Computer questions you'd be embarrassed to ask any where else!

looksee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122164576#Comment_122164576

I'm pretty sure it didn't cost me 400 10 years ago! And thinking about it, its a good bit older than 10, how time flies 😁. The whole 'buy a new printer its cheaper than the cartridges' thing was why I bought it in the first place.

Boardnashea

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122164703#Comment_122164703

Andnow we're buying storage! How time files!

Sorry

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122164703#Comment_122164703

A new one costs 400, I just looked up the price.

jj880 posted to avoid a HP DeskJets. They cost about 50 quid. You said you have a LaserJet Pro. My primary point was they are different models with differenced price points.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122164769#Comment_122164769

You'll get a little Brother laser printer for €50-€100 second hand. They last for ever.

cobham

I have one of those cheap HP printers and get the cartridges refilled in local print shop… they claim they can put in more ink and charge less. If it is a big print job, I email them and they will have it ready when I call. But inkhead tends to dry out so it is advisable to print something at least once a week even if only a crosswork puzzle.

LambshankRedemption

My final word on the entire printer subject is: Dont bother. Unless you are going to be doing large amounts of printing, don't bother getting a printer. The cheap ones are sh!t. A decent printer is expensive, whatever people say they paid for their professional grade printer.

Just email your document to a printers.

jj880

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122167107#Comment_122167107

Yeah these days theyre garbage. I got a Canon PIXMA MP495 maybe 13 years ago. Still going. A warrior. It just prints. It just copies. Never complains. Cartridges are reasonable. I'll take the shirt off any mans back that tries to take it.

If this isnt a HP I'll eat my printer cables:

https://youtu.be/N9wsjroVlu8

cobham

Yes I had a Pixma that lasted well … until it died.

A cheap printer can still be of value for scanning photo's /documents and handy now with wifi connection.

tohaltuwi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122167185#Comment_122167185

absolutely. I’ve had many printers over the years including the pro model mentioned above, which honestly gave me a couple of headaches. I used to do a lot more printing than I do now but I absolutely need the scanner and use it frequently. The printer I’ve used for past few years is the cheapest HP model going that’s been described here as useless rubbish. The 2700 has given me few problems over the years, the software app works really well for me with Windows 11 and I can always manage iPhone connection easily. Troubleshooting is made easy. Maybe I’m an outlier here but it’s the least finicky printer I’ve owned.

tohaltuwi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122166982#Comment_122166982

they do last but I used to hate those refill bottles we had in the libraries, I ended up having to stop mid process and serve customers with sooty hands 😫

jj880

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122167230#Comment_122167230

Maybe my parents just got a lemon. Wireless setup infinite looped several times so I gave up and went for cabled setup. Half the time it says the colour cartridge is unreadable. Constantly complains the paper is the wrong size. Randomly prints test pages whenever it feels like it. At least theres a cancel job button on it. Wont just scan. The HP Smart software has to be open for it to detect scanning in the main software tools.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122167261#Comment_122167261

My one has a complete toner cartridge, no refilling. Or maybe the librarians were eeking out every spare cent on their budget!

tohaltuwi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122133946#Comment_122133946

cabling? I use the WiFi connection. By now it’s in my muscle memory how to sort any connection issues. If machine went kaput I would likely replace with same/similar.

waynescales1

Make friends with someone who has a printer…

jj880

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122167305#Comment_122167305

Id well believe its muscle memory for sorting out wifi connection issues after initital setup. I doubt you're talking about initial setup (which is clearly what I was talking about) unless you setup wifi printers every day - if thats the case I take it back.

Canon Pixma MP495 setup: connect printer, select wifi setup, install drivers. Print. Copy. Scan. Put your feet up. Job done.

HP DeskJet 2710e All-in-One Wireless Inkjet Printer & Instant Ink with HP+ setup: try not to get signed up to HP+ a million times then the wifi setup freezes constantly until you give up and install cabled which is also a pain in the hole. Still doesnt work properly. Download HP connection fix tool. Install. Cabled connection detects the printer about 75% of the time. Then the whole raft of issues I described in my earlier post. Wouldnt give this printer to my worst enemy if they offered me 5xRRP.

