No, it says (after downloading the updates last night) "You may be a victim of software counterfeiting" or something like that, which means to me that (as I suspected) the vendor has put a copy of Pro on because that's all he had. I can be bothered with going round the houses to get a clean COA key, when I've got prefectly good keys for XP Home.

That suggests your copy of XP Pro is probably genuine, Seymour, but that it's already in use on another machine (or umpteen other machines) somewhere. The Windows Genuine Advantage concept matches each copy of XP to a single machine via the machine's hardware (where have you seen that before?). It may even be that an organisation with a VLK has had their security compromised by an ex-employee.

There are ways around it if you are interested and can't be bothered to do a fresh install with a clean copy of XP Home, albeit not for a public forum. You know where I am.

Sorry, been out shopping for a car. You're probably on the money there Hils. I'll be in touch :-)

No problem, SC. I wouldn't want you to think that I was into hacking and cracking, btw, but I do like to know what tricks the scavengers get up to so as to ensure that our own goodies are as secure as possible.

:o)

I use Vista and Outlook 2003

Does anyone have a gizmo that displays their Task list on the desktop please?

I found a Sidebar jobbie, but it only listed 3 tasks max. (No use with the number of things I'm procrastinating on !!)

And, on the same topic, does anyone have a gizmo for grouping Shortcuts so I have them in little blocks depending on the sort of thing they do?

TP

Hi again. More home PC problems.

I'm getting the following message:

We apologise for the inconvenience but windows did not start sucessfully. A recent hardware or software change might of caused this.

If your computer stopped responding, restarted unexpectedly, or was automatically shut down to protect your files and folders, choose Last Known Good Configuation to revert to the most recent setting that worked.

If a previous startup attempt was interuppted due to a power failure or because the power or reset button was pressed, or if you aren't sure what caused the problem, choose start windows normally.

Then I have have the following option

Safe mode
safe mode with networking
safe mode with command prompt

Last know good configuration (your most recent setting that worked)

Start windows normally


:O(

KEAYDIAN

You should normally try Start Windows Normally, then Last know good configuration then Safe Mode.

More important. is what has caused this?

Did you have a forced shutdown?
Have you just installed something new?
What is the history of problems on this machine?


TP

I don't know of any gadgets, but Outlook 2007 has a seperate task pane. You could download a 60 day trial and before that runs out, switch to Office 2010 beta and then to the Office 2010 release trial.

You might also fint the free Xobni addin useful although I think you will need the paid for version to cover tasks.

Opt,

Thanks.

In the end I went for Task List from here.

It'll cost me a tenner, but all the free ones looked too big and messy.

TP

Opt.

I've tried Start windows normally first, that made the pc kept restarting itself.

I then tried Last Known Good Configuartion, that also made the pc keep restarting itself.

I then tried safe mode. I can log in using this but the icons have terribled in size but you can't use the internet. So I'm using safe mode with networking.

:O(

The only thing that yo can do properly in safe mode is put things right.

Open a command prompt window and use chkdsk /f to check the disk for faults.

If that doesn't fix it, try using system restore to restore to a point before your current problrms.

If that doesn't work, boot from the install disk and let setup try to repair it. If your install disk is pre SP2 then don't connect to the Internet even for updates until SP2 is installed.

You would do well to backup all of your data before attempting any of the above.

Opto.

Seems to be working now. I done a Norton Go Back which seems to of fixed it.

The icons are bigger because you are using the default screen driver in safe mode and it probably 640x480 or even 320x240 depending on the basic graphics capabilities of your pc graphics chip.

How to Defraggle your motherdisc!

How to Deffraggle your Motherdisc :o)

MB Thanks for that -Brilliant!!

I actually tried that procedure last month. Unfortunately I didn't get past step 9 as my wife claimed the discs for use as glass mats. Iwonder if white wine is as good a protective agent.

Can't believe barely two months after I got my desktop repaired, I'm facing problems again. The PC has started randomly freezing. No BSODs though. I've been careful not to install anything more than the bare essential stuff I need on the PC. Just my charting stuff and Office and security software. When the pc freezes, the display stays as it is - absolutely frozen. I have to reboot and pray. On booting up, it will run fine for about 15-20 mins and freeze. Sometimes, it won't even boot up fully into Windows.

The strange thing is I tried running a disk checking utility (Spinrite). It comes with its own bootable OS on a floppy. That too freezes during the scan! That probably suggests there could be a hardware problem. Video card? Memory? PSU? Any suggestions? I've had some valuable help here in the past. Grateful for any help.

Is there any chance of over heating on the motherboard or graphics card? It is a common cause of freezing.

There is a utility that you can install (not sure of the name). I put it on my kids' PC and it shows the temp of the processor and the graphics card. They were getting a lot of freezing. we ended up removing the side panel of trhe PC and pointing a normal domestic fan towards the motherboard.

Haystack, you probably mean Motherboard Monitor. Yes, I do have that. Temperature is not an issue as the machine is running fairly cool. All fans are working too. I'm going to try re-seating the RAM sticks and the graphics card and see if that helps.

Even the data cabling to the hard disk may be loose. My kids PC kept losing a secondary disk because the data cable had loosened. The SATA type cables are often pretty loose at the motherboard end. It could also be a power cable problem, so it might be a good idea to make sure that all cables are properly seated.

Thanks Haystack. Will check everything that can go loose. Fingers crossed! Forced to go back to my son's laptop....and the looks I've got!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8388253.stm

Microsoft investigates Windows 7 'screen of death'

Microsoft has confirmed that it is investigating a problem described as the "black screen of death", which affects its latest operating system.

The error means that users of Windows 7 see a totally black screen after logging on to the system.

The firm said it was looking into reports that suggest its latest security update was the cause the problem.

Reports suggest the flaw also affects Vista, XP and other systems.

Software firm Prevx, which has issued a fix for the problem, says "millions" of people may be affected.

"Users have resorted to reloading Windows as a last ditch effort to fix the problem," the firm's David Kennerley wrote in a blog post.

"We hope we can help a good many of you avoid the need to reload."