Monday, March 24, 2014

It's OK, we bought the "Auto Fix Model"...

Our Resort is full of beautiful Palm Trees, lush grass, and many exotic plants... they do not all stay very nice without a whole bunch of rain, and today was a rain day. We had some rain this morning during our regular 5 1/2 mile walk, but it was really warm, and felt good. This afternoon however, it cooled down a bit and rained quite hard for quite a while... At least everything will stay green!

Not much on the go today, other than a trip up to Lake Wales to return some material to the library. While I was driving up in the Jeep, I realized that I did not report back on the blog about what happened with our dreaded "check engine light" that came on in the Jeep.

I reset the light myself, just to see if it would come back on again before I did anything... you can do this by disconnecting the negative wire off of you vehicle battery, and then hook it back up again. After about 100 miles, the light came back on again... rats!
I decided to take the vehicle to a Company here called Auto Zone. They read your engine codes for free I had heard, and they did. It only showed one code, relating to the catalytic converter not being right. They recommended the garage right across the road from them too look at it. I made an appointment and took the Jeep in.
The mechanic/owner read the code again, and explained to me that it could be a variety of different things that caused this code. He was surprised that there was only one code reported. His suggestion was to reset the light, and see how the Jeep operated for the next week again. He said it could be many different things, and it could correct itself. I thought to myself, "OK, this guy does not want to deal with me right now, so I will humour him". Well, it has been about 1,000 klicks later, and still no light has come on! I have run a couple tanks of 93 octane gasoline in hopes it will clean things out a bit. So far so good, so it is nice to have the "Auto Fix Model' of Jeep.... did not cost a penny to fix! Speaking of the Jeep...

After the rain this morning, I washed and cleaned it all up pretty, after the trip down to Key West. Looking good now...

Next item on the Auto Fix list, is Judy's Asus S200 E Touch Screen Laptop.

When she got up in the morning a few days ago, the laptop battery was exhausted, and it was plugged in overnight! What? The laptop was not showing that the battery was being recharged.

We tried a bunch of different little things, but nothing worked. I even tried to take the case apart so I could disconnect the battery and hook it back up again, but with these new fancy computers, you can't even do that it seems. The other night I got the computer to shut down, and plugged in the cord again, and it started the battery light flashing! OK, I will leave it overnight. In the morning the computer was charged, and after another day now, Judy has the problem all worked out, and it is working fine again. OK, we are two for two on the "Auto Fix" devices! Perfect! No computer nerd needed!

On a sad note however, I have another problem to report that may not benefit from an "Auto Fix"...

I was talking on the phone with my Mom who lives in Ontario this morning, and she reports all kinds of problems with her desk top computer. Seems it is being attacked by all kinds of evil bugs that lurk on the internet. This computer runs Windows XP and it is not as though Computer Rick from Blogland has not warned us all! Support from Bill Gates and his Crew has now stopped for this platform!

 

My Mom's computer has all but stopped working on the internet... not good. Looks like when I get back to Ontario next month, we will have to get a new computer for Mom. Problem is she is real good at operating Windows XP, and will have to learn Windows 7 or 8 now. No "Auto Fix" here unfortunately.

Till tomorrow...

5 comments:

  1. two out of three ain't bad!!!
    sounds like you have had a productive week!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, good news on the first two. Not so much on the third. My laptop died a miserable death not long ago, so the expiration of XP became a moot point. Windows 8 takes some getting used to, but I'm OK with it.
    Hopefully your Mom can adjust.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love those auto fix issues, hoping for the same with our coach.
    My mother is having the same issues with her XP computer, not sure if she can adjust to a new operating system.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I like your 'auto-fix' way of correcting problems.

    As for XP, I'm afraid it's only the beginning of folks despair - it's going to get worse.

    If you do get a new computer make sure it's Windows 8.1 and configure it to boot to the classic desktop with the tile interface as secondary. That will make it much easier for your Mom - and you!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nice bit of auto fixes that prevent spending dollars and time.

    As for mom's computer issue, I concur with Rick's points. I believe your mom will quickly get accustomed to Windows 8.1

    ReplyDelete