My computer is up and running again!!

I have two computers I work with. One is a Dell Optiplex GX280 and the other is my Mac. Both of which I got because the companies that had them were upgrading and getting rid of their old computers. Both are a couple years old but have worked great for me.

I primarily use the Mac for all my graphic work. All my Photoshop and comic art work is on the Mac. It's been really nice the last couple of years to be able to be doing lettering or doing coloring on a comic page and NOT suddenly get a Scratch Disk warning, have the computer freeze up on me or have Photoshop just suddenly and inexplicably disappear on me. Which I had happen to me nearly every hour when I used to do my Photoshop work on my old Hewlett Packard Kayak before that finally died on me.

The Dell I use for my scriptwriting and going on the internet. I like writing on Microsoft Word a lot more than Appleworks. As a matter of fact, I hate Appleworks. I've hated it since College.

However, I had started fiddling around with Flash Animator and laying out books on Adobe Acrobat on the Dell. I've created the frames on Photoshop on the Mac and then I've animated them on the Dell.

I've sort of been creating the animations the old fashioned way drawing the frames, scanning them into my computer and then coloring them on Photoshop. I still haven't figured out how to do actual Flash animation. I probably will in time.

Well, a couple weeks back the Dell finally went. I turned on the computer one morning and I got an error screen. Not the usual blue error screen of death. But the one that tells me there's a problem and gives me the option to restore my computer to my last good setting.

Didn't work.

I began to fear that the hard drive went on it. Like I said, I had gotten the Dell from a company that was throwing it out. So, who knows what problems I inherited when I got the computer. And I suppose it was only a matter of time before everything hit the fan.

Well, I gave my cousin Jared a ring and asked him to take a look at everything. I told him what I was going through and that I feared for the worst. Having to shell out for a new hard drive.

Well, he took a look at it and discovered that it wasn't a hard drive problem but the memory had gone in my computer.

Relief set in. He saw how much memory my computer could take and discovered that the computer I had wasn't that old of a model. Like I said, I had got it used and the people who had this computer before me gutted it out pretty good. So, it looked like I was working with a 20 year old computer.

Not the case at all. Not only was the computer I had not that antiquated, but I could put a lot more memory into it than I already had in it already.

So, I order memory off of Newegg.com which cost me $14.99 a piece. Yes, that's right!! Two sticks of memory at Newegg cost the same as one stick of memory at Wal*Mart or Best Buy!!

I got the memory back into my computer and Jared got everything back into working order last Saturday.

Unfortunately, I couldn't save any of my script files. But I believe I saved most of my stuff to CD's a while back. But I told him not to worry about it. As long as I have the computer up and running again, that's fine by me.

Which he did. So, basically now I got myself a brand new computer for $31.98!! Running better and more efficient than before, all the programs I back in tact AND with the latest virus protection and spyware blockers to keep all those nasty little Trojan Horse's, worms and pop-up's out.

About ten or so years ago I came to realize how much computers have become a part of our lives when my first computer went down for the count the first time. I suddenly felt completely cut off from the world without e-mail and chat. Something that wasn't even a thought to be two or three years before that.

Now it's one of these things that I do most of my business online. Half the projects and jobs I'm working on are via the internet or over the e-mail. I probably wouldn't have had five books published right now if it weren't for networking online.

So as much as the internet has made our society anti-social, there's also great benefits to it as well. And promoting yourself is one of those things.

And I guess I could put more memory into the Dell. Although, I had also been thinking about getting more memory for my Mac as well. It's been running fine and all. But it's always good to have a bit more breathing room.

Again, I must thank my cousin Jared for getting me up and running again. I don't know my way around computers so any help I can get when I can get it I take it. Thank you Computerrepairman!! You saved the day once again ;-)