The best thing you can do with a printer is use it at least twice a week. It is doing this which keeps the print heads and jets clear and keeps things working well as it doesn't allow the ink to dry up in vital places. This bit of advice is the best bit of printer usage advice you will ever get.

Obviously, there are good inks and bad ones. To cut down on getting a bad one, it is obviously best to use branded products. They obviously cost more.

But there again.....

I have had cheap inks, which worked. I have had branded inks and my printer still blocked because of lack of use.

I wouldn't put my name to recommending one of the cheaper 'compatible' brands to you.

Also - I have read quite frequently how Epsom printers have a fairly bad general reputation so I wouldn't personally ever buy one of those. Just IMHO.

TP,without looking at that particualr machine, my Epson machine keeps throwing up a "this cartridge is not genuine" message when I try to print either with a refilled or compatible cartridge. Then goes on to print perfectly well, however it's a little annoying to keep getting that message. I did buy some black HP 56 double packs on ebuyer ebuyer website for some of our work machines, and they were virtually as cheap as compatibles.

Seymour. Did you manage to copy your vhs tapes to dvd via PC? I just thought I'd mention that I bought a Panasonic combi vhs/dvd (227). The results are brilliant!
I had many failures trying to do other things (including something called Dazzle) but all gave rubbish results when copying to dvd.
Even our wedding video (many years ago) came out spot on! Made me look young and handsome - oh well, all right, not the handsome bit!

No, not yet Bolshi - haven't had time, but I think I'll have to have a go. My PC has a scart socket in the back. I don't think I could get away with another box under the TV! However, I am tempted.

My wedding video is, erm, cine!! (Only 23 years ago though).

Thanks Doc,

Good advice about using the printer a couple of times a week. I'll try to remember that. And sound advice about using the branded cartridges.

On the matter of Epson I'll mention that I had a 2100 photographic printer and now have the 2400. Both produced stunning results - the 2400 having the edge with regard to black and white which is trickier than colour. With both printers the economic solution is to move to Continuous Ink Supply which uses bottles rather than cartridges. However, I have resisted the thought of changing for the same reasons as yours. Reliability.

Seymour.

I've never used ebuyer. I'll look at the site. Thanks.

TP

Anyone used Amazon for inks?

Google finds them far the cheapest for genuine HP cartridges.

TP

Bolshi, you mentioned a Panasonic combi vhs/dvd...do you have the model number please? I have lots of sentimental stuff on vhs that I'd like to preserve before the tapes die.

klal. It was the Panasonic DMREZ45V single region. I got it (227 inc del) from
123electricals4me.co.uk but I notice this morning that they've put the price up to 239 inc del. This was the price for multi region when I ordered.
The model also has Freeview thrown in.
I noticed that several of the suppliers were sold out of it. Apparently very popular.

Thanks Bolshi....will try and locate a source.

A cheaper way to import TV pictures to your computer is to fit an analouge TV tuner card and feed the VCR signal into that. I'm not sure what video capture software you would need but the free MS Movie Maker will do most of it.

Can any programming techies help on this.........?

I am looking to capture the information shown on the L2 order book in realtime and export it into something like excel or another program for analysis.
I have looked at all the usual providers pro quote, e-sig, sharescope etc to see what sort of data the DDE link provides, but none offer L2 data via DDE.

In a perfect world I'd like to export the whole order book, but if thats not available I need at least the Bid/Offer size, and prices (Yellow strip) along with trades data.

If DDE is a no go, is it possible to somehow capture this data via another method?

So far as I know there is no way to do it apart from using DDE or it's equivalent which nobody seems to offer. Theoretically, it should be possible to do it with a screen capture / character recognition program but that would be extremely difficult.

Please let me know if you do find a way.

I've looked into using Excel Web Queries to bring in price data and although I've had some success with this, the way it seems to bring in whole ranges of data means there's a considerable requirement to post-process the imported data which would turn it into a VBA project.

