laptopsandspares

Morning Lee, Most laptops have a "DC Input" or "Input" rating on the bottom of them. Sometimes this is located in the battery tray but look on the laptop body, not the battery. It should read in volts and hopefully amps. e.g. 19v- 3.42a (although sometimes it's only volts). It might be under the DC jack on the machine. If you can find that, you just need to work out the tip dimensions but that shouldn't be too tough. Hope this helps David

We did a deal years ago with a company called "Just Coolers" in Bournemouth. I'm not sure if they have just an internal unit available but a google will turn up their site. I think most effective Air-con needs an external unit but if you do find an internal, I imagine it's going to need regular emptying!! Hope this helps David

I'd echo sentiments on the Renault. Every one I've driven has been good but i belive the particular problem with that age was to do with a wastegate valve, or the egr valve (can't remember exactly as it was 3 years ago I was looking at them), would stick leading to fairly serious engine problems. That said, if you could stump up getting it changed,m or haggle it into the deal they are nice comfy uninspiring cars to run and own. I've not read the full thread but if it's not been mentioned, I think I got that infor from the "Honest John" site. The bible IMO when looking at and choosing a new used motor. I ended up with a 127k MKIV golf, 130bhp PD tdi. If you can find one with VW service history the engines are good for 250+ and there's a 150brake version too. £125 a year road tax and 55mpg on my 70 mile round trip commute. Mainly B roads and occasionally it will run up to 65+mpg for a couple of weeks before dropping back to the 55 mark again. Biggest known problem with these are non PD engine oil ebing used at service leading to the cam wearing through the head (or something) but if you look at 150k cars, that should have happened if it was gonna and if it's got VW service history, it should be fine. Mines at 197k curently, fingers crossed it still pulls well. MOT on friday, I hope I've not just jinxed that!! D

I discovered WEEE approved computer recycling for Kent, Hamphire, Surrey and Sussex. yesterday. Had a chat with Paul Hodge there, very helpful (particularly as I was trying to sell to him) They mention (as we used to in the old days), they might even be able to return some value on what they collect to you. This will of course depend on the spec and condition of the kit you are releasing. I have an e.mail address for him (I won't post it on here), but if you have a list of what needs shifting I'll hapily forward it on for you. It might even score me some brownie points (I'm so shallow) With metal prices currently, I can't think you'd need to talk to anyone who needed to charge you for collection. Those in the trade I used to compete against when we did this could be seen to be rubbing their hands together when someone asked "how much" it would be to dispose of their old product. The only charges I can think you might need to bear may be the cost of data wiping the hard drives if this is required. Hope this helps David

Hi Again Obiwan, I'll have an ask around for you, certainly none of the guys in the office have any idea where to get these. Interestingly pretty much all the google links to eBay, Amazon et al point back at various forms of the same firm. I'm wondering if thy are having them custom built? I'll mail a couple of our manufacturers and see if they can turn anything up. One does produce right angle adaptors but it's "in" fit is for the standard 5.5x2.5mm barrell tip, converting to a number of other fitments (5.5x2.1mm for example). I'll let you know if I can turn anything up. D

How much do they want to charge you shipping from the states? I've bought a few bits from the US for personal use and as long as I didn't want super fast this month delivery it was about $10 i think. It was contact lenses and some bike bits so similar weight to a few of these. Any contact details you could use to haggle them down? D

