******** This thread now closed. Please see Volume 47 ********
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=30073
In this thread you may ask any computer related question for which you need help, advice, suggestions or whatever.
Usual rules apply,
No motoring related discussion,
No politics,
No Speeding, speed cameras, traffic calming
No arguments or slanging matches
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Any of the above will be deleted. If the thread becomes difficult to maintain it will simply be removed.
There is a wealth of knowledge in here, much of which is not motoring related, but most of which is useful.
This is Volume 46. Previous Volumes will not be deleted.
A list of previous volumes can be found here:-
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PLEASE NOTE:
When posting a NEW question, please "Reply to" the first message in this thread, i.e. this one. This keeps each question in it's own separate segment and stops each new question from getting mixed up in amongst existing questions. Also please remember to change the subject header.
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Reg Mechanic (pctools.com)is a registry cleaner.
There is a free download of a limited version to try. Site says it works with 98, 2000 and XP.
Someone reported to me that it successfully removed a 'not nice' pop-up that he had not been able to get rid of that he suspected was in the registry.
Anyone used it and have a good-bad report?
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Not used it personally. but I have seen quite a few 'help it's ****ed up my machine' type postings elsewhere.
Whether that is through stupidity or genuine software problem is anyones guess.
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Further to my USB problems (see vol 45) I've given up trying to get the printer to run of the USB port. The situation I have now got is that my flash drive will work if I plug it into the USB port just after I've turned the computer on or rebooted it - but if I've been working on the computer for a while, & put the flash drive into the USB port, the machine will not acknowledge its presence.
Any one ever heard of this sort of thing happening - or any idea what could cause it?
I've been advised that I probably need a USB adapter card, for what it's worth.
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I have a scanner, camera picture download, a printer, and an adsl (broadband) modem plugged into the motherboad USB ports of one PC using 98SE. All are switched off from time to time, even the broadband, and I get no problems.
When I disconnect things I try and ensure that each goes back in the same USB socket as was. That may or may not be strictly necessary but it probably helps the PC to sort out what is plugged in where.
I do have to watch at what point, during a program, I switch the printer on else it can, very occassionally, not get recognised. But that is easily corrected with an off and an on.
Try this and see if things improve.
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We hope,(subject to the usual caveats), soon be moving to a new apartment in a brand new development. The building is fully equipped with telephone connections. The problem lies with Telefonica, Spain's national telecoms company, who enjoy a wholly deserved reputation for incompetance. They are completely unable to give even an approximate date when they will be able to connect a line to the development(shrug, shrug!). This means no internet access - unless.........
I see that mobile phones are advertised as suitable for connection via laptops; will they work with an ordinary P.C. (Compaq about 4 1/2 years old) and what sort of mobile is needed for such usage?
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Roger. (Costa del Sol, España)
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A lot of mobile phones have built in modems. Those that have tend to be mid and upper range models. Those with infra-red or Bluetooth usually do.
The usual ways of connecting them are via data cable, infra-red (needs an infra-red port on each device and a line of sight between them), or Bluetooth. An oldish laptop may have an infra-red port but if it doesn't, you could get a Bluetooth or infra-red adaptor to connect to a USB port. There's also such a thing as a PC card modem that connects to your laptop and uses the same type of SIM as a mobile phone.
The ways of connecting to the net are via dial-up (painfully slow on a mobile phone, usually 9.6k), GPRS (faster and no need to dial, charged according to the amount of data transferred rather than the time on line), or 3G data (several of the UK networks now supply PC cards to enable this).
Another method is via wireless networking (wi-fi) but you'd need to be in a hotspot for this to function. The chances of your flat being in such a location are fairly small unless a near neighbour has been careless about securing their home network.
With the exception of the last of one, none of these methods is cheap and most aren't terribly fast. You'll need to do your own research as to what is available in your area. I don't see why your laptop shouldn't be suitable.
If you use a method of connection that charges for the amount of data downloaded, you can economise, and speed up web browsing, by turning off images.
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you need a very very deep wallet per minute
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I'm having a 30-day free trial of McAfee Privacy Service. Will the cookie handling settings of this software clash with those of Internet Explorer? If so, what should I do about it?
