Posts by SnowDog

What's even more funny is that the solution I provided - and which appears to be totally invisible to everyone - does not include any javascript (thank you very much), gives you an 'animated' button if you want it, and makes a whole div into a link as per the original question (I think).

Let me simplify it:

<div CLASS="divname" onmouseover="style.backgroundColor='#FFFFFF';
this.style.cursor='pointer'" onmouseout="style.backgroundColor=''#000000" 
onmouseup="somepage.htm"></div>

This creates a div which is white when you point at it and black when you don't, and the whole thing links to somepage.htm.

No Javascript and no anchor tags.

I know what you mean. HDDs are way too unreliable to trust as a primary backup, and yet they are also way too big to be backed up economically (timewise and DVD-wise).

Obviously, call centres only deal with problems, so you don't get to hear about all the satisfied customers, but from the moment machines started being sold in the stores with 200GB drives there were clearly issues.

It was so common for machines to be DOA (just not working from the moment they were switched on). You just build up an impression based on that.

And if they worked at the start, they'd die within weeks or months.

Scary.

One piece of advice: back up your data regularly.

As these drives get bigger, people are less inclined to back up and more inclined to save stacks of personal stuff. With the apparent increased risk of failure, it's a disaster waiting to happen.

You can't really narrow it down any more than you have!

PSU error light with nothing else connected? So a PSU fault.

And you have extended warranty? You're covered for everything except software!!!

If your diagnostic and repair system is anything like ours, it definitely has a fault and definitely needs an engineer out to it based on the symptoms you have and the tests you've done, so the call centre will book it (though I'm sure they'll insist on you trying something on the phone so they don't get caught out).

HDDs dying soon after purchase is horribly common. Working in my call centre I have developed a sort of phobia about 200GB HDDs (and 160GB ones to a lesser extent) - they appear SO unreliable.

In the UK, it would be repaired within days.

It depends on your retailer's support structure. Often, if retailers have their own technical support they repair under licence in 12 month warranty. HP licences repair to 3rd parties anyway (especially laptops).

It isn't necessarily HP who is to blame for any delays.

What card is it? It's not a Radeon, is it?

I'd agree. Do you have a spare card to test?

(Note: When you reply, post a new message in the thread rather than edit your original, because that way those involved get a notification :))

Holding in the power button on the tower would work whether it was in Windows or not - although if it didn't work at all then that would point to a definite problem.

The yellow standby light means that - assuming the monitor is OK - it is not receiving a video signal from the computer. Does the monitor display "No Signal" if you disconnect it and turn it off and back on again?

The big question is: is it POSTing?

Did it used to make a beep when you turned it on? Is it doing that now?

If you disconnect everything from the machine and let it stand for a few minutes, then plug in just the mains cord and turn it on, what happens?

Fine, lights will probably come on (so the PSU isn't dead), but what else happens? Does the HDD light flicker for a minute or two as Windows loads?

If it does, how do you normally log in? Using TAB and the arrow keys (obviously having turned off and reconnected the keyboard and mouse) you can switch between user log ins and type 'blind' (you have to guess a little, but if you know your computer you can do it). If this succeeds you may hear the Windows sounds (plug speakers in, of course).

If it isn't POSTing then there is a problem.

Well, better a 50-day wait than no computer, period!

That's just bad service, of course, and I can't comment on it directly - not knowing the full details.

If we book out an engineer (or part) to a customer it depends on whether the part is in stock or not. If it isn't, it often has to come from the manufacturer of the machine, and we are just as vulnerable to stupid delays as the customer in those circumstances. It is shocking when a new machine doesn't have spare available, but under terms of the warranty it has to be an approved part that goes back in.

Not many manufacturers - especially HP - deliberately take 50 days to fix things. It is usually much quicker and that last experience may have been extraordinary.

We can usually get repairs done inside a week.

Ah. Well, under warranty you are quids in.

Unplug everything and let it stand for a few minutes - just the tower with nothing connected.

Plug in the mains and look at that led on the back.

Try powering up.

If it does anything odd then you have a fault that is definitely in warranty territory. Call them and get them to fix it.

The flashing light on the back is surely telling you there's a PSU problem? It is normally on steady, isn't it?

The problem with searching for answers to this sort of problem is that often a lot of people don't consider having to replace the PSU as a solution - they're looking for magical software fixes and so they don't follow their threads through.

Do you have access to a spare PSU or a friendly computer store?

Well, no.

I am really, REALLY missing something here.

