Computer Quandaries — August 2006

by Dale Atchison


Printer Repair

Hi, Dale.

Do you have any idea where to take an HP printer for checkout or repair?  My PhotoSmart needs a look-over.  I thought this was something that CompUSA did, but apparently not any more.

Ray

Ray,

Go to HP.Com and see where they suggest you take it.  In my opinion, if it's under warranty, or cost more than $150, it's worth having it looked at; otherwise, it's disposable — the labor cost will most likely be more than the value of the used printer.

DaLe



Hard Drives

Dale,

  1. I have purchased a 250 gig hard drive with SATA 3.0 to use for backup for the office computer data, as they have a really slow process for backing up my important data.  I am looking for a case to place it in which has a USB connection to connect to the work computer.  I would appreciate suggestions on the best place locally to purchase such a case.  It will need a 3 1/2" case for the drive, with exterior power and USB connection.

  2. In my home machine I have three hard drives:  two 40 gig and one 250 gig.  Registry is still using the original C: drive on a slave drive and I do not know where to look in the registry to tell the computer to only use the C: in the 250 gig hard drive.  The original C: drive is now labeled V: but is being treated as a C: drive.  Question:  can you direct me to how to find the section in the registry to change the Primary drive to the current C: drive?
Charlie

Charlie,

  1. CompUSA has a 3.5" USB enclosure they sell for $30.  Here's the link.  I used their parallel ATA USB 2.0 enclosure for our Maxtor 250 GB drive and had no problems with it (except that they increased the price from $30 to $40 for the Christmas season, the jerks!).
  2. As for your second question, I'm not quite sure what you're asking.  I don’t believe it's possible to tell Windows to swap hard drives; besides, I get the idea you want to change the drive letter designation before Windows even boots.  If that’s so, you should know that Windows will treat whichever drive it boots from as C:  — that's just how it works.  You can change the boot order in CMOS to make the PC boot from whichever drive you like, and it will be drive C:  when Windows starts from it.  From what I hear you saying though, I think you'd be better off copying your current, lower-capacity drive in its entirety to the newer, bigger, better, faster drive, using something like MaxBlast 4, which comes free with all new Maxtor drives or can be downloaded from www.Maxtor.com.  Once the big drive contains everything currently on the older drive, move cables and jumpers to make the new drive the master drive on the primary IDE bus, make one of the 40 GB drives the slave drive on the primary IDE bus, and remove the other 40 GB drive for use in another machine, or make it the master drive on the secondary bus (re-designating the CD-RW the secondary slave.
If any of this seems too complicated, write back with specific brands and model numbers of the drives, and I’ll respond with a drawing of the correct jumper settings.

DaLe

Note:  I ended up working on this one myself.  Turns out the largest drive was a Serial ATA drive, the 40's were parallel ATA, and even if I booted from the SATA, it wasn't designated C: - that took several reloads of Windows XP and some judicious swapping of drive names interspersed with multiple reboots.  So I learned two things on this job:

  1. It *IS* possible to swap hard drive letters in Windows.
  2. I really don't like Serial ATA yet.




Software (and a Dead Laptop)

DaLe:

  1. Thanks for the article on EasyCleaner.  I added it to my laptop, and it did a great job.  I’m about to add it to my desktop, where I already have CCleaner, which seems to work pretty well, also.
  2. My Norton expired, and I'm about to install the free McAfee from Comcast on the laptop; any comments?
  3. My son has a Compaq laptop that won't boot.  It gets as far as showing wallpaper and cursor but no icons, system tray, etc.  He says its been getting slower and slower for a while.  Compaq wants $45 for a phone call.  Any general hints or tips that might save us the fee?
Bob

