DayLight, my desktop computer, seems to have died. At first, just the internet connection shut down. So I saved my work, copied it to the USB drive as usual for my end-of-class-induced paranoia, and restarted the machine. The screen remained blank. It does that sometimes, something with the video card I think. Turned it off, cleaned dust off, took the video card out and cleaned it a bit, checked it out but it looked fine, put it back in and reconnected everything. Still a blank screen,. Tried both the HDMI and regular onboard video ports, still nothing.
My only working computer now is the heather lady, and the only files I have are those I safely backed up to the USB drive. No supporting documents, but I can recreate most of those from the bibliography, which thankfully was on the drive.
Fifteen years ago, I could probably have fixed it, I knew how those machines worked and I had plenty of spare parts to swap out. But this third version of DayLight is a "modern" computer, at least as of 4 years ago. I have no idea how it works and I do not understand component compatibility. I have no spare parts.
I can probably finish the projects anyways. I think. May be. I hope... But I can not print it until I get the printer installed onto the Heather lady. Testing that out now, hopefully that will work.
At least the machine's three hard drives are probably fine, the data should be safe enough.
Do NOT like computers. Never have, not even when I had a career intimately involved with them.
I hear you on this one, and I sympathise. About twelve years ago, I had a job pulling apart and maintaining computers for what was supposed to be a training company. Thing is, the branch I worked at at the time insisted on using machines that were years out of date, even when extremely new software was being released. Granted, they were training people mostly in Microsoft Office and related products, but trying to run Windows 2000 on computers that were made in 1997 (or earlier!) turned out to be a nightmare of cosmic proportions. It go so that I would rather consume stimulating drugs than turn up to work.
ReplyDeleteAbout four years ago, I did something I wish I had started doing much sooner and started buying Macs. Yes, I know they are more expensive and are a lot less flexible in terms of replacing hardware. But the funny part is that whilst the hardware is a bit less than high-spec, the operating software is so much cleaner and more efficient that one can do four times as much on half of the hardware. When the computer happens to be new, at least.
Sadly, my desktop Mac decided to die in a similar fashion to what you describe here. It died slowly at first, basically giving errors claiming that things had been disconnected when they had not been. Then one day, it just flat-out refused to boot. So I had the hard drive removed, transferred the personal content to a new one, and have not looked back. Hopefully soon with a bit of new RAM...
I also seriously have more external hard drive space than I do internal. Gee. Wonder why... ;)
PCs and Macs are fairly equal in terms of overall general usage. The only significant difference between the two appears in the programs one requires. Many programs will only run on one and not the other, or was designed for one and ported to the other. The optimal choice will come down to what software the person uses, not the actual specs and capabilities of a Mac vs PC.
ReplyDeleteTo make a suggestion of a Mac or PC requires much more knowledge of that person's usage of the machine than you have of me.