Yesterday, my computer screen failed to start up four times in a row (shut down and restart) before coming up.
Backup to external hard drive crashed twice.
And occasional glitches in music recording.

I was thinking it might be time to get a new computer (~10 years) and wanted to ask about desktop vs laptop.

But ran windows “resource and performance monitor” and it thinks the problem may be just a bad driver.

“PNP Device Configuration Failure”, “AMDSK failure”

Any advice? Step one is “Verify the correct driver is installed”. Well how the heck do I do that? It’s supposed to be PNP.

mollwollfumble said:

Yesterday, my computer screen failed to start up four times in a row (shut down and restart) before coming up.
Backup to external hard drive crashed twice.
And occasional glitches in music recording.

I was thinking it might be time to get a new computer (~10 years) and wanted to ask about desktop vs laptop.

But ran windows “resource and performance monitor” and it thinks the problem may be just a bad driver.

“PNP Device Configuration Failure”, “AMDSK failure”

Any advice? Step one is “Verify the correct driver is installed”. Well how the heck do I do that? It’s supposed to be PNP.

mollwollfumble said:

Yesterday, my computer screen failed to start up four times in a row (shut down and restart) before coming up.
Backup to external hard drive crashed twice.
And occasional glitches in music recording.

I was thinking it might be time to get a new computer (~10 years) and wanted to ask about desktop vs laptop.

But ran windows “resource and performance monitor” and it thinks the problem may be just a bad driver.

“PNP Device Configuration Failure”, “AMDSK failure”

Any advice? Step one is “Verify the correct driver is installed”. Well how the heck do I do that? It’s supposed to be PNP.

Run Windows update.

The easiest way to reinstall drivers in Windows is to delete the device in “Device Manager” and let Windows go through the process of finding and installing it.

Dark Orange said:

The easiest way to reinstall drivers in Windows is to delete the device in “Device Manager” and let Windows go through the process of finding and installing it.

just find the youngest person in the room and ask them to do it… you can usually bribe these geniuses with a frozen coke from Macca’s.

Arts said:

Dark Orange said:

The easiest way to reinstall drivers in Windows is to delete the device in “Device Manager” and let Windows go through the process of finding and installing it.

just find the youngest person in the room and ask them to do it… you can usually bribe these geniuses with a frozen coke from Macca’s.

Your son does most of the IT in you house? :-)

This may help.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/the-device-klids-is-reporting-tvconfigmgrerr24/df11ee6b-d76b-4b73-bbdb-7f9cc1434fd7

Arts said:

Dark Orange said:

The easiest way to reinstall drivers in Windows is to delete the device in “Device Manager” and let Windows go through the process of finding and installing it.

just find the youngest person in the room and ask them to do it… you can usually bribe these geniuses with a frozen coke from Macca’s.

That’s brilliant, DO. I can do that.

Unfortunately the youngest person in the room has a tendency to look blankly at me and say “what’s a desktop?”

Dark Orange said:

This may help.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/the-device-klids-is-reporting-tvconfigmgrerr24/df11ee6b-d76b-4b73-bbdb-7f9cc1434fd7

Noted. Will try.

On the subject of computer help (this doesn’t help mwf, but he’s got a few other things to try anyway), I’ve got 2 WiFi networks here, one at 2.4GHz (2G), the other at 5GHz (5G). 5G isn’t connected to the internet, but 2G is. One machine, an ASUS notebook running Windows 7, has an inbuilt 2.4GHz card that stopped working a few months ago. I’ve also got two USB network interfaces, one for 5GHz (Edimax AC450) and one for 2.4GHz (Simplecom NW392). The Simplecom one was in use for a while shortly after the inbuilt card went down. The Edimax is in use now. Both have blue lights to indicate that they’re working properly. The Edimax correctly connects to the 5G network, but (on that machine) the Simplecom won’t I’ve checked that it’s enabled:

netsh interface show interface   reports

Admin State	State	Type	Interface Name
Enabled	Disonnected	Dedicated	Wireless Network 22
…

Windows device manager says it’s working properly, but the blue light is off (Windows device manager also says the inbuilt network card is working properly.)

Both the Simplecom and Edimax devices work properly on every other computer I’ve got here, under different operating systems (Linux, BSD, W10, and several flavours of macOS.)

I’d like to get the Simplecom (at least, and preferably the inbuilt card) working on the W7 machine. The Windows network diagnostics program doesn’t work: it reports an unknown error in the program (not with the NICs)

Any suggestions?

btm said:

On the subject of computer help (this doesn’t help mwf, but he’s got a few other things to try anyway), I’ve got 2 WiFi networks here, one at 2.4GHz (2G), the other at 5GHz (5G). 5G isn’t connected to the internet, but 2G is. One machine, an ASUS notebook running Windows 7, has an inbuilt 2.4GHz card that stopped working a few months ago. I’ve also got two USB network interfaces, one for 5GHz (Edimax AC450) and one for 2.4GHz (Simplecom NW392). The Simplecom one was in use for a while shortly after the inbuilt card went down. The Edimax is in use now. Both have blue lights to indicate that they’re working properly. The Edimax correctly connects to the 5G network, but (on that machine) the Simplecom won’t I’ve checked that it’s enabled:

netsh interface show interface   reports

Admin State	State	Type	Interface Name
Enabled	Disonnected	Dedicated	Wireless Network 22
…

Windows device manager says it’s working properly, but the blue light is off (Windows device manager also says the inbuilt network card is working properly.)

