When I left my computer last night, it was updating 136 items, so “[d]o not turn off your computer”. I went to bed, and left the machine to do its tedious updates. I’d had enough of this computer stuff for the day, what with several attempts — all failures — to do a back up of my files.
I tried several different suggestions you made, in fact, and the last one of copying files manually looks like a winner…if I use a memory stick since the files (videos, photos) really eat up the memory.
What popped up on my screen when I turned my PC on this morning.
Ugh! Not only were there over 100 updates, amazing in itself considering I’d run updates several times this past week when the computer “told” me they were there to do.
Now it “told” me it failed to update, so it was undoing whatever it tried to do. That is, I couldn’t use the computer for anything useful until it finished! (After several minutes, I was so tempted to turn it off that I knew it was best I leave the area, which I did.)
😐
My late mother was a school teacher. She often commented on the relationship between naughtiness in children and weather changes. We had a weather change — lots of rain yesterday — and the cat brothers were wound up.
How wound up? For one thing, one of the window screens was pulled down, evidence of a cat climbing the screen to escape his brother who was chasing him.
Mayhem! Most likely Andy pulled it down since he’s my screen climber.
Computer down. Window screen down. What else was in store for me?
:\
I pulled out the laptop, turned it on, and found I still fight the new OS to get simple tasks done. On the other hand, after failing to make much progress on the laptop, I looked back to see the PC was ready to be used.
I turned the laptop off for another day when I’m in a better, more open-minded mood for change, and climbed back on the old horse I knew would probably fail me but in more familiar ways.
LOL!
🙂
Once I came across a cynical saying attributed to a Nantucket sea captain:
Most people don’t care about your problems,
and the rest are damn glad of them.
🙁
When I get in a funk like this morning’s, I like to remind myself of that saying. Not that I necessarily believe it is true, but that most people prefer positive people. Try to stay positive even on the blackest days, I remind myself, and…! Heck if I know. But it does seem to help lighten the mood, though my social life remains pretty much the same. 🙂
In the spirit of positivity, I add this photo of Dougy checking out the effects of the rain yesterday day and this morning.
Dougy knows he slipped outdoors without permission, but he had to see what happened after the rain!
After suffering through the woes of Douglas (the human one), the least I can do is give you a cute kitty photo to end your misery!
Thank you for sticking with me while I suffer the vicissitudes of computers. I respect you too much to get into the latest issue: a printer that refuses to communicate with my PC and vice versa.
I’m convinced that computers misbehave in direct proportion to how much we need them/how much it upsets us.
(Shhh! Shhh! “They” can hear us! And you are dead right about them!]
You can always come to your trustworthy blog-followers if you need to vent – sometimes one just has had enough and NEEDS to moan a little.
I hope I don’t get into one of those modes (or moods) too often!
Sorry to hear the troubles are still on-going. And cats creating mayhem to boot!
I treated myself to “Intersteller” yesterday to take me away from computer issues for a time. It was surprisingly moving, something I didn’t expect from what I thought was just a space fantasy film when I put it on the player. The boys settled down, and Andy yielded to his dose of medicine without any histrionics, so things did get better as the day passed!
Oh god. If only you didn’t live so far away I would try and help with that windows issue. Until I start swearing at a PC screen at least lol
It may have fixed itself after the thing undid the failed download. I’ll find out, I suspect, when I try to turn it off tonight.
Good luck! 🙁
😐 Thanks!
I am so sorry this is still hanging on with the computers and giving you such a frustrating month. It is time those computers stop this as you have more than had your share of computer problems.
Oldest son bought an HP Laptop four days ago and it is updating the same updates over and over again and he cannot even get online or anything with it.
He took it back and told them he bought a brand new laptop and should no way be having these problems.
They sent it in to have it fixed.
Heis not happy.
Oh man the boys decided to help take your mind off of computer problems by creating a bit of a mess.
