Just wanted to say my computer is back to normal after a solid week of anxiety. More than anxiety. I was deciding whether to spend about a month's rent on a new laptop, which wouldn't have all the software that this computer has, or save it for another month of rent.
All it took was re-enabling a setting, BUT NO ONE TOLD ME that this could be done or where. Way back when this started, someone told me to run dxdiag, which I did. All dxdiag said was that my 3D graphics were gone. It didn't say I could get them back just by clicking on a button on another tab in that very same program! And none of the techies I asked online and at Best Buy knew enough to just say, "Hey, you re-enable 3D graphics on the Display tab of dxdiag."
So how did I discover this? Something (skipping long story here) made me try to access the online game, America's Army. (If ever you wanted to try being in the army without actually doing it, this is a great simulation game. It's created by/for our armed forces, and free to all to play.)
Anyway, it wouldn't load, BUT IT TOLD ME HOW TO FIX THE PROBLEM!!!! I'm a software tester. Error messages that actually explain how to fix the problem are soooo rare, and I have spent much of my time on various jobs pleading with programmers and designers to create more useful error messages.
So I'm posting this in part because my story has a happy ending, but also to give kudos to the wonderful developers of America's Army. Their short but informative error window saved my computer.
http://www.americasarmy.com/