Anyway, my DC02 is a “limited edition” De Stijl that they don’t make any more, so I don’t want to throw it away, plus it’ll cost £200 to buy a new one.

So I went looking and found a most excellent website – DysonMedic.com, with a guide to dismantling a DC02 which I followed easily due to the great pictures and text.

Out came my motor – half of the contact strips on the armature had disintegrated and were embedded in the plastic casing (literally melted into the plastic!), new motor ordered on eBay, job’s a good ‘un.

Highly recommended if you need to fix your Dyson, the site has nearly every model on it and is well laid out and easy to use.

Thanks Dyson Medic!

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The Woolworths till is a Wincor Nixdorf system, with the following components…

• A ‘Beetle’ CPU (a basic XP computer)
• Wincor Nixdorf touch screen with swipe card reader
• Wincor Nixdorf BA63 display pole
• Epson TM-H6000 till receipt printer

 
I used the following settings in the 4POS program (under Utilities, Configuration).

Till Configuration: select “Receipt Printer Connect” and enter the following code for the Epson TM-H6000 – 27,112,48,55,121

4POS doesn’t support the RS232 barcode scanner or the swipe card reader that comes with the Woolies system so we used a PS2 keyboard wedge barcode scanner (the type that effectively pretends to be a keyboard) purchased from eBay for £35. We don’t need the card reader as there is a separate chip and pin terminal associated with their merchant agreement so no worries there.

They had destroyed the original cash drawer that came with the system (half due to the fact the previous software packed up and half rage – they didn’t realise you just have to ping them with 24V!), so I purchased an IBM 41J7680 (with an SDL connection) and converted it to work with the Epson printer. I used the following pinout…

I also have downloads of the Epson drivers and various bits of documentation for the system components – if you need them get in touch, but you should be able to find these via Google.

Good luck!

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Turns out it’s because I’m using a USB keyboard and mouse. Swapped these for good old PS2 ones and it boots from the CD no problem.

Computers never cease to surprise me with their little fussy ways! :)

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This basically means that your registry is corrupt! To restore it, follow the steps below…

Possibly the easiest way to do this is take the HDD out and put it in a slave computer. Otherwise boot up with some form of recovery disk, The Ultimate Boot CD is what I would normally use.

Navigate to C:\Windows\system32\config on the corrupt system.

Locate the following files, and rename them to include “.old” on the end:

• DEFAULT
• SAM
• SECURITY
• SOFTWARE
• SYSTEM (i.e. this will now be “SYSTEM.old”)

We now need to put a recent (hopefully undamaged) copy of the registry from the System Restore folder into this folder.

Check that Protected Operating System Files are displayed (Tools, Folder options…). Navigate to C:\System Volume Information. You will need to add your individual user account to the Security options with Full Control (see Microsoft KB article 307545 if you’re having trouble).

Once you’re in to the System Volume Information directory, you’ll see the _restore folder with a long GUID code, go into this.

Now you’ll see a collection of folders beginning with RP then a number. Select one that isn’t the most recent, i.e. from a couple of weeks or so ago. Now select the Snapshot folder.

From the Snapshot folder, copy the following files:

• _REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT
• _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM
• _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY
• _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
• _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM

and paste them into C:\Windows\system32\config

Now rename the five files to their original names, e.g. “_REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT” becomes “DEFAULT”

That’s it! Replace the HDD in the computer and power on, the PC should boot up and log in fine.

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Luckily, Acer do provide a factory default image on a hidden part of the hard disk on the computer. When you install this, your computer is returned to an out of the box condition. You can access the recovery partition in two different ways.

If you’re still able to use Vista on the computer, go to the Acer Empowering Technology application (the long green strip). Find the eRecovery option and follow the prompts to do a factory default recovery. This will completely wipe your computer’s C drive so make sure your data is backed up in a safe place.

