Hello and welcome to Inner Circle TV Episode 4 (part 1).
Or at least part of it… when we sat down to plan this one it ended up quite long. I didn’t want to cut anything out as it’s all important stuff. So we’ve split it into two parts – this is the first.
It’s all about how to make sure you PCs, tablets, smartphones or whatever carry on working quickly and smoothly, without all the problems like slowing down, not responding properly and so on that can drive you mad.
Update: You can watch part 2 here.
Update: You can read more about our new website here…
Having problems? Watch it on YouTube here.
If you have any suggestions or questions please drop them in the comments at the bottom of this page. There are also links below to previous episodes and details on how to turn on Subtitles for the video. Remember if you want to turn the volume up you need to do it both on the YouTube video (hover over the video and look for the volume setting in the bottom left) and on your computer (the volume control in the taskbar in the bottom right of your screen).
I hope you enjoy it!
Tim
April 9, 2018 at 2:50 pm
Hi Mike
I need a bitof info please, I have just purchased a new Tower and it has Windows 10 and I have been using 7 , so can you advise me how to get a little tuition on how to get compliant with 10 as it seems a little complicated. by the way a must add I am a pensioner so perhaps this says a lot
April 9, 2018 at 3:31 pm
Hi Barrie,
We have a few books that might help with Windows 10, I’d recommend the Computers One Step at a Time 6th edition. You can order it here – https://www.helpfulbooks.co.uk/products/computers-one-step-at-a-time
Or you can pop me an email with your address to [email protected] or give one of the girls a call on 01229 777606 and we’d be happy to help you out.
I hope that helps,
Take care,
Jess π
March 6, 2018 at 5:16 pm
Hi. I do not use the touch pad as I prefer an external mouse. Recently on two occasions my laptop seemed to ‘jump’ and suddenly the screen was filled as the font on the website I was looking at became huge. I don’t know how to make it normal again! The second time it happened I was working on accounts in Excel and the rows became much larger and the font huge. How do I sort this? I tried to turn off the touchpad as it causes problems by ‘jumping’ when I type sometimes but it will only go to low sensitivity which doesn’t help. Please can you help me restore the website and the Excel page. Thank you.
March 8, 2018 at 10:03 am
Hi Joyce.
Please could you let me know the make and model of your laptop and I’ll have a look at how to disable the touchpad π
To reset the size of a website, click in the website just anywhere then press the CTRL+0 buttons together and this should reset the zoom level, if not, press and hold the CTRL button and move the mouse wheel towards you.
To reset the zoom in Excel, look for a zoom control in the bottom right (or sometimes left) of the spreadsheet and reset this back to normal, you can also try Ctrl+0 but it doesn’t always work in Excel.
Let me know your laptop type and I’ll look at how to disable your touchpad, you can also cover it with a bit of paper π
Thanks.
Mike )
March 8, 2018 at 10:46 am
Thank you, thank you Mike! One excel spreadsheet restored to normal and the website restored by using the second method you told me about. I am so grateful – I thought I was going mad ( or more mad perhaps.) My laptop is Asus X540S and until the latest updates by Windows 10 worked without any problem. When I type emails or word documents I often find that the words have suddenly appeared in previous paragraphs which then don’t make any sense! If you can help to sort that out I will be even more thankful that I joined Tim’s Inner Circle. Look forward to hearing from you. Thanks once again. Joyce
February 23, 2018 at 9:38 pm
Jessica
My tablet is a Samsung Galaxy S2 and I am using the built in app, this problem has only started a few weeks ago and I have no idea why. Hope this is of some help.
Gerry
February 26, 2018 at 9:59 am
HI Gerry,
Thanks for getting back to me, the problem seems to be with an update that Samsung did to a program called “Webview” which has caused a lot of problems with Samsung tablet and phone owners. A quick fix is to disable this app by going to your settings, then apps, app manager, android system and then find webviewer. You might get three options, Force Stop, Uninstall Updates and Disable. If you get all three, click on Uninstall updates and then Disable but if you only get Force Stop and Disable then click on Disable. This won’t affect anything else on your tablet but it should fix the reply issue. This will stop the app updating, this is fine for now but you might want to try enabling it again in a few weeks to see if Samsung have fixed this issue with an update.
