Tech fail rant mode: ON
Raaaaaagh!
Fire up Rocksmith on Steam to have a bit of a session on the bass. It fails to run – “cannot initialise graphics engine”. Mess around with display drivers, reboot, detach secondary monitors, drop resolution, scour online forums for possible fixes, give up.
Fire up Cubase to do some more work on a track that I’ve been updating. Can’t get past initialisation screen. Set download of the install files going (12Gb will take some time). Get a drink.
Try running Djay 2 Pro to have a bit of fun while aforementioned download is completing. Loading screen shows the usual spinning dots, then the application disappears in a puff of virtual smoke. Try again, same result. Reset the app, no improvement. Uninstall. Re-install. Try running, nothing. Scour internet for app update, tips on loading issues – sometimes Google has nothing but out of date detritus.
Cubase finally finishes downloading. Obviously it’s a zip file. Uncompressing a 12Gb file, oh don’t worry it says it will only take 5 minutes. Lies, damn lies! 10 minutes on top of the previously wasted 90 minutes. Seth Godin was talking about “Sunk costs” on his podcast Akimbo recently. I dread to even contemplate how much I have written off to driver (re)installation, software and hardware issues across the years.
Past midnight, tired and frustrated I leave my laptop with display drivers uninstalling.
10 hours later, slightly refreshed, the display drivers are still “uninstalling”. Reboot. Re-attempt uninstall and leave it going while I go and do something considerably more satisfying than watching a progress bar slowly creep to 100%.
Later still, back in front of the screen and a further reboot, I tentatively try firing up the rogue applications. Djay 2 makes it past the loading screen and eventually fires up. Cubase next – success! Dare I try Rocksmith? Go on then…. nope, same error as before. Oh well at least I can be productive on 2 counts. You can’t expect miracles in the world of IT can you?
Another day, tomorrow.
Donovan