Both the Simplecom and Edimax devices work properly on every other computer I’ve got here, under different operating systems (Linux, BSD, W10, and several flavours of macOS.)

I’d like to get the Simplecom (at least, and preferably the inbuilt card) working on the W7 machine. The Windows network diagnostics program doesn’t work: it reports an unknown error in the program (not with the NICs)

Any suggestions?

That’s an even worse problem than mine is. Can’t help.
When my laptop WiFi died I got a dongle. Then a second dongle when I lost the first. When my printer WiFi died I went USB. My camera WiFi never worked.

Go Nutz

seems like years since
some Windoze types made an issue over
“Apple Geeks** (nearly) Never Re~Cycling Computers!”

we do:
we either donate them to first time users and converts*
or sell them on e-Bay in order to upgrade to a newer model

*that’s how I got hooked nearly 30 years ago
since as they say; “Once you go Mac you’ll never go back!”
and in all that time I’ve only bought 1 NEW Apple Computer.
@ the moment I’m on my 5th e-Bay cast off that being 2015
and just casting out feelers ahead of next inevitable innernut
upgrade that refuses to allow outdated hardware to participate

**btw
in spite of the improperganda
We’re NOT “A CULT” … We’re A Family. :) (:

mollwollfumble said:

Arts said:

Dark Orange said:

The easiest way to reinstall drivers in Windows is to delete the device in “Device Manager” and let Windows go through the process of finding and installing it.

just find the youngest person in the room and ask them to do it… you can usually bribe these geniuses with a frozen coke from Macca’s.

That’s brilliant, DO. I can do that.

Unfortunately the youngest person in the room has a tendency to look blankly at me and say “what’s a desktop?”

Maybe you’re just asking the wrong kids.

The Ins, Outs & Specs

.
If spreadsheets are your cuppa tea fine
if what you need is SPEED to Play Games
what can I say besides we don’t play games…
…we make them…

more importantly
what will YOU do?

might want type in search next to start bottom-left “logs”, it’ll display “view event logs”

have a look-see at error reporting etc

Hi folks,

Rather than fix the drivers or buy a new computer.

I went with an upgrade of old computer.

Windows 7 to Windows 10
4 GB RAM to 12 GB RAM
32 bit to 64 bit.

That’s the good news.
The not so good news is:

No change to computer chip – computers haven’t speeded up in the last 12 years.
1000 GB to 500 GB (hard drives are more expensive than they used to be)
Office 2010 to Office 2007 :-(
No anti-virus

The worse news is:
Had a heck of a time even finding the internet! The compouter after upgrade didn’t even have a browser.
Then even had to search for tokyo3 forum to get here.
Need to reset every bleeping thing. Change double click to single click. Change defaults so I can move icone on the desktop. Lost all old passwords.
Have to re-install shed-loads of programs
Couldn’t even change premissions to give myself access to some of my data (permission change crashed).

• 1000 GB to 500 GB (hard drives are more expensive than they used to be)

I would say that the only way that is close to being true is if your old one was HDD and your new one is SSD. Sometimes portable HDDs are cheaper than internal HDDs. Just buy a portable one and take it out of the housing. I’ve done that in the past…

TASMAN’S JOURNAL.

Journal or Description drawn up by me, Abel Jansz Tasman, of a voyage made from the town of Batavia in East India for the discovery of the unknown South land in the year of our Lord 1642, the 14th of August. May God Almighty vouchsafe His blessing on this work.

Amen.
https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks04/0400771h.html

mollwollfumble said:

Hi folks,

Rather than fix the drivers or buy a new computer.

I went with an upgrade of old computer.

Windows 7 to Windows 10
4 GB RAM to 12 GB RAM
32 bit to 64 bit.

That’s the good news.
The not so good news is:

No change to computer chip – computers haven’t speeded up in the last 12 years.
1000 GB to 500 GB (hard drives are more expensive than they used to be)
Office 2010 to Office 2007 :-(
No anti-virus

The worse news is:
Had a heck of a time even finding the internet! The compouter after upgrade didn’t even have a browser.
Then even had to search for tokyo3 forum to get here.
Need to reset every bleeping thing. Change double click to single click. Change defaults so I can move icone on the desktop. Lost all old passwords.
Have to re-install shed-loads of programs
Couldn’t even change premissions to give myself access to some of my data (permission change crashed).

No change to computer chip – computers haven’t speeded up in the last 12 years.

I don’t think that’s right. The speed per core may not have changed, but cores have gone from 1 to 16 or more which can make a big difference.

furious said:

• 1000 GB to 500 GB (hard drives are more expensive than they used to be)

I would say that the only way that is close to being true is if your old one was HDD and your new one is SSD. Sometimes portable HDDs are cheaper than internal HDDs. Just buy a portable one and take it out of the housing. I’ve done that in the past…

Ah, I was wondering about that one too (but I haven’t checked recently)

The Rev Dodgson said:

mollwollfumble said:

Hi folks,

Rather than fix the drivers or buy a new computer.

