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Tech: Notebook Adjustments
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Subject: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Barbara Shaw Date: 01 Feb 06 - 04:52 PM Couple of questions about my new Dell laptop and I