Hello
Welcome to Part 2 of Keeping your devices running smoothly.
If you haven’t seen Part 1 yet you can watch there here.
If you are having problems watching this video you can watch it on YouTube here.
Tim & Mike
Hello
Welcome to Part 2 of Keeping your devices running smoothly.
If you haven’t seen Part 1 yet you can watch there here.
If you are having problems watching this video you can watch it on YouTube here.
Tim & Mike
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February 5, 2018 at 11:17 am
Thanks, Mike – I’ll take that on board.
Eleanor
February 3, 2018 at 12:44 pm
Hi – I’ve just joined and have been watching your ICTV 2 about keeping devices running smoothly. I have a PC and a tablet, so that was useful.
One query: does the advice about not turning the router off apply to Virgin as well? Although I leave the TiVo box switched on so that it will record TV programmes, I’ve been in the habit of turning the router off at night. (I use a router because my PC is upstairs.)
Should I also not be turning my PC off at the wall?
Thanks for your help. I’m sure I shall have lots of other queries!
February 5, 2018 at 10:35 am
Hi Eleanor,
Welcome to the Inner Circle, nice to have you here 🙂
I wasn’t sure if this advice applied to the Virgin Super Hub (or variations of it), but it is generally advised that you don’t turn it off either. This is because “It has to go thru’ the reboot sequence when you power back up” which can take time and in some cases cause problems, so they say!? The general advice is that you should leave it on.
You shouldn’t turn your computer off at the wall because it needs a tiny bit of a electric to keep a battery charged inside it, you should use a surge protector power strip though just to be on the safe side (everything electronic should be run through a surge protector.
Ahhhh bring on the questions, it’s what we are here for 🙂
Hope this answered your questions.
Thank you
Mike 🙂
February 2, 2018 at 4:50 pm
My name is Bill
As a new member I have just watched both parts of keeping devices running smoothly.
Between us my wife and I have different Samsung phones and a Samsung tablet. These came with their own charging plugs and connectors. The connectors are all different lengths. Is it important to use the connector that came with the device or are they interchangeable?
Also I have always understood that when heavy duty batteries (eg for power tools) are new they should be almost fully discharged once or twice to get them up to peak performance. I take it is different for phone batteries?
February 5, 2018 at 9:42 am
Hi Bill. Welcome to the Inner Circle, nice to have you here 🙂
Ahhhhh that is a very good question… Hopefully I can help you out with an answer.
It’s best if you can use the charger that came with your device, sometimes tablets have chargers which give a little more power than phone chargers. The chances are they will all charge your devices, but some might charge it slower than others.
It’s best to keep phones and tablets charged up. and don’t drain them down to 0, it’s best to keep them topped up as much as possible.
It could be that power tools use a different type of battery which is why they have this advice. We have a robot hoover thing in my flat (it’s not mine) and depending on which type of battery it was shipped with it has different instructions (1 type it says to drain it and charge it from empty, and the other type don’t drain it and top it up every time)…
One thing I really want to talk about is your use of XP on the internet, I’m really sorry it’s time to think about moving away from using XP on the internet, it hasn’t had any security updates for a number of years now and even Firefox and Google Chrome haven’t been updated on XP. If I were you I would stop using it on the internet right away and look at either updating your pc to a new version of Windows or replace it with something new (you can still use Windows XP not connected to the internet), if you want to know more let us know and we can go through this together.
Thanks
Mike 🙂
February 5, 2018 at 5:56 pm
Thanks Mike.
I have been aware of the problems with XP for some time and use my wife’s laptop for banking etc.
The trouble with upgrading is that I have Office 2003 and am nervous about losing facilities that have worked well for years. Looks as if I must bite the bullet though especially as my weakness has now been exposed to semi-public gaze
Bill
February 6, 2018 at 10:44 am
Hi Bill. So sorry 🙁
You can use Windows XP as long as you don’t connect it to the internet. Just pull the network cable out of the back of it and you can still use Office 2003.
I wouldn’t advise using Office 2003 on a computer connected to the internet as this hasn’t had updates either (oh dear, so sorry to bring bad news all over the place).
Sorry
Mike 🙁
PS On the plus side you can use LibreOffice which is free and has *most* of thing things that MS Office has!
January 26, 2018 at 7:32 pm
I had serious problems with very low speed broadband and a neighbour and I explored alternatives and decided on using 4G data. He went for Vodaphone as he works from home and needed large quantities of data, I use EE and now have between 32 and 38 MBPS.