Get in

I'd say keep heart and keep plugging away at the exercise as you will see a difference if you contiune to burn 5000+ a week at the gym and eat sensibly. I read on a runners forum that you (I) need to cover 20 miles a week for it to impact on your (my) weight. Thats a lot of distance, I'm not doing anywhere near that on foot yet but am seeing a difference. I think because most of the miles are before 7am, see below. Don't forget the 2500 per day RDA isn't really based on our more sedatory lifestyles. I'm deskbound most of the day and when I was calorie counting I was no where need that threshold and still putting it on. you need blood sugar to funtion mentally but you don't particularly need carbs if you are on your bum a lot. I'm not saying miss carbs and eat sugar but try and factor this in to your meals. You need a balanced diet for sure to stay healthy but that balance will vary depending how you are burning it. a good carb lunch if you are going to the gym in the evening is a good idea or you'll feel fatigued and not train efficiently. Here's what is working for me. As much as possible, I exercise in the morning. Personally (not saying this works for everyone), I find it's more efficient for me. the kids have me up at 5.30 anyway so i'll chuck on my running shoes and go out, or jump on the bike for between 1/2 an hour and an hour. I try and eat less in the evening so I'm running on empty in the morning which kick starts my body fat burning for energy. Generally I'm eating more mid-day and less in the evening. Early doors runs wake me up and gets the metabolism going so anything I do eat should burn off quicker and I think it's more efficient than doing it in the evening and then going to bed. It does make me feel a bit sick sometimes but that's a by product of burning fat so if you can tolerate it, feel as sick as you can. I also choose the most inefficient method of exercise i can stand. Cycling is an incredibly efficient method of transport but this means it's not very efficient and burning calories. I do a 20-30 mile ride at the weekend, = about 1000 calories. a 1hr 6mile run burns about the same. The trade off is cycling is much lower impact and better to help build up fitness levels again, but you need to put the miles in. I'm not a swimmer but I'm told it's very good for calorie burning and when i do go, a couple of lengths at a time certainly does me in. So in the gym, look at the stepper machine rather than the treadmill, or at least put a reasonable incline on it. Keep it varied to keep your motivation up and also, if you train hard, make sure you have rest days, or even a week off every now and then. Motivation gets you exercising but habit keeps you at it but if you can be honest with yourself and tune into your physical well being (sounds a bit hippy), if you are feeling wrecked, stop or you could injure yourself. I know I'm getting a cold if my 5k run makes me sweat too much and I only ever managed 10k without stopping by learning to ignore my head telling me to stop because i was tired, and listened to my body. If my legs/kness/feet didn't hurt and i wasn't coughing up blood, i'd keep going. Conversley this is true, if I'm really struggling on a run/ride, and my knee hurts, I'll stop and go home. Guys on here have already made the point that as you become fitter and more efficient you'll burn less calories per mile, as you lose weight (and you will), you'll use less energy to move. work toward keeping your exercise levels going up and chop and change to exercises that you are not so good at. If the treadmill is feeling easier, jump on the rowing machine (I hate the rowing machine). Finally, don't forget being fitter will be better for you regardless of weight loss so if you can now run 3 flights of stairs without getting puffed out when 2 weeks ago a trip to the coffee machine left you wheezing, you are in better chape already, even if the scales haven't moved. But they will. I'd put money on it. Has anyone thought of starting a EduFatclub? I bet there are loads of people who would benefit from a buddy system to co-motivate with, or a friendly text in the morning to get you out the door? Runkeeper and Endomondo fitness apps for smartphones are a good way or tracking progress too. I got a friendly e.mail saying "congratulations, you've joined the 500 mile club" last week. cheered me up and I went for a run. It only took me 2 years :D Keep at it. D

Isn't going to be much help right now, but I've seen an add a number of times in the rear of Autotrader mag (maybe on the site too?) I get southern/thames valley but I imagine they'll advertise in all of them. In fact, why not have a nose on the AT site and filter for trade sellers. One of them is bound to make a career out of it Or VW Camper Crazy | Volkswagen Campers For Sale | VW Campers For Sale | Buy a VW Camper | Sell a VW Camper | Find a VW Camper The VW Camper Company Ltd 2011 There's a load of companies hiring them out too. D

