Plastic Nev

Hi and welcome to free PC help. Considering there are no beeps, no signal to the monitor, strange behaviour from the CD drive bay, and keyboard does nothing, I suspect the power supply is faulty. A bit difficult to be sure though when nothing much seems to happen, however if you have a multimeter you can test the power supply, or if no meter, a repair shop may not charge anything to test it for you. Nev.

Hi and welcome Gerald.

Hi Michael and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. We need some more information please, can you tell us the make and model number of the PC, or if a special home build let us know the make and model number of the motherboard. Also any information such as model numbers from both the old power supply and the new one. There are some differences in power supplies, so we need to know as much details as possible to be able to advise. Nev.

Hi Ray, just see how it goes, and I do think that the particular group policy update is the reason behind it all. If nothing further in another few days we will mark it as solved. We never close a thread except where some abuse or other controversial issue has come up. Nev.

Let us know how you get on with it please and if indeed you get the access you need, be handy to know, if only to warn the unsuspecting to watch out for scammers using it. Nev.

Hi Joddle, according to Team Viewer themselves, yes it can be done. Have a look at what they say about it here :- http://www.teamviewer.com/mailings/online/2010_05_multiplattform_en.html Nev.

Ah, having read the thread through again, we might be misunderstanding what you are describing. Do you mean that only a quarter of a page is visible and it is covering all of the screen, is it the same with any page, browser for example or another program as well as your E Mail? If so it may be a resolution setting required, let us know if I am right and we can describe how to reset the screen resolution. Nev.

Hi, I assume you are used to a different operating system such as Apple Mac or maybe one of the Linux distro's. In Windows all pages are easily changed and by two basic ways. You can click on, hold and then drag the page edges to wherever you want them, that is when the page is minimised to adjustable sizes. Or on the top right of the page there are three small icons together. The negative mark minimises the page down to the bottom task bar. The central with a square in it, either maximises the page to fill the full screen, or minimises down to a smaller adjustable size as mentioned. The right hand with the X in it will close the page completely. See this screen shot. http://i21.servimg.com/u/f21/14/68/69/96/page_c10.jpg Hope that is what you mean. Nev.

It may just be possible that the new group policy has managed to install, have a look here at post #2 http://extremetechsupport.com/threads/17018-Microsoft-downloads-Windows-10-to-your-computer-even-if-you-don-t-want-it-yet?p=112675&viewfull=1#post112675 Nev.

Possibly a bit too late for you, and would involve a lot of work no doubt, however all important E Mail I have and wish to save, I make a full copy on a word document and store it in my documents folders under just the name of "Important E Mails" That way, if anything should go wrong I am not dependant on whichever E mail client or server. It is something I have always done where an E Mail contains for example important reference numbers, or general but important information.

If you are still having a problem with it taking some time before the Windows operating system starts, it is happening in the BIOS, this is the system that checks everything before starting and then handing control over to Windows. The slow response could be one of a few things though, the hard drive not getting up to speed quickly enough, a problem with the RAM memory, or some problem with the power supply. Nev.

As far as I am aware the upgrade from 8 to 8.1 shouldn't alter anything settings wise and no installed programs need to be reinstalled. It is only a little bit more than the old service packs used to be with XP and Vista, or Windows 7. The main thing is some minor changes to the operating system that give you a bit more control. Nev.

Hi again, can you let me know the make and model number of your laptop please. I have had an idea but it depends on the laptop and what type of expansion slot there may be if any. Nev.

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help Chappyski. Firstly I have yet to see any sound system on any type of laptop computer that can provide two sound outputs simultaneously, it is one or the other and not both I am afraid. Secondly, if set to do so, does the sound actually come from the TV? If so, and also a separate set of speakers are available, you could use a sound splitter to send the sound to the TV and the separate speakers. It means a system that can plug into the headphones jack, a cable to the splitter, with then one cable to the TV and the other cable to the other set of speakers. All that and the financial outlay for splitter, extra set of speakers, and cables may not be worth it, though that is up to you of course. Nev.

