Plastic Nev

Just as a matter of interest Jim, and hopefully will rule out the CD/DVD drive altogether, if you don't mind taking the cover off the computer, (Power off first) find the leads going into the CD/DVD drive and pull them off, then boot up again and see if that yellow mark has gone or not with the drive disconnected. Nev.

Hi Jim, From the information in that Speccy report, the CD/DVD drive is a Lite-on model iHAS 124-04 Go here and lets see if updating the firmware might just get it to read the disk. http://www.liteonit.eu/en/optical-storage-dvd-rw-internal/ihas124-04/firmware.html Click on the red link "Smartpack" then the download for the smartpack firmware auto upgrade etc. Don't bother with the first, "Smart erase" Hopefully that might sort that problem of not being able to read the disk, and you never know it might get rid of the USB driver warning too. Nev.

Ah, nearly forgot this one, An easy change, Cream > Dream.

Thanks for the reminder regarding this odd DVD Jim, I wonder now if it is something missing regarding the DVD player that is giving this odd USB driver fault. This makes me think that there may be something not quite selected correctly even in the BIOS perhaps. However, have a good look at the more technical stuff actually written on the DVD disk itself, for example does it state dual layer, is it blue ray, or what else you can find that isn't written on one of the other DVD's that do play OK. Knowing what difference there is if any might give us a clue as to what might be missing that is stopping it from playing. Nev.

Hi George, actually as far as I can see that first one only comes with the small bracket plate. The specifications for the quadro nvs 290 however says that it comes with both sizes of plate plus a double output VGA cable. so Ithink that is maybe the best of the two. If possible also make sure you get the one that is X16, rather than the X1 version. I include the specifications that I found for it here, (Ken might wish to see them too) It is a PDF document. http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=c04282621 Nev.

Yes indeed George, let us know what you find before buying it though, to save you from getting another wrong type please. Nev.

Thanks George, that explains why it won't fit, it is indeed only a PCI card, the little letter "e" at the end makes a big difference. When you next look for one, make sure that "e" is there as in PCIe. Nev.

Hi George, If you can show us a picture of the connection edge and slots it would help. If the slots don't fit anyway, it is possibly not a PCIe and only a PCI card, the slots on your motherboard from the spec I looked up are definitely the later PCIe, which is quite a big difference from the older PCI type. The cut out is in a much different place.

Hi George, I assume it won't fit due to the short metal bracket, if you undo those two nuts I mentioned earlier and remove that bracket, just check and see if it will then plug into the PCIe slot, and then see if it will work. You will need the correct plug or adapter to use that socket on the card though. Nev.

Hi Mike, OK, when you can, do try the hard drive back in, you never know the original problem may just have been a poor connection and replacing it tightly just could get it going again. If not, let us know as there are ways to at least reinstall Vista if everything else seems to fail. Nev.

I assumed you meant keyboard and mouse Jim, so just a suggestion, try them in the front two USB ports and remove all other USB devices, then see what device manager shows then. I have a guess that it is seeing something plugged in, but can't recognise it correctly. Also do you have access to a keyboard with the PS2 round plug, and can you try it if the computer has a PS2 port. (Purple is keyboard, green is mouse) with of course the USB keyboard disconnected. Nev.

That looks OK George, can you let us have the make and model of it please so we can check out the specification to be sure it will run two channels of video through it please. Nev.

Hi George, Looks to me that the two hollow nuts either side of the socket should unscrew, then the plate will come off. I can't see anything else that holds the plate in place. However without the full sized plate to replace it, unless you can make one if good with metal working, there isn't much point. :D Nev.

Following Kens link, and if you still cannot see this as shown, http://i39.servimg.com/u/f39/14/68/69/96/comman10.jpg It is looking pretty seriously like there may well be faults in the whole operating system, and without access to a command prompt window, we can't run a system file check to prove it. Do you have any system repair disks for this computer? Nev.

