Long time faithful readers may recall that back in October 2005, Andi’s old Emachines computer (dubbed “Bessie”) went tits up hard-core when Windows ate itself. Even our friend Rob, an engineer incredibly savvy in the Deeper Mysteries of Windows, wasn’t able to fix it. That was reformatted with a wonderful donation of a Windows XP Pro disk from our friend Tobey, and became Bessie 2.0. Two months later, it began convulsing and frothing at the CD-ROM drive, and promptly became an ex-PC (it was merely resting). It had turned out to be, at the time, the mother board dying. It was certainly out of warranty and extended coverage, and was laid to rest. A quick and annoyed trip to Best Buy later, we had a new Hewlitt Packard, and Bessie 3.0 rode off into the sunset of November, 2005.
This morning, after checking e-mail, she shut down her Bessie 3.0, and after work today, it wouldn’t display video. Odd. Reboot. The fan whirred astonishingly loudly, compared to usual. Odd. No keyboard lights. New keyboard? Nada. New monitor? Nada. Rebooting? Sure, by pulling the power cord out or using the manual switch in back–power cycle by the button in front? Nada–no response. Being judicious computer and gadget shoppers, we always get at least the middle-tier service package. Wasteful? Perhaps, but you’re only paranoid if the technology gremlins aren’t out to get you. We took it back to Best Buy/Geek Squad. Extended service!
Er, nope. We somehow forgot to buy it, this time. Confirmed. Oops. Another mobo bites the dust, and Bessie 3.0 joins her sisters. I need to order a new one from Dell…
Bessie 4.0 will be an XPS 410, bypassing my XPS 400 from October 2005 by bounds, for only $90 more. Dagnabbit.
If Andi is late in e-mail replies or whatnot, that’s why. She can do everything on my PC, or our laptop, but she dislikes working long on the laptop or on my funky ergonomic keyboard.
