AOL Installed!

After my angst, AOL 9.1 is finally installed on my new Dell computer. What was the problem? You might have guessed it. It was the Vista operating system that was incompatible with AOL 9.0.

While waiting for Tom (PC Guy) this morning, I search the Internet to see if anyone else was having the same problems. It didn’t take me too long to find out that I wasn’t the only one by a long shot. Back at the beginning of the year there were quite a few postings to a Microsoft forum about other users who could not install AOL 9.0 or AOL 9.1, or even AOL 9.1 VR (Vista Ready) on their computers that had a Vista operating system.

I printed out the postings from that forum and gave it to Tom when he came in this morning. Tom had asked me to call AOL for support but I didn’t because I knew that would be an exercise in futility. Many people on the forum reported that they called the AOL Help line. That’s an oxymoron, AOL Help. Of course AOL was of no help. I even called Smart Computing for help. I’m a long time subscriber so I thought for the first time I would take advantage of their much advertised tech help line for subscribers. That was a waste of time. The guy on the other end of the line blew me off.

The postings on the forum dropped off after March of 2008 so I came to the conclusion that AOL finally figured out how to make their version 9.01 compatible with Vista. Tom and I downloaded the latest version. Right away we noticed that this was going to be a SLOW DOWNLOAD. It was. It took about 2 hours to download. Tom couldn’t wait. He has a life.

Tom fixed my HP Photosmart All-in-One printer problems (I couldn’t’ use the scanner) by uninstalling and reinstalling the software. It now works, for the time being at least. This is about the fourth time this software has been uninstalled and reinstalled.

Tom left the premises. I continued to monitor the SLOW AOL download. If this was downloading to Windows XP, it would only take minutes. But no, this is downloading to an upgraded version of Windows. What has this upgrade done for me? If anyone knows, let me know.

When the download was almost done, I got an error message. My heart dropped. But, there was hope. A button appeared that said “continue?” I said ‘YES!”. It picked up where it left off. This happened three more times. Man oh man. What is it with the upgrades? Don’t they test these things before they put them on the market? Of course they don’t. This is the new business ethic, throw it out on the market and let them work out the kinks. Thank you Mr. Softee.

The download finally completed and the Welcome screen of AOL appeared on my widescreen Dell computer. Nirvana! I love the user interface and icons on AOL. I have one friend who constantly criticizes me for staying with AOL. I know AOL has problems and has no support for its users but it does have the most user friendly Internet portal. It is the one I prefer.

My joy was short lived. I got an error message. Ugh! I turned of the computer, hoping it only needs a reboot. I wait a minute and, with bated breath, I turn the Dell back on. AOL came up! My computer didn’t blow up! It works! Hosanna!

How long this will last, I don’t’ know but I was had AOL up for three hours, catching up. Right now I’m on my old Gateway computer. I have AOL version 9.0 (which I reinstalled myself without any problems.) After dinner, I’ll turn on my Dell. Oh I hope I don’t have any more problems.

What did I learn from this whole episode? I should have listened to those who said Vista sucks. I’ve also learned that the Help lines also suck. What works now is going to forums on the Internet for others who have the same problem. This is the only place where you will find anyone who has the knowledge and can help. There are good people on those forums who are unselfish and willingly help those of use who aren’t techies.

This is something I discovered last week where I work. My boss had just completed two days removing Malware from the office network computers. After finishing he found he couldn’t get the printer to work. He posted the problem in the Google browser and discovered others who had the same problem. Within minutes he received an e-mail from a person in Russia who had the answer. The Russian user sent him an e-mail with instructions how to solve the problem. My boss keyed in the instructions. Immediately the printer began printing.

This episode opened my eyes. Don’t depend on AOL, Dell, Microsoft or Hewlett Packard. They’re too busy laying employees off and outsourcing work to India where they speak heavily accented English. The Help lines will never be effective because there is no money in it for the companies involved. The AOL’s, Dell’s, Microsoft’s, and Hewlett-Packard’s of this world don’t care about their consumer. They only care about making the sale. Their priority is how many stock options and bonuses they can give their executives. Perhaps the greatest failure perpetuated on the American public in recent years is this “upgrade” Vista. Someone please tell me how my life is better because I have Vista on my new computer. Please.

I say put a pie in the face of all those who are responsible for this travesty. Think different. I next time I get a Mac.

What Would Our Ancestors Have Done?

Lately, I’ve been having my share of technical problems with my computer and peripherals. I now have two computers in my home office, along with three printers. One would think that I have all the bases covered. One would be wrong.