this is an interesting thread. Can I assume from the responses on here, iPad adoption isn't as widespread as I first thought? I'm researching mass charging & syncing options for these devices over the quieter summer period. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who is trialing these devices, or has trialed them (looking at the date the thread was started), and what sort of feedback& experiences you have had. I see/hear lots of people theorising the potential benefits of this type of tech in the classroom, I'd be interested to see who's actually using it, apple or otherwise and how you've addressed mass charging/synch issues. Interestingly, the limited solutions I have seen on-line seem to all utilise the same circuit board developed by a UK firm in cambridge. Seems it can be used for iOs or android based products. I was in an apple store this weekend (I avoid them normally as I just want to buy things I can't justify/afford), and was interested and probably naively surprised to see each product on display was accompanied by an iPad/2 with all the techspec and FAQ's relating to it. Clever use of tech, expensive though (If you weren't apple and had to buy them retail!!) David

+1 for photobox. all the others are ok too though. If you set a photobox Pro account (Free), you can password protect the gallery and people can order prints from it. You can even set the pricing scheme to earn you pennies if you want. you pay the standard print prices and they take 10% of any profit which is a small price for them handling the payments, prints and dispatch. You don't have to charge a mark up if you don't want too. Viewers can view them as a slideshow too, not sure about wether you can embed it to the school site or not though. another route to consider, if this is school related or if you already have some hosting space at your disposal would be to use something like Adobe's Lightroom which can auto-generate web galleries for you with selected images and publish to your web-space. I've done this for some of my weekend wedding clients, you can chose output as flash or html galleries and colours etc all customiseable and it can also generate as a slideshow. You could publish it to a local drive and then upload to your chosen host, for example the school w/s. Technically you'd have to consider the cost of the software, or if this is a one off, you could use the 30 day free trial to do it. I can send you a link to one i did if you want to have a look. i've actually just "built" my new site from a €20 plug-in for Lightroom. If it's for personal use rather than school based, and you are not web-design literate it's quite a use friendly solution. If you want any more detailed info, just ask. D

Similarly surprised when I read that it's the 20 year anniversary of the release of Peal Jam's "Ten" (the first Album I bought on CD) and G'nR's Use your Illusion 1 & 2 which I got as a present for my 18th!! Gosh I feel old. Never managed to complete Sonic at all but then I was more of a Super Mario devotee. Happy Birthday Sonic

I assume this is some sort of slimline PC PSU? (I'm assuming this because of the size specifics) If so, try searching for PSU's of the relevant format (ATX, Micro-ATX, etc, full listing of form factors here: ATX - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ). i doubt many vendors will advertise by size but if you can identify sellers with options, most should have a ruler to get you the dimensions. It would be worth checking any venting locations too. In a previous job we bought a stack of PSU's for some Enlight cases which fitted but the PSU vent was located on the opposite side to the original and was obstructed by the case side. HEC make a lot of PSU's you could have a look at their web-site as they list dimensions on there I believe. Of course if I've assumed wrong, this post will be largely irrelevant Good luck

have you looked at Gumtree rather than eBay? eBay's fees are a bit strong nowadays even with their free listing weekends. I think Gumtree focuses (no pun intended) locally so you would probably get a collection rather than having to ship it out too. just a thought D

thanks guys, we are just evaluating the risk involved. if we get it wrong, it's an £800+ mistake ofset against a £40 repair gain and I'm not a betting man with odds like that.... thanks for your advice D

:D:D I imagine it's only bonded at the edges but the cover is beveled and bends around the edge of the screen makig it difficult to get a blade under there, although I suppose I could pull the brken stuff out and work backwards. In your experience, will the original glue be enough to hold the replacement?

