The Fox Report
Barry Fox’s technology column
More lessons from lockdown
O
ne benefit of lockdown
has been the enforced gift of
time to fix tricky tech problems that had previously been set
aside. A Windows PC almost always
has some tricky problem to fix – often
caused by one of the seemingly endless and hugely time-consuming updates which Microsoft is now pushing
out, apparently with far less pre-push
testing than previously.
If it ain’t broke…
Charmingly, the more major pushed
downloads are officially described as
‘Feature Updates’, with the most obvious ‘feature’ often being the breaking
of something that didn’t need fixing.
Sometimes things just stop working – the last update (Ver. 2004) killed
USB connection to my Belkin Compact
Flash card reader. Luckily, I had another brand reader which still works
– annoying, but no big deal.
However, twice over the last year
or so I’ve had working PCs bricked
by Windows updates. Most recently,
the all-important Start menu stopped
working, with a ‘critical’ error message. As per usual, the message halfpromised a self-fix after a task re-start
or full re-boot. As per usual, it didn’t
self-fix; and also, as per usual, a previously made system ‘restore points’
failed to help.
Googling for community help delivered many wildly different suggested
fixes. In fact, the wide variety of possible fixes says it all – the ‘Wonderful World of Windows’ is now so
thoroughly screwed up that no one,
including Microsoft, can predict what
problems an update will cause until
it has been pushed out to the guinea
pigs – us.
Restore
The main lesson I have learned the
hard way is that it will usually be
quicker and easier to restore from a full
system backup than get sucked into
the time-consuming swamp of trying a
string of randomly recommended ‘may
work’ fixes. Just try re-booting the PC,
and follow any simple recommendations, then give up and copy all your
data off to a separate hard disc drive
and do a full system restore.
Strategy for survival
But for this to work, you will need
to have adopted a survival strategy
while Windows is working ‘normally’
(ie, with only the usual crop of minor
problems); here’s mine.
Make a note of all activation keys for
Windows and all proprietary software;
also, all passwords. You never know
when a message will pop up after an
update asking for a key or PIN.
Install simple backup software that
lets you make regular full system images of the PC to a separate hard drive.
Progressively delete older backups
to make room for new ones, once a
month – or better still, once a week.
Always keep at least a couple of the
most recent ones.
I always recommend the excellent
Macrium Reflect. There is a free version and it can be set to provide an
option to restore as the PC boots, and
before Windows has a chance to take
over and start displaying assorted error messages.
Inevitably, restoring from a weekold, or month-old, backup will leave
you with a system that is a week or
month out of date. This is why you
need to copy all data to a separate
HDD before starting the system restore.
Even if the Start Menu has vanished,
you can still copy data to a separate
HDD if you have placed a short cut
to ‘My Computer’ on the desktop.
This lets you navigate round the PC’s
storage zones without a Start Menu. I
found this purely by chance. If I had
not previously put a My Computer
shortcut on my desktop, for who
knows what reason, I’d probably have
been stuffed.
Doubtless some readers will have
their own ways of automating regular data back-up. Fine, but always
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Practical Electronics | October | 2020
remember that you never know for
sure whether a backup is good until
you need it. Data copied manually
to a separate drive is easy to check,
by clicking and opening a few files.
A new strategy
Recognising that Windows will continue to make my life difficult; I have
now implemented a new routine. All
my data is now stored on a separate
hard drive, with shortcuts to the drive
and stored files and folders put on
the desktop. So, doing a full system
restore from a week or month ago no
longer involves rebuilding data.
Put simply I have now banished
my Windows operating system to
its own patch, without any of my
everyday data.
Go open source
I am also adopting a general policy of
using only open-source key-free software wherever possible. Fortunately,
more and more open-source alternatives to proprietary key-dependent
programs and apps are becoming
available. The proprietary developers
who lose sales should blame Microsoft for making Windows so prone to
update problems.
