It all started on Saturday 9/24, a little over a week ago. The night before, my main PC shut down normally. But when I tried to turn it on that Saturday, all I got was a blue screen with numerous options, none which were good news. My machine would not boot up, and it was more serious than I realized at the time.
Obviously, my priorities changed. I had been working on the installation of the rain water harvesting system, but now that became second. Did I tell you I am installing the rain water system, after just talking about it for 15 years? I have all of the components, the tanks, pump, filters and associated fittings. But now my focus now was on getting my PC back up and running.
Saturday, I started with the usual things to fix problems, but none worked. I went to the Dell website and found their Preboot Assessment, which is a complete hardware check. It took about three hours to run and the hardware all checked out okay, indicating the problem was software. The more I checked it appeared that I would have to do complete computer reset, which means all the files and programs are erased and you start over. I also ordered the small ASUS laptop I had been looking as the dedicated PC to control the house automation system. It came in Monday and has been a great help having one machine running to check on internet for advice.
I did not feel my backup had been running well and probably was not up to date. However, I later found out that the backup was up to date – good news. The backup of disk E:, where I store photos and music, was not complete, however, I have the files from an old backup program and since not much changes here, I probably did not lose much. But I was still faced with the massive task of rebuilding everything, something on the order of 50,000 files. A lot can accumulate over the years.
I went to church Sunday morning and then worked on the PC that afternoon. It seemed like everything I tried did not work. I did my usual and prayed to God for assistance, however I did not get any response. That was unusual. Monday I called MicroSoft Windows 10 Technical support. They were not very helpful and the technical link that we started was disconnected before any progress was made.
Next, I called Dell Technical Assistance. The machine was still under warranty and I was connected to Sara who was very helpful. She provided a copy of the Windows 10 media which is the complete program. We then initiated the installation, but it did require a reset of the PC which meant that all partitions and data on all disk had to be removed. We had a clean machine on which to install a new copy of Windows 10. It then appeared that everything was now okay and I could start rebuilding the system; recovering files and programs and reinstalling some programs.
Over the next few days I did restore some critical files, but I could not install my mail program, Windows Live Mail. Again, everything I tried did not work even with prayers to God. I finally gave up and decided to go with Outlook the mail program which comes with Microsoft Office. Reinstalling Office should have been straightforward, but that did not work either. Like I said, everything I tried failed. It was now Friday and I called Microsoft Office support and was connected to Josh who was a great help. He tried but could not install Office either, and it was concluded there was a problem with the Windows 10 installed on the machine. We ended our session with the plan he would call me on Monday at 11:00 AM, assuming I would have the Windows 10 problem corrected.
The plan was to go back to Dell and see if we could get a good copy of Windows 10 installed. But first on Saturday I started search the internet for a solution and ran across a program for $29.95 that would scan my PC and fix the very problem I had. I bought it, did the scan and found many problems but no fix. Then, I was offered the assistance of one of their technical experts to fix the problem. I first rejected their offer of $250. They then dropped the amount to $150, which I also rejected. Finally, I accepted their offer of $100. I admit I was leery of the situation; were they real? It turns out they were. I began a session with Brian at 1:00 Saturday afternoon. He was very knowledgeable but not familiar with this specific problem. We worked on the problem until 7:00 PM without success. Sunday, we resumed the session at 10:00 AM and then worked until 7:00. We downloaded a new version of Windows 10 but could not get in to install. Again everything we tried did not work. I had skipped church to work with Brian. We seemed close but not quite there. Brian had already spent 15 hours on the problem, but we agreed to start again Monday at 11:00. I do not know how many hours had been spent on this problem, but it was all day for a week and two days.
I did not sleep well that night and woke at about 2:30. I had this idea I might could fix the problem and I needed it fixed by 11:00 that morning to resume the Office installation with Josh. As I turned on the machine, I remember reading that you should disable the UEFI mode, whatever that is. Then as I came to the BIOS setup screen again I saw a section with two options: UEFI and something else which I do not remember. It was like I was being guided through these steps. I selected the latter, pressed ENTER and then Windows 10 started to load. This was amazing. Now, whatever I did was the right thing, just the opposite from the days before. It was like night and day. Windows 10 installed without a hitch. My PC was working again.
I installed the mail program, the Chrome browser and restored a few critical files, all without a problem. Josh called at 11:00 and Office 365 was installed within the hour. I now had me PC back and as good as ever.
So what happened? Why was there such a difference in the early actions when nothing worked to Monday morning when everything worked? I have an idea, but it is somewhat farfetched. It is reasonable and fits the evidence, but is it true? You be the judge.
I believe that Satan was the cause of the PC crash and all of the problems this past week. But why did God not answer my prayers to help? I had been asking God to guide me and help me understand Him better. The plan was to take this information and share it with blogs on the website. The thought is that if an atheist is presented with a more accurate description of God then they would be more likely to believe. God has answered my prayers and given me many ideas about Himself, but I have not done anything with them like I had intended. That is why God did not answer my prayers to help fix my PC. Monday was Barbara’s birthday and I believe she went to God and told Him that for her birthday she would like Him to help Shaun, which He did. Satan is now gone and God is back with me. Do you have a better story to explain the events? Maybe all of these events were just coincident? Maybe my story is true; maybe only parts are true. One day we will find out.
You can expect to see blogs about what I have learned from God. This is a commitment I have made to God. I believe you will find my thoughts interesting, maybe controversial.
I have many files and programs yet to restore, but I am confident because God is with me again.
Praise God,
Shaun