Okay, folks, a little tech help is required. For some reason the monitor power option is my "display properties" keeps changing the "turn off monitor" setting. No matter how many times I keep changing it (and saving my own power scheme profile) something keeps turning it back to the default "turn off after 20 mins".
Any suggestions?
Showing posts with label Tech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tech. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
New Windows
So Microsoft is releasing a new version of Windows to replace Vista. I've got that operating system installed on my laptop and I have grown quite used to it. I particularly like the ease of browsing through My Documents and other folders. However, after a hard drive crash I bought a replacement desktop machine- and put XP onto it. Apart from not being quite so easy to flick from folder to folder, it's a much more stable system. Vista gives me more hiccups than XP. Not only is it a system hog but it thrashes hard drives pretty hard too
Hardly an improvement. Wouldn't it make more sense to develop a lean, rock-steady OS, that takes full advantage of the processing power available these days? You know, an OS that you can rely on to keep on ticking while allowing your fast processor, gigs of RAM and super-powered graphics cards to be put to use running applications rather than the background system.
Now that another OS is on the way it seems that Vista might be another Windows Me.
Hardly an improvement. Wouldn't it make more sense to develop a lean, rock-steady OS, that takes full advantage of the processing power available these days? You know, an OS that you can rely on to keep on ticking while allowing your fast processor, gigs of RAM and super-powered graphics cards to be put to use running applications rather than the background system.
Now that another OS is on the way it seems that Vista might be another Windows Me.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Font
I've got to admit to an irrational liking of fonts. I have far too many installed on my PC. Anyway, here's a cool one called 28 Days Later. There are plenty more over at Da Font too if you're into that sort of thing.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Broadband Issues
My broadband woe continues. Seems as if the problem is coming from my ISP, Supanet. I did a web-search for them and "broadband problems" and found a whole slew of complaints about the service- particularly since they changed their unlimited service (the reason people joined it in the first place) to a capped one. Nice of them to do that. For the past three days without warning my speeds will drop so badly that I'd actually be better off using a 56k modem. It would improve matters dramatically.
As always, the service status page at Supanet displays no problems.
It's a shame because they used to be a good provider (apart from the tech support which treats each and every call as if it's being made by a moron who wouldn't know how to switch a PC on without a manual).
I guess I'm going to have to go through the whole annoying experience of changing email address yet again.
Anyone in the UK who can recommend a reliable, unlimited (none of this "don't use your broadband in the evening" nonsense) broadband provider please do let me know. Right now, Be are looking pretty good.
As always, the service status page at Supanet displays no problems.
It's a shame because they used to be a good provider (apart from the tech support which treats each and every call as if it's being made by a moron who wouldn't know how to switch a PC on without a manual).
I guess I'm going to have to go through the whole annoying experience of changing email address yet again.
Anyone in the UK who can recommend a reliable, unlimited (none of this "don't use your broadband in the evening" nonsense) broadband provider please do let me know. Right now, Be are looking pretty good.
Friday, September 26, 2008
The Great Crash of '08
No, I'm not talking about the economic crisis but the devastating loss of not one, not two, not three but four hard drives. Ouch.
My laptop is up and running again thanks to a new hard drive and my new desktop came a few days ago. Once I had it set up I tested my three IDE drives in an external enclosure. One dead, one mysteriously wiped and one with a knackered Windows installation. How or why I cannot explain. Needless to say, I'm none too keen to use it or the wiped one again.
Anyway, I've dredged up some old DVD back-ups from about a year or two ago and am gradually restoring my system. It's a darned nuisance to put it mildly.
My laptop is up and running again thanks to a new hard drive and my new desktop came a few days ago. Once I had it set up I tested my three IDE drives in an external enclosure. One dead, one mysteriously wiped and one with a knackered Windows installation. How or why I cannot explain. Needless to say, I'm none too keen to use it or the wiped one again.
Anyway, I've dredged up some old DVD back-ups from about a year or two ago and am gradually restoring my system. It's a darned nuisance to put it mildly.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
The Perfect Storm
So I suffered a mechanical failure on my laptop hard drive- and lost a lot of work/material. I switched over to my desktop and everything seemed to be working okay there. I went even went online, blogged about the fault and then ordered a replacement hard drive.
