Perpetual Ruminations

Window Madness

As the title suggests, I just went through a phase of Windows madness. Yesterday, I turned on my laptop and everything was fine. Off to the kitchen for a cup of coffee and when I return, my display is only showing in the center of my screen. No problem, just go in and tinker with the settings and apply the changes. Yes, the display covers the entire screen again. Only, everything is stretched and out of proportion, it looks terrible. After tinkering with things for about an hour and no success, I go to the only logical solution and restor my system back a couple of days, when it was working right. Problem solved.

Well, for a few minutes anyway, then the display again centers on the screen with black edges on both sides. We've already been down this road with no success, time to try something more drastic. Since it's been running slow and having memory problems, I trouble shoot possible fixes. After a long, in-depth scan of my system, no viruses are found.  System diagnostics report everything is fine after the latest Windows update. Next, contact Windows and try and get some answers there. Yes, there is an answer, reinstall Windows, there may be something corrupted. Two choices, complete re-installation and lose everything, or reinstall with personal data saved, but lose all apps and programs. I do have most of my things backed up in the clouds, but not everything, so I choose the latter.

By now, half a day has passed. I click the mouse and start the process and once again, find myself waiting for Windows to do it's thing. eventually, a couple of hours later, the system is back online and running great. Running great, but not looking great, the display is still stretched and out of proportion. Everything else is working great, the computer starts faster and programs run quicker, so not a total loss. Now, it's time to start downloading apps and programs again.

Only one problem, the apps are taking forever to download. This happens from time to time if there are a lot of people using the internet server here in our small town. Eventually, I just give up for the night. I have about half the items put back on my computer and will do the rest later. That was yesterday, even though I did get some other things done while waiting for Windows.

Today I attack the problem with a fresh outlook and things are going better. Eventually I get everything back on my computer that I need and I'm ready to use it. Like I had said, everything is working terrific, almost like having a new computer again, except for the messed up display. I figure I'll just have to use it as is, even though everything is a bit out of sorts for my preferences. I can adjust and get by, at least it's working again.

Then, I get a message that my issues have been resolved. Just go into the display settings, find the driver and make sure it's the current version. So, it's back to working on my computer, find the right place, check the driver and guess what? There is no driver installed, Windows is using a basic driver to compensate. Now, it's time to find the correct driver and download and install it. More time waiting for Windows to do it's thing. Being an older computer, I don't find the right driver; The driver is there, but it's not compatible with Windows 10. What?

I had had enough. The computer is old, no sense in spending money taking it in to get it fixed, we want to replace it with a new laptop when we can afford one, so it will have to do as is. One last thing I need to do, download the drivers and app for my Epson printer/scanner, then I'm done and am going into WdC no matter how it looks. The download completes relatively quickly, but the install and setup take a bit of time. Then I'm done, but I have to restart my computer for the changes. I click restart and wouldn't you just know it, Windows has to update.

Almost an hour for the download and update to complete as well as a few restarts, then finally, the system comes on, the update is complete and all I have to do is sign in. The computer runs great and my display is finally back to normal; part of the upgrade was to address a problem with some of the older display drivers. Why didn't Microsoft just say to download and install the latest updates in the first place? Oh well, with the reinstall of Windows 10 things are working better, I guess in the long run, and I do mean long, it was worth the frustration and the time.