Tangling with tech troubles
Last year, my husband bought me an iPod. I mentioned I would like to have one at some point to make exercise more enjoyable, so he got me one for Christmas. I became a little overwhelmed by all of the options it had on it, when all I really wanted was to listen to music. Apparently, what I really wanted was a Walkman.
I fooled around with it for a few days and tried to wear it while walking on the treadmill. I had a few technical difficulties, including that the volume was too loud. Then, the earbuds kept popping out of my ears. Also, the volume was too quiet. I’m pretty sure that I just didn’t feel like walking that day, and any old excuse would do.
After a while, I figured out the basics of the device and began to enjoy it. I put YouTube on it and then was able to listen to sermons while I cleaned house. I downloaded KLove and was able to hear music while I folded laundry. I was really beginning to enjoy iPod ownership.
This past weekend, while at a local soccer tournament with my oldest daughter, I received a call from my younger daughter that there was a problem with my iPod. She described to me its symptoms, a repeated flashing from lock screen to Apple screen to black. She swore she wasn’t doing anything to it when it began to happen, but was only walking by and casually glanced toward it from a distance of at least 10 feet away.
Sure.
How it happened aside, when I arrived home, I discovered that it was indeed stuck in some sort of start-up loop. I, being the tech-savvy Mom that I am, quickly Googled the problem and attempted to sort through the plethora of repair videos available to me based on the teensy-weensy bit I know about my device. (It is touchscreen, and it is blue. Where is the video for that?)
Three hours later, I had watched a seemingly infinite number of videos where other people described the exact problem I was having – and then asked if anyone could help fix it. Disgusted, I determined I would simply call Apple on Monday and seek guidance.
But then, my younger daughter received a text message from her boyfriend that he just fixed a similar problem on his own iPod. So, via text message, he relayed to me the steps he had taken to repair his device. Sometime later, my iPod shut itself down and began to restart.
This time, it went to my lock screen and stayed there. Tentatively, I opened my home screen and began to look around. It was fixed! I had to sync to the cloud to retrieve some of my apps (See? Tech-savvy!), but the loop had ended. I sent a text to the boyfriend and then turned on some music, happy to have it back in working order.
Boy, I don’t remember ever having this much trouble with my Walkman.
Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.