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Off-topic but I am stuck as the power button on my computer has problems so I cannot use Affinity products at present


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Yes, this is off-topic, but it is about using Affinity products in that unless I can switch the computer on I cannot use them, so hopefully the moderator will allow this thread to continue please.

I am writing this on my backup computer, which is an 11 inch Hewlett Packard laptop computer which runs Windows 10S and I don't want to un-S it as my critical use for a computer is ordering groceries.

I have Affiinity Publisher, Affinity Designer, and Affinity Photo on my 13 inch Lenovo laptop.

The computing part works fine, but I have had problems.

The keyboard and the power switch are what appears to be a rubber sheet thing. It is supposed to have a small light in the on off switch but it has not worked for a long time.

In fact, due to some keyboard letters not working properly and trackpad clicking beIng wonky I have for a long time used it by using the move about part of the trackpad, together with a pluged in full size USB keyboard and using mouse keys from the keyboard.

In fact I have used the plugged in USB keyboard and mouse keys on this Hewlett Packard computer from as soon as I got it, and I find the full-size keyboard good and I am now very used to using mousekeys from the keyboard and I prefer to work that way.

A few days ago the computer would not turn on, but after a few tries it did.

Then it wouldn't.

But the next day it would not at first, but eventually it did.

I have wondered about whether it would be safe that if I can get it to switch on one more time to never turn it off, just to close the lid when not using it.

Does anyone have any advice on whether this can be fixed in some way please?

I do not carry the computer around, so if it means having an external switch that would not be an issue, but I would need to be able to set that up in the first place.

I am wondering if the power switch can be bypassed in some way using the USB socket or something like that. Possibly just wishful thinking but an on-off switch failing might be a fairly common occurrence.

Is there a way to turn the computer on independently of the switch?

Ultimately I might need to buy another computer, and then decide to either un-S-lock it and add the software, which, thanks to Serif's policy that I can get another copy is possible, or leave it S-locked and buy the software from Microsoft store. so I can keep the computer S-locked. Any advice on this would be helpful please.

William

 

 

 

Until December 2022, using a Lenovo laptop running Windows 10 in England. From January 2023, using an HP laptop running Windows 11 in England.

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I'd agree that your laptop is probably at the end of it's life. If the problem was just the power switch I'd say try getting it replaced, but it sounds like it would probably cost more than it's worth to get the laptop working properly. 

As you don't carry the laptop around, have you considered getting a desktop model instead? You can often get good deals, so, depending on the specs you want, it may work out cheaper in the long run. (Although, of course, you would have the additional, initial, cost of a monitor.)

Personally I wouldn't bother about using the Windows S mode, assuming you are the only one using your PC!

Acer XC-895 : Core i5-10400 Hexa-core 2.90 GHz :  32GB RAM : Intel UHD Graphics 630 : Windows 10 Home
Affinity Publisher 2 : Affinity Photo 2 : Affinity Designer 2 : (latest release versions) on desktop and iPad

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I'm really not a hardware expert, so anything I can tell is without warranty. But as far as I remember, I had somehow similar problems long time ago with my Desktop Computer, that were caused by the battery that was running empty. It was solved by simply changing the button battery, that is placed somewhere on the main board.

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I am considering getting a new computer to run Affinity products.

I am thinking of doing this as I do not wish to potentially jeopardize my ability to order grocery deliveries by unlocking this one.

I was considering buying a Hewlett Packard one from Currys at £159

https://www.currys.co.uk/computing/laptops/laptops/hp?searchTerm=hp%20laptop

that I think has Windows 10S so it would need un-S-locking it so as to use the software that I have bought previously.

But chatting to a helpful gentleman on Currys live chat it appears that unlocking a Windows 10S computer slows it down.

That computer has a Celeron processor.

He recommended an i3 machine, which is £329.

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/hp-14sdq2507na-14-laptop-intel-core-i3-128-gb-ssd-silver-10222268.html

I am wondering if it would be better to buy another copy of Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher from Microsoft store and run it on a Windows 10S computer and thus not un-S-locking it.

I know that for the Affinity products that I have direct from Serif that I can get another copy free when I want it.

Does that "get it again" apply with a version bought from Microsoft store please?

The £159 computer has 64 gigabytes of storage.

Is anyone running Affinity software on a lower cost Windows 10S computer please?

If so, can you say something about your experiences please?

William

 

Until December 2022, using a Lenovo laptop running Windows 10 in England. From January 2023, using an HP laptop running Windows 11 in England.

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I have been thinking about this.

There appeared yesterday to me to be three options.

1. Buy a computer at £329 that does not have its Windows system S-locked and download again Affinity products that I have already purchased.

2. Buy a computer at £159 that has its Windows system S-locked, then buy S-runnable versions of Affinity Publisher and Affinity Designer from the Microsoft store.

