Tag Archives: computer

Crochet – diamond painting – garden – pc issues

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I wasn’t happy with my crochet shawl project. I unraveled it and started again with a c2c v-stitch pattern. It’s taken me some time to work it out, but so far, it’s going well.

I finished my diamond painting. I’ve decided not to frame/hang it up. I’ve added it to our portfolio folder-notebook. I used to just roll up the finished diamond paintings (dps) and keep them on a shelf. Whenever we’d want to look at them, I’d have to unroll them all, then roll them back up. It was okay, but not really enjoyable.
Fortunately, my blogging buddy Claire mentioned on her blog how she keeps her dps in a portfolio. It’s such a great idea. I leapt on that idea and ordered us one. The portfolio can hold 60 or more depending on size. That works our great for us.
“Thank you so much, Claire. You’ve helped make our diamond painting more enjoyable. ❤ ”

My husband is really in the gardening mood this year. He tilled up a small garden spot. I might add that since he tilled the garden spot, we’ve had several rainstorms and the temperatures have been running as low as in the mid 20°F. So, for now, we wait… Come on warm weather and some dry days to plant!

I wish all of you oodles of nice Spring weather.
Have a super rest of the week!

P.S. I’ve ran into some pc issues the past few weeks. I’ve pretty much got them worked out. A new battery and a factory reset did the trick. Hopefully, it’ll be smoother sailing for a while. Now it’s time to play catch-up on my visiting and blogging. 🙂

6-27-2019 Computer issue update

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I don’t think it’s my laptop on the verge of crashing… (although it could happen) I backed up all my files just to be safe.
I thought it strange that my issues mostly happened when I was trying to blog. It finally occurred to me to try a different browser.
So, I’m pretty sure that there’s conflict between Microsoft Edge browser and WordPress.
I switched browser and am able to blog at the moment, though it’s slower going than it should be.

Wishing you all a issue-free rest of the week!

 

 

 

My laptop crashed big time

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Thursday evening, my laptop had a major crash. I blame the recent Window Upgrades on my issues. Ever since their new upgrading started, my laptop hasn’t been the same. I tried every fix I could, but it was beyond quick fixes. I was afraid I was going to have to buy a new laptop.  I determined to try everything I could to fix this one before buying a new one. I had to fix this one during 12-2016 so I knew there was hope.

I had to do a factory reset on my laptop and it took it back to Windows 8.1. I lost every program I had installed: browsers, photo editors, mail client and so on. Thankfully the reset didn’t delete any of my personal files. I think that’s amazing.
I’m very grateful to whoever made the option to keep the personal files and still do a reset. It’s a blessing and spared me from having to do a lot of uploading my personal files. I back up my personal and photo files about once a month to an external drive. I had just backed them up earlier Thursday. Thankfully, I didn’t need them though.

After the success of the reset, I decided to live with Windows 8.1 for a while, but that wasn’t to be.
I began to try to install my anti-virus and it wasn’t happening.  I went searching for a fix and on the list of things to trouble-shoot was make sure your Windows program is up-to-date, well flitter! I was going to have to install Windows 10 anyway. I surfed out the download file and began the many many hours of install. After it finished, I was able to install my anti-virus with no trouble.

I surfed around in the Windows 10 and discovered that the it’s install came with the recent upgrades (that made my laptop sick) and I don’t have to worry about them trying to install and crashing my laptop again (I hope)

It took constant work, but after 24 hours from the time my laptop crashed it’s fixed. I hope this resolves the issues for another year or longer. I’ve had my laptop for around 3 years. I’m hoping I can keep it running and functioning for another year or two. Time will tell.

Wishing you all an issue free weekend.

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Nextbook Flexx 8.9 – disappointment

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P1010382A couple weeks ago, I bought a Nextbook Flexx 8.9 2-in-1 Tablet. I didn’t really need it, but it had two prime selling points, one was the price of $89.00 and the other was that it has Windows 10. I’d been wanting a tablet with Windows on it because I didn’t have one.   Nextbook Flexx 8.9 has 32 GB of storage, but there’s only around 17.8 GB available after Windows does it’s thing right-off-the-bat. However, I thought that’d be enough since the storage can be expanded with a 64 GB SD card.

