Extremely frustrated!!

[Lamb Lamb]

My lap top had a very bad virus where I had to do a full destructive, system restore. Well, I reinstalled my Case Catalyst and it is not translating into "English" like it used to. Stenograph's technical support is only opened Monday through Friday and today is Saturday! THAT is supposed to tran to "that", and I'm getting" that the"; and some stuff just remains in steno. None of my briefs or phrases are coming up, either. I am currently using the Phoenix Theory. I had to vent...so very frustrated...

[Karen Goldenberg]

Danette,

Breathe--breathe.

Uninstall and reinstall your CC program. Remember to update your program after it has been reinstalled. Check things out again after you do that.

Bubbie Karen

[Glen Warner]

Danette --

Do you have a backup copy of your dictionaries?

If Karen's reinstall-and-update idea doesn't change the bad translations you're seeing, you should replace the bad (?) dictionaries.

As for viruses and malware, you should have another computer with which you go online -- preferably one that does NOT run Windows.

I know what you're thinking: "Oh, no! Glen's gonna tell me to Get a Mac!" And you would be right, for the most part ... but if you have an older laptop that succumbed to a nasty virus that you just don't trust anymore, wipe the drive and install SuperOS on it.

SuperOS is a variant of Ubuntu (a Linux distribution) that is supposed to be user-friendly.

Add to that the whole "no viruses" thing, and an easy-to-install Wine installation, and you can run your Windows applications on it as well (NOTE: No USB support (yet), so you won't be able to realtime with your software!).

Also know that I have not tried to run Case under Wine, so that may or may not work.

Good luck!

--gdw
-------------------------
"For a Good (steno) Time ....."
http://www.cheapandsleazy,net

[Mary Jo Cochran]

Since we are on this subject ....

When I get software, I am more inclined to buy a brand new computer or laptop just for the software - with no Internet or other crap on it. (My computer is now about six years old).

Is that a smart idea to buy a new computer? Or can I survive a little longer with the older compute?
(I really don't have money to spare).

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

Mary Jo,

I cannot believe you have a computer 6 years old. I thought they only last three years. If it works, don't look under the hood.

Sorry, did not mean to change the subject off the laptop issue. I am surprised Stenograph customer support is not open on the weekends. Reporters need help 24/7. Eclipse, you can get support 24/7 which is the way it should be.

[Karen Goldenberg]

Stenograph is available 24/7. There might be a fee for the service call if you don't have a 24/7 contract.

Bubbie Karen

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

If that is the case, I would just call tech support and pay the extra fee. The extra money does not matter if your computer is not working. Very stressful.

[Glen Warner]

Mary Jo, Kelli --

You both should see my Dell!

I bought it used refurbished from a local PC shop for all of $110. It came with no OS installed, so I had to install Windows XP myself. It has no wireless antenna, so the only way to get it online is to either physically connect it to an ethernet cable, or use a wireless card.

It's definitely not the top of the line, but it runs digitalCAT just fine -- despite its single USB port!

So, if your six year old laptop is working for you, that's great! Keep it. When you start working again, all the bugs -- well, most of the bugs -- should have been found in Windows 7, and then it might be a good time to upgrade. Then you can put SuperOS on that old laptop!

--gdw

[Mary Jo Cochran]

Glen, I don't have a laptop. It's a giant box computer - Dimension E310. But I am concerned, with my limited knowledge, of going through the process of getting software on it, starting a dictionary - then actually getting started, and the computer dies.

What laptop did you get?

[Glen Warner]

Hi, Mary Jo.

I have an old Dell Lattitude (not sure exactly *how* old it is). It's got a Pentium 3 running at 550 MHz, with a whopping 250 MB of RAM, a 12 GB hard drive and a CD-ROM drive ... and like I said, it cost me $110.

As you might guess, I can't install a lot of stuff on this laptop, and I try not to run too much stuff at the same time (digitalCAT's Transcript Editor and Dictionary Maintenance program, and either Speed Teacher, the Drill Machine, or Ace Reader Pro are what I usually run.

I can see being worried about losing your dictionary ...! I have my various dictionaries backed up all over the place -- well, I have a few copies on my Mac, a copy on my flash drive, and the working copy on the Dell.

In your case, I recommend that you get a flash drive and putting a copy of your dictionaries on it. Update those copies every so often, in case disaster strikes ... and if your computer has a CD drive that can burn CDs, you can also back up your dictionaries on a few CD-RW (that's Compact Disc, ReWriteable) discs.

With that triple-backup system, at the worse, your dictionaries will be about one day behind ... so that should be one less thing to worry about.

Hope that makes sense ...! (it's early!)

--gdw

[Lamb Lamb]

You all are fantastic! Thank you for your replies. I am up and running again, and with great satisfaction since I did it without technical support. I have the student version, so that is probably why I do not get 24/7 support. I am a "venter", so again, thank you for listening! Hope you all have an amazing day!