The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[englanddg]

Step 1 is very rarely system restore.

Also, your "IT" major friend is probably saying that because she's in a program that doesn't teach you much about computers themselves, but a whole lot about math and theory (that's most major IT degree programs).

Congrats on getting it fixed on your own though!

 

[MOXOMUMD]

Watching Lafayette crush Lehigh - go 'Pards!! Woo hoo!!

Also decorating a small tree that I usually do something else with. Thought I could practice a mobile pic upload before our trip... What do you think?
View attachment 74804

cute tree!

 

[MOXOMUMD]

4 days until Thanksgiving.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Step 1 is very rarely system restore.

My step one was not a system restore. First, I checked my phone to see if it still had useable Wifi. It did, so I figured it was the computer.

Then, I ran diagnostics on the network. It told me that an ethernet cable was not properly plugged in. Then, I looked at the driver, and the ethernet driver was fine, but the wireless was not (it had an error symbol).

So I tried, of course, turning it off and back on again. Didn't work.

This happened a while back, and Geek Squad told me to do a system restore if it happened again. So that's what I did, and that got the ethernet working...but not the wireless. But at least I had wired internet so I could download a new driver for the Wireless adapter. But then, even though it said I had installed the software, it wasn't appearing in the device manager list, and when I went into PC settings, it told me that no wireless device was detected on the computer. Until I accidentally unplugged it. Then it started working. I restarted it over and over...and it decides on its own to work.

By the way, I've been having an issue where an error symbol appears over the Wifi button in the corner and the internet stops working. This has been going on since before today. Running diagnostics usually works, but any idea why it keeps happening? The Wifi has been fine on my Surface and other devices.

Also, your "IT" major friend is probably saying that because she's in a program that doesn't teach you much about computers themselves, but a whole lot about math and theory (that's most major IT degree programs).

Actually, she more complained about computers after we were trying to do a presentation and her flash drive wouldn't work.

She does have to take a ridiculous amount of math, though.

 

[englanddg]

My step one was not a system restore. First, I checked my phone to see if it still had useable Wifi. It did, so I figured it was the computer.

Then, I ran diagnostics on the network. It told me that an ethernet cable was not properly plugged in. Then, I looked at the driver, and the ethernet driver was fine, but the wireless was not (it had an error symbol).

So I tried, of course, turning it off and back on again. Didn't work.

This happened a while back, and Geek Squad told me to do a system restore if it happened again. So that's what I did, and that got the ethernet working...but not the wireless. But at least I had wired internet so I could download a new driver for the Wireless adapter. But then, even though it said I had installed the software, it wasn't appearing in the device manager list, and when I went into PC settings, it told me that no wireless device was detected on the computer. Until I accidentally unplugged it. Then it started working. I restarting it over and over...and it decides on its own to work.

By the way, I've been having an issue where an error symbol appears over the Wifi button in the corner and the internet stops working. This has been going on since before today. Running diagnostics usually works, but any idea why it keeps happening? The Wifi has been fine on my Surface and other devices.


Actually, she more complained about computers after we were trying to do a presentation and her flash drive wouldn't work.

She does have to take a ridiculous amount of math, though.

OS / Age of machine / Make (HP) / Model?

Frankly, at this point, I'd say you need not a system restore, but a clean load on the system (based on the rather thorough steps you took). You shouldn't have these issues, and if a system restore fixes it, something is FUBAR with your OS (meaning, it's probably not a hardware issue)...

Though, without poking at it it's hard to say, but that would be my advice (as well as not listening to anything the Geek Squad tells you, most of the time...)

One time, I'd buy it, but if this is a regular occurrence, you really need to look into something firmer, imho.

Still, sounds like you did a great job figuring it out. May have taken me less time than 3 hours (but that's only cause I have what, 15 some odd years of using computers on you?), but it sounds like you stepped through it all quite well!

Kudos for that, impressive!

 

[StarWarsGirl]

OS / Age of machine / Make (HP) / Model?

Windows 8.1/Going on two years/ HP / Envy m6.

Thinking I will try to keep this one going for another year or so and then get a new laptop. When Windows 10 has come out.

