Browsers

[ProDave]

I just had the keyboard off the lappy ,  what appears to  be the HDD seemed a bit slack as I wiggled it  (Technical term)  so unplugged it , plugged it back in , seemed a better fit .  

Then spent an hour trying to reattach the various ribbon plugs ...I presume they have a 3 year old child with tiny hands to assemble those things ! 

Long story short ...it still gives 7 beeps and sod all else. 

What make is it?  That sounds like a common problem on some DELL lappies where the solderingon a BGA chip fails. The only proper fix is the chip off and resoldered, which will probably cost more than it's worth. A bodge fix that might work but would probably still be unreliable is wrap it in a blanket or duvet or something and leave it turned on for a long time, the theory is it overheats enough to self reflow the chip. 

 

[user 28595]

That is a motherboard failure and it's new laptop time.

cheers, Paul

 

[Evans Electric]

Thats what I think PPP    I did look at the fixes on  Youtube  but I imagine them to be temporary TBH.   It was fine untill I upgraded it's Win 7 to Win10  .  I only used it once on Win10  and it never worked again .   Doubtful I'll buy another TBH  

 

[ProDave]

Thats what I think PPP    I did look at the fixes on  Youtube  but I imagine them to be temporary TBH.   It was fine untill I upgraded it's Win 7 to Win10  .  I only used it once on Win10  and it never worked again .   Doubtful I'll buy another TBH  

Are you confirming it was a DELL?  I agree this fault will have done serious damage to the brand.

To be honest we have done well with Acer laptops. I still use the old one, which was bought when Vista was the new OS in town. A few years ago it's HDD crashed so I fitted a new HDD and it now has Ubuntu on it. SWMBO got a new Acer with W8 on it as a replacement. Against my recommendation she "upgraded" it to W10. It is still doing fine apart from the usual W10 sillyness. That one was insanely cheap as she had some Tesco clubcard vouchers to use up. After spending the vouchers, I think it cost us £12

 

[Andy™]

 It was fine untill I upgraded it's Win 7 to Win10

that wasnt an  upgrade. downgrade, maybe...

 

[Evans Electric]

Are you confirming it was a DELL?  I agree this fault will have done serious damage to the brand.

To be honest we have done well with Acer laptops. I still use the old one, which was bought when Vista was the new OS in town. A few years ago it's HDD crashed so I fitted a new HDD and it now has Ubuntu on it. SWMBO got a new Acer with W8 on it as a replacement. Against my recommendation she "upgraded" it to W10. It is still doing fine apart from the usual W10 sillyness. That one was insanely cheap as she had some Tesco clubcard vouchers to use up. After spending the vouchers, I think it cost us £12

Yes its  a Dell Dave .   I think it must have been getting hot because I noticed the plastic had gone brittle that holds the 3V  Lithium button battery , so that doesn't stay in place now ....stuck it down with some duct tape . 

 

[OnOff]

Yes its  a Dell Dave .   I think it must have been getting hot because I noticed the plastic had gone brittle that holds the 3V  Lithium button battery , so that doesn't stay in place now ....stuck it down with some duct tape . 

Have you tried replacing that 3V battery and making damn sure it's seated properly?

Btw, those 4 discs in the post this morning each with different Linux distro as promised.

 

[Evans Electric]

I tried it on the multimeter , 3.2V   Can't see the gaffer tape lasting TBH  .   I may try the wrapping the thing in a thermal blanket with a water bottle as described ,  highly doubtful really . It will need a new battery holder and a new CPU .    Any spare cash would be spent on a new Desktop PC though  .  I should have watched the Youtube vids before taking it to bits ,  I saw you can lift the keyboard out , I didn't know that . 

Thanks for the discs ,  please let me know what I owe you .  

 

[OnOff]

I tried it on the multimeter , 3.2V   Can't see the gaffer tape lasting TBH  .   I may try the wrapping the thing in a thermal blanket with a water bottle as described ,  highly doubtful really . It will need a new battery holder and a new CPU .    Any spare cash would be spent on a new Desktop PC though  .  I should have watched the Youtube vids before taking it to bits ,  I saw you can lift the keyboard out , I didn't know that . 

Thanks for the discs ,  please let me know what I owe you .  

FOC. Karma and all that

Give the old desktop a chance with Linux depending on what vital stuff, invoices, records etc you have on it. And do whatever give it a bloody good clean especially around the CPU and fans. Artists brush and a delicate touch usually works along with a can of compressed air with a vac going for the airborne stuff. Fish out the fluff between the CPU heatsink blades with a toothpick etc.

 

[OnOff]

Lappy's are notorious for overheating as they get used on carpets, duvet and warm laps! Can't breathe and get clogged with fibres and dust.

Had my boy's Acer professionally reflowed for I think £160 and it died a day after the 90 day warranty. Too big and heavy anyway with a 17.3" screen. The fact he gamed on it got it hotter.

 

[Evans Electric]

FOC. Karma and all that

Give the old desktop a chance with Linux depending on what vital stuff, invoices, records etc you have on it. And do whatever give it a bloody good clean especially around the CPU and fans. Artists brush and a delicate touch usually works along with a can of compressed air with a vac going for the airborne stuff. Fish out the fluff between the CPU heatsink blades with a toothpick etc.

