Lid

Great - it appears to have worked. However now I have the Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 key, I need the installation software. Does anyone know if I can download it. Again I have looked on the internet but can't seem to find it easily.

Thanks - I'll give it a go.

I am helping fix a friend's PC. There are several problems, but one is that the hard drive became corrupted and it would not boot up windows. We have had to reinstall windows XP home, although I was able to make an image of all the data and files first. The drive had MS Office installed on it. I am certain it is the 2003 variant, but we do not have the original install discs. Does anyone know how I can extract the product key from the disk image please? I have tried several tools I found on the web, such as loadhive, but without success. Surely there must be an easy way to dig it out?

Nice fish, but may I suggest that you take a landing net next time! Then you won't have to drag it over the stone steps, nor pick it up with your hands with the risk of dropping it.

Well that one arrived and it was not standard size. It is 10 mm bigger on two dimensions and was too close to the fan shown in the picture so it went back. They refund the goods and the original postage which isn't bad. Instead I bought a £40 one by Xilence. Fits and works fine!

That picture was taken before I removed all the dust. You should see it now! Yes a standard PSU will fit, but I had it made as a near silent PC, hence the fanless PSU. An electrician friend has looked at it and a diode and a resistor on the HV side are shorting with one hell of a flash! I think it broke because the person who built it stuffed all the spare PSU leads in front of the PSU case, right where the two failed components, blocking the airflow. I've ordered one of these now.

Sorry chesters, can't say I've had that specific problem. However there's lots of info if you search for wireless acquiring network address in yahoo!

It's not a laptop! Look :

Thanks for the repiles folks. It's definitely the PSU. I disconnected it and removed it completely and you can see it sparking inside when mains power is supplied to it. It's going to cost me a bit to replace as I have a quiet PC and the PSU is a silent Yesico fanless unit! However the time needed to redo all the wiring is really going to be the main investment!

The socket appears fine and other devices work OK from the same one. When I switch power on for the PC, there is a noticeable click in the PC immediately and then the RCD trips.

Hi folks - I've just got back from two weeks in Cornwall, turned on the electrical socket for my PC and it immediately tripped my RCD in the home consumer unit. I have been able to isolate the fault to the PC itself, but not to what part inside. I've put an Ohmmeter across the mains lead terminals on the plug, but there does not appear to be any leakage their to earth. However when I switch on the mains socket to the PC, the RCD trips again. How do I find out what is wrong please? Have I got to disconnect every device that draws power and then plug them back in one by one? I already tried disconnecting the MOBO from the PC internal power supply, but the RCD still tripped when I switched the mains back on. Thanks in advance.

It works fine for me. Great filming!

Thanks. However although they look similar there appear to be quite a number of differences between mine at the one in the link???

We had a mass beetle hatch in our garden last night. They were still buzzing and flying around our trees at 22:30! Does anyone know what it's all about and what species of beetle they are please? Here's one. They are a couple of centimetres long or so :

No money taken apart from the approx 50p test transaction they made, so I am told. The bank's fraud team say they picked it up before the PIN letter and new card arrived. Interestingly when I rang back today to ask more details, the chap only asked for my (now cancelled) card number - no other id was requested from me at all; not even my name!

Just to clear, I didn't give my PIN to anyone and I do not believe I have been observed using it so that it can be recorded by criminals. The bank said they sent my existing PIN to the fraudster at their request to the new address that they changed my account to. They also sent out a new card to the same address, apparently automatically, as it is not long to my expiry date! As it happens nothing came of all this (touch wood), because the account was frozen before the criminals got my PIN; allegedly!

CLARIFICATION OK I must have got confused about how we buy on the net. However I called my card provider and they said the crims do have my PIN, because they requested it was sent to them at the address that they changed my account to!

Well I assumed they had my PIN in order to make the small online transaction of 50 odd pence? I think the chap told me this was the case!

I got a call yesterday from my credit card company. It seems this is happening all the time, but someone has got hold of my credit card number along with all the necessary personal details such as PIN, 3 digit security code, other private password, dob, address and phone numbers etc. I was a amazed because I shred all my personal paperwork, but the chap said they just hack all the stuff off straight off the Internet. So armed with this, they had made a small trial transaction without a card (55p) and then called my card provider impersonating me and saying I had changed address. They also ordered a new card for the new address. The new card was even dispatched to the false address, but the fraud routines picked it up and now all has been cancelled. The worrying thing is that the this appears to be very easy for those in the know. My credit card provider (RBS) are completely happy to accept I have done nothing wrong and that the criminals obtain everything they need from the Internet! As a precaution I recommend everybody to change your PIN numbers every few months! Watch out!

Looks like an Elephant Hawk-moth.

You don't have to use a hotmail account to join msnlive. Just an e-mail address.

Do you plug the headphones into the speaker wiring or directly into a separate socket on the PC? What media player attempts to play your music on your hard drive. Windows Media Player? Sometimes the settings for WMP can get knackered and need resetting. Do you know if you have a separate dedicated sound card or are you using the onboard sound on your motherboard? I am sure there must be someone on here who could diagnose this faster than me, as I've not personally experienced such an issue, apart from WMP not playing anything for a while, which was caused by the wrong sound device being set on one of the options. All I am suggesting here are the kinds of steps I would do if I had the same problem. Have you tried goggling the problem?

Can you play non streaming sounds or videos successfully? Ie can you play an mp3 music file or a video file from a file that is held directly on your own hard drive? Is your PC windows XP or Vista, or something else? Have you recently installed any software or games of any kind onto your PC? Have you tried different speakers or headphones?

Some cyclists, believe it or not, and I am one of them, follow the highway code and cycle with consideration for all other road users. I cycled 4 miles to school from 1972, at the age of 11, and continue to cycle on the roads today. I pay my council tax and my income tax, and tax two cars. I don't expect to have to pay another tax for my bike, especially when about 75% of the money collected will be required to administer it. Insurance is a nice idea, but not very practical. If we start insisting on insurance for cyclists, then why shouldn't pedestrians and horse riders have insurance too?

What a strange world we live in where all cyclists are demonised just because a number choose to cylce poorly and ignore the highway code. I'll bet my bottom dollar that nearly every motorist speeds every time they drive, but very few complain about this, although this is breaking the law on a daily basis. And then we have the drivers who use their non hands free mobile phone users. Are they simply very stupid; or perhaps have a death wish?