When tech support almost works (A pre-Halloween nightmare)

By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net

DEALING with computer problems, viruses included, could turn out to be a nightmare that would haunt you day and night.

Instead of spending more time with my kids during one weekend, I was literally stuck in front of my computer figuring out what to do.

OK, let me brief you about what happened last weekend (sounds like the movie, eh?) My PC has turned into a zombie. It was so slow that I can literally eat dinner and still have time to lounge around and have dessert before it finally finishes loading Windows XP.

At first, there were symptoms. There was the slow browsing experience. Then my Yahoo! Messenger started rejecting me, barring me forever from using it. So I ran several virus/spyware scans and found one major culprit. I deleted it. But then my problems got worse. It took eons to load a program. I sent a call for help via e-mail and Facebook. I chatted with my friend who works abroad for a security firm. He didn’t find any problems with my PC. But he offered me a caveat: once a PCs is hit by virus, then headaches would never end. At this point, I was losing my mind. (Just a note: this isn’t the first time that this happened [Do you mean this isn’t the first time a virus hit your PC, or this isn’t the first time you lost your mind, hehe. Just kidding.–Ed.).

So I decided to reformat my PC. This means reinstalling everything, including the operating system, the programs, and all the wells and whistles. Good thing I’ve partitioned my PC. So I transferred what I thought were important files to drive D. The C drive was toast.

OK, fast forward to the weekend wherein I started the process of reviving my PC. I believe I started doing it early morning of Saturday. I finished everything by Sunday noon. So that’s a whole weekend lost to fixing this darn PC. But the story doesn’t end there. I had to activate my Windows XP, my Office 2003 software and my antivirus software.

The Office software went without a hitch. The other two software had some problems. With my regular bouts with computer viruses, Microsoft informed me during activation that I had used up the “quota” for reactivating its software. So I had to call a Microsoft hotline, which was provided. After several tries, I gave up only to find out two days later that there was another number available for local customers. I suspect that this reactivation requirement is part of the anti-piracy strategy of Microsoft. They had to make sure I was a legit user, which I have been for the past few years. Thanks to Mae Rivera-Moreno of Microsoft Philippines, I was able to call the Microsoft hotline, and finally got the reactivation code.

Oh, about the antivirus software, well, I downloaded a 30-day trial but I hope to update my older version soon.

Add to these headaches the sadder news that my 5th generation iPod’s hard disk crashed. I don’t know how. But that’s another story. I was lucky that it is still covered by the warranty but I have to wait a week from now to get it replaced. More on that too, later.

The moral of the story is: keep your techie friends close, and always, yes, always, ask questions. One thing that I found useful recently is Facebook. I posted my technical concern one time, and I got at least two to three good answers, which helped me solve my problem. So while you guys were busy going “trick or treat,” I was out killing viruses and, er, zombies (when viruses hostage your PC, they call your system a zombie).

Happy Halloween!

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