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Originally posted by Sparrow:

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Originally posted by butler:

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Originally posted by Sparrow:

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Originally posted by Wesley J:

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Originally posted by Sparrow:
I'm having a problem with the CD/DVD drive on my computer. I haven't used it for a while, and now it doesn't seem able to detect any files on any kind of disk I put in the drive - either a CD, DVD or a program disk. If go into "my computer" it shows the (E) drive exists, but it doesn't show any files on it. It always used to start to play any kind of disk automatically, but now nothing happens. When I put a disk in the slot, the green light shows briefly then goes off. Any ideas?

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Try this: Go to -> My Computer -> right-click E drive -> Properties -> Autoplay -> choose from options -> Ok

Perhaps this may help somewhat? If not, do get back.

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No, that doesn't work!

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Most likely is the drive has simply died. what type of computer is it and is it currently a dvd burner in it ? it quite a simple and cheap tast to replace a drive (on most computers) and if you get back with these details will be able to give you instructions on replacing it

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It's a Dell Dimension 3100C - I've only had it just over a year! The drive is a CD/DVD burner - Philips DVD+-RW DVD8801.

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Time to pull out a screwdriver sparrow
go to this page and download the service manual (its only 2mb) then open the zip file and double click on the parts0.htm document and will give you full instructions on the physical replacing of the drive. before you do this however you will need to pick up a PATA dvd burner which will not cost a whole heap (pioneer or LG are usually best). One final note try to do this on a wooden bench or at least a bit of cardboard and be carefull not to do it on carpet that causes static electricity.
Dont be worried its a pretty simple operation the only other thing you need to check is when you have your old drive out before you put your new one in on the back there is a jumper which will either be on cs(cable select) m (master)or s (slave) just copy that setting onto the new drive.
(btw apologies for bad spelling or grammer as I had one person complain )

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Formerly known as Butler
I propose an Anglican compromise. We torture her, but infinitesimally slowly, so that everyone ends up confused.(Thanks Anna B)

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Originally posted by aj:
We've got a student staying with us and we're trying to get her Vista laptop onto our wireless network. It's a Linksys router and I've updated the MAC address information in the router's setup pages.

Her laptop can't see out network. I've tried various combinations of turning off security, toggling the SSID broadcast, disabling the MAC filter, resetting routers, components, computers, etc., to no avail. I'm not Vista savvy, but I have a work laptop running XP which seems fine on the wireless.

Anything really obvious that I'm missing?

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Originally posted by basso:
Wesley, this page looks like it might be helpful.

It seems to depend on which platform you're on - I don't have a "Custom" option on my Mac. I'll continue to poke around.

b.

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Aha! Looks like you're on to something! Thanks muchly, basso. Looks promising!

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Be it as it may: Wesley J will stay. --- Euthanasia, that sounds good. An alpine neutral neighbourhood. Then back to Britain, all dressed in wood. Things were gonna get worse. (John Cooper Clarke)

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Originally posted by Sparrow:
I'm having a problem with the CD/DVD drive on my computer. I haven't used it for a while, and now it doesn't seem able to detect any files on any kind of disk I put in the drive - either a CD, DVD or a program disk. If go into "my computer" it shows the (E) drive exists, but it doesn't show any files on it. It always used to start to play hany kind of disk automatically, but now nothing happens. When I put a disk in the slot, the green light shows briefly then goes off. Any ideas?

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Originally posted by Sparrow:
It's a Dell Dimension 3100C - I've only had it just over a year! The drive is a CD/DVD burner - Philips DVD+-RW DVD8801.

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Sparrow - really an annoying problem. I see your machine is one of the posh new tiny ones.

You may've already done all the steps suggested in the 3100C Owner’s Manual (link to pdf here, as given before by butler). There's a few things in there you can do before you grab a screwdriver.

Do you have a warranty for more than 1 year? (IMHO, always a good idea to get e.g. 3 years, even if it costs more - I did that for both of my machines, DELLs too.) Go and pester their support for a bit?

There's more specific information on the Philips DVD+-RW DVD8801 drive on the DELL support website. Philips say "This Philips drive is a special customized product and is sold only as part of a computer system (OEM)", thus the link to DELL.

