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Tech Help (Beyond This Forum)

Coal said:
The only caveat is that chrome can store quite a lot of browing info. It's worth deleting its history every week or so.
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O.K. Thank you very much for the information. I'll bear it in mind.
 
@Horsa, sorry to overload you with suggestions (especially if we state the obvious) but I don't see any settings in Edge that would do what you say is happening. I'm interested to know what changing browsers would do.

Can I assume from your reluctance to download things that you're on a limit of how much data you can download at home?
 
ChasFink said:
I'm not a FB expert by any means, but do you actually click in the area where you want to type before you type? If so, and if it's only in FB, then it sounds like you have some kind of hotkey option set in the FB account, not on your machine or browser
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@MercuryCrest, take a look at Facebook settings: Hit the icon that looks like a downward pointing triangle, go to Keyboard, and either turn off Single-Character shortcuts or go to see all shortcuts and do it from there. Does that work?
 
ChasFink said:
@Horsa, sorry to overload you with suggestions (especially if we state the obvious) but I don't see any settings in Edge that would do what you say is happening. I'm interested to know what changing browsers would do.

Can I assume from your reluctance to download things that you're on a limit of how much data you can download at home?
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You're welcome. Thank you very much for all the help & advice. I really appreciate it. (If I really thought you were being patronising I'd say so nicely.)

I don't know either. You know, when things go wrong you will try almost anything to make things right.

My reluctance to download things is a habit carried over from when I was on a data limit (I'm not now but habits stick) but I don't like downloading things because I like to keep my memory usage low to keep my computer speed up.
 
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SimonBurchell said:
Firefox is good, but updates so frequently that it becomes annoyingly intrusive.
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My company has just discontinued support for Firefox, as the number of users is negligible. We only support Edge, IE, Chrome and Safari.
For personal use, must admit that I was an early adopter of Chrome and it's easily my favourite browser.
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
My company has just discontinued support for Firefox, as the number of users is negligible. We only support Edge, IE, Chrome and Safari.
For personal use, must admit that I was an early adopter of Chrome and it's easily my favourite browser.
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Quite a bit of web design now works on the basis of its rendering in Chrome. If it doesn't look quite the same in Firefox (or others) 'meh'.
 
I'm using Vivaldi, which can be configured in most ways. Updates once or twice a month. I've been using it since it was Beta software. It has become very stable since then. You can use most Chrome extensions.
 
I'm about to receive an upgraded mobile handset (not that there's much wrong with this one, but still), and as I've done the upgrade online this time, and haven't been able to pick the brains of the shop assistant, I have a question for you lot instead!

Can anyone recommend an app or similar that will quickly and reliably transfer apps, settings and data from the old handset to the new? For what it's worth, I will be moving from Huawei to Samsung on this occasion. And remind me, do I need to do anything specific to ensure that, for example, WhatsApp conversation history is carried over?

Many thanks, as ever, for your thoughts and advice.
 
The new samsung should have a 'smart' assistant already loaded which will enable you to transfer over all your contacts, pictures, music etc etc from your old handset to the new one via bluetooth.

There are many films on you tube that guide you through it, such as this one (your models might be different but the basics will be the same)

 
Peripart said:
I'm about to receive an upgraded mobile handset (not that there's much wrong with this one, but still), and as I've done the upgrade online this time, and haven't been able to pick the brains of the shop assistant, I have a question for you lot instead!

Can anyone recommend an app or similar that will quickly and reliably transfer apps, settings and data from the old handset to the new? For what it's worth, I will be moving from Huawei to Samsung on this occasion. And remind me, do I need to do anything specific to ensure that, for example, WhatsApp conversation history is carried over?

Many thanks, as ever, for your thoughts and advice.
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As for WhatsApp, make sure that the backup is turned on, and run a backup just before switching phones, otherwise you will lose your conversation history.
 
Trevp666 said:
The new samsung should have a 'smart' assistant already loaded which will enable you to transfer over all your contacts, pictures, music etc etc from your old handset to the new one via bluetooth.

There are many films on you tube that guide you through it, such as this one (your models might be different but the basics will be the same)

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Very useful, thank you!
 
My toilet has bunged up again (stay with me, it gets interesting). It seems to do this, about once every two years. Last time I had a man out, who charged me £150 to rod the drain and stick a camera down to see if there was an issue with the drain. There isn't, there's just not a lot of 'drop' (on the toilet, not what I put in it), which can cause issues.
So today I ordered a set of drain rods, so I can 'do it myself'. Is there anything I should bear in mind, before I do something drastic to the only lavatory in the house?

I know this isn't strictly 'tech', but I couldn't think where else to put it, Mods please move if there's a more appropriate place!
 
catseye said:
My toilet has bunged up again (stay with me, it gets interesting). It seems to do this, about once every two years. Last time I had a man out, who charged me £150 to rod the drain and stick a camera down to see if there was an issue with the drain. There isn't, there's just not a lot of 'drop' (on the toilet, not what I put in it), which can cause issues.
So today I ordered a set of drain rods, so I can 'do it myself'. Is there anything I should bear in mind, before I do something drastic to the only lavatory in the house?

