The laptop saga

Well after this (and [flashback] it turned out my PC graphics card hadn’t died – it magically started working 6 weeks later. Which, when the clever but perplexed brother I had consulted about it was hit by the same problem, we concluded was a the fault of a Microsoft software upgrade. To think [aside] that the only thing that stopped me from dumping the PC altogether was lack of time… Microsoft, pah [prefiguring].)

Anyway, after that I spent a lot of time in Currys and chose a shiny new hi-res HP laptop to replace the dead one. I installed my software, was ready to go… What? The menus on my Photoshop (CS6) were far, far too small to read. I know what they say, so I could just about use it by feel, but this was not good. Much googling. Yes, Adobe is no longer supporting CS6 and it is not and will not be adapted for hi-res screens. I could make the display lower res but then what’s the point of having paid for it? Or I could hack into the registry and write a couple of lines of code, but I don’t want to be doing that on a brand new machine.

Frustration. Disappointment.

And, wait a minute, Microsoft Office ribbons are taking up 20% of the screen. More googling. Yes, MS has not quite sorted out how to display its own programs on its own operating system.

I was sure there must be answers but I was too dispirited to hunt any more. For two months I have barely used the laptop.

Today, enough. Back to the shop.

I was very lucky that the service person had studied graphics. He was sure he could make Photoshop work. Before he even started he promised me a replacement laptop if he couldn’t even though I was way outside the 21-day exchange period. So I kept quiet and respectful as he tried all the things I had already tried and he reacted in all the ways I had already reacted.

Could he make Photoshop work? He could not.

Was he interested in the MS Office display problem? Not in the slightest. Microsoft, pah.

So, after closing time and after a bit of prestidigitation around the till ensuring that no money would change hands, they unlocked the doors to let me out of the shop with a Mac laptop.

Back home and I discover that my CS6 disks are for PC only, not Mac. Lightroom will install but nothing else.

[The saga will doubtless continue.]


Black and white in colour 156