Plastic Nev

Great stuff JB, and that is the benefit of a mobile phone. If my boss was prepared to shell out and buy one for me for work related use, or if I left his company and went self employed I would certainly need one. But for private and domestic use, I only need the old pair of wires coming into the house. I tend to think that the general air headed use you see on the street as being a waste of time, and in my case an imposition on my privacy and peaceful and quiet existence. hence why I don't want one.:D

Hi again, two things, which you may have found elsewhere on the forum any way, but have you yet installed the Windows service packs? especially service pack 3, if not don't, if you have, uninstall it, and roll it back to service pack 2. next is go back into add/remove and uninstall the AC97. Then go back to the site I gave and try a reinstall, see if that works. Let us know how you get on. Nev.

Hi Mike and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. I am glad you are already gaining something from us and wish you the best of luck in your studies. Just reading round the forum, and later tuition will set you up well. I am more a hands on guy and used to computer controlled machinery, as well as being electronically trained, so the transition to home computing, plus learning how to sort out my own problems in the past, has got me where I am now. You too can get there. Incidentally, I am not too far away from you in the mucky town of Blackburn. Nev.

Ah now I understand, I thought you meant size as in 30millimeters by 40 millimeters, not in MB. :D My mistake. What you are seeing is known as compression. In reality this means throwing away small bits of data, and in the case of video or even still pictures, it means that pixcels are being lost. If the level of compression isn't much, say a reduction from 30MB to 25MB you won't normally see it unless the picture is magnified by quite a lot. However in the case you mention uploading video to YouTube, there is some compression takes place in order to reduce the file size for uploading, then more compression takes place while Youtube does the preparation process. This is to minimise the file size yet again for quicker download times, hence when it gets back to you it is down to 16MB from the original 40MB. This explains why some YouTube video picture quality is so poor. It may have started off looking reasonable, but if already highly compressed before sending, then the end result is rubbish. If you really want a small file size and not bothered by the picture quality, your AVI to MP4 converter program will or should have a slide control of some sort with high quality at one end and low quality at the other, this is nothing more than the compression level control. You can experiment with this control to both minimise your file size and still keep an acceptable level of quality. All file types with MPEG, JPEG, or for sound MP are compressed formats, hence when you take a video in a non compressed form such as AVI and convert it to MP4 or MPEG4 the file is automatically compressed. Hope that has helped. Nev.

Hi, if you do get rid of Norton or intend doing so at some stage, have a look here at our recommendations. http://extremetechsupport.com/forum/security-questions-av-firewalls-etc/3597-free-pc-help-recommended-security-products.html I will add that the free "Malwarebytes" is very good and if there is any problem with malware that one will quite likely find it. If it does, please do start a thread in the malware removal section and post the log it provides. Chiaz will take it from there. Nev.

Hi Steve and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. If you can tell us the exact make and model of your computer, or if home built the motherboard make, type, and number along with the CD/DVD drive make and model, we may be able to find a source of drivers to download for it. Nev.

Hi, Not exactly sure what you mean, but the small screen size on youtube is done with their own software and probably not easily obtainable. If you can explain a bit more what it is you want to do though we may be able to help more. Nev.

A trawl through the list shows no one has posted a link to Revo uninstaller yet, so to correct that here it is- Download Revo Uninstaller Freeware - Free and Full Download A great utility that first uses the applications own uninstaller, then searches for and presents all the left behind bits for removal as well. With Revo, you know that the program has definitely gone, and also that the space is definitely free on your hard drive. Nev.

Hi John, I am surprised it works at all on Vista, I have just looked on the Epson site for drivers for it and they don't even offer one for XP never mind Vista. It will most certainly be a driver issue, but how we can get round that I am not sure. However have a look round the Epson site, see if you can spot something I might have missed- Epson Driver Download Otherwise I can only recommend a new and made for Vista printer, unless someone else knows of a way round. Nev.

Hi, you are right, there quite often is a problem getting sound back after a reinstall. This is often down to not having the correct drivers, however you say you have the motherboard driver disk, did it install everything correctly? have you tried the disk again? If still no good, can you tell us what information there is on that driver disk as that may be of help to find a source of on line driver download, along with your motherboard number (which you have told us, thanks). Edited to add, I have just found this site have a look at the drivers here- Foxconn 6514MR-ES drivers - page 2 Nev.

