www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

Hi,

Just a quick post to say I'm having computer problems and might disappear shortly if it packs in altogether. I've just had another HDD fail so I'm now running on my old 80GB HDD. I've only just got it up and running so need to load it. I might buy a new computer but I'll shop around first. Hope this looks OK because at the moment the text on the monitor looks huge. It's just been a bad day in general so all is normal.

Kind regards, Col.

If the text on screen is huge, try this one thing. While you have text on screen, hold down the CTRL key and tap the minus key, one tap at a time, until it is back at the normal size. If that doesn't work, do come back.

Colin

camallison wrote:If the text on screen is huge, try this one thing. While you have text on screen, hold down the CTRL key and tap the minus key, one tap at a time, until it is back at the normal size. If that doesn't work, do come back.

Colin

or ctrl and scroll wheel on the mouse

Hi,

Many thanks for your suggestions Colin and b-a much appreciated and I've learned something new for future reference.

With a fresh OEM Win7 installed I loaded the motherboard drivers "Gigabyte" but when I loaded the video drivers ATI Radeon HD 6450 this then corrected the monitor and text etc so now I've got basic computer functions like Internet and email which I'll live with until the new desktop computer arrives.

My current computer I believe has possibly been faulty for a few years in that the HDD has been very noisy at booting up and took quite a while to settle down; it finally packed in yesterday so rather than play around buying a new HDD I decided to buy a new PC then it's all new. This is now the second 1TB HDD drive to fail on me in the last six months; my external 1TB HDD failed as well. I've now got an SSD external drive for backing up and to make absolutely sure I also bought a number of memory sticks so lets see this lot all go down together? It appears the larger the HDD disc drives become the more unreliable they are; I've never previously had an HDD fail.

I have an original Win7 O/S which I bought so it's not a problem installing a fresh copy but I might upgrade to Win10 with the new computer; I've experienced lots of problems previously with Win10 but now wonder if my computer has contributed to the problems?

I was at Rufforth Auto Jumble yesterday and looking at laptops in the computer store inside the big hanger; there was a Toshiba with a 17" monitor at £70 I was interested in thinking this would be ideal as back up should my desktop fail (which it did yesterday) but I decided to leave it; I'm glad now that I did because for a bit more money I've now got a new more powerful computer coming and this current computer can now be used as back up?

Computers are great whilst working but they can also be a real pain. I'm no whizz kid on computers but I learn on a need to know basis; I never play games but I like a fast computer which looks after my basic needs.

Time I wrapped up like an Eskimo and resume work on the bungalow exterior; the weather here at the moment isn't too bad for December.

Out of curiosity I've just tried both suggestions regarding changing font size and both work; thanks guys.

Kind regards, Col.

Just wondering, this new desktop you are getting does it not come with windows 10 pre installed?

big-all wrote:

camallison wrote:If the text on screen is huge, try this one thing. While you have text on screen, hold down the CTRL key and tap the minus key, one tap at a time, until it is back at the normal size. If that doesn't work, do come back.

Colin

or ctrl and scroll wheel on the mouse

CTRL + 0 (zero) resets the size to standard. I use that a fair bit.

If you're having a lot of HDD fails Col, it might be worth looking at the temperature that they are running at, I think most the general recommendation is no more than 50'C with a maximum of 60'C.

Midi towers in particular seem to get very hot inside. As I said in the other recent thread, I added another case fan to mine, sucking in on the back. As already said you need to keep on top of the dust as well. When I clean my PC out (have to be careful what I say here in case BG is watching! ) I make sure the PS and it's fan are as clean as possible too, as that extracts the heat from the case.

That Speedfan utility I mentioned will check the HDD temps as well. And log them IIRC.

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

Hi,

Thanks for asking s-e; my new computer when it arrives won't have Win10 already installed it's sold without o/s which isn't a problem because I have the Win7 I bought which I can install and once this is installed I can easily upgrade to Win10 if I wish.

Thanks Dave54 for your excellent advice and for the link; I'll have a good look inside this current computer once I take it out of service but I'll download speedfan first because I'm nosy. I've had two HDD's fail recently but one was an external so I doubt it's an overheating problem but well worth checking the one now in the tower just in case? BG seems rather busy with other things at the moment so I think you are safe?