Would getting an external wireless adapter possibly help the problem?

as well as not listening to anything the Geek Squad tells you, most of the time...

Yeah, I've only used them once, but that was when I was at a complete loss as of what to do, and HP told me to take it to Geek Squad for service since I bought the computer at Best Buy and it was free, rather than having to send it into HP and not having it back for several weeks.

Still, sounds like you did a great job figuring it out. May have taken me less time than 3 hours (but that's only cause I have what, 15 some odd years of using computers on you?), but it sounds like you stepped through it all quite well!

Kudos for that, impressive!

Why thank you. And yes, you have easily 15+ years experience on me and you do this for a living, so I figure you'd figure it out faster.

 

[englanddg]

Windows 8.1/Going on two years/ HP / Envy m6.

Thinking I will try to keep this one going for another year or so and then get a new laptop. When Windows 10 has come out.

Would getting an external wireless adapter possibly help the problem?


Yeah, I've only used them once, but that was when I was at a complete loss as of what to do, and HP told me to take it to Geek Squad for service since I bought the computer at Best Buy and it was free, rather than having to send it into HP and not having it back for several weeks.


Why thank you. And yes, you have easily 15+ years experience on me and you do this for a living, so I figure you'd figure it out faster.

An external could help, but if the system is 2 years old, you haven't been on 8.1 the whole time (I have one, clean and OEM official I keep on a super secret site...well, not that secret, but I can share in PM if you ever go that route). I'd start to look at if there is a driver issue...

You can do the restore if you have the restore CDs from HP, but HP (and all the OEMs put a bunch of crap on the compy that doesn't always make it run better (even though they think it does).

Yes, an external wifi card (USB card) could help, but there's no reason why it shouldn't be simpler than that.

A reinstall of 8 / 8.1 is pretty darned simple (one of the easiest OS's I've ever installed). I'd consider you take a weekend day (well, more like an afternoon), back up all your profile files and important program keys/documentation (Office, Adobe programs, whatever else you have), and reload from scratch.

Do NOT use the refresh disk that came with the HP system. Rather, download a clean version of 8/8.1. Load from there, then snag your drivers from HP.com to update them.

I suspect you'll see the system issues will go away.

With those specs, unless you are a power user, there's no reason on earth for you to move to 10 until it's at least a year old. While 7 went well, I'm extremely skeptical about 10. I wouldn't early adopt that unless you are ready to (and I mean this literally) be a guinea pig for MS.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

An external could help, but if the system is 2 years old, you haven't been on 8.1 the whole time (I have one, clean and OEM official I keep on a super secret site...well, not that secret, but I can share in PM if you ever go that route). I'd start to look at if there is a driver issue...

You can do the restore if you have the restore CDs from HP, but HP (and all the OEMs put a bunch of **** on the compy that doesn't always make it run better (even though they think it does).

Yes, an external wifi card (USB card) could help, but there's no reason why it shouldn't be simpler than that.

A reinstall of 8 / 8.1 is pretty darned simple (one of the easiest OS's I've ever installed). I'd consider you take a weekend day (well, more like an afternoon), back up all your profile files and important program keys/documentation (Office, Adobe programs, whatever else you have), and reload from scratch.

Do NOT use the refresh disk that came with the HP system. Rather, download a clean version of 8/8.1. Load from there, then snag your drivers from HP.com to update them.

I suspect you'll see the system issues will go away.

With those specs, unless you are a power user, there's no reason on earth for you to move to 10 until it's at least a year old. While 7 went well, I'm extremely skeptical about 10. I wouldn't early adopt that unless you are ready to (and I mean this literally) be a guinea pig for MS.

Thanks. I will give this a try once finals are over and I have more time, since for now, it does work. Just not well.

I was just thinking of waiting for Windows 10 since the laptop will be 3 years old at that point. I could always get another 8, and then if 10 works really well, get a copy of 10 from school (currently running $25 to upgrade from 7 to 8.1). Or I could just keep this one working for a while longer, which would be nice.