--
L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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Does anyone know if it is possible to transfer a pure HTML website onto a DVD and maintain links etc? I've Googled for an answer but can't find any pointers.
Many thanks
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Indeed it is. Websites are built locally and uploaded so its possible to do it the other way round.
However
You need to maintain the directory structure. You also may not have file transfer access to tools libries, image libraries, etc etc.
Depends how the site is built. If its a commercial or proffesional one it may not be possible.
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Look in Favourites, right click one and then look into "Make available offline".
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Does anyone know if it is possible to transfer a pure HTML website onto a DVD and maintain links etc?
Do you mean a data DVD? I can't see any way of doing it with a disc to play on a domestic DVD player, unless someone knows of some fairly specialised authoring software.
If all you want to do is save a page so that images and stylesheets are retained, try File - Save Page As and select 'Web page, complete'. This'll save the HTML as one file and put the associated images etc in a subdirectory. If you maintain this structure on your DVD, your page will still work.
This works with both IE and Firefox although, when I experimented with this page it didn't retain all the images when I used Firefox.
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Firefox (or Thunderbird) won't load images by default - you have to configure Firefox to do so as you require from Tools>Web Features.
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Any PC experts care to comment on the Targa Visionary PCX 3400+ at £799 please. Thinking of buying one ! There's probably better ones available but Lidl is just down the road and other items I've purchased from them have been of good quality.
Mike.
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Well at that price it doesn't include a monitor, whereas most headline deals at that money will include a 17" TFT screen.
The only slight disadvantage I can find to it is that it doesn't have all that much graphics memory, although the graphics card itself is very fast. That won't be a problem for you now at all, but in the future
There's plenty of memory (1GB) and storage space (300GB). The software bundle is good, and it's got Bluetooth (although turn this off if you don't need it as it might be a security risk). The wireless LAN is on USB, so easily removeable, which is good for security and bad for having things sticking out the back of the PC.
It does have the latest PCI express and socket 939 combination, so it's as future proof as you can get, and whilst the processor *could* be faster, it's hard to see why you'd need it to be, plus this could be upgraded in the unlikely event that the need arises.
If you want a good all round PC for general family use, including some video and gaming, it is an excellent buy, although I'm not convinced by some of the other offers, which seem ordinary, though good for a retail store.
Finally, if you want to add a monitor, may I suggest those from www.dabs.com , particularly the 17" Viewsonic VE702M (£150) and the DabsValue 19" (£205), both of which have fast response times and a low price.
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This offer and others in the past from Lidl, along with the high spec Medion alternatives offered every few months at Aldi (Lidl and Aldi are/were brothers) provide good, occasionally exceptional value for money.
The only problem is if something is/goes wrong, when you then find yourself dealing with an outlet that basically is involved with food, drink and other household necessities.
I've known people who've had problems trying to have a faulty product changed or obtaining a full refund when buying computer related products - staff are generally not familiar with such goods and tend to try and shift the responsibility, for instance, to the manufacturer.
I had a similar response with an Lidl item costing just £2.99 - because I hadn't kept the receipt I couldn't either get it changed or have a refund. I pointed out that I was hardly likely to keep a receipt for more than a few days for such a cheap item, but all to no avail.
It's also worth remembering that such outlets will not accept credit cards, itself a useful backup if things go pearshaped.
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I had a similar response with an Lidl item costing just £2.99 - because I hadn't kept the receipt I couldn't either get it changed or have a refund. I pointed out that I was hardly likely to keep a receipt for more than a few days for such a cheap item, but all to no avail.
If it was such a cheap item and not worth keeping the receipt for why even bother taking it back?
Another case of everyone else is at fault and it couldn't possibly be anything I?ve done.
I wouldn't buy a PC from lidl or aldi myself try some of the deals at hotukdeals.com/
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>>If it was such a cheap item>>
It was less than a week old - the principle applies no matter what the orignal cost.
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It's also worth remembering that such outlets will not accept credit cards, itself a useful backup if things go pearshaped.
Both LIDL & ALDI accept cards.
However it is worth noting that to keep your receipts for purchases that have a 3yr warranty in a drawer or otherwise dark place as I've noticed with some that the writing fades and you're left with a blank piece of paper.
