Still more complexity with computer issues.

I was going to post today about how my best-laid plans to hit the playing and studying hard this week had already gone astray.  We have my wife's W-2, so now I need to get my poker information together, then do our taxes.  But I can't even get the information together.

Last year, I downloaded a Played Audit Support spreadsheet from PokerStars, and I used information from that spreadsheet on Schedule C (Self-employment Income) of my tax return.  I had some problems figuring out how to deal with a spreadsheet that size (something like 40 columns by 2,000 rows), but I figured it out, and I was ready to go this year.  I thought that I could go through the spreadsheet and get everything that I needed in about three hours--except that I can't even get the spreasheet to download.  And I have no idea what to do about it.

This is almost unbelievable.  Twenty years ago I created and managed a database for a county political party, now I can barely keep my poker database working.  Last year I downloaded a spreadsheet, and now I can't download the same report this year.  It seems that the more computers can do, and the more sophisticated that software gets, the harder is is to get everything to actually work.  I guess the concept of being "user-friendly" is, like home phones and wristwatches, quickly becoming obsolete.  All I want to do is download a file!  Now even that's hard.

Below is the letter that I sent to PokerStars support about an hour ago.  I also posted on the Computer Technical Help forum on twoplustwo.com.  I hope there is an answer for me when I get up this afternoon.  It's 1:56 A.M. now, and since nothing else seems to be working, at least I'll try to salvage part of my work shift and get a couple sit 'n goes in.

Dear Sir or Madam,

After several tries, I am unable to download my Player Audit report.

After a few tries, I thought that Google Chrome was hijacking the file somehow. I deleted Google Chrome and tried again, and it still didn't work. Then I realized that the E-mail from PokerStars had said that when I started the download, I would be asked for a password when I tried to download. I was never asked for that password.

After a couple more tries, I was trying to figure out what was happening to the file, and while looking around in the computer to find it, I got this error message:

Windows cannot complete the extraction.
The destination file could not be created.

Then I checked 7-zip [an extraction/unzipping utility recommended by PokerStars], and it showed the file, but when I clicked on the file name, I got a message that the file was empty.


Any help would be appreciated.


Clifton Martin, Jr.
"Poker Clif" on PokerStars