Unbiased PC help offered

Junie1 - six of one seven of the other. I could not get on with an ipad but my wife loves them. Could not in all honesty recommend any specific tablet to buy. What suits one person may not suit another. Sorry.

Cherrytree59 - DOH sorry not a clue.

pheonix - disposable data = rubbish. Why dont they talk english. there should be a system cleaner app somewhere on the tablet. If not use the android play store to look for one - should be plenty of free ones out there.

Junie1 - on reviewing my answer to you - irealize i could have answered it a lot better. I personally feel an ipad (for general use) is overpriced and could be better in the storage dept. The average 9-10 inch/android/quad core tablet is better value at £100-£150. ie: the android system allows you to easily change the font/icon size and is more intuitive to use for begineers, 99% will have an SD card slot (easily put music and films on and slot it in).
The only downside is the sound volume on most tablets is low. I use headphones myself. There is plenty of help on android on the net. Hope this helps.

I tried to watch some BBCiplayer on my tablet thingy and it won't let me because it has a 'parental control' on it and says I have to enter a pin number. No idea what that pin number might be. Do I have to go back to the shop where I bought it from to sort it out; they set it up for me? [thanks by the way!].

Tegan unfortunately dont know the "brand" tablet thingy! it is very difficult to answer queries unless info is given ie: device name/operating system+version number etc. nb: the tablet colour is not reqd. there are many reasons for non-playing of media-content. a lot of isp's now block by default, check yours for parental guidance settings. It could also be the internet browser settings. it is more likely that your iplayer control settings
are set too low. So open up your internet browser - and type in the search bar - bbc iplayer parental guidance settings - this "should" take you to a page where you can set them to your specific needs. Hope this helps.

Sometimes the pin number on things is preset to 1234 until you change it to what you want it to be. If you try 1234 it might accept that (My TV is still set to that ten years after it was bought)

yes your right - 0000 - is another default number used

Thanks; I'll try that.

What a find on here! Free impartial advice! Many thanks.
I am a keen amateur photographer and have all my photos on my PC.
I would like to store them also on a tablet so it would be portable and easier to share with friends and family when I visit them.
How can I tell how many photos a tablet will hold? I dont know how to work it out. Is it easy to transfer them while still keeping them on the PC?
Is there a particular tablet good for this. I dont want it for games etc
I welcome your suggestion, thanks

mrsmopp - please do not store your photos on a tablet. there is not enough room on most of them. you can buy an good android tablet for £100-£150 these days. be sure to get a quad core with a good screen resolution -hd if you can afford it. now the techie part. most of the new tablets have a mini usb charging port, this can also be used as an OTG (on the go) usb2 port.
Check the specs of the tablet before buying! The tablet should also come with an adaptor OTG cable that converts mini-usb to std usb. again check to see if it has one included. this cable is available seperately if not in the box, but life is easier if it is included. now the easy part,any small powered\unpowered external usb2 h\drive - card reader etc: can be plugged in to your tablet the same way as your PC does. 1TB usb2 external drives are now about £40 or so. This would mean all your pics could be saved to it and it could be used on most tablets (not apple ones) and PC's.
Check and check again about OTG support on the tablet you choose most support it - a few dont (apple tablets dont!) - be aware of this. you can google OTG for more info on this subject. I have tried to explain simply(no offence intended). hope this helps. NB: the amount of pics you can store depends on the size of the pics to be stored - but you would be pressed to fill a 1tb h\drive. Note tablets only support usb2 otg devices at the moment.

