Yes I can boot into DOS (command prompt) with my Windows 7 installation CD.
After that kind of crashing occurring, my first thought would go to opening the laptop and reseating the RAM modules to see if that helped
Your files are most likely residing safely on your hard drive, so unless itās absolutely critical that the files must be moved immediately, you can rest assured that your files are safe for the time being,
To safely transfer your files from your old hard drive, you will need to remove the hard disk out of the laptop (which might involve removing 10-20 screws from the bottom of the laptop) and transfer it to another laptop or desktop PC. You can purchase a USB to SATA cable like this for $10-20 which will make this task a lot easier without having to open up the PC you want to transfer the files over to:
After the file transfer is done and you want to try and resurrect your PC, you can try wiping the old laptopās hard drive and reinstalling Windows to see if that fixes the problem. If that doesnāt help, and seeing that your laptop is from 2008, it may well be time to replace it. If someone attempts a hardware repair on your computer, you might spend more on the repair than what an equivalent laptop would cost nowadays.
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@JohnsonTV ā¦ this +1
I acknowledge money can be tight if thatās the issue, but yes, laptop components donāt last forever, and seeing thatās its 7-8 years, thatās a lifetime in PC terms.
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Thank you for your advice mubd. That is one of the things I am planning to do this weekend.
I think I have decided to ditch Spotify for Google Play Music.
The main reason being that you can upload and stream your own music files that are not available on Spotify eg. obscure 80s tracks 
ā¦ and that YouTube Red is also included in the price.
It gives me an āall in oneā streaming solution, I can sync my iTunes playlist to it and It also saves me having to save them on my phone, iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab, and as I also have Android Auto in my carā¦
But uploading the songs is a bit of pain on ADSL 2+. I have 776 songs (5.9 GB) that I am uploading, which I started at 5pm yesterday, and even now only 465 have been uploaded (using Google Music Manager)ā¦ itās SOOO slowā¦ at this rate it will be 1am tomorrow before itās completedā¦ sighā¦
You can do this on Spotify via the local files option.
Spotify has much better radio / curated playlists. Google seems to struggle to update its playlists often enough - Iāve found ānewā playlists with music released 3 years ago!
Nonetheless I stick with Google Play Music as I prefer its interface and itās radio station / playlist issues are only slightly irritating to me.
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didnāt know you could do thisā¦ thanksā¦
Iāll see how I go with Google, as YouTube Red looks like itās nice to have too.
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99.99% of the time Google Play Music-YouTube Red has the music I search for. It is very rare that a song isnāt available. Iāve never felt the need to upload any music.
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True, but having all of my music on Google Music appeals, and is also handy for when Iām in the car listening via Android Auto.
Naturally, YouTube wonāt work on Android Auto (or Apple Car Play).
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I installed a new car radio last week after my previous Chinese Android OS head unit failed after just over a year - itās a Sony XAV-AX100. I believe itās the cheapest Android Auto/Apple Carplay radio on the market today at around $500. Works great, and importantly, it only takes up a single DIN slot even though itās a double DIN head unit. In my car, double DIN head units did not fit properly because the wiring harness behind it would be squeezed against the back of the radio, as there was no space. I really had to ram the radio in the slot and then rely on the fascia to hold it back.
The only quibble I have with it is that it occasionally does not switch the audio properly, so the navigation instructions or phone calls come out of the phone.
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Nice!
I see that itās rear view camera compatibleā¦ do you think youāll get one of those installed too?
I see that it also has RDS on FMā¦ which can be very handy depending on where you liveā¦
No digital radio, but again only useful if you live in a mainland capital city (at the moment)ā¦
Is digital radio ever going to get rolled out? I thought it was bad enough the length of time to deploy digital TV, especially under the Libs but this digital radio is just ridiculous.
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I already had a rear view camera from my old head unit wired in.
I gave up on digital radio in the car a loooooong time ago. That first Chinese Android head unit I bought just over a year ago, you had to buy some Wavesink DAB app which was patently unsuitable for use in the car (no presets or anything) and the reception, even directly wired into the carās antenna with an appropriate DAB/FM antenna splitter, was abysmal.
I think you can get a Apple CarPlay/Android Auto head unit thatās compatible with DAB, but the cheapest one is something silly like $1200. It looks like Alpine are about to release one for $999, but there is no way Iām paying a $500 premium to put digital radio into my car. That would pay for hundreds of gigabytes of wireless bandwidth which I could use for either Spotify/Google Play music or Radioapp.
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One of my emails was on this list, so I just changed all my email passwords.
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Always best to run your email through haveibeenpwned every so often (or subscribe to their notifications) as they catalogue all these leaks and breaches.
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Just put all of my email assets thro it and found that one of the email address I had was in a breach for a Education Froum site.
Wow, checked my email and Iāve been pwned byā¦ Neopets. I havenāt played in 10 years to give you a sense of how old my Hotmail is.
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My wife had hers done from My Spaceā¦ I never even knew she had a My Space, tbh I donāt think sheād really rememebr either!
I notice internet speed to some websites were pretty slow during yesterday. I have since found out it was due to the severe damage caused to the undersea cable between Hong Kong and Australia by recent typhoons Hato and Pakhar, which will take weeks to fix.