I’d heard of it, but I’d never actually seen it. And there it was. The dreaded Blue Screen of Death (definitely not to be confused with the Dread Pirate Roberts). Blue it was with nasty messages with words like “stop error screen” and “physical dump of memory.”
There I sat in the middle of a training (as part of those leading the training not those being trained). In the midst of uploading pictures to a web album, trying to find out what was going on with people all over the world via facebook, and answering emails from a few different addresses my screen would freeze. My cursor would disappear. The screen would turn blue. After the third blue screen I decided to call it quits for the day.
Because I believe that all things mechanical should last forever, I lugged the laptop home. I turned it on, and it worked! It worked well until I opened my office email. Suddenly the freeze began and quickly turned the screen blue. The logical conclusion? My computer is allergic to work.
I lugged the laptop back to the office, handed it over to the IT guy who deals with obstinate computers, and did non-computer related work. The next day the frozen blue computer was declared, “Very bad.” (I had a feeling.) By Thursday afternoon the hard drive was declared “very, very, very bad” and probably beyond hope. I then received a loaner while mine is in the IT’s ICU.
The good news is I backed up everything early in the fall. The bad news is I have to figure out how to get things off the external hard drive. The good news is I have a loaner so I’m back on line and blogging. The bad news is I have a lot of catching up to do. The good news is I get to grumble at a loaner while I learn Windows 7. The bad news is I’ve lost all of my bookmarks. That’s really unhappy. I don’t think there’s a good news to balance that one.
What happened with you last week?
photo courtesy of Taberandrew
5 responses to “The Blue Screen of Death”
Consider yourself lucky if this is the first time you have seen a Blue Screen of Death. I’ve experience both BOSD’s and WOSD’S (White Screen Of Death). Its never fun and yet somehow we get through it.
Glad to see you are up and running again!
I’ve had dread Blue Screen of Death twice. Both times were just days before a major event I had planned. Sadly, I was not a super saver and I lost everything. However, good news is that I survived both times. I am getting a new computer this week (YEAH!) and just hoping that the old mule that I currently have lives to see that day!
This is why I reverted back to using Mac’s a few years ago. These kind of problems just aren’t as much of an issue. The funny thing is I also run Windows XP on my Mac and it has way fewer problems than I ever experienced with running XP on a PC laptop. I feel for you during this time. You just don’t realize how much work and living you do on your laptop until you don’t have it! Hope things get better!!! 🙂
So sorry you had to go through this! Mike says WV would come out ahead if they just planned to replace every laptop every two years instead of paying someone to do the nearly impossible.
Sarah says that if the computer doesn’t survive to send her the ALT key. She loves to suck on ALT keys. Hope this week is better!
Thanks for the sympathy, everyone! As I was driving into work today I started thinking about all of the comp uters I once had . . . I know one of them died beyond JAARS ability to resuscitate it. One went to my brother’s for spare parts. One (I think) went to Niger. One was stolen. That leaves a few unaccounted for. And I know for most of them I didn’t have a back up. It seems like I did just fine without the knowledge stored in them. Of course, most of their departures coincided with a change of focus for me. Just my random thought for the morning. On the one hand, I feel so dependent on them. On the other, life goes on.
Theof–I’ve never seen the WSOD. It sounds rather hopeless.
Shelley–Life does go on in the face of major inconvenience and panic, doesn’t it? Hooray for a new computer!
Chris—It seems our IT department is wedded to PCs even though so many of our out of office people are becoming members of the Mac cult. I wonder if it will ever change. Oh! I have a friend who’s a dedicated Mac user . . . she got the BSOD this weekend. She’s my 2nd friend in 2 weeks to experience it with a Mac. I guess they’re not totally immune.
Tirzah—I think they’d hear that advice better from Mike than from me! 🙂 And I’ll see if I can find any ALT keys for Sarah! 😉