Bolshi
Try selecting hard drive boot and you may get a list of hard drives. Sometimes the BIOS treats a USB drive as a hard drive.

Haystack - you're right.
I've been a bit (or lot?) of a pillock here. Because of the problems booting up with the new ext. drive switched on I've been keeping it switched off until after boot up. It was switched off when I looked in the Bios so the Bios didn't see it and didn't list it anywhere. When I re-booted with it switched on and went into Bios there was a new listing for Hard Disk Drives. It had the external drive as 1st choice with my internal drive as 2nd choice. I've changed them and now everything is hunky dory. If the worst comes to the worst under hd failure (and Acronis can't get me going with existing set up) then I can alter Bios again to read external drive 1st. Phew! Very satisfying for a PC novice!
Thanks everyone. Really appreciate it.

Only another thousand snippets of knowledge like this, Bolshi, and you'll be an expert, eh?

Same here. :-)

Doc. What would we do without this thread eh? :-)))))

Over 5,000 posts and still going strong

Dear Technical Support,

18 months ago, I upgraded to Girlfriend 1.0 from DrinkingMates 4.2, which I had used for years without any trouble.

However, there are apparently conflicts between these two products and the only solution was to try and run Girlfriend 1.0 with the sound turned off.

To make matters worse, Girlfriend 1.0 is incompatible with several other applications, such as LadsNightOut 3.1, Football 4.5, and Playboy 6.9.

Successive versions of GirlFriend proved no better. I tried a shareware program, Slapper 2.1, but it had many bugs and left a virus in my system, forcing me to shut down completely for several weeks.

Eventually, I tried to run GirlFriend 1.2 and Girlfriend 1.0 at the same time, only to discover that when these two systems detected each other they caused severe damage to my hardware.

I eventually upgraded to Fiancee 1.0, only to discover that this product soon had to be upgraded further to Wife 1.0.

While Wife 1.0 tends to use up all my available resources, it does come bundled with FreeSexPlus and Cleanhouse 2005.

Shortly after this upgrade, however, I found that Wife 1.0 could be very unstable and costly to run. Any mistakes I made were automatically stored in Wife 1.0's memory and could not be deleted.

They then resurfaced months later when I had forgotten about them.

Wife 1.0 also has an automatic Diary, Explorer and E-mail filter, and can, without warning, launch TurboStrop and Whinge.

These latter products have no Help files, and I have to try to guess what the problem is.

Additional problems are that Wife 1.0 needs updating regularly, requiring Shoe Shop Browser for new attachments and Hairstyle Express which needs to be reinstalled every sixth week.

Also, when Wife1.0 attaches itself to my Porsche911 or MercedesEstate hard drive, it often crashes.

Wife1.0 also comes with an irritating pop-up called Mother In Law, which can't be turned off.

Recently I've been tempted to install Mistress 2005 , but there could be problems. A friend of mine has alerted me to the fact that if Wife 1.0 detects Mistress 2005 , it tends to delete all of Money before uninstalling itself.

Please advise ASAP


Many Thanks

I HAVE BEEN REMOVING PROGRAMMES WHICH I HAVE NOT BEEN USING, AFTER I HAD REMOVED TWISTER AND UTILITIES, MY COMPUTER STARTED TO GO FUNNY.THAT IS THE LETTERS GOT BIG AND THE STYLE CHANGED.I AM UNABLE TO GET TO WHAT I HAD BEFORE. HOW DO I GET THE ABOVE PROGRAMME BACK. THANKS CAN SOMEONE HELP ME

Islahi. Have you tried a System Restore if you're using XP?

Islahi

Yes, your letters are a bit big. :-)

1. First, please hit your 'Caps Lock'. It's bad form and very boring for your readers too, my dear chap, to use capital letters all the time when you are posting on a bulletin board. The slang term for posting like that is 'shouting'. It's not nice.

2. At the top of your browser on the Tool Bar, you will see 'View'.

Click View
Click Text Size

It's probably now on 'Large'. You probably might like 'Medium'.

Hope that helps.

If not, your deleting activities might well have changed your screen resolution to '800 x 600' pixels from a previous '1024 x 768' pixels.