Very happy now!
January 28, 2018 at 12:47 pm
Hi Clive,
That’s excellent! Very impressive download speeds, I’m lucky if mine are 18 MBPS! Perhaps I should take your advice and have a look at some better alternatives?
Thanks again,
Jess
January 19, 2018 at 12:08 pm
Hi Mike
Thank you for your prompt reply and I will take your advice on Q1&3.
Re Q2 I have a phone line running from my modem for about 25 m to my laptop. The internet just drops out at anytime either asleep or when I am in the middle of using the internet. When this happens a yellow warning sign appears on the internet logo at the bottom of the screen and on screen it advises no internet connection available. As advised I restart laptop and this always reconnects me to the internet. I look forward to your comments
January 22, 2018 at 12:01 pm
Hi Richard,
No problem at all. I hope they help.
As for Q2, I think it could be caused by one of these problems.
1. Your modem is dropping the connection to the internet and in the time it takes you to restart your laptop the modem is back online so it looks like it’s your laptop that was at fault. The easiest way to check this is to make a note of the lights and colour of lights on the first of the modem when it’s working, then next time it drops out take another look at the modem and see if the lights are different either which ones are on or the colour of them. If they are different then it’s likely the internet dropped out at that point. It’s also worth not restarting yout laptop while you check as it might come back on on it’s own once the model re-connects. If this didn’t do anything then…
2. … It’s likely there is something wrong with your laptop, usually uninstalling the driver for the Network connection will fix this as it tries to install the latest drivers to make it all work, which is a good starting point.
Give option 1 a try and if it’s not the modem dropping the connection then we can go through option 2 together.
Thanks
Mike 🙂
January 26, 2018 at 9:13 am
Hi Mike
I have checked the lights several times on the modem and thy are the same before and after the connection is dropped.
I have left the PC disconnected for long periods of time and it dos not reconnect.
I have subsequently discovered when I leave it after a short while a box appears headed “windows network diagnosis” with the message “the default gateway is not available” I then click on to it and it becomes quickly “fixed” and the PC is reconnected. This is much quicker than restarting the PC and works most times. When it does not work I use the restart.
our advice would be appreciated
January 26, 2018 at 10:35 am
Hi Richard,
Jess here, Mike’s got the day off today.
I noticed you mentioned that your laptop was connected to your modem with a wire, how old is the wire? Are you able to test the internet connection wirelessly on your laptop to rule out the problem being the wire? Sometimes the cables can get damaged or just stop working depending on how old they are. It might be worth checking the connection wirelessly and let me know if that works,
Thanks
Jess
January 27, 2018 at 10:56 am
Hi Jessica
I have now discovered that my laptop will not connect to the internet wirelessly even when next to the modem.
My wife’s iPad works wirelessly from the same modem all over the house.
I cannot recall when the 25 m wire was installed certainly over 10 years ago.
January 28, 2018 at 12:57 pm
Hi Richard,
Oh dear, I’m afraid I’m all out of ideas. I can see that Mike offered to go through his option 2 with you, perhaps that would be a good idea.
He’s back in tomorrow so I’ll ask him to either drop you an email or comment on here with some options for you.
So sorry I couldn’t help you further but hopefully Mike will have some tricks up his sleeve!
Take care
Jess
January 19, 2018 at 11:03 am
Indeed Jess – quite the film stars – and very helpful too!!
Thanks for the suggestions …………
January 18, 2018 at 8:47 pm
Hi Tim & Mike
I am a very new member and have just watched parts 1&2 of “keep devices running smoothly” which has prompted some questions
1 My laptop stays permanently on my desk plugged into the mains. In order to conserve the battery I have removed it and put it in once every 3 months to flatten it and then fully recharge it. Is this OK ?
2 My laptop is too far away from the modem to use wifi so it is plugged into a landline. However the internet is often disconnected which I overcome by restarting the PC. Is this normal or should I have the phone line or modem checked ?
3 I have Avast Cleanup Premium which informs me that some programs are slowing down my laptop and wants to put them to sleep whilst not being used to boost the speed. Firstly the speed is not a problem to me but secondly and more importantly I am concerned at putting, for example, Trustee Endpoint Protection to sleep. As you advised that Apps no longer have to be put to sleep I wondered what your opinion of Avast advise is ?
