Problem

Strange goings on . . .

/ Tony / 3 Comments

I’m having an issue with the WordPress Block Editor currently. It’s to do with adding ‘tags’ to the post. I use ‘tags’ quite a lot as I feel they can draw people’s attention to the post’s ideas. Recently, however, a problem has arisen.

I usually add ‘tags’ at the end of writing the post as it gives me a reason to re-read the post and check for any typos or other errors. I occasionally add the ‘tag’ whilst composing the paragraph. This has served me well over the years, and there are a great many ‘tags’ in my Tag Database on this blog

Tag Database

The problem I have is (bear with me as it is not as complicated as it seems) that if the word I wish to use as a ‘tag’ is not in the ‘Tag Database’ then typing in the Add New Tag box in the editor, the new ‘tag’ is not saved if I use the ‘Enter’ key. I can use the comma key and the ‘tag’ is saved, but not if I use the Enter key.

I have raised a support call, but I don’t think they really understand the problem. The solutions (all of which have failed) have ranged from “using too many tags” and “clearing the browser cache” to “logging on to a different network” and “rebooting the router“. It was even suggested that it may be the theme that was the problem. I have tried three different browsers on my laptop all with the same result. The only browser that I didn’t have the issue with is the Safari browser on my iPad. However, that is not a practical solution.

As it has only just started to happen (in the past two/three weeks) I suggested that the problem may have been caused by the latest update. That didn’t go down too well with the “Happiness Engineers.”

It is very baffling and a little bit of a bind to use the comma when I’m used to just typing and pressing enter.

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Update:
I think I have found the root of the issue. From my many times of entering data into various spreadsheets, I came to the conclusion that the Enter key on the numeric keypad was the fastest key to use. This has led to me always using this key as opposed to the main keyboard Enter key. I discovered quite by chance that the tag will be saved if used the main Enter key. I have reported back to WordPress and am awaiting their next response.

Random tech problem . . .

/ Tony / 6 Comments

© Microsoft

I’ve been having a bit of trouble with my OneDrive. I have two laptops. My main one is downstairs but when I bought it, I decided to keep the previous one upstairs as a kind of back-up machine. It is a bit slow, but it was a good machine. I did want to try and connect both as a home network, but that doesn’t seem to work with Microsoft Home edition. I had ‘misplaced’ a couple of files that I now need to use. They were not big or even complicated files, I just didn’t want to re-write. I thought they were on my OneDrive, but I could not find them. I then had the idea that they may just be in the documents folder on old laptop. And they were.

© Microsoft Office

I copied them into my OneDrive, along with some video files that I had forgotten about. Must have spent a good couple of hours opening, and copying the files, or so it seemed at the time. I shut down the old laptop and trotted off downstairs ready to work with these newly found files. But … they were not in the OneDrive I was accessing from downstairs. I ‘ummed and ‘ahhed for a while before deciding that I must have two OneDrives. Seemed reasonable as the Office package on the upstairs laptop was Office 2013 and downstairs it is Office 365. All I need to do is copy the files I wanted onto a Flash Drive and then onto the downstairs machine. Problem solved … or not.

Try as I might, I could not get the files copied and was receiving an error message:
Error 0x8007016A: The Cloud File provider is not running …
Restart after restart would not cure the problem and in the end I gave up for the evening.

© SanDisk

This morning, after a lot of Googling, it came to light that I must not have signed in to my OneDrive on the upstairs Laptop. In fact, the service was not even running, I must have disabled it in Task Manager. More clicks and reboots ensued and finally I was able to copy the files to the Flash Drive and onto the main machine. Then I found that they had synchronised and so all the copy and pasting was a total waste of time. Thankyou Google and all who sail in you. If the fact that I was not signed in to the OneDrive upstairs reason had been one of the first in the Google search screen, I could have saved a lot of time and unnecessary brain work!

Stress and Tech – hand in hand

/ Tony / 3 Comments

A bit of a stressful week this week. Our broadband contract was due to expire at the end of the month, and although it would continued (they usually do with Sky) the cost would have escalated quite a way, based on the initial quote they gave us. So they “invite” us to call them to see if we can get a better deal. My wife deals old routerwith this kind of thing, as I don’t have the patience and whilst on the call on Monday asked about a new Router. We have always been told, by new routerSky to ask about equipment whenever we renew, even if there’s not a problem, which there wasn’t. The person that she dealt with said that there would be no problem and that there would be a new one in the post that day. As good as her word, the new router arrived on Wednesday morning.

The first issue that we were hit with was that is was about 1 inch wider and longer allPig in Mud round. It also was an upright one as opposed to the flat one we were used to. This meant a whole rearrangement of my desk for the thing to fit. After a bit of “huffing” and “puffing” I managed to place it in the best position. Now came the mammoth task of setting up all the devices with the new router. However, I was in my element doing this. It brought many memories from my work life. Dashing from device to device with my check-list and passwords, I was like a pig in a muddy puddle.

