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I’ll just add my 2 cents worth here, too. About 2 weeks ago I purchased an inexpensive, basic Android tablet – 10.1″ with a keyboard case and a few other “goodies” from Amazon for $58 and change. It seems to be fine – just a basic tablet – nothing fancy.

Today when I looked at Amazon, that same tablet is now $99! Same seller.

I bought it thinking I’d just have it as a backup for my laptop and phone for email and light web, in anticipation of the impact of tariffs. I wasn’t even sure if I’d keep it, but after seeing this price jump. I guess I will. I’m really not planning to use it a lot, but for less than $60 it seems to be fine.

Wonder how high these tariffs are going to go…

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Kathy Stevens, SueW

And – after about 2-3 minutes it loaded this time! Whew – and thanks for the replies. We’ll see how long it takes to actually work now LOL!!

ETA – took about 9 minutes to download and install KB5055578 and KB5055683, and then about 3 more minutes to restart after the downloads.

Will give it a try on my other laptop later on.

Thanks for the help and sorry to have possibly jumped the gun a little, but seems that it is running a little slowly!

PKCano wrote:

Some suggestions: Restart the computer (not shutdown/power up). Check Windows Update and be sure you don’t have Pause accidentally set. Check Services to be sure the Windows Update Service is not Disabled.

Thanks! It worked fine when I was checking updates yesterday – not won’t load new ones on either of my laptops.

I did restart, haven’t touched Pause (though it says “Pause updates for 7 days” – which I think it may always have said) and not sure where to check Services.

Any work around for this or way to reboot it?

I’m seeing this on the patch list:

Windows 10 Versions 22H2/ 21H2 5055518 4/8/2025  Defer

So – is it still Defer – or OK to install?

In my experience, it is likely T-Mo. I also have T-Mo internet and occasionally we get that message while watching something on Roku or one of our other streaming services. It seems to happen mostly on weekends or in the evening when I believe the traffic to the tower is high and T-Mo, using a dynamic IP, switches to a less crowded tower – momentarily showing that disconnected message.

I check my gateway and it either shows no signal – which I then wait a few minutes and it comes back on – or I restart that device, or it shows connected, in which case I turn off the TV/Roku etc and turn it back on and then it seems to be fine.

Sometimes this also affects my laptop – but seems to correct itself in a minute or two.

Yours may be a different cause, but I’ve found this behavior with T-Mo since we got it in the fall. Not often, but usually when it seems that “everyone” is online. Also very occasionally with my laptop around 9 am when our school is getting online and businesses are opening, too.

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WSmmi16, AlphaCharlie

Thanks! Guess I’ll need to make sure that the sync isn’t turned on and check periodically that nothing has been uploaded.

All of this begs the question – is there a good alternative to the Google Photos app for the phone? If I didn’t have/use that – then there would be no issue with the syncing, correct?

 

Paul T wrote:

This isn’t possible AFAIK. The phone always has access, either via your phone provider or wifi.

I have my mobile data set to never connect, and generally use my home wifi only when needed. I think this is where the problem started. I occasionally do need to use the wifi and with that setting turned on, it would upload pictures. As I said – I was pretty sure that feature was turned off – it definitely is now. I guess since I’ve made sure (?) that the sync and auto upload is turned off, it shouldn’t just upload at will.

 

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Paul T

Thanks for the reply. I do have Google Photos on my phone, and some of the pictures are ones that are on the phone, but not all. I have it set not to sync and occasionally it will ask me if I want to backup the pictures – which I never do. I also don’t keep the phone connected to the internet – it is only online occasionally, but I guess there must be something happening that is allowing some photos to be uploaded?

In any case – what will happen if I do download those photos to an external hard drive and then delete them from the Google storage? The next time I happen to connect to the internet, will those be deleted from my phone as well? I just want to reduce that amount of storage and still keep the photos that I have.

And it is an Android phone – Moto G Power.

I’ll take a closer look at my settings, but I never intentionally allow for uploads or syncing.

Thanks for the help!

ETA: OK, I did just look through the settings and on the Power it did appear that some kind of backup was turned on. Sorry – I was sure it was off (does it turn itself on??). In any case, I’ll keep an eye on it and see if it happens again. Meanwhile, I plan to “experiment” with trying to download, save and delete the occasional photo and see what happens.

