Plastic Nev

Hi, It should be safe, however if that message is showing up it means you may not have the plug in installed. To find out, go to this page where it will tell you if it is installed and what version, or if not it should also tell you. You can then click the blue link to the adobe download centre to download and install. https://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ Shockwave Flashplayer is required for various web pages and animations. Nev.

Hi, if the HP updates can be made manual, Windows updates should also be set to manual, then try another system restore. In manual mode you should be able to select and allow each update one at a time. In Avast I think you will find you should also be able to make updates manual as well. Nev.

OK Jim, thanks for the update, computers can sometimes be very strange beasts indeed. If these drivers were train drivers, I would have suggested they had gone on strike. :D However on a serious note, it may well be the system collected the right drivers from the disk, it just required the reboot to turn them on. Nev.

Hi, do you know where these updates are from, are they from Hewlet Packard (HP) Are they from Windows Microsoft, Or are they from Avast? From a previous post, they appeared to be all from HP, however if possible we need to be sure it is only them and not somewhere else. If it is, only from HP, I suggest that a report of your problem should be sent, they might have a fix if it is a known problem, and if not they should be made aware of it. Next is to first look into the control panel, find the HP centre (if there is one) and have a look to see if automatic updates can be at least turned to manual. Let us know please. Nev.

Hi Andy, although to all intents and purposes the computer is shut down, but the power supply isn't fully shut down and they never are while there is still power from the mains.They have to be otherwise there wouldn't be any power to make it turn on when the main tower button is pressed to start. Typically the power is still on for the lower voltages just for that purpose and that low voltage is what is provided at the USB socket and other devices internally connected to the USB main rail on the motherboard, hence why both the card reader and the external drive still have lights lit. So in essence, there isn't anything that can be done to make those lights go out without completely turning the mains power off at the wall. Nev.

Now you are getting me confused Ken, from the research and general look I have done around SiS and Winfast appear to be two different companies!! However, whoever made the motherboard, I feel sure the disk must be the wrong one for it, due to the message Andy gets when putting it in. If all is running smoothly, then leave it out of the equation. (Don't try and fix what ain't broke) Nev.

OK, thanks for letting us know, and now be very careful with those updates, make sure it is one at a time and check after each one. Sometimes you can be lucky and they all go in OK the second time round, otherwise one of them sends you back to where you were, so it is try to uninstall the update, or it is back to a system restore again and remember to refuse the one that caused it. Nev.

I know it seems strange, however the Winfast logo I can see is only on a heat sink, it may be also the graphics chip as well, but cannot seem to find much information one way or the other regarding your motherboard and number that Speccy found for us. Maybe because it is a few years old and little information now available, this happens. Any way if your happy everything else is OK then we can leave it at that. Though don't hesitate to come back and let us know if you find something isn't right. As far as I am aware yes for the Paypal and thanks very much for the offer, it all helps in keeping the forum here.. Quick edit, the Paypal logo is top left of the main index page, just click on that to donate, and thanks once again. Nev.

Hi, thanks for the info, a couple of things, firstly unfortunately I don't know the full Avast system, however, can you access the firewall part of it and check if anything to do with video is in the block list, if so let us know. The next thing if there seems nothing blocked is to try a different media player. This will only play DVD or video already on your PC, not Youtube, but if it works or doesn't it will prove something one way or the other. here is the link to download the VLC player, install it and see if it works please. http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html If that doesn't work, then we can try a system restore back to before the two or three weeks since it went wrong. Do you know how to do a system restore in Windows 8.1? If not have a look at this article. http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/4692-system-restore-how-do-windows-8-a.html A system restore will not remove data, files, photo,s etc, it only puts the system back to what it was at the date you choose to restore to. Once the system has been restored, and providing the video now works, you will find the recent updates will have to go back in, do them one at a time and after each, check the video still works. Too many times we have seen certain updates actually break something, so if you find which update turns the video off, go back to a restore point again and then just don't accept that update. Nev.

No sorry but it certainly isn't the right disk as your motherboard is not a Winfast one, it is a SiS motherboard, made by a different manufacturer. No idea as to why that disk was given to you. After all it did come up with an error the last time you tried it any way. If everything is working as it should do now, it is more than likely the correct drivers were installed for everything by Windows itself. However keep a check on things and if you find something not working as it should, let us know. Nev.

Hi, firstly can you please answer a couple of questions to help us. What make and model of laptop is it? Have you recently changed anything or updated any of your security, antivirus, or firewall? Also what antivirus, and firewall do you have? Roughly how long since did video's play OK? I have some idea's, but need answers to those questions first please. Nev.

Hi, the problem may be because of a lack of a certain player not installed, or correct codecs. To help with that I need to know where the video is from, is it off the web such as a youtube video, is it off a DVD disk, or other source. Also is it the same with any video, or just certain ones. If it is always video not working in your browser, you may not have an up to date player plug in. go to this page, and then click on the "Update" button. https://get3.adobe.com/flashplayer/update/plugin/ If it is installed and out of date, it will update, if not installed it will tell you and give you the install option. Nev.

Oh dear, sorry about that, it looked a good trustworthy site. Don't go any further with them. If you have no further problems we will leave things alone. Nev.

Hi I have now found a quite useful site if there is any more problems with drivers for other hardware, they have a scanner service which should point out which drivers may be needed. Have a look here :- Link deleted by KenB

Hi John formatting or reformatting the external drive wipes it clean of all data, there will be nothing on it at all. Obviously any malware on the disk will also be wiped off, however a format or reformat of an external drive is no protection against future malware attacks, that is down to your anti virus and anti malware programs. However, formatting that drive gives you a clean slate drive to then use for new storage. Nev.

