Yes, we have no computers

[desperance]

Actually, of course, the subject line is a lie: we do have computers. We have the Laptop of Heavenly Perfection, as witness; and we have the old redundant desktop, which might be remade into a functional tool. But. This was none the less not a good day to go to power up the main machine and have nothing happen.

Actually, of course, that's a lie too: something is happening. The power button is flashing at me, slowly and sullenly. Nothing else is happening.

I have done the only thing I know how to do, which is to unplug it and let it sit a while and meditate upon its sins. And then I plugged it back in again, and lo: sullen flashing, nothing more.

There is, no doubt, an easy fix for this; but I do not know what it is. I shall shriek for professional help, and pay a man to do something easy. And make my usual resolutions to get myself for God's sake organised, so that next time this doesn't throw me into a total fluttering panic...

And meanwhile I am at the Lit & Phil, borrowing their wi-fi on the LHP and vaguely hoping to do some work (because yes, my back-up system has worked admirably: all of yesterday's work was sitting in my googlemail account only waiting for me to pick it up, hurrah...), but I'm not confident. My brain is all over the place. And my table is in the wrong place (they have Rearranged the Silence Room! They have put the tables back Wrongly!), and quite how a man is supposed to produce deathless prose under these conditions, I am not entirely clear.

Comments

[durham-rambler.livejournal.com]

1. Googling dell power light flashing gives 521,000 hits. It suggests there are a number of possible causes but many of them point to the power supply.
2. Given where you are, have you tried standing on the carpet and reciting an incantation three times?

[martyn44.livejournal.com]

That suggests 'power supply' to me. Good luck.

As for brain centring, kill someone and describe it in detail (given you are a writer of fiction rather than a mere journalist, you do not actually HAVE to kill anyone, however much you might wish to do so) You should be in the mood to commit deathless prose once that is done.

Its either that or the Hemingway route (one bottle of scotch later)

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

If you can't write deathless prose you are left with one solution: write the immortal.

[silly-swordsman.livejournal.com]

Immortal prose is simple, as long as you skip the 't'.

[ogre-san.livejournal.com]

Power supply. Almost certainly, though you can't totally rule out the motherboard. The PS may be overloaded (If you've filled up the internal slots with power-hungry cards) or it may have just failed. If the latter it IS an easy fix, relatively speaking, but it does involve buying and installing a new one.

[dedbutdrmng.livejournal.com]

And my table is in the wrong place (they have Rearranged the Silence Room! They have put the tables back Wrongly!),

You're being possessed by your cats!* You need an old vet and a young vet...





*Says the person who was shocked into three weeks of inactivity because the new computers screen was, 'too wide!