I was cordial and invited her in, immediately noticing that she had her cellphone in hand and its flashlight app was beaming the brightest light on my kitchen floor.
About 30 seconds after coming in, her cellphone rang and she told the person she would call them back. She told me she was told by a neighbor that I might be able to help her. She couldn't figure out how to turn off the flashlight because when she got the phone, it had no manual or directions. It was a recycled flip phone that her senior center gave out for free and she got it to replace her Walmart Tracfone that she bought herself for Christmas.
After two days of fooling around with the flip phone, she still had no idea how to use or edit the few gadgets that came with it, but she thought it looked simpler than her old Tracfone.
It wasn't.
The flashlight had been stuck in the "On" position for two days now and she wanted me to show her how to turn it off because the phone was hot.
I opened the flip phone and went to the settings, figuring this was an easy fix by simply going to the flashlight app and turning it off.
But there was no flashlight app in the phone's settings. In fact, the only app was the Weather Channel.
Next, I went to the factory installed list and again, no flashlight app.
While I was there, I double-checked to make sure the ringtone was the one she wanted and asked if she wanted to change anything in her address book. I showed her how and after she added her son's work phone number in the address book and changed the home phone number of another entry, she said she had the hang of it.
But that damn flashlight was not shutting off because I couldn't find a setting for it. I was looking pretty dumb for a geeky lady.
It was a former AT & T flip phone so I went to their website and it said they had discontinued support for it about six years ago. There were no online user manuals available.
There were three factory pre-sets that had "edit" capability so a user could change how long the keypad light stays on, change the ringer, and make a new PIN for voicemail.
But no flashlight setting. I asked her if the flashlight came on right away when she turned it on today? She said she keeps the phone on 24/7 because it is her only phone line; she doesn't have a landline in the house. She said she charges her cellphone while it is 'On' and that it hasn't been turned off since she got the phone from the senior center.
I told her my best advice whenever any device isn't doing what I want it to do is to turn it off for about 90 seconds, then turn it back on.
Success! The flashlight turned off.
She thanked me and as she was going out the door, the phone rang again. When she answered it, the flashlight came back on.
Then I immediately knew what was wrong. When she was pushing the 'answer' button to answer a call, she was hitting the button next to the answer button - the night mode/emergency button which turns on the flashlight. All I had to do was change the default to disable the flashlight.
When I tested it by calling her from my house phone and the flashlight didn't go on when she answered her phone.
Now, we had Success!
So my best advice whenever a device acts up is to turn it off and wait 90 seconds, then turn it back on.
Always charge any device while it is in the OFF position. You can spare 30 to 60 minutes before any separation anxiety kicks in and your device gets a chance to cool down.
In addition to turning off to charge a device, always turn off the device you use for your internet and phone at least once every 24 hours for at least 30 minutes. They aren't meant to be running 24/7 without taking a nap or they will get sluggish and very hot to the touch.
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On Tuesday of this week WINDOWS 10 did an update. It is a forced update which users are required to install if they want to keep WINDOWS 10 running at its best.
I waited until yesterday to install it because I was running out to doctor appointments this week. While it is installing, Microsoft says users can keep using their device until it needs to reboot. I usually do keep working and then I immediately forget there is an update installing which usually causes me a severe amount of lag.
Any other time, when a device lags badly, it is usually indicative that the device picked up some malware, crapware, adware, bloatware or a virus.
Unless you remember that you allowed the updates to install in the background while you are working. Something that after a few hours, I tend to forget.
During our dinner time, my PC rebooted to accept the update change. So after dinner, when I went back to work on my PC, I noticed that I was having some issues on Facebook that defied reasoning as to why they were happening.
I lost the status box in three Facebook groups where I am a member, and on my own timeline so that I couldn't post or comment on reply of posts on Facebook. I polled 3 Facebook friends who all said they had no issues. Then I wrote to the admins of the Facebook groups I am in, asking if I was the only one disabled from posting in their groups and they said I wasn't disabled, in fact no one was disabled. Since my friends had no problems and since I wasn't being restricted by group admins, now I wondered about the WINDOWS 10 update. How could it mess up only Facebook and no other websites?
Well, if I remember to take my own advice, it would save a lot of frustration and high blood pressure moments, but I sometimes get bogged down in the details by looking for a solution within the device itself so that I forget that a simple reboot would solve the problem.
When all else fails, undo the last action to go back to when the device was acting properly.
I also uninstalled the last WINDOWS 10 update and the problem was still not fixed.
So that usually means that something was going on with Facebook but only for some users.
I checked Facebook's website to see if they were reporting any issues with the platform at
https://developers.facebook.com/status/dashboard
But there wasn't anything reported since December 8, 2018.
Next I went to the site where users can report any issues they are having. I should go here first, but I don't, because they would know of problems long before Facebook ever owned up to an issue.
https://downdetector.com/status/facebook
And sure enough, there were some users with the same issue as me.
My problem resolved itself within an hour but it was a long hour of being pissed off. lol
For regular problems with a device, reboot.
If you still have the same problem after reboot, then it is probably a 'settings' issue. Undo the last update or delete the last thing you downloaded, reboot and see if you still have the problem.
If it is a bigger issue - like if the device changes colors, blinks, flashes, shuts itself off without help from you, then it is probably a 'malware' or 'virus' issue.
Your virus protector can't always pick up 'malware' so you need to download a special app to scan for malware - like the one week trial version of MalwareBytes to scan for malware.
If you want to pay $49 to $99 to buy it, go ahead, but the trial version is good for a checkup, then you can uninstall their app before the trial period is up. Even if the malware scan comes out clean, run your virus scan to make sure it doesn't find a virus.
There are several free virus protectors online and there is no reason why your device should not have one. If you have an Apple device, you may think you are exempt from picking up 'malware' or a virus, but you aren't. No device is infallible.
Although not common, Apple products can get viruses and malware and you can read about it here.
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