Unbiased PC help offered

Cant remember what it said but was bottom box, not a good idea doing these things with a two yr old hanging around your neck wanting to help

Which setting was wrong -- good to know for next time

Wow its working thank you so much Pompa the mouse was such a pain.

But I have used the mouse for so long that I keep reaching for it.

Thanks Pompa

Ok, you need to check the touch pad settings. Look at this web page which explains how to check and change the settings.

www.pcworld.com/article/2474684/what-to-do-when-your-laptops-touchpad-stops-working.html

Scrolls up and down but cant seem to move the cursor around.

It does

OK. hold the fn key down (bottom left of your keyboard) and press the key with the mouse symbol. Let me know if that fixes it.

yes

Ok. look at the top row of keys on your laptop, does any key have a symbol that resembles the touchpad (may be f5)

Right pompa this might be like leading the blind

Windows 8 , 64 bit?

Hi Glassortwo. Ok, should be simple, you have disabled the touch pad on your account. What operating system are you using ? I can then point you at the solution.

I have to use a mouse with my laptop as the touch pad doesn't respond, but I have GC and DD on their own log in and no problems with the touch pad on those, why is it only on mine/main user? Its a Toshiba and approx 2yrs old.

Can you help?

Great, I love problems that solve themselves.

Quick update, Pompa ... weirdly enough although I doubt I changed anything important there have been no restarts for the last couple of days. Might just have been doing lots of catch-ups as you said.
Thanks!

What is your concern re. "The Cloud"

Apart from my photos, which get stored on a tByte external drive Plus DVD, and my server (would hate to loose them) I back all our normal data to the cloud.
This is especially useful for our genealogy data as it means we can easily share it with each other and be certain that there will always be a copy somewhere, we have spent hundreds of hours collecting it.
One advantage I see with the cloud is that the media doesn't become redundant, some day DVD's will be redundant, I will have a major job on my hands then as I have in the order of 30.000 images on CD/DVD

Hi Pompa

Re: backups - not so keen on the "cloud" I personally use a couple of older hard drives with a docking station for essential data, this means they are remote from the main system when not in use. Usb sticks are so cheap nowadays they are another removable alternative. I agree Malwarebytes is a top hole software
but I am wary of specifically naming software - what is good for one is not always
best for another. I would also recommend "suites" ie: antivirus and firewall suites,
as the std m/soft versions are not up to it these days.

Hi OldKranky, I have been around GN for quite a few years.

Regarding backups, whilst what you say is fine in a small business environment, not many home users have a desktop to back their data up to. This is where external drives or the cloud come into their own. Free cloud storage is available from many sources and easy to use.

I am suspicious about DoNotSpy10, it contains OpenCandy which IMO is malware.

I use Mcafee antivirus as part of BTnetProtect plus including the firewall. I regularly run Malwarebytes to clean any malware that gets through and Slimcleaner to remove the crap.

All my important data is copied to the cloud, plus I run an automatic daily backup to an USB drive, just in case I get hit with CryptoLocker or similar.

Regarding Thinmyjigs problem, I can only think it is because W10 is still catching up with updates. I have been running W10 on 2 laptops for several months and only get updates/restarts when I shutdown, then only rarely. I get more frequent updates to installed software other than W10, but they don't initiate automatic shutdown.

First a big hello to pompa.
Hi all - I have been indisposed for a while so no activity from me.
Firstly - "free" anti virus software is good but suffers mainly from the fact that
it cleans after the nasty is on your machine - often too late in some instances.
Paid for prevents nasties, most of the time, from getting a foothold in the first place. You get what you pay for - comes to mind.
As for "backing up" I used to reset my clients machines to all save to a save directory on the root C:\drive, with sub-dirs for different progs, with a link to the desktop. This meant just one folder to back up, also no searching all of the drive for bits to save.
As for win10, from the moment you "boot up" m/soft is watching and recording everything you do - aka google and facebook etc. You agreed to it doing it in the EULA. When you install 10 always use custom settings and not express.
A search for free software called Donotspy10 will pay dividends. READ the nfo before use. If you do not understand it - do not use.
Happy typing all.

This web page explains how to check/change the setting to "schedule a re-start"
Hope this helps.

windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-10/getstarted-choose-how-updates-are-installed

Yes, it's running Windows 10 ... still getting used to it!

Thingmajig, as your PC is quite new it is probably running Windows10, please confirm which Windows version it is running.

It could still be catching up with the many update that any new PC gets, these very often require a re-start and this may be set to happen automatically. Once we know the Windows version, we can point you to the setting to check it.

Any other ideas OldKranky ?

Hi Oldkrany, my professional background is very similar to your own, my areas of expertise were Unix, Windows XP and Cisco routers.

I would like to point out that many banks offer their online customers free Anti Virus/firewall software as does some of the BT broadband options.
Barclays offer Kapersky and BT, McAfee, both excellent products. I have also use the free version of AVG and found it very good.

I agree that any laptop over 3 years old is on it's last legs and not worth upgrading etc. Disposal is best done by a technically competent person, with a large hammer !.

As you say that is the only safe way, destroy the hard disk. Then take the bits to the dump. But make sure the hard drive is smashed, not just the case. Oh, and back up first.

But of course you all back up regularly, don't you ? Think not, how will I cope IF my hard drive fails, rather, how will I cope WHEN my hard drive fails. the hard drive is one of the few mechanical parts in a PC and they do fail more often than many think. BACK UP you data to another drive, or better still the cloud, often.

Hi oldkranky, as it happens I do have a query!
My sparkly new laptop is only a month old and in general I have no problems with it. BUT it has a very annoying habit of telling me it's going to restart, usually in 10 minutes. There's an option to restart now, but not to delay till it suits me.
It's an HP computer and I have Avira anti-virus installed. I've searched through all the settings I can find and see no reference to all this restarting.
Typically today it's yet to happen!!!
Have you any ideas???