Computer Problems Resolved. Fingers Crossed!

Unexpectedly, my old desktop is working again,  thanks to my wonderful DH!

We thought there was a hardware fault,  or maybe more than one. I had been running into problems for ages with a very slow running internet and was completely losing connection on occasion. I thought that was Internet Explorer and changed to Chrome but then uninstalled as I had too much associated junk installed with it.

I have regular backups set to backup to an external drive so any computer crash is not usually associated with too devastating a loss of data. That wasn’t always the case - a few years ago I lost all my stored photographs in an error (combination of a cat, a daughter and a malicious website) that resulted in a presumed virus and having to wipe my computer laptop with no data being salvaged. I also have cloud storage but tend not to use it other than being able to access Google Drive from all my devices. 

We decided to really clean up the computer, possibly return it to factory settings. We couldn't set a recovery point, as there was a Windows error (message on screen), so we did everything else we felt was possible. We couldn't set the recovery point because we couldn't link to a Windows service - that turned out not to be my computer, though, but due to a windows update which hadn’t installed properly. We discovered that when my brand new laptop showed the same error message!  A search online showed that many other people had the same problem and provided the solution, which was easy to apply. 

We didn’t set back to factory settings as I was  also concerned about the possible loss of some of my programmes. I appear to have mislaid some programme disks.  I was certainly prepared to if the other measures hadn’t worked but fortunately they did.

Then we found I could connect to the Internet via an Ethernet connection. My computer thought it was a toaster, though, and had to be taught everything again. I had to put in the password for our broadband again (no fun when there are 50 characters!).  It didn't pick up my installed wireless printer. It wouldn't work on wireless so we thought it might be a problem with the wireless hardware.

More cleaning,  checking etc.

Then, my computer worked on wireless when we retried. It then picked up the printer. It was a computer again!

We did a proper deep back up and could now set a recovery point.

I'm still busy sorting it.

Proper housekeeping.

Getting rid of programmes I no longer use.

Getting rid of cache and clearing browsing history

Disk checking - it was fine

Checking the registry (there were lots of problems there, but all quickly resolved)

Virus checking - one malsign exterminated

Defragmenting - had been performed regularly

Tune up programme

I have plenty of disk space so that wasn’t an issue.

I'm hopeful it might be fine for a while. We still don’t know what the problem was, though. Still, I thought my computer was dying of old age and so I’m glad still to have it.

I also mentioned previously, I think, that I bought a new laptop to replace my previous one given to one of my daughters when hers broke. I bought two copies of Microsoft Office (one for my laptop and one for DH) and it installed but wouldn't register or activate - the code I supplied was not considered valid. I thought I had been a victim of software piracy (that was the message DH got) and had been fleeced out of the purchase price (not inconsiderable). However, the company I bought it from responded appropriately, checked to see that I had properly followed instructions and decided my code had been faulty. Today they supplied a new code which worked fine and I now have a properly activated copy of Office. DH's also activated okay. 

Getting my desktop running properly and setting up my laptop has taken quite a while and is ongoing. I’m hopeful, though, that I’ll end up with a well running system and that my blog posts will improve.

Things will get better from now on!

I've had a lot of computer problems. A lot of problems with Blogger - and with other programmes.

I started to use my smartphone and my tablet for a lot of pictures and posts but, well, they really weren't up to this!

I'm writing this on my brand new laptop. I'm in the process of setting it up. I had a laptop previously. It was pretty old but reasonably competent. Then my daughter's laptop broke down permanently - and her need was greater than mine. When I gave it to her, I didn't envisage getting another as I thought my tablet would suffice. It's great for so many things, but not, I feel, for writing and publishing posts. Hence my new purchase.

On accessing my blog posts earlier this morning to post a reply, using my tablet, I saw that, once again, many of my pictures had disappeared. I will spend some time trying to restore some of them but will simply delete others. I have all the photos still, and think I need to find a better way to store these. Those I took on my camera, and those from my husband's camera are stored nicely in appropriate files but more recent ones, in drive, are less well 'filed'.

Because I was using my smartphone photos loaded onto drive and into blogger, there was no editing. Editing is important - my earlier photos ere all edited and those DH takes on his camera usually are. He uses Photoshop and I have the baby version - Photoshop elements - but think I might try to use Picasa as that is the programme blogger intrinsically uses and in which it stores photos.

Previously, I tried to set up labels  under which I could file specific posts e.g. all the posts about my pattern drafting. Despite quite a bit of reading and trying, I didn't succeed in doing this. I think it is easier on WordPress and I wondered about shifting but I think I'll persevere for the moment.

Anyway, I have a few things to set up and then I'll think about those photos. I have to sort out my photo filing before I try to fix in my posts or I'll just lose them again.