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Issue 113 - December 06, 2000
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements (c) 2000
==== 1260 Subscribers in 47 Countries ====
Subscribe/Unsubscribe/View Archives at http://www.pcin.net/
Welcome to the 113th 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.
The November prizes are copies of PowerQuest's Lost &
Found. 10 copies will be given away, so recommend PCIN at
http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
OPENING THOUGHTS
Christmas is only 19 days away. I hope you are all having
a nice holiday season. The weather has been bitter cold here
lately, but with the little bit of snow that we get, everything
looks beautiful. I plan on taking some pictures with my digital
camera and make some winter wallpaper.
Congratulations to Edwin, R., Carlos, Brian, Rich, Liz, Esme,
Dorothy, Gary, and Nipul. They each recommended PCIN in the
month of November and won a copy of PowerQuest's Lost &
Found. I will be contacting them all to let them know how
to get their prize.
I have a very nice price for the December drawing. I was
able to get Play, Inc. to donate a Snappy! 4.0 to the newsletter.
If you recall, I did a review of it some time ago (you can
see it at http://www.pcin.net/help/software/snappy.shtml
). It is a piece of hardware that will let you use your parallel
port to input video into your computer. You can get screen
captures of TV shows, videos, etc. It is valued at over $100.
Recommend PCIN in December and you will have a chance to win
this. Each unique person that you recommend PCIN to will get
you one entry into the draw. The more you recommend PCIN the
more chance you have to win. Recommend PCIN now at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
The NEWS
No More AltaVista Free Internet Access
AltaVista announced yesterday that December 10 would be
the last day they offered free Internet access. Apparently
their provider, 1stUp, is going out of business. 1stUp was
also the provider for TheSimpsons.com and MyPoints.com free
access. 1stUp and AltaVista are both owned by the same parent
company, CMGI.
This is just another in a string of problems in the free
access market. Freewwweb, Spinway, and WorldSpy have all
been acquired lately by other companies.
For more info:
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-3998565.html
http://www.altavista.com/
http://www.thesimpsons.com/
http://www.mypoints.com/mp/dStatial.show?isref=ispages.connect.disable
Another Free Browser?
Some of you may have heard of the browser Opera. It is
a very small browser (only about 2MB) that up until recently
cost around $30. I purchased a license for version 3 about
a year ago, but never used the program because it was lacking
in so many areas. I haven't tried it lately, but it supposedly
is much better.
Anyway, Opera Software has introduced Opera 5 for Windows
and is finally free. It is supported by ads, but they guarantee
you that they will not know anything about you (unlike many
other ad-supported software). There is still an ad-free
version that costs $39.
For more info:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/497278.asp
http://www.operasoftware.com/
Kiwi Tax Unit Grabs Domain Info
"New Zealand's tax gathering agency, the Inland Revenue,
has acquired the personal details linked to all New Zealand-registered
domain names.
The wide legal powers of New Zealand's tax agency mean New
Zealand's Internet registry, Domainz, has little choice
but to hand over the information. The Inland Revenue says
it needs this information in order to figure out what to
do about taxing e-commerce."
For more info:
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,40439,00.html
http://www.ird.govt.nz/menu.htm
NEW MONTHLY CONTEST/QUESTION
Subscriber Kim Daifotis sent me this:
"I think it would be appropriate to have a discussion
on all the latest and greatest PDA's out in the market (for
those that are thinking of them as gifts). Links to online
review, pros and cons of certain models, etc., would all be
welcomed."
OK Kim, here you are. This month's contest/question will
be about Palm Pilot's, Blackberry's, Visor's, Aero's, Cassiopeia's
and any other small Personal Digital Assistant. Do you have
one? Why or why not? Are they practical? Do you want one?
Where is the best place to learn about them? Where is the
best place to buy them?
Any comments or suggestions about this are welcome. I will
randomly choose 4 people who will win a copy of PowerQuest's
Lost and Found. Email your answers to mailto:editor@pcin.net
I will send out a short reminder on Saturday.
I NEED HELP
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 Questions
Q 112-01)
How do you recommend self-teaching the needed skills
to repair computers? Any books or good web resources?
Should we buy some basic equipment and old systems to
experiment?
