SC

I suspect a lot of problems are DNS related. You could try Googling for some public DNS servers, and see if using them makes any difference.

Thanks Optimist.

Optimist,

Just a line to say that I have just received two of those active USB extension cables that you pointed me to and they work perfectly - thus enabling me to work ten metres plus away from the tethered computer in my studio.

Now trying to come to terms with the Samsung Q1. It would be nice to be able to set up the DSLR Download software and then put the Q1 into standby - but I think that makes it lose the USB link to the camera. Probably not surprisingly - but it would be handy to find a work-around.

Also I need to check when I next start it up (it does take about four minutes to load from scratch and hence the wish to use Standby) as to whether it is NTFS or FAT. I heard that some of these small machines were being sold with FAT.

TP

"I suspect a lot of problems are DNS related. You could try Googling for some public DNS servers, and see if using them makes any difference"

I'm getting a permanent hour-glass on this MAM site this morning.

TP

TP

Yes your Q1 would switch off the USB in standby mode. You should go into the power saving settngs and set it to switch the screen off in standby but never switch the CPU or disk off. This will of course drain the battery quicker.

As it's an ultra portable, you may find that there is both hardware and Wn XP power saving in place.

Re MAM loading slowly, I have no problems at preent. It could be their fault but it could also be a DNS problem not being able to locate an advert.

My Viewsonic VA1912w monitor has started to flicker in the last few days, what does this usually mean????? Its only over a year old

Are you blinking more than usual? Maybe the screen is OK!

No more the usually ;-) all the other monitors are ok thats the strange thing

TP
Asus pre ordered. I must say some reviews of their products have been very good. Thanks for the tip - so far anyway. Any problems and I'll need you to go round :-)

kernow,

Well done. Which one are you getting?

TP

TP
Tis the Asus Laptop F3Sc-AP19XP. Didn't fancy Vista

Kernow, that's the one I think I'll be getting father-in-law as well - also want XP rather than Vista, because I'll have to sort it out when it goes wrong - and I won't have a clue with Vista. Have you any delivery date?

Vista is not perfect and possibly not as stable as XP but it is the future and has many features that make it easier to use, especially for inexperienced users.

The best Vista systems are Business and Ultimate so if you can get a good deal on either of those (beware business does not include Media Centre) then go for it. If the computer that you want only has Vista Home Premium or XP then it is cheaper to buy an OEM Vista Ultimate when you want it than to upgrade your system. However, there are downsides to the OEM version.

TP
No delivery date as yet. Thought it would be in the order confirmation. Not concerned as yet unless my HP expires.

Morning troops.

Good luck with the Asus lappies. Presumably you also came to the conclusion that they were good value.

On another matter. Sound enhancers. I've been using my Asus laptop to play MP3 files into an FM transmitter so that I can listen to them in my living room and my studio. I feed the signal from the headphone socket on the Asus.

Overnight I got a mailing from Creative (as I have their Zen MP3 player) and roaming round their site I came across this.

I'm assuming that it pulls the audio from the PMCIA socket and substitutes the sound card in the laptop.

Are these things likely to be any good? And if so, which are the best manufacturers?

TP

Optimist hi..... still got a problem

Rebooted pc and now it only gets as far as saying...under BIOS ver 1.1
SATA Primary drive 0 not found
SATA Secondary drive 0 not found
Primary drive 1 not found

it finds drive no...the HDD

but now not giving me the (beep) (beep) select f1 or f2?

so cant boot to windows

just pulled out the printer USD cable and bingo...beep beep...however the feeling is that all is not right....although nice to see my desktop again

foale

Have you got any other cables connected? If you have unplug them as well.

I've seen problems with the USB devices stopping booting before. My suspicion is that it is caused by the device taking too much power and in that case it could either be a printer fault or a motherboard fault. The workaround would be to use a powered USB hub which should get round the problem for the time being. You should be able to plug the printer back in once it has booted.

My guess is that the F1 message comes up because the BIOS has or thinks it has lost some info because of the power drain. Go into the BIOS settings, use a camera to take a picture of each screen and then reset to the deffaults. Save and exit and see if that works.

thank you sir...I will do just that

While waiting for my new laptop to arrive my thoughts turn to getting it up and running with all the dozens of bits of software I have on this machine. In the past I've always done a fresh install rather than clone exisitng as I believe that to be the recomended method? Much more time consuming digging out all those old CDs etc. and I wouldn't know how to clone anyway but is this still the best advice?
TIA