******** This thread now closed. Please see Volume 68 ********
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=35399
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
Nothing which I think is not following the spirit of the thread
Nothing that risks the future of this site (please see the small print for details www.honestjohn.co.uk/credits/index.htm )
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 67. Previous Volumes will not be deleted.
A list of previous volumes can be found here:-
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=20892
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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Am looking at buying a new pc.
came across a new name,to me anyway - IT Works.
anyone know if it is a good make. I suspect its Comets own brand as I have not seen it elsewhere. But for £300 base unit 512meg athlon 64 200gig hard drive looked good.
www.comet.co.uk/comet/html/cache/567_259314.html {Link added by DD}
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Steve
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The video card has shared memory. That is it takes a chunk of main memory.
For just a base unit, I have seen better for a similar price
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I think I may have edited in the wrong link on Steve's post. Steve say's it's got a 200gig h/d, whereas the link says only 160gig h/d.
Steve, can you clarify?
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The £299.99 price matches the 160GB hard drive description - I think the confusion may arise because the processor speed is given as 2.00Ghz in the specifications.
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My computer is an IT works - had it about 4 or 5 years - boughtit as a "manager's special" (ie, no-one else wanted it or it was ex display) for £300 from Comet, never heard of it before or since but nothing has gone wrong with it, well except for a few glitches with Windows ME, but I gather that's normal. It's pretty out of date now, 900mh Athlon(?), 20 gig HD (still less than half full) and shared video (?) memory but it does what I need it to and hasn't broken down (fan is a audible but so what?).
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P.S - I think it only came with 64 (or was it 128) mb RAM but I bunged some more in to take it to 512
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Was my mistake DD,spent a few hours today looking so got slightly confused.Yes it is 160gig as your link suggested,PB sell 1024mb celeron 200gig 533fsb for £230.I think thats where I got confused.Plus I had the wife with me asking questions;)
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Steve
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>>I think I may have edited in the wrong link on Steve's post. Steve say's it's got a 200gig h/d, whereas the link says only 160gig h/d.
After untold grief from a certain retailer(not as mentioned Comet)Over a 2 day period,they seemed confused as to what package they were actually selling-aparently several were on offer.But none matched advertising on the day I wanted it,Grr,
after an hours wait,they decided to mention offer was only available the day before-not now as advertised-no date mentioned as to when it finished.unusual I thought.
I was offered the system because it was there mistake.at £50 below price-but not with advertised 17"tft.only CRT,I did accept in the end due to time.Daft thing is by the time I got it home and tried to set up *pc was faulty*,I did in the end get the PC I wanted but it took 2 days of agravation to get it-I didnt get the 17"tft monitor but got a 15"plus 1gig memory upgrade FOC.whats up with these companys now ???
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Steve
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When I pull down the scroll button from top to bottom the number of lines that the spreadsheet scrolls down varies tremendously (anything up to 16000 lines) depending on the particular spreadsheet. When the number is large the scroll button is very insensitive for partial scrolls using the button, and scrolling down using the arrow is very slow. What governs how many lines there are for a full scroll? Can the number be set? I haven't conciously set the number for any of my saved spreadsheets.
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L\'escargot.
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If you go to Start>Settings>Control Panel and double click on the Mouse listing you should get the rodent's Properties panel displayed. You can/should be able to adjust the scroll speeds from here.
Also, normally, if you right click on the scroll bar you should get a menu up with various scrolling features, but it doesn't seem to be working in Word for me at the moment.
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If you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, you can roll the wheel back towards you to scroll down & vice versa. For quicker scrolling, you can also click the wheel by pressing down on it (i.e. not rolling it) and depending how it's set up, it will either move the page down/up in conjunction with the mouse being moved back/forwards, or else it will "autoscroll" very slowly if you move the mouse back/forwards just a fraction and leave it there, a bit quicker if you move it back a bit more, etc. In the latter case you will see an image of where the mouse pointer was when you clicked on the wheel, so you will know where to move it back to in order to pause the scrolling. Clicking the mouse again will stop the autoscroll.
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andymc
Vroom, vroom - mmm, doughnuts ...
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You can also autoscroll from left to right and vice versa, which would seem to be useful in a spreadsheet environment.
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If you go to Start>Settings>Control Panel and double click on the Mouse listing you should get the rodent's Properties panel displayed. You can/should be able to adjust the scroll speeds from here. Also, normally, if you right click on the scroll bar you should get a menu up with various scrolling features,
Tried that but found nothing that would help.
