Potential Solution

So for the second day running I am blissfully late with my blog posting - this is brought to you a little after 3am, after I fell asleep for the second week running while watching Match of the Day!

The potential solution outlined in the topic is a reference to my computer. Having phoned up and spent some time chatting describing the problems, the error messages I was getting and so forth, they think the problem is the graphics card. This could well be correct, based on the fact that it's the display drivers that keep falling over.

I'm getting a new graphics card sent to me at work on Tuesday - I need to remember to take in the old graphics card so the person delivering can do a swap with me!

Technicalities

So this one is technically not today, what with it being 1:50 as I write this - but I'm post-dating it to just before midnight as in my mind, it's still Friday.

I write this after returning from a rather geeky evening with people from work - playing computer games for most of the evening. Quite enjoyable - featuring Mario Kart (which I was as usual pitiful on, besides for on average 1/3 laps when I would somehow do okay, then lose it on the rest) and also the epic Halo 3.

This was exceedingly fun, and after taking probably a couple of hours to familiarise myself again with how it works, I was getting better once more. Not as good as the two people who own it, however. But still not terrible. Although it's hard to tell - as the evening progressed, were my skills being honed, or were others just degrading as they consumed more alcohol?

Either way, it was a hilariously enjoyable night and became far too comically competitive at times too. Yelling at the screen, each other, far too much excitement. Most entertaining though!

Irony Strikes

So today I took the afternoon off work to have a go at fixing my computer. The reason for the half-day off was so that I could access the support as well while I do it - all very sensible, I'm sure you agree.

I got home at 2:30ish and did little for a while besides grabbing lunch. Then I went upstairs to have a go at fixing it. I thought I'd try a couple of things myself just to confirm it wouldn't behave - which sure enough, I was correct with. However, via an option hidden in startup repair I managed to get back in and load a system restore point.

I reinstalled programs, experiencing no issues. However, a short while ago an issue befell me. It was the same that had affected me before - the light blue screen over the top of everything. This time I had a warning just before and it recovered, which helpfully points that there's something not quite working. Sadly, I didn't realise what it was and so didn't note the error message that told me it had recovered from an error.

So this is the scenario now. My computer is back where it was - i.e. nowhere. The error appeared again, but with at least a little more of a clue as to where it comes from - and after 5pm, so I can't even call for support.

I will have to pick this up on Saturday most likely, fortunately they have a support open on the weekends.

Day Behind

So after yesterday's blog I have a feeling that this week I may be an entire day behind with each of my blogs. On the plus side, if this does happen and I don't have anything to talk about for the previous day, I can talk about the current day instead.

This time, however, I'll instead talk about the next day and the rest of the week, utterly reversing the trend. Tomorrow I have the afternoon off, and I am intending to spend it on the phone with the computer people to try and either get my PC working or - alternatively - get a collection organised for it to be fixed. Friday evening I will be going to a workmate's, along with other workmates, to have silly electronic-based fun and games. Very IT geeky, I know!

Another Miss

So yet again I was remiss yesterday with posting, odd considering I had again intended to and even had a few things to talk about. The first was that I had a very long Monday evening courtesy of not playing football - it's hard to get a 5-a-side game going when there are only 5 players available. It doesn't really work with just one side.

In the evening I had the obvious and very belated idea to move the nice powerful RAM from my stricken old computer into the old struggling downstairs computer. Like the shock to the system you would expect, it suddenly performs a lot better when you quintuple the RAM from 256MB by throwing in a 1GB stick.

Shame I didn't think of it a few weeks ago! Today, though, I have nothing to share from. Sorry!

Good and Bad

So I missed out on my blog yesterday which was a disappointment after a solid run. I had intended to do it, as well, but it just never happened. I put it off, forgot, then watched Match of the Day, had still not remembered and by then it was well past midnight and I went to bed.

So, a recap on yesterday in a Good/Bad format follows.

Good: My new computer arrived, and after much unpacking it was shiny.
Bad: After a quick call to identify the problem, it became apparent they'd failed to include a VGA/DVI adapter in the pack - i.e. I couldn't actually connect the monitor correctly to the graphics card, only into the motherboard (and it had to go via the graphics card).
Good: I managed to wander up the village and get a DVI lead within about ten minutes of this problem.
Bad: Had issues with the drivers for my wireless card. I needed to be online to get the correct ones to work with Windows 7, and couldn't connect to this without having the drivers for my wireless card.
Good: Managed to get them from my reserve computer, burn them onto a CD and then transfer onto my new computer. Worked a charm.
Bad: After returning to my computer after an interval of 10-20 minutes, there was no screen input.
Bad: On attempting to fix this and eventually having to just restart the machine, it wouldn't load Windows.
Bad: Further attempts to load Windows met with the same problem.
Bad: System Repair found no problems. There was clearly still a problem as nothing would start - not even the boot menu.

This does not bode well. To have this much collapsing within about three hours of using it suggests there may be a little problem here. Have a feeling I will be computerless for a good while again until this is sorted.

Plus Seven, Minus Thirty

So in another interesting date note, today marks two things, hence the pseudo-cryptic title today.

Firstly, seven up. In other words, today marks seven years that I've been with Chrissi. Quite a respectable achievement, I have to say. Not sure what the seventh anniversary theme is - anyone else aware of it?

The thirty down refers to the (allegedly very girly) countdown to our wedding. I didn't realise the groom wasn't allowed to look forward to it too! Anyway, 30 days to go - or if you prefer, one month as today is also the tenth! Astounding!

Home Again

Well, as promised yesterday Rachel is now home once more. It seems to be a case of settling straight back into the same old routine! Tomorrow evening we are going out for a meal, where we will also hear many stories of the last year I'm sure! She flew back on the shiny double-decker A380 from Singapore - although only on the lower deck! More on her experiences this time tomorrow.

Tonight was also poker, where I finished a respectable third place. In other notorious number news, this is the 136th blog this year - equalling my best ever annual tally. And it's only September too!