IT Professional in Ludlow, SY8

RE: Access internet through RJ-11 port from laptop

Yes you can access the internet through the RJ-11 port on a laptop, it is in effect a modem built into the laptop. You'll probably find it's an AC97 Software modem, as most laptops use the same modem, ethernet port, and soundcard (there are a few odd ones out there but I'm 99.9% sure you'll find it's an AC97. Check first to see whether you have the drivers installed already, click on the start menu and click Run... (XP) or in the Search box (Vista). Type devmgmt.msc and press enter. On the device manager list scroll down till you see Modems, double click modems and you should have something in ther called "AC97 Soft Fax Data Modem" or something like that. If you have you've got the drivers installed, now you just need to plug up a cable and set it up to call your ISP up. To set it up to call your ISP either use the disc supplied by your ISP, or go into control panel and internet options. Go across to the "Connections" tab and click "Add..." enter your details as your ISP has told you with the phone number you need to call them on and save the new connection. When you've finished go into Internet Options, and Connection tab again and check that the box "Dial whenever a network connection is not present" is ticked (or "Always dial my default connection" depending on which way you want it to work), and click on your connection you've just created and click "Set Default". Important note about the cable - there are numerous variations on the "standard" RJ-11 phone cable, some have two pins connected, some have 4, some have some wires crossed. Most modems use a 2 pin modem cable, so either try and find the cable that came with the laptop or get a 2 pin one. If 2 pin cables don't work try and get a 4 pin one and see if that will work. It's a little bit of hit and miss as to which cable will be right, most will use the 2 pin cable, but you still come across the odd one or two modems that like to have the 4 pin cable (and even worse some with a totally custom wiring configuration!). Another thing to bear in mind is that a lot of the ISP's have 0845 numbers to call them up on, these numbers are charged per minute and you can quite easily run up a very large bill without realising it.

RE: I need to make a new copy of my Packard Bell Windows Vista Operating system (incidently the worst op

If you want to make a backup copy of Windows Vista with all your current updates on you need to look at making a "Slipstreamed" copy of your Vista disc. Have a look at this site http://www.labnol.org/software/tutorials/slipstream-vista-sp1-bootable-windows-vista-dvd-integrated/2750/ As for backing up your entire hard disk you could always use WinRAR to back it up to DVD, this has an option to create archives to specific sizes like DVD-5 or DVD-9. Just create archives to that size compressed and back them up to DVD. Only thing with this is don't bother backing up things like Program Files as these will all need to be re-installed, only backup the C:Users folder (or C:Documents and Settings (XP))

RE: I think I have malwere My computers toolbar icons are missing, constant american radio in the backg

If Norton wont fit on your computer try ESET Smart Security, it's a 10th of the size of that "bloatware" and doesn't constantly hinder your work as much. As for the 532 "viruses" I think you'll find that many of them were probably stuff like tracking cookies, if he used something like Adware to remove the malware then you can quite easily get 500+ viruses found, although many tracking cookies aren't really viruses or malware, just a slight invasion of privacy. They are used by advertising companies to monitor what you are looking at on the web and show you adverts that are relevant, even things like Google Adwords uses tracking cookies to find out what you've been looking at.

