dgsmith

Not quite sure how you come to this conclusion. The i3 sits comfortably in the middle of the latest Clarkdale core lineup, with respective Pentium and Celeron branded CPUs behind it; see here. We still run enough P4 3Ghz computers to make it worthwhile upgrading to Core 2, nevermind anything higher than that! I don't think we'll be going over to the Clarkdale family of processors any time soon, especially when the high end core 2 (E7000/E8000 series) processors are more than adaquate, even for the next few years (Arthur posted those benchmark figures above which proves the point that the difference between a high end core 2 and a core i5 is negligable).

I could give you neg rep for having a different opinion to me there (I know you weren't responding to me directly, and yes I say that tongue in cheek before the pitch forks come out) On a more serious note, I don't think your comparison is very accurate. Sure, it'd maybe be a bit of a bad decision to scrap the rep system entirely just because some people misuse it, though I personally don't see how it really contribues to this site. I know a fair few here now, I know those who are valued members and those who aren't as valued as others. If anything comes of this thread, maybe it could possibly pave the way for some improvements/amendments to the system if anything is to come of it?

I still stand by what I said. I won't lose sleep if the system stays as it is now although I think it's open to too much abuse currently. Even if you made it so only "reputable" members (say members who has acrewed a certain rep) could actually give it, it may be given a bit more appropriately and cut down on the silly people who join and misuse it (I am assuming that is what can happen currently)? Even taking away the anonymity when you give negative rep would at least make people think twice before acting immaturely..

I think it's a waste of time. Sure, keep the thanks button which adds to someone's rep anyway but why the need to have the ability to give good/bad rep on someone's post? If you don't like what someone has said either PM them or quote their post and publically say as much, or the contrary if you like what someone said (or press thanks on it?). The few users I have seen who have had 0 rep due to receiving quite alot of negative rep, generally I am aware of why this is from their posts and usually not-so-constructive contributions to the site - don't need a rep system to know who these people are. I don't agree with being able to give negative rep "behind a closed curtain" which means you have some degree of anonymity which is wrong..

John Graham at ICT-Direct sells refurbished DC7800s although they're SFF and not the ultra small ones you mention. He may be able to find some though.

AFAIK you'll need to make sure you're in a position to prove equipment has been disposed of responsibly if ever you need to (we have many WEEE certficates from several disposals over recent years). There are a fair few companies that will collect anything for free so definately don't pay anyone to take anything away. Some companies are picky and want "X spec desktops" (I guess these are the ones that refurb equipment and sell it on themself), however there are enough companies that will take anything for free. Quick search should return these companies.

That's just it though - the printhead ink counter counters detect as 0 which is correct and 2 show the warranty as valid anyway and there aren't any "expired" messages like we get with the cartridges/

Got a few problems with one of our HP BI 2800. Last week it said the yellow printhead needed replacing (it had far exceeded the warranted usage so I was happy with that). I replaced it and it was then fine. Yesterday was told all 3 colour printheads then needed replacing (including the yellow which was showing as 0 usage). Quite bizarre, even though the other 2 colours where only at 70% warranted usage. We replaced the other 2 anyway so all 3 colours where then 0 usage and the black is only 10% used. Someone prints 1 page and again the colour printheads say replace and all show as 0 usage. The printheads have exceeded the warranty period (been stored for a while) but otherwise are brand new/unopened. Now, is this a problem with the printer detecting them incorrectly or do the printheads have the same "expired" issue as the cartridges? What's odd is that the black was replaced about 2 weeks ago and has the same warranty date as the colours but that still shows as "good" and the printer only detects the yellow as being out of warranty. Any advice?

You have probably got this sorted by now, though just word of note that the latest CDBurnerXP (4.3.5.2256) does seem to suggest that it supports spanning of data across several disks although I haven't downloaded or tried this myself yet.

Well, it was the formatter board. John Graham from ICT-Direct very kindly sent us a replacement which fixed the problem immediately. No idea still what caused the issue in the first place but a new board fixed it, so thanks John

Wasn't bought "brand new" but rather was bought having been stored for a long period without use (so only 3 or 4 test pages had been printed before we bought it), so the HP warranty had long since expired, otherwise of course i'd be contacting HP to get it sorted

Just read this which suggests a faulty formatter board and/or firmware DIMM - printer is only 7 months old! Not liking the sound of formatter board prices either if that is the problem..

Got a HP 5550 that seems to be dead (or rather, turns on, powers up, all lights on, no screen display, not contactable/pingable). This is after a toner went empty and I attempted to put it in diagnostics mode to disable cart check for override. Replaced 2 of the supplies in this printer 2 days ago when they were empty and was fine. A 3rd (cyan) went empty today so I decided to put it back into the "disable cartridge check" (which I had used for ~4 weeks prior to replacing the other 2 cartridges). It seems when I went into the diag menu (without even making any changes) the printer "crashed" (couldn't move between menus). Turn off, turn on, get the problem mentioned in opening line. Turn off for considerable period of time, turn back on, no different. No idea what has happened? The fans can be heard when it powers up but there is just nothing showing on the LCD screen except the backlight and all 3 of the printer lights on the front.

