Plastic Nev

Hi, two things from me, first I agree about the external monitor, and it should only be an external monitor, another laptop could only be connected as a network and you need both screens functioning to do that. The next point being, firstly, are you sure it is the screen itself duff and not a fault in the graphics section of the mother board, either driver fault or worse. secondly, If it is definitely the screen, have you looked at the possibility of replacing it? Although it is a task for a technician as they are extremely difficult to actually do unless you know how, it may still not cost too much to have it done. I know I said two things, so here is a third, (I am like that, think of something else halfway through ;) ) which is to go down the route of removing the hard drive and by using the correct sized caddy, use it as an external hard drive with the working machine. Nev.

Hey guys, have I missed out on a party? Hope you had a good one Barry, and I hope there are many more to come mate. After all, birthdays are good for you, the more you have, the longer you live.:D

Hi Sue, I don't think you are being "Scolded", It is more the fact we are getting a bit frustrated. The simple thing now is look at and read that link to Dell technical support and have a good read of it. If there is any part of it you don't understand very well, tell us which bit and we can try to explain it. Once you have a full understanding of what will happen while doing the restore back to factory settings, and how to do all that, we can then carry on. Next thing I would like is for you to stop doing Google searches for a while till we are sure we have it sorted. Then please tell us what it is you are searching for on Google and why you need that info. You may well be walking into a trap that is re-infecting your computer by one of those search answers.

The biker and god. A man was riding his Harley along a California beach when suddenly the sky clouded above his head and the Lord spoke to him from above and in a booming voice said,' Because you have been a good man and TRIED to be faithful to me in all ways, I will grant you one wish.' The biker pulled over and said, 'Build a bridge to Hawaii so I can ride over anytime I want'. The Lord said, 'Your request is materialistic, think of the enormous challenges for that kind of undertaking; the size of the pylons required to reach to the bottom of the Pacific and the concrete and steel it would take to construct them! Imagine the impact on the environment to undertake such a monumental construction. I can do it, but it is hard for me to justify your desire for such worldly things. Take a little more time and think of something that could possibly help mankind.' The biker thought about it for a long time. Finally, he said, 'Lord, I wish that I and all men, could understand our wives and girlfriends; I want to know how she feels inside, what she's thinking when she gives me the silent treatment, why she cries, what she means when she says nothings wrong, and how I can make a woman truly happy.' The Lord replied, 'You want 1 or 2 lanes on that bridge

Saw this a bit back and been waiting for now to post it. It is April the first in the morning!! http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/plasticpig/bungi.jpg

That is fantastic bonnie, as a musician myself I am always glad to hear of youngsters doing well in any field of music. Well done for her.

Hi Judy, such a lot of questions all at once eh? don't worry, I was like you when I first got a computer, how do I do this or that? no problem! First, the question of how to transfer or copy pictures to a memory stick. Plug in the stick and windows will recognise it is there and should open a window with on the top line a drive letter which windows has allocated to it, if there are no other memory or other devices connected the usual letter is "F", remember that then hit the red cross at the top and close that page. Next is to open your pictures, on the left hand side should be some dialogue boxes with file and folder tasks being one of them. Next click on a picture you wish to transfer, you will see the box expand and show a list of things to do, select either "move this file" if you wish to move it entirely, or "Copy this file" if you want the photo to stay in it's original place as well as go on your memory stick. Once you have selected and clicked say "Move this file" another small window opens and shows a list of places for it to go, scroll down till you find "Removable disk (F: ) click on that and the picture will go to the memory stick. If you want a large number of files to be transferred at once, got to Edit at the top of the photographs page, and click "select all" then do as before. As far as the stick itself and protecting it, you have been told something not quite right but very near, it is perfectly OK to plug the stick in at any time, however to be sure files and even the stick itself isn't damaged, go down to the bottom of your screen and click the expansion button on the bottom task bar. You should then see an Icon labelled "Safely remove hardware" click on that and you will be offered a list of things to be disconnected, in that list should be "Safely remove USB Mass storage device, drive (F: ), Click on that, and after a second or two you will get a message "It is safe now to remove this device" You can then unplug it and store it away safely. I hope that is of help, and do ask any question you like if not sure, we are here to help and wish you to have a good and fun time with your computer.

Hi and welcome to Free PC help Judy, if you find an appropriate place to post your problem I am sure we can help.

Like help4me, I am thinking possible mother board, or a little unlikely perhaps, but also power supply. If you have access to another power supply without it costing you anything, I would try a swap just to rule it out.

In the original article, it is stated that it is intended to work in conjunction with the mouse, but people being people, screens will be moved nearer, maybe laid back a little, perhaps a stylus or pen used, and hey presto, the mouse gathers dust. Once the price is affordable, I would be tempted, after all, these things will be on display in the shops, so you can give it a try anyway. One benefit I can see would be the on screen keyboard!! The letters won't wear off the keys like they have on mine.:D

For those who already have the newer gadgets such as the Iphone etc, plus those used to games machines in pubs and arcades it isn't new. However Microsoft are gearing up for Windows touch technology with both IE8 and the soon to be launched Windows 7. The coding needed is already in Internet Explorer 8, and is to be included in the new Windows 7. This all means that with the correct monitor built for the purpose, you will be able to interact with the screen by touching and even directly dragging and dropping to, for instance, organise your photo album, reorganise a word document or play games. The uses will be many, and although will not at first kick the mouse into the dustbin, it will inter react with it and the keyboard. As far as I understand it, the system uses a conductive grid or matrix embedded in the screen glass or front cover, and is sensitive to the changes in electrical field from your finger tips. (Taken from an article on the Supanet home page) Nev.

