Mr D

My mother's computer isn't working and we have been told that she needs a recovery stick to repair it. The problem is she has either lost her recovery stick or it wasn't supplied when she bought the computer. However, I have one for my computer and it is also Windows 10. I was wondering if I could use mine to fix her computer, or is it coded or something?

Is it something to do with my knives, like is the metal too brittle for this type of sharpener, or am I doing something wrong? It says on the instructions to only apply a little pressure, but I thought I was, and I can t see how else my technique could have been wrong. The knives weren t too bad to start with, just a few tiny little nicks, but as I sharpened them those tiny little nicks became huge gouges, up to 1mm deep! They are now completely ruined and the only way I think you could sharpen them up again would be if you hand an electric grinder and you were particularly skilled at using it. I would like to know it there could be something wrong with the sharpener, because if so, I would like to get my money back.

I bought a fillet steak today in a restaurant and I think I was ripped off. My steak looked too big to me to be a fillet steak, plus, when I started to eat it I found a big piece of gristle on the side of it. Any fillet steak I have had in the past did not have any gristle or fat on it and was usually smaller. Have I been ripped off?

So I was following this driver up a single carriageway road which was a 40 mph zone. He was driving very slow, about 25-30 mph even though it was very light traffic. After about 1/2 mile I saw that there was no oncoming traffic and I determined it was safe to pass him. I indicated to pass him, pulled out and easily pulled alongside him, at which point he seemed to be excessively accelerating himself, at which point I got scared because I didn't have the power to get past him so I blew my horn to make sure he knew I was there, but he just ignored me and I had to brake and fall in behind him! So this moron happened to be going to the same destination as me, and he got out of his car and started shouting about what was my problem. I told him I was trying to overtake and he was accelerating, creating a dangerous situation. His response was "It's a 40mph zone!". I'm not sure what he meant by that. Was it that he thought I was breaking the speed limit? I'm not sure if I was or not tbh at that point because I was panicking and just trying to get into a safe position in front of him and I wasn't looking at my speed; but in that case he's a hypocrite because if I couldn't get past him he was obviously doing the same speed as me! Or if he meant that he was allowed to speed up to 40mph even though I was overtaking him, which I pretty certain is wrong because my understanding is you're supposed to maintain speed and allow the person behind to overtake. Who was in the wrong?

The latest example happened in a place that was completely out in the open, at least 10 yards from any building or tree or anything else that a spider could have been hanging from. When I wipe my face with my hand. I don't find any cobwebs, spiders or insects on me. What else could it be?

I have this abscess under my chin which my doctor said would have to be surgically removed. I think it started off as a cyst or pimple or something about a couple of years ago, but about 2-3 months ago got really big and that s when I went to the doctor. Shortly after visiting the doctor I burst it myself and a lot of pus and fluid came out along with lots of fragments of skin which I take to be the capsule around the abscess. I am led to believe that once the capsule has been removed then it will heal, but it has been a couple of months and these fragments of skin still keep coming out every day when I squeeze it, and I m beginning to wonder if it s still the same capsule or if it is trying to grow a new capsule again?

I've had the abscess for a couple of weeks, which I think developed from an infected cyst. The doctor prescribed me the antibiotic, Clarithromycin, because I'm allergic to penicillin. It didn't work, in fact it got worse. She then prescribed me a further course of the same antibiotic (I guess because there isn't an alternative?) but told me not to take it unless it got really bad, and she booked me for an appointment at the hospital to get it removed. Anyway, when I got home, it looked ready to pop, and I couldn't resist the urge to pop it myself, but some blood came out in the pus and I'm worried about the infection spreading. I feel OK but I did have a slight headache for a while, but that might have been from biting my teeth so hard. I'm still taking the antibiotics, even though I don't think their effective.

As yet I do not have a diagnosis, but I have a referral to see a psychologist and I am on a waiting list. I had been receiving counselling and medication for anxiety, but I am now off the medication and have been discharged. I have now been requested to do jury service, which I would love to do and I feel more than capable of doing. I live in N.Ireland, which is important because the rules are slightly different from the rest of the UK. My question is twofold - am I legally obliged to disclose a condition for which I do not have a diagnosis but for which I have been sent for a referral, and what is a mental disorder anyway, the N.Irish definition seems a bit ambiguous? Their definition '...includes significant impairment of intelligence and social functioning'. I have an IQ of 110, but I do, however have some trouble making friends, but in my interpretation this is not 'significant'. On writing this I have just noticed the word 'and' in there, and perhaps I am answering my own question here, but surely I would have to satisfy both conditions to be considered mentally handicapped?

My car is in the garage at the minute due to a diesel pump failure. My mechanic tells me that the pump has disintegrated possibly due to bad quality fuel. He says that this has caused my fuel to be filled with metal filings from my disintegrating pump and is right through my fuel system. He says that I need to replace my entire fuel system even including my tank, which will cost a fortune! He says he will bench test my injectors one by one to see if some of them might be salvageable. However, another mechanic advised me that he wouldn't go to that expense, and would just replace the pump, flush out the system as best you can, maybe test the injectors, and put a big magnet in the tank to catch any remaining filings and leave it there. To be fair, the second mechanic didn't examine the car for himself. Which is the best advise?