And I definitely agree about the amount of stuff that HP puts on their computers. Which is why I uninstalled the majority of it and basically left the support assistant and a few other programs that I actually use a long time ago. So much of it got so annoying that I took it off. Computer seemed to run faster without it, and I've never once needed it back on there. The nice thing was that HP did provide a DVD decoder, but the majority of it was just not necessary.

 

[MinnieM123]

Thanks. I will give this a try once finals are over and I have more time, since for now, it does work. Just not well.

I was just thinking of waiting for Windows 10 since the laptop will be 3 years old at that point. I could always get another 8, and then if 10 works really well, get a copy of 10 from school (currently running $25 to upgrade from 7 to 8.1). Or I could just keep this one working for a while longer, which would be nice.

And I definitely agree about the amount of stuff that HP puts on their computers. Which is why I uninstalled the majority of it and basically left the support assistant and a few other programs that I actually use a long time ago. So much of it got so annoying that I took it off. Computer seemed to run faster without it, and I've never once needed it back on there. The nice thing was that HP did provide a DVD decoder, but the majority of it was just not necessary.

That string of conversation between you and @englanddg was way over my head, but I am really impressed by the computer knowledge you both share.

 

[MinnieM123]

Watching Lafayette crush Lehigh - go 'Pards!! Woo hoo!!

Also decorating a small tree that I usually do something else with. Thought I could practice a mobile pic upload before our trip... What do you think?
View attachment 74804

That's an incredible tree! I love it!!

 

[englanddg]

That string of conversation between you and @englanddg was way over my head, but I am really impressed by the computer knowledge you both share.

She did quite well. I'm a 20 year (give or take) pro at this, and at a base self support level, she took a lot of the right steps.

She should feel good, she has a good handle of what she's doing (she's far from a pro at it, but she certainly understands the advanced basics, which is generally more a logical deduction puzzle than anything technical, but oddly, that's what most don't get about compys)...

I was impressed.

(still, for the record @StarWarsGirl95 think your issue would be solved with a system wipe and reload. Not that it can't be diagnosed, but because it's easier to just rebuild it all than spend the time diagnosing the specific issue, and it doesn't sound like hardware to me, sounds like a software corruption)

Don't think computers are toasters...

That being said, lifespan on a desktop should be about 4 - 6 years, and a laptop about 3. Depending on the hardware.

 

[DVCPluto]

cute tree!

That's an incredible tree! I love it!!

Thanks!! I keep finding more disney "friends" and adding to it. It's amazing how many we have accumulated!

We usually decorate it with sports stuff and stick it in our bay window. But we got new furniture this year and where we normally put our real tree, won't work. So that will be in the bay window and I put the new and improved smaller tree in the kitchen.

I really don't like decorating for the holidays, but this one was actually fun!

 

[FutureCEO]

If anyone has school aged kids in Texas, get out now. They are changing history textbooks.

 

[Cesar R M]

Watching Lafayette crush Lehigh - go 'Pards!! Woo hoo!!

Also decorating a small tree that I usually do something else with. Thought I could practice a mobile pic upload before our trip... What do you think?
View attachment 74804

thats a lot of disney!

I eye a little stitch!

Just got back from a 2 1/2 hour round trip to pick up the GF from Guelph to bring her home, so we don't have to do it in the morning.
For her birthday, Son #2 bought tickets to see Book of Mormon. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a credit card, so I had to order them.

Even worse, because they have to be picked up from Will Call, the credit card holder must be there in person to pick them up. So, Hubby and I and the happy couple are going to take the GO train to Toronto.

Mike had the great idea to see if any tickets were still available, seeing as we have to be there anyway. Yeah, there are a few tickets left - at $200 per. Ummmmmm ... NO! $59 per ... maybe.
So, now we have to figure out what to do for three hours, in what promises to be pouring rain.

Then back on the GO train to Burlington, up Highway 6 to Guelph, and then home.
Can you say "Fun, wow!"?

I'm going to Heaven for sure, I tell ya.

I wonder how you can handle all that! seriously.. you have the patience of a saint.

