Plastic Nev

Considering the junk put out on TV, including the programs covered by the TV license which I still have to pay, an indication of what I feel about it is that the plug was pulled out of the socket and hasn't been put back for months. I get much more fun and enjoyment out of reading threads like this. Nev.

Hi again, yes that is the setting Ken meant, I was going to leave that side of your troubles till we had resolved the other problems, hopefully by the uninstall and reinstall. Lets see if that works for you first, we can worry about log ins later. Nev.

I said to this bloke in the pub, Don't drink that Theakstons dark mild mate, it will make your teeth fall out! He looked at me and said "Oh really?" I said yep, because it is my pint!!

Now don't let that go to your head mate, there is more work to be done yet Nev.

Hi, if you want to be sure you keep all your favourites, before you start the uninstall and reinstall of IE8, you need to export them to a folder, which you can create first, say for instance on the desktop or in your documents, for the purpose. To export the favourites, first click on "File" at top left, then select "Import/Export." in the next window it asks what you want to do next, select "Export to a file" then click next, it then asks what you want to export, select "Favourites" and next select where from, then after the next browse to the folder you created earlier. Once you have uninstalled IE8 and rolled it back to IE7 or earlier, you can reinstall IE8 from Windows updates website, which is maybe the best to ensure a new and good version. Once it is reinstalled you then reverse the process and import your favourites from the folder or file you put them in earlier. Hope that is of help, Nev.

Hi Joddle, further to Kens good advice the speed of the RAM you have will cover most things except reasonably high gaming. However if you have the latest in high definition video camera, it may not handle that very well, not because of the speed of the RAM, but the quantity. I have found that 2Gb wasn't sufficient, resulting in jerky play back due to there not being enough RAM to allow full buffering of the video data at the speeds required. I installed another 2GB and all was then fine even though it is the slower PC2100 in my desktop. Unfortunately for you 2GB is its limit so sorry to say you wouldn't see the best of HD video playback. Nev.

Another good free office software is Kingsoft, which I prefer as it will handle Microsoft Works Word documents as well, however for any document created in Kingsoft, as usual click "save as", and a drop down menu will give you the same options to save as a Microsoft Word document. The full free office suite from Kingsoft from here :- http://www.ksosoft.com/downloads/windows

Hi, it looks like a definite hardware problem with the laptop keyboard. When you plug in an external keyboard, it may not not isolate or turn off the laptop keyboard unfortunately, so any fault with the "F" key or any other key will still show up. The only real cure is to have a replacement keyboard fitted to your laptop, or at the very least to disconnect the cable internally. In both cases that would mean dismantling the laptop, not something we normally recommend due to the difficulties of doing so if not experienced in that sort of dismantling. Nev.

Hi hotboxdp I have removed your e mail address from the previous post for your safety, scammers and spammers would use it to target you with all sorts of rubbish. All you need do is click on "Thread Tools" at the top of this page, then select "Subscribe to this thread" You will then get an e mail notification of any further replies, should there be a useful answer regarding a decrypting tool. Nev.

Hi, indeed they are a nuisance, especially when you want to look at something entirely different. The reason this happens is because these websites automatically install tracking cookies onto your computer and it is these tracking cookies that then tell the website what you looked at last time. You normally can stop some of them by making sure that third party cookies are blocked in your browser settings, however that will not stop them all. You need an antispyware installed and use it to scan your computer regularly. One of the best for this purpose is SuperAntiSpyware, you can download and install it from here:- http://www.superantispyware.com/ Click on the red "Free Edition Download" button, the free version is all you need. Nev.

Hi Bill, the only sure way about the motherboards is to remove the cover on both and and visually check, being both are the same model and possibly similar age there is a good chance the motherboards will be the same. If the old one was still working you could have used software to find both motherboards specifications, but with it not working we can't. Nev.

Hi Laraj and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. I have had a look round to find some information about this Extender player, quite a bit of conflicting information out there, however I did find some evidence that it may be a form of spyware downloaded with certain game downloads. Have you recently downloaded any games? In case this is a malware based problem, I will let our malware experts know about your problem first before we do anything else, as this may be a difficult one to remove. Nev.

Hi Cathy thanks for getting back to us and glad we could help, even if in only a small way. Nev.

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. Do you have speccy installed? if not download and install it from here:- http://www.piriform.com/speccy That software does a lot more than just monitor temperatures and will give a full breakdown of any other hardware and software. I did once try HWMonitor and was not that impressed as a personal opinion. Let us know what speccy finds temperatures wise as I feel it is more reliable. Nev.

