My oldest strong son just called me from college to tell me his desktop computer is dying. We have known it was sick for some time now . . . primarily because he either refuses to, or doesn't understand how to, update his virus and internet security protection.
It was acting up last year, so when he was home for the summer, I did a full non-destructive restore and ran virus scans and spyware/adware scans and after finding about all sorts of nasty bugs I cleaned it up and it seemed to be working just fine.
But six weeks back at school and it is "Having all sorts of problems, Dad . . . I can't open any folders and Internet Explorer won't work and it's infected with all sorts of worms and stuff."
He even took the computer to the computer assistance center on campus and after examining it they said they thought it was beyond help. I asked him if he had been updating his virus/security stuff and his reply was along the lines of "Well, duhhh, Dad, of course I did, I'm not stoooopid!"
No, he isn't stupid . . . in fact he is extremely bright.
Anyway, after discussing the problem for a while, we decided a destructive restore was necessary (After he saved any school papers he needed of course.) I told him that after the restore, he should load on his virus protection, update it and run a full scan. I also admonished him to scan the disk he saved his documents on before transferring them back to his computer.
Of course, if this doesn't help, then I will be shopping for a computer for Christmas . . . but not for me which makes it no fun whatsoever.
His last words to me (Between the "Thanks for the help" and "I love you, Dad.") were, "What about getting me a new laptop?"
No, not stoooopid at all . . .