Hope the window screen was ok to put back in and not totally destroyed.
Yeah, that’s what it was: Andy and Dougy created a diversion to take my mind off…what was it, now? Good kitties! LOL! (Thanks for the chuckle, Ruth!)
LOL Hang in there! 🙂
I’m hanging! No alternatives, and I am (if not patient) obstinate as heck!
LOL. you’ll get it one day.
If not, I’ll carry it to the top of the highest place in town and toss it…! (The highest place is just a couple blocks away, conveniently!)
All you need to do is to go to Fiverr and buy a gig from Techarray for $5 and you will be able to watch him go into your PC and fix it for you. Then whenever you have a problem in the future you can do the same thing! Easy! I know what computer shops can be like – to be avoided if humanly possible.
I have no confidence in anything any longer.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/949358
This tells how to handle the error report you encountered when trying to allow auto updates.
I went to the specific error report number, and it was less than helpful in the end.
I am sorry you are having all this difficulty. I can’t imagine what the problem might be. Usually when my upgrades fail is when I do not have my opera or chrome — of whatever browser I am using — on at the same time the upgrades are trying to come through. — I think the browser has to be turned on in order for the upgrades to take. — I could be wrong but that seems to be the case with me.
I can’t think of any time I’ve ever had such a colossal failure. The downloads usually happen seamlessly, take too long, are inconvenient when the happen, but never fatal. I can’t imagione why there was such a large download this time. Usually it’s just a handful unless you just bought the machine, it sat for months on a shelf between loading Microsoft stuff on it and you turning it on for the first time. My new laptop, for example, had to work through 106 new downloads to get it to current state before it was usable. I’m checking to see if the downloads can be started manually before I shutdown tonight. There’s no message on the message board saying they are there to download.
go to your start button on windows (Lower left hand corner of your monitor) and click on it to bring up the little window for typing stuff into. Type into the window, “Windows Updates.” Then check for the line of information that says “Check for available updates” and if there are some you can choose to begin them manually. If you do this remember to keep your browser program open while the thing updates. Tell me if it works for you.
It does, and I did just that! Thanks! You’ll get a reputation, John, of being a Mr. IT Guy if you aren’t careful! (And you know how they never get any peace!)
If it helped you then I am pleased. 🙂
It did! 🙂
Is everything else working alright for you?
Mostly, though there still are some issues with the all-in-one machine. I’m going to re-install it later when I’m in the mood to deal with bull. In past, uninstalling, then reinstalling my HP all-in-one machine (different model) took care of some issues with it, and I hope that resolves the issues with this one. If not, I still can revert to linking it to the computer and forgetting WiFi printing, etc. (I’ve tons of extra cords and cables. I’m not sure which one is the one I need , though it seems it might be the one that has the telephone-like connectors. Don’t know, but will pull up the DVD that came with hit and the instructions. That should give me some guidance. I just couldn’t deal with it at this time since it isn’t that critical a tool for me. For that matter, I can copy to a memory stick or SD card and print from that because there are several appropriate ports for that sort of thing on the all-in-one-machine.)
My all-in-one is an HP 600 touch smart so maybe we have some similarities we could work on some of your issues with.
I have a wireless function on my printer too but it was such a hassle for me that now I run my printer with a cord off a usb port in the all-in-one and that simplifies the whole printing mess for me.
That’s what I’m thinking I’ll do. I didn’t have any problems with it till the recent computer issues. As much as I hate having yet another cord in the tangle behind my computer, one more isn’t that big a deal on the whole.
The tangle of cords is one of the reasons that I run T-Mobile’s 13GB per month plan. It’s all wireless — no wires, no cords, no hassle and I generally never use more than 6GB in a month anyway.
Charter has the fastest Internet in this area, but that comes with all the cables and boxes. What an eyesore and what a mess!
One has to work with what is available. Your blog is great and I love the stories about the kitties.
