You could buy one of these,

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160081282220&ssPageName=MERC_VIC_RCRX_BID_IT&refitem=160078825265&itemcount=4&refwidgetloc=closed_view_item&usedrule1=CrossSell_LogicX&refwidgettype=cross_promot_widget

seen a few sell at £50-60 including the £40 postage. I was thinking about one of those but now I think I'm going to build a table. Not heard of anywhere that rents tables.

Blonde poker doesn't work on vista though. DTD has a few issues but it works, as far as I can tell you can only install it and play it on an Admin account, which I don't want to do, but can endure it.

Pokerroom works, but I'm not playing there anymore. Full tilt works too. A few others I have accounts on but haven't tried yet.

So far I have contacted a large fabric / sewing store and they said they don't stock foam that size but could order it for £150. Err, I'll get back to you! Something like £20-30 is what I'm after.

If they are thinking about it... "No shame in folding".

Can't get their chips in quick enough.

IE 7 has tabbed browsing among other features, but that's the best. If you click on the menu Help -> About then it will tell you what version you have. If you can't see the menus then you'll have IE7, press the Alt key to show the menus.

I usually use firefox, but that has issues with vista so it's IE7 or opera ATM.

Has anyone here built their own poker table?

I am seriously looking into it and am making a list of all the parts I need. So far the only thing I am having trouble finding is the foam for the padded rail. Does anyone know where I can get some? I am after 1 large piece big enough to cut a ring out of, so it needs to be at least 8'3" x 4'3" to go around the 8'x4' table. Probably 3" thick.

Hopefully mine will look something like this one:

from http://www.junell.cc/pokertable/
but with standard stainless steel cupholders not the super big gulp style.

This is the main resource for anyone interested in making one:
http://www.homepokertourney.com/tables_build.htm

Total price is looking like £250, hopefully worth it. Although I have yet to buy anything yet, I am making sure I can get everything I need 1st. There is a product called Perfect Padded Rail but I think I want to make my own rail, assuming I can find the right foam. And I think you can only get Perfect Padded Rail from the US too, as with a lot of the items I want!

just didnt get what you said to IFM bout him still using IE7......

IE7 = Internet Explorer 7

I cannae believe that some folk still use it!

You know, some people are still using IE6. Especially those without a genuine copy of XP.

You don't need to install any software for a router.

First off, you need to give us plenty of information to get the right advice. We'll just be going around in circles forever otherwise.

Does your modem plug into a round cable, and a network cable? By missing blue cable, do you mean a USB cable? if so you won't need this if your using a router.

Are you setting this up for use with more than one computer? Is that why you are not just plugging the modem straight into the laptop?

Have you had your modem working by itself in this house? That is by far the first step for a cable connection, before you even introduce a router. If it's not cable however then you don't even need a modem, but i think we've established that it is (think..).

And any other information you think is relevant, please post it...

Did you get into recovery console and log into the windows install? Did you try to reinstall? How far did you get / where did it fail?

You can go in to your BIOS and see if it can detect the hard drive. Its hard to tell you exactly what you need to do, but usually you hit the DEL key as soon as it starts up. If the BIOS can see the hard drive it's a good thing, if not then it's def bust. If you take the hard drive out and see what make it is, you can then go to the manufacturers website and download the diagnosis software, most have some. Run that and it will tell you if its dead or not. Then you can usually return the hard drive depending on who makes it, Seagate have a 5year warranty on theirs.

I assume the laptop is out of warranty?

I use auction sniper all the time. You get 5 or 10 free snipes (wins not just bids). They have had my useranme and password for over a year and had no problems. Only thing that has gone wrong a few times is that it didn't bid in time at busy times. So set your lead time to 7+ seconds if you want to make sure it bids, 2-3 seconds missed out about half the time for me.

Once you use up your free snipes the charge is still pretty small and I find by using this I save more than it costs me. It had bid groups, which is a very useful feature. Say I want a nintendo Wii, i can set up a bid group and enter all the Wiis I can find into that bid group, tell the group how many I want to win, just one in this case, and it bids on them all for me, and stops if it wins one. By using this feature I get it to auto bid on loads of items at lower than the going price and it just happens that now and then you get one cheap.

My bro has destroyed one laptop by slamming the screen down and close to it again on the new one. He does take his $5 SNGs seriously.

why superb?
hes cheated the organisers,hes let down the audience and hes gerald ratnered his lucrative after dinner career,load of bollox imho

short changed on the love making too.

[Finally, whether you format or not, if you have anything you can't bear to loose, firstly, it should already have been backed up, but if it isn't then you want to get that backed up before you mess about with any of this, just incase! And its possible (although maybe not, sometimes windows just gets messed up) that your hard drive is starting to fail and if thats the case you need to backup all important docs/emails/photos/hand histories NOW.]