However, by trial and error I deduce the following. MS Works Spreadsheet notes how many lines you have used, adds some for good measure and then makes this the maximum line number that you see when you drag the scroll button from top to bottom. But .... it appears to be too clever for it's own good. If you "format borders" totally, by highlighting the total lines available (which appears to be just over 16000), then it assumes that you are going to use that many lines. Dragging the scroll button to the bottom then shows you line 16000+ at the bottom of the visible portion of the spreadsheet, and gives you a high scroll rate (measured in lines scrolled per unit distance of button movement).
I cured the troublesome spreadsheets by deleting most of the excess lines.
I hope this makes sense and is reasonably intelligible.
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L\'escargot.
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However, by trial and error I deduce the following. MS Works Spreadsheet notes how many lines you have used, adds some for good measure and then makes this the maximum line number that you see when you drag the scroll button from top to bottom...................
Correction:-
For "line" read "row", and for "lines" read "rows".
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L\'escargot.
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Sometime ago, possibly a year, someone published a URL that implanted MSN's popup blocker into the IE toolbars. I found it very handy. My computer has been replaced by a newer model and I've lost this program and it would be nice to have it back.
I have done a quick search but to no avail.
Can anyone remember this or where I might find it.
Thank you.
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I use the Google Toolbar
toolbar.google.com/en_GB/
All works well for me, although sometimes a bit too well!!
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published a URL that implanted MSN's popup blocker ... I have done a quick search but to no avail.
>>
try a search on google using renault-family's instructions:
+msn +toolbar +popup +blocker
or for an alternative version
+google +toolbar +popup +blocker
in any case, if you have xp fully updated to latest intenet explorer, it has a built in pop-up blocker. ( menu - tools ).
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One of the Dulwich offspring is enjoying a year studying(?) in Paris and has a rented flat provided with Broadband, phone & Canal Plus television at 36 euros per month.
After a brief problem with the service it came back on again i.e. internet and phone but no TV. It seems the TV works from the Livebox (a Wannado own modem) but it seems no signal is getting to the TV itself. The TV does not seem to get ordinary broadcasts, just only CanalPlus (a sort of French SKY)via the box of tricks.
Any ideas on what may be wrong. Does one need to reboot the box? How? Young Dulwich is afraid to touch anything for fear of killing the internet connection.
Dulwich Jnr. is missing contact with the French language as well - urgent help is needed.
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"Dulwich Jnr. is missing contact with the French language as well - urgent help is needed. "
This is realy no help at all, but in the absence of any other replies and since I have seen French TV, and especially Canal plus in many hotels, may I suggest that Dulwich Junior forgets the tv and immediately decamps for the nearest bar/brasserie where he can sit all night over a beer/coffee or wine for less than 36 euros a month and get first hand contact with the French language (maybe via an attractive young lady!!)
Phil
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The last time I was in Paris, about five years ago, in the area where I stayed a pint of Ansdell bitter was the equivalent of £3.20 a pint and coffee and a cake in a local cafe anything between £5 and £8.
I still only pay £1.93 for a pint of Guinness today...:-)
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I remember parts of Paris being very very expensive.
But £1.93 for a Guiness is cheap. Is that at the British Legion? Maybe there's a French Legion, for foreigners? :-)
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>>But £1.93 for a Guinness is cheap>>
No, my local Conservative Club. There's still a good profit margin at that price as well.
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Yeah but, surely in Paris you would expect Ansells and Guinness to be expensive - how about drinking French beer, or a glass of red? Yes, Paris is expensive if you drink on the Champs Elysee or Place du Tertre etc just as a pint of Guinness in Soho or Kings Road etc (don't know London well!!)is a lot more than in your Cons club.
Perhaps the "local" bar/brasserie would be a lot cheaper.
Anyway, any price is worth paying to avoid French TV!!!!
Phil
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Thank you all for the most helpful replies. I always knew I could rely on the Backroomers exhaustive knowledge of computers, modems, software, upgrades and the like to help in a time of crisis.
As it happens, giving the TV a knock and moving it a fraction has brought to back to life.
Cheers, anyway.
PS TV, internet & phone cost is a compulsory part of rent, so you might as well have it all working.
