Ecossais

Steph1, You say you want to transfer the “contents” on the hard drive of  your old PC to your new PC - could you clarify if are you asking how to transfer just your “data” files like documents, pictures, music files etc, or are you also wanting to transfer the Windows operating system and other programs? Your answer may help you get the right advice.  Also, a couple of guys have mentioned temporarily fitting the hard drive from your old PC into your new PC as a “slave” in order to copy the files from one hard drive to the other – how comfortable are you with dismantling your PCs?  

I’d say a lot depends on where you are going to phone and who is going to phone you, and how much you will use your mobile. If most of your calls are going to be to and from the UK, a UK network SIM with the network’s international traveller package may be best. Take O2 for example.  For £10 per month as and when you need it on a contract or PAYG, “My Europe Extra” gives you outgoing calls to landline or mobile phones in Europe for 25p per minute and incoming calls FREE.  The only restriction is that the total of incoming and outgoing calls is limited to 1000 minutes per month – plenty for most! Vodafone has “Passport” which allows you to use your UK minutes subject to a 75p call connection charge.  Incoming calls up to 1 hour cost just the 75p connection charge.  To get these rates you have to opt in to “Passport” and make sure your mobile roams on SFR otherwise you’ll pay a lot more! With a UK mobile, you’ll need to make sure you have plenty of credit before travelling although you could leave a top up card with a friend in the UK and ask them to buy credit for you when needed. 0044 who you mention seems expensive?  £35 for the SIM card, then calls to UK 47 ppm and France 35 ppm - much more expensive than O2.  OK text messages are cheaper. If most of your calls are going to be within France and you expect French people to call your mobile, a French PAYG SIM may be best although your friends in UK wont be too keen on calling a foreign mobile.  Remember you have use up the credit or lose it with the French networks. In summary, there isn’t a “one size fits all” answer – it very much depends on your usage.  I suggest you have a look at the network’s websites and compare their rates for your anticipate usage.

Most UK networks already have some sort of international traveller discount scheme. Unfortunately unless you keep an eye on the network websites or call their customer service department before travelling abroad you may not find out about them. Would a network rather you paid £1.50 a minute or 25p? As an example, O2 has “My Europe” which is free to both contract and PAYG customers – this gives you incoming and outgoing calls to anywhere in Europe (landline or mobile) for 35p per minute. For £10 for a month O2 has “My Europe Extra” which gives you outgoing calls to anywhere in Europe (landline or mobile) for 25p per minute and FREE incoming calls (the total of incoming and outgoing calls is limited to 1000 minutes a month). With either of the above “bolt-ons”, a call from an O2 mobile in France to an Orange France mobile would be cheaper than a cross-network call when in the UK – not a bad deal! If you intend to use a UK network mobile abroad, I’d recommend you check your network’s website regularly for details of international roaming schemes. O2 details: http://www.o2.co.uk/termsconditions/tariffsandboltons0153 The EC announcement does not impact on the cost of text messaging – I guess the networks will keep these at around 25p in order no to lose any more profit from international calls.

If it’s a Pay As You Go mobile, your best options are probably to buy a new SFR PAYG mobile and use your existing SIM rather than the one which will come with the new phone, or buy an “unlocked” ex-contract handset which will accept any network SIM from someone on EBay.

[quote user="Loiseau"] Now I can check out my daughter's singing !   [:D] [/quote] Hi Angela, I’m glad you got your laptop speakers working, however I doubt if any PC speakers could do justice to the Diva’s wonderful voices.  

Angela, As well as software operated controls like the volume slider and mute, laptops usually have a mechanical volume control as well – either a thumbwheel or volume up and down buttons and possibly a mechanical “mute” button.

Hi Pagnol, You mention you’re using Internet Explorer 6.  If you upgrade to Internet Explorer 7, which you can download from the Windows Update site, this will give you what they call “tabbed browsing”. This allows you to have several websites open at the same time and you can move between them or close any particular one by clicking on the relevant “tab” – it’s the same idea as moving between Microsoft Excel “Sheets” if you are familiar with that. You can choose whatever you want as your “home page” (as you can with IE6), but you can also set IE7 to open multiple “home pages”, so for example when IE7 opened, LF, EBay and Google would open automatically and you could move between them by clicking on the relevant “tab”.  You can also set IE7 to open as a blank page with the mouse pointer in the address bar if you prefer. You can read about it here:  http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/winxp/IE7XPSP2FS.mspx  

Hi, You could try looking for any articles or ask the question on a Peugeot forum like http://www.peugeotforums.com/forums/  or http://www.aussiefrogs.com/forum/ You might find some more by ‘Googling’ Peugeot Forum.

