The PC Improvement News

Issue 1-51
September 29, 1999

ISSN 1488-3163
Published electronically by PC Improvements (c) 1999
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit
http://www.pcin.net/

Note 1: If any of the links are too long to fit on one line, you may have to
cut and paste.
Note 2: You can only win one contest every 30 days.

Welcome to the 51st edition of the PC Improvement News. In this newsletter,
I have a couple of tips to make your computing life easier as well as
highlights of the past weeks PC Industry News. I am more than willing to
discuss any PC related topics in this newsletter. Just email me at
editor@pcin.net with your suggestions. I would also appreciate it
if you let me know if there is any strange formatting in the newsletter so
that I can fix them.

There are only 2 ways to get on the subscriber list. You have either been
subscribed by filling out a subscription form on any of the pages on my
site, or you have requested FreeHelp from me in the past.

Give me two or three issues, and I know that you will get something great
out of this!

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SOME OPENING THOUGHTS
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I received 2 copies of 602Pro PC, an Office 97 compatible office suite this
week. I am in the process of reviewing it and it seems very impressive.
When I am finished the review, there will be a contest to win the prizes. I
also found out that I will be receiving copies of Mijenix Fix-It Utilities,
PowerDesk Utilities, and ZipMagic 2000. Special thanks to Kim Grow of
Mijenix/Ontrack for donating these.  These are all great programs. In fact,
if you check out the review for Fit-It Utilities on my web site, I think it
is much better than Norton Utilities.

Next week marks a year of doing this.  I am preparing a survey for you all
to fill out. There are questions like which section do you like the best,
which are useless, how are the contests, etc. I'm not finished it yet, but I
will announce the URL next week. I hope you all will take some time to fill
it out. Hopefully we can improve on the newsletter even more.

The news this week was pretty boring, so there isn't much there. That means
you can take the time to send in your feelings about what is going to happen
on January 1, 2000. That is what this weeks contest is (see the contest
section below).

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THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
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We all have the extra-ordinary coded within us...waiting to be released.
          - Jean Houston

Thought courtesy of http://www.HappyPublishing.com/

To subscribe to the FREE "Aspire to Something Higher" Thought-Of-The-Day
list, send a blank email to HappyQuotes-subscribe@listbot.com


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THE NEWS
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Be Secure
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Although this kind of has to do with the contest, I thought I should mention
it here. I had someone email me and claimed that he stole credit card
numbers. I asked him what he meant, and he told me that he would steal
credit card statements and then order stuff.  I found this very interesting.
When I think about online security, I think of some hacker breaking into a
database file and stealing credit card numbers. The thought never even
crossed my mind that someone would physically steal your information and
then use it online. Use this as a lesson. When you are wondering if your
online transactions are secure, don't forget to be careful with your
physical documents and credit cards. If you don't get a statement, call and
ask for it. Be safe.


Free Domains
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Not too long ago, Network Solutions (the .com people) kind of lost their
monopoly on the domain registration business. Several companies were given
the opportunity to become registrars, and now iDirections.com Inc is
planning to offer domain names for free. Starting in November, you can
register a domain name with them for free in exchange for advertising on
your site. I can just see someone getting a domain name for free (with
advertising) and then getting domain space for free (with more advertising).
There won't be any room for regular content.

For more info:
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article/0,1087,3_207471,00.html


Bill Gates Destitute!
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Well, not exactly. Since he donated $15 billion to his charity, his wealth
has "plummeted" to just over $70 billion. He now owns approximately 1
billion shares of Microsoft, or 15% of the company. The top 3 Microsoft
people (Gates, Steve Balmer, and Paul Allen) all are worth over $20 billion.

For more info:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2343365,00.html


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CONTEST RESULTS
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Last issue there were 27 entries to the golf contest. This time there were
32 entries! I love this. Thank you so much for participating. Almost
everyone said that they love using email to communicate with family and
friends. Most people also said that they used the information to look for
some kind of information. Jayvant, Ted, and David were the winners, and here
are their entries:

Jayvant Shah
Main reasons for using the Internet is to communicate with friends and
family. Only Internet provides medium of communication, which is almost
instantaneous and enables me to send not only text messages but also
pictures and voice - and that at a cost too small for what it provides. This
should have been enough reason, but Internet has much more to offer to me.
Practically ANY information I need, it is there on the Net. I never cease to
wonder at what Internet can do for me and for all.