I hope this helps,
Thanks
Jess
February 23, 2018 at 2:04 pm
Recently my android tablet keeps coming up with this problem. When I get a email and click ‘reply’ I get a message saying ‘loading messages’ which will then not let me reply, I have to go out to my contacts and reply that way which can be annoying if there are various answers required and I don’t remember them all, is there a solution to this. Many thanks. Gerry
February 23, 2018 at 2:23 pm
Hi Gerry,
I can understand how that could get quite annoying, what sort of tablet do you have and do you use the built in app or a different email app?
Thanks
Jess
February 12, 2018 at 1:34 pm
These videos ar straight forward, cover everything and are easily understood by someone of my aged 80 who needs to know which button to push. Thankyou Brenda
January 20, 2018 at 3:38 pm
Hi, I’m Barbara, a newcomer, and with some trepidation I have joined the elite Inner Circle. Trepidation because all the comments and questions I have read seem to indicate that you are all very brilliant with computers and I am a beginner. When I start asking for help I shall hold my head in shame but at least I know that I will receive the best advice available. Nothing to ask for now but watch this space!
January 22, 2018 at 2:40 pm
Hi Barbara, Ahh thanks for your lovely comment. I’m so glad you decided to give us a try.
We have a whole range of questions asked here from beginner to advanced. We’ve helped out with all sorts of problems from installing Windows Updates which failed to setting up websites for people! We have loads of different types of questions!
Nice to have you here.
Thanks
Mike π
January 5, 2018 at 6:31 am
I have down loaded the Windows 10 creations update, and my laptop is telling me I am short of hard drive space, and to delete the earlier versions, but they will be unrecoverable. I do not think I willever need them again, but am wary of deleting them without advice.
can I delete them as per notification?
January 5, 2018 at 10:11 am
Hello.
Yep, it’s no problem at all to delete older versions of the install files. It’s something I do from time to time on the computers here at work, it clears up quite a bit of space and is generally a good thing to do every so often.
I should write a Journal post on it one day…
Thanks!
Mike π
January 4, 2018 at 12:05 pm
Hello Mike, sorry to be so long winded in getting back to you. From the options available in an effort to resolve my driver problem I favour option one. Let me know when you are able to proceed please. Thank you. David.
January 4, 2018 at 12:25 pm
Hi David, no problem at all, I’m free until 4pm today. or Tues, Wed, Thurs 10-4 next week.
If you could download and install the program called TeamViewer from here https://www.teamviewer.com/en/download/windows/ please then when you are happy give me a ring 01229777606 (I can ring you right back) and we can take a look… If you can’t get the program working give me a ring and we can go through it together.
Thanks
Mike π
January 2, 2018 at 3:15 pm
Hi Mike
can you give me some advice how I can clip a 2 minute piece from a DVD and email the edited piece
to friends and if I have to purchase some tool to do it as I am struggling at the moment
Ta Barrie
January 3, 2018 at 1:40 pm
Hi Barrie,
Ahh interesting question, As long as the video isn’t protected (if it’s just a video you got from a friend and not a commercial DVD) we should be able to help.
Aside from the legal issues of doing this with a commercial DVD (like a movie) they have copy protection on which makes it very difficult to do (This is not legal advice. You shouldn’t copy copyrighted material without permission from the owner.)
If it’s a normal bit of video you should be able to copy the file off the DVD to your hard drive, drag and drop the movie file to somewhere on your PC, then we use a program called
“VSDC Free Video Editor” which you can get for free from here: http://www.videosoftdev.com/free-video-editor it’s a little complicated but it allows you to crop out the bit of video you want.
Let me know a little more about the video you have or if it’s on YouTube that might be easier. Let me know a few more details please and we can go from there, I can do screenshots of how to the video editor works too.
Thanks
Mike π
January 3, 2018 at 2:22 pm
Hi Mike
you are a star. I will explain to you my request. A friend of mine visits care homes and over 60s parties, to entertain them he has been doing this for 5 years now and he keeps getting calls from the homes for him to vist, he can’t visit them all so he has produced a 1 hour DVD and he wants me to mail as many home in the UK plus OAP clubs to sell it and give 50% of the cost to the Alzheimer’s Society as I have been selling product for them for over 5 years, so I want to email the proposal to them and just add a 2 minute clip from the DVD as most homes and clubs are always looking to keep their patients entertained you can see a sample of his work on you tube brian Dennis sings
hope I have made sense of this for you
Barrie
January 4, 2018 at 11:04 am
Hi Barrie,
That sounds like a really good thing to do! My Nan was in a care home and she loved the interactive stuff they had. They often had a choir or the local church in, they did indoor bowls every so often as well.