Right the next day though, I turned on my PC and - boom! Windows wouldn't start-my 40Gb desktop drive seems to have sabotaged itself. Don't panic, I thought- and I dug out an old 17Gb hard drive (from back in the day when that was a substantial bit of kit) and plugged it into my PC. This was my rescue kit- a copy of Windows XP with nothing else but drivers and my DVD writing software installed.
Boot up Windows and check my 40Gb hard drive- I can access the information on it so just to be safe I copy over some files and folders onto the 17Gb drive. All well and good. I then go to write it to disc. Boom- Windows says it's missing a DLL and can't write. Which is news to me as the very last time I used the drive before it went into safe storage it worked perfectly. So I plug in my thumb drive. Boom- USB won't work. Feeling a tad more stressed I plug in my modem so that I can go online and track down the problem/missing file. Boom- it won't recognise my tried and trusty modem either.
So there's information's there- I just can't transfer it anywhere. I've backed up all I need off the 40Gb drive so I decide to re-install a fresh copy of Windows. Boom- won't get past the part where it installs the files it needs to begin the set up process. Nothing I can do will get XP to run on it.
So, I've lost everything off my laptop- every few hours something else that I should have backed up will pop into my head- and now my desktop machine won't run either. Crippled Windows doesn't really count. I have a tiny portion of info saved but I can't get it off that machine and onto my now-repaired laptop. As well as the 40Gb hard drive I also have a big 320Gb drive where I store everything- all my family photos, music, e-books, all my documents, saved web-pages, everything. I've a nasty feeling that the infernal machine has done something wicked to that too.
Right now I'm trying to set up my laptop again and waiting impatiently for my new desktop machine to arrive. Once it's here I'll at least be able to plug the drives in and see if I can salvage anything.
Who would have thought that a partitioned laptop drive, a desktop drive and a back-up drive could all malfunction in the space of a couple of days? I feel like I should be searching my home for Gremlins.
Anyway, let my tale of data woe be a warning to you. Don't rely on just several hard drive back ups like me. From now on I'm going to throw in some DVD copies and a couple of thumb drives into the mix too.
Right the next day though, I turned on my PC and - boom! Windows wouldn't start-my 40Gb desktop drive seems to have sabotaged itself. Don't panic, I thought- and I dug out an old 17Gb hard drive (from back in the day when that was a substantial bit of kit) and plugged it into my PC. This was my rescue kit- a copy of Windows XP with nothing else but drivers and my DVD writing software installed.
Boot up Windows and check my 40Gb hard drive- I can access the information on it so just to be safe I copy over some files and folders onto the 17Gb drive. All well and good. I then go to write it to disc. Boom- Windows says it's missing a DLL and can't write. Which is news to me as the very last time I used the drive before it went into safe storage it worked perfectly. So I plug in my thumb drive. Boom- USB won't work. Feeling a tad more stressed I plug in my modem so that I can go online and track down the problem/missing file. Boom- it won't recognise my tried and trusty modem either.
So there's information's there- I just can't transfer it anywhere. I've backed up all I need off the 40Gb drive so I decide to re-install a fresh copy of Windows. Boom- won't get past the part where it installs the files it needs to begin the set up process. Nothing I can do will get XP to run on it.
So, I've lost everything off my laptop- every few hours something else that I should have backed up will pop into my head- and now my desktop machine won't run either. Crippled Windows doesn't really count. I have a tiny portion of info saved but I can't get it off that machine and onto my now-repaired laptop. As well as the 40Gb hard drive I also have a big 320Gb drive where I store everything- all my family photos, music, e-books, all my documents, saved web-pages, everything. I've a nasty feeling that the infernal machine has done something wicked to that too.
Right now I'm trying to set up my laptop again and waiting impatiently for my new desktop machine to arrive. Once it's here I'll at least be able to plug the drives in and see if I can salvage anything.
Who would have thought that a partitioned laptop drive, a desktop drive and a back-up drive could all malfunction in the space of a couple of days? I feel like I should be searching my home for Gremlins.
