Help me sort my laptop!

[elipsey]

Its because my Ma aint got much money you see. I hate the fact she was robbed by some local spotty herbert in the PC shop who saw her coming, turned it on/ went to Bios, noted an error code/ turned off in 5 mins flat.. & invoiced her for a 'system check: diagnosis HDD failure' for a total of £60. Total fkn thievery from a pensioner morelike.

That sucks. Your dutifulness is admirable. So is it fixed now?

P.S. What is a "Spotty Herbert"? I am unable to locate this delightful sounding peice of English slang in the urban dictionary.

[big_teee]

Ive mulled this over and re-read and boiled it down to the bare bones & my brain says..

unadulterated arsebanditry!

now look I need to sort this damn thing out. big-tee yes pls stick with your pm's to your buddy club eh- no point you posting on here is there. thx

I was suggesting it would be a good time for you and a few more that are actually able to communicate with you to PM, or Email.
That way you could get some good one on one help. Instead of the whole group being involved.
I mean that sincerely, no disrespect at all.
If it is fixed, then I guess there is no need.
T

[Sea Chief]

I was suggesting it would be a good time for you and a few more that are actually able to communicate with you to PM, or Email.
That way you could get some good one on one help. Instead of the whole group being involved.
I mean that sincerely, no disrespect at all.
T

From the trash you've previously wasted on my threads I utterly doubt your sincerity big-tee.

How would a 1-on-1 pm situation help anyway it'd be hugely inconvenient: here is much clearer (even with the obligatory numpty or two..) and Im very happy trudging on with a plan to do over the wknd.

if t pains you to read, or it clogs up your page space.. go elsewhere. please!

[Sea Chief]

That sucks. Your dutifulness is admirable. So is it fixed now?

P.S. What is a "Spotty Herbert"? I am unable to locate this delightful sounding peice of English slang in the urban dictionary.

Alas not fixed yet.. no! very busy working all today, so will endeavor to continue tmrw ev.

A spotty herbert.. imagine the pizza delivery boy what with his breaking voice and braces on his sticky-outy teeth already. This is a herbert (probably a spotty little oik too/ IE covered in pimples). There's one in the simpsons, behind a counter iirc quite regularly.

[big_teee]

From the trash you've previously wasted on my threads I utterly doubt your sincerity big-tee.

How would a 1-on-1 pm situation help anyway it'd be hugely inconvenient: here is much clearer (even with the obligatory numpty or two..) and Im very happy trudging on with a plan to do over the wknd.

if t pains you to read, or it clogs up your page space.. go elsewhere. please!

I read all the computer stuff, so no I will keep reading.
I would love to be able to help, but so many of us, just can't seem to communicate with you at your level, whatever it seems to be.
Your threads are definitely ones of a kind.
Actually a one on one pm would be less distractive, and you would not keep being compelled to complain to some of us.
T

[Jazz P Bass]

[QUOTE=Sea Chief;402609]Actually I found trying to hook up a wifi (I assume that means the same as my wireless > BT hub connection? I never know what wifi means specifically) link the hardest thing of all.. my XP is simple to do. This had -nowhere- asking me to put in the wireless key (is that the same as the key on the base of the PC?). No simple clear 'add a new connection > connect' like my XP.
QUOTE]



WIFI Definition / WIFI Means



The definition of WIFI is "Wireless Fidelity, wireless internet"

[big_teee]

That sucks. Your dutifulness is admirable. So is it fixed now?

P.S. What is a "Spotty Herbert"? I am unable to locate this delightful sounding peice of English slang in the urban dictionary.

I found this definition.

Definition of herbert in English:
noun
British informal
An undistinguished or foolish man or youth: a bunch of spotty herberts

[Sea Chief]

[Egalite et Fraternite belle Paris].

Hi Dave-

Ive got a bit further on with this, but still not sorted.

I stuck the new HDD back in, to see whether any different to the old HDD. This old one I seemed to kick into gear again (but albeit the windows 7 OS seemed to have installed, it did so seemingly with issues/ odd wireless connection, slow, a tad weird etc).

So, to recap: the CD was run on both HDD's and after much patience & the tosh re-starting & doing various set up whatnots.. the windows OS basic 'framework' is visibly in place on both.

The old HDD windows OS has I think some issues, as I mention.

So, popping back in the new HDD the windows OS seems the same, but on closer inspection seems to show more recognisably 'normal' things when I go to do the basics (do a wireless connection for eg).

Now when I click on the internet connection icon bttm RHS I see some bars/ I know this well/ and a pop up box askong me for a Security Key to establish a wireless link.

So 1) what is a security key?
2) does this suggest the old HDD -was- problematic now, and I should not return the new HDD but continue with it?

