My computer saga

Computer problems are always a frustrating experience, but computer problems abroad amount to a catastrophe. My computer is my one connection back to life in America. Without it I would be unable to contact family and friends, apply to graduate schools, or find out who Herman Cain is. Since coming to China, my HP Pavilion laptop of five years has died on me...three times.

Five years is prehistoric for computers, so I'm proud my laptop has made it this far. My parents bought it for me to use at college. Over the years it has taken a lot of abuse from me. Careless downloading has eaten away at its memory. Constant charging has destroyed its battery. Never shutting down has fried its motherboard. Yet where lesser laptops failed, my laptop survived my college years with only minor hiccups along the way. I planned on retiring the laptop after college, but changed my mind when I signed my contract with Siyuan University. What's the point in bringing a brand new laptop to China? My laptop works perfectly fine. One month later my laptop died on me for the first time.

THE FIRST DEATH

I never manually shut down my computer. I know keeping it on all the time is bad for it, but I hate how long it takes to turn on. When I close the lid of my laptop it does not shut down, but goes into sleep mode. Only if it has been sleeping for a long period of time or suddenly looses power will it shut down. One night in late September I put my computer to sleep. During the night my computer shut itself down. That is when my computer problems in China began. 

In the morning I opened my computer and pressed the power button. The keys lit up, the disk drive began making noise, but the screen remained black. I pressed the power button again to shut it down, waited a minute, then pressed the button again to turn it on. Black screen. Over the course of the day I tried every method I had developed over the years to get my computer to start. Nothing worked. I turned the computer on and off at least 50 times that day before giving up. The next day I started at it again. After a handful of renewed attempts my computer suddenly began to make more noise and the screen came to life. Computer! You're Alive! I've been so careless with you. I'll never mistreat you again.

I was going to Chengdu in a few days and feared that my computer would die again while I was gone. As a preventative measure I changed my power settings so my computer would never shut down. How can it fail to turn on if it never shuts down? Problem solved.

THE SECOND DEATH

About a week after returning from Chengdu, I was on my computer when it suddenly began to shut down. Windows was automatically updating itself. Usually Windows will tell you it wants to do an update and ask for your permission to restart. I usually delay these messages because I find the updating process time consuming and inconvenient. Sometimes Windows will not ask for permission and will begin to restart when you are in the middle of typing a Word document or reading an email. That is how my computer died the second time. Damn you Microsoft.

When my computer did not restart, I had very little hope that it would ever work again. I continued to press the power button throughout the course of the day, but I focused my energy on getting a new computer. At first I thought about buying a new computer in China. All computers are made in China, so what better place to buy one? 


I decided not to buy a Chinese computer for two reasons. The first was that Chinese computers operate in Chinese. They come pre-installed with a Chinese version of Windows and a slew of Chinese programs not used in America. If I bought a Chinese computer, simply changing the language settings would not be enough to make it operate like a computer in America. I would need to buy an American version of Windows and install it over the existing Chinese OS. This was not something I was willing to deal with. But the real deal breaker was not Chinese Windows, but concerns over quality and cost.


Nearly everything you buy in America is made in China. Yet these Chinese products sold in America are not the same as the ones sold in China. The products sold in China look the same, but cost a lot less. This is because they are significantly lower quality than the products exported to America. Products of similar quality to American products can be found in China, but at prices higher than in America. For years China has been subsidizing its exports to compete with manufacturing in Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, ect where labor costs are far cheaper than in China. Thus products made and sold in China are either expensive or low quality.

I thought about shipping a computer from America to China. I discovered China has huge import tariffs on goods shipped from America. For a new computer these tariffs could be as high as 30%. Despite these costs, shipping a computer from America seemed my best option. Fortunately, after three days of hitting the power button my computer miraculously turned on.

THE THIRD DEATH

A little more than a week ago my power strip stopped working while I was using my computer. This is a frequent occurrence because the power strip is very poor quality and probably dangerous. I usually notice when it stops working, but this time I did not. My computer ran out of power and shut down. Maybe I can get it working again. I've done it twice before, I just need to keep hitting the power button. After a week of hitting the power button I resigned to buying a new computer. That is until I bumped into one of my students while I was walking back from class.

Student: Hello Teacher.

Me: Hello, what are you up to?

Student: My computer is broken, I am going to the repair store.

Me: Really? I'm coming with you. Which bus do we have to take?

Student: No bus. Its here on campus.

The computer repair store was a three minute walk from my apartment. I was told that the closest repair store was an 1.5 hour bus ride into the city.

REBIRTH

The next day I brought my Chinese tutor with me to the computer repair store to translate for me. The technicians quickly identified the problem. They said they would have my laptop fixed in three days. I came back three days later to collect my computer and pay the 175 RMB ($27) repair fee. As I was leaving, the main technician shouted something at me in Chinese that I could not understand. I gave him a confused look and his assistant stood up and attempted to talk to me in English.

Assistant: Do you want to speak to your computer?

Me: I'm not sure I understand you.

Assistant (grabbing a power strip): Don't you want to try your computer?

Me: No. I want to go home.

Assistant: Then, then you believe me?

Me: Yes, I believe you.

This exchange reminded me of when I bought an electric blanket with a student. As I was purchasing the blanket, my student insisted that the cashier take it out of the box an plug it in to see if it works. The Chinese generally do not trust products sold in stores (or in the street) to work properly. That is why the computer technicians were shocked by my blind faith in their repair job.

When I got back home I plugged in my computer and hit the power button. The keys lit up, the disk drive began making noise, and after a few seconds the screen lit up with the Windows logo.

I don't plan on buying a new computer until I'm within driving distance of a BestBuy.