Another Windows Update that created more problems than it fixed. Tower Computer, VGA/HDMI output set to be Display 1 and Display2

Sonnar Brian

Sonnar Brian

Product of the Fifties
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The worst I've seen was the CPU Cache Fix that "did not go well" if you had an AMD processor. Fortunately on that one I pulled the power plug and battery before the computer burned itself out.

This one: came in to find the tower computer monitor was all-black. I have HDMI and VGA output on both the computer and the monitor, monitor connected via HDMI. Rebooted the computer and power cycled the monitor. Still nothing. In a "This idea is so stupid it has to work" move I hooked the monitor up using the VGA. That worked. Ran "Settings", reloaded the drivers, all the normal stuff. The HDMI selection showed the Backdrop, but you could not open an application on it. On VGA- noted the cursor could be moved off screen.

Went to settings, check off "Duplicate These Displays", which is used when you have TWO physical monitors. That worked.
Then my wife told me that her Sister's computer was doing the exact same thing mine was, after being updated and rebooting.
I'll be visiting with my VGA cable.
 
One word: Linux

I got tired of updates that are measured in days and that are not always good. MS always was shaky but for the last decade or so it has been worse. I run dual boot just so that I can run MS-only software but pretty much live in the Linux Mint side of the house, just for reasons like this.
 
One Acronym: DOS

I wrote one driver that mapped the screen memory to a Fortran Common Block and generated 24-bit color postscript for the Dye-Sub printer.
 
Sonnar Brian said:
One Acronym: DOS

I wrote one driver that mapped the screen memory to a Fortran Common Block and generated 24-bit color postscript for the Dye-Sub printer.
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That's fine for you. You can code DOS and C and Fortran. The rest of us just want a stable platform, no hassles.
Beemermark said:
Every Apple update makes my IPad and Iphone run slower. The Ipad Air 2 now has problems loading an internet page.
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I have issues with Apple, too. Rigid closed architecture, That's just great when it works 100%. When it works 100%. I have an iPad. The new Apple RISC chip was brilliant. But now others are building them.. The slowing down is part of the software - hardware hustle, as in the Wintel hustle. Software gets more cumbersome so buy the next faster Intel chip and the software catches up and agin so buy the next faster Intel chip ad nauseam. Brian has it figured out: CP/M. Kildall rules..
 
I still have one game, that I play with my son, that I can't get to run in emulation and isn't available on Steam/Linux. That prevents me from deleting Windows for now. If I can ever get it work properly in emulation, microshaft is gone. Everything else I need is available on linux (my dos stuff can be done in dos emulation quite well I find 😉 )
 
Beemermark said:
Every Apple update makes my IPad and Iphone run slower. The Ipad Air 2 now has problems loading an internet page.
Click to expand...
To be fair... that's more a web development issue than an Apple issue - and I say this as someone who's very aware of the "issues" Apple has with old devices.

I am eternally amazed at how absolutely bloated websites have become. Vivaldi is telling me keeping this page open while I type is taking up 52MB of RAM; on the other hand, a Facebook window in another tab is hoarding 289MB of RAM. That's absolutely ludicrous.

Unlike Brian, I've never written anything in Fortran, but I used to build my own websites in Notepad with pure HTML, way before CSS was widespread and before PHP was even a thing. I remember being introduced to Dreamweaver and being horrified by the bloat that introduced to the HTML. Meanwhile, if you use developer tools on any site built with Wix or Squarespace (Dreamweaver's bastard children), it's a million times worse. Add onto that the overheads created by adverts, tracking scripts, and insane browser demands, and you'll bring anything remotely outdated to its knees.

On a semi-related note, a good friend of mine went down the open source and Linux rabbit holes in a big way in 2020. He told me recently he swapped to a "deGoogled" Android phone (from Fairphone), and despite his phone usage habits not changing at all, his monthly data consumption literally halved overnight. That's how much strain trackers and ads are actively causing on your devices. It's nuts.
 
