A Day with My Computer

For the last few days, well maybe weeks, I have been complaining loudly to anyone within earshot that my laptop has been running unbelievably slow. It has been so frustrating watching pages load a tenth of an inch at a time. Yesterday I decided to do something about it. I backed up anything I could find of value onto an external drive, and then went ahead and formatted the hard drive and started to reinstall the operating system.

Problem One: Apparently, I need to get my prescription for my glasses re-done since reading the Microsoft Product Key off the bottom of my computer was difficult. After squinting as hard as I could, I thought I got it, and then clicked to enter it. I received an  "Invalid Key Code" message. I tried to reread the code, but even with super squinting it still looked the same.

The only number I had for help was from HP, so I called them. After 20 minutes they were able to walk me through the problem and get past the error. (Reboot the computer and re-enter the key code. Don't tell anyone, but I spent six years in tech support and the number one fix for most problems is reboot the computer and try again. Maybe it was the stress that the baby was about to wake up soon that caused me to panic.)

Problem Two: Operating system installed, I started to load the updates like SP2. Guess what? An Invalid Key Code error came up as it was installing. So, I call Microsoft for help. No, this time it wasn't a reboot solution. I guess there are new systems in place for Microsoft to prevent people from stealing their key codes. I talked to the representative and they have to validate my code and give me a different code that shows my code was validated. I was told I could do this online which I will do next time now that I know what is going on. In the old days I just installed and entered the Key Code and I was good. I guess those days are gone.

Problem Three: After getting the updates in and reinstalling my anti-virus I tried to re-open my favorite Google Chrome browser and go through some sites. Well, on some pages it was fast, but then when I go through blogs it goes very slow again. After all that, I found that Chrome doesn't work well with some Flash items on websites. So, possibly I did all this for nothing. I am telling myself I had way to much unnecessary software on my computer before and this streamlined, no additional software added, installation will make life faster and better anyway. I have to think that, otherwise I wasted my day for nothing.

I am back to running everything on Internet Explorer and it works fine. I guess I'll wait on Chrome until they fix the problem.

Finally thought: Hopefully I get my man card back now. Fixing things that probably were not broken is definitely manly. Happy Halloween!