Issue 132 - April 18, 2001
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements ©2001
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Welcome to the 132nd 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 in April and win a copy of PrintMaster Platinum and Compton's
Interactive Encyclopedia. Recommend PCIN now at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
OPENING THOUGHTS
I commented last week how the nice weather has allowed Lisa and I to
get outside and start working around our new house. Well, yesterday we
woke up and there was a little bit of snow on the ground. No wonder people
think that in Canada we all live in igloos!
Not much to else to share this week. I've been working on redoing the
PCIN.net site. Read the PCIN.net UPDATE section below for details.
Lastly, recommend PCIN in April and win a copy of PrintMaster Platinum
and Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia. Recommend PCIN now at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
The NEWS
Please Throw Your Phone Away
From the April 2001 Issue of mBusiness Magazine:
"The cell phone already sops up disposable income like a doughnut
in coffee, but a suburban New Jersey inventor has taken disposable a
step or two further. Inventor Randi Altschui says her inspiration for
this ecologist's nightmare and marketer's dream came in 1996. 'I was
driving with my cell phone - which I shouldn't be, but I'm always on
the phone - and I kept losing the damned cell signal, and it was driving
me nuts,' she explains. 'I just wanted to throw the bloody thing out
the window. And that's when it popped into my head - disposable cell
phones.'"
For more info:
http://www.mbizcentral.com/m-business_story/new/mworld
Network Solutions Gripes
Network Solutions (NSI) has been getting in to trouble lately:
"One recent example is the number of readers who took up NSI/VeriSign
on a recent promotional offer to renew their domain names for 10 years
at a discounted total price of $210. After completing the renewal form
on the NSI Web site, they received an e-mail notification that their
renewal exceeded the maximum allowable limit; so their domain was instead
renewed for nine years at a cost of $252. Try as they might via e-mail,
phone, and fax, readers were unable to get this changed back to the
price they'd been promised."
For more info:
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/01/04/02/010402opfoster.xml
It's Chic to be Geek?
Why anyone needs to know this, I don't understand...
"Adult male nerds have sex more often than ordinary American blokes
according to IT recruitment site JustTechJobs.com.
Following a survey of more than 7,500 male nerds it concluded that this
often-maligned group has sex 108 times a year compared to the average
of just 79 times.
The results have staggered those behind the survey who've concluded
that it's 'chic to be geek'."
For more info:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/18340.html
MOBILE COMPUTING NEWS and NOTES
A cool site of the day for you to check out is "Cool WAP Site of
the Day". This is really a good place to go to find quality wireless
web sites. If you look in their archive, it will show some really good
past features. Go to: http://www.coolwapsiteoftheday.com/
Brought to you by Shawn Bremner and The Wireless Web ezine. Sign up by
sending a blank email to mailto:wirelessweb-subscribe@topica.com
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 131-01
Sometimes, not always, when I click on the start button the menu
will pop up as it should but then go back down right away. I sometimes,
not always, have to click on the start button 2 to 3 times in order
for it to stay open. When I click down it pops up. When I release
the button, it goes down (the menu) Other times it works well the
first time. The same problem happens sometimes, not always, with some
drop down menus.
(PIII 700, 64MB RAM, 15GB HD, Windows ME, IE5.5)
A 131-01
John Hills said, "I can only think that the mouse is double
clicking on the menu rather than single clicking.
If you believe you are single clicking, then perhaps your click speed
needs adjustment in Mouse - Control Panel. A remote possibility is
that you have Accessibility options engaged, useful for some disabilities,
which have become active."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chuck said, "Any menu opened in win95, 98, me or 2000 will close
if another program is performing any action that will cause a change
in the display. Pay attention to the mouse cursor, if it is indicating
'working in background' default cursor for working in background is
the hour glass), it will cause any open menu to close.
The most common time I see this occur is just after the desktop appears
at startup. Any program that loads at startup, such as a firewall,
virus scanner, etc., will usually display the 'working in background'
cursor. If I get impatient trying to get to the start menu, it will
collapse each time the cursor changes from the normal cursor to 'working
in background cursor'."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
cnlson said, "Try a different mouse. Some mice when they fail
will begin to send static back into the ISA bus. If a different mouse
eliminates the issue you know what the problem is. I have had this
happen with a touchpad and a PS2 mouse which was operated on a HARD
plastic mousepad (that built up enough static in the winter to make
the mouse get warm)."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** said, "I find that this happens a lot during startup, as every
time a program loads it can make the start bar disappear. Maybe if
you're trying to load more than 1 program at once this is causing
the problem. Less likely but also possible (with a newer computer)
is a faulty mouse."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brandon Gotch said, "Commonly (in my experience) problems like
this are caused by "fragmentation" of the hard drive that
the operating system is on (in this case Windows ME), OR by failure
in the Operating system itself. My suggestion is to first try "Scandisking"
and "Defragmenting" your hard drive (both SHOULD be found
in the Accessories / System Tools Menu). If that doesn't work, reformat
the hard drive and re-install Windows ME."
