Archive for the ‘Random’ Category

Yesterday the motherboard in my laptop decided it was done with me, and, well, fried.

The hard drive is fine, but inaccessible for two weeks while I ship off the hardware for repair by Dell.  The insane luck part: I ran a backup the day before it died. I try to do them regularly, and I ought to automate the process, but it was by sheer luck that it failed right after a backup.

I’ve tried to be good about backups, as I’ve had a few hard drives fail over the years.  It certainly paid off this time. So as a public service, this is me, reminding you, back up your work.  Now would be good.

It’s a Dell XPS M1330, for those keeping score.

Update: Purolator dropped off my notebook already, good as new.  Here’s the timeline for my repair:

• Tuesday afternoon: The motherboard fails. I call Dell, they spend a few minutes trying to diagnose it then tell me I’ll have to send it in.  Unfortunately, the warranty is in Staples’ name, where I bought it, so I had to update my information, which I’m told takes about 24 hours to complete in their system.
• Wednesday morning: I receive an email from Dell saying that the update of my info is complete.  I call them back, and they arrange for my notebook to be shipped to them.
• Thursday morning, 9:00 am: Purolator shows up to drop off a box.  I remove my hard drive and place the notebook in the nicely padded box.  I slap-on the pre-paid shipping tags and  I call back Purolator.  They come get the box that afternoon.
• Monday morning, 8:25 am: Purolator arrives with my repaired notebook. Everything seems to be in order.

Pretty quick, I think.  I’m fairly impressed by Dell this time.  (Now, I have to get back to work!)

The past couple of days, I’ve been having trouble with my iPhone. I thought I’d post the answer here, in case anyone else encounters this — or to make fun of myself, because the solution was surprisingly simple.

I was repeatedly seeing “Call Failed” when I tried to make or answer phone calls.  I would answer my phone, for example, and a few seconds later it would abruptly drop the call.  At first I assumed it was Rogers’ fault… just because it usually is.  But in this case, it was not.  The solution is simple.

Turn your phone off.

The iPhone is a computer, and as you’re probably aware, computers suck.  They don’t always work like they should, and after some time, they need a restart.  Powering off the phone and turning it back on seems to fix the problem.  I’ll try to remember to restart my iPhone each time I charge it.  (Thanks to the guy in the Rogers Plus store for letting me know.)

I’ll admit, I felt a little stupid after that.  Normally, when I call a support desk or ask for help, I’ve already tried the obvious stuff like restarting my PC, checking all the cords, etc.  For some reason I wasn’t expecting the same with my phone.

I hope this helps someone.