It's occurred to me more recently that there may be something to be done with Greasemonkey but I haven't had time to look into it in any detail. There is a smaller tool called Chickenfoot that does some of things Greasemonkey does but it's unlikely to be of any use for exporting data, though it may still be of interest to some here.

The XLtraders Yahoo Group is a good resource for manipulating Excel with respect to financial applications, but I've yet to trawl through the archive comprehensively so I couldn't tell you whether there's a solution hidden in there.

test

Now here's a strange thing!
My PC's DVD player has started acting awkward. It stubbornly refuses to eject on command when a disc is in. It is OK when empty and opens first time every time. I put a dvd in and then have all on to get it to open up. You can hear a small thump as it activates, as if it were going to release it, and then nothing.
It must take at least 10 attempts to get the drawer to open when using the manual button. It is the same if I tell the dvd player to open from 'My Computer'. In this case there's a few thumps and eventually (about 6 attempts) the drawer opens and then closes immediately and then opens.
I don't think this is a mechanical problem. It's as if its getting conflicting signals from the PC.
Any ideas please?

Is it female?

I think it's turning that way :-)

Storm Worm hits computers across worldFriday January 19, 12:13 PM

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Computer virus writers started to use raging European storms on Friday to attack thousands of computers in an unusual real-time assault, head of research at Finnish data security firm F-Secure told Reuters.

The virus, which the company named "Storm Worm" is sent to hundreds of thousands of email addresses globally, with the e-mail's subject line saying "230 dead as storm batters Europe."


The attached file contains the so-called malware that can infiltrate computer systems.
"What makes this exceptional is the timely nature of the attack," Mikko Hypponen, head of research at F-Secure said.

Hypponen said thousands of computers around the world, most in private use, had been affected.

He said most users would not notice the malware, or trojan, which creates a back door to the computer that can be exploited later to steal data or to use the computer to post spam.

Power supply problem
I recently attempted to change 1 of my DVD drives (DVD+RW) for another one, DVD-RW.
After I had detached the power & data cables I realised that I would have difficulty in actually removing the +RW drive beacuse there was not enough space. I re-attached both cables, but from that point on both of the already installed drives woudln't work - the power supply to both seemed to have failed - neither drive door would open & they did not show up as being present in the system - but everything else on the PC worked as it has always done!
I assumed that there was some sort of a fault with the PSU, & got another one. Unfortunately after I had removed the old PSU & started fitting the new one, I found that this one does not have the right power connector for the graphics card.

SO.......
I re-fitted the old PSU & put all of the connectors back where they had come from - guess what - no power (apparently) at all to the PC as it would not boot up etc..
The fans on the old PSU still still run when I switch on & there is power to the case as the power on display built in to the case is ok.
I am inclined to think that the PSU is still the problem - would I be right in this thinking? The hard drives are ok as I have recovered some files from them via my son's PC & installed them on this one (My wife's).

The PC is a Medion & the PSU (400 watt) on it is, I think, one specifically specced for the PC as the manufacturer's model no is FSP400-60MDN - FSP being the company who made it, & I imagine that MDN indicates "Medion".

Any suggestions or ideas gratefully received.

Edit - 1955 hr - Have managed to get my PC tested with a multimeter - testing some of the connectors shows that there is power to the CD & hard drives - have also noticed that the fans inside the case & on the graphics card are running ok.

I assume from this that the PSU is not the problem, but that power is getting to the motherboard but not getting any further.

Help, please

Been thinking further about this - could it be that the problem is in the CMOS - if I do a reset could this help? Also If I do reset, will I need to do anything further, e.g. in the BIOS?
thanks

When I view threads on Moneyam, next to the poster name I have boxes where there should be a link icon. When I look at a post by Mega Bucks next to his name I have
Green Box with dot - Go to MB website
Yellow box with X - Send MB an EMail
Blue box with X - View MB's Profile

How do I get the items to display properly.

I am using WIN XP and IE7