I was wondering earlier if perhaps a driver update might be useful. Here (TinyURL link) is a driver update of 13 April 2007, so you might not have that yet.

I hope you'll manage to get it to work again eventually, or as a last resort might have to replace it.

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Be it as it may: Wesley J will stay. --- Euthanasia, that sounds good. An alpine neutral neighbourhood. Then back to Britain, all dressed in wood. Things were gonna get worse. (John Cooper Clarke)

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Originally posted by Wesley J:
Sparrow - really an annoying problem. I see your machine is one of the posh new tiny ones.

You may've already done all the steps suggested in the 3100C Owner’s Manual (link to pdf here, as given before by butler). There's a few things in there you can do before you grab a screwdriver.

Do you have a warranty for more than 1 year? (IMHO, always a good idea to get e.g. 3 years, even if it costs more - I did that for both of my machines, DELLs too.) Go and pester their support for a bit?

There's more specific information on the Philips DVD+-RW DVD8801 drive on the DELL support website. Philips say "This Philips drive is a special customized product and is sold only as part of a computer system (OEM)", thus the link to DELL.

I was wondering earlier if perhaps a driver update might be useful. Here (TinyURL link) is a driver update of 13 April 2007, so you might not have that yet.

I hope you'll manage to get it to work again eventually, or as a last resort might have to replace it.

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Originally posted by aj:
I should add that the laptop can see our neighbours' networks.

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Originally posted by andreas1984:
Does anyone know if one could use the same iPod device over both an iMac and a pc that runs Windows Vista? I mean, without having to reformat the iPod to a file system recognized by Windows...

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If the iPod is formatted for Windows, the Mac will still read it, but I'm not sure that it is possible the other way round. Only because when I got my iPod my friend loaded on songs from his Mac, but at the time I had a Windows (XP) machine and he then had to jump through hoops to reformat it.

The other issue if it's Windows formatted is that you will only be able to do software updates by connecting it to a Windows machine.

My question is: any suggestions for good backup software for the Mac? Today I had a hard drive crash that, while not life-shattering, is still quite inconvenient. Next week I'm going to go get a big external drive. I'm considering upgrading to Leopard too.

[ 14. January 2008, 11:16: Message edited by: ecumaniac ]

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it's a secret club for people with a knitting addiction, hiding under the cloak of BDSM - Catrine

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Originally posted by ecumaniac:

My question is: any suggestions for good backup software for the Mac? Today I had a hard drive crash that, while not life-shattering, is still quite inconvenient. Next week I'm going to go get a big external drive. I'm considering upgrading to Leopard too.

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Originally posted by basso:
(I'm going to MacWorld SF this week. I think there's a new Mac in my future.)

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Originally posted by babybear:
Kompozer is exactly what I want. It shows the code in the same way as the 'view source' in Firefox.

Many thanks.

bb

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bb, I may be late and you may've already made up your mind - and perhaps for the better product. However, I'd like to put forward Alleycode HTML Editor, which I've found to be quite useful in the past. Plus it's free.

Have fun with your new software, whatever you may choose!

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Be it as it may: Wesley J will stay. --- Euthanasia, that sounds good. An alpine neutral neighbourhood. Then back to Britain, all dressed in wood. Things were gonna get worse. (John Cooper Clarke)

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Originally posted by babybear:
I would like an editor almost exactly like the one I get up when I "View source" in Firefox. The difference would be that I can actually edit the file!

A brief description - it recognises the keywords of xhtml and css and bungs them in blue. It also matches up brackets and shows up " />" bits. Comments are in green.

Any suggestions?

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Originally posted by babybear:
I despise vi. Well, actually, I don't, but I hate the fundamental flaw in it where a way to navigate is 'hjkl'. These are one step out from the 'home keys' in touch typing, and as I learn how to type I get seriously discombobulated by them. I know that I could re-map the keys so that 'jkl;' become the navigation keys, but that only stores up problems if I were to use vi on any other machine than my own.

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Originally posted by Wesley J:


You may've already done all the steps suggested in the 3100C Owner’s Manual (link to pdf here, as given before by butler). There's a few things in there you can do before you grab a screwdriver.

