COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[PanBiker]

Part of the benefit of modern technology is that there is always lots of information on the internet for the various platforms for devices and such. If you have a reasonable amount of technical nous many faults can be sorted without having to resort to manufacturers service and repair facilities.

I had an appeal from a friend with a busted Google Nexus tablet to see if I could help her out and recover the device. It had failed during its update to the latest version of Android (Lollipop) and was stuck in what was effectively a boot loop. Pushing the start button started the boot process but it halted when trying to load the desktop and just sat there rotating the little coloured Google balls. Forcing a restart just brought it back to the same position, all does not always go smoothly in some areas of Linux land it would seem.

There are a number of different models of the Nexus as the device has evolved. A problem with one in a situation such as this is that you cant determine exactly which model it is or which version of the OS it is running unless it is booted up. It soon became clear by trolling the various support forums on the web that there are numerous versions of each release of the Android OS depending on the chipset of the device it sits on. Nexus devices have been manufactured by Samsung, LG and Asus. You need to determine the build information in order to select the right software for the device.

Jill had brought it in is box but the information on the product label dis not give the full story of the device. It had a date of manufacture which said January 2012 but no hint on which particular genre it was. I scanned all the barcodes on the labeling but nothing definitive was produced so I had to make an educated guess on which OS image to download for the device. The ultimate object was to upgrade it to the latest version of the OS but I thought it would be best to recover it back to its original build first in order to prove that the hardware was in good order, there were a few hardware issues noted in the forums which could actually give the same symptoms so I thought this would be the best course.

The process of recovery involves gaining control of the device during the boot strapping process and then flashing the device with a new OS image of the correct release for the targeted hardware platform. You need some form of software to handle the control and flashing of the device so I hunted around on the forums and after a bit of homework settled on an open source utility called "Nexus Root Toolkit", this looked to be a well established bit of software with plenty of support should things go wrong.

Going off the manufacture date on the label I assumed that the device would originally be running Android KitKat and that it was an Asus built device. I downloaded the required image, attached the Nexus to my laptop via USB, ran the toolkit and booted the device into its service menu. This allowed me to get into rooting mode and then force load a factory image of it's original OS. I was quite pleased that it all went according to plan until I went for the reeboot after the load. I instigated the command from the toolkit, the device rebooted and then died completely! It was now no longer stuck in a boot loop but completely dead in the water, a condition known in the trade as "bricked".

Back to the forums with much head scratching. To rule out a corrupted image I downloaded another copy from a different Google distribution mirror, the checksums for the download were all correct so I flashed the Nexus again. Same result, completely dead. I was beginning to suspect that an underlying hardware problem may be causing the fault which would really require that the device was sent back to Asus for service. I continued hunting round the forums for a bit and came across a post that indicated that some devices with dates shown in early months of the year could actually have been built in the latter months of the previous year. If this was the case with Jills, the unit would need an earlier version of the OS.

Nothing to lose at this stage as a bricked device is only useful as a doorstop, a Nexus tablet even less so as its only thin and wouldn't really be effective in that role either. I downloaded a new zipped image for an earlier build and flashed the ROM for the third time. The forums indicated that the first reboot could take 15 minutes to half an hour as the OS is unpacked and installed on the unit so I disconnected it from my computer, reconnected to the charger to ensure a solid power source and left it to do its stuff. Twenty minutes later it had built perfectly and was sitting at the new back to factory out of box welcome screen.

I went through the initial settings to put Jills name back on the device and attached it to my WiFi and Google account so that it could see the Internet and access any updates that it might need having turned back the clock three years on the device. I didn't take it long to determine that it would benefit from the latest version of the OS and it proceeded to download the replacement. I stopped it doing an automatic deployment and instigated the update manually which then installed without any problems, it did take about half an hour to deploy after the download but eventually arrived at the new look Android Lollipop welcome screen.

After a reasonable amount of testing for functionality and giving it a full discharge / charge cycle I removed my Google account settings and gave it back to Jill. I left my WiFi settings on it in case it comes back but it obviously disconnects once out of range. It would find her settings once back at her home. That was about six weeks ago and having seen her since, all appears to be well and she is very happy with the upgrade.

