blonde poker forum

My laptop wireless has gone a bit fruit loopy, it sometimes cant see my router but then sometimes it can (5 bars) when it is connected sometimes it works fine on the net and sometimes it doesnt, this doesnt make sense, my PC works fine hard wired to the router and JungleCat's lappy is working fine aswell.

Anything you guys can think off? Why would it start dropping intermitendtly?

turn on MSN then!  ::)

on a seperate techy query i can't seem to search on Blonde at the moment. Can someone else check if it is working?

I was victim to a similar problem James, turns out i needed a new router.

Search seems to be down at the mo.


The router is quite new Billy, I know that doesn't mean that it can't be causing the problem, but makes it a little more unlikely. It could all manner of things causing it, even other wireless devices,

Very true Ginger.   Mind you James was wired to the moon last time I checked, has HE gone wireless since Dublin?   ;whistle;

Where's IFM when you need him?... ::)

You're not using Schrodinger's laptop, are you?

How would i know.......

Often it's interference or dodgy hardware. But there is a problem with windows xp SP1 (if you use the windows software not 3rd party software, and have authentication turned on) having connection drops. If this is the case, then upgrade to SP2 (which you should do anyway!).

You can try changing the wireless channel on your router which may help if there is interference. Change the channel by as much as you can, eg if on channel 8, goto channel 1. As the channels (frequencies) overlap so the further you go the more likely you are to get away from whatever interference it might be.

Does the other laptop have connection at the same time as when this one gets disconnected? Does the laptop have built in wireless? If so is it an intel centrino... there are problems with these having connection drop outs too. Easiest solution is to disable it and buy a PC card.

Both laptops run XPSP2 both have inbuilt wireless, both have always worked fine, now mine has problems and jungle's is ok, i have them sat side by side and mine doesnt work so its unlikely to be a interference issue.

Is it just me, or does Richeo look like Wardonkey?

Just you.

Doesn't mean anything tbh, interference from another device is a likely candidate. Also you both use different standards, so you can't say what will work for one, will work ok for the other.

I'd try looking for newer drivers for your laptop's wireless. Next I'd update the routers firmware and change the channels. If none of that stops the connection drops, buy or borrow a wireless card or USB dongle for the laptop and see if that works without drop outs.

I can see what you mean, the boy will get better looking as he matures  ;)

I downloaded new drivers last night and switched the channel from 11 to 1 and it appears to have solved the issue (i think it was the channel lark more than the drivers) cheers all.

I've fallen for it.. What do you look like?

a mug!

(did you mean to quote flushy?)

Sure didn't.

I thought you look a bit like Louis Theroux in your avatar.

I must be seeing things, you look a lot like ....

Ian Hislop?

An E2 0-6-0T locomotive

Brilliant!

You are wasted on herte Andrew.

What DID happen to that Cat?

How did you change the channel on the router flushy?  Can you do it in the router settings page or is it on the actualy router.

You have to access the channel setting through the router interface. Should be under the wireless tab (it is on mine anyway )

I gotta question for the teccies.

It takes me like five minutes to swtich on my pc these days.
Around about a dozen programs open up automatically and it's this which seems to slow things down. We got through a dance of windows opening, and me closing them. Getting fed up with it.

Is there a place on my Windows XP where I can go to stop this?

start -> run -> type msconfig -> startup tab

disable what you don't need. i usually disable everything and then re-enable whatever i find i'm missing that i need.

next time you reboot a message will come up saying you have disabled stuff. tick the checkbox before clicking OK to stop it appearing.


If you have them time it's much better to format. This will stop the programs starting up but the best speed boost for booting and overall will be a nice clean PC.

If you can't or don't want to format, then do the msconfig trick, then a disc cleanup, disc defrag and registry mechanic might give a noticable speedup. I think there is a program called tuneXP which will reorder your boot files and speed it up a bit too.

You are a gentleman and a scholar, thankyou very much.

Blimmin eck, theres about 30 of the things starting up automatically!

It vorks.  ;tightend;

That knocked 4 minutes of my 5 minute wait.  ;yippee;

how would you go about formatting??

exactly the same as fivematting, but with one less.

as soon as i saw you had left a comment i knew that was what it would be!!! You could drink more if you kept your 2 hands free!!!

The pot is saying that the kettle has crap chat.  :D

With a Windows XP disk. You should have one, when you purchased your computer.

have just defragmented and done that thing rich suggested with the start up so will restart and see if it has made a difference.

Cheers nem will have a hunt about for it after!

Also, download either ATF Cleaner or CCleaner to get rid of your temp files.

i did a disk cleanup too, wont that have got rid of the temp files?

Yes, but the other tools are better and have more uses.

are they free?
And also it is also slow to boot up, on that msconfig there is also a boot.ini section which allows you to alter boot timeout. How can i get it quicker to load up??? Im reading this back and i sound like a total retard!

 ;bump;

I defragmented, used disk cleanup, destop wizard, msconfig on my start up and its still taking 6 mins and 33.3 seconds to get on the net. Are there any other ideas to speed the boot up up!!! Anymore help would be much appreciated!

download atf cleaner and ccleaner and run a scan with avg anti spyware

all are free

cheers nem how much of a speed up can i expect?

P.S where do you come from, dont see your name on top then you just appear to answer techy problems!

And also nem i have norton anti virus load up whe i boot up which then comes up with a green tick to say everytthing is ok! Can i get rid of this from my taskbar or will it muck up my AV protection?????

Also, download: speedswitchxp and install. This will tell you what your processor is running at.

You should also download 'hijack this' and post your log files @ www.short-media.com/forum stating that your comp is taking 7 minutes to boot up.

