FAQ

Registration using a valid email address is required for you to activate/manage your account, receive optional topic/pm notifications, password reminders etc. We do not send newsletters, promotional material, or sell email addresses on to 3rd parties.

Registration is free and gives full access to our document library, forum and gallery.

Registration emails are sent immediately after pressing the submit button and should normally arrive within a few minutes. Delays or missing emails can occur for a number of reasons, the most common of which are listed below. As these issues are beyond our control, no support is provided for registration issues outside of the general advice given in this FAQ.

The following is a list of common reasons for delayed/lost registration emails:

(1) The email has been put on a grey list. Some email providers 'grey list' emails and will "temporarily reject" any email from a sender it does not recognize. After a delay, the server will retry sending the registration email and, if sufficient time has elapsed, the email will be accepted.

(2) Spelling mistakes in your email address - if you made an error when you entered your email address the email will not be deliverable. If you suspect that you made an error you will have to re-register using a valid address and an alternative username, or wait for the unauthenticated user account/username to be deleted after 7 days.

(3) Using an email verification service such as Spam Arrest/Zone Alarm to filter your email. If you use a service which blocks emails until the sender has verified they are a human being, your registration will fail. For obvious reasons, these services are not compatible with automated registration systems. Please contact your email provider for further information.

(4) The email was rejected by your ISP - some internet service providers silently reject emails as potential spam without notifying the end user. A list of providers which are known to reject registration emails from this site is included on the registration page, but it is not an exhaustive list. If you suspect that your internet provider is not relaying registration and/or other account emails to you, you will have to use an alternative email address to administer your account. Please contact your email provider for further information.

(5) The message is in your spam folder - please check the spam folder in your email client

Note that a valid, working email address is required to authenticate your account, receive password reminders etc. If after checking your spam filter and contacting your ISP you still do not receive your registration email, you will have to re-register using an alternative username and a working email address. Accounts that have not been authenticated will be deleted after 7 days.

Usernames can only be changed with moderator approval. If you wish to change your username please make a request in the support thread in the forum

Follow the link to User Control Panel to manage your account settings.

Use the tabs at the top and side of the page for additional options for the forum/pm system etc

note forum signatures are removed from any account that has been inactive for more than 6 months but can be reinstated on your account page

Most failed logins can be traced to sessions/cookie problems which can be corrected by logging out, deleting the cookie cache in your browser and logging in again. You should avoid using a proxy server to access the site eg the AOL browser

note cookies must be enabled to use this website

To retrieve a forgotten password please use the send password form. An email containing your account details and a temporary password will be sent to your email address.

If you do not receive the email please check the 'Why haven't I received my registration email?' section above

Please note that closing your account is permanent. Any forum posts will be attributed to a guest account and registering a new account is not permitted. If you simply wish to change your user-name/email address etc please see the relevant section of the FAQ

You may request account closure here

If you can log in to the site but get a permission denied error trying to post in the forum, either

(1) Your browser is set not to accept cookies from the site - please check that cookies are enabled as they are used by the forum to verify that you are logged in

(2) There is a corrupted/out of synch cookie in your browser cache - log out using the link on the news page then log in again. If the problem persists you may need to log out, delete the cookie cache in your browser then log in again

(3) You are using an unsupported browser - the site has been tested working with Internet Explorer 7 (or newer), Firefox 3.5 (or newer) and Google Chrome. Other browsers may work but are not supported.

If you have recently upgraded your browser and are encountering difficulties you may need to check your security settings.

If you suspect that your browser is causing the problems we recommend trying the latest build of Firefox.

(4) You are using a proxy server - the forum is not compatible with the use of proxy servers such as the AOL browser. Using a proxy server may cause you to become logged out from the forum during your visit.

note The permission denied error does not mean there are restrictions on your account and there is no action that can be taken from this end to fix these issues

To start a new thread, navigate to the appropriate category of the forum and click the new topic button

To post a reply navigate to the appropriate thread in the forum and press the reply button

If you have made an error such as a spelling mistake in one of your forum posts you can edit/delete it by clicking on the relevant button above your post.

note This feature is available for one hour after the post is submitted

(1) Browse to the gallery page that displays the full size image that you want to display in your post

(2) Copy the code in the 'BBCode' box under the image

(3) Paste the code into your post where you want the image to display

note there is no need to add image tags or any other code, just paste the code exactly as shown in the BBCode box

Paste the web URL of the image you want to display between IMG tags

[IMG]http://www.somesite.com/image.jpg[/IMG]

note images hosted on external websites may not display if the owner has restricted external linking of images

You can embed a YouTube video in your forum post by pasting the URL of the video in your post

for example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_52241cMx24

While the forum does not have 24/7 moderation, threads and/or posts that break the posting rules may be deleted/moved/edited at the moderators discretion.

If you feel a post contains spam/trade adverts/racist/sexist/homophobic/adult/illegal/fraudulent/libellous content please use the report post button to bring it to the attention of the moderator.

You can use the report post button next to the post to report an offence

Either follow the 'Messages' link at the top of the forum, or click on the name of the member you wish to send a message and use the 'Send private message' link on their profile page.

Messages are moved to the recipients inbox immediately after pressing the submit button.

There is a limit of 30 messages per mailbox (inbox/sentbox/savebox)

If you get an error message stating that your mailbox is full you will have to delete old messages to continue using the PM system to send/receive new messages

When you send a message it is placed in the Outbox to confirm that it has been sent

Once the recipient has logged in and read your message it moves to the Sentbox

(1) Not all users accept private messages

(2) Is your mailbox full? If you have reached the limit for stored messages please delete old messages to continue using the PM system.

