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Ghosty you have a pm

Did not know where to put this, so here will do, as It's my own comments about my own problems, but nothing to do with models, so if your not interested, do not read any further.

Within the last 24 hours, my No.1 laptop has now decided not to take me to this forum via the shortcut on the desktop, it takes me to the very first opening page of Nick's website where there is then a link to the forum, but clicking on this still won't take me to the forum, never mind, I'll re-Google and get in that way.

No I won't, that does not work either, still just takes me to the same front page (the Home page) on Nick's site and the same end results as above! I know what I can do, I'll go to my AOL.COM E-Mail messages and click on one of the..."you have a new message, Blah, Blah, Etc" as these messages have come from the 'phpBB HOST' site directly linked to the forum informing me that a reply has been added to something I posted on the forum.

Nearly there, it took me to my message board on the forum and was showing the last Private Message I received from a forum member, all I had to do now was click on the 'Board Index' over on the left hand side of the screen and hey presto, I'm in.

No I'm not, I am now faced with the 'Log On' screen, OK last obstacle, just enter my username and password and relax with a big sigh of relief.

OH DAM AND BLAST, I am now looking at the same home page on Nick's site as I had seen earlier, so I still can not get onto the forum, what the hell is going on here!!!

Full of frustation, I slammed the lid of the laptop down and threw it down on to the Soffa.

Pick up laptop No.2, switch on, wait for the everything to come up to speed, click on the shortcut icon to this forum and look at that, I am in the forum and able to type this here!!!

Laptop 1, is a Sony Vaio and compaired to almost everything else out there I have used, is a far superior machine when it comes to actual usage and typing ability, very close to an Apple Mac, and just over half the cost.

Laptop 2, was a Fujitsu/Siemens, that has been relegated for use by my Father while he is basically chair bound, it was OK apart from some software issues, slow running and the keys on the keyboard are a little to small.

Laptop 3, is a HP and also suffers from being too slow, but the keyboard is better, but it has too little storage capacity (as does the Fujitsu) and I have reached the limits of storage on both. This is no longer used on the net as there is no virus software installed any more.

A reconditioned Dell has become my laptop No.2 and in terms of use, it is a dissapointment compaired to the Sony, but it has 500 GB storage capacity and apart from a few technical issues like the screen driver shutting down a few times (resulting in the screen going all black!), and the power plug being loose so it falls out too easily, it does what it says on the tin and I am using it now to type this lot...

I expect some of you will now be saying...for all the money you have spent on those laptops above, you could have brought an Apple Mac in the first place! Yes, in an ideal World I would have, but that sort of money was not available at the time I wanted a computer and while I did buy my Fujitsu and HP within days of each other, the two together did not cost as much as an Apple at that time, the cheapest Apple when I was looking at computers was over £1000 and it's only in recent times they have managed to bring a laptop, a smidgen under a £1000!

Right, I need to go away now and find a hammer to fix my Sony Vaio...

Ghosty.

I have just remembered another techy issue, while based at my Father's house, I am away from my collection, when back home, I would take a laptop with me so I can keep up to date with the forum and do a few things to the collection, some sorting out or photography etc, but in the last couple of Months, my laptop No. 1, will not find my home network so I can not do any internet surfing and the last time I tried, my computer crashed three times in a row!

This is the laptop I had to have repaired and the guy in the shop replaced the Hardrive and had to re-install The OS system. While this was going on, I purchased the reconditioned Dell laptop and this was working fine at my house and my Father's. Now when I take the Dell home with me, the same thing happens, it will not connect to the internet through my network and it also crashed by first showing the 'Blue screen of death' ! have tried again since that happened but it is no good, so I don't take any laptop home with me any more and to check what's happening on the forum, I use my Media Centre Sony Vaio, which when I brought it brand new in 2006, was in a sale for £998, list price...£1200...

Ghosty.

Sorry to hear you are having problems Kevin, I hope you get them sorted but I think BT are the reason, see here -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28071423

You could have save all your cost to 3 laptops and even more inportant could have save all frustration with buying only one real computer, an Apple.

I bought one over 5 years ago after losing 2 laptops with windows and lots of frustration, time for start up, close down, problems, cost for antivirus software, cost for software anyway etc etc.

In 5 years with my Mac no single problem, no virusses, it still start very quicky, and closes quicker then the latest windown laptops. (why I have to go to start to close something was never clear to me !)

For me the most important was that I had no single moment of frustration since then.

Thank's Nick and Matchboxmarcel for your replies.

In my view, BT in the UK have been in a similar position to Microsoft, pushing out shoddy services and forcing Joe Public to pay for them, I currently have issues with BT over phone call charges and caller display charges. As regards the internet problem in the 'Linked' story, it does not matter who you get your internet service from, it is very likely using BT equipment to start with, so I am not surprised so many users experience such problems as I have.

Apple Mac...Yes, this is quite correct what "Matchboxmarcel" says and what I touched-on in my first posting above and from my electronics background, I know how good the computer department is at 'APPLE' even working very closely with 'SONY' on some early developments and why I personally like the Sony Vaio equipment, it is the closet you can get to using an Apple Mac computer, for a lot less money.

I considered a reconditioned Mac but have concerns over battery power duration, how good will it be, as I expect not very good, because you can not recondition computer batteries, so it may not be any good and the laptop would have to be used plugged into the mains all the while, or buy a new expensive battery for it.

Ghosty.

Ghosty i swear by my "F" series Sony Vaio which i have been using now for 3 years without any major issues. I have never been tempted by any apple computer product mainly due the crazy price tags!!

WOW! someone else is quite happy with a SONY product, thank's Alex, nice to hear that.

Additional to my Rolls-Royce collection, I have the most incredible (confirmed by Sony UK), SONY equipment collection ranging from the obvious items like TV's, Video recorders (Betamax and VHS), HI-FI systems, portable radios, cassette recorder/players, headphones, microphones, endless boxes of audio tapes used and blank, video tapes, advertising displays, catalogues and packaging, Examples of the Worlds first domestic audio CD player, the first portable CD player, the first front loading HI-FI stereo cassette deck, a computer controlled turntable that will play virtually any warped Vynil record and loads more.

On one occasion I counted 10 HI-FI stereo cassette decks on display in my room, additional to the stereo tuners, amplifiers and several turntables, two HI-FI rack systems, still with the components in place, quadraphonic equipment from the mid-70's, plus much more.

In storage or in the living room there is even more stuff including portable HI-FI systems, DVD recorders, digital set-top boxes (pre and post 'FREEVIEW'), mobile phones including the worlds smallest (at the time), mobile the size of a 'MARS BAR', then there is the Playstation games consoles, PS 1, PS 2 black and silver versions, PS 3 and PSP, it goes on and on.

Officially I stopped collecting all this equipment over a year ago, due to the lack of space (understatement of the century!), and find it very hard to resist and have recently added another mobile phone and another Playstation 3 to the collection!!!

So, Alex, if your Vaio does retire itself, there's probably a tiny space in the corner of my bedroom it will just squeeze into...

Ghosty.

I bet you feel a lot better after telling the whole Universe that little secret!!

Good job you got a Rolls Royce to walk around in or you would never stretch your legs innit?