The Computer Help Thread

[Baz]

Linux is great to play around with but for using day to day I’d rather just not have a computer.

[Raoul Duke]

Other alternative is to get a Raspberry PI and just tinker about with it on that

[Giggles]

I’m too long in the tooth to start trying to figure out what they do.

[Pepe]

I asked for a laptop at work and they gave me an ipad. They are a completely useless piece of hardware, aren't they?

[Lofty]

They're alright with a cheap bluetooth keyboard.

[Pepe]

Most annoying part is the lack of ports.

[SincereTheRebel]

Any Goole Sheets nerds here?

When im creating a formula in a column but i then drag the formula down to other cells. The formula changes but I want one of formula to stay the same.

For example the original formula is

=G1+D3+5

When i then drag the formula down the cells it changes to

=G2+D4+5

I need G1 to stay the same at all times.

See gif image of my example below

https://gyazo.com/f8ef9ed269839d427d787d418c1fc0fb

[Jimmy Floyd]

In excel you need to put a dollar sign in, i.e. G$1 which retains the same row when you drag all the way down. Assume the same would work in sheets.

[SincereTheRebel]

Thanks.

[Baz]

I appreciated the gif.

[Raoul Duke]

It's called an Absolute Cell Reference

[SincereTheRebel]

Find me some type of tablet that has a keyboard disconnect thing that can be used for general multitasking use. Not Apple.

[Baz]

Find me some type of tablet that has a keyboard disconnect thing that can be used for general multitasking use. Not Apple.Surface Pro would be the obvious suggestion, but it depends on your budget.

I’ve the laptop version (Surface Laptop?) for work and it’s pretty damn good.

[Manc]

I'll second that.

[Smjffy]

I bought another laptop today but I'm not sure if it is a good deal or not?

£550 for:

Intel i5-7300HQ @ 2.50GHz
16GB RAM
1TB HD
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (?)

It's only for FM but that should be capable of more than just England, right?

[Ian]

I reckon you should be fine. if you go to Can You Run It they'll tell you how far above the specs you are. Unless FM is reliable enough to just recommend how many leagues based on your machine.

[Raoul Duke]

Specs are fine (it's nothing special but it'll be good for a few leagues). The main thing is does it have an HDD or SSD? You want the latter (can probably upgrade it, if not)

[Gray Fox]

It being 1TB says to me it's a standard HDD. If he's lucky it'll be a SSHD.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Router that I bought last month decided to stop working at about 1am for no reason.

The lights were all off and it showed no sign of power. Tried unplugging, waiting and then plugging it back in but the lights would flash for a second before going out.

Contacted Amazon who told me I'd have to talk to Asus who first didn't read my actual problems and just sent a stock bullshit reply. After I explained my problems again they told me Amazon has to sort it out (which I knew). Got a better customer service agent who asked what Asus said and then ordered a replacement.

I had it unplugged until about 11am and it still did the same thing but I left it plugged in and at about 2pm it decided to come alive again. No idea why it decided to start working or why it stopped in the first place.

I'll take the replacement and send this back though as there must be some underlying problem with the unit I have.

[Giggles]

Anyone else try the processor bypass thing to install Windows 11, and did it create any other issues?

[SincereTheRebel]

Did anyone use a USB data recovery tool before? If so, which one as ive wiped my USB like a fool.

[Dquincy]

Chaps,

Can someone help me? Is my laptop fucked?

It's in a constant 5 second loop of rebooting and then showing this image...despite being powered by the mains plug. Anything recommendations?

https://i.ibb.co/9gTVtT5/20211230-170628.jpg (https://ibb.co/qjsW5sQ)

[Dquincy]

Fixed it.

[Pepe]

My PC (connected via ethernet) keeps dropping the internet connection. It doesn't happen all of the time, but often enough to be annoying, especially when playing multiplayer games. I have not noticed the same issue with my laptop, which is on the wifi. Am I right to believe that the PCs network card must be fucked? There is no way that the router is at fault, right? Otherwise, all devices would drop. Anything else I could look into?

[Boydy]

Update the network card drivers? Try a different ethernet cable too to make sure it's not a dodgy cable?

[Baz]

Strange question but do you have uTorrent? I had that problem and switching to qBittorrent fixed it.

[SincereTheRebel]

My PC (connected via ethernet) keeps dropping the internet connection. It doesn't happen all of the time, but often enough to be annoying, especially when playing multiplayer games. I have not noticed the same issue with my laptop, which is on the wifi. Am I right to believe that the PCs network card must be fucked? There is no way that the router is at fault, right? Otherwise, all devices would drop. Anything else I could look into?

I had a similar issue on wi-fi. I had to disable the MyAsus wireless smart connect and it appeared to resolve the issue.

[Pepe]

Update the network card drivers? Try a different ethernet cable too to make sure it's not a dodgy cable?

Good shout. I might have to buy another (very long) ethernet cable just to make sure it is not that. I tried updating drivers but the thing said that they are up to date, despite being like three years old.


Strange question but do you have uTorrent? I had that problem and switching to qBittorrent fixed it.

No torrents on that computer.


I had a similar issue on wi-fi. I had to disable the MyAsus wireless smart connect and it appeared to resolve the issue.

I am not even sure that computer has wireless, but I guess I'll have to make sure there is not something interfering.

I think I have a usb to ethernet adapter somewhere, so I will also give that a try.

[Gray Fox]

Besides the obvious, is there any way to activate windows?

My PC keeps going to sleep after about 10 mins of inactivity and you can’t change it without activation. It’s quite annoying.

[Giggles]

A nice thin light 13” laptop. i5 upwards, 512GB, 2 in 1 preferable but not vital. Any recommendations?

[Boydy]

A Surface?

[Giggles]

That’s what I was thinking but they seem fairly heftily priced compared to other brands for what you’re getting once you add any sort of a decent spec.

[Pepe]

My wife got an LG Gram recently and it looks quite nice.

[Giggles]

LG making laptops is a new one on me. Nice looking thickness and all but they seem to only go down to 16 inch.


Settled on a Lenovo Yoga 7i 14" after once I get the thumbs up. I've a Lenovo ThinkPad at the minute and apart from the touchpad position it's been very good.

