Laptop Problems

[Geoff]

Without going into too much detail (and boring stuff), this is probably what has happened...

Windows is quite often installed from what is called a drive image (a straight copy of the hard drive from another computer). Using this method the windows validation code would be exactly the same as the one they took the image from (and thus not individual).

Normally you would correct this by changing the code to the correct one when you connect to the internet and Microsoft queries the validation. As you have never connected to the internet this has never been done, hence the nagging messages.

I will try burning some files via your cd drive and see how that goes. But not a big issue as you can replace the drive relatively cheaply or use other methods for storage. Cloud space is popular and you can get a fair amount of space for free (once you have internet of course).

Anyway, glad to be of help.

Geoff

[Geoff]

Just to update, the CD drive works fine for me. I tried several discs and didn't get a failure while burning.

I have also now installed AVG antivirus to give the laptop a bit of protection and added your Microsoft Office too. All working fine!

Should get the laptop back to you this afternoon

[Richard]

That's a relief, well done Geoff, moonjiver must be over the moon, jiving by now!!

What's the easiest way to make a system image backup?
do you bother to do this ?

[moonjiver]

Well, a big thank you to nice guy Geoff for some invaluable help with this. As I said, part of my problem, apart from getting a bit left behind by the technology, is also not really having people around from whom I could get a second opinion as to whether the laptop was any good. It does seem ok thankfully , but clearly there were things the shop should have told me instead of just dumping the laptop into my arms and expecting me to know exactly what to do after that!

I'm sorry for my delayed response, it's been an irritating period of technology problems. Both my mobiles were down on Saturday because the Three mast in St Leonard's was undergoing repairs (after months of signal problems). This is a separate issue of course (!) but I should not have made myself vulnerable, relied on a single network. Going to switch my little spare phone to somebody else soon, just in case.

To have MS Office on the laptop is a great leap forward, now I can read all my files properly and get rid of Open Office. I'm delighted also to get back Windows Pic Manager (buried in the Office suite). It's very basic but very handy for quick simple jobs like cropping and reshaping photos, before one gets round to acquiring Photoshop or whatever.

Hopefully getting connected to internet soon, it should be more straightforward now,
but I still need to locate some good computer people for the future. There is a computer group/workshop in Bexhill and something else in Hastings which I am checking out. I'm sure some others might like to know about sources of help/advice, so I'll post any useful info that I find on here later!

[moonjiver]

A few more thoughts. Yes, I do like jiving! Or did .. used to love dancing, a bit more creaky now.

I said to Geoff that all the help gets passed down the line! I have friends who are even more backward, so I'm glad to have been able to sort out their technology problems at times. Especially with mobiles, for some reason I'm quite good on those - who can explain that?

[moonjiver]

Well, I have one last conundrum which I'm hoping somebody can help me with.

Following the installation of MS Office 2010 onto this laptop, I have now uninstalled Open Office which was producing compatability problems and stopping me from opening some old documents (created some time back in Word on other computers).

Most of my files are now ok but I have created a new document in Word and saved it onto the laptop and onto a memory stick. On screen, it is displayed as "MS Word Document". But when I insert the memory stick into an old laptop (on Windows XP), the label displayed on screen reads DOCX file and the computer can't open it! I've tried several methods but only get a lot of code.

Still on this old laptop, when I click on some other recent documents saved onto the memory stick, they are displayed as "MS Word Document" and can be opened ok.

Is there some quirk going on? Is this old computer (or my new one) somehow remembering the Open Office suite and searching for it? Possibly something else I need to remove from the list of programs (or system files)?

Any advice from an intelligent person welcome!

[Geoff]

.doc files are for older versions of Word, .docx are for newer versions. You will need to export your docx files in the older format in order to open them on the older version of Word.

[moonjiver]

Thanks Geoff and yes, I discovered eventually what I suppose I should have known! I hadn't come across the DOCX file extension before. Even so, I'm surprised that just an earlier (or the previous?) version of Word can't open a file in the latest Word format. Is that normal?

The library computers can open the miscreant file, so presumably it's my old laptop which is quite out-of-date.

Not sure how to "export the DOCX file in the older format" but I tried selecting "the encoding which makes your document readable" - couldn't get the default settings to change. Is that me being dumb again or something else?!

The only reason this really matters is because I want to pass my old laptop on to a friend, to learn basics on and look at his photos. I typed out some advice for him, but the document won't open on the laptop!

[Richard]

you don't need to "export"
in Word just go to the following:

hit the top left multi-coloured icon
you get a choice, choose 'save as'
a sub menu will appear to the right
save as Word 93 - 2007 document

you can right-click the latter to save an icon in the 'quick access' toolbar
That toolbar is a tiny row of icons at top left of the screen
this is a shortcut to do the same in future

The latest Word will recognise the older format but you can't expect an old dog to recognise a new master

[Geoff]

Thanks Richard, on my Word 2013 you can do it either by "save as" or "export". In effect what you are doing is exporting the file as an older version which ever way you go about it.