3. Buy a computer at £159 that that has its Windows system S-locked, un-S-lock it and download again Affinity products that I have already purchased.

Having some years ago had a computer that was about £350 at the time, ethernet, built-in disc drive, and after some time it went wrong, I had decided to go over to a policy of getting a more basic lower cost machine and having an external USB disc drive so that if the computer went wrong then it was not such a big loss and I would still have the disc drive.

So I am a bit reluctant to buy the £329 computer.

Option 2 was beginning to look good, on the basis of why un-S-lock the computer, thouigh I did wonder if one can redownload Affinity products purchased from Microsoft Store if one needs to get another computer later, or if it would need a repurchase.

However, upon further consideration, I have remembered that I also want to run High-Logic FontCreator, so it looks like an S-locked machine that is not un-S-locked is not compatible with that.

So it looks like option 2 is out.

So what I seek advice on please, is about unlocking an S-locked computer and then installing Affinity products purchsed directly from Serif on it.

From what a gentleman at Currys told me it appears that unlocking slows down the system as it results in a bigger version of Windows, not just (in my words) switching off a binary flag.

Also, the effect varies from computer system to computer system.

So has anyone here any experience or knowledge of the implications of unlocking an S-locked Windows system and then using it with Affinity products purchased direct from Serif please?

Also, is it still the case that, having purchased licences for the Serif Affinity products direct from Serif some time ago that one can still download a new copy without further charge please?

William

 

Until December 2022, using a Lenovo laptop running Windows 10 in England. From January 2023, using an HP laptop running Windows 11 in England.

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If the £159 laptop you mention is this one:
https://www.currys.co.uk/products/hp-stream-14sdq0506sa-14-laptop-intel-celeron-64-gb-emmc-white-10225081.html
… then the storage of 64GB will be no good for anything more than web browsing and office stuff (that’s an exaggeration but, in practice, you will find problems having so little storage in the medium/long-term).

Plus, the 4GB of memory is only the recommended minimum to be using the Affinity applications so you may find that the machine slows down more often that you would like.

It could be usable for what you want to do with it but I wouldn’t personally recommend it for anything more than ‘basic computing’.

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6 minutes ago, GarryP said:

Yes, that is the computer to which I was referring.

William

 

Until December 2022, using a Lenovo laptop running Windows 10 in England. From January 2023, using an HP laptop running Windows 11 in England.

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In general, for image editing you need a strong CPU, as much RAM as you can get (minimum 8 GB, better 16 or more) and a good graphic card. Also thinking about the future, you should be aware that the requirements for graphic apps and even operating systems will expectable increase. I personally decided to buy a Gaming PC some years ago, that did cost about 1,200 €. Unfortunately the power you need to handle pixels has its price.

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I am constrained to using a portable, laptop type system.

I don't know if it makes any difference in relation to the processing power needed from a computer, but my use of Affinity Designer tends to be mostly (though not always) vector and fonts designs, typically Pen tool and the built-in shape tools (I still think of them as Quickshapes 🙂 ), rather than photograph-like bit pattern things, though I do export png and jpg images  

William

 

Until December 2022, using a Lenovo laptop running Windows 10 in England. From January 2023, using an HP laptop running Windows 11 in England.

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3 minutes ago, William Overington said:

I am constrained to using a portable, laptop type system.

That doesn't matter, there are a bunch of good solid notebooks, the point is more to don't buy any crap here!

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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Is what is called a 'notebook' the same as what is called a 'laptop'?

Perhaps a name change as the Hewlett Packard notes did say to use it on a solid surface.

So maybe the term 'laptop' is being deprecated?

But just wondering in case a 'notebook' is something different from a so-called 'laptop'.

William

 

 

Until December 2022, using a Lenovo laptop running Windows 10 in England. From January 2023, using an HP laptop running Windows 11 in England.

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1 minute ago, GarryP said:

In general, a “notebook” is just a ‘light-weight’ (in both actual weight and computing power) laptop.
The ‘line’ between the two terms is both wide and grey.

Ah, so 'notebook' is a subset of 'laptop', not a synonym of 'laptop'.

William

 

Until December 2022, using a Lenovo laptop running Windows 10 in England. From January 2023, using an HP laptop running Windows 11 in England.

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There’s no hard-and-fast rule that I know of.

What the manufacturer calls it is often dependent upon how the manufacturer wants to ‘market’ the machine, and the same machine can be marketed differently over its lifetime.

For instance, a particular model could be a laptop when it is first sold but can sometimes change to being a notebook later in life, showing how its performance has dropped behind newer laptops.

There are most probably some notebooks which are more powerful than some other laptops.

