Sounds like a graphics card switching issue. Yours has 2 graphics cards – the integrated Intel one and a separate ATI card. I might have this the wrong way round, but when the laptop boots it’ll be using the ATI card, and will try to switch to the Intel card when it gets to Windows to save power. Which is when you get the black screen.

First thing to try is to reload the BIOS defaults and try again – a setting my have got screwed up somewhere. If that doesn’t work, see if you can find a setting in BIOS to disable one of the graphics cards so it doesn’t allow the operating system to switch them. Not sure what that setting will be, but have a poke around, there should be something

Worked for Capita IT services (as a software developer), left 18 months ago. Good people actually doing the work, but everything else about the place was awful. No career progression, no rewards for working hard, no reviews, no staff development, no pay rises, bizarre corporate rules, in-fighting, etc.

Senior management seemed to reward themselves for screwing up projects and alienating staff. Anything that got delivered was done so despite the management, not because of it.

No idea about the other companies but in my experience Capita is a soul destroying place to work

I wouldn’t be happy with that. Does it make the brake rub? Suppose it could be the dropouts

Balls. I know I can’t afford it, I know I have enough bikes, I know I don’t need it, so why do I know I’m going to order one? 🙁

It’s not a worry, it’s a curiosity – I know it’ll be rather a lot 🙂

I think it looks ace and would love to have one. It’d be perfect for snowy night rides. Are fatties better in the winter mud too?

Oh, and how much do (approx) these weigh?

Got ’em on a second hand bike I bought for a mate, so no idea what the history is. Bloody hate mucking about with avids – great when they work, fcking hateful when they need fettling 🙁

Will keep my monkey hands away from the adjuster

Event Horizon for me but to this day I still don’t know why. There’s just something about the whole film that I found (and still find) *really* disturbing.

Dog Soldiers must be one of the best films ever – loved every second of it. Has anyone seen The Descent 2? Utterly utterly awful

The clearances on my Elixirs are so damned tight that half the time I have to muck about with the calliper after replacing the wheel anyway. I would be surprised if even 2 wheels with the same rotor fixing method (even the same hub) didn’t need some calliper fettling after a swap

My 2011 100mm Rebas from On-One did *not* have the spacer and couldn’t be modified to 120.

Easy (if messy) job to take them apart (as long as you got the right grease & oil). Be careful not to damage the air shaft nut when you bash it – it’s made of cheese

Wot Glenh said. The spring holds up the bike, and the damper controls the spring. So less weight = softer spring + less damping. The compression / rebound ratio doesn’t really change

Stupid red stripe? Pah, you mean awesome red stripe, surely. I have the blue striped ones on my bouncer and red on the hard tail so I can tell which bike is which.

Having never ridden on any other tyres except XC Pros, are there noticeably better all-round tyres out there?

There’s no shortage of discussion about this very topic. Tall and short of it is that some of the cheap stuff is good, some less good, but most is perfectly adequate.

Of course, finding out that it’s not adequate at 10pm 10 miles from home / the car is a bit of a scary proposition.

Smudge (MTBBatteries) does good stuff that’s in between price. I got a Neninja Gloworm X2 waiting me to test tonight too – again, highly regarded and inbetween price. Both those guys are excellent to deal with, BTW

It’s easy (if a bit messy).

I managed to damage the air shaft nut when I was bashing it with a mallet. You got to give the damper and air shaft nuts a bit of a whack to free the internals but the air shaft nut is made of cheese so even a plastic mallet was enough to flatten the thread on the top so it wouldn’t go back on the shaft. Grrrr.

Apart from that, dead easy

59.5 for me on an old Claud Butler road bike, 20 years ago barrelling down Longridge Fell near Preston. No glasses, helmet or lycra either. Just a very stupid invincible 17 year old who has since grown up and appreciates being alive too much to repeat such pointless antics.

Still gutted after 20 years to not have made 60 🙂

Some good de-mincing advice here, thanks fellas 🙂

Great to hear I’m not the only sissy here. I know it’s all in my head – I was just hoping it would have sorted itself out by now

Glad to see I’m not the only wuss.

