| Archive for NEEPS North East Eco-friendly People's Site |
| Forget-me-Not |
Vista adviceHi,Just bought new mobile phone as old one died, cheap but good camera, that's why I wanted it. (Quick grab when with kids.)Then laptop died, daughter coughed milk on it on way past and apparently fried motherboard. Got new one via insurance, now got Vista, eech! it doesn't recognise my phone and the phone company doesn't deal with Vista. All I ever wanted was a quick access to camera on phone and plug in and save on laptop. Am VERY VERY untechy, so my needs are pics and emails, a couple of forums and some word processing. Nothing complicated. Has anybody got any advice please. Thanks Beth |
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| Welly |
I'm not sure that I'm the best person to answer this, but my initial questions would be:
how does the phone connect to the pc physically? Is it USB? what is the make/model of phone? If the answer to the first question is indeed USB, then when you plug the phone in and switcth it on, can I assume you don't get a little message in the bottom right of the screen saying 'new hardware detected' or similar? If you do get such a message, then you may be able to see the picture files in Vista's equivalent to windows explorer and simply copy them to your hard drive. I daresay the vista-aware on this forum are laughing into their coffee at my efforts, but you never know - there might be at least a snippet of sense to it 
Welly |
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| Smooth Hound |
i have vista, and i was looking to get it changed, what i did find out was that for 50 odd quid you can have the other one, havent got a clue how or wht im talking about, but thats what the technical computor gy said, it may be 40 or 60 odd though, cant remember now. | ||
| purpleblade76 |
Hi Beth, the mother in law had a lot of problems with her printer not installing with her Vista PC, had both bits into PC World (can't stand the place but that's where she bought it).
They said there was nothing wrong with either machines 
After 2 more weeks of the same problems she took them to a small pc shop in Elgin. The man said he needed to install Vista service pack 1, this was brought out by Vista to iron out their initial problems.(So much for PC World) I've heard you'll need a minimum of 1GB of Ram for this to work. If this doesn't sound like your cup of tea get someone to install XP instead. Good luck
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| Martin |
Won't have Vista in the house - it's a heap of rubbish US of A homeland security services spyware........ go free, go Linux! - http://wubi-installer.org/ 
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| Forget-me-Not |
Vista probsHi,Thanks for all the info. Now I'm thinking whey hey, haven't tried connecting it to the printer yet! Will save email about the service pack may need it, need to look into this further. If all else fails will get XP back, I miss it now!!! I've a Linux disc somewhere, haven't tried it, scared of something new to try I suppose! Re the USB, yes it is, it wasn't recognising the drive. Went to phone site, LG, says not compatible, phone died and replaced a fortnight before laptop. Beth |
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| BikeOnBye |
Vista won't reconise a lot of software like the software with phones.
Printer may be ok, but if it is an old one they may not have new drivers for vista. You could just try the old one but it may not work. Way round the phone is to get a Wi-fi usd pen and transfer the pictures and video using that through the Wi-fi. I couldn't download pics from my Sony phone to the PC because I already have software for a Samsung and they conflict!
Quoted uses Vista and he thinks it is great! 
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| IainC |
Yup, go find how to connect her phone to the linux install then? 
Install Windows Mobile Device Centre (used to be called activesync for XP, etc). Vista needs to use that to talk to mobiles, etc connected via bluetooth or USB. My TytnII connects via USB and works fine with it on Vista, didn't need to load any other drivers other than the ones Vista already had or connected to the internet for. Would imagine it'd be the same for your phone as well. Definitely load SP1 for Vista though, along with all the other updates for your machines, works a LOT better with SP1 on it. |
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| Martin |
Humour me, give Ubuntu a go, you could be well amazed - there is a saying "it just does it" that has proved very true for me......I have "accessories - bluetooth file sharing" on mine that enables everything I've got that's bluetoothed to fire files between the two!
Ubuntu comes with a facility to recognise any inbuilt Bluetooth devices in the computer when it fires up, and there are several Bluetooth handling programmes available to add to Ubuntu, which are the usual "hard work" of clicking Applications - Add/remove programmes - choose FREE programme from list - one click, it downloads, installs, and works!
