ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements (c) 2000
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Welcome to the 80th issue of the PC Improvement News. PCIN consists of news, tips, thoughts, and contests. There is something for everyone, and if this is your first issue, I'm sure there will be something for you. I am willing to discuss any computer topic. Email me at mailto:editor@pcin.net with any suggestions. If you give me two or three issues, I know that you will come back for more!
Recommend PCIN to others and be entered in a monthly draw (April draw is for Mijenix's PowerDesk) at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
I crossed the 900 subscriber mark this week. The growth is slow, but very exciting. I can't wait to cross the 100 mark. We also got new subscribers from 4 more countries.
I'm not much of a financial person, so this issue won't have much about the recent stock market problems. Sure, the tech stocks were hit hard all over the world, but they go up and down so much, it doesn't really seem like news anymore.
One of my subscribers emailed me saying that my emails to him were arriving as attachments. I don't think this is a problem at my end, but at his end. It is important for me to hear these types of things, as there may be something that I can do to make things better. If you ever have any problems with the way PCIN arrives, or in what format, please let me know.
-:-) Has a Mohawk O:-) Angel JAM Just A Minute IRL In Real Life
Get the WWW. Smileys & Acronyms book for the PCIN special price of $7.00 Cdn (around $5.00 US). You can only get this price by visiting http://www.pcin.net/help/books/reviewed/smileys.shtml
Breaking Copyright
Although in Germany, a recent ruling by a judge involving AOL could have effects around the world. The famous ISP was found guilty of copyright infringement for not doing anything to stop their users from exchanging MP3s. If AOL is guilty, then how guilty must Napster be for providing software that has this purpose only? AOL is also getting caught up in this because NullSoft, the creators of WinAmp (and a subsidiary of AOL) released a Napster clone.
For more info:
http://www.media.mit.edu/resenv/shoes.html
http://www.msnbc.com/news/396195.asp?cp1=1
http://www.nullsoft.com/
http://www.napster.com/
In the beginning...
I don't know the actual statistics, but it sure seems like Microsoft has made more millionaires and billionaires than any other company (at least in the last 25 years). There was an interesting article from the Associated Press recently about the first 11 Microsoft employees and what they are doing now. All but one of them is a still millionaire.
Speaking of wealth, Microsoft also just recently announced that their employees would be getting more benefits, including more stock options. The company doesn't want to lose so many employees to "startups."For more info:
http://www.bostonherald.com/business/technology/ms7804122000.htm
Netscape Engineers are Weenies!
My good friend Shawn Bremner of Happy Publishing first notified me of this story. I read what he sent me, read what was on the Internet, and it is still a story that I find hard to believe. Not that I don't believe that it couldn't happen, it just seems like such a stupid thing to do.
Anyway, Microsoft this past week admitted that "its engineers included in some of its Internet software a secret password -- a phrase deriding their rivals at Netscape as "weenies" -- that could be used to gain illicit access to hundreds of thousands of Internet sites worldwide." I don't know how exactly this phrase would be used, but I guess this sort of thing is common. Just like "Easter Eggs", companies put these things into the programs to be sneaky and funny. Of course this brings up the debate again regarding the current size of most major programs, and why don't they cut out any of that garbage, and save a few bytes.For more info:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2000/apr/14/041400543.html
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2543490,00.html
Buying Cars Online
I don't know who would want to buy cars online. When you want to buy a car, you want to sit in it, touch things, and test-drive it. Researching cars online is fine, as the Internet is a convenient place to get a variety of information without being hassled by salespeople. I am certainly not alone, as recent studies have shown that only 2% of new car buyers who researched cars online actually bought online. When you add in those who don't research on the Internet, the number is probably virtually 0.
For more info:
http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article/0,2171,4_342001,00.html
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 most of them, but there are things that I
have never tried or experienced so I don't have an answer.
I 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. If you do try one of these tips, please let me know
how the suggestions worked out. Did they work or not? Please
send in your questions or results to mailto:freehelp@pcin.net
Previous Question 1
I have a computer that won't control the keypad, it needs
the driver fixed, but all I can find is to do a reload of
win98, which will put it back to original which I don't want
to do. Any ideas?
Answers to Question 1
Rob said, "Did you change keyboards or something? Are you
saying keyboard input won't do anything? Look to see if when
you startup the computer if it says something like 'keyboard
initialized'. If so then it should work. Check to make sure
it's plugged in appropriately as well. If you're keyboard
worked previously you need to figure out what you've changed
to make it stop. You may have no choice but to reinstall the
keyboard driver - a reinstall may not be necessary. Try going
through Device Manager (rt.click My Computer and updating
driver)."
Previous Question 2
On boot-up, the computer stops and the message is 'hard disk
controller failure.' Occasionally, it will boot, but will
not load Windows 3.11. Scandisk says it is all okay,
but when a surface scan is tried, the first few blocks are
highlighted, but then the program stops, while the hard drive
powers up and down. I wish to give the computer to a local
school, but do not wish to put them to any unnecessary expense.
Hope you can advise.
Answers to Question 2
John Hills said, "I should give it to the school if I were
you as your hard drive is on its last legs. It appears that
you have bad sectors on the hard drive where the master boot
record lives or rather used to live in your case. As scandisk
bails out then u could try chkdsk.exe instead. This
is the older version of scandisk but is still useful when
all fails. If you can get the scan to finish and chkdsk
sorts out the problem, then try scandisk again and see if
it completes a full scan. If it doesn't then you are
on a hiding to nothing.
