This post will not come as a surprise to any of you who have read previous blogs and been introduced to my ongoing war with the wonderful world of computers. I mistakenly thought that there were no new pitfalls left as I continued my travels into this world, but I soon learned that the worst was yet to come.
About six months ago, I learned that my love affair with APPLE was fast coming to an end. I had purchased an iPAD and was delighted with the product. In no time at all, I thirsted with the possibility of syncing my iPAD with my PC. I was all atwitter at the possibility of having the two giants of the industry working together to make my computer life and experience more enjoyable and productive.
Stupid me...I should have realized that I was smoking hemp.
One day I got notice that I had to upgrade my iTUNES if I wanted to continue to sync my devices. Having had the foresight to purchase an APPLE Care Plan, I immediately connected by phone with one of their "geniuses."
He immediately uttered the deadly words I have heard on many occasions from other vendors... "No problem, we can help guide you through the necessary steps." I should have known that this pronouncement was a sign that I was in deep do-do.
The download proceeded smoothly until the computer crashed. Many hours later, I was told that the problem was with my WINDOWS 7 software and I would have to contact Microsoft.
So much for the APPLE Genius. He too, proved to have feet of clay.
Next stop was with Microsoft, and that proved to be futile. I won't bore you with my travails, but let it suffice to say that I made the following decision. Since every APPLE program runs through iTUNES, the only remedy was to remove that program from my PC.
Full well knowing that I could never again sync either my iPOD or iPAD again, I uninstalled the program. I could live without syncing and with the advent of music programs like SPOTIFY, I never would be without my music.
I thought Nirvana had arrived as for the next few months very few problems were encountered. Little did I know that this idyllic period would be short lived and the culmination would be the end of my computer virginity.
A few weeks ago, another program demanded an upgrade. With much trepidation I hit the download button and sat back with baited breath. The download went smoothly and I raised my glass (filled with water, of course) in celebration. I closed down the computer for the day and had nothing but good thoughts.
Early the next morning, I fired up the computer and double clicked on the newly installed program. After a few moments, I clicked again, again, again, and yet again with no results. I called my IT person and let him do his magic with no positive results. Finally, he got it to work, but that only lasted a day. It now sits on my machine and I am unable to uninstall the program as I receive an error message informing me the program has already been uninstalled.
As if that was not enough angst, I lost my Mozilla web browser service. I can no longer gain access to the web through this portal, but fortunately I still have CHROME and INTERNET EXPLORER.
Little did I suspect that all that had transpired up to now was soon going to fade into a distant memory with the disaster awaiting me.
When I initially purchased this computer, I wanted the very best anti-virus and firewall protection available. Research led me to Kaspersky Labs a program developed in Russia. The rational behind this selection was that at that time most of the computer attacks was coming from that part of the world. Logic told me that there could be no better protection than from the folks who lived where most of the bad guys lived.
For all I know, Kaspersky might be the ones sending out the bad stuff as part of their marketing plan to increase sales of their products.
For the past two years, my life was free from virus attacks. Every once in a while my screen would turn orange or red, warning me of some dangerous activity trying to penetrate my defenses. I must admit I grew fat and happy.
Living with a computer demands constant vigilance and a person should never get complacent. I received a notice that my two year Kaspersky subscription was up for renewal and they had a deal for me. Blindly, I bought the package and downloaded the update.
Never did I imagine that this protection would only last two days. On the third day, upon opening my computer I got a blank screen. After many attempts I was able to open the computer and I found that Kaspersky had disappeared. I searched all over my hard drive and could not locate it.
I went to their website and tried to download another copy. It didn't allow me to do so as they said there was already one on my computer. I did locate some files and managed to uninstall them, but my next attempt to download the program failed.
Then I saw the following words that threw me into a panic
CRASH DUMP
As I sat there and watched figures, number and symbols flash across my screen, I thought that this was the end of my computer. Suddenly the monitor went blank and the computer turned off. A few minutes (seemed like hours) later both came on and I was delighted to see that all appeared normal. (Whatever that might be.)
Hours later I finally got someone on the phone who after hearing the problem told me that he would send me an email instructing me to solve this problem. Obviously, this problem was not new to them. I told him that I wanted him to stay on the line until his email came through.
His response was to simply hang up.
Since the email never arrived, I started all over again this time to get a refund. Another battle, but today I received a confirmation that my credit card refund would appear in my account within five days.
I am not going to hold my breath.
This experience with Russian customer service makes me yearn for the guys from India.
I can't wait until 2013 when I get a new computer and WINDOWS 8.