I absolutely loved the Nextbook Flexx 8.9, even after it kept updating and only left 12 GB of storage. I figured that was plenty. It was a sweet little device. Using it as a tablet or a mini laptop was fun. I was careful and didn’t put any files on it except for my homepage files which are only 1.2 mb. I used the sd card for photos and stuff.

Over the 13 days that I had it, it continued to update again and again until there was only a little over 8 GB free. I was so mad. I did a factory reset and put it in it’s box and returned it. I’m trying hard not to say something very unladylike about windows. ~stomps foot~

We have a couple Nextbook Ares 7 and we’ve put apps, games, photos, nook books, documents and some other things on them and their storage is holding up just fine; we still have 25 GB free of the original 32 GB after almost a year. That’s one of the biggest differences between the OS of an Android and Windows. Windows greedy os is really a bummer.

I’m sad that Windows started hogging my storage. I’m posting about my negative experience in case someone was in the market for a Nextbook Flexx 8.9, they might want to consider the storage situation.

I really would have loved to have kept the Nextbook Flexx 8.9, but the storage issue is an automatic game changer for me. I wish the 32 GB storage could’ve actually been the true amount and the Windows OS had it’s own storage amount separate from the 32 GB. (That’s the way it should be imo.)

Anyway, I’m glad I tried the Nextbook Flexx 8.9.  I had fun with it for a short while.

Have you had this experience with storage being hogged up by the OS and it’s updates on a new device?
Did you return the device or trade it for a bigger one?
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Nextbook Ares 7″ Tablet 32 gb Quad Core & WalMart Savings Catcher

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wmscDisclaimer: I’m not an affiliate of WalMart nor Nextbook and I’m not making any monies by mentioning their businesses by name. I want to share my positive experience with WalMart Savings Catcher that I’ve been using since August 2014. I originally didn’t figure we’d benefit much from entering our tickets each week, but by the first of June 2015 the little rewards added up to way over a hundred dollars.

In June, My husband told me about some of his co-workers having negative experiences trying to spend WMSC Money. He suggested I go ahead and spend mine since it was beginning to be a sizable amount, in case the program gets canceled or my monies disappear into a glitch.

Okee-dokee, sounds like a peach of an idea. I could spend it on whatever I want, but unfortunately, it’s not so easy for me to do. I’m not very good at spending money just to spend it and frankly I couldn’t find anything on WalMart website nor in the store that I wanted. I shopped and shopped to no avail.

I’d almost decided to buy to a trail cam to put out by the garden, but I was afraid someone might steal it. I decided to buy my husband some new tools, but he didn’t want any new ones. He didn’t want me to spend my WMSC monies on him. I found lots of little things that I could’ve bought, but I really didn’t want any of them, so I waited and then I forgot about it a few weeks..

The first of July I decided that I wanted a new handheld tablet around 7 inches in size. I like my KindleFire 8.9 but it’s somewhat larger than the side-pocket on my handbag and I wanted a smaller tablet that would fit better. I knew WalMart carried some small tablets in the lower price range and since I had the extra dough in my savings catcher, I figured that’s what I would buy. My WMSC had grown to $155.66. My main requirement for a tablet, next to the size, was it had to be at least 32 gb and have Android OS.

I prefer an Android OS in a tablet because of an experience I had in November 2014. That year I was super happy to get a Dell Venue 8 Pro 32gb. My happiness was short lived… Windows kept updating and eating the gigabytes. After I’d had it less than 2 weeks, I hadn’t installed any programs or even uploaded a photo to it and there was less than 12 gb left. I was so disappointed that I restored it to factory settings and sent it back for a refund. Bummer! Lesson learned… Windows OS and small gbs are not a good mix… Well to me it’s an absolute no-no.

While surfing the lower cost tablets on the Wal Mart website, I happened on the Nextbook Ares 7″ Tablet 32 gb Quad Core. It seemed perfect and it was only $59.99. ~happy dance~ I’d never heard of the Nextbook before, but it had everything I wanted and so I ordered one without hesitation.

