toning down the glare

Computers & Gadgets, This and That, Writing and Blogging

Last month I got a new computer, printer, and camera.   Yesterday the monitor had to go back to the store because the brightness control didn’t work.    I have had computers since 1983, and the first thing I ever did when setting them up for use was to adjust the brightness of the screen.   The manufacturers insist upon having white backgrounds on much of the content, but there was always the option to turn down the brightness by using the control button.

So in a search for the control that I knew had to be there, finally found the controls, and set out to change the brightness.    So I went online and asked google how to change the brightness.   Easy…they told me…giving detailed instructions.    Nope.   Then checked the discussion pages….the people who say stuff about their frustrating experiences with their new computers.      In a nutshell, they followed the instructions, to no avail…gave up.

After convincing myself that the brightness control on my monitor did not work, I turned to my second plan of attack—the first being to solve the problem myself—which involved asking my daughter, who is something of a computer guru, to look at it and tell me what I was doing wrong.   She arrived, and conducted a search of her own, trying all the tried and true tricks that a neophyte like me would not know.

Finally, daughter arrived at the point where I had given up and her opinion was that the control system was not working.    So, we went off to BestBuy, where the GeekSquad woman ran the monitor through its paces and arrived at exactly the same conclusion that we had reached—the thing did not work!

All ended well though—I paid an extra $30.00 and got a new monitor.   It’s about an inch larger screen than the one it replaces.    The brightness control works…and the controls themselves can be manipulated easily and efficiently without standing on my head to find the control board.

Now…I am having a problem getting the CD with the instruction booklet for the monitor to download.   I know the CD drive works because I tested it last week.   But this won’t be a major issue, because I DO know enough German to read the on-screen directions if I need to make other adjustments.    Sprechen zie kleine bissel deutsch, so I’ll manage until I have the wits to adjust the language.

14 thoughts on “toning down the glare”

  1. Maddening enough when things stay the same, but with the constant changes and more and more obscure ways to achieve the old simple results. Grrrrrrr.

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    2. whatever happened to good old toggle switches? By the way, I have converted several hundred or more of my slides with my slide converter….I am SO pleased. I’m going to do ALL of my slides. In fact I may make some CDs for my kids. It’s fun looking at the pics, some as early as 1980.

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      3. it has an automatic 20-slide stacker, which works very well if the slides are in good shape…otherwise I had to do them one at a time which didn’t really take too long and compensated me by letting me see all these old pics! 🙂 you need a SD disk to do the transfer…

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      5. about the size of a square box of Kleenex. The loader thingy removes and sits on the shelf by my router. The SD disk is vital to the operation, but only as a holder during the actual conversion. The files are then transferred from the SD to the computer.

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    1. Not quite. I needed a new computer badly, and had been saving up for a camera. While I was at BestBuy I had not intended to order the camera, but did. Then when I got home (I swear it was the same day or so) my printer decided to die. I ordered a new print head, but it still didn’t work…it was a good old printer that was inexpensive originally. I still had my Christmas money in my account, designated for the camera. SO…I decided to bite the bullet and replace everything at once. Since I operate like a drunken sailor anyway, when I finally get money to buy what I want…I do.

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