Issue 131 - April 11, 2001

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements ©2001
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Welcome to the 131st 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

We're finally getting some nice weather around here. Buying a house in the winter wasn't the smartest thing to do. There is so much that you want to do, but it's too cold to do anything. Lisa and I have been busy this week trying to do some things out in the yard, finally :-)

You will notice a new section below between the I NEED HELP and THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF sections. It is the PCIN.net UPDATE section. Each week I will mention the pages that I've updated on the site (new articles, new reviews, new features, etc.)

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

Napster Closer To Drawing Up Label Alliance

"Germany's Bertelsmann said Wednesday talks to convince music industry giants to work with Internet song-swapping service Napster are going well, and an industry source said they could be concluded soon.
'We are still trying to persuade all labels to work with Napster and give them a license, and the talks are going pretty well,' said Frank Sarfeld, spokesman for Bertelsmann's e-commerce group.
An industry source said the media giant's chances of convincing Sony Music Entertainment and Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group to offer a license to Napster via their subscription joint venture, dubbed Duet, looked strong."

For more info:
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-5574465.html

Good News Out of Amazon - Finally

"Shares of Amazon.com surged more than 30 percent Monday after the e-retailing giant said its losses for the first quarter would be narrower than Wall Street's forecasts.
The disclosure of Amazon's preliminary first-quarter results is the first meaningful good news to come out of Seattle-based company in months and is certain to silence some of Amazon's most strident critics."

For more info:
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,23588,00.html

Is the levy on CD-R/Ws fair, or does it punish innocent users?

From the March 23, 2001 ComputerWorld Canada magazine:
 65% Most CD-R/Ws are used for illegal purpose,
     so the levy is fair.
 23% There are legitimate for CD-R/Ws, but there's
     no other way to fight copyright infringement - 
     and it's important to protect artists.
  7% Since Napster will no longer be a free service,
     the levy means record companies will be compensated
     more than once for any copyright infringement. They
     will also be taking money from innocent users.
  5% The levy is completely unfair. It punishes the
     innocent as well as the guilty.

MOBILE COMPUTING NEWS and NOTES

It's time for a wake-up call. Take a look at these concept phones that are coming down the pipe. It will open your eyes to what the future holds. Visit http://www.3g-generation.com/all.htm

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 130-01

Lately I have been getting this noise over my speakers that sound like a car motor running. Along with that, when I move my mouse across the pad, it makes a noise like severe static. Any suggestions? I don't think the noise is coming from a fan; however, I could be wrong.

A 130-01

Kenneth Aspinwall said, "Do you have a microphone attached to your computer? If so you may be getting feedback, open your audio mixer, usually present on the system tray, and under microphone (may show as mic) click the mute button."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John Hills said, "You could try uninstalling the sound card and then take it out. Stick it in another PCI slot. If the sound chip is welded to the mainboard, disable in the BIOS, take the mouse out and boot up without a mouse, incurring a warning message. Then, enable sound card in the BIOS and boot up, again without a mouse. If the sound card is working OK, then shut down and stick mouse back in and reboot. Ensure you have the latest drivers for the sound card\chip. If using a VIA chipset, get the latest drivers for your mainboard."

Q 130-02

I have Windows ME and am running a DSL modem. For some reason, Windows ME will not shut down when prompted unless the modem is unplugged from the USB port. Is there any way to go in and reconfigure so that I can stop this problem?

A 130-02

John Hills said, "The biggest single cause of shutdown problems is drivers. Make sure you have the correct and latest USB driver for your mainboard particularly if running a VIA chipset
You may find this useful http://www.aumha.org/a/shutdown.htm"

New 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)

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.

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:

Some Useful Registry Tips (29 Tips)
http://www.pcin.net/help/articles/registry.shtml

Lockergnome Tip of the Day
http://www.pcin.net/help/articles/lgtod.shtml

Nerdy Books Microsoft Office Tip of the Day
http://www.pcin.net/help/articles/nbtod.shtml

How To Maximize a Program When it Starts
(Software suggestion)
http://www.pcin.net/help/articles/maximizescreen.shtml

Adding the Control Panel to the Start menu
http://www.pcin.net/help/articles/cpmenu.shtml

THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF

The Pause/Break Key

Both subscribers John Hills and wanted to mention a little more about the Pause/Break key (last week's Cheap Trick). John said that the Pause/Break key "is useful for pausing the PC in boot up so you can read the BIOS info before it disappears. However, there does appear to be a learned skill on pressing it at the right time. Press again to continue. In dos, the key was used for pausing during the execution of a batch file i.e. Autoexec.bat"
Herman Steeman said, "I wanted to tell some more about the pause key. It's something from the old DOS century and is not very useful anymore. When you are running a DOS program you can force the program to pause and if you hit the spacebar or any other key the program will resume. This can be handy sometime when your (for example) developing al program and want to look (behind) the program to see wat the results are, or simple when you want to stop for later resume.
Lately I discovered that it can be handy when you're busy configuring your computer. Before windows starts you see the configuration of your computer, the IRQ setting from your PNP devices, the available RAM and sort of things. Mostly there's no time to read this except when pressing the pause button the right time."

Windows ME and Epson Printers

Subscriber John Hills send me this:
"I anyone buys an Epson USB printer it will not run in Windows ME without a new Epson USB driver available from Epson website. Unfortunately, Epson do not mention this when in their instruction manual."

New Top Level Domains

There has been a lot of "buzz" about the 7 new top-level domains (TLD) that ICANN approved. Now there is even more "buzz" about the 20 new TLDs that New.net Inc is trying to implement. The problem is, DNS servers don't recognize these 20 new extensions. If you visit the New.net site, you can install a small control that will "activate" these new TLDs. You don't even need to restart your computer, just close all instances of your browser and when you start it again you will have access to these new TLDs.

For more info:
http://www.new.net/
http://www.itworldcanada.com/search/DisplayArticle.cfm?V=CW,MAIN,713F4150-1E05-11D5-AA8000A0CC574E58

Visit http://www.lisagold.family/ to see if your browser supports these TLDs.
Once your browser recognizes the 20 TLDs, visit http://www.mary.med/ and see what the nice screen you get when you try to visit a domain that doesn't exist.

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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