Moving into the modern world

Well, moving to the updated Blogger interface anyway.

Although I was quite happy with the old interface and template, the new versions will be forced upon me eventually (as Google did with the ghastly Gmail new version), so thought I would give it a go.

And this is the result. It looks a bit like the old version (I like the black background, but not keen on the "surround" stuff - will look into fixing that!) but allows me to add stuff like the Follow widget (which isn't available easily for the old version).

Internets

Sooo.... with the imminent removal of the 4G trial (to be removed on Friday apparently), we were all advised to check our old ISP connection. I must admit that I didn't get around to it until yesterday, when, horror of horrors, the 4G connection went down! Actually, it went down the previous night but it was very late and nobody was really using it.

To appease the girls, I turned on the old 512kb connection and - nothing!  There was no attempt to sync the line or even connect by the looks of things.
After some fiddling, I tried connecting another router to the line - still nothing. Then I tried an old telephone, expecting to get a dial tone - but no.

This made me suspect the ADSL filter, fitted to the line. Luckily, as all good techies do, I have a stack of spare filters! One filter replaced and - voila! Internet back up and running.
Sadly, the speed hasn't improved. Coming from the 4G trial will make it seem even more shocking too.

Anyway, we are still using the 4G at the moment, but not at all looking forward to Friday.

4G end in sight

Sadly, the 4G trial is ending on the 29th of June. This means we will leave the modern internet and return to the backwaters of 512kb as the headline speed (which is more like 300kb at best in reality!). For that "service" we are expected to cough up £25 per month and accept a limited download. 

Frankly, I think that is a rip off and if it was up to me I would simply tell our ISP where to stick their service. But the kids expect a broadband service - even if it is almost unusable - so I have to keep paying for this crap.

Shame the various companies seem to argue about the 4G provision, instead of simply getting it out there to the customers! Here in Cornwall, we were amongst the first to have the analogue TV turned off and be forced to use the infinitely poorer digital TV. The idea was that the freed up bandwidth would be used for stuff like 4G, but sadly the various companies are all pissing about complaining that "they have more bandwidth than us..."  Pathetic and holding back those of us in rural Britain.

Update on HP laptop and the daughter's one too!

I forgot to update on the laptop which I mentioned a few weeks ago. As I said at the time, we suspected the problem with slow running (and maybe even failure to charge the battery) was down to a broken up power socket on the laptop motherboard. Well, a spare was found on an old motherboard and eventually (we needed a more powerful soldering iron!) swapped with the broken one. A slight snag happened when the cable for the touchpad and buttons was damaged during reassembly, but that was bodged fixed with some soldering too!

The repair worked!  The laptop now runs really fast and - as an added bonus - the battery charges and is actually rather good, holding a charge in general use for 3+ hours!

Daughter's Lenovo laptop is still working perfectly since I removed the dead battery. She has to use it plugged into the mains of course, but that is a mild inconvenience compared to buying a new machine!
It also earned me kudos with her!

Laptop fixed!

Older daughter appeared a week or two ago to tell me that her laptop died suddenly when she removed the power supply lead. After I explained to her that yes, laptop batteries do die pretty suddenly as a rule and that was the isue in her case, she stated that she was going to buy a new battery! "OK", says me, "but they are pretty expensive...". A few minutes later and I gather from the ranting that she finds £80+ for a new battery for a several year old laptop a bit much!

So life settled down to her using the thing plugged in to the mains charger. Then, one day, I am informed that the laptop has died. After further questions, it seems it randomly cuts out - simply shutting down instantly. I gave it a quick once over - waggling the power supply etc to check for loose connections - but nothing seemed obvious.
The machine was indeed simply stopping at random - somethimes Windows could be used for a few minutes, other times it was dying before the splash screen even loaded. Tried a live Linux disk - same issue, so not a Windows problem (but I didn't suspect that anyway as it was too sudden a shut off).
Ran Memtest+, but the machine died part way through. It didn't seem to be overheating (a common cause of this type of thing) and I had removed and cleaned out the fans about three or four months ago anyway.
So I went back to Computer Technician class theory and began removing non essentials to see if it made any difference. Having seen problems with laptops and batteries before, I took off the dead and useless battery.
The laptop didn't shut off! Despite running the machine for  hours, no shutdown! I gave it to my daughter who ran the machine all evening and then left it running overnight until she finished work the next afternoon - and it was still going strong!

So, when faced with a laptop which has no obvious issues with clogged fans or intakes etc, but it is still shutting down randomly, it is well worth removing the battery to see if there is some issue with that!
Several years ago, my wifes laptop had a dead battery and suddenly started having problems - but they were different - CPU running at 100% all the time etc - but caused by the dead battery.