Reloading Challenges

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

I’ve been experiencing a new issue over the last few days.  When I go into the forum, whatever page I’m on it keeps continuously reloading.  Consequently I can see things but after writing a few words I loose it again.  I had it again this morning but this afternoon it seems to be stable.  Anyone else had the same issue?

I know I’m running Windows 7 but it has always worked fine until recently.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Sounds like it could be a cookie or cache issue Richard. have you tried the recent suggestions by the webmaster?

Logging in problems

Colin

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Richard,

It’s definitely not as stable as it used to be 🙂

Must be all the wet weather ?

Regards Ray

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

I’m actually just in the process now of transposing everything to a new desktop computer so I’ll be seeing how it goes with Windows 11 soon, er hopefully!

It was a bit of a struggle logging in but I’m there now.

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Well interestingly I have now been on my brand new computer for around two weeks.  I’m using Windows 11 and Microsoft Edge so a different computer, operating system and browser.  Today the continuously reloading a page has started again.  Sometimes I can stop it and sometimes I can’t.

[Dave ReedParticipant @davereed72029]

Hi Richard,

Until the issues with the web site are properly resolved, one approach would be to install another browser to use just for modelboats.co.uk. It might seem a bit of a faff, but when things go wrong you can reset all cookies, files and settings on that browser without affecting your settings for other sites in Edge.

I have Chrome, Opera and Firefox in addition to Edge, but there are plenty of options you can choose from.

Dave

[Tim CooperParticipant @timcooper90034]

Richard

I nearly always have to log on twice, the first time it just clears everything.

I usually use my phone to look at forum but today I couldn’t log on, but managed  to log on using PC.

Tim

 

 

 

 

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

I use Firefox on my PC and iPad. Most of the time everything works OK but occasionally I find myself logged out in which case I usually have to login twice to get back to normal. Occasionally I get stuck on a particular post but pressing CTRL+F5 usually clears it.

Yes, it is irritating. Not sure when Mortons are going to migrate our forum to the one servicing the Model Engineer one. Still a work in progress (not) at the moment.

Colin

[Roger FugeParticipant @rogerfuge]

Yes same here most times I have to log in twice  then it works fine

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Update: So I’ve now loaded Google Chrome onto my nice new shiny desktop all-in-one and….yes, the pages continue to try to reload.

I thought I’d have a look at the Model Engineer site a couple of days ago and guess what?  That also continues to try to reload each page as well.  It usually stops when I press the stop reloading icon a couple or more times but it is becoming a pain to have to do it so frequently.

So to recap, I experienced this with my old computer running Windows 7 and Chrome.  I now also get it with a high spec brand new computer running Windows 11 using either Edge or Chrome and with two of Morton’s sponsored forums.  I am also a member of around 13 other forums and don’t get the same challenges with any of them.  Its hard not to come to the conclusion that the fault is not with my system.  I can’t help but wonder whether this challenge is also affecting others who simply can’t be bothered dealing with it and give up.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Richard, could be a cache problem with your ID at their end maybe. I have drawn this to the attention of the Webmaster Andy Hill. He is very helpful.

Colin

[Darren HendleyKeymaster @darrenhendley1]

Hi Richard, we are looking at this now. I’ll report back asap

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Many thanks for your help Darren, much appreciated.

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

I don’t know if you’ve done anything Darren but things have been stable for a few hours now.

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

This issue now seems to be resolved so thanks to anyone who has done anything.

The only challenge I have now is my brand new desktop computer has just thrown a complete wobbler and displays only an unusable striped screen!  After spending the last three weeks transferring and updating everything from my old one!  I’m just about to find out how good HP Customer Support is!

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

That doesn’t sound good Richard. A quick  search online suggests it could be a lot of things. I bought a new Dell PC recently and that fell over initially but Windows eventually repaired itself. All my settings had to be reset though.

Colin

[Dave ReedParticipant @davereed72029]

Hi Richard,

The problem you describe with the striped screen can be caused by connection between PC and monitor. I’m guessing it’s probably an HDMI cable being a new machine. You may have one connecting TV to recorder (or similar devices) that you could try.

If not, then you are at the mercy of Customer Support – Good Luck!

Dave

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Yet another couple of hours on the phone with this time a HP technician remotely accessing my computer to try to sort it out.  My machine is a desktop all-in-one and my suspicions were around the screen itself or, more likely, the graphics card.

I wasn’t far off, a lot of messing around upgrading the graphics card drivers seems to have stabilised things for now.  Although it did throw another slight wobbler this evening.  An interesting conversation with the technician though.  He reckons Windows 10 was a better system because it updates itself automatically.  Because of current preoccupation with permissions Windows 11 has to be manually updated.  He suggests I check for updates twice a week!  Sounds like a bit of a pain in the rear to me.  Anyway it looks good for now, fingers crossed.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Richard,

I think the HP technician may have been giving you the runaround! I have both W11 and W10 desktops and the updating is the same on both. You can configure it to suit yourself. Turn off updates, allow automatic updates or, my preference, download updates but ask you when you want to install them. There are proposals whereby future versions of W11 will update ‘on the fly’ without the need to reboot the machine but I don’t think they are happening yet. What sort of ‘permissions’ was he describing? No way do you have to reconfigure the PC every few weeks.

