Christmas His and Hers

I know you won't believe this, but Granpa has been using a computer we bought for me right after Hurricane Katrina so that I would have a laptop to use when deployed on disaster relief.  It was state of the art back in 2005 - a whopping 80 gigs!

One of our daughters-in-law gave me another one when she upgraded a few years ago (500 gig), so I handed my Katrina laptop off to Granpa.  He uses it almost 100% to manage his photos. (No surprise there!)

But photos take up a LOT of gigs these days, and especially the kinds of photos Granpa takes.  For the past six months every time Granpa opens his laptop, I have to steel myself for a lot of grumbling and under-his-breath *%#* comments.  So I start shopping for a new laptop for Granpa.

Back in the day, we paid $1,500 for that 80 gig Katrina.  Now I find a Dell laptop from Walmart.com running Windows 8 that has 1 trig of memory, a touch screen, and a keyboard with a numeric pad for $499!  Now THAT's amazing!  That is so amazing that I decide to spend some bonus money that I earned from John's current traveler company (a story I may or may not tell in the future), and I order myself one of these hot babies, too!

Granpa's shift has him off of work for six days before Christmas, on call Christmas day, and then at work for basically the next six days.  When the computers are delivered I decide to give him his gift early so that he has those six days off to play with the new toy.  Sometimes I am just wise beyond my years!

We open our identical computers.  He hands me one; he keeps one.  I open mine up, and she runs like a charm!  (Windows 8 is a little weird, but charming nonetheless.)  He opens his up, and it's a train wreck!  Windows 8 is enough to throw anyone off, and the pop-up ads are coming at him right and left.  I set my laptop aside and start whack-a-moleing as fast as any kid on a computer game - but I'm not fast enough and some simply refuse to go away no matter how much I whack 'em.  The system comes with 30 days of McAfee security for free.  I'm thinkin' McAfee is a pretty wimpy dude!

I start to put together a plan of attack in my mind that includes getting System Suite (our preferred defender of pop-ups, etc.) onto Granpa's system asap.  Much easier thought than done, I can tell you for sure.  I'm so glad that I bought a twin, so that I know it's not Dell, it's whoever brought Granpa's to life.  I name that fool George (apologies to any George I might know out there - no reflection, just a name that popped into my brain.)

Day Two:  I'm still whackin' moles, and I have been completely unsuccessful in getting System Suite downloaded.  Granpa is getting pretty unhappy.  I decide to call for help.  (I silently thank the Lord that I had decided to give the gift early because come Christmas Day I would bet the phone lines will be going nuts from everyone getting gifts all on the same day.)   I call a number - can't even remember where I glommed onto that number.  The tech takes over the system, confirms there are major flaws, and calmly says that he can fix it for $250.  WHAT!?!  A brand spankin' new computer not even 24 hours old!?!  I don't think so!

I decide to call Dell direct.  Why, what a darlin'!  He says he can fix it for $100.  WHAT!?! A brand spankin' new computer no even 24 hours old!?!  I don't think so!  Dell advises that, because we bought it through a third party, there is no warranty on the software, etc. having been loaded correctly.  He says that I have the option of returning it to Wal-Mart and buying directly from Dell.

Hey!  Now, there's an idea!  Okay, so how much does this jewel cost directly from Dell?  $250 MORE than I paid through Wal-Mart!?!  He calmly explains that that is because, direct from Dell, it comes with "free" tech service.  Ah.  No.  Not happenin'.  And I am forever put off from buying another Dell from anyone.

Put on the "Rocky" music because I am up to this challenge.  I have a twin laptop and I have a brain. I can do this!

I line all four laptops up, I am ambidexterous, mentally and physically, so I have two mouses (mice) on the left and two on the right.  I begin to out think George.  There is more than one way to skin a cat - but I might have to skin this one six ways from the middle!

I can't even remember all of the different things I tried, and I can't even remember which ones worked.  I do know that when I finally got System Suite downloaded things began to change quickly and dramatically.  There were apparently over 100 drivers out of date, a ton of virus had to be cleaned, defragged the disc ... truly every thing that System Suite had in its tool box was put into play.  And I'm proud to say that I did not grumble or say under-my-breath *%#* comments.  But, trust me, it was only by the grace of God.



Now I am in the process of transferring files - which is in no way as simple as I thought it would be - even with a 1 trig external hard drive. But I have my trusty Lolo the mountain lion as a woobie for when the going gets tough.

I am most anxious to get Granpa his photos because he is extremely stressed about all of this nonsense.  I'm am so not happy with Dell.  They should NOT ship computers with scrambled brains - and then demand money to get things right.