What a fanastic and helpful response oldkranky! I hadn't realised most of this. ( Of course the pics will remain on the pc as well.)
We travel many miles to visit family and the tablet would be a great way to show /share photos. You raised many helpful tips for which I am grateful as I would have only gone and bought one which would not meet my needs.
Now I will make a few notes and go and have a look at some of them.
I am grateful for your advice, pointing me in the right direction. Cheers!

mrsmopp - glad to help. one other point though, what format/file type are are your pics in ie: jpeg etc. some cameras save as their own format -also picture editors save in their own format. you may have to convert to a more std picture format to use in an android picture viewer. research is the answer before committing. NB: usb2 sticks also work with OTG. sometimes i am lazy on my tablet and plug in to my otg port a usb hub + usb keyboard + usb mouse + usb stick with no problems. making sure the tablet is fully charged first.

oldkranky, we have a Sony laptop which we have not used for a while as the charger broke. It is about eight years old. We finally bought a new charger but the computer is dead slow, stop. I got in touch a local IT guy and he thinks he can fix it for about £45 as long as there is nothing too complicated wrong with it. Does this sound reasonable to you and is it worth it? Please bear in mind, if you reply to me, that I am a halfwit when it comes to this type of thing! My OH is not quite as bad.

Liz46 - hi, 8 years old is a lifetime for a laptop. Depending on what you need it for - the £45 would be better spent on a cheap tablet or save up a bit and get a modern/new laptop. Just looked at currys, argos and tescos sites, there are cheap laptops sub £200. Think what you need it for before buying. Avoid Ebay!

Thank you oldkranky. I am using an acer chromebook at the moment and love it but it can not do some of the things a laptop can.
We also have an old dell laptop. Is there anything useful we can do with old laptops? I like recycling when possible. Would we remove the hard drive to protect our personal details?

I've bought a new laptop which has a free trial of anti-virus software. I've used AVG free anti-virus before with no problems. Can you recommend any other free antivirus software?

I am delighted to hear that you, oldkranky, use Windows 8.1 - I became so sick of the whiners who claimed to hate it, mostly for spurious reasons - "Oh you have to have a touch-screen" for example. Complete cobblers... What I don't understand is the love of the old 'Start' screen - I've never felt it to be essential... but that's me. Windows 8 has been a good deal more comfortable for me than W 7.

Liz46 - old laptops are really only fit for scrap/recycling at the council yard.
and the only effective way of removing the data is to take the h/drive out and gently smash it with a hammer. a lot of old laptops end up on ebay for mugs to buy.

chelseababy - free anti/virus progs are all much the same and a matter of personal preference. But you are removing the viruses\nasties after the fact! there are cheap viable firewall\anti-virus\spyware suites out there
for £20-£30 - how much are your bank account details etc worth to you. You get what you pay for. Do not rely on the std microsoft security suite anymore. Stop it all happening before not after. So endeth the sermon.

Thanks for the advice oldkranky.

Could you recommend a firewall etc or are the ones you buy much of a muchness?

chelsea baby Hi Glad to see somebody else is up besides me. Just been out and its like a ghost villiage here. Sorry i am rambling. the best value firewalls come as part of a security suite. The std one form m/soft is adequate for most people if money is tight. The advantage of a complete suite is that there are no clashes with other types of anti-virus\firewalls\anti-spyware etc progs in use at the same time. You do not say if you want it for a pc\tablet etc. As i have said in earlier posts it helps to give the equipment and o\s being used. My wife had a problem finding something for her ipad for security - M***** have just recently released a complete suite for £20 a year. 1 licence covers - for me - 1 ipad\1 tablet\2 smartphones and 3 PC's.
Not my policy to name\recommend individual progs. Use the search bar and ye shall find one to suit you and your purse. Asi mentioned in an earlier post - how much are your personal details worth.

Hello, I hope you can help with my mobile phone which has suddenly started misbehaving. I cannot receive emails on it. I get a message saying Connection Error, which I don't understand because according to Settings I am connected. I can access the Internet fine, but no emails.
I am at a loss as to why this has suddenly happened.
I have a Sony Xperia.

As a postscript to my previous post, I took my mobile to the phone shop, a very helpful young salesman sorted it out very quickly, by taking my email account off the phone and putting it back again.
I feel old and stupid now, why can't I manage these things any more??