Bl**dy computers ...

Here I was planning to sit down and have a pleasant afternoon listening to my LP12 having just upgraded to Ekos SE, when things went completely pear-shaped, just to complete a week of computer related nonsense.

Firstly, the screen hinge on my iMac decided to break last Sunday.  There I was in my study trying to sort out why my Harmony remote wasn't working (turned out to be because my wifi extender had died - now replaced with a BT Whole Home Mesh system).   Then there was a sudden loud crack and after a bit of investigation I noticed that the iMac screen was tilted forward, and wouldn't stay in any other position.  Checked on t'interweb to find that this is a known problem for iMacs of its generation, and the problem has even been described as perhaps a deliberate piece of designed obsolescence.  Apple will apparently repair it free of charge up to 2018, so got on the phone to them, to be given an appointment by them for Sunday (Easter Sunday!) for 3pm to take it in.

So, I duly got in the car, drove down to Sutton Coldfield (about 20 miles or so) to go Stormfront.  Damn it, but the shopping centre was closed and it was impossible to get to the store, so that was a wasted trip.  Came home, phoned Apple again, given profuse apologies, and an appointment for today (Thursday for 11 am).   Took the iMac to them today - apparently won't get it back until 17th April.

Came home, and thought I'd better fire up my Windoze 10  2 in 1 laptop, as I need to order Panto tickets for the family.  I know it's a bit early, but from long experience I think I may in fact have left it a bit late this year!

Switched on the laptop, realised I hadn't used it for internet etc for a while, so had to change the wifi password to the new BT system.  Duly did this, and it wouldn't connect.  After much bad language and trying various things, I had to go in as administrator to do a bit of command line stuff, at which stage I was told that I would need to do this as an administrator.  My next thought was 'que?' as I am the only user and AM the administrator.  Eventually had to log in as 'elevated administrator', and reset TCP etc from commence prompt before managing to get my internet back.

At this stage the machine said it need to update McAffee antivirus (BT net protect), so I let it do this.  The s*dding thing stuck for an hour at 'preparing to update windows.   At which stage I switched it off after various attempts at restarting I had to resort to the old standby of reinstalling Windows.

Just got it up and running again, although I will have to reinstall Sibelius (notation software) etc on it (not pleased at all by this).   Checked on the net, and it may be that the BT version of McAffee isn't compatible with the las#test Windows 10 update, so here I am debating whether to risk reinstalling my antivirus.   I suspect I may have to, as I need net access to re-register some of my software.   The other main possible culprit was Microsoft OneDrive - which I hadn't even used once!  I've just tried to remove that from the laptop altogether, but it wouldn't let me do that.

Bl**dy computers.  If I wasn't TT I'd seriously be considering a few stiff drinks.   (sigh)

LP12 with new arm is great, BTW.