So my laptop is being recalcitrant, and guess where all the stuff I have written and photographed is... 
I will be able to sort it out in a couple of weeks, but until then...

I thought Technology was supposed to be making things easier (he says in a plaintive voice...)

.... For Microsoft.    

That sucks dude.

Note to self.  Must backup toplap...

That's a right ...............   hope you can sort it ok

Yeah, it seems to happen every time I use the Sisters' bluetooth keyboard - it disables some keys on the laptop.
Which means I can't even get past the Password Login screen...
I have been goggling and have a couple of fixes to try when I am again sitting there, later next month.

Otherwise I will have to take it into a repair shop and spend $120. Again.

Quote from: Rick Lowe on July 29, 2024, 10:36:36 PMYeah, it seems to happen every time I use the Sisters' bluetooth keyboard - it disables some keys on the laptop.
Which means I can't even get past the Password Login screen...

Not heard of that one before but it sounds an absolute pain

Reasonably, it should get back into order of you restart the damn thing from cold, i.e pull the plug and wait half an hour. If that won't work, try the same again but with an external keyboard connected via chord.

But maybe you've done this?

If its a laptop, have you tried the built in keyboard?  The HP tablets the state bought my agency have Bitlocker, which will only accept the keyboard it comes with or the touchscreen keyboard before enabling anything else.  Otherwise, have you tried as Pellson suggested, with a hard connected keyboard?

Quote from: Rick Lowe on July 29, 2024, 10:36:36 PMYeah, it seems to happen every time I use the Sisters' bluetooth keyboard - it disables some keys on the laptop.
Which means I can't even get past the Password Login screen...
I have been goggling and have a couple of fixes to try when I am again sitting there, later next month.

Otherwise I will have to take it into a repair shop and spend $120. Again.

Can you use a different USB keyboard to type the password? Maybe try just updating the drivers, should be enough to reset it. Or uninstalling the current drivers and installing them again... when you do get access to your desktop, that is...

It's the laptops' keyboard that has the keys disabled and I don't have an external one of my own.

I'll try the various suggestions, thanks one and all.
Something will work, and I have a couple of techie friends I can bug if needs be.

Quote from: Rick Lowe on July 30, 2024, 10:49:39 PMSomething will work, and I have a couple of techie friends I can bug if needs be.

I have a great nephew and a godson I keep on  the right side of for similar purposes 

The 8:15 from Cherbourg. **Real World**


During the lead-up to the Normandy Invasion, the Allied Air Forces made the destruction of Locomotives and Rolling Stock a priority, to inhibit the Germans from easily relocating forces to reinforce the units stationed in the Invasion areas.
This strategy was so successful that, despite the Allies bringing quantities of their own equipment to replace that destroyed, there was still a large shortfall; locomotives in particular were in short supply.
As a temporary fix, numbers of 6X6 trucks and 4X4 Jeeps were converted to run on the rail lines, by the substitution of Railway wheels for their regular ones.
While not in service for a long period, these vehicles were useful while they remained.
The model depicts a Willys Jeep in use between Cherbourg and Caen, July – September 1944.
Based on a photo on the rear cover of an old issue of Tankette magazine.

Italeri Jeep, with rims from the Italeri Katyusha truck (because the tyres were separate on that kit) with resin cast hubs; detailing from the spares box and scratchbuilt.

Cam net is a gauze bandage painted with watercolours.

The flimsies on the front bumper were made from the top part of the Academy items, a card base and a strip of foil wrapped around the sides; this was so I could dent them as per the photo. I am happy with the result.

The rails are made from Evergreen 'I' beam and plastic sheet details, with Tichy Train Group bolt heads, and balsa sleepers laid over a base with kitty litter ballast.

Paint on the Jeep is Tamiya OD spray, washes & drybrushing from acrylics.
That on the base is a spray coat of black and heavy drybrushing of various earthy colours, with another heavy wash of rust.

As a side note, it's amazing the rabbit holes you find when you go looking for a small detail; I wanted to know what colour to paint the caps on the 'Flimsies'* and found a whole screed of information on them, IIRC on a site devoted to Jerricans and similar equipment. Apparently about a million were produced after D-Day, which was a surprise.
*Brass initially and pot metal later on, as it turns out.

That jeep is a great idea. I've seen pics before but I think it was SE Asia.

It was probably copied in other theatres, once the pics had been published in whatever Armed Forces Magazine / Lessons Learnt publication it featured in.

That's a very very nice vignette indeed!