mikes web log

The software updating continues and with it the repair of computer systems. In my visits to homes I find that at least 1 in 3 is not working in some way. I suppose this was inevitable, this was the evidence from the trials that in the initial stages there was a good deal of experimentation by the recipients of the computers. This diminished when they realised that they could not circumvent the internet provision supplied and that messing around meant that there were long periods when they had no computer or internet access waiting for the repair.

This week I have met two classic cases. In the first instance it was not experimentation. The family were using the computer when they suddenly noticed that the screen image had moved dramatically to the right leaving a large black area on the screen. It emerged that this was a common fault in the monitors that we are using. Thinking it was their fault they carefully packed the computer away and decided not to talk about it…..until I asked the year 3 child about their computer because of my software obsession. “It doesn’t work”. I phone the home and cannot get permission to enter the house. It was only after the intervention of a translator and some persuasion that I was allowed to enter and find the boxed computer. What then? The computer starts up and somebody has somehow added a password to the administrator account and they have no idea of the password. “It was an experiment said the sister of the mother”. A re-image is therefore needed.

An observation: The computer was in the sitting room. The majority of the computers are placed in bedrooms. I have found, on quite a few occasions, that when I am installing software or trying an amateur repair that some person is in the bed. It might be a sick child or the taxi driver father. On one occasion I heard a sound behind me and looked around to find grandpa and grandma looking at me (they must have been in their 80’s). Back to the sitting room. As I tried to fix the computer, so that the software could be installed, the whole family was in attendance. Watching me was mother, sister, father and the four children. The computer was obviously important. An observation of the home indicated that there was no way in which this family would have been able to afford a computer with internet access.

The second case is even more bizarre. Something had obviously gone wrong with this computer as Windows need to be activated! We manage to activate windows and then found that the image was not that which was originally implanted. There was Norton antivirus not Sophos, there was no Internet Explorer and so on. It then transpired that something had gone wrong and father and uncles had tried to sort it out. These cases are both negative and positive. There is obviously a fear of admitting that something is wrong. Do they think they think it was their fault? They obviously did. However in the second case there was a sense of desperation and an attempt to right something on their own – even though this dug a deeper hole.

There was a great sense of relief in both families that the ordeal of the broken computer was over.