PC Tech Thread

Cheers. The challenge is I'm likely to be short on time for the near future otherwise that was my thought. I guess I could just get my mum to bring it to me when she comes over for childcare and then have a crack on evening. I've got some external enclosures for old fashioned big laptop HDDs. Everything should actually be backed up to the cloud. But right now there's no way for my mum to check.

Also an IT guy in an organisation my dad does stuff with helped set it up, so my guess is that it'll be encrypted. I'm not sure how that will work with reading the HHD.

RE repair you're right. From a guess based on Internet reading it sounds like the battery could be the issue. But it could also be some hardware related to the battery charging , or just that it's glitched and needs a reboot somehow. Also the actual on button is a bit wobbly so that's a possibility too.

All of which is a long way to say there are too many variables to make it worth a diy fix. Which is a shame as physically the machine is in nice condition.

Oh and the windows key was just because it's a full fat license, and the one on mine isn't/is expired from my old work so I just wanted to pinch it if it can't be used.

Does anyone make a high airflow case that DOESN'T have glass sides?

I got a Fractal Meshify C
https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/meshify/meshify-c/black/
they have options for the side panels

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/fractal-design-torrent-black-solid-3x-140mm-2x-180mm-fans-usb-31-gen-2-type-c-e-atx-atx-matx-itx-ssi

I have a Fractal Design Define 7 case which is pretty much the same as the meshify but with different panels. It's a good case, solid and well thought out. The full size one is a bit of a lump though (although the C is smaller).

Oh thanks, I did look at fractal but they all seemed to have glass sides - I missed the solid option.

hah I have the Fractal Design R4 and really like the case. That said I had to jury rig my watercooling as it didn't quite fit!

I just bought a RTX 3070Ti Founder edition for MSRP (£550) direct from the official Nvidea shop.

If anyon needs a good deal on a card go now before stock goes.

Anyone been able to project their screen from one W10 laptop (work) to another W10 laptop (personal)?

Found a useful video which helped me sort out the settings, but once I connect the receiving laptop says protected content can't be viewed on this device, and the sending laptop says failed.

As a starting point, is there a way of understanding which laptop is preventing the process?

Cheers.

Not really a PC Tech question but I think this is the best thread.

Has anybody had major problems with Google Docs formatting?

See attached photo. My goal is to highlight the title and set it to Heading 1, but whenever I do that it also sets the sub title to Heading 1.

The same problem persists broadly across any circumstance where I highlight any text and set it to a certain style...it always will add additional text that I did not highlight.

I've tried disabling Nextdns but that makes no difference. WTAF is going on?

1 Attachment

the styles within the doc overlap... it's nothing to do with DNS.

Just cut and paste it "without styling" into a piece of the document below this. Then nuke this. And re-style that.

After months of trying to figure it out, just writing the problem down led me to solve it.

Its because I have a habit of Shift+Enter for new lines.

the styles within the doc overlap... it's nothing to do with DNS.

I figured as much but Google's number one advice for formatting problems it to check your adblocker and DNS services.

seems like my issues above were with the cloudflare warp new version. the new version uploader kept on popping up on my computer every day but when i tried to upload new version it failed day after day getting to 60% or so and then freezing. uninstalled some bits and pc now running much faster. not sure if i have any cloudflare applications on my pc now.

are warp and 1.1.1.1 still good to have on your pc to increase privacy when browsing ?

HP Office Jet 6500A Plus no longer recognising even supposedly genuine HP black ink cartridges.

Any recommendation for suitable replacement for home use?
Student son needs to print out some stuff on a regular basis,
me seldom,
but
I did find the scanning function useful.

Is 'some stuff' definitely colour?
If not, get a cheap b&w laser printer and use your phone to take a photo of anything you need to scan

Good suggestion,
I'll check wth mespilus jr.

suitable replacement for home use?

We've had good luck with Epson combo devices, and their drivers are about 9000 times better than HP's

A growing trend are printers that lock users out of non-original ink by firmware updates: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31860131 (that's Brother, but apparently it applies to others).

The problem really is inkjets... the ink makes way too much money, so the companies are incentivised to try and take that money.

If you can find a small laser printer... this is far far better. Offices have successfully pressured prices of laser consumables to be pretty damn low (given the efficiency the same price point as ink will go significantly further).

The only problem with laser is that as they don't make as much on the consumables, they charge the true cost of the hardware (inkjet printers are subsidised by the ink).

If you've got the space and can stretch to a laser printer then the costs are very low over the long-term. I've had a laser printer for 12 years now, only replaced the black toner once, and the thing is still going fine (it's a full colour laser, and it's been used throughout my partner's PhD which meant sometimes printing a whole ream of A4 at a time)... the downside, my word it is a large device (I had a piece of furniture made to hide it!).

This is really interesting, worth noting as my printer is on the blink.

I suppose colour laser printers aren’t great at casual photo printing?

If you've got the space

You can get them pretty small now. My HP laser is 331 x 215 x 178 mm. Happily sits on a bookcase shelf.

I suppose colour laser printers aren’t great at casual photo printing?

For photos, inkjet in good condition still rule.

For literally everything else, laser printers rule.

If you're only printing occasional photos... get a laser printer and use a local print shop for photos.

Bought a mono laser printer for home office use about 7 years ago. Use it lightly but regularly. About 10% of the way through it's 2nd toner cartridge. The one it came with was half filled ( a thing that they do).

I'd sooner never print a photo again than switch back to an inkjet.

Thanks for the reply.
(You're always welcome at a Wests).
For several years this 6500A Plus had a hand written sheet of A4 on top of it, requesting that nobody in the house, (just the 3 of us), should allow the device to update its software ...

I did check, and the 6500A Plus. Bought in June 2011 for net £40, so I guess we've had value from it.