SkiAdcock

Greetings from the library (for hopefully one of the last times)...

The computer tech came by this afternoon to pick up the new laptop & take mine. I thought he was going to use Carbonite to get the data/install it on the new laptop along w/ the other software, but evidently he prefers to do files from laptop to laptop & will just install Carbonite, eSet, Office 2010, etc, on the new one. Shrug - doesn't matter to me, as long as the files get onto the new computer. I may be phrasing that wrong & misrepresenting what he said. Because my usage is so basic he said it's not like he has a ton to transfer over in terms of files/space.

He'll spend some time w/ me tomorrow afternoon to make sure everything is operational before he leaves. I had the various ids/keys/passwords on some of the stuff he needs & printed those out for him, as the printer prints better than I do LOL...

I hadn't opened the Amazon box after it was delivered, so I pulled up on my Kindle Fire the laptop I had ordered to show him (even though he'll see it when he unpacks it) & he got a big grin on his face & said well this is going to be just a wee bit faster, etc, than what you've been used to w/ this old Vista machine

Since I'm going to turn the Vista laptop into the local energy group when they do their 2x/year electronics recycling, he wanted to know if I wanted him to wipe the hard drive. He charges $30 for that, but I said I'd (aka, after you all tell me how ) take care of it.

The Amazon rep I spoke to Friday (who even followed up w/ me on Sat on her day off) & then again today went to bat for me w/ her supervisor, given the laptop not arriving Friday, the new Kindle not working & me having to order another one, & me having to pay UPS to get delivery by noon. They're crediting my account $108 for the inconvenience.

PS - After reading some of the problems folk are having w/ Windows 10, who knew it would be such a good thing to go w/ Windows 7

I'll use the Kindle Fire to check email in the morning for things I need to deal w/ for the trade show & head to the library in the morning, but then spend the rest of the time until he comes back w/ the new laptop unpacking the office since that hasn't been done yet. I'm hoping that between the laptop & finishing unpacking the house that my life might get back to normal on Thursday.

Cheers.

SkiAdcock

I've been pretty frustrated the last few days doing the hunt/peck thing & auto-correct putting wrong words/it taking forever to type longer emails on the Kindle Fire so thought a keyboard would come in handy. Do you think the keyboard I linked to above would work, in conjunction w/ just a Bluetooth mouse?

Cheers.

DenverBrian

Already told you, sweetums - post #68, step 7.

SkiAdcock

Tech guy called. Almost done. Trying to load Carbonite and it wouldn't accept the password. He tried dif configure and is now locked out. He's done the forgot password thing, but email w/ temp and to reset hasn't arrived. Grr. So close.

The weird thing is I wrote down all the info from Carbonite settings, so the password should have worked. I've given him the challenge questions answers in case he gets those.

Worst case if email doesn't arrive I'll call Carbonite and get it sorted.

Cheers.

SkiAdcock

Well we got the Ccrbonite sorted & the tech guy brought the laptop over & installed the software printer.

Woo-hoo! This baby is fast! And because it's Windows 7 & Office 2010 everything looks familiar.

The only thing that's strange (and isn't going to work for me) is that the display/type size, whether it's on FT or on my email, etc, is like type font size 1. I've got good eyes but that's a bit ridiculous. I didn't notice it while the guy was here. It's also like everything is displaying in landscape mode.

Have a call into the computer tech guy to find out what's going on, and also because for some reason I can't access my email from the desktop icon but can only get it via the web browser mode. While he was here we were able to access it from the desktop.

So - getting close to being fully functional again.

Cheers.

pseudoswede

Hold the Ctrl key down, then use the + or - key to adjust the font size to your desired size.

SkiAdcock

That works. But is there a way to make it permanent vs. every time I open something to read having to do it?

Cheers.

pseudoswede

Right-click anywhere on your desktop, then select "Screen resolution." Then click on "Make text and other items larger or smaller." Start with the 125%, then move to 150% if it's still too small.

Actually, you may also want to fiddle with "Set custom text size (DPI)."

SkiAdcock

That seems to have solved most of the issues. We're having a hiccup on something else, but hopefully that will get sorted.

On a dif note. Will this only play regular DVDs or can I play blu-ray? Duh - should probably just put one in & try it.

Cheers.

DenverBrian

I believe it's regular DVDs only. Um, you didn't tell us you needed Blu-ray.

Edited to add: If you do need Blu-ray, the good news is you can upgrade! The Panasonic UJ-172 will let you read Blu-rays; the UJ-272 will let you read and burn Blu-rays. $50-80. Amazon even has some of these. An easy swap for your computer tech to do.

SkiAdcock

It's not the end of the world if I can't watch blu-rays. A lot of the 'for your consideration' screeners are still regular dvds. If I decide to check something out from video store I'll do regular DVD. I buy blu-rays.

I've just spent a lot of $$ in the last two weeks with move, computer problems and buying new, getting another kindle, paying tech guy, etc, so can wait on swapping out DVD drive.

I think the answer to this is no and it's more important/my bad for not mentioning it before, but is there an HDMI capability with this laptop or a way to jury rig it? Some of the screeners are now being made available via streaming. I don't want to watch all of them on my laptop if there's a way to hook it up to the telly and stream via the laptop to the t.v. so I can watch film on larger screen.

And just a reminder: SkiAdcock is doing the woohoo dance with new speed etc of the new laptop. THANKS!!!

Cheers

DenverBrian

You are welcome! Always glad to introduce someone to Lenovo and ThinkPads.

And you may continue your happy dance: The laptop has an HDMI port, just to the right of the blue VGA port. Plug in an HDMI cable between the laptop and the TV and screen away.

Should you ever decide to upgrade the laptop to a Blu-ray player or player/burner, the good news on that is that the Panasonic part will likely be available 2, 3, 5 years from now, and it's only about $70. So you can relax on that.

SkiAdcock

Woohoo! Woohoo!

BTW - my first laptop was IBM ThinkPad many many years ago. It boggles my mind how many thousand I paid for it at the time.

Cheers

SkiAdcock

Still having a bit of a glitch; think it's tied into the printer driver. The tech guy mentioned yest that's when it started. I've disconnected the printer for now. It's not a horrible thing when it happens, but does cause me to do a forced shutdown vs. normal one when it occurs/I want to restart the laptop.

Overall really liking the laptop because it's FAST & it's QUIET!

DenverBrian

If that persists, uninstall your printer, then hop on the web and search for the latest Windows 7 driver for your printer, download and install that.