Geek ER

In the past three days I have been digging into the innards of my computer until I thought I was going to have some sort of breakdown. I have them often and know the early signs.

It began when I made an attempt at hooking up a printer to the laptop. All our printers, we have three, not because we are upper crust, but - the laser is about 10 years old and refuses to die, the HP photo is one we bought a few years back, and then there is the Epson, one of my Dad's cast offs. They are all configured with Windows XP or below. None of the printer software will load onto a Vista OS.

After getting some sonly advise from Tad, who was on a tractor planting 20,000 onions, he told me I needed to download a patch from Epson. Easy enough for most, but remember I am prone to meltdowns and only dabble in directions. I couldn't do it because I kept attempting at 64 bit when I should have clicked on 32 bit. Mind you, I clicked on 64, as an uneducated guess: I have Vista Home Premium, and thought 64 must be better, because there is a Vista Home, they must be 32 bit. When I was little I remember my mother saying, "Well, it only cost 2 bits." It was at that early age I learned that a quarter was two bits. Now in the 21st century it has a new connotation. So using my childlike 1960 logic, wouldn't you think 64 is better than 32?

This printing nightmare started on Sunday. On Monday we had no school, (yipee!) and I needed take the dog in for his beauty parlor treatment - a buzz and a bath. I thought I am going to take this laptop into Best Buy for some work as it wouldn't take updates, and get some 64/32 bit advise. We loaded the van: Lacy, her friend Harley, Buddy the dog, who smelled, Carsten at the wheel, and of course me, the part time driving instructor. We struck out for Minot.

This is where the Geek squad comes in. She, not the two in the photo, but a skinny thing with maroon and yellow hair, began to work on it for the update problem. One month old and no updates are coming in. Of course, you are suppose to decipher any problems within two weeks if you have any hopes of free fix-its. "Then we can replace your (new and out of the box) unit with a new one." Ya, right, if you don't do anything else for two weeks, but mess around on your new computer (with the new Operating System)you might know if something is wrong.

While she works on the computer I am wandering around Best Buy, ignoring the three add-ons that came through the door with me, especially when they would come up and say, "We should get one of these," all the while hoping the maroon and yellow haired girl is going to fix my new favorite techie device . Soon, I stumbled into the camera department. I have been toying with getting a little purse size unit so I can capture the times of my life. We already have three cameras, but none are credit card size. Before long I had a nice little red Nikon in my clutches, ready for purchase. Nikon has a S210 now, so I bought the S200 at close out prices. Regularly $179.00, clearanced for $79.00. SOLD, to the lady with the three add-ons who want her to buy everything but the camera.

The Maroon and yellow girl had now announced she couldn't fix it. I can either work with Mircosoft Tech support or pay $129.00 and they will reinstall the OS. We paid $129.00 after we bought it to make it ready for home use and to get the recovery discs. She wants me to shell out again? I am able to do a recovery as I have had to do it twice to our desktop - kid related issues. So home I go, with a new camera, the add-ons, a clean, shaved dog and my nonupdateable computer. Only to have a new problem.

I could not get on the Internet, which worked fine prior to the Minot trip, a few hours before. I dialed up maroon and yellow and she tells me she didn't do anything that involved Wi-fi stuff. I would need to bring it back in, to have them look at it. We are now up to $3.49 a gallon and I need to return to Minot? Figuring in time and my available time, I returned. I wanted at least to be able to get on the Internet, how could I solve the Microsoft problem without Internet? I did call our wireless server and he had me hook up with cable, so indeed the computer did accept Internet.

I poured myself a glass of Merlot before I left, sat down and regrouped. The wine was to settle the need to throttle maroon and yellow should she still be on duty. Back I went, minus the add-ons and dog. I did take my new camera, at this point, the only cheery thing in my life.

It was there I met the two in the photo. They were so enjoyable and chatty. But best of all, they fixed, quite easily I might add, you know who's error. I couldn't resist taking out my new camera and taking their picture. The Geek ER Docs.