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26

Living Room / Re: Windows 10 April 2018 upgrade woes - anyone any ideas?

« on: June 02, 2018, 06:31 AM »

Thanks all - I actually solved the problem by swapping out a WD Blue HD and replacing it with another drive.

Having installed and updated Windows 4 times on the old drive I suspected something was odd about the computer ()the person who brought it to me works in an office with 2 ideantical models - both of which updated without issue).

The old drive appears to pass CHKDSK completely without errors but when I ran it again if found bitmap issues so I suspect the drive is not working properly.

Haviong said that I have had a slew of updates that failed dropped off - mostly bricking the copmputers!!

When is there going to be a class action suit and a sensible approach to control on updates again? Damn annoying.

27

Living Room / Windows 10 April 2018 upgrade woes - anyone any ideas?

« on: June 01, 2018, 02:18 PM »

Hi all

I have a customers Lenovo All in One and I am stumped.

It went through the April 10 upgrade and subsequent windows updates and ended up freezing on the Lenovo screen.

I have a windows 10 build 1083 USB drive and an earlier version on DVD - plus a recovery DVD. None of them will boot (I have disabled secure boot and set stuff back to legacy but still no joy).

I removed the hard disk and recovered her data and with her permission removed all partitions, plugged it in and then it booted from the USB drive and I installed a fresh copy of windows.

I heaved a sigh of relief and started updating. Cumpulative update for Windows 1803 (KB4100403) said it need to restart to complete which I did and instantly it was back to square one.

System won't boot (shows Lenovo screen) - can't even boot the memtest CD.

Reseated RAM with hard disk out and ran mem test - no problems but as soon as the hard disk is present no joy.

I can only assume that KB4100403 is doing something to the hard disk that completely screws up the boot process.

Short of wiping the hard disk, starting again and disabling windows update I have no idea how to proceed?

Anyone got any ideas?

28

General Software Discussion / Autodesk Sketchbook is now free

« on: May 04, 2018, 07:09 AM »

I had some problems yesterday activating a license for my copy of Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 2011 so I contacted their technical support.

Autodesk have just decided in the last few days to make Sketchbook a free product.

For Windows desktop apps and Mac you can download it from here: https://www.sketchbook.com/

If you are on Windows 10 (and can face using their app store) you can get it here: https://www.microsof...tchbook/9nblggh4vzw5

There are also Android and iOS versions (though they seem to have some sort of subscription - I guess to to do with cloud sahring between all your devices).

Enjoy

29

General Software Discussion / Re: What's going on with Java?

« on: April 30, 2018, 09:58 AM »

Excuse my ignorance but is Java used that much any more?
-Carol Haynes (April 30, 2018, 08:56 AM)

If you consider the Minecraft player-base alone, that's a lot of people who use Java.

And don't forget about Android developers.
-Deozaan (April 30, 2018, 09:00 AM)

Ah accounts for a lot with Android!!! Didn't realise that it was wrtting largely in Java.

30

General Software Discussion / Re: What's going on with Java?

« on: April 30, 2018, 08:56 AM »

Excuse my ignorance but is Java used that much any more? I have advised everyone I know that uses OpenOffice to move to LibreOffice and remove Java from their system.

Open Office is the only common software I have come across in recent years that needs Java.

It used to be ubiquitous in devices but seems to have been superceded these days.

Given the track record of security issues with Jave lots of installs from different vendors seems like a terrible idea - I can't imagine vendors will be keen on issueing upodates to their software every time Oracle patches another hole.

Or am I missing the point?

31

Living Room / Re: US Internet providers - suggestions needed

« on: April 18, 2018, 06:36 PM »

Verizon FIOS (fiber) is supposedly available in most of Gaithersburg, MD., and is generally considered far more reliable (and faster) than Xfinity (Comcast) cable. She should contact Verizon to find out whether her home can get it. RCN also supposedly has fiber service in parts of Gaithersburg.
-xtabber (April 18, 2018, 04:57 PM)

Thanks I will let her know

32

Living Room / Re: US Internet providers - suggestions needed

« on: April 18, 2018, 03:20 AM »

The ISP acknowledges the issues - seems to be at their end which is why she is looking to change.

33

Living Room / Re: US Internet providers - suggestions needed

« on: April 04, 2018, 12:55 PM »

I don't think that is the problem - they seem to have a lot of acknowledged down time at her building. She is just getting fed up with random 'we have a problem and will fix it soon' type responses on an almost weekly basis.

34

Living Room / Re: [Breaking News] Prof. Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76.

« on: March 14, 2018, 07:41 AM »

Very sad day - I read his 1966 paper on Black Holes, his first big prize winner, when I was an undergraduate in the 70s and contemplating doing a PhD in Cosmology.

Ironically I lived in Cambridge the year before I read his paper and saw him most days - sadly I never had the courage to go and say hello.

Going to be hugely missed - not only for his science but his humour and humanity.

