Crash…No More?
TL/DR: I think I fixed my laptop crashing issue. The power brick was the culprit.
A little more:
My Dell laptop computer is less than a year old. Windows 11 is the OS.
Tabs, browsers, and even the OS frequently crash on me, disrupting thinking, writing, typing. I’d end up clenching my jaw and swearing on so many days. I had to remind myself to save, save, save work lest I lose it from a crash.
Gmail was the worse but only marginally so over SFGate, BlueSky, Canvas, Facebook, Amazon, the NY Times, Daily Kos, financial sites, ESPN, and WordPress. The crashing also took down Word. It happened with every search engine I tried, and every app I used.
The net crashes happened in every browser. I tried incognito, private, and stealth modes. Same results. I turned off ad-blockers, encryption, VPNs, firewall, anti-virus.
Things still crashed.
I ran diagnostics. Chip test and ram tests. Keyboard, processors, etc.
No problems found.
Researching, I disabled all extensions. Cleared and cleaned caches. Disabled graphic accelerators. Close, opened, shut down, rebooted…uninstalled drivers, reinstalled drivers, perused forums, reached out to Dell, Microsoft, Firefox, Google…more. I closed tabs and kept fewer tabs open. The crashing continued.
Meanwhile, I took my laptop to the coffee shop. I often wasn’t plugging in there and realized, I never crashed there while I wasn’t plugged in.
Yesterday, I went back home and recharged my laptop. Booting up with the laptop plugged in, I opened a browser. Went to NYTimes since it’s a known crasher.
Crash.
I unplugged.
Completely stable. I opened all known offenders.
None crashed. I opened ten tabs, eleven, twelve.
Nothing crashed.
Plugged in the power supply.
Crash, crash, crash.
Unplugged again and operated the rest of the day without any crashes.
I thought, maybe it’s the house wiring or my network. Then I remembered: I was on vacation last week. Stayed in two different hotels and crashed there. So — not my home setup or environment.
I’ve ordered a new brick. It’ll be here next week.
We’ll see how it goes. I’ll let you know.
Logging In
I had to go ‘incognito mode’ and log into Gmail. Don’t ask.
I give it my identification. My password.
Okay, my computer tells me. “Go to you phone and click on the link texted to you so we know it’s you.”
I did so.
The computer showed me three numbers in circles. “Now,” it said, “click on the number that corresponds with the number shown on your phone.”
I did so.
“Now,” the computer said. “Hop up and down on your left foot three times and bow to your right.”
I did so.
“Now,” the computer said, “Say Rumpelstiltskin is my name.”
I did so.
I was finally able to log in.
Seriously, I did it all until the hopping part. But I don’t think that’s too far off in the future.
Sunday’s Theme Music – Days like this
Ashland, southern Oregon — Sunday, May 10, 2026.
Happy Mother’s Day to the mothers in the United States. Oh, what the heck, make it to the mothers of the world, no matter your religion, nationality, or species.
It’s 65 F in Ashland with light clouds mildly blocking the sunshine. Our high will hit the upper 70s, giving us pleasant holiday weather.
I’d written a post earlier. Edge crashed, taking the post with it. WordPress hadn’t ‘autosaved’ it, so there was nothing to show that I’d been typing and thinking. Foolishly, I hadn’t saved it myself.
After that, I decided, I’m taking a hiatus from thinking about the news today and commenting on it. Do a MDB: Mother’s Day Blackout.
That’s when the 1995 Van Morrison song entered the morning mental music stream. I retired from the US Air Force in ’95. I heard this song on the radio in one of the first few days of life after wearing a military uniform for twenty years.
I wasn’t employed for the first time since 1974. Wasn’t really looking yet, either; I had my retirement pension. My wife was getting antsy, though. Still, I’d decided to take time off for myself. There would be other days for work.
That happened in early November. By December, I was employed and was fortunate to remain employed for another twenty years.
Today has a similar vibe to my memory of that 1995 day. Look at how over thirty years have passed, and here I sit, feeling like I’m at another threshold. Then again, every day is another threshold.
Remembered Lyrics
When you don’t need to worry there’ll be days like this
When no one’s in a hurry there’ll be days like this
When you don’t get betrayed by that old Judas kiss
Oh my mama told me there’ll be days like this
When you don’t need an answer there’ll be days like this
When you don’t meet a chancer there’ll be days like this
When all the parts of the puzzle start to look like they fit
Then I must remember there’ll be days like this
Hope your Mother’s Day is a good day for you and yours, no matter your sex, gender, whatever. Just celebrate the day, rejoice in what is, and make something to build in.
Coffee is here. Cheers
The Comparison: Computer, Trump
It feels like my computer is starting to treat me like it’s Trump. It doesn’t tell me what’s going on or give me a reliable time window.
I’m accustomed to my computer telling me to do things but explaining why it’s doing things. They gave me options: do you want to update and shutdown, or shutdown without updating? Other options were also available.
Along those lines, the computer would inform me about how long it would take — three minutes, two minutes, six.
Yes, they were using computer time. This is not ordinary time. Comparable times are shopping time and waiting time.
“It’ll be just a minute,” I hear. “Maybe two.” Those minutes compound into ten. Fifteen.
Worse, though, are NFL minutes. Especially the last two minutes of a half or game. I did some research and the average final two minutes of an NFL game lasts ten to twenty minutes. Some estimates show that the final two minutes of a four-quarter NFL football game can consume about five to ten percent of the game’s total time, which is wild if you think about it.
The NFL does give us a ‘two-minute warning’. Unfortunately, they’re very terse about it. “This is the two-minute warning.” They should add, “The next two minutes can take anywhere from two and half minutes to eternity. Go use the restroom now, get something to eat and drink, and let your family know where you are.”