<div style="position:absolute; left:0px; top:0px; border-color:#FFFFFF;
border-style:solid" CLASS="divname" 
onmouseover="style.backgroundColor='#FFFFFF';
this.style.cursor='pointer'" onmouseout="style.backgroundColor=''" 
onmouseup="somepage.htm"></div>

makes the entire div a link.

Am I missing something? :)

The question was

Is it possible to make an entire <div> into a hyperlink using CSS only...

.

The solution I offered may not be what you'd class as 'only css' but it doesn't have a H REF and it assigns properties to a class. Is that wrong?

Someone will correct me on this if I'm wrong, but if the output for this is to go to the screen (I didn't think about what it was supposed to do until later) you'd be better using echo instead of print.

I know I always do.

It is discussed here:

http://www.faqts.com/knowledge_base/view.phtml/aid/1/fid/40

That usually means a syntax error of some sort.

Isn't the format for the print 'function':

print ( a string );

(Note the brackets).

And you've not got a paired ' in the last one.

And there's one in the middle with only one " in it which will need to be escaped using \" if you want it in a string as such.

And one of your <forms> bits has a > missing.

It doesn't look like it will work as it is.

If we came up against this with a customer, we'd have to treat it as a motherboard issue of some sort.

If it was overheating that badly I'd expect there to be problems turning it back on immediately (and I mean power - not just no POST).

Does your BIOS have a temperature monitor in it?

Any USB damage? What if you disconnect the front board, for example?

What about running RAM and HDD diagnostic tests just to eliminate those?

Does it do it when you just power from mains (i.e. eliminate peripherals from the equation)

You've actually done far more than we'd expect our customers to do and it all points to a mobo issue.

There's nothing wrong with IE.

This is the price you pay for downloading beta software and not reading the part which warns you it could crash your system ;)

The same thing happened when SP2 was in pre-release. Loads of people insisted on installing it before anyone else and it messed up their systems no end.

Well, you could download normaliz.dll and see if replacing it works. You might also need iertutil.dll.

This seems to be quite a common problem when installing IE7.

Can you get into Safe Mode?

If you say to someone who thinks they've broken something "Was it hot" the first thing they'll say is yes, when actually they don't know because they don't know what the normal temperature is.

Does it get into Safe Mode?

The fact that it gets on to the desktop suggests it isn't 'terminally dead' :)

Something's wrong. But it's a case of finding out what.

When you say you reformatted and reinstalled, did you delete the exisiting partition?

It sounds like you installed a fresh copy on a new partition and left the old one there.

If you only did this recently and haven't installed a lot of other stuff yet, the cleanest way (IMO) is to do it again, but this time delete all partitions so the whole disk is unformatted, then do a full NTFS format.

I have this vague recollection that one of the Windows updates was intended to fix a vulnerability in this or a related process. I can't help wondering that if by fixing it (or trying to) something that was exploiting it had a hissy fit on your system.

It certainly isn't normal behaviour, and although being forced to turn off Windows Update might send a geek or two somewhere into ecstasy, it isn't a good thing in the long run.

Something's not right. Ah well.

Are you sure that's a solution and not just sweeping it under the carpet?

Automatic updates shouldn't do that, and you would benefit more by having it turned on rather than by being forced to turn it off for some unknown reason.

How many items have you got running in your Startup list?

Just to put this into perspective, I've built numerous PCs for myself and others and none of them have ever had problems (yet), and many are older than most bought desktops out there..

It depends on the components and how well you put it together, closely followed by how you install the OS on it later and all the necessary drivers. Too many people start installing their games (the reason many get involved in this) as soon as they see the Welcome screen and that's where things can go wrong.

Mass produced PCs often use cheaper components to keep the price down, or have other limitations (no expandibility). They also have custom BIOSes and other bloated applications that make it difficult for the owner to do much with them without a lot of hassle, and features that the owner doesn't actually need.

The advantage of building your own PC is that if anything DOES go wrong you can fix it easily.

If that happens to a branded or mass-produced PC, unless you're in warranty it is likely to need a lot of messing about, quite possibly a third party's (the manufacturer's) involvement, and shedloads of cash to get their custom parts.

Each to their own. If you can, why not build one? If you can't, then of course: buy one.

The way I do it is as follows (for example):

<div style="position:absolute; left:0px; top:0px; border-color:#FFFFFF;
border-style:solid" CLASS="divname" 
onmouseover="style.backgroundColor='#FFFFFF';
this.style.cursor='pointer'" onmouseout="style.backgroundColor=''" 
onmouseup="somepage.htm"></div>