Posts Tagged ‘computer troubleshooting’

Windows XP SP3 woes

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

What an ordeal it has been. When it rains it really pours, I guess. I had set my PC on Windows auto update and got this reminder that it was downloading the SP3 update. Of course, I thought it was just like those usual updates until a few minutes later. It had finished installing the update and  just like a little girl scout, I followed the prompt to restart. At first, I kinda noticed that it wasn’t booting properly so I restarted several times until it finally got through. Then things started slowing down. After a few minutes I got another notice that it had downloaded a subsequent update and had to restart again. So I clicked that little button that said “restart now” and BAM! On the restart, the screen just went blank and wouldn’t budge from there. Talk about major bummer! I had just installed a trial version of Trend Micro and was trying to find out if I had a nasty little virus that wouldn’t go away and it all went kaput! I don’t mind losing everything else except for family pictures and scrapbook layouts. The rest can all hang for all I care but to for it to happen all over again is not funny at all.  Good thing hubby just finished a certification course on CPR as my stress level had hit the roof that would not even register on a pulse oximeter. Well, just in case, waaah!

Imagine if you only had one computer at home and no way of knowing how to troubleshoot your PC or not even having a back up system for all your data files. Que horror! Good thing that I had backed up all that mattered –  a painful lesson I learned one laptop ago that cost me my kids’ pics when they were still young. Having been down that road before, the hubby and I just decided to reinstall the OS again. I am not a true blue computer geek as this is not what I was trained for but I have been forced to be one out of necessity. Crash course, literally. 

Lesson learned, turn off automatic updates and manually check each update before you decide to install it. Next, always back up your files on an EHD or burn it or save immediately onto a disc. Better “saved”  than sorry.

But every cloud has a silver lining and although this has been one major extended headache that’s been going on for a few days now, I discovered a neat little store that has become my favorite already. Hubby brought me to HMR Envirocycle Surplus shop here in Sta. Rosa and it had all these “garage” sale finds like laptops, desktops, tech gadgets etc. where we were able to buy an LCD Monitor and a 40gig laptop at half the price of what it costs in the regular store. Plus of all things to find, I found a Raspberry Polka Dot AMM Tote-ally Cool Tote with matching Mini-Tote sitting all lonely by itself waiting to be brought home and loved by me! lol Almost $40.00 worth altogether that I got for just P900 pesos. How cool is that?  Who says shopping isn’t therapeutic? huh?

So, if you guys were wondering where I’ve been, that’s the story. Now I have to go back to tweaking my PC and I’ll catch you all later. Let’s all have a great week, y’all!

Ciao!