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Tech Help (Beyond This Forum)

Not related to above.

I was going to replace the CMOS battery on my BBC. Get back to my roots.

On advice from a tech site I visit I had checked the lead from the motherboard to the battery pack (Three AA cells in series) and was going to measure the voltage at the board terminals,(with no battery connected) expecting it to be a bit more than than 4.5 Volt.

Anyway, I turned on the machine, first time in at least five years, and was sorting out the meter leads when there was a loud bang and all the magic smoke billowed out of the power supply.

I muttered an appropriate expletive, and switched it off before the fire got out of hand.

So, another minor task turn into a major job....Bugger.

INT21.
 
Odd thing happened today.
[...]
Second, I wonder if this is linked to Google putting up messages that show they can't track me when the VPN is running ?

No, completely unrelated. The call was just a meaningless phone scam.

Markrkingston1.

Just looked into Waterfox. Seems it is for W7 or later. I run XP.

Thanks anyway.

What browser do you use? If it's IE then it will be an old version, which might well explain your download problems.

May I suggest you move off XP? :) Being on XP is increasingly going to limit your software choices unnecessarily.

Moving to Linux (e.g. Lubuntu, Mint, etc.) or a later version of Windows would be well worth it for compatibility, sustainability, and security reasons.

By the way, did you choose your name "INT21" based on the DOS INT 21h interrupt?
 
Coal,

In that situation I just press the appropriate button on the front of the phone and the offending number is blocked.
 
Not related to above.

I was going to replace the CMOS battery on my BBC. Get back to my roots.

On advice from a tech site I visit I had checked the lead from the motherboard to the battery pack (Three AA cells in series) and was going to measure the voltage at the board terminals,(with no battery connected) expecting it to be a bit more than than 4.5 Volt.

Anyway, I turned on the machine, first time in at least five years, and was sorting out the meter leads when there was a loud bang and all the magic smoke billowed out of the power supply.

I muttered an appropriate expletive, and switched it off before the fire got out of hand.

So, another minor task turn into a major job....Bugger.

INT21.
A capacitor probably went bad. Replacing it may even make it work.
 
Markrkingston1,

I do run Linux on one of my other machines. Puppy Linux. But don't use it very often.

I stick with XP as I have a legal XP CD registered to me, and can always re-load and install if it crashes. Also it seems pretty bullet proof.
And, I can stick to the FAT32 file system and avoid NTFS which, I belief, the post-XP Windows OSs run.
I do have a variety of third party anti-virus and bug catchers attached to it.

Yes, As I am 'sending a line of text to the console' INT21 seemed fitting.

Nearly missed it. Browser.

I use Firefox mostly, but I also have Avast Secure Browser.

If I use Firefox and turn on my VPN, Google asks me what is going on.

This doesn't happen with Avast.

INT21.:)
 
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...A capacitor probably went bad. Replacing it may even make it work. ..

That's what I'm hoping.

I have a couple more Beebs and will replace the capacitors in a power supply from one of those (if it's the same) and replace the faulty one.

Then tackle the blown one.

You can still get PSUs for the BBC, but where is the fun in that ?

Just waiting for the smoke to clear then I will go get a coffee.

INT21.
 
Coal,

In that situation I just press the appropriate button on the front of the phone and the offending number is blocked.
My phone is capable of that, but I don't want BT to have any more of my hard-earned. We don't have voicemail either.
 
I stick with XP as I have a legal XP CD registered to me, and can always re-load and install if it crashes. Also it seems pretty bullet proof.
And, I can stick to the FAT32 file system and avoid NTFS which, I belief, the post-XP Windows OSs run.

Yeah but.... ;) For a very small outlay you can have a legal 7, 8 or 10 licence and you can always re-load and install if it crashes (which is very rare of course). And Windows 7 and onwards have been, in my experience, as bullet proof as XP was.

Also, why avoid NTFS? I have never seen any downsides with running NTFS.

Yes, As I am 'sending a line of text to the console' INT21 seemed fitting.

:)

Also, as for the browser(s), I'm not familiar with Avast but I know that modern Firefox no longer supports XP so the issues that would affect IE on XP will tend to affect Firefox too, i.e. lack of support for modern standards.
 
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...And Windows 7 and onwards have been, in my experience, as bullet proof as XP was. ..

I have beside me a (relatively) new Dell machine with W7 installed. And the 'Blue Screen of Death' appeared a few days ago. So that is off the road for a while.

It has a SATA drive, and I have a similar drive on another machine that I will change over one day to find if that brings it back to life.

I could get a W7 disc, but am I just following the Windows 'hook' and will need to upgrade when some programs just don't work on W7 any more. It seems endless.

There should, ideally, be a Universal OS that is never updated and never will be dropped. Something to refer back to.

DOS 6.2 ?

Only half joking.

I can't remember what I have against NTFS, but I do recall there was something I couldn't do with it. I seem to remember that I was installing XP and was offered the option of FAT32 or NTFS, and there was a warning that NTFS would not allow some old programs to run on XP.

I have even considered using Linux to install Wine as it is a W98 clone and will allow some of the old stuff to run. A lot of my early programs need W98 and won't run on XP or later.

INT21
 
There should, ideally, be a Universal OS that is never updated and never will be dropped. Something to refer back to.
Windows 10. MS said they will make it their last OS, they will just carry on updating it.
 
...And Windows 7 and onwards have been, in my experience, as bullet proof as XP was. ..

I have beside me a (relatively) new Dell machine with W7 installed. And the 'Blue Screen of Death' appeared a few days ago. So that is off the road for a while.