Anyway, let my tale of data woe be a warning to you. Don't rely on just several hard drive back ups like me. From now on I'm going to throw in some DVD copies and a couple of thumb drives into the mix too.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
The Clicking of Doom
For most of this year I've been using a Toshiba laptop as my primary machine, with my vintage PIII desktop relegated to the spare room. The laptop's less than a year old but this evening as I was using it to watch a DVD the hard drive started clicking and the machine locked up. As is always the case it's been a little while since I last backed up my data- and, like a trusting fool, the last few saves were performed by copying info from one half of the partitioned drive to the other. Now both are lost.
I could kick myself but I was preparing for a Windows/software problem not for a nearly new hard drive to up and die on me. I guess I could always try freezing it...
Anyway, I've moved back to the desktop for the time being while I look up a replacement hard drive for the laptop- and a reliable external drive for back-ups. Then I need to figure out a handy way to back up folders, bookmarks, etc on a daily basis.
If you haven't done so already today, back up your data!
I could kick myself but I was preparing for a Windows/software problem not for a nearly new hard drive to up and die on me. I guess I could always try freezing it...
Anyway, I've moved back to the desktop for the time being while I look up a replacement hard drive for the laptop- and a reliable external drive for back-ups. Then I need to figure out a handy way to back up folders, bookmarks, etc on a daily basis.
If you haven't done so already today, back up your data!
Monday, July 28, 2008
The Dead Zone
My internet connection went dark yesterday evening and this morning when I woke the darned thing was still refusing to cooperate. Stuck in the Dead Zone with no access to news, blogs or anything. Like being in prehistoric times I suspect. I tried a few things myself to see if it was a problem on my end but everything checked out. So, I called my ISP's technical support. They were less than helpful.
After explaining the problem- my router was picking up the ADSL line but could not connect, and when I switched over to modem it dialled the line but there was no answer on the other end- the trained monkey suggested I turn the router off and on again, is it connected to the socket, what lights are on? Blah, blah, blah. I explained two or three times that I knew what I was doing and, yes, it was turned on and plugged in. He then proceeded to tell me that it was a line problem, the ADSL wasn't working- nothing he could do, call back tomorrow. I explained- again- that it wasn't. My router, for example, has a indicator light to tell you if its picking up ADSL and another for when its connected to the internet. He argued that, no, the ADSL light was to show whether I was connected and so it must be a line fault. Call back tomorrow, no help here. I gave up on him and phoned back later. Before I did though, I went so far as to check my router manual just to make sure I wasn't imagining things- and I was right about that light. That infuriated me even more.
Normally, I'm quite a reserved character- but technical support people like this flick a switch somewhere deep in my brain. Especially when they are conditioned to treat everyone they speak to as complete idiots who can't be trusted to find the "on" button and don't listen to what you tell them. Three or four times I explained to the next tech support that, no, I was picking up the line- my modem was dialling but not getting a response. I even have a little utility on one of my machines which monitors the line- when there's no ADSL, it shows a little red light- and won't dial and wait for an answer. Would this one listen? Not a chance.
What's worse than the not hearing anything you tell them is the "have you tried unplugging it?". No matter how you answer (i.e. I've tried two different PCs, one with modem, one with router- same problem, my system's are working fine) they still tell you to unplug it again. A while back I had issues with a router- it stopped functioning completely. Wouldn't even turn on. No power light, nothing. It was an ex-router. The idiot monkey told me to turn it off and then on again- I told him I'd checked it out already, made sure everything was plugged in, etc, etc but he kept saying it. Over and over. I refused on the grounds that it was a pointless exercise- "It won't turn on at all. There's no power light at all. It's not working in any way, shape or form." Response- "Turn it off and then turn it on again. What lights are coming on?" He refused to do anything until I obeyed his instructions. First time I've ever had tech support cry out and hang up on me. To my ISP's credit, when I complained about that incident they sent me new hardware immediately.