To upload images to the gallery browse to the relevant category, click on the New Image button and follow the on screen instructions

Navigate to your personal gallery using the link at the top of the main gallery page. If you have not yet created a personal gallery you will be prompted to do so. Follow the on-screen instructions to add/edit/delete images.

If you have logged in to the forum and get a message asking for you to log in again when either following a download link or posting a message, it is most likely a problem with your security settings.

The forum and download script require cookies to be enabled for account authentication. Non-standard security settings which affect cookie handling, or use of proxy servers, are not recommended and are not supported.

The scripts have been tested working with the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome under Windows XP, Vista and 7 with standard security settings. Other browsers/operating systems may work but are not supported.

Download managers cause excessive load on the server and are not supported by the script.

All downloads are provided free of charge for personal, non commercial use

note files are not licensed for redistribution in any form

The download system has been tested with the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Chrome and Firefox - other browsers may work but we are unable to offer any support for them. Download managers such as Getright are not supported.

If you are having difficulties opening documents, getting blank pages or receiving encrypt errors you should upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Free PDF Reader which is available free of charge from the Adobe web site

Please note that 3rd party PDF readers have multiple compatibility issues and are not supported

The most recent files in the library are built using the official Acrobat writer to the international standard PDF 1.7 ISO 32000-1:2008 for maximum compatibility and portability.

Unfortunately Apple has chosen not to fully implement the ISO PDF standards in it's native document reader 'Preview' so some files may not be readable in this reader.

To view PDF 1.7 files it is recommended to install the latest version of the official free Acrobat reader from the Adobe website and use this program to open the downloaded files.

There is no password required to open any of the files for reading/printing

If you get an encrypt error please upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Free PDF Reader

You will need the latest official version of Adobe Free PDF Reader to open PDF documents

There are daily, weekly and monthly limits to the number of files you can download. The actual limits are constantly under review but a very low percentage of visitors should be affected by the restrictions

Please note that the use of download managers to make multiple connections to the site causes a heavy load on the server and will quickly eat up your download quota

Downloadable documents can be viewed, copied or printed provided the document is used for non-commercial purposes only and any copy of the document includes the Vinyl Engine cover page. We reserve the right to revoke such authorization at any time.

The downloadable files are copyright the Vinyl Engine and are provided under our user agreement. The content reproduced in many of the distributable documents listed on this site is believed to be in the public domain. Permission has been gained for the reproduction of additional documents wherever possible. If you believe your copyright has been infringed by any document posted on this web site please contact the webmaster with details.

Manufacturers who have allowed the use of their copyrighted material on this site include:

Mark Baker (Origin Live)
Bruce (Eminent Technology)
Chris Brady (Teres Audio)
John (Rega)
Heins Henrich Moerch (Moerch)
Steve Rowland (Michell Engineering)

We are always looking for new material to add to our free archive. If you are able to provide scans of relevant documents that aren't already in the library, or have been requested in the forum, you can submit them using the upload scans link in the left hand menu. Note that you must be logged in to see this link

The terms and conditions can be found by clicking on the site policy link at the bottom of the page

Our Privacy Policy can be found by clicking on the site policy link at the bottom of the page

In most cases where there is a specific author of an article that author is cited

In cases where no author is cited the material was prepared by the following people:

JaS - webmaster, site design, library scans, forum moderator and coding
Seb - french content and translation, forum moderator and protractor designer

This website has been tested working in a range of internet browsers. We recommend running the latest version available.

Windows XP/Vista/7

Internet Explorer 7 or newer (28% of visitors)

Firefox 8 or newer (29% of visitors)

Google Chrome 17 or newer (18% of visitors)

Android 2.3

Android Browser (2% of visitors)

Linux/OSX/IOS/AmigaOS etc

Browsers running under these operating systems may work but have not been tested.

If you experience issues using the site we recommend trying the latest version of Firefox.

The site uses several security measures to deal with spammers, hackers, port scanners etc

When a connection is requested your IP address is checked against the dynamic and permanent IP ban lists and redirected to Google if found. This does not automatically mean that your account has been blacklisted, it may be that you share an IP address with an offender. If you have a dynamic IP address, reconnecting may fix the issue.

Note that use of proxy servers is not recommended as these are regularly used by forum spammers and are routinely blocked when found.

We apologize if you encounter any broken links on our site and would appreciate it if you would take the time to inform us of the broken link so we can take corrective action

To report a broken link, please report this in the support thread in the forum

Sorry but we do to the large number of requests we receive for links we no longer offer a link exchange service

You are welcome to link to the Vinyl Engine Web site or any pages within the site, however, these pages may change at any time without notice

If you link to pages within the site you are responsible for ongoing verification of the links

Links to downloadable files are not permitted

The Vinyl Engine asserts its copyright on all content and reserves all other rights under relevant copyright statutes

New content is added daily, with significant updates posted on the news page

With 200,000+ registered users it is no longer possible to reply personally to email queries. Please read the FAQ for answers to frequently asked questions. If you have a question not answered here please post in the support thread in the forum.

The Vinyl Engine accepts limited sponsorship to help cover the cost of server rental. Find out more here

Please read the FAQ carefully as answers to most common questions can be found here. Questions not answered here can be asked in the support section of the forum.

If you are having problems registering or logging to the site in please refer to the relevant section in the FAQ.