davidbowerkingwood

An Unexpected Problem Develops

Sometimes a totally unexpected event can take over and demand most or all of our attention. For example, I probably spend around 6 or more hours a day on a computer. I use it for my Global Media Outreach ministry, writing my blog, doing our family business, and various personal activities such as buying stuff and answering email; in other words, my computer is an important part of my life.

The computer is a Dell T3400 Precision Workstation I bought in 2008 and have generally been very happy with it. A few weeks ago it started having a problem starting and I would sometimes have to work with it to get it up and running; this reached a climax last week when it would no longer start, an epic event in my sheltered life.

Having seen the warning signs, by the way it was operating, I had carefully backed up everything that needed to be backed up on two external hard drives so the only question was what to do about my ongoing need for a computer; there were the two standard options, repair or replace. I’m a researcher at heart so I started researching those options to see which might be the best one to follow.

The Dell T3400 Precision Workstation

It did not take long to discover my computer had a very good reputation and was a popular item on the used computer market. I started reading reviews and discovered it had a record for long service. Fortunately Dell offers a diagnostic tool online which I had used and discovered that everything seemed to be working well except for the hard drive which needed replacement.

That was interesting as my original 250 gigabyte hard drive was filling up and I needed more space; the Dell online store offered a 1 terabyte hard drive at a reasonable price which I decided to order. It came in last Thursday afternoon and my work began; being somewhat driven, in certain areas at least, I worked until just before midnight that first night.

Fortunately I have been blessed with a great amount of patience so the following three days were not an insurmountable challenge. Installing the new hardware was quick and simple; downloading and installing the Vista Ultimate operating system, my normal software, and 7 years of updates and upgrades was a much slower process. Fortunately we have a fast download speed (81 Mbps) on our cable internet so that was a big advantage as some of those files were very large.

A normal part of this process is the inevitable glitch, the unexpected aberration which must be addressed if the job is to be completed. Sure enough there were some of those too; I tell my wife that those episodes offer an opportunity to learn new things. By Sunday evening, the computer was back in operation and doing a great job; it seemed to be working faster and better that ever before, at least I like to think it does.

The Bottom Line

I’m writing this on my repaired and updated T3400 using the new 1 terabyte hard drive; the curious thing about that episode was, I actually had fun doing it. My wife cannot understand how something like that could be fun, but I, on the other hand, cannot understand how she can draw and paint.