Anyway, back to today- late in the evening I tried again and it dialled up and connected. But no pages were displayed. Information was going out and coming in, but no joy. I tried to ping an address and the result came back positive. After a few attempts at disconnecting and reconnecting, everything suddenly started working again.
Thank goodness- the world is at my fingertips once again and I don't have to shout at some poor, unsuspecting tech support drone tomorrow.
After explaining the problem- my router was picking up the ADSL line but could not connect, and when I switched over to modem it dialled the line but there was no answer on the other end- the trained monkey suggested I turn the router off and on again, is it connected to the socket, what lights are on? Blah, blah, blah. I explained two or three times that I knew what I was doing and, yes, it was turned on and plugged in. He then proceeded to tell me that it was a line problem, the ADSL wasn't working- nothing he could do, call back tomorrow. I explained- again- that it wasn't. My router, for example, has a indicator light to tell you if its picking up ADSL and another for when its connected to the internet. He argued that, no, the ADSL light was to show whether I was connected and so it must be a line fault. Call back tomorrow, no help here. I gave up on him and phoned back later. Before I did though, I went so far as to check my router manual just to make sure I wasn't imagining things- and I was right about that light. That infuriated me even more.
Normally, I'm quite a reserved character- but technical support people like this flick a switch somewhere deep in my brain. Especially when they are conditioned to treat everyone they speak to as complete idiots who can't be trusted to find the "on" button and don't listen to what you tell them. Three or four times I explained to the next tech support that, no, I was picking up the line- my modem was dialling but not getting a response. I even have a little utility on one of my machines which monitors the line- when there's no ADSL, it shows a little red light- and won't dial and wait for an answer. Would this one listen? Not a chance.
What's worse than the not hearing anything you tell them is the "have you tried unplugging it?". No matter how you answer (i.e. I've tried two different PCs, one with modem, one with router- same problem, my system's are working fine) they still tell you to unplug it again. A while back I had issues with a router- it stopped functioning completely. Wouldn't even turn on. No power light, nothing. It was an ex-router. The idiot monkey told me to turn it off and then on again- I told him I'd checked it out already, made sure everything was plugged in, etc, etc but he kept saying it. Over and over. I refused on the grounds that it was a pointless exercise- "It won't turn on at all. There's no power light at all. It's not working in any way, shape or form." Response- "Turn it off and then turn it on again. What lights are coming on?" He refused to do anything until I obeyed his instructions. First time I've ever had tech support cry out and hang up on me. To my ISP's credit, when I complained about that incident they sent me new hardware immediately.
Anyway, back to today- late in the evening I tried again and it dialled up and connected. But no pages were displayed. Information was going out and coming in, but no joy. I tried to ping an address and the result came back positive. After a few attempts at disconnecting and reconnecting, everything suddenly started working again.
Thank goodness- the world is at my fingertips once again and I don't have to shout at some poor, unsuspecting tech support drone tomorrow.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Firefox 3
So I upgraded to Firefox 3 and it seems pretty good. Looks nice, seems to run okay but I have two quibbles, one minor, one a little bigger.
Minor one first- the "view history in sidebar" option is gone. And I quite liked that. Handier than the "Library" window which opens now.
Secondly, Adblock isn't working just yet- and it's pretty shocking for me to see just how many ads are on websites that I visit regularly. Most of them running resource-consuming Flash animations. Trust me, whenever they get it working try it out for a while and block ads left, right and centre. After a while you'll end up seeing hardly any on pages you visit daily and not only will they load faster but they'll be more uncluttered.
Come on, Adblock- get updated!
Minor one first- the "view history in sidebar" option is gone. And I quite liked that. Handier than the "Library" window which opens now.
Secondly, Adblock isn't working just yet- and it's pretty shocking for me to see just how many ads are on websites that I visit regularly. Most of them running resource-consuming Flash animations. Trust me, whenever they get it working try it out for a while and block ads left, right and centre. After a while you'll end up seeing hardly any on pages you visit daily and not only will they load faster but they'll be more uncluttered.
Come on, Adblock- get updated!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Not Backwards Compatible?
