richb99

I have used old sky boxes as freeview boxes and suggest you use the "Favourites" function to include all the stations you CAN view and avoid having to go through all the stations which are encrypted.

I tried to sell old small electronics very cheaply with no takers and tried to give them away, again no takers. Contacted Veolia and Councils Waste Management Team to try to dispose of them properly as they had the crossed out wheelie bin on them so not to be put in general waste bin and explained I had no transport and couldn't get to the Blackstock Road disposal site. Their response was to take items to Blackstock Road even though I had told them I couldn't get there OR to use the Bulk Waste disposal system which costs about £30 for up to 3 items (a little expensive to dispose of an old router or phone charger). Seems there is a major hole in the recycling system but they have no plans to introduce any changes.

Tesco has camera controlled parking at their Abbeydale Road site - surely they would have been captured on CCTV.

What surprises me is that there are on the spot fines and prosecutions for people who appear to be targeted for dropping cigarette ends (a very small item, often still lit and smelly) which is not easy to take home in your pocket. The people on Devonshire Green who deposited all this litter appear to have been ignored by the litter police - why?

We recycle the limited plastics that Veolia want in the blue bin, but take all other plastics to the Tesco recycling point in the trolley when we do the weekly shop, as they take a much wider range of plastics. The plastic bags success wasn't so much based on the 5p charge, more the fact that they are no longer made available in the supermarket. Couldn't many of the plastic bottles be converted to glass or aluminium (milk in a ring pull can) which are fully recyclable and cause less harmful pollution?

Our Panasonic Viera TV was stuck on standby a couple of days ago, fortunately within guarantee (just). TV engineer sent by John Lewis said he has had similar problems over last few days and thinks some Panasonic sets have been corrupted by a transmission from Freeview relating to a change to the BBC red button service. Noticed a couple of Panasonics being sold with same problem on Gumtree and Forum over the last couple of days. Problem solved by using reset menus which are only available to engineers. Does anybody know if this is true and, if so, what recompense would any victims have?

We live in a terraced house with shared access but could cope with three small bins, but I accept different solutions would be required for flats, houses accessed by a flight of steps, and large families - that's up to Veolia to be more flexible to make things work. I would be happy for my neighbours to put their surplus in my half filled bin while it was on the footpath awaiting collection, provided the recycling was appropriate, general waste was bagged, and the bin wasn't over filled - it's all a matter of being reasonable and trying to make the system work for the benefit of us all. Merry Christmas.

I would prefer to have a fortnightly collection of the black bin and monthly collection of the recycling bins with 2 bin lorries being run together (one for general waste and one for recycling). First collection would be for black bin and brown bin. Second collection, a fortnight later, would be for black bin and blue bin. Disturbance only every fortnight, and the two vehicles being run together would enable one bin crew to service both vehicles. This would also see the end of the dreaded boxes with hats which were never fit for purpose.

Must make the collection of dog poo a bit awkward - or are they exempt?

It would be a good first step to amend the exhaust emissions threshold in the MOT test. Older vehicles which are the most polluting would probably end up being scrapped in view of the cost of conversion or upgrading with filters. This would have an immediate effect and avoid the introduction of any scrappage scheme, or congestion charges which costs millions for the "experts" and politicians to make a decision for any proposal which is always way beyond the governments term of office.

Fridge freezers are left on all the time and therefor pose a bigger risk than other appliances. The videos showing plastic backed fridges burning uncontrollably after 90 seconds, compared to the metal backed ones which self extinguished after 20 minutes, makes me think the plastic backed ones should be banned in a similar way to upholstery foam in furniture. The price (sometimes marginal) isn't everything.

Thanks for replies. Connected pins 15 and 16 with paperclip and tried with PSU connected up inside PC, and disconnected ouside PC and the fan in the PSU is not turning so assume PSU is dead and have ordered a replacement.

Thanks for that, but far too technical for me as I am a silver (grey) surfer. I was looking to test the PSU and either replace it, or by-pass the power on signal by inserting a switch between pins 15 and 16.

My old HP Compaq dc7900 SFF was working perfectly but now won't switch on. Tried different socket and power lead but still dead. Tested switch on front and that works O.K. so want to test PSU but internet says to disconnect all leads from PSU and bridge between pins 15 and 16 on the 24 pin connector. Elsewhere on the net it says doing this with no load could damage the PSU and suggests keeping the HDD and motherboard connected is the way to go. Advice would be appreciated as I am using an even older Dell running XP with all fingers crossed, making typing difficult.

Isn't this a case where the Council should use Compulsory Purchase powers to bring the property back into use?

One - I'm a man and don't do multi-tasking.

The Government is to introduce roaming between networks in Britain with warnings of increased costs. Would it not have been possible to have a common network, in the same way as the gas and electricity infrastructure, which would have avoided the multiplicity of different masts and transmitters for different operators. This would easily have paid for additional masts giving far better coverage.

I live in a 1900's terraced house on a street with a slight slope and the roofs are stepped after every pair of houses. Where the difference in height is over 12 inches there is lead flashing (and possibly zinc soakers) covering the joint between the slates and the brick upstand between the two roof levels. Where the difference in height is less than 12 inches the brickwork between the two roof levels appears to just be rendered. Can an experienced builder/ roofer clarify whether any form of flashing is usually present under the render or what method of protection is normally used in this situation?

Sent you a PM - may be no need to go through loft. Could be a far cheaper and better alternative.

Stop wasting time putting items on this forum and get on with it. It will only take you a few "minutes"

Collection of fridges and freezers used to be free in order that these items could be properly disposed of. It would be interesting to know how much money results from the charges for collection of 'large household items' compared to the cost of enforcement of fly tipping of household items. A free collection service (as provided for Council tenants) may result in an end to fly tipping of household items on both Council and privately owned land and the proper disposal of hazardous items such as fridges and freezers. (I appreciate it would not address the dumping of trade waste)

When I re-register HS1 it registers as HS1 - it doesn't give you any option to choose a different number. Cracked it (sort of). I just used HS2 in the main base unit and it appears to work O.K. I always thought that HS1 had to be in the main base unit but it just goes to show how things you believe can get in the way and create problems when there aren't any.

I thought of that, but you can't delete a handset registration from the same handset (see the note in the margin). I deleted HS1 using HS2 but can't delete HS2 using HS2

I have a BT Studio twin cordless phone and the earpiece on HS1 does not work. I am trying to change HS2 to HS1 which would at least give me a single fully working phone with answerphone and caller display. The handsets are supplied pre-registered to HS1 and on registration one of the handsets is allocated the next number (HS2). I have tried deleting HS1 using the HS2 handset but when I try to re-register the HS2 handset (even after resetting it) it still retains registration to HS2. I can find no instructions on returning the handsets to the default HS1. Any advice would be appreciated.

We had Sky Multiroom installed and the installer added a phone line extension as well as replacing our rusted dish and fitting the quad LNB for the basic installation charge ( a Sky HD box came free as part of the deal). We were going to buy a new DVD recorder but got a Sky Plus box off the Forum for about £10 giving us an additional recording device, and the money saved was equal to two years increased subscription. We are very pleased with it and have had no problems.