It was never the fastest of computers but my HP Mini 110 had been running increasingly slowly.
I have taken the free upgrade to Windows 10 from the Windows 7 starter edition it came with and while everything worked it was all a bit slow (or very slow if you were impatient !).
I wanted to clean it out and start again with a cleanish install to limit all the stuff that wanted to run on startup.
My concern was that I would lose the "bundled" Office 2010 Starter Edition (which came with Windows 7) if I did a refresh.
A Google suggested that there was a Click to Run Bootstrapper that would reinstall it.
I decided to give it a go.
At the first attempt the refresh process seemed to get stuck (or perhaps I was impatient).
I had a second attempt and gave it a couple of hours to do its stuff.
Everything seemed to work OK in Operating Systems terms and it certainly seemed no worse in speed terms and was perhaps a bit better.
Loads of stuff had been removed and I carefully picked a few drivers and programs to put back.
HP offer driver downloads (Windows 7 only) at:
https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-mini-110-3700-pc-series/5082187/model/5082189
but actually I didn't need any of these, I previously had a full set of working drivers under Windows 10 and those all seemed to survive working although lots of drivers were in the "removed programs" list.
Restoring the Office 2010 Starter Edition was a bit more tricky.
The bootstrap installer " setupconsumerc2rolw.exe " was mildly hard to find
https://windowsten.info/filedata/fetch?id=4179&d=1426944590 seems a source but I used
https://www.technibble.com/forums/threads/get-your-office-2010-starter-edition-download-here.73121/
A very useful post by " Metanis " gave the following:
http://www.techspot.com/downloads/6255-microsoft-office-starter-2010.html
He also correctly points out that if you install this after doing a clean OS installation it won't run (not compatible with this version of windows) until until you install https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2598285
After that my Office 2010 Starter Edition seems to work and any light document editing of spreadsheeting seems to work fine.
All in all it seems better and I won't be installing much more on the machine to attempt to keep it running OK.
Saturday, 9 September 2017
Saturday, 22 April 2017
Acer Extensa 5220 and Windows 7
I've had an old laptop with Windows XP Professional on it for probably 10 years.
Vista was current when I bought it but I wanted XP to use with some other stuff.
Now XP is well out of support and I wanted another machine to run some fairly undemanding applications but XP wasn't really usable.
I could have bought another machine but I would have really wanted a machine with an SSD and this was going to be many hundreds of pounds.
So....
Looking at e-bay, I could buy a (spinning disk) HD for about £10 and some sort of "recycled" Windows 7 licence for a few pounds and that looked OK, but would the hardware all work ?
Fitting the hard disk was a doddle. The bottom panel comes off easily for service (unlike the newer machines) and it was the work of minutes to put the new SSD in.
The licence came with a link to download the required ISO for an install disk and I burnt that to a DVD.
A fiddle in the BIOS to get the boot sequence to start off DVD and it all booted to the install DVD.
That did it's stuff for a couple of hours and Windows 7 32 bit was running OK on the laptop. Not what one might call "zippy" but OK.
The laptop has 2GB of RAM and 160GB of hard disk.
I triggered windows update and it found 190 ish to do.
I left it to it.
Also the Internet Explorer wanted an update but was so old it didn't seem to want to download a new version.
It would install Chrome so I did that, then downloaded a newer IE using Chrome.
Finally I had a working computer but two devices that were not recognised.
The WiFi is fine (except that the physical switch state isn't remembered over a reboot so WiFi always starts "on") but I wanted the two devices to have drivers.
The first device which talked about "communications" was an infrared device which Windows found a driver for itself after having a try online.
The mass storage device driver couldn't be found.
A good Googling got me to an Acer driver site (as well as a number of other dodgy sites !)
Vista was current when I bought it but I wanted XP to use with some other stuff.
Now XP is well out of support and I wanted another machine to run some fairly undemanding applications but XP wasn't really usable.
I could have bought another machine but I would have really wanted a machine with an SSD and this was going to be many hundreds of pounds.
So....
Looking at e-bay, I could buy a (spinning disk) HD for about £10 and some sort of "recycled" Windows 7 licence for a few pounds and that looked OK, but would the hardware all work ?
