Hardware Archive

We had a stereo in the kitchen that Kirsty has had for 10 years but it’s recently started badly skipping when playing CDs so needed to be trown out. I personally don’t have many CDs since getting rid or loosing them all while at uni and since then everything has been mp3s, iTunes on my laptop and iPods so I’ve not really bought any new CDs until recently.

I’ve bought a few as they’re useful in the car – I’m not going to get an even more expensive car just so I can hook my iPod up to it so I now get CDs, rip them to my PC and iPhone, Kirsty’s iPod if she wants them and then put them in the glove box.

Thing is, now we needed a new stereo for the kitchen it brought back the iPod dock question – should I get something that we can drop an iPod into instead of routing around for CDs? I thought – “yes”. However, I definately wanted one that could play the radio as well and ideally one that would also play CDs. Combine this with the fact that there’s a Credit Crunch on and I didn’t really want to pay more than £50. Since the VAT rate is about to jump up as well I knew I wouldn’t be able to spend weeks Googling for one. Another problem is one of iPods. Kirsty has got an iPod Shuffle so it’s unlikely we’d get one that would take that but since it’s only a few gig and she wants to get a Nano or Touch at some point we just ignored that.

The last problem is my iPod – it’s got a phone built in. Not a single website can give a definate straight answer as to whether their bits of kit would accept an iPhone – they’d have lists saying they accept 3/4/5 G 30Gb etc etc blah blah but nothing on the iPhone. I eventually decided the best bet was to spend as little as possible and then see if it worked.

We got a Proline Something-Or-Other from Comet for £40 – not bad. Plus it turns out that it does accept my iPhone as well. Bargain.

I was at a party this weekend and some unfortunate person asked me what I do for a living and we then got into a half hour conversation about PCs before he managed to escape. I never even asked his name either – how unsociable of me! One thing we did talk about was how there’s more gadgets that do wonderful things. It got me to thinking – if you keep up with the advance of technology, why would you need a desktop PC?

This isn’t a new question – everyone has been asking this for years now. Microsoft has developed entire operating systems for this purpose. Hardware manufacturers have developed specific technologies for this purpose. My point is that now it’s not just an idea or only available for the very rich – you can get this without spending a fortune!

Our household income isn’t massive, not a lot more than most people, however we have various “toys” that mean our desktop PC disappeared quite a while ago when we were kitting that room out for our second born. And that’s the first nail in the coffin of the desktop PC. It’s needs it’s own space. Either a room set up as a study or at least a computer desk taking up a corner in another room. And people don’t like that – although PCs have got a lot better looking recently, they still look out of place in your living room. Why bother with all this inconvenience just to check your emails and shop online from your spare room?

If people do feel that they need a dedicated PC – maybe they also write letters or have their budget on a spreadsheet (I do) then most of the internet enabled devices might not be enough. Families might not be able to make do with a simple browsing through their TV, iPhone or Xbox – there’s photos to organise and print, kid’s homework to organise, secure banking and other websites to visit. But why have a desktop PC for all this? You can pick up a decent laptop that would do most people for 5 years for less than £400. That’s nothing compared to the amount most families spent on a desktop PC about 5 to 10 years ago. Sorted – that’s most people happy. But…

What about the gamers? Well as discussed previously here – why go with a PC for your gaming? For the cost of getting a decent gaming machine these days you could buy a PS3, Xbox, Wii and a laptop to do all the PC type stuff. So, now even the gamers are happy! Right, who does that leave? Ah – the light internet users.

If you want to browse the internet casually and you don’t have a set top box with internet access, or a smartphone, or a gaming device with internet access and you don’t want a laptop, then maybe a desktop PC is for you. Nip off and buy one before they go the way of the VCR!

I’ve got Sky+ and recently it’s been playing up – loosing the picture, freezing while watching something and worst, not letting me select certain channels – it just says “No signal is being received” on some channels. I was pretty certain it was neither of the two usual reasons that Sky give:

• There are no trees around my box – especially none that have grown by two feet overnight
• It’s not the weather – it’s just stopped raining and, unlike the TV picture, the sky is clear.

I did a bit of digging around but since it’s night, dark and I don’t have a ladder, I decided to start with the things I could try from my chair. I delved into the Services menu and under System Setup (4) and Signal Test (6) and there’s details on the two inputs (Sky+ has two cables coming from the dish). Input 2 was fine – fairly good signal strength and quality and was Locked, but Input 1 had no signal and was Not Locked.

I tried messing with the cable and figured that the young one had maybe kicked it and disconnecting and reconnecting it usually made it come back for a while. Since I couldn’t keep doing this all night I did some more digging and I found a suggestion that said it could be the LNB overheating and needs powering off and on again (the LNB is the Low-Noise Block – part of the dish). Since we’ve just moved into the start of summer it makes sensse so here’s how you do it:

• Go into the Services menu
• Enter the Installer Menu – press 401 then select
• Enter LNB Setup
• Go down to LNB Power Supply and turn it off then save it.
• Wait a few minutes and then turn it on again
• Both the Inputs should be Locked

This seems to be working for me. It was loosing the Input 1 signal every few minutes and it has been running fine for the last few hours now. I’ll see how it is over the new week and post again if it doesn’t work.

Me and my girlfriend both have a Nokia 6300 but she dropped her’s into the sink and after drying it out, the screen doesn’t work. I wanted to try swapping the screen with mine to make sure it was the LCD that had blown before I head to Ebay for a replacement. First job: get the front screen off. Here’s how you do it

1. Remove the back cover (if you’ve never done it before, push it down with your fingers)
2. Remove the two screws at the bottom of the phone. They screws are apparently T6 screws but if you don’t have a T6 screwdriver you can use a 2mm diameter flat screwdriver
3. Take the screwdriver (or knife) and insert it between the silver case and the black plastic and then prise it apart.

From there you can mess around with the insides as much as you like!

I just got one of the regular phone calls from a mobile provider trying to get me to upgrade my handset. Usually I’m a little suspicious of these companies as they just want to get a sale so I asked a few leading questions to find out if they were “on the level”. Since they knew me details (not hard), knew what phone I had (must of bought it from them) and knew what Orange tariff I was on (which is different from when I originally signed up) I thought I’d give them a listen.

They wanted to renew the tariff but with unlimited texts and enough free minutes to last me a month (any network, any time) for about a third what my bills seem to be at the moment, plus they’re throwing in a free Nokia 6300 which I can either use or eBay. Seemed like a very good deal to me and as they said it negates my current Orange contract I thought I’d sign up.

The next bits were the usual bits along the lines of “do you agree to our terms”, “seven days to cancel” and then the “would you like insurance”. As I’ve got a eight month old baby who loves to chew anything and everything, I had a moment of unusual sensibleness and thought I’d sign up for it. They read out the short T&C and the only bit I can remember now was:

“You aren’t covered for wear and tear sustained in a war zone”

Well, I knew that you don’t get cover if you leave your phone on a bar. Now I’ve got to be careful when I’m in a war zone as well!?!