Also, as an ‘all in one’ I doubt if your machine has a graphics card as there wouldn’t be room. The usual practice is to have the graphics facility integrated into the central processor. HP commonly use AMD Radeon graphics and when updating, Windows should have no problem recognising it and downloading the appropriate drivers. Your PC specs will tell you if you have integrated graphics.

The problem is far more likely to lie with the bloatware which comes with all new machines and most of which can be safely deleted. Manufacturers often supply their own drivers which are not properly debugged and are not kept up to date so when a new Windows update comes out you can get problems unless the Windows version of the driver is used. There is lots of other unnecessary stuffwhich often does more harm than good and takes a big chunk out of your disk storage space.

My recent new Dell PC had a massive software suite designed to ‘support’ the PC and keep it up to date but contained a bug which caused the machine to fall over when I tried to download their recommended drivers (the existing ones were working fine!). I suspect your HP technician was messing around with all of this and it certainly should not have taken 2 hours to identify the problem unless you had already changed some obscure settings yourself.

If you do an online search for ‘HP Bloatware’ there is lots of info.

Colin

 

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Hi Colin,  He wasn’t suggesting any sort of reconfiguring he was just saying that I should check for updates a couple of times a week.  I’ll never remember to do that but I might try to check once a week or see if I can do it automatically.

What he did was update the drivers first through Windows 11 but the problem seemed to remain so he then went directly to the graphics card manufacturer’s website and downloaded the latest from them.  It is an NVIDIA card as it is supposed to be a gaming spec machine.  I could see that the driver was dated 2023 and it is now 2024. There is probably the room as it is a 32″ screen.  Sorry, throwback to Chief Engineer days when I preferred a big screen for viewing spreadsheets and planned maintenance systems!  I hate little screens.

It is stable at the moment although it did throw a little wobbler last night playing a game and it did start up with a slight shimmer this morning but has now settled down.

Thanks for your input, I guess time will tell and me gaining a little more familiarisation with Windows 11.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Hi Richard,

Might have guessed you’d go for a high spec machine! Yes, gaming machines are more demanding when it comes to graphics. I only use my PC for bog standard stuff.

If you load the Settings App (I have mine pinned to the taskbar at the foot of the screen) you will see a menu down the left side of the screen, the last item is Windows Update. Clicking on that brings up a lot of information and options including Advanced Options from where you can do the fine tuning, it is all pretty straightforward.

It is certainly checking via the Apps option just how much bloatware comes with the machine and also use Task Manager to check which programs and processes load at startup as these can eat up system resources.

I don’t play games on my PC but I was one of the two founder members of the Naval Wargames Society back in 1967. No computers in those days, it was all done with 1:1250 scale models on the floor of the local community hall and decimal dice were used to calculate the likelihood of hitting the enemy.

https://www.facebook.com/navalwargamessociety/?locale=en_GB

I also wrote a couple of games for the Sinclair Spectrum 48k in the 1980s which were published by the owners of Model Boats magazine.

Battle of the River Plate

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/0015611

Channel Dash

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/17510/

Of the 48k memory, 24k was needed for the operating system leaving just 24k for the game itself. I used every single byte!

They can be played in Windows using an emulator and I still have the TZX files.

Colin

 

[Dave ReedParticipant @davereed72029]

Hi Richard, didn’t realise you had an all in one, renders my earlier comment redundant.

I largely agree with Colins comments, in particular with regard to updates. Win11 doesn’t force manual only updates and can be configured, but it is possible that HP have set that as default on their implementation. The HP technician, presumably in a call centre, may have a quota of calls to get through so sometimes a quick fix is preferable to the best fix from their point of view.

I would suggest you research ‘Restore Points‘, they let you save current config of drivers and other settings. If you create one just before installing driver updates, it makes it easier to revert to previous settings if something goes wrong. It can take some time to do but if you need it you will be glad you did.

One remaining thing that would concern me is the ‘slight shimmer’ you saw in the morning. It could be caused by electrical or radio noise (nearby transmitter turned on?) but could be a sign of imminent hardware issue with the PC.

Dave

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Good advice re restore points. However screen problems can be particularly troublesome as you can’t see what the problem might be. Incidentally, W11 still has the Control Panel hidden away so you can inspect the various bits of hardware via Device Manager and check if they are functioning correctly. Your PC may still have the integrated graphic but it has been disabled in favour of the graphics card. Drivers can be a real problem sometimes.

As you have a separate graphics card the individual settings can be tweaked such as the screen refresh rate.

Colin

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Thanks for all the input gents.  In fairness to the HP tech he did call me back this morning to ask how things were and when I mentioned the two incidents he said he will call back tomorrow as well.

He did show me how to get to the update window and how to check on things there.  I made the most of having him controlling the machine.  Apart from starting up I’ve had a good day so far so hopefully things will remain stable until tomorrow.

 

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

It died again this morning so, after my Indian friend called again this morning, its now going back to HP for repair.  What a performance!

[Author]

Posts