Bob,

  1. If you already have CCleaner, EasyCleaner won't make that much a difference.  They perform pretty much the same function, just with a different interface.  Just click on the Issues icon in CCleaner to access the Registry and Start Menu checkers.  (I prefer EasyCleaner, but honestly I think that’s just because I saw it first; I can’t think of any areas in which it is better or worse than CCleaner.  I've never had a problem with either program.)
  2. As far as the free McAfee, it's not as bad a resource hog as Norton, but it's still bigger and not quite as thorough as AVG, which is free for non-commercial use.  Personally, I won't use Norton or McAfee, neither one, even for free.  I’ve cleaned viruses off computers running Norton or McAfee, but so far I’ve not found any infections on any computer running AVG; so, even if the price is the same — free — I still prefer AVG.
  3. Is your son running Windows XP?  If he is, he should try to boot into Safe Mode, then run System Restore to put the computer back in the shape it was in just before it ceased to boot.  Once he can boot into Normal Mode again, that's the time to run EasyCleaner or CCleaner to clean up the dead weight.
    • If he's still running Win 98 - a valid choice, especially for older hardware - have him try this:
      1. Boot into MS-DOS Mode:  as the computer starts, as soon as words or a ‘splash screen’ are visible on the screen, alternately press and release the Ctrl key, then F8; repeat till a boot menu appears.  Use the arrow keys to select Command Prompt Only, and press Enter.
      2. At the C:\> prompt, type SCANREG /RESTORE and press [ENTER].  You will see a list displayed of the last several — usually five or six — successfully-booted Registry files, stored in .cab format.  The word "Started" in the list tells you that version of the Registry started successfully.
      3. Use the arrow keys to choose the newest cab file that started successfully, and press [ENTER].
      4. Reboot.
    Whichever version of Windows he’s running, after taking the actions detailed above, the next step is to make sure the computer is clean.  (If the computer slowed down gradually, it’s probably infested with spyware and/or adware and/or viruses.) Go to  Trendmicro's Housecall site, and run their free online scan.  Once they’ve found and cleaned all the malware off the PC, install LavaSoft Ad-Aware SE, Spybot Search & Destroy, AVG FREE, and WinPatrol to keep it clean.  And EasyCleaner 2.0 to keep it fast.  Turn off real-time monitoring in Spybot S & D — that’s what WinPatrol is for.  Run the two anti-spyware programs once a month, one after the other.  AVG and WinPatrol run in the background, protecting you all the time, so you can forget they’re there unless they find a problem and pop up to ask you what to do with it.
Please let me know if this fixes your problem.

DaLe



Hit Counter

Hi, Dale:

I have a "computer quandary".  Until recently, I used dial-up.  When I worked on my web page offline — adding, changing, or whatever — it did not affect the counter on my web page.  Since I got Knology cable Internet a couple of weeks ago, I guess I am online all of the time, and I am finding that when I work on my web page, it causes the counter to jump ahead every time I check to see how it looks before I upload the changes to the web.

My question:  is there any way to prevent the counter jumping ahead whenever I view the page offline (with changes that have not yet been uploaded to the web), just to see how it looks?

Shirley

Dear Shirley,

I went to your website, and looked at the source code for your main page, paying attention mainly to the javascript code that implements the counter.  Now, please understand, my HTML skills are very slim, and while I've read a couple of books about javascript, I haven't coded any at all.  That having been said, it looks to me like your counter is doing exactly what the javascript tells it to:  it increments a counter every time anyone, even you, views your homepage.  The counter is implemented by a call to another website.  When you were using dial-up, that call went nowhere unless you were online, so the counter didn’t increment; but, now that you’re always connected to the Internet, even though the page you’re viewing is only on your hard drive, the call to the counter website — somewhere out on the Internet — goes thru, and you skew your hit counter just by viewing the page locally.

So, here's an inelegant but effective way to prevent skewing the count when you're editing the page offline.

