DVDuh

Here's a story:

A week ago, when I inserted the DVD-R disc of Exosquad into the DVD-Rom drive, nothing happened. "Hmm...," I thought. I inserted the disc into the second drive on my computer, the DVD-R drive. It read it fine. I was wondering why the DVD drive wouldn't read it. So I put in a random DVD (Swordfish) and it didn't read that either. No disc detected in the drive. But the drive has read DVDs before...

I was confused. What happened? I checked the properties of the drive, and it
described it as a DVD drive like it always did, but it didn't have the DVD options. "Okay," I pondered. "I'll check the troubleshooting help." So I did. It took me through a process not unlike a multiple choice quiz. It suggested restarting the computer, so I did. Nothing improved. Then it suggested that I didn't have the right decoder. But I knew this to be false because the DVD-R drive read the DVD fine. Exhausting those options, the Help program said it couldn't help me, and to seek guidance elsewhere.

Well, good to have that Help program, I tell ya.

A few days past and I decided to call Dell support. I talked to a lovely woman named Levina. She sounded hot. She guided me through a hidden crevice of continuity in my computer to delete a file, and restart my computer. I did as she instructed, and nothing happened, still wouldn't read DVDs. She felt real sorry and said she would send me a new DVD-ROM drive no charge, and arrange for a technician to install it for me. I didn't want that to really happen, but, "okay," I reasoned. "I guess it'll have to do."

The next day, I shut down my computer, just for the hell of it. When I turn it back on, I'm curious, and pop a DVD in the inoperable drive. It works. Shit. All this time, all this trouble, all the flirting with Levina who probably lives in Colorado, and the answer was as easy as that. It occurred to me that I never fully shut down the computer between then and when I first discovered the problem, just restarted it.

If there's a moral to this story, I can't deduce it. I'm just a moron.