As I write, I can hear Mac users
chortling. Mock ye may! Recent Mac
updates have knocked out 32-bit
software – without a pre-install check
and red flag warning, and without an
easy option to roll back to its previous
32-bit-friendly state. Has Apple been
taking lessons from Microsoft in how
to lose friends and alienate customers?
Update on A-to-D content rescue
I recently heard from reader Ralph Bacon, who wrote: ‘I was very interested
in your article in September 2020’s
PE regarding A-to-D content rescue.
Not for the actual analogue-videotapes-to-digital rescuing (although I
have many such tapes) but the final
paragraph made me sit up.
‘About four years ago I bought a
Magewell HDMI-to-USB converter, currently on sale at Amazon for £289.50
(see: https://amzn.to/2QkVhcV). When
I bought it, it was a snip at £250!
It’s worked fine for me every week
since I bought it – thank goodness.
Nevertheless, I searched for the lowcost HDMI-to-USB converter item
you mentioned, thinking it must be
a scam – but no!
‘Less than seven days ago I bought
an (over-named) ‘USB 2.0 3.0 4K Loop
Out Audio Video Capture Card HDMI
Recording Box Mic In Phone Game
Live Streaming for Switch PS4 DVD
Camera’ on the YiBao Trading Ltd
Store at AliExpress for the princely
sum of $10.38, shipping included –
see: http://bit.ly/pe-oct20-ali
‘It arrived today (six days later) and
it really is a USB 3.0 HDMI capture
device and seems to capture my video
just as well as the Magewell. It needs
a bit of longer-term testing, but how
can they do this? £289 versus $10 –
what magic have they discovered? A
new chip, perhaps? If you get yours
before Christmas I’ll be interested in
what you discover as I have no intention of tearing mine down!
‘So, thank you very much for the
heads-up. It now means that an expensive, single-point-of-failure in my
video setup has just been eliminated.
Fantastic!’
And thank you Ralph for the tip –
mine has arrived and I also find it too
good to be possible! I am still testing,
and will write more later, but one early
word of caution. It does not have the
hardware processing power built into
more expensive devices, you need a
powerful PC to drive it. Also, it only
handles PCM audio.
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Telephone: 0118 933 1111 Fax: 0118 933 2375
USED ELECTRONIC TEST EQUIPMENT
Check website www.stewart-of-reading.co.uk
Fluke/Philips PM3092 Oscilloscope
2+2 Channel 200MHz Delay TB,
Autoset etc – £250
LAMBDA GENESYS
LAMBDA GENESYS
IFR 2025
IFR 2948B
IFR 6843
R&S APN62
Agilent 8712ET
HP8903A/B
HP8757D
HP3325A
HP3561A
HP6032A
HP6622A
HP6624A
HP6632B
HP6644A
HP6654A
HP8341A
HP83630A
HP83624A
HP8484A
HP8560E
HP8563A
HP8566B
HP8662A
Marconi 2022E
Marconi 2024
Marconi 2030
Marconi 2023A
PSU GEN100-15 100V 15A Boxed As New
£400
PSU GEN50-30 50V 30A
£400
Signal Generator 9kHz – 2.51GHz Opt 04/11
£900
Communication Service Monitor Opts 03/25 Avionics
POA
Microwave Systems Analyser 10MHz – 20GHz
POA
Syn Function Generator 1Hz – 260kHz
£295
RF Network Analyser 300kHz – 1300MHz
POA
Audio Analyser
£750 – £950
