It's dead, Jim.

[tinhuviel]

There I was, in the throes of what was promising to be a dandy and relaxing weekend, preparing to type out the notes I've made for The Blood Crown when, all of a sudden, nothing.  My computer just stopped.  It shut down.  It ceased to Be.  Thinking that it may have gotten overheated, even though it shouldn't have since I just had the fan replaced three months or so ago, I waited for a few minutes and tried to turn the 'puter back on.  It ground into action, then suddenly....stopped.  Oh crap, I thought.  The beasties must have done a number on my AC cord and my battery is dead as a result.  I just need to check the AC.  But the power was fine.  I tried a different outlet.  Same result.  My computer wouldn't turn back on at all.  My Inner Obi-Wan began to scream "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooo-oooo-ooo-o-o."

I got the phone and called Best Buy's Geek Squad to confirm that my extended maintenance plan was still active.  It was, so off to Sparkle City I drove, my ailing 'puter in a bag.  It took all of fifteen minutes to turn the computer into the Geek Squad; unfortunately, it's going to take a little longer than fifteen minutes to get it back from the Geek Squad.  The dude who helped me said that it could be two weeks, maybe longer, before the computer is ready to come home.  I asked him what he thought it might be.  One possibility is that the cooling system has gone wonky on it again.  Another possibility is that the mother board may have died.  When he said that, I had to tell my Inner Obi-Wan to shut the hell up.  By then, though, my Inner C-3PO was moaning "We're doomed."

Truer words ha' ne'er been spoke.

Comments

Bugger.

[ross.livejournal.com]

Ouch. Big ouch. With knobs on.

Where were you making this post from?

I hope this is resolved poste haste regardless of what geeklings have espoused. Especially if your hard drive is in their care. You did tell them not to reformat it right? So you don't lose everything? It's 'service' personnel's first resort. Reformat the hard drive and then load the programmes again from scratch, deleting, of course, all the data at the same time. Then when that doesn't work they actually bother LOOKING for a problem; meanwhile damage done... First time the Purple Peril died on me they did that, erasing a year's work. This was before I had an external back-up.

So yes, fingers crossed. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the heat. I often wonder how PCs work in the southern US outside of super-cooled office space.

Re: Bugger.

[tinhuviel.livejournal.com]

I was at the library being terrorised by a toddler. The Geek Squad is pretty good at not meddling in your files unless absolutely necessary. Being Geeks, they know the importance of keeping one's computer intact if at all possible. Right now, I'm using my old, dilapidated Compaq, thanks to Aunt Tudi being all SMRT and shite.

[morriganwind.livejournal.com]

I so hope this isn't going to be horrendous. I'm glad you have a maintenance plan. *hugs* Ross is prolly right. Heat coulda done it.

[tinhuviel.livejournal.com]

I just got the fan replaced in April and it's like a meat locker in our house with the new A/C, so I'm thinking that it's probably more serious than the heat. Then again, I'm a bit of a cynic.

[morriganwind.livejournal.com]

We always have the issue of pet hair making things overheat (if I don't clean computerella like I should).

I'm still hoping it's something simple.

[tinhuviel.livejournal.com]

If I removed all the pet hair from my environment, the house would collapse. I swear it's animal hair that's holding everything together.

[morriganwind.livejournal.com]

Yup the cats informed me that I needed their hair for insulation purposes.

[turelie.livejournal.com]

If it's anything other than a HDD malfunction, you should have no problem getting your data back. My hard drive died a whirring, clicking death several months ago. It wouldn't even boot after 3 tries. Power: Check. Fans: Check POST: Check. Windows Boot? Nuttin' honey.

So...power working, motherboard working (POST), lots of clicking and whirring, but no Windows. *insert sad violin music here*

Fortunately, most of my important data was on my slaved drive...and/or copied to CD when I attempted to reformat my drive. I say attempted because after I saved everything, I couldn't find my win2000 disc.

They must be seriously backed up at your Geek Squad. Weeks? Sheesh. I wish I lived closer, I could have fixed it for ya, lickity split. ^_^

Good luck! Hope it's fixed sooner than they expect.

[tinhuviel.livejournal.com]

Uh...I did hear a whirring noise the day before it died. Should I start crying now?

[turelie.livejournal.com]

I didn't mean to scare ya! It's hard to say without hearing the whirring. :( And...that's not to say the Geek Boys don't have ways to retrieve data. I'm a bit old school still, so the only trick I know is to pop it in the freezer for 30 minutes and then try to copy everything before it dies again. That, of course, doesn't always work. ~_^

Sometimes the boot sector is corrupted and windows won't load then either. In that case, the data is retrievable if the drive is slaved to a new drive with a fresh copy of windows. Win2000 used to repair such things for you, but the newer windows don't, to my knowledge.

I will continue to keep my fingers crossed for you. (sorry if I missed an update to this event, I've been offline for a couple days...)

[tinhuviel.livejournal.com]

No update yet. I'm still waiting on my Geek in Shining Armour to call with good news.

[turelie.livejournal.com]

heheh well, then I shall keep the fingers crossed...tho it makes it harder to type. ~_^

[tinhuviel.livejournal.com]

Do what I do and type with your toes.

[turelie.livejournal.com]

ROFL!!

I feel your pain

[wholeinmysoul.livejournal.com]

I know how you feel, girl. My own dataflogger went belly up about 10 days ago. You're lucky that you have a warranty....my 6 year old homebrew machine had none. I would still be dead in the water if a friend hadn't donated his old PC to the cause.

Hope you get it back with everything intact.

Re: I feel your pain

[tinhuviel.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Sweetie. I just want my Word and iTunes back, is that so wrong?