When technology becomes the bane of your existence

Today was supposed to be like any other day. Until I sat at my desk, tried to turn on my computer and all I got was a black screen. HORROR. You know that infamous scene in Psycho where Janet Leigh gets stabbed in the shower? The string music from that scene was running through my head.

I tried to reboot the computer about 10 times before I conceded that this was a job for a professional. In the two years that I have had my Dell Inspiron E1405, I have never had to contact tech support, but it was one of the reasons why I had chosen a Dell laptop to begin with. Friends and colleagues had raved about the tech support and customer service that came part and parcel with being a Dell owner.

I figured out that you could do a Live Chat with a tech specialist through the Dell site, and using my parent's computer, logged on. After a couple minutes, I was connected to Dalip, who for the next 5 hours (yes, I said 5 hours), tried to help me pinpoint the problem. During this time, I actually physically took apart my computer- something I thought I would never, ever do. I'm not technologically incompetent- I love my computer, blogs, Facebook and Gmail, perhaps just a bit too much, but I've always been apprehensive about handling hardware.

Suprisingly though, minus the frusration and anxiety over whether my files could be saved, it was actually kind of fun taking apart my computer and putting it back together- flashback to memories of playing Operation as a kid. And I now know the general anatomy of my laptop- I could even tell you how to take out and replace the memory modules, modem, and hard drive.

At multiple points though, I admit that panic started to creep in- this is the computer that holds most, if not all of my personal and business documents. Yes, I do backup the most important files, but not everything. Dalip though, he was rock- calm, cool and collected and ridiculously patient.

At the end of 5 hours, Dalip decided that the motherboard on my little computer was busted. He reassured me that he was ordering the part and then having it shipped to a Dell technician who would contact me to set up a time to come by and replace the part in the next first 2-3 days. And most importantly, he confirmed that my files were safe.

At first I felt like I had lost half of a work day. But this unpleasant encounter with the troubles that can arise when you rely on technology too much has provided me with some much needed perspective:

1) I need to write things down on paper more often. Not to mention printing out hard copies of important documents and e-mails.

2) I should remember to back-up everything on my computer. Everything.

3) I need to remind myself that technology isn't human, but it was designed by humans, so it's not perfect.

Wishing you a technology trouble-free week!