I …. Hate …. Computers

Hate.

Loathe.

Despise.

I did a clean install from the factory disks. Did the system upgrades from the official site. And KEY COMMANDS don’t work.

I refuse to be relegated to using the mouse, the whole mouse, and nothing but the mouse, so help me God. So I’m backing everything up (This time I did a nice little file for my serial numbers, many of which I had to track down in e-mails last time).

And then I’m going to do a do-over. One more brain-wipe/reinstall, followed by testing every step of the way to see where key commands die.

And then a third reinstall that doesn’t include whichever system update it was that screwed things up.

My day. My next few days, actually, because after I do that, I have to hand-reinstall all my e-mail accounts (again), and my software (again).

Folks who are waiting on crits and WB workshops … I have them about ready. I apologize for the delay — we’ll add the extra time onto the end of your courses.

Everyone else … wish me luck. I’m going back in.

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By Holly

Novelist, writing teacher, on a mission to reprint my out-of-print books and indie-publish my new ones.

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shay
17 years ago

hope it works out for u, i know the strain of reinstalls, and after having to reformat c drives it takes all you can do to stop yourself from yelling at the thing to work right.

-Sally
http://www.greatestjournal.com/users/fantasy_writer

arrvee
17 years ago

Ah, the agony and ecstasy of life with computers. When, exactly, does the ecstasy part start?

Glad you survived. Glad your computer survived. Mine would be a pile of smoldering circuit board pieces by now.

acoupland
acoupland
17 years ago

Glad I could help 🙂

Alison

acoupland
acoupland
17 years ago

When you changed your imput language to Dvorak, did you set it to Dvorak-QWETRY or just Dvorak. If you set it to the first, when you pust the openapple key, the keystrokes are the same as QWERTY, if it’s just Dvorak, then I had a very hard time getting my keystrokes to work as I thought they should. It’s something to check.

michellerowen
17 years ago

What OS are you running? Half my time I spend solving other people’s Mac problems here at work. When I started, I used to be known as the “slayer of macs” since I broke everything I touched, but have since evolved into a woman with a magic touch at figuring out tech problems. Any problem I can’t figure out, I can usually find the answer in http://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa

acoupland
acoupland
17 years ago

Holly–

I feel your pain. I run Macs, too, and I’d be pissed as hell if this happened to me.

My only thought is for you to take the whole mess to an Apple Store and possibly reserve some time at the Apple Smart Desk. The geeks there have seen it all, and the cost is less than paying a tech to re-install it or buying a totally new OS.

*crossing my fingers*

Alison

BJSteeves
BJSteeves
17 years ago

Holly, I’m sorry to hear about your computer woes. In a way, it’s too bad that you are not running Linux or Windows, because I could then help you, since that is what I do for a living. However, Mac’s are a breed which I have no experience.

I hope that the computer gods are kinder to you this time around.

klharrds21
klharrds21
17 years ago

Looks like you might end up with that new machine before all the testing is done afterall.

Angelique
Angelique
17 years ago

Computers can definitely be the bane of your existence. I switched from Dell to Apple about a year ago because Windows was driving me up a Wall (lol, couldn’t help myself there) I thankfully haven’t had to do any revamping yet. Will keep your issues in mind for when I do. Good luck!

Tech
17 years ago

Bummer. Sorry to hear it.

Steph
17 years ago

I’m not Macintosh/Apple savvy, but pretty much every time a tech problem confounds me my first stop is http://groups.google.com/

I don’t know if it’ll help, but maybe you can google up something?

Best of luck. I really ought to do the same with my home machine, but between losing a week’s worth of working time due to install headaches and just living with the problems, I choose the latter for now. :

Tech
17 years ago

I hope you took plenty of supplies and that you don’t run afoul of any hostile natives as you trek into the computer wilds. If we don’t see you again, please know that we will remember you and honor your memory … 🙂

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