I may be gone some time

[Horus]

I may have to carry out some major overhaul of my PC's, so in the words of that heroic arctic explorer "I may be gone sometime"
So if I suddenly disapear off the radar for a while you will know why.

[Winged Isis]

Good bye and good luck. Don't forget to leave a trail of breadcrumbs! :cb:

[Phantom]

Hope all of the snow has gone

[LovelyLadyLux]

Hope the PC work goes well and doesn't become too technical or difficult. Hurry Back H!!!

[Horus]

I have put it one the back burner for now, but if i disapear off the radar you will know why

[Ruby Slippers]

There are times when I wish I had never heard of a pc, Horus, let alone used one, and I hate it when something goes wrong with one! Hope it all goes well and withou any problems for you. After all, who else will keep us all in order?

[Horus]

@ RS, unlike somewhere else I could name who behave like school kids, you lot are all very well behaved and can be trusted to get along with no problems
The PC issue is not all that desperate to be honest, I did have a small problem with some little nasty that sneaked in and kept changing my homepage, the problem was that it hides itself and changes a registry entry. It was something I think I have sorted, but a couple of things that I could have done to sort it sooner required that I use some of the microsoft features such as 'Regedit' which can be a bit dangerous and also the 'Restore' feature. Unfortunately my operating system on this machine is still using XP but that's because I prefer it due to some programmes I have installed on it and I fear that over the years the operating system has become a bit on the flakey side and really should be re-installed as some stuff is not behaving as it should command wise. I don't mind the install so mush as all the grief that will follow with drivers, re-installing programmes and internet and a miriad of other things that I have probably lost the disks and authorisation codes, passwords et al, so I am reluctant to do it if possible. When I do I really should start from scratch and install a newer operating system, dump things that I dont use, buy the up to date version of some programs and everything else that will go with it. I do have my laptop to fall back on , but I hate using laptops and I tend to use it so infrequently that it often needs to update itself for half an hour before it is ready to use again, so I just treat it as a backup.

[Kiya]

Oh Horus the other night suddenly & while working on my pc the dreaded " blue screen " appeared, everything came to a halt & all I thought my new 5 mths old computer had to go to sick bay !!! but, within a few seconds a message came up saying to " fix it " etc, it did it automatically then restarted & everything seems ok since.

What could have caused that

[Horus]

oh the dreaded "blue screen of death" gets you going a bit when you see that
I wouldn't worry too much Kiya especially as the operating system detected the problem and offered a 'fix'. It is almost impossible unless you are really good with PC's to know what may have happened and if you did it probably wouldn't make much sense to you. Providing this is a fairly isolated occurence then don't worry about it, occasionally computers are like women and get their knickers in a twist If it continues to happen on a regular basis and giving you the blue screen then it may need checking out, but for a single incident I would forget about it.

[Kiya]

Now why did I think only you would come up with an answer like that thankfully no more blue screen so far................touch wood

[Grandad]

I think I need to embark on the same extreme action as yourself Horus and put my computer back to original ex works state. I did it a few years ago and it took about 2 days to rebuild everything. I am getting increasing problems and warnings and am sure I have done something to remove some vital common files.

Added to that the internet is running very slow and some pages just will not open. The strangest is the new mouse. It has not run properly from the start. There is a download to program the additional buttons. I get a message that it has encountered a problem. Please reinstall programe to correct this fault. I reinstall and then get the same message again to reinstall.

I had mentioned my problem of not being able to open RAW images in PSE11 and I believe that also relates to some missing file somewhere. There are other programs that I don't use and when I try to uninstall them via Control Panel>Add/Remove programs, I am unable to.

So it's time to bite the bullet and go back to square one.

So, like you, if I disappear for a few days I am reinstalling and downloading everything that I still need; and ignoring anything that I haven't used for a long time.........

PS: Just realised I should be able to keep in touch with most of the world with my tablet...must put it on charge

[LovelyLadyLux]

My update is that I too will be gone for some time but it'll be holidays. My PC woes are that I've broken or wore out the space bar key - well the right hand side of it. Is making typing super difficult and when I go to the States I think I'll have to get it into the repair guy while I'm gone and have him put in a whole new keyboard. Highly doubt I can change 'just one' key (although the space bar is 2 keys)

On another note - I noticed recently that Hotmail and Skype merged and that merger has really messed up lots of my stuff. I have both as I use Skype international to talk to the relatives there however since they brought the two together I've had lots of problems logging in and getting going. I'm not sure there is anything I can do about this though.

I'm not sure this would benefit Kiya (or if this is applicable to anything) but I have Norton Security Suite. I think it was a freebie the computer guy put onto the laptop. I go ideally once a week but reality ever few weeks and click the PC Tuneup button, PC Security Button (and there are 2 more I can't remember). I think doing this runs scans on everything, cleans up extra space hanging about - stuff like that. This is also stopping virus from getting into the laptop.

Another thing I do is to usually leave the computer in hibernate so once a week, usually Wednesday, I have to totally shut it off and re-start again so any patches or updates that have come through get to have the install finished. Dunno what a patch is but since the computer guy said to do this I do it Turning the computer off and back on to do this install patch thing happened cause the computer was going slow and hanging up and it was these things trying to get into the computer causing it.

I also know at work that periodically I'd get warnings that in 15 minutes my computer was going to restart....so....I think turning it completely off and then back on again is a good thing in cyber world.