New laptop running Vista as opposed to my antique desktop running XP Pro. Add in a wireless router and I find myself in the unusual position that the laptop can "see" the router, connect to it and, allegedly, the internet- and yet I can't get anything from the 'net. Pages won't load at all.
This seems to be a problem with some new TCP/IP feature in Vista designed to sell masses of new wireless routers. Now, I've heard that if I turn off the Window Scaling feature that the router-Vista problem will be fixed. Being a cautious type though I'm hesitant to do that because I can currently get online by plugging a network cable into the router- and I don't want to mess that up and end up with no way to get the laptop online.
Any suggestions?
This seems to be a problem with some new TCP/IP feature in Vista designed to sell masses of new wireless routers. Now, I've heard that if I turn off the Window Scaling feature that the router-Vista problem will be fixed. Being a cautious type though I'm hesitant to do that because I can currently get online by plugging a network cable into the router- and I don't want to mess that up and end up with no way to get the laptop online.
Any suggestions?
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Time To Panic
Today started on a strange note- the alarm went off as usual and I thought that I'd woken up and started getting ready. I perhaps should have known something was amiss when I started building a bonfire on the beach outside my house; I live nowhere near the ocean. Next thing I know my wife's nudging me up and telling me that the school bus has come and the kids are still sleeping. Darn. That fire was really getting going too.
Anyway, I come downstairs, get breakfast, etc and then come in to check the Infernal Machine- there's a Firefox window open and that's when the panic grips me- the personal toolbar is empty. I sit down and click on bookmarks- that's empty too. The page being displayed tells me that Firefox has been successfully updated- but all of my details are missing! It's been a while since I backed up my bookmarks, Quicknote, and so on- and then there's the matter of all those passwords that I can't remember but Firefox has saved for me. It all seems to be gone. Just wiped away. I quickly start looking for the Mozilla folder and my profile. Oddly, the bookmarks file there is nearly 500kb. Perhaps all is not lost.
To change profiles or to point Mozilla at a different one, you need to shut the programme down. I copy and paste the folder holding the bookmarks file- hoping beyond hope that it really is mine- just in case and then shut down Firefox. No sooner has the window vanished than it opens again on its own; only this time it's the Firefox I recognise with its cluttered toolbar and bulging list of bookmarks, many of which are so old that the websites they belong to- let alone the pages they point to- no longer exist.
I suspect that a cat is to blame- dancing around on my keyboard is one of the annoying habits of a stray kitten I've brought in. How it managed the trick though, I have no idea.
Time to start breathing again. The first thing I do is find a back-up utility. MozBackup seems to be the prime example but I'm going to take a chance on FEBE first; simply because it can do an automated backup.
If you know of a better way to back-up Firefox (bookmarks, passwords, etc) then please do let me know.
Anyway, I come downstairs, get breakfast, etc and then come in to check the Infernal Machine- there's a Firefox window open and that's when the panic grips me- the personal toolbar is empty. I sit down and click on bookmarks- that's empty too. The page being displayed tells me that Firefox has been successfully updated- but all of my details are missing! It's been a while since I backed up my bookmarks, Quicknote, and so on- and then there's the matter of all those passwords that I can't remember but Firefox has saved for me. It all seems to be gone. Just wiped away. I quickly start looking for the Mozilla folder and my profile. Oddly, the bookmarks file there is nearly 500kb. Perhaps all is not lost.
To change profiles or to point Mozilla at a different one, you need to shut the programme down. I copy and paste the folder holding the bookmarks file- hoping beyond hope that it really is mine- just in case and then shut down Firefox. No sooner has the window vanished than it opens again on its own; only this time it's the Firefox I recognise with its cluttered toolbar and bulging list of bookmarks, many of which are so old that the websites they belong to- let alone the pages they point to- no longer exist.
I suspect that a cat is to blame- dancing around on my keyboard is one of the annoying habits of a stray kitten I've brought in. How it managed the trick though, I have no idea.
Time to start breathing again. The first thing I do is find a back-up utility. MozBackup seems to be the prime example but I'm going to take a chance on FEBE first; simply because it can do an automated backup.
If you know of a better way to back-up Firefox (bookmarks, passwords, etc) then please do let me know.
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