[Ben]

We have Lenovo at work and they're really good. The people with the Yoga rave about them (I have a T series because I'm a peasant).

[Giggles]

I'd have liked the 13 inch but I'm not ready to let go of USB-A just yet.

[Kikó]

I've had a Lenovo Yoga for ages and need to replace it. I've loved it but the screen is fucked now.

[SvN]

Don't get a Surface Book. Biggest waste of money I've ever had. Cost nearly £3k in 2019 and I'm having to replace it already.

[Pepe]

I see an LG Gram 14, but maybe they only exist in the U S of A.

[Giggles]

The Yoga has arrived. Keyboard isn't as nice as the ThinkPad (nothing is) but the size is lovely.

[Lofty]

Anyone had success cancelling their broadband contract due to low speeds? Got the 1 gig package with Virgin ages ago and it was fine but now it's more lile 150mbps which falls below their threshold. Also my 'deal' ran out so they are saying my new bill is £80 a month.

[Foe]

My 10 year old iPad is now redundant as it won’t open bt sport app nor sky go.

Debating a new box standard iPad vs galaxy a8

Don’t need anything super fancy nor a laptop. Should I just revert to another iPad or is an android tablet useful for the usb/upgradable memory/ability to use software like excel easily?

Price not really a factor between the two, just wondering whether to go for a change (android) or stick with what I know (iPad).

Web browsing, perhaps simple excel stuff, apps like bt sport and sky go… assume casting to a tv is easy enough from android?

[Raoul Duke]

My 10 year old iPad is now redundant as it won’t open bt sport app nor sky go.

Debating a new box standard iPad vs galaxy a8

Don’t need anything super fancy nor a laptop. Should I just revert to another iPad or is an android tablet useful for the usb/upgradable memory/ability to use software like excel easily?

Price not really a factor between the two, just wondering whether to go for a change (android) or stick with what I know (iPad).

Web browsing, perhaps simple excel stuff, apps like bt sport and sky go… assume casting to a tv is easy enough from android?

There's unlikely to be an Android tablet that would last you that long. iPad is the way to go. iPad Air or normal iPad, or wait a bit longer and get a Pro if you want the fanciest version: https://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#ios

[Giggles]

These days I’d get a small light windows 2 in 1 or laptop, for iPad money you’d get a lovely bit of stuff.

For all the software improvements lately, the iPad is still pretty rubbish for anything other than browsing or media, plus all the mobile OS versions of office apps are complete dirt.

[Gray Fox]

So on this wonderful morning I came in to find my powered on light on, on my power button. Thought this was odd as none of my jazzy RGB lights were on. At this point I noticed stuff had been knocked off the top of my PC. When I went to put them back down I noticed a wet patch. Closer inspection shows the cat has jumped up on top and sprayed down into the system.

There was basically a small pool of it on the backplate of my GPU and some has splashed onto the motherboard itself, very close to the GPU PCI slot. A tiny amount had gotten onto the plastic base of a heatspreader for one of the ram sticks.

The GPU came out dripping wet as some has gotten inside it. As such I’m just assuming that is a gonner.

How fucked am I here? It’s a recent build and it cost 1.5k to put together.
I can probably just about live with losing the GPU, but reckon there’s a chance the rest of the system is intact?

[niko_cee]

Seal the cat in the tower unit [assuming that's what it is] as punishment.

What's it done? Pissed on the machine and then turned it on to spite you? Presumably if it hadn't been on you could just dry everything out to some extent.

[Gray Fox]

I couldn’t tell you if it was on when it did it, or it did it then turned it on. I cut the power as soon as I realised but the damage may already be done.

[Boydy]

Home insurance might cover it? If it is completely fucked, it'd be worth checking.

[Gray Fox]

So from what I can gather the damage has been limited to the graphics card. I cleaned all of the components with 99% alcohol and put it back together without the graphics card and it would turn on, but with no on board graphics I had no way to tell if it was a successful boot or not.

Someone has lent me their old Rx550 and it boots completely. I'm even typing on it now, though obviously graphical performance on it isn't the same as what I had.

Though when I plug the old GPU in, the thing wont boot at all.

[Lofty]

Brutal. I am looking to build a pc, are there any sites that sell components and assemble them prior to shipping? Fed up of seeing daft builds like a Ryzen 9 with a 10p PSU.

I'm selling an excellent condition 2018 iPad Pro 12.9 64gb with Apple Pencil 2 for £500 if you're interested, Foe. I'll throw in the case.

[Gray Fox]

Brutal. I am looking to build a pc, are there any sites that sell components and assemble them prior to shipping? Fed up of seeing daft builds like a Ryzen 9 with a 10p PSU.

I'm assuming you want something like PC Specialist, CyberPower or OverClockers. You can buy them to be made and then shipped, but you can configure what you want in them.
You're likely not going to get everything just the way you want it without building it yourself, but they do a decent job.

[Baz]

I've still not updated either of my devices to Windows 11. Is it worth doing?

[Giggles]

Can’t see any reason not to.

[Giggles]

Actually I take that back. The latest update has broken my face unlock.

[Lofty]

I don't mind it but two of my geekier mates are seething about it.

[SvN]

I don't really notice many differences. I did have to install something to fix the start button, though.

[Shindig]

I haven't trusted a windows upgrade since Windows 2000.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Isn't the rule always update as late as possible?

There are always bugs and shit that take a while to be smoothed out.

[Ben]

I think so. Windows 10 is absolutely fine and I’m not risking changing that.

[Giggles]

I’ve never had a single bug on 11, the face unlock today was just a driver on Lenovos end of things. The new folder icons are fair shite though.

[Baz]

Actually I take that back. The latest update has broken my face unlock.

Face unlock blows my mind everytime. I love it. I only use it on my work laptop though and that’s still on Windows 10 so no problems there.

I have updated my laptop and PC to Windows 11 though and although I’ve noticed no problems so far, I’ve also not noticed any benefits. :sorry:

Yesterday I did a fresh install of windows on an old laptop my dad had, to give to my cousin. Installed the basics (Brave, Office, Stremio, VLC, Xbox app) and then went to update to Windows 11 and forgot it doesn’t work on old tech. Didn’t seem like a particular bad laptop either, but that “health” app said no, so Windows 10 it is.

