Deauville

Insulation around the water tank is the key. We spent last winter in our camper in the UK and before setting up I lagged our underslung water tank in anticipation of the cold - but it still froze! I didn't realize that the temperature had dropped so far as to freeze the tank until I turned the water tap on one morning and nothing happened - I thought that the vent hole had blocked but after a couple more tries it finally dawned on me that the pump wasn't pumping as it had frozen - but of course it was TRYING to work and so burned itself out! Replacing the pump from underneath in the middle of January in the NW of England is NOT to be recommended!

Thanks Will - thought so

Eusi If it's any use there don't seem to be problems here in Dordogne at the moment. Leclerc and Intermarché at Ste Foy la Grande had full tanks and no queues this morning

Does anyone know if it is permissible to register a French car using a UK address - ie keep a French motor here but have the address on the carte grise the same as UK residence? I shouldn't think it's easy even if it is allowed but I'd still like to know if it can be done.

I'm looking for boarding kennels in the Montpon/Libourne/St Emillion area for a few days towards the end of June - does anyone have any recommendations please?

Thanks to you both - as ever the advice to all must be "don't listen to what someone thinks is the right way - ask someone who KNOWS!) The value of forum sites like this cannot be overstated, they are packed full of people who really know what they are talking about - thanks again

I've got someone interested in buying my campingcar and I'm pretty sure I've got a handle on the documents required but I'm a little confused now about the CT. My understanding is that any second hand vehicle being sold must have a CT valid for at least 6 months, mine has 12 months to run HOWEVER the guy who wants it says that when he comes to re-register it he will only get 6 months before he needs to have it re-tested but if I get a full 2 yr ticket all will be well - is he correct or is he trying to stiff me?

This might be in the wrong place, if so then forgive me. I am in the process of appealing against a large increase in taxes fonciere and habitation and am trying to find an explanation of the various categories of building and how they are arrived at, for instance we have been given category 5M but I don't know what that actually relates to. Does anyone have any ideas please

Like most others my Teleconnect service is, to say the least, fragile at present. I'm putting up with at the moment BUT I've now got the added inconvenience of my numbers being permanently engaged (FT and UK2U) plus I'm unable to dial out on my FT line - can I blame all this on Teleconnect or have I now got a France Telecom issue? Has anyone else got similar probs?

Good idea about disconnecting and starting with a stripped out system but I don't feel like going down that route just yet. I have however been poking around in the BIOS and, although there is no facility to control the onboard graphics, there is an option to enable 'PCI devices power on' and I'm wondering if that would be the way to go. BTW the idea of installing the graphics card was suggested on another forum site but, even if it doesn't improve things, I still need to re-instal the old video capture card if at al possible

I need to take issue with a couple of responses. I'm not quite as dumb as you think even if I have chosen PCI over AGP - there are two PCI slots as well as the AGP on the mobo. PLUS if you take the time to read my question properly you'll see that the vid card has no n need for power. But thanks all the same

After talking to a (frankly p&^^ed off) technical guy at Teleconnect before the weekend and being told that I should contact them again if the problem persisted after the 6th I just disconnected the lot while I got on with the decorating! This morning I plugged it all back together et voila, ca marche! Changed the outgoing STMP setting and all is well - although there's an extra light showing now that wasn't there before (WLAN)

That's a depressing response Albert! (but thanks anyway) The mobo is about a year old and was installed by a local shop that has since gone belly up and the video card (an attempt to get a better Skype picture) is brand new. The other cards are pretty old so I kind of expected problems with them. What sort of power supply problems?

Hi Dog - is it a half decent hands free? I bought one of their helemt to helmet jobs that's OK up to about 80kph (a bit flimsy though - you get what you pay for eh?)

Big computer problem - well it's big for me - so I must ask the techies for help:- I've got an Asrock K7S41 mobo with a Duron 1300 processor and 1400 mbs RAM running WinXP Pro SP3, the machine has just the regular stuff with no cards currently or previously installed. I'm trying to instal a Radeon M9200 128mb PCI video card (with no independent power supply) but after bunging it in when I turn the machine on all I get is a black screen, it doesn't matter if the monitor is plugged into the new or old socket or if the card is in the alternative PCI socket (there are just 2). The same thing happens when I try and put in a Soundblaster sound card or an Xpert Vstream video capture card (both of which worked with my previous mobo) Should I instal the drivers/software first or do I need to change any BIOS settings before I instal the card? Can anyone help please?Thanks

There's a toolbar button for a broadband speed tester

Sorry Anton, I don't know the make - it was fitted in Germany I think, just before the van was imported

Thanks for the congrats Erniey - the grandson was an unexpected pleasure as we never expected to become grandparents and this was heavily instrumental in our move to la belle France - amazing how such a small thing can change your priorities eh? Google tells me I'm currently running 2.2 mbs but I don't know what my son runs back in UK - reasonably good I suspect as he's not too far from Manchester and on BT

Sorry pachapapa - I read Bob's thread before yours (which is just as concise!) Will a graphics card have any effect on normal computer usage i.e. improving page load up when surfing t'net?

Sitting on top of our campervan here in Dordogne we have a 35cm dish ( yes thirty five) and we have so far managed to get all UK freesat channels as far south as Camargue! - (Size isn't everything!) and it's a doddle to line up using the satellite receiver's inbuilt signal monitor - all you need is a compass. Point the dish just left of south till you find a signal then gradually alter the pitch /direction till you hit the satellite you want, lock it down et voila, it normally takes me about two or three minutes

Nice concise reply Bob- thanks. So what are the advantages of a separate graphics card for a non games-player?

Having discovered the delights of Skype video (to watch the antics of an unexpected grandchild!!) I now want more. The quality of video is average and on full screen is so heavily pixelated as to be almost unwatchable - I guess some of this is due to broadband speed, my question is - will the addition of a video card improve quality, I'm currently using just the onboard graphics installation on the motherboard. Any comments would be welcome

Hi ErnieY MOBO is an Asrock K7S41 with a 1300 AMD processor - their website states that it will take a model 3200+ processor which is actually 2400 MHz not 3200) I'm running XP pro (genuine!) with SP3 update all sitting on a brand new hard drive that's still 60% free.There's a second hard drive installed (the old one) which has all the original system programmes and settings still installed but it's there as a storage disk and isn't running anything itself. Task manager shows the computer to be ticking along at between 2 and 40 percent most of the time, depending on what is going on, but when I fire up or shut down a programme it often ramps up to 100% (particularly when launching/closing internet access or switching tabs/websites) That's the slowness that I'm trying to address - any thoughts?

On Tel's recommendation I ran CC Cleaner and it didn't seem to make any difference - which brings me back to my original thought 'will a faster processor speed up my machine?' Any thoughts anyone?

Thanks Tel Yes, I've de-fragged (or at least run the diagnostic which tells me that it doesn't need de-fragging at this time - maybe I'll try another tool like you suggest) I've also run Spybot and I've got Spyware Doctor running in the background, along with Fsecure anti virus and Firewall. Tune-up Utilities suggests I upgrade my processor but that could just be a sales pitch