optomistic

re: stuck CD unit.

Start up the file explorer. Right click on the drive and there should be an 'eject' choice. Click it and the drawer should open.

I am looking for a set of blue tooth headphones to plug into a 1/4 jackplug,any ideas someone please,so i can plug them into my metal detector and do away with cables ???

Mega...

Sorted,just purchased a set from Ebay at just under half price,well pleased :-)

just having to renew my Norton antivirus which was preinstalled on my dell before delivery and the renewal centre is asking for "Type the subscription key for the selected subscription service" - cannot find out what this means , can anybody help?

MD Did you get backup discs with it? With Norton it is usually on a yellow label on the CD packet. Either that or the renewal centre will have sent you a code to enter.

Having said that, why don't you uninstall the heavyweight Norton and use something like free AVG antivirus from

AVG antivirus

I use Norton Internet security on my laptop and AVG on my desktop and much prefer AVG - it uses far less resources, updates really quickly (but set your update time to a time of day when less people are likely to be updating - mine is set for 7 am) and has caught everything nasty anyone has ever sent me.

Seymour , have got the packet but cannot see a subscription key number and Symantec did not send me one.

Are there any number on the packet - and m,ore to the point have you paid?

seymour . on the disk there are no numbers and yes paid for 15 months which is ending and got renewal notice from Symantec - bit of a puzzle but have found a phone number to ring

That's the best approach then I think. When you paid 15 months ago did you get any emails? That's the only place you might find the sub key.

seymour , no e-mails , back checked but never registered with them - is that the problem?

If you've been getting service for 15 months then you should be registered. Thinking back I remember once updating Norton and I think I was given a number which I had to write down but wasn't sent to me by email or in any other way. You get an option to re-download at any time but if your machine crashes then without the reference number you can't get a machine with the Norton you paid for.

MD,

If you cannot continue with Norton at no extra cost I'd also recommend junking it.

My choice is PC-Cillin.

http://support.antivirus.co.uk/trendmicro/regions.jsp

Have it at home and in the office.

In the office it certainly stopped a recent nasty that some twerp downloaded and released on our company network - putting us without computers for half a day whilst our IT chappie fumigated everyone. Moi, I came out with medals as almost the only clean machine in the building!

What I also don't like about Norton is the way it dumps files it does not like into directories that you can never get rid of - thus fooling any subsequent virus checker like F-Prot into thinking you are still infected.

TP

pub , going to ring Symantec later and see what they have to say - thanks for input

I use the Windows XP Firewall and do regular sweeps with Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy. For my main e-mail, download and surfing protection I use the Firewall and AntiVirus Protection from BT's NetProtect and find them quite convenient. The cost for these latter two as a package is 3.50 pm = 42 pa. There is telephone help if required, which I have never needed and it is never really out-of-date. I set it to update regularly every other day or so and to automatically run a check my machine every day 'in the middle of the night'.

Check out these at http://www.btnetprotect.co.uk/howitworks.html

I've just been looking at a Review of BT's NetProtect on another web site, which says the following about what I'm using:-

If you're not looking for a unified suite, you could get equally good software free think ZoneAlarm (www.zonelabs.com) or Sygate Personal Firewall (http://smb.sygate.com) for firewalls, and AVG Anti-Virus (www.grisoft.com) or Avast (www.avast.com) on the virus protection side, and you've more or less replicated what you get with NetProtect without paying a bean.

Interesting!!! Hmmm?

md

You will get a new subscription key on renewing Norton.

I have a dell machine which also came with an intro period for Norton Antivirus. When this period expired I decided to ditch it and have since been using the AVG without any problems.

On subject of Symantec, I had to call in an expert to help after deciding to upgrade my perfectly-satisfactory Norton Internet Security 2005 product for the 2006 version. Precis is, it couldn't load the full product because of a class of registry files on the 2005 programme. Tried deleting 2005 but the whole nightmare caused my IE to be unable to connect to the internet, so I couldn't access the full removal tool.

When I called the Help Technical Support, they said, quite casually, 'Oh, loads of people have had this problem - call your ISP!' Nothing to do with them.

Everything fine now as Symantec allowed me to download the full 2006 version once my engineer had cleared the registry file knitting. Luckily for me, both sides of that conversation came from the same area near Madras, otherwise I might not have been so lucky.

Oh, he sorted out the Firefox and SP2 now loaded too. Great result, but watch out if you are planning to upgrade to the 2006 version of Internet Security.

Another thing I've started using is a separate USB External Hard Drive.

I have backed up all my data on it. It particularly has copies of all my E-mails, Word and Excel data files, Photo's, Downloaded Software Programs and all sorts of other snippets too.

Whilst having a browse in PCworld, I had a chat with a guy who was telling me he has TWO external drives to use for Back-up and he hides one away in a special place just in case he has a burglary and his machine and the one external drive a the side of it gets nicked.

Whilst the computer is still running, you can temporarily disable the external hard drive, switch it off at the button on the drive and then physically detach it from its power supply cable and USB cable for removal.

I went for the Toshiba 160GB USB HDD for 69.99 at

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0133815526.1138787037@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccegaddglkjfledcflgceggdhhmdgmi.0&microsite_id=Clearance_Bargains&page=Product&fm=5&sm=0&tm=undefined&sku=872201&category_oid=-24880

just called symantec and no support for 2004 , have to install new 2006 ahhhhhhh
any body any recommendations

DP,

How do you copy your Outlook.pst file ?

I find it gets blocked.

TP

TP

I use Outlook Express rather than Outlook and pretty much follow the stuff on the following site:

How to back up and recover Outlook Express data

I see there is a link from there for Outlook users, which takes you to

Differences between Outlook and Outlook Express

If this doesn't answer your questions, have a look

HERE

Thanks DP

The third pointer gives the answers.

I use Outlook simply to hold my diary and address book on my PC and PDA. I would not want to upgrade as all the other gizmos would never get used.

I have a handy program called RKopie that pumps my local files to my office server and thus provides a daily back-up to things that are critical and changing. I tried to include that .pst file but it ignored it. Anyway I now see how it can be done - albeit with rather more key strokes.

Thanks for the help.

TP