IT Professional in Rushden, NN10

RE: outlook & 3 dongle

I've been using Three for years, and I can use any POP or SMTP email as I like (with both my own domains and things like gmail and yahoo), with and without SSL, through Thunderbird and Seamonkey. I have never used Three's SMTP servers, as I never had any need to. I suspect bad settings or lack of understanding is at the root of the problems here. Or possibly dear old outlook. As far as I'm concerned, Three blocks nothing, not even when abusing your mobile as a wifi access point for multiple computers!

RE: Batterie

Hallo Wolfgang, most (all?) of us here are based in the UK, and we don't normally ship stuff to South Africa. This battery can be had in the UK for £50 or less. I have no idea what your supply options are in South-Africa? Groeten en Sterkte, Wim

RE: Laptop intermittently switches off Vaio TX1

Yes, what you lot are up against is solder trouble: when the industry first stopped using lead, the first generation solder between the chip and PCB has trouble with heat cycles: over time all the solder joints start to crack. Initially, a bit of pressure in the right place allows the system to carry on, but eventually it's down to reballing (an open surgery that involves replacing he solder balls with better solder - very fiddly) or complete PCB replacement. But prices for new laptops are now so low, all that is not cost effective.

RE: motherboard>processor

I agree, for the hardware upgrades to this machine, you should look at RAM and hard disk: could you let us know what amount of RAM (aka 'memory') you have and what is the size hard disk? Other than that, have you done any system maintenance: clear out old files, defragging, check for malware, etc...

RE: Ethernet Controller Driver

If your computer is ancient (windows 98 or 2000): I do have a load of classic PCI network cards, so if you are able to fit it, I can sell you one through my eBAY shop, as I do ship into Europe :-)

RE: I have a acer netbook and the wifi signal keeps dipping in and out even when it says the strength is

Given your netbook has been refurbished & your symptoms, it wouldn't surprise that the internal wifi antennas are not plugged into the internal wifi card. Belkin has their UK office and a warehouse in my town, so I really wish I could recommend them, but my 6 year+ experience with their drivers & software is very bad: even to the point of shipping the wrong driver CD in their retail boxes... I hope they have finally making improvements. My current batch of trusted USB WiFi adapters are Siemens, so it just goes to show you can't just tar a brand with one brush, you do need some hard earned experience to make recommendations. Netgear/D-link/Belkin will remain on my personal black list, because there's plenty of alternatives which, in my experience, have a better overall track record (3com/HP, Siemens, Linksys/Cisco). That doesn't mean they don't make the odd turkey, mind :-P

RE: Packard Bell Imedia 2215 dv100

You can 'unblow' a motherboard: just identify the components that went bang (or bulged/oozed) and decide about replacing them.

RE: mi komputur is fukd

Sorry Jon, I'm a pillock: how is Illiterate breaking the ISP's term of service?

RE: mac magazines

Agreed with the above posts, and once you've gone through the intro manual(s), go out on the internet and find a good blog or forum for people who are new to Macs, and just follow/read the articles/posts: you will learn a lot, and it will save you a lot of time in the future, because you 'will just know' where to find the info/app you need. Do not waste your time with magazines: they are just adverts all the way through.

RE: hard to read text on my pc, showing my age but love my pc can anybody help me out there

Yes, you should stick to the default dpi, otherwise a lot of program dialog boxes will become useless. Also, if the increase of font sizes to extra large is not enough, you can try: - upgrading to a bigger monitor (what size do you have now?) - learning to use a 'screen magnifier': this is a piece of software that will zoom in on the bit of screen under your mouse pointer. You can set the magnification level to suit your needs.

RE: my pc makes a groaning sound on start up,then the sound subsides,do i need to have it checked

Beware, worn out hard disks can make the same noise...

RE: Documents file emptied!

