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Issue 127 - March 14, 2001
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements ©2001
==== 1514 Subscribers in 50 Countries ====
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Welcome to the 127th 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.
Recommend PCIN in March and win a Snappy! 4.0. The more you
recommend PCIN, the more chances you have to win. Recommend
PCIN now at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
OPENING THOUGHTS
Not much to tell you about this week. Wait a minute... Yes
there is! I am happy to announce that Lisa is pregnant with
our first child. We've been married just under 4 years now.
She is 3 months along and is due September 18. I tried to
get her to type a few words here to you all, but she's too
shy.
Don't forget to recommend PCIN in March. The prize is a Snappy!
4.0. This is a device that will let you capture video on your
computer. If you don't have a graphics card that has TV or
other video in, then this is a great device to have. Recommend
PCIN now at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
The NEWS
Nothing to :-) About?
"You're about to witness a violation of trademark
law:
:-(
That's it. Typing the cutesy emblem of unhappy e-mailers
is now the equivalent of setting McDonald's golden arches
over your backyard BBQ or distributing pirated copies of
Gladiator and calling it your own home movie.
With U.S. trademark registration number 2,347,676, the 'sad'
emoticon gets the same trademark protection as a corporate
logo or other similar intellectual property."
For more info:
http://www.foxnews.com/foxlife/031301/frowny.sml
Microsoft, eBay combine bids on Net services
"Microsoft and eBay on Monday said they have linked
arms to support each other's technologies, aiming to expand
their Internet footprints.
As part of the new partnership, the software behemoth and
the giant online auctioneer will cooperate on several fronts.
eBay plans to support Microsoft's software-as-a-service
plan, .Net, and other technology including the Windows 2000
server and Internet-authentication service Microsoft Passport.
Microsoft, in turn, will integrate eBay's proprietary online
marketplace technology into a number of its Internet properties
including Carpoint.com, WebTV, small-business hub bCentral
and some Web sites of its MSN Internet service."
For more info:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2694854,00.html
Napster: Ruling means no damages
Remember how the MP3.com verdict made them pay $150 million
(or some huge number like that)? Well, Napster CEO Hank
Barry thinks that if they follow their court ruling, they
won't owe a cent.
"In a Monday afternoon conference call, Napster CEO
Hank Barry found a bright spot in the company's legal predicament,
even as it proceeds with court-ordered filtering designed
to whittle away its most valuable music offerings. He contended
that the federal appeals court's Feb. 12 ruling in the record
industry's case against Napster had done the company a favor,
effectively absolving the file-sharing service of any past
liability for facilitating copyright infringement."
For more info:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/543694.asp
MOBILE COMPUTING NEWS and NOTES
In Japan, the wireless phone carrier NTT DoCoMo signs up
37,000 new subscribers every day to their wireless web service,
i-Mode. Of their 36 million clients, 20 million of them use
i-Mode and another 12 million users are shared between two
other carriers. This high wireless web penetration in Japan
is attributed in part to the low penetration (25 million)
of PC's using wired Internet.
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 126-01
I had to reformat my PC and now the CD-Rom won't read
my photo CD's. All other CD's are fine - programs, games,
music. When I put a photo CD in the computer tells me
that the drive is not ready or not accessible. Any ideas?
A 126-01
Leeor Geva said, "I'm guessing you used a certain
'photo' program to make the cds for you. Try using a program
such as Easy CD Creator to "CLOSE" the CD."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John Hills said, "I don't really know but in an effort
to say something I would check to see if the DMA settings
box is ticked in CDROM properties. If it is ticked - untick
it, if it is unticked - tick it. Finally, and with reference
to a problem last week, you may find you need to install
the mainboard drivers on from the mainboard CD particularly
if you have a VIA chipset.
During the install, change the DMA checkbox to enable
rather than the default disable. Also in SYSTEM properties,
Performance, check to ensure that the CD drive is not
running in DOS compatibility mode. If it is, you may be
installing a DOS CDROM driver in your start up files which
needs to be removed."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
dtopp said, "If you have an uninstaller program,
uninstall all the software with regard to your Cd Rom
drive. If you do not have an uninstaller program, go into
Windows Control Panel, then to devices, and uninstall
the Cd Rom. Then reboot your machine, and reinstall your
device drivers. This should take care of the problem.
