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Well, the last twenty four hours have been pure delight. I don’t know what made me do it, but I chose to update my pc with the latest Microsoft security updates. It has been several weeks since I last did it. There were forty nine of them to download. I consciously chose to do it.
Immediately after the download, the keyboard began skipping letters. I type fairly fast and my thoughts became even more gibberish than they normally are. What normally took a few seconds to type now took several minutes because of all the corrections that I had to make. Then there were corrections to make on the corrections.
I spent six hours searching for solutions. Have you ever tryied searching with a skipping keyboard? One solution was to restore the software to a point before this event. I did. The keyboard stopped functioning. After much more fiddling, I got the keys to respond the way they did before. At least they worked sometimes.
I decided to seek serious help. I called Microsoft Support fully intending to pay for the fix. I explained the call to a rather rude service attendent and was told to call Dell because this was a hardware problem. I tried to use some logic with the technician and she cut me off.
My first call to Dell was with their hardware expert. I agreed to the charges and proceeded to diagnose the keyboard problem. It seems obvious now, but all he did was check if the keys functioned while the machine was in safe mode. They did, except when I typed very fast. The technician declared that thie keyboard needed replacement. I presnted my argument that a download of updates from Microsoft surely wouldn’t cause the keyboard to fail. What would the odds be of that coincidence occurring? I argued thaat the updates had most likely corrupted some drivers and caused the problem. He finally admitted that he was only qualified to handle hardware. He asked if I wanted to be transferred to a software tech. I did.
The software guy started by quoting the cost of his services. It would be $70 on top of the $59 dollars I paid for the hardware check. I agreed. It was still a bargain compared to spending untold hours by myself lookiing for the needle in the haystack.
The call began a six hour adventure with a nice young man who worked with me to correct the problem. After he satisfied himself that the keyboard fuctioned well he tried restoring to a previous point with out luck.
The computer had to be reformated to the factory specifications.
The job is not finished yet, because I have to reload data from back-ups. My e-mail address list is gone, yet to be found, and my drive to do anything on the machine is waning.
Woe is me for becomming addicted to this infernal machine.
This too shall pass.
An Apple today keeps Microsoft away.
Filed under: Funk, Motivation, Society | Tagged: Crash, Dell, Hardware, Keyboard instrument, Microsoft, Screwed, Shareware, Updates, Utilities, Wearables, Windows |
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