Updating

[James Silverton]

I'd say they aren't necessary, since few if any come with them any
more. It's obviously a cost-cutting measure. An on/off switch doesn't
do much good unless they can put it between the power supply and the
wall current, but most routers and modems use external power supplies
(wall warts,) so a switch on the main box doesn't make good sense. They
save manufacturing and design money by eliminating both the PS and the
switch.

Unlike yourself I can't generalize but, in the US, Verizon is a
major broadband fiber optics provider and the router has a plug-in brick
providing the 5v to run it and also an on/off switch.

--


James Silverton, Potomac

"Not": obvious change in "Reply To"

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I'd say they aren't necessary, since few if any come with them any
more. It's obviously a cost-cutting measure. An on/off switch doesn't
do much good unless they can put it between the power supply and the
wall current, but most routers and modems use external power supplies
(wall warts,) so a switch on the main box doesn't make good sense. They
save manufacturing and design money by eliminating both the PS and the
switch.

Actually, wall warts (and for that matter, transformers) use a lot less
power when there's no load. I've seen that with a Kill-A-Watt, and I've
read it when researching how switching power supplies work. Still,
nationally we probably waste enough power that way to run the Mars
colony.

Unfortunately, I can't explain it now (in my brain, it's an "in one ear,
out the other" kind of knowledge).

 

[Paul]

Is that on on/off switch? The Motorola modem that I previously
rented from Comcast had a switch that broke the network connection,
but didn't interrupt the power. A few months ago I swapped it for a
new one - they gave me one with the same model number, but this one
had no switch. Motorola must have eliminated it from the design,
probably because too many people accidentally hit the button and
then complained that their internet connection was dead (I did it
myself more than once.)

It's an honest-to-goodness power switch. It's spring loaded and
relatively heavy duty.

I've had the box apart for an inspection, but didn't spend the time
to check what the switch does or doesn't do. There's nothing to suggest
it uses the "interrupt the network" type of thing. When you push that
button to turn it on, it takes at least 30 seconds for the box to boot,
and the "ready lights" to come on. In fact, my WinXP machine boots faster
than the stupid ADSL modem So I can be waiting in Windows, with no
network connection, because the modem isn't ready yet. The box is probably
running Linux inside, because the product includes routing functions and
PPPOE/PPPOA termination, and has the usual web server for configuration
purposes. My previous modem was so much nicer, and easier on power, that I
frequently used to leave the old one running all the time (just log
out and leave it running). The old one was a rental, and had to go
back to the ISP when I closed the account. But this new one is a
relative power pig.

Paul

 

[Paul]

I didn't really mean to ask you personally but the editing went a little
haywire It was a general question since some people seem to feel
on/off switches are not necessary or are antediluvian.

It depends on how much power the thing wastes, and what you pay per
kilowatt hour for power. Where I live, they're promising "the sky's
the limit" on power rates, with large increases year over year starting
now. So I turn that stuff off.

I know a lot of people in Europe are pretty sensitive about power
wastage, and a lot of them either select low power computers, or
use switches to turn off everything when they're done. Not everyone
in the world, gets cheap power.

Paul

 

[Miles]

* Rob wrote, On 01-Mar-11 9:04:

Perhaps you just deleted the folders instead of uninstalling?
If you did that, all of the Office entries will still be in the
registry, so the updater will assume it is still there..
If you did that, restore the files from the recycle bin then uninstall
Office properly.

ThAnks, guess I had cleaned the reg last year as there are no entries
prior to this year. I'll regedit to see if anything remains.