Replies

Leif, What it is all about?

You need to be of a ‘certain age’ to remember them properly

Brothel creepers – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It almost looks like the black print mechanism is out of vertical alignment with the colour – there is a stripe of non-colour immediately below where the black should be/should have been printed.

If you were printing purely black text, you wouldn’t see the error because the entire letter would be moved.

Can you print the same colour test but in black and white/greyscale mode? – i.e. without using the colour cartridge. It would be interesting to see if you still get a pale shadow.

Do you need to print self-seal or window envelopes?

(I can’t offer advice myself, but I know there are certain kinds of envelope that can’t be run through a laser, for example. We just use window types as it avoids the problem of printing the envelope )

In India often the voltage appease to be less than 240 volts at times as tungsten light bulbs light out put turns yellow. However, my Laptop is not affected. The Laptop has no battery.
I am using the laptop to post this in the UK and no shocks

It is likely that your power-pack is designed for worldwide use and will therefore work from anywhere between 90VAC and 240VAC, hence it not being affected by fluctuations in supply voltage.

In the UK, you are connecting to Live and Neutral. Neutral is at Earth potential and if the ‘fault’ is between the DC side and Neutral you should not get any shock (other than static). If the ‘fault’ is to Live (nominally 230VAC), and the leakage current is low enough, you would not feel anything.

In India, if neither side is grounded (Earthed), the ‘mains’ could theoretically be at a very high potential relative to ground and any ‘fault’ leakage current – even one that may be considered safe in the UK – could cause the ‘shocks’ you are experiencing.

I still think it may be worth getting your powerpack safety-checked as Stuart recommended. Additionally, you could use an Residual-current device in line with your mains connection in India.

++++++++++++++++++++++

I have just been told by a Indian friend when in India using any computer laptop or Tower “You must wear rubber soled shoes”

I’ve just checked with an Indian who works for me and he tells me that domestic wiring in India is notoriously bad and things like this do happen. He also confirmed that the mains may not be tied to ground as it is in the UK. Time to dust off those brothel creepers, methinks….

How does a test page printout look? (From the printer properties.) That may tell you if there is a software or a hardware problem.

Colour printer? What does a printout in (e.g.) red look like?

From looking at your scanned printout, I’m inclined to suspect a clogged or past-its-best printer cartridge.

Leif,
I have not install ANY software yet. Just a plain vanilla Win7.
It is unlikely to be related to packet writing because I discover this behaviour when installing drivers…i.e. a CD-ROM (not CD-R/RW) in the drive

Well, if nothing else, you are not alone, e.g. HELP DVD drive will not eject after intalling windows 7 – Windows 7 Forums – despite your protestations to the contrary, there are some people out there who believe drivers may be important…

Otherwise, a couple of things to try:
How To Assign Hotkeys To Eject/Insert CD Tray In Windows[/url]
and
Create a Shortcut to Eject the CD/DVD Drive in Windows 7

Is it a new “feature” of Win7?

I suspect it may be a ‘feature’ of whatever burning software you are using. I remember reading somewhere something about ‘packet writing’ – i.e. if the software knows there is writeable media in the drive, it won’t let you manually eject the disc as it has been ‘opened’ for data writing (to some extent or other).

A right-click enables you to watch it IN YouTube where you can go to full screen.

Using Firefox, I find I can just left-click on the image above twice and it takes me to YouTube….

It happens with no other connections to the laptop if I connect my camera it be comes live. I don’t think it is mains voltage or I would not be writing this:rolleyes: and my laptop & camera have not exploded and work fine her in the UK:cheers:

From what you say, I would suspect an insulation breakdown within your power-pack. It makes no sense (to me) that you have the problem only when using a different mains cable.

I assume it is the camera that is becoming ‘live’, rather than the laptop? (I’m guessing the laptop is plastic but the camera has a metal case which is electrically connected, possibly as a screen.)

Unless there is some strange phenomena I can’t think of, or you are experiencing very high humidity in India, I strongly urge you to get the power-pack replaced, or at the very least tested. If there is some capacitive breakdown, there may be only a limited current leakage at present (hence you still being around to post!) – but this could deteriorate….

There’s a comparison post “somewhere” in the Backup Forum attempting to answer just that question….

Perhaps ShadowProtect – report or Review of imaging software?

(Both in Other Applications, not Backup…)

… Replacing the sata cable.

I think that answers the second question
I don’t think I can help any more – I’ll leave it for someone else to come up with some ideas. (You could try disabling ‘sleep’ – I’ve never thought it worthwhile on a desktop – and see if that helps it survive a reboot.)

The drive can be made to work, but it works only until machine is turned off, or put to sleep.

How is it ‘made to work’?
Have you checked if there are any power-saving modes in the hardware?
How does the drive connect? Internal USB, or IDE, or…?

When I use my laptop in India I get electric shocks…

Have you experienced this in any other country, or is India the only foreign country you have tried it in?

…and anything connected i.e. my camera becomes live….

You do mean ‘live’ as in connected to the mains, and not just giving you static shocks?

I understand this laptop is double isolated from mains voltage by the Laptop power pack…

In practice, any step-down power supply should be isolated from the mains, and the country you use it in should not make any difference. If you use a 3-pin connector to connect to the mains supply, it is common for the ‘earth’ pin to not be used, and the mains lead will frequently connect to the power pack with a 2-way ‘figure-8’ plug. If the power pack has a moulded lead, it is possible the earth connects to the power pack for safety purposes, but I think this unlikely if it is double-insulated.

I would say that if you are getting a mains connection through your power pack, the power pack is faulty and should not be used.

Can you confirm when you get ‘electric shocks’, there are no other connections to the laptop? – e.g. network or modem cable?

Can text be zoomed (using a mouse) on an LCD monitor, like it can on a CRT monitor?

I don’t think so, which is why I have been holding off trading in my old CRT for an LCD. However, the old CRT (20 inches) is nearing the end of its life, so I have to decide whether to buy an LCD or a used CRT.

Are you referring to zooming with the mouse wheel – e.g. on web pages?
I can’t see why it shouldn’t – it works OK with mine. I would imagine it is more to do with your mouse and/or graphics driver than the hardware.

See Audacity: Free Audio Editor and Recorder[/url]……

I was going to mention Audacity, but guessed this was the “Free Audio Editor” mentioned in the first post!