Bumpity-bumpity

[greg]

Martha: Hi! How's your trip going?

--DH

 

[Martha]

Sitting here on the train right now. Nice life. Rolling along the tracks, reading and staring out the window.

Miss you, sweetie.

Computer people: Everytime I take a trip my screen on my computer will suddenly go black. The only way I can get a picture back is to take out the battery and then reboot. Any ideas?

 

[Brat]

When my portable gets too warm it locks up.  The only solution I found is to remove the battery to force a reboot, give it a short rest, then restart.

Computer techs shudder at this technique, they tell me that is causes nasty things to happen to the hard drive.  My response: give me a better solution, please.

Too bad you will be riding through southern Oregon in the dark - you are missing some magnificant country (I am just guessing where you are heading).  I hope the track through northern California is in good shape after all that rain.

Tell me, how are you linking to the internet?  Does the Coast Starlight offer that service

 

[Martha]

In northern California right now. The train is running 6 hours late due to track problems because of rain. The Sacramento river is amazing! Big water. Trouble getting any good picture out of the train window. Just had breakfast with three other middle aged women also traveling sans spouse. We talked about men. Good clean fun.

Connected to the internet via cell phone. Good signal and good speed right now outside of Redding.

A couple of whitetail deer are running along with the train.

Again this morning my screen went black and I had to do the hard reboot to get started. Maybe my HP isn't good for travel anymore. I never have the problem when it is sitting in my office.

 

[wabmester]

Computer people:  Everytime I take a trip my screen on my computer will suddenly go black.  The only way I can get a picture back is to take out the battery and then reboot.   Any ideas?

Does it suddenly go black only on battery power and when you're not actively using it? If so, it sounds like power management, which for some reason the BIOS guys could never get right. Try disabling the power managment features (from control panel) and see if that changes things.

 

[greg]

Good night Irene Martha. 8)

 

[Dreamer]

Hope you have a wonderful trip Martha. Train travel can be fun.

Dreamer

 

[Mr._johngalt]

Hope you have a wonderful trip Martha.  Train travel can be fun.

Dreamer

I used to travel by train quite frequently, coast to coast, but not all at once. I loved it (non-flyer) esp. if someone else was paying.
I have lots of train travel stories. Once I met my train quite late at night,
and when I was shown to my private sleeper, we discovered a
"stowaway" sound asleep in my bed. AMTRAK was quite
embarrassed by this but they evicted him and tidied up pretty
fast. Not sure what they did with the guy.

JG

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Lappie problem could be a multitude of things. Checked for viruses and spyware?

Generally a hard power down that wont allow a repower without removing the battery comes down to two things. Either the system has (or thinks it has) an overheat situation and its hard locked itself to prevent you from turning it back on immediately and exacerbating the overheat, or it thinks the battery is fully discharged when it obviously isnt.

To take the info that it only happens on battery power...the cpu and system fans usually run more slowly when on battery power. If its an older lappie or used in a dusty environment, the cpu or system heatsinks/fans might be impacted with dust. Running on ac power with the faster fan speed might keep things cool, but on battery the lower speed fan rate doesnt cut it. However the system should automatically kick up the fan speed to compensate and if you power it back up again within a few minutes it should just power right back off as the heat shouldnt have dissipated.

Since the prospects of an overheat are therefore pretty dim, i'm betting you have a battery with some flakey electronics in it, or theres some connection problem between the battery and the system. Either the battery is reporting that its discharged when its not, or a loose connection is causing the system to stop seeing the battery. Replacing the battery would be a good first test after checking for naughty software.

As far as what happened to the battery, a lot of them are poorly made, sometimes if you dont get a good full cycle charge/condition into a laptop battery at the start (and periodically thereafter) the battery may suddenly report its in a discharge state when its not, or it may just be an internal connection inside the battery or inside the laptop.

Unfortunately batteries aint cheeep. If its an older laptop, consider selling it to someone with disclosure that its only gonna work well plugged in and get a new one.