I can recommend the Nexus Root Toolkit that I downloaded as a fully featured bit of freeware for interacting with these types of devices. You can use if for all Nexus devices and other Android types including some models of smartphones.

[Stanley]

Very impressed Ian! It makes me realise how little I know.... As for Freesat boxes, I have the first Grundig box Garlick's installed in Barlick, I forget the date.... I soon found that when sound went AWOL all you had to do was physically unplug it from the power and re-connect. I get occasional temporary drop-outs to blank screen but if you leave it alone it re-establishes the signal very quickly, as it only happens when running via the Freesat box I attribute this to a glitch somewhere but live with it. The only other problem I have is that as you use the menu it gets slower and slower until eventually all you are getting is 'no information. I have found the cure (thanks to Big Kev....) and occasionally force a new installation which temporarily cures it. My eventual answer will be to replace the now outmoded set-up of Sony HD recorder and the old Freesat box. I shall wait until something terminal occurs.
The Sony recorder occasionally throws a wobbly and refuses to do anything. I have found that once again, the 'cure' is to pull the power plug, go and brew a cup of tea and come back to it a few minutes later. If you plug it back in and leave it alone for a while it starts working again. All very strange but as I say, I put up with it. The only other maintenance thing I have learned is that every now and again it is a good idea to pull all the plugs for the connections out and replace them. The SCART plugs in particular are very easy to disturb. I warned my cleaners to leave the dust alone at the back of the set-up!

[Stanley]

You all know the syndrome whereby you boast that you haven't had a puncture for twenty years and the following day......
Last night my TV suddenly lost all control of its colour function, the picture was out of focus and so contrasty that the predominant colours were blue, red and white. I checked the Freesat box and forced a reload of the data, no problem. Next I switched to the HD recorder and played a video back, image was there but same colour problem. I disconnected the monitor and reconnected, also checked all the connections, no joy. I diagnose catastrophic failure in the monitor. If this is confirmed by my man I shan't entertain a repair but get a new monitor bigger than my present 32" Sony LED which is about eight years old. It must have been aware of my post yesterday..... It's only money......

[chinatyke]

And another old warning: KEEP UP WITH YOUR BACK-UPS!

Make sure you have a back-up of your computer data. Yesterday I downloaded the latest updates from Apple - OSX 10.10.3. It was a big download, nearly 3GB and there were 3 sections to it. Halfway through it asked me if I wanted to restart my computer and I selected Yes. Big mistake. I've no idea why it asked me this when it hadn't finished downloading, I assumed it was because there were 3 sections to the update. Anyway, the Mac refused to restart. Luckily I keep up with back-ups via a program called Carbon Copy Cloner to an external disc drive and this produces a fully bootable copy. I also do back-ups via the in-built Time Machine program to an external server. CCC "saved my bacon" (their advertising slogan) and restored my computer very quickly to the back-up image. I started the update again, selected automatically restart the computer when finished, and went to the bar. I came home after midnight to a perfectly restored computer. Nothing lost.

[Tizer]

Last night my TV suddenly lost all control of its colour function, the picture was out of focus and so contrasty that the predominant colours were blue, red and white.

Are you sure it wasn't something you smoked in your pipe?

Choosing a TV can be tricky. We're thinking of getting another one but there seems to be the usual overload of `features'. Also the stores that sell them will set the picture to vivid etc so what you see on the screen isn't necessarily the `normal' default. And we've all got different ideas about what the best settings are (a bit like judging photos).

[Stanley]

Tiz, you're right but I rely on the KISS principle. I went to my local shop, I described what had happened and the young lad said it was an unusual fault and there might be another cause in the associated hardware. However we agreed that the best course of action was to work on the assumption that it was the set and for their bloke to come round Monday morning bringing a new set of my choice already paid for this morning. I chose a Samsung 40" which has the least bells and whistles and is on offer at £400, cheaper than I expected. I've paid £430, the lad will test mu set and if he can find a problem and rectify it he'll take the new set back and they will refund £400. So I'm covered.... I shall report back but on the quiet I hope it's the set.... the extra size will be nice and after all the old one owes me nothing....

[plaques]

A friend's 32" TV died after 3 years. Currys asked for £90+ to send it away to their repair depot. The actual repair would come on top of this. Remember the larger the screen the farther back you have to sit to avoid pixelation. There is also the disadvantage in that you have to watch it with your curtains open to show it off to your neighbours.