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>>Perhaps the "local" bar/brasserie would be a lot cheaper.>>
That's exactly where I was drinking (just around the corner from our rather seedy hotel, which seems to be the norm in many parts of Paris)...:-)
But even that far back I was able to send e-mails home from specialist Internet cafes or even the nearby McDonalds, although the French enabled keyboards proved a pain to work out.
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I am intending to purchase a Palm Treo 650 PDA which also incorporates phone, camera etc.
In spite of all the wonderful gadgets which 'Q' has provided for me over the years, I have no experience of the Palm O/S.
Is there anyone out there who can comment on this system from their own experience?
If there is a '650' owner in the Backroom? I would welcome your thoughts. Most reviews give it four or five stars but make the point that it is for the technologically advanced person which I cannot claim to be but am willing to learn (just as one had to with pc's) in order to have the benefit of everything in one unit rather than three and, in any case, I need it for my next film:-).
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Personal viewpoint.
I wouldnt invest my own money in a Palm device. The palm o/s is becoming maginalised (for example Nav Man of sat nav fame are not developing any more products for palm) Sales in Europe of the Treo 650 are low.
Have you consdiered an XDA or a Blackberry?
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007, I cant comment on the Palm but I do own a Qtek S100 (imate Jam or mini XDA).
I have no idea how it compares to the Palm based device, although it is a phone, (video)camera, MP3 player, storage device, mini pc etc but what helps me is that it uses Microsoft Pocket PC 2003, which resembles PC based Windows and therefore syncs pretty well with a PC. It is also very small and compact. Like all devices like this they are a bit of compromise when compared to single use devices, however I do recommend it.
P
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I own an older Palm-based PDA (two years old, bless) and it's been utterly reliable, syncs with Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX perfectly happily. I know two people with Treo650s--both using them in corporate environments--who are very happy with them. The only thing they say is occasionally annoying is not being able to look at the screen when using it in traditional jammed to the ear phone mode. Really if it was my money the only thing that would bother me about any device like this is that phones take a lot of punishment (much more than PDAs in my experience), so I wouldn't spend that much money on a phone.
Incidentally Palm have just announced a Windows-based Treo650 that will sell alongside the PalmOS model in the US.
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Thank-you for your helpful replies.
Over the past day or two I have spent a lot of time researching this subject and am currently homing-in on a Sony Ericsson P910i which got good marks in a 'Which?' report, has certain features which I am looking for and can be bought on-line for a lot less than RRP.
It has a Symbian o/s which is something I know nothing about. Do any of you have any experience of this unit and/or this o/s?
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007, yes I almost got one of those it was a toss up but in the end I didnt (as above). A colleague has one and I believe he did have some issues setting up the sync'ing software and it is slightly bigger than my unit, although does have the flip keyboard.
A couple of the forums I read just tipped the balance in favour of mine in fact I think a couple of them traded their 910i for the Qtek/imate.
P
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Hi
Just got a new all-in-one inkjet printer/scanner/copier (HP PSC 1610) and was wondering where the cheapest source for inks and paper (for photo-printing) is as the stuff on HP's website seems quite pricey.
Thanks.
{Moved from IHAQ thread. DD}
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The best I have found on the internet Martin is Choice Staionary.
tinyurl.co.uk/sf6z
Their prices and service have been excellent.
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Try Ebay, I get most of my printer cartridges from there, last colour one I got I saved over £30 compared to the cheapest shop price. Paper can also be cheap, but you get what you pay for if you don't go for a branded name. Keep a look out in Staples/Office world or on Viking Direct as they quite often do 2 for 1 deals which make them good value.
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Whilst cheap cartridges (or refills) are ok for Black ink, I will not use them for quality photo printing. Remember if you are using heavyweight photo paper the paper cost can be considerable for larger prints. It is not worth throwing away paper because the color is not good.
Viking is always good value and special deals at Staples are generally good value.
On Ebay (and Viking )watch for shipping costs.
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pmh (was peter)
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And whatI should have said,
watch for use by date on Ebay
There are some lite versions of cartridges around with only approx half the ink in!
Some compatibles can even get 150% ink into them!
Choice look a very good bet.
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pmh (was peter)
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I've used Premier Ink recently - typically £1.99-2.99 for compatible black cartridges. Only 99p shipping and they usually arrive the next day. I gather that The Independent ran some sort of comparitive test and found them as good as the OEMs.