Then I hit the first real problem!

The new router would not connect to the Sky Q box! I tried everything, but it just would not happen. This of course meant that many of the features that came with the contract were not available. For example, we could not open Netflix. It also meant that the youngest son’s TV and mini box didn’t Help-Deskwork either. Not although he probably won’t be back here until April, we needed to get it fixed straight away. My wife rang Sky and after a 45 minute wait in a queue managed to explain the problem. The phone was passed to me to go through some troubleshooting (which I had already done) before the help-desk operator decided that an engineer was required. He was booked in for Thursday between 12:00 an 17:00. 

Then came problem two!

The printer we use is a wi-fi connected printer that we all share. the new router would not connect to the printer. I followed all the included instructions (again!) but still nothing. By now, I was beginning to get a little Printerbit annoyed. I looked online at the HP printer site and followed all their ‘helpful’ ideas, but to no avail. In the end, Google came to my rescue. And it was a simple fix. All I needed to do was to uninstall the printer, then reinstall it. Next problem. The printer installation media was on a DVD and this laptop does not have one. I ended up downloading the installation software from the internet. After that, it all went really smoothly which just left the Sky Q box not connected and the help desk advised that the engineer would get everything working, one way or another.

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The engineer duly arrived at the appointed time and we conducted the call through the living room window. They are not allowed into the house because of the virus. We went through a number of questions. and heCable asked what the new router was. When he saw it he said there had been some problems with that type. We proceed to try and connect using an ethernet cable, which worked straight away. But as soon as the cable was removed, the connection was lost. He came up with two solutions: number one was to permanently connect with a cable, but that would mean lifting the carpet to hide the cable which was not a good idea. Option two was to revert back to the old router. That seemed the best idea, and he gave us the latest model of the old one. Once plugged in, all the problems went away, although I still had to reinstall the printer again.

Once again, I spent an hour doing my impression of a “pig in a puddle” whilst I connected all the devices, but touch wood, there are no more issues.

I suppose, at the end of the day, that the old maxim “If it’s not broken, then don’t fix it” applies here.

 

 

Problems still ongoing…

/ Tony / Leave a comment

When I started to compose this post at the beginning of the week, the problems I was having with my laptop were indeed ‘still ongoing’. However, and I am touching as much wood as I can find, things seem to be a little better at the moment. Many of the problems seemed to be with my Microsoft Office 365 applications. I was getting a lot of ‘xxx not responding’ messages when using Word, Excel and Outlook which seemed to point to an issue there. Although, other software was often slow to open and close. The internet gave me a few ideas, and one of the more prominent ones was to ‘repair’ my Office application. So I gave it a go, and (here’s when the touching wood comes into play) at the moment it seems to have worked.

Later yesterday, I got what IT people call the “Blue Screen of Death” or BSOD. For those that don’t know, it’s when Windows decides something is amiss, produces and ‘error code’, uploads the code to Microsoft and restarts your computer. I checked out the error code, which told me nothing at all but I was advised to run a system security tool. This tool, called Windows Defender Offline, which is part of the Windows security system, runs a much deeper scan for viruses and malware than the normal scan. It takes about 40 minutes on my laptop and (back to the wood touching again) seems to have done the trick, although I’m not holding my breath.

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I’m going to try a new approach to my posts. For a long time I have been combining the topics I want to say into one post. I usually separate the topics with a divider (as above) and the post can often have 4 or 5 topics. I have now decided to use single topics in each post, and post more often (how many times have I said ‘post more often’). I shall see how it goes.

Catch up …..

/ Tony / Leave a comment

It was R***’s last day at school on Thursday. He’s been there for the past 16 years and I bet there was a few tears shed at school. Then again, he will be back there on Monday, as he is on the Summer Play Scheme. He looked very smart in his shirt and tie. Each leaver or graduate as they called them received their certificate to the sound of some music. They chose Queens ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ which is not something I would associate him with, but there you go.He starts at his college on 13 August. An ominous date, but least it’s not a Friday. He has only had 2 visits, but they seemed to go well from all accounts. Problem is that he will not realise that this is going to be his ‘new school’ so to speak. There could be some testing days ahead.

Talking of testing times. I have moved desks at work. Well, saying that,what I actually mean is that I now have a desk. I have been hot desking for the past six weeks. Sitting where ever there was s desk that nobody was sat at, which is not a good feeling. Not knowing from week to week where I will be sitting. Well now I have a desk. It is the desk that my new boss had set up for me in the first place. However one of the team thought I should sat with the team, rather than sat with the boss. It does not matter to me. I just want a desk !!! They guy that wanted me to ‘sit with the team’ might not be too pleased. Could be a fun day tomorrow.