“Laptop” usually means “for normal-use, or power(-ish) user” and “notebook” usually means “for light-use user” but, as I said, it’s a ‘fuzzy’ area.

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1 hour ago, v_kyr said:

That doesn't matter, there are a bunch of good solid notebooks, the point is more to don't buy any ...

Could you possibly say what you are suggesting to avoid please?

For example, are you meaning the £159 computer that I am thinking about?

William

 

Until December 2022, using a Lenovo laptop running Windows 10 in England. From January 2023, using an HP laptop running Windows 11 in England.

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It may be impossible, but I am still wondering if I can fix the Lenovo.

It did start up once after a bit of pressing of the on-off button, so it might 'just' be a faulty switch.

But that is not 'just' it is FUNDAMENTAL! 🙂

William

 

Until December 2022, using a Lenovo laptop running Windows 10 in England. From January 2023, using an HP laptop running Windows 11 in England.

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Yes, a battery costs around 10 or 20 €, as far as I remember. It's a simple button battery. One of the larger ones. I would at least ask an expert if this could be the cause of your problem. There are several websites on the web that can tell you how to change the battery yourself. That shouldn't be too difficult, but of course laptops from different manufacturers are different from each other. But if you see a button battery somewhere on the mainboard, it should be the one.

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If it can be repaired, that may well be your best option. However, (from what you've said in the past) I assume you are not able to take it to be repaired, so would have to pay postage costs on top of the actual repair bill. If the problem is more than just a switch, the total cost may be more that it is really worth, considering that it doesn't sound as if your current laptop is in the best working order anyway.

Personally, I think that your best course of action, and probably best value for money in the long run, would be to get the best laptop you can afford, and install the Affinity apps that you have already paid for. (Your option 1 above.) 

Acer XC-895 : Core i5-10400 Hexa-core 2.90 GHz :  32GB RAM : Intel UHD Graphics 630 : Windows 10 Home
Affinity Publisher 2 : Affinity Photo 2 : Affinity Designer 2 : (latest release versions) on desktop and iPad

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51 minutes ago, William Overington said:

Could you possibly say what you are suggesting to avoid please?

For example, are you meaning the £159 computer that I am thinking about?

As said avoid buying something crappy here, which means some weak underpowered consumer Laptop/Notebook. What do you want to do with a Celeron based CPU, 4 GB RAM and a 64-256 GB SSD Win Notebook nowadays or tomorrow (...that's a hardware joke at best, just for surfing and writing one/two emails, but nothing you can use in a realy productive manner for todays or tommorows demanding software needs)?  - Further you also have to distinguish between consumer and business oriented notebooks. The later are much more sturdy build, have better matched hardware components, usually offer more connection interfaces, are meant more for overall continuous use and also usually come along with much better/longer warranties (some with direct next-day on-site-service warranties).

When buying a new notebook which has to last and should pay for itself over some longer period of time (amortize), you have to invest more in advance here!

For example, if it should be from Lenovo, maybe look better instead after some business oriented Thinkpad model like this upwards ...

https://www.lenovo.com/de/de/laptops/thinkpad/p-series/ThinkPad-P15s-Gen-2-15”-Intel/p/20W600GTGE?cid=de%3Apaidsocial%3Amloutc

... for a Dell there are things like their Latitude series, HP has also Z- and Elite lines etc.

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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37 minutes ago, N.P.M. said:

Thank you.

Oh, that is an education for me! 🙂

And there was me thinking that option 1 at £329 was expensive!

Clearly I need to rethink given this information.

Thus far, notwithstanding the keyboard issue and the trackpad click issue (for which issues I have workarounds with an USB full size keyboard and using mousekeys) the Lenovo computer seems to do all I need it to do as regards my need to use Affinity products, PagePlus X7 and High-Logic FontCreator.

So something from Hewlett Packard of equivalent performance yet a better on-off switch might well suit me fine for my hobbyist level use. Though I recognize that it might well be inadequate for a professional artist or someone working. 

William

 

Until December 2022, using a Lenovo laptop running Windows 10 in England. From January 2023, using an HP laptop running Windows 11 in England.

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1 hour ago, William Overington said:

It may be impossible, but I am still wondering if I can fix the Lenovo.

It did start up once after a bit of pressing of the on-off button, so it might 'just' be a faulty switch.

You've to see if it's something you can easily fix yourself or not. You can look & search on the Lenovo websites if there is a Hardware Maintenance Manuals (HMM) for that notebook (Ideapad or Thinkpad etc.?), in order to identify parts. - Dependent on where the power button lies and if it's integrated, aka if part of the exchangable keyboard or a separate switch, there are chances that you can get some a less expensive replacement component then, which you might can exchange yourself, without paying much third party repair service.

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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An update.

I am posting using the Lonovo 14 inch computer.

I found some videos on YouTube.