I do agree with the point about colour, if you want top quality photo prints stick to the manufacturers own. Note that Personal Computer World ran a recent comparitive test of papers & found that in almnost all cases, the manufacturers own gave the best results consistently.
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For all you Mozilla & Firefox users you'd better be aware of this www.f-prot.com/news/vir_alert/security_report_0509...l
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It has been known for a little while now and the risk is very small; I installed the patch immediately on learning about the issue.
Just for interest, since I switched from Internet Explorer and Outlook Express to Firefox and Thunderbird around the beginning of this year, I've had just one nasty in that time and that was entirely my own fault.
In fact Avast! Ad-Aware, Search and Destroy and SpywareBlaster have become virtually redundant, although they are obviously updated on a consistent basis as and when required.
That's a real contrast to pre-Firefox and Thunderbird days.
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24mbs broadband, £24 month
www.bethere.co.uk/beonline/productHome.do
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Some people still can't even get 512kbps....:-)
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24mbs broadband, £24 month www.bethere.co.uk/beonline/productHome.do
"Not Servicing Your Area Yet"
Like cable TV, I suspect a lot of us will wait a long time before it does.
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"Not Servicing Your Area Yet"
Nor here.
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The claim is: Do not despair. We expect to cover a large percentage of the UK within just one year.
Even that's seems somewhat disingenuous.
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All this High Speed stuff is all very well, but I have to say that for a year or two I was on NTL 3mb (very reliable, v fast) and have moved to 8mb Bulldog (not quite so reliable but even faster) and unless you download lots of large stuff, the additional speed doesn't really notice too much. It's better, but not by much.
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That's true for regular web browsing and email, but for online services such as www.writely.com or for video on demand, or even online TV, the more speed the better. What we're currently doing online is nothing compared with what we'll be doing in five years. I've been using the Internet since about 1990 and I have a feeling the difference will be as big again.
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I must admit - I struggle to tell my 2mbps home connection from whatever we pay squillions of pounds for at work. That is, unless I'm using Google Earth.
(Incidentally, anyone here who's got broadband and not heard of Google Earth - get it. It's the coolest thing I have ever seen.)
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Life is complex; it has real and imaginary parts.
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>>That is, unless I'm using Google Earth>>
Try Google Moon and zoom as close in as you can get....
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If anyone out there has a Toshiba Satellite 1100 Laptop, the one with the DVD Combi ROM drive, could you please offer advise as to which drivers are required to run the Combi unit? I need to get these on to a 3.5 floppy, in order to get the ROM drive working, before I can attempt to reload XP.
Any help as to where to find these drivers on Toshiba's musical chairs website, would also be much appreciated.
Thank you, pete.
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You don't need drivers for CD/DVD-ROM drives and rewriters - the basic Windows CDROM driver installs automatically.
What you require is to configure Boot from CD in the Bios; before Saving and Exiting put the XP installation disk in the drive and it should then install the operating system as normal.
Or you can get an XP boot disk from:
www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
and again choose to boot from CD.
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PS
Are you doing a complete reinstallation of XP?
If not a Repair will achieve what you require whilst retaining your current configuration, programs, applications etc.
I've already detailed it in an earlier Compluter Related Questions forum, but here's an explanation:
www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
You will/may also need to reinstall SP2 and any previous XP updates.
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uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/cgi-bin/ToshibaCSG...p
you wont need the combo drive drivers. They are windows XP supplied in fact toshiba supply none.
YOu will need however
1/ display driver files - windows will only load a basic one
2/ touch pad driver - winows will only load a poor implemetation.
3/ all other tosh specific hot key combos and power mamagement utilities etc etc.
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My thanks to you both for your replies. I will look into this and post as to the result.
Thank you again, Pete.
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Is it possible to use a USB cable to connect 2 computers together (eg a portable and a desktop) and thus transfer files between them? I have a portable that I cnnot get information off without using a modem and email or using a memory stick. It suddenly occurred to me that why can I not use USB?
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and if you get this before 1014 Monday morning, ebay item 5814466916 has it for 0.99p, but with £9.95 P&P
Sure there are others - did a search for USB File Cable
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Yes, you can, as kennybase points out.
However, again as indicated, you can't just connect a USB cable from one system to the other as only one host controller can be on each bus; that's why you require a USB file transfer cable.
Using computers that are fitted with an Ethernet port and cards is generally the preferred connection method. A single cross-over Cat 5 Ethernet cable will then be all that is needed to network the systems (info in Help and Support).