Fitting the hard disk was a doddle. The bottom panel comes off easily for service (unlike the newer machines) and it was the work of minutes to put the new SSD in.
The licence came with a link to download the required ISO for an install disk and I burnt that to a DVD.
A fiddle in the BIOS to get the boot sequence to start off DVD and it all booted to the install DVD.
That did it's stuff for a couple of hours and Windows 7 32 bit was running OK on the laptop. Not what one might call "zippy" but OK.
The laptop has 2GB of RAM and 160GB of hard disk.
I triggered windows update and it found 190 ish to do.
I left it to it.
Also the Internet Explorer wanted an update but was so old it didn't seem to want to download a new version.
It would install Chrome so I did that, then downloaded a newer IE using Chrome.
Finally I had a working computer but two devices that were not recognised.
The WiFi is fine (except that the physical switch state isn't remembered over a reboot so WiFi always starts "on") but I wanted the two devices to have drivers.
The first device which talked about "communications" was an infrared device which Windows found a driver for itself after having a try online.
The mass storage device driver couldn't be found.
A good Googling got me to an Acer driver site (as well as a number of other dodgy sites !)
That had a card reader driver which sorted the final mystery device and also a driver for infrared which I didn't try (as this was fixed and I've never used it).
So Acer Extensa 5220 working fine (if a bit slowly) on Windows 7. It is a "mains laptop" as the battery seems poorly but for a limited application usable and saved from the electrical recycling for a few years.
Wednesday, 7 December 2016
Mid 2007 MacBook upgrade with a new SSD
I've a "mid 2007" MacBook which I had previously upgraded to 2GB of RAM and OSX 10.6 (from the as supplied 10.4) but it was a bit sluggish.
While it didn't merit further substantial investment a few tens of pounds would buy a new "unbranded" SSD of the same size as the original (120GB) and that seemed to be money well spent.
I also bought a USB SATA enclosure and downloaded a trial copy of a disk cloner for Mac. After a few hours I had a bootable SSD (hold "alt" on boot to get a choice).
A quick Google and the instructions for getting in to the part of the laptop where the hard disk is to be found were located (take the battery out and use a small cross head to remove the cover).
The tab to get the SSD out worked well and that point I hit the first snag. The existing SSD was mounted on a meal tray by four Torx T6 screws and I didn't have a Torx screwdriver.
Afre some minor abuse of some other screwdrivers I got the Torx screws out and fitted the SSD using the same screws (and tool).
It went back in (once I got it the right way up !) and to my delight (and relief) the machine booted (perhaps a bit slowly).
Everything seemed to work but I got spells of "spinning beachball". Google suggested a reset (no obvious value) and repairing permissions (via disk utility) which seemed to generally fix the problem.
Thus far the SSD seems a success. I've ignored "TRIM" thus far. Further reports as needed.
UPDATE DECEMBER 2017
The "unbranded" SSD failed after a few months. They sent a replacement (after I sent the broken one back to China tracked for £10) but I decided a "normal" HDD drive of a larger size (500GB) and 7200 RPM (rather than the original 5400 RPM) was the best way to go.
That is now working fine and I won't be buying cheap SSDs again. The replacement SSD is in a low spec Windows 7 machine which runs 24x7 and going OK so far.
While it didn't merit further substantial investment a few tens of pounds would buy a new "unbranded" SSD of the same size as the original (120GB) and that seemed to be money well spent.
I also bought a USB SATA enclosure and downloaded a trial copy of a disk cloner for Mac. After a few hours I had a bootable SSD (hold "alt" on boot to get a choice).
A quick Google and the instructions for getting in to the part of the laptop where the hard disk is to be found were located (take the battery out and use a small cross head to remove the cover).
The tab to get the SSD out worked well and that point I hit the first snag. The existing SSD was mounted on a meal tray by four Torx T6 screws and I didn't have a Torx screwdriver.
Afre some minor abuse of some other screwdrivers I got the Torx screws out and fitted the SSD using the same screws (and tool).
It went back in (once I got it the right way up !) and to my delight (and relief) the machine booted (perhaps a bit slowly).
Everything seemed to work but I got spells of "spinning beachball". Google suggested a reset (no obvious value) and repairing permissions (via disk utility) which seemed to generally fix the problem.