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| Smooth Hound |
so step by step here , how do you do it, 
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| IainC |
I have used multiple *nix systems in the past and used the install over the 'net options on some of them as well. The point being that in general driver support for stuff is a lot more limited. Someone who struggles to get something loaded/running in Xp or Vista is going to have a hell of a lot MORE difficult job trying it in any *nix flavour. Think my first flurry into *nix was over 10 years ago and the last one about 4-6 months ago so it's not like I don't try them, I just know that it doesn't suit everyone, despite what some people say 
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| Martin |
I think the secret of my success with Bluetooth is down to the fact that Ubuntu goes back to basics - if there's files available on a Bluetooth link, it'll find and transfer them, bypassing the often totally cr*p proprietary software that you have to use to get them to work with Windoze........try insisting that Ubuntu runs a 'doze" programme to do something, you'll get nowhere fast, just tell it to seek out a bluetooth/wireless/usb/firewire connection, it'll sniff it out, and connect using Linux software, usually living up to the "it just does it" motto.
I know linux was for a long time just for geeks, but having seen how well total computer newbies have got on with Ubuntu, I now have no hesitation in recommending it - even to complete beginners, they're far less likely to get into a pickle than if they dealt with the forces of darkness (Vista)
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| IainC |
Like I say, only software I needed to install for my phone was the mobile device thing, which AFAIK works for ALL phones, so no proprietry cr*p on here
Anyone will get on easily enough with any type of OS if all they need to do is surf the web and email, 'cos the programs are pretty much the same. It's when they want to do something different or something goes wrong (which it does with *nix as well). Not had any issues with Vista (post SP1) on my machine (or the others I support at work) that wasn't down to a carbon unit problem or a driver issue (which was easily enough resolved)
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| Martin |
I'm probably lucky in that Ubuntu gives me everything I want - surfing, email, Open Office, The Gimp (imho far better than Photoshop, with which I have given up as impenetrable), superb sounds handling - very partial to "Juk" or Tunapie and XMMS, rumour has it their torrent programmes are rather good too........
No getting away from it, this aged ex-corporate Dell would have been trashed if I'd had to keep running it on XP (it was soooooooooo slow!), as it is, it's been running Ubuntu for a year, and reckon there's another 2-3 years life in it, AND it'll spank the pants off many brand new laptops running Vista for speed and general grooviness.............
and I'm paying no money to that crook Gates, and all my affairs are not being run through Echelon every day, and all my software is free, and I have no security worries........Vista? - wouldn't wipe me shoes on it!
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| wildgarlic |
How does one remove Vista from a pc and reinstall something else - either XP or the unix thingie?
Does Ubuntu (for example) support the likes of photoshop/ACDSee/Napster/excel/ms programs?? |
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| BikeOnBye |
Re: Vista advice
Get a Bluetooth usb pen, it is as easy as transfering a picture to another phone. Bit slow but it does it, fine for transfering pictures to a computer. Around £4 upwards. |
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| Martin |
The easy way to replace Vista with Ubuntu would be to go the "Wubi" route -
http://wubi-installer.org/ - that way you're taking no irretrievable steps that can't be undone. Once you're in the wonderful world of Ubuntu, there are literally thousands of free software programmes that are just a mouse-click away....... It comes bundled with "Open Office" which is the open-source substitute for "Word" "Office and "Excel", and in my humble opinion works better and faster than the Microsoft version - you can open and also save in any Microsoft format you like too........ For imaging, there's "The Gimp" (which is the Photoshop trouncer), for downloads, there's loads...... Azureus, Bittorent, Ktorrent etc. Generally, forget the windoze programmes like Word and Photoshop, and embrace the Linux ones, they're often far better and usually loads faster 
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| wildgarlic |
trying it now - if I can't get back online you know where I've gone LOL | ||
| Martin |
good luck! - once you've fired up Wubi, it has to download 700mb (which can take a while), then it has to "compile", then after a quick reboot, you're up and boogying! - see you in Ubuntu land!
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| Smooth Hound |
let us know how it goes wg, before i try it
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| wildgarlic |
Well I'm there - initial thoughts are that it's fairly basic but then after the all singing and dancing (when it works) vista then that's to be expected.
