Microsoft Saves the Day on Friday the 13th
The trouble began when I decided to free up some space on my overly-full hard drive. I removed some large programs that I rarely use, Encarta, Big Box of Art, Macromedia Freehand and a few others. Suddenly I could no longer access the internet. When I tried to shut down the computer, it would remain hanging, forcing me to do a hard restart. I thought I’d easily resolve the problem by doing a defrag of my system, but I got a message saying it requires 15% free space to complete this operation, whereas I only have 10% free space on my hard drive.
I then came up with the brilliant idea to do a System Restore, which would allow me to go back to a point in time before I removed the programs. This was unsuccessful. I spent several hours trouble shooting the problem until I finally decided to put in a service call to Microsoft. My hopes weren’t overly optimistic. It is Friday the 13th, and although I’m not superstitious, prior experience with IT Departments left me feeling skeptical.
I Thought I Might Be In For Some Cosmic Retribution
I noted the irony, after my last blog entry praising the PC and mocking my Mac Powerbook Pro. I thought I might be in for some cosmic retribution. I reached a Microsoft Service Department in New Delhi, India. The service person, Sumitan Kaushal, was working the graveyard shift, 12 and a half hours ahead of Vancouver time. My call went in at 6 pm my time and he so patiently and politely guided me through a labyrinth of steps, using the process of elimination, until we finally arrived at a solution three hours later. It turned out that uninstalling the programs had created a conflict with Norton Antivirus, which I then had to uninstall and reinstall.
Maybe I’m still entrenched in student mode, but I actually enjoyed this learning experience. Sumitan was a consumate professional throughout the process. It was like attending a captivating seminar. Microsoft should be proud to have him as one of its own. His service was beyond excellent. In a show of appreciation, I afterwards sent an email to his management, commending the great service. It certainly confirmed my faith in the PC and Microsoft. And it’s a darn good thing, because just yesterday I slapped down more than $6000 to have a brand new custom built computer, that will run Vista. With a dual quad core processor and 6 gigs of RAM, watch out! My digital art will be smokin’ !!
Adventures In Digital Art - Gale Franey 