Also, the warranty apears only valid if you also keep the packaging, as most of the products ask that you send faulty products, box and all, directly back to the manufacturer, rather than return it to the store.
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SWMBO photostats them as soon as she gets a fading type receipt. She is that type (having been stung once apparantly).
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Also, the warranty apears only valid if you also keep the packaging, as most of the products ask that you send faulty products, box and all, directly back to the manufacturer, rather than return it to the store.
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Not the case, in my opinion. Provided you send the goods back in secure packaging so they cannot claim damage in transit you are ok. I had a long and heated discussion with the manager of a Staples branch some years ago after buying an Olivetti pc that was faulty. I had junked the packaging and he did not want to take the goods back without it. He even tried to tell me that the manufacturers only made enough cartons for the number of pc's they made, so they would not be able to repair and re-sell it! When it became obvious that I was prepared to stay there all night loudly proclaiming that I had not paid £999 for an effing cardboard box, he relented and gave me a replacement. (Not an Olivetti, thank God)
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>>Both LIDL & ALDI accept cards>>
I never said that either outlet didn't accept cards - only that credit cards cannot be used.
The implication is with regard to the £100 purchase price upwards backup provided by using a credit card if you have subsequent problems; debit cards do not feature this protection.
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The PC I bought from ALDI last April came with on site support included in the price, so it's worth checking if the same applies on this new deal. On a related topic the receipt for a scanner I bought from PC world a few months back has already faded so much it is illegible, despite being kept in a dark drawer.
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Its ok, but its using a hybrid motherboard with a bodge chipset. Not proper native PCI express. At 799 excluding monitor its not that cheap either
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Now that Broadband has blossomed to 2.2mbs, can anyone recommend a nice safe site...
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Now that Broadband has blossomed to 2.2mbs, can anyone recommend a nice safe site...
Sorry? a safe site to do what?
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Download TV, Movies etc...
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Download TV, Movies etc...
But only post ones that DO NOT infringe any copyright please.
tia. DD.
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"nice" includes "I will pay and not end up in court alongside a spotty student"
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Hi
Thanks RF for the message re. CRT's "blurring".
I am thinking of a TFT now, but just don't know whether the colour variance at different viewing angles has got any better, and what kind of money I need to spend to pass "the Back Room cream test".
What do I mean by this? Well on my laptop screen I can't see the cream coloured background to messages, nor the "cream-white-cream-white..." variance on the thread lists. I can if I angle the screen up by 45 degrees, but this is not acceptable. I've also noticed the same on newer TFTs. On my CRT the colours are well contrasted at any viewing angle, the only reason I'd stick with CRT.
Any comments?
Mike Farrow
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The latest and greatest (read expensive) TFT's have vastly improved veiwing angles. Its blindingly obvious when I walked through a dealing room t'other day, it was noticable what screens could be "overlooked" and what couldnt due to the veiwing angles. (they were all NEC's but of varying age)
With the latest technology 160 degree veiwing angles (thats
80 degress either side) are now possible with the best (IPS) technology screens.
Screens with veiwing angles 160 degrees or greater and fast 12ms or 16ms panels (examples but not exhaustive)
Sony SDM-HS74P (VGA input no DVI)
Samsung 710-T (VGA + DVI Input)
NEC Accusync LCD72VM (VGA no DVI)
LG 1730S (VGA no DVI)
ViewSonic VX715 (stunning display quality 170 degree angle but slow 25ms display, DVI + VGA)
If you watch videos or play games you want fast (low latency) displays.
Go see, the Sony's will blow your socks off with display quality, but they have some problems with black/grey contrast.
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Oh and re laptop and "cream white cream test"
Unfortunately Laptop TFTS are actually quite crude. New standalone TFT's have much more inteligence, with auto set up and contrast functions. Items sadly lacking on Laptops. With a laptop "thin is better"
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Flatron LG 1910B. DVI input and passes the cream test, very tunable colourwise to your own taste...very very sharp on DVI.
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A friend of mine who is an animator swears by a huge one of these:
www.apple.com/uk/displays/
170 degree viewing angles...
