On around five occasions now I’ve had the following happen:
Unpack backup Quickbooks file from client. Quickbooks tries to open the unpacked file and says something is wrong and won’t open it. Use Quickbooks File Doctor on the file. File Doctor says there’s nothing wrong with it. Now open the file in Quickbooks and it’s fine.
Obviously File Doctor is doing something to the file to make it work now that I’ve had it happen so many times, but the first time it was really eerie, and then when the same situation came up again and I tried the above as a fix, I was somewhat in shock when it worked. Now it’s like, well, that’s how you fix it, even if File Doctor seems to say it’s not doing anything.
For future reference, when something like that happens, this guide may be helpful. It’s specifically about undoing an update that keeps your computer from booting.
With all the problems from the January Updates, I familiarized myself with this before I applied them. And there’s no way I’m applying the February updates until that site I linked moves to MS-DEFCON 3.
Okay, I am really starting to think that my laptop is screwing with me.
I had taken it to the computer repair place, as previously mentioned, and they were able to play DVDs. So I said, “OK, I’ll try again.” And brought it home and after several tries, the only DVD it was able to play was Blade: Trinity. Took a long time to get to the title menu, only played the movie (no special features, it just locked up) and the first several minutes were choppy until it finally played smoothly. Wouldn’t play ANY other DVDs. So I brought it back to the computer repair place, was going to leave it there to fix or replace, and then, just to satisfy my curiosity, asked if they could just pop in a DVD and see if it plays. They did, and it played, so I took it back home to try again. Tried 6 or 7 DVDs with no luck, then tried one last DVD, inserting and ejecting 7 or 8 times and it WORKED.
The DVD? Blade II.
Tried more DVDs after the movie played, and NOTHING. Apparently my laptop wants to gradually feed me a diet of Blade movies.
We had a keyboard (attached to the computer rather than built in) some years ago which stopped working. we wondered if there might have been some crumbs or dust or something inside that was interfering with its functionality. So we disconnected it, turned it upside down, and threatened it with a screwdriver.
We couldn’t actually get it open, but the threat was apparently enough. Just to see what would happen we plugged it back in and hey presto! Working again. It all shows what the mere threat of a screwdriver can do.
My computer kept locking up - complete with screen freeze - pretty much every day. I lived with it for a few months, then I took it into the shop while I was on vacation for three weeks.
When I got back, they said, “We couldn’t duplicate the problem - until yesterday.” Their thought: “It’s a virus.”
A $50 virus scan later: “It’s still happening. We suggest loading a new version of Windows.”
A $100 Windows reload later, I get it home, and 5 minutes later, it locks up…
Good question. I’ve had numerous computer problems over the years, and there are two distinct types of computer issues:
Software issue: This may result in the computer running slow, lopping when it tries to start up, etc. This may mean you have a virus, or just that the operating system is a piece of shit. I got Windows 10 a couple of years ago & hate it, since my software problems have increased exponentially with this. That being said, these issues can be solved by wiping the hard drive & bringing the computer back to factory settings.
Hardware issue: In this case, the computer just won’t start at all & you can’t get anything to work. If the computer isn’t under warranty anymore, you’ll have to buy a new one.
I’ve discovered that the DVD drive will selectively play SOME of my DVDs, though it may take several attempts to load before it kicks in. Other DVDs, however, won’t play no matter how often I eject and insert them. And of course, one of the “no-go” DVDs is the one I have from Netflix. GAH!
Or you can find the root cause and fix it. I’ve had PCs since the AT&T 6300, and I’ve never had to reinstall. Clearly a virus scan is the first thing to do, assuming you don’t gave good AV software already. Then you can look at what is running to find if anything is running slowly. If start up is slow you can figure out what is getting run upon start up and uninstall things you don’t need any more. Then you can check if your disk needs defragging - though unless you are storing tons of videos or something it is unlikely.
I’ve had Win10 for a while now with zero problems. Much better than my old OS, which was Vista so admittedly a low bar.
As for hardware failing, one might try a new power supply, since if it was bad your battery might be totally discharged. Plug another display in to check that. If it were your disk, you still should be able to see the bios screen when booting.
Now I got a new power supply when my old laptop would stay up only for a few minutes. But I really wanted a new computer. If I hadn’t, I could have gotten a new power supply or a new battery if that didn’t work.
You can be certain that the problem isn’t the processor, since that is the most reliable thing in the computer - and I have data on this. In fact Intel doesn’t even know how their consumer processors do in the field, since other things break first.
Sometimes diagnosis is easy - like when my wife’s desktop power supply blew up. But it usually takes some work, but it’s fun.
Finally got the tech guys to swap out the optical drive for a replacemnt - last one they had in stock! All DVDs play now. WHEW. Back to binge watching!