My external drives spin down when the computer sleeps or turns off. Put your ear to the drive case or something solid between your ear and drive case and listen to the drive. Also you can see if your external drive takes a longer time to respond if you haven't accessed it for a long while. I'm running W10 OS.

Just be glad it wasn't in Chinese!

When I look at a picture I tend to scan from left to right. I think most people do. As you scan the first image the growing size of the trees plus the darkening mass tend to slow or stop the scan causing you to look at the image longer. The second image has the opposite effect causing the eye to flee from the image.

If the power supply is good and if you want to take a chance that the CPU is good, you might look for a replacement mother board on Ebay. If you have an older machine, these used boards are pretty cheap and many have been tested. This of course presumes the CPU is OK.

I assume the machine is working now.

GREAT!

I thought you said that there was some display such as a splash screen or a message ( text?) before the display went dead. This is enough for you to start the trouble shooting process and determine if your hard drive is dead.

You can download a windows 10 installation program from Microsoft. It can generate a boot able DVD or thumb drive. It also allows you to trouble shoot your computer but you need to have some familiarity with ancient DOS. I don't know if a mack can generate software a PC can read. Perhaps someone with a PC can download it for you.

Thank you all for the tips. This site is a great source of knowledge!

Thanks.

I'm have a Canon inkjet and have been using Canon ink. My 9000 is getting expensive to feed. Can anyone recommend a 3d party ink they have been satisfied with?

Thanks again for all the tips. As I've said I bought many things on EBAY, mostly electronic or computer parts for a couple of dollars, never something as expensive or complex as a modern camera lens. BTW I do use PayPal. With any luck I'll complete a purchase this week.

Thank you all for the inputs. There are some very good points and hints. Its clear to me that there are good deals on EBAY but you pay the price in homework. Since I'm retired time is cheaper than money so I'll get to work!
Thanks again,
Mike

Thanks for the quick reply. I've used EBAY for a lot of purchases, electronic parts and some test equipment, but its been purchases of low dollar value and never photographic equipment. It looks like I can carefully look for a lens. I have one more problem. There are a good number of these lenses for sale. The sale prices vary by 2 to 1. After reading the descriptions and looking at the pictures, in many cases I have a hard time understanding the reason for the large price variation.

I'm considering buying a Canon 100-400mm f 4.5-5.6 L USM EF lens. There are lenses at attractive prices available on EBAY. There is an obvious risk here. Even if the seller is completely honest they could send you a lens that's one click away from failure and be completely unaware of its condition. Some sellers don't accept returns and you're stuck. On the other hand, many sellers of photographic equipment (especially lenses) have 100% positive ratings. This leads me to think that these seller are accurately describing their items. My question is has anyone played lens roulette on EBAY. If so, what kind of experience did you have, what is your opinion of the lenses available and what do you recommend?