Electronics

[glb613]

The oddest thing happened yesterday afternoon.  I pressed the menu button my Bose remote (which is programed like a universal remote) to access recordings on the DVR.  Instead of showing the DVR menu, it opened the TV menu.  I didn't change anything or reprogram the remote!  After several attempts to get it to work correctly, I found the code list from Bose, found the code for Motorola and reprogram the cable/DVR button. 

I've had requests for help from friends and family when they had similar things happen and really didn't believe they did nothing to cause the problem.  Well, now I'm a believer.  I had to have done something but for the life of me, I don't know what it was. It worked properly one minute and the next, the didn't.   Odd, very odd. 

[millieshops]

@glb613 I am beyond frustrated now that it seems as if our whole lives are being lived on devices.  There's not one I can use without turning to a magnifier or my reading glasses  - and sometimes both!

A few weeks ago, I made the mistake of lying down on the sofa with neither glasses nor magnifier nearby, pressed something I obviously shouldn't have and had captions on the screen.  Maybe that's good for someone who can see but can't hear, but for me they just blocked out too much screen.  

Had no idea how I got them or how to get rid of them except to experiment.  All the instructions I was getting were for the upgraded voice remote I don't have and which doesn't work on my old TV!  Grr!

And don't even ask about all the things wrong on my laptop.  If I were guessing the problems are split between hardware issues as the machine ages and software as I do.  Either way, because of the problems I'd say I've been reading in paper about 1000 more words per week than I had been reading, so it's not all bad,

[Kachina624]

Sometimes these "glitches" work to our advantage.  For several years I've had a Samsung TV that would annoyingly blurt out, in a voice that couldn't be understood, a commerical for something playing on Netflix.  Of course this always happened during an interesting news report or something I wanted to hear.  There were also other funny noises.  I'd searched and was unable to find a function to fix it.

A few days ago, I accidently hit some key on the remote and got a menu that included "audio".  I impulsively clicked it and now all the pesky sounds and announcements have disappeared.  Ah bliss.

[hckynut]

I certainly understand how many electronics do strange things out of the blue. When first learning computers I finally decided to quit paying so much attention to the "why" it happened.

Found it to be better to spend that time learning how to fix the problems. Over times I had many ask me how to fix something on their computers. I would walk them through the steps to fix it. They would then ask me, why? I told them I gave up on many "why's" because I really had no idea, but I did know how to correct many of them.

Any new device I get my first thing is finding every option on any menu on it. I then open them and see each option, try it and see what options are within the primary option. Down the lists I go, trying each and every one of them, including writing every step in my own words exactly what each one does as far as changes.

Some of the devices even had "grayed out" options because my device wasn't a specific model. Time consuming, yes, but that's just me. I certainly understand the frustrations because I have been there many times over  the decades I have tried to keep up with electronic technological advancements.

hckynut 🏒