This is a marathon effort of days worth of attempts.. Id so like to know at least the answer to 2) by the end of the afternoon.

many thanks SC.

[Sea Chief]

No worries

There's never a dull moment in a Sea Chief thread.

Check this pic out for exciting.. I get this with either HDD on start up, for 10 secs before the windows OS gets going. Just seems to be stalwart there now. Not upsets me, but does it signify anything of concern.. if not how can I remove it.

[Sea Chief]

Its working!

It seems..

Now, all I have to make it back to normal 100% is to remove the nasty black/ white text screen (pic above) between innitial power on and the windows 7 starting up. It looks bad, but afaict has no effect on anything.

Got a wireless connection up & running. Got firefox on (ditched IE) seems quick and slick. Got MS security essentials on. Increaced text size to 125% for Ma, dipped brightness for her migraines, made pointer nice and big. All tickety-boo!

Thanks alot chaps, tho I sort of followed my nose & did it myself really/ but needed encouragement & explanations et al- really appreciated.

Just need to make the start page f**k off already.. & afaict its totally fixed, & running far better than its been for years.

Thanks SC.

[big_teee]

That is the PXE Network load option.
The PXE Network load option needs to be moved down in the boot order to avoid seeing this error.

The Slow Wifi could be using the wrong driver?
The computer software may need a different driver for your wifi hardware.
Someone that runs windows 7 will need to tell you how to check for a better driver.
T

[elipsey]

Check this pic out for exciting.. I get this with either HDD on start up, for 10 secs before the windows OS gets going. Just seems to be stalwart there now. Not upsets me, but does it signify anything of concern.. if not how can I remove it.

Why will no one believe me??

PXE Boot ROM means boot from ethernet. You can't do this, and should stop trying. If seeing the error message bothers you, you need to remove "boot from Lan" (or something similar) from your boot order in BIOS, or at least move it below your System HDD in the BIOS boot order. At least if there were no error message, the dunces at the computer store would stop trying to sell your mother new hard drives.

Congrats Chief, on a sucessful repair and learning lots of stuff.

[big_teee]

Why will no one believe me??

PXE Boot ROM means boot from ethernet. You can't do this, and should stop trying. If seeing the error message bothers you, you need to remove "boot from Lan" (or something similar) from your boot order in BIOS, or at least move it below your System HDD in the BIOS boot order. At least if there were no error message, the dunces at the computer store would stop trying to sell your mother new hard drives.

Congrats Chief, on a sucessful repair and learning lots of stuff.

Elipsey is correct.
I went into my bios, and I have the very same Realtek PXE Network boot option.
Mine is at the bottom of the boot order, below the HDD (Hard Drive boot order).
So get someone to walk you thru changing it in bios.
That way you won't see the error when it boots, or Loads.
T

[tedmich]

Congrats SC!

IMHO every OEM HD (especially laptops) should be replaced before they are 3 yrs old or you risk a catastrophic failure and complete OS rebuild like this.

A typical 2.5" drive head will travel about 20k miles with 1h of use daily for 3 yrs, it gets TIRED.

An extension of this logic is that if you replace the OEM drive with the cheapest possible aftermarket drive you should continue to replace every ~3 yrs. So called "Enterprise" aftermarket magnetic disk drives (with very long MTBF ratings) can buy greater peace of mind and SSDs, which should entirely supplant magnetic disks soon, offer both greatly increased speed and security.

[Sea Chief]

Why will no one believe me??

PXE Boot ROM means boot from ethernet. You can't do this, and should stop trying. If seeing the error message bothers you, you need to remove "boot from Lan" (or something similar) from your boot order in BIOS, or at least move it below your System HDD in the BIOS boot order. At least if there were no error message, the dunces at the computer store would stop trying to sell your mother new hard drives.

Congrats Chief, on a sucessful repair and learning lots of stuff.

("Why will no one believe me??" i dont understand- what are you referring to?)

But I havent ever tried to 'boot from bios'. The ethernet cable is never plugged in (bar when I did get it up & running of sorts with the old HDD I thought was still maybe ok in fact) & only to use the internet connection. I have never started up the PC with it in/ booted anything up with this cable in.

So Im still a bit confused as the whether this error mssg was what the herbert in the shop saw, and jumped to conclusion it told him the HDD had failed. Or did he come to this conclusion from some other system check.

Assuming the new HDD was needed (it seems to have allowed me to install xyz, so maybe so) Ive got a rough outline on how to remove this screen
above on start up.. but I need another hour to go thru how & tip toe my way thru the bios horrorshow place. Im not sure I can face it tbh. I might stick here, as annnoyingly-almost-spot-on as Ive sorted it.