PART I...

In the wee hours of the morning . . .

Watching your computer die in front of you is no joke.

My laptop has just returned from the service centre, where the motherboard was changed. The battery cannot charge up, no matter how long it has been on electricity. At first we thought there's a problem with the lithium ion battery – we all know how easily that thing gets spoilt with poor usage habits. But the guys there say the battery's fine – the motherboard is preventing the battery from being charged up.

Now, the computer has some functioning problems. Initially I thought those who were just the usual stalls, especially when too many things are running at the same time. Some blue screen would show up – some error message which I think nothing of after hitting Ctrl+Alt+Del. I shut down the computer, restart and continue working.

Then the crunch comes at around 3am in the morning.

The blue screen appears again… I shut down the computer again and restart.

This time Windows won't run.

For those who use Compaq laptops or computers, when you turn on your computer you'll see a black screen with the words COMPAQ in red in the centre. Slightly bottom left, in fine print: F10=ROM-based Setup.

Thereafter I get options: do I want to start in Safe Mode, Normal Mode . . . et cetera et cetera, I can't remember everything. But none of the options work. I get this message:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\system32/hal.dll

And the computer can't get any further.

I toy around with the various options for almost an hour, before going to sleep in futile frustration.

Funny enough, I dream that my computer is working fine and I'm resuming my work.

When I wake up and turn on the laptop, it's the same as before I'd gone to sleep.

So much for self-consolation . . .

* * *

I'm as desperate as a parent whose child is at the end of the life tether, and a master whose favourite pet is terminally ill. I inform my father and we dash down to the service centre.

Thankfully the hard disk is still okay. I'm able to retrieve my files, especially those that I worked on the night before – arrangements for Buddhist Fellowship. Thank goodness I did a backup on my external hard disk drive last Sunday before my father sent the laptop to the same service centre for the motherboard problem.

And a new problem is presented: how to work while the laptop is down!? I can't possibly use the desktop in my brother's room – he has to use his table anyway. My father tells me that my mum has a laptop from work which she hardly ever uses. That sounds good.

Back home, my parents realise that they cannot remember the exact password to the computer. My father used it before, but that was like four months ago? Eventually we do find some domain which does not require a password. Even at that Sibelius can't be installed because it's not an administrator account.

Damn, two days of productivity lost. It could be worse: God knows when the laptop is coming back.

And did I say we have to reformat the entire hard disk? Which means re-installing all the numerous software I have had before? I should check if I've kept some of the set-up programmes so I don't have to log onto the net to download everything again.