HDMI

Research is the key . . .

/ Tony / 1 Comment

When I replaced my laptop computer a few years ago, I bought one that did not have a built-in CD/DVD drive. It was a financial decision as I understood that I could get a separate drive for around £20.00, whereas the built-in drive would have added another £50.00 to the price. At the time I wasn’t really watching any of my DVD collection as they are not something K**h and me would watch together.

However, just after Christmas, I decided that I needed some way to watch some of my DVDs and so looked around to buy a portable one. I found one on the internet, at a reasonable price and duly purchased it. There were problems right from the start.

My laptop has a number of ports. There is an ethernet port, an HDMI port, a USB C port, and a Card reader port, but only two USB 3.0 ports. The DVD reader shipped with two USB cables. I needed a multi-port USB hub.

Back to the internet and I found just what I was looking for. I ordered it but received an email explaining that it was currently out of stock, but would be available in two weeks’ time. I was promised that it would be posted, 1st class. So I sat back to wait.

Just over two weeks later my new hub was delivered. It must have been another three or four days before I could plug it in and set up the external DVD. That’s when problem number two reared its head. My laptop just would not see the external DVD. I plugged memory sticks into the hub and they were seen. So were my wireless mouse and external camera (the internal one is not the best).

I contacted the seller about a refund or replacement, only to have pointed out that I had exceeded the return date by two days. It left me no real option but to consign the unit to my so called “tech drawer” in the garage.

Fast forward to the beginning of last week. My eldest son asked me if had an external DVD. I explained that I did have but it did not appear to work. So before letting him have it, I once again checked that it did not work. It was then that I realised. After reading an online article, that USB 2.0 (which was one of the cables) was being phased, being almost obsolete, I tried connecting the unit with just the other cable. Success! It appears that both cables should not be used together as Windows can get confused about which one it should be using.

Lesson learned … do more research.

An interesting day . . .

/ Tony / 5 Comments

Everything was happening yesterday. My granddaughter, S***** had her 2nd birthday and came around for lunch with her parents and other grandma. And the youngest R***, came home for the weekend. He usually comes home every other weekend, but the dental work he had done upset that routine.

He got home around 11:30 and as usual he took himself off to his room to use his laptop. I went up about 10 minutes later with a drink of water for him and everything seemed fine, although I did notice that his TV was showing no signal. He was listening to a music CD through his DVD player and didn’t seem to be bothered. I went up to tell him his lunch was ready and saw that although the satellite box was on, there was still no signal. So while he was having his lunch I re-booted the box. Nothing changed. I then did a reset and still nothing. by this time he had finished his lunch and was back in his room, asking me to “Fix Sky!”

I spent a while looking through manual, and Googling the problem but nothing seemed to work. We told him that we would have to ring the ‘engineer’ to get it fixed fully believing that he may need a new box.

Meanwhile the lunch party was in full swing downstairs. Everyone was having a good time but because one of his autistic ‘quirks’ (for want of a better word) R*** didn’t join in. He is not very good with a lot of people. I was up and down most of the time, trying various other Google solutions, with no effect.

I was about 15:00 when something clicked. When he played a CD before, through his DVD player, the track listing came up on the screen, but this time there was still no signal. I then thought, that the HDMI cable to his TV had come loose, but it couldn’t as it was a fixed cable. That’s when it hit me. I picked up the TV remote and clicked on the ‘Source’ button, which by it’s very name is the place where you decided where your TV feed is coming from. The screen lit up and showed that the source was set at the TV’s default which was Freeview. Now as this box is not connected to an external ariel, Freeview is not available. I scrolled through the option, then knowing that I was looking for the HDMI-2 feed. Once selected the screen started to show all the programmes it should show. Everyone was happy.

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Back downstairs and the lunch party was nearly over and little S***** was starting to open her presents, of which there were many. to say she is only 2 years old, she certainly knew what to do, and soon the room was filled with torn wrapping paper and scattered presents. She is fascinated with books and with a TV character called “Hey Dougie” so most of the presents seemed to on those lines. Her other grandma left around about 16:00 and her daddy told us that K***’s father was going to pop over with a present, which was a nice surprise all around.

Initially, the idea was that the ‘Birthday Party’ would have been today, but she had been poorly with a throat infection which meant cancellation. However, given the effectiveness of the antibiotics the doctor prescribed I think the party could have gone ahead as planned. But never mind, I think it all went well.