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[/QUOTE]


Well, that didn't work (trying to update the driver. I downloaded the file which was supposed to be the new driver - it's a zipped file - but when unzipping it there's nothing inside it!



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For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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Originally posted by Codepoet:
While I can see that most of the software I would want to use has an Open equivelent, I can;t get my head around what the Open equivelent of MS Outlook (and exchange) is. I need to be able to manage email, calander and contacts, access them all via the while I am out and about and also sync my PDA/mobile phone with it as well (especially for diary and contacts) Obviously in the MS worls, the solution id exchange, outlook, active sync and windows-mobile. Any suggestions what I can use to do this in the Open world?

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Originally posted by The Wanderer:
Does anyone know an alternative to Paypal? I need to send money over the Net, they are asking for documents they've already got, and are slowly driving me mad! Is there another firm out there that does the same sort of thing, but works?

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Originally posted by ecumaniac:
Having finally had enough of the WinXP laptop I'm using while my Mac is in hospital, I'm going to jump on the Linux bandwagon.

I'm following the tutorial from pendrivelinux.com to save the hassle of partitioning the drive.

I'll report back when it's done. Wish me luck!

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Hooray! Another Linux convert. I recommend Ubuntu Linux 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon, the one I'm using at the moment.

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Spiders are a little people, but they live in Kings' palaces.
Am Yisrael Chai! עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי

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Originally posted by Jimmy B:
Visiting a friend, also an ancient geek and he told me a wonderful story, relating to one of the original PC XTs. (He said it was an 8080 processor, but I suspect he meant 8088).

Anyway, he was working as a programmer at the time, and a mate mentioned his machine (the aforementioned PC XT) which was behaving a bit flakily... So he told the mate to drop it round and he'd have a look. When he opened the case, he found that a mouse had made its nest right on top of the CPU!! There was no fan in this machine - and the mouse nest (wait for it-- ) was made of a shredded pest control leaflet!




[ETA: This same friend working now at a university had another mouse story for me Staff were complaining that the new laser printer was leaving streaks on the printouts... when he opened it up, a mouse had tried to run up over the drum and been zapped by the high voltage. There it remained wedged, and its little paws had etched the surface of the drum! Hence the streakiness. The drum was replaced under warranty ]

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Originally posted by Qlib:
Can anyone tell me why my computer (Windows XP) - which used to happily let me plug in and plug out my USB pen without any of the tiresome 'safely dismounting*' stuff that I have to do at work (XP Pro)- has suddenly started forgetting at 20 minute or, on bad days, 20 second, intervals that the USB pen is plugged in and ignores its contents, refuses to save files back to the pen etc. Is this the result of another 'improvement' downloaded?

*'Dismount' - wtf? What do they think we're doing with those pens?

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Originally posted by Jimmy B:
This same friend working now at a university had another mouse story for me Staff were complaining that the new laser printer was leaving streaks on the printouts...

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Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider: Does it do this with other USB devices?

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Originally posted by ecumaniac:
My question is: any suggestions for good backup software for the Mac? Today I had a hard drive crash that, while not life-shattering, is still quite inconvenient. Next week I'm going to go get a big external drive. I'm considering upgrading to Leopard too.

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Originally posted by Qlib:
It's a relatively new pen, and still functions fine at my place of work. There are 2 USB ports at the front of my computer and the modem works when plugged into either of them. The pen has problems whichever one it is plugged into.

The computer has started urging me to plug the pen into a "Hi-Speed" port, which I guess is at the back and relatively inaccessible. But I guess I'll get a connecting thinggy and try that next. Thanks for the ideas so far.

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Originally posted by Real Ale Methodist:

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Originally posted by ecumaniac:
My question is: any suggestions for good backup software for the Mac? Today I had a hard drive crash that, while not life-shattering, is still quite inconvenient. Next week I'm going to go get a big external drive. I'm considering upgrading to Leopard too.

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Upgrade to Leopard, get the biggest external hard drive you can afford, preferably with a firewire cable. Use TimeMachine. (Even better get a TimeCapsule - I want to)

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