Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of the Dogpound.
I am typing this on my new laptop, not by choice; I was forced to because my laptop started doing these unscheduled “dumps.” I would be typing along, and suddenly I am looking at a blue screen saying that my system went into an emergency “dump” and was going into a recovery mode. Fortunately, at least so far, it was no harm no foul, just a delay while the system went through a five-minute reboot, but there was always that chance that it would not be successful the next time and I would lose everything. So, I had to shell out the bucks for a new HP 15. I dreaded making this change since I was running on Windows 7, and now I have Windows 10. As they say, “it is all in there,” but where is usually the big and frustrating question. For example, I use an external monitor, and I specifically asked the clerk if I could hook up an external monitor to this laptop. “Sure, no problem,” he replied. Well, there was a problem; I get my laptop hooked up and went to plug in my monitor and there was no port. What?! I checked the enclosed diagram, and it showed there was a port specifically designed for a monitor, another double check, no slot!? I was starting to think that I had a defective laptop, then I noticed there was a little asterisk, which I followed to the bottom of the chart, where I read in very tiny print: ”Some models may not have this feature included.” Oh crap! Back to the store, and they told me there was an adapter I could buy. Good deal! Not so good! Wrong connector, would not plug into my monitor. Back to the store; got another one. This one made all the correct connections, but there was no signal. Grrrrrr! Finally, through a HP help chat I found out that I needed a different adapter that I had to order off the web. It finally came in, and it worked! Well, kind of; the screen was the same size of my laptop, leaving a lot of unused black space on my monitor. I tried several different things, and finally went back to an HP chat. The tech took over my laptop, and for 30 minutes he did all kinds of things, finally getting a full screen, with one small exception: it only showed my background saver. The tech then left me with a note that there are some other internal changes that will need to be made, and they will call me to fix it at an additional charge. Grrrrr again! I finally got a hold of my tech guy and had him come over to my house, and he was able to get everything working again. As I said, I dread changing computers.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
“When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.” – Benjamin Franklin
SMILES
A civil servant is badly hurt after falling down the stairs at city hall. He is taken to the hospital, where he remains in a coma for several days. Finally, an eye opens, and his doctor tells him, “My friend, I have bad news, and I have good news. First, you’ll never be able to work again.” “OK,” muttered the injured bureaucrat. “What’s the bad news?”
Overheard: “I had plastic surgery last week. My husband cut up my credit cards!”
That is all I have for today. As always, be good, do good, and remember, change is constant no matter where you go.
– JR