Mrs Red's laptop screen went blank then came up with this message

Serching for boot record from floppy.....not found
Serching for boot record from CDROM...not found
Serching for boot record from IDI-0......OK
Error loading operating system....


Tried turning off and on, same message. Help.

First i'll decode the message for you, it just means it tries to boot from floppy, then cd-rom then hard drive, are you sure it wasn't IDE-0 not IDI ? Anyway, it detects the hard drive ok but then can't load the OS. Did you actually smack the PC? That may have corrupted some files and messed windows up. I assume you didn't (but bad beats and laptops dont mix), the OS can just get corrupted by other software or if its just not your day and there is a write error in an important part of the OS.

To fix it you will need your windows CD-ROM. Hopefully you have a proper CD and not just a recovery CD that a lot of laptops come with. The good news is that the PC is already set to boot from CD-ROM before hard disk so you can put the disk in and don't need to change the boot order in the BIOS. Try the recovery console first and if that doesn't work a reinstall of windows.

From windows site:
1. Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.

Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted.  (Press Any key to boot from CDROM)
2. When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
3. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you must access from the Recovery Console. (probably type 1 then enter)
4. When you are prompted, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.
5. At the command prompt, type the appropriate commands to diagnose and repair your Windows XP installation.

For a list of commands that are available in Recovery Console, type recovery console commands or help at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.

For information about a specific command, type help commandname at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.
6. To exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer, type exit at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.

OK, now the commands worth trying are:

fixboot and fixmbr (type fixboot then enter and follow instructions, i dont remember what exactly happens! then run fixmbr the same way)

after they have run, restart by typing exit and enter

hopefully that will sort out the boot files and windows will run. if not you will need to reinstall windows. just reboot from the CD again but instead of pressin r to run recovery console follow the instructions through to install windows, there is an option to repair you current installation which you can try if you want but that has never been successful for me before, so if you have any time restrainsts go straight for a new install.

Usally when i reinstall windows i format the PC, but this is only necessary if you had junk, adware, too many unused programs, startup items etc you want to get rid of. If you reinstall windows over the top without formatting then all your my documents will still be there (although maybe in an admin.old folder or something like that depending on your usernames). If you reinstall windows you will also need to reinstall all programs that you had before too, eg office, poker, paint shop pro, dvd players. even though you have not deleted the software they need reinstalling, which is why i usually format anyway.

Finally, whether you format or not, if you have anything you can't bear to loose, firstly, it should already have been backed up, but if it isn't then you want to get that backed up before you mess about with any of this, just incase! And its possible (although maybe not, sometimes windows just gets messed up) that your hard drive is starting to fail and if thats the case you need to backup all important docs/emails/photos/hand histories NOW.

This got a bit long, and i may have gone a bit off track. Let me know where you get upto and if you need more help!

it's easier to use. it crashes less. porgrams are more supported (eg the latest 2 MS office wont work on win98 (3 if you include office2007 but not technically out yet). it will be the same as anyone else's PC they ask for help. drivers widely available and often automatic via windows update. system restore if they mess anything up.

usb flash drives, cameras, mobile phones via usb, external hard drives. any of those will all be recognised automatifcally. digital cameras (err and the internet) are responsible for massive uptake of PCs for previous non-PC users.

so all in all it will be a nicer and less frustrating experience for them.

and they wont have to relearn when they eventually upgrade to XP.

There is a conplete XP home PC for £213 here :
http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=49N8&CategorySelectedId=11101&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11101&InMerch=1

I'm pretty sure you could get set up for XP with under £100 if you went 2nd hand even if you just strolled into a shop too (not PC world! a private / back alley PC repair shop - although they might not actually let you have a licence for XP for that price, i'm sure you could find a copy). Next port of call is ebay and you might be looking at under £50 if your selective.

Win XP minimum specification says 300MHz, 128MB RAM, now it wud be a bit slow with that but you can see, not many PCs wont actually run it, do you know the specs of you old PC ironside? I'd stick at least 256MB RAM in whatever PC and hopefully 600MHz CPU, that's still pretty modest but wud probably run fine for a beginners uses.

like kinboshi said, go Japanese. If you do this then you won't need a warranty, buy privately and save £s.

i went for an IS200, they are only in petrol though and looks like your after a diesel. Maybe a Honda Accord or Mazda 6?

If the choice is only between those 2 then my vote is the BMW, after the dealer agrees to a price, get 6 months tax and a full tank.

Peugot has lower insurance group, thats about all its got going for it IMO, though if you've got plenty of no claims you wont care about that.

Good luck.