Either of us could be an outlier. Who knows.

muffler

I have a wedding video on a USB stick and wish to copy it to another USB stick. The video file is 26.7 GB and the there is over 51GB free space on the other USB stick. When I try to copy it over I keep getting an error message which states "the file XXXX is too large for the destination file system"

Anyone got any idea as to whats wrong or how I can get it copied. Just to note that I copied the same video from the USB stick to the desktop PC last night and I had no issues.

Dan Steely

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122186834#Comment_122186834

Sounds like the destination drive is formatted FAT or FAT32 which has a 4gb file size limit. Drive should be formatted NTFS.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122186868#Comment_122186868

Or ExFAT!

https://www.howtogeek.com/235596/whats-the-difference-between-fat32-exfat-and-ntfs/

muffler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122186868#Comment_122186868

Thanks for that. I suppose the next stupid question is how do you format the drive?

Edit: Just to add the drive the video is on is showing as exFAT and the destination drive is marked FAT32

Dan Steely

It's been a while but the way I used to do was:

Start

Type "cmd"

Type "format e: /fs:ntfs"

without the quotes where "e" above is the drive letter.

Or this video shows how to do it in Windows

https://youtu.be/QfNMajoFJe4

Firblog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122187120#Comment_122187120

Right click on the USB stick you want to send the file to and select format, on the window that pops up go to file system and select NTFS, then click start.

Should be good to copy to it then.

muffler

Thanks guys. That worked. Much appreciated.

muffler

Problem no 2.

Got the video copied from one flash drive to another (as above) and posted to a relative so all sorted now in that regard. I was able to copy the video to my desktop PC but I cant see any way to cast to the tv. I tried playing it (flash drive) by inserting it into a Zgemma box but it wasnt recognised. I then plugged it directly into the tv but an error message read that the device was corrupted.

The file type is MP4. How can we watch this video now? Any advice would be much appreciated.

jj880

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122195873#Comment_122195873

Do you have a Chromecast connected to the TV or is Chromecast built into the TV (check TV menus)? If so you might be able to open the video in Chrome browser on PC, right click on it and cast it to the Chromecast / TV if all devices are on the same network.

If the mp4 copies to your phone it will almost certainly play in VLC Player mobile app and can be cast while playing in VLC. Some newer TVs will accept screen mirroring / smart sharing directly also.

The other option is cable your PC to a HDMI input on the TV. VLC is the player I use on PC. Plays everything.

FishOnABike

@muffler It might depend on the brand of smart TV you are plugging the USB drive into.

Both Windows and Mac can read from NTFS and exFAT. However, Smart TVs will often support one or the other. Sony TV's typically support FAT32 and exFAT, while Samsung and other brands typically support FAT32 and NTFS.

Check your TV's user guide to ensure the filesystem you formatted the USB stick with is supported by your TV.

muffler

Thanks guys. I'll check the tv later today.

The flash drive I formatted was posted to a relative. The drive I have here now is the one I got from a member of the family and he was saying that he also had to format it before passing it on to me.

muffler

Thanks for all the help guys. I checked the TV and it has chromecast built in so I was able to drop the file into Chrome and cast from the desktop PC.

Masala

any recommendations for a Teams and Zoom background??

Am using Blur most of the time … but would like to get something interesting.

Any thoughts ?..

niallb

What my son did when he was in college was tidy up his room and take a picture of it from his laptop on the desk.

He used it as a background for quite a while before we realised!

Masala

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122262221#Comment_122262221

Thats a good idea…. I suppose if I took a picture of my view from Bar Stool / Hotel Lobby etc.. I could then use that as my own personal background. Just got to ensure that when I save it - I save it in a certain resolution for Teams & Zoom. Thats another google job to do later!