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Morticia
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« Reply #330 on: 16:00:41, 10-03-2008 » |
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(I remember in my grannies B&B, every room had a wooden thing for kneeling/praying on, like a one-person pew: what are they called again?)
Prie-dieu, incs. If my memory serves me correctly. |
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increpatio
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« Reply #331 on: 17:13:53, 10-03-2008 » |
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Ah! Spot on, mort!  Actually I'm most commonly kneeling at my computer.
Not complying with DSE use legislation, eh? DSE? |
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John W
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« Reply #332 on: 18:11:10, 10-03-2008 » |
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Actually I'm most commonly kneeling at my computer.
Not complying with DSE use legislation, eh? DSE? |
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John W
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« Reply #333 on: 00:39:59, 12-03-2008 » |
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Desktop PC has been repaired, didn't lose a single file off the hard drive, running quicker. This third PC has done well, built 3 years ago by a friend who saved as much as he could from a dying hard drive. This time, when it all stopped 3 weeks ago, it was the mother board that failed, smothered in dust....  Took two weeks to get the sametype/model 3-year-old mother board to replace it. Apparently if he'd put in a more modern mother board there would have been complications and difficulties. He also added memory and took out the old modem as I'm on Bband, vacuumed out all the dust and gave the fan a good clean. For all that and for his time I gave him £100 (he'd asked for £85). There is a dust problem in this house, made especially bad by the tumble drier which does not exhaust but has an inefficient filter system. I'm advised to make a pre-filter cover to place over the PC fan's in-vent e.g. use a small picture frame with fine hankie material pasted onto the front of the frame, and somehow place this over the PC's in-vent. This will capture a lot of dust but has to be removed and brushed regularly (bit like the tumble drier's filter). The mother-board should last more than 3 years (but something else might die by then so a good back up system for files is necessary. My back-up methods have been a bit haphazard (so I'm lucky this time). My friend has explained how to back up huge amounts on DVDs using Nero, and how to put a complete copy of the whole PC onto an external hard disc. That's the sort of thing I could cock up but I'll give a go sometime.... I'm advised to have a strict timetable of backing up files, system restore and cleaning that pre-filter thingy. It was good to see all those music files, e-mail files and holiday photos that I hadn't backed up since Christmas <phew> |
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Andy D
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« Reply #334 on: 01:59:38, 12-03-2008 » |
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I'm on my old desktop at the moment (the one that's running under Ubuntu) which has been working perfectly well since about last September but as soon as the weather gets hot, it hangs up on me. Obviously something is overheating but I can't work out what. I've taken the thing apart, vacuumed and brushed everything but it does no good. It's not worth my spending money on getting this problem sorted out.
[edit 2-28am: how ironic that having written the above, the old desktop has just died on me, I'm back on XP now]
I get worried if I haven't made a backup for a week, you can lose an awful lot of stuff in 7 days. I've written my own backup program which I run to copy the most volatile stuff (eg my Firefox bookmarks Mort!) to one of my 3 external hard drives. Other stuff I back up on a less regular basis. But however careful you are, you're always likely to lose something if you have a hard disc problem. When I upload photos I always store them on the internal HD and one of the external ones.
I've been looking today at wireless modem routers. The NetGear DG834G looks to be pretty good and it's available for £52 complete with a USB adaptor from Amazon. Does anyone have any experience of this area or any recommendations? My main worry with the DG834G is whether I can get Ubuntu to connect to it - having spent a bit of time getting it to connect to my SAGEM USB modem. I doubt I'll have any problems with my XP machine.
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« Last Edit: 02:29:21, 12-03-2008 by Andy D »
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David_Underdown
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« Reply #335 on: 13:26:03, 14-03-2008 » |
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A question, just out of idle curiosity - this is more a 'housekeeping' issue than a troubleshooting one.
On my laptop there is a wireless button, which toggles between 'LAN Wi-Fi On/Off'. Also, there is a little wireless symbol down in the bottom right of the screen, by the clock, which is crossed out ('No wireless connection available') when the wireless switch is off. To get online from start-up requires two steps: (1) turn the wireless switch on, (2) then right-click on the wireless symbol to 'View available networks', select the one that's me rather than the neighbours, and click Connect.
This is all a bit of a faff, obviously, and in fact I don't need to do step 2, since, provided I don't disconnect before turning off, I'm still connected to the correct network next time I turn on. I do have to do step 1 every time because the wireless switch automatically reverts to off at shutdown.
So, my two questions in terms of best practice are:
Is there any advantage to going through the whole Disconnect rigmarole using the connection icon, or am I OK just relying on the wireless switch? (My one worry about this is that if I turn the wireless switch to "off" while the machine is still running, the connection icon comes up with a little balloon saying that it can't connect but will keep trying, and I don't know if this is wasting memory or something.)