One thing I hate is that doing a fresh install (via Recovery in settings) clearly doesn’t install the latest iteration of Windows 10, cos it then spent a couple of hours updating.

[Giggles]

They’re very fussy about what machines it will install on, though there are ways around it as I installed it on my obsolete XPS 15 when it came out and it wasn’t eligible.

[Waffdon]

Is there a reason literally every time I switch my laptop on it asks for the Recovery Bitlocker code thing. Like, I don’t my entering it, but it’s of a ballache.

[Giggles]

The main drive must have been encrypted with it.

[Waffdon]

How do I stop it lol

[Ben]

Do you have anything plugged into the USB port? That can set off my work one.

[Waffdon]

Nah, nothing at all. I checked graphics drivers etc as wasn’t sure if that was to do with it but everything is up to date. Maybe it wants me to get Windows 11.

[Giggles]

Control Panel > System & Security > BitLocker Drive Encryption.
See is it turned on for any drives.

[Waffdon]

https://i.ibb.co/F885JLr/nnn.png

Yes..no?

:D

[Ben]

I'm sure I've touted the Brave browser on here before. It's based on Chromium so performance wise it's just like Chrome, but it also blocks ads and cookies by default (so ads on YouTube are a thing of the past, for instance) and it's also got the option for Tor windows as well if that's your bag.

Now today, they've released another feature: the blocking of those horrible "accept cookie" notifications! That seems like a game changer if it actually works.

[Boydy]

Might have to start using that. Is there a mobile version? The youtube mobile app is fucking unuseable these days with the amount of ads.

[Baz]

Might have to start using that. Is there a mobile version? The youtube mobile app is fucking unuseable these days with the amount of ads.

Yeah there’s an app for it too. I’ve used it for as long as I can remember.

[SvN]

Given it a go and haven't really seen any reduction in the cookie popups. Still getting them on big sites.

[Boydy]

Yeah, I downloaded it there and tried youtube on it. Didn't get ads on the videos which is nice but did still get the "accept cookies" crap at the start.

[SvN]

Had a quick look and it seems you have to turn it on. Settings > Shields > Content Filtering and search for the Cookies list. Giving it a go now.

[Ben]

Ah yes. I've had Brave a while so just got a popup asking if I wanted to activate it. I get cookie notifications on FT all the time and it's stopped those so 1/1 so far.

Boydy don't know if you found it but go to where SvN said and check the option "Easylist - Cookie List - Filter obtrusive cookie notifications"

[randomlegend]

Didn't they put a bitcoin miner in Brave at some point?

[Boydy]

Had a quick look and it seems you have to turn it on. Settings > Shields > Content Filtering and search for the Cookies list. Giving it a go now.
Was this on mobile or desktop?

Ah yes. I've had Brave a while so just got a popup asking if I wanted to activate it. I get cookie notifications on FT all the time and it's stopped those so 1/1 so far.

Boydy don't know if you found it but go to where SvN said and check the option "Easylist - Cookie List - Filter obtrusive cookie notifications"
Not seeing that anywhere. Or SvN's directions. There's no "Content Filtering" under Shields on Android from what I can see.

Didn't they put a bitcoin miner in Brave at some point?
Ffs, really?

[Baz]

Didn't they put a bitcoin miner in Brave at some point?

No.

They do pay you if you allow ads, using their “brave rewards” scheme. I get a few BAT sent to my Uphold wallet every month.

[Ben]

Was this on mobile or desktop?

Not seeing that anywhere. Or SvN's directions. There's no "Content Filtering" under Shields on Android from what I can see.

Ffs, really?

I think the feature is on Windows only at the moment.

[randomlegend]

No.

They do pay you if you allow ads, using their “brave rewards” scheme. I get a few BAT sent to my Uphold wallet every month.

Sorry, just remembered something vaguely dodgy having come out about it last time I looked at it. Was that they were automatically inserting their own referral links into the URL when you visited crypto sites from what I can make out.

[Giggles]

Recommend me a good bluetooth mouse that doesn't need the little USB-A connection thing.

[Boydy]

Logitech MX Master

[Clunge]

I've got a Logitech M720 which looks a whole lot like a less fancy MX Master. Can't really go wrong with the Logitech ones, they're brilliant.

[Giggles]

Cheers men.

[Boydy]

I think it's an MX Master 2 I have but the 3 is the latest version. I love it. They're fairly pricey but my work paid for it, not me.

[Baz]

I’ve a Logitech M590 one where I can click a button and it switches connection between my laptop and my PC. Best thing ever.

[Clunge]

Yeah, the multi device function is amazing. I have one of their keyboards too that can switch between three devices so I can have my mouse and keyboard hooked up to my personal laptop, my work laptop and my desktop simultaneously and then just hot switch between them.

[randomlegend]

Rocking a paracorded Vaxee NP-01s with aftermarket skates like a real legend/twat.

[Baz]

Can’t see any reason not to.

The Explorer right-click menu is so shit. Every single time, I have to click 'more options' (or whatever it is) to access the correct menu for WinRar. Plus I use CopyFilenames (https://www.extrabit.com/copyfilenames) a lot and that's hidden away behind an extra click too.


Refresh isn't even there, and I never know when my F5 key is going to refresh a page or turn the volume down. Now it's three clicks instead of two.

[Giggles]

Tried that Brave thing but none of the cookie popups went away.

[Ben]

You have to turn it on in Settings:

brave://settings/shields/filters -> toggle the EasyList-Cookie List option

[Giggles]

I did. I think it was your very post above that I followed.

[Ben]

Not sure then. The feature is also on Android and iOS now as well and I've not seen a cookie pop-up in quite a while, so it does work.

If you go to brave://adblock instead, do you see an option for it? At work at the moment so can't see it first hand.

EDIT: quick Google says in brave://settings/shields/filters there should also be a "uBlock" and "fanboy" option - try enable those too.

[niko_cee]

Does anyone know how, or whether it is in fact possible, to glean information about what appears to be a 'burner' email address?

[Raoul Duke]

Does anyone know how, or whether it is in fact possible, to glean information about what appears to be a 'burner' email address?

Not really - depends what in you're trying to glean really. Best I can think of is stick it in haveibeenpwned and see if it shows up anywhere else

[Alan Shearer The 2nd]

Safesearch is locked across all browsers on any device I have, any idea what the hell could be going on?

