piasharn | The Joys of Technology

So I was on the Internet the other night, checking for updates and looking for interesting things to read, when the computer freezes up on me. Not a big deal. It happens every once in a while. So I wait... nothing. I try ESC and ALT + CTRL + DEL... nothing. Ah, screw it... I hit the power button, then, after giving it a moment, turn it back on.

"Operating System not found."

Oh, shit, this can't be good.

Just to be sure, I rebooted to see if that would fix the problem. Nope, OS still can't be found. Bugger it all. After much swearing and crawling around behind and underneath my desk, I manage to unplug everything without strangling myself on the tangle of cords, haul the tower out into my room, and pull open the case. Other than being rather dusty (Well, I've had the sucker for over five years now, and I've never had to open it up.) everything looked in place. I made sure that all the various cards and plugs were fully seated in their sockets. I also took a deep breath and did my best to blow out the worst of the dust... right back into my face, resulting in a rather spectacular fit of coughing and choking.

The tower got hauled back over to the desk, the tangle of cables sorted out and plugged back into their appropriate slots, and, holding my breath and knocking on wood, I hit the power button once more.

Oh, happy day, it worked!

Skip forward to a few hours ago. I'm busy backing up some of my files onto CDs, just to be on the safe side. Without warning, everything freezes again. Once again, ALT + CTRL + DEL does nothing, so, with a horrible feeling of déjà vu, I once again hit the power button.

Oh, no, please don't tell me you're doing this again, please say that...

Shit. You are doing this to me again.

More swearing, unplugging, and fiddling with internal components ensues. Only this time, my efforts were wasted. The bugger still could not find the OS. Resigned, I hauled it in to town where a friend of my dad has a computer business. To my dismay, he discovered that it was a virus. Despite running anti-virus software on a regular basis, several of the suckers had found their way in. (Apparently, the first thing they did was fuck with the anti-virus program so that they wouldn't be identified. Sneaky bastards.) Windows will have to be reloaded, and I'll lose everything that was saved on my harddrive.

Well, it could be worse. Although it's going to be a bitch to replace my bookmarks and whatnot. (The mp3s and images are pretty much lost for good. With my dial-up, it would take me years to replace the music files, and most of the sites that I got my reference pictures from have since gone down.)

Anyhow, I hope that everyone else has been having as much fun in their daily routine as I am.