 

[Cesar R M]

In other news, today, the internet stopped working on my laptop. For any geeky peeps here, I figured out that it was a problem with the computer, not the router. First, I couldn't get either the ethernet or the wireless adapter to work, so I had to run a system restore after determining that the driver for the ethernet was working, but not the wireless router. The system restore got the ethernet working, but not the wireless. I looked, and yes, there was a problem with the driver software.

So I downloaded the driver software, uninstalled it, and then reinstalled it. Then, when I looked at the devices, the driver software was missing. So I must've repeated the process about 5 times, restarting it every time. This took about three hours, by which time I was completely frustrated. Oh, and it still didn't work. I had plans for the evening, so I left it. I came home, and it still didn't work. So I pulled out my battery to look for the serial number on my laptop so I could contact HP support. I accidentally unplugged the computer when pulling the battery out. I wrote down the serial number, plugged the computer back in, put the battery back, and restarted it. Wouldn't ya know that after I turned it back on, then the wireless router started working and has worked ever since?

Computer has a mind of its own.

Also, I know why my IT-major friend says that she hates computers.

Also, I lost three hours of studying time today

Also, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be in a really bad mood until this semester is over

The only good thing was that I discovered a driver update for my speakers, and now they are much louder.

The laptop is taunting you lol.

by the way, next time...
enter the "device manager". Select the device, right click and select UNINSTALL. when it asks.. uninstall ALL THE DRIVERS too. (remove driver)
that way it will not load the corrupted drivers again.. as windows usually picks the last one used first.

 

[Cesar R M]

My step one was not a system restore. First, I checked my phone to see if it still had useable Wifi. It did, so I figured it was the computer.

Then, I ran diagnostics on the network. It told me that an ethernet cable was not properly plugged in. Then, I looked at the driver, and the ethernet driver was fine, but the wireless was not (it had an error symbol).

So I tried, of course, turning it off and back on again. Didn't work.

This happened a while back, and Geek Squad told me to do a system restore if it happened again. So that's what I did, and that got the ethernet working...but not the wireless. But at least I had wired internet so I could download a new driver for the Wireless adapter. But then, even though it said I had installed the software, it wasn't appearing in the device manager list, and when I went into PC settings, it told me that no wireless device was detected on the computer. Until I accidentally unplugged it. Then it started working. I restarted it over and over...and it decides on its own to work.

By the way, I've been having an issue where an error symbol appears over the Wifi button in the corner and the internet stops working. This has been going on since before today. Running diagnostics usually works, but any idea why it keeps happening? The Wifi has been fine on my Surface and other devices.


Actually, she more complained about computers after we were trying to do a presentation and her flash drive wouldn't work.

She does have to take a ridiculous amount of math, though.

sounds like there is a short in the wireless card.
You can always try to open the laptop.. the memory modules, hard disk and wireless ethernet adapter are usually easily replaceable after removing some screws.
The wifi unit is usually a small card with 2-4 cables. just reseat it and you will be fine imho.

 

[Cesar R M]

That being said, lifespan on a desktop should be about 4 - 6 years, and a laptop about 3. Depending on the hardware.

Ironically, all my laptops have lasted way more than my desktops.

both my Dell XPS always lasted 4+ years.
Well see how my new Surface Pro 3 does.

 

[donaldtoo]

Watching Lafayette crush Lehigh - go 'Pards!! Woo hoo!!

Also decorating a small tree that I usually do something else with. Thought I could practice a mobile pic upload before our trip... What do you think?
View attachment 74804

Very nice! Love it!
Kinda' reminds me of our Disney Store Christmas tree plush display we had the last year I worked there.

 

[donaldtoo]

That is awesome! I should take a page out of her book. I applied for a transfer at my second job, pray guys that I get it. If I don't, I might just have to quit. I am very happy for your wife @donaldtoo, I bet she is just so relieved.

Thanks!
It certainly helps that I've got her back and she's got mine. And she is, indeed, very relieved, and excited about her options.
The best of luck and prayers on the transfer! I very much hope it all works out how y'all want/need it to!

 

[Andrew C]

If anyone has school aged kids in Texas, get out now. They are changing history textbooks.

Easy....