[Horus]

It looks as if we all need a bit of maintenance on our PCs
It is always as well to turn your PC of LLL because it allows the operating system to update everything.
You are right about things not working correctly Grandad and I sometimes wonder if half these problems are caused by the poor internet services, at times mine is diabolically slow, but you are never sure if its down to some malicious rubbish on your PC or something else. The other thing is the constant updates that have to be put out to protect your PC (and don't believe that rubbish about Macs not getting infected either) they all make changes to something and over the years these updates and modifications screw things up and strange things start to happen, for example your problems with the Install/Uninstall programs. If I do not go all the way down to the bottom of the screen, well after the initial list of installed programmes, then I don't see the rest that are in there, there seems to be a huge empty space within the list that leads you to believe you have viewed everything when you have not. The other thing that really annoys me is all those updates from thing like 'Java' that are in themselves legitemate updates, but they deviously add themselves some other change to your PC such as "Make XXX my default browser or toolbar" and they have the box already ticked so they are easy to miss.
Worst of all are those so called legitimate files that get inserted again by proprietry software that is actually doing something different like gathering data on your shopping or inserting advertisements, unfortunately they can be hard to detect or avoid. To make maters worse I have even had viruses inserted via the driver disk for legitimate peripherals such as a mouse or similar, so nowhere is really immune to it all, so yes it does seem that a good flushing out is sometimes the only answer.

I would suggest that before you do that you sit down and make yourself a list of all the things you have on already such as install disks and info that was sent with your internet provider, driver disks for printers, monitors, scanners, cameras and all the other programmes you have and use. Preferably do this over several days and really think about it all, which files you need to save or any websites you may wish to research for available drivers etc before you hit the re-install button and of course your Serial Number and Installation Disk, then a lot of patience. A final tip is to unplug a lot of the peropherals before the install, just leaving Keyboard and Mouse, this helps the install to go ahead without distractions, then install each device/programme one at a time.

[Horus]

It looks as if we all need a bit of maintenance on our PCs
It is always as well to turn your PC of LLL because it allows the operating system to update everything.
You are right about things not working correctly Grandad and I sometimes wonder if half these problems are caused by the poor internet services, at times mine is diabolically slow, but you are never sure if its down to some malicious rubbish on your PC or something else. The other thing is the constant updates that have to be put out to protect your PC (and don't believe that rubbish about Macs not getting infected either) they all make changes to something and over the years these updates and modifications screw things up and strange things start to happen, for example your problems with the Install/Uninstall programs. If I do not go all the way down to the bottom of the screen, well after the initial list of installed programmes, then I don't see the rest that are in there, there seems to be a huge empty space within the list that leads you to believe you have viewed everything when you have not. The other thing that really annoys me is all those updates from thing like 'Java' that are in themselves legitemate updates, but they deviously add themselves some other

[Ruby Slippers]

My problem is installing a couple of my major programmes on Windows 8 which haven't had patches developed to make them actually work with Windows 8! One of these particular programmes cost me £950 and to upgrade it will be £1099 which I'm certainly not prepared to pay! Answers on a postcard please to...........!

[Horus]

Oh dear! I have heard Win8 described as "putting lipstick on a pig" and from what I can see of it they are correct. To me this is just an attempt by Microsoft to position themselves into the tablet & phone market so they bring this out, what are you betting on when Win9 is released, once they get us all on their new O/S then we are all on the road to making more profit for them. I have resisted upgrading from XP on my main PC even though I have Win7 on my Laptop from the day it was released, to me XP was and is the most stable system of the lot.

As to your problem RS I can only suggest that either you hang on and keep checking if the Programme makers release a patch within the next few months (as Win8 is relatively new) as people start complaining about stuff not working they may release one. The other thing that is a possibility is to have a dual operating system installed with Win7 or XP added so that you can boot from the other system and use your older programmes, there was an 'emulation mode' in Win7 that allowed you to use XP programmes, but I don't think that Win8 is capable of doing that.

The other option is if the programme is very important to you and of course it is very expensive to replace or upgrade, then a cheaper option may be to just buy a cheap second hand Laptop or PC and keep XP or Win7 installed on it along with your old and valuable programmes. This is not ideal, but it would be a cheaper solution if they don't have a patch, but first off have a word with the people who supplied your new Laptop/PC and see if they could put you another bootable older system on that would be selectable alongside of your newer Win8.

[Ruby Slippers]

Great minds think alike, Horus! I've already thought of partitioning the drive but when I read that you have to uninstall Winows 8 first, then install XP, then re-install 8, I was a bit scuppered because I haven't got a Wndows 8 disc. So then my mind turned to a second-hand laptop which honestly seems the best bet so far.

[Horus]

RS, is it a laptop or a desktop that you have?
Also if you have win8 installed didn't you get a disk with it even if it came pre-installed? (you don't have to answer )

[Ruby Slippers]

No problem in answering, Horus. It just didn't have a Windows 8 disc with it. I actually have a desktop running XP, a laptop running Windows 8 and an iPad. The programmes I mentioned are installed quite happily on the desktop and usually I can send a design to a floppy disc which then goes into my sewing machine. But the problem arises when I want to use another sewing machine which needs to be linked up to a PC to embroider; my desktop is downstairs but my workroom is upstairs. In all honesty I haven't tried installing the programmes yet because it was such a pain in the ***** last year when I did it on Windows 7. I got there in the end but then that laptop died on me within a couple of months. Time to try again, methinks, and if it doesn't work, I know I will be looking for yet another laptop, don't I?

[Horus]

I understand your problem RS, I still have a full sized drawing Pen Plotter that I use on rare occasions if I want to print a large sized design drawing at home. That also needs a cable connection to my XP machine and I doubt if it could ever run on Win7 or 8 as the software is too old. Is it possible to run a descreet cable up a wall and through a ceiling between the two, or have you looked into maybe some sort of wireless dongle that could transmit between the PC and the sewing machine?