Sunday Post #45: Computer Woes

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The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly over on the Caffeinated Reviewer. (This one is kind of a long story time.)

Well, one thing after another. A little over a week ago now, the external hard drive I was using stopped being recognized by my macbook. I have an external hard drive because this hard drive is freaking intsy-bitsy. So for all my photo and video editing, I have an external hard drive hooked to my macbook while I work because somehow with maybe 10 programs loaded on the macbook, and maybe 20-30 documents, it can’t really hold a photo to edit, and especially not the files involved to edit a video. Alas, the puppy was being needy, so I closed the macbook and set it down with the external hard drive on top. The hard drive slid off the top of the macbook and disconnected from it’s cord and fell on the floor. Something that has happened a few times before. I didn’t think anything of it, except when I went back to the macbook and plugged it back in, it didn’t recognize the external hard drive anymore. It just didn’t see the drive there at all. I tried everything, restarting, shutting down, having it plugged in as it booted up, plugging after it was done booting up. Nothing.

The decision was then between getting a new external hard drive and take the now unrecognized hard drive to a computer store or the Best Buy Geek Squad to retrieve the information – lesson learned, I will back up any external devices on to another device – or do I get a new laptop like I’ve been wanting since this one has storage issues, among other quirks that are just flat out annoying. I had told myself to keep the macbook for at least 5 years before upgrading. I have just over a year left on that 5 year promise, but I’ve already been kind of looking. And I didn’t see the point in getting another external drive formatting it for the macbook when, sorry Apple, I had every intention of going back to a Windows laptop. So, I bought a new laptop.

I went through mypoints.com so I could get something back on the order, and I already knew the computer I wanted. I got a Dell XPS 9750 directly from Dell.com…. It arrived last week, and when I turned it on for the first time, there was a black screen with the Dell logo…and nothing else. Nothing. Okay, the fans were running to cool the hard drive, but nothing was happening with the computer. I decided I would return the laptop and see if I could exchange it, or after returning, I would buy it again.

Long story made short, it came up in conversation with family over and it was suggested I try turning on the laptop again. This time we got somewhere. There was a glitch with our wifi, but a test on Saturday with the laptop at my parents proved our network just needs it’s security updated. So, I have a laptop…I just have to use it on someone else’s wifi, while I wait for my husband to figure out, slash, remember how to get in to the router, and update the networks. I also now need to cancel the return of the laptop with Dell, which after calling yesterday, I learned the unit I need to speak with isn’t available on weekends, and I will need to call back tomorrow.