Don't know how they compare in term so of price with RF's list, but my mate reckons they are better than his old CRT even for moving images.
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Dont pay apple premium prices for what is a PC screen in a fancy apple case. They source panels and electronics from the same places everyone else does,
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I have no idea where Apple get the screens from--there are only a handful of factories making LCD screens and I doubt Apple has its own--but I'd put them in the mix for price comparison purposes. Not having a need for a big LCD screen I don't know how they compare. price-wise. The case is very fancy though.
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Ive just invested in a 19" Sony TFT. Very impressed and you can make out the cream on the Backroom at any angle. (At least those you can see whilst sitting at the desk).
I play games on my PS2 so I wouldnt be able to comment on that but for everything I've done so far with it, it's perfect.
--
Adam
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Blimey Adam! that must have made a big hole in the student grant!
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Out of interest I just checked this out at DABS.com:
Sony SDM-S204EH 20 inch LCD, 1600x1200 £684.98 inc VAT
Apple "Cinema" 20 inch LCD 1680x1050 £699 inc VAT
Both have 16ms response time. Students get roughly 10% off the Apple, which of course has a fancy case; no doubt the Sony could be had cheaper too.
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My mate has a 42in Plasma screen housed on his living room wall - great for football...:-)
However, it's left behind by a Toshiba TV overhead projection unit and a 72in wide screen in one of my clubs; the picture and sound quality is stunning and the colour reproduction is absolutely spot on, especially flesh tones.
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>>Blimey Adam! that must have made a big hole in the student grant!<<
Dad was in a good mood. Just as well as I've kind of...um....spent my student loan. Ahem.
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Adam
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I've got a couple of 42" Plasmas in the house; one in the kitchen and one in the family room.
Good as they are, they pale when compared to a projector and screen.
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>>I've got a couple of 42" Plasmas in the house; one in the kitchen and one in the family room..they pale when compared to a projector and screen..>>
Agree, but do the Plasma units have pixel enhancement? That really does boost the image quality.
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>>but do the Plasma units have pixel enhancement?
How would I tell ?
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windows XP home +sp2 and all updates,celeron 2.4 ghz, 512 memory
avg 7, adaware, spywares&d etc all up-to-date.
Shut down on saturday and will not reboot - the bios message for the video-card comes up, and then just a cursor. Booting off the xp cd, get a 'windows is checking your hardware cofig' type message, then just a cursor.
I've take the 40g Maxtor hard disk out and put in an old 3g disk I had lying around, and installed xp on it no problem, which implies to me there is no problem with the motherboard/bios etc. Also attaching the 40g Maxtor drive as a usb device, all files and folders are still there.
This sort of implies theres a problem with the boot record on the 40g Maxtor drive. Now I could get another 40g drive, install XP, install all the applications and drag the data files across, but, if anybody has any clever ideas, or suggestions for diagnosing/fixing the boot record problem, I'd be happy to here them
ta
Mike
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You need to set the bios to boot CD first, boot it from the windows xp cd, go into recovery console and let the windows CD fix it.
As it seems there is no hardware problem, then as you say the master boot record on the disk is boogered.
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Oh it could be that your disk is up the creek as well. Start up ok? nice spinning sounds? no crunchy grindy constant seeking sounds?
Tut Tut RF. DD
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You need to set the bios to boot CD first, boot
yep, done thatit from the windows xp cd, go into recovery console and
but it doesn't boot from the cd with the 40g maxtor in place
let the windows CD fix it. As it seems there is no hardware problem, then as you say the master boot record on the disk is boogered.
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Yup thats what a screwed MBR does on the disk. Seen it happen when you bounce out of a windows XP install too early, seems to screw the whole PC with that disk in place.
Try sticking it on a different IDE channel. The only way I could cure it was to re Fdisk it.
Boot it with your new small xp disk, put the old suspect disk in as a slave and see if you can read the data on it.
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S'funny, a mate has called me to say his is doing pretty much the same. Although his DOES boot from time to time. When I can be bothered to investigate it, I was going to sniff around the disk as, although it is quite new (I know cos I fitted it for him), it sounds like it simply can't boot. Odd that it's intermittent though. Reseating all the cables was going to be my first action (after a quick check in the error log)
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Those of you on the above broadband will know that the good people down at British Telecom are upgrading our broadband to speeds upto 2mb. Essentially, if your line supports 2mb, you get upgraded to 2mb for free. However, my line doesn't support 2mb - apparently, due to the distance, it only supports 1meg.