I went with an upgrade of old computer.

Windows 7 to Windows 10
4 GB RAM to 12 GB RAM
32 bit to 64 bit.

That’s the good news.
The not so good news is:

No change to computer chip – computers haven’t speeded up in the last 12 years.
1000 GB to 500 GB (hard drives are more expensive than they used to be)
Office 2010 to Office 2007 :-(
No anti-virus

The worse news is:
Had a heck of a time even finding the internet! The compouter after upgrade didn’t even have a browser.
Then even had to search for tokyo3 forum to get here.
Need to reset every bleeping thing. Change double click to single click. Change defaults so I can move icone on the desktop. Lost all old passwords.
Have to re-install shed-loads of programs
Couldn’t even change premissions to give myself access to some of my data (permission change crashed).

No change to computer chip – computers haven’t speeded up in the last 12 years.

I don’t think that’s right. The speed per core may not have changed, but cores have gone from 1 to 16 or more which can make a big difference.

I have a beef about that. I got one of the first quad-core machines at work with CSIRO and was totally miffed that it slowed the computer down so it was slower than two core. Software that actually uses the four cores for number cruching costs at least five times and much as software that only uses one core.

So two cores, one for number cruching and one for handling the internet writing memos is OK. But just look at your own Task Manager when doing number cruching. You’ll average just one active processor no matter how many are on the computer. Unless you’re really really wealthy. Or unless software companies are being very nice these days.

mollwollfumble said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

mollwollfumble said:

Hi folks,

Rather than fix the drivers or buy a new computer.

I went with an upgrade of old computer.

Windows 7 to Windows 10
4 GB RAM to 12 GB RAM
32 bit to 64 bit.

That’s the good news.
The not so good news is:

No change to computer chip – computers haven’t speeded up in the last 12 years.
1000 GB to 500 GB (hard drives are more expensive than they used to be)
Office 2010 to Office 2007 :-(
No anti-virus

The worse news is:
Had a heck of a time even finding the internet! The compouter after upgrade didn’t even have a browser.
Then even had to search for tokyo3 forum to get here.
Need to reset every bleeping thing. Change double click to single click. Change defaults so I can move icone on the desktop. Lost all old passwords.
Have to re-install shed-loads of programs
Couldn’t even change premissions to give myself access to some of my data (permission change crashed).

No change to computer chip – computers haven’t speeded up in the last 12 years.

I don’t think that’s right. The speed per core may not have changed, but cores have gone from 1 to 16 or more which can make a big difference.

I have a beef about that. I got one of the first quad-core machines at work with CSIRO and was totally miffed that it slowed the computer down so it was slower than two core. Software that actually uses the four cores for number cruching costs at least five times and much as software that only uses one core.

So two cores, one for number cruching and one for handling the internet writing memos is OK. But just look at your own Task Manager when doing number cruching. You’ll average just one active processor no matter how many are on the computer. Unless you’re really really wealthy. Or unless software companies are being very nice these days.

No longer true. For instance, although plain Python is single threaded, compiled libraries and the Numba jit compiler show husge speed improvements with multiple cores.

also the hard drives, surely the increased price is more like something to do with going from spin disc technology to spin quantum technology

SCIENCE said:

also the hard drives, surely the increased price is more like something to do with going from spin disc technology to spin quantum technology

You mean like furious said? :)

The Rev Dodgson said:

SCIENCE said:

also the hard drives, surely the increased price is more like something to do with going from spin disc technology to spin quantum technology

You mean like furious said? :)

Oh, wait a minute, that’s not what furious said.

mollwollfumble said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

mollwollfumble said:

Hi folks,

Rather than fix the drivers or buy a new computer.

I went with an upgrade of old computer.

Windows 7 to Windows 10
4 GB RAM to 12 GB RAM
32 bit to 64 bit.

That’s the good news.
The not so good news is:

No change to computer chip – computers haven’t speeded up in the last 12 years.
1000 GB to 500 GB (hard drives are more expensive than they used to be)
Office 2010 to Office 2007 :-(
No anti-virus

The worse news is:
Had a heck of a time even finding the internet! The compouter after upgrade didn’t even have a browser.
Then even had to search for tokyo3 forum to get here.
Need to reset every bleeping thing. Change double click to single click. Change defaults so I can move icone on the desktop. Lost all old passwords.
Have to re-install shed-loads of programs
Couldn’t even change premissions to give myself access to some of my data (permission change crashed).

No change to computer chip – computers haven’t speeded up in the last 12 years.

I don’t think that’s right. The speed per core may not have changed, but cores have gone from 1 to 16 or more which can make a big difference.

I have a beef about that. I got one of the first quad-core machines at work with CSIRO and was totally miffed that it slowed the computer down so it was slower than two core. Software that actually uses the four cores for number cruching costs at least five times and much as software that only uses one core.

So two cores, one for number cruching and one for handling the internet writing memos is OK. But just look at your own Task Manager when doing number cruching. You’ll average just one active processor no matter how many are on the computer. Unless you’re really really wealthy. Or unless software companies are being very nice these days.

