Plastic Nev

Thank goodness you retrieved your data, before we go any further make absolutely sure that you do have it safe and can retrieve it as and when you need it. If happy then the next thing is to take one of the original drives and fully format it and reinstall windows onto it. This will hopefully show the drive itself is OK and only the original OS damaged. Let us know how that goes before we go any further.

Hi Sang, I like the steering wheel joke. Great fun. But that sky one is brilliant, thanks for sharing that.

Just had a thought, as I agree there is only this way to go which is to buy a new hard drive, install it and install Windows on it. This is like having a new PC. In a lot of cases though there is room to install a second hard drive. In this instance you install a new drive and install windows. Then in the extra space install the old drive but set to slave. That at least would save on the cost of a separate caddy.

Welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help Nuttyhaze. Like the user name, it shows a good sense of humour. Just post your problem in whatever section or area it fits, and I am sure we can help.

The reason why I do not have a mobile phone! I will not settle for anything less than one of these- They seem a little difficult to find though.:D

I can certainly agree about marching in the rain:( That is probably when I got the cold, on another thread I mentioned marching in the rain for the remembrance Sunday on the ninth. Us cornet players and also the trombones are OK, but the tenor horns down through baritone, euphonium, and bass all of them the bell faces up, so the instrument soon fills up in heavy rain.:eek:

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help, In msconfig, I assume you meant you un-ticked MsnMsgr in the start up tab, did you then click "apply" then OK? That should have done the job permanently. However, considering I use MSN or Windows live, I have yet to try it on my machine.

It is indeed near impossible to play. It is hard enough trying to breath when bunged up as much as I am, never mind blow as well. Monday night is the usual rehearsal night but I didn't go this week, and I may miss Thursdays rehearsal as well.

Sometimes folders with large amounts of files and information can be slow at fully loading, this is just due to the system searching the hard drive for the files and then placing them to view. The more files there are, the slower it will be. Once you have collected or saved all the lost music, try separating them into smaller folders or sub folders each folder given a name such as "All hard rock" the next, "All Ballads" , "Country and Western" etc. Or use the name of the artist instead if you have say, all the music from Dire Straights.

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S video is a bit finnicky for want of a better word, I have the S video socket on my lappy, but it won't allow a DVD picture out to the telly when trying to play one on the lappy. I gave up and bought a converter that would plug into the monitor socket with two ordinary RCA to Scart out leads. Trouble is, that device is no longer on the market.

Welcome to Free PC help Leigh, Hope we can soon help fix your problems mate.

Welcome jesse, pull up a chair and sit down. When I figure out how to send a cup of tea on line, I will put the kettle on.:)

Being BT or Orange, I assume the connection to the outside world is via an ordinary telephone line. First, do you have any filters connected between the phones and that line and also one between the router and line? Next is do you have any crackling noises in the background when using the phone? If so it could be down to a fault on the telephone line or landline.

Hi Mara, I will send a PM once I have collected my wits. Suffering badly with a cold here.

Sorry, but sometimes I miss seeing the obvious, at least until now. Please go to control panel and select sound and audio devices, in the speaker part select advanced and you should see a drop down menu under speaker set up, it may be set to no speakers. Click the drop down and select Desktop speakers.

As I think everyone now knows I play cornet in a brass band, the band I am with entered a contest today. The contest is an annual thing called "The Wilkinson Northern Open Brass Band Championships" and is held in the Theatre Royal in St Helens. (near Liverpool) We entered playing a piece of music called "Partita" in the fourth section of the contest. Considering the standard of the other bands competing in that section, we are extremely pleased to have won the third prize. The bands who were above us coming second and first, are extremely good and may soon move up to the third section, so we are over the moon about our result.

OK, at least we know the cable is OK. Is it a separate sound card plugged into the side of the laptop or is it internal and part of the mother board? whichever it is can you let us know some details of it? (Make and Model etc.) then we can probably find a source of drivers for it.

Some, not all, mains surge protectors do have a line in line out surge protector but even if there, it is not very good. The problem is technical but revolves around the fact that the ring tone signal, (when someone rings your landline phone) is a much higher voltage than the normal one. All modems though are set up to take this into account, and supposedly prevent high voltage spikes reaching the computer. Any problems with surges are usually from the mains, more so in rural area's and can be higher, or more usual, lower than a surge protector can handle. If for example someone near, maybe a factory, starts something big, the mains voltage can drop to a level your computer cannot handle, it is voltage drops that cause the biggest problems in rural area's.

If you can find a reputable local repairer and it is only a re-soldering job, it shouldn't cost too much. Don't go to one of the big retailers though, as they will only send it away to who knows where, and that will cost. before you go to that though, do you get any crackling, hiss, or other noise from your amplifier after you plug it into the laptop? have you tried moving the plug in and out as sound is trying to play? and also without plugging it in, touching the end of the plug should produce a loud hum from the amplifier speaker, if it doesn't it may just be the cable if the amplifier works with another sound source.

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help, If you hover the mouse pointer over any of the files it should open a small window giving basic information including the size in KB or MB, for a reasonable length file I would expect to see several MB, if only one or two KB then it may be that all you transferred was the icon and not the full file. If you right click on any file, then properties, it should show even more information, could you let us know what you find?

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. The sound system seems to be OK if it plays through the laptop speakers, so it looks like it may just be a faulty socket. Laptops are pretty difficult to work on, so I am afraid I can only recommend you take it to a repairer who specialises on laptops.

Of course you may be still within the time period you paid for, but I also will recommend changing for Avast or Avira, both are free and superior to AVG. It may once have been a good program but not any more. I have seen more problems for users in the last two years than with any other security program. Please change it to a better one. If you don't mind paying a reasonable fee we also recommend Nod 32 among a few others, see here- Recommended security products

Hi Joe, welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. Hope you enjoy sharing your frustration:D Computers tend to wind me up till I find what's wrong too.

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help, whatever your problem , just ask and there will be an answer. Nev.