    FOC Many thanks , may the force be with you .  :Applaud    As you say ..Karma... if I can help you out . 

OnOff  That pizza you sent ....jeez!... it was hard going  :C

I think Plan B will be  a possible repair on the lappy  (replace the overheated CPU  ,replace lithium battery holder)     in the future.

Plan C .  Replace the elderly desktop PC in office  with new one.......set up elderly PC downstairs with a monitor ,converted to one of  OnOff's    Pizza Operating Systems. .

It seems to run  quite well on this browser  ,  Firefox  & Google Chrome seem to be ploughing through a mudbath.   

 

[steptoe]

What browser are you using now Deke,? @Evans Electric

 

[OnOff]

    FOC Many thanks , may the force be with you .  :Applaud    As you say ..Karma... if I can help you out . 

OnOff  That pizza you sent ....jeez!... it was hard going  :C

I think Plan B will be  a possible repair on the lappy  (replace the overheated CPU  ,replace lithium battery holder)     in the future.

Plan C .  Replace the elderly desktop PC in office  with new one.......set up elderly PC downstairs with a monitor ,converted to one of  OnOff's    Pizza Operating Systems. .

It seems to run  quite well on this browser  ,  Firefox  & Google Chrome seem to be ploughing through a mudbath.   

WTGrape...then the penny dropped! One of the sweet pizza boxes from the kids rainy day box I used for packaging! Brown paper courtesy of the wrapping off some sills. 

If ever you want a go at trialling Linux but are a bit hesitant then one of us is only a phone/Skype/Whatsapp/Discord call away and we'll hold your hand.

 

[Evans Electric]

What browser are you using now Deke,? @Evans Electric

Opera   Stepps.

WTGrape...then the penny dropped! One of the sweet pizza boxes from the kids rainy day box I used for packaging! Brown paper courtesy of the wrapping off some sills. 

If ever you want a go at trialling Linux but are a bit hesitant then one of us is only a phone/Skype/Whatsapp/Discord call away and we'll hold your hand.

My thanks again .   Thing is ,  As well as being an idiot  I forget stuff, so something goes wrong on the PC  , I've sorted it once before but now I've forgotten.

The best thing I learned about PCs was from my cousin's missus .     Every so often the desktop refuses to connect to the internet .   Back in the day, even when I was with Wanadoo and then Orange,  like a fool I used to phone their helpline   :C .  I even did the switch it off / switch it back on again.   Nothing gets you back online . Its your hub they say ..no its not because the lappy is online , no problem . Its your phone line . No its not . 

Windows has searched but cannot find any problem. 

Mentioned this to cousin's missus ...answer is ...yank the power lead out of the PC , not just shut it down.   Does it work ?   Every time.    

 

[Lurch]

Mentioned this to cousin's missus ...answer is ...yank the power lead out of the PC , not just shut it down.   Does it work ?   Every time.

:blink:

 

[Evans Electric]

Well may you blink  Lurch ...I'm telling you ....about 5 --  6 times a year  this PC will not connect to the internet ....I get a graphic onscreen showing  my PC  with a line joining it to a globe of the Earth.   Line is broken . 

   My PC  ________________ X______________  WWW  .

Lappy would be working fine  so the hub works ,  I was told to change the cable from PC to Hub ...makes no difference ... first time I was offline for a week .

There is obviously power to part of the PC even though the blue button is off .....somehow the fault is cleared by removing the plug , killing ALL power  to PC . 

I kid you not . 

 

[steptoe]

:blink:

I think [hope] Deke is saying to shut down the PC first, then pull the power lead from it.

 

[OnOff]

I think [hope] Deke is saying to shut down the PC first, then pull the power lead from it.

Nah, I reckon he's doing a simulated trip over the power cord...

 

[Lurch]

I think [hope] Deke is saying to shut down the PC first, then pull the power lead from it.

Well that's a bit better then. I know for a fact this makes no difference but as long as the client is happy who am I to argue!

 

[Evans Electric]

Lurch, I promise you this works ...for this PC anyway .........  you could spend the rest of your life trying to get the internet connection back ....reset the router /modem etc etc etc .Phone BT ...phone Microsoft  ...thrust everyone you know in front of it ....some very genned up ..... was put in touch with an IT guy  ..all to no avail .   Test the Hub with  the lappy ..that works fine , internet connection is there . ...but not on the PC .    Mr Hewlet Packard  & Mr Dell  themselves  wouldn't sort it  . 

As you know I know nothing ........  restart ...shut down ...fire it up again  1000,000 times  .........it all works except  the connection is broken between PC &  the internet. 

I think there is some kind of glitch in the PC , left over from my first IP  which was Wanadoo  and I think  IIRC  it was dial-up  . :C  

As my cousin's missus told me ....shut down  etc but remove the power lead  ...stick it back in and away you go .    She'd  had the same problem so not just me .  I can only imagine that with the power lead in there is some residual voltage on the circuit boards ...BEFORE  the start button on the front that is maintaining an open circuit somewhere .   Who knows , I don't .