Uninstall Nortons and install the software I have sent you via pm.

why uninstall nem?
And where do i get my log files from???
Im so retarded-  i used to think i knew about computers!

Nortons is poo and is probably one reason your comp is so slow.

not as bad as mcafee, that was ridiculous on how much it slowed my comp down!

Both as bad as each other

install zonealarm free firewall as well

Let alone being slow I have have to fix scores of problems on PCs that were actually caused by Norton.

I assume Nem has pointed you towards Nod32, which is great AV.

:)up
Also,one more thing, where do i find my log files??


Cant believe AV programs cause so many problems!!

download hijack this and click on do a scan and save log file

I hope i get some good feedback, actually really excited about making a start on this tomorrow morning!
Started a defragment at 5am this morning and didnt finsih til 7 (i was pissed off to say the least!)

for defragment software search mininova for diskeeper

will do's!

You can do all this and maybe speed your PC up. You might never find the actual cause of it being slow.

I no longer mess about with people PCs when they say its slow and has erros etc.

Back it up, format, restore, PC like new.

It usually doesn't take much longer (depends on your setup..) and certainly has better results.

Yeh nem said to format it. aswell.
As stupid as it sounds how do you back up everything and how long does it take to format it?
It is not slow on the net or when downloading something, just when i load it up and close it down!

Copy it all to DVDs. If you have just one account on the PC then usually the My Docs folder has most of it. Then copy your favourites. If you have webmail you don't need to copy any emails, but if you use outlook or outlook express you have to copy those settings and emails. You don't back up any programs, you just reinstall them afterwards.

If you have another PC or an external hard drive you could copy it to that too.


PS You should have a backup anyway ;).

 ;bump; ;bump;

Ok uninstalled norton and installed nod32 and got it down from 6 and a hlaf minutes to just under 3 and a half.

Next is downlading the registry cleaner and doing a scan on hijack- hopefully by then will be nice and fast. Since i defragmented and did a disk cleanup everything on comp is running lovely and smooth.

Edit-just ran ATF and it cleared almost 2 gig off my computer so that can only be a good thing!!!!!!!! hijackthis next!

hijack this is more if you have a specific program hijacking your browser and causing pop ups etc. You can still run it though, it will give you and overview of what's running.


If your slow down is just on boot up and shutdown, leave the PC on all the time, or if you don't want to do that, suspend or hibernate are good options, resume from hibernate in about 40seconds and it uses no power in that mode, resume from suspend something like 10secs but uses some power in standby, and power cuts not nice.

Yeh reealised when on it that highjack this is more for malware so wont bother with that, i dont turn it off i have my laptop set to go to standby when i close the lid so thats ok but no you said about power cuts and stuff which we suffered quite a bit from over winter, will set it so it goes to hibernate. Did this with my other lappy.

Also as an add on as your here i dont use my old laptop anymore coz when i put the power lead in the back of ir it sort of supplies power when it wants too then doesnt at most other times and coz the battery has basically gone on it, it just shuts down when this happens. Dont think it is the lead itself think its the connector on the laptop. Is there an easy/cheap way to fix this is it is a topping laptop apart from that!

As its a laptop then a power cut shouldn't matter if its in suspend, it should last long enough for the power to come back on, a few days, unless the battery is dead to start with.

As for the old latop: Do a little trouble shooting. Take the battery out, if you can borrow another AC adapter that will rule that out. When the power goes off try wiggling the cable and connector to see when the LED comes back on. It's probably a loose connection, and it wud be easy enough to fix once you find it! It it's in the AC adapter then a new one of those if you don't fancy taking it apart. If it's the connector in the laptop you will need to open that up and take a peek. You could always take it to a shop or send it to me as I will probably charge less  ;whistle;

What's the make and model. If you get enough supply to it then a new battery will be enough to get you through the outages from the loose connection if you can't be bothered getting that fixed.

Its an Acer Aspire 1310

Its definately the connector on the laptop but the battery is also dead aswell.

How much would it cost to repair?

Found a battery for £42.
http://www.batteries-group.com/products.php/101/Aspire%201310%20Series(NOT%20APPlicable%20HP%20Palvillion%20ze%201000&Pzvilion%20XF328)

Where abouts in Wales do you live, if it happens to be North East then... we may be close. I've rethought about posting and over 2kg is about £20 each way special delivery so its probably not worth it :

Otherwise, you'd have to take it into a shop and they're not going to know until they have it open that they can fix it. Most computer people aren't too good with a sodlering iron, they'd just rather order a new part, which might sting too! The shop is probably going to want to open it and diagnose the problem and charge you £20+ for the privilege before they then say that it will be £50+ for the repair, but that's just guessing!  If you can take it apart and actually see the problem or stick a multimeter on it, that's wot I'd suggest. That way you can tell whoever you are taking it to for repair exactly what is wrong and they can give you a proper estimate, or you might see it's an easy fix and do it yourself.

I think i will have a crack and open it up, im not a bad solderer myself!

Will repost on here when i have looked at it!

Cheers rich.

p.s. where is your shop based?

I don't have a shop, I'm a student. I usually go to people's homes to fix their PCs, but sometimes take them away. I just give out a few business cards and people pass them around and I get a few phonecalls a week. Do a bit more than that but I wont SPAM too much.

And I live in Bodfari, if you know where that is, you must be close ;) between Mold and Denbigh.

lol im in mid wales soabout a 3 and a half hour drive from you-bit too far me thinks!

I will get bac to you when i have opened her up..... TBC!

Did the power come on and off when you moved the connector about? Have you tried it without the battery? Sometimes if the battery is totally dead it won't work but it will without it! Depends on the laptop.

I put up with it for months when you really push the adapter into the lappy it will power it, but only when its really forced into it.