The Slippery Soapbox

[Fogdude]

I spend so much mouse time scrolling up & down these screens my mouse wheel has gone smooth inside & no longer makes that cute little zipping sound.

[VincentLupo]

I've seen that before.  Good thing they are cheap.

[Wrench]

If you buy a high end name brand mouse you won't have that problem. My Logitech wireless mouse is over 6 yrs old and it still clicks when I spin the scroll wheel. I have had to replace the feet twice and of course the batteries.

[Fogdude]

I have never used anything but Logitech, but I won't use a wireless mouse. Mine has no balls, but it does have a long... cord.

[sk-ar]

Get rid of mouses problem use a wacom tabletlike  

[Wrench]

so you have a female mouse and the wire is the chatty string. try a touch screen, that way you can touch all the pictures.

[Fogdude]

My fingers are so fat I need a stylus to use my smartphone, for cryin' out loud. All I need is a touch screen!  

[Fogdude]

MyWrench was kind enough to send me a link to a mouse that helps with Carpal Tunnel sufferers, of which I am one. I checked it out, but couldn't see, from the pictures & descriptions, how it was much different from a touchpad, which I hate. So, I did a search on Amazon for Carpal Tunnel Mouse & found quite a few. I settled on the Evoluent brand, model VM4R (USB wired, I hate wireless mice). It's basically a standard mouse, but oriented vertically with the buttons on the right & a very generous thumbrest on the left. It was also 1/3 the cost of the one suggested, which wasn't really the determining factor, but a bonus, anyway.

I'm still getting used to it. I keep clicking when I'm just trying to move it. Not that often, but it does happen, both on the standard  buttons & the special ones on the top & bottom of the thumbrest. They provide a driver for programming the buttons & I may go ahead & download it so I can disable the thumbrest buttons, if I can't get past hitting them by accident.

Good news: The very first few minutes of using it made my hand feel 90% better. It's highly tune-able, with a special rocker button behind the standard ones that lets you alter the sensitivity up & down with a quick press & this button doesn't get in the way of normal operation. It's super slick, light & easy to maneuver. The pointer is VERY accurate & I find it easier to pinpoint than with the old Logitech.

I did have to resort to a wrist rest. They recommend it & I thought I could get by without it, but it really does take more pressure off the wrist, which is a large factor in nerve compression. SO far, the only issue is that the wrist rest now takes up a bit more of the limited space I had for the mouse, so I find myself lifting & reindexing the mouse, to get the travel I need & that leads to inadvertent button pushing. I'm going to have to rearrange my desk a bit to make room for this. That handgun beside the keyboard is gonna have to move a bit.  

Overall, having used this for only a day & a hlf, I'm thrilled. The pain & numbness in my hand is negligible & the only remaining problem is a mild numbness in my thumb, which is getting better, but won't go away as long as I have to keep gripping the mouse to lift & reindex it.

I know most, if not all, of you probably have this issue to one extent or another, so I hope this experience helps.

As time passes, I'll report back with any further developments.

[Wrench]

Glad I was of some help. I picked the one only because the wife uses it and loves it.

[Fogdude]

Glad I was of some help. I picked the one only because the wife uses it and loves it.

I understood that, Wrench. I really do appreciate the help. You definitely pointed me in the right direction. If you hadn't offered that, I'd still be spinning my wheels & hurting. I owe you, buddy!

[Wrench]

That's what buddy's are for.

[Fogdude]

Well, I bit the bullet & downloaded & installed the custom driver for the Evoluent Mouse I just installed. It's saving my hand from a tremendous amount of pain & discomfort, but I had an irritating tendency to inadvertently right click with my little finger when moving the mouse. The only way to fix that is to 1) control my finger better (not an option) or 2) Install the custom driver & disable that button or reprogram it.

I disabled the the rightmost button & made the middle button the right-click, which seems to have solved that problem. I also disabled the button on the scroll wheel, though it still scrolls, accidentally pressing it is no longer a problem. I also disabled the 5th & 6th buttons on the thumbrest, which also got hit now & then while maneuvering the mouse. Problems all solved!

Now, the installation...

