LX problems so did Saturn instead

[Carole]

Many thanks for your efforts Mac.  It is definitely a poblem (or problems) beyond my capabilites to sort out. 

I'll wait to hear from you.

Carole

[Mac]

Update.

Wow, what a state

I'm currently working on your PC to sort out the windows problem.

SPYWARE, you had 143 infections
Just in the middle of virus checking, and the current count at the moment is zero, so thats looking good,

As for the Blue screen of death and windows crashing. BSOD.

I've disabled all your startup goodies, as you dont actually need them, as they will run when you run the main program anyway.
plus the fact it saves on memory usage, and as you only have 512Meg its pretty small.

It seems to have cured it. I;ve been using it for two hours and it hasn't BSOD yet.

Fragmentation
Wow, I can safely say that your disk hasn't been defragmented ever.
so thats in the process of being defragmented, so you should notice a huge speed increase. 90% of all your files
were fragmented. The worst one being the paging file which had over 15000 fragments .

That alone will seriously slow the computer down.

Once these have finished, i'll use your K3 again, 
the EPP setting was fine, so i probably forgot to save the setting first time round.
hopefully it will still work without any problems.
Once thats fixed i'll try and get your pc back to you, it will probably be thursday, but if time allows it might be wednesday.

Mac.

[Carole]

Blimey Mac,

I bought this laptop 2nd hand off Robert last year, and the only time I have used it online was to download K3 so how it got all that spyware on it I don't know.  However I don't think I have any anti-spyware on it so might have to look into that.  Didn't think I would be using it on line any more, so didn't bother as I always transfer my AVI's etc onto a memory stick and then onto my desk top once I have done them and do all the processing etc on the desktop.

I had thought I had done a defrag on it, but maybe it was my previous laptop I was thinking of.  As for programs I don't need I am never quite sure what is needed and what is not and in trying to delete unwanted things on my last laptop I mucked it up never to be useable again, so I have been frightened to attempt it on this one.  Please feel free to delete anything other than what I need for imaging, that is all I use the laptop for. 

Tomorrow (Wednesday) I am out part of the day but my husband should be in.  I will be in in the evening.
On Thursday I have a hospital appointment and will be out from 10.30 - 1pm ish and again my husband should be in most of the time apart from going to and from playschool with our grandson.  We will both be out in the evening.

I'll send you the home Telephone number and address by PM.  Are you sure you don't want me to come and collect it from you?

Many thanks for all your hard work.

Carole

[JohnP]

blimey Mac - how much do you charge an hour....   

Seriously glad I didn't try & sort this out.... I would have failed miserably

[Fay]

Crikey, Mac!!!!

[Mac]

Well its nearly finshed defragging, 35% to go.
I'll go through and remove some of the software that you probably wont use,
I've deleted most of the junk before i started and that was about 4 Gig!
Temp files ect,ect.

It might be feasable to totaly reformat it at some point in the future and do a completly fresh reinstall of windows,
and just reinstall the stuff you are going to use.
its far easier then trying to uninstall them and remove all the orphaned files.

I've put some spyware removers on it for you , as well as some defraging software,
as you are only using it for imaging, running it every couple of weeks will be fine.

Mac.

[Fay]

Mac is like having a good doctor!!!!!

[Carole]

Feeling very embarrased about the time you have spent on this Mac.


Many many thanks

Carole

[Mac]

tis done.

I've spent all afternoon videoing my carpet with your camera.
approx 2 hours. on long exposure,
ive played with 5secs up to 300 secs and everything seems to be working.
had a wiggle with the leads and couldnt get the thing to crash or to stop responding,

however it was pluged in to the bottom port all the time.

I've put some planaterium software on your machine for you and moved all the junk off the desktop in to your documents.

I think i might have sussed out your battery problems as well.
It might be your power supply. Its only rated at 65W and is only just able to run the laptop, with a tiny amount spare left to charge the battery.
If you leave it on for hours the battery eventually charges up.

but if you turn of the laptop and leave it plugged in then the battery will charge fully a lot quicker.

Another thing is to fully discharge your battery every once in a while.
that way the zero point of the battery gets reset, so you should get a more accurate value of the amount of remaining charge left.

Or it could be that your battery is just dead. and on its last legs.

Mac.

ps If you watch the second video you can see the sunlight as it passes over the camera and starts to filter throught the carpet.

[Carole]

Phew,

Many thanks Mac for all that you'll have to let me know how I can repay the favour.
I guess it's too late to offer to do typing for your exam (once my shoulder is better, although I am managing to type better than I was already - even with the sling - if I can put the keyboard near my right hand).

I'll have a chat with you about everything when I see you.

I am not actually able to use my telescope and camera at present because of my broken shoulder.  I am hoping the sling will come off in a week or so, and then I have to get my arm and shoulder joint working again, so don't make a special effort to deliver it unless you are already over this way.  Otherwise I can collect it at the next meeting.

You have certainly done a thorough job.

Many thanks
Carole

[Mac]

Many thanks Mac for all that you'll have to let me know how I can repay the favour.

I was thinking along these lines.
http://www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/Takahashi_TOA_150_OTA_and_Finder.html

[MarkS]

No, you don't want of those - the website says the Takahashi is only monochrome:

"This new design like its smaller companion the TOA-130 is absolutely color free." 

Mark

[Ian]

cool, it'll save you £100 on filters then.

And you don't need one of those really expensive astro cameras that's had all the colour sucked out of the CCD chip. That's what makes them expensive you know.

[Carole]

Oh gawd!!!

Carole

[RobertM]

Mac,

You've done a wonderful job sorting that laptop out.  I feel more than a bit guilty after reading about all the work you've done, especially as I sold it to Carole in the first place.  In my defense it was cheap, had XP-Pro and was patched up with the latest updates and free (as far as I could see) from nasties.  It was my daughters laptop before I sold it so I wonder whether those temp files were a hangover from then.  4Gb is a lot of files especially as the HD is so small, though I thought I'd done some cleanup !

Thanks again, I owe you a few beers ... maybe at the next DSC?

Robert