A 111-01)
John Hills said, "An untrained monkey could build
a PC and looking at some of the stuff made by the big
companies in UK I think that's who they use. If you know
someone that builds PC's they could teach you in an hour
and it really is simple once you have had a quick run
through. The difficulties really are trying to find out
which bits are (when it happens) faulty and setting up
the operating system with the correct drivers etc. The
best way to learn is to buy all the bits you need to build
the PC of your dreams and work it out with the manuals
supplied. You can then ask someone when you get stuck
or are unsure. You are welcome to contact me anytime by
email or phone if you need help on this scenario only."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tony Lowell said, "The book 'Fix Your Own PC' authored
by Corey Sandler is a good basic guide. It is available
through the book of the month club and at the Ryerson
library bookstore. It covers everything from soldering
through IRQ, DMA, EDO RAM, SIMMS, EIDE Flopticals, 3D
video, software memory assignments etc. The appendix on
errors including what 'how many beeps mean' (like Morse
code) is excellent. It's 600 pages of easy to understand
text and diagrams for both hardware and system software.
You can look at http://www.idgbooks.com/ "
Q 112-02)
My speakers don't have sound coming out of them, and
I've tried everything including windows 98 troubleshooting.
Still nothing.
A 112-02)
John Hills said, "Go into Control Panel, Sounds
icon and select a sound - one with a speaker icon next
to it. If you can click on the forward black arrow and
it then dims and then goes back to black then that rules
out a sound card problem. If it is already grayed out
then you need to look at your sound card. Assuming the
above happens, then ensure that your speaker cable is
in the right hole and volume turned up. Finally make sure
your sound is not muted or turned down low, normally by
double clicking on the speaker icon on the clock tray
and checking the volume settings."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Joe C said, "There could be numerous reasons why
you are not getting sound from your speakers.
#1 Go to volume control and check to see that muting is
not checked on the volume controls, if they are uncheck
them and while you are there check that the volume control
sliders are turned up.
#2 Some sound cards have a volume control built in. If
you look at the back of your sound card where the jacks
are and see a thumb wheel then turn the thumb wheel to
adjust the volume.
#3 While checking the back of the sound card make sure
you have your speakers plugged into the speaker jack of
the sound card and not the modem as some modems have speaker
jacks that look the same as the ones on the sound card.
#4 If you have powered speakers check to see that they
are plugged into a power outlet. If they are check the
outlet for power by plugging a lamp or some other appliance
into it and turning it on.
#5 Check that the speakers power switch is turned on.
#6 Check that the volume control on the speakers is turned
up.
#7 Click on the System applet in control panel and go
to Device Manager and check to see if your sound card
is listed or that a yellow exclamation is not beside it.
If your sound card is not listed or there is a yellow
exclamation mark beside it you will need to reinstall
your sound card.
#8 Click on the Multimedia applet in control panel and
check that you have the proper settings set for your sound
card.
#9 Open the computer case and check to see that your sound
card is properly seated in the expansion slot by pushing
down on the card and while you are there check the audio
cable connection between the sound card and the CD-Rom
drive if you have one.
#10 Remove the sound card from the expansion slot and
then push the sound card back in the expansion slot. Doing
this will remove any grunge on the contacts making for
a better connection.
#11 Try moving your sound card to another expansion slot
if available.
#12 The speaker jack, sound card or speakers could be
fried.
#13 Try plugging your speakers into the headphone jack
on the CD-Rom drive if you have one. Put in and play a
music CD and see if you can get sound from the speakers."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brian Emmett said, "Things that have caused me grief
with speakers have been:
-Usually in the system tray on the task bar there is an
icon that looks like a bell or horn. Sometimes if you
open this up you will find that the speaker volume has
been set to "mute" or "off"
-I have found that my sound card had dislodged just enough
from the motherboard so that I had to gently push it back
into its slot
-In pushing the sound card back as above, I have taken
off the little wire that connects to it in order to get
a better grip... and once forgot to reconnect it! Good
luck."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
JD Patmore said, "There are a number of possible
reasons, but check the following: (1) In Control Panel
/ Sound, select a sound, and then play it (triangle pointing
right). Is the button black, does it "depress",
is there a delay before the black square button appears?
