Topics

1

General Computer Support / SOLVED - Can't connect phone to laptop for file transfer

« on: May 03, 2017, 05:06:02 am »

Hi all,
I seem to have a bit of a problem connecting my phones (wired via USB) to my W8.1 laptop to back up my old one and transfer my data etc to my new one. It's not the cable or the phones, as they both connect to my W7 desktop just fine, but this has limited hard drive space and my laptop has loads.

I'm not sure how long this has been an issue as I haven't backed it up to this machine before, but it didn't use to be if I ever connected it to charge it, though I haven't tried it for a while.. 

I've had a little google and play around but no joy with anything so far - the device manager is showing some yellow triangles under 'Other Devices' but uninstalilng and reinstalling and also trying to update driver software both fail with errors so I'm at a bit of a loss on those! 

Also I've installed Sony PC Companion to help backup all my old phone data (rather than do it manually in file explorer) and this tells me it needs an update to be able to run, then fails to update when pressed with an unspecified 'Installation error' which then closes the program!  Not having much joy in any department right now - any of you learned folks have any ideas?...

2

General Computer Support / SOLVED: Restore points, Firefox history and extensions all lost

« on: May 11, 2016, 02:21:51 pm »

Hi all,
After doing a defrag and cleanup in safe mode and going back into normal on my W7 SP1 x64 desktop I found my Firefox had "refreshed" itself to a cleanly installed version, with no bookmarks, history (which I normally never delete), and none of the several extensions I'd installed - one of which was Session Manager which I now can't use to restore my previous tabs, along with no history. Also any of the commonly used url's I type in which used to pop up now don't show as recognised and have to be typed in in full.

I haven't cleaned anything up to cause this (that I know of), and unfortunately I don't appear to have any restore points present now either so I can't revert that way, and there were at least a couple last time I looked  I don't know if these issues are related but I suspect they might be  - I have tried to create a restore point to see if it's working, and even though it's turned on it failed to create one - does anyone have any ideas on either restoring my browser features etc or the restore point issue??
Thanks

3

Everything Else / Windows 10 anyone??

« on: August 01, 2015, 04:18:28 am »

Hi all,

Just trying to get some general feedback/opinion on whether it's worth upgrading to W10. I have a W7 desktop and a W8.1 laptop, and have always preferred W7, so much so that I have tweaked my laptop to be more 7 than 8, turning off the apps view and adding classic menu, etc - maybe I'm just an old fart! 

Anyway I haven't read up much on W10 yet, but plan to, and would appreciate any opinions from any W10 users on here, as I've seen one or two comments on the Help threads and would like to know more about what differences it has to 7/8.1 and whether it would be worth upgrading or not. If I was going to upgrade either machine it'd most likely be the laptop as the desktop has a failing disk so will just run that until it either dies or I get a new one to replace it, and then decide whether it would be worth going from 7 to 10. 

Look forward to your replies, cheers. 

4

General Computer Support / Windows 8.1 laptop won't boot [Solved]

« on: July 28, 2015, 04:03:24 am »

Hi peeps, okay so now it's my 8.1 laptop that's playing up, only this one has a boot problem rather than an update problem 

It's a 64 bit Toshiba Satellite C50D and after being in safe mode the other day (doing nothing special to alter anything that I'm aware of) and trying to go back into normal mode it gave me the blue screen with message and an INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE error which it tried to repair, then went into Automatic Repair mode but couldn't fix anything. I've tried Restarting with no effect, then been into Advanced options and tried System Restore, but that wouldn't work, and also done a full chkdsk /r from the command prompt option which reported no problems (the HDD has always been fine on this machine so far!)

From a bit of googling I've tried the rebuild bcd command repair which had no effect, but I may not have done it all as the directories on my OS didn't correspond with the ones on the instructions. Does anyone have any ideas on this one please as my machine is unusable at the moment.... 

5

General Computer Support / Windows Activation/Update error 80070424 with KB971033

« on: June 25, 2015, 04:16:08 am »

Hi all,

Does anyone have any knowledge about the topic subject? After my recent move and hiatus and earlier trojan then system image restore I decided to do another repair install rather than a clean install on my W7 x64 SP1 Dell desktop, just to see if I could get it updated. So far WU does appear to be checking (sometimes!) for updates (190 found) but haven't got round to installing any yet. I've also removed and reinstalled the .NET framework following Shane's advice on another thread, and is all on and verified and fine  I also installed a hotfix rollup from one of the other threads (maybe jraju's?) which apparently MS rolled out but didn't advertise, and this went on ok.

So I had a fairly fresh repair install system, did an ALLInOne repair to try and reset everything with Shane's program, then at some point yesterday a pop up appeared saying my copy of Windows wasn't genuine - like WTF!!  An option to 'resolve online now' was used which lead to a download of WindowsActivationUpdate.exe, which I installed, but no change. slui.exe wouldn't work and gave an error of 80070424, as did WU. The System page on Control Panel said Windows wasn't activated, although Belarc gave the correct product key! Attempted validation using the correct product key (which I also did on the repair install) gave me the same error again and said it couldn't be validated or completed. 

Googling this error lead me to issues with KB971033, which was present on the Installed Updates list and went on yesterday (surprise!), presumably while I was checking for updates? I never got as far as installing any myself so it's slipped on by itself somehow  . One of the "fixes" I found is to uninstall this update, so I've done that, rebooted, and all seems ok now - the product key is showing on System, slui is working and saying Acivation was successful, and WU is checking without giving me the 80070424 error, so I was just wondering if anyone had any experience of this or how to prevent it, or whether 971033 is going to keep re-installing itself and throwing up this validation error? It IS a genuine OEM copy of Windows so this is a new one on me...

6

General Computer Support / [SOLVED] Media Player Classic won't work any more!

« on: June 23, 2015, 05:42:35 am »

Hi all,

I use the old mplayerc on both my old W7 desktop and my W8.1 laptop, to reduce cpu/mem usage etc as they both struggle at times, and recently (this week) it has stopped working on my W7. Thinking it was a problem with my PC (I've had lots, see my other thread on WU etc!) I tried the one on my W8.1 and found this to be exactly the same!  I've tried re-downloading it from one or two different sources and it seems to be the same whichever one I use.

I've tried playing with the settings following similar threads on this topic and it doesn't seem to work, unless I've missed something.. Does anyone have any ideas on how to cure this or is it now obsolete? The error I am getting is AudioSwitcher:Out and Cannot render the file...

Thanks

7

General Computer Support / Missing Windows Servicing Packages files & update problems

« on: April 09, 2015, 03:52:59 am »

Hi, for some time now I have had problems updating my Windows 7 SP1 64-bit Dell Inspiron One. I have tried numerous fixes and repairs (including the SURT and your own Windows Repair on several occasions), and nothing seems to work! 

I have tried your latest (v.3.1.2) All-in-one repair which checks the windows packages and reparse points etc, and it gives me a whole loooong list of missing files, and one missing default reparse point which I tick to repair but every time I rescan it goes "missing" again!
Is there a way or procedure to add all the missing files manually or via a script? When I try Windows own Update it returns error 80073701 which I believe is a corrupt registry error, and alternative update methods (direct MS download and installation, PatchMyPC, PortUp, APUP, etc..) don't work either, although occasionally I can get the odd update to install via PortUp, despite a growing number that just won't! 

Can anybody help please? If any more info is needed on anything let me know and I'll be more than happy to provide it...

Cheers, Tone