Guts for Gamey

Welcome to the electronic intensive care unit. It wasn't enough that Lappy had to be sent away for new innards. Or that my Crashy shuts me down up to three times per day. Now, Gamey, #2 son's new computer that he received for Christmas, is on life support. Yes. Just a power cord keeps him alive. Gamey had received new life from our resident surgeon, #1 son, when he died during the Vista upgrade. #2 son had been happily gaming after a new sound card gave Gamey voice again.

This afternoon, we were all minding our own business in different wings of the Mansion. #1 was Lappytating in his room, watching Mythbusters. #2 was lying on the basement couch, watching a Scooby Doo dvd. I was in my dark lair, 33 minutes deep into a Freaks & Geeks table read on disc 7 of the dvd collector's edition. All at once, our power went off. TVs and Dish Network receivers and lights and computers and the air conditioner (sorry, Diva) went off. Only for about 10 seconds. Which was my second computer restart of the day. I glanced at #2's computer, which he'd left on after a bout of gameplaying. It was completely black, though the monitor had a green light and the 'no signal' status box. I called #1 son, Mr. Computer 911. He came and said, "All you have to do is turn it back on." He did. A few moments later, I glanced over at it, and there was a line of writing at the top. Operating system not detected. It might as well have said, "Rest in peace, dear Gamey. We will miss you."

#1 son tried his whole box of tricks. Knoppix told him that the hard drive may be bad. Then he tried to save a file to the hard drive and restart. No file. So he diagnosed that Gamey needs a hard drive transplant. That means a hardrivectomy, then a hard drive implant. Now we have to go shopping for hard drives.

The good news is that Compaq says they are sending free of charge a Windows Vista Home Premium DVD to reinstall Vista. Which is a far cry from the night three foreigners told the boy they could not send him an XP recovery disk unless he paid $28. That's when Gamey wouldn't downgrade back to his original XP after a Vista upgrade resulted in a serious lack of drivers available. And erased a sound file.

The boy was excited by Compaq tech support this afternoon. "She has no trace of an accent, Mom!"

We'll see if he can get Gamey up and running again. He is adept at fiddling about inside the desktops. It was Lappy that stymied him. Because he couldn't crack open Lappy's hard outer shell. Or perhaps he knew better. And now, the poor boy is upstairs with his arm propped in the air, convalescing. Seems that Gamey bit a chunk out of his left index finger. Which is bad news for the little southpaw. And bad news for Gamey, who lies on the cold, cold basement floor with his entrails exposed to the elements.

And at the end of the day, we must all ask ourselves, "Surge suppressors. What are they good for?" Because Gamey was plugged into one at the end of an extension cord that was plugged into another one at the outlet. So TWO surge suppressors couldn't save Gamey's hard drive.

As Gummi Mary is my witness, I shall never buy another Compaq. Or any other brand of computer from The Devil's Playground.

Ever.