In the 1980’s, the Amiga computer was cheap and used distributed computation. It had a dedicated graphics chip, a maths chip, a comms chip etc. The main “core” chip just shoved the data to the relevant processor. Just imagine how far that would have progressed by now.

IBM bought the technology and binned it.

The Rev Dodgson said:

SCIENCE said:

also the hard drives, surely the increased price is more like something to do with going from spin disc technology to spin quantum technology

You mean like furious said? :)

Yeah, sorta.

it’s like part of what they said but you know how it is, we don’t monitor everything everyone says, even if Chris there thinks we’re the CCP and all

roughbarked said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

SCIENCE said:

also the hard drives, surely the increased price is more like something to do with going from spin disc technology to spin quantum technology

You mean like furious said? :)

Yeah, sorta.

Is that like spin gravity technology?

captain_spalding said:

roughbarked said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

You mean like furious said? :)

Yeah, sorta.

Is that like spin gravity technology?

sorta.

Everything is more difficult than in has any right to be. EVERYTHING

I’ve tried 5 times to get my bookmarks back from the “Old FireFox Data” folder following web instruction. No dice. Copy which folder to where, then change what settings to get it recognised.

Every time I open Firefox it asks me if I want to make it my default browser. I say yes. Which opens up a list of 500 or so file extensions and asks me which program should open them. I get out of that. Then next time I open Firefox I get the same rigmarole again.

I can’t get shortcuts onto my desktop from either start menu, toolbar or folders.

I try searching for files on computer and I can’t, only search on the web. Where are the .exe files? Have I got back my “hiidden” files or not?

The start menu gives me two pages of blatent advertising that I can’t get rid of, and I can’t get anything useful (such as firefox) onto the start menu.

Accidentally clicked on OneNote then I had to get it off the windows startup autoplay.

I can’t get “Windows Movie Maker”

I can’t get the original Windows XP minesweeper back – I tried and downloaded “original minesweeper” and the results were peculiar indeed – it gave me a badly malformatted window then vanished after downloading so can’t find it to uninstall or play.

Permissions – ugh! The program crashes when I try to give myself permission to access my old hard drive.

Outlook upens to the wrong inbox – the empty one.

I can’t delete emails – permission denied. So my inbox is now going to grow unchecked.

Every frickin thing I’ve tried has been more difficult than it should be.

The linked util will give you back a sensible start menu, not the ridiculous mess that comes with later versions of Windows

https://open-shell.github.io/Open-Shell-Menu/

i’ll stay with my old win 7 laptops long as I can, save myself a nervous breakdown

mollwollfumble said:

Everything is more difficult than in has any right to be. EVERYTHING

I’ve tried 5 times to get my bookmarks back from the “Old FireFox Data” folder following web instruction. No dice. Copy which folder to where, then change what settings to get it recognised.

Every time I open Firefox it asks me if I want to make it my default browser. I say yes. Which opens up a list of 500 or so file extensions and asks me which program should open them. I get out of that. Then next time I open Firefox I get the same rigmarole again.

I can’t get shortcuts onto my desktop from either start menu, toolbar or folders.

I try searching for files on computer and I can’t, only search on the web. Where are the .exe files? Have I got back my “hiidden” files or not?

The start menu gives me two pages of blatent advertising that I can’t get rid of, and I can’t get anything useful (such as firefox) onto the start menu.

Accidentally clicked on OneNote then I had to get it off the windows startup autoplay.

I can’t get “Windows Movie Maker”

I can’t get the original Windows XP minesweeper back – I tried and downloaded “original minesweeper” and the results were peculiar indeed – it gave me a badly malformatted window then vanished after downloading so can’t find it to uninstall or play.

Permissions – ugh! The program crashes when I try to give myself permission to access my old hard drive.

Outlook upens to the wrong inbox – the empty one.

I can’t delete emails – permission denied. So my inbox is now going to grow unchecked.

Every frickin thing I’ve tried has been more difficult than it should be.

there’s at least one easy way out

SCIENCE said:

mollwollfumble said:

Everything is more difficult than in has any right to be. EVERYTHING

I’ve tried 5 times to get my bookmarks back from the “Old FireFox Data” folder following web instruction. No dice. Copy which folder to where, then change what settings to get it recognised.

Every time I open Firefox it asks me if I want to make it my default browser. I say yes. Which opens up a list of 500 or so file extensions and asks me which program should open them. I get out of that. Then next time I open Firefox I get the same rigmarole again.

I can’t get shortcuts onto my desktop from either start menu, toolbar or folders.

I try searching for files on computer and I can’t, only search on the web. Where are the .exe files? Have I got back my “hiidden” files or not?

The start menu gives me two pages of blatent advertising that I can’t get rid of, and I can’t get anything useful (such as firefox) onto the start menu.

Accidentally clicked on OneNote then I had to get it off the windows startup autoplay.

I can’t get “Windows Movie Maker”

I can’t get the original Windows XP minesweeper back – I tried and downloaded “original minesweeper” and the results were peculiar indeed – it gave me a badly malformatted window then vanished after downloading so can’t find it to uninstall or play.

Permissions – ugh! The program crashes when I try to give myself permission to access my old hard drive.

Outlook upens to the wrong inbox – the empty one.