Heard this only last night! Does that mean we could potentially be stuck with these indefinately if we don't get them changed by the end of today? I thought the banks were obliged to change anything like this although the bbc article suggests this isn't the case (at their own discretion)..

That's .NET again and doesn't mention how to get Service Pack info (as far I can see). There is what looks like a good example script here (click link). Specifically for VB6: Private Sub Form_Load() ' Get the OS information. ' For more information from this query, see: ' http:'msdn.microsoft.com/library/aa394239.aspx Dim os_query As String Dim os_results As Object Dim info As Object os_query = "SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem" Set os_results = _ GetObject("Winmgmts:").ExecQuery(os_query) For Each info In os_results lblCaption.Caption = info.Caption lblVersion.Caption = "Version " & _ info.Version & _ " SP " & _ info.ServicePackMajorVersion & "." & _ info.ServicePackMinorVersion Next info End Sub This adds the info the the respective labels noted above although obviously you could assign it to anything (text box, variable etc). I haven't checked if this code works as I only have VB6 at home and not in the school.

We're doing the opposite - ditching the splitter boxes in favour of the startech USB-powered splitter I linked above. A little cheaper than a PCI card and a splitter box but from what I can tell quality is just as good. Before these we tried just a basic y-cable with no power at all and did find the quality was inadequate.

I'd go with this. USB powered and works a treat where we are using it (5 classrooms at the moment). Space efficient, no need for power plug, small/compact and no quality loss as it is still powered.

Yes VLMC does look promising. I have been nagging the developers to get an updated Windows build out but they said they been waiting for VLC 1.1.0 which is now out, so hopefully they should release the next Win build for VLMC soon. It's actually pre-alpha which is before alpha and way before beta, but even so videolan are quickly becoming my favourable developers of software!

Yes well we already have an expensive setup with the speakers and amp etc so was looking for more of an "addon" than reinventing what we already have. The O2 thing does look overkill and for the amount of times we'd use it (not often), may not be worth it. I thought there was a gadget for anything these days..

We're trying to see if there is a device which would allow us to plug a USB pen drive into our sound system to play audio through (like you get in some cars, plug a USB stick in and play audio through it). My first thought would be that there would be something with a USB female connector one end and the other end would be audio cable(s) to plug into the amp input. Anyone know if there is such a thing and where we're likely to find one (and more importantly cost)? We're going through alot of CDs for 1 track for kids to use when potentially we could stick it on their pen drives and they could play them through that. Any suggestions?

I would say it's unlikely. If you look at the list of intel chipsets here then you'll see there are 945 chipsets for both the P4 and Core 2 processors though it suggests quad compatibility starts at the 975 one. To be honest, in my opinion even if your mobo did support quad which I doubt it will, i'd still go with the advice above and get a new motherboard. I have fitted a few of the Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L boards which are around £35 inc VAT and are more than capable. Sure, you won't have mega graphics but then if you're looking for a quad core i'd imagine you have or will be considering a separate gfx card anyway. Only thing to be aware of with new mobos is RAM support (do you have DDR1 in your current one?), power supply compatibility (main power connector) and IDE/SATA. Also if the chassis is an OEM one then the case cables may not fit properly on the motherboard. As I said, if you use CPU-Z and get the exact model number of the motherboard then it could be confirmed whether it definately will support quad or not.

The only 2 foxconn motherboards that I can find which have "845" in the name are these two, both of which are P4 motherboards so i'd very much doubt they'd support quad core (you may have a Pentium D which is essentially a P4). I know of some Core 2 motherboards which support P4s as legacy but these seem to be the opposite (native P4). I couldn't find any with "845" and "7MA" in the name but several with "945" and "7MA"? As localzuk said above, are you sure that's the correct model number? CPU-Z could help you if you're not sure.

Well if that's the case it wouldn't make much difference then as our admin side is unfiltered anyway (with the exception of what I assume are "core" categories)..

I see there are 3 different levels (primary, secondary and school staff) but how do staff use the staff one? We all use the standard proxy.lancsngfl proxy but how does the filtering differentiate between students and staff? This is what I don't understand.. Nice to hear Westfield are still saying it's on for July 1st.. we'll see nearer the time. Only just noticed that heads need to give approval first though!

CLEO came yesterday to check the fibre and all seemed good, just waiting for it to be connected at the exchange now. I'm curious at your second point though - I can't see how they can easily completely go back on that and say "nah we changed our mind" without having some serious explaining to do, on top of the issues that plagued us all last week.. To be honest, we have to be optimistic and hopeful else sanity would be a thing that we had briefly long ago.. Quite amusing a year or two back when the local village installed wireless CCTV cameras.. you can guess what happened!