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By Daniel Tynan (10/14/02) Nightmare on Tech Street It started as a trivial problem--my beta copy of AOL 8.0 wasn't quite working properly--and it turned into a total system meltdown. Now, after 10 support calls to three different companies, I have my computer back, but I've lost many gigabytes of files and three full days of work. How did I get to this sorry state? More important, how can you avoid ending up here? Therein lies a tale. AOL goes AWOL When the aforementioned AOL 8.0 Beta told me that I had a problem with my Internet connection, I sent a note to America Online support. My Net connection was working just fine, thanks, so the error message was actually in error. I figured five minutes on the phone with a techie would fix the problem. The next day, I got a call back from Rick at AOL's VIP Support. (Look at me, I thought, I finally made it to the big time.) Rick exuded confidence; he sounded like a guy who could roll a cigarette with one hand while reconfiguring a network server with the other. We quickly went to work, deleting items from my system tray, removing drivers and reinstalling them, tweaking my network connections, and rebooting Windows till we were giddy. But after more than an hour of this frivolity, AOL was still DOA. Rick had me run an AOL utility designed to repair my Net connections, then reboot. Well, that certainly had an impact; instead of my familiar Windows 98 desktop, I got an error message telling me that my Windows installation had been corrupted. Rick mumbled something about my system being infected with a virus (how handy), then said not to worry, we could restore my Windows Registry. Unfortunately, we restored it to January 2001, the date of my one and only Registry backup. So Windows asked for files from programs that I'd long deleted and loaded drivers for hardware that was gathering dust in my closet. Meanwhile, the OS didn't have a clue how to talk to my DSL modem (which I'd installed in April 2001), so now I really did have a problem with my Net connection. "You just need to install some drivers," Rick said, reassuringly. "Wish I could help ya, but it's better if you talk to your regular ISP." Does DSL ring a bell? So I called BellSouth FastAccess and reached Ryan, who walked me through a routine not unlike the one I had just completed with Rick. After 45 minutes, he concluded that I needed to install new drivers. Gee, why didn't I think of that? He suggested that I use my dial-up account to grab the files from the BellSouth Web site--a 14MB ZIP archive that shouldn't take more than, oh, about two hours to download at 56K. And by the way, when BellSouth contacted me to ask about the quality of its tech support, could I please tell them what a great job he did? Sure thing, Ryan. I went home, downloaded the drivers off my cable connection and brought them to work the next day. I installed the files and logged on. But Internet Explorer and Outlook Express were like blind men in a blizzard--they couldn't see the Net to save their skin. Once again, I called BellSouth. A techie named John answered and rapidly determined that the modem was working just fine, but Windows wasn't. And would I like the phone number for Microsoft tech support? Rhymes with hell I knew Microsoft would tell me to call my PC manufacturer (and charge me $35 to do so), so I went directly to Dell. I reached a techie who said he was based in Bombay, India. He didn't give me his name, so I'll just call him Buster. Buster confidently attempted to fix my Windows Registry, but when each attempt resulted in a message telling me I'd just committed a "Windows protection error," he seemed to lose all hope. Our conversation was filled with profound silences, during which I can only assume he was frantically searching the Dell knowledge base for what to do next. Finally he gave up and told me to "refresh the OS"--that is, reinstall Windows program files from the Dell Product Recovery CD. He wished me luck and said he'd call back in half an hour to see how I was doing. Back from the dead One hour later, Buster hadn't called back yet, and my newly "refreshed" Windows 98 was flashing me the Blue Screen of Death every time I looked at it. So I called Dell again and reached a tech named Michael who actually seemed to have a clue. First, he told me to unplug everything but the monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Amazingly, this worked--Windows loaded just fine. But despite another 40 minutes of futzing he couldn't get my Net connection running. Five minutes after I'd hung up, AOL's Rick called back to see how I was doing. I made the mistake of telling him, and within a few moments he'd once again reduced my Windows installation to rubble. Though he was able to bring Windows back to life, he was unable to resuscitate my Net settings. His final suggestion--to download and install AOL's version of Internet Explorer--had no effect, but at least it didn't muck up anything else. Finally, I'd had enough. On the third day of my ordeal I bit the bullet and reformatted my hard drive. Then I began the ugly process of reinstalling everything, which required three more calls to Dell support. Windows now works, and I can surf the Net, but as of this writing I still haven't fixed my Outlook Express problem. Suggestions are welcome (from anyone but Rick at AOL VIP Support, that is). This is not how tech support is supposed to work, folks. But this is not the first time I've had this kind of experience (sigh), and it probably won't be the last. Maybe I'll upgrade to Windows XP, which makes it easier to recover from disasters or just switch to a Mac. I understand that's all the rage these days.
Learning from disaster Technical snafus are part of the PC game, but they don't have to ruin your life. Here are some lessons that I've learned from my latest brush with digital disaster. Don't sweat the small stuff. If it's a minor problem, figure out a workaround or learn to live with it. As I discovered, the cure can be much worse than the disease--in my case, a mistaken error message. Back that sucker up. At the first sign of trouble--back when I still had a working, if flawed, Windows installation--I backed up all my essential data (including my address book and e-mail messages) to a CD, making the reformat less painful. It was the only smart thing I did. Take good notes. All of the techs I talked to used essentially the same tools--utilities such as msconfig, ipconfig, and System Device Manager--to try to restore Windows' original settings. Write down what they say, then use the tools yourself next time you have a problem. Get GoBack. I wish that I'd installed Roxio GoBack 3.0 Deluxe, a utility that takes a snapshot of the Windows Registry and lets you return your PC to a time before all the trouble started. I could have avoided 90 percent of this ordeal. Note: Windows XP includes a built-in feature called System Restore that does essentially the same thing. Bring a good book. I logged about 10 hours on the phone and rebooted Windows at least three dozen times. My computer was dead as a doornail, and I had nothing to do except chat with the techs (a sometimes dubious pleasure). At least I could have caught up on my reading. |
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| CNET Reviews contributor Daniel Tynan uses his wife's notebook PC while she's sleeping (shhh, don't tell her). Have a question for him? We'll pass it on. | |
