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Tech: Notebook Adjustments
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Tech: Notebook Adjustments |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: JohnInKansas Date: 07 Feb 06 - 07:05 PM puter - You don't actually need to uninstall Outlook Express in order to use another email program. I use mostly OE, but occasionally just use my web browser to look at email. If you open another email program and tell it to be your default for email, OE should just sit there and not open. You can also have OE open without connecting to the web, and you should be able to do that without interference from your firewall. You probably have an icon to open OE. When you click the icon, the OE program will open and will try to connect to the web to look for mail. Your firewall may object to OE's attempt to go to the web; but if you click on File, and put a check in the "work offline" box, OE will quit trying to connect, and you can at least take care of saving and backing up stuff. You may want a backup of your email and address book just for safety; but you definitely will want it if you want to switch to a different email program. OE Backup: 1. Create a folder someplace on your machine where you'll put your backup. 2. A preparation: Some email services (Hotmail, Yahoo, etc) may make a separate set of folders in OE for their own use, and if they do you'll have a "Local Folders" folder that's probably not being used. I'd suggest moving all the email messages you want to backup into the "Local Folders." You can move individual messages, or entire folders, by clicking on them, click Edit|Move to Folder, pick a place, and OK. (If you want to leave a copy where they are, just use "Copy to Folder" instead of "Move to Folder." When you have all the stuff you want to backup, you click on the top folder, then click File|Folder|Compact All Folders. This rebuilds the index to all the email messages so that they're nice and clean. 3. You need to Export your address book. Click File | Export |Address Book, and select "Text File comma separated variable." IF YOU'RE going to continue to use only OE, you can export as an "Exchange Address Book," but if you will need to import the addy book to almost any other program you should save in the csv format. Find the place where you made your backup folder and OK and you'll have a safe copy of the addy book that you can recall in OE or that you should be able to import into almost any other program that can use an address book of this kind. Once your address book is safely exported, and your email messages are compacted a. In OE, click Tools|Options, click the Maintenance tab, and then click the button labelled "Store Folder." b. There will be a box that shows a folder location where your email is kept. Highlight the entire box and Control-C to copy the address. c. CANCEL and/or use the "X" at the top right of all the little windows until you're back to OE. d. Close OE. e. Click the Start button at the bottom left of the screen, Select Run, and the Control-V to paste the address you saved in the box. Hit Enter. f. You should have a folder open that shows all of your email stuff. Select ALL of it (Control - A), and click Edit | Copy. Go to your back up folder and click Edit | Paste. Your OE email is now backed up. The above are the basic official Microsoft procedures for backing up email and address books from Outlook and/or from Outlook Express. I am NOT CONVINCED that anyone at Microsoft has ever attempted to restore anything from a backup, based largely on their reputation in this area; however this method has worked for me. To restore either email or address books, you open the program you want to use and "Import" them. Exact procedures may vary a bit with which program you use. John |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Barbara Shaw Date: 08 Feb 06 - 10:51 AM Followup to my notebook issue of flashing window on the start bar: I did a system restore to about a month ago --right before an HP update-- and all is now well. Bah humbug. In addition to the flashing window, my screensaver no longer came on after the 20 minutes I had it set for, until this restore fixed that too. What the heck??? I had also installed some upgraded MusicTime software which may have changed some settings after the HP change. Is it possible that HP or MusicTime changed so many system settings on me, or do you think it was something else that happened in the interim? |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Putermoron Date: 08 Feb 06 - 12:58 PM I've decided not to uninstall my OE, though I do think it is causing problems. I could not boot my puter this morning. Tried everything; unplugged modem, took out battery, unplugged computer, waited a few minutes and retied- same thing. I called Dell because I could not get online to use the chat. After being hung up on TWICE, I finally got on. I, of course, went straight to the Dell Chat. I was told to shut the computer, hit F12 when I restated