In Mexico I thought I had a problem with the display on my laptop. It turned out that there was no problem and I don't want to talk about it.... Anyway, that is not important. What is important is that I bought a new 19" widescreen monitor down there. It is a Samsung T190 and is a thing of beauty. Yesterday I tried to hook it up to my computer here at home but had some problems. The driver Windows XP chose for it gave a funny perspective. It was like it was trying to stretch the image out to fill the wide screen. Tall things looked short, skinny people looked fat and I looked really fat! It would also not display in anything but the lowest resolution. I tried to load newer drivers from the CD that came with the monitor but it told me that my computer was not compatible.
I took it down to my favorite computer store where they told me there was no way that the onboard video card could run a wide screen monitor. Like I should have known this. They told me they could sell me a video card and install it for free. Free sounded like a good deal so they went ahead and did this. A couple of hours later They called to say it was finished so I went down to pick it up and pay the $110 bill. This store recycles old computer equipment so I dropped off my old 486 that I could not even give away to my grandchildren as well as an old printer that was taking up space under the desk for a couple of years.
On the way home I decided to replace the Lexmark printer that cost me a fortune for ink cartridges and was currently not working. I stopped at Staples and found an HP 3 in 1 network printer on sale for under $100. The salesman assured me the cartridges for this printer were less than the Lexmark so I bought it.
The monitor works very nicely with my computer and gives me a ton more real estate on the desktop to play on. I will have to fiddle a little with the Gamma setting and fine tuning the colour but my photos looked very nice on it when I opened PhotoShop. The colors are much nicer than on the old monitor. I have not set up the printer yet but when I do it should be accessable from all three of the computers (his, hers and the motorhome's laptop). That is a project for tomorrow when I have the house to myself as Norma is driving down to Victoria for a reunion of her former workmates at Forest Renewal BC. They shall be terrorizing one of the pubs in Victoria Friday night.
I still haven't done the rewiring job on the inverter but I am getting close.
We've been in Mazatlan almost two weeks.
1 hour ago
486: I spent the summer of 1997 slaving away under the hot sun to make the 750$ I needed to buy my very first computer of my very own. It was a 486. I had it two years before I received my first Pentium as a gift. Oh, those were the days...
ReplyDeleteHP printers: I would never in a million years buy another HP printer, especially not an inkjet one. My experience with them, a solid three for three, is that they break on the day after the warranty expires. While they work, though, they are much better than Lexmark. :) I checked the sales and bought a Brother b&w 3-in-1 laser printer for 125$ about a year ago and love it! I'd rather lose the colour printing capability and have all the advantages of laser.
Up until now I have owned every brand EXCEPT an HP and have had bad luck with all of them! Mostly to do with ink, one way or another.
ReplyDeleteI have a laser printer as well for documents and the inkjet is just for... well, colour. I also think the HP is small enough to take in the MH. There were many times in Mexico that I wished I had a printer for printing out directions, maps, etc.
You can refill ink cartidges as well as laser toner cartridges. I've been refilling my Canon cartridges for two or three years now, for a tiny fraction of the ripoff cost from Canon/HP/Lexmark/etc. Here's the ink supplier. Get the $24.95 kit, which will last you years, and it includes the little goodies that make refilling easy (hypodermic needles, plugs, tools, ink).http://www.datatekusa.com/
ReplyDeleteHi Croft,
ReplyDeleteI love my HP 3-in-1 printer. It's a C4280 model. Best printer I ever had. No problems. Even when bouncing around inside of MsTioga.
George