Computer mystery stumps experts

Mary LaMour can't understand why her computer works at other people's homes, and outside, but not inside her house.

Neither can a computer technician.

"It's uncanny," said Chuck Freisinger, of Phoenix Computer Services in Dubuque. "My other technician and I looked at that situation. When it's in their house, it doesn't work. When it's outside, it works fine. She took it to a friend's house and it worked fine."

LaMour proved it recently. Standing on her front step, she started her Dell laptop and the computer operated normally.

Carrying the computer back across the front door threshold, an ominous blue screen replaces the desktop.

"This particular thing is completely out of the ordinary," Freisinger said.

The error screen reads in part:

"A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. IRQL--NOT--LESS--OR--EQUAL. Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed."

The LaMours aren't computing novices.

"I'm not computer crazy, I'm not one of these computer geeks," Mary LaMour said, "but we have had a computer for years."

Dick and Mary LaMour moved into their new Asbury home in February. They soon learned there was only one spot in the house the laptop would work.

"There is one place in the sun room," Mary LaMour said, "but you had to be on your hands and knees."

"The only thing that really springs to mind is electromagnetic interference," Freisinger said.

Electromagnetic interference can interrupt, obstruct or otherwise degrade or limit the effective performance of an electrical circuit.

"Perhaps the laptop is particularly sensitive to electromagnetic interference," Freisinger said.

The LaMours don't reside under any power lines, and Asbury's radio stations are not located nearby.

If there were buried power lines, why would the problem only occur inside the home, not outside?

"Alliant said it couldn't be wires underground," Mary LaMour said.

Someone suggested the LaMours encase their laptop in a combination of cardboard and aluminum foil to mitigate any possible electromagnetic effects.

"It worked for a minute," Dick LaMour said, "then it shut down again."

What else could it be?

"I was asked if I had a plate in my head -- I said 'No, do you?"' Mary LaMour said. "I was asked if my bracelets were magnetic, but I took a magnet off the refrigerator and proved that they're not."

What about ghosts?

Jokingly, Freisinger asked Mary if her house home was haunted.

"If we do have ghosts, they are friendly," she said. "So I don't care."

Source: Chicago Tribune