When I initially plugged it in, I used my Aluratek USB tower hub. It's powered & provide 2amps, so external devices that draw power stay connected & never have power issues. The Evoluent folks warn against using a hub, though they admit it may work. It did, when I used it natively. Once I installed the custom driver, the mouse stopped working.

I had to plug in a normal mouse to get through the rest of the installation & then program the Evoluent mouse. I then tried plugging it into the hub again & it still wouldn't work, so I gave up & plugged it into my one remaining direct USB port & it lit up & worked fine. Apparently, their custom driver simply refuses to work with that mouse if it is in a hub.

Fine. I can live with that, though I'm not thrilled about it. That one USB port was my main thumb drive port & for any other external odds & ends I needed to use temporarily. Now, I'll have to resort to a free port on my hub for that, which is less convenient, but at least I have the option.

[Fogdude]

Regarding my new vertical Evoluent mouse. It's been great, though I still have a tendency to hit the wrong button at the wrong time. I finally had to anchor my wrist rest to the desk top with some Velcro. It kept sliding around as I moved the mouse & was causing a lot of inadvertent clicks. Most of that is gone now & the comfort of my hand & wrist is something I never dreamed I'd ever experience again. This mouse is the closest thing to a standard mouse, that also relieves the pressure on the nerves in your wrist, that I've found. There are other alternatives, like touchpads & bars, but I like this the best.

[Fogdude]

Regarding my new vertical Evoluent mouse. It's been great, though I still have a tendency to hit the wrong button at the wrong time. I finally had to anchor my wrist rest to the desk top with some Velcro. It kept sliding around as I moved the mouse & was causing a lot of inadvertent clicks. Most of that is gone now & the comfort of my hand & wrist is something I never dreamed I'd ever experience again. This mouse is the closest thing to a standard mouse, that also relieves the pressure on the nerves in your wrist, that I've found. There are other alternatives, like touchpads & bars, but I like this the best.

[Fogdude]

My next issue is to replace the key tops on my "A" & left Shift keys on my laptop keyboard. I could just replace the whole keyboard, but that seems a bit extreme (though probably simpler) & I found a site that sells the specific components for replacing any of the keys for $6.95 a key & that includes the clips & sockets, since it's as likely as not you'll break one or both, removing the old key top.

I plan to order some soon & once I've gone through the process, I'll let you know how it transpired.

[Wrench]

Keyboards on Amazon go for around 10-15 bucks. New and clean, replacing a key or 2 you still have an old and dirty keyboard. IMO new is the way to go.

[Fogdude]

Keyboards on Amazon go for around 10-15 bucks. New and clean, replacing a key or 2 you still have an old and dirty keyboard. IMO new is the way to go.

I would tend to agree, but this one isn't even a year old. I just tend to hammer a couple of keys so much, the lettering has rubbed off. I'm scrupulous about keeping my keyboards dust & crumb free.

[VincentLupo]

Who needs letters.  As long as the little nub is still on the F and J.

[Fogdude]

Who needs letters.  As long as the little nub is still on the F and J.

Yeah, well... if you're a touch typist... I'm not. Got kicked out of typing class in the 10th grade & never bothered to learn. Still type 60wpm with two fingers though.

[Fogdude]

UPDATE: New battery appears to have resolved the issue. At least, so far (30 mins). We'll see how it does overnight.

Yesterday morning, I got up & came to my main laptop. It was beeping every 30-60 seconds. I checked the logs & I see a constantly repeating entry for the power monitor switching modes. As I watched my system, I saw the battery indicator & the light on the chassis switching back & forth. It goes from 99% on battery, as though it's not plugged in, to 100% available, plugged in & charging. It keeps switching between these two states, every minute or so.

I changed the power adapter/charger & the condition persisted. I did a power off shutdown & restart & the condition resumed.

After about 4 hours, it stopped this & stayed normal (100% charged) while plugged in. Pulling the power adapter out switched it to battery & all seemed normal.

I left the power adapter unplugged to drain the battery & recharge. It started out with 99% battery & dropped rapidly. Starting out, it estimated 4.5 hours. In 10 minutes, the estimate dropped to 2.5 hours. I went to bed & watched a movie for almost 2 hours. When I came back to the machine, it had hibernated & shut down. I plugged in the adapter & it recharged in about 3 hours & resumed the beeping & switching states.