Hi Sharon, What happens when you call your mobile? If calls go straight to Voicemail, then you may have accidentally set your mobile to divert all incoming calls to Voicemail.  You should be able to cancel diverts through the menus – possibly within “Phone Settings” or “Call Settings” (or similar). Some mobiles allow you to only accept calls from numbers that are in the phonebook – again check that you have not enabled this sort of function. If nothing happens when you call your number or the caller hears a message to the effect that the number is not in use, then it likely to be a network problem with your number – you will need to speak to the network. If you can, try the SIM card in another mobile – this should prove if the problem is being caused by the phone or if it’s a network issue.

If your mobile is “unlocked” (ie, it will work with any network SIM card), you could use your existing mobile and buy a French network Pay As You Go SIM card, eg Orange France or SFR, and use that in your own phone.  Cost about 30€.  If you anticipate receiving calls on your UK mobile, then it may be easier to buy a Pay As You Go mobile in France and carry the 2 handsets. You can get info on SFR PAYG SIM here:  http://www.sfr.fr/offre-sfr/particulier/sfr-carte/ , and Orange here:  http://mobile.orange.fr – click on “Recherche dans le site” and type Mobicarte in the search box. Note calling credit has an expiry period on French PAYG mobiles unlike in the UK.  For example, on SFR, a 15€ top up has to be used within 1 month - see http://www.sfr.fr/offre-sfr/particulier/sfr-carte/rechargement/index.jsp  

Hi QT11, McDonalds in France do have free wi-fi – details including a branch finder here:  http://www.mcdonalds.fr/ - click on “Dans vos restos”. Another site to have a look at is Orange France – you’ll probably have to pay at these locations:  http://www.orange-wifi.com/en/recherche.htm They offer 30 hours / 90 days access for €50. At hotels, the signal should be fine in the bar area etc.  Just turn on your laptop and see if it finds a network.

Hi JR, In the absence of any other suggestions, you could try the following. If the change in the way your printing works has only happened in the last few days / weeks, you could try Windows “System Restore”.  This puts your computer back to the way it was working [correctly] on a date of your choice. “System Restore” is in Start | All Programmes | Accessories | System Tools | System Restore.  Follow the instructions and choose a date when you know the printer worked the way it used to. If that doesn’t work you could try uninstalling and reinstalling the printer. Unplug the printer from your PC.  Go to Control Panel | Printers – click once on the Epson printer icon and press the delete key on your PC.  You should get a confirmation message. Go the Epson.co.uk website and download the driver for your printer and follow the printer installation process as if you were connecting it for the first time. Hopefully one of the above procedures will help. You mention that your PC is “very old and slow”.  How much RAM memory does it have?  The easiest and cheapest way to get a PC working faster is with more RAM memory.  If it’s a branded PC, have a look at http://www.crucial.com/uk/ to see how far you can upgrade your memory.  (I have no connection with Crucial; I’m just a satisfied customer!)  

SunInFrance, Here’s the Mastercare / PC ServiceCall / The Tech Guys site: http://www.thetechguys.com/servicepartners/servicepartners.shtml  – you might find something useful there? – You need to click on “PC and TV support” link and then navigate to your model (I’ve tried copying and pasting the URL for your model, but it doesn’t work).  According to their website you don’t get a Windows or Recovery CD – you can create one from the files on the hidden partition of the hard drive using a utility on the laptop. Alternatively, as you said your laptop was still under warranty, you could either call The Tech Guys (the latest name for PC World’s service department) on 0870 901 3000 or use their email support service http://support.thetechguys.com/Layout.aspx?ID=63aec0d4-34ec-446b-a321-118d62be91bc&CatID=d84bf96d-c05c-48cf-b4af-dc9bcb284743 I’d be surprised if PC World give you your money back after 8 months – they’re more likely to send it off for repair if running the Recovery process doesn’t work. Good luck!

JR, You’re absolutely right in your theory – a mobile dropped in soapy water has a much better chance of long term survival than one which gets wet in the rain or is dropped into salt water. A friend of mine accidentally dropped his Nokia 6310 into a basin of soapy water – he removed the battery and left in on the window sill by an open window.  That was summer 2005 – it’s still working fine! Some mobile repairers have equipment (sonic bath) which can get water immersed mobile phones working again – another friend jumped into a swimming pool with his Sony Ericsson K750 in his pocket while on holiday!  He tried drying it out, but to no avail.  He noticed an independent mobile phone shop advertising repairs, and as he was keen to recover the photographs on the phone, he asked if they could get it working again.  A few days and (I think) £30 later, his phone was working again.

