Took Frodo the laptop down to Office Depot for the free wifi access today. I’ve had four nights of shitty internet connectivity in the past week, and Dad didn’t seem to be having any problems himself.
Unfortunately, Office Depot’s wifi wasn’t making any difference. It’s not the ISP, it’s Frodo.
Frodo’s two and a half years old, and in addition to the connectivity issues, he’s also started turning himself off if he doesn’t like the angle his screen is at. Sometimes he even refuses to turn back on again. It’s highly frustrating. That was part of the issue today at OD – I couldn’t get him to turn on until I had the screen at about a 45-degree angle to the keyboard. Not exactly conducive for checking the internet connectivity, but I managed. Sadly, he kept signing on and off, and taking forever to load pages, there, as well.
So I came home from work and checked my warranty information (lesson here: ALWAYS buy the extended warranty, when your life is one big exercise in Sod’s Law.) Fortunately, my warranty does not expire until 8/28/2007. HURRAH!
I chatted with Dell Tech Support for a while, and she had me try a system restore, which it refused to do. *wibbles* She helped me instore a network driver update. That didn’t help. *wibbles more* Unfortunately before I finished installing it, she disconnected our chat session.
Anyway, I decided to call Tech Support, because she hadn’t even addressed my “turning himself off” issue, and I wanted an answer there. The support guy I spoke to said…
I’m probably going to have to wipe the hard drive.
*wails*
He said it’s either a virus issue or a hardware issue. If it’s a virus issue then reinstalling Windows, and possibly wiping the hard drive and reinstalling Windows, should fix it. If a hardware issue, more steps will be required.
*sniffles*
So, dear flist, that is why I shall be gone tonight.
If I am snowed in with 8-14 inches of snow tomorrow, with no internet, I shall go stir-crazy. And Dad’s computer room is much much harder to keep warm.