Good Afternoon, I hope this is the right forum for this. I wanted to ask if anyone has experience of removing (un-bonding) the digitiser from a touchscreen laptop/netbook/phone and if so, would you mind sharing how you did it? i've got a HP touchsreen in for repair, its the LCD glass thats broken and I'm pretty sure I can get the rest of the LCD out, but I'm pretty sure the glass covering is bonded to the screen cover/digitzer. I'm guessing I need to heat it but I have two concerns. First that I think the digitzer is plastic which with heat taht gives obvious concerns. The second is that even if I get it out, I'm not sure how to get it bonded back in place? Any solvent experts out there? HP want £300+ for a replacement assembly which is going to be too steep. Thanks in advance David

Thought it might be nice to suggest some "learner friendly" courses for any Golf geeks in the bournemouth area, or visitors coming down for holidays. The Iford Golf center is pretty user friendly, mostly open for the stray shots. Big driving range there too and putting area to warm up at. Fairly relaxed although starting to look a bit tatty in areas but perfect for the beginners and enough for the more experienced golfer too. Meryck Park is super tough. Can only play until 12 on a sunday as it's a public park and land. Don;t be fooled though, the first municipal in the country is a very tough course. Easily playable by beginners and some great holes with a real mix of challenges. It's my nemesis and in the summer, a thin covering of grass on the sloping fairways means your ball isn't always going to stop where you put it. This can level the playing field if you have someone a bit tasty with you. Canford Magan has 3 courses, two champinship 18's and an academy 9. tight on dress code but two lovely courses that share an 18th green. I prefer the riverside but on the back 9 you need to be a bit more accurate off the tee or you'll be in trouble/water/ditch Moors Valley is a nice course, plays as two different courses. The front 11 are a long reach parklands type course, the back 7 need a more tactical game. Big hitters don't always triumph here. I find the staff a little too self important and it gets busy at the weekends but a really nice place to play golf and most holes are wide enough for the stray shot with a couple really inviting you to have a crack with the big guns. A bit spoilt for choice down this way so lots ofothers to consider but I've played all these and enjoyed them. I generally shoot about 100 so I'm not great but all these are managable. Expect to pay £24-£28 a round although most offer twighlight rates either side of full summer season. No handicaps certs required. If you are down this way, enjoy. D

Crikey, looks like Geeks and Golf don't mix ;o) I have a set of callaway Big Bertha's. Bought second hand but more than adequate for my dubious skills I have a Wilson 5 wood and a Dunlop "sports direct special" Driver with a dent in it. Mainly these stay in the boot of my car I putt with one of two depending on the day, I have a nice brass faced ping given to me by my BF that occasionally comes out but I struggle with pace with it as the temperature really seems to affect the speed at which the ball comes off the brass head. Normally I stick with my trusted Wilson. Nothing fancy but comes with a built in fire extinguisher as I naturally set the greens on fire I prefer a softer ball, Callaway reds which I find a lot of down my way when i'm looking for the most recent noodle I've just spanked into the trees, or a pinnacle 4 works for me if I'm buying. D

I'd agree with Witch on this, if the battery hasn't been charging properly for a while it could have gone to "sleep" i.e. it's voltage has got so low it won't now recharge. There's a lot of reasons batteries decide not to re-charge, age, use etc. you have the others to benchmark against which are still operating which is a good indication that unless this user is a prolific recharger (li-ion technology has a "useable" life of 3 to 500 cycles), you should be expecting it to operate normally. That said, it could have been a bad unit from the outset, it does happen but I'd think the info you give about the dodgy connector would add weight to the original suggestion that it's not been charging for a while. You didn't mention what laptop this was. There are models that can develop charging issues due to the incorrect activation of "smart technology". This might be it. Regarding socket damage, the most common reasons for a socket /tip to become damaged are (as mentioned), tripping over the cable while it's plugged in (probably the most common if the actual charger tip is mishapen as well as a dicky socket), themightymrp's suggestion and along those lines, if you use the laptop plugged in but at the maximum reach of the charger cable, if the angle is wrong it can stress the socket. Usually it wouldn't miss-shape the connector though but it does stress the connections on the main board which can cause cracks/dry joints which can hinder a clean charge. Certain styles of socket are more susceptable to this than other. For example you don't see this as often on Dell/Sony style sockets, but HP "yellow tip" or other versions of the standard barrel connector are pretty suceptable to this. One other option for the charger tip being damaged could be it got stood on or runover by a chair. (more common than you think) Have you tried swapping the battery into a fully functioning laptop and soak charging it? I.E. leave it on overnight to see if it wakes it up or gets it running again? It sounds like you have the same model on site to try this. hope this helps. D

