I killed another laptop

My new laptop is back in the shop. It died while we were traveling in California. Guess it didn't like the trip.

The problem seems to be that the model has a "flex" problem. Sometimes the mainboard doesn't make contact with the other components of the machine. This prevented it from powering up. The repair shop said that they had seen it before. Also, HP wouldn't send out a new mainboard. They had to package up the machine and send it in. It will come back with the hard drive wiped clean.

Once again Acronis True Image has saved the day. I really didn't intend to put it to such a rigorous test this year.

The Toshiba that was fixed last year is working full-time while the HP is away. I've also been able to download files from the online backup service (Idrive.com) to use on the Toshiba. I'm going to put together a white paper on backup technologies. I have really been testing all my backups lately.

New Computer is Back Home Again

The new HP laptop that replaced my sick Toshiba developed interesting streaks down the screen. It went in to the same repair place that did the warranty work on the Toshiba. They are a great group to work with. HP had wanted me to send back the computer and wait a week until they fixed it and sent it back. A week without the computer would drive me completely around the bend. I get twitchy when I'm without it for a day.

This morning I retrieved the HP. The Toshiba is still there. It has died completely and killed another hard drive. It may be that the first hard drive took something else with it when it died. Fortunately, I did have a fairly recent backup. I'll post more about backups and using other people's servers for data storage later. Let me say that I'm really grateful for GMail and Google Documents.

Oh yes, the HP now has two little red pixels at the top of the screen. HP requires 9 pixels to be bad before they will replace the display. So this computer will go back to the shop eventually. I do miss the corporate IT shops where there are lots of computers of the same model. You take the users hard drive and put it in a new machine. Then you can send back the bad components and not have a loss of the use of the machine. However, that's about all I miss about working.

The Saga Continues

Tonight as I was preparing to do my duties as Official Nag of the online Kiss of Death chapter, I realized that my KOD directory was not in the backup set that I had restored onto the new computer. That meant that those files are lost. Maybe forever or maybe I can get that hard drive working again for a short period. I've been making a list of the files I need to pull off, if the disk every comes to life for a few minutes.

I was able to search the internet and find some of the information. My critical spreadsheet is in the files area of a Yahoo group so that others can see what's scheduled. I never thought that I'd be the one desperately in need of the information. However, I was really glad it was there. I was able to get the tax forms from the IRS website. I had to check past emails to see what the number of the tax form is for Canadian citizens. With some effort, I was able to put things back together and send out my monthly emails to the instructors.

The lesson to be learned is to utilize other people's servers. I use Gmail, so I have my emails saved and don't need to worry about using too much space. (Well, I do, but most people can save their emails forever in almost 3GB of space.) Yahoo had my spreadsheet. The IRS had the tax forms. There are services that will let you backup your entire hard disk to their servers. I'll review some of those later. For now, use the simple, free services to make your life easier.

Backup Your Files!

I've learned several important lessons from my recent computer crash experience. I knew all this stuff before. I've always said to do what I say, not what I do. Those lessons have really been reinforced recently.

• Back up regularly. You can only restore to your last backup
• Set up an automatic schedule. You won't remember to do it. Let your computer remember
• Use a reliable media. All media fails. Back up to Cds, DVDs, USB drives, or external drives
• Use other people's servers. Most of my mail is on Gmail. It's still there. So are the links to some files I had downloaded.
  
• Having a backup image is good. This will restore all your programs as well as your data. However, you must restore to the same hardware configuration that you had when you did your backup.
• Individual file backups can allow you to move files to a different computer and/or operating system.
  
  
  

I haven't set up an automatic backup for my new computer. I have it on the list to implement and schedule a regular backup this week. I'm also going to check into sites that let you upload your backup files. I'll write more about this in another post.

More laptop woes

Apparently I'm not the only one who has an overheated lap(top). There was an article in the paper today warming men that using laptops directly on their laps may cause a drop in fertility. I guess there are several types of consequences to using a laptop in your lap. I'm thinking about buying stock in the company that sells the cooling pads. It may be a trend.

I'm still struggling with getting everything put back together after the crash. I was able to restore the image I had saved. However, it's from the end of April. That means that I've lost everything I'd updated since then. Fortunately, I'd done a backup of the files after that. Not only do I have more current data, but I was able to pull the files over to my new machine. The new machine is a different brand computer with all different hardware and a new operating system. That means that the image is worthless for it. I did get a new hard drive for the old laptop, so that's how I restored the image. However, the new drive ran long enough to restore the image and allowed me to get a couple of files copied to my USB drive, then it crashed again. I haven't given up on the machine, but I have more diagnostics to do on it. Having the new machine gives me some time and doesn't force me into rushing into a solution.

I'll probably wait until I get back from Dallas to tackle the problem. I have a lot to do to get ready for the trip. I can't believe I only have one more week. The computer problems will have to wait, or at least get in line behind all my other "to dos".

Keep Your Cool and Your Computer's Too

As I was pondering on what to write about for this first post, my computer gave me a "blue screen of death". In previous versions that's been fairly common. However, it's the first time I ever saw it on XP. The error screen suggested rebooting. I did that, but got the same message. The hard drive had crashed. It crashed and burned so badly that there were scorch marks on the drive case.

I have used this computer in my lap for most of the year since I retired. I enjoyed the warmth for the computer. However, that same warmth was killing my computer.

To prolong the life of your computer

1. Take it out of your lap and turn it off if it gets too warm
2. Make sure the air vents are not obstructed (especially if you are using a desktop).
3. Don't store it on a pillow or other fabric surface that will obstruct air flow.
4. Dust off the air vents (especially if you have pets).

Have a great Father's Day and cool computing.