Just Simply Holly

When I got my new computer this past spring, I passed my old one down to my daughter. At that point, it was just a little more than three years old. Before I fully handed her the “reins” I did a complete reformat on it, basically giving her a brand new computer! It really was a good machine, it was running XP rather than Vista and hit had more than enough memory and a big enough hard drive for her to do pretty much anything she wanted to do.

I don’t know what it was that she was doing, but within a month tops, we had to turn around and do another complete reformat on it. Shortly after that reformat we discovered that she had uninstalled all of the anti virus and anti spyware programs we had put on it and had managed to pick up one heck of a trojan virus. It took him a while, but my hubby was able to remove the virus and get the computer up and running well again!

Sometime last week she started complaining that her computer would just shut down out of the middle of nowhere without any notice. There was no pattern to it doing this, it didn’t matter if she was surfing the web or playing one of her SIMS games, it would just shut down. Then, last Wednesday, it shut down and would not start back up for anything!

My hubby has been trying to work on it, he took the side of the case off and started cleaning the inside of it out, being careful not to disconnect any of the important wires or cables. But with how bad the indoor lighting is in the living room, it was really difficult for him to work on it. So he totally disconnected the tower and brought it out to the kitchen table, where the lighting is much better, and kept trying everything he could think of or tips he could find online.

He finally gave up and pulled the hard drive out of it and offered it for sale for parts on a local forum, along with several other computer “pieces and parts” that we had laying around here. A guy answered his ad offering a trade. He’d take the pieces and parts we had and give us a computer that was working! They emailed back and forth a few times and came to an agreement and hubby went and picked up a system for our daughter yesterday. He’s happy and she’s happy to finally have a computer of her own again…LOL!

I have worked in the customer service industry on and off for most of my adult life, I know and realize how important it is to be polite when you are trying to help a customer and that you have to be careful about how you word things so that what you’re saying doesn’t come across as offensive, especially when the problem is on your end and not the customers end!

I have memberships at a several different game sites, some where the games are played strictly online, some where the games are strictly for download. Since getting my new Dell back in February I hadn’t had any problems with any of the games I’ve played or downloaded, that was until I downloaded a new game last week. I have what I would consider an AWESOME system here! It has 3 GB of memory, a 300GB hard drive and an AMD 64×2 dual core processor. That has been more than sufficient to run Vista and every other program I’ve ran since getting this computer. I’m also VERY careful with my computer and don’t visit questionable websites and I run my antivirus and anti spyware programs regularly.

So I was a bit surprised to find that this game that I downloaded this week lagged to badly, it was almost impossible to play it. I contacted the site where I had the membership in hopes of some suggestions from them and instead I received a reply that caused me to cancel my membership with their site! They wanted me to download and run a program that would tell them what types of spyware and viruses my computer might have and they also tried to tell me that it was possible that I didn’t have enough dell memory to run the game. But I pointed out to them that the specs for the game itself stated that only 128MB of ram was necessary for the game and that I had that amount times 12! They then replied back asking my to download and run a program that would tell if my computer had been “hijacked”.

At that point, I was done! I had a game that I paid for that was not capable of running correctly on a system that went far beyond what their stated “requirements” for running the game were and rather than offer to compensate me they want me to run tons of diagnostics and download programs that are not necessary? Especially when this is the ONLY game I have ever had a problem with. But I think the fact that them telling me 3GB of memory might not be enough to run the game was what sent me over the top! Not one time did they even say they were sorry that I was having problems, it was my fault from the beginning.

Oh well, I guess it’s time to find another game site, does anyone have any suggestions?

I just wanted to share something with you that I “discovered” yesterday! About a month or so ago we had to replace our router that we had been using for about 6 years. It really isn’t surprising considering that it had been running almost non stop that whole time. When we replaced it we decided to go with a wireless router this time since my husband has a new laptop that can connect to the wireless.

Since getting the new router the one thing that we hadn’t done was see just how good of a signal it gets in different areas of the house. Out here in the family room, which is where the router is, it obviously has a very strong signal. Out in the kitchen it still gets 5 bars, then when you turn the corner into the living room it goes between 4 and 5 bars. As I hit the hallway it went to 4 bars and when I got to the end of the hallway and into my bedroom it dropped to 3 bars.

I didn’t take the laptop outside yesterday, but will check that out sometime within the next couple of weeks. My husband was pretty pleased with the results of my “test” but then said “It’s my laptop and you can’t use it” LOL! And I tell you, our connection speeds have been so much better with this new wireless router! I’m VERY happy we made the decision to get it!

I have been up all night working on a few odds and ends on my computer. Yeah, I know, not the smartest move, but it had to be done. Anyway, as I was going through some of the files that I transferred over from my old computer I realized that several folders that I needed for my husband were no where to be found. I was in a bit of a panic and on the verge of waking him up in the middle of the night to find out if he knew what I had done with the files when it hit me. I hadn’t transferred the files using the transfer cable, I had actually uploaded them to a usb flash drive that I picked up to use for my classes.

With the recent cleaning and moving of furniture that I’ve done out here I wasn’t exactly sure where I had put my flash drive, but after just a few minutes of searching, I found it hanging on the peg off the side of my bookshelf. I pupped it into one of the USB ports on my computer and WALA, the files I had been freaking out about were right there before my eyes! I’ve seen several different places online that sell USB flash drives and I’d love to get personalized ones for each of us so that we know which drive belongs to whom!