And: Should I even be bothering to turn the wireless switch to "off" when I'm not online, or could I just leave this on all the time and let it turn itself off when I shut down?
I think the only real reason for the wireless on/off switch is for those who wish to use their laptops whilst flying, when obviously you're not supposed to have the wireless switched less it should interfere with the plane's electronics. Otherwise, bar the marginal power saving you might as well just leave it on and connected. There must be a setting somewhere to cahgne the default behaviour of the wireless on/off setting. |
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David
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Andy D
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« Reply #336 on: 13:33:37, 14-03-2008 » |
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Prompted by John's story of his dusty motherboard I took the plunge today and cleaned out the inside of my PC. It was actually the first time I've taken the side panel off and I've had it for 2.5 years now. Pretty dusty inside, as you can imagine, but I've cleaned it out as best I could using a combination of paint brush, duster and vacuum cleaner, taking care what I actually touched inside. I also had a go at cleaning my keyboard at the weekend, I think I got out most of the crumbs etc which were hidden under the keys - hmm perhaps not, I can still see some  I was rather surprised when I plugged everything back in that Windows came up with several "new hardware found"s - not sure why as I regularly disconnect external USB hard drives. |
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John W
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« Reply #337 on: 15:15:25, 14-03-2008 » |
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Andy,
Crumbs in keyboards!
I use post-its to remove crumbs, run the sticky end along the gaps between keys, picks up crumbs and dust quite well. That's also how I get crumbs and dust out of little areas in the car.
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IgnorantRockFan
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« Reply #338 on: 16:34:14, 17-03-2008 » |
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Re: crumbs Turn your keyboard upside down, shake it, rattle it, bang it... they're surprisingly robust  Then use an "air duster" -- a can of compressed air -- to blast between the keys. Turn it upside down and shake and bang it a bit more. That should clear everything except the odd paperclip or staple, which tend to hook themselves around the key bottoms. A small hooked implement and a bit of patience will clear these. Then use a *soft* scrubbing brush and bit of detergent to scrub the keys with a left-to-right (along the rows) motion. Use a second, dry, brush to dry it off. (Make sure your computer is powered off when you do this last step ) Your keyboard will now look as new! I have a friend who runs a hardware-cleaning business. I would never have believed you could actually scrub a keyboard until I witnessed it with my own eyes  |
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Allegro, ma non tanto
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John W
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« Reply #339 on: 19:31:03, 17-03-2008 » |
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Andy D
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« Reply #340 on: 18:53:52, 22-03-2008 » |
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A warning to any of you who rely on the XP firewall: I've been trying to clear a trojan off my brother's PC today. We weren't all that worried though because his firewall (ZoneAlarm) has been asking every time the trojan (in the guise of random-string.exe) wanted to phone home with bank account details or whatever and they've been denying it access to the internet. Just imagine what might have happened if his firewall only blocked inward traffic - as the XP one does |
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Jonathan
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« Reply #341 on: 22:22:17, 22-03-2008 » |
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Can anyone help with this? I have a mini wireless network at home with this PC and my laptop. Ages ago, we called someone in to sort it all out when i bought the router and after that, it worked. Some time later, we went on holiday and when we returned, the windows explorer on the laptop shows the files on the hard drive of this pc but when i try to access them, it says "access is denied". It has done this for more than a year now and is getting on my nerves!
Any ideas?
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Best regards,
Jonathan
*********************************************
"as the housefly of destiny collides with the windscreen of fate..."
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increpatio
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« Reply #342 on: 23:17:30, 22-03-2008 » |
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Can anyone help with this? I have a mini wireless network at home with this PC and my laptop. Ages ago, we called someone in to sort it all out when i bought the router and after that, it worked. Some time later, we went on holiday and when we returned, the windows explorer on the laptop shows the files on the hard drive of this pc but when i try to access them, it says "access is denied". It has done this for more than a year now and is getting on my nerves!
Any ideas?
on your windows pc, if you right-click on a directory that you are having trouble accessing (or a directory containing a file that you are having trouble accessing, or, all else failing, the file itself), and click on properties. Then there should be a 'sharing' tab, where you can say whether you want people to be able to read/write/whatever the files. |
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Jonathan
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« Reply #343 on: 18:12:50, 23-03-2008 » |
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Hi Incy,
I've just tried all that and it still says "access denied" - but thanks for your suggestion anyway!
I think I'll give up for the moment. Pah!!
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Best regards,
Jonathan
*********************************************
"as the housefly of destiny collides with the windscreen of fate..."
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Bryn
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« Reply #344 on: 18:33:35, 23-03-2008 » |
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Hi Incy,
I've just tried all that and it still says "access denied" - but thanks for your suggestion anyway!
I think I'll give up for the moment. Pah!!
I just Googled "windows" and "access denied" and the first hit was this. It might be worth considering. There were plenty of other hits, too. |
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