Now, I know there's no way around this, I live a fair distance from the exchange (but in a heavily residential area) but my question is, what does distance have to do with it at all? My mate lives about 10 minutes away, is served by the same exchange and can get 2 meg (yes - he saw the funny side too). Surely if BT gave me 2meg, a little signal degredation and loss of quality and I'd be on speeds of well over 1meg so why don't they do this? My Mum and Dad actually said, in this day and age, what does a mile or two matter?
They have a point.
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Adam
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that's what happens when you TRY and look smart. I can only apologise. I'm sure one of the lovable little rogues will sort it out for me.
Cheers,
{Oi! Less of the lovable, if you please ;o) . ps, sorted, btw DD}
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>in this day and age, what does a mile or two matter?
>They have a point.
They do, but we're running a twenty-first telecoms service on what are essentially nineteenth-century wires. On copper wire there is a trade-off between speed and reliability. Beyond a certain distance the reliability of the data transmission just can't be assured. In Japan and Singapore 2mb is hardly even considered broadband anyway. We should have had cables laid fifteen years ago, but there wasn't the political will, so we now have this nonsensical piecemeal approach with BT still firmly in charge. They are the Railtrack of their industry, but with profits guaranteed.
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The distance you live from the exchange used to play a key role - originally five or six kilometres was the furthest (and not as the crow flies) but BT gradually extended the distance covered and available speeds.
However, last September BT scrapped the distance limit and revealed that anyone living more than six kilometres from an ADSL equipped exchange would be able to enjoy broadband at up to 521kbps.
That's a darn sight better than my 49 to 51-52kbps on dialup (which is adequate for personal use) even though my small local exchange, about 500 yards away, has been equipped for broadband right from the start of the service.
That was due to the foresight of a pal who used to be the exchange's manager and upgraded it to the required standards several years ago.
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A little further investigation reveals that as well as the 512Kbps distance limits being lifted, BT also announced it was increasing the distance homes and businesses could be from exchanges to get an even better 1Mbps connection.
Up to then, only those within four kilometres of exchanges enabled for faster speeds could get the service, but subsequently stretched to six kilometres, ensuring appromately 96 per cent of the UK could get the 1Mbps speed.
The latest upgrade to 2Mbps is being gradually introduced and should be completed by August - however some ISPs are advising individual customers can speed this up if necessary by paying a fee which is, presumably, passed on to BT for the manual upgrading requirement.
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My NTL connection is going from 1.5 to 3mb shortly, at no extra cost. I could actually save some money by reducing my bandwidth, but they have a (what seems to me) relatively low usage limit for the lower line speeds.
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The further you get from the exchange the worse the DSL service, so even if BT manage to provide, say 2mbps at the exchange, and are happy enough with it to offer it to everyone, that doesn't mean everyone will get 2mbps in real life--note the "up to" part. In fact over 6km and it's highly unlikely you'll get anything like it, even if you're paying for it.
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Firstly, lets get a point or two across.
ADSL is by its nature designed and was invented to carry broadband data speed across ordinary copper wires. ADSL wont work on fibre. Lets not get ADSL and Broadband mixed up in this repect.
Stuart is right, the distances have been pushed out but at the end of the day the speed of service you get will always depend on the quality of the line between you and the DSLAM (thats the ADSL box in the exchange)
BT do not guarantee you will get ADSL within x km of the exchange, the thing about distance was only ever discussed by the broad technical community - its purely provided by postcode and a line quality check. BT is under no legal obligation to provide YOUR house with broadband even if you live next door to an enabled exchange and everyone down your street has ADSL at 17zillion MB
And dont forget its a contention service. we all share the same pipe and if we all start downloading the DR Who episode off the net at once we all drop to speeds less than Dial up.