It's changed my screen size somehow and that's making the fonts hard to read but I'm sure I'll sort that out. I can't access my photos at the moment because they are on the windows side of things. Do I need to import them into Ubuntu or can I still get to them somehow? |
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| Martin |
the easy way is to upload them to an online storage facility, then download what you need..........
Don't let the "stripped down racing model" appearance of Ubuntu fool you - there's some very powerful computing hidden "under the bonnet"
Try Appplications - Add/remove - and have a boggle at all the free software.........
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| IainC |
Not exactly the easiest way to get to a few hundred Gb of data though is it. When I bought an external USB drive, I bought one that also works as a NAS (Network Attached Storage), which basically just shares the data out on the network, so I have 1Tb of space, that is accessible by any windows, *nix or Apple(which is just a different linux flavour basically anyway). Something like that would be a better/easier way, but obviously a slightly more expensive option (if you don't need/want a backup to network ability). Would have thought that there'd be a way to transfer the data via an external USB drive though. |
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| wildgarlic |
Yeah - I've got around 250Gb of photos on my drive (some are to be deleted and this is a long old process as I've got to go through them all individually)
The NAS sounds interesting Iain - we currently all use the same router but the computers are not linked to each other. I'd love to be able to access my photos on any of the three computers in the house.Do you need a server to do that? I know I'm going a bit off topic here and perhaps should start a new thread. Martin - I'm definitely going to give it a real try out - I've been meaning to give it a shot for years. |
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| IainC |
Nope, that's what the NAS is. It sits on your network, connected using cat5. You use a browser to set it up initially, then you can simply map a network drive to the folder(s) on the NAS. The one I got was a cheap one, if I was buying one again I'd buy a slightly dearer one as the speed to copy to/from it isn't as quick as I'd like. Its fine for streaming music/video from and for getting pictures to/from as well, but for copying a heap of stuff to it it's a bit cr*p. I just connected it as a USB drive to copy it 'cos it was miles faster. Does allow any number of machines to connect to it at the same time though from any other machine. Also has an FTP "site" ability, assuming you port forward the relevant ports from your router, you can setup an FTP site on the NAS so you can transfer stuff to/from it from outside your house (ie at a mates house, you can connect into it and either upload some of their pics, of if you'd copied yours to it already, download them to your mates machine to work on). |
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| wildgarlic |
Sounds great! Thanks. | ||
| IainC |
This is probably the one that a lot of people would recommend (if you were going for a 1Tb NAS). http://www.amazon.co.uk/Buffalo-L...cs&qid=1232372841&sr=8-19
This is the one I went for http://www.amazon.co.uk/Envizage-...ics&qid=1232372811&sr=8-4 which was significantly cheaper (ie less than half the price of the Buffalo one). I guess if speed is important to you, you either get a 500Gb one for a little over £100 or you need to spend close to £300 to get a 1Tb one. I spent a little over £100 for the one I got, which was really only slightly more expensive than a normal 1Tb USB drive. I figured if the NAS part of it was hopeless, I'd only really lost a few quid 'cos I'd have just used it as a USB drive. Bought it mainly so we could chuck all the music and photos in the one place, so the wife could access them as easily as I could and so that it took up a lot less space than having an old desktop setup as a server (plus it'll use less power to run than an old desktop). |
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| wildgarlic |
Hmm quite pricey. It will go onto the wishlist! | ||
| Maria |
Hi Mizz Garlic, it is Maria's OH here,
As an interim solution to your problem you can just share the "my pictures" folder or whatever folder it is that has all of your pictures in doing this the pictures will then be available to the other pc's on the network. I am presuming that all PC's can currently connect to the internet via your wireles router, if so, they are all on the same network and can "see" each other. You can do this in a secure way that requires a password to access them if you are concerned over security. Sharing can only happen when the PC is turned on, but if i remember rightly you have your pc on quite a lot anyway. This will be adequate if you are just occasionally browsing a picture or 2 via another PC, if you are editing a picture from the shared location then you will feel an impact in the performance, but it should be ok. Let me know if you need any instructions for this as i think i have something that can be adapted easily to fit your needs. |
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| Smooth Hound |
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| wildgarlic |
Thanks Allan! Mizz Garlic indeed LOL
I'll try that and see what happens. I'll report back and let you know how it works. |
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| Bigman |
I'd just buy a copy of xp with key lol :p |