I would assume the battery is the problem, but I'm not sure how that would make it switch TO battery from powered by the adapter, which is still plugged in, so I'm thinking it's a worse problem with my power interface, though I almost never fiddle with it & it doesn't get pushed on or bumped, ever.

I think I have a new battery somewhere on a shelf. If I can find that, I'll swap out the battery & see if it changes anything. Otherwise, I'm out of ideas, unless it's a recent Windows update that has gone flaky. I did get a number of pushes that didn't require a restart, so it's a remote possibility that this is where the oddity comes from.

[Fogdude]

Well, my old Epson WF-2530 finally flaked out. It quit using the Cyan ink, though it was still 2/3 full. Then it told me my Magenta was out, which it was, but when I put in a new cartridge, it wouldn't print Magenta now. The printer thinks everything is fine, but all I can print out is Black & Yellow. I give up.

I bought a new Epson ET-4750. This is the one with the internal ink tanks, instead of cartridges. It also has a front loading paper drawer, which I've always wanted, but were rarer on the less expensive Epsons. This one was about $400 on Amazon. It's also the only ET model that still offers FAXing. I don't use it, but I hate to eliminate it, just yet. You just never know when that one business or government agency will take nothing but a FAX & I'm not about to drive to the local mailbox shop to pay them to FAX something for me.

The setup on this 4750 is time consuming & tedious, but you have to do it or ot won't work. They give you two sets of ink bottles with the printer. It takes a whole bottle of each color to fill the tanks & charge the feed tubes & cartridges (yes, there are still cartridges, but you don't fiddle with them, they're now integral.

The biggest problem I had was eliminating a vertical streak in the printed images. Turns out, while the streak is vertical in the image, as far as the printer is concerned, it's horizontal (by page orientation) so, once I adjusted the horizontal alignment, the printouts are PERFECT & the quality is outstanding. The colors are much brighter than the old model, though I had been using pigment inks instead of dyes. The 4750 comes with dye inks, but they're great compared to the old 2530 with pigments.

The next problem I had was getting the printer to accept legal length paper without forcing me to press the touchscreen & assure it I had the correct paper loaded & that, yes, I really wanted to use it. Turns out, I had to set the paper type both on the printer, as the default, & then in the management software. Once that was done, instant printing & it still auto detects letter size & prints on it without argument.

Overall, having used it for two days, I'm thrilled. Great output with no hassle, virtually forever ink without any mess (so far) & front loading paper.

Other features of this model:

Automatic duplex printing (two sided)
Copying with a 30 page ADF (Automatic Document Feeder)
FAXing
Wireless, Bluetooth, Ethernet, or Wireless connectivity.
Amazingly small footprint, no bigger than the old 2530 (about 15" wide & 12" deep.)
Front viewable ink reservoirs so you can easily see how much is left.
Tiltable LCD touch screen, much easier than the old menus to navigate.

[Fogdude]

I ordered two 39" LED TVs a couple weeks ago, from Amazon. They arrived two days ago. I installed one & it's working perfectly. Started setting up the second one, as my wife's external monitor, for her laptop. Got it all unpacked, assembled & wired up, powered it on & the whole top 1/4 of the screen is shattered internally. It will power up & back off, but that's it. No response to any other commands from the remote.

Now I get to disassemble it, box it back up & send it back. I hate this. Plus, my wife will have to wait until I get a replacement. I've had good luck with Amazon, but I have a gut feeling this one's not going to go well.

[stampe]

ugh, sorry to hear foggy. :/
hope amazon replaces it without any hassle.

[chouette]

I have never had any problems with returns at Amazon. Best Buy, well that's another story, lol

[Fogdude]

I have never had any problems with returns at Amazon. Best Buy, well that's another story, lol

I've had really good experiences with Amazon, especially in the past few months. Best Buy? I quit using them 20 years ago. They are the absolute worst. They sell over priced junk, won't support it, are rude & incompetent. Bought a 35" Toshiba CRT TV from them. It lasted about 2 years. Their 'tech' people are useless. Never bought there again. Won't buy there, for any reason, ever. I'll do without first.