Hi Cathy and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. I am afraid to tell you that it will indeed be a power issue with this fan and the extension cable, the problem being that these extension cables are only meant for data transfer which obviously is of a very low electrical current. Your fan may well work OK directly from the USB port on the netbook, but the nature of the extension cable means there just will not be enough power at the other end of it. There are many different levels of quality involved in extension cables for USB, some higher quality cables will be made with thicker wire inside, one of this nature may carry enough current to run your fan. Rather than just buying a cable from Amazon with little technical support, if there is a decent independent computer and repair shop in your local area, I would recommend buying from them after explaining your needs regarding powering your fan. Even if they may not have a suitable cable in stock, they may be able to order one in, or advise as to which cable would be best. Nev.

Well thank you Airborn for that, however I wrote it for the benefit of other members also, who may read this thread and may not be as wise or computer proficient as ourselves. Nev.

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. From what you describe I doubt if it is drivers at this moment. You say plugging in a headphone set stops the drop out so if possible borrow a speakers set that can be plugged into the same jack socket and see what happens, as this is looking more like a fault on that socket, or a loose connection near to the socket. Nev.

Ordinary standard definition as usually used on television is actually slightly enhanced in the TV itself by introducing a slightly blurred effect between pixels, which masks the outline of each individual pixel, standard computer graphics and monitors do not do that though. So if for example you took a standard definition video picture on your computer monitor, froze one frame out of it as a still picture and then enlarged it by twice, the pixel's would be very noticeable, and may even be a little enhanced on a TV screen. However if the same were to be done with a HD video, you would need to be enlarging by a factor of three to four before pixelation became apparent. In other words in HD, there are many more and much smaller pixels per square inch. It is the digital data required to produce those extra pixels that makes up the high file size in comparison to ordinary or standard definition. Hope that didn't get too boring, but video is getting to be a pet subject of mine, though I do try to stay away from the technical aspects of gaming graphics, now that does my head in when we go down that road. Nev.

HD or high definition to give it its full name, has a very high level of data per second, it has to in order to provide the high definition and quality of the finished video. An example of this is in my own video's that I have recorded myself, having recently acquired a high definition camera. A video I took which lasted only 38 seconds had a total file size of 142 MB. I then converted it down to ordinary definition so as to shorten upload time to dropbox, the resulting file size was only 54 MB. The difference wasn't much in what you see when played, however in those figures you can see why high definition takes up so much room. Nev.

Just may be a script type of error within outlook express, an area I don't know much about as I never used it, preferring something else. However a work round providing you have a word processor, is to copy and paste the content of the e mail into a word document, any bolding of characters or script, you should be able to remove and return to ordinary script within the document, then print that. Nev.

Hi Ray, once you replaced the hard drive, did you re-install the printer and drivers from the disk, the printer should have come with one. If not, disconnect the USB connection, then put the disk into the disk drive, it will then install the drivers and printer, at some point you will be prompted to connect the printer back to the USB port. With HP printers they must be installed that way round, if the printer is already connected, the disk may not install everything correctly. You may have to disconnect the USB, and then uninstall the printer and driver software first to get a correct install. Nev.

Hi if you suspect virus or other malware is responsible, first question has to be which anti-virus are you using and also which firewall if you can tell us please. To see if there is anything there that shouldn't be, please download and install Malwarebytes Free". Do make sure you get the free version and not the trial or pro. Download it from here:- http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free/ Click on the "Download Now" button under the grey coloured free column. That will take you to a hosting site which could be one of a few, that is OK, but when installing watch out for and remove ticks for tool bars or other added junk, especially if the host site is CNet. Once you have Malwarebytes installed, first find and click the update button, then once it has updated, select the quick scan and then scan. When it has run a scan, it should then present a log which opens in a notepad page, please copy and paste that log into your next reply. Nev.

Hi, to add to Kens advice, are you sure you have plugged speakers and microphone into the correct ports? Standard colours for the ports are, Green or lime green for speakers and pink for microphone, for more information on the colours have a look here, scroll down to "Colour Codes" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_card Nev.

Very handy tool for dismantling most electrical and electronic equipment, and yes I have one as well. Nev.

Hi Ray, it may need a complete re-boot for all settings to work, There is also the fact that there are some keys differently named for Apple Macs, though may do a similar function on Windows. This link may help you see the differences which hopefully will help you sort that out. http://xahlee.info/kbd/apple_pc_kb_diff.html (Thanks to DSTM for the link) Let us know how you get on though. Nev.