In the mean time, here is a video that I put together for MemorySuppliers.com. The sell various types of memory for PC’s, Laptops and Mac’s as well as portable media devices. They also offer the option of customizing many items they sell with your own personal or company logo. Check out the video, but more importantly, be sure to check out their website!

I forgot to tell you one of the things that happened this weekend. My daghter has been using my dinosaur of a 19 inch monitor for over a year now. It’s been an awesome monitor, it’s only draw back is that it’s an old CRT monitor so it weighs a TON! We’ve known for a while now that we were going to have to replace it sooner or later, but we were hoping later rather than sooner. She was sitting yesterday playing a game when the monitor went black. Since it has done that before, we really didn’t think much of it, it usually would just come back on by just powering it off, then turning it back on. This time, we weren’t so lucky. No matter what we did, the monitor simply was not going to come back on, PERIOD!

So, I started looking around online, trying to find the best deal possible on a new monitor for her. Although I’ve shopped for different computer accessories many times, I honestly had no clue there were so many different brands of monitors. The one that I found that seemed to be the best monitor for the money was a viewsonic monitor that I found online. If I had the time to wait for delivery I’d have snagged it up in a heartbeat. But since it was one of those immediate needs, I ended up going to a local store and picking up one for more than the online one cost. But she’s happy, so I’m happy…LOL!

We’re very fortunate in the fact that we have four computers in our home.  We recently purchased a new computer for our son which was his Christmas gift.  Yes, he got it early, but his computer just wasn’t cutting it for the online games he plays and we got a really good deal on it at Walmart, so we just couldn’t turn it down.

My computer is going on three years old, but runs very well for what I use it for.  Although I have been thinking very seriously about reformatting it just to give it a clean slate.  My husband has a laptop that he purchased used almost 2 years ago.  He’s very happy with it, but none of the rest of us can stand to use it, so it’s all his..LOL!  But my daughters computer is the oldest one in the house and I don’t give it much more time.  It has a small hard drive (40 GB) and only has 512 MB of memory.  We recently reformatted it and it was running very nicely, but she thinks that meant that it was OK for her to download anything and everything without paying attention to what it was she was doing.  That has resulted in many boxes that should have been unchecked during downloads remaining checked which has given her a MESS on the computer!

Tonight my husband is sitting there tinkering with it because for some reason or another it now won’t go online.  He found several programs that never should have been installed on her computer even though we just went through the computer removing junk programs a little more than a week ago.  I don’t think she’s ever going to learn to pay attention to what she’s doing and stop downloading ridiculously stupid things without checking with us first.  I guess I’m just going to have to leave her be, and when the computer finally dies let her deal with the fact that she doesn’t have a computer any longer.

I tell you, I’m getting pretty annoyed with many websites I’ve visited lately. This past week I’ve visited several websites that I normally don’t go to in order to find where I could get the items I was looking for on Black Friday for the best price. But for some reason I kept getting popup after popup on many of them. Thankfully the latest computer programs have given us some of the best popup blocker programs available, but every once in a while one will still manage to sneak under the radar and popup anyway. I don’t get it though, I know that I can’t be the only person who gets this annoyed by popups! You’d think the people who build these websites would want people to enjoy their sites rather than become annoyed when they visit them. I know that for myself, when I site has popups that fly under the radar and manage to get past the program that I use, I hit my browsers back button and make sure I don’t ever visit the site again!

Although I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a computer pro, I must also so that upgrading your computer to help it perform better is much easier than most people think it is! One of the easiest things to upgrade on your computer is its memory. Most new computers today come with more than enough memory, but older computers lack enough memory to run many of the newer and more popular programs that are available. So whether your computer is a custom made or an IBM memory upgrades will definitely enhance it’s performance!

I can’t remember if I talked about this or not, but the day after we moved in here my hubby was getting his computer set up. Everything was connected and he pushed the button to power up his computer. It appeared as if everything was going to be OK, the screen came on and everything was loading. Out of the middle of nowhere I could smell what I thought was melting or burning plastic. The next thing we knew, his computer monitor went blank. Over the past week he’s been trying different things to get it running again, he even did a power supply repair that we thought was actually going to fix it, but it didn’t. I think he’s finally given up and decided that he’s either going to have to take it to the shop and see if they can fix it, or just replace it!

As you may, or may not know, I have been seriously thinking that I need a new computer.  I love the one that I currently have, but it’s showing signs that the mother board is going out.  I’ve lost my built in graphics card, my built in NIC card and over half of the built in USB ports.  Now, I know that having a new mother board put in is much less expensive that buying a new computer, but I have my reasons for wanting and needing a new computer.

First, when I take my current computer into the shop to have it fixed, unless I want to use one of the horribly slow computers downstairs, I need a replacement of my own.  Second, since I’m majoring in commercial/graphic art it has been suggested to me that I strongly consider switching over to a Mac because that is what “most” professional graphic artists use.  And third, well, I WANT ONE…..LOL!

So, after much soul searching and online shopping/dreaming, I have made my final decision.  I was originally going to go with a mini Mac, but after visiting Apple’s website and seeing a special that they are offering that will allow me to purchase a $1600 program for less than $300, I have decided to go with this:

If I purchase an iMac, I can get the Adobe Creative Suite that retails for $1599 for only $299.  Since this is a program that I need for school and for what I plan on doing as a career, I think this is something that I honestly can’t turn down.  Yes, the iMac is a bit pricier than the mini Mac, but since my ultimate goal is to completely switch over to Mac, I figured I might as well just do it.

So, if there are any Mac users out there, can ya give me any tips?