Sometimes writers develop these odd rituals. I know someone who gets a new laptop for every book. He takes very good care of them and when the time comes for a new manuscript, he sells the old one and upgrades, so it doesn’t cost him that much. Another person can’t move forward without first setting up their soundtrack. These rituals are a way to “get your head in the game.” Many of us work from home and maintaining a home office isn’t always feasible. For many of us office means a desk in a corner or, in my case, an overstuffed recliner.
As I’ve been editing Magic Rises, I’ve become increasingly frustrated with my laptop. I feel like I can’t see the book pages. So I decided to edit on the desktop today. This is pretty common – when writers edit, they want a little distance from the narrative. Some change the font, some set it in a different layout, and I, apparently, need to edit this particular book on a desktop.
Unfortunately my desktop decided to get freaked out. A couple of years ago we bought two Alienware desktops. Gordon’s is still running like new, while mine occasionally decides to go off the beaten path into the woods and play with the fairies. The desktop has a really robust cooling system and when you first turn it on, its segmented top rises like crest of an Alien, which is really cool. If my desktop hasn’t been shut down properly due to power loss or has to be manually restarted by pressing down the power button, it doesn’t boot up. The lights are on, the fan is running like a jet, but nothing is happening.
I used to be able to cure it by turning it off, unplugging it, and then replugging it while holding down the power button for a couple of minutes. This doesn’t work anymore. The only thing that works is unplugging it for a while, replugging it and letting half an hour or so pass. I am usually very level-headed when it comes to anger. I’m much more likely to talk then act, but in case of the desktop, I once got so frustrated, I kicked it. Eventually we’ll have to upgrade and get new gaming desktops. I am not sure if I’m up for another Alienware.
Well, I just tried the desktop and it looks like it’s booting up. I will go an try to whip this book into some sort of shape.
Ah…. the joys of computers.
There are some computers that love us and others that refuse to work for us. I’m still using my 17-inch Vostro, which works wonderfully, but raises a lot of eyebrows when I go out with it. It’s great for my job when I need split screens to do advanced editing. I keep telling myself I need an upgrade, but I can’t find a large, thin and light laptop. Lol.
Hi,
I had the same problem with my desktop.
In my case one of the overclock settings in the bios got changed (I never touched them but …).
Try resetting the bios settings to factory default.
If it doesn’t help, it won’t hurt.
Good luck editing.
Camputers are the devil!!! (just joking)
I own a mac, and while writting my thesis, I wanted to set the mac on fire … really, it was annoying as hell. The I borrowed my father’s dell, with windows 7 and ahhh, heaven!!!!!! I forgot how much I missed windows …
I love my Mac but it’s not my favorite for writing either. Good Luck Ilona:)
I’ve had something similar happen to my computer, and I have to use the spray air thingy. Usually on the fan, but you have to be careful, cause you can damage the fan. I think I read you’re supposed to hold the fan of the blade with something, and then spray. Anyways, I’ve had it happen twice, and it’s dust from not using the computer much that causes it.
Computers are such time savers…until they are not and then they eat your time and sit on your desk laughing at you.
Perhaps if you danced around it charting to the alien gods of technology?!?
Good luck with the editing…we will all send positive thoughts your way. This is (almost) entirely selfish, because we all really want that book to be put out ASAP.
My hubby seconds the bios factory reset. He also says alienware went to crap after they got bought out by Dell. He said DelI like it’s a disgusting word that made him feel dirty just for uttering. Last time he had that look on his face was when he told me about the Disney and Lucasfilms. Anyways, good luck with Home Depot and the desktop.
Bwahahaha!
This!
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Dell is the Home Depot of the computing world. After I say the D word I feel compelled to brush my teeth and rinse my mouth out with Listerine
This sounds like a very hevy cloging problem. Will be dust in the coolers, or that you put clot or a wall near the air intakes.
Anyway, the computer overheats and the motherboard cooks like.. a stalker
So check for obstructed coolers, closed ventilation intakes and alien beacons
In a multi-pet household, I bet you are right. Especially if the CPU is on the floor. All the pets apparently love Ilona and hang out around her. They know where the food comes from
Computers are such pains sometimes though I can’t even imagine writing a novel on a typewriter.
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Ok, it seems that technology declared war on you….
Or tech flu….
Perhaps your computer hasn’t had it’s coffee this morning.
I’ve had this happen with my computer. For me it seems to be solved by turning the computer off from the switch in the back, and then turning it back on.
I once had a computer that started to giggle when I came down the stairs to use it. Needless to say no one else could hear it. They definitely are not inanimate objects
I am more the smack it several times type too. My mom jokes that when she gets frustrated with her computer she feels like going out and doing a dance in the rain with a headless chicken or some such.
Good luck with that Computers are funny things!
I’m on Team Ilona’s side…. PC Boooo
Good luck with the editing! We are all eagerly (and encouragingly) awaiting the final product!
My husband builds computers for a hobby. Like literally takes lots of strange-looking pieces of plastic and metal and makes them into working computers. After I read your post, I dragged him over and made him read it too. He muttered something like -motherboard, maybe power supply- but the rest of what he said made no sense to me.
I asked him about gaming setups. He says that Alienware is a great, well respected company, which of course you know. If you’re looking for a different option, he suggests that you might look into local computer shops and see if you can find someone who can build you a custom setup. Apparently, the actual cost of the computer components is way less than what is charged by companies for the final product, so it could actually be cheaper if you find someone who can build one (or two) gaming setups for you.