It's best to turn the machine off and get a data recovery technician to look at it. You can post a job request here on PCIQ and your local tech will ask you loads of questions to figure out what might have happened and which step to take next. Your hard disks might need to be taken out and sent off to a data recovery company.

RE: Hp compaq mini inch screen cracked looking for best quote in birmingham

I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they don't have any stock, just a call centre, i.e. they exclusively use drop-shipping, similar to what 90% of the computer channel seem to be doing, but at least they offer a wider range (but never actually deliver...).

RE: AFP Connection Status

It sounds like someone else setup network shortcuts on your Mac and/or PCs. If you have 2 Macs they should be able to find each other over a system called 'Apple Talk'. I suggest you file a job request on the PCIQ website or start reading a lot of manual :-) First thing a professional would check is to make sure the 2 machines can ping each other's IP address.

RE: Advent 9617

Depending the the size of the drop, it might be worth posting a job request on PCIQ so that a technician can come out and lift the keyboard off your laptop and inform you how much coffee damage there is. When something is spilled on a laptop you should: switch it off, open it up, clean & dry it. Anything else and you end up waiting for the acid (most of our favourite beverages are acidic for some reason) to corrode the motherboard.

RE: Fujitsu Siemens Amilo li1705 Freezing when Moved

Yep, the only proper way of fixing the bad nvidia solder is to do a 'reball'. A reflow only works for 6 months at best.

RE: I was using my hp g6000 laptop when the screen changed and a diagonal line pattern came across it. I

We really could do with a preview/edit function on here... I meant to say: " HP/Compaq business laptops are ace, that's not where the problem is. The problem lies with nVidia's chipsets, not with the laptop brand. Simply avoid any system that has nVidia chips in them, and you will be fine. nVidia has had design-for-manufacturing, production and quality trouble since its inception. "

RE: Media Centre freezes and crashes

Knowing windows and given the amount of free space, it's probably to do with fragmentation going nuclear: I've seen files in more than 5000 pieces.

RE: password refused after mistake in entering a new one for Outlook Express

Yep, sometimes a password update goes wrong. So try again, that has fixed it for a fw of my customers in the past.

RE: boot problem

You can try running it with the battery out, but I think it would be best to raise a job request on the main page of PCIQ. This is likely to be faulty hardware.

RE: hp printer

Spot on Jon; my brain was in XP mode for some reason?

RE: hp printer

I also tend to convince business and home users alike to only run the HP 'enterprise' driver (or just the built-in windows drivers), rather than these ghastly printer software packs which seem to be very good at slowing down windows and the user. In short: avoid the installation CD and try to stick to basic drivers from Windows Update or the HP 'enterprise' driver (it'll be on the same HP download page as the bloated consumer package).

RE: cdrw problems

I also have cdroms (green, blue and gold ones) going back to 1996 (why, I don't know. Pictures sure were small back then! ) I only go back to them once in a blue moon (one of my favourite games is backed up on there: Wizardry 7, also webpages from the late nineties), but so far no sign of degradation. I have always kept them in dedicated storage boxes.

RE: Start up

Once it got going: - is it responsive - in device manager: are all drivers happy - try copying big files and work out the megabytes per second (should be a combined 3 megabytes per second or more) - is the antivirus happy - is there any indication about windows crash reporting or recent system restoring

RE: System freezes using internet with 3 broadband dongle

Yep, it's easier to blame something/one else rather than to engage ones brain, even for techs :-) My pet hate is zonealarm :-P Any piece of software can sabotage anything else, especially on messy operating systems, but always uninstall stuff you don't use any more (especially printers)

RE: i need a LCD inverter and data cable for a packard bell easynote model mx37-u-004

Yep, the screen assembly is available everywhere, there's even one on eBAY for less than £50 (with cable and inverter). Do let us know if you need us to come out and fit it; it's what we do for a living :-) I'm one the techs covering your area, but I'm ignoring the matching work order at the moment.