I look forward to your reply and advice
kind regards
January 19, 2018 at 11:30 am
Hi Richard.
Welcome to the Inner Circle.
Thanks so much for the questions. I’ll do my best to answer them.
1. Most modern laptops recommend that you leave the battery in the laptop when plugged into the mains. It won’t change all the time once it’s full, it will just run on the mains like it is now. It’s best to leave the battery fully charged and in your laptop, this way the laptop can decide how to best maintain your battery. With modern batteries running them flat and recharging them isn’t good for them, the perform much better with say 70% usage then recharging them. I don’t know the technical reasons behind this, but if you’re interested I can find some more details on this.
2. It sounds like you have a network cable running from your modem to your laptop? then your modem runs broadband over your phone line (ADSL)? If this is the case then it should not be dropping out as you describe. If might be worth rining your broadband provider and asking them to run a line check to see if there is a fault with your broadband, but as it comes back on when your PC restarts it’s likely a fault either with your laptop or broadband modem. Could you give me any more details about what happens when the internet drops out, do you get any warnings about network connections being not connected? Does this happen after your computer has been in sleep/hibernation mode (after you have shut the lid and opened it for example?) ? My laptop hates being in sleep mode and won’t connect to any network until I restart it (I’ve disabled sleep mode on my laptop and that fixed it). I’ve found loads of complains about this kind of thing but no fix as yet. Again if you could let me know a few more details I’ll do my best to help.
3. Hummm this is a tricky one. Personally, I’m not a fan of these cleanup programs. My first thought is to not put them to sleep, and I think your quite right not to put Trustee to sleep. If they are apps you never use then you could uninstall them which would stop the warning coming up. But I think the best thing to do is either ignore this message from Avast or see if you can disable the feature? I think Avast as a product is good, but sometimes it gets a little carried away with itself…
Let me know your thoughts.
Thanks
Mike 🙂
January 18, 2018 at 5:50 pm
Just enjoyed the second part of the recent film! Well done!! What type of shop stocks the compressed air?? I have one sticking key which is very annoying so would like to give it a burst ………..
Also when I charge my phone or ipad I have a plug top which goes into the wall socket which has a place for plugging in the USB connector. Would it be better to use a surge protector even for that plug? If so I wonder if there are ordinary plugs with a USB slot which have some sort of surge protector built in? (I do have a surge protector extension lead for the laptop and printer which sit beneath to my desk)
January 19, 2018 at 10:33 am
Hi Mary,
I’m glad you enjoyed the video, Tim and Mike make quite the team don’t they? I believe Mike got the compressed air from Euroffice.co.uk.
You could plug your charger in your surge protector extension lead and that will do the job just fine. If you did want to purchase a new one, you can either buy an extension lead with built in USB ports that are surge protected or you can buy specific surge protected plugs with USB slots. Most of these are available at electrical stores (Maplin, Currys PC World etc) and also online via Amazon, Argos etc.
I hope this helps,
Thanks
Jess
January 18, 2018 at 4:58 pm
I have just watched y our video on keeping devices running smoothly. It occurs to me that a printed version of the salient points would be extremely useful. Just the Bullet points would be sufficient I think i.e. “Occaisionaly ( sorry a spelling mistake I can’t find) refresh the computer instead of just turning it off (I think that is what you said but I’m sure you will know what I mean.
Thank you A.Moulder
January 19, 2018 at 10:37 am
Hi Anthony,
Welcome to the Inner Circle, I hope you’re finding your way around OK!
Yes a printed version would be a good idea, we’ll bear that in mind and perhaps do an article covering the main points.
Have you seen our ebook about speeding up your PC? Here’s a link to it – https://www.timstechinnercircle.co.uk/library/free-ebook-updated-speed-up-your-pc/ You can click to download it and then print it if you’d prefer a printed version of it. This might help in the mean time.
I hope this helps,
Thanks
Jess
January 18, 2018 at 2:05 pm
I would like to add a comment on cleaning screens. Personally I use the spray which I use for my glasses, just a light spray ( don’t drown them!). Then polish with a soft cloth, a clean hankie is ideal.
Thank you for your new videos and also the Backing up booklet.
January 18, 2018 at 2:30 pm
Hi Ann,
Yes very good advice! I often use my cleaning cloth for my glasses on my computer screen too!
I’m glad you’re finding the videos and booklets helpful,
Thanks
Jess