[Raoul Duke]

Safesearch is locked across all browsers on any device I have, any idea what the hell could be going on?

What OS? Windows or Mac?

From a quick search it seems like it could be something to do with the account settings - e.g. it's set at account level so can't be switched off unless you're an admin

[Alan Shearer The 2nd]

Windows. It's regardless of device though, it's like it's the network although haven't knowingly changed any settings and the BT parental bollocks is all off.

[phonics]

On mobile? It's part of that porn law thing. You have to specifically tell your network that you'd like to be able to see naughty stuff. Its a joke.

[Lofty]

You have to search 'vanessa feltz blue waffle' to turn it off.

[Alan Shearer The 2nd]

On mobile? It's part of that porn law thing. You have to specifically tell your network that you'd like to be able to see naughty stuff. Its a joke.

Laptop, mobile, desktop.

It was fine the night before last.

[Manc]

Is anyone with Virgin Media? My internet has been bust for the past three hours.

[Baz]

Is anyone with Virgin Media? My internet has been bust for the past three hours.

Fine here.

[Manc]

That's the general response I've had. Odd.

[niko_cee]

Just found an old Voodoo 2 12mb 3dfx card, box, original manuals and games and was quite surprised to find out from a friend that people actually want these things now and pay a stupid [in my view] amount for them on ebay.

What kind of madman wants a retro PC building experience? It was just misery IIRC.

[Lofty]

Yeah some friends and I joked about building a voodoo 3 rig only to look on ebay and see they were mental prices.

[SvN]

What kind of madman wants a retro PC building experience? It was just misery IIRC.



Yeah some friends and I joked about building a voodoo 3 rig only to look on ebay and see they were mental prices.

There you go.

[Don]

Just want to have a nosey at my old laptop and take anything I need from it before I bin it. Its screen isn't working so need to hook it up to a monitor.

Laptop:

https://i.ibb.co/41f77TL/20230310-132413.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/FJbnRxk/20230310-132422.jpg

In addition to a standard modern monitor, I also have this prehistoric thing which may be of help:

https://i.ibb.co/MfgmR3P/20230310-131237.jpg

I only have a HDMI to HDMI cable.

With that lot, what's the cheapest cable/adapter I can get to get me to access the laptop on either monitor?

[Ben]

VGA male to male cable (the one marked PC D-SUB on the monitor). They will be about £2 on Amazon etc.

[Don]

:beer:

[niko_cee]

I just rage quit a document in neat office without saving it as the formatting had gone to fuck [I thought it was autosaving] but it seems that wasn't the case. Does anyone have any idea if it is possible to recover it? I think it was saving itself for recovery purposes [ie if the app crashed] but I clicked don't save so has that nuked whatever it was that was being autosaved?

[niko_cee]

Right so, no help on that, how about this one excel geeks. I want to have a function that will return a simple sum formula, adding B1 and B9, if B27 is 100, if B27 is less than 100 I just want the result to be B9. Do I want SUMIFS and if I do, how do I write it? All this range and criteria shit is vexing my tiny mind.

[Jimmy Floyd]

=IF(B27=100,SUM(B1+B9),B9)

Caps

[niko_cee]

Awesome.

:hail:

[Danny]

Any concern for it going over 100?

[niko_cee]

It's just a percentage thing so essentially I need a cost factored in at an earlier stage if [an unrelated thing] is 100% whereas if it is less than that I don't, on my model at least.

[Don]

Chatgpt, son.



Excel function for sum.


I want to have a function that will return a simple sum formula, adding B1 and B9, if B27 is 100, if B27 is less than 100 I just want the result to be B9.

You can use the following function in Excel to achieve this:

scss
Copy code
=IF(B27=100,B1+B9,B9)
This function uses the IF statement to check whether the value in cell B27 is equal to 100. If it is, the function returns the sum of the values in cells B1 and B9. If it is not, the function simply returns the value in cell B9.




I just rage quit a document in neat office without saving it as the formatting had gone to fuck [I thought it was autosaving] but it seems that wasn't the case. Does anyone have any idea if it is possible to recover it? I think it was saving itself for recovery purposes [ie if the app crashed] but I clicked don't save so has that nuked whatever it was that was being autosaved

If you didn't save the document before you rage quit and you clicked "Don't Save" when prompted, then unfortunately it's highly unlikely that you will be able to recover the document.

Autosave is a feature that automatically saves your document periodically to protect against data loss in the event of a crash, but it does not save a complete copy of the document. When you close the document and click "Don't Save", any changes made since the last manual save or autosave will be lost.

If you have closed the document without saving and haven't manually set up any backup or recovery options, then the only option to recover the document is to try to use the auto-recovery feature of Neat Office, if it has one. But even in this case, it's not guaranteed that you will be able to recover the latest version of the document.

[-james-]

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word

Try here for unrecovered Word files.

[niko_cee]

I did wonder about chat gpt, figured TTH would be better and easier to use. Wasn't let down.

Wasn't in word so nothing in the app data realm sadly.

There was/is probably some vestige of it somewhere as the program can autorecover unsaved docs if it crashes, but as I took definitive action to not save it I'm not sure if that got nuked. I looked high and low through temp files etc but couldn't find anything. I came across some things which may have been the autorecover files, but they were incomprehensible code when reopened.

[Offshore Toon]

What VPNs do people use? It's last chance saloon for Glasto tickets tomorrow so I'm hoping to attack from a few angles but I've never used a VPN before. Anything with a free trial would be handy.

[Baz]

What VPNs do people use? It's last chance saloon for Glasto tickets tomorrow so I'm hoping to attack from a few angles but I've never used a VPN before. Anything with a free trial would be handy.

Surfshark. One account can log in to unlimited devices, and it has loads of countries.

Can use this one if you promise not to change the password:
user: surfshark@ftid.uk
pass: Surfshark.1

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I'm also on Surfshark, it's decent but not without it's problems.

Speed can be a bit slow at times, doesn't work with some sites (Bet365) and it can be patchy with Netflix.

[Offshore Toon]

Cheers, Baz. I don't think I can easily get a VPN to provide a different connection for each tab so I've given up.