On your Desktop do a Right Click anywhere on the screen away from an icon.
Up will pop a window called 'Display Properties'
Select the tab called 'Settings'.
Select the slider where it says 'Screen Resolution' and move it to '1024 x 768'.
Click on 'Apply'
Click 'OK'

Hope that helps.

Thank you DocProc for your advice. my screen resolution setting had changed, now I am having a wavey effect when I am moving pages up and down. Thanks once more

Islahi, check in Control Panel/System in the list of devices that your graphics card and display are identified as the correct make and model and not a generic version.

OK, Islahi

:-)

After you've tried Kayak's suggestion, then if necessary:-

Back to the window and page where the 'slider' thingy was.
Click on 'Advanced'
Click on the tab called 'Monitor'
Try the highest value for 'Screen refresh rate' (probably 85 Hertz) and see if that works. Try 75 Hertz if it doesn't.
You'll have to click on 'Apply' and 'OK' once again.

Help!
Been trying to install copy of Publisher but get error 25003.Been through recommended cures to no avail.
Installs fine on 2 other PCs in house but not on mine. Thought it may be D drive fault but tried installing from transferred files with same error message.

Any ideas?

.

still need Help!
Been trying to install copy of Publisher but get error 25003.Been through recommended cures to no avail.
Installs fine on 2 other PCs in house but not on mine. Thought it may be D drive fault but tried installing from transferred files with same error message.

Any ideas?

Have you tried the various suggestions thrown up by google searches?

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=324853

DONE ALL OF BELOW BEFORE POSTING :-)

Method 1: Clean the CD-ROM
To clean the CD-ROM, use a CD-ROM cleaning kit, or gently wipe the silver side of the CD-ROM with a soft, lint-free cotton cloth. Do not use paper cloth, which can scratch the plastic and leave streaks. When you clean the CD-ROM, wipe from the center of the disc outward. Do not use a circular motion.

If this does not resolve the issue, clean the CD-ROM with a damp lint-free cotton cloth. Dry the CD-ROM thoroughly before you insert it into the CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM drive.
Back to the top

Method 2: Show Hidden Files on the Network Share
1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. Double-click Folder Options.
3. Click the View tab.
4. Click to select the Show All Files check box.
5. Click to clear the Hide file extensions of known file types check box.
6. Click to clear the Hide protected operating system files check box.
7. Click Apply, and then click OK. If this does not resolve this issue, contact your network administrator for information about how to replace the missing or corrupted files.

Back to the top

Method 3: Clean Boot Your Computer
Use a clean boot to restart your computer, and then see if the issue persists. A clean boot is a method to create a clean environment. When you start your computer with a clean boot, Microsoft Windows starts and loads only the basic devices and services.

To restart your computer with a clean boot, follow the steps that are appropriate to your operating system.
Windows XP
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type msconfig in the Open box, and then click OK.
3. Click the General tab, and then click Selective Startup.
4. Under Selective Startup, click to clear the following check boxes :
Process System.ini file
Process Win.ini file
Load Startup Items
5. Click the Services tab, click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box, and then click Disable All.
6. Click OK, and then click Restart to restart the computer.
NOTE: To restore the computer to use a normal startup, click Normal Startup - load all device drivers and services on the General tab in the System Configuration Utility, click OK, and then click Restart to restart the computer.
Windows Me


STILL BAFFLED

Or this

Can I revive my plea for some help in buying a cordless phone, please?

I went up the nearby Tottenham Court Road and ended up buying a BT Freestyle 610 for the two reasons that (a) it was white and matched our kitchen and (b) it had extra large buttons making it easier to use.

It has two faults. One is that the ringing on the base unit is an ugly strident screech. You can't turn it down. Yes, you can make the ringing on the handset gentle, but there is no way you can stop the base unit making you jump out of your skin. It's horrid.

Second fault is that the wireless link is so weak that it cannot reach from our kitchen to any other room in the flat. OK we live in a Victorian block with thick walls, but this is pathetic - and consequently useless. There is no point in having a cordless phone if you can't carry it from one room to the next.

I'm going to get no advice up the TCR as anyone who has shopped there will know all too well.

Can anyone come up with any ideas, please? I know that as soon as I take this phone back to the shop I'll simply be palmed off with b*llsh*t.

Your help, oh wise ones, please!

TP