I think the best thing to do here is to use the program I mentioned before ( http://www.videosoftdev.com/free-video-editor ) to edit the bit of video you want, then export it for YouTube (there is a setting in the video editor to do this). I would then host it on YouTube and include a screenshot in the email you want to send to the care home, with a link to the YouTube video.
Most people/organisations won’t like/allow video directly in the email unless it’s embedded in a special way, so the easiest way is to just link to a YouTube version.
However, some organisations block YouTube, so, as a backup, you could also host one on https://vimeo.com/ maybe?
Give the Video editor a try and see how you get on, or if you are stuck with it let me know and we can go through it together.
Or if it’s just a one-off thing I could edit the video for you if you wanted…
I’m going to put a quick email together for you which you might want to use as a template if you are emailing care homes.
Hope this all helps.
Mike π
January 4, 2018 at 2:40 pm
Hi Mike
just to say you are a complete superman as far as I am concerned Tim has realy hit the jackpot with you , many thanks for your help and your imput I never expected this sort of response Brilliant!!!, just one more question if I may I have been told I need Terms & Conditions plus a Privacy Policy , so any Idea where I can find them? seems rude me asking after what you have just done for me, but ask a man who can I say
Barrie
PS if you know of a Care Home in your area that could use a DVD I will send them one free of charge
January 5, 2018 at 9:45 am
Hi Barrie,
Ohhhhh haha I do my best! I did realise you might have meant actual physical postage rather than email advertising, we do that here too (free info packs) so if you want a few as examples I can pop some in the post for you. Sometimes they have an order form, sometimes they link to a website…
Ahh yes T+Cs and Privacy Policy there are some standard ones you can use, https://www.freeprivacypolicy.com/ or http://www.seqlegal.com/free-legal-documents/website-terms-and-conditions but I have no idea if they are useful or relevant, sorry π I can’t give legal advice.
You probably also need a Cookie Policy, something simple like “we use cookies” might be fine?? http://www.seqlegal.com/free-legal-documents/cookies-policy.
I’m always happy to help where I can, don’t worry about asking lots of questions :).
Many thanks for your kind words π
Mike π
Oh and that’s very kind of you, thank you
January 3, 2018 at 2:30 pm
Hi Mike
re the youtube address I made an error it is Brian Dennis Singer sorry about that
January 2, 2018 at 2:51 pm
Hello Mike. I have tried many combinations of the reply Jess sent regarding the problem experienced with my D.V.D. drive not working, all to no avail. I even tried some remedy suggested by my computer but after every attempt a box popped up telling me that the drive was working correctly, when in fact it wasn’t. Any more suggestions would be welcome. Thank you. David Morgan
January 3, 2018 at 1:35 pm
Hi David.
Thanks so much for getting back to me.
I’m really stuck on this one, I think there are two things we can try.
1. We could try a screen sharing thing and see if we can get it up and running again. This means we talk on the phone and I can see your screen and we can look at options together.
2. You might need a new DVD drive if this one is broken in some way, it’s really hard to tell if it is or not, but you can get an external one that plugs in for a few Β£s
3. We could do a restore of Windows 10, however, this uninstalls lots of programs and resets lots of settings which can take a long time to get back how you like it…
Let me know your thoughts…
Mike :/
January 2, 2018 at 1:09 pm
as usual, thank you for answering my question about getting rid of unwanted stuff. i was afraid that they would be cluttering up my PC in time. “Restart ” really isa good idea–how often would one need to do it? The minor problem is that my lenovo Think Pad only seems to have “restart” without shutting down, so I have to remember to return to it.
Yesterday, using some saved Inner Circle info , I managed to convert a file “odt” to a PDF, as i Pads don’t seem to pick them up when sent as attachments. Have you any advice as to how my I Padded friends can open my attachments etc–they all complain continuously about me!!! The PDF trick seemed fine, but there might be other solutions–I use Open office, which seems to fox the iPads.
January 3, 2018 at 1:25 pm
Hello π
Ahhh I see, as you only have a restart option, I would suggest you tweak a setting in Windows to make Shutdown act like a Restart (but it stays turned off after you do it). This way it’s similar to being restarted each time your PC turns off… You can read about how to do that here: https://www.pcinnercircle.co.uk/index.php/2016/09/how-to-turn-off-fast-startup-w10/
Ahhh yes, ODT file won’t work on an iPad, your best way to make them compatible is either to send them as a PDF (use the “Export as PDF” button) or select that from the File menu. Then send them the PDF version.
