New Computer

[OurCreature]

The sound has packed up on my admittedly rather old HP all-in-one which I bought from John Lewis nearly 6 years ago if I have found the correct big payment on my credit card statement. So it is time to buy a new one.

In those days JL - for a suitable fee - would do the basic set-up for a new PC in your home. They don't offer that service any more.

The PC I want is available from JL and for an extra £11 they will deliver it by 10:30 am on the day of my choice. It is a long time since I set up a PC myself; basically to get it going do I have to do any more than plug it into the router with an ethernet cable and switch it on? I don't have to set up a wireless keyboard/mouse because they are connected by cable to the PC. I assume that switching it on would take me straight to its front screen, where I would use Google to get to BT, log in there and download BT Virus Plus to get all that protection. Then I'd spend the rest of the day updating Windows 11 and bookmarking the key websites - including HF of course!

All advice gratefully received. I intend to sally forth on the bus on Saturday to JL and interrogate them severely about how to set up the PC (another all-in-one) before I actually order it.

On top of that the Smartview 2 display in my kitchen re my energy consumption has frozen. Things seem to be packing up all over the place, including me, and I don't like it.

[Furby]

I solve these problems by avoiding getting new things so would just make do without sound if it were me but as oc has ordered new already thats not helpful advice.

Bad luck has that rule of going in threes so is that the three now. Oc himself, computer, smart meter.

I think modern windows computers are logged on by a Microsoft account and that is supposed to remember who you are like Google does on phones and tablets. If you have to set them up as long as you are happy to say yes yes I agree whatever it will set itself up for the default person who doesn't care about privacy and data usage.

Smart meters arent as easy as new computers and are only designed for working 12 months then you have to read the actual meter display. Thats one reason I don't want mine because displays are so small compared to 20th century meters and mine is 8 feet high. I read that you can't buy replacements although people do try e.g. Amazon eBay but the meters are paired up to someone else's meter and don't work. So be careful if hoping to get a new device.

[OurCreature]

I haven't ordered it yet, Furby! I'm hoping to on Saturday when I go to John Lewis.

AFAIK my smart meters are working, but I shall know for sure by the end of the month; I'll send in my readings a day or two before E.ON are due to do their own readings. It's the little display in my kitchen that is frozen; I researched the make of display unit and it is notoriously unreliable and only 12 months warranty as well. It seems that the energy companies don't replace them if they are out of warranty, which just goes to show that all these adverts with people looking at these displays and adjusting their energy consumption accordingly were all a load of old rubbish - though most of us realised that at the time.

[eccles]

If you don't normally connect your PC to the internet via ethernet then you probably won't need to go to the trouble with your new PC. Just turn on the PC and click on the network icon on the bottom right of the taskbar. Find the wi-fi connection for your router in the list that will be shown and click on it. It will prompt for your router's wi-fi password and you can enter it there and then or go to your router and press the WPS button. This will send your password to your PC and you should be automatically connected.

Before splashing out on a new PC you might want to troubleshoot the sound problem.
To do this click on the magnifying glass icon on the taskbar, bottom left, and enter "device manager"
Click on the popup to enter the device manager.
Look for "Sound, video and game controllers" or something similar.
Right click on the sound device and select properties to ensure it is working.
Click on the "Driver" option and select "update".

Another option is to try to remember a time when it was working and do a system restore to before that time.

I have given up on the smart meters and chucked the home display in a drawer. The system is useless.

[Furby]

Isn't it easier to just shove an ethernet cable in than mess about with WiFi passwords.

Oc you haven't accidentally muted the sound have you.

[OurCreature]

I tried all your suggestions, Eccs, to no avail. But it was very peculiar - after not far short of 3 hours System Restore told me it couldn't restore for the date I wanted. However, I found that the sound had returned.

I checked that I hadn't muted the sound accidentally - no such luck. Still, it is back and that is all that matters.

However, the BT Virusplus picked up a Trojan in an external hard disk that I use quite often and says it has dealt with it. it's picked up nothing on the PC itself.

