Plastic Nev

Further to that, connection to the internet is not free, never has been and never will be unless an ISP agrees to do so and make a profit from hosting adverts perhaps. Any form of connection not costing you is most likely stealing it from someone else's connection, as such that is illegal and leaves you open to prosecution. Nev.

Hi, If these speakers are brand new, rather than mess with them I would take or send them back, explain the problem, as they are obviously not fit for purpose. Even if second hand I wouldn't mess around with something obviously loose that shouldn't be, it is up to the vendor to sort out for you. Warranty business and all that, if you do try anything and cause further damage you won't have any warranty then. Nev.

If having no luck in finding the right drivers, let us know the make and model of your computer please, from that we may be able to find where to download them for you. Nev.

Hi, if a USB keyboard is working OK I am afraid it is looking that the machines own keyboard is faulty. Has it had anything spilled on it that you know of? stored in either a damp or extremely cold place in the time you have had it? any of those could cause eventual oxidation of the key contacts resulting in failure to work. I have had a look for any form of service manual for that model and the best I can find is actually on a favourite site of mine 101 laptop repairs, have a look here, although the manuals listed are not for your exact model, there may be enough similarities to help. http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2008/01/07/service-manuals-for-sony-vaio-laptops-notebooks/ Scrolling down the page, there are many requests for different help in dismantling Sony Vaio machines. If they are not much help I suggest a look round the rest of the 101 site via the menu on the right of that page. Nev.

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. I am not familiar with the Dell support center myself, but to help someone with more knowledge, could you please tell us the exact model name and number, is this a laptop or desktop would also help. Nev.

I would get rid of that Iobit software too, the company that makes it has already been taken to court for copying other software, and not getting it right either. Have a look here= http://blogs.computerworld.com/15026/iobit_accused_of_stealing_from_malwarebytes Nev.

Apple, Blackberry, a good job they called it Ipod, and not Ppod. Microsoft though seem more interested in looking through windows rather than getting into foods.

Considering the recent Blackberry blackout, I am surprised this hasn't been aired yet again.

I tend to agree, as good as computers may be or even become, I will only believe it when I can throw a ball, and my laptop goes and brings it back. Mind you my mates remote controlled buggy can do that and it doesn't even have a CPU, my own Ford Ka has more computing power. Nev.

Hi, which way round did you do this? Sometimes some hardware requires the driver to be installed first before the hardware is installed. Try removing the PCI-G3 card from the computer, shut it down first, then reboot after you have removed it, then install the driver from the disk. Shut down again, then re-insert the PCI card. Reboot it and let us know what happens then. Nev.

Just to add, have you looked in the recycle bin and made sure that is empty? Until it is emptied it will still show up as used space. Nev.

Well, considering you have a large chunk of space on that "D" partition, if reluctant to move the photo's to the external, you could move them to "D". What is the total size of "D"? If it is the same size as what is showing on it, then that is most likely your recovery partition in which case files on it will be hidden. The way to find out how much space is used, right click on each major folder, then click "Properties" that should show you the total files in MB or even GB in each folder. Just add them all up, it should then tally with what it tells you in the "C" drive total. Nev.

Hi, and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. Lets see what we can do for you here then. First you say you transferred all video to an external hard drive, sounds silly, but that may only have copied them over and left the originals still on your "C" drive, did you look for and delete them? If so, have you also emptied the recycle bin? Until that is emptied all files in it are still accounted for on the drive. I would have thought moving the video's would have made the biggest improvement, but if they haven't been moved and only copied, that will be your biggest reason for the drive to still look full. The extra "D" drive, I assume it is an extra partition on the main hard drive, some manufacturers are now doing this, it is then up to you to use that as maybe a backup in case "C" becomes corrupted. Or it can still be used for ordinary files, just remember they are there, and finally, the "D" partition can be removed or at least shrunk in size, therefore giving more room on "C". Let us know what you find regarding those video files and whether they are indeed deleted or hiding somewhere. Nev.

Hi, I see from your original post that it is indeed a Dell inspiron Which is also stated on the system reinstall disk, so it should be OK as they look to be the original disks issued with the machine, to be sure, there may be a copy of the validation or product key on the disk cover or paper protector, if the number corresponds with that on the Windows Home sticker then all should be fully legal again. If not on the cover, then once installed it should show on system information under "Validation" anyway. As far as the other disks, you will need to also use the Dell tools disk I would think, but the Sonic, and also the Cyberlink are up to you, they are only players/recording burner. Best of luck and hope all goes OK with the install, though I can't help with how it should go, or in what order to use the disks, as I don't know the Dell system, Ken may do. Nev.