James, You mention that using your UK mobile in France is expensive, what network is your mobile on?  If it’s O2, have a look at their “My Europe” scheme – it’s free and makes incoming and outgoing calls to almost any European landline or mobile number 35p per minute.  There are details on the O2 website. Regardless of which network you have, I'd suggest you make a quick chargeable call every 3 months, if you don’t, you risk having your number disconnected and losing any credit you have.

Owen, As far as I can make out from the Government Motoring / DVLA website (http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/index.htm) in order to “un-SORN” a vehicle you need a Vehicle License Application “V10” form – you can download and print this, and all the other motoring forms, here:  http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Diol1/DoItOnline/Doitonlinemotoring/DG_10031645 The “V10” is the form you would use if you didn’t have the tax disc renewal letter that you normally receive a few weeks before the tax disc runs out.  Note that in answer to one of the questions on the V10, you either insert the date of expiry of the last tax disc or “SORN” if appropriate. You will need to provide the following documents at the time of application: Vehicle Registration Certificate V5C (“Log Book”) Insurance Certificate or Cover Note MOT Certificate if the car is older than 3 years You should be able to arrange insurance over the internet – I assume you’ve still got a UK address that this can be sent to?  It may be worthwhile making the start date 2 -3 weeks earlier than your return date in order to give you time to sort out the tax disc? It would probably be easiest to post your V10 + Vehicle Registration Certificate + MOT (if needed) to a friend in the UK who can take these along with the Insurance Certificate to a Post Office and obtain the tax disc for you and post it and your documents to you.  You can find out the cost of the tax disc here:  http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/HowToTaxYourVehicle/DG_4022118 Alternatively, you could try applying for your tax disc online:  http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/Motoringtransactions/DG_10034732 If your car needs an MOT and you don’t have one, you will not be able to get a tax disc and your Insurance will probably not be valid.  You would need to book an MOT at a garage close to the ferry terminal and go straight there when you land in the UK.  Once you’ve got the MOT, go to a Post Office with your documents.  

Katz, Cooperlola and Pierre have mentioned “SIM free” and “unlocked” phones.  As your mobile is on an O2 contract it will almost certainly be “unlocked”, meaning that it will accept any network’s SIM card, so there should be no need to buy another phone if you go for the 0044 deal. The easiest way to check if your mobile is “unlocked” is to try a friend’s Vodafone or Orange etc SIM in it and see if it works. You’d be as well cancelling your O2 contract when you go to France as any inclusive minutes or messages you get on your tariff are only for use in the UK.  If you wanted to keep your number if it’s important to you, you could convert it to PAYG – just make sure you / someone makes a quick chargeable call every 3 months to keep it active when you are in France.

Katz, Who you will be phoning and who will be phoning you will have a bearing on the best solution. If most of your calls will be from people in France and your outgoing calls mostly to people in France then a French PAYG SIM would probably be the best option, but remember calls to and from the UK will be expensive. If most of your calls will be to and from the UK, an O2 or Vodafone PAYG SIM may be best.  Both of these networks offer discounted international calling schemes. O2 have “My Europe Extra” which costs £10 per month.  All outgoing calls to almost any European landline or mobile cost 25p per minute.  You pay nothing to receive up to 1000 minutes of calls per month. Vodafone have “Passport” which is free.  You are charged a 75p connection fee and then are charged as if you were using the mobile in the UK.  For incoming calls you are charged the 75p connection fee and no more for calls up to 1 hour long.  With “Passport” you must make sure your mobile is manually set to SFR in France otherwise you will be charged a lot more. You can get more info on these offers on the O2 UK and Vodafone UK websites.  Remember if you go the UK SIM route you will have to leave a top up card (and some money!) with a friend in the UK in order to get credit added to your account when you need it. It may be worthwhile to consider having a UK mobile and a French mobile, depending on your circumstances.

With your O2 mobile set to automatic network selection it should constantly be looking for the strongest local network [when you’re abroad].  You can manually choose which network it selects in France (SFR, Orange, Bouygues) although you should get better reception with the phone set to automatic network selection.  I’ve sometimes found that I can get a stronger network by switching my mobile off and back on – although this shouldn’t be the case! If you find a particular network works best in your area, then you can manually select it.  With the O2 “My Europe Extra” deal it doesn’t matter which local [foreign] network your phone uses. If you were on Vodafone UK and had their foreign travel scheme (“Vodafone Passport”) you’d have to manually select SFR when in France, otherwise you’d be stung with high roaming charges if your phone selected Orange or Bouygues.  

