Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Blue Screen of Death - Part 1

For weeks now we have been getting a crazy "blue screen error" that really freaked me out a bit.

It read "A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer..." WHAT?!? Damage to my computer?!? That's gotta be bad...

"... Collecting data for crash dump..." HUH?

"Initializing disk for crash dump ..." IS THIS A JOKE?

"Dumping phsyical memory: 100%" Not a joke! Stop! STOP! DON'T DUMP MY PHYSICAL MEMORY!!!!

And then "poof" the screen was gone! Gone! Just like that. How could it possibly be gone when I didn't even have time to read the whole thing before it just disappeared?!?
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Wait - this has to be one of David's jokes or pranks or something, right? Uh-uh. Nope. Can't blame it on the dear hubby this time.
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Time to call HP technical support. Got a brand new computer...it's under warranty...this will only take 10 minutes. 15 tops. Whatever. You try to explain this mysterious "blue screen error" after only reading the top and bottom lines. Apparently all the writing in the middle is pretty important.

Now I ask, why would it disappear after flashing on the screen for only 5 seconds or so if the middle part's so important? After attempting to describe / explain / interpret this perplexing message and failing dismally, I was instructed to perform a "system recovery." At least our computer isn't fatally damaged. It can be fixed. Things are looking up.

Until the next time we turned our computer on and our little blue buddy popped in to say 'howdy.' That's right, our persistent little "blue screen" was back for a surprise visit.
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I tried (really I did!) to read all that mumbo-jumbo in the middle of the screen but my eyes automatically started at the top. By the time I remembered to read the middle and then told my eyes to read the middle - hurry, hurry, for goodness sakes! - it was already too late. Poof. Gone. Again. Great. Just great.

HP technical support, here I come again with another inexplicable blue screen error message. After 20 minutes on the phone, I'm instructed to perform a system recovery. Again. Starting to notice a pattern yet?

Guess what happened the next time I turned my computer on? Ding, ding, ding! You're right... the blue screen of death was back yet again! A tenacious little thing, but this time I was ready for it. Me and my handy dandy Nikon D60. You know, since a picture is worth a thousand words and all.

That's me in the reflection of the monitor - ready to capture the relentless and fleeting screen.

And I got it! Just barely. Now for another phone call to my friends in India - and I say friends because we're now on a first name basis and I talk to them more often than I call my mother...

3 comments:

  1. You should have known that it would not be simple to call. And you should have known they would be Indian. We have $100's of XM radio stuff in both of our cars and neither one of them are on right now because I got so irritated with them and have not found time to donate to them on the phone! They screwed up our account from the get go!

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  2. I can give you lots of pointers now! We need to spice your background. I will be making a post today that will explain my new fanciness! I did everything on my page other that darn picture in the frame. Did you check out my new header I put most of the details on there.

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  3. There is a great tool Digeus I recommend to use it when system works slow, chashes, hangs or doesn't boot up. I also recommend to use Tune Up Suite. It helps to eliminate system crashed.

    ReplyDelete

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