…for new toys.
My USB woes actually took a fun turn. The usb failure on the mobo took out the USB ports on the front as well as the back. In order to operate, I really need front accessible ports, so I went hunting for options. Boy have USB hubs come a long way in the last (mumble-murph) years!
I got a Belkin hub way back when computers had a single USB port…if you were lucky. My next computer had front and back ports, so it ceased to be an issue, and my Belkin went bye bye. (Actually, I still have it down there, but I can’t find its power cord and it’s probably USB1 ports anyway, so thanks but no thanks.)
But it was a good unit, so I went after the same brand, found out with good reviews, a nice low profile and a couple of port on its top for flash drives and such. At the same time, I found a universal card reader, which I’ve really wanted for the desktop. But the real toy is a little USB port in the form of half a golf ball that sits on your desktop for flash drive reading. I got it really just to push an order for cables over the minimum, but it’s really going to be useful.
And it’s cute. Functional and cute. You really can’t beat that. I didn’t really need it because of the two top-loading ports on the Belkin, but it actually is more convenient, as the Belkin rests on top of the CPU and is just a little awkward to access.
(And thus, I rationalize my toys…)
The garage sale is history. Went pretty well and was an interesting experience. We’ve got a bit more room and a head start on organizing our own in the fall. The weirdest thing was, someone actually bought my old 820CXI printer. I’m not even sure XP will run it. I did include the drivers for 98 and ME, and I talked to him about my reservations, but he seemed really just curious to find out if it would work. So, for a couple of bucks, he was going to solve a mystery!
There are worse ways to waste money.
Well…time for bed.
Ja ne!
Can’t believe I actually managed to log in…a technological feat ordinarily beyond me.
And after the weekend we had at Joan’s, all you can think of is USB ports?
Sigh. And where was The Green One, we’d like to know…
Well…yeah. USB ports are fun.
Although the guy with the prison tats at the garage sale was kinda cool.
And hauling the stuff in and out of the rain on Friday. That was serious fun.
Not.
OSGirl told me to talk about only one thing at a time and shorter…so I limited myself.
Speaking of…where WAS she? (It’s a mystery.)
Oh guys…the horrid red screen of graphic display death has come upon Kato’s house as well!! What’s up with that? For me its intermittent and goes away with a reboot, but still this is cause for true despair…
On a happier note though, I hope your jury duty experience turns out to be a short vacation of sorts, whether or not they pick you.
Do they pay you out there? I think its five dollars a day over here, enough for a free coffee anyway–not so bad if you don’t have to drive very far to get to the courthouse!
Not the red screen!
Yes, the very same…. I’m somewhat suspicious of this coincidence…I’m wondering about it, while judiciously backing up my current projects. And supposing to myself that Jane and I probably have a good deal of the same software, being of the same profession. Vista. Evil Vista, I say is the cause of this…
Don’t know about Vista, since we’re on XP, but we might be stressing the same video card in similar ways. I’ve been using Paint Shop Pro a lot the past month, at least compared to the previous umpteen years, and lots and lots of layers, tho no single layer is very complex. I was using Animation Shop 3 when the Deadly Red appeared.
Oh, no! I begin to fear Wesley’s on the loose in the internet!
Is this a desk top or laptop? What kind of video card?
Is it solid red or red and black alternating lines?
Not that I can help you,
but it might be something different.
Jury duty was intrustin’. I’ll go write an actual post.
Alas, that will not explain it this time: we’re xp pro.
Are you running the gif animator? Corel-Jasc?
katoji doesn’t live up there too.. ?? I know this is off the wall but, you guys aren’t having some weird magnetic anomaly that perhaps only more certain screens would pick up at this point? No nearby volcanic or geothermal activity?
er.. -certain +sensitive… :P
Well, we have a—you couldn’t say ‘hot spot’ because that’s a reserved word in geology, but certainly an interesting anomaly that sounds off several times a day about 200 miles from us.
And we live on a mile-deep basalt formation from the Washington-Idaho-Oregon lava flows from way-way-way back. But I’d as soon blame neutrinos simultaneously hitting both screens. 
But who knows? When dealing with computers—it could be space aliens. 
Naw. It’s the Wesser. I’ve got to start placating the lad.
I’ve got to get some time at the computer! Carolyn’s being better about responding to comments on my site than I am!
And Mt St. Helens/Rainier/and Baker are all only a couple hundred miles away, so who knows?
I’m still not sure it’s the same phenom. Katoji says hers went away on reboot. Mine just happened in the middle of work and has never changed. And mine’s a red and black alternating lines rather than red.
A new weirdness/clue: a screen capture on the affected computer displays properly on a different computer. Not too surprising, I suppose, but it indicates the information going to the screen is correct. I suppose the video card is the only thing that intervenes between the HDD where the signal originates and the screen.
Not that I actually know what I’m talking about. Just thought it was curious.
I get a little episode of screen weirdy once a day or so. Its wavy red lines on dark backgrounds, and light blue on white. They squiggle around and change when you scroll around or click on things….and a reboot does clear it up. So far.
And as far as why…. its absolutely beyond a shadow of doubt in my pea-sized brain, a very very pure case of Synchronicity.
Here’s the defintion: the experience of two or more events which are causally unrelated occurring together in a meaningful manner. In order to count as synchronicity, the events should be unlikely to occur together by chance.
Synchronicity, eh? Sounds good to me!
And as JCrow9 points out, there’s something going on with mine that isn’t software. I get a perfectly good screen using a different monitor. Sigh.
Jane, I’d differ a smidge–I’d suggest that the screen-capture-looks-proper-on-another-comp aspect just says that the file is not corrupted; further, deponent sayeth not (appropriate wording given your jury duty adventure, no? :-) ). Remember that the laptop sent proper data to an external monitor, which also displayed the images properly, right? That should limit the problem to the laptop’s display or some oddness taking place in the cable betwixt graphics chipset and display. If the images do display properly on the external monitor, your graphics adapter is okay.
Jeff
Oh, yeah…that’s right. Gotta get a few minutes to rip into it and check that cable. I wonder if the cable is actually replaceable…