Today's run/walk: nada. Rest day.
Mileage last week: 23.9mi
So. Technology is how I make a living. It can also be the bane of my existence. Let's take the last 24 hours, for example.
The ancient Dell PC was really slow to react. I tried to download some photos, but it didn't recognize the camera connection. So what did I do? The same thing I'd recommend to someone at work - reboot it. So I did. And stared at a black screen for about 30 minutes. Great.
Next: do a hard restart. I get the initial boot-up screen, then... nothing. I try the last-known-good-configuration option. Apparently not so good a configuration - it freezes up again.
Per Paul's advice. I boot up in safe mode. It doesn't get beyond a screen of initializations before freezing again. So, I unplug the printer and external hard drive, and try safe mode again. This time it comes to life. We reboot one more time, normally... and it's back.
Turns out my Maxtor external drive - that which backs up my life - has ceased to play well with others. And, it's making an odd ticking sound. That's never good. At lunch today, I went to Best Buy to try to get a new backup device. I still haven't gotten to where I can transition everything to the MacBook Pro, so the PC needs to limp along a little longer.
Tonight starts the great peripheral adventure. The tower has five USB ports on it. With the first two I tried, it didn't even recognize that a new device was attached. On the third, I get an unknown device warning - and when I attempted to find drivers, it found none. Dammit.
I switch the cordless mouse controller to a different port, and try the new hard drive in that one... finally! Hey, yes, I did know that I had a new device. ::facepalm::
So, now a backup is running. LOL - 1159 files, done, 5821 pending. I got the printer working again. (Apparently I unplugged something there, too.) And - I ordered a new PC. Sure, I have the MacBook. But... some habits are hard to break. Not to mention that Paint Shop Pro doesn't come in a Mac version. But, that's another story.
I think we are technology twins. I've been having the black screen for the last few days. I'm making the switch from my poor elderly Dell to a MacBook Pro. Hoping the Dell will limp along for a bit, but it isn't looking good. My husband's Dell is having its own end of life issues as well.
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