I enjoy having the little guys around, and I enjoy sharing them with anyone reading this blog. Thanks, John!
You mentioned on one of your posts that you cannot use your computer while it is in the process of updating itself.
I have discovered that I can use MY computer while it is updating by simply minimizing the update screen while it is running.
Minimizing it puts it down in the service tray where it keeps on updating while you are free to do whatever you want to do with the computer.
I have discovered that in my own case the minimizing does not stop the updating.
To minimize something on your screen just go to the top right hand corner and find a dash (—) — it is a solid dash and not broken like the one here in the parenthesis — and click on it and whatever you want to minimize goes ahead and minimizes.
When you want to retrieve what you have minimized you can click on the new icon it puts on your task bar or you can go down to the start button and type in “Windows Updates” again and find it and maximize it once again.
The updating I refer to is when it happens before the sign-in screen comes on. Otherwise I can use it.
I do not have to “sign in” to my computer because I stay signed in, but if I did have to sign in each time I think I would go ahead and sign in and then after I signed in I would go to the start button and type “Windows Updates” into the screen at the bottom of the start panel and then go ahead and check which ones have not completed and start the updates manually. That is not a recommendation but it is what I would do myself. I do not what your set up is so I wouldn’t recommend doing that to you. I’m just mentioning it here for interest.
There’s a little notifications spot on the taskbar that indicates when I have updates, plus the Windows Control Panel spot where you can see if there are any available. I don’t leave my computer on after I use it, mostly for security reasons, though that doesn’t guarantee crap, as I recently learned! (I do do scans each time I use it, but that, too, isn’t infallible.)
On my computer I have windows set to automatically do the updates and when there are any updates, I get a notice when I attempt to shut down that says, “12 Updates In Progress, Do Not Shut Down Your Computer.”
Then when the updates are finished, it automatically shuts down the computer and when I start it up again and it is finished “booting” I get a window that says, “Windows Is Configuring Your Updates” and it goes through all the degrees of being completed such as, “Configuration is 30% complete,” “40% Complete” and so on until it reaches, “100% complete” and then the machine flickers a little and I get the “welcome” that tells me I am about to be able to use my machine that has just completed updating again.
No different on mine.
Check this out again when you get the time:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/turn-automatic-updating-on-off#turn-automatic-updating-on-off=windows-8
‘m aware of automatic updating, and mostly that’s what happens. At this point, I’m so fed up with damn computers, I don’t care if the miserable things fry.
I understand.
You never know. I appreciate your comments, John, even when they are about things I know. My Seattle sister mentioned she learned something from one of your comments that was new to her. Your help may go out farther than you and I know1
Whatever security suite you are using should have an automatic scan feature that you can set to scan your computer at certain times of the day — and if you have that feature and it is turned on you really shouldn’t have to do manual security scans all the time — these mechanism also usually have things where you can choose what the security program should do with problems if they find one. The choices usually range from “Notify Me” to “Find and attempt to fix the problem.” — I use Microsoft Security Essentials and it has never allowed a virus to get into my machine.
I believe Microsoft also has a free security scanner that you could use if you want to: — (Check it out) —
http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx
Sorry about all of your …don’t know…I don’t know a name for it…at least not a polite one. Hope It is better soon .
Thanks! So do I! I’ve given thought to ending my computer life and taking everything off line: paper bills mailed through the US Postal Service, for example.
Looking forward to your daily updates about your two felines in my mailbox …
I do enjoy that part of it, and I could see keeping the blog going but ending pay by computer or anything that had to potential to cause me problems if a computer failed.
Hey my friend you are hanging in there that’s all that counts
“War is hell!”
The slings and arrows of outrageous computers, eh? I hope you have a smooth patch with technology for a while.
Gad, I hope so, too! Thanks!
My word, buddy – you certainly are having a rough time of it!!
“April is the cruellest month…”, to quote from T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland”. And how! But good comes of adversity, or can.