An alternative is to use a USB card reader and a memory card which is the method I use (I only have one system, it's to transfer files between/from systems elsewhere).
I have 256MB Secure Digital cards which I use with a card reader for this purpose and, when necessary, the cards double-up for use in my Minolta digital camera..:-)
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Thanks guys. I was hoping that there would be a nifty piece of software I could simply download and use the USB cable I already have. No matter: I'll keep on with the memory stick that I also have.
Cheers
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Stuartli: I used the cross-over Ethernet cable approach for a long time with great success with 2K, ME, NT4, etc. until XP came out. I cannot get it working when one of the computers is running XP. And it's nothing to do with the Internet Connection Firewall. Fortunately now there are better options such as very large capacity thumb drives which there weren't 5 years ago.
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The XP side should be the lead system in any network configuration.
Windows Help and Support fully details networking.
I've never mentioned Windows Internet Connection Firewall which, to be honest, should be ditched in favour of ZoneAlarm or similar.
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Hopefully this will be a striaght forward one for the experts on here!
Don't know what I have done, but now when I try and view my Word documents , it seems to have symbols at the beginning and end of each line, as well as a dot between each word.
Have I accidentally turned on some sort of formatting thing? If I send my CV to someone will these all be on it?
Help!
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Probably showing formatting.
Look for the small pi sign (as in 3.1412), next to the zoom box on the toolbar and click it.
-- Lee .. A festivus for the rest of us.
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If you can't see that icon because your toolbar has been hidden, do
Tools>Options>View and in the "Formatting Marks" section ensure the "tab characters" "spaces" etc. options are all unchecked
And no, if you email your CV to someone they will only see those marks if they too have selected the option to do so; the setting does not travel with your document!
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Thanks for that guys, couldn't find the pi symbol but did get it through Codefarms suggestion.
Don't know how it ever got there in the first place.!
Many thanks for your time.
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Is there any way to get a physical backup of my hotmail email - short of printing it all out? I have a lot of email with this that I really don't want to lose and as I have no backup. A google search yielded nothing I could see of any use. Thanks!
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Sorry - should have title 'Hotmail backup' - apologies!
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Can't think why you'd want to do this (when did Hotmail ever lose mail?) but easiest option has to be to set up a mail client on your PC and download the itens which are valuable to you, leaving the lot also on the server. That way it's squarely in your hands what you choose to back up or not...
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when did Hotmail ever lose mail?
When I failed to log into my account for a period of time. When I did remember to log in (had to go through some suspended account process beforehand), everything had been deleted.
Getting back to the subject of backing it up, why not configure some email software (Outlook Express for example) so that it downloads it to that - then you can back it up as per your other emails.
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why not configure some email software (Outlook Express for example) so that it downloads it to that - then you can back it up as per your other emails.
I have Outlook (not Express) set up to access my hotmail account but it just seems to download the headers rather than save the actual emails themselves and relies on the data remaining in hotmail - unless I'm missing something?
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Does anybody have this 'backup' working such that it actually copies the email and not just the header?
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Does anybody have this 'backup' working such that it actually copies the email and not just the header?
Just had a quick google. Apparantly if you use Outlook Express to read you hotmail email, you can backup your hotmail email on to your computer. Just open Outlook Express and make a new folder under local folders, you can name it (Hotmail backup 05 for example). Now just drag and drop your Hotmail email files in to your new Hotmail backup folder on you computer.
Not sure if the same applies to MS Outlook though.
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Cheers - I'll give that a try. My own research found this:
office.microsoft.com/en-gb/assistance/HA0110000510...x
which seems to indicate that a pay service is required to to this via Outlook. If I can do it for free via Outlook Express then that's good enough for me.
thanks!
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Got it working using Outlook after all. For the benefit of anybody else trying to do this the problem was that I had only told Outlook to download hotmail headers - not the full messages.
I already had Outlook setup to access hotmail (just the headers) but if you haven't got Outlook or Outlook Express doing this already you can't do it any more without having a paid for service from Microsoft :-(
office.microsoft.com/en-gb/assistance/HA0110000510...x
support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;8...2
("If you configured Outlook Express or Outlook to access your Hotmail account before DAV support was ended, you may still be able to use Outlook Express to open a free Hotmail account. However, eventually Hotmail will no longer support DAV for all free Hotmail accounts.")