It has a SATA drive, and I have a similar drive on another machine that I will change over one day to find if that brings it back to life.

I could get a W7 disc, but am I just following the Windows 'hook' and will need to upgrade when some programs just don't work on W7 any more. It seems endless.

Oh well, if you're happy with XP far be it from me to try and change your mind. ;)

It is endless. But it's not just Windows. The same issues seem to apply to Linux. As things progress, compatibility is lost at the tail end of the chain. To be fair, Microsoft makes more effort to maintain application compatibility than is common in the Linux world.

For me, I could not now run XP as my main OS simply because too much modern software doesn't run on it and because browsers that are compatible with it are less and less compatible with the modern Web.

There should, ideally, be a Universal OS that is never updated and never will be dropped. Something to refer back to.

DOS 6.2 ?

Only half joking.

;)

There are in fact such standards, I think: Win32 console apps and Linux console apps. These are (mostly) likely to be compatible for a very long time. (Although library support may be an issue on Linux).

I can't remember what I have against NTFS, but I do recall there was something I couldn't do with it. I seem to remember that I was installing XP and was offered the option of FAT32 or NTFS, and there was a warning that NTFS would not allow some old programs to run on XP.

I have even considered using Linux to install Wine as it is a W98 clone and will allow some of the old stuff to run. A lot of my early programs need W98 and won't run on XP or later.

I've given up trying to run old OSs as may main base systems: If I really need to run old, incompatible software I do it via a VM nowadays.
 
There does seem to be a lot of people having trouble with W10 for a variety of reasons.
 
I suppose a lot of this boils down to what you need to do with your computer.
 
There does seem to be a lot of people having trouble with W10 for a variety of reasons.

Yup. A lot of this is to do with Microsoft's poor testing/QC in recent times. Despite this, W10 is genuinely very good (despite the in-built spyware).

I suppose a lot of this boils down to what you need to do with your computer.

I think so.
 
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There does seem to be a lot of people having trouble with W10 for a variety of reasons.
There were a lot of problems with the Windows 10 upgrade process, but that's all sorted now.
I have 2 laptops with a full install of Win 10 and so far there have been no major problems.
The machine at work is a Win 8 to Win 10 upgrade and there have been few problems.
 
...(despite the in-built spyware). ..

Have people started writing volumes on 'How to disarm W10' yet ?
 
...(despite the in-built spyware). ..

Have people started writing volumes on 'How to disarm W10' yet ?

Volumes and volumes...

One of the useful results of the GDPR legislation is that Microsoft finally published details of the server endpoints of their various spywaremonitoring/reporting/diagnostic features. This means that it's much easier to block communications you don't want to allow.
 
Just browsing through the options for fixing W7. What do y'll think of this ? And how do you interpret it ?

https://ecrateruk.com/products/windows-7-professional-key-download-license

I get a 404 error here.

Are they selling cheap W7 licenses? You can get similar licences on eBay as well.

Bear in mind that such Windows licences most certainly can be and might well be legal and legitimate, but it cannot be guaranteed.

So keep in mind that the licence key you paid for might stop working one day. Despite this, I still think that this offers a good deal since it's so cheap.
 
Just checked. I also get a 404 message.

I found the origin by Googling 'Windows 7 legal CD'. It was just one of the ones on offer.

I'll try again with a truncated address.
 
You could give it a try. Just do a full backup first so you can get back to where you were if it all goes wrong. :)
 
But (refering to the advert) does the thing look viable ? Do you (or any other) see a snag ?
 
But (refering to the advert) does the thing look viable ? Do you (or any other) see a snag ?
You may (may) have an issue with activation.
 
But (refering to the advert) does the thing look viable ? Do you (or any other) see a snag ?

(a) It is viable.
(b) It might or might not be legitimate. By "legitimate" here I mean a legally resaleable licence key.
(c) It will probably activate a W7 installation.
(d) If it's not legitimate, it (activation I mean) could stop working at any time. But my view is that this would not matter much as you could just get a new, cheap licence key.

In short, it's a perfectly reasonable give it a go situation.

Despite what some people claim, legal and legitimate Windows licence keys can be and are sold very cheaply in this way. (Especially for Windows 7 which is now very old and thus not in great demand).
 
You may (may) have an issue with activation.

That's the key (hah, see what I did there) thing. If it doesn't activate at all, get your money back from the vendor. Any UK or EU vendor will almost certainly give you your money back without question.

This is where PayPal is useful, as is buying from eBay (using PayPal). Very easy to get your money back in case of failure.
 
Something different.

Does anyone here have a British Gas account ?

Are you having problems using their on-line system ?

For the last three days I have been trying to log onto my acc, but I can't get past the 'enter Email address' box on the first page.
clicking 'Next' produces no effect. It just sits there.

I have emailed them, but it could (apparently) take up to five days to get a reply. I need to pay a bill before then.

INT21
 
Something different.

Does anyone here have a British Gas account ?

Are you having problems using their on-line system ?

For the last three days I have been trying to log onto my acc, but I can't get past the 'enter Email address' box on the first page.
clicking 'Next' produces no effect. It just sits there.

I have emailed them, but it could (apparently) take up to five days to get a reply. I need to pay a bill before then.

You can pay by phone at 0333 202 9524.
 
Mark,

Thanks, I was more concerned as to why the site was down. I have used it to pay the bills for the last four years.
If anyone else here uses it maybe they could try and log into their account and let me know if they succeed.

INT21.
 
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