and decorated in less than a month. So they have a new couch, and I’m sprawled out on it, bringing my laptop up onto my lap I press the power button and watch the bios slowly loading away. Then it goes over to the windows loading screen and I watch the small bar as it slowly runs along the bottom of the screen not really going anywhere quickly.

Of course as I enjoy watching this (not really) I’m also watching television with my dad and talking casually about the things we need to do. By around nine pm after an hour of waiting for the laptop to boot, I give up, close it down and put it aside to be frustrated with it for another night. I load up my dad’s laptop, spread out and talk to my friends for the night.

Saturday I watched a bit of the hockey game while talking to my dad and eating my dinner. Then I decide that I’m going to make another attempt at getting the computer running and I start it up only to watch the blue screen take over and the computer immediately shut down afterwards. This laptop and I have such fond memories of each other. We’ve spent countless hours arguing with each other. It says it doesn’t want to work, and I demand it work better. I started out with a Dell Latitude XT, which is a tablet computer. I enjoyed this computer for all of five minutes before the initial start up crashed and burned leaving me cursing the machine and on my first, of many, nights calling technical support for Dell. Now while the machine was a piece of junk, I will pause for a moment to say that the technical support though following a script of repetitive steps that I’ve already taken countless times, was pleasant to talk to and knowledgeable. Though I did get the occasional dimwitted technician who thought my feminine voice meant that I knew nothing of the piece of hardware in front of me, for the most part I dealt with good humored english speaking individuals who did not leave me going “WTF” – Except the latest call but I’ll get to that. Anyway, the first computer, the Latitude XT had the motherboard replaced right out of the box. Always a pleasant experience, of course. A few weeks and my Tablet experience is gone out the window as the pen no longer responds on the screen and goes erradically all over the place. Despite my insistance the issue is the pen. I’m updating firmware, software, bios, and everything under the sun till finally the tech tells me he’s replacing the monitor, keyboard and memory. What the memory had to do with it, who knows, but it’s the next step. I get a couple of weeks before I’m once again dealing with the pen not responding or moving all over the screen. So back to technical support. Another argument and finally they agree to replace the pen. Miracle! It works! I work with the tablet for a total of six months loving the ability to touch and draw on the screen. Ready to change my opinion on the out of the box mishaps before once again I’m cursing the machine. The computer is crashing, overheating and making funny noises, I’m barely able to start it up and yet countless hardware tests suggest nothing is wrong… until finally it’s seen… The motherboard once again is fried.

Technical support should know my voice by now in my opinion but by this point I’m six months into having the machine and I want them to take it back. No, I want them to give me my money back and let me chuck the machine off of the CN Tower. Since that’s not an option I begin the argument for a new machine and as I expected I’m in for a battle. I start with supervisors, moving on to managers and customer service. After a few weeks of arguments I move on to the Better Business Bureau – Now there’s a place where you can get something done. Two posts later my computer is being replaced. Not only is it being replaced, it’s being replaced with the new XT2 I’m excited!

Thrilled in fact! I get the machine, I get it out of the box and it works like a dream. I go two years before the first symptoms start to appear. Now when the computer is replaced I was told the warranty on the machine would transfer over. I was told that I would in fact have a warranty on the computer that would protect me from future problems, because we both know by now they are coming. I went online to check for that warranty and low and behold it’s not there. So I start my own types of repairs. I don’t touch the hardware but I tweak the software and buy myself another month or two before finally I call technical support. Geared up for the battle, I get my lungs all ready to yell only to have probably the nicest tech I’ve ever spoken to who tracks my customer history and fixes everything right up for me. So what was the problem with the computer? If you guessed motherboard you’re right. I get the motherboard, fan and memory replaced (btw I’ve already replaced the pen once out of my own pocket simply because I didn’t want to deal with Tech support – the pen they argue isn’t covered). So I pray that I’m done with my problems, the computer is a few years old – and the warranty was probably the best money I’ve ever spent. Of course, I’m six months when I notice a new problem, windows isn’t starting. Windows is crashing before it can get to well… windows. So I thought it’s software, I reinstall windows… no deal. Still won’t load, in fact start up repair, last known good configuration and everything else is just leading me to more headaches than it’s really worth. I can’t even get into safe mode so I make the call to technical support.

Which leads us back to Saturday night. I make the call and get a woman whose name I can barely remember and who I can barely understand on the phone. First she tells me if it’s not hardware I’m not covered. They should really define “Complete Care” better because the care is not “Complete” unless it’s covering the software, but that’s a rant for another time. I know the issue is not software, so it’s one of two things, my harddrive, or my motherboard. Given that I replaced the motherboard at the beginning of the summer, I’m banking on the harddrive. So barely understanding her as I am, I run the Dell Diagnostics only to see exactly what I expected to see. “ERROR”. Though I must admit the message was direct and too the point. “Can’t read. Replace Disk.” Of course, despite the initial failure which I think even the tech (Again I can barely understand the woman) saw coming, I have to run the detailed tests. As the error pops up repeatedly on the detail test, she tells me she’s replacing my hard drive.

So now at this point I’d like to say I have a plastic case that is housing a brand new computer… the case has seen better days but my warranty up in March may need to be extended. Because gosh knows the motherboard has a six month life expentancy and the rest of the machine might as well be made out of paperclips and pop cans.

Ps.

On my countdown to Christmas Eve,
My colleague gave to me…
Six decorative Gifts,
To help your spirits lift!

On my countdown till Christmas Eve
My Colleague gave to me…

7 Christmas Acorns
For your home to adorn…

On my countdown till Christmas Eve,
my colleague gave to me…
Eight Jingle Bells,
Ringing to wish you well…

On my countdown till Christmas Eve,
My colleague gave to me…
9 Candy Cane Kisses
For All your Holiday Wishes!

On my countdown till Christmas Eve,
My colleague gave to me…
10 Paperclips,
Not your average Christmas gift…