Reboot

My laptop is dying a slow death. The optical drive (CD/DVD) doesn’t work, it starts up about half the time and takes forever the other half, it runs too hot, and today I discovered that the built-in webcam no longer ‘exists’ as far as the computer is concerned.

It is old enough and I’ve made enough upgrades that HP doesn’t want to touch it. I scoured the web most of the afternoon looking for help on the webcam issue because I need it for a project. Found a users forum where two people have the same problem with the same machine and no solutions.

So, I updated Windows with all of the latest updates and rebooted. After a couple of tries it came back up and now the computer sees the camera again, but the applications still aren’t talking with it. Still, that’s progress. I’m reasonably hopeful that a few more reboots and TLC will finish the restoration of functionality.

It’s strange, frustrating, but also strangely encouraging how many problems can be fixed by rebooting the computer. There’s no explanation, but it seems to work. The interesting thing is that it often fixes the root problem, but there is still a lot of clean up to do to clear up all of the symptoms—changing settings, reinstalling software, restoring from backups and the like. The problem may be solved, but there is still much to be done before things run as they are intended.

Kind of like being justified in Christ redeems us and reboots our souls from sin, and the Christian life of sanctification restoring settings, changing attitudes, and conforming us to the boot image of Christ.

SDG