Computer time has now overtaken the NFL’s final time minutes as ‘the time that can’t be measured’. My computer doesn’t tell me many times now how long updates or searches will take. It leaves it vague: “This might take a few minutes.”
You think?
I was running a process to check for memory leaks the other night. Yes, on my computer, not for me.
Anyway, the computer warned me, “This might take a few minutes.”
Thirty minutes later, I was still waiting for an update.
And that’s like Trump. Time doesn’t mean anything when he makes promises or projections. Well, neither do facts, for the most part.
For example: Trump was asked when he would come up with his replacement for ACA. Two weeks, he told us, over five years ago.
When will the Iran war end? “When I feel it in my bones.”
Great.
Sounds just like my computer.
When will the search be finished?
“When I feel it in my hardware.”
Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Internetus Interruptus
Our Internet connection was down this weekend. Started Saturday and dragged through Sunday.
We use Ashland Home Net. Owned by the city, we want to support our city. The service has been reliable. Like everything, though, there can sometimes be outages.
The net went down Saturday afternoon. We gave it time to come back up. Didn’t. So — reboot system. Still no connectivity.
I called our service provider and left a message. It’s a small organization and they don’t have someone in the office at night and on weekends. But they check their messages and get back to you.
They did get back to us on Sunday. We were out. I had my cell phone with me. “Private number” it said. I ignored it. Later, I listened to the message, which was Ashland Home Net telling me that they couldn’t find a record of our account.
*grumble grumble*
When we were home after our Easter festivities with friends, I pulled our records to call Ashland Home Net and give them our account number. The folder had notes from previous issues and fixes. This included one from 2023: “Netgear router inadvertently reset (button on side — beware).” I had the Netgear instruction pamphlet attached to the folder.
Aha.
I pulled out the pamphlet, followed the instructions, and got us back online.
I also called Ashland Home Net and gave them our account number, just to close that loop. And they called back, apologized for not being able to find us, baffled by that side of it, confirming that we were online again and weren’t experiencing any more interruptus.
Normal online life resumed.
Monday’s Theme Music – Giddy
Ashland, Oregon — Monday, April 6, 2026.
Feeling giddy and upbeat today. Had a good Easter Sunday overall, marred only by some Internet Interruptus. Today is bright and sunny. 54, a few gangs of small clouds flutter through a blue sky. We expect a high in the upper 70s.
First, bad news: Jackson County declared a drought emergency. Not a surprise. We suffered a snow-drought during the winter. The snowpack we depend upon for our summer water supply didn’t reach 50% in many places. A hot, dry summer is anticipated.
Then I read USA Today online. They invited readers to grade Trump and his cabinet.
While there were some glowing A’s and middling C’s, there was also a deluge of brutally low marks that would cow the cockiest 12th grader. Of the more than 700 of you who sent in grades through March 31, just 28 of you gave Trump an A or a B. About 40 of you gave the president a C or a D, while more than 500 of you gave him an F. (The remaining assessments were nearly all lower than F.)
USA Today noted in another story that Trump blew off another of his campaign promises.
While running for reelection in 2024, he had said that his administration would help alleviate the costs of childcare and fund Medicaid and Medicare. Instead, Republicans have done the opposite by slashing Medicaid funding in the congressional budget. They have no plan to make childcare more affordable for their constituents.
Way to go, Trump voters. Prices are higher, the national debt is higher and growing, and we’re in a war that nobody except Trump and his staff want.
Today’s music is Papi-inspired. He was being frisky, zooming around the living room and down halls, galloping around the bedrooms. Then he came up to me and was suddenly all sweet and friendly.
That brought a song to The Neurons by Jet, “Are You Gonna Be My Girl?”
The version I was singing was, “Are you gonna be my cat?” from 2003. Papi seemed to agree with the sentiment, if his purrs are an indication. Now, though, the song is mired in my morning mental music stream.
Hope you have a strong Monday, one that gives the hope and energy to build a strong week and stack strong months.
Cheers
First World Blues — We Crashing
I bought a new computer in August 2025.
Although sold under Dell, I believe it is actually a Crash Laptop. It runs a Microsoft Crash 11 OS on which I run Microsoft Crash Edge, FireCrash, and Google Crash Chrome.
They’re always telling me empty and clean the cache. My cache is shiny and clean with emptiness.
They tell me turn off graphic accelerators and extensions. I would but they’ve already been turned off months ago.
I’m told to uninstall, reinstall, and update drivers and browsers.
Helpful sites suggest closing tabs or blame sites that are ‘video heavy’. You know, like Gmail, WordPress (and every blog site), Facebook, Google, Bing, YouTube, NYTimes, NextDoor, Animal Rescue Site, LoveMeow, ground.news, SFGate, Mock Paper Scissors, Daily Kos, The Hill, MS Now, APNews, WaPo, LitHub, MilitaryTimes, Seattle Times, LA Times, Daily Times, Guardian, the Mirror, and any game.
Dell says it can’t help me. My problem is beyond its warranty.
I am so happy with my Crash Dell.
On the bright side, every browser has an AI which I can use until it crashes.
My old computer using to crash once in a while. Had it for almost eight years. MS and others said, “Oh, you’re using Windows 10. Bad Juju. Change to 11 and all will be well.”
Snort. Chuckle.
What a sucker I am.
Ethology
Ethology
Ring
Ping
ChimeHeads turn
Conversations slowFeeding
CommencesDigestion
FinishesAgendas
ResumeWhere were we?
Michael Seidel, writer 