And to all those who say we have a 19th century data service, I bet a large proportion of you would all be up in arms if all the roads get dug up for the next 15 years. Over the last 15 years Singapore has been flattened and rebuilt, with no second thought to peoples civil liberties and even less to tradition and heritage. Thats why they have a 15 year old data comms system.
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>I bet a large proportion of you would all be up in arms if all the roads get dug up for the next 15 years. Over the last 15 years Singapore has been flattened and rebuilt, with no second thought to peoples civil liberties and even less to tradition and heritage.<
Quite a few of those roads need fixing anyhow, but maybe that's the heritage you're talking about... ;-)
I saw some Telewest engineers starting to dig up ours this morning, so maybe cable won't be long arriving.
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>>I saw some Telewest engineers starting to dig up ours this morning, so maybe cable won't be long arriving>>
Our roads - or most of them - were cabled quite a number of years ago, but the takeup hasn't been especially high.
We keep getting flooded with offers from Telewest for phone, digital TV and broadband, but I've never found anything to inspire me to date.
I've had an ONDigital/Freeview set top box for six years, use One.Tel for cheap phone calls and my dialup service is £7.99 a month for up to 310 hours of use.
Lot cheaper than £30 a month for very little more from Telewest...:-)
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Aha. I just checked the NTL site and upgraded to 3mb.
Browsing (which was quick anyway) doesn't seem noticeably quicker - that doesn't really surprise me. I recall seeing mor of a difference when going from 500k to 1mb a while back.
However downloading feels lightening quick, when you get the right connection at the other end... !
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"However downloading feels lightening quick, when you get the right connection at the other end... "
How very true. Now we are all getting fast local speeds the bottleneck that now shows up is the ability of the server you are connected to, and all those zillions of routers and spaghetti (called "hops") you pass through
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It's partly because of the way ADSL works. If the line is of a poor quality, then the modem and exchange can't establish a high frequency link. You can even see it happen - on my router, the link light starts blinking slowly and then faster and faster until it's in sync and on constantly.
If you can view your stats, you need to have an attenuation (signal loss) of 60dB or below to get high speeds. (IIRC - we've just got Pipex to put 2Mbit ADSL in at home, and we live 6km from the exchange.)
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Thanks for all the detailed replies everyone. The way I look at it, I've been managing fine with 512 so 1 meg can only be better!
I'll have a bit of a tinker around to see the attenuation stats.
Again, many thanks. Much appreciated.
--
Adam
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Hi,
Wonder if anyone can help. I have a Sony Vaio laptop, with XP sp2. Its been excellent so far (8 months)but recently, it seems to be working hard even when its not doing anything, i.e. the cooling fan speeds up and slows down of its own accord, the way it does if its processing information or downloading. The spyware, antivirus and firewall are all up to date, but I've recently installed broadband. Could this be the problem? The laptop still works fine, just I dont think the fan should be on like this all the time!
Thanks in advance.
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Aren't fans usually on or off? Maybe someone else can confirm - but if they aren't variable speed, and it really IS your fan, then it's probably the fan on it's way out.
On the other hand, the noise may be the disk. Is the disk activity light continually flickering?
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No, its not the HDD, definately the fan. Like I said, the Laptop seems to work fine, just the fan never used to run continuous, only when processing or downloadingb. Its more annoying than anything, that no amount of rebooting etc solves!
Cheers
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Cooling systems on laptops (good ones anyway) are complex designed thermal solutions. No big fat heat synch and noisy large fan there! It will have a system of heat pipes, thermal transfer, ducts, and small fan. The fan is nearly aways variable, not just on and off.
Chances are its always been behaving as you say, just that the fan has got a little noisier so you notice it. Also are you using it in a different place? The laptop case will disipate heat easier on a large flat surface (like a desk) than it can on a lap. Also as the case temperature plays a major part in laptop cooling, you sitting next to a roaring hot radiator?
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Ok, thanks RF. Its in same place as always, room not particularly hot. Sometimes the fan does go off periodically, then just starts up of its own accord. I'll monitor it, it doesnt seem to interfere with actual computer.
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Just keep an eye on case temperature, dont worry about fan noise.
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Just been upgraded and hitting 2.2mbs - 1km from a rural exchange.
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Anyone got any views on a optical wireless mouse?
advantages/disadvantages?