it and was given instructions to test the system. After TWO and A HALF hours, the end result was that the system is fine. i went back on chat and was given instructions on how to uninstall and re-install the hard drive. Why would i have to do this is everything is fine? Also, I'm still having issues with shut down- it takes forever and last night I had to click on "off" about 3 times before it would even start to shut. Can ANYBODY tell me what is going on? Do I need a new hard drive? Why does it say that it it cannot find the hard drive or boot device. As always, I am extremely confused! HELP!!!!!! Putermoron |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Putermoron Date: 08 Feb 06 - 01:57 PM this may or may not pertain to my situation- i don't know. The notebook is kept in the living room. overnight, the room has no heat. When I come down in the morning, I turn the heat on. Should I bring the computer upstairs at night? Could the change in temperature be affecting the machine? It may be a stupid question, but i feel I need to ask, just in case.. Putermoron |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: JohnInKansas Date: 08 Feb 06 - 02:01 PM -Puter Why does it say that it it cannot find the hard drive or boot device. The most common cause for this error message is that most computers are setup to look at a removable media drive, such as a floppy or CD/DVD drive first, before looking at the hard drive. If your hard drive gets corrupted, this allows you to put a boot disk in the removable media drive and boot from it instead of from the Hard Drive. If you accidentally leave a disk in a removable media drive that's in the "boot sequence," the computer will tell you that there's no boot information on the first such drive it encounters that has a disk in place, and will stop and wait for you to either provide a bootable disk in that drive, or remove the disk that's in the drive so it can proceed to the hard drive. The error message is partly at the option of the OEM maker, and Dell may have modified it; so it's possible it won't tell you which drive it's looking at. If Dell has substituted an ambiguous message for the standard Mickeysoft one, it may look like you've lost your hard drive, when all your really need to do is kick that CD (or floppy or IOmega Disk) out of the slot. If your boot is actually getting to the hard drive, and isn't finding the proper startup files, then the three likely causes are a setup error, or a malware invasion, or a failing hard drive. was given instructions on how to uninstall and re-install the hard drive can have a couple of meanings. I suspect that your were not told to open up the computer and remove the hard drive(?) although on some chat boards you might get that advice. What they probably told you to do was to go to Control Panel, Device Manager, and "uninstall" the driver for the hard drive. This sometimes helps if a driver or one of the associated files is corrupted, since the PnP (Plug and Play) process when you reboot will find the hard drive as an "uninstalled hardware device" and will reinstall whatever the system thinks is needed to make it work. The suggestion that you try this does not mean that your hard drive is bad. It means that the software that talks to your hard drive may be messed up, so you re-load the software. If your computer has booted okay since you "tested" it, I wouldn't bother unless/until you get some additional indication that it might help. You can keep those instructions just in case more problems come up. If you really suspect a problem with your hard drive, the first thing you need to do is determine what it is. You should have, or be able to get from Dell, a complete itemized list of everything that came with your computer. (I won't guarantee anything "you should be able to get from Dell," but ...) Once you know the maker and model number of the hard drive, you go to the drive manufacturer's website, look in their support section, and find a diagnostic program that you can download to test your hard drive. Be advised that most such diagnostic programs include some tests you can safely run without losing data on the hard drive, and also some tests that will ERASE EVERYTHING on it. Be very careful which ones you run. Most "failing" drives can be detected using the non-destructive tests. You'll have to decide for yourself whether there's sufficient concern to merit getting and running hard drive diagnostics. But backup your data anyway... last night I had to click on "off" about 3 times??? Do we assume you're using the standard "Start|Turn Off Computer | Turn Off" procedure when you shut down your computer? Some computers will shut down using a hardware button on the computer, and doing it using the hardware button will cause problems, especially with subsequent boot and shutdown. John |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Putermoron Date: 08 Feb 06 - 02:26 PM First- I am shutting down properly (by clicking on off) I do not press the button down unless all else