Q 131-02
One certain web page (and the only one) I try to access freezes up
on me at the same place every time (with 5 items remaining). No others
will do this, just this one.
A 131-02
Rob said, "What browser are you using? Try using a different
one. Or trying loading it with Java and/or Java Script disabled, especially
so if you are trying to view it in Navigator. Chances are your browser
is having difficulty with the markup on the page.
A second possibility for a large page is that your system is choking
without enough RAM, try saving the page locally and viewing it that
way."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Joe said, "You don't mention what browser you are using IE, Netscape,
Opera etc. The web page could have badly written java code or an active
x control causing your browser to lock up. Try accessing the web page
with java and active x turned off in your browser and see if that
helps NOTE: with java and active x turned off the web page might not
display properly or not display at all if the site requires these.
If it is a site you would like to access you could try to notify the
web site's Webmaster about your problem as it could be (probably)
the web site that's causing your browser to lock up. If your using
an older browser version upgrade to a newer version or see if there
is a patch for the browser you are using as this might also solve
your problem. If all else fails I would suggest not to go to that
site."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John Hills said, "Don't go there would solve the problem and
possibly deleting all your stuff in the Temporary Internet Folder
and Temp folder might do the trick. There is of course a possibility
that the fault lies with the web site which you need to check on another
PC."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** said, "rest assured you're computer should ok if it can handle
other web pages ok. Unfortunately you didn't give examples of those
web pages that work and the one that doesn't and the phrase "freezes
up" is a little vague, if you mean that your computer literally
stops responding for at least a few minutes then you may need a new
browser (try downloading IE 5.5 from Microsoft.com) if you mean that
some pictures don't download they may Simply not exist, due to an
error by the person who put the page there (email them in this case),
or your browser couldn't download them: try clicking 'refresh' or
'reload'. The page may contain some java, which can take a looong
time to both download and run (simply have to wait here).
Or if you use a modem to dial up to the Internet, then there may simply
be something really big there to download (like java or a big pic),
again it's the waiting game here."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brandon Gotch said, "Now this is an interesting problem probably
the best advise in this situation is to figure out what the computer
is attempting to load and then check your browsers security settings,
It sounds complicated, however this may be indicating an even LARGER
problem."
New Questions
Q 132-01
Is it possible to change the printer default from "Print All"
to "Print Selection"?
Q 132-02
I plan on replacing my video card. Is there anything special I should
do? Do I uninstall the old drivers? Do I just change cards and install
the new drivers? Any advice to make this as smooth as possible would
be appreciated.
If you have an answer to these questions or have a question of your own,
please email me at mailto:freehelp@pcin.net
PCIN.net UPDATE
Check out these new or updated pages on the PCIN.net site:
Most of my time this week has been working on the new look for the PCIN.net
site. You can visit the main page at http://www.pcin.net/ to see the new look. There
is a JavaScript/dHTML script that is the dropdown navigation button. I've
also played around a bit with some of the Server Side Includes I use to
complete the pages. The site should load properly (and fairly quickly)
in all browsers. If something doesn't work for you, please let me know
at mailto:editor@pcin.net
Adding the Control Panel to the Start Menu
http://pcin.net/help/articles/desktopshortcut.shtml
THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
Line Spacing in Microsoft Word
I don't know how people can live without keyboard shortcuts. Here are
a couple of good ones that help you with line spacing.
Press CTRL and 1 to format the selected paragraph with single spacing
Press CTRL and 5 to format the selected paragraph with 1.5 spacing
Press CTRL and 1 to format the select paragraph with double spacing
Press CTRL and 0 to insert a blank line above the selected paragraph
Windows ME Shutdown problems
Two weeks ago there was an I Need Help question about a Windows ME
shutdown problem. A subscriber emailed me suggestions too late for last
week's issue, but they were very good. Here are his comments:
cnlson said, "Check the driver date for the item which stops the
computer from shutting down. If it is PRIOR to 8/00 then it is NOT a
WinME driver. WinME disconnects different from networks when shutting
down to make it shutdown faster. Win98 waits and sends a disconnect
notice. WinME just drops the connection. So sometimes with a WinME system
with win98 net card (or DSL MODEM which is a combination of network
card and modem) you will not be able to shut down correctly unless you
pull the driver FIRST.
You are not however hurting the computer if you shut it off manually.
The OS just shutdown before the net card finished its business
This btw is a HUGE problem with cable/DSL as the providers are using
old 10mb cards with old win95/98 drivers rather than brand new 10/100
cards with new WinME compatible drivers
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q261/7/66.ASP
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q272/4/86.ASP
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q273/7/46.ASP
One of the links may help."
The last link is an article that explains how to deal with general shutdown
problems and is probably the best place to start if you are having Windows
ME shutdown problems.
Another Use for the Pause/Break Key
A couple of weeks ago, the Cheap Trick of the Week was about the Pause/Break
key. Subscribers have been sending in their uses for it, and Leeor Geva
sent in another one. He shared that the "Pause Key is also available
in 99% of all games today :)"
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.
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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 whole, or in part, as long as the
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