I was looking at a couple of nice travellers yesterday at sams club. Pair of averatecs; one little 3.something pounder with a 10" screen and a celeron M and one 4.something pounder with a 12" screen and a sempwrong 3000. Too little for my eyesight but they'd tickle C-T's toes if he wasnt grumpy at averatec for not including restore cd's with the laptop he bought. Both under a grand...I think the small one was $899 and the 12" one was $799. Or go with the latest Dell el cheapo if you dont mind a little more weight and a little less battery time.

HP's *are* terrible. I have one that has so many problems I've quit using it altogether.

 

[Martha]

I am in Orange California visiting my sister. Too hot and sunny. BIL, a geek, thinks my computer is infected with some sort of virus. If so, that would be a first. Should I email my IT person or would that be a bad thing?

Went to the beach yesterday and watched the birds. Greg and I call each other too much. He just called to express his delight that he found a pair of pants he didn't know he had.

 

[Ginger]

Martha, you are in my neck of the woods (Newport Beach/Irvine area).
It was in the mid-80's today -- perfect day for the beach. Glad you are enjoying our lovely weather! Enjoy your stay in Orange County.

 

[greg]

Greg and I call each other too much. He just called to express his delight that he found a pair of pants he didn't know he had.

Martha: So you see, this is what happens when I look in my drawers while alone. I prefer having your help around the house.

Martha left me a honeydo list. It says "Greg, here's a list of things to do while I am gone:" But if I look at that sentence without my glasses and and while squinting hard, it appears to say "Greg, here's a list of things to do while I am goo:"

Well, my wife isn't goo, and I don't ever think she could turn into goo, so I've decided that I better not do anything on that list--while she's gone--or maybe longer.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

this is what happens when I look in my drawers while alone

*cough* Was this supposed to be a PM?

 

[Martha]

My train room:

Really pretty luxurious. Own bathroom with shower, couch and chair. Couch folds out into a bed at night. Food on the train is good, but too plentiful. I really recommend train travel in a sleeper as a way to enforce relaxation. Did lots of reading.

Here is () land out my train window, lots of water everywhere:

 

[sgeeeee]

. . .Where are your pants?  . . .

Never a good sign when you have to ask this question. :

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

His hands in his pants, hers missing. Neither near the other. A few more words, a snappy tune and i've got a song. Maybe a prince song.

Where'd ya take that shot Martha? Looks quite familiar.

 

[Martha]

Where'd ya take that shot Martha? Looks quite familiar.

I'm not really sure. I figure it was somewhat close to where you are because I saw a sign not that far from there which said "Gateway to Yuba City."

 

[greg]

His hands in his pants, hers missing. Neither near the other. A few more words, a snappy tune and i've got a song. Maybe a prince song.

We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
All in all, we just need is some pants from the mall.

--Pink Martha & Pink Greg 8)

 

[Sheryl]

You two are just soooo cute!

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I'm not really sure. I figure it was somewhat close to where you are because I saw a sign not that far from there which said "Gateway to Yuba City."

I know where those train tracks are. Hell, you hummed just a few miles away from where I live. Delightful, hmm?

 

[Martha]

I know where those train tracks are. Hell, you hummed just a few miles away from where I live. Delightful, hmm?

Worlds collide.

 

[sgeeeee]

Worlds collide.

and apparently, pants disappear.

 

[greg]

Happy Birthday Martha.

Happy birthday to you. (slowly unbuttoning my shirt and revealing my shoulder)
Happy birthday to you. (slowly raising dropping my pants to reveal cheek)
Happy birthday Mrs. Former Pres-iii-dent.
Happy birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuuu.

How old Nevermind.

--Marilyn Greg

 

[sgeeeee]

. . .Happy birthday to you. (slowly raising dropping my pants to reveal cheek) . . .

At least now we know how he lost those pants in the first place.

 

[Martha]

Yesterday spent hours in Powell's in Portland, Oregon. But Greg wanted me to get a Ben Graham book they didn't have. The mystery section was inhabited by plump middle aged and elderly women. The sci-fi section by skinny young men in grungy clothes. Stereotypes ruled.

Thanks Brat so much for the walking directions--worked perfect and the walk was nice. Only was drizzeling a little. Portland is a wonderful place.

Approaching West Glacier right now. Not as much snow here as there was in the Cascades. But clearly colder. Home tomorrow. Miss my honey and my doggies.