Computer Quandaries

Attachments

Hi DaLe,

For my email, I use Outlook Express. My operating system is Windows XP Home Edition.

Up until last month, whenever there was a picture attachment it would show up by just scrolling below the message. Now, I have to click on the attachment and have a photo program open it. I must have done something to my settings.

Please tell me how to get the attachments to come back just below the message. (I am not confusing this with Insert which actually puts the JPGs or TIF, etc. in the message.)

Thanks for offering this service, which I think is just great.

Walt

Walt,

From within Outlook Express, click on Tools » Options.
On the Read tab, remove the check mark next to Read All Messages in Plain Text.
On the Security tab, remove the check mark next to Do Not Allow Attachments To Be Saved or Opened That Could Potentially Be a Virus, and remove the check mark next to Block Images and Other External Content in HTML Email.
Click OK.

Hope I've helped.

DaLe

Hi Dale:

Yes, indeed you have been a GREAT help. It solved my problem! I can now just scroll below the message and there are the attachments.

One additional problem though: I have messages from WebShots that are received but they are not in my Inbox folder, but rather I found them in my Deleted folder --- this never happened before. What have I done, now? What change do I make to make the message show in the Inbox rather than Deleted folder? To not lose them, I have to right click and move them to the Inbox. This is a lot of trouble and shouldn't be. Agreed?

Thanks again for all your help.

Walt

Walt,

In Outlook Express, go to Tools » Message Rules » Blocked Senders List. I'll bet you find Webshots somewhere in the list. Delete it from the list, and messages from them should start appearing in your Inbox again.

DaLe

(heard back from Walt --- that was it)

Power Supply

Hey, Dale!

I'm a Boy Scout leader. This past Saturday, I helped one of our Scouts with a new computer he built. It's an Asus 64-bit motherboard with AMD 64 processor, an ATI 2-monitor dvi video card, SATA busses, blah, blah, blah. He already did all the work, but was afraid to turn it on until somebody checked his connections. I went over it, and he did a good job connecting everything, so we plugged it in. From the get-go, the thing blew a circuit breaker just as soon as we plugged it in the wall, without switching on the master switch on the power supply. Is the power supply bad? Or could this be a wiring error, which is hard to imagine, since all the connectors are well-marked, color coded, and with unique plugs. Can the Geek Squad test the power supply alone?

Skip

Skip,

If the master switch on the power supply was turned off, and a breaker popped as soon as you plugged in the computer, it HAS to be the power supply. Any possible errors in connection or assembly are isolated until the master switch is turned on.

Check out MCM. They have a sale on right now, including ATX power supplies. Their sale prices are so low, you can save a small fortune even after paying shipping. The one I need is 420w for $14. Check and see if that wouldn't do for you, as well. (Not an ad, just me telling you where I sometimes buy my parts.)

DaLe

(The Scout didn't trust advice from a 'friend of a friend', so he paid Geek Squad to check out the supply, which was indeed bad, and was shipped back to the vendor for replacement.)

Hard Drive Cloning

Hey, Dale,

I want to replace the C drive in my wife’s older P3, which is running XP Home. Does XP Home have a convenient “exact-replica” disc copying feature, so the new drive would boot-right-up? The current drive is really old, about 20 GB, and occasionally makes clicking sounds. The one I want to install in its place is 'less old', a Maxtor with 40 GB.

I tried to use a program called "Power Quest Drive Image", but even after following its easy-to-use wizard, which stated it was to copy a C drive to a new HD and make it bootable, the computer came up with "non-system disc - insert OS disc" etc. during the detection portion of early boot up.

Skip

Skip,

Can I assume you removed the old drive after the Drive Image operation, and changed the jumper on the new drive so the BIOS would recognize it as the Master drive (C:)?

I have used Drive Image a couple of times. I like all of the PowerQuest programs I've tried. However, in this instance, it was overkill. Maxtor includes a program called MaxBlast 4 with all its new drives; it includes a utility to copy the old drive to the new drive. You can download MaxBlast 4 from Maxtor.com, or I could send it to you as an attachment.

Try removing the old drive, move the jumper on the new drive to Master or CS (cable select), and see if it boots now.

DaLe

Hey, again, Dale,

It became a moot point about trying to upgrade that C drive to a newer, bigger one. The old one died before I could finish copying it.

Thanks for the advice, anyway.

Skip

Skip,

If you haven't already discarded the old hard drive, try this: Move it to the other IDE bus, or change its jumper to make it a Slave drive. Some drives will still be readable as a Slave after they can no longer boot as a Master; not a great chance, I admit, but it is a possibility, and it costs nothing but time to give it a try.

DaLe

Thanks for asking!

And this month, I just have to rave about a group of free programs I recently tried. I saw a blurb in Smart Computing Magazine about an alternative program for playing RealAudio files, and another for playing Quicktime files. I'm not a great fan of RealAudio or Quicktime, so I wasted no time going to www.Codecs.com and downloading their alternative media player, called Media Player Classic. It looks a lot like Microsoft's Windows Media Player version 6.4 (the one that came bundled with Windows 98), but it's actually freeware from a Hungarian author code-named "Gabest".

It plays DVD's, every audio format I could find to try with it, and every video format I have saved on my hard drive. I've changed the default program for all my media files to Media Player Classic, and removed Quicktime from my computer. (I'd already removed RealAudio years ago.)

To burn audio or video CD's, I still call up Ahead Nero or Windows Media Player, but they're just not needed for media playback.

Media Player Classic, Quicktime Alternative, and Realplayer Alternative all come bundled in the K-Lite Media Codec Packs, available for free download at www.Codecs.com. You can download the Full version of K-Lite Media Codec Pack here. For even more audio and video toys to play with, download the K-Lite MEGA Codec Pack here.

Note for Windows '98 users: The Quicktime Alternative in the codec packs won't work with Win 98, so they won't even try to load it; the rest of the pack will load without trouble. (Especially if you just accept all the defaults --- don't try to customize during installation, just keep clicking Next.) You can download an older, Win98-compatible version of QuickTime Alternative here. Install this package first, then the Codec Pack.

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See y'all next month. If you have any computer-related questions, please email them to me. I'll answer to the best of my ability. And if I can't answer from my own knowledge and experience, I'll ask Art, Chuck, David, Dennis, Doc, Frank, Jack, Jerry, Jim, the other Jim, Ron, Walt, or some combination thereof, and take credit for their answers (big silly grin). Please email your questions to DaLe@ComputerRepairShop.biz

Computer Quandaries - May 2006

by Dale Atchison

Thanks for asking!