Of Sick Laptops

My laptop, she is not well. Seems that sometime last week, it decided that .exe's don't exist. Yet when I went to repair my file types, Windows told me that I did in fact have the missing .exe, even though though it was not visible in the file type listing. Maybe it was shy?

I know my limitations. I can do some serious damage because I *think* I know enough, but when it comes to expensive computer equipment, I stop myself before I have a hard drive crash. That would be bad and I don't want to lose all the stuff that's on this one.

Meanwhile, there is a conundrum, because the .exe is needed to pull everything I need OFF this machine before repairing it. None of the programs will launch without the 'execute' telling it "Hey, you're needed on deck. Hop to it!" The only reason why I can access the web and word is because I'd left an HTML page and a word document on my desktop. Otherwise, I'd be looking at my HP doorstop.

Last night, Ed and I were talking about the machine. He asked the last time I'd done maintenance to the machine. "When I got the replacement hard drive." Here I was thinking that was two years ago, but no, it was THREE years ago. I've had the machine for four years.

It's still quite serviceable, but it has its issues. I deal with the quirks, like the keys that have popped off and/or stuck so many times. If anyone else used it, they'd wonder why the F, T, and C didn't work. I've worn of the letter N, because I have a habit of leaving my index finger there and not the J. I type a lot more N's, you see. The fan blows constantly and the battery can only support five minutes of use.

Yes, I need a new laptop, but they aren't cheap. Heck, I don't know how I'm going to pay my bills each month, I can't consider it. For now, we've got to do the equivalent of open heart surgery on this one. I'm charged with pulling everything I must have off of this machine in to one folder and then Ed will work his magic on the hard drive. It might actually force me to clear out crap I haven't used in forever, but won't dump because I don't know where the program disk is or I think it may be needed someday.

Earlier today, Ed and I ran some errands and one was to fax off one of Gameboy's prescriptions. Yes, I have an all in one fax machine at home, but I can't see the point of paying for a landline for the occasional fax. Off to Staples we went.

After completing my fax (and mercifully dodging the pervy former coworker in the process, too), he humored me and we looked at laptops. Four years ago, Staples actually had the best price around for the one now in front of me, and it didn't require signing up to MSN or AOL to get a rebate, either.

What once cost $950 can be had for under $500, and that now includes a DVD burner, twice as much RAM and 4 times the hard drive space. That's the nature of computers, hell, my stock line to those I sold computers or software to was "Next week, it'll be bigger, better, faster AND cheaper," so it doesn't bother me that a better machine costs half what this one did. Rather, it makes me wish I had the money for a new one.

A few doors down, Circuit City is going out of business, so we decided to take a look there, too The long and the short of it is that even with the 10 percent discount they're currently offering, they still sell the same products for 30% over what can be purchased at Staples. In the interests of full disclosure, this is the fourth time ever that I'd set foot in a Circuit City, but it seems that things are exactly the same.

I still need to pull stuff off this hard drive, but I've got visions of bigger, better, faster and cheaper in my head.

Comments

Mike Golch said…
the real reason for the "sale" is that the prices were jacked up slightly and the 10% was taken off the inflated price.and yes the same product can be found elsewhere at a cheapre price.
Jientje said…
I hope it can be fixed?
Kristy K said…
Do yourself a favor and wait until the new Windows 7 is on all the new laptops. I have Vista and HATE it!!

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