While waiting for it to arrive I went surfing around to read reviews about the NBA7. I discovered that it came out earlier this year and it’s a limited edition. Most of the reviews were positive. I could hardly wait to get mine. Apparently, these NBA7s run as low as $49.00 up to $89.00, depending on the store and the sale going on.

2-IMG_4954My Nextbook Ares 7″ Tablet 32 gb Quad Core arrived a day earlier than predicted. I was absolutely thrilled. It came Wednesday afternoon. Oh my! I fell immediately in love with it. In my opinion for the price it’s perfect. After everything updated there was still 27 gb of free space. Awesome! My husband went to bed that evening while I sat up still playing with my new tablet. Thursday morning I woke up bright eyed and over-the-moon telling my husband about my new tablet. I was so happy with it that I begged convinced him to let me order him one. I still had $90.00 on my WalMart Saving Catcher Card, so money wasn’t an issue. I was so tickled that he agreed to let me get him one too. I ordered another NBA7 and 2 tablet cases. I ended up with less than 2 bucks left in my WMSC. I thought that was pretty cool how that worked out. 😉

Anyway, so a couple days later, my husband got his new NBA7. Now we both have a wonderful little tablet. I can’t get over how nice they are. The only down side I’ve found is that trying to do a registration is way more complicated than it should be.

Okay, now for the fun parts of the Nextbook Ares 7″ Tablet 32 gb Quad Core:
It has an actual file manager. It’s plain and simplistic, but at least it has one.
I installed a 64 gb micro sd card to increase the storage space.
With a micro usb adapter, I use a 32 gb flash drive that it recognized and I was able to work without any problems. Also it recognizes my camera and I can download/upload photos. (I couldn’t get The NBA7 to recognize any of my 400gb to 1 tb external hard-drives. I think it’s because they’re so large.)
NBA7 has Bluetooth: I have a bluetooth keyboard that works great with it. (a bluetooth mouse would work too)
I watch movies on NBA7 through Amazon and Youtube.
NBA7 has a Chrome browser and surfs the web smoothly.
Our Nextbooks has Android OS and they run faster than our desktop & laptop that runs Windows.
The Google Play Store offers oodles of free and pay apps you can get to use or play on the NBA7.
There’s an app called Office Suite 8 for creating and editing documents. I installed it, but I haven’t used it yet.
NBA7 has a front facing camera. I’m not a big fan of cameras, so my only comment is, I tried it, it works. I doubt I use it very much.

Unfortunately I can’t use a Kindle App for reading on my NBA7 tablet… I contacted Amazon support and a very kind and patient tech-guy thought that the app doesn’t work for my NBA7 because my library is way too large (20,000+ free books) The app requires too much ram to run because of indexing and it crashes my NBA7 every time.
I’m sad I can’t load my own 6 self published Kindle Books on it, but oh well 😦
As I understand it, If my Kindle library was small the app would work.
Fortunately, the NBA7 has a Nook app that works perfectly. My Barnes n Nobles library is very small, but I’m happy to have it.

*note — if you want to get a Nextbook, make sure it’s a 32 gb and not the 16 gb. Apparently there is partitioning issues with the 16 gb.
I have not seen a 32 gb in a WalMart store, I’ve only seen them online.

*note — Facebook games – This isn’t an issue with us, but you can’t play Facebook games on the NBA7. Or if there’s a way to play them, I don’t know what it is.

I guess I could go on longer about the Nextbook Ares 7″ Tablet, but I think I’ll stop now. The gist of the post was supposed to be about how I was able to buy some really cool stuff with my WalMart Savings Catcher money that accumulated little by little.

We’ve had our NBA7’s for over a month and we really enjoy them.
For our use, these little tablets are great and the price was just right.
Don’t you just love it when a good deal really is a good deal?

