Robert via email asks:
Hi Aunty. My laptop keeps bringing up items in Spanish which I cannot read, items that were once in English. Have I pressed a button or done something silly? I cannot get rid of it and I’ve tried everything that I can think of (which is not much) My Laptop is a Fujitsu with Vista that I purchased in Spain.
Aunty Says:
There are a few settings that could cause this Robert, and you can change them via ‘control panel’ ‘region’ ‘change location’ and set them to the UK or Ireland. If it's web related items that are coming up in Spanish, then you could try replacing the .com or .es part of the website address with the co.uk (or.ie for Ireland) which should bring up the English language version.

Jane via email asks:
Dear Aunty. Since Christmas I have changed from a desktop to a laptop (brand new Toshiba) and in the past I have successfully ran dialup via Windows XP on an external modem. I have contacted my ISP to set the same up again via Windows 7 using the same modem. As yet I have failed to get a connection and only receive error messages saying there is a problem with the modem or adaptor, or that the modem is already in use. Do you have any suggestions please whether I need to adjust anything so that the modem will function properly?
Aunty Says:
Hi Jane. Any problems like this are usually caused by missing or incompatible software drivers which your modem (and all other parts of your computer) need to communicate properly with Windows. You may be able to resolve this by identifying the make and model of your modem and going on the manufacturer’s website and downloading the latest drivers for Win7. These days ISPs are keen to hang on to their customers and will gladly provide you with up-to-date equipment to connect to their service, so maybe contact them again if the above solution doesn’t work. If you draw a blank then let me know your ISP and the modem you are using and I will investigate further.

Ray via email asks:
Hello Aunty. I have a printing problem where I tried to print a recipe from the BBC Good Food website. There were 5 stages on a page describing preparation and at first the print out only had the first two. After some fiddling about I managed to get stages 1,2 and 5 printed on one sheet but 3 and 4 were missing. Do you have any advice to just print the page complete without bits missing? Your help would be appreciated. I have a Canon printer and Windows 7.
Aunty Says:
Hello Ray. Printing from the web can still prove to be a minefield and I have found that using Canon’s ‘Easy-WebPrint’ and HP’s ‘Smart Print’ helps no end. You can download them from the respective websites, or type them into Google and follow one of the official links. I often find copying and pasting the contents of the page into a Word document can simplify printing and it also allows you to delete the unwanted pictures and rubbish that often clog up webpages.

Derek via email asks:
Hi Aunty, I read your column every week and hope you will be able to help me. When I boot up my computer I am getting an oblong box which I cannot remove. This box is connected to the brightness of the screen. It is telling me that the brightness is 100%. I have tried everything to remove it without success. Is it possible to remove or do I have to purchase a new monitor?
Aunty Says:
It does sound like you are in need of a new monitor Derek. There will be a few buttons on a panel somewhere on the front or side of your screen, and maybe one of these has got stuck, and sometimes completely removing the power lead can reset a stuck menu, but apart from that there’s not much else you can do I’m afraid.

Eddie via email asks:
Hello Aunty, I am trying to download Ubuntu and it gets almost to the end but then I get an error message stating something along the lines of "error,not permitted,see log" Can you help please? I really would like to try as you recently said it was good.
Aunty Says:
Not sure about this Eddie, but I suspect this is a problem caused by Windows rather than the Ubuntu download site. Have you tried clearing out all your temp files and browser cache using Ccleaner? This will often sort out strange download problems and is a fairly important preventative housekeeping task that we should all do weekly regardless.

Ask Aunty all your tech questions over in the forum.