I watched them on the Hewlett Packard 11 inch Windows 10S computer.

Here is a link to the part of one of the videos that has enabled me to get this computer started, as a workaround.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87c6M9ZRtu0&t=120s

Now although it says that one can access the Bios and recovery mode I found that it also offers an ordinary start, in fact that is the default.

So, although I could not find the unfolded paper clip that I have used on other things some time ago and that I thought was in a known place, I found a picture hanging kit that I got from Tesco some time ago and in it are several plastic topped pins, so I used one of them to press the Novo button and the computer started up and the panel became displayed on the screen. I then pressed Enter on the USB keyboard and the computer started up as if it had started with the power button being pressed.

So at present hopefully I can use the Hewlett Packard computer for ordering groceries, watching movies on YouTube and BBC iplayer, and learning (some) Welsh and unrusting my French on Duolingo.com et cetera et cetera and only turning on this computer using the Novo button when I want to use Affinity software, PagePlus X7 or High-Logic FontCreator, perhaps only switching this computer on when I am going to have it switched on for several hours, even if I am not using it at times, such as for a meal break.

The other day I had a good chat with a gentleman at Currys about what I wanted to do, within the constraints of me wanting a 14 inch Hewlett Packard laptop running Windows 10 and not needing fast graphics (as in game playing) and my limited budget and he suggested this one.

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/hp-14sdq2502na-14-laptop-intel-pentium-gold-128-gb-ssd-silver-10222266.html?q=751120

I have not ordered it at this time, and the £159 one mentioned previously is not available for delivery at present.

However, as it might be that I can continue to use this machine, then I might not need to buy another computer yet.

In fact, when this computer did not start over a week ago, realizing that I then only had one computer available to order shopping I found that Currys had on offer at £128.97 a computer at £90 off the previous price a Hewlett Packard computer which I think is the same as the Hewlett Packard computer that I have here, and which cost £219 in March 2021, so i bought it and it arrived though i have not opened it yet (Covid quarantine precaution). I later learned that apparentky Curys price things at something and 97 pence when it is a clearance item.

I bought this Lenovo computer in about June 2019, which was pre-Covid, as my then computer had broken down, so at that time I was able to telephone Currys, and a helpful lady asked me various questions such as whether I wanted a tower or a laptop, whether I wanted fast graphics for video games and so on and recommended this Lenovo machine and the lady placed the order for me. However, when this machine broke down in March 2021 due to Covid restrictions it was not possible to place an order over the telephone, only online. But I could not get online.

The way I got a computer, the Hewlett Packard machine, is that when this Lenovo machine would start and could be used offline but would not connect to the internet, is that I telephoned a local self-employed electrician who had done some electrical work for me in 2018 and 2019 and he got online to Currys website, we discussed options over the telephone, he ordered a computer, had it delivered to him, then brought it to me and delivered it social distance style. He was very helpful, solved my problem and I paid him for the time he spent on sorting it all out for me.

As it happened, after some helpful guidance on the now vanished Serif lounge forum, I was able to use the Hewlett Packard computer to get a new copy of the Lenovo wifi driver, presented within a .exe file, use a USB memory stick to copy it across to this Lenovo machine, run it and the Lenovo machine then connected to the internet again.

William

 

Until December 2022, using a Lenovo laptop running Windows 10 in England. From January 2023, using an HP laptop running Windows 11 in England.

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It all sounds a bit complicated, but well done on finding a solution, (albeit a temporary one). 👍

Acer XC-895 : Core i5-10400 Hexa-core 2.90 GHz :  32GB RAM : Intel UHD Graphics 630 : Windows 10 Home
Affinity Publisher 2 : Affinity Photo 2 : Affinity Designer 2 : (latest release versions) on desktop and iPad

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A related problem has arisen.

Before the problem arose with the Lenovo computer, I had been writing a document on the Lenovo computer using WordPad.

I habitually use webmail, so emails are not on my computer.

As I proceeded with the writing, as a precaution, I sent email to myself with the latest version of the Wordpad .rtf document as an attachment. I am on draft 7.

So today, I tried to download a copy of that .rtf document to this Hewlett Packard computer so that I could continue to write it on this Hewlett Packard computer, which is running Windows 10S.

But I cannot seem to be able to download the file from the webmail email to this computer.

As I had often used that technique on the other computer, though not with a .rtf file, though I had with PDFs and a TTF, I am wondering why I cannot get it to work now.

It seems to want to open it as an image in the browser.

As a test, I tried to download a PDF from another email, and that won't work either.

Does anyone recognize this problem please? Is it something to do with the S in Windows 10S?

Can anyone suggest a solution please?

William

 

Until December 2022, using a Lenovo laptop running Windows 10 in England. From January 2023, using an HP laptop running Windows 11 in England.

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