Hi Grandad, has it worked OK in the past? If so I can only suggest a system restore back to the time when it did work. The only other option I can see would be perhaps a Vista repair, but you would need the disk for that, do you have one? The next question is other programs, especially other media players, are there any differences in that area between the Vista Laptop and the W7 desktop, if so it could be a conflict. Nev.

Hi, quite few things are worrying, first the conflict of operating system types, XP Professional is running but the sticker says Home Edition, that would be fine if the upgrade path was genuine, but the message that it is not a genuine copy when you tried to install IE-7 suggests that is not the case. The disks you were given with it, what does it say on the label or labels? If those disks will help you get the machine back to the original and legal operating system we can advise and help as needed, but if the system continues to show it is not genuine there could be problems. We would have to refuse further help for a start unless you sorted things out with Microsoft, that may mean buying the upgrade legally. Sorry if that seems bad news, but Microsoft are very strict regarding their copyrights, we have to respect that. Nev.

I gather you are writing by hand on paper, unfortunately even the best up to date systems cannot recognise handwriting very well in order to convert a scan into a PDF document or similar. A scanner and its software can only make it a JPG, which is really a picture that you can't alter once on the computer. I suggest doing all your writing into a word document via the computer and keyboard right from the start. If you need paper copies, printing off is easy if you have a printer, but it also means the computer can convert those documents to PDF files with no problem for sending in on line. With the right software, Open Office for one, you can also open an empty PDF document to write into to save making a word document first. Pictures can be inserted as well as any other graphical images into both word or PDF documents. Mathematical symbols in general are part of the normal fonts available, and any specialised symbol font may be found on Google perhaps. I hope that is of further help. Let us know if you need help in choosing software to work with, there is a tremendous amount freely available at no cost, whereas Microsoft Office does cost, and quite a bit too. Nev.

Hi, right click on the task bar or tray, is "Lock the task bar" ticked? if not click on it to tick it. See if that is all it needed. Nev.

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help, do you see any messages when it crashes, and can you describe in a little more detail what happens, does the program freeze? does it just close? does the whole computer crash and go to a blue screen? Most importantly do you see any messages? if so what are they. Nev.

If you can let us know the make and model of your Vista computer we can advise on how to do a system repair, but we do need to know as different manufacturers installed different backup and repair systems, If in fact one is installed. Do you have access to a Vista full disk if not? Nev.

Just to add, this does not affect "McAfee site advisor", that is quite stable and should cause no problem. Nev.

Hi, until Ken gets back to you, it looks like the drive is a dead one, if you want to resurrect the laptop/notebook you will need to get a new drive. However, if there are files on the old drive you wish to retrieve you can try freezing the drive. Don't laugh, I have heard of it working, though never tried it myself. The trick is to seal the drive in a plastic bag and then leave it in the freezer for up to a day, though a period of maybe four hours may be enough. Remove it from the freezer after that time and connect to your computer and try to access the drive as quickly as you can, some say to leave it in the bag with the leads coming out for immediate connection on removing from the freezer. I wish you the best of luck with that as it doesn't always work, but something that has worked for some people has got to be worth a try. Nev.

Hi, reading this, your original cracked screen now also doesn't light, so that suggests either the connections to the inverter or the inverter itself rather than the backlight tube. The inverter can sometimes be within the laptop case rather than the lid. For help in finding the inverter and checking it out I found this site quite useful, and for other laptop problems as well.= http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/category/replacing-screen-inverter/ Have a look round the site in general for any other questions regarding the screen and backlight lamp. Nev.

If none of the above can do anything, the only other option now would be professional data recovery specialists. They can delve deeper into the original external drive that originally held those files using specialist forensic type equipment and software not available to us. However that will cost quite a lot of money and even then may not be fully successful at retrieving all the files. You have to ask yourself what are those files worth? If they were for professional entertainers use, perhaps, but otherwise no. Nev.

As Yet I don't think there is a problem with the hard drive. I am still very suspicious of that high activity within explorer and if not malware which only an examination of those OTL and other logs will reveal, (sorry they are gobbledegook to me ha ha.) the only other thing could be a software conflict. I must ask, but have you more than one antivirus running or more than one firewall? If you have a third party firewall such as Comodo, for instance, check that the Windows own one is turned off. Sometimes odd updates will turn it back on, then it conflicts with the other firewall. Same for antivirus, two trying to run at once will cause high level conflicts too. Nev.