If your machine still does not see the CD Rom, check your
setup program to see if it is listed, then shutdown your
machine. Take the cover off and remove the power cable
from the CD Rom. Reboot your machine, wait until the desktop
shows, and the cursor is blinking at you. Shutdown your
machine, reconnect the power cable, and see if Windows
sees your CD Rom."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chuck said, "You need to reinstall the photo-cd software
(probably Kodak)."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** said, "Normally to view the CD I would assume
that you just have to re-install the software that you
previously used to read the CD. If you have done this
then check to ensure you're cd is clean would be the best
bet."
Q 126-02
Is adding RAM to your computer as easy as going out and
buying the hardware? And after you buy it, does your system
automatically recognize the change? Anything I should
look out for?
A 126-02
Leeor Geva said, "Checkout http://www.crucial.com/ Follow the instructions
and you will find out exactly what RAM chip you need.
It's a great service, especially because different motherboards
require different RAM chips. Once you get the price, you
may do some comparison-shopping in your local computer
store. "Does your system automatically recognize
the change?" Yes... it's that easy."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John Hills said, "In theory, you are right. In practice
- a different story. If you can afford it, it is best
to ditch your existing memory entirely and purchase a
completely new set, which should then be perfectly matched.
Stick it in any of the slots and the PC will find it automatically
when you boot up. You really do need to make sure the
memory modules are pressed really hard into their slots
and if you get a series of peeps then they are not seated
correctly or one or more of the modules is duff. Memory
only fits in one way, so check out the notches amongst
the contact plates and compare them with the slots. If
you have the motherboard\mainboard manual, check of whether
the mainboard is 66, 100, or 133mhz compatible and buy
the appropriate memory for that. I.e. PC66, PC100 or PC133
memory modules. This does not apply if your computer was
left by the Romans. In this case, take your old memory
with you to the shop for someone there to check it out."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kim Kristensen said, "Adding RAM is easy; however,
I have had two experiences where I started getting error
messages right after adding RAM. The error messages were
different, but the point is that adding RAM can cause
problems. In my case, both times the RAM was defective.
I had installed some other new hardware along with the
new RAM and everything pointed to the new hardware as
the source of my problems. When I removed the new RAM,
the problems went away. When I installed a higher quality,
name brand RAM (like Kingston) the problems went away."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
George said, "Yes, it is pretty straight forward
to install the RAM card yourself. Just ensure you make
sure you 'earth yourself' so static electricity does not
damage your pc. Leaving the plug in, making sure the switch
is tuned off helps too.
Basically, you locate the slot where the card fits, clip
it in and off you go. The computer 'sees' the new hardware,
so configuring isn't needed, hopefully!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chuck said, "Adding RAM is just that simple. Some
older systems will notice the change in total memory and
jump into the BIOS settings on the first reboot. All you
have to do is exit the BIOS settings in whatever way will
save the new memory amount and you are home free. One
word of caution, make sure the new memory is the same
speed (measured in ms) as the new memory. I spent many
hours troubleshooting a computer where the user added
64mb of 60ns memory to an existing 16mb stick of 70 ns
memory. On boot the bios recognized the total memory installed,
but win95 would not load, nor would it allow reinstall
of win95."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris said, "With RAM, you can more or less just
buy it an pop it in, as long as you know what type of
RAM you need. The best way to check this (assuming you
can't find anything in your systems manual), is to check
out http://www.crucial.com/ They sell memory, but
they have a memory configurator that will tell you what
RAM you need based on what model of PC you have. Once
you know this you can shop around for the best deal."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** said, "Once you have the RAM in your hot little
hands and have the case off, with the computer also off
but plugged in...
1) Touch metal part of case, to earth yourself
2) Take power cord from wall out of case, just to be sure
3) Insert ram, make sure clips have been pushed away from
each other.