If they need to edit the file, then you can choose “Office Open XML .doc .docx” from the Save As Menu (File > Save As) and see if that lets them edit the file or not.
If you would like I can send you some screenshots of all this if that would help…
Hope this helps.
Mike π
January 3, 2018 at 1:47 pm
brilliant advice as always! Thanks. I was accusing my older friend of being lazy when she said she couldn’t pick up my attachments! until the other day I didn’t know about the pdf button–VERY useful.
I will attempt the stuff about restart etc when I have a quiet moment to sit down and concentrate!
t v m PM
December 22, 2017 at 3:23 pm
Jess. Thank you for your good advice but despite my feeble efforts the DVD/CD drive still refuses to function. I’ll give it a rest now and hope one of my grandsons can sort me out. If not I’ll be back in the New Year. In the meantime have an enjoyable, and hopefully restful Christmas.
January 2, 2018 at 10:26 am
Hi David, Mike here…
Did you manage to get your DVD drive up and running or is it still playing up?
Hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year!
Mike π
– I’m So sorry for the delay in getting back to you, we were closed over the Christmas period, and annoyingly I forgot to post the Journal Post explaining our opening times. I’m really sorry about that. –
December 22, 2017 at 10:41 am
am I to beleive that it no longer a sin to leave my PC plugged??
The trouble with W10 updates is that they remove large parts of one’s life and hide them-not giving any clue as to where they are. my list of app on the left hand side of my screen has been arbitrarily changed with things like Google sheets added–probably of no use to me as I use Open office, but taking up vast amounts of my PC, and together with microsoft installations like Groove Music etc, are absolutely impossible to get rid of. A film on how to do so would be wonderful!!!
Frustrated and feeling that my privacy is being invaded in the name of “progress” and updating!
December 22, 2017 at 12:51 pm
Hi Pamela,
Thanks for your comment, I’ll be sure to let Tim and Mike know about your suggestion for another video, it sounds like it would be a great topic to cover.
Microsoft do like changing things that don’t need to be changed, it can be quite frustrating.
Please let us know if there’s any problems after the recent update and we’ll do our best to help you out.
Have a lovely Christmas and best wishes for the New Year.
Thanks
Jess π
January 2, 2018 at 10:21 am
Hi Pamela.
Just a quick follow up. Many thanks for the suggestion, we will certainly add that to our list π They are difficult to get rid of, our current advice is if you don’t want them then don’t use them. Uninstalling them can have side effects on other programs not working (they are all linked into the main Operating system, in this case, Windows 10). If we find a safe way to get rid of them then we will do a video/journal post on it.
Most of these programs don’t send anything to Microsoft, but it can be disconcerting having programs randomly installed without your knowledge. Sadly that’s the way things are going at the moment, everything is “as a service” which basically means the people providing the ‘service’ in this case, Microsoft, Can do updates and install stuff without asking first (for security updates) that’s a good thing!
Again, many thanks for the suggestion.
Mike π
December 21, 2017 at 9:27 pm
Tim,Mike. Further to my previous submission, being so near to the festive period I will raise my question about my D.V.D. drive now and just hope that someone more knowledgeable than I will provide an answer. After a recent spate of updates which have completely upset my system my D.V.D drive, after I insert a D.V.D will whirr and gurgle, and produce nothing. Please , how do I rectify this ???.
I wish you and all those grand people who labour at “The Helpful Book Co ” a very merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year. All the best.
December 22, 2017 at 9:42 am
Hi David,
Unfortunately Mike and Tim have finished for Christmas now but hopefully I can help you out.
It sounds like the DVD driver software hasn’t updated properly, here’s some solutions you could try:
1. Use the built in hardware and devices troubleshooter – Press the Windows logo key + R to open the Run dialog box.
Type “control” in the Run dialog box, then press Enter.
In the Search box in Control Panel, type “troubleshooter”, and then click Troubleshooting.
Under the Hardware and Sound item, click Configure a device. You might be asked to enter an administrator password, if you have an administrator account then the password will be the password that you use to log in with.
If this doesn’t help, you can try this:
2. Update or reinstall the driver –
To update the driver, search for the driver on the device manufacturer’s website, and then follow the installation instructions on the website.
To reinstall the driver, follow these steps:
Press the Windows logo key + R to open the Run dialog box.
