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Infopackets Reader Elijah N. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have an HP laptop with Windows 10. Yesterday the laptop was working perfectly fine, but this morning I tried to turn it on and all I get is a black screen. The power light turns on, and the ... screen appears to be on (the screen backlight is on), but the screen is black and it won't boot into Windows 10. Nothing happens. What can I do to get my laptop working? " My response: This is a fairly common issue, and is either a hardware problem or a Windows boot problem. Some possibilities include: the laptop motherboard or display may have died, or ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Mary L. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just installed Windows 10 on my laptop, but I'm having a problem with the screen fading so dark I can hardly see it. I've tried adjusting the screen brightness manually on the laptop by pressing ... the FN (function) key + up arrow key, but the screen brightness won't say - it keeps going dark automatically on its own. The screen goes dim whether or not I have the laptop plugged into the power outlet, or if it's running on battery. It also seems to happen immediately as soon as I login to Windows. I have tried changing the Power Settings (via ... (view more)

Microsoft says it will backtrack on one of the most controversial elements of its campaign to push users towards Windows 10. It will no longer interpret clicking a close window button (the "X") as authorizing an installation of the new operating ... system. Since launching the system last year , Microsoft has been slowly ramping up its efforts to get people installing Windows 10. It's moved from the original position of having user actively seek out the system through a "pre-registration" tool to eventually reaching the point when Windows 10 was considered a recommended ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Jackie' writes: " Dear Dennis, I just read the article you wrote about ' How to Fix: Windows 10 Black Border (Shrinking Screen) ' and have a similar question. I just upgraded to Windows 10; I have an HP laptop and have connected ... it to my big flat screen TV. The problem is that as soon as I plug in my HDMI cable to connect the HDTV to the laptop, the laptop displays black borders on the sides of the screen. How can I fix that? " My response: The reason you have black borders on the side of the screen whenever you connect your HDTV through the HDMI cable is because the ... (view more)

Amazon has released a luxury version of the Kindle e-Reader, with a price tag to match. It's drawn comparisons to Apple's high-priced iPads, despite being a single-purpose device. New Kindle editions over the past few years have mainly involved very ... small tweaks to an established design. The new Kindle Oasis has been redesigned to be easier to hold. The most notable difference is that the device is no longer a perfectly flat device. One side of it is the thinnest a Kindle has ever been, at barely an eighth of an inch. However, the other side has a tapered bump that takes it up to a ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Anne F. writes: " Dear Dennis, After a Windows Update, my laptop rebooted and then displayed a blue screen of death (BSOD) with the error message CRITICAL SERVICE FAILED. After that, the computer reboots and goes into a continuous ... loop -- I am not able to get into Windows at all. I used various repair discs and managed to gotten rid of the CRITICAL SERVICE FAILED message, but now my computer boots into a black screen with the message No Operating System Found. When I use one of the downloaded repair disks, I see my C drive and Windows 8 is still on there, so I don' ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Barry P. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'm running Windows 8.1. When I go to the Settings menu and then click on the 'Change PC Settings' link, nothing happens. It shows for a quick glimpse, but then disappears almost immediately after. ... I simply can't get into the PC Settings to make changes to my computer. Any ideas how to fix this problem? " My response: This is a very common problem that plagues Windows 8.1 users, especially those that upgraded from Windows 8 previously. Based on various posts I've read online, the same issue can result in a blank screen when the PC Settings ... (view more)

With Windows 10 Technical Preview 2 now available, tech-heads are noticing a common theme: it seems to be a compromise between the 'traditional' format seen in Windows 7 and earlier, and the radical revamp that came with Windows 8. Start Menu ... Returns With a Difference Perhaps the most widely talked about feature -- still -- is the new Start menu. It displays the traditional view of programs on the left, while displaying live tile icons on the right. Users can control how much space the live tiles take up and can even resize it to full-screen mode, effectively replicating the main ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Mary' writes: " Dear Dennis, In regard to your previous article ' How can I find the Cursor Position on my Screen? ' -- my cursor often wanders around the screen when I'm typing text on my laptop. Sometimes, I end up typing in a ... new word in the middle of another word somewhere else on the screen. Oftentimes I can't find where my cursor went; once I do find it, I need to make corrections, then point it back to where it needs to be, then resume typing. It's incredibly vexing! Do you have any suggestions on how to avoid this from happening? " My response: This is a very ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'lewfrazier' writes: " Dear Dennis, Sometimes I when I'm viewing a page on my web browser (or MS Word, for that matter), I can't find the cursor on the screen. Is there a freeware program I can download that will help me locate ... the cursor on my screen? " My Response: That's a great question -- thanks for asking. You can locate your cursor by tapping the CTRL key on your keyboard, but you first need to enable this feature in Windows (no download is required). The 'cursor location' feature works with Windows XP, 7, and 8; here are the ... (view more)