If your computer won’t start Vista, you can access the recovery partition by pressing ALT + F10 when the computer is first switched on and you see the Acer bootup screen. Follow the prompts but again, this will completely wipe your computer’s C drive so if you have important data that needs backing up, contact me or your local computer repair company to see if anything can be salvaged.

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I knew that things were going to get chewed, you have to expect it of puppies. What I never fully realised though was just how much they were going to test my fixing skills (and my patience).

I was only supposed to keep one, but for various reasons figured two would be better so now have Rodin and Solja.

At the time of writing this, they’re coming up to a year old and I have to say the damage hasn’t been that bad. I mean, does it look as though butter would melt in their mouth?

The passage of time has meant I’m not as spittingly-mad angry as I was at losing a priceless retro-classic 70’s shoulder bag shaped like an artist’s paint tube. The new lino floor I laid in the playroom (after they had ruined the carpet) that now lies in tatters teaches me I should have used a more durable solution (sheet steel maybe?). The scar of finding one of my favourite leather shoes with the back chewed off (fixed) has healed a little - I’ll get them back by making slippers from their ears. My car’s steering wheel and handbrake lever now have familiar little holes in them. Strangely, they left the look-a-like-wood gearknob. The financial and emotional cost of losing several of the kids toys / shoes / favourite teddies has passed. Not forgetting the thrill of visiting the vet after they found and devoured mum’s Mothers Day chocolates (dark, of course) – I’d only left them by the front door half an hour before we were due to leave! Lucky it wasn’t Easter.

I have forgiven Solja for bringing me my phone when it was ringing, despite leaving a tiny tooth mark in the outer casing. He was only using his initiative.

I will probably continue to forgive them for as long as they possess that knack of looking up at you when you’re cross. They know when they’ve been bad.

I guess you have to look at it as your fault for leaving the things lying around in the first place. That’s not counting the day they opened the door into my office, managed to close it behind them and then proceeded to ransack it in their confined state – ate my stash of car sweets, destroyed a copy of MS Office, corner of the rug, chewed the top off a welly boot (hey, it’s still usable), etc. Needless to say, I now lock the door.

And you thought kids were destructive.

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What you’ll need…
   - A small container to use as a soaking pot. I use an old bit of plastic blister packaging because it’s just the right depth to lean the back edge of the printhead against – you’ll see what I mean in the photos but anything around 2-3 inches square with sides at least 3/4’s of an inch high will do.
   - A bit of paper kitchen towel.
   - Some hot, but not boiling, water.
   - A sink or similar worksurface or some newspaper to protect your granny’s antique table.
   - Almost certainly another bit of kitchen roll to wipe your fingers on. Do what I always mean to do and get some of those plastic gloves from a petrol station otherwise you’ll have ink on your hands for at least 24 hours (it’s a badge of honour :) ).

Step 1 – Put the kettle on, this will be your hot but not boiling water in a couple of minutes. Some people advocate the use of Windex, etc. but I have found in most cases hot water alone works just fine. I’ve also seen various statements about the temperature of the water, but thermal inkjet printers work by super-heating the ink to create a steam bubble (so hotter than 100C) which forces the ink out of the nozzle (see here) so any level of hot is fine. You don’t want it boiling / too hot because it will make your soaking container go floppy :)

Step 2 – Open the printer by pulling the grey panel below the buttons / above the paper exit toward you. The printhead mechanism should move to the centre of the bay. Gain access to the printheads by raising the ink cartridge holder. This isn’t the same as the ink cartridge release button, it’s the lighter one underneath that when you pull the handle it swings open the catch. When you open it, the entire ink cartridge holder will raise up and you’ll see a line of printheads (that look a bit like cartridges) with clear plastic handles on top of each one of them.

Step 3 – Grab the plastic handle of the blocked printhead and pull it upwards to remove. Try and keep this upright, hold it (tightly - don’t drop it unless you want to be amazed at how far a teaspoon of ink can go!) in your non-writing hand. You need your other hand to close the ink cartridge holder to prevent any ink drying out on the other printheads and cartridges. Close the printer and don’t worry about the missing printhead message.