[Pluggy]

I think I'll hang on to my 10 year old dinosaur TV, its lasted all this time, it'll probably keep going a bit longer.

[Tripps]

Too late now I suppose but how about this from John Lewis. 40 inch Samsung

Just a TV with Freeview - and most importantly a five year guarantee. All for just £279.

[chinatyke]

Too late now I suppose but how about this from John Lewis. 40 inch Samsung

Just a TV with Freeview - and most importantly a five year guarantee. All for just £279.

Same advert: TV wall mount installation (bracket not included) >26" £125.
TV wall mounts £71.95 upwards!
Nearly £200! What a ridiculous price! I cannot believe anyone would pay so much. Has everyone gone crazy in UK?

[Tripps]

" Has everyone gone crazy in UK?"

Not everyone - perhaps they rely on the ' hard of thinking' being silly enough to buy the extras, and that enables them to keep the price of the main item low.

[Stanley]

Well there you are.... I'm daft enough to trust the people I have been buying off for sixty years and they are on my High Street 5 minutes away. As for pixellation, even on non HD you can't see the pixels from four feet away. Come Monday I shall settle back quite content thank you.....

[Big Kev]

Tiz, you're right but I rely on the KISS principle. I went to my local shop, I described what had happened and the young lad said it was an unusual fault and there might be another cause in the associated hardware. However we agreed that the best course of action was to work on the assumption that it was the set and for their bloke to come round Monday morning bringing a new set of my choice already paid for this morning. I chose a Samsung 40" which has the least bells and whistles and is on offer at £400, cheaper than I expected. I've paid £430, the lad will test mu set and if he can find a problem and rectify it he'll take the new set back and they will refund £400. So I'm covered.... I shall report back but on the quiet I hope it's the set.... the extra size will be nice and after all the old one owes me nothing....

I bought the 50" Sharp Aquos, from Garlicks, just after Christmas. Everyone else was pushing the Smart TVs, didn't want one of them, paid the same as you did and got it the same day. You can't beat local shopping.

[Stanley]

Couldn't agree more Kev end the money mostly stays in the local economy as well!
Just had an interesting experience. I watched F1 Quali (I player) on the 27" screen on my computer and it's brilliant. I could see far more detail than on the Sony TV. I shall not be TV less.... Going to watch the Boat Race now..... (No pixellation at 18".....)

[Marilyn]

I bet you anything you like your old set will either be deemed non-fixable OR a horrendous quote for repair, bringing everything in their favour, Stanley!
Loyalty is commendable, but shopping about is savvy.
They may have been prepared to price match...

[Stanley]

Why is everyone worried about money? There was a solution I liked and it was painless. That'll do for the time being.....£400 over 8 years is £1 a week......

[Marilyn]

Same TV here ( current conversion rate) £277 at Dick Smith's.
Sorry Stanley...

[Tizer]

My dad's LCD TV expired so we got him a replacement which was an updated LED version. The picture was better and it wasn't so affected by strong sunlight. But after a week of using it he complained bitterly and wanted the old one back, even though it was dead and gone! It took us a while to figure out what was going on. He no longer retains the memory of how to use the remote control and was simply switching it on and finding he couldn't hear it, not remembering that he needed to turn up the sound loud because of his poor hearing (he takes out his hearing aids most of the time). The old TV must have been loud by default, or it retained the setting from the previous session of viewing. We show him how to adjust volume but he's forgotten 10 minutes later.

[Stanley]

Salutary to think we may all get there in the end.... It's a depressing thought.....
Enjoyed another evening’s TV on the FM3....
Later at 15:00. The new TV is in, up and running. My diagnosis was correct, "gone to negative" is the correct term. As soon as I switched it on they both agreed. I'm so glad it wasn't some obscure intermittent fault. A bonus is that as soon as it was switched on it found my router and connected as soon as the lad pushed a button on the back of the router so I have all the on demand services like i Player etc. and if I wanted to pay, the other services as well. Very impressed. I shall soon get used to the buttons on the new remote........
Now for the burn in period....

