Again, thanks a lot.

Is this seriously acceptable to you guys? My provider, Virgin, gives me 360 mbps, which sometimes drops to 200 but usually not much below that. Anyone giving me that low a speed and ****ty ping I'd be ditching forthwith. :yikes:

We're talking about cell phone bandwidth, not home internet.

Mad ping

After a few phone calls with Verizon we got it sorted out. I just need to upgrade from Go Unlimited to Beyond Unlimited and I should be tons faster. Extra $10 a month = no brainer.

Ah. I ... see.
:shycouch:
****ing brilliant! :clap:

My laptop is freaking me out right now. I turned it on as usual today and it gave me some message about not being able to find my desktop or something. Then I reboot and it puts me on a temporary user profile and my usual profile is gone. Then I do a system restore to a point from two days ago and everything is fine again... seemingly... But what the hell went wrong? I'm paranoid that my harddrive might be faulty or something.

Most likely it's (was) some corrupt registry entries caused by any number of things, but you could do a HD scan just for peace of mind. Just run chkdisc.

Good thing you knew to set a restore point, not too many people do that, btw.

I'm always paranoid about my computer, since I'd be kinda ****ed without it for a number of reasons.

I've got not only restore points, but also an external HD for backups, plus I regularly copy important files to Dropbox, Google drive and a bunch of USB's for various smaller things. I'm especially on the ball when it comes to making sure all of my own music files are safe and secure. I'd hate it if I lost any of that permanently.

I can't just run out and buy a new computer due to my economic situation, so yeah, I'm running chkdisc to see if there's something I should know about. I feel like that's a good idea.

I do the same, and have for a long time. Some of my files date back to the 90's.

Cool. I wish I'd been that thorough. I've lost tonnes of custom made maps and levels for all sorts of old DOS games because I didn't handle the transition from 90's computers to modern computers very well.
I ended up with an old 486 hard drive that doesn't connect to modern computers and a bunch of currupted floppies with things I'd never really taken the time to properly move over. Doh.
I don't care about much else, but losing creative stuff - even incomplete projects and crappy things - is something I really hate.

You can connect an old HD using an IDE to USB cable. Plenty of them out there.

My most painful loss was the very first recording I did on an old cassette from the 80's. That's been long gone.

I'll look into this. I still have that old hard drive in a draver somewhere.

Would have been fun to hear, tbh. Do you have some other very old stuff laying around?

Nothing that old.

It happened again!
I just ran CHKDSK and I've got no bad harddrive sectors.
So I'm trying to figure out what's causing the failure of my user profile.
Really, really annoying.

Your mother really should start dating outside the family.

:laughing::laughing::laughing:

Does anyone own a laser printer? I've had a lifetime of fighting inkjet printers with paper jams, ridiculously expensive cartridges that then don't last as long as you would think, and also the printer just stopping in the middle of a run for no reason at all. I'm moving up, and looking to buy a relatively cheap laser now (below 100 Euro), just black ink, preferably with replacement toners that don't cost as much as the machine. Just for printing out my writing, so no bells and/or whistles required. But the ones I'm checking out (Brother HL1112 and Samsung Xpress M2026) both seem to have issues with paper jams and no tray for printed docs. I know I could spend more to get a decent one with all I want, but really, it's not that much to ask, is it? A minimum of paper jams, legible type, reasonably inexpensive replacement toners/toners that give a decent amount of print life (1000 sheets or so seems to be standard) and somewhere for the printed paper to be collected.

Any ideas welcome. Links too. Please don't link me to US sites; some don't deliver to Ireland and even if they do I could be hit with VAT or high postage charges, not to mention I'd probably have to replace the US plug with a UK one.

Thanks!
TH

What's an easy to use laptop for old farts that has good functionality?

You can easily pick up a new Dell laptop for between 300-500. It's literally bare bones for people that just want something as a laptop. I can do some searching if you like.

I'm asking for a family member who's in his 60s. He wants something intuitive that can handle the janky remote access third party program that he uses for work. Price isn't really an issue for him.

Ease of use is more dependent on the operating system than the computer itself. Is this a troll question? If he knows how to use a computer than he can use any computer.

If he's remoting in he doesn't even need something good because the comp he's remoting into will be doing all the processing.

Then any Dell laptop should be fine. My dad wanted one for the same thing and he's had his for 6 or 7 years now. It is starting to crap out nowadays but still.

Get a Windows 7 or 10 [64-bit OS] laptop [brand really doesn't matter] with an AMD processor and as much RAM as possible. Set it up with an object dock so that things are easily accessible from the desktop, then teach the person how to use it. My uncle refurbishes computers and sells them for cheap. Say the word and I can hook you up.

Tablets for Writing
 

Are there no tablets with built-in onscreen keyboards? Everything I read about says "buy keyboard separately". Surely there's one that allows you to write as you would on a mobile/cellphone, no?

As in a touchscreen keyboard? I would think that most every tablet would have that functionality.

That's what I would have thought. Maybe when they say "buy kb separately" they mean if you want a physical keyboard? See I never used a tablet before but am thinking of getting one. Do you know if they do have those touchscreen keyboards? Do you use a tablet?

Most have onscreen keyboards. The external keyboard is for those that don't like the touchscreen.

Yes, they mean a physical keyboard so that people don't think that it's built into the device. Is there a particular one that you're looking at? Because they're pretty close to phones and it would be pretty surprising to find out that one doesn't have any type of keyboard at all.

That's the oldest thing I've ever read.
You're on a roll today.

OK thanks.
I'm not looking to break the bank. I just want it so that it's handy for my writing. Probably no more than 200/300 Euro, if such a thing is available.
Yes I know about that thanks, but that's no help if you're typing while lying on the bed...
Here's an older one: will ipads only work with Mac computers? I'm assuming yes but, you know, gadgets and stuff that used not to be around when I were a nipper etc etc

iPads have their own ****ty proprietary connectors and are basically designed to mostly work with other Mac equipment. Lighting cable ports and such... Mac computers will have USB ports, so that's something, but my advice will always be to buy Android/PC and give Mac the finger. Don't buy into the hype.

Not that you can trust me to be impartial, since I've been a PC guy since my teens.

Yeah I pretty much expected ipads would be out. Plus they're likely to be the most expensive, if Apple are true to their usual model. Also, **** Apple. :D

I bought a new phone (Motorola). Everything else works fine but Chrome doesn't start. When I open it there's just a white screen with this spinning loading circle and the chrome icon and nothing happens. Help, please. Couldn't find anything like that on the internet.

Have you tried turning it off and back on again?

https://support.google.com/chrome/an...DAndroid&hl=en

First thing I tried. Didn't work.
All I see is this:


And if I change to another app, chrome disappears completely.

Uninstall/reinstall it.

Just had the same idea, did it and it works.
I didn't know you could uninstall it, thought it's one of those things android forces on you.
Thanks!