Clever s*ds - help required please!!

[tricia]

Thanks - I shall try on some spare acetate and see what happens

Tricia

I do like this forum

[Laura]

Oh, my grandad was an optician. He used a bit of washing up liquid, warm water and a clean dry teatowel for glasses. Acetate might be more bendy and a larger area though, so a little trickier.

[giraffe]

Mum uses perfume to clean her specs, so if you don't have specs cleaning solution you could try that.

[Bunnylump]

Anyone got any ideas why bleeding MacAfee might suddenly decide to UNINSTALL itself, and not bother to tell me? My new laptop started shutting down every 30 seconds. I got my friend to have a look at it and he says that MacAfee has uninstalled. I PROMISE I haven't done that myself. So now, something's got corrupted and the blasted thing doesn't work properly. (He is running all sorts of diagnostic stuff on it and can't find any hardware faults).

[pebbles]

Try some talcum powder or cornflour to mop up the grease. Then use a baby wipe or a damp cloth to remove the powder. Don't know if that will work!

[Scurra]

Bunny, my guess is that it tried to update itself to a new version and something went wrong. So it may be still trying to install the new version and failing every time. That's certainly something I have seen happen before (it's why I never allow Windows to automatically install updates; it tells me that there are some and then I choose them. Even though it's not likely to go wrong, I'd at least like to have the choice of whether I want to mess up my system. )

[SparkOut]

@Bunny
When it is fixed, do not get McAfee put back onto it. I personally think McAfee are dreadful at protection, but good at signing up bundle deals with manufacturers to have their wares pushed in front of users with a 3 month trial or such.
It is possible that McAfee has unloaded itself because your "new" laptop has become just old enough for the trial period to expire, or because it may have tried to install an upgrade automatically, or worryingly perhaps because it has allowed a virus to infect your laptop, either because protection was not sufficient or because a trial period was over. The virus could then have been nasty enough to disable McAfee completely.
I suspect (and I hope I am wrong) that there is a nasty that has got past the "working" protection of McAfee, because Windows should have told you with a little warning every time you turn it on, and with a little icon near the clock if there were no virus protection software found, or if it was found to be out of date.
Let's hope though that I am just being pessimistic and negative about McAfee in this case...

[eirian]

It's really interesting to read your continued warnings about McAfee. I've used it for years without an issue.
Ok, so I use it now because it's free (comes with BT infinity), but I've paid for it in the past.
I did have a problem for a while when it didn't seem to like one of my online games, so I'd install/run the scan/uninstall it, but that cleared up after a while and I've not had a problem since.

[Bunnylump]

PHew!!
Thank you for the suggestions / advice.

My friend Brian has done things like remove the battery, replace it, ran all the Dell diagnostic programmes and fixing things (it took him about 10 attempts to keep the laptop on long enough to do this!). Then he copied all my documents, uninstalled all the software and returned it to factory settings. I wouldn't have had any idea how to do even the first thing here. He said he thought it might have been that the hard drive had been corrupted slightly where MacAfee was, but wasn't sure. He's never seen antivirus software just uninstall itself like that before and didn't think it would be likely that it was anything I'd done. So quite possibly it could have been that it let a virus past like SparkOut says. I'll suggest that to Brian. He has put it back on for the time being (I got a year's subscription) but said he would put something better on when it has run out. He's also suggested I get an external hard drive to back everything up in the meanwhile in case it happens again.

It is also possible that it could have been an update which went wrong, as you suggest, Scurra. When Brian first got on it said it was trying to update something, but then it abruptly stopped and he couldn't get to the bottom of what it was that was trying to update. The really irritating thing is that I don't KNOW what it was that went wrong, so it could happen all over again. So I will look out for anything unusual near the clock (wouldn't have thought to look there!).

Thanks again.

Fingers crossed!

Oh, and Tricia - I found that warm water with a very tiny spot of washing up liquid works best for acetate, then after you've washed it, wipe it firmly with a piece of kitchen towel. That gets rid of any residue. I used to do glass painting and make cards with acetate- one year I painted 150 "Christmas tree baubles" and hung each one from a card. Never again!! Mind you, people did like them, and quite a few people hand them on their tree still!

[SparkOut]

It's really interesting to read your continued warnings about McAfee. I've used it for years without an issue.
Ok, so I use it now because it's free (comes with BT infinity), but I've paid for it in the past.
I did have a problem for a while when it didn't seem to like one of my online games, so I'd install/run the scan/uninstall it, but that cleared up after a while and I've not had a problem since.

