In article ,
Charlie Pridham wrote:

OK guys, I have been reading all your thoughts and even though I didn't
understand all of them I have acted.

first I ran a series of virus and malware programs which turned up nothing,
then thinking Nicks suggestion sounded the least invasive I turned
everything off last night, since rebooting this morning all has been normal.

The down side is I still have no idea what was wrong!!! But thank you all

I am glad it has helped, at least for now. I doubt that even an
expert on the relevant systems would be able to identify the problem
precisely, because modern systems are about as complicated as some
biological organisms and have as many idiosyncracies - even aging!
Luckily, one can usually restart them, which does clear out much
of the accumulated detritus, blocked paths and incorrect state.

Things are going to get worse before they get better, I am afraid,
because very few 'computer scientists' (as in "nothing to do with
computing and not a science") have a clue of the consequences of
over-complicated, ill-defined, highly-linked systems. And the
'solution' to every problem is still just another layer of
complexity to cover it up.

I have been a prophet crying in the wilderness about this for
getting on for 40 years now, but am amused to see that I have now
reached Ghandi's second stage in:

First they laugh at you, then they ignore you, then they fight
with you, then you win.

I don't expect to live to achieve either of the last two.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.