[NTLK] Cry for help! My Lady Newton is ill. Very, VERY ill.

[lordgroundhog at gmail.com]

I’m not really sure what happened, so I’ll describe the symptoms.  The “patient” is my MP2000U.  

For about a little over a week, I noticed that the on/off switch would “hesitate” when I would turn Newt on or off, and stopped operating the backlight altogether.  On Thursday morning, I pushed the switch.  Nothing.  A lot of pushing, a lot of nothing.  The batteries were only 3 days old but I figured I’d try fresh ones anyway, just in case.  Nothing.  Plugged it into the mains.  More nothing.  (BTW, I only own and use genuine Newton adaptors.  I’d give Newti filet steak and poutine if she wanted it, but she’s never asked.)  

Unplugged Newt and removed the batteries, and left her overnight.  Friday, tried again.  Nothing.  Every kind of nothing.  I've now repeated that over the weekend.  Lots more nothing.  

What, if anything, can I do?  I’ll admit it and save everyone the trouble of telling me what an idiot I’ve been:   I’ve been careless about backing her up because she’s been so reliable, and there is nothing currently in existence or on the horizon that I can see replacing her.  Also, if I need a genuine excuse, I started having trouble getting a connection to work through my Keyspan and NCX, somewhere around OSX 10.5 or 10.6.  I never did figure out how to get it working again as I upgraded OSX.  

My life revolves around Lady Newton, from work to recreation.  I do my planning and my social life in Dates and Names, and my listening, thinking, and dreaming in Notes, all augmented by jaw-droppingly wonderful software from Silverware and Five Speed Software and a few other goodies.  That’s in addition to all my working life being scheduled on Newt.  

Now I’m stranded.  Work and non-work alike are in limbo, all because of a switch.  I used to be able to switch to a backup MP2100 but I gave it to someone who was in trouble because of an accident with their own, and it isn’t possible to borrow it back now even if that were appropriate.  I know I have some important work meetings coming up as the year draws to a close, but I don’t have all the details I need because I can’t turn on Newti.  

That’s everything I can think of that might be diagnostically relevant.  Feel free to ask questions, make suggestions, and so on.  I don’t deny I’m going through something like withdrawal and grieving, rolled into one, but it’s also a practical problem that at my age, the grey cells aren’t anything like as reliable as the green circuits.  
 

Thanks in advance.  



Shalom, 

Christian 

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

"I had to go back and transcribe all of my speech notes from my Newton, which is what I usually use for giving speeches from, because I wasn't sure I was going to be able to read it in this light, so I had to transcribe the notes onto paper. Unfortunately, my Newton is better at reading my handwriting than I am. So, there may be a pause while I try and decipher what I've written."

            -- Douglas Adams

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1ZzpdPJ7Zr4
(With thanks to Chod Lang)
http://tinyurl.com/29y2dl
http://www.diyplanner.com/node/3942

~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Get MUGged and love it: http://www.oxmug.org/
Where Newtonians meet: http://www.newtontalk.net/