I won’t bore you with the details of my problems but basically it is that I now cannot scan photos in my HP Photosmart All-in-One Printer. I suspect it has something to do with the printer drivers changing when I tried to print a photo. Hewlett-Packard is so hot to get their users plugged into their continual stream of updates and ads; it is now almost impossible just to use the printer.

So now my problems are:

1) My new computer doesn’t have AOL software on it
2) My wireless printer is hooked up TWICE on my new computer
3) Multiple screen repeats on some Google searches
4) I need to disable the wireless keyboard and mouse on the new computer
5) Where is the refresh key?
6) How do I change icons on the new computer? Ain’t Vista great?
7) How do I use the flash drive on both computers?


A few nights ago I was reading about my ancestors in the book “History of the Toe River Valley.” My paternal ancestors lived in the hills of western North Carolina from the early 1700’s to the 1920’s (when my father’s family moved out to Pennsylvania.) Some might call them hillbillies but the correct term is “Appalachian pioneers.” Their occupation was farming. They grew and raised their own food. The woman, who I believed worked much harder than the men, “kept house.” This involved washing the clothes at the nearest stream, using a stick to beat the dirt out of the clothes. A chicken dinner meant going out in the back yard to grab the unfortunate chicken and chop its head off, dip the chicken in boiling water to pluck the feathers (I’ve done this), and gut it. Vegetables came from the garden, or in the winter time, from the vegetables that were canned from the summer’s produce.

Somehow they managed without to live a full life without electricity, indoor plumbing, and PC’s! Yes, they managed without PC’s. This knowledge has put my technical problems in perspective, to say the least. I sit in a warm and comfortable house, my refrigerator is stocked full, and I wash and dry my clothes (as I did this morning) while I’m on my computer updating my genealogy files. What I really appreciate is when I have to use the bathroom, it is warm and comfortable. I’ve used an outhouse. Not a pleasant experience, especially for someone as fussy as I am.

Now I wonder a hundred years from now will one of my ancestors wonder about me and my generation? Will they marvel at the hardships we have had to endure? No doubt they will. Our ancestors probably didn’t realize that they were enduring hardships. Oh, maybe the washing the clothes down at the stream. What we take for granted now will probably amaze our descendents that we even endured such “hardships.” I predict one “hardship” that will never disappear, PC problems. As Benjamin Franklin said: “Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes. “Add to his quotation “PC glitches.” I wonder what my ancestors would have thought of my “problem.” Even more interesting, I wonder what my descendents will think.

Frustration

Having just got off of a five day stretch of work at the Inn, I was looking forward to the next week and a half of doing what I want to do. My first plan to visit my Mom in Pennsylvania went awry the first day. I had planned to spend three days visiting Mom. Monday, my first day off, was bright and sunny. But alas, the rest of the week rain was forecast. Since Pennsylvania is in a colder temperate zone, there was a good possibility that rain would be freezing rain. Thus I postponed my trip until this Friday or Saturday, when sunny skies are forecast again.

My next plan was to work on my new computer, building my genealogy files. But first, I wanted to print out a few pictures as a Christmas gift for my neighbor Barbara. An innocent enough task one would say. Ha! You know how little things turn into big things? That is just what happened. For the third time my HP Photosmart All-In-One printer had disappeared again from my computer. I try to print and I get the message “Cannot detect an HP device.” What? This has happened before. Last week I took the best part of a morning to install and reinstall the HP software. It worked. Now it doesn’t work.

I think I know what the problem is. Periodically, every week or so, I get a pop up message from HP asking me if I want to search the Internet for the latest updates. Well, NO! I like my printer just the way it is. I am very reluctant to jump on every download because too frequently these update downloads cause a software conflict with my computer. This is only a way for the software companies to make more money because software doesn’t wear out like a car. The only time I will consider a download is if it improves or corrects a problem I’m having. With my HP Photosmart All-In-One, I hardly use it. I only use it for photos and then every time I turn around it gives me a message I have to replace another cartridge. At $14.97 a cartridge, this gets to be a pretty pricey procedure after a while. I notice that when I answer “No” to the request to update a download, I no longer have my HP Photosmart All-In-One operating on my computer.

I have no idea what I’m doing to cause this. I think the HP programmers have a program in the software to disable my program on my PC. I visited HP’s web site for help. You know how much help that was. After plowing through that web site, my hair (what’s left of it) hurt.

Then, just to get away from this frustration I went on my other computer to do some relaxing data entry on my genealogical records. I use Ancestry.com. So I’m checking one of the Federal census records and I get the message “Would I like to download and enhanced version of the Adobe reader” so I can read the original census records. I thought “Sure! Why not?” HA! So I download. Then I get a message that my computer needs to know which program to read the DOWNLOAD. I give up. I put a call into my Computer Guy. He’ll be here tomorrow. At least I’m keeping someone in business.