I m having trouble with my fuel pump in my car and I am wondering if it is caused by bad fuel. The local station where I normally fill up is a big name respected brand (I won t say which here) and I often see the large tanker with their logo there resupplying them. However, recently I have seen a smaller tanker there on a number of occasions which is of a lesser known and I know to be local brand. I am wondering if maybe they are putting through a tanker of good stuff, followed buy a tanker of cheap washed diesel or mixed with kero or something to keep their costs down?

There's two issues here:

#1 Specifically, the old £1 coin will no longer be legal tender from Sunday midnight, and therefor would not be considered 'money' according to Royal Mail's own definition if I understand correctly. I have tried asking Royal Mail about this but the guy I was talking to didn't seem to know what he was talking about since he contradicted himself! First he said that it wouldn't be liable to compensation because it would not be legal tender and therefor worthless. Then when I asked him, if I had a receipt for how much I sold it for on Ebay and could therefor prove it's value, could I get compensated for that? He said, no, because it is still legal tender because banks still accept it! Personally I think that is BS because according to the Royal Mint, banks are under no obligation to accept it, although most will at least for a limited period of time, and they may charge a fee, so it's not guaranteed.

#2 They do not compensate for jewellery, and they define as jewellery '...jewellery includes: any precious metal that has been manufactured in such a way as to add value to the raw material, including coins used for ornament'. The coins I am talking about would not be made of precious metals, nor are they 'proof' coins finished to a high spec, or commemorative or limited edition. Rather these are coins that have been in circulation, have been demonetized, but worth more than their face value due to their rarity - say, up to £20.

I had been taking to medication for about a month on 50mg per day, and the headaches started about week 3. I have stopped taking the medicine for about 4-5 weeks, but I am still getting the headaches. The pain comes and goes at different times of the day, and I have good days and bad days, but most days I have them. The pain is predominantly on one side of the head just behind the right ear and just above the neck. It is a throbbing/pulsating pain. When should I contact the doctor?

trying to charge a car battery from a Skoda Octavia. The battery wasn t fully discharged, and car was working okay except that the stop/start fuel saving function was not working. I suspected from what I have read was that it wasn t working because it is a taxi car, and the meter, roof sign light, taxi radio etc. is draining the battery and the alternator is not designed to cope with the extra load. This is now my second night charging it - the first night for about 8-9 hours, and now it s been charging for about another 4 hours, but the charger still says it s charging and the fully charged light has still not come on.

There is currently nothing wrong with the old ones, but my bodywork man says that if he just puts the old ones back on they'll likely not stick properly and will eventually fall off again, and he won't guarantee them unless I put new ones on, which are working out very expensive.

I'm wondering whether I should believe him or not, and if I should take it somewhere else to get fixed.

I know this single woman who, almost certainly, is either delusional or has made up an elaborate lie about being pregnant and now claims to have had the baby. And I would tend to think the latter is more likely to be true.

To put this in context, I am a taxi driver and this woman is a regular of ours and she is 40ish. This woman has told my colleagues and I conflicting stories which don't seem to add up. She told most of my colleagues that she was pregnant, but she told me that this was just a rumour that she was pregnant. Then recently she has told everyone, including myself, that she has had the baby, but after about 3-4 weeks she keeps making excuses about why she never has the baby with her. My colleagues tell me that they have witnessed her making apparently fake phones calls to her mum talking about the baby and feeding it and whatnot.

I strongly feel that this woman is in need of psychiatric help, but I'm not sure about how to direct her towards it. Doing so would inevitably mean confronting her about her lies and I'm afraid that might push her over the edge.

Does anyone know if there is a charity or something that would offer advise on such matters?

In this case the plaintiff approaches the accused persons car door in a road rage incident with a clenched fist and snarling face, cursing at the accused. The accused person gets scared, locks his door and winds up his window before flipping the birdie. The plaintiff then responds by asking the accused to get out (in an ungentlemanly manner) knocking hard on the window as if trying to smash it, and then attempting to open the drivers door before realising it is locked.

My pet rat has had a bald patch for several months now. It is always in the same spot but appears to get bigger and smaller from time to time but never goes away. My vet has prescribed him delousing spray which didn't do any good and later antibiotics which didn't do any good either. I get the impression my vet does not know a lot about rats because he doesn't seem to know what the life expectancy of rats are and because when he operated on another rat he incorrectly told me to starve him before the operation. I feel that maybe this is more of a psychological problem because it corresponds to when his cage mate died. I know maybe the answer is to get him another cage mate but I think he is quite old (over 2 1/2 years) and when he dies I will have the same problem over again. I love my rats but keeping 2 seems like more of a burden than I expected, I find that just having 1 is more manageable since I only have to clean his cage half as often. So I have two parts to my question (a) is this psychological, and (b) if so, is there another solution that doesn't involve me getting another rat?

Could one, for example, use such a recording as evidence of a false allegation has been made against him/her?