Maybe I do need to go get some Jedi therapy. Not sure if knowing how to do stuff will stop me being a coward though

And don’t forget the £90 chain rings that have razor sharp teeth after a couple of thousand miles. ‘Wear-in’, my arse. Looks nice nice tho

For seat height, put your shoes on and put your heel on the pedal with the crank in line with the seat tube at the bottom of the stroke (leaning against a wall of course). When you straighten your leg you should just start taking a little weight off your backside as you lock your knee, but not enough to lift it off the saddle.

At least, that’s what my dad told me

People with obnoxious / uncontrollable / evil dogs tend (in my experience) to walk them really early in the morning so there are no kids about for them to eat.

Some owners think that shouting “careful, he might bite you” while their dog runs at you is acceptable as long as it’s before 6am

Had a couple of days mountain biking in the Blue Mountains from Katoomba. Bit of a hike from Sydney but the train service is good (and can be incorporated into the riding, depending on the routes).

It’s mostly fire trails and the like, but there are lots of them and the country side is pretty stunning. Definitely worth a visit IMO

Meh, I’ll be bloody working most of the weekend 🙁

Nah, it means that 0.1% of the people who died came back to life (briefly) to post a negative review. So they must have died quite horribly and been a bit cross

Ribble do some fantastic carbon Sportives – worth a rummage through their website

A bit of time off so I can actually ride for a bit 🙁

Got the Sportive Bianco myself with shiny Campag bits and it’s a terrific all rounder. The frame is brilliant – light, responsive, civilised and goes like stink. Get one 🙂

Don’t think so

It’ll be more than £20 by the time I’ve replaced by worn cassette 🙁

Saving me personal injury and encouraging the replacement of worn out bits is simply not on

Arrrggghhh you buggers have just cost me £20. Or saved me an injury

£20. Grrrrrr

Aw man, don’t just laugh at me because I’m thick, answer the question 🙂

So, at the risk of being a numpty, if I regularly split and rejoin my chain with an old fashioned chain tool, pushing out whatever pin happens to be in the most convenient place, will I knacker it and die horribly? Am I even more stupid than I thought I was? Is my rejection of all things modern like powerlinks going to result in a snapped chain and broken goolies?

Indeed you do. Mountain biking at night is a hoot, but the road sections are pretty horrible. Can’t imagine doing an entire road ride at night

Are you sure both hose clips are open on the syringes are open when you do this? My rear 5 was fiddly, but the first step (push on one end to move fluid through the hose into the other syringe) was easy – didn’t require much force at all

Sing as you play. It forces you to think about timing, getting stuff right without going back over bits to re-play them, helps you understand the songs and generally helps you learn a lot quicker. You’ll sound pretty daft tho 🙂

If you commute in the car, get some CDs with tunes you can (or could) play, and sing along a lot to get your voice wokring

Buy the ‘White Peak mountain bike guide – the Pure Trails’ and pick one from there. The 5 Dales circuit is a good one – near Bakewell, takes me about 3 hours, lots of nice scenery and some fun bits. Watch out for the decent into Darley Bridge though – the last 300 yards can be lethal

I get it too, horrible innit.

A neurologist friend of mine says it’s stress related and I do seem to get it more when I’m a bit strung out.

I got a Dirty Jo Full Creme (the triple butted one) frame, which is the same as one of the CRC Brand X frames I believe.

Mine’s a medium (18 inch).

It’s very light and seems well made. I run it with 100mm Rebas, but it actually handled better with the 130mm Toras I used to have. Perhaps it’s a bit small for me (I’m 5’10, or 5’11 on a good day) and it can be pretty nervous on the more technical stuff. I use a layback seat post and a 90mm stem + riser bars.

I like the frame, and they’re a bargain, but if you want a bonkers-descent capable frame, they just don’t cut it. Or perhaps I just suck. It rides well on the way up tho 🙂

Tried Planet-x / on-one? They were the cheapest when I got mine a couple of months ago

I got a Boardman 2010 Team FS – got it for a bargaintastic £750. The tires are rubbish and the saddle is agony, so factor that in to the cost. It was pretty well built – just needed to re-align the calipers and tighten the chainring bolts. Oh, and the mech hanger was bent (£7 for a replacement which needed some fettling to fit properly).

Over all though, it’s been terrific. Once the little teething troubles were sorted it’s not missed a beat and is a pleasure to ride both up and down