This has been prompted by some friends and security experts comments, and lack of things that will now work with those operating systems. This means security and malware removing tools, as well as software and hardware in general. When Windows 95 or 98 first came out there wasn't anything like the malware present that there is today, so what there was available to help remove it, was at best basic in comparison. A lot has happened in the last ten to eleven years, at least three more operating systems have been released with another round the corner in Windows 7, already in Beta testing stages. Consequently the malware writers have become ever more sophisticated in their approach, and getting a lot more greedy, cunning, and just downright ugly in their attempts to remove your money as well as use of your computer. In order to combat that as much as possible the writers of all software tools to help in removing or better stopping the criminal hackers, have to try to keep as close as possible to the present day threats. This means the older operating systems are now losing out in this battle in a very big way, this is because it becomes more and more difficult to maintain a backward compatibility in most if not all the tools available for fighting malware. One of the biggest problems faced in regard to Windows 95 and 98 is the change in type of system after 98, however even the later Windows2000, and Millennium editions are falling behind as these are no longer fully supported, if at all. There is really only one way to stay on top, and that is to move along with the times, after all things do wear out, and with computers and technology in general, replacing individual spare parts after a few years becomes less and less an option, prices go higher, or parts become unavailable. The end result being that it can be cheaper, and more productive, to keep on top of the upgrades as they come along. Windows Vista being the current operating system, though seeming unpopular at first, is gaining ground, and seemingly, considering its unpopularity, the next generation is to be released in full, later this year in the form of Windows 7. In Ten more years, will it be possible to keep XP, or even Vista, safe on line? at present progress I doubt it, the malware, and means to fight it, will have moved so far forward, as it has in the last ten years, the older systems will be unprotectable, as the older systems seem to be now. So, if still running or using the older systems, such as 95 or 98, it is now becoming near impossible to guarantee any real security for them on line in these times of high risk. If you really do need that old machine, please keep it off the internet, and if it can be afforded, run a newer machine for use on the WWW. Nev.

Which brings us round to the second problem, Windows updates appears to be not working correctly or not at all. Have you had reason recently to have done a Windows repair, either yourself or a technician in the course of another repair? If so have a look here- Updates are not installed successfully from Windows Update, from Microsoft Update, or by using Automatic Updates after you perform a new Windows XP installation or you repair a Windows XP installation Even if a repair hasn't been done, and although you are running Vista, it may be you can find a solution by following the procedure given, or have a look see if there is similar for Vista.

Maplin is in the town centre here, and pretty useful if a little expensive on some things, but does at least save on any postage for stuff from elsewhere. Add to that, the town centre market has two well established traders, both of which are reliable, one of them taking the trouble to drop off two batteries on his way home. They were actually for my camcorder, which he sourced at a price cheaper than the camera manufacturer were selling at. ( I like that guy, and bought my external hard drive off him.)

Hi, and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. You don't say which browser you are using, is it Internet Explorer, Firefox, or other? If you are using Firefox, and you downloaded flashplayer it goes straight to the Firefox add ons or pluggins and can only be removed or at best disabled, from there, hence why you cannot find it in Add/Remove programs.

Well, I reckon one of the mini PC's with a large enough drive on it to start with, but before purchase find out if the power supply output (from the power brick) is twelve volts or less, if twelve, or to be more correct 13.8 volts, then the car battery will do the work, but you will need to find some sort of low voltage surge suppressor to protect the lappy. If the voltage is different than 13.8 a suitable regulator will be needed as well. Once all that is in place you will need some sort of remote control of the PC, especially if it is hidden in the boot. Once you have got that far, connecting it to the car radio/amplifier should be a large slice of vanilla sponge. (piece of cake) ;)

Well, now the dust, smoke, and albeit a small amount of laughter, has settled, even if you do everything yourself in the way of replacing all the by now possibly unrepairable parts, it would be cheaper to buy a new computer. However, if there is the slightest risk of personal information being on the hard drive, do remove it and destroy it, for yours and your daughters security. Wolfey, an electric drill? far more satisfying to smash it to bits with a big hammer, really flatten it, no one can get the data off it then. Besides, the hammer doesn't go on the electric bill either.:D

Hi Challam, and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. We could offer some advice in the way of fixing this perhaps, but the better idea in this case I feel would be to take it back to the engineer. After all you have paid good money to have it sorted but it isn't. He should do whatever is needed. I know he may try to fob you off with the virus having done the damage, but he should still repair that, he was paid to do it. A shame you didn't find us first, we could have advised in the removal of that virus with less chance of a problem afterwards. Best of luck with it, Nev.

Hi again, the one that now seems ok, go back to system restore, turn it off, then reboot and turn it back on again to make sure whatever the problem was is deleted from the restore points, then let us know if it is still ok. If we can be sure that one is OK then we can concentrate on the other.

Hi Clucky, how is the one that seems to be responding to the system restore? has it worked? The one that is not responding, are there any clicks or knocking or tapping sounds coming from the hard drive area of the machine?

Hi Doug, I have had a look round and found this very interesting write up followed by a download for free trial or option to buy. BenVista

And now for something completely different, you say you have a program that came with the camera and you installed it, first do you have a firewire (IEEE 1394) port on both camera and computer? if not there should at least be a USB port in both cases. You should be able to connect to your computer via a cable and then use the program to download the files from the camera with the mini DVD still in it. At that stage the program can be used to edit, in some programs they can then burn to DVD, but if not, you can then save to wherever you choose. You can then burn to DVD from there with the right software, such as Nero. If you can tell us the name of the program that came with the camera, and also whether you have the firewire (IEEE 1394) ports, if so transfer is better.

Probably got one of those wooden worms in it.

No problem Bob, we like silly questions, they are usually the easy ones:D Just glad we were of help mate, please do come back again if you need some more help.

Yes Bob it really is that easy. I am getting better now thanks.