Thanks and sorry for the misinformation.

I’m running Win 10 22H2 and had an email conversation with Mitja at 0Patch in August 2024. Here’s a snip:

Me: “So the free version for Win 10 will just get 0day patches – but can be
converted to a paid subscription next year. Is there anything in the
paid version now that would be of benefit to a Win 10 laptop that I
should consider it now?”

Mitja: “No, right now if you’re updating Windows 10 regularly and not using Office 2010 or 2013, 0patch PRO would not provide any additional value to you.”

Also, Win 10 22H2 is scheduled to be “security adopted” in October 2025, so it seems that paying for the Pro version and getting the benefit of 0Patch depends on what version of Win 10 you have. 22H2 will only get 0Day till they officially adopt it in October – then paying for the Pro version will  provide all updates: “Note that in addition to critical security patches for the above Windows versions and products, we’re also providing “0day” patches (patches for vulnerabilities that don’t have official vendor patches yet) for all supported Windows versions.”

So again, depends on what version of Win 10 you are running.

 

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jburk07, blueboy714

blueboy714 wrote:

Is subscribing to a patch service like 0patch worth the money for a home user?

Yes it is. I used 0Patch Pro – the paid version – on my two Windows 7 laptops for several years before moving to Win 10. It was seamless and far less “fraught” than doing a monthly MS update. The patches are just delivered to your computer when they are ready – nothing you need to do to keep things up to date.

blueboy714 wrote:

Is the pay version of 0patch any better than the free version for a home user.  I already have all of the past MS updates and 0patch’s website for the pay version doesn’t seem to cover anything beyond 0patches.

Yes, as PKCano said,

PKCano wrote:

0Patch without pay covers Zero-day patches. 0Patch with pay covers more updates. Read further on the website.

I don’t believe you can get a paid version that supports the latest versions of Win 10 until after  your Win 10  version is no longer supported by MS – in October – but I may be wrong. Right now you can get the free version which will deliver Zero-day patches, but once MS is no longer supporting Win 10, then the paid version is well worth the cost and the ease of use.

More here: Long Live Windows 10…With 0Patch.

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jburk07, WCHS, windbg, CAS, Fred, PKCano, blueboy714

Hello,

Just wanted to add my experience to this discussion. After reading through this thread, I decided to check the SS info for myself and my husband. We each have a mySS account that is linked to a login.gov account. I signed into my login.gov account without any issues and could access the mySS account without issues. I checked all of the info and took a few screenshots plus downloads of a few things. Logged out and then tried my husband’s account.

Log in at the login.gov site was fine and it said his SS ID had been verified in July through the login.gov site. Usually I can just click the SS link there and it takes me to the mySS page – as it did with my own account. Didn’t happen with his – it wanted to reset up the ID verification – driver’s license, photo, other things – before I could access his mySS info.

I opted not to go through all of that and try again another day – and also see if the SS payments keep happening on time. I made NO changes and everything is the same – untouched as I couldn’t access the site anyway.

Just so annoying – I used Chrome Incognito – which has always worked before. Fingers crossed that nothing is awry – just irritating that things that did work now want you to jump through unnecessary hoops!

ETA: Not really looking for a “solution” – just wanted to share my experience in case someone else reads this thread and runs into trouble logging in.

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jburk07, Lars220

Mothy wrote:

Daisy chaining UPS units is not recommended. See the two links below for more info.

OK – but is it OK to plug a UPS unit into a power strip to have more outlets available – not directly into the wall outlet?

 

Drcard:)) wrote:

To get longer time out UPS units I used the old piggy back trick.  Two cheaper UPS devices that the combined up time is longer than a more expensive longer up time UPS.

Wow – thanks so much for that idea! I never thought of it that way, but that sounds like something to look into! Great idea – much appreciated! Sounds like I have some thinking and figuring out to do!

Paul T wrote:

Any UPS can supply power for 4 or 5 hours, or more, if you choose the right unit.

Thanks Paul! I guess that is the key – finding the right one!

Thanks for the explanation of how to math out the possible runtime. I think in this case, a very large UPS might not really be what I need – but I will certainly keep this information in mind as I continue my search!