I decided on an HP Laptop 255 G10 Notebook with 32GB Ram, 1 TB drive, a large 15.6" display and Windows 11. I had talked with Dave about getting his recommendations on this particular laptop and he was good with it as long as I went through the HP Store on Amazon. When I did that I actually got a little better deal on an updated version of that laptop. I paid $244 for the laptop and it was $289 after taxes. There was no shipping charge and I it was delivered the day after I ordered it.
I started setting up the new computer the day it arrived and almost immediately I had second thoughts about it and considered sending it back. The reason was I because I was having trouble with the sound capabilities. I spent several hours trying to get the sound to work properly. The problem was that I could not hear anything through my headphones. The only sound came through the laptop speakers and nowhere else. The headphone jack just did not work and to me that was a very good reason to return a defective product.
I could not find a setting in the system files to select the headphones as a source of sound. There was a dropdown menu for the speaker but nothing for headphones. I went online to the HP support site and checked on the sound drivers for my exact model of laptop. I downloaded and installed the updated drivers. It didn't do anything.
After awhile I contacted Dave and asked his opinion as he was the college computer support person for a long time. He had me install the UltraViewer software that allowed him to log into my computer remotely and check the settings. He poked around for awhile and eventually after trying several things he went to the HP site and looked at the sound drivers. I showed him the one I downloaded and used that was very specific for my laptop model. He went for a more generic HP driver that came up when he requested drivers for HP G10 but not my specific model. He downloaded and installed that one... and then the headphone sound worked!
Apparently the problem was in the recent HP installation and use of a single dual jack for sound input and output and the need for a very specific sound driver that was actually a little more generic. I played around with it for the rest of the day and happily reported to Dave that it was all working OK now.
I had needed a new laptop because the Dell laptop that I've been using for the past five years or so was falling apart. The connection between the screen and the keyboard broke apart and the connections began having problems. The response of the keyboard activity on the screen was faulty and getting worse all the time. I finally put the Dell away in a case and got out an old HP from my Canisius days. That laptop was probably about ten years old but was still working. It was slower and did not have a lot of memory but I started using it as my music computer at the kitchen table to replace the Dell. Over a few months time I realized that this was not going to work for me as an every day computer for my various activities. That's when I started looking at other options.
I then decided to get the new computer and then use the old HP laptop to replace the other very old Lenovo laptop I had setup at the stereo for my music. Of course that meant I needed to rework the iTunes playlists of my mixes no matter which computer I used in either situation. It was going to be a lot of work.
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