I can’t delete emails – permission denied. So my inbox is now going to grow unchecked.

Every frickin thing I’ve tried has been more difficult than it should be.

there’s at least one easy way out

Chuck it in the dam. 😁

Woodie said:

SCIENCE said:

mollwollfumble said:

Everything is more difficult than in has any right to be. EVERYTHING

I’ve tried 5 times to get my bookmarks back from the “Old FireFox Data” folder following web instruction. No dice. Copy which folder to where, then change what settings to get it recognised.

Every time I open Firefox it asks me if I want to make it my default browser. I say yes. Which opens up a list of 500 or so file extensions and asks me which program should open them. I get out of that. Then next time I open Firefox I get the same rigmarole again.

I can’t get shortcuts onto my desktop from either start menu, toolbar or folders.

I try searching for files on computer and I can’t, only search on the web. Where are the .exe files? Have I got back my “hiidden” files or not?

The start menu gives me two pages of blatent advertising that I can’t get rid of, and I can’t get anything useful (such as firefox) onto the start menu.

Accidentally clicked on OneNote then I had to get it off the windows startup autoplay.

I can’t get “Windows Movie Maker”

I can’t get the original Windows XP minesweeper back – I tried and downloaded “original minesweeper” and the results were peculiar indeed – it gave me a badly malformatted window then vanished after downloading so can’t find it to uninstall or play.

Permissions – ugh! The program crashes when I try to give myself permission to access my old hard drive.

Outlook upens to the wrong inbox – the empty one.

I can’t delete emails – permission denied. So my inbox is now going to grow unchecked.

Every frickin thing I’ve tried has been more difficult than it should be.

there’s at least one easy way out

Chuck it in the dam. 😁

After an invocation to 42. The answer to everything.

buffy said:

Woodie said:

SCIENCE said:

there’s at least one easy way out

Chuck it in the dam. 😁

After an invocation to 42. The answer to everything.

I’m running Win10 & Firefox. There doesn’t seem to be any of your problems here.

Tamb said:

buffy said:

Woodie said:

Chuck it in the dam. 😁

After an invocation to 42. The answer to everything.

I’m running Win10 & Firefox. There doesn’t seem to be any of your problems here.

personally if I ever got to this stage I would take it to a computer shop. But I have never got this bad.

mollwollfumble said:

Everything is more difficult than in has any right to be. EVERYTHING

I’ve tried 5 times to get my bookmarks back from the “Old FireFox Data” folder following web instruction. No dice. Copy which folder to where, then change what settings to get it recognised.

Every time I open Firefox it asks me if I want to make it my default browser. I say yes. Which opens up a list of 500 or so file extensions and asks me which program should open them. I get out of that. Then next time I open Firefox I get the same rigmarole again.

I can’t get shortcuts onto my desktop from either start menu, toolbar or folders.

I try searching for files on computer and I can’t, only search on the web. Where are the .exe files? Have I got back my “hiidden” files or not?

The start menu gives me two pages of blatent advertising that I can’t get rid of, and I can’t get anything useful (such as firefox) onto the start menu.

Accidentally clicked on OneNote then I had to get it off the windows startup autoplay.

I can’t get “Windows Movie Maker”

I can’t get the original Windows XP minesweeper back – I tried and downloaded “original minesweeper” and the results were peculiar indeed – it gave me a badly malformatted window then vanished after downloading so can’t find it to uninstall or play.

Permissions – ugh! The program crashes when I try to give myself permission to access my old hard drive.

Outlook upens to the wrong inbox – the empty one.

I can’t delete emails – permission denied. So my inbox is now going to grow unchecked.

Every frickin thing I’ve tried has been more difficult than it should be.

Apart from that is everything else working ok on your computer?

Peak Warming Man said:

mollwollfumble said:

Everything is more difficult than in has any right to be. EVERYTHING

I’ve tried 5 times to get my bookmarks back from the “Old FireFox Data” folder following web instruction. No dice. Copy which folder to where, then change what settings to get it recognised.

Every time I open Firefox it asks me if I want to make it my default browser. I say yes. Which opens up a list of 500 or so file extensions and asks me which program should open them. I get out of that. Then next time I open Firefox I get the same rigmarole again.

I can’t get shortcuts onto my desktop from either start menu, toolbar or folders.

I try searching for files on computer and I can’t, only search on the web. Where are the .exe files? Have I got back my “hiidden” files or not?

The start menu gives me two pages of blatent advertising that I can’t get rid of, and I can’t get anything useful (such as firefox) onto the start menu.

Accidentally clicked on OneNote then I had to get it off the windows startup autoplay.

I can’t get “Windows Movie Maker”

I can’t get the original Windows XP minesweeper back – I tried and downloaded “original minesweeper” and the results were peculiar indeed – it gave me a badly malformatted window then vanished after downloading so can’t find it to uninstall or play.

Permissions – ugh! The program crashes when I try to give myself permission to access my old hard drive.

Outlook upens to the wrong inbox – the empty one.

I can’t delete emails – permission denied. So my inbox is now going to grow unchecked.

Every frickin thing I’ve tried has been more difficult than it should be.