Hi Miss Babs, I’m not sure what deal you were getting for £5 a month.  Since summer 2006 O2 have had a scheme called “My Europe” for PAYG and Contract customers.  This is free to opt into and gives you incoming and outgoing call charges within Europe at 35p per minute. The new scheme, “My Europe Extra”, costs £10 for a month and makes outgoing calls 25p per minute, but the biggest win is that incoming calls when you are in Europe are free. If you were to receive 60 minutes of incoming calls with “My Europe” it would cost you £21, or nothing with “My Europe Extra”. “My Europe Extra” was introduced fairly recently.  You can check what bolt ons you have by calling O2 on 08705 678678 (PAYG).

If you have an O2 mobile (Contract or Pay As You Go), and use your phone a lot when in France, you may be interested in a new scheme which has just been launched called “My Europe Extra”. For £10 per month, incoming calls are free to receive and calls made when in Europe within the country or to other European countries are charged at 25p per minute. “My Europe Extra” can be added for a month at a time when required. There is a “fair use policy” – after a total of 1000 minutes of incoming and outgoing calls in any month, O2 reserves the right to charge their normal roaming charges. If you want more info have a look here:  http://www.o2.co.uk/termsconditions/tariffsandboltons0153  

Hi CJL, I saw a Livebox advertised on eBay which had an external antenna fitted.  The Seller makes claims about increased performance.  The auction has now ended, but you might want to have a look at it, also the Seller’s reply to an enquiry from someone with a stone built house who has signal problems. To view, enter 250079892530 in the search box on (UK) eBay’s homepage. (I have no connection with the advertiser).

The only reason 3 can make their “3 like home” offer is because Hutchison Whampoa also own 3G networks in these countries.  If you take your 3 mobile to these countries you can also use 3’s mobile internet services as if you were in the UK.  Details:  http://www.three.co.uk/personal/coverage_/going_abroad_/like_home_details.omp Similarly, O2 which is owned by Telefonica of Spain currently has an offer called “Chosen country – Spain”.  This gives you free incoming calls and all outgoing calls at 25p per minute.  This costs £5 per month and can you can take it for a month at a time as required. If you are on O2, their best deal for France is their “My Europe” scheme which gives you incoming and outgoing calls for 35p per minute. For it to be viable for mobile networks to offer some sort of deal where you can use your UK minutes while abroad, they need to own or have some sort of relationship with a network in the foreign country. As far is France is concerned, Orange, owned by France Telecom, is obviously also in the UK, Vodafone has some sort of relationship with SFR. I’m not aware of any special offer for Orange UK customers travelling to France whereby you can use your “UK” minutes. Vodafone has “Vodafone Passport”, available on Pay As You Go or Contract – the way this works is that for incoming calls when in France (or many other countries), all you pay is a connection charge of 75p per call and then no further charge for calls up to an hour.  Outgoing calls attract the same 75p connection charge and then calls come out of your “UK” minutes.  To get these rates you must ask for your number to be set up for “Passport” and you must manually set your mobile to roam on SFR when in France. Whatever network you are on, if you want to use a UK mobile abroad, it’s worthwhile regularly checking your network’s website for new international use options.

Andy, I presume French mobile phone contracts work the same way as UK networks - When you took out the contract you would have committed to a minimum term of 12 / 18 / 24 months, and in return you would have got a handset either free or at a subsidised price and so many minutes / texts per month. Have you completed the minimum term?  If not, I would imagine if you want to terminate early then you would have to pay the monthly rental for the remaining months of your contract.  Is this why they want you to pay until July? The networks would lose money if they let customers end contracts early without penalty.

Hi Beryl, Could you clarify what the player actually is (make / model) as it will make it easier to help you?  The link to the eBay item doesn’t seem to work. In your original post you describe it as an “MP4”; in your second post you say it is an “iPod”.  Is it an actual “Apple iPod” or “Apple iPod Nano” etc, or some other make of MP3 player? If your PC has Windows XP and the player is a generic MP3 (music) player (rather than an “Apple iPod” or some Sony players), you probably don’t need the disc you have as when the MP3 player is connected to your computer through a USB socket, your PC should recognise that the player is connected and you should be able to “copy and paste” MP3 format music files from your PC to the player. If it’s an “Apple iPod” or a Sony player you will need to use their own software to move your music from your PC to the player. I don’t think there’s any point going into any more detail until we hear from you with details of what the player actually is – but I’m sure we’ll be able to help you get it going!