Thus far the SSD seems a success. I've ignored "TRIM" thus far. Further reports as needed.
UPDATE DECEMBER 2017
The "unbranded" SSD failed after a few months. They sent a replacement (after I sent the broken one back to China tracked for £10) but I decided a "normal" HDD drive of a larger size (500GB) and 7200 RPM (rather than the original 5400 RPM) was the best way to go.
That is now working fine and I won't be buying cheap SSDs again. The replacement SSD is in a low spec Windows 7 machine which runs 24x7 and going OK so far.
Saturday, 29 October 2016
T-Mobile 6 Month Web Booster - How far can you go ?
As previously noted, I'm in the last T-Mobile 6 month Internet booster I'll ever have.
A few days away from home in a hotel with broken Internet access (no DHCP on the router - a common problem with "guest" WiFi in hotels and elsewhere) and I used the T-Mobile 6 month Internet booster for tethering various media consuming devices.
When I went away I had used about 500MB in the month (so half of the 1GB "fair use policy" allowance).
The usage quickly went up, after 24 hours a couple of GB more had been used, half way through the following day the 80% of the FUP text came. About 6 hours later the "exceeded fair use policy" text arrived.
This seems to have triggered limited download and upload speeds of about 500kb/s (perhaps a quarter of what T-Mobile 3G can achieve in peak periods from my experience).
I'm now at 5.2GB used in the calendar month for £3.33.
This is why the offer had to end !
A few days away from home in a hotel with broken Internet access (no DHCP on the router - a common problem with "guest" WiFi in hotels and elsewhere) and I used the T-Mobile 6 month Internet booster for tethering various media consuming devices.
When I went away I had used about 500MB in the month (so half of the 1GB "fair use policy" allowance).
The usage quickly went up, after 24 hours a couple of GB more had been used, half way through the following day the 80% of the FUP text came. About 6 hours later the "exceeded fair use policy" text arrived.
This seems to have triggered limited download and upload speeds of about 500kb/s (perhaps a quarter of what T-Mobile 3G can achieve in peak periods from my experience).
I'm now at 5.2GB used in the calendar month for £3.33.
This is why the offer had to end !
Friday, 7 October 2016
Stopping iOS updates and getting rid of downloaded but not installed updates
The following is a note derived from the following extremely useful post by SergZak at:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-9741
I don't want my iOS devices updated to iOS 10 as they work well at the moment and I've previously found Apple allow devices to be updated to a point at which their performance suffers.
To stop updates I've blocked mesu.apple.com using OpenDNS (which I use on my router).
I've also deleted the previously downloaded update by finding the iOS update app at:
Settings
General
Storage & iCloud Usage
Manage Storage.
There I found the iOS update app. By tapping on the app I could delete the app.
Once again, many thanks SergZak !
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-9741
I don't want my iOS devices updated to iOS 10 as they work well at the moment and I've previously found Apple allow devices to be updated to a point at which their performance suffers.
To stop updates I've blocked mesu.apple.com using OpenDNS (which I use on my router).
I've also deleted the previously downloaded update by finding the iOS update app at:
Settings
General
Storage & iCloud Usage
Manage Storage.
There I found the iOS update app. By tapping on the app I could delete the app.
Once again, many thanks SergZak !
The end of the T-Mobile 6MONTHWEB booster
Sadly the T-Mobile £20 for 6 months Internet data offer is ending (or has ended depending on when you read this).
Not much has been made of this but I happened across mention of it on the Thinkbroadband forums.
A further well targeted Google and the sad news was confirmed.
To ensure that nobody will buy it again the price has been doubled.
In a slight breach of copyright (I see it as review) but to ensure that this change isn't airbrushed out of mobile network history this is what EE (T-Mobile) have to say on the subject:
http://ee.co.uk/help/add-ons-benefits-and-plans/price-plans-and-costs/t-mobile-price-plans/t-mobile-pay-as-you-go-price-increase
on 07/10/16
The excellent Money Saving Expert also covers the change:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/phones/2016/09/data-booster-prices-double-for-t-mobile-customers
The T-Mobile data offer was the best PAYG data offer for years (I guess I have been using it for more than 5 years) and I'm sorry to see it go. My "high score" was 2GB in a calendar month, not bad for £3.33 !