Step 4 – Assuming your kettle is in the kitchen, this step is probably best performed on the sink draining board, otherwise you should really put an old newspaper on the kitchen worktop if only to pacify the missus. You’re unlikely to spill any ink at this stage if you keep the printhead upright, but it’s always when you don’t take precautions that these things happen. Fill your soaking pot with about 1/2 an inch of the hot water from the kettle and put the printhead so the printing end (the copper bit) is in the water.

Step 5 – Reboil the kettle and, in true British spirit, have a cup of tea. It depends how blocked the printhead is as to how much time to leave it in, but I always leave it for at least an hour (and put it somewhere safe so you / kids / cat won’t knock it over). This allows the water to soften the dried ink in the printhead. You’ll see it working as the water will slowly change colour.

Step 6 – When you think it’s had a long enough soak, remove the printhead from the water and dry the surround thoroughly with a folded sheet of kitchen roll.

Step 7 – Test to see if the ink is now flowing through the printhead by gently dabbing it onto a clean bit of kitchen roll. If it’s flowing, you should be left with two lines of ink on the sheet. I find that smearing the printhead (gently but firmly) on folded kitchen roll can help to get the ink flowing.

Step 8 – Reinsert the printhead into the printer, push it down firmly to make sure it’s properly seated and then close the printer. You’ll be asked to perform printhead alignment. You can’t avoid this but it may be a waste of time if the first bit of ink is diluted with water and doesn’t give a clean printout. Check the alignment printout and if it’s still faint or streaky anywhere then run the full three stage cleaning cycle from the command centre on your PC, and/or print out test pages until the ink is flowing properly and you get solid colours (create one yourself that is just that colour to save ink). Then run the alignment test – Menu, 7, 3, Enter – again to ensure a quality printout.

If the ink still refuses to flow, go back to step 1 and re-soak until you get a decent bit of ink coming through in step 7.

If you seem to be getting nowhere, soak overnight or, instead of water, you can try the cartridge flush fluid that you get with inkjet refill kits (but don’t put this in the kettle!). This is a bit ’solvent-y’ (it’s glycol, I think) and seems to work its way in if the ink is really dried up. Also, just make 100% sure that the ink cartridge does actually have ink in it :) – you’ll see this by comparing the top of the printheads at the end of step 2.

Good luck!

If in doubt, check with your little helper puppy. I can’t seem to do anything without mine…

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Web pages were not being displayed within any browser, but I was getting internet access (i.e. Windows Update and Messenger were ok). This led me to suspect some sort of firewall issue, and disabling Kasperksy allowed the internet to work fine. A re-install of Kaspersky made no difference.

So with Kaspersky disabled, I’d got the web browsers working and I downloaded the manual update files. Configured to do the manual update which processed three files and then failed with the same error.

But I’ve never had these problems with Kaspersky before, so was starting to get doubts about this normally great piece of software. I couldn’t find anything relevant on their forums with the search terms I was using. Luckily the client had mentioned to me that the laptop did have Norton pre-installed on it before he installed the Kaspersky… apparently Kaspersky had reported that it removed Norton. A bit of internet surfing later and I came across a thread that pointed the finger at Norton, which I have to say came as no surprise and I really should have started out on that track.

I ran the Norton Removal Tool and hey presto, I can surf the net with Kaspersky fully enabled and the updates downloaded and installed fine.

Job done (curses to you, Norton).

P.S. If you need to download the NRT, go here. If the link is broken, please let me know, then Google “norton removal tool” and look for the symantec site.

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The primary user was fine, and although both users were Administrators, it looked to me like the secondary user was experiencing permissions problems and not able to control the printer properly.

I switched to the main user account (i.e. the one that was used to set up and install the computer) and checked the printer’s Security tab – my suspicions were confirmed…

It looks like Vista has locked down printer control – the main account has the ability to Print, Manage this printer and Manage documents but the Everyone group only has the permission to Print.

