When we first started living in France, I was lucky enough to be able to buy a complete new system, on the basis that this was probably going to be the last computer we would have for a long time to come, I bought the best I could afford. 

We already had a printer and a digital camera so it was just a new tower and monitor that we needed.  This was in January, in February we had the most almighty storm, there was a huge flash of sparks and all the lights went out.

There had not been time to pull the plugs on all the electrical appliances and when we came to turn the computer on nothing happened, not only was the computer fried but so was the printer and the digital camera which had been left attached to the computer.

The new monitor strangely enough had survived.

Clearly the guarantee did not cover us so we made a claim on the home insurance, we also checked out both in supermarkets and on line, the cost of surge protectors.  Apart from the computer and monitor, scanner, printer, camera, speakers, neufbox, I also had an amplifier to plug in and I wanted them all protected.  The surge protector looks like a normal plug extension but has built in the ability to almost instantaneously switch off if it detects a surge in the current, whether it is caused by a storm or whatever.  The manufacturer also guarantees that if it fails it will reimburse you up to 400000 euros to replace your equipment.

I eventually bought one on line and I would strongly recommend either units by Belkin or APC.  Depending how many plugs there are you need to plug in, the prices vary between 20 and 30 euros. 

We have had several storms of late and I know my equipment is safe.

Did you know

If you are running Windows Vista, you can control your computer using your voice only  Go to all programmes, ease of access,  windows speech, this is so cool you just have to try it.

This is a new feature of my website and in it I hope to send up to date information about keeping your computer running properly and what to do if it all goes pear shaped.

In this my first blog I want to explain the importance of keeping your computer up to date.  Virtually all the hardware you have connected to or inside your machine has what is known as a driver to make the printer, graphics card etc work.  This is a small program that the manufacturer of the printer or whatever use to get the two machines talking to each other and permits the printer to print or the webcam to work or even the monitor to display.

Sometimes the program can get corrupted and that is when your printer starts going haywire, or any other peripheral stops working properly.  In most cases it is easy just to reinstall the drivers from the cd that came with the peripheral and this invariably solves the problem.  I prefer in these cases to check the manufacturers website to see if there is a more up to date driver available and if so download and install that instead.  Sometimes the newer driver contains extra content or enhanced content or fixes a bug that the manufacturer found out after issue of the product cd.

So if you start to have a problem with any of your peripherals, printers, cameras, graphics cards, try reinstalling the drivers first, always uninstall the old ones first, otherwise you may just corrupt the new ones as well.

As always if you are unsure of what to do, contact the shop if under a guarantee or the handbook or contact a qualified engineer.