Sunday, January 13, 2013

Skype Screw-Up

I do love technology... truly I do.  Seeing that I'm from a generation where I was at the very birth of the computer age when they were first in schools, I enjoy seeing what is happening next in this area.
However, it's when technology plays against us that I feel cheated and wronged.  The other day, I was on Hotmail when it announced that Messenger was going to be replaced by Skype to make our lives easier and to keep up with the times.  Fair enough!  So, I updated to Skype.  It took me an hour to get the whole thing working only to find my camera wasn't up to speed.  So, I thought to leave off using the camera until I got a new one.  Couldn't hurt to leave it for a while - could it?

How wrong could I be!

Yesterday morning, I tried to upload photos onto my hard drive and the whole computer locked up twice!  Then, I tried to talk to a few friends on Facebook and that locked up a few times too.  After I restarted the computer a few times, it was time to go to my volunteer work at the Logan Art Gallery.  There was a young kid there who was a computer geek who I worked with at the desk.  I asked him what might have been wrong with my computer.  He said that unless he was looking at the computer, he didn't know - could be a virus - and to do a scan.  So, late last night I did one and there was nothing wrong with my computer from what I could see.  The problem was: the scan never finished as it got stuck right on the Skype programs and screwed up there and locked the computer again.  So, seeing it was getting late, I went to bed.

This morning, I had the exact same problems as I did yesterday.  The computer wasn't working properly.  Mozilla was locking up and I found it hard to do anything!  I reset my modem - that wasn't the problem - I looked through the control panel at all the programs that were on the computer.  Since I had bought this thing, I hadn't removed a single one; simply because I hadn't needed to.  But I had added one!  I added Skype!  So, out it came.  I uninstalled it and restarted the whole system from scratch!  

And you know what?  My computer went back to working the way it did two days earlier - before I introduced Skype to it.  My poor little new computer system hates Skype as much as I do; who would have thought that!  Mozilla works like a dream again and I can upload photos onto the net and onto my hard drive again.  

What a bloody nightmare!  I was hoping I could update something on a brand new computer - bought only last August along with a new modem - and it seems that even with the most up-to-date model of computers, you can't install just anything... so please be careful when you're installing something as simple as Skype that your system doesn't hash out on you.  It may not be a virus... it could be something you added only a few days ago.   Just go to your Control Panel, Programs Systems and look for what you put in recently and remove it and then restart you computer completely... then see if that's what bugging it.  If it is, well, maybe it's not designed to be on your computer.  Ya gotta remember, these things are just as sensitive as we are to things like this.  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm/cool and remember, I'm always here.      

2 comments:

  1. isn't planning on using Skype on my old laptop only because I don't have a webcam. My 14yo uses Skype on her ipod and doesn't seem to have any problems with it. What is the download usage of the Skype program??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not sure... but my computer has a tonne of space on it. I found that when I downloaded it my computer took an age to close down and start up. And today when I tried to save photos to the hard drive, it just wouldn't... and the more I tried to use the net, the more trouble I had and it locked up more and more.

      So, once I uninstalled Skype, it was smooth sailing. It's not a space issue, it's a program issue. Some programs work on computers while others don't.

      Besides, I've never liked Skype; so why install something I'll never use?

      Delete