[Ben]

Don't quote me on it because I've never been down that route but I think you can do it in Firefox.

[Gray Fox]

Family friends kid had an ROG G20 and it seems to have broken. The thing was decent for the time but it's nearly 10 years old now and they didn't want it cluttering up the place. They've basically said if I can fix it and sell it then I can keep whatever cash it makes.

I could probably get around £200 for selling it, so it's worth me at least having a go. If not stripping it and selling for parts. Kid claims on those 40 degree days last year it conked out. My guess is that because of the enclosed nature of the case, something got cooked in there.

I guess my question is, has anyone here ever taken anything like it apart? I've not looked for specific videos yet but there seems to be no way to get into it naturally. No exposed screws or anything. I dont want to crack it open to find I can't put it back together.

[Guybrush]

Loads of disassembly videos on YouTube and forums. Looks easy enough to open, panel slides off after undoing one screw by the looks of it.

[Gray Fox]

Looks like I'll have to try and get into it later tonight. I did have a quick go at that screw but it just turns without coming out.

When I got the thing it was just endlessly boot looping. It would also only show a display through one of the two HDMI ports. I've managed to get a copy of Windows 10 on there, but it still only will display through the onboard graphics. So the obvious theory is the GPU got cooked and is a dud now.

[Gray Fox]

After spending the best part of a week looking for something to pry out that cross threaded screw I finally got it out today. Opened her up to a surprise. There's a SSD in it that's not listed on the prebuilt part list.

First thought was maybe that's tipping the small power supply over the edge. Removed it and only the bios would start. No bother really as the plan as before was a clean windows install anyway. But the HDD would only take storage and not a windows install. However at this point, putting everything back in I do get a display through the GPU HDMI port, so that's confirmed working.

Upon trying to put the SSD back in, I noticed the SATA cable was actually broken and loose where it connects to the SSD, so after fishing a new one out of my motherboards old box, I put it all back together and it works.

It's not the best system in the world but CeX have it on their website without the SSD at £160 cash and £225 credit and sell it for £340. I'm torn between dumping it off on them to get shut quickly, or to try somewhere like facebook to see if I could get maybe a bit more cash.

[Raoul Duke]

Depends what price you put on your time dealing with the deluge of spastics on Facebook

[Baz]

How big is the SSD?

[Gray Fox]

Pretty standard 250gb boot SSD and 1tb HDD combo.

[Gray Fox]

Took it to CeX, passed their test but they quoted me half of whats on their site for the same machine. The only difference being I installed windows on it. The one on the site states Linux.

I'm guessing they've just failed to update their pricing, but I've come home and the listing is still there. So I've done the sale through the site and locked my price in for three days.
Gives me time to install Linux on it, which surprisingly I've never done before.

[Gray Fox]

It's a good thing I locked in the price as I've just checked again and the trade value has gone down from 233 to 54...

I've tried putting Linux on it but it's not booting after install. I should have just left this thing gathering dust.

[Gray Fox]

Is there such a thing a good free VPN?

I'm assuming not, but don't ask, don't get etc.

[Don]

Baz's passworded one above is working for me from abroad so big thanks.

[Baz]

No worries. All welcome to use it so long as you don't change the password and ruin it for everyone.

[niko_cee]

Does anyone have any positive experiences of low cost UK fibre providers? For example HEY!Broadband?

[Ben]

There are only two companies with actual infrastructure, BT (Openreach) and Virgin Media. All the others lease BT lines as far as I'm aware, so as long as you're happy with advertised speeds, they're probably worth a punt.

[Lofty]

I know people have said Talk Talk are a pain to contact if you have issues. Youfibre seem fairly new but hyped up, I'm sure my mate got a deal where they were giving people free internet until their current contract ran out to get customers signed up.

[Ben]

They're all a pain really. Virgin are notoriously shit customer service, but nobody else can touch their £30/month 500Mbps-1Gbps offerings (depending on where you are and what sales they've got on). For example, Sky could guarantee me 67Mbps for the same price.

[niko_cee]

What about these people (https://fwnetworks.co.uk/) - is that a stand alone network or are they using existing Virgin/BT infrastructure? Obviously fairly niche at the moment, but I think I can get that.

[Lofty]

Also remember if you are with O2 you get better Virgin offers now.

[Ben]

What about these people (https://fwnetworks.co.uk/) - is that a stand alone network or are they using existing Virgin/BT infrastructure? Obviously fairly niche at the moment, but I think I can get that.

They're Openreach, just like all others.

[Baz]

I used some birthday money towards upgrading my laptop RAM from 16GB to 64GB.

Turns out removing the bottom off a HP Omen laptop is really difficult, so while I had it open I’ve noticed there’s an empty slot for a NVME m.2 SSD so I’ve ordered one to come tomorrow (Crucial P5 Plus 2TB) to whazz in it before sealing it shut FOREVER. sandlot.gif

[Lewis]

My laptop has taken to turning itself off when it gets a slight nudge, i.e. placed down gently on the table/floor. It otherwise seems to work fine. What is up with it?

[Boydy]

Probably a loose wire inside somewhere.

[hfswjyr]

I used some birthday money towards upgrading my laptop RAM from 16GB to 64GB.

Turns out removing the bottom off a HP Omen laptop is really difficult, so while I had it open I’ve noticed there’s an empty slot for a NVME m.2 SSD so I’ve ordered one to come tomorrow (Crucial P5 Plus 2TB) to whazz in it before sealing it shut FOREVER. sandlot.gif

I can't fathom what a laptop would do with 64GB RAM.

[Lofty]

I've got 64gb RAM in my desktop, slightly less egregious.

[Baz]

I can't fathom what a laptop would do with 64GB RAM.

Same as a PC would. :sorry:

[Clunge]

Particularly seeing as more and more modern GPUs are offloading memory demands to system RAM these days, or borrowing capacity at times of high load. You'll max out an 8GB VRAM card in no time these days.

[Shindig]

My second hard drive has just seemingly bricked itself. It's showing in disk management as 38GBs of unallocated space. Is there any way to get that stuff back without resulting to third party software?

[Don]

Not without compromising yourself.

[Shindig]

I'm getting an I/O error so that's a great sign. :D Fuck it, this is tomorrow's problem.