I know this isn't strictly 'tech', but I couldn't think where else to put it, Mods please move if there's a more appropriate place!
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Had this a while back.

Tried the various baking soda, vinegar and much else 'home remedies', none of which helped.

Tried also the various wire and coat-hangers techniques, but got nowhere with those either.

In the end, a liquid drain-unblockers from the supermarket did the trick first time.

No idea what alchemy they operate on, but I shan't be going through the earlier steps next time.

Please don't let there be a next time...
 
Yithian said:
Had this a while back.

Tried the various baking soda, vinegar and much else 'home remedies', none of which helped.

Tried also the various wire and coat-hangers techniques, but got nowhere with those either.

In the end, a liquid drain-unblockers from the supermarket did the trick first time.

No idea what alchemy they operate on, but I shan't be going through the earlier steps next time.

Please don't let there be a next time...
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Yep, tried all those and the liquid drain unblocker. It all just sits there. I use Fairy Liquid and boiling water down the bath and sink drains (which also suffer from the lack of drop), which works well, but the toilet is a bit of a bugbear. A small bomb might work...
 
catseye said:
Yep, tried all those and the liquid drain unblocker. It all just sits there. I use Fairy Liquid and boiling water down the bath and sink drains (which also suffer from the lack of drop), which works well, but the toilet is a bit of a bugbear. A small bomb might work...
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I have a nagging but unsubstantiated theory that ours was blocked by hair.

We all have fairly long hair and have simply lobbed the shed excess from the plughole and floor-drain down the lavatory since we moved in.

We're now being more cautious!
 
catseye said:
Yep, tried all those and the liquid drain unblocker. It all just sits there. I use Fairy Liquid and boiling water down the bath and sink drains (which also suffer from the lack of drop), which works well, but the toilet is a bit of a bugbear. A small bomb might work...
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I'll take a guess and say that the blockage might be in the pipes outside, or even in the drainage chamber that has a hatch on it.
If you are able to, open the hatch and see if the water level is high or whether any water is coming through into the sewer.
If you have some long rods, you could try pushing them up the pipe to see if that unclogs anything. I had to do this myself a couple or three times, years ago.
If no joy, you might have to get some help (water company or plumber).
 
Mythopoeika said:
I'll take a guess and say that the blockage might be in the pipes outside, or even in the drainage chamber that has a hatch on it.
If you are able to, open the hatch and see if the water level is high or whether any water is coming through into the sewer.
If you have some long rods, you could try pushing them up the pipe to see if that unclogs anything. I had to do this myself a couple or three times, years ago.
If no joy, you might have to get some help (water company or plumber).
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The blockage is in the pipe leading from the toilet to the outside. I've had the manhole cover up and a prod down the right outlet, but I don't have anything long enough to get as far as the blockage (my toilet is downstairs, and the pipe runs straight from the toilet, under my kitchen floor to the drain). From my exploratory prods with a makeshift bit of pipe, the block seems to extend from about 2 feet from the toilet, to about six feet from the drain. There's a very slow trickle coming through into the sewer. It's exactly what happened almost two years ago to the day, when I called someone out, who basically just rodded the drain. I've ordered myself a set of rods because I've got nothing to improvise with!
 
catseye said:
The blockage is in the pipe leading from the toilet to the outside. I've had the manhole cover up and a prod down the right outlet, but I don't have anything long enough to get as far as the blockage (my toilet is downstairs, and the pipe runs straight from the toilet, under my kitchen floor to the drain). From my exploratory prods with a makeshift bit of pipe, the block seems to extend from about 2 feet from the toilet, to about six feet from the drain. There's a very slow trickle coming through into the sewer. It's exactly what happened almost two years ago to the day, when I called someone out, who basically just rodded the drain. I've ordered myself a set of rods because I've got nothing to improvise with!
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My Dad used to keep chimney sweep's rods handy for that.
Make sure you get flexible rods.
 
Mythopoeika said:
My Dad used to keep chimney sweep's rods handy for that.
Make sure you get flexible rods.
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Yeah, I've ordered specialist drain rods. If this is going to keep happening every couple of years, then it's a worthwhile investment. If I can't get it to work, then I'll have to call my drain man out again.
 
catseye said:
Yeah, I've ordered specialist drain rods. If this is going to keep happening every couple of years, then it's a worthwhile investment. If I can't get it to work, then I'll have to call my drain man out again.
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Check your house insurance as this may count as a ‘home emergency’ and they may organise/pay for said drain man. This happens to us every couple of years (combined drain for bog, gutters, everything and they easily clog up) so we bought some flexible drain rods. Worth every penny.
 
JaneD said:
Check your house insurance as this may count as a ‘home emergency’ and they may organise/pay for said drain man. This happens to us every couple of years (combined drain for bog, gutters, everything and they easily clog up) so we bought some flexible drain rods. Worth every penny.
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It's not so much the paying for the drain man, it's arranging for the drain man to actually come! I'm at work when they normally decide they can finally fit you in and it's not a flexible 'Oh, I'll just take the day off' kind of job. So a call out can mean he can't come for about a week (between his schedule and my schedule) and I'm not sure I can wait that long for a working toilet....
 
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