Under Tools/Send-Receive/Send-Receive-Settings/Define-Send-Receive-Groups
Click Edit and then select Hotmail and then pick 'Download complete item including attachments for all relevant Hotmail folders.
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Not a question, but as I wasted a couple of hours on this, I post my experiences here, as they may help someone.
- Bought a brand-new Compaq from Wal-Mart. It had Symantec (Norton) Internet Security 2005 on it.
- Norton kills the performance of the machine (constant disk thrashing) and pops up lots of dialogs, and keeps wanting you to sign up for a subscription (in many ways it is just like being infested with Spyware!)
- On no fewer than three previous occasions, when I have tried to uninstall Norton for various reasons, the computer has been rendered unbootable and required Windows to be reinstalled. This time, I thought I was being clever by simply disabling Norton's eight or nine (!!!) Windows Services and 3 or 4 Norton links in the Startup folder
- All was well until a few hotfixes got downloaded by Windows Update. They must have affected something; in IE and Firefox I started getting 'Connection Refused' and so could not browse any websites. I also could not PING the machine from itself, although I could PING other machines from it, and PING to it.
- I assumed that Norton disabled couldn't mess up my machine and looked at various other possible causes like Winsock corruption.
- Finally decide it must be Norton still doing it's thing. With fingers crossed, tried to remove Norton via add/remove programs. The uninstall process fell over with runtime errors (but happily did not corrupt my Windows installation).
Finally:
- Discovered the one useful program Norton produce: SYMNRT.EXE. Google for it - You can get it from their web site. It completely removes Norton, and what is more you can still boot your machine after!
From now on it will always be on my thumb drive, in case Norton pull it for any reason.
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>>Bought a brand-new Compaq from Wal-Mart. It had Symantec (Norton) Internet Security 2005 on it.
Just bought one myself not from Wal-Mart,but deleted Norton without problems./ps its a hewlett packard machine.installed avast anti virus and Zone alarm firewall.dont know the model you have, but Norton a pain on any system I have had still works fine,as a ps did you make up recovery cd
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Steve
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Compaq/HP - it's the same thing, now!
When I first logged in, it gave me the option of creating a recovery disk, which I skipped as I was anxious to instead restore a bunch of files from a failing machine. Now it doesn't give me the option anymore, and I have not looked into how to do it manually...
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>>Now it doesn't give me the option anymore, and I have not looked into how to do it manually...
Start/programs/pc help and tools,If yours is the same as mine.
Only allowed 1 recovery disc
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Steve
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- Bought a brand-new Compaq from Wal-Mart. It had Symantec (Norton) Internet Security 2005 on it. - Norton kills the performance of the machine (constant disk thrashing) and pops up lots of dialogs, and keeps wanting you to sign up for a subscription (in many ways it is just like being infested with Spyware!)
I am running Norton 2005 on a 500mhz PIII machine with no problems other than having to disable it to run scandisk, can't see why you new PC should be unduly effected performance wise.
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This is too early for me!
Anyway - Mum's laptop started stuttering every noise so I earmarked it for me to check sometime but me being lazy, I forgot about it. Anyway, I went to switch it on yesterday and it said something along the lines of;
"Windows is cocked up you moronic fool because somehow, you've done the impossible and corrupted or deleted the system file in the System32\Config folder".
Needless to say, I was a little perplexed. Not least because the day before last, all my posts in the BR were made on it. Sooooooooo, I did my usual trick of reinstalling Windows - not a necessarily bad thing as I'd backed most of the docs up a few weeks ago and it was bogged down with crap anyway.
To cut a long story marginally shorter, the sound is still stuttery and the computer thinks it's 6am when you switch it off. (It's been doing that for a while).
Questions;
1) What is the cell battery inside - I'm guessing a CR2032
2) Would an idiot like me be able to change it? I've built a fair few computers but never seen the inside of a laptop
3) What the hell do you suppose the stuttery sound is?
Many thanks - don't let me down.
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Adam: Is that really the 'error message' you see? If so then you had a virus. A stuttery sound could be the cooling fan, the hard disk, or an optical disk e.g. DVD. Putting your ear to the casing might determine which. Internal dust round the fan or a poor electrical connection to the fan could cause noise. You might be able to see the status of the back up battery when you boot up if you enter the BIOS screen.
Leif
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I've never, ever had to replace a CMOS battery on a motherboard in xxx years - you would notice if one was starting to go over quite a period, usually through the time display being/going out of sync and having to be corrected.