RE: vista to xp

I think I know what your on about, you are thinking that the operating system on the computer works similar to the old "Amiga" operating system where it was on a ROM inside the computer. Modern PC's don't work that way. You can't just swap the memory from one computer to the other to copy the OS across. However despite the answers below, yes it is quite possible to put XP on the Vista machine, and even copy it from one computer to the other. Unless your old computer stopped working you could be breaking Microsoft's terms and conditions on OEM software by doing this. Microsoft's OEM licence allows you to transfer the OS from one computer to another only if the other computer has stopped working (I found this out when my sisters motherboard failed and we had to put new motherboard/cpu/etc in the PC and I had to re-activate it by phone with the answer that I was transferring it from one computer to another due to system failure). All you need to do is get a copy of a Windows XP CD from somewhere (make sure it is the correct version for what is installed on the other laptop - e.g. home or professional, if your not sure look on the underside of the laptop for the authentication label and it should have "Windows XP Home" or "Windows XP Professional" printed on it). Depending on who made your laptop you might already have been given a Windows XP CD with it as a recovery disc (nb if it is an official Windows XP disc you should be fine, but if it is the laptop manufacturers recovery CD, i.e. it has something like HP or Compaq or Dell on it, unless your new laptop is the same make it probably wont install, the official discs are normally gold coloured with holograms all over them). The company recovery CD's usually have extra software on them specific for that laptop, and the vast majority also install Norton Anti-virus which at the best of times can be a pain to get rid of if you want to install a rival anti-virus package, and also usually the also contain even more "extra junkware" that you really don't need. If you can't find an original disc see if you can find someone who does have an original Windows XP CD that matches the licence you have and either ask them to borrow it, or make you a copy (nb. you are not making an illegal copy of this disc, as you already have a legal licence to use this disc, it is just the company that supplied you with your laptop never give you an official disc for that licence). Use that disc to install Windows XP on your new laptop, insert the disc in the drive and when it says "Press any key to boot from CD..." press any key. If it doesn't display this message you might need to go into the BIOS and change the boot order, if your not to sure on the BIOS settings I would recommend you get someone else to help you with this as every BIOS is different and messing with some of the settings can render your laptop useless. Once you are booting from CD, go through the full step-by-step process to install Windows XP - important note If you have anything on the computer you need to keep back it up BEFORE going through the step-by-step install process or else you will lose it all, also I highly recommend that you make recovery discs before attempting to install XP, so if it does all go pear-shaped you can still put Vista back on. When it gets to the hard drive partitioning section delete all partitions and create new partitions as required, Windows will ask you about 3 times are you really sure you want to do this. Very important - this is the point of no return - at this point be absolutely 100% sure this is exactly what you want to do and that you have backed up all the data on your laptop and made recovery discs and certainly have the matching OS for the licence you have, after this point your laptop will no longer have any OS on it until you either fully install XP or use the recovery discs to recover Vista. During installation of XP it will ask for the code, this is the code that is printed on the sticker on the bottom of your old laptop. Type this in, this is the way XP knows you have a legal licence to use the software, this is how you can get away with using anyone elses disc to install it. After installation you have now transferred the Windows XP licence from one computer to the other. When it comes to authentication if you try and authenticate through the internet it might tell you that this is not possible, just phone the number and one of the options will be that you transferred the number from one computer to another because the old one was broken. If possible you should try and remove the authentication sticker from the old laptop (on desktop computers I found that a hairdryer works very well, although this could possibly melt the plastic on a laptop, a desktop is made of metal), and stick it to the new laptop (if it will stick), or keep it with your Windows XP CD, this is your proof that you have a legal right to use that copy of XP on your laptop). Now you must not under any circumstances use Windows XP at all on your old laptop, and you must not sell that old laptop with a copy of Windows XP running on it. If you do then you are breaking the terms and conditions as you are using it on more than one computer. If you wish to sell your old laptop then wipe the hard disk and install something like Linux on it, or just leave it blank and sell it as no operating system, also if you didn't remove the sticker and you sell the old laptop be sure to write down your code somewhere and scratch out the old sticker so that people can't read the code (although by not actually having the sticker you don't have any proof that you own a licence to use Windows XP). If anyone uses that code you could be left with a non-working laptop.

RE: i want to connect my laptop to my tv to watch dvds have bought a cable but am unable to watch anythi

one other thing I forgot to mention... If when dragging media player across to the other screen the picture is just black, try using VideoLAN to play the DVD, it's a free download get it by searching on the net for VideoLAN, this plays the DVD straight without sending it through any decoders, where as Media player might send it through some decoders first which can be a bit funny when moving the picture from one screen to the other.

RE:

Thanks for pointing that one out Jon, you learn something new every day. I never knew that kettle leads weren't earthed (I thought they'd have to be with a lot of kettles being made of metal!) Mind you most kettles now don't have kettle leads any more, possibly to stop people using them as PC leads. I can't remember the last time we got a kettle with an actual kettle lead, or saw one. I think the name kettle lead just stuck with PC's though 'cos that's what they were used for before PC's came along.

RE: Integral touchpad for the mouse

You might be able to turn it off in the BIOS, To get to the BIOS when you first turn the computer on at the bottom of the screen you might get a message similar to "Press Delete to enter setup..." or "Press F2 to enter BIOS". Press whatever key when that message appears, you will then be in the BIOS. The BIOS is the first program that your computer always runs before starting the computer, it is a small program stored on a microchip that tells the computer exactly how to start loading up things like Windows off the hard disk. Sometimes the F2 or Delete message is hidden by a graphical BIOS. If this is the case try Delete or F2 or see if there is a key to hide the graphical picture to see which key to press. Most BIOS use delete as a key to enter the BIOS. Some you can enter the BIOS by pressing a key anywhere on the computer, and it will come up with Keyboard Error and give you the option of going into the BIOS then. Once in the BIOS you need to find the section on intergrated peripherals and disable the touchpad. Note - The BIOS is a very dangerous place to go messing without knowing what you are doing, and can be quite confusing so I strongly suggest you ask someone to help you.

RE: system disk

the hard disk is supposed to be the system disk. Sounds like something has corrupted the boot block on the disc. First thing before trying anything too drastic is to ensure you have no other drives plugged in, and nothing in your cd drives, this includes USB flash memory cards, external hard drives, MMC/memory stick/compact flash or any type of memory storage device other than your hard drive. If you do pull all these out and remove the CD's from the CD drives. If this starts the system booting you probably have a none-standard boot block on one of those disks and your computer might be set up in the BIOS to attempt to boot from CD-ROM or USB first and not the hard drive. If this works easiest thing to do just remember to not leave anything in any of the drives on startup. You could go into the BIOS and check the startup order but be careful every BIOS is different and you could do far more harm than you would if you just removed all the disks on every boot up.