There are two ways to solve this. Either create the specific permissions for your user accounts, but, in a home environment, you might as well give the Everyone group control of the printer.

I added the Manage this printer and the Manage documents permission to the Everyone group and logged back in to the secondary account.

Envelope printing is now behaving as it should, the obvious change when you go back to check is the user now has the ability to select the various tray options.

Job done.

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If your machine has got to the point where it only blows steam through the espresso maker, rather than the trickle of fresh aromatic espresso that you’re used to, then it probably means the insides are blocked with limescale. Follow these de-scaling instructions and you’ll be back to enjoying proper coffee in no time.

What you need:

• A blocked-up coffee machine
• De-scaling solution
• Water
• A stubby handled screwdriver

Unplug the machine, make sure it is cool and empty of water.

Remove the glass jars, the espresso filter holder and the overflow grid, then turn the machine upside down. Handy tip - put your hand on the filter coffee lid to stop it flapping about.

According to the instructions, you’re supposed to remove the brewing head sieve by turning clockwise with a flat bladed screwdriver. Mine wouldn’t budge, clockwise or anticlockwise, so I abandoned that idea and, using an inkjet syringe, I squirted some descaler into the sieve and left it upside down for a few minutes. If your sieve comes off, happy days, leave it off and carry on to the next step. I reconnected the espresso filter holder and then I turned the machine back over. The stuff started to come through fairly quickly so get ready with the jug to catch any drips.

Pour your descaling solution into the machine, I filled my jug to the metal band just above the 4 cup level and poured that in.

Wait for the fizzing to do it’s business. If you’re using vinegar, this will be at least a couple of hours, anything else and you’ll have to read your label / improvise. Don’t screw the lid on as it will build up pressure (which then explodes everywhere when you open it – trust me). Stand by with a cloth in case it overflows.

When the fizzing has subsided, screw the top on the boiling chamber, place the jug underneath and switch the machine on to brew. Allow the solution to come through the machine.

You could unscrew the steamer tip and put this in the jug to give it clean if it’s dirty. You shouldn’t need to worry about the steamer tube as it’s quite wide and shouldn’t get blocked up but if you want to give the steamer tube a blast, then don’t do it into the half full jug of solution like I did because it goes everywhere. Use an empty jug!

When I used a commercial descaler, there was a lot of foam. Get ready to switch off half way through and discard the solution or your jug will overflow! It might be worth doing this anyway and leaving for a while mid-cycle just to let the solution do its work inside the pipes.

Flush through at least twice with clean water, remembering to release the pressure (by switching to steam) before you unscrew the lid. Let it cool for a minute or so with the lid off, then be very careful and slowly pour the water into the chamber as when it’s hot it will bubble up if you pour too quickly.

Once you’re happy that the water coming through is taint-free, you’re ready to enjoy real coffee again.

What de-scaling solution should I use?

Of course there are various manufactured descaling solutions. Whilst fine and I have used them in my kettle in the past, I’d rather keep those for doing the bath and sink as the big “Irritant!” label on the side is a bit scary. If your machine hasn’t been descaled for ages, you may have to use a commercial cleaner (and there are specialist coffee machine ones available), otherwise white vinegar works fine but is a lot slower so needs to be left in for longer.

^† What I did find was a great community site called Diplodocs, which hosts all sorts of manuals, from big things like cars to small appliance-y type things. Bookmark it as it’s bound to useful one day. On this site there’s a manual for an F867, which looks identical to the F866 apart from the addition of a clock.

Disclaimer: The eagle-eyed among you will have spotted the handle on my filter holder is broken. I know! And I know this is supposed to be a fix-it site ;) . However, some things just can’t be glued and are too small or awkward for plastic welding. But it doesn’t really matter as I just use a cloth when it’s hot. You don’t have to tighten it up to the max level – I discovered from the manual above that this has no impact on the strength of the coffee, anywhere within the marks will do. I thought it did make the coffee stronger, which is why I always tightened it to the max, until one day it snapped! New handle is £10+p&p, but I’ve managed without so far.

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