Around 10PM tonight, all my devices started getting stupid.
The mouse wouldn't work for the main computer. I fiddled with it for a few minutes, then replaced the battery.
Still wouldn't work.
Checked the keyboard. It wouldn't work, either. What the hell?
So I checked the USB hub where the wireless receiver is for both the keyboard / mouse. Plugged in. Getting power. But not responsive. Unplug it. Unplug the power supply. Plug it all back in. Doesn't work.
Go downstairs to find a new USB hub. Plug it all in. It doesn't work, either.
Have to use the power button to shut down the computer. Unplug the hub from the back of the computer. Plug in the receiving unit. Works fine upon boot.
But as soon as the machine finishes the boot, it all quits working again.
No need to bore you (or me if I re-read this months from now.) 45 minutes of plugging and unplugging, rebooting and, well, basically, not changing one damned thing, it all started to work again. While all of that was going on, my phone's battery was at death's door. Wouldn't have been a problem except about a half dozen people all decided at once they wanted to call. My iPad started getting stupid, losing its wi-fi connection.
I've had this conversation with a lot of people who rely on me to be their "tech support." Basically, I don't know how non-geek (i.e, normal people) deal with computers. They're finicky damned beasts. Newer computers and better operating systems have made them a little easier to deal with and a lot more reliable . . . but I still don't know now how regular average people who just want a tool they can use deal with the frustrations of the damned things.
To top all that off, this website itself was down today. Again, not because I changed one single thing. I didn't. But for several hours the blog was completely gone and the website itself was in "parked" mode. Because Blogger is owned by Google, my first thought was, "Oh great, good luck trying to get ANY kind of help from Google on a product." I looked through the Blogger tech forums, and a number of people were reporting the same kinds of issues. I'm assuming a Google Blogger server somewhere had a brain fart and blogs weren't talking to DNS servers, bla bla bla. Just like the problems my computer experienced much later in the evening, all that was required was for me to get frustrated and say, "What the hell is going on?"
The mouse wouldn't work for the main computer. I fiddled with it for a few minutes, then replaced the battery.
Still wouldn't work.
Checked the keyboard. It wouldn't work, either. What the hell?
So I checked the USB hub where the wireless receiver is for both the keyboard / mouse. Plugged in. Getting power. But not responsive. Unplug it. Unplug the power supply. Plug it all back in. Doesn't work.
Go downstairs to find a new USB hub. Plug it all in. It doesn't work, either.
Have to use the power button to shut down the computer. Unplug the hub from the back of the computer. Plug in the receiving unit. Works fine upon boot.
But as soon as the machine finishes the boot, it all quits working again.
No need to bore you (or me if I re-read this months from now.) 45 minutes of plugging and unplugging, rebooting and, well, basically, not changing one damned thing, it all started to work again. While all of that was going on, my phone's battery was at death's door. Wouldn't have been a problem except about a half dozen people all decided at once they wanted to call. My iPad started getting stupid, losing its wi-fi connection.
I've had this conversation with a lot of people who rely on me to be their "tech support." Basically, I don't know how non-geek (i.e, normal people) deal with computers. They're finicky damned beasts. Newer computers and better operating systems have made them a little easier to deal with and a lot more reliable . . . but I still don't know now how regular average people who just want a tool they can use deal with the frustrations of the damned things.
To top all that off, this website itself was down today. Again, not because I changed one single thing. I didn't. But for several hours the blog was completely gone and the website itself was in "parked" mode. Because Blogger is owned by Google, my first thought was, "Oh great, good luck trying to get ANY kind of help from Google on a product." I looked through the Blogger tech forums, and a number of people were reporting the same kinds of issues. I'm assuming a Google Blogger server somewhere had a brain fart and blogs weren't talking to DNS servers, bla bla bla. Just like the problems my computer experienced much later in the evening, all that was required was for me to get frustrated and say, "What the hell is going on?"
No comments:
Post a Comment