Having put £18 on the SIM to buy my last 6 Months of WEB perhaps I'll get a PAYG upgrade from Carphone Warehouse with the SIM as well before it goes in the bin.
The best offers now seem to the the EE 6GB/3 month offers which can be ebayed for less that £20 or the 3 3GB/3 months for about £10. I guess the market price of these will increase as the "6 Month Web" buyers go somewhere else.
Not much has been made of this but I happened across mention of it on the Thinkbroadband forums.
A further well targeted Google and the sad news was confirmed.
To ensure that nobody will buy it again the price has been doubled.
In a slight breach of copyright (I see it as review) but to ensure that this change isn't airbrushed out of mobile network history this is what EE (T-Mobile) have to say on the subject:
T-Mobile pay as you go price increase
We know they’re not popular but
we haven’t actually increased any of our rates since 2013, and in that time the
costs of running our business have continued to rise. Our EE pay as you go
rates are staying the same and you can buy packs of minutes, data and texts to
get even better value.
Find out more about switching
seamlessly to EE by visiting one of our stores or go to ee.co.uk/movetoee.
How will I
know if my price is increasing?
All customers who are impacted by
the price increase will be contacted. You will receive a minimum of 30 days'
written notice (via text) notifying you before the increase takes place.
What the
2016 T-Mobile pay as you go price rises mean for you
From 10 October 2016 we’ll be
making changes to the costs of some internet boosters on T-Mobile.
Please see below the new charges
for your internet booster:
Internet Booster
|
Length
|
Before 10 Oct 2016
|
From 10 Oct 2016
|
Blackberry monthly data booster - Unlimited
browsing
|
30 days
|
£5
|
£12
|
Standard monthly data booster - not Blackberry
|
30 days
|
£5
|
£12
|
Standard 6 month data booster - not Blackberry
|
6
months
|
£20
|
£40
|
Blackberry 6 month data booster
|
6
months
|
£20
|
£40
|
From:
T-Mobile "So long, and thanks for all the data"
Thursday, 5 November 2015
The AOC i-Menu software
I have two AOC monitors, both of which are really good.
The older one has front panel controls, the newer one does not. Instead you are supposed to use an application which you install and that controls the monitor settings.
In many respects a good idea but not if you don't have the software. Sadly I didn't have the driver CD for the monitor.
The AOC website has the monitor "driver" file which is really a settings file that Windows uses.
After a bit of support assistance I was directed to the glossary page on the AOC website.
http://aoc-europe.com/en/content/glossary
This includes the key section:
i-Menu
Adjust your display settings with i-Menu software. Fine-tune luminosity, image setup, color temperature and more with a few simple clicks.
The "i-Menu software" is in blue and is a clickable link to a zip file download.
That contains the AOC i-Menu software as an exe installer. Click that and off you go.
The linked file can currently be found at:
http://aoc-europe.com/download/%252F%252Faoc-pim.s3.amazonaws.com%252FPublic%252FAOC%252FDrivers_Software_Manuals%252FSoftware%252Fi-Menu%252Fi-Menu-AOC4.3.1-setup.zip
Hope that helps someone.
Improved link:
aoc-pim.s3.amazonaws.com/Public/AOC/Drivers_Software_Manuals/Software/i-Menu/i-Menu-AOC4.3.1-setup.zip
The older one has front panel controls, the newer one does not. Instead you are supposed to use an application which you install and that controls the monitor settings.
In many respects a good idea but not if you don't have the software. Sadly I didn't have the driver CD for the monitor.
The AOC website has the monitor "driver" file which is really a settings file that Windows uses.
After a bit of support assistance I was directed to the glossary page on the AOC website.
http://aoc-europe.com/en/content/glossary
This includes the key section:
i-Menu
Adjust your display settings with i-Menu software. Fine-tune luminosity, image setup, color temperature and more with a few simple clicks.
The "i-Menu software" is in blue and is a clickable link to a zip file download.
That contains the AOC i-Menu software as an exe installer. Click that and off you go.
The linked file can currently be found at:
Hope that helps someone.
Improved link:
aoc-pim.s3.amazonaws.com/Public/AOC/Drivers_Software_Manuals/Software/i-Menu/i-Menu-AOC4.3.1-setup.zip
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