fails- I've done that a grand total of 2 times in 6 months. Dell told me to PHYSICALLY remove the hard drive and gave me instuctions on how to do it. I don't think I will try it. Since there are no Cds or DVDs in the tray, that cannot be the problem. For some reason, I have a gut feeling that ALL of these issues have to do with my tinkering with the firewall. I am taking the computer upstairs with me tonight. Maybe it is the radical change in temperature that is screwing up the system. I am a writer. I have a pletera of things I store in "my documents". How do I back them up- they are not replaceable- at least not to me. Putermoron |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: JohnInKansas Date: 08 Feb 06 - 02:28 PM Barbara S - I find half a dozen different "MusicTime" thingies on the web, but I presume you're talking about the gVox music notation/midi program. If that's the right one, I don't see anything obvious that should be upsetting your setup, but one never knows without hands-on in-depth probing. I've had difficulty getting midi device settings to do what I expect, with a similar notation program; but the problems I've seen have never affected anything but the program I was trying to get the keyboard to feed into, and only while that program was running. John |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: JohnInKansas Date: 08 Feb 06 - 02:54 PM puter- If you have a CD burner in the laptop, the easiest way to back up your documents is just to copy them to CDs. If you look in Windows Help (Start|Help) WinXP has a "drag and drop" procedure that should work okay for burning files to a CD, although I've never tried it. If your computer came with a burner installed, it probably also came with either "Roxio EZ-CD" or "Nero Burning ROM." I prefer Roxio for data CDs, which is what you want to make, although either should do a fine job. The only problem you're likely to run into is that long filenames frequently need to get "modified." The legal characters that can be used for filenames on CDs are slightly different than the ones you can use on your hard drive, and a CD cannot have a total path+filename more than a certain length. The length limit is much shorter than is permissible on your hard drive. Nero will tell you if there's an "unacceptable" filename, but makes you abort the setup and search out the file and fix it, and then start over. Roxio identifies the file much more clearly, and will fix it for you and continue setting up the burn. I'm not sure how the built-in Windows burn procedure handles such problems. If you use short filenames, and don't have deep subfolder levels, you shouldn't have a problem. If you don't have a burner, you need something you can copy the files to. My suggestion would be a moderately sized external USB-2 hard drive, if you've got more files than you can fit on a few floppies. This will require a bit of an investment, but you need some place where you can keep an archive. Nothing that only exists as single copy can be considered "safe," regardless of what media/methods you use. You can store "backup" files on floppies or IOmega cartridges, but I've found both of these unreliable for other than short term storage. And I've got several Word docs now crowding 80 MB each, so floppies are useless. (Mickey says don't go past 32 MB for a Word document, but what do they know?) Windows has built in "backup" utilities, but they require that you have someplace for them to put the backup data. Obviously putting it in another place on a drive that's failing doesn't do much good, so you still need CDs, DVDs, a tape deck, or a separate Hard Drive. John |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Barbara Shaw Date: 08 Feb 06 - 03:01 PM John, the MusicTime is indeed the gvox product. I went to check this out by looking at my desktop shortcut and discovered that the restore had uninstalled my MusicTime! And this was from a download (for an upgrade) whose link is now expired! Deeper and deeper into this morass I'm sinking... So the problem of the flash is gone, but so is my MusicTime (which is being rectified. They were supposed to send me a disk in addition to the download link and hadn't, but it's "in the mail" now). Still don't know whether it was the HP or the MusicTime s/w that caused the trouble. Next problem: tried to switch from a wired SpeedStream modem to a 2WIRE wireless router. The wireless caused static in my desktop speakers, and when I connected the laptop to it my desktop crashed. SBC and Dell killed 2 days in a row of mine and it still doesn't work. Tried reconfiguring the ISP address, tried turning the cord around, tried swearing and shaking the little black box. To no avail. Will do some searching for online wisdom, since the techies don't seem to be able to figure it out at SBC or Dell. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Stilly River Sage Date: 08 Feb 06 - 03:32 PM If I had (and I have worked on) a computer that seems all fouled up, assuming I can still get it to start, I would do the following things: START --> PROGRAMS --> ACCESSPORIES --> SYSTEM TOOLS -->* *first, do Disk Cleanup, and tell it yes to all (compress some, delete temp files, etc.) *second, do Disk Defragmenter After this, I would go to Microsoft and make sure I had downloaded and install all of the fixes and updates for my software. Then, I would use my big three: Spybot Search& Destroy, Lavasoft's Ad-Aware, and Spyware Blaster. Load each (they're free), download their updates, and run them one at a time. Do a full scan with each. Get the crud out of the computer. If you can't load these chances are your firewall is bonkers. Like I said, I think you should uninstall and reinstall your firewall. It's like using the "reset" button on things--once it gets rid of the garbled memory it starts from scratch and is meant to recognize what you're using. So even if you get the above programs to work and clean things out, you still might want to redo the firewall. If all of these things don't work, on repeated attempts, then comes formatting the hard drive and reinstalling stuff. EVEN IF THE TECHIE AT DELL SAYS TO FORMAT YOUR HARD DRIVE, DON'T DO IT!!!! THIS IS OFTEN AN ANSWER YOU GET FROM A TECH WHO DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HE/SHE IS DOING AND THEY SHOULDN'T BE TELLING YOU THIS. Capiche? There are a lot of things to try before formatting a hard drive. It's the last resort, before replacing the hard drive. (No one may tell you to do this, but telling you to remove your hard drive sounds as hair-brained as telling you to format it, is why I bring this up). SRS |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Putermoron Date: 08 Feb 06 - 06:02 PM Someone suggested that I sinply leave the computer on. Is this a viable option? Putermoron |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: JohnInKansas Date: 10 Feb 06 - 03:35 PM puter - Most modern machines are not really harmed by leaving them on indefinitely. A few older laptops build up a fair amount of heat, and shouldn't be left on a "flamable" surface or covered up with anything that restricts free airflow if left unattended. It should be obvious if there's a problem with that, and a recent model laptop shouldn't present a hazard. The following is old: BACKUP FOR OE (AND GENERALLY SAME FOR OUTLOOK) EMAIL This post was prepared several days ago, and ran afoul of a 'cat nap period so it didn't get posted. It may be obsolete, relative to the thread; but several people have had some problems with email backup and recovery, so I'm refreshing the thread for those who might be interested in the officially recommended procedure. You don't actually need to uninstall Outlook Express in order to use another email program. I use mostly OE, but occasionally just use my web browser to look at email. If you open another email program and tell it to be your default for email, OE should just sit there and not open. You can also have OE open without connecting to the web, and you should be able to do that without interference from your firewall. You probably have an icon to open OE. When you click the icon, the OE program will open and will try to connect to the web to look for mail. Your firewall may object to OE's attempt to go to the web; but if you click on File, and put a check in the "work offline" box, OE will quit trying to connect, and you can at least take care of saving and backing up stuff. You may want a backup of your email and address book just for safety; but you definitely will want it if you want to switch to a different email program. OE Backup: 1. Create a folder someplace on your machine where you'll put your backup. Then open OE (on or offline to suit yourself). 2. A preparation: Some email services (Hotmail, Yahoo, etc) may make a separate set of folders in OE for their own use, and if they do you'll have a "Local Folders" folder that's probably not being used. I'd suggest moving all the email messages you want to backup into the "Local Folders." You can move individual messages, or entire folders, by clicking on them, click Edit|Move to Folder, pick a place, and OK. (If you want to leave a copy where they are, just use "Copy to Folder" instead of "Move to Folder." (One reason for moving messages to the "Local Folders" is that some services (e.g. Hotmail) don't necessarily download the whole message file until you open it to read it. Moving to Local assures that the whole thing is actually (physically) on your machine.) When you have all the stuff you want to backup, you click on the top folder, then click File|Folder|Compact All Folders. This rebuilds the index to all the email messages so that they're nice and clean, and minimizes the size of what you need to save. 3. You need to Export your address book. Click File | Export |Address Book, and select "Text File, comma separated variables." IF YOU'RE going to continue to use only OE, you can export as an "Exchange Address Book," but if you will need to import the addy book to almost any other program you should save in the csv format. (If in