Here are a couple of favourite things:

Big Bang Theory clip:

This piece was written by a friend of mine, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, a British composer who's star is definitely on the rise - one of her works was performed at the Proms last year. This piece was written as a commission for Stephen Hawking's 75th birthday. It was first performed for him at his birthday celebration in Gonville and Caius College Cambridge. Cheryl was so happy to have the chance to meet him. She was also a student at the college.

35

Adventures of Baby Cody / Re: Where is Baby Cody

« on: March 11, 2018, 12:13 PM »

Baby cody has been chirping about wanting to hear you play your cello, Carol -- I hope you can bring him to a performance. Do you have an album for purchase yet?
-mouser (March 10, 2018, 08:17 PM)

No but I am playing in a chamber concert in September - which is causing mild panic.

Maybe I should play him this:

36

Adventures of Baby Cody / Re: Where is Baby Cody

« on: March 10, 2018, 07:36 PM »

Hogan and Cody are happy to see each other
-Carol Haynes (March 10, 2018, 11:26 AM)
If that's Hogan's happy look I'd hate to see him when he's sad!
-cranioscopical (March 10, 2018, 03:14 PM)

The camera flash startled him!!

37

Adventures of Baby Cody / Re: Where is Baby Cody

« on: March 10, 2018, 11:26 AM »

Baby Cody has arrived in the UK (thanks Mouser)

Hogan and Cody are happy to see each other - but Hogan is a little jealous of all the medals and the smart jacket (but he has lost his bow tie!)!

Going to look for some adventures ...

38

Living Room / Re: US Internet providers - suggestions needed

« on: March 09, 2018, 06:22 AM »

Thanks - trouble is in theory Comcast looks good - but speed is varying from good to non-existent and they seem to have outages a lot.

I will pass on the comments.

39

Living Room / US Internet providers - suggestions needed

« on: March 08, 2018, 04:52 PM »

I have a friend in Gaithersburg, Maryland. She is really fed up with her ISP (Comcast I think) as the speed goes up and down like a yo-yo to the point where Skype won't work properly.

As I am in the UK I know little about American providers.

Anyone any suggestions for a reliable ISP she can move to?

40

Adventures of Baby Cody / Re: Where is Baby Cody

« on: March 06, 2018, 11:38 AM »

Ooo - Hogan is excited

41

Living Room / Re: Peculiar windows problem

« on: February 21, 2018, 10:57 AM »

Thanks

42

Living Room / Re: Peculiar windows problem

« on: February 20, 2018, 09:57 AM »

Thanks guys - sorry not to get back to you sooner. Since I last wrote I have spent nearly a week semi-delirious with the flu.

I am not sure it is a hardware problem. Games play fine at full throttle (at least the ones I play on Steam - I haven't bought anything much new for ages).

I have Windows 10 and 7 dual booting - it is 7 that is causing issues.

I have checked everything out in windows 10 and apart from an unidentified USB device everything seems to be working fine and smoothly. The unidentified device is, I am pretty sure, the internal card reader (I have tried disconnecting USB devices and the malfunctioning devices doesn't disappear but I haven't taken the side off the box to unplug the card reader - I have also tried every external USB port and they are all working - and since all the internal headers are brought to the outside apart from the one used by the card reader I think I can assume the motherboard USB infratsructure is fine).

I suppose the time is approaching where it will be easier to shift to 10 but I have still have some programmes that don't run well on 10 and my graphics card is on a legacy driver (I can't really afford to buy or justify a new one).

The issue in 7 seemed to largely fix itself with a rollup update so maybe some configuration got broken but today I clicked on chrome to open and the it instantly black screen rebooted.

Maybe I need to shift as much as I can to 10 and then do a clean install of 7 just for legacy bits (a Virtual box doesn't quite cut it).

43

Living Room / Peculiar windows problem

« on: February 14, 2018, 03:23 PM »

No idea what is going on - has anyone come across this before?

I was having some unpredictable problems with Windows 7 - like random restarts, sudden slow downs and freezes.

I did a full CHKDSK on my drives - as far as I can tell they completed without errors

Then I did an SFC /SCANNOW which reported unrepairable errors but when I look at CBS.LOG it shows up no errors at all.

Some weird things are happening - for example if I go to Facebook I cannot click on Friends, Photos etc. on any profile (including my own). I can post from my time line but not my own profile page.

I tried this is 3 browsers with the same effect

I am stumped and don;t know where to go from here - I really don't want to do a clean install of windows.

Anyone got any ideas?

44

Adventures of Baby Cody / Re: Where is Baby Cody

« on: February 02, 2018, 04:49 AM »

He will be fine - he can borrow Hogan's scarf. Sent you my address x

45

Living Room / Re: how tall is Cody?

« on: February 01, 2018, 07:02 PM »

I have a theory it is really Mouser in a costume all along

46

Adventures of Baby Cody / Re: Where is Baby Cody

« on: February 01, 2018, 06:53 PM »

Mouser ... if Baby Cody is getting itchy feet his mate Hogan would love to say hello again if he fancies a return to the UK? See what adventures they can get up to this time?

From his last adventure (with Hogan):