Ted Rhein
I use the net because I am waiting on a heart transplant and I can email my
family that all live out of state and keep up with what is going on.

David Thompson
I use the Internet for three things:
1) I am a home-based telecommuter, programming on a remote HP3000 in Cobol.
I log on to my IPO, and then my terminal emulation software kicks in and
establishes my session on the HP3000. I use email to communicate with my
clients for work, coordination, etc.
2) For the Army Reserve, I use email extensively to communicate to over 100
soldiers scattered through the 12 western United States. My higher command
has created web sites that contain downloadable documents, crucial to
conducting our missions.
3) For personal use, I enjoy navigating to the different web sites. I belong
to several "Dummies Daily" daily emails, one of which is a "cool web site of
the day". This gives me some fascinating new places to explore!

All of the contest entries (both current and previous) can be seen at:
http://www.pcimprovements.com/pcinews/contests


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I NEED HELP
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As many of you know, I offer a free help service via email. If you have a
question, you can email me and I will try my best to answer them. I can
answer about half of them. Those are things that I do regularly or have
experience with. There are other things that I have never tired or
experienced so I don't have an answer. I hope to post those questions here
and see if any of the readers have any suggestions. I will include all
reasonable suggestions with credit to you. These are NOT my own questions
and they are NOT my answers. I will NOT check the validity of these
comments. That is up to you.

Previous Questions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Q1) I have a Hewlett Packard Pavilion 4440 that I use just for recording
audio and Midi. Although, I do occasionally play a game on the machine.
Well, I just added a Monster 3D Graphics accelerator - and everything works
perfectly. Except, suddenly - it can't find the audio hardware. Which
obviously is a problem considering what I use the machine for. Just curious
what you think the problem might be... where do I start looking? What should
I check first?
A1) John Hills said, "Nip into to My Computer - Control Panel - and double
click the System Icon.
Select Device Manager and search for Sound, Video and Game Controllers.
Click on the little cross to open out.
You will at least see your Diamond Monster and Sound card driver. Click on
your sound driver to select it and then click on properties. Click on
Resources and see if there is an address or IRQ conflict. If there is or
even if there isn't, select your sound card driver and then remove. Reboot
your PC and then reinstall your sound card driver as normal and hopefully it
will choose a different address setting or IRQ setting. If this doesn't
work, you could try going further down the list in device manager, probably
the next down, to system devices. Open up and look for PCI Bus. Select
propertiesm the PCI steering and disable PCI Steering - Reboot. If all that
does not work, try shifting either or both the sound card and Monster into
different slots if available. If that doesn't work, please reply to PCIN and
there are some other things left that one can try."