[Gray Fox]

Is it an internal HDD or external plug in drive?

[Shindig]

It's an internal drive. It slowed right down and locked up before vanishing from the drive list.

It's in device manager as working normally and the BIOS spots it on boot up.

EDIT: Drive swapped. That hard drive looks goosed but I had a spare upstairs that was, shockingly bigger than the one in the rig. And it means I've got Grand Prix Legends on this machine. I consider that a win.

[Giggles]

My windows explorer keeps freezing, nothing happens when I hover on a taskbar icon or click on anything after about 5 minutes from boot and it's driving me mad. Any ideas?

[Baz]

Is it running Windows updates in the background?

[Giggles]

Is it running Windows updates in the background?

All updates are well complete and no further ones available.

This is driving me fucking insane now. The whole thing just freezes, I can still move the mouse and alt+tab between windows but no clicks work. Even hovering over an icon doesn't register. Opening task manager briefly fixes it for a few seconds.
Originally thought it was my external monitor or hub but they're both removed from the equation now and it's still happening. As painful as it is, I'm going to have to reset the cunt.

[Giggles]

I've attempted to reinstall all the Radeon stuff and it's now been hanging for over 5 minutes on a reboot :happycry:

[Giggles]

Oddly, this all sppears to have been caused by my mouse.

[Ben]

I don't need help but this seems like the most suitable spot.

It seems Microsoft have changed my default 365 font from Calibri to Aptos Narrow. Is it like this for anyone else? I know how to change it back but just thought I'd ask, and wonder together why they would change one of the few things that didn't need fixing.

[SincereTheRebel]

Is there an app where you can talk into it, and it types out the words you have spoke?

[Baz]

Is there an app where you can talk into it, and it types out the words you have spoke?

Google Dictate works pretty well. https://support.google.com/docs/answer/4492226

I’ve used Otter before but it made a lot of mistakes

[Raoul Duke]

Google Docs can do dictation

[SincereTheRebel]

Thanks. Ill check them out

[Dave.]

Okay, I need a laptop.

I would like one that can run FM24 (doesn't need to be loads of leagues), some streaming and ideally would like Microsoft Office with it. I might play some other games on it but not many. I want the latest Windows.

I'm willing to pay £500 or under.

Thanks.

[Gray Fox]

When you say streaming, do you mean you want to stream yourself playing something/stream a game to your laptop, or watch livestreams yourself? If it's the latter anything that will boot FM24 will be more than enough for that. If it's the former, that's a different conversation.

[Ben]

Get on Amazon/eBay and get a refurbished one. For that £500 you'll easily get a £1000+ spec laptop. I picked one up about four years ago and it still runs like a dream.

[Dave.]

When you say streaming, do you mean you want to stream yourself playing something/stream a game to your laptop, or watch livestreams yourself? If it's the latter anything that will boot FM24 will be more than enough for that. If it's the former, that's a different conversation.

By streaming I mean Netflix and things like that.

[Lofty]

Best anti-virus these days? Preferably one that doesn't monster the RAM.

[Ben]

Do people not just use the built-in Windows one now? You'd have to be frequenting some sketchy corners to need anything more.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

It is Lofty you're talking to...

[Lofty]

I thought Windows Defender was the equivalent of that steward doing the non-existent pat down video.

[Ben]

My work binned off Kaspersky in favour of just using Defender so I guess it's alright?

[wullie]

We've done the same. Stick with the Windows one as does the same job but you barely notice it's there.

[Don]

Was your decision to drop Kaspersky related to helping support the heroic Ukrainians?

[Ben]

Was your decision to drop Kaspersky related to helping support the heroic Ukrainians?

It wasn't my decision personally but we did it in 2019 before it was fashionable, so no probably not.

[wullie]

Price and unreliability first, heroism distant second

[Giggles]

We've had the policy for a long time now that as soon as a new laptop is bought the bundled antivirus (if it has any) is uninstalled. Defender is plenty.

[Giggles]

Anyone know a way to make WhatsApp call notifications stay off forever on Android? I turn it off in the notification settings but it keeps coming back on.

[niko_cee]

Has anyone else's system reacted badly to the latest windows update? Seems since it happened mine is really slow to come out of sleep mode or whatever it is called when the screen goes black but the thing is still running. It always freezes a bit now, the USB mouse stops working whilst the touchpad is fine, then it'll freeze again for everything [mouse/touchpad/keyboard] whilst it gets its act together. Quite annoying.

[Lofty]

Sometimes when I turn my PC on my keyboard just doesnt seem to power on for a good 30 seconds.

[Ben]

Do all your driver updates etc.

[Lofty]

Are there any definitive youtube channels that are good for brushing up on excel?

[Ben]

ExcelisFun

Bloke is a bit of an annoying American but he's good at explaining and there's literally everything on there.

[Lofty]

Thanks! :)

[Baz]

And even when you consider yourself a whizz, you’ll just save the time and effort and ask ChatGPT to sort it.

[Lofty]

Not if your organisation prohibits access on their systems and you aren't allowed your phone in the office.

[Baz]

Oh yeah mine does that in the office, but fine WFH thankfully. Sorry pal!

[Ben]

Plus it’s boring to do it that way.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

ExcelisFun

Bloke is a bit of an annoying American but he's good at explaining and there's literally everything on there.

Could have just said American.

[Pepe]

Blocking access to ChatGPT. :harold:

[niko_cee]

Why can't I set up teams meeting on a personal account? Just creates an error message and says close and try again. I've tried using the web client, clearing the cache etc, signing in and out, restarting but the same thing keeps happening.

[SincereTheRebel]

Ive never got teams to work consistently. I just use Quick Assist now. if you're not on Windows, I dont want to talk to to you anyway

[niko_cee]

Never resolved it. It has worked fine for this purpose for months. I could create a live meeting and send join invites, but couldn't schedule one for later. As per my moaning in another thread it feels like something has happened with windows, possibly through some sort of update, in the last few months which has led to loads of irritating little bugs. Across multiple, unrelated devices as well so I don't think it's a "you've got a virus" problem.

[SincereTheRebel]

Need some asssitance

Im trying to create a formula, that will give you points based on a result.

If a cell contains your team, you get three points. If the cell contains the word "Draw" you get one point.

