Iain

Do have a look at http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/forumdisplay.php?f=90

Lots of stuff on there about DVD recording, copying, editing, etc, and also lots of the right sort of experienced techies to question. You might pick up a few snippits.

I found some good stuff about connecting up Scart leads to TV, Digibox and other equipment. (We all know how many cables there are at the backs of our TVs, I'm sure) The DigitalSpy.co.uk site helped me no end.

If anyone Intrested.Im selling a Zoom ADSL USB Modem 3 months old with Installation Disk and all leads.10 plus p+p

A friend is having computing probs. and I wondered if
anyone could suggest an answer. She has had endless
problems with her current computer and has been advised
to start from scratch again. Her e-mail is via Outlook
Express (not something I am familiar with) and she has
important mail stored in files. Is there any way she can save
these files to disc or any other way. Apart from forwarding all
relevant documents to someone else or printing off, any other suggestions
would be most welcome!

Check out
Backup Everything E-mail

Thank you Doc Proc! Shall forward. Looks like it should solve the problem!

Hope I'm not butting in but unfortunately she will have to pay $24.95 for that programme to restore them!

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;188854

This article describes how to back up your Outlook Express Windows Address Book (.wab) file and mail folders (.mbx) files, and contains the following topics:
How to Back Up the Windows Address Book
How to Back Up Mail Folders
How to Restore the Windows Address Book
How to Restore Mail Folders
Outlook Express 5 Users

Fairly simple to follow and will save her a little money!

brianboru

Yes. Thank you. And NO NO NO, you are not butting in. :-)

That is a much better way.

Thanks, brianboru and DocProc. Seems that part of the original
problem is that she cannot download, so shall go over tomorrow
and see if we can work it out.

Meanwhile shall send her link above :-)

What's her 'computer housekeeping' like?

To get an idea of where I'm coming from with that question, check out No's 363 and 364 on dealing with 'Malware' at

http://www.telegraph.co.uk "Connected" - The Archive

PS. Subscription is required to access Telegraph Online but it is Free.

I bought my kids an IBM emachine on ebay last year. Runs win XPH. On a couple of occasions it's crashed and you can only get a blue screen - not get to the login page. The first time I simply did a system restore from the supplied discs.

This second time I have tried to do an XP safe mode bootup but still won't get to the login screen. Any ideas anyone other than same restore?

You could try http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

especially
Possible Fix by reconfiguring boot.ini using Recovery Console.

1.Boot with XP CD or 6 floppy boot disk set.

2. Press R to load the Recovery Console.

3. Type bootcfg.

4. This should fix any boot.ini errors causing setup not to see the XP OS
install.

5. Try the repair install.


One more suggestion from MVP Alex Nichol

"Reboot, this time taking the immediate R option, and if the CD letter is say K: give these commands

copy K:\i386\ntldr C:\
copy K:\i386\ntdetect.com C:\


(two other files needed - just in case)

1. Type: attrib -h -r -s C:\boot.ini del C:\boot.ini

2. Type: BootCfg /Rebuild

which will get rid of any damaged boot.ini, search the disk for systems and make a new one. This might even result in a damaged windows reappearing; but gives another chance of getting at the repair"




Good Luck!

Thanks Brian - will give it a go tonight

i keep getting a box saying low on virtual memory and then it says its increasing it, whats all that about then,?
whats virtual memory and how do i make it bigger?

Ruth

To change VM settings, right click on My Computer and select properties, then advanced tab/settings/advanced tab. Set both the min and max settings to around 3 times your physical RAM.

However, that is not your real problem. For trading you should be using hardly any VM as it slows things down. I suggest that you keep an eye on task manager and find out what is hogging the memory.

Finally upgrading to Ntl Broadband next Wednesday.
Put it off up to now as I didn't want to take out
a 12 month contract when we were thinking of moving
house. Now decided not to move yet, so upgrading.

I understand that Broadband comes via a separate cable
from Ntl, unlike BT which comes down your Telephone line.

On Dial-up, I use a Laptop that I plug into extension sockets
in the spare room in the evenings, and downstairs during the
daytime.

I assume that unless I run some sort of cable system around
the house, which I don't really want to do, I'm going to be
stuck in one place unless I get something called a Wireless
Router.

Does the Broadband take its signal from the Cable TV Set-Top
box, or the white connection box that is in between the cable and
the Set-Top box?

The reason I ask, is that I still have the cabling and white
connection box in the spare room, as it used to be my Daughters
bedroom where we used to have an additional set-top box for
her.

If this is the case, then I should be able to connect upstairs
or downstairs with a suitable cable.
Or is life not going to be that simple?

Any advice welcome, as I will need to tell him what I want on
Wednesday morning when he comes to connect me up.
Be nice to know in advance, so that I don't have to make a
hasty decision on the hoof, so to speak.

Melnibone.

Evening all

Recently i have had a few probs with the speed my laptop runs at and have been trying to find out why. One of the things i have been watching is the CPU usage (in task manager) which even when all i have done is switch the computer on is at 50%-55%. As soon as i do anything this raises to at least 70% and often 100%. I noticed it says just by turning the laptop on i have 46 processes running. Is this normal? the laptop is a toshiba with a 3.06ghz processor and 512 Mb memory.

Fundamentalist

46 running procceses is not excessive but CPU usage is. If nothing is running then the CPU usage should settle down to well below 10%.

Click on the proccesses tab in task manager, then click twice on the heading of the CPU column to bring the proccess with the highest CPU usage to the top, then investigate them.

Optimist

thanks for that - it appears there are two main processes running, both which have a figure in the cpu column of about 50. task manager and explorer both have a value of 2 everything else is zero.

the two processes are:

1) ud_ligfit_Release - this is a cancer research project which i have running in the background and hasnt caused me probs before

2) System Idle Process

The one program i am having the most probs with is ladbrokes poker (which i have been using for years). when i log in this takes up 97 of my cpu


How do i look into this further

Fundamentalist

If you are running UD agent then this will always keep your CPU usage at 100% or 50 % if you have a hyperthreading proccessor.

I've never used the ladbrooks program so can't comment but I'm sure that someone else will be able to help there.

Optimist

many thanks - i am running an HT processor