Technology Hates Me
My DSL is still going out every night at 7:30 and staying out until dawn. I have finally convinced the Earthlink people that something is up and they're supposed to schedule someone to come out and see if a tech can fix the problem.
Last week my printer kept refusing to print, giving me unexplained postscript errors.
I can't get Kate's wireless connection to stay connected to the network no matter what I try, which means she still wants to use my computer all the time.
For about two weeks the caller ID on the phones went out for seemingly no reason. It's come back now, all on its own.
Saturday night the TiVo crashed and went black in the middle of Chris watching a movie. I managed to get it back and working again with the help of TiVo customer service (good service, much better than Earthlink), but we've had our TiVo for less than a year.
We bought a little key-chain back-up device for Chris's laptop because the screen has started going black for no apparent reason. The key-chain back-up device does not appear to work on his computer or, for comparison purposes, on the Mac either.
My laptop battery stopped charging and I'm not sure if there a problem with the power cord, the battery, or something altogether different. I haven't been able to boot it up for over a week and really should take it down to the Apple store but I just haven't had time.
::sigh::
Last week my printer kept refusing to print, giving me unexplained postscript errors.
I can't get Kate's wireless connection to stay connected to the network no matter what I try, which means she still wants to use my computer all the time.
For about two weeks the caller ID on the phones went out for seemingly no reason. It's come back now, all on its own.
Saturday night the TiVo crashed and went black in the middle of Chris watching a movie. I managed to get it back and working again with the help of TiVo customer service (good service, much better than Earthlink), but we've had our TiVo for less than a year.
We bought a little key-chain back-up device for Chris's laptop because the screen has started going black for no apparent reason. The key-chain back-up device does not appear to work on his computer or, for comparison purposes, on the Mac either.
My laptop battery stopped charging and I'm not sure if there a problem with the power cord, the battery, or something altogether different. I haven't been able to boot it up for over a week and really should take it down to the Apple store but I just haven't had time.
::sigh::
May I suggest Charles Xavier's School for the Gifted & Talented ... ? ;)
RE: Earthlink. I had been a loyal subscriber to Earthlink (through Netcom) for many, many years. Last year I upgraded to their DSL service. It worked great - when I was at work and not there to use it. Oddly enough, nearly every night it went out about, oh, 7:30 pm and sometimes came back about midnight (but usually not).
Sounds familiar, eh? They sent someone out once to test my line - gave me some googledegook answer. They tried pawning off a few other answers, and kept giving me the dumb treatment, Then they wanted to keep sending someone out, which I wasn't having. In the end, I forced them to terminate my contract at no penalty to me. They said they wouldn't; I said "... failure to provide services ..." and a few other tricks of the contracting trade. I wonder if they've completely oversold their bandwidth.
RE: Apple laptop. Screen going black - happens rarely to me. You can try to reset the, uh, Power Management Unit I think it's called. When it happens to me (rarely), I just close the Powerbook lid, let it go to sleep, and then open it again. Snaps right back to a non-black/blank screen.
For the battery, it could be the PMU as well. The Geniuses at the Genius Bar @ Apple should be able to help with that. If not, try hitting the Apple Support site and search around for PMU - there's reset instructions somewhere.
Good luck with it all... hopefully there's some better by way of super powers coming. ;)
Have you tried shaking a live chicken over your computer(s)? Don't forget to roll your eyes back into your head.