Type devmgmt.msc in the Run dialog box, then press Enter. You might be asked for your administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or select Allow
In Device Manager, expand DVD/CD-ROM drives, right-click the CD and DVD devices, and then select Uninstall.
When you are prompted to confirm that you want to remove the device, select OK.
Restart the computer.
After the computer restarts, the drivers will be automatically installed.
I hope one of the above methods works for you, please let me know how you get on.
Take care,
Jess π
December 21, 2017 at 9:10 pm
Hello Tim and Mike, just watched your latest video in which you mentioned difficulties to be experienced on older P.C’s and laptops. My question is, what qualifies as an old machine ?. I have a “Lenovo laptop bought in April 2012, how would you rate this. Thank you.
I have another question regarding D.V.D drive.Can I raise this with you ,or through the “Club Room”.
Once again , Thank you.
January 2, 2018 at 12:26 pm
Hi David.
I’m so sorry for the reply.
I’m not exactly sure what we mean by ‘old’ I would say a laptop should last 5 years, a desktop maybe a little longer?
But if it’s a top end model or is running OK then it’s OK! There is no hard and fast rule!
How are you getting on with your DVD drive issue?
Thanks
Mike π
December 21, 2017 at 8:47 pm
Another relaxed and informative session. I learnt a lot as usual.
January 2, 2018 at 12:27 pm
Hi Bruce,
Fantastic, glad you liked it. We really enjoy making these π
I’m just about to start putting Part 2 of this together which will be out in the next couple of weeks.
Thanks
Mike π
December 21, 2017 at 6:43 pm
Thank you again, very informative update.
Have a good Christmas all of you.
December 22, 2017 at 9:27 am
HI Howard,
You’re very welcome, Tim and Mike do an excellent job with the videos!
Thank you and have a lovely Christmas to you too!
Take care,
Jess π
December 21, 2017 at 6:18 pm
Just watched the new episode of Inner Circle TV – as usual – very helpful indeed and good fun too. You are both pretty good film stars!! All these little things which make a difference – must remember to turn off my devices rather more frequently!!
Have a lovely Christmas and we hope for a peaceful and healthy new year
December 22, 2017 at 9:26 am
Hi Mary,
Thanks for your lovely comments, I’ll pass those on to Tim and Mike when they’re back in the office.
Have a lovely Christmas and New Year too!
Take care,
Jess π
December 21, 2017 at 5:29 pm
You must be psychic youβve covered most of the things I worry about these last few weeks recharging my digital equipment is the latest ! Keep at it Iβm an elderly lady but I love it all except amazon Echo Iβd like to ditch that. Keep going a happy Christmas and New Year to all Anne Olby.
December 22, 2017 at 9:25 am
Morning Anne,
Thank you for your lovely comments, I’ll pass them on to Tim and Mike when they’re back in the office.
I’m glad you’re finding them useful.
Take care and have a lovely Christmas and New Year!
Thanks
Jess
December 21, 2017 at 3:57 pm
Hi you both,
It was great and I watched it mainly without having to look at the sub-titleds so either you are improving or my use of the Cochlear Implant is improving. However the information given was really good and answered many of thiongs I had wondered about. so thanks to you again.
Wishing you both a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy and eventful New Year
January 2, 2018 at 12:29 pm
Many thanks for your best wishes! Happy New Year to you too π
Really glad you enjoyed it and that we have improved the sound a little, it’s still something we are working on. I had a chat with my friend who works in the film industry and she gave us some tips so hopefully, in future episodes (not January as we have already recorded it) things might be even better!? Hopefully.
Thanks so much
Mike π
December 21, 2017 at 11:35 am
Once again thanks very much to the pair of you very good as usual and thank you for the Christmas present, you have made a rod for your own back we will be looking for another one next year. Have a lovely Christmas. Brian.
December 21, 2017 at 1:32 pm
Hi Brian,
I’ll make sure to pass on your lovely comments to Tim and Mike, and I’m glad you liked your Christmas present.
Best wishes for the festive period and the New Year,
Jess π
December 21, 2017 at 11:01 am
Belatedly watched you video about keeping devices working smoothly etc. Very good and helpful thank you both so much.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS
December 21, 2017 at 1:33 pm
Hi Jenny,
I’ll make sure I pass on your lovely comments to Mike and Tim, I’m glad you found it helpful!
Have a lovely Christmas and best wishes for the New Year,
Jess π