Probably tricky to replace in a laptop which are usually not the easiest things to work on.
Bit puzzled why you should keep reinstalling Windows - a Repair is just as effective and saves your configuration, programs, applications, utilities etc.
I've detailed the Repair procedure in previous CRQ columns and it works with 98SE as well as XP.
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I'd second Stuart's comment re working on laptops. A few years back I was on a laptop hardware course on which we had to completely disassemble and reassemble a laptop. Everyone, including the instructor, had a few odd screws left over at the end!
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I too have been on a manufacturers official laptop hardware course, and there are ALWAYS bits left over. A lapgtop taken apart is never the same again.
Anyway, laptop backup batteries are NOT always the same as other button cells on desktops. Quite a lot have a small heatshrinked battery pack with a flylead. Its very manufacturer and model specific.
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The battery on my laptop is a heat shrink sealed unit, but looks like it is a cr2032 inside, it is just behind an access panel so easy to get to, other laptops I have used have had the same. As for the time being out of sync, well I have had 2 or 3 batteries die on me and none of them gave any warning, they all just rolled over and passed away in the night, but in the morning I had a hell of a job getting windows to boot, so that might be your problem, cant do any harm in spending a couple of quid to repalce the battery.
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>>they all just rolled over and passed away in the night, >>
More likely to do so with a laptop I presume than a desktop, which has a superior power supply and which is probably kept switched on for very much longer on average, thus helping to keep the battery topped up.
As I commented earlier, I've never had to replace a CMOS battery. In fact my current motherboard (a four-year-old OEM Gigabyte) bought previously unused about five months ago uses the original CR2032 battery.
The same type of battery lasted for 20 months in my wife's Franklin puzzle solver, which she uses for several hours a day.
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Adam
Why bother if it's just for the time? Have it sync with a network time server when you're online instead:
ntp.isc.org/bin/view/Servers/WebHome
The stuttery sound I can't help you with.
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Thanks for all the replies - I must say, I'm being swayed against changing it - especially after RF's comments.
To clarify, the time's been going crazy for a while but it doesn't bother anyone. I was asking because I thought it was too much of a coincidence what with Windows cocking up. If it had nothing to do with Windows failing then I'll leave it.
I'll have a good look around it after whilst making hmmming noises and sounding like I know what I'm looking at but I don't think I will be taking it to bits.
The exact message before I reinstalled was;
"Windows has failed to start because the following file;
c:\windows\system32\config\system
is missing or corrupt.
To repair using your original cd yadda yadda yadda..."
I tried using an XP disc I have lying around but that' Professional and the laptop uses Home Edition and no Windows CD.(Recovery discs only).
Stuart, I've never really repaired that much so am not that aware of it's benefits. I think I'll try it next time my computer goes belly up but I make backups of Mums usually every 2 weeks or so and it's just as easy using the Recovery Discs.
On the plus side, PowerCinema is now running like lightening again ;-)
Many thanks chaps - I appreciate all the advice.
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>>the time's been going crazy for a while but it doesn't bother anyone>>
Does tend to sound like the CMOS battery is on its way out...:-(
Re the corrupt file. Have you tried running sfc /scannow ?
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Leaving the laptop hitched up to the mains supply for a lengthy period may recharge up the CMOS battery to some extent.
But even better will be fitting a new one...
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XP has its own Internet based time checker. Double click on the time in bottom right of Taskbar>Internet Time tab>Update now.
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My son has just moved to a new house and is experiencing considerable difficulties with his new phone supply.
He has signed up with BT for a 2Mb broadband service but having fitted the ADSL micro filters supplied by BT, neither his internet or phone service will work. If he removes the filters the phone works ok.
BT are denying there is a problem with their line (which I find difficult to accept), and say that the problem is being caused by faulty filters that another division within B.T. supplied.
In an effort to resolve this stalemate, would anyone know the resistance of these microfilters and how their efficiency could be checked.????
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When I went onto Broadband 1 of 3 filters supplied caused problems in that I could be on Broadband or on the phone but not both at the same time. If it is urgent the answer is go out and buy one, I don't think they are very expensive. How far is the computer from the phone socket? I was running a cheap extension wire up the outside of the house to get a line upstairs and it worked fine with dial-up. Broadband didn't like the cable and I had to get a proper extension socket fitted. BT wanted nearly £100 for this, some worthy in my village did it for me for £30 cash in hand. Hope this helps.
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He has signed up with BT for a 2Mb broadband service but having fitted the ADSL micro filters supplied by BT, neither his internet or phone service will work. If he removes the filters the phone works ok.
forgive me asking the obvious but is the broadband modem correctly installed using the software provided? Mine has two green LED's to indicate its happy and red LED's if its not. Also has he fitted a filter to every socket that has a phone? Miss one out and it wont work, this from personal experience!
From bitter experience it is the easiest option to blame the BT line, but nowadays with modern exchange equipment very unlikely to be the case, the human element does not come into play so much.
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I suspect that you will find his ADSL service has not yet been enabled.
Thus there is no problem with the line, everybody thinks he's got ADSL, but he may well not have, but nothign works properly.
Ask if it has been done. Insist on knowing when it was done abd by whom, not simply that it was scheduled to be done and that everybody is assuming it has been.
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and if it then suddenly starts working, which is what normally happens...
The facts that he has received the filters, the DSL modem, the installation software, and even the bill is in no way confirmation that it has been done.
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but having fitted the ADSL micro filters supplied by BT, neither his internet or phone service will work.
You need a logical approach to this problem, so as to make headway.
You have two types of equipment you wish to get working, the phone and the modem. You can start your testing with either.
First disconnect all from the line. Then, say, take one of the phones and use each filter with it and test whether it works OK. Even check this out using another of the phones. Then plug in several phones, one at a time, each with their filters that work and check that. That will, most likely, illiminate a dicky filter.
Next disconnect everything again and plug in your modem and test that. Having got it working, try adding one phone plus filter at a time.
Filters do differ in their design. I have not had a problem with the little 'T' piece (~=£5)ones but one of the more elaborate pair supplied with my modem gave me a problem -- but I forget now what it was except it has been sitting on the shelf in the study here for a while.
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adding to what buzzbee says above be aware there are a lot of faulty filters that come with most of the kits it seems bt supply most of them to the isp providers.all made in china and the batch seem to be faulty.bt is making some nice dosh out of the £60 abortive visit charges we have to make to the customers affected.it seems talking to customers i have seen afterwards that the ones sold in the shops seem ok.i have not as yet ever seen a problem with the ones that do not come with most of the kits.as they do not have any names on them can't advise of the maker.
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>>The facts that he has received the filters, the DSL modem, the installation software, and even the bill is in no way confirmation that it has been done.
Happened to me when first trying to connect,nothing worked.When you phone Bt ask or choose broadband problems,turned out they had not connected as promised.its a freephone number anyway just make sure you have all details to hand,And as a ps the filters I had a year ago would not work untill broadband switched on by BT
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Steve
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dude -
to eliminate some possibilities, first ask your son to test his adsl modem directly connected to the bt socket (i.e. leave out the splitter/filter ).
this site give some details:
www.solwise.co.uk/adsl_splitters.htm#EXPLANATION
www.solwise.co.uk/adsl_splitters.htm - check out their
pdf info files.
you can test this based on their statement below:
"Note that you don't need a splitter at the point where your modem is connected. The modem can live quite happily with the low-frequency telephone signal. In fact the wires in the splitters American Style ADSL connection are just connected directly to the BT plug that goes into the wall. This means that if you don't have a phone plugged into the same point as your modem, you could save some money and just use a lead with a BT plug on the end to connect your modem. We have leads like this, called RJP/BTP above.
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I would like to thank everybody for their advice on these wretched micro filters and in particular Dalglish for his input.
Having removed the filter entirely from the modem connection, my son is now able to run his main PC and laptop without any problems.
It seems that the modem filter was faulty and that was not only affecting the computors but also the phone performance on an entirely different socket.
Many thanks to all once again, I never cease to be amazed at the depth of knowledge there is within "The Room"
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I would like to thank ... Dalglish for his input.
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dude - thank you for that .
your son may like to know that i run 4 phones on extesions without any filters/splitters, and my netgear wireless-modem-router is also connected direct to the bt line. all without any interference - broadband works fine and there is no disturbance on the voice line. although this may not hold true with the cheap usb-modems supplied by his isp.
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To compound the problems experienced by my son, it now seems that the modem (another cheap & nasty, massed produced piece of equipment imported from China) is also faulty and has clouded the issue and final solution to his problems.
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