What does this mean?

[Workingman]

John, reboot the laptop then reinstall all the HP software from the discs. It should install everything, including drivers.

[Suff]

HP are trying to make things easier by locking up the settings inside the software at install time. Unfortunately this means that if it gets broken, we can't fix it.

WM's advice is good. Reboot to clean out any pending remove actions then re-install the HP software. That should fix it permanently.

BTW, I prefer the network setup. You need to first connect your printer to the wifi then install the printer software again and tell it you are connecting to a network printer, I use fixed addresses so I just give the printer address in the install and it's done and does not change so always works.

But I'm guessing that is more than you want to do.

BTW if you connect the printer to the network, tablets can use it too... Everyone who comes to my house is given the network connectivity and then told how to add the printer. Those who need it can then check into their flights and print out the boarding passes.

Might be more than you need...

[Aggers]

[quote="Suff"
BTW, I prefer the network setup. You need to first connect your printer to the wifi then install the printer software again and tell it you are connecting to a network printer,
...[/quote]

Do you mean the wifi gadget that BT supplied for accessing the Internet?

[Suff]

Yes,

First you set up the BT wifi for use.

Then you connect the printer to the wifi

Then you install the driver on each device on the network (laptop, desktop, tablet), with the printer as a network pinter (very important as it won't use the installation which was for cable) and they can all print to the one printer so long as it is switched on.

I have two network printers in the house but only use one at the moment. Both my printers take a cable as well as wifi but the one in use is not currently near a network cable outlet so I use wifi.

Personally I always hand configure my wifi so that I know the code. I have no trust of these so called "automatic" configurations. I have a 100% success rate with manually configuring wifi. The automatic stuff is less than 95% overall. If you are one of the 5% this can be somewhat irritating.

[Aggers]

Thank you Suff.

Actually the situation here has changed somewhat. This problem had really started to get me down lately, and my good wife decided that I had enough. She therefore has arranged for a professional IT fellow, who was recommended to her, to visit us tomorrow to do the necessary work.

To be honest, all this technology is alien to one whose only technical skills during his whole working life was using a telephone, a slide rule and log tables. I do appreciate the way you and Frank had tried to assist me. Through you two guys I have learned a lot, but, at 90 years old, there is a limit to what I can cope with. I'll let you know how things go tomorrow.

Incidentally, I was quite disgusted at the service I got at P C World. The whole tenure of their report on the "servicing" they had supposedly carried out was patently aimed at convincing me that I needed to spend more money with them. I would certainly not recommend them to anyone.

Thanks again.

[Suff]

You're welcome as always. Helps keep the brain from being atrophied. Very much for me nowadays as I do project management work and even more so here in Brussels where I am forced to use a desktop machine which is locked down and connected to a 10 year old 19 inch 4:3 monitor.

I do most of this stuff like breathing normally but it's like a muscle, if you don't exercise it, then you lose it. I was standing in the queue for lunch yesterday when Mrs S phoned me. She wanted to use the Wii fit connected to the TV in the bedroom. She'd managed to turn it on and verify that it was connected. However the TV was saying "no signal". It took me a few minutes, in the queue to get my steak cooked, to remember to tell her to switch the input. Then I had to remember what it looked like so I could tell her how to select the SCART socket ((in)conveniently called AV1/2 etc on our TV).

I still recall buying my first Micro in 1985. I also remember clearly working on an old Amstrad 1512 dual floppy in college and turning the mouse upside down and having my DOH moment as I realised the ball has to hang down on the rollers for it to work.

I don't think Age is the problem Aggers. I think it's more the case that things don't come one at a time and some of the problems you see are not exactly easy to fix. Take your problem with IE and the search page. When it happened to me the second time it took me more than a day to realise that the malware had changed the IE icon and added some text to the end of the launch script to force the start page. These are not easy things to fix and the world of malware is always evolving so a fix one day may not be the fix for you 3 months later.

Windows is actually pretty stable but you do have to watch what you put in it. I spend a decade paying Microsoft so I could use their office suite. I worked for me because it simply standardised my pc life. Also I have a habit of running more difficult software in a virtual machine. Something I can isolate from my main machine and so the impact to my life is much less if something goes wrong.

I hope you get it all sorted out. HP printers have become more difficult to connect to over the years, not less. This is all about their attempt to control your life so they can try and provide a consistent experience to everyone. The part they missed was that nothing can change once they have installed. Sadly something which is not always true and then their attempts to make our lives easier just become a total mess which requires knowledge to sort out.

There are some simple rules I follow in my IT life at home

Control your own wifi keys
Used fixed IP addresses for fixed home equipment
Use automatic addresses for portables and everyone else
Use the simplest solution possible, not necessarily the most obvious. For instance if it was not for the HP scanner in my MFC, I would not use the install disk for HP to install my printer. I would download the driver and manually configure it.

These simple rules may mean I have to do a little more work from time to time (when the phone call comes from home to ask for the wifi key for guests), but, in the end, it makes for a much easier and simpler system to use.

Yes I have to know what I'm doing, but, then again, I only do the wifi keys once. I only do the printer install once. I only have to tell the wifi key every now and again. I'll have to print out the sheet again which should be on my cupboard door in my office so Mrs S can use it.

[Aggers]

Well, I've just had my lap top back, and it's just like new, and everything seems to be working OK.

The man from Ontrack Computers Ltd who did the job, said he thought that my problem might have been
caused by Norton, and he suggested that I did not reinstall it, as it might cause further trouble.
He recommended Ball Guard Security. What do you think?

[Workingman]

Aggers, I think the product you are meaning is called BullGuard. It is £1 per week for up to three computers, which is not bad I suppose.

However, I would like to ask this: If you are the sort of person who is careful about the websites they visit and are not sat on a home network carrying loads of sensitive information do you really need a paid-up professional security suite? I can understand it for those running a business or people like Suff who might have no choice but to have some 'need to know' information to do their jobs, but for the average home user...?

Most of the free suites, Avast!, AVG, Comodo, do a fine job for ordinary use. I am currently using this and it does very well. It has three antivirus databases: its own, one from Bitdefender and another from Avira. It can run your browser in a sandbox for extra protection and can clean up your system.

I am not saying that you should disregard BullGuard or Norton, but for you to think about having a look at a free option.

[Aggers]

Frank and Suff.

The man who fixed my laptop said that if I re-installed Norton Security I would have problems again.
I find this hard to believe, as Which Magazine always places Norton at the top of its lists. What do you think?

My Norton account comes up for automatic renewal at the end of next month, and I really don't know what to do.

My wife and I are having a three-day break starting tomorrow, so I'll try and forget this business until Tuesday.

[Workingman]

It is very subjective, John, but I can tell you that BullGuard does not score as well as Avast! or AVG in some comparative tests. Why Norton would be a problem is a bit of a mystery, but as I do not use it I cannot say for sure.

I can, however, say that I have had AV software ruin things with Auto Windows Update when a new .dll or .exe has been given a false positive and quarantined or even deleted. I now choose what updates I want and junk the rest. I also get AV software to give me notifications so that I can override any allow/deny instructions.

Suff is the man to answer Norton questions, but he has not been about for a few days. I will get in touch with him over the weekend to see if he is OK and can help.