Hi Jim, It seems to depend on which type of Windows 7 you have, so you might need to type into the search bar the full cmd.exe, it should then show the small icon of the DOS type box at the top of the list. Right click on that icon and then from the menu choose "Run as administrator", You might then get the "User Account Control" box asking if you want to run it, just click yes.

The trouble with One Drive is that nothing stays there forever, it is only a service meant for sharing really. The clips you have stored there may well be corrupted now I am afraid. I have sent and received plenty of ordinary photo's to and from people in the past year or two, and the only one left is from earlier this month. Anything sent via One Drive from others, or sent by you to others, should be kept on your own computer and not left as just an only copy on One Drive. Nev.

Don't go buying a copy of Windows 8.1 just yet. There are a few things first to check, but I have a suspicion it may be the hard drive has failed. First thing is can you tell us please what make and model your computer is, or if a built either by yourself or for you, the motherboard make and model. From pushing the start button try tapping the F2 key and see if it will open the BIOS pages, if so look for the boot order and change it to the CD/DVD ROM to be the first. then try the Vista disk again. If you can't get in to the BIOS with F2 we will need to know the make and model to help further. Nev.

Hi, is this any use for you? http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/blank-pdf-page-ie11.html Nev.

Prices and deals seem to change daily on Amazon, I found that when I bought my copy of Photoshop Elements 11 just over a year ago. I bought it at a good knock down price and two days later the price had gone up by over £10.00. Must be a regular thing, catch the bargain when you can is all I can say. Nev.

Discovered they changed the price and added £0.77 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT512MX100SSD1-512GB-MX100-Adapter/dp/B00K***CUM/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1413886908&sr=1-4&keywords=solid+state+drives Try that one.

Hi Jim, if that is all there is with no manufacturer, it must have been a home build by someone before you bought it. With it being a Gigabyte motherboard, not really surprising. However, on the Gigabyte site drivers listing did you try the one lower down the list marked as "Eltron USB 3.0 Driver? Have you also tried the one higher up marked as AMD Chipset driver? Ideally the chipset should really be the first to install, and do the others next. Nev.

Hi Jim, follow what Ken asked click on the start, then a right click on "computer", and then click "properties", you should get this window opens, as in my case it tells me it is a Packard Bell Imedia. http://i39.servimg.com/u/f39/14/68/69/96/system10.jpg Nev.

Try this one Ken, it was possibly because I was signed in that that one didn't work. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT512MX100SSD1-512GB-MX100-Adapter/dp/B00K***CUM/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1413818058&sr=1-4&keywords=solid+state+drives The drive is now connected and running, what was just under two minutes boot up from cold, is now at just over 30 seconds, add to that the bigger programs that could take time to fully open are also much quicker to open too. for anyone else reading this and installing an SSD drive, do make sure that defragmentation is turned off as in Windows Vista and upwards automatic defragmenting is turned on by default. Defragmenting SSD drives can damage them so it should never be done if possible to avoid it. Nev.

Not quite the extremely superb motor that Starbuck recently bought, however this should be good and fast, if a lot smaller, I ordered this on Saturday. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT512MX100SSD1-512GB-MX100-Adapter/dp/B00K***CUM/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1413818058&sr=1-4&keywords=solid+state+drives A crucial 500GB SSD drive, it arrived at 10.30AM this morning. Not a bad price at £149.00, there was a small £3.33 delivery charge as well. After sorting it out in disk management and formatting to NTFS, it is now nearly finished taking a clone off the computer so it can be fitted in place of the standard HDD. Should at least speed up the boot time if nothing else. Oh and before anyone reminds me, auto defrag is turned off and will be checked it is still off before going into full service. Edited to change link

Hi Jim, From the Speccy results it does show the full motherboard model being a Gigabyte one, you should be able to download all the relevant motherboard drivers from here : http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4305#dl If any other drivers are missing, can you let us know exactly which ones and as much detail as possible please. Nev.