I wrote a paragraph here and deleted it in favour of:
Well we are each only one individual, so neither of us can be truly representative of the picture and have only our own subjective experience to go by.

[gill216]

What would be useful would be for suggestions of what to use instead.
Scurra gave me links to 2 free packages (I ran them with no problems for a couple of years)but I've forgotten what they were. I now have Virgin which is also free but I'm wondering if I should revert to the sites he recommended?

I'm of the opinion that if someone who "knows" says don't- then I don't!

[SparkOut]

Free, as good as any "domestic" paid for product out there: http://www.avast.com/en-gb/index or http://www.avg.com/gb-en/homepage
Both have a straightforward free anti-virus package, both have paid "pro" or "complete internet security suite" type offerings. I hesitate to say that the internet security suite type things running in a "sandbox" are not worth it, but the tradeoff between performance impairment and glitching prospects vs the risks are difficult to balance for a general user. On the whole I would say that the standard Windows firewall together with avast! or avg free antivirus editions are appropriate for most users.

I can't give any real thoughts on the Virgin product but from their website it says

How good is it?
Virign Media Security offers the best free security package form any broadband supplier. Our security suite is certified by the two largest independent security certification houses and includes the very latest in anti-malware technology.

(yes it does say "form" not "from")
"the two largest independent security certfication houses" are not specified, and there is no indication of what an "independent security certification house" is. If it were a wikipedia page it would get a [citation needed] tag.
A quick google found a post on a forum which said it is based on the Kaspersky engine. Kaspersky used to be my preferred paid for AV product until a couple of years ago when they changed the engine to have a higher priority than anything else on the computer, causing massive performance problems. That was the point I personally switched to using Avast! on my machines.
So, there's no reason to suspect that it's a poor protection, and as with *all* of these, nothing is infallible and everything will be great until the day it fails. Everyone will have a different experience, and I can only offer my subjective thoughts.

[tricia]

Bunnylump wrote
Oh, and Tricia - I found that warm water with a very tiny spot of washing up liquid works best for acetate, then after you've washed it, wipe it firmly with a piece of kitchen towel. That gets rid of any residue. I used to do glass painting and make cards with acetate- one year I painted 150 "Christmas tree baubles" and hung each one from a card. Never again!! Mind you, people did like them, and quite a few people hand them on their tree still![/spoiler]

Thanks I sthathall try

[Looby]

Tricia - don't use nail varnish remover, it will dissolve the acetate and ruin the surface

My suggestions are diluted washing up liquid.
Polish with an J cloth that has been through the washing machine so that it's no longer stiff.
If you have a screen cleaner cloth, or some other microfibre cloth that works well.
Spray on spec cleaner should work, but be very sparing.
If you've got the cloth issued with your glasses with a bit of 'huff' that should be easy but you might have to press quite hard.

If the acetate is already cut and positioned on the card don't use any liquid (obvious advice!). You could spray a little solution on to the cloth you're using

Do make sure that whatever you use is really clean or you'll scratch the surface. Don't use a tissue with 'wet strength' as they're impregnated with silicon and will also scratch.

[tricia]

Thanks Looby

Tricia

[giraffe]

Does anyone know anything about ipods?

Lally's ipod seems to have ceased up. She says it won't do anything. Is there a way to reboot it?

[eirian]

yes, if you plug it in to your comp and open Itunes, and then click on the ipod on the side bar (it should come up with the name of Lally's ipod on there), you should have a page with some tabs along the top. One of these will have an option for effectively rebooting it.
(can't remember what the name of the tab is, but I don't think there's that many options!)

Good luck!

[giraffe]

Thanks, but it won't speak to the computer. K says hers used to freeze and she used to let the battery run down and then recharge it, so we will try that. The screen is on and has a tune on it, but it isn't playing and won't do anything.

[SparkOut]

It depends on the model what you have to do but holding the Menu and Centre Select button, or Menu and Play down together for about 10 seconds may work. First try setting the lock switch to lock, then unlock.

More info for different types here http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1320

[giraffe]

I'm not sure it has a menu and select buttons, as far as I can see there is only one round thing. The battery has now run down and she has tried plugging it into the computer, but it isn't charging she says. It looks a bit like the michael jackson puzzle. It seems to have seized up completely.

edit: I've just plugged it into the computer and it says...do not disconnect. Which is more than it was doing earlier I believe. Fingers crossed it might sort itself out.