I think he's suggesting you wouldn't buy a Surface tablet and would buy the other option.

Not sure why, they look decent.

are you seriously suggesting anyone touch Microsoft hardware with a barge pole?

Really? Try a MS keyboard and/or mouse, some of the best products in their class.

Nice products cr@p OS.

since when where peripherals hardware?

Since always.


We will see what Win8/RT is really like on the tablets. I admit it doesn't appear best suited to desktops.

Since their invention.

maybe to you BG, not to me and most of the people I've ever worked with. Anyway, matters not.

Does anyone know anything about recovering data from a crashed and dead 2 1/2" drive? It's completely dead, ironically it crashed as I was about to back everything up to my external 2 1/2" drive.... Ironically doesn't mean funnily either, it's taken three sets of irreplacable gig shots, and all my writing for the last year or so with it, so could really do with getting it back

Depends how dead dead is. If the drive has failed, then by by, if just failing to boot/software failure then i've successfully used [url=http://www.recovermyfiles.com/=#0000FFThis[/url to recover lost data. You'll need a working computer to use it though.

Anyone know of any decent CRM freeware available please?

Doesn't need to be too complicated:

inventory of circa 200 product lines, cost & sale price etc
2000 contacts, name address, phone, purchase history etc
event/action tracker etc

Quote ="cod'ead"Anyone know of any decent CRM freeware available please? Doesn't need to be too complicated: inventory of circa 200 product lines, cost & sale price etc 2000 contacts, name address, phone, purchase history etc event/action tracker etc'" You are asking a lot of freeware... Try this www.ceeksoft.com/projects/ceeksoft/startpg.aspx it does most of what you want.

Quote ="cod'ead"Anyone know of any decent CRM freeware available please? Doesn't need to be too complicated: inventory of circa 200 product lines, cost & sale price etc 2000 contacts, name address, phone, purchase history etc event/action tracker etc'" You are asking a lot of freeware... Try this www.ceeksoft.com/projects/ceeksoft/startpg.aspx it does most of what you want.

It depends on the fault, if it's the board that's failed you could swap it with a working board off another of the same drive

Cheers for the advice, I'll chase it up. I've found someone who says they can recover data for £200 or so, but if I can do it for less..... A professional IT friend of mine says he's heard of people freezing the drive overnight and then quickly firing it up once it's out of the freezer, but knows nothing more than that about it, not having done it himself.

Anyone know anything?

Quote ="Big Graeme"You are asking a lot of freeware... Try this www.ceeksoft.com/projects/ceeksoft/startpg.aspx it does most of what you want.'" Thanks mate but although it's five years since I last did anything with Access, I think I'd be better off starting from scratch

Quote ="Big Graeme"You are asking a lot of freeware... Try this www.ceeksoft.com/projects/ceeksoft/startpg.aspx it does most of what you want.'" Thanks mate but although it's five years since I last did anything with Access, I think I'd be better off starting from scratch

There are very good CMS around and some great inventory management systems, it's when you want them to talk to each other or integrated into one app that you have to pay. I spent a couple of years doing this stuff for Micros and Zonal it isn't a 10 minute job to get running.

I know that but my ex in Bristol is an Access whiz, she set up all of the databases for South Glos PCT. She's just bought herself an Astra (silly mare) and needs a set of roof bars. I just happen to have a set of Thule bars in my lock-up, so I can feel some barter trade coming on.

Good thinking.

You may even get one for old times sake?

Probably not the right place to ask this, but I will anyway. Recently got myself a new smart phone and been introduced to the world of Twitter, which I can do fine & dandy on the phone, but when accessing it thru the computer as a normal website, how do you see the mentions made on people you follow??

I know thats me just being numb, and there must be a way to do it, but I just can't seem to find how???

Anyone know much about fixing a problem with a USB mouse?

Basically, I can plug the mouse into my laptop and the lights on the mouse will flicker for a few seconds and then go out. Sometimes a message will come up saying the device is unrecognised. I've been using it on this laptop for 12 months with no previous issues. All other USB devices work fine.

Help please someone? The feeling of the scroll pad against my skin is enough to make me want to cut my right hand off.

I've a feeling it is new mouse time, something is failing, could be a loose wire or the PCB has a dodgy connection.

Cheers, yeah suppose that's most likely. Will take it to my girlfriends at the weekend and see if it works on her laptop. If not, and I still have no solution, I suppose they're available on ebay for about 2 quid inc P&P.

It will sometimes work for short periods, the laptop will make the noise to recognise that it has picked a device up and then it will work until the laptop doesn't recognise it any more.

Im after buying a new laptop but limited to the choices here in Nz,

I'd like to use it for a bit of gaming as well as using Office 2010 and adobe photoshop.

Which would suit my needs better;

8gb RAM and dual processor or 4gb RAM and quad processor?

Photoshop prefers faster processors on the whole and if you're limited on the RAM, a decent hard drive will help.

Office 2010 is a bit irrelevant. Most smart phones can probably run it.

And games should be fine unless you want to play BF3 on Ultra settings or something.