=IF(Fixtures!$F$3="",3,IF(ISNUMBER(MATCH(B4, Fixtures!$F$3:$F$12,0)), 3, 0))

The above gives you three points, if the cell contains the team you have picked. That as far as ive got.

It was Baz who created this for his last to stand game, but ive sent him a direct message after 6 months ago but have yet to get a responce.

[Ben]

Unless I've misunderstood then it should be as simple as:

Replace the zero in the false argument at the end with IF(Fixtures!$F$3="Draw",1,0))

[SincereTheRebel]

Unless I've misunderstood then it should be as simple as:

Replace the zero in the false argument at the end with IF(Fixtures!$F$3="Draw",1,0))

Thanks Lad.

That does not seem to work.

=IF(Fixtures!$F$3="",3,IF(ISNUMBER(MATCH(B3, Fixtures!$F$3:$F$12,0)), 3, IF(Fixtures!$F$3:$F$12="Draw",1,0)))

and

=IF(Fixtures!$F$3="",3,IF(ISNUMBER(MATCH(B3, Fixtures!$F$3:$F$12,0)), 3, IF(Fixtures!$F$3="Draw",1,0)))

[Ben]

Bit hard without the file but I just did a mockup

https://ibb.co/MRCd1Jm

[Baz]

Sorry I’ve not got round to replying to your PM yet :(

[Ben]

I’ve got you bro.

[SincereTheRebel]

Sorry I’ve not got round to replying to your PM yet :(


I’ve got you bro.

Yeah, ben helped me massively yesterday with it all. :thbgrin:

[SincereTheRebel]

Is there a website, like google docs where i can see what other people are typing in real time, anonymously. Without signing up.

[Gray Fox]

PC decided to update itself to windows 11. It has reminded itself that I never used an activation key either. Microsoft seem to want way over £100 to get one, so is there a place to get them cheap?

[Ben]

Isn’t Windows free nowadays or am I missing something?

[Gray Fox]

You can install it on anything for free but it keeps certain features locked until you input an activation key. Also keeps an annoying text reminder in the bottom right corner.

[Ben]

I'm sure I've never paid for it. And it was downloaded from Microsoft website, it's not a dodgy copy.

[Pepe]

Can't you ring them?

[Mike]

PC decided to update itself to windows 11. It has reminded itself that I never used an activation key either. Microsoft seem to want way over £100 to get one, so is there a place to get them cheap?

https://consogame.com/software/windows/windows-11-professional-oemretail

[Giggles]

I've a real weird one the last couple of days on my laptop, all these weird squares randomly flickering across the screen in different places and different colours. Seems to be worse when something is moving or animating on screen and worse when the charger is connected. Can see them in a screenshot, so it's on Windows rather than something with the physical display. Nothing is fixing it at all (drivers, etc).

[Ben]

Is it mainly when you're browsing internet? Turn off Hardware Acceleration in your browser settings.

[Giggles]

Is it mainly when you're browsing internet? Turn off Hardware Acceleration in your browser settings.

I think it's something to do with my graphics hardware or driver. I tried all the driver updates and rolling back Windows and all that, but I've got it to stop by using the standard Windows Graphics driver instead of the proper Radeon one. Means I can't use my second display any more but at least it's not driving me mad any more.

[Giggles]

I'm going to give that a try and switch the driver back though, cheers.

[Bam]

Thinking of moving from Windows to a MacBook pro, probably the m3 model.

How do you find the MacBook's? Its going to be mainly for apps, fm25 and browsing the internet.

Also I assume you cant put Word on a MacBook??

[Kikó]

I use Mac all the time for work, it's great honestly. You can install Microsoft office.

[Baz]

Whenever my dad asks me to do anything on his Mac, it takes three times longer than it would take if he had a Windows machine. Mac’s are bad.

[Clunge]

Thinking of moving from Windows to a MacBook pro, probably the m3 model.

How do you find the MacBook's? Its going to be mainly for apps, fm25 and browsing the internet.

Also I assume you cant put Word on a MacBook??
I switched about a decade ago and I'd never move back. And with Windows now going down the ARM route, the convergence between the two platforms will be even closer. If you just look at the latest Windows running on ARM laptops, so much of Windows has changed to ape MacOS. And with both the major OSes using ARM, it'll be easier to develop for both concurrently.

Also, in terms of your use case, sounds pretty similar to mine. I'm on an M1 MacBook Air at the moment and FM23/24 flies on it so an M3 will undoubtedly do a great job with FM25, presuming they don't bodge the Mac optimisation on the first edition of the big new FM era (I'm fairly sure Unity-based games play well with Mac anyhoo).

As for Word, you can get Word for Mac, but Word is complete garbage whichever platform you're on. I'd just switch wholesale to Google Docs or Pages (Apple's word processor). Google Docs plays just fine with .doc and .docx files so that's the easiest solution by far.

Plus, Mac battery life is just a killer feature in of itself. I just never think/worry about charging really, and that's on the Mac laptop with the smallest battery they do. It'll easily do me all day doing general things. You could probs throw a couple or three hours of FM in there too and it'll be just fine.

[Giggles]

Always fancied one for home use but I don't know if I'd get any more use out of it than I get from the iPad already. Couldn't use one for work in a million years, even the ARM Windows ones would be out.

[Bam]

I switched about a decade ago and I'd never move back. And with Windows now going down the ARM route, the convergence between the two platforms will be even closer. If you just look at the latest Windows running on ARM laptops, so much of Windows has changed to ape MacOS. And with both the major OSes using ARM, it'll be easier to develop for both concurrently.

Also, in terms of your use case, sounds pretty similar to mine. I'm on an M1 MacBook Air at the moment and FM23/24 flies on it so an M3 will undoubtedly do a great job with FM25, presuming they don't bodge the Mac optimisation on the first edition of the big new FM era (I'm fairly sure Unity-based games play well with Mac anyhoo).

As for Word, you can get Word for Mac, but Word is complete garbage whichever platform you're on. I'd just switch wholesale to Google Docs or Pages (Apple's word processor). Google Docs plays just fine with .doc and .docx files so that's the easiest solution by far.

