Thanks for the quick reply! I am checking javascript now.
I added this function, per your instructions here, just in case:
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/if-the-pagination-controls-are-not-working-right?replies=1
ah, forget it. it was the versioning issue in Easyphp. just a note – if this happens to you just update easyphp to version 2 for newer versions of php, apache, etc.