4) Don't worry the ram will only go in one way, line up
the dents in the RAM with the bumps on the RAM slots (PS
the RAM goes gold-pins side into the slots)
5) Push RAM down till clips click in place (some slips
may not actually click)
6) Re-attach power cord and power machine up
7) Watch your extra ram appear on the bios screen :)
8) PS your machine automatically uses the new RAM
9) Have fun with extra speed"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
George Kevorkian said, "Adding the RAM is easy, the
most difficult part is recognizing what kind of ram to
add. You motherboard manual should indicate what ram is
acceptable. If all else fails, remove one of the ram chips
you now have, keeping it in foil to keep from ruining
it. Take it with you to the store where you want to buy
the new chip & tell them to match it, or give you
a larger chip of the same size."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Simon said, "Adding ram depends on your type of computer.
If it is branded like Compaq you may need special Compaq
memory. Then you may have SIMMs or DIMMs. If it is SIMMs
they need to be in pairs usually and may not be compatible
with your old ones. Same with DIMMs, if you have single
sided memory it may be incompatible with dual sided. Check
out what speed your memory is and what brand as it is
best to get as good a match as possible."
New Questions
Q 127-01
I use Internet Explorer. How do you get all of the text
on a single page when printing Internet material? I often
have text truncated along the right hand margin. I've
tried adjusting the page settings to like 0 margins but
still can't get it all on the page. Is there an Internet
setting that says "fit all to page" or something?
Q 127-02
When viewing a folder in Windows Explorer as a Web Page,
I used to be able to view previews/thumbnails of BMP,
GIF, and JPG files. Now JPG files don't show at all. Is
there any way to get this back to the way it was?
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
**The real update date**
The Web site says it's updated daily, but somehow you don't
believe the page you're seeing is all that new. How to find
the truth?
In the address bar where you usually enter the Web site
URL, type javascript:alert(document.lastModified) without
spaces and hit Enter.
A window will pop up, telling you the time and date when
the page was last revised.
Graham's Comment:
This is a great tip that I have started using quite regularly.
There is only 1 drawback. Pages that are dynamically created
or that are parsed at load time will show up as the current
date. Files with ASP and SHTML are like this, as are others.
Get your own copy of "The Little Black Book of Cheap
Tricks: 2001" by visiting http://www.pcin.net/lbbct
Clearing the Run entries in the Start Menu
Subscribe Joe Crowe sent this in:
"In PCIN issue 126 under Cheap Trick of the Week **No
Where Left To Run** on how to remove the entries in Run
in the Start menu it mentions to open up the registry to
remove the entries in Run MRU. There is a safer and easier
way to do this if Tweak UI is installed. Go to Control Panel
and click on Tweak UI and then click on the Paranoia tab.
In the list of options that appears if you check Clear Run
History At Logon, every time the computer is booted the
entries will be removed automatically or can be cleared
right away by clicking on Clear Selected Items Now. There
are other options in there also that when checked will clear
entries in Document History, Find Files History, Internet
Explorer History, Network Connection History, Telnet History,
Last User and Find Computer History. At boot up these entries
will be removed automatically if checked. I believe that
this is safer than editing the registry especially for less
experienced users. Tweak UI works with Windows 95, 95b,
98 and 98se but I don't know about Windows ME or 2000. Tweak
UI comes with Windows 98. For Windows 95 users Tweak UI
can be downloaded from the Microsoft site or just about
any site that offers software downloads. Windows 95 users
need Tweak UI version 4.1a. Tweak UI also has other options
for fine-tuning Windows."
Microsoft's Tip Pages
I subscribe to a couple of Microsoft newsletters. Most
of the time I just skim through them and delete them. Occasionally
there is something that I find useful, or that I think you
would find useful. Here are a couple that fit into that
last category:
Tips for Working Efficently (that is how MS spelled it)
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsme/using/workingefficiently/tips/default.asp
The Top 10 Office 2000 Tips & Tricks
http://www.microsoft.com/office/using/tipstricks/tip1.htm
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,
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