Keyboard Error
Well, my first day back at work after the holidays is off to a rip-roaring start.
I work in the oldest building on campus, and the wiring sometimes has a hard time keeping up with the demands of modern technology. Not usually a problem, since we have UPSs on all the computers, right?
Well, my UPS was apparently dead during this morning’s brief power failure. When my PC came back to life, we had the following delightful exchange:
Computer:
Keyboard Error. Press <F4> to resume.Adam: (presses F4)
Computer: …
Adam: (presses F4)
Computer: …
Adam: (presses F4 repeatedly, glowering at monitor)
Computer: …
Adam: (Mutters numerous curses against Microsoft, Intel, and the computer’s BIOS makers; hits reset button)
This kind of inscrutably moronic error message, in white text on a black screen, is the kind of thing that Bill Gates has been promising us we’d never see again since Windows 95 was released almost ten years ago. I realize that — unlike Apple’s Macintosh — the PC hardware market is heterogeneous and chaotic, and that making every piece of hardware work seamlessly with every other piece of hardware and with the operating system is a monumental undertaking. But really, ten years? Isn’t that enough?
And yes, I realize that the error was actually being thrown by the BIOS and not by Windows. But Microsoft and Intel have enough control over the PC platform that they can and should set reasonable requirements for BIOS-generated error messages and BIOS error recovery.
Okay, end of rant. Time to get back to work.
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