Thanks for your help Eccs and Furby. If I hadn't fiddled with Eccs' solutions I don't think I'd have either got the sound back on my computer or discovered and neutralized that Trojan in the external hard disk.

[eccles]

Your problem regarding a refusal to do a restore means there is a locked file that needs to be replaced and that can't be done unless you restore from safe mode. I often get that too.

You can do it in one go by holding the shift key down while rebooting.
You will get offered a menu and you should select the trouble shooting option.
Your PC will then reboot and offer the option to restore from a previous restore point, only this time it will do it from safe mode. Use the check affected programs option to see if you need to reinstall anything after the restore. I usually have to reinstall the Chrome browser and update my virus checker.
Once the restore is done it'll boot into normal windows.

If your system restore took three hours you might be backing up more than you need. I only set restore points from the c: drive because that has Windows and my user programs. Any other drives are irrelevant as far as Windows is concerned so I don't back them up. I have a separate folder with user programs that I can use to restore if I lost Windows altogether. A system restore for me only takes a few minutes.

I'm glad you got your sound back. It sounds like simply attempting the restore will have done a refresh of your current system even if it didn't complete successfully, and that was enough to bring back your sound.

[OurCreature]

Thanks Eccs. After the failed restore I found Chrome wasn't launching, so I uninstalled it and downloaded it again from the Google Chrome website. It works now and kept all my favourites though it should do as those are stored on my computer.

I haven't got all that much on my C drive - just the operating system and some other programs. Overall I have 822 GB free out of a total of 914GB. Restore only affects the C drive.

I've noticed other things taking their time on my computer, so I still think it needs replacing - but not in a hurry on Saturday morning.

[eccles]

If everything is slow it'd be worth running a full virus check.
Also check what applications are running. You can do that by pressing ctrl+alt+del and select task manager. Look for anything that is using a lot of CPU or memory. If there's an oddly name application or one that doesn't reside within the Windows folder or subfolders and you know nothing about it then do a google search to find out what it is. You can also do a file explorer search for it. Once you find it, right click on it and select Properties then Details to reveal a bit more about it.
You don't need to uninstall Chrome after a restore, just reinstall it and it'll overwrite the corrupted files and keep your bookmarks and scripts.

[OurCreature]

I ran the full anti-virus check Eccs - no threats found.

The slow things are stuff like the monthly Windows update taking quite a long time but it has always been thus with all my recent computers. The other thing is that when it has been in sleep mode it takes it a few minutes to wake up and browse the internet properly (though other things like spreadsheets are OK) but those are the 2 main things that I think have been getting slower. Other than that is is all right and I can live with it until MS cease their support of Windows 10.

Thanks for your help and advice - much appreciated!

[eccles]

Glad to help.
For your next PC I would recommend one with an SSD C: drive, or even get one added to your current PC. One will speed things up substantially; cost is about £50 for 1TB.

[Panikos]

OC, I'm glad you got your sound back after all. I missed all the excitement, but it looks like you got the best advice anyway.

It must be a relief to not have to replace the PC just yet.

Did you get the meter display back? Mine freezes now and then and I just pull the plug and put it back. So far it's always worked.

You're right that you don't really need that display. The meter phones home anyway.

Still It helps a bit when sorting out which bit of equipment is using all the power. Also if I've left heating on in another room or the water heater booster on.

[OurCreature]

I can assure you it was excitement that I could have done without, Pani! I might still go to JL tomorrow to buy an external hard disk just so I have a back-up copy of all the important files on my PC - the one I presently have is a bit old now so it might be handy to have 2 of them and keep them both up to date.

[OurCreature]

Update about the meter display for Pani - it is back. Basically it was the same trick that you use, but I had to wait for the battery to run down completely which took well over a day. When I switched it on at the plug it kicked off with the E.ON piccy and asked if I wanted to run the tutorial, so I skipped that and left it. It's now doing what it should re showing the total charge incurred today. It is still displaying the correct time, so it must be like a computer so far as that is concerned.

TY for your advice, Pani!