Q2) I have had my PC for a few months, but for the last few days when I boot
up the PC there is a weird (sounds like a Hoover) noise for the first 8-10
seconds. The noise then fades to the normal sound of the PC. This problem
only occurs when the PC is booted when off for a few hours (i.e. sounds
normal is PC turned off then on).
A2) Greg Swinson said, "It sounds as if the power supply is bad, or possibly
a malfuntioning fan. I would suggest that the owner make sure there is not
an accumulation of dust behind the pc. But first things first, considering
that it is a new pc. Call the manufacturer and inquire as to the possible
nature of said problem, which might lead to some on-site service. Good
luck!"
A2) Joseph Wilk said, "Hi, for a starter, try checking the processor fan. I
had the same problem one time awhile back. Lots of luck."
A2) John Hills said, "Probably one of three things in order of probability.
1...You PSU (Where your electric mains cable plugs in) has a fan and maybe
it is a little stiff. Not sure what the
equivalent is in other countries but a squirt of WD40 and then sticking the
carpet sweeper nozzle over the fan will cause the fan to spin around and
work in the lubricant and suck out any dust that may have bunged it up. Best
to do this with the PC in the off position. One way to check is to stick a
pencil in the fan when you boot up and if the noise stops straight away then
you have found the problem. Don't leave pencil in for long, just a second or
two.
2...A similar problem but on the processor fan. Once again you can stick a
pencil in the blades to see if that immediately stops the noise. If it does,
use above remedy or get a new cooler - they are cheap.
3...If neither of the above is a problem then that leaves either your hard
drive or CDROM. Does the sound happen if the CDROM is empty. Try
disconecting the power supply to the CDROM and boot up. If noise has gone, a
guarantee job. Try the same thing with the hard drive. Disconnect the power
cable to the hard drive and boot up. My own view as the PC is presumably
under guarantee is to phone up and moan about it."
A2) Mike Kratz said, "The problem sounds like the fan in the power suppy.
When the computer is off for some time, the fan is cold and because there
are grooves worn in the bearing they don't match up like when the fan is
warm. That is why there is a noise for a short time when the computer first
starts up and goes away when the bearing warms up. This is not a problem
until the fan fails altogether, then you will not hear any noise on startup.
This is usually caused by a low quality fan, so when replacing the fan
(hopefully you have a warranty) insist on a ball bearing fan."


New Questions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Q1) I bought a Canon BJC-4400 printer in May. In the last couple of weeks,
it has started printing in a very w i d e typeface - not the spacing, but
each letter itself is very wide. I have checked the Properties in the
Printers folder, uninstalled it and re-installed, and it still does the same
thing. I know it has to be something simple (which is what is keeping me
from calling Tech Support - I don't want to look like an idiot!) Any ideas
on what I can do?
Q2) I can't find my Briefcase after converting from 95 to 98. Before i
converted I deleted my HD as there was a lot of rubbish on it.

If you have an answer to these questions or have a question of your own,
please email me at freehelp@pcin.net


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NEW CONTEST
----------------------------------------------------------------
Do you believe all of the doomsday predictions about Y2K? Will we have
electricity? Telephones? Running Water? Will anything happen?  I'd like to
here what you think will happen. Please feel free to share your feelings no
matter how dumb you may think they are. You never know who thinks the same
way you do. Please be serious in your responses. An obviously exaggerated
entry will not win. I've had several people email me asking what I think
and what other subscribers think, so this should be a good opportunity for
everyone to express their opinions.

I will make a random drawing of all of the entrants and 3 people will
receive their choice of a copy of
-Window Washer (a Internet temporary files/cookie cleaner)
-TweakDUN (a program to tweak the MaxMTU (Internet Setting) of your
computer)
-DU Meter (to graphically see your download speeds)

Email you contest entries to editor@pcin.net and if you don't
want your entries on the results page, please let me know. Otherwise I will
assume that your entry can go in. You could also let me know if you want me
to edit it a bit.


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THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
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Cheap Trick of the Week
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**Shave seconds off your printing**
Say you're in a mega-hurry to print a saved file.
Finding and firing up the originating program (your word processor, for
example) and, in turn, calling up the file, navigating to the program's
print function and working through the print dialogue box can seem to take
an eternity when seconds count.
By taking advantage of Windows 95/98's shortcuts, you can let your computer
do all the work.
Click on the Start button, go to the Settings menu and choose Printers.
Single-click on the printer of your choice, to highlight it.
Right-click the highlighted printer and select Create Shortcut. Windows will
tell you it can't create the shortcut here and ask if you want it placed on
your desktop. Say Yes.
Then whenever you want to print in a hurry, just highlight the file you wish
to output and drag it onto the printer shortcut on your desktop. Windows
will look up the program, open the file and start outputting right away.