Apart from that is everything else working ok on your computer?

chuckle

99 problems and a computer aint one

Peak Warming Man said:

mollwollfumble said:

Everything is more difficult than in has any right to be. EVERYTHING

I’ve tried 5 times to get my bookmarks back from the “Old FireFox Data” folder following web instruction. No dice. Copy which folder to where, then change what settings to get it recognised.

Every time I open Firefox it asks me if I want to make it my default browser. I say yes. Which opens up a list of 500 or so file extensions and asks me which program should open them. I get out of that. Then next time I open Firefox I get the same rigmarole again.

I can’t get shortcuts onto my desktop from either start menu, toolbar or folders.

I try searching for files on computer and I can’t, only search on the web. Where are the .exe files? Have I got back my “hiidden” files or not?

The start menu gives me two pages of blatent advertising that I can’t get rid of, and I can’t get anything useful (such as firefox) onto the start menu.

Accidentally clicked on OneNote then I had to get it off the windows startup autoplay.

I can’t get “Windows Movie Maker”

I can’t get the original Windows XP minesweeper back – I tried and downloaded “original minesweeper” and the results were peculiar indeed – it gave me a badly malformatted window then vanished after downloading so can’t find it to uninstall or play.

Permissions – ugh! The program crashes when I try to give myself permission to access my old hard drive.

Outlook upens to the wrong inbox – the empty one.

I can’t delete emails – permission denied. So my inbox is now going to grow unchecked.

Every frickin thing I’ve tried has been more difficult than it should be.

Apart from that is everything else working ok on your computer?

Not even nearly.

Here’s another. “Paint 3D” is supposed to come with Windows 10. It doesn’t.
Because apparently I have the wrong version of Windows 10.
So after spending two hours waiting for all the more recent Windows 10 updates to download, install and run I get.

Trying to update Windows 10

and Paint 3D still doesn’t work.

Peak Warming Man said:

mollwollfumble said:

Everything is more difficult than in has any right to be. EVERYTHING

I’ve tried 5 times to get my bookmarks back from the “Old FireFox Data” folder following web instruction. No dice. Copy which folder to where, then change what settings to get it recognised.

Every time I open Firefox it asks me if I want to make it my default browser. I say yes. Which opens up a list of 500 or so file extensions and asks me which program should open them. I get out of that. Then next time I open Firefox I get the same rigmarole again.

I can’t get shortcuts onto my desktop from either start menu, toolbar or folders.

I try searching for files on computer and I can’t, only search on the web. Where are the .exe files? Have I got back my “hiidden” files or not?

The start menu gives me two pages of blatent advertising that I can’t get rid of, and I can’t get anything useful (such as firefox) onto the start menu.

Accidentally clicked on OneNote then I had to get it off the windows startup autoplay.

I can’t get “Windows Movie Maker”

I can’t get the original Windows XP minesweeper back – I tried and downloaded “original minesweeper” and the results were peculiar indeed – it gave me a badly malformatted window then vanished after downloading so can’t find it to uninstall or play.

Permissions – ugh! The program crashes when I try to give myself permission to access my old hard drive.

Outlook upens to the wrong inbox – the empty one.

I can’t delete emails – permission denied. So my inbox is now going to grow unchecked.

Every frickin thing I’ve tried has been more difficult than it should be.

Apart from that is everything else working ok on your computer?

Not even nearly.

Here’s another. “Paint 3D” is supposed to come with Windows 10. It doesn’t.
Because apparently I have the wrong version of Windows 10.
So after spending two hours waiting for all the more recent Windows 10 updates to download, install and run I get.

Trying to update Windows 10

and Paint 3D still doesn’t work.

and another

mollwollfumble said:

Peak Warming Man said:

mollwollfumble said:

Everything is more difficult than in has any right to be. EVERYTHING

I’ve tried 5 times to get my bookmarks back from the “Old FireFox Data” folder following web instruction. No dice. Copy which folder to where, then change what settings to get it recognised.

Every time I open Firefox it asks me if I want to make it my default browser. I say yes. Which opens up a list of 500 or so file extensions and asks me which program should open them. I get out of that. Then next time I open Firefox I get the same rigmarole again.

I can’t get shortcuts onto my desktop from either start menu, toolbar or folders.

I try searching for files on computer and I can’t, only search on the web. Where are the .exe files? Have I got back my “hiidden” files or not?

The start menu gives me two pages of blatent advertising that I can’t get rid of, and I can’t get anything useful (such as firefox) onto the start menu.

Accidentally clicked on OneNote then I had to get it off the windows startup autoplay.

I can’t get “Windows Movie Maker”

I can’t get the original Windows XP minesweeper back – I tried and downloaded “original minesweeper” and the results were peculiar indeed – it gave me a badly malformatted window then vanished after downloading so can’t find it to uninstall or play.

Permissions – ugh! The program crashes when I try to give myself permission to access my old hard drive.

Outlook upens to the wrong inbox – the empty one.

I can’t delete emails – permission denied. So my inbox is now going to grow unchecked.

Every frickin thing I’ve tried has been more difficult than it should be.

Apart from that is everything else working ok on your computer?

Not even nearly.

Here’s another. “Paint 3D” is supposed to come with Windows 10. It doesn’t.
Because apparently I have the wrong version of Windows 10.
So after spending two hours waiting for all the more recent Windows 10 updates to download, install and run I get.

