Sunday, July 09, 2006

Trouble in paradise

On Thursday last my teenage son emerged from his room and announced that something was wrong with his laptop. My first thought was, "Who are you?", because I haven't seen him in the daytime for so long! He couldn't get his machine to connect to the internet. I know very little about computers, and we discussed what he should do to try to fix it. He told me that he had downloaded a trial game, and that when he deleted it the trouble started. He suggested doing a "system recovery". I told him to try that, and if it didn't work we would need to get professional help. He returned a few minutes later, frustrated that the fix didn't work, that now it would not even load his profile. I told him that if he "got up during the daylight hours" the next day, that we would take it to the Geek Squad to be fixed. The Geek Squad is at the Best Buy store and I have had good luck with them before. We had to drive 25 miles to the closest store. There was a bad rain storm on the way down there, and the traffic slowed to a dangerous 40 mph. I took the time to lecture my son about the perils of driving in such conditions. (I love it when he is a captive audience.) We finally got there and walked up to the counter where I told Preston to explain to the man what had happened to the computer. As he explained the man turned on the machine. It worked perfectly. ? As I told you, I am computer stupid, but I do know a few little things. I turned to my son and said, "You did re-start it after you did the system recovery, didn't you?" AH-NO, HE DIDN'T!!! Embarased, we slinked out of the Geek Squad area. At least they didn't charge us for being computer idiots! I was relieved that it only cost me the gas to drive there!

5 comments:

Joann said...

Children. They must be a test.

squire said...

I love when I am not the only one that overlooks simple things.

Motherkitty said...

If in doubt, always reboot -- sometimes over and over, all the while holding your mouth in the correct position. Works every time.

Sandy Hatcher-Wallace said...

SEE...they have to come out sooner or later.
And who did he turn to when he needed help? MOM.

And they CAN get up early if it's something of importance to them.

I'm glad it turned out to be nothing costly, but the gas.

Pat said...

ROFLMAO! Apologies, but I am (hope you are now, too!) This sounds SOOOO like something that'd happen to me!! And I loved your "I love when he's a captive audience" quote! I hope you put that reality to real good use on the ride home!! Must go now ... still laughing ...