I wish you all good fortune and great savings!
Happy Shopping!

s-shopping

~0708151438-00
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Attention Computer Techs & Crafters – I have a question

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I’m thinking about making a fabric handbag/tote large enough to carry my kindlefire 8.9. I’m playing with the idea of making a flap with a magnetic closure to keep one of the large pockets closed.
I hesitate to use the magnetic closures because I thought that magnets tend to cause electronic devices (like computers or phones) problems and could damage them.
However, my kindlefire cover/case that I bought through Amamzon has magnets in the edges to keep it shut. Also, If I’m not mistaken when I close the cover, the magnets in the edges turn the kindlefire off somehow or another.

I decided to post this question and see if any of you folks have any thoughts on if the magnetic closures would damage an electronic handheld device like a phone or tablet.

I look forward to hearing any thoughts you may have bout this.

Happy Crafting!

t6001spgrnbgln

Internet Issues update – hopefully resolved

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m0374Well, 3 modems and 4 routers later… we finally seem to have a smooth running internet connection. Hopefully, I can get caught up with my internet-doings and put these aggravating internet issues far in the back of my mind (for a month or two).

Now maybe I can enjoy my new laptop good-n-proper. 😉

Wishing ya’ll an issue-free rest of the week.mini-graphics-computer-309271

spgrnbgln

Internet Issues

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pcwOur internet has always been a bit contrary, but since last fall it’s gradually gotten absolutely nerve-wracking. It takes hours of trying for me to blog. It’s so frustrating.

4 pc’s, 2 cell phones and my kindlefire suffers the malediction of getting kicked off line and extra slow loading… Error Error Error… ~stomps foot~m0367I’ve done everything I know to do: power cycled many times, ran diagnostics, tested for viruses, uninstalled every program I had put on the pc’s like photo programs & files, personal files and the like, changed cords, changed routers and even said several unladylike words… Yep, I’ve surfed and learned and tried many fixes, everything short of calling our internet service. That was next on my battle plan.

My husband suggested that perhaps we need a new modem. I think he may be on to something with that thought. We’ve had this modem a few years and nothing that’s tech based seems to last very long now-a-days.
Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to go get a new modem yet. There’s too much going on.

Hopefully, we’ll be able to get a new modem soon and it’ll be what we need and I can dive back into enjoying my blogging and internet nonsense again. (If not then I guess I’ll have to get a techie out here to resolve the issues.)

So, if I’m slow about getting to your blogs or replying to your comments, know that my contrary old modem is limiting my surfing experience.

Here’s wishing ya’ll a pleasant week of trouble-free surfing.
m0331spgrnbgln

Update on Windows Update install issues

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IMG_6273My laptop tried again and again to install the Windows update. Finally on the last attempt I spotted a link for more help on resolving the issue. It lead me to a Microsoft fixit program to help resolve the issue.
I installed it and ran it and by-gum within a short time my laptop was fixed and the update was installed.
~sigh of relief~
For my daily computing, I was careful and didn’t do anything that it would be a problem if my laptop lost it in a crash. I read the news sites and did a lot of pinning.

I made plans to blog yesterday morning. With visions of visiting and commenting dancing in my head, I happily turned on my laptop and immediately was met with a notification to install 18 updates…
~falls on the floor sobbing~
With trepidation I clicked the button to install the updates…
Waiting and waiting and then finally they all surprisingly installed without a hitch.
But again, I was careful not to do anything that would cause me problems if it was lost in a crash… Back to news reading and pinning…

This morning there was no updates and my laptop seems to be running okay. So here I am blogging again… hopefully I’ll get to visit and comment and be a normal blogger without any issues nor arguments from my laptop…

Just one more thing… In my opinion, the Microsoft fixit programs, that Microsoft has come out with, are some of the most helpful little programs I’ve ever run for resolving issues. I have a couple installed on my laptop that I run when I need to resolve general issues. There’s oodles of them out there, if you can find one that is directly related to a problem you’re having, sometimes the Microsoftfixit fixes it in little of no time.
Here’s alink to the Microsoft Fix it Solution Center mrfixit
There’s alot of solutions but remember to Use them at your own discretion, they may or may-not resolve or help or work for everyone.

Here’s wishing you all a week free of pc issues.
compuspgrnbgln