Confusers

Sometimes I think "confuser" is a more accurate name for this gizmo than "computer."

I was having some problems with the thing and was concerned something really terrible happened -- hard drive crash or something -- and while most of my stuff is backed up, not ALL of it was.

So I took the confuser to a confuser repair place. The technician found the dial-up/fax modem (which I never used) was bad and removed it. He also uninstalled some extra anti-virus software which, I think, came with the confuser when I bought it in 2008.

Everything seemed fine, although I had a bit of a scare yesterday -- the confuser acted up again, just as it did before I took it in. I called the guy who suggested trying a different power supply or electrical outlet. I had already unplugged an external hard drive with a transformer from the surge-protected power strip I have everything plugged into. Guess what? The problem hasn't returned!

So -- either the surge protector is getting too old (and it IS old!), and/or the transformer for the external drive really was interrupting the power supply to the confuser itself.

Well, at least things seem OK for now. I'll plug the external drive into another outlet, and I may unplug the printers from the surge protector, too. And maybe buy another surge protector for the confuser.

And then maybe I can try to get back on schedule with blogging again!