Oooh good idea. I might try that for my next computer.
Oh my. I have computer envy now. TWO Alienwares? I ogle them every time I go into a gaming store. I hope you can get a new one soon and I will be even more envious.
I’ve always believed that Alienware is a bit overpriced. You can get similar/better specs for a lot less. They are extremely pretty though. To be honest, I build my own desktops, and it’s a lot easier than you might think. When my computer died last year, I built a new one (excluding monitor, keyboard, and mouse) for about $800 after rebates. (We have a Microcenter.) It’s a fully equipped gaming PC with an Intel core i7 processor. My graphics card could stand to be updated (it’s only an NVIDIA GTS 450), and I could always add more RAM, but I was building on a budget.
When you get an Alienware, I feel like you’re paying for not only the labor and out-of-the-box functionality, but also the brand name. The same could be said for Apple (although I’m unsure if you can easily acquire an OEM OS for Apple).
As far as what you can do now, I’d ask if you’ve dusted it recently. I open up the case and dust at least twice a year, more if I notice temperature spikes and it’s been awhile since the last cleaning. Can of air is your best friend here.
If you’re feeling adventurous, check all of the power connections and make sure that everything is “clicked in” completely. (Most connections inside a computer lock into place.) Most importantly, check the two power cords running from your power supply to the motherboard. There should be a larger rectangular one as well as a smaller square one.
If everything seems secure, then it really becomes a process of elimination, and I don’t know how far you’re willing to go as far as taking your computer apart and putting it back together again. Once you’ve learned how to do it it’s really simple (although occasionally nerve-wracking, lol) and you’ll be able to handle most problems on your own, or with help from Google.
Echo all this. My brother assembles our family PCs too. His troubleshooting often involves swapping various parts and boards from another PC to check what’s causing the problem. There have been a few times when opening up the CPU and pushing stuff back in place (video cards, etc) have solved the problem.
Exorcism. It’s your only hope!
Technology is great… When it bothers to work…
I feel your pain. When the twins were just moving to toddler-hood, they decided to play scrabble with the keys of my new-ish laptop. I got them back on but they were never the same. They are now popping off one by one and I can’t get them back on. I’m currently missing “o”, “g”, “h”, “b”, “n”, and one “Tab.” It’s very frustrating but it’s a nice laptop, really isn’t that old yet, and everything else works fine. When it really bothers me I plug in another keyboard. Which, of course, defeats the purpose of the laptop. :/
I’ve heard that beating it with a rubber chicken works.
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I’m in grad school working on a very writing intensive master’s program so all I do is write paper after paper after paper. I haven’t been able to start a paper on the computer since undergrad so I wrote the rough long hand. Now, I write my entire paper, start to finish, on multiple legal pads until its perfect than type it up to hand it in. I go through maybe, five? Legal pads for every twenty – thirty page paper. By the time I’m done with grad school I will have taken out an entire forest, but at least I haven’t gone crazy from computer woes. Just saying…
You make me think of my father, who was a medical researcher. He re-wrote all his papers long-hand on yellow legal paper. He said that papers were never written, they were rewritten. Yellow legal paper and sharp number pencils have positive vibes.
I think, your computers might be female. That would explain, why Gordon’s is running smoothly and yours keeps bitching around. Maybe Gordon should always start your computer with some soothing words before you start working on it.
“To err is human. To really screw up, it takes a computer.”
As the Beachmaster in “The Longest Day” said “Something mechanical doesn’t work? Give it a good bash!”
As I recall, he seemed quite as surprised as anyone when the APC he hit with his walking stick suddenly started up afterward.
What about an after-the-book-is-finished ritual? Do you and Gordon treat yourself for that? Favorite wine, special dinner, anything celebratory?
Because of funds and a certain amount of stubbornness I held my last laptop together with a piece of 2X4 that I cobbled together for the purpose. It held up another couple months until I could get one on Black Friday. That laptop rests in the shed somewhere, complete with 2X4.
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Perhaps it is not working because a magic wave is up
Mine often craps out when I am doing a massive spreadsheet analysis (excel memory utilization issue) and won’t work until I swear at it like a sailor and threaten to kick it own 20 flights of stairs – that is when its self preservation program kicks in
In a pinch can you just run the laptop with the monitor and keyboard of the desktop?
I would suggest turning it off, taking the side panel off and vac’ing the whole thing out. Then get a can of air and blow everything you could not vac off and vac that up. Once clean turn it back on. If you still have issues contact your reliable local techie for advice. Good Luck.
Description on Amazon of Magic Rises:
Atlanta is a city plagued by magical problems. Kate Daniels will fight to solve them—no matter the cost.
Mercenary Kate Daniels and her mate, Curran, the Beast Lord, are struggling to solve a heartbreaking crisis. Unable to control their beasts, many of the Pack’s shapeshifting children fail to survive to adulthood. While there is a medicine that can help, the secret to its making is closely guarded by the European packs, and there’s little available in Atlanta.
Kate can’t bear to watch innocents suffer, but the solution she and Curran have found threatens to be even more painful. The European shapeshifters who once outmaneuvered the Beast Lord have asked him to arbitrate a dispute—and they’ll pay him in medicine. With the young people’s survival and the Pack’s future at stake, Kate and Curran know they must accept the offer—but they have little doubt that they’re heading straight into a trap…