Truth or Lies [You never can tell]

I was reading another blog that contained a debunked story that had previously circulated as an email joke. It seems a person could not get Word Perfect to work. The problem was traced to no power in the room. The help desk person told the user to return the computer because they were too stupid to have one.

That story hit home. I had an experience so similar it could have been the true story behind the emailed lie.

I was second level support when I received the call.

"My computer screen is blank" was the exasperated plea.

I tried all of the usually troubleshooting plans. I was stumped.

"I've tried everything I can think of. Before I can get anyone else to look at this, I will need the model number of your computer. You will find it on a small tag next to the power connector on the back of the PC."

"I can't do that."

"Why?"

"The lights went out about an hour ago and I cannot see behind the computer."

I did not yell. I did not call the person stupid. I did count to 10 -- maybe, twice. I am sure I let out an audible sigh.

"OK. When the lights come on again, please call us if you are still having problems."

We did not get a follow-up call.

I have told many people about that incident. I wonder how many of the other incidents reported on line are really mine in disguise.

They were here all along.

My photos have been found! Vista had saved them. I found them in the folder windows.old on my C: drive. They were not in the most intuitive place, but they were there.

For those of you that reinstall Vista without formatting the hard drive first note that Vista will save your Documents folder and your Pictures folder under the windows.old folder. It saves a lot of other stuff too, but these I think are the most valuable. If you try to recover some of the other files, I think you will do more harm than good.

Also, be aware that if you are low on disc space before you re-install Vista, you may run out of it because of this back up. I do not know how the re-install will react if you are low on space. I had a brand new huge disc space so I had no problem. I am planning on backing up the windows.old folder and removing it from my PC. That will streamline my full backup somewhat.

Computers - A Tale and MiscellaneousThoughts

After nearly seven years, I finally bought a new computer. I had a company build it for me. For the most part, I am happy with it, but the smaller part can drive you crazy.

When I returned from vacation in July, I found my password had expired. I did not have a password, but it had expired. Vista asked me to change it. I tried to change it. Vista would not let me change it. Vista said it could not connect to my domain controller. I did not have a domain controller. This is a standalone installation.

After much pushing, shoving, and head pounding, I re-installed Vista. Before the re-install I used the maintenance connection to back up my data. Well, I thought I had backed up my data, but I cannot find the DVD with all my photos.

I have now recovered to April 13 of this year. I think I will be able to recover up to June 1. Only time will tell. I tried to copy the photos from my old PC. I must have broken the heart of my old PC when I bought the new one. The old one will not load Windows. It crashes to boot up.

That is enough about this problem. I am ready to move on to bigger and better problems. See you later. As my college roommate would always say, "Thanks for stopping."

When you step into the water ...

your feet do get wet.

This is my first step into blogging. Now, I have written musings on web pages, but this is show how different. With a blog, you are actually expected to say something. Not all blogs manage to live up to expectation. However, this fact does not diminish the expectation.

I will ramble on from time to time - talking about ... Well, talking about my grandchildren. Talking about computers. Talking about this crazy world.

That about sums up Ravings of a Mad Granddad. There will be many many other topics. At least, I plan for many many other topics. Even so, most will fall into those three areas.

The ravings about my grandchildren will sound a lot different than my ravings about computers and this crazy world. I guess I love all three, but definitely not in the same way or to the same degree. Grandchildren are always number one. The world? Dead last. Computers - don't you just love em. Like really?