for parts and spares, worth checking the location of your nearest Camberly Auto Factors and or German & Swedish. Cheaper but adaquate parts for most nationalities of vehicle. Cheaper than Halfrauds and I can't think of anything I haven't managed to get from them over the years. Even for my loony Jap import Pulsar I used to run. Have a look round their web-sites, I'm not sure either cover Volvo parts (saw it mentioned above) Hope this helps. D

Hi Trunks, I have to echo sentiments on here about being careful with third party products. It's not so much the fact that the products are not branded by the manufacturers (Few major laptop players manufacture battery cells other than Samsung, LG and Panasonic) it's to do with what they are built with. It's a tough industry sector as is buying anything that's manufactured whole or in part in China as they love to take a good design and cut corners to make it cheaper Even manufacturer "original" products can go wrong. remember the Dell recall a few years ago? The batteries had Sony cells in. Be careful with overseas too as you can get collered for the import duty (3%) and UK VAT which suddenly hikes the price. You are also responsible for how they are declared which is a bit unfair being as you only ordered them but for example if the shipper labels them as Zero value or "gift" to dodge the duty, it's you that's liable if HMC&E spot it. That said, you need to find a solution and quickly so I appreciate all options need to be considered. I know where the 2 Power units come from and to be fair, they probably aren't faulty (not in those numbers), although I could be wrong. I'd think it's more likely there are compatibilty issues at work. I've seen this before with the BATCL50L mentioned above, 2 products, 2 different suppliers, one would work in every laptop we shipped it for and one from the other factory would only work in about 50%. We never got to the bottom of it. I have to be a bit careful what I offer to do as I'm not signed up as a sponsor yet but as I don't happen to carry a model against your part number and thus can't "sell" you anything, i think I'm ok to offer to help if i can. Can you post a picture, or pm/e.mail of one of the original working units from when the laptops were purchased, along with units supplied previously that did work, and one of the units that doesn't? If they are nice and clear ('m looking for all model references, bar codes/date codes in focus) I'll ask around and see if there is anyone in the UK with anything other than a 2Power product you might be able to try. If this fails I can approach some of our manufacturers to see if any are developing anything for these units. Currently my preffered guys don't. Regards David

for research purposes, insurance, mpg etc when you draw up a short list of options, i find the "Honest John" website to be quite useful. In fact, every car i've ever bought has devleoped every common fault they listed against the model on there so I can vouch for the accuracey

echoing sentiments about the golf tdi's however, if you don't mind going back the Mk4 and can get a good spec Pd version it's £125 a year road tax. I get between 52 and 60 mpg out of a 192,000+ miler on 35mile a/b road trip to work and back and averaged 55 on a 800mile round trip to the lakes last weekend, without missing a beat. I get about 550 between fill ups. I'm quite old now but fully comp this year with 3 points was £200 with legal cover. Mine's a 130 pd version and it's reasonably pokey (there's a 150bhp version too), comfy and you can find them with lots of extras. Cheap to fix with 3rd party parts and you'd have so much change from your budget you could get a caterham/mini cooper for the weekend (It is a bit old now but the PD was sooo much better than the newer direct injection golf diesels)

Hi Steven, It sounds like the power to the backlight is getting through but the video feed is not. Most likley suspect IMO is either a loose or damaged video ribbon cable however (there's always a but isn't there?), there's mention on AV forums of the same model being cured with a firmware/bios update. Similar mentons on the sammynetbook forum too. If you are useful with a screwdriver, I'd have a look at the ribbon cable first or Speak to Samsung/Vendor if they are still under warranty. The www seems to have plenty of others with this issue on this notebook which will give you lots of ammunition if things get ugly Good luck D