Kind regards, Col.

I'm always watching, from afar. Usually with a pair of binoculars.

And your upgrade on new hardware to Windows 10 will only be free up until the 29th of July. You need to get your PC, upgrade to 10 BEFORE that date. Even if you instantly go back to 7.......if you don't, it won't activate and create the activation hash needed - so when you come to finally move to 10 (if something should tempt you), it will be a paid for upgrade - not cheap.

BG

If I was buying a new computer I think it would have win 10 preinstalled as much as I hate the sight of it, never had so many problem.Unless the commodore 64 counts

Hi,

Thanks BG & scruff.

I'm now fully sorted; the new computer arrived the day after I ordered it being next day free delivery included in the price. It was a bare computer without operating system so I installed my original Win7 and drivers etc then added office pro which gives me Outlook for my emails.

Taking your excellent advice BG I attempted to upgrade to Win10; the first day it reached 95% then simply disappeared? The second day it reached 99% after being left running for over 8 hours. Each time I install a fresh O/S it takes forever to run all the updates and I knew the updates hadn't been installed so I ran the update checker leaving it to run whilst I did other work; this worked because now I could run the 248 updates taking forever. Once the updates were installed then Win10 loaded in about half an hour which I'm now running and will continue to use unless I suffer problems?

For such little money I'm so far well pleased with my new computer; it arrived on time and was very easy to get up and running; I'm sure I made the correct decision buying a completely new computer rather than just replacing the faulty HDD. Once the SSD drives come down in price with a larger capacity then I'll upgrade to SSD; I already have an external SSD which I use for backing up. My new computer comes with a three year warranty for peace of mind. I'm sure it would have cost considerably more had I been forced to buy from PC World? When I bought my previous computer I bought it through eBay and at the time wondered if I was doing the right thing but as it turned out the computer served me well until the HDD failed so no complaints and a good thing about eBay is that I can check the sellers reputation; when the seller has sold thousands of computers and still retains a very high rating then buying through eBay is a pretty safe bet so no hesitation at all buying this new computer through eBay.

Boot up is much quicker using Win10 than when I used Win7; I do like Win7 but I'll now see how I get on with using Win10 which is good so far so fingers crossed.

Kind regards, Col.

If you install Windows 10 again, you really don't need to install 7 first and upgrade. You install 10 directly as a clean install. Once it reaches the desktop and you want to activate, you can enter the Windows 7 key.

Not a fan of upgrades, but if it works.....

Hi,

I'm now having a lot of trouble trying to get my HP Laserjet P1102w printer to work; it's not being recognized and the installation disc is being rejected; I've just wasted over an hour on this; on Win7 it just loaded the drivers without trouble now I'm even unable to install with the correct CD? Win10 is obviously a new learning curve but I also lost "Word" from my office pro 2003; I can see I'm going to have fun with Win10?

I've received two Skoda Yeti quotes which I would like to print but life's suddenly become very complicated?

Kind regards, Col.

Hi,

I've finally got the printer working having had to visit HP website to obtain the drivers download even though I had the installation CD to hand which kept being rejected by a message saying something like blocked by the administrator? I've also now got "Word" back on my bottom task bar so it's not all bad news.

Kind regards, Col.

Was it that the printer needed new drivers for Win 10 that were not on the installation disc?

Hi,

Very good question Dave thanks for asking it.

I've had Win10 installed on my previous computer and the HP printer loaded without trouble so this rather puzzled me. The printer wasn't recognized at all; I browsed the web for a solution but found I was not alone and I couldn't resolve the problem until I browsed the HP site for a direct download which then worked. I think the problem lay with online security because a pop up message said the request had been denied in order to protect my online safety and that if the problem persists I should contact the administrator? I spent a while looking at the security settings to see if I could adjust to allow the printer to load but it was taking a lot of time; I'm not a computer whiz kid and this was a new problem to me; sorted in the end though and as usual once the solution was found it was easy?

It finally stopped raining but I'm unable to continue exterior painting so I've been up the rear garden with the big petrol hedge trimmer attacking the laurels etc; I've just come indoors to let the steam settle and my temperature to drop then I can collect the debris; retired and I don't seem to have a minute spare which is a good thing because its better than dropping dead due to boredom.

Kind regards, Col.