Vocal Voices

Yes, it was WiFi and yes, also hardware.

It is sorted now thanks to the repair man, and for not much either. Meds gave him a run down of what we had already been done so the job was part way done for him.

Hard to do some things with me in Leeds and Meds in Liverpool. As I said to her via PM if I had the laptop physically on the bench in front of me I could have probably sorted it in no time, but two-way communication via PM is not ideal.

The two of us now know the difficulties Mars Base 1 and Earth are going to have in the not too distant future.

Glad to know it's resolved and at a good price. That is always a bonus. This is the problem with hardware, it looks like software in the first instance and then, after investigation, it turns out to be a physical problem.

I had a guy I worked with in Switzerland complaining about NT4.0 blue screening every day. I found this odd and said so as it very rarely happened to me. When we were investigating I suggested he check the fan on the processor as that is what had happened to me before. He burned his thumb on the chip, problem identified.

Yes we both know just what a nightmare this 2 way communication is going to be for Mars. Between 10 and 40 minutes to get a response, depending on the position of the planets. Clear definition of Asynchronous communication. It takes people on both ends with knowledge of the subject to make that work.

However, fixed, good job.

Sad to report that it's flopped again after working for a while.

A deep clean and a blow and hoover will be done in the hope that it will revive things, but if not a RTB might be the only option.

At least we all tried.

Sounds like heat on a bad solder connection, opening it after time.

It was worth trying.

An update on my laptop that wouldn't connect to the internet.

The local pc repair shop had it just before lockdown and said they had fixed it. It did seem to work but the next day it wouldn't connect again.

I had to wait then as they were closed until the beginning of December. Apparently they gave it a good clean up. They said themselves it was still slow but they had done their best. I asked what was wrong with it and they seemed to think it was 'old age'. Its less than three years old. Anyway, it is a bit slow but it is connecting to the internet at the moment. All in all I think it is a disappointing laptop. It is an HP. I asked the pc chap if he recommended any particular make if I had to replace it but he said that they were mostly all made by the same company. So it remains a mystery why it wouldn't connect to the internet.

As we sort of expected - a flaky and intermittent adaptor. All is not lost, though, it can still be used on E'net via cable.

When it comes to a replacement it is true that there are lots of generic parts, but then comes build quality. I have an Acer and a Lenovo and they are both rock solid and reasonably priced.

I think Suff goes for more high-spec and bespoke hardware and they are probably a teeny bit on the pricey side for most of us.

I will press on and hope for the best. I will ask you about Ethernet and cable in the event of a complete meltdown. Thanks for all your helpful tips Frank.

Re E'net. Hard wired for a normal home on Cat5 is 5 to 10 metres or more from the router and is not a problem - just plug and play. You might also like to think about powerline adaptors where you use the household mains to transmit, just plug one into the same socket as the router and take the other to any room you like. You are still on E'net but more portable for about £30, once set up it becomes plug and play anywhere in the house / garden.

Workingman wrote:As we sort of expected - a flaky and intermittent adaptor. All is not lost, though, it can still be used on E'net via cable.

When it comes to a replacement it is true that there are lots of generic parts, but then comes build quality. I have an Acer and a Lenovo and they are both rock solid and reasonably priced.

I think Suff goes for more high-spec and bespoke hardware and they are probably a teeny bit on the pricey side for most of us.

Yes flaky hardware is a nightmare. If a cable is an option, then you can use one of those. Then there is the other option which is a USB wifi dongle. My middle son has a HP and it's wifi adapter is extremely flaky. So he has a USB one with two aerials, it is much better at connecting.

Personally I bought an Alienware over 8 years ago. It was incredibly expensive but has lasted the course of time. It cost over £4,000 to complete the build out. I did much of the expansion myself because the total tally from Dell was over £6,500 when I bought it. Current hardware for around £1,500 is now faster, but I've had more than my money's worth out of it as it was my main work machine for 3 years.

Your USB wifi adapter can be a simple as this.

You just need to remember not to put the laptop in a bag with the adaptor still connected. I've ruined many a USB port that way.

As for always expensive hardware? No, these days I go for much cheaper stuff, but I research a lot before doing it.

My travelling laptop is very similar to this but with a different name and it cost me £300.

If I were replacing it now, I would probably go for this. It is mainly a travelling thing, you can get a slightly better deal with bigger laptops that consume more power.

My latest purchase was one of these. Which I will use in the living room for my Christmas zoom conference with the family. It has the ability for me to add a SSD (which I have one of), but I'll do it later. It is good enough for what I want now. It really is a 2" cube.

So, as you can see, I'm not buying anything custom or overly expensive right now.