It’s like a West End farce, honestly. What a week. What follows
is only a brief outline of the main events …
A couple of weeks ago, desktop computers A and B (situated in the same office)
fail on the same day. On investigation the diagnosis was “System A has a
dead motherboard and System B has a dead hard disk”. Fate takes an early
2-0 lead.
OK, the first step is easy. We take the hard disk from A, put it
into B and, after a small amount of re-configuration, we have one
working system, B. Hurrah, 2-1.
We need a replacement for A of course, so a new machine is
ordered. Meanwhile, a new machine is also ordered for
Patient Member Of Staff whose current PC is slow, old and horrible –
she can make do with the one she has for now, but a new one will
eventually be appreciated. When A’s replacement appears, let’s call
this one C, it is effectively dead on arrival. 3-1. We
arrange for this to be returned to the supplier, who in the meantime
has shipped the second new machine, D, destined for
Patient Member Of Staff. However, replacing A is more urgent than
getting a new machine ready for Patient Member Of Staff and, since D
appears to working without problem, I put it on the desk where the
smouldering wreck that was A still remains. 3-2.
Whilst waiting for the repaired system C to be returned from the
supplier, in anticipation of being able to equalize at 3-3, fate
once more rolls the dice …
Another PC, E, belonging to Important Person, fails. Well, it’s
old and clunky and probably needed replacing anyway. Still, we’re
now trailing 4-2. Important Person really needs to have a
new system up and running quickly, so, given that the owner of A
(now replaced with D – are you keeping up?) has suddenly decided to
take a few days off with a particularly nasty case of
food-poisoning, I get D and put it on Important Person’s desk and
dispose of E. That was Thursday lunchtime. 4-3.
On Friday morning, Important Person tells me that D won’t start.
On investigation, D is truly lifeless, despite having worked
perfectly since its arrival. Fate keeps up the pressure and takes a
5-3 lead. I begin to suspect that Important Person might be
doing something to affect the life of his PC, when the fixed
replacement C re-appears, just in the nick of time. So, I replace
the now-dead D with C, which does indeed appear to have been fixed.
5-4.
So, the state of play at the end of Friday is that we need a
replacement for D, itself a replacement for A; and we still need a
new machine for Patient Member Of Staff, who is finding she needs to
be more and more patient as each day passes.
And that’s where we are right now.
Also, during the course of the week, my own shiny 19-inch monitor
decided to give up working – it’s about 9 months into a 3 year
warranty. On speaking to our usual supplier (who sold us the
monitor originally), he said that monitors of that brand – Hansol – offer a good swap-out
service on in-warranty monitors. “They’ll just turn up with a
new one.”, he says. I’m understandably a bit doubtful that it
could be so simple, but ring up the service centre. Bloke asks for
the model number, the serial number, my name and address and then
announces “We’ll be round at your office between 9 and 5 on
Monday and will bring a replacement.” He didn’t seem much
interested in finding out what exactly was wrong with it, or
anything else.
😯
This sounds too good to be true, especially at the end of a week
like this, but I guess Monday will reveal all …