  • First, create a Network Connections shortcut on the Quick Launch toolbar:
    • Open Control Panel.
    • Right-click the Network Connections icon, and select Create Shortcut.
    • When the dialog box pops up, asking if you'd like to create the shortcut on your desktop, click on Yes.
    • Then, with the left mouse button, click and drag the new shortcut to your Quick Launch bar.  (If it leaves a copy on your desktop, delete it; each icon on the desktop slows you down just a little bit, so practice what I call 'desktop austerity':  get in the habit of deleting all unnecessary desktop icons.)
      • If your QuickLaunch Toolbar isn’t displayed — just to the right of the Start button in most installations — turn it on by right-clicking the Taskbar, left-clicking Toolbars, and putting a check mark next to Quick Launch.
    • Right-click the new shortcut, select Properties  »  Change Icon, and choose one of the icons showing one or two computers, making it obvious this is a shortcut to something having to do with your network, rather than the ambiguous default icon, which was a globe.
  • From now on, just before opening the offline copy of your source file, click the new Network Connections shortcut in Quick Launch, right-click your Internet connection, and select Disable from the object menu that pops up.
  • When you've finished editing and viewing the file, click the Network Connections icon in Quick Launch, right-click your Internet connection, and select Enable.  Now you can upload your changes to your website.  Even if you decide not to make any changes, remember to go back to Network Connections and click Enable, or you won’t have Internet access, even after rebooting.
If you're using the free ZoneAlarm firewall software, there's an even easier way to accomplish the same thing, without following the steps mentioned above:  just engage the Internet Lock while you're editing, and disengage it when you're ready to upload.  Same effect:  if all your Internet traffic is blocked, you can't increment an online counter.  Here’s how:
  • right-click the ZA icon in the System Tray (lower-right section of your screen)  »  left-click the line that reads Stop All Internet Activity.  After a couple of seconds, you’ll see the ZA icon turn into a red and yellow padlock — no traffic to or from the Internet will be allowed until you say so.
  • To turn off the Internet Lock, right-click the padlock icon, and left-click that same line to remove the check mark and restore your Internet capability.
Please let me know if this helps.  (She wrote back, praising the simple elegance of the ZoneAlarm Internet Lock option.)

DaLe

{It was some time after this column was published that I added a hit counter to my own website, and I soon found that most free hit counter providers let you download a cookie to your computer that will keep you from incrementing the counter — they assume if it's you visiting, it must be for maintenance.]

Thanks for asking!

And while ZoneAlarm is on my mind. . .

It has come to my attention that the latest version of ZoneAlarm doesn’t support Windows 98.  The version you already have will continue to work like it always has, but you won’t be able to install any future updates unless and until you ‘upgrade’ to Windows XP.  This surprises and saddens me, as Windows XP SP 2 has a pretty good firewall built into it — it’s the Win 98 users who need ZoneAlarm the most!   Nevertheless, they didn’t ask my opinion, they just went ahead and did what they were gonna do.

(Let’s be realistic here, folks:  if you have a PC old enough to be running Windows 98, your hardware, even if it will let you install and run Windows XP, isn’t going to run it at a speed you can live with.  So, upgrading to Windows XP on existing Win98-era hardware isn’t an upgrade at all — you would actually need to buy a new PC with Windows XP loaded on it to see any performance improvements.  I don’t think that’s warranted, as long as your computer does everything you want it to do; stick with Win 98 as long as your hardware lasts, then have a PC built for you with Windows XP SP 2 — or Linux kernel 2.4 or better — loaded on it.)

Which brings me, belatedly, to my point:  if you’re running Windows 98 and ZoneAlarm, you should turn off the automatic updates feature in ZoneAlarm; you’re not going to be able to install them, so why waste time checking to see if they’re there?

BTW, IMHO, this won’t endanger you in any way.  I’ve never understood why ZoneAlarm issued so many updates, unless it was to accommodate changes to Windows brought about by Microsoft’s update process.  Since Microsoft has ceased to support Win 98, the operating system shouldn’t change significantly from now on, so ZoneAlarm updates won’t be necessary for Windows 98 users.

