*SCALPSWINGSTRADDLE*

[baymare]

Re computer problems: A Microsoft update ~11/10 was the cause of a lot of computer crashes. I lost my computer on ~11/7 Friday afternoon right after allowing the update to complete (I had been delaying the update all day, while I was logged onto the trading platform and internet.) Right after the update completed the screen went all wavy and everything locked up. I thought at first that it was the video card. After switching the monitor to the original analog outlet, I still got nothing. So I thought the hard drive had crashed.

But the screen was not the "blue screen of death" indicating hardware issues, it was a total black screen, not even a cursor. There was no response at all when I tried to use a recovery disk to reload the operating system.

So I thought maybe the mother board was fried from a possible power surge.

I gave up and bought another computer, still not knowing about the Microsoft problem, until news articles came out about a month later.

A friend was able to get the old computer working again, I'm not sure how, possibly reloading everything.