Hello and welcome back to Second Chance to Live. I am happy to see that you decided to stop by to visit with me. This past Sunday I tried to log on to the internet, however got the message that my computer was not connecting. I tried accessing the internet several time, with the same result — not connecting. Later in the day, I attempted to do a restore point — thinking that by doing a restore point that the computer would correct the problem so that I would be able to connect to the internet. I attempted to do a restore point — revert my computer to a time before I performed windows updates and other updates on Saturday evening.
I accessed the window inside my computer that provided various options — to do the restore point — by repeatedly tapping on F-11 key at the top of your and my keyboard. I tapped repeatedly — per the instructions by previous conversations with technical support — on the F-11 key repeatedly my computer booted / started after pressing the on button on my computer tower. Interestingly, my computer mouse seemed to work just fine in the area that I accessed through tapping F-11, that would not work on the computer outside of the area accessed by tapping the F-11 key. When the computer mouse and keyboard continued to not work I conducted various tests.
“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” Albert Einstein
I performed several diagnostic tests, by accessing the area by repeatedly tapping on the F-11 key upon rebooting / starting the computer from the computer tower. Once in the window, I ran various diagnostic tests checking system information, the hard drive, the optical drive and the CPU and memory and found that all tests passed. By running these tests I determined that the problem was not a hard ware problem. I tried several more times to revert the computer by using — trying several other restore points — the process of tapping F-11 once I rebooted / restarted my computer with the button on the tower, with out success.
After calling the Geek Squad – the 800 # – and the HP tech support in India (both resulting in no specific resolution) I decided to take the computer into Best Buy and have their technicians look at the issue. After hooking up my computer to their system., they got the same results as I did: neither the mouse or the keyboard would work. The technician told me that to check the hard ware and software of my computer I would have to pay $200. The technician told me that if they found any hard ware problems during their testing, I would have to pay extra for the hardware.
With this information, I made the decision to bring the computer home and seek out other alternatives. When I got home, I called a friend who has helped me with my computer many times. He made a suggestion. After completing his instructions my mouse and keyboard still would not work once I restarted the computer. I then attempted to do several other tests with out success. I then made the “nuclear decision” to restore my computer to factory settings. I did a back up of my files, folders, and documents using the instructions given to me by using the system recovery option by clicking the F-11 key. After the back up to completed, I began the factory settings restore.
Once the restore to factory setting completed I put my internet security – antivirus – on the computer. I then began the process of starting the windows update process. I found that I had 130 updates, which I let run over night. I did a restart of the computer to install the updates this morning. I am in the process of restoring my files and folders to my computer. The next day I had to apply more windows updates. With time and patience, I now have my computer up and running again. Thank God. I share the above information with you for several reasons. If you have problems with your computer it is not the end of the world, so to say. There are several options to consider and pursue.
If you have an HP computer, upon restart you can tap on F-11 key to open a window with various options – to run tests, use restore points, help with start up problems and as I have done, restore your computer to factory setting (as when you first brought your new computer). If you do not have an HP computer — the computer manufacturer — may have similar diagnostic tests, restore point options and restore to factory settings options built into your computer. Check with your computer’s manufacturer. By doing so you can investigate what may be causing the difficulties that you are experiencing in the operation of your computer.
One other suggestion that I have is to purchase an off site back up service. Several years ago a friend encouraged me to purchase such a service to protect my work. I am glad that I followed my friends suggestion. By having such a service, I have the assurance that my files are being backed up away from my home so that I will not loose my files, folders, pictures and documents in case of a fire, computer crashing, a virus, my computer being stolen or for some other reason that I can not access my files, folders, pictures and documents. I use Carbonite.com to back up my work. I restored my files, folders, pictures and documents to my computer.
Carbonite’s technical support helped me to complete this process by giving them a call. The process of restoring my files to my computer took time, but now I am back to where I was before my mouse and keyboard stopped working. I made the decision to restore my files, folders, pictures and documents from Carbonite.com instead of using the back upon on to discs before restoring my computer to factory settings. There are other online back up services. In the event that you decide on Carbonite.com to use as your online back up service, please let Carbonite know that I referred you, when you sign up for their service Craig J. Phillips. Thank you.
As you read this article and questions come to mind, please send those questions to me. All questions are good question. In the event that you would like to leave a comment, I would love to hear from you. You may send your question (s) or comment (s) by clicking on this link: Contact Page.
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