Tiz, I acted on your advice and altered the junk settings on Thunderbird. I told it to learn and it's kicked in properly now and flagging up the junk in a separate folder so I can easily check it hasn't made a mistake. I've set it to delete the junk after a month. Much better, thanks for the advice.....

[Big Kev]

Too late now I suppose but how about this from John Lewis. 40 inch Samsung

Just a TV with Freeview - and most importantly a five year guarantee. All for just £279.

Same advert: TV wall mount installation (bracket not included) >26" £125.
TV wall mounts £71.95 upwards!
Nearly £200! What a ridiculous price! I cannot believe anyone would pay so much. Has everyone gone crazy in UK?

I paid £10, with free delivery, for my TV bracket. It can supposedly support up to a 60" TV. Just had to drill 6 10mm holes and bolt it to the wall.

[Tizer]

Kev, when I hear anything like that I think of my Uncle George when he put up a wall cabinet in the 1970s for Auntie Freda's crockery. An almighty crash in the middle of that night got them out of bed. She never forgave him!

A question about `smart' TVs - we don't have wireless due to the thick walls but we have those mains plugs that distribute the network signal through the house power circuits. Do the smart TVs have a socket for a network cable so that I could hard wire a smart TV to the router? And that raises another question - is there a way of connecting my precious new smartphone to the router via thos plugs?

Aaah, so many questions and so little time!

[PanBiker]

Depends on how smart the TV is Tiz, some are router connectable and may also have Video casting capabilities. with this you just need an app such as Chromecast on your new shiny phone. Free download from the Play Store and it will relay stuff from your phone to your TV.

Chromecast works via wireless and if the TV is network enabled you should just get the On Demand via the Cat5 and the router. Our TV can see all the devices on our home network and can play any AV stored on any of the computers or phones connected via the router.

[Stanley]

When I moved into this house 15 years ago I bought a solid teak unit that I think was made as a telephone table. It has served as a stand for my TV ever since and is ideal, amazingly it even has a recess that is exactly the right size for the HD recorder and Freesat box and couldn't have been designed better for the job so I drilled no holes....



I had to laugh about the china cupboard.... Again, when I moved in here I installed a complete fitted kitchen I had got for free out of a house that was to be repossessed. I put these cupboards up just at the same time my Sparks was completing the electric installation. When he came in that morning he saw the set of battens I had screwed to the wall using 2 1/2" 12s woodscrews and blanched. I had put three screws in on the line of the only cable run in the house that went uphill! He did some quick circuit checks and thankfully all was well even though he reckoned I had gone in between the two heavy cables. The providence that looks after drunken men and idiots had been working well.... I always remember what Napoleon said when discussing the merits of an officer being considered for promotion to general, He listened to all his qualifications and then said "Yes. But is he lucky?"

[Pluggy]

Depends on how smart the TV is Tiz, some are router connectable and may also have Video casting capabilities. with this you just need an app such as Chromecast on your new shiny phone. Free download from the Play Store and it will relay stuff from your phone to your TV.

Chromecast works via wireless and if the TV is network enabled you should just get the On Demand via the Cat5 and the router. Our TV can see all the devices on our home network and can play any AV stored on any of the computers or phones connected via the router.

I haven't seen a phone with an ethernet jack yet, so wireless is the only way to do it, software will no doubt sort the protocols out.

I would suspect smart telies are like printers when it comes to networking, whereas wireless networking is practically a given with modern printers, its only the better ones have an ethernet jack as well. Its probably cheaper to put a wifi chip in a device than a physical socket.

[Tizer]

Thanks for the help. Mrs Tiz is a step ahead of me - she says we've inherited a Humax recorder from her Dad which can connect to the Internet. I've checked and it has an ethernet socket, so if we buy a new TV we don't need it to have such a socket, the Humax will do the job. The fact that I didn't know about the Humax having this capability says something about how much (little) interest we really have in TV via Internet!

Stanley, our old house has the mains water tap in the lounge, part of which was the kitchen when it was a little cottage. Some years ago we had the house re-wired and the electrician drilled through a pipe running in an unknown route in the wall from the mains tap. It must have been blocked off when the room was changed to be a lounge - instead of removing the pipe back to the tap they'd left the pipe as a spur capped at its end. We had mains pressure water spouting out into the room!