RE: laptop very slow

I had/have a three mobile broadband link and that can be good enough to be described as broadband... in the right location. However, it all depends on how well your local area is covered, and on the construction techniques used in the building you are in. For example, some houses have some kind of metal mesh in the plasterwork which kills any wireless signal stone dead. Short version: wireless never beats cables :-)

RE: ubuntu

I've never used Microsoft Office in my life and I've always used operating systems other than Windows (OS/2, Solaris, BSD, Linux, yes I even ran Ubuntu for a while). There is no reason for you to switch to windows, all the work you produce can be saved into a format that's compatible with people who are stuck with windows.

RE: Fujitsu Siemens Amilo li1705 Freezing when Moved

OK, if the monitor cables don't look like they've been crushed or damaged, then: 1) if you leave the plastic bezels between the keyboard and the monitor off, does it still crash when moved? 2) reseat all add-on components (RAM, hard disk, optical drive, network cards, etc...) If neither of these make any difference, I'd suspect a bad contact between a chip and the motherboard somewhere. Which means it's time to do the old trade-off between buying a new laptop or replacing components, such as the motherboard, hoping you'll hit on the right one early in the process. My gambling money would be on the motherboard, but my cash on saving up for a new laptop.

RE: ntldr is missing

Replying to technical requests in forums like this often requires guess work, and we pick the most likely answer based on our experience and what little info we have about the posters capabilities (both to mend and to mess up). My first hunch/idea is often different to Jon's, but I would be getting it 'wrong' as much as anybody else. Jon is doing a great job on this forum and given the amount of work he puts into it, it's no surprise he gets it 'wrong' every once and a while, but he gets it right most of the time. It's easy to look smart when you've got the benefit of hindsight. Try sticking your neck out a bit more often :-) This thread is an excellent example: I've been repairing/building computers for over 10 years, and I've never had a half-bad contact with the optical drive like this, or a loose optical drive without the owner or technician knowing about it? Look back at the initial message in this thread: sure looks like some kind of hardware failure to me and your typical end-user can't fix that, so the initial advice to get professional help is spot on. And then it turns out it's a bad ATA connection or people forgetting about the loosened optical drive! How many times have you seen that with a laptop or its user?

RE: my children keep turning my computer on and off without shutting down and now it will not load it ju

Sometimes all windows needs to do is to run chkdsk on the system partition. This can sometimes be triggered by booting from the windows install CD, aborting the INITIAL part of the installation process, take the CD out, and try booting the PC again. All this could be done during a very short onsite visit by your local PCIQ professional :-)

RE: Internet Explorer Unhandled Exception

Agreed, add-ons can clash, especially the toolbars. I refer to it as "Clash of the Toolbars" :-)

RE: Memory Problem

Hi there, this is most likely a software problem. But how long is a while, and what is being done during that while? Is the PC idle or under running apps, if so which? Peer-2-peer applications can be nasty :-) Also, does the blue screen show a consistent point of failure? For example, the last blue screen problem one I came across was due to an old ATI driver ("ATIxyz.dll"). -- With Friendly Regards, Wim W. ========================================================

RE: desktop can take hours before it starts

You have some very special hardware problem :-) I haven't had a case like this before, but I reckon you should try and find your local computer repair man for a new powersupply or motherboard? Cheers, Wim PCIQ pro for NN10

RE: I have a packard bell ipower and i just can not get the thing to play sound except for the odd bleep

Well, maybe you have a separate speaker/beeper in your PC. Best thing to do at this stage is to check if PackardBell can help you go through the software setup, that's assuming the sound(card) came with the PC? How old is your PC?

RE: I have a packard bell ipower and i just can not get the thing to play sound except for the odd bleep

What kind of sounds/files won't it play then? If you hear beeps on a modern PC, that means the speaker function is being successfully routed through the sound system and your speakers. Check your volume levels and output settings and make sure you only have 1 set of speakers, people who design flatpanel screens hide the speakers very well these days :-)