Should i buy one or should i save my money?
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had them in the past, batteries always running down, even loosing the damn things down the back of the desk - waste of money.
You cant beat a standard corded MS optical mouse!
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What RF said, unless it's got a charger. Of course the charger just takes up desk space, so it's probably still a waste of money.
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ok whats a opti mouse with cord like? worth buying?
tia
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even loosing the damn things down the back of the desk - waste of money. You cant beat a standard corded MS optical mouse!
That was one of the main reasons for me getting a cordless mouse (albiet not an optical one). I got fed with the corded one snagging around the back of the pc desk everytime I pulled the keyboard tray out, and the mouse dropped down the back somewhere. It's never done it with my cordless logitech one. Batteries (AA's x 2 off) seem to last approx 6 months.
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Batteries (AA's x 2 off) seem to last approx6 months.
That's interesting.. a bit longer than the 2 days the rechargeable ones last.
In a dialema now what should i buy? is it cordless or one with tail?
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A friend has a cordless optical mouse which he says lasts for about 2 days and charges up in 10 minutes. Can't be bad.
As for optical corded, they're so cheap these days it's not worth shopping around for one with a ball. The only problem I have is that the cursor sometimes wonders to one side of the screen even with the mouse stood still. Plus you can't clean the rollers out when you're bored ;-)
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I can't understand why anyone would want to use a mouse of any description. I am a dedicated trackball user and it is so much easier, not having to keep repositioning it back on the mat and knocking everything off the desk as you shove it round. In fact, when I had to use a mouse recently everything seemed to take twice as long and I had to resist the urge to have a computer rage and stamp on the damn thing.
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I have used them all: trackballs, nipples, finger pads, mice, you name I have used it all the way from Windows v2 and the original Mac
MS Optical mouse.
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I have used them all: trackballs, nipples, finger pads, mice, you name I have used it all the way from Windows v2 and the original Mac
MS Optical mouse. with a tail
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MS Optical mouse. with a tail
MS=Microsoft? i'll risk it, have seen these in my local pc store. On your head be it Mr RF!
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Yup thats the beast. I get mind for 10 quid down the computer fair (in a plastic bag) You may pay more for a retail package.
(not that i have to replace them!)
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Dynamic.. do you know what mouse you have exactly? model number?
seriously tempted as a cordless mouse is really what i want. (sorry rf)
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Imagos,
Mine's well outdated now, looking around the logitech website.
www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/productlist/GB...3
They all appear to be optical now. Mine still has a rubber ball that occasionally suffers the "belly button fluff" syndrome.
From the comments already posted, the optical ones seem quite thirsty on batteries, compared to mine anyway.
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Yup thats the beast. I get mind for 10 quid down the computer fair
You can get a Wireless RF Multimedia Keyboard and Wireless RF Optical Mouse at Aldi next week for £14.99
uk.aldi.com/special_buys/product_119.html
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The simple answer to your question is to buy a batteryless optical wireless mouse.
A4Tech, one of the world's largest keyboard and mouse manufacturers, whose products are available both under its own name and rebadged versions by many top brand names, produces such a rodent. New model is the A4 Tech NB-50 Mouse.
Details at:
www.a4tech.com/en/
and downloads etc at:
www.a4tech.com/en/download1.asp
I have a Typhoon (rebranded A4Tech) wireless keyboard and mouse whose keyboard has required just one change of batteries (two AA) after two years' use, with the mouse's batteries lasting around six months with constant daily use.
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Took plunge and bought this one 931172-0914 from logitech, link on DD's post above. seems ok hope batteries last though. About the same time as a tv remote so no big deal.
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I still haven't fully got to grips with creating backup discs. I don't have any problem with CD-R discs, but I find that some makes of CD-RW discs work but some don't. Those that don't work come up with the message "There was an error in the writing process. The disc you have attempted to write may no longer be usable." It happens with brand new discs. My local computer shop have told me that some CD-RW discs need to be formatted. How do you do this using XP?
--
L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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You need packet writing software such as DirectCD or InCD (Nero) to format a CD-RW or CD-R.
Some information:
pages.prodigy.net/jdjd/cdr/packet.htm
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