RIP, Old Friend!!!

Today has been a tough day for me. This morning sometime around 11:00am, I was Steeming when it all fell apart.

The Sickness

I was working through some comment replies when my browser slowed to a crawl. I don't remember clicking on anything particularly nefarious, @overkillcoin's last blog post notwithstanding. And I had anti-virus software up-to-date.

I was able to remain clam, but I knew I was in dangerous territory. This was a new symptom to a slowly-dying, intricate piece of machinery.

I guess you could say it started when he was born. You see, Fangbook was born for power, born for speed. With an i7-4710HQ, he was a Cat that was built to dominate whatever space he entered! (until 1 month later when his technology became obsolete)

He always ran a little hot, so I had to give him performance enhancing cooling in the form of a cooling pad. But cooling pads are expensive when their cheap manufacturing goes kaput. So the dream of running full-speed across a field of bullets to knife someone in the back while playing Battlefield 1 died, just like my character was so quick to do.

Slowly I adapted to the changing needs of my companion. For a time he was stable, but then the peripheral started to go. I noticed that USB ports were sensitive and devices plugged in had to be adjusted for optimal angle in order to be recognized. But overall, he was healthy. His memory strong and his storage secure. No leakage at all.

A few weeks ago things got worse. I tried to plug in a USB drive, but it Fangbook just wouldn't recognize it. Normally he would just eat those right up. He couldn't get enough. But I tried to give him his favorite treat and he wouldn't even look at it, not even scan or recognize it. Fortunately he could still see my mouse, but they had been friends a long time. We all had.

Treatment

Good old, Fang had been a faithful companion and I wasn't about to give up! I closed tabs to free up memory, but to no avail.

I closed the browser to clear the temporary memory. The browser closed successful, but it took a bit, longer than it should have. I clicked to open the browser, but there was no response. I prodded him again to open the browser, but I realized he wasn't able to fulfill my request. He had been getting confused sometimes, so I thought maybe he needed to just reset, start from scratch.

I gently shut down everything that had been open. I made sure things were in order for him to take a quick nap. And then I let him reset himself. Little did I know, it was a nap from which he would never recover.

The reboot process started like normal. Until it didn't.

A repeated screen. That was weird

A loading circle. That's new

"Automatic Repair, Your PC did not start correctly." What the HECK?

Running Diagnostics! what is going on?

Fang would appear to burst back to life, only to be pulled back into the loop. He wouldn't wake up.

I tried helping him as he struggled to get his brain going again. I restarted him again. I ran troubleshooting. I scanned for issues. Heck, I even did a system restore to an earlier date. Nothing worked.

Denial

I walked away for a bit. There was a "Power off" option and I took it. I wasn't going to give up, but I need some air. I picked up a book I had been meaning to finish and read for a while. Then my wife came home. She knew Fang and I had been close and how much he meant to me. She gave me a hug and said it was going to be OK. Don't give up.

So I tried. No results

I tried again. No result.

I tried again. The same: no results.

The Goodbye

Solemnly, I closed the Fangbook, knowing it might be for good. I did take the pictures afterwards, but don't mind that

He had lived a long life. Well, not especially long. After all, it hadn't quite been 3 years, but for computers, that can be a long time, I guess. He's now moving on to something better... or a #randomcotd for @khackett if she asks us to take things apart again.

I wanted to be ok, but there was so much more to be done. There were replies to be attended. We had a post to write. But all of that changed. None of it mattered anymore.

I had known things were getting worse, but I really thought we had more time together. However, life sneaks up on you like that sometimes.

The cat, the Fangbook has lost it's claws.

I knew there was nothing more I could do for my faithful companion.

And with a heavy heart, I pulled the plug.

It's over.

Goodbye, old friend.

RIP, Fang

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Please note: I will (for obvious reasons) have less access to the internet for the foreseeable future. My lovely wife has been kind enough to get on her computer to finish the aforementioned replies. I also got to process this unforeseen difficulty through the form of blogging to you fine people. I will be attempting to revive Fang. If the reanimation efforts should fail, I will be attempting to get a cheap laptop or something so that my interactions with you may continued unencumbered and my wife may have her laptop back.

Until we meet again...