I have ZoneAlarm version 6.1.737.  It is fully functional in Windows 98.  It’s included on a CD of free programs I give to anyone who asks.  Anyone in the Clearwater area can email me, and I’ll make arrangements to get a copy to them at a place they’re gonna be in the near future, like a TBCS meeting.  No charge for the CD or the programs, but be warned:  there’s an ad for my computer repair business on the CD — that’s how I can justify giving it away.  I will mail a copy to anyone who asks; the cost is $4, paid by money order only, in advance, to cover materials, postage, and bother.

Or, I suppose you could just  download ZoneAlarm for Win 98  from my  Download Page.

Simple Screen Grabs

I’ve gotten several emails from folks trying to relate to me an error message they see on their screen, or trying to describe an icon or folder they don’t know how to delete or otherwise handle.  I wonder if everyone out there knows how to use Windows to do a ‘screen-grab’, a picture of whatever is displayed on your monitor screen, be it your desktop, an error message, a Web page, or whatever.  There are numerous utilities out there that can accomplish this task for you, but Windows came with everything you need pre-installed.

(I almost never print a hard copy of Internet transactions.  If the confirmation can be displayed on a single screen, meaning I can center it using the scroll-bars so that all the data I need to keep is on the screen at the same time, I just save a JPEG image of the confirmation screen.)

Here’s how:

  1. With your screen displaying the item(s) you want to relate or share, press the [PrtScn] key on your keyboard — it’s in the upper-right corner of the keyboard, near the [NumLock] key.
    • If you’re looking at a Web page, first use the scroll bars to ensure the portion you want to save is displayed on-screen.
    You won’t see any indication that anything happened, but you’ve just copied your entire screen to the ‘clipboard’, a chunk of memory Windows reserves for copying, cutting, and pasting data.
  2. Next, open Microsoft Paint by clicking on Start  »  Run  »  type in MSPAINT  »  OK.
  3. In the menu at the top of the page, click Edit  »  Paste.  The saved screen will appear in place of your blank picture.  The picture dimensions should automatically expand to whatever size your screen resolution is set to; e.g.  800x600, 1024x768.  1280x1024, etc.
  4. Still on the menu, click on File  »  Save As  »  change the Save As Type to JPEG  »  give the file any name that seems appropriate to you  »  click the down arrow next to Save In and choose Desktop  »  click Save.
  5. Close MSPAINT.
Finally, depending on why you grabbed the screen in the first place, you can attach the just-saved file to a plain-text email, type in a line or two explaining why you’ve sent the '-grab', and send it to me or whoever you’re asking for help or sharing your found treasures with, or just move the saved file to your My Pictures folder for safe-keeping.

That’s it for the questions, answers, and tips.  Till next month, please email any computer questions you may have to the address below.

But I have a favor to ask:  if you ask for my help, and I send you a reply (and so far, I’ve replied to every request), please write back one last time and tell me if my instructions or suggestions fixed your problem.  I truly believe I’ve given everyone who wrote the correct and appropriate advice, but if I’m wrong on any part of it, I’d appreciate knowing it BEFORE I publish my mistakes for the world to see.  I got a ‘rep’ to maintain, you know?  Fair enough?

"Computer Quandaries" was a column I wrote for Bits & Bytes, the online newsletter of the Tampa Bay Computer Society, from March 2006 thru April 2010.  When I became the BnB editor, I split it into two separate columns:  "Computer Quandaries" was the Q & A or Help Desk portion of the original column, while "Hints Tips & Rants" was the collection of random thoughts that had previously been tacked on as an afterthought.  When I gave up the editor job, I took both columns with me, to post on my website and/or blog.


      

See you next month.   Please email your questions to  DaLe@ComputerRepairShop.biz

I send these guys a few dollars every month... sure wish you would join me.
And 100% of your labor charges go to this rescue, too.