I live with my computer. When it doesn’t work, I am not a happy person. And when I look in the Dell refurb offerings and find not one or two, but well more than 50 refurbed versions of my computer on offer, I am less happy than that. This indicates to me that a LOT of that particular build are having trouble. They have replaced every part BUT the display where we think the problem actually resides.<\/p>\n
And they will replace it with something related to that build and probably with another camera. This will mean the whole machine is sort of new, in a Frankenstein’s monster sort of way. The same problems are well possible.<\/p>\n
It was due for replacement in one more year. Right now, Dell (since many users feel as I do) is still shipping Win 7 Pro ‘with a license for 8.1.’ This is powerful persuasion. I do NOT want to find out, next year, when that computer has another problem, and is due for replacement, that my only option is 8.1.<\/p>\n
So I am going to retire the ‘broken’ computer when it comes back fixed. It can be a ‘road’ machine, that goes on trips, outside, or wherever, to live until it finally goes belly-up for good and all. Knowing the probably inherent problem with its USBs, I’ll just avoid plugging things into them and it should do well for years.<\/p>\n
But I’m going to bite the bullet a shade early and go ahead and get a replacement with Win 7, figuring it should be able to tide me over until Microsoft Windows 9. [Remember when they swore there would be no more numbers after 5 or so?] I’d like to skip over 8, let them work out the bug they’ve found in their concept…touch-screen computing? The next thing we need is a fingerprint-proof screen. Our iPad always looks like a first grader had used it just after a lunch of finger-food. <\/p>\n
Anyway, I’ll stick to a keyboard, thanks, and hope that this touch-screen fad will go the way of the buggy whip, or that voice rec improves markedly (boy, can you tell the social media entries made with Dragon: its errors have a ‘style’ all their own)—and most of all that the incoming computer will be solid enough to make up for the year-less-life that I’ve gotten from this one and go on for the next half decade. On the one hand a new computer is like a new car—yay!—and on the other hand it’s like being told you have to make an ‘office move’ to another floor—ugh!—in which things aren’t going to fit, the decor is generic, the shelves are loaded with stuff you’ll have to sort and pitch most of just to get your own stuff in—and, oh, by the way—the elevator isn’t working. You have to carry it up the stairs.<\/p>\n
That’s kind of my feeling. I am going to receive a new office, which I will have to furnish and decorate, while I keep up with this book and try not to lose my focus…and oh, by the way, the elevator isn’t working. Deal with it. I do have Carbonite. Yay for that! But the version of Carbonite I have only backs up data, not programs. I’m working on my last backup machine, which is glacially slow in response, compared to the one in the shop, and when the sick machine comes back, I’ll restore all its data files from the cloud and get it working. THEN the ‘new office’ arrives and I’m going to continue to work on the repaired machine while doing my ‘office move’ in bits and pieces. I am really, really hoping they didn’t have to wipe the repaired machine’s hard disk in this fix—because if they did, I will have to do massive software reinstall on that just to get the files updated on Carbonite (this machine I’m using now doesn’t have the Carbonite backup license) so I can install the same programs to bring up a new machine and invoke Carbonite to shift the data over to the new digs. I get a headache even thinking about it.<\/p>\n
Did I mention I explicitly ordered NO camera or microphone in the new one?<\/p>\n
Happy, yes. The bullets I dodged in this shift are several: I haven’t lost anything but one important but I think I remember it sort of paragraph, and I’m still working despite the craziness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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