Last week my CD-R/RW drive bit the dust. I was sad. I liked that drive. I have another CD drive, but the living one only reads disks; it doesn’t burn them. Of course this occurs at year-end, when I want to make extra backups of all the accounting data, and at the completion of a huge advertising job, when I want to burn a CD with photos of all 187 signs. I thought about summoning our IT Geek but then I figured, “Hey, it can’t be that hard - after all, they let guys do it!”, so last night we went to Staples and I bought a new CD-R/RW. It’s a lovely little Sony one that’s much faster than the dead one, plus its purchase supports the company that gave us PlayStation, and that’s just not wrong.
My computer geek boyfriend assured me that swapping out the drives wouldn’t be problematic so long as I was careful to plug ribbon cables and such back in exactly the same way as IT Geek Pat had them. Yeah, I should have known then...but I felt confident. I remembered to bring screwdrivers and dust-blowy stuff and Band-Aids. I was super-competent, capable; I was CompuWoman! (dun-dun-DUUUUUNN!) About 9:40 this morning I actually started the job, which is when things went awry.
Using my brilliant deductive skills, I realized that the first step would be removing the computer’s case. I thought there would be screws involved. I was wrong. I saw no screws. I couldn't figure out how to get it apart. Thinking to myself, “Even Michael Dell wouldn’t sell a computer whose case just pops right off!”, I phoned Alan for help. His expert advice: “Look on the back. The screws should be there.” Well, YEAH, but if they were, I wouldn't have called. He described a computer case in more detail than I’d ever imagined one could inspire, waxing eloquent about possible locations for the screws, none of which contained any. I hung up, discouraged. About to give in and summon IT Geek Pat, I kept poking stubbornly at the computer, finally realizing that yes, the case does in fact pop right off. Onward!
I removed the old CD drive and installed the new one without incident. Then came my next stumbling block: trying to convince Windows to recognize it. I tried the basic A-T-L command and shouted at it, “Yo, reckahnize!" but it ignored me - damn foreigner device. [That’s A-T-L as in Atlanta, not as in I don’t know the proper name of the ALT key.] Problems ensued. There was swearing. By trial-and-error, I realized that the computer would work properly when I had only one CD drive plugged in, but not both. I knew there were settings designating primary and secondary CD drives, but was confused as to why that wasn't working as it had worked fine before. I knew it had been set up properly because our professional IT Geek had done it. WTF? Anyway, I tried a few more things in vain, then gave in and called Patrick.
He tried to turn it into some sort of obscene phone call, with talk of suicidal sadomasochists, but eventually I got him back on computers. Hee hee, that was a geek pun - it seems I have jumpers that are master and slave. (Get it? Jumpers? Master and slave?) The new Sony came preset with its jumper on 'master' which is how the existing Samsung was also set, causing a conflict. Not being a geek myself, I didn't know to check this. Is it mentioned at all in the installation instructions provided by Sony? Why, fuck no! So I had to unplug all the peripherals and cables again, take the case back off again, uninstall the new drive so I could see the teeny-tiny letters engraved on the back of it, move the jumper over two millimeters, re-install it and put everything back together. Again. But this time, it worked.
Thus, today I have a brand-new, shiny Sony CD-R/RW which is working, and I did it all by myself! And by ‘all by myself’ I mean ‘with only two frantic phone calls pleading for assistance’. Praise me! PRAISE ME!!!
MONTOYA DELENDA EST!
My computer geek boyfriend assured me that swapping out the drives wouldn’t be problematic so long as I was careful to plug ribbon cables and such back in exactly the same way as IT Geek Pat had them. Yeah, I should have known then...but I felt confident. I remembered to bring screwdrivers and dust-blowy stuff and Band-Aids. I was super-competent, capable; I was CompuWoman! (dun-dun-DUUUUUNN!) About 9:40 this morning I actually started the job, which is when things went awry.
Using my brilliant deductive skills, I realized that the first step would be removing the computer’s case. I thought there would be screws involved. I was wrong. I saw no screws. I couldn't figure out how to get it apart. Thinking to myself, “Even Michael Dell wouldn’t sell a computer whose case just pops right off!”, I phoned Alan for help. His expert advice: “Look on the back. The screws should be there.” Well, YEAH, but if they were, I wouldn't have called. He described a computer case in more detail than I’d ever imagined one could inspire, waxing eloquent about possible locations for the screws, none of which contained any. I hung up, discouraged. About to give in and summon IT Geek Pat, I kept poking stubbornly at the computer, finally realizing that yes, the case does in fact pop right off. Onward!
I removed the old CD drive and installed the new one without incident. Then came my next stumbling block: trying to convince Windows to recognize it. I tried the basic A-T-L command and shouted at it, “Yo, reckahnize!" but it ignored me - damn foreigner device. [That’s A-T-L as in Atlanta, not as in I don’t know the proper name of the ALT key.] Problems ensued. There was swearing. By trial-and-error, I realized that the computer would work properly when I had only one CD drive plugged in, but not both. I knew there were settings designating primary and secondary CD drives, but was confused as to why that wasn't working as it had worked fine before. I knew it had been set up properly because our professional IT Geek had done it. WTF? Anyway, I tried a few more things in vain, then gave in and called Patrick.
He tried to turn it into some sort of obscene phone call, with talk of suicidal sadomasochists, but eventually I got him back on computers. Hee hee, that was a geek pun - it seems I have jumpers that are master and slave. (Get it? Jumpers? Master and slave?) The new Sony came preset with its jumper on 'master' which is how the existing Samsung was also set, causing a conflict. Not being a geek myself, I didn't know to check this. Is it mentioned at all in the installation instructions provided by Sony? Why, fuck no! So I had to unplug all the peripherals and cables again, take the case back off again, uninstall the new drive so I could see the teeny-tiny letters engraved on the back of it, move the jumper over two millimeters, re-install it and put everything back together. Again. But this time, it worked.
Thus, today I have a brand-new, shiny Sony CD-R/RW which is working, and I did it all by myself! And by ‘all by myself’ I mean ‘with only two frantic phone calls pleading for assistance’. Praise me! PRAISE ME!!!
MONTOYA DELENDA EST!
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home