Trying to update Windows 10

and Paint 3D still doesn’t work.

and another

Whew.
Got speakers running (reboot)
And printer (downloaded drivers and software)

mollwollfumble said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Apart from that is everything else working ok on your computer?

Not even nearly.

Here’s another. “Paint 3D” is supposed to come with Windows 10. It doesn’t.
Because apparently I have the wrong version of Windows 10.
So after spending two hours waiting for all the more recent Windows 10 updates to download, install and run I get.

Trying to update Windows 10

and Paint 3D still doesn’t work.

and another

Whew.
Got speakers running (reboot)
And printer (downloaded drivers and software)

And firefox bookmarks.
But no usernames or passwords.

mollwollfumble said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Apart from that is everything else working ok on your computer?

Not even nearly.

Here’s another. “Paint 3D” is supposed to come with Windows 10. It doesn’t.
Because apparently I have the wrong version of Windows 10.
So after spending two hours waiting for all the more recent Windows 10 updates to download, install and run I get.

Trying to update Windows 10

and Paint 3D still doesn’t work.

and another

Whew.
Got speakers running (reboot)
And printer (downloaded drivers and software)

And firefox bookmarks.
But no usernames or passwords.

> I’ve tried 5 times to get my bookmarks back from the “Old FireFox Data” folder following web instruction. No dice. Copy which folder to where, then change what settings to get it recognised.

7th time’s a charm. Got it.

Darn difficult when the web instructions give the wrong address to copy a directory into, and then totally omits instructions on how to link in that copied directory to the browser. Two major errors in the official instructions. And it’s up to the user to guess which two.

Everything is harder than it should be.

Now Google Earth won’t install :-(

And clicking help brings up five pop-up windows, none of which are any use, or even relate to Google Earth.

Everything is harder than it should be.

Now Google Earth won’t install :-(

And clicking help brings up five pop-up windows, none of which are any use, or even relate to Google Earth. They relate to Internet Explorer being replaced by Edge, and to Chrome, messages that never should appear because my default browser is Firefox.

—

And the following, despite changing permissions three times to allow access to that file.

mollwollfumble said:

Everything is harder than it should be.

Now Google Earth won’t install :-(

And clicking help brings up five pop-up windows, none of which are any use, or even relate to Google Earth. They relate to Internet Explorer being replaced by Edge, and to Chrome, messages that never should appear because my default browser is Firefox.

—

And the following, despite changing permissions three times to allow access to that file.

Got Google Earth to install by installing an antiquated version (7.3.1).

mollwollfumble said:

mollwollfumble said:

Everything is harder than it should be.

Now Google Earth won’t install :-(

And clicking help brings up five pop-up windows, none of which are any use, or even relate to Google Earth. They relate to Internet Explorer being replaced by Edge, and to Chrome, messages that never should appear because my default browser is Firefox.

—

And the following, despite changing permissions three times to allow access to that file.

Got Google Earth to install by installing an antiquated version (7.3.1).

I’ll say nothing ;)

Why are you having all this trouble?

I’ve had none at all.

Michael V said:

Why are you having all this trouble?

I’ve had none at all.

Computer wasn’t booting, so I got a tech expert to copy everything onto F drive and install a new operating system, up from 32 bit to 64 bit, which may have been the problem.

But I still can’t get access to all of F drive because changing permissions crashes, etc.

“Everything” is more complicated than it needs to be.

Latest is I just bought a copy of Office 2021.
But the confirming email doesn’t tell me where to download it from.
Trying to find it on the web sent me on a merry go round, asking either for money or leading me into a cul-de-sac
Gave up trying, then got another email later that did tell me where to download it from.
But that requires a Microsoft account, and on trying all three possibilities for my Miscrosoft user and password failed for every one. At least one of those should have worked.
So ordered a single use key from Microsoft. Which didn’t arrive.
Then it turned up in my email later, so type it in.

Only to get this message from Miscrosoft.

Enough to make a grown man give up on using the computer entirely. What the friggin use is it anyway.

Bring back the typewriter, home phone and snail mail, I say.

mollwollfumble said:

Michael V said:

Why are you having all this trouble?

I’ve had none at all.

Computer wasn’t booting, so I got a tech expert to copy everything onto F drive and install a new operating system, up from 32 bit to 64 bit, which may have been the problem.

But I still can’t get access to all of F drive because changing permissions crashes, etc.

“Everything” is more complicated than it needs to be.

Latest is I just bought a copy of Office 2021.
But the confirming email doesn’t tell me where to download it from.
Trying to find it on the web sent me on a merry go round, asking either for money or leading me into a cul-de-sac
Gave up trying, then got another email later that did tell me where to download it from.
But that requires a Microsoft account, and on trying all three possibilities for my Miscrosoft user and password failed for every one. At least one of those should have worked.
So ordered a single use key from Microsoft. Which didn’t arrive.
Then it turned up in my email later, so type it in.

Only to get this message from Miscrosoft.

Enough to make a grown man give up on using the computer entirely. What the friggin use is it anyway.

Bring back the typewriter, home phone and snail mail, I say.

They left the last two lines off that message.