Buy the Little Black Book of Cheap Tricks for only $9.95 Cdn
http://www.pcimprovements.com/help/books/cheaptricks.shtml


Useful Windows Tools
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Subscriber John Hills sent this in:
I did wonder whether members are aware of the facilities found by
going to Start Menu - System Tools - System Info) selecting TOOLS and being
confronted by a menu with several useful options.
Here's some of them:
DirectX Diagnostics : (May not be on everyone's PC) A multitude of directx
components where you can check to see if all parts are tested and
recognised. If some parts are not tested, you can manually test them and if
OK then everything is fine. If not, this gives you the opportunity to either
install updated drivers or find out which bit you need to get further advice
on.
Windows Report Tool : Helps you compose a fault report to send off to Bill.
It automatically take with it data of your current PC settings and probably
some data as to the programs you are using. Helps Microsoft work out how
much money they are losing through pirate copies.
System File Checker : A goodie. And well worth a click now and then. Checks
your system files for corruption and absence if you have selected those
settings from the advanced tab. You'll be surprised how often it finds a
rogue file. Having found the offending or missing file, it will then restore
a new copy automatically from your set-up CD.
Registry Checker : Not a great deal of use as your registry is checked each
time you turn the PC on. So checking it again is something to do when bored
or feeling totally insecure.
System Configuration : Basically information of what's in your system ini's
and start up files (Autoexec.bat + Config.sys)
Dr. Watson : He's been with windows for a long time; ever since he was made
redundant from the employ of Sherlock Holmes. From what I can see, he is
about as useful as a catflap in a submarine. I would like to hear a more
expert opinion on this quack.
There are others which you can click on and see what happens.


Save Your System Tray
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Subscriber Charlie sent this in:
Howdy Graham, thank for all the kewl newsletters. I don't know if you've
seen this yet, but this is a 16 year old dude who has developed some pretty
cool software. The best one on his site is TraySaver. Usually when Explorer
crashes, you lose your items on the TaskBar. Well, this little proggie Helps
that annoying Windows Bug. It's really cool. Check out his other software,
too.
http://www.mlin.net/


A Y2K Fix (kind of)
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Note: This isn't the ultimate fix (there are many patches you need to
install in Windows 9x/NT to get Y2K compatible), but it is a good
suggestion.

Subscriber Alex Thompson sent this in:
Y2k Short-date fix for your Computer IMPORTANT!
`````````````````````````````````````````````````
CHECK IT OUT ...
````````````
1.. Double click on "My Computer".
2.. Double click on "Control Panel".
3.. Double click on "Regional Settings" icon.
4.. Click on the "Date" tab at the top of the page.
Where it says:-
"Short Date Sample", look and see if it shows a "two digit" year.
Of course it does!
That's the default setting for Windows 95, Windows 98 and NT.
This date RIGHT HERE is the date that feeds application software
and WILL NOT roll-over in the year 2000. It will roll over to 00.
5.. Click on the arrow for the field below "Short Date Style"
and select the option that shows, mm/dd/yyyy.
(Be sure your, selection has four y's showing, not two.)
I.E. yyyy not yy
6.. Then click on "Apply"
and then click on "OK" at the bottom.
It is Easy enough to fix.
However, every single installation of Windows worldwide
is defaulted to fail Y2K rollover!
How many people know about it?
How many people know to change that?
What will be the effect? Who knows?
But this is another example of the pervasiveness and systematic nature of
the problem.


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Lastly, send in your comments, tips and news and you too can be included in
The PC Improvement News with a reference to your name and web site.
Send email to editor@pcin.net
----------------------------------------------------------------

Well, that's all for this week. Remember that if there is anything that you
want to learn about, let me know and I will try to accommodate you. Also,
feel free to send any comments about the newsletters and the topics covered.
This newsletter is sent to those who subscribed only. We don't believe in
SPAM, so if you have somehow gotten this and you don't want it, please see
the subscribe/unsubscribe options at the start of the newsletter.

The PC Improvement News is brought to you by PC Improvements. The opinions
expressed are those of the editor, Graham Wing. PC Improvements and Graham
Wing accept no responsibility (either good or bad) for the results obtained
from trying the tips in this newsletter.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Editor: Graham Wing can be reached at editor@pcin.net

Copyright 1999, PC Improvements and Graham Wing. All rights reserved.
This publication may be reproduced in whole, or in part, as long as the
editor is notified.

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