Holly Lisle: Writer

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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17 responses to “I …. Hate …. Computers”

  1. shay Avatar
    shay

    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

    Reply
  2. Holly Avatar
    Holly

    Smoldering circuit board pieces. Yes. The temptation was strong, believe me.

    Reply
  3. arrvee Avatar
    arrvee

    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.

    Reply
  4. acoupland Avatar
    acoupland

    Glad I could help 🙂

    Alison

    Reply
  5. Holly Avatar
    Holly

    And by going into the International menu and disabling QWERTY, my key commands work. [cheering wildly]

    Reply
  6. Holly Avatar
    Holly

    Good god. That was it.

    Now I have to … what? Change my default language to just Dvorak?

    Man. I did not have this problem with my setup before.

    But at least I have a direction now.

    Thanks a million.

    Reply
  7. acoupland Avatar
    acoupland

    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.

    Reply
  8. Holly Avatar
    Holly

    I’m running 10.2.8 on a 700 MHz G4 snowball iMac. Which means that I’m about two systems and about two major OS upgrades behind the times.

    It’s a nice machine, and I’m attached to it. I like the design, and there aren’t any more like this. (I hate the new iMac design — no swivel neck, no adjustable screen height.)

    But this far down the line, the people who used to be 10.2.8 gurus have moved on, and asking for help online gets nothing back but a deafening silence.

    And the nearest Mac store is almost exactly 250 miles away.

    Have had no luck, so I started in on crits and worldbuilding again. Got one crit out, am working on a second, and have one worldbuilding workshop that will come after that, and then a crit worldbuilding workshop. (Doing them in the order in which they came in.) I have a lot of the work done, and it’s fun to do, and it doesn’t make me crazy.

    I’ll go back through and work on the computer some more when I’ve managed to restore my equinamity.

    Reply
  9. michellerowen Avatar
    michellerowen

    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

    Reply
  10. acoupland Avatar
    acoupland

    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

    Reply
  11. BJSteeves Avatar
    BJSteeves

    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.

    Reply
  12. klharrds21 Avatar
    klharrds21

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

    Reply
  13. Angelique Avatar
    Angelique

    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!

    Reply
  14. Tech Avatar
    Tech

    Bummer. Sorry to hear it.

    Reply
  15. Steph Avatar
    Steph

    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. :

    Reply
  16. Holly Avatar
    Holly

    No dice. Did a partial install, which would have saved my software and settings. Keyboard commands didn’t work. Did a full reinstall with brain-wipe of the hard drive.

    And keyboard commands didn’t work. The problem, therefore, is with the factory-sealed disks, which up until now I’ve never had to use, or even open. And since I’m two full upgrades behind, I can kiss goodbye any chance of Apple being willing to fix this issue.

    Which means that I’m now stuck with a computer that will never again work the way I work.

    I fucking HATE computers.

    Reply
  17. Tech Avatar
    Tech

    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 … 🙂

    Reply

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