Hi, DSTM is right, and the drivers for the card reader will probably be a one on its own as I doubt the chipset drivers will be part of it, as being a built system whoever built it may have got the drivers disk with it when he fitted the reader. I have looked round myself and although I can find places to actually buy the reader, no one seems to have drivers for it. However, the adverts for it on Amazon suggest it is a plug and play device, (No drivers needed) so Windows itself should recognise it and install its own drivers. It will mean first shutting down the computer, then taking the cover off, finding the cable which connects it to the motherboard, and then disconnecting it from the motherboard. Start the computer up again with it disconnected. Windows then will run up and run as normal. Shut the computer down again, then reconnect it, there is a good chance Windows will then see the device as new hardware and install its own drivers. If everything else seems to be OK, we may be able to leave it at that, however let us know how you get on. Nev.

Thanks for that Andy, I have to go out soon, however Ken may pick up on this and find the right drivers to download for you. Nev.

Hi, You do need to buy a decent microphone for that purpose. If you have a decent music shop in your area I would pay them a visit and if possible they may be able to allow you to try one on the premises. If that isn't possible, have a look at these USB microphones. http://www.gear4music.com/Microphones/USB.html

Hi Andy, it looks like the disk may not be relevant to the motherboard, so we will possibly be better off if we find the required drivers on line. However we definitely need to know the details of the motherboard, the make, model number etc. To save taking things to bits to find those numbers, I hope that in its basic state without drivers that you can install a small utility program that can find those details for us, it is called Speccy. Download it and install it from here :- http://www.piriform.com/speccy/download/standard NOTE, that link starts the download directly. Once downloaded to wherever you send the download to, double click it to start the install, or if you download to your working computer, just copy the file over to the other computer using a flash drive or similar and install it there. Once installed and opened, it should be able to find the details we need for the motherboard, so we can find chipset drivers, and also the details of the sound system so we can find drivers for that. You can highlight and copy those details directly from speccy to be able to post them here. I will be away now for tonight and either myself or Ken can help further in the morning. Nev.

Hi Andy, Firstly it is good to know it installed OK the second time round, and now you have antivirus as well. Have a look in the scan log, or the Quarantine and let us know what details there are for whatever it was it found, Starbuck may know what to do with that information. There is a good chance that DirectX 9c will already have been installed when you installed SP3. The 9b on the disk is also out of date as well. One other thing I am not sure about is this "Super Utilities" we don't know what that contains and could well be a registry cleaner or other unwanted things. So we are left with just the chipset drivers and the device drivers. I suggest putting the disk in, but stopping any automatic install so that it can be continued manually once you have found what is actually on the disk. If not sure and you can't find which bit is the drivers and which is the unwanted, let us know and we may be perhaps better off finding up to date drivers to download. However see what you find on the disk first. Nev.

Hi JW, nice to see you here mate. Nev.

Hi, a lot depends now on where and in what folders you put the original photo's on that old drive. However once you have found them on the old drive, Windows 7 is good for drag and drop, so it is just a matter of opening the list on the left hand side of the explorer window to find the folder you want, (Don't actually click on it or it will shove the external drive off the page) Just click on the photo or even the full folder that is on the external old drive, hold the mouse button down then drag it to the folder on the new drive where you want it to go to. It should give you a pop up notice saying "Copy to ***" then let go of the mouse button and it will copy the picture or folder to that destination. I have also found a tutorial showing how to copy files and folders, in your case photo's. Although this is shown for a flash drive, the same applies for an external hard drive as well. Your main problem may be finding the photo's you want which are still on the old, now external drive if they are scattered in various places. If they are in a scattered form you may have to search for them as previously. Once the external old drive is plugged in and you wish to try the .jpg search, to make the computer search the external drive, first make note of what letter it has been assigned, for example you see it is (K: ) Ignore the brackets, and type in the search bar K: .jpg try also K: .png K: .bmp If you know that some pictures are of a different format to those, use that format as well. Nev.

Hi Andy, do you have another PC available or can borrow that you can use to burn disks, as that will be required to make the slipstreamed disk that will then have the required SATA drivers on it. Nev.

Hi Andy, once you are OK and hope your eyes are soon OK, we may have to go to what I posted on post 18 and do it the long way round, however get yourself right first and get back to us when you can, we will still be here. Nev.

Hi, just to add, there are various means of connecting a hard drive as an external drive which is always best if it connects to a USB port. There are three main types, a straight forward IDE or SATA adapter plug to fit the hard drive and a USB plug at the other end to connect to the computer. The second method is what is called a docking station, which is a unit the hard drive just plugs into and can easily be removed, and the third is an enclosure which the hard drive fits into. all types have a lead with a USB plug to connect to the computer. Also they all require a power supply unit as well for the larger 3.5 inch desktop sizes. Having looked round recently I found that for some strange reason the enclosure type is actually cheaper than a straight forward adapter, with obviously the docking station being quite expensive as well. The enclosure type is actually the most useful as once the hard drive is fitted, which is quite easy and usually only means two screws to undo and then replace once the drive is in it, the complete enclosure can be used with the drive as a useful external storage device. You can put a back up of all your data on it, use it to contain data when the computer drive is getting full and so on. Nev.