I write my HTML and PHP generators in Fortran, and also just did an XML to SQL generator in Fortran. The base routine is an all-purpose parser written in 1982.

I also used Wordstar to write HTML...
 
I should have been asleep hours ago _BUT_ I discovered a new set of emulator patches that Steam put out. Designed for their Steam Deck to be able to run Windows games on their Linux based handheld. A couple of hours of downloads to my laptop running Linux later and some testing and my next day off, Windows is going to go bye-bye from my desktop because (within the limits of the wimpy CPU/GPU of that laptop) Warframe runs fine. That was all that was keeping me on Windows.

Buh buy Mickyshaft!
 
"CoffeeCup" is the HTML editor that my Daughter used for her courses. Inexpensive, worked well.

The HTML Editor | CoffeeCup Software

HTML Editor, CSS Editor, Quick start from Templates. The HTML Editor from CoffeeCup Software has it all! And with free support it is the default choice.
www.coffeecup.com www.coffeecup.com

It was a fun course.
 
Sonnar Brian said:

The FreeDOS Project

freedos.org freedos.org

Updated and Maintained! Supports the Pharlap DOS Extender, 32-bit mode to 4GBytes for one program!

The FreeDOS Project

freedos.org freedos.org

And remember- writing Code is nothing but Typing.
Click to expand...


Fire the programmers and hire chimps. LOL Oh, the typing has to make sense??? Now you tell me. Sheesh, that explains those bad walkthroughs.
 
Not to sound all Macboy but since I switched 20 years ago I haven't suffered those sorts of issues but a very few and very minor times. It's a little frustrating that you can't get into the bowels of the system but then you really don't need to.
 
Darthfeeble said:
Not to sound all Macboy but since I switched 20 years ago I haven't suffered those sorts of issues but a very few and very minor times. It's a little frustrating that you can't get into the bowels of the system but then you really don't need to.
Click to expand...

Unless you want software that is not on the Apple approved list. It is the security of Yevtushenko's Silver Fox. The safety of a locked cage. And I know, as does Apple, that this model works for most people. Just look at market share.

For me it is philosophically difficult but in practicality it is easy. It is a "kiss the ring" situation. Apple knows what they are doing and are getting very rich doing it. And that's fine as they are clever and supply the market demand.

Let's blame it on Gates. ;o)
 
I've used PCs since 1984, and although not an IT specialist I have had to learn a certain amount of basic computer knowledge in order to save money and squeeze as much life out of equipment to avoid frequent replacement costs. For a number of reasons it was impractical to run an ethernet cable to a new home office in our garage, and I have gotten by using a wireless access point and a very common, powerful and popular USB adapter (Netgear Nighthawk) on my office computer to access wifi . However, when Windows 10 was introduced immediately every Windows update blew up the wifi connection in such a way that hours could be spent successfully completing the update and repairing the wifi connection. Never happened with Windows 7. Microsoft finally did something to Windows 11 that corrected the problem.
 
Darthfeeble said:
Not to sound all Macboy but since I switched 20 years ago I haven't suffered those sorts of issues but a very few and very minor times. It's a little frustrating that you can't get into the bowels of the system but then you really don't need to.
Click to expand...
Actually you can now that it's got BSD at it's core but it's still too tightly locked down to the Apple ecosystem for my tastes.

It was actually better back in the bad old days of MacOS 7.5 through 8.1 as far as I was concerned. Still have a copy of Basilisk II around for the good stuff from those days pretending to be a 68040 😉
 
boojum said:
Unless you want software that is not on the Apple approved list.
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I have had no problem running most any software on Macs. I go back to the 128K Mac and the Apple II before that. Along the way, I owned a company that designed and manufactured PowerPC upgrade cards for many Macs. We even got around Apple's attempt to circumvent us, when they moved their proprietary boot rom from the motherboard to the cpu card. 😎
 
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