The ones that read ‘If you can.’ and ‘See if they care.’

mollwollfumble said:

Michael V said:

Why are you having all this trouble?

I’ve had none at all.

Computer wasn’t booting, so I got a tech expert to copy everything onto F drive and install a new operating system, up from 32 bit to 64 bit, which may have been the problem.

But I still can’t get access to all of F drive because changing permissions crashes, etc.

“Everything” is more complicated than it needs to be.

Latest is I just bought a copy of Office 2021.
But the confirming email doesn’t tell me where to download it from.
Trying to find it on the web sent me on a merry go round, asking either for money or leading me into a cul-de-sac
Gave up trying, then got another email later that did tell me where to download it from.
But that requires a Microsoft account, and on trying all three possibilities for my Miscrosoft user and password failed for every one. At least one of those should have worked.
So ordered a single use key from Microsoft. Which didn’t arrive.
Then it turned up in my email later, so type it in.

Only to get this message from Miscrosoft.

Enough to make a grown man give up on using the computer entirely. What the friggin use is it anyway.

Bring back the typewriter, home phone and snail mail, I say.

When my last computer failed, I bought a very cheap laptop with Win10 Pro on it, pre-installed. 4Gb memory, 64 Gb soldered storage and a 256 Gb SD card (as extra backup storage). Everything worked from scratch, perfectly. Open Office (free) is what I use – it’s similar to earlier versions of MS Office. No need to buy MS products.

Michael V said:

mollwollfumble said:

Michael V said:

Why are you having all this trouble?

I’ve had none at all.

Computer wasn’t booting, so I got a tech expert to copy everything onto F drive and install a new operating system, up from 32 bit to 64 bit, which may have been the problem.

But I still can’t get access to all of F drive because changing permissions crashes, etc.

“Everything” is more complicated than it needs to be.

Latest is I just bought a copy of Office 2021.
But the confirming email doesn’t tell me where to download it from.
Trying to find it on the web sent me on a merry go round, asking either for money or leading me into a cul-de-sac
Gave up trying, then got another email later that did tell me where to download it from.
But that requires a Microsoft account, and on trying all three possibilities for my Miscrosoft user and password failed for every one. At least one of those should have worked.
So ordered a single use key from Microsoft. Which didn’t arrive.
Then it turned up in my email later, so type it in.

Only to get this message from Miscrosoft.

Enough to make a grown man give up on using the computer entirely. What the friggin use is it anyway.

Bring back the typewriter, home phone and snail mail, I say.

When my last computer failed, I bought a very cheap laptop with Win10 Pro on it, pre-installed. 4Gb memory, 64 Gb soldered storage and a 256 Gb SD card (as extra backup storage). Everything worked from scratch, perfectly. Open Office (free) is what I use – it’s similar to earlier versions of MS Office. No need to buy MS products.

I think libre Office is meant to be better than open Office (disclaimer: I use libre) but neither of them can do macros and using macros in excel is very important to me. But for excel, I just use work computer.

furious said:

Michael V said:

mollwollfumble said:

Computer wasn’t booting, so I got a tech expert to copy everything onto F drive and install a new operating system, up from 32 bit to 64 bit, which may have been the problem.

But I still can’t get access to all of F drive because changing permissions crashes, etc.

“Everything” is more complicated than it needs to be.

Latest is I just bought a copy of Office 2021.
But the confirming email doesn’t tell me where to download it from.
Trying to find it on the web sent me on a merry go round, asking either for money or leading me into a cul-de-sac
Gave up trying, then got another email later that did tell me where to download it from.
But that requires a Microsoft account, and on trying all three possibilities for my Miscrosoft user and password failed for every one. At least one of those should have worked.
So ordered a single use key from Microsoft. Which didn’t arrive.
Then it turned up in my email later, so type it in.

Only to get this message from Miscrosoft.

Enough to make a grown man give up on using the computer entirely. What the friggin use is it anyway.

Bring back the typewriter, home phone and snail mail, I say.

When my last computer failed, I bought a very cheap laptop with Win10 Pro on it, pre-installed. 4Gb memory, 64 Gb soldered storage and a 256 Gb SD card (as extra backup storage). Everything worked from scratch, perfectly. Open Office (free) is what I use – it’s similar to earlier versions of MS Office. No need to buy MS products.

I think libre Office is meant to be better than open Office (disclaimer: I use libre) but neither of them can do macros and using macros in excel is very important to me. But for excel, I just use work computer.

I don’t use macros, but what’s this then?

Michael V said:

furious said:

Michael V said:

When my last computer failed, I bought a very cheap laptop with Win10 Pro on it, pre-installed. 4Gb memory, 64 Gb soldered storage and a 256 Gb SD card (as extra backup storage). Everything worked from scratch, perfectly. Open Office (free) is what I use – it’s similar to earlier versions of MS Office. No need to buy MS products.

I think libre Office is meant to be better than open Office (disclaimer: I use libre) but neither of them can do macros and using macros in excel is very important to me. But for excel, I just use work computer.

I don’t use macros, but what’s this then?

Open Office and the like have macros, but they use their own version of Basic, which is very different to Excel VBA, so Excel macros will not work in OO, and converting them would be a tedious job.