Who is your life's Technical Support?

Two weekends ago, my son handed me his computer notebook and told me that it had crashed. I checked the screen and it just showed a black screen with a bunch of chain-like codes that resembled Egyptian hieroglyphics. I then asked my son what he did that caused the crash. I felt that my question is a dumb one because the typical answer of normal teenagers nowadays when asked with this question is, “I wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary when that thing happened”.

I tried to reboot the notebook several times but the same thing just kept on showing on the screen. I finally gave up after half an hour of trying.

My wife then came to the scene and told me that it appears that we might have to buy a new notebook since the cost of the repair might equal to half of the price of a brand new notebook. Though what she said is possible, I told her that I will try to find ways to repair the notebook without costing us an arm and a leg.

I took the notebook to my workplace and showed it to two network programmers who work in our Information Technology (IT) department. The first thing they asked me was if I have a Recovery disc. I told them I do not have one. They told me that whenever I buy a new PC and the PC did not come with a Recovery disc, I need to create one before operating anything in the PC. Well, this is one lesson I sure will remember.

Both of the programmers tried different commands to get the notebook to be in a mode called “safe mode” (Not sure what that means). After numerous tries, they finally told me that my PC is corrupt and I need to buy a Recovery Disc from the PC manufacturer or take it to a PC repair shop so that they can restore my PC.

I called the notebook manufacturer and was told that the Recovery disc will cost $20 plus shipping. The price seemed reasonable but the thing that kept me from purchasing it was I needed to order it via their website using my credit card. With identity fraud so rampant in the internet, I did not feel safe typing in my information in the internet even though I have a fancy anti-virus program in my other PC.

The other option I have, which is to take my notebook to a repair shop, does not appeal to me that much. I view these PC repair shops as dishonest leeches bleeding the bank accounts of every person that brings into their shop a PC for repair. I am sure not all of them are dishonest but the bad apples within their ranks had caused a bad virus to spread in their industry smearing their reputation.

After two weeks of trying to figure out the most cost efficient way to repair our notebook, I decided to seek the help of someone whom I remiss to ask—God. I placed my son’s notebook next to my laptop and prayed. I know that this might look strange to you guys but God has never failed me in the past. I believe that I should have presented my PC problem to God first before doing anything else.

After praying for a minute or so, I turned on both PCs and wondered how I will be able to fix the malfunctioning PC. I went to PC technical websites trying to figure out if there are any instructions that I might be able to spot to help me repair my notebook. While I was doing this, there is this nagging voice in my mind that kept on telling me, “If two PC experts at your office cannot figure out how to repair your notebook, what makes you think you can fix it yourself?”. Though I felt that my efforts could potentially be futile, I just kept on going with the hopes that God is leading me somewhere in the net. I felt so incompetent to fix my PC because I know absolutely zilch (squat, zip, nothing) about PC programming.

After typing into my notebook numerous programming commands which I all found in the internet, I came into a DOS screen containing a list of settings. One of them said something like a factory setting and it was disabled. I changed it to “enable”. I roamed around that window and I pressed something that brought me to another screen and this time it was asking me if I want to restore the PC to factory setting. I was hesitant at first thinking that I might potentially make the problem worse. After thinking for a minute, I took the plunge and just pressed the “OK” command. To my surprise, the PC restored itself to its original factory settings! I was stunned!

After the PC went through 25 minutes of restoration, I finally saw a familiar screen with program icons in it. Though I felt jubilant, I noticed that the MS Word program plus all my son’s school work files were deleted. When I showed this to my son, he scratched his head in disappointment but was relieved that his notebook is working again.

I do not want to credit pure luck as the source of the solution to my computer problem. God is the one that made it all possible. Everytime I am in a tight spot, He has never failed to provide me with the best solution. This is a clear proof that God solves all sorts of problems including PC programming.

Is God your life’s Technical Support?