Two things to try anyway which may prolong the life
of your hard drive and that is to boot up into dos with a
fully loaded boot up disk and type at the a:\ prompt
Fdisk /MBR
This will rewrite your master boot record. Then for
good measure type from the same place
Sys c:
The first thing (Fdisk) will simply go back to the dos prompt
as soon as you press the enter key.
You will get a congratulatory message after your press the
enter key on sys. The sys command rewrites you system files.
Hopefully this will keep your hard drive going a little longer
but by the sounds of it, not much longer.
While on the subject. If anyone gets bad sectors at the other
end of their hard disk then a good idea is to create a partition
and not format it. This isolates the bad sectors. The
primary partition should only be big enough to end just before
the bad sectors start. In other words you need to watch the
sector numbers to get an idea where they are."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Leeor Geva said, "The message you get is usually bad IDE connections,
the cables inside your computer might be loose or not connected
correctly (Maybe even jumper problems). But from the
next description you gave, Looks like a bad Harddrive to me.
And if you give this computer to a college or university,
it will most probably be taken apart to show the different
parts."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Roger said, "You have some bad sectors on the HDD.
1st, start you computer & enter CMOS(BIOS) by pressing
usually DEL go to 1st page, write all the info on the HDD,
type, cylinders, heads, sectors, wpcom, lzone, size. VERY,
VERY IMPORTANT.
2nd, shut down your computer and take the HDD out.
3rd, put the HDD in a newer computer as primary HDD and boot
to CMOS enter all the info that you have written on the CMOS
standard Setup then go to IDE HDD auto detection and
see if the new computer can detect you HDD. If yes, everything
is OK to start Scandisk.
4th, boot to DOS, and run: scandisk C: /all/autofix/surface/time
you must have at least 20 MB of free space on your HDD and
have less than 20 files in C:\ if you use your HDD for undo
disk or have lot of diskettes. After scandisk is done run:
defrag c: /f /s:e /h Check your conventional memory: mem/c|more
if your free conventional memory is less than 540kB free you
have big problem = crash.
If no, than HDD controller is gone and that's call for a new
HDD."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob said, "Well the hard disc or its controller is going bad.
If it's the hard disc then a new one is about $100 US. As
for the controller, that would probably involve swapping the
motherboard, which is about $100 US as well. I suppose the
controller itself could be replaced but only by professionals
AFAIK. I propose you look for a local Vo-Tech school to repair
the computer for the school, that way they both benefit."
New Questions
Q1) Why when I delete files, my "Recycle Bin" icon shows it's
full, but when I right click it to empty the bin the "Empty
Recycle Bin" command is greyed out and can't be selected?
I have to double click the icon to open the bin and delete
the files manually. There are files in the Recycle Bin, but
the Empty Recycle Bin command isn't available.
Q2) We have an old 486 & currently unable to access Internet,
getting error message "modem not responding, turn modem off."
What does this mean?
If you have an answer to these questions or have a question of your own, please email me at mailto:freehelp@pcin.net
Cheap Trick of the Week
**Smaller is better **
How many ways can you come up with to minimize all your open windows at once?
We can think of three:
1. Click on the Show Desktop icon next to your Start button, if you have one. (It's a Windows 98 feature.)
2. Right-click on a blank space on the taskbar across the bottom of your screen and select Minimize All Windows from the context menu.
3. If you have a Windows keyboard, hold down the Windows key (the one with the Windows symbol on it) and press M.You can get the Little Black Book of Cheap Tricks yourself for only $9.95 Cdn (about $7.00 US)
http://www.pcin.net/help/books/reviewed/cheaptricks.shtml
(Please mention that you heard about it from PCIN)
Portable Scanning
There are many devices out there that are small (some the size of pens) that allow you to scan. One of the coolest I've seen is by NEC. The PetiScan is the size of a book. It only weighs 1.3 lbs and can scan up 6" x 4". I've never used one (or seen one in person), but they look and sound neat. You can read about it and see pictures at http://www.nectech.com/petiscan/index.htm
A Good Help Site
Roger, a recent subscriber, emailed me and recommended Axcel216's Max Speed Windows site as a good help site. It can be found at http://members.aol.com/axcel216/
I checked it out and it seems to offer all sorts of tips and tricks, as well as links to magazine articles where the tips are in more detail.
Capture Screen Image
A lot of people know that pressing PrintScreen in Windows will copy a picture of your screen to the clipboard. You can open Paint and paste, and you will see your screen shot.
One less common tip is if you want a screenshot of only your currently active Window, then press Alt+PrintScreen. You can try this while reading this email. PrintScreen alone will capture a screen shot that will show you the email program Window and the Windows Taskbar. Alt+PrintScreen should only give you a screen shot of your email program.
You can use Paint of any other image editor to view the screenshots. Remember that they are stored in the clipboard, so when you open your image program, you need to make a new image, and then paste.
PCIN 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 for the results obtained from trying the tips in this newsletter.
Graham Wing can be reached at mailto:editor@pcin.net
Copyright 1998-2000, PC Improvements and Graham Wing. All
rights reserved. This publication may be reproduced in hole,
or in part, as long as the author is notified and the newsletter
is presented as is.