doubt, save separately both ways.) Make sure there are check marks for all the different kinds of info you may have in your address book. Browse to find the place where you made your backup folder and OK and you'll have a safe copy of the addy book that you can recall in OE or that you should be able to import into almost any other program that can use an address book of this kind. 4. Once your address book is safely exported, and your email messages are compacted: a. In OE, click Tools|Options, click the Maintenance tab, and then click the button labelled "Store Folder." b. There will be a box that shows a folder location where your email is kept. Highlight the entire box, if it isn't already, and Control-C to copy the folder address. c. CANCEL and/or use the "X" at the top right of all the little windows until you're back to OE. d. Close OE. e. Click the Start button at the bottom left of the screen, Select Run, and key Control-V to paste the address you saved into the box. Hit Enter. f. You should have a folder open that shows all of your email stuff. Select ALL of it (Control - A), and click Edit | Copy. Go to your back up folder and click Edit | Paste. Your OE email is now backed up. The above are the basic official Microsoft procedures for backing up email and address books from Outlook Express and/or from Outlook. I am NOT CONVINCED that anyone at Microsoft has ever attempted to restore anything from a backup, based largely on their reputation in this area; however this method has worked for me. To restore either email or address books, you open the program you want to use and "Import" them. Exact procedures may vary a bit with which program your importing to. A couple of comments. If you have multiple users, you will have to log on as each user and repeat the above procedure for each user, if they have Outlook or OE email and/or address books. When you import email from a store like the one this procedure creates, any messages that are in current email and also in the backup will be duplicated and will appear twice in OE. You cannot restore individual files, only folders, so it's recommended that when you move your files to the Local Folders you break them down into smaller subfolders to allow you to bring back only what you might want restored. John |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Putermoron Date: 10 Feb 06 - 04:02 PM Thanks John- I really appreciate the info. I have not been using my OE, because my gut feeling is that OE is causing a problem. I have a web-based email acct, which is my primary acct anyway. I've left the laptop on for the last 2 nights, and so far, no problem. I'm afraid to shut it off! I have been told to leave the lid open a little. Putermoron |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: JohnInKansas Date: 10 Feb 06 - 06:09 PM puter - Most laptops that I've seen will shut off if you close the lid all the way. I don't know if that's a universal thing, or just the few I've looked at. Leaving the lid up a bit also helps keep you from tossing something on top - which could cause it to heat up. It's not really too likely that OE itself is causing problems. It's a pretty stable part of standard Windows software. OE may trigger a problem when you try to open it, because of your firewall, or because the connection it tries to make isn't set up right. If you can get OE open, try going to Tools|Options and click the "General" tab. At the bottom there should be a "This program is the default email program" and a separate "This program is not the default email program." Click the "Make Default" button next to the "is not the default" if you want to make sure it won't try to connect itself up according to some schedule or other such setting you've put in the setup. (Yes - make the "default" be "not be the default program" sounds a bit strange, but that's how it works.) John |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Putermoron Date: 11 Feb 06 - 08:58 AM I'll try it...at this point, i'll try anything. Putermoron |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 11 Feb 06 - 07:06 PM Try Senna pods... you're half way there, by the sound of it... ;-) |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Barbara Shaw Date: 14 Feb 06 - 04:48 PM Follow-up to the problem I had with 2WIRE causing static through my desktop speakers. The last guy at 2tier support finally solved the problem by mentioning that the 2WIRE unit needed to be at least 3 feet away from the speakers or there would be interference! So now all I need to do is remember to hop over the 2wire in the doorway, sitting over there away from the speakers... |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Barbara Shaw Date: 08 Apr 06 - 05:57 PM Followup to adjusting the contrast on the screen: There's a |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Barbara Shaw Date: 08 Apr 06 - 05:58 PM Previous note said "Fn" button but I put it in brackets, which eliminated the whole thing... |
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