Strange Behavior

[W3WN]

Just ran into something odd on my desktop PC. Wondering if anyone else has experienced it.

So the Boss and I took a long weekend trip. Forgot to shut this PC down before we left. Came home... no mouse, no keyboard. Weird. Grabbed another mouse and kbd... still didn't work.

After troubleshooting... well, the strange thing was that keyboard and mouse worked during the initial boot, BIOS check, and Windows Recovery. As soon as the OS started to load, lights on each go off, and they go dead. (Obviously I'm skipping over the troubleshooting details... and that includes the obvious, like changing USB ports too...)

Ended up recovering the OS from Dell's site (fortunately, retaining all my files *phew* and yes I'm overdue for a backup), and, obviously, everything is working again.

Just not sure WHY it happened. No power blips that I know of over the weekend (Little Miss Field Day was here watching Miss Finnley... and no, she never touched the PC, she has her own laptop). None of the other computers affected. Just this one.

Strange.

[WZ7U]

Burt sneaking in while you're out?

[W3WN]

Nah. LMFD would kick his Assets without breaking a sweat.

[NQ6U]

Windows, you know.

I don’t understand why people continue to inflict themselves with that operating system when there are better alternatives, some of them free.

[n6hcm]

there are alternatives. whether or not they're *better* is another story

[W3WN]

Turned out that I did have one major software "casualty" from the incident.

Went to reinstall Office 2010. Found out that you can't register the license key any longer. Telephone automation to verify the key no longer works on this version. Can't get ahold of someone on the phone. Your only option is online support... IF you already have a Microsoft.com account.

Well, it is a 15 year old package. Just annoying; I hadn't upgraded it since what I had did everything I needed.

Went and looked. Found an online vendor selling Office 2021 (which appears to be the LAST stand-alone version) and got it for under $50, thanks to a 50% off sale. That should hold me for a few more years.

Also found out that Publisher is being discontinued in about 2 years. Which is a future royal pain in the tuchus, since this is what I use to edit the club newsletter, and have for over 25 years. Grrrr. Best part of THAT news blast? When it is discontinued, it will also be REMOVED from online Office 365/Micro$oft 365. (I wonder if they're going to try and brick the offline versions as well?) Well, at least I have 2 years notice to find something else...

[n6hcm]

that's going to bite *many* people. I think they'll back down.

[NQ6U]

Blame Adobe for this. They’re the bastards who started the whole software rental license mess.

[N1LAF]

Just ran into something odd on my desktop PC. Wondering if anyone else has experienced it.

So the Boss and I took a long weekend trip. Forgot to shut this PC down before we left. Came home... no mouse, no keyboard. Weird. Grabbed another mouse and kbd... still didn't work.

After troubleshooting... well, the strange thing was that keyboard and mouse worked during the initial boot, BIOS check, and Windows Recovery. As soon as the OS started to load, lights on each go off, and they go dead. (Obviously I'm skipping over the troubleshooting details... and that includes the obvious, like changing USB ports too...)

Ended up recovering the OS from Dell's site (fortunately, retaining all my files *phew* and yes I'm overdue for a backup), and, obviously, everything is working again.

Just not sure WHY it happened. No power blips that I know of over the weekend (Little Miss Field Day was here watching Miss Finnley... and no, she never touched the PC, she has her own laptop). None of the other computers affected. Just this one.

Strange.

Same thing happened to my Dell laptop recently. Windows did an update, restart to complete update, and as soon as the blue windows logo comes up the screen, the laptop shut down. Power back on, got into the BIOS just fine, exit and restart, then lights out.