You don't live in a typical area so I couldn't guess whether or not you are receiving a standard Freeview RF signal.

Either try to get some info out of Virgin or find out if any of your neighbours can get freeview either on a modern TV or a standard box. Or you could spend 15 on a freeview box and see if it works.

Thanks again.
I can't find any info on VM site but nothing new about that. Will probably email them.
Will also visit someone who gets freeview. However I'm totally confident it's being fed through the cable.
It looks like the mistake I'm making is to expect the card to decode the signal.

The card will only be able to decode the signal if it is the same type of RF signal that is used for the terrestial digital broadcasts. I don't know whether or not that is the case, but the post by ExcecLine suggests that it may be different.

In execline's post: Freeview = DVB-T
On the box the card came in: watch, pause, record analog TV and digital terrestial TV (DVB-T).

I've just been to see someone who's getting freeview via the cable and a VM supplied box. I'll get on to them and see if the signal has to be turned on or some such.

From ExecLines post which quotes from the Freeview website.

The difference in technology makes it impossible any other way
Freeview = DVB-T
Freesat = DVB-S
Cable = DVB-C

You are presumably on cable and therefore need a DVB-C box.

If any of your neighbours can get freeview with a standard modern TV or a standard digi box then your card should work if they need the VM box then it won't work unless you plug it into a standard TV aerial.

The one I saw was using a VM box. I've emailed them so we'll see what they come up with (probably in a week or 3). It's an academic exercise in that I want to know what's going on more than anything so I'll continue to research, will report back if I find out anything interesting and once again thank you for your interest.

One of my flat screen monitors has just gone blank. I've checked the obvious - fuse, connection etc - but to no avail. Is it worth trying to get it repaired, or should I just buy a new one?

Have you done the obvious - swapped them round, check the video card is seated correctly? They're so cheap these days though.

SC - yes. The power light isn't even coming on! I run a dual head card and the other monitor is fine. As you say they have come down dramatically in price. Its a dell digital screen which I bought about 5 years ago for @ 450 - similiar can now be bought for 130-150 - hence my question really.

Looks like a new one then, unless anyone else has an idea.

Fuse in the plug?

Yep - 1st thing I checked!

Sorry - didn't mean to suggest you hadn't thought of the obvious :-)

lol

I'm in need of some serious help! My main PC's hard disk crashed today - my most recent backup is not recent enough :-( I have a utility that can normally recover set right most hard disk problems (Spinrite) but it refuses to run now as it detects a firmware problem (and suggests a BIOS update).

The options as I see them:

1. Relocate the hard disk on to another old PC and run Spinrite from there (and pray!)
2. Get a USB enclosure for the disk and use my laptop to run Spinrite
3. Just give up and curse my luck

The disk is not booting up at all. Running Windows XP Repair from the original CD to run CHKDSK didn't help as it stopped after 49% reporting an irrecoverable error.

The drive is old IDE type drive. I'm not heavily into hardware but don't mind a bit of tinkering. What are my best options to try and get the disk working long enough to recover at least some of the data? Grateful for any help and pointers.

If it detects a firmware problem it is talking about the drive firmware, so moving to another PC or laptop won't help. The message probably just means that the drive controller hardware is broken and so the data on the actual disc can't be accessed through it. Not sure what you could do beyond the usual stuff of checking that all cables in the PC are secure and that the drive has been detected correctly in the BIOS (possibly the PC BIOS parameters do not reflect what is needed to access the disc). You could also try popping the drive in the fridge for a while.

Thanks for responding so soon, Kayak! I've just double-checked on Spinrite's website and they seem to suggest it could be a problem with the motherboard BIOS.

Spinrite and BIOS problems

However, I will re-open the PC first thing in the morning and check all the wires and how the BIOS sees the drive. As for the BIOS parameters for the drive, what can I look for that will tell me something's wrong?

Thanks,
Lal

Klal

Is the faulty hard disk the main disk on your computer? If it is then stop using it in that machine NOW! as Windows uses a lot of disk activity which is not good for a failing disk.

I've not used Spinrite, but know that it is one of the best recovery utilities and I have a lot of respect for GRC. Have you checked their website for advice?

When I have disk problems, I normally open a spare machine and connect the faulty disk to an IDE and power cable. They work perfectly well balanced on a couple of books. Direct connection is better than a USB for many diagnostic programs, but if you want to try USB then you could buy a USB to IDE/SATA adaptor which will fit and disk (balanced on a couple of books). If you want to go to the trouble of mounting in a USB enclosure then make sure you get the correct type (IDE or SATA).

If you can get the disk working at all, and your recovery utility supports it, start by trying to copy the entire disk to an image file. If that works, you should be able to work from the image file if the disk finally fails.

What caused it to crash, was it a software problem or a mechanical disk error. If the latter, you could try leaving it in the fridge overnight as a last resort.

There are specialists who can recoverm the disk for you. I understand that their prices start in the high hundreds and increase if it is difficult and/or you have attempted to sort it yourself.

Best of luck, let us know how you get on.

Thanks Optimist. Sure am glad to have valuable advice from yourself and Kayak.

I suspect the crash was probably caused by a mechanical error. I did get a couple of blue screens but managed to get around them by running Windows Repair (ran CHKDSK) and booted successfully. However, I kept getting blue screens after that with different reasons each time (Page Fault, Bad Pooler, etc). Finally, gave up fearing that repeated attempts to use the disk might damage it further.

I can't afford high prices for data recovery - so if this disk goes, it goes! In fact, I'll buy a new base unit. I will lose some data but that's the price for not running backups as often as I ought to have. Spinite has saved my bacon in the past - this time, it may not happen.

The idea of mouting the faulty drive as a USB drive to allow Spinrite to work on it is out. Spinrite can't work a USB drive as it needs to be connected directly to the motherboard. So my POA is go on the lines suggested by Optimist (connect the drive to a spare machine as a slave and let Spinrite do its thing).

Weird thing is just before the drive started dying, I noticed the sound from the speakers was deteriorating badly. Plugging the speakers into the laptop proved they are absolutely fine. Heck! That old PC has had its day for sure! Lasted a good five years.

Klal

The sound problem could well be linked to the disk problem. If Windows is struggling to sort out disk errors, then that takes priority over the sound. Not enough memory may also be a contributory cause if it's an old computer. These days, the absolute minimum RAM should be 500 MB though Windows will attempt to run on less. For a reasonable machine you should have 1GB+ of RAM and 2GB+ for Vista.