log me in to the drama
This week, I thought I would be clever and set my television shows to come down via RSS from wherever it is they come from. But this is the pretext as to what was about to take place over the next 24 hours.
I wanted some way to log into my home desktop to ensure that what I had setup would take place as planned. Psycik suggested a site called logmein.com and installing that on my computer so that I can use the web to access my PC. I signed up and thought I was up and running. I checked it all, and it worked.
The flaw in my plan was a large storm that swept across Auckland late last night. And whilst the ginger and I lay in bed, with the blinds open, watching the lightning, my computer had been shutdown and was unplugged from the wall, just in case. I have the up most faith in these surge protector boards, but when they cost so much, unplugging is a logical, cost saving way to go.
But that is beside the point. This morning before venturing out to work, I booted up my PC. Windows loading screen, and then, nothing. nada. zero. zilch. zip. Oh no! Could it be that it was throwing a tantrum about being powered down? I normally keep it in Standby or some form of hibernation, but this was looking serious.
Making disgruntled mumbling noises beneath my breath, I beat the well driven path in the storm to the office. Pondering for the 40 minute drive, what the hell was wrong with my computer. Maybe if I log in from work, it might let me see the screen.
Denied. I logged into my computer from work. Logmein was successful. But all I could see was black. Using the logmein panel, I rebooted into safe mode. A HA! I can see my screen. I poke around and determine nothing serious has happened, but why can’t I see my screen?
So I disabled the logmein on the desktop, rendering my PC alone in cyberspace until I got home from work. But have no fear. I found the answer. Of course, just minutes after disabling logmein. I found my answer to the problem here.
Basically, logmein installs a display adapter and its pretty low level, basic stuff, but it can do pretty nasty things to your existing driver. Just uninstall the driver that logmein installs in your system (logmein mirror) and reinstall your display adapter.
I recommend booting up into either Safe Mode or using Remote Desktop Connection to do this as you will not be able to see a goddamn thing until you’ve reinstalled your old video driver and rebooted your PC.
So the long and short of it is, just over 12 hours since the problem arose, its now working perfectly.
Also of a side note in my browser wars, logmein doesnt work with Google Chrome.