Scaler Network Analyser
POA
Synthesised Function Generator
£195
Dynamic Signal Analyser
£650
PSU 0-60V 0-50A 1000W
£750
PSU 0-20V 4A Twice or 0-50V 2A Twice
£350
PSU 4 Outputs
£400
PSU 0-20V 0-5A
£195
PSU 0-60V 3.5A
£400
PSU 0-60V 0-9A
£500
Synthesised Sweep Generator 10MHz – 20GHz
£2,000
Synthesised Sweeper 10MHz – 26.5 GHz
POA
Synthesised Sweeper 2 – 20GHz
POA
Power Sensor 0.01-18GHz 3nW-10µW
£75
Spectrum Analyser Synthesised 30Hz – 2.9GHz
£1,750
Spectrum Analyser Synthesised 9kHz – 22GHz
£2,250
Spectrum Analsyer 100Hz – 22GHz
£1,200
RF Generator 10kHz – 1280MHz
£750
Synthesised AM/FM Signal Generator 10kHz – 1.01GHz
£325
Synthesised Signal Generator 9kHz – 2.4GHz
£800
Synthesised Signal Generator 10kHz – 1.35GHz
£750
Signal Generator 9kHz – 1.2GHz
£700
HP/Agilent HP 34401A Digital
Multimeter 6½ Digit £325 – £375
HP 54600B Oscilloscope
Analogue/Digital Dual Trace 100MHz
Only £75, with accessories £125
(ALL PRICES PLUS CARRIAGE & VAT)
Please check availability before ordering or calling in
HP33120A
HP53131A
HP53131A
Audio Precision
Datron 4708
Druck DPI 515
Datron 1081
ENI 325LA
Keithley 228
Time 9818
Practical Electronics | October | 2020
Marconi 2305
Modulation Meter
£250
Marconi 2440
Counter 20GHz
£295
Marconi 2945/A/B
Communications Test Set Various Options
POA
Marconi 2955
Radio Communications Test Set
£595
Marconi 2955A
Radio Communications Test Set
£725
Marconi 2955B
Radio Communications Test Set
£800
Marconi 6200
Microwave Test Set
£1,500
Marconi 6200A
Microwave Test Set 10MHz – 20GHz
£1,950
Marconi 6200B
Microwave Test Set
£2,300
Marconi 6960B
Power Meter with 6910 sensor
£295
Tektronix TDS3052B Oscilloscope 500MHz 2.5GS/s
£1,250
Tektronix TDS3032
Oscilloscope 300MHz 2.5GS/s
£995
Tektronix TDS3012
Oscilloscope 2 Channel 100MHz 1.25GS/s
£450
Tektronix 2430A
Oscilloscope Dual Trace 150MHz 100MS/s
£350
Tektronix 2465B
Oscilloscope 4 Channel 400MHz
£600
Farnell AP60/50
PSU 0-60V 0-50A 1kW Switch Mode
£300
Farnell XA35/2T
PSU 0-35V 0-2A Twice Digital
£75
Farnell AP100-90
Power Supply 100V 90A
£900
Farnell LF1
Sine/Sq Oscillator 10Hz – 1MHz
£45
Racal 1991
Counter/Timer 160MHz 9 Digit
£150
Racal 2101
Counter 20GHz LED
£295
Racal 9300
True RMS Millivoltmeter 5Hz – 20MHz etc
£45
Racal 9300B
As 9300
£75
Solartron 7150/PLUS 6½ Digit DMM True RMS IEEE
£65/£75
Solatron 1253
Gain Phase Analyser 1mHz – 20kHz
£600
Solartron SI 1255
HF Frequency Response Analyser
POA
Tasakago TM035-2 PSU 0-35V 0-2A 2 Meters
£30
Thurlby PL320QMD PSU 0-30V 0-2A Twice
£160 – £200
Thurlby TG210
Function Generator 0.002-2MHz TTL etc Kenwood Badged £ 6 5
Function Generator 100 microHz – 15MHz
Universal Counter 3GHz Boxed unused
Universal Counter 225MHz
SYS2712 Audio Analyser – in original box
Autocal Multifunction Standard
Pressure Calibrator/Controller
Autocal Standards Multimeter
RF Power Amplifier 250kHz – 150MHz 25W 50dB
Voltage/Current Source
DC Current & Voltage Calibrator
£350
£600
£350
POA
POA
£400
POA
POA
POA
POA
Marconi 2955B Radio
Communications Test Set – £800
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