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bigpurpleduck

bigpurpleduck

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Further to my last thread:

http://www.diabetessupport.co.uk/boards/showthread.php?t=11504

Medtronic have just tipped me over the edge.

Tried to plug in Carelink USB tonight to download and have a look at my BG in the form of graphs, etc. to make decisions about my basals. When I signed into Carelink Personal, it tried to install the drivers for the USB (despite having done this a year ago and been fine since). It did a lot of messing about, but then it looked as though the drivers had been installed. Then I got to the page asking me to plug in the USB, which I did, and it froze. Wouldn't let me go any further. Tried re-installing several times, to no avail.

Phoned Medtronic. Pressed several buttons, got through to an American who couldn't understand my accent, who then went through the same process I'd already tried 6 times. He decided he couldn't help so put me through to IT department. Was on hold for more than 40 minutes when I gave up.

We tried everything we could think of. Searched for Medtronic files on my PC to delete them and try installing again - still no joy.

I swear this is the last straw. The Carelink USB results were awesome for identifying patterns and helping me change my basals, and I was struggling enough with this to help me.

Now I just don't know what to do. It's going to cost me a fortune with all the holding to get through to the Medtronic IT department, and I just don't have the time to sit listening to crud music. So my Carelink USB is out, at least for the time being.

BG is still too high, and I'm still wanting to eat constantly. Don't really know where to start getting BG down.

Been crying most of the night again. Just don't feel like I can deal with this right now.
 
Hello emma dont despair, what you need to do is uninstall the drivers, restart your computer, connect your device and when it asks for drivers then install them, once installed restart your computer and hopefully it wont confuse your computer by asking to reinstall the drivers and freeze mid install, the computer may see the drivers are already installed when there not, and thus the computer protects itself by refusing to install new driver until old 1 is still on there.

hope this helps??
cheers Duane 🙂
 
Can't advise on the technical stuff but know how something can feel like the last straw. You have had a rough time lately and you feel at the end of your tether, I'm not surprised. Dare I suggest you get a good nights sleep and see how the world looks tomorrow? And if you are still feeling so low in yourself, do go and chat to GP or someone you feel happy to talk to. Sending you big hugs because I do know how horrible it is to feel like this. Love, Karen.x
 
Emma,
Sorry to hear that you are having such a rough time, it is frustrating how things like this tend to go wrong just when you do not need them to.

I hope scootdevon's advice helps you get it sorted. I don't use the Carelink USB myself so cannot give you specific advice on that product but one point I did note is that if you have a Windows system and are trying to uninstall old programs then rather than searching for the files and deleting them you might be better going to Control Panel and selecting the Add or Remove Programs option to perform the operation.

If you are still having problems then do you have a spreadsheet like excel on your PC? I find the mechanism that Roche provide for downloading the data from my Accu-Chek meter a bit awkward to use so I manually update an excel sheet with my BG reading and use a graph generated from that to recognise patterns for adjusting my basal / bolus settings. If you have excel installed but are not accustomed to using it then I could provide some advice on how to set this up.

Best wishes. 😉
 
I hopre you manage to get things sorted out. Sounds like mediotronic needs a bit more customer care training.
 
Is the USB port used for other things? if so try to use another one that isn't.


If that doesn't work maybe over the last year you have installed new security software that maybe preventing it.


Do you have access to another computer, so you can see the device is working and that it's computer settings that are at fault?
 
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Hi Emma are you using a Microsoft compatible PC or a MAC.

My thought is that maybe you need to uninstall the software and drivers and start again - something may have been corrupted. Just deleting files won't work as the registry will still think the software is there - and unless you searched for invisible files you may not have found all the files you are interested in.

To uninstall software on a microsoft compatible pc - you need to go to the control panel, then add or remove programs and follow the instructions.

One more thing you may have some system restore points on your computer - you may be able to restore to an earlier point - but don't do this unless you know what you are going back to or you may lose a program you want.
 
Thanks to everyone for the advice.

rossoneri said:
If you are still having problems then do you have a spreadsheet like excel on your PC? I find the mechanism that Roche provide for downloading the data from my Accu-Chek meter a bit awkward to use so I manually update an excel sheet with my BG reading and use a graph generated from that to recognise patterns for adjusting my basal / bolus settings. If you have excel installed but are not accustomed to using it then I could provide some advice on how to set this up.
Click to expand...

Thanks SO much for this suggestion. I think I'm going to use Excel from now on. I have Windows Vista and had problems with Carelink the first time I tried to install, but was able to get through to someone at Medtronic who helped me fix it. I can't go through this stress everytime they have a software update and I need to re-install. Excel is more reliable, much more compatible with my PC, and also doesn't require an internet connection, so Excel it is. Goodbye, sucky Carelink. Nice knowing you.

As for how I'm feeling - still pretty miserable. However, I had plenty time to think this morning on my commute and am trying to be more positive. I need to remember how terrible my BG was on MDI in comparison to pumping. For example, yesterday I had no hypos and BG didn't go above 12. I don't recall this EVER happening on MDI. So although my BG isn't exactly how I'd like it, it's still a huge improvement on 18 months ago.

I also know that I'm the only person who can sort out my BG, and sort it out I will. This negative thinking is not going to get me anywhere. Based on my morning BG, I need to do another night-time basal test. This weekend should be pretty quiet 'cos my man's on call, so I plan to do this Friday night (and Saturday night if need be). I REFUSE to let my diabetes beat me.

Thanks again for all the support. I don't know how I ever managed without you guys!
 
Vista is renowned for its terrible support for applications and device drivers. Windows 7 is well worth the upgrade. My laptop came with Vista installed and I hardly used it for ages, but I was fortunate to get a free upgrade to W7 from Dell and now things are much, much better 🙂
 
Hi Emma,

May I suggest that you get hold of a Bayer Contour USB? I find that more helpful than Carelink when it comes to making decisions about my basals. The stuff that you get with the Glucofacts that comes on the Contour USB is very helpful as it shows alot of trends and you can set to show different patterns from the same day to all the reading ever taken on your meter. Ok, it's each to their own but I do rather like this one.

Tom
 
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