If so, the soundcard is OK. If not check drivers and try
another card. Also, if the sound card is integral with
the motherboard, is it activated in the BIOS setup? Next,
check if your jack/plug has 2 insulating bands or only
1. If 2, OK, it is a stereo one. If one, you are using
the wrong lead. Try all 3 sockets on the soundcard, with
sound playing. Try your speakers on another PC."
New Questions
Q 113-01)
Sometimes when booting up the system will hang at the
startup screen and I'll have to CTRL, Alt, Del to restart
into safe mode. Then restart normal from there, then everything
starts fine. This after a clean install. It still does
it after setting up hardware. No IRQ, I/O, DMA or memory
conflicts, registry looks okay too. I Formatted installed
Win98SE and it worked just fine so I know it's not a heat,
power supply or motherboard problem. Any suggestions?
Q 113-02)
Is it possible to remove the "Network Neighborhood"
icon from my desktop? How do I?
If you have an answer to these questions or have a question
of your own, please email me at mailto:freehelp@pcin.net
THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
Cheap Trick of the Week
**Nowhere to Run**
If you use Run on the Start menu much, it can create a long
list of commands that can tell other users what you've been
up to. You can clear this list with a Registry edit.
(For information on editing Windows' Registry see http://www.WE-Compute.com/registry.html.)
In the Registry make your way to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU. Click on RunMRU to show
this key's values in the right pane. Select all except Default,
right-click and choose Delete from the pop-up menu. Close
the Registry and restart the computer.
Now there's nowhere left to Run, until you enter more commands
that create a new list.
Get the Facts
I have never used iWon.com as a search engine until this
past week when I received my copy of the Search Engine Report.
Apparently iWon and Fact City have teamed up, and now on
certain searches, you will receive the "facts"
and not just web pages. The example in the Search Engine
Report was a search for "who was the third president"
and at the top of the page it tells you "Thomas Jefferson
was the third President." I tried this myself and got
the same result. I also typed in "how old is madonna"
and I got the response "Madonna was born on August
16, 1958." I'll still use Google for most of my searches,
but when I need a quick fact, I will certainly give iWon
a try.
http://www.iWon.com/
A Couple of Links
Here are a couple of links that I've had bookmarked to
include for a while (you've probably all heard of them by
now). I can't remember why I bookmarked them (if there was
something specific I wanted to mention), but there must
have been a reason, so here they are:
http://www.fidget.com/
They call themselves "Your eNewsletter Headquarters".
They have dozens of newsletters that you can subscribe to
ranging from Dear Abby to Weekly Look at Professional Wrestling.
There might be something in between that you want.
http://www.snopes2.com/
"Urban legends are a specific type of folklore, and
many of the items discussed on this site do not fall under
the folkloric definition of 'urban legend.' We are following
the more expansive popular (if inaccurate) use of 'urban
legend' as a term that embraces not only urban legends but
also misinformation, old wives' tales, strange news stories,
rumors, and celebrity gossip."
A Windows ME Comment
Subscriber Julian sent me this. I haven't had any of the
same problems, but it is still a fair warning.
"I'd like to bring to your attention the new Windows
Me operating system. I'm working in this area for 10 years
but I never ever seen such a creepy operating system. It
based on very innovative ideas but unfortunately it's crashing
like crazy. Lots and lots of devices not supported (it won't
tell you this -it'll let you install and then you'll realize
that it's not working). Especially for network clients (i
installed client 32 for Netware -the one recommended from
Microsoft site and the computer was totally screwed up-
I had to reinstall everything from the scratch (I put win98).
If you can bring this to everybody attention maybe Microsoft
will withdraw this failure from the market. (It's not only
me lots of friends called with the same problems."
DISCLAIMER and OTHER STUFF
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.
- If any of the links are too long to fit on one line,
you may have to cut and paste.
- You can only win one contest every 30 days.
- To subscribe another address or unsubscribe, please visit
http://www.pcin.net/
and follow the appropriate links.
- Recommend PCIN to others at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
and be entered in a monthly draw.
- 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.
- If you have a web site or run your own newsletter, please
email me at mailto:editor@pcin.net
and I will add it to the subscriber web pages that I have
on my site.
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.
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