Plus, Mac battery life is just a killer feature in of itself. I just never think/worry about charging really, and that's on the Mac laptop with the smallest battery they do. It'll easily do me all day doing general things. You could probs throw a couple or three hours of FM in there too and it'll be just fine.

Now I'm wondering if I'm going a bit ott with the M3. Maybe this would be better and save a few quid. https://www.hoxtonmacs.co.uk/products/macbook-pro-14-inch-m2-pro-10-core-silver-2023-good?variant=48110222442812

[Pepe]

Google docs is dogshit.

[Clunge]

Still miles better than actual Word.

[Giggles]

Can't see the problem at all worth Word. A bit of a faff when saving a file but apart from that it's a million miles ahead of anything else.

[Pepe]

Still miles better than actual Word.

I disagree, although I will give sheets some credit since word is also not that great. Google sheets, now that is some absolute garbage.

[Kikó]

I use the Google suite for work and I don't think there's much difference to excel. You can use bigger files in excel and do cross file lookup but generally it does the job. PowerPoint edges slides by a lot.

[Ben]

Does it have the new dynamic array (spill) formulas?

[Giggles]

I think my Graphics card is fucked (or doesn't work on 3 different driver versions anyway). I can get the PC working ok on the generic Windows display but it means I can't use a second screen. Is there any way around this that I don't know about?

[Giggles]

€17.99 to €25.99 is a fair old jump in one go from Youtube the cunts.

[Magic]

Why do you pay for it?

[Giggles]

Of all my viewing I'd watch about 95% Youtube and 5% streaming/television. I'll still be paying this too as I get the most out of it, but it's a bad sign of things to come across the board with that % hike in one go.

[Magic]

Does it make any difference or just to avoid adverts? I still use an Albanian VPN to avoid the ads.

[John Arne]

I'm Premium, but I watch a lot of YouTube, and to be fair, I get much more sports highlights content here (F1 and Premier League). Plus it's only £2.50.

Can't you guys just use a VPN and register from a cheaper country?

[Giggles]

You can't do the VPN thing with the TV app and casting chronically bad.

[Ben]

Apparently YouTube are showing ads during pausing now. It always surprises me how many people just sit there and stomach the advert infestation on their videos when blockers are so easy to come by.

[Magic]

You can't do the VPN thing with the TV app and casting chronically bad.

I've got it on my firestick too. :cool:

[Baz]

I pay either Nigeria or Argentina price and it works fine on everything. Giggles is just flashing his cash.

[Shindig]

Adverts only really, really wind me up if I'm playing it on something like a Playstation. 30 seconds to minute of unskippable hell.

[Danny]

I pay either Nigeria or Argentina price and it works fine on everything. Giggles is just flashing his cash.

Argentina for me :nodd:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I'm Premium, but I watch a lot of YouTube, and to be fair, I get much more sports highlights content here (F1 and Premier League). Plus it's only £2.50.

Can't you guys just use a VPN and register from a cheaper country?

They managed to stop that.

I was paying for Indian premium for years but they cancelled it this year.

I'm now doing the Albanian VPN trick so they're getting £0 from me now.

[Mike]

Argentina for me :nodd:

I used an Argentine VPN to sign up, but since then pay the cheap price but never use a VPN and it’s been fine on the tv, firestick and computer.
I’ll be gutted when they eventually put a stop to it.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I was gutted when they stopped mine but the Albania VPN trick works a treat.

[Baz]

My laptop overheated twice yesterday, both times while playing World of Warcraft. Worrying. I hoovered the fans on the bottom after the first time but it happened again in the evening. I play Hardcore too so disconnecting during combat is simply unacceptable!

I have one of those little lap trays to have it on my knee without burning my nuts off but I can imagine it’s counterintuitive in terms of cooling, although I’ve never had a problem before. Are laptop cooling pads (https://a.aliexpress.com/_EQpLylL) worth bothering with?

[niko_cee]

Not really. I saw one recently reviewed on youtube that wasn't complete trash, but I don't think they're any good [I have one but just use it as a stand] - I think it was one like this (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Powerful-Turbofan-Radiator-Infinitely-Variable-Black/dp/B0C69BVWGB/ref=sr_1_7_sspa?crid=NOUX2UEB2OCF&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.TVN3FNX48AXF8-AsCbiWmwza7CCIWvT2_bEC0_dalyUytUcgFlBTGMhP_Mto35KN v4D27bE0OJsy62B-tNqTq6XnQHac5-oxorsKNh3y0cGIkkmTWNfELOgk1Q2XbD1Rm875SgspzencJsMT 2vyM7pg6uAA9VoYPLu1QR3rmRO-3jb32yuWP4hMZxkIoA7ueaH7ojD8OdxVT09FX9GjGFONh_vBRv Gb2sEZ2qG-fNAE.7Ru7PdsRZ_YGEhLhyd_CIOwdfC4gZ4wDt8BzUZ9TI7U&dib_tag=se&keywords=laptop+cooling+pad&qid=1727286177&sprefix=laptop+cooling+pad%2Caps%2C85&sr=8-7-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9tdGY&psc=1) in the review. Hoovering does fuck all, I think you need compressed air to get the crud off most fans effectively, but then there's the issue as to where you are blowing it. You probably need to take them out to clean them.

[Clunge]

Has it started happening suddenly? If it's got progressively worse, a clean might be best. If it's sudden, strikes me as potentially being a software / firmware / driver issue. Have you got everything up-to-date? Esp. graphics drivers.

[Manc]

I need to switch up my email. Are there any providers worth considering outside of Outlook and Gmail?

[John Arne]

Nope. Stick with Gmail.

[niko_cee]

Youtube seems to have got sort of wise to my play the ads really fast chrome extension, which is annoying as it sometimes requires a few refreshes to bypass them now, particularly seeing as they implant them all over the shop.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Use a VPN and connect to Albania.

They have zero ads because Google can't/wont the language.

[Dave.]

So I'm having problems connecting to my WiFi at home on my laptop. I'm using an Acer Aspire 5 and until recently, it was absolutely fine. My phone and tablet connects to the WiFi and work fine. When I logon to my laptop, it finds no WiFi connections at all. Obviously, I've restarted my laptop and restarted the router. Any ideas?

[Ben]

Control Panel > Device Manager

Find your WiFi adapter, uninstall it, restart laptop.