Samantha

We had a gas safety check a couple of days ago. Prior to this our boiler/central heating (although old) was sounding and working just fine. He gave it a clean bill of health on the day.

Today I have put the hot water/heating on and it's gurgling very loudly, much more so than it did previously.

It sounds like it's struggling to pull water through the system, or trying to pull too much, or that there's lots of air in there that wasn't there before for the first 15-20 minutes that it's on.

Is there something the guy could have done during the safety check to inadvertently do this? Just seems a coincidence that the behaviour would change the day after the check after being fine for the last 8 years!

My husband s (gaming) PC needed a new PSU so he bought a new 850W modular one to replace his old standard 500W.

Unplugged everything easily. Some faffing around getting the new one in thanks to how many different cables they sent with it etc.

The new PSU works but when it s connected to PC and you try to turn power on it will try to start for a split second (back fan light comes on a fan spins briefly) and then switch right back off. Tried the old PSU and it s doing the same thing but instead of the back fan going it s the front one.

Motherboard has not been damaged that we can see (no cracks, breaks, bends etc and it s not come into contact with the case). Have removed the graphics card to try with and without. Tried different lead for PSU to no avail.

What could be causing this (aside from motherboard failure which is worst case scenario!)

My new bathroom installation is due to be finished on Monday.

When the guy came around to find out what I wanted and provide a quote I expressed concern over what type of shower would be best due to having a gravity fed system.

He ran the hot water tap and our previous shower (which had the smallest shower head possible to maximise on flow) and said we should be fine for a TMV with a large head provided it was the monsoon type where the water falls directly down.

However, now it s installed we have 2 problems:

1) The hot water comes out fine from the new basin tap but is just warm from the shower.

2) The flow from the shower on hot is very poor, and because the temp isn t high enough even on its own we can t add cold water to increase the flow.

Unless there is something that can be changed valve etc wise in the shower we will obviously need to have a pump fitted which was not factored in to the original cost despite my concerns and the tradesman being aware of our system type.

If the guy tells me tomorrow that I will have to pay extra to have the pump installed, where do I stand? He s supposed to be the expert and I let him choose the shower on that basis so should I have to pay extra because of his error? At the moment we haven t been supplied with a properly functioning shower.

Thanks!

Bit of a long story. Last year my mum's neighbour moved out and left her cat (which she'd had for 2 years behind) After a few days it stopped waiting outside her front door and disappeared - only to turn up hanging around my house 200 yards up the road.

It's obviously still a stray (it's fur all matted and desperate for food) and having asked around the area no one else has taken the cat in in the last year. As we leave our door open for a large part of the day we started noticing it coming in to eat our cat's leftovers and within a couple of weeks it's just moved in! The problem is that my other cat, Monty (a doctored male) is scared stiff of him and I'm feeling really guilty but I'm far too soft hearted to stick Basil (that's what we've called the new cat) in a cage and take him to the RSPCA or give him away to a home we don't know.

Basil has a sore ear and eye from a cat fight with a different local cat and he's undoctored, so I'm going to take him to the vet to get eye drops and have him doctored etc. I'm really hoping this will ease Monty's fears and also calm down Basil so that he won't appear such a threat. He really is a lovely cat - very soppy with us - but we've been keeping our contact with him to a minimum so as to not upset Monty even more.

The last resort would be to offer him to a good home if someone would take him, but I'm hoping someone out there has had a similar experience that they've managed to overcome.

As always any help is much appreciated.

I've have a weird form of what I assume is tinnitus of some sort since I was a small child. I'm now 25 so I've had it for around 20 years! I get a rumbling noise (almost like someone blowing a raspberry) which I can actually feel in my ear - something to do with a muscle or nerve?

The noise only happens when I get an itch, come into contact with very warm water or if I strain to hear a quiet noise (scratching noises are the worst for setting it off).

When I went to the doctor as a child they said that it was most likely a hypersensitive nerve and it would probably go away on its own eventually. There was nothing wrong with my ear as far as they could tell. However, after 20 years of this frustrating noise I'm starting to wonder whether anyone else out there who has something similar has figured out a way to relieve it.

Thanks as always to anyone who takes the time to answer!

The categories on my Wordpress blog keep disappearing because there is no space in the /tmp file. When the file is cleared the categories reappear so this is definitely the issue. However, there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to what keeps filing up the /tmp file as sometimes it can go weeks without the categories disappearing but lately it's happening every few days even when i'm not posting as often as usual. There's nothing set to store to the /tmp file, so I thought it might be backups saving to the server (even though I select to download them instead of save to server) but these take up very little space in comparison and I've not done any backups, installed or updated any plugins, updated Wordpress, uploaded any files to the server etc.

Any help to try and get to the bottom of this would be greatly appreciated!

I'm looking for some good books to read. What's the best book you've read lately that isn't too mainstream, and why did you enjoy reading it? (Not interested in any teen books as I'm 25.)

A few months ago I woke up with a really painful knee. Sometimes it would make a cracking noise when I straightened it but most of the time I could just feel it crunching. After a few weeks it went away, but when I woke up this morning it was bad again. If I sit for a while it seizes up and I get a shooting pain when I move it. I've been walking a lot more lately but it hasn't been hurting while I've been walking. Stayed off it today because it's been too painful. When it became painful the first time round I just assumed I had twisted it somehow but I definitely haven't done that this time.

I'm a bit confused because it hadn't hurt in ages, so I'm not sure if it could be chondromalacia (or even arthritis perhaps - but I'm only 25). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Don't want to have to go to the doctor if it's just a case of resting up, but at the same time I don't want to have to regularly rest up because of a recurring problem.

Wondering whether any can offer some advice to help me lose weight and tone up.

I'm female, 5'5'', 195lbs (ick)!

Currently eating 1500 calories a day. Have upped by intake of fruit/veg/water, cut down on diet soda (although still drinking some) and stopped eating chocolate and crisps.

Going to the gym 5 days a week and doing 60 mins of uphill walking (3-10% - it varies) at 3mph, burning 350-550 cals (according to treadmill default setting) + 10 mins of resistance training + walking home (0.5 miles).

On days I go to the gym I usually also do 25-30 mins of marching on the spot while I'm on my lunch.

I walk in the country one day a week (2-3 miles) - hills, uneven ground etc.

On the days I don't go to the gym I tend to just do the 25-30 mins of marching on the spot.

I started the diet/exercise nearly 3 weeks ago, previous to that I wasn't very active and I'd say I probably ate between 1800-2300 cals per day.

A couple of years ago I went on a diet - 1200 cals a day and 30 mins of cardio/aerobics 7 days a week and I lost around 2 stone in a few months.

This time round I don't seem to be losing anything worth mentioning, but would say I have toned up *slightly* - legs and arms.

Help!

Whenever I eat an Indian takeaway regardless of whether I have a mild or spicy curry (or which Indian takeaway we order from) I always end up feeling like I have a hangover-type headache in the morning. I can eat curries I make at home (when from a jar) and am generally fine with spicy/hot food.

There was a game I played years ago (I'm pretty sure it was on the PS2) that I had assumed all this time was a Soul Calibur / Soul Blade game... but I've looked through all the characters and it doesn't seem to be! The 2 characters that I remember were a girl who fought with batons and a heavy set guy who had some sort of stick with a boulder on the end.