Just to add, I also get the same result of a 404 not found for that website. Either the forum has gone or you may have given us the wrong site address, can you please verify it is correct, or give us the correct website address please so we can check to see if we get particularly slow loading. Nev.

OK Jontye, the good lady has to be kept happy as a priority of course. However, whenever you feel up to it come back to this thread and we can carry on if we can, there has to be something running in the background that is using up all that memory, it is just a long process sometimes to find it. Nev.

OK Jontye and DSTM, no doubt that between us all, eventually we could find what the problem is, but it could take a good deal more time, or we could get lucky and the next thing we try works the magic, we just don't know! However as you said we have spent a lot of time already, and also Mrs Jontye wants a working laptop, so I understand and no doubt Ken does too, so if the money is available a new laptop is an answer. However if buying a new laptop do keep this one to one side, once the stress has been forgotten and the dust has settled, we can always come back to it later. Nev.

Hi Jontye, I also saw in the speccy report a lot of failed updates. For now leave them unless Ken says otherwise, lets first try to get to the bottom of what is using so much memory that is slowing everything down. Nev.

A message for Ken really, however, after adding together all the processes running and memory used for each, which was a long job, a double check of the figures showed a total of 1261.115 MB, or roughly 1.261GB in use, which seems quite a bit. However, Speccy shows this. http://i21.servimg.com/u/f21/14/68/69/96/high_r11.jpg The 1.87GB showing in speccy leaving 0.609GB will be the small amount extra being used by the services, now I know the graphics will be using some, but surely not the difference of 1.13GB of the total 3GB, so what is using all of that, leaving only 177MB free? Any idea's as to what may be hogging that RAM Ken?

Follow Kens instructions first so we can see what happens when you try opening those different things. However there is something using a tremendous amount of resources as far as the memory (RAM) is concerned, looking at the first Speccy result you posted the link for, (Post #80) shows the RAM having 91% in use. Scroll down to the bottom of that long list to see it as in this screen shot. http://i21.servimg.com/u/f21/14/68/69/96/high_r10.jpg You could increase the size of the memory as it is only 3GB by buying a 2GB stick to replace the 1GB that is already there, however that on its own won't improve things by very much. If wanting to do that you can let the Crucial website scan the system which will then tell you which type and how much RAM can be installed. Crucial here :- http://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en However we need to look into what is the main culprit or culprits using all the RAM memory, again from scrolling down that Speccy report listing there are a lot of services and processes running, all of them using some amount of the RAM memory. Ken may be able to help sort out what can be stopped and isn't needed. Nev.

Thanks for that link Richard and I have learned something new as the Group Policy Editor is where it is on my computer. It now gives me a new line to follow for those who find that updates are no longer coming in and they have to be found manually. That page also will be useful for those who are lumbered with being unable to alter Windows updates on Windows 10. A great find Richard and it may well be useful for many others. Nev.

Glad to hear all is OK now Richard. If the computer shows any strange behaviour and you suspect a virus or malware, let us know and go to our malware removal section, follow the instructions and one of our malware removal experts will take a look. Otherwise and rather strangely, I followed your path as per post #28 and couldn't find Windows update, so couldn't check what my settings are on either the desktop or laptop. Most odd unless you missed a step in your post. Nev.

AVG became quite bloated, using up system resources, also plenty of people were having various problems with it some time since as well. Because of that I have never used it, and where or when asked would not recommend it! Nev.

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. Can you please tell us a bit more about the program you are trying to install, the full name, who ro what company made it, and most important how old the program is and does it say on the label what operating system it is designed for. If for example it says for systems up to XP, it may well be too old as there were many older programs that can not work on Windows 7. Nev.

Ah, that explains something for me as well, as my BITS is also set to manual although it does say it is started. Probably why I am not seeing the usual "Updates are available for your computer" Pop up window. Right click on the BITS service, then click on "Properties" in that box you should see the start up type drop down menu for "Manual, Automatic, disabled, Automatic (Delayed start)" and set it to Automatic. Click Apply, and then OK. Let's see if that works. :D It might need a reboot so that Windows sees the change. Thanks Ken for finding that odd anomaly. Nev.