There are also several hosting sites that give plenty of help in setting up a website and at reasonable cost. The brass band I am involved with uses a company calling themselves "Mr Site" have a look here- Mr Site - Make a website - website builder - Create a website And here is the band website as an example of what you can do- DARWEN BRASS - Home There are other website builder companies like this for folk like yourself who want want a website with little fuss. Nev.

Hi Blackjack, welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help, you can certainly learn more here.

Hi Dave, that should do the job with that spec. Removing your old one and fitting the new should have no problems though in some machines you may have to remove the front panel as well as the main cover,(Usually just clips) in order to remove the old and fit the new one. Nev.

Hi TUG, I am neither a gamer or much of an expert on graphics cards, so I will have to take your word at the moment regarding the 30amps. If that is correct then the PSU could well be overheating, both risking a failure and will also be dragging the voltage down, that could be the cause of keyboard and mouse failure. If the amperage you state is correct then you certainly need a bigger PSU. I will have to leave it to others with more knowledge on the graphics side and gaming though, for other answers. Nev.

Hi, I don't know about DVD disks I have never tried this with a DVD, only a CD. I put some files, not video and not music, just ordinary files as in word documents and such onto a CD on one machine, then inserted the disk in another. Close any window that opens, then click > start, > my computer. The CD drive was then showing a disk in it, I then double clicked it to open the disk, this listed the files on it. I then chose to click each file, then copy, and sent them to a folder. In my case there was no loss of data doing it that way, but they were only simple files and nothing complicated. Worth a try with other files if you have backup. Nev.

Hi Tug, and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. You have certainly come to the right place to learn new stuff. Nev.

I go along with you Randy, I also refuse to have anything to do with a mobile phone of any type, no matter what functions it has. If friends need to get in touch there is the landline, E Mail, MSN Messenger, or even knocking on my door. I would hate the idea that while I am out and about that some twerp of a friend could ring me on my mobile and therefore interrupt something that may be important to me. OK you can switch them off, in my case it would never be on. :)

Now that the criminal element has latched onto the fact that money can be made from malware, I am afraid Goku is right. The problems facing the law enforcement agencies regarding catching these people is there are so many of them, and a lot are operating from countries that are secure to them. The countries in question have little or no law enforcement of their own, more than likely no extradition deals with the rest of the world, and possibly in rare cases actually encourage that sort of criminality. All we can do is operate as safely and securely as possible, and remember they are out there to get you. Fend them off with the defences available, free or otherwise. Nev.

Only a shot in the dark, but if the card is faulty, it could be sending confusing messages to the rest of the system regarding temperatures, but that is only a guess. I am not that well up yet on graphics cards, so will wait for others who do know more.

Hi fenog2 and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help, I hope you get the best and enjoyable time here.

Maynard is correct, for auto sensing to switch off the speakers when a headphone is plugged in, the speakers need to be plugged into the speaker out jack, not USB on most sound cards. Nev.

Hi Kryton, Although not good news, I am beginning to suspect that coincidental perhaps, but it looks like the graphics card has died. Is there any chance of trying the card in another machine to prove it one way or the other? Nev.

Yes indeed Whiterose, if you keep yourself connected to ground by wrist strap or similar everything should be OK. Whatever you do though, don't leave yourself unearthed and then move around on a nylon or nylon based carpet or wearing similar nylon based clothing. I have seen half inch long sparks jump when in those circumstances and they are big enough to sting if jumping from your finger. Goodbye to the chip if the spark jumped from or to it. Nev.

Hi thanks for the update and I am glad it worked. Nev.

Removing any chips from their sockets without extractor tools can be done with care and a good flat blade screwdriver. Remove the motherboard from the case so you can get better access, then insert the screwdriver under one end and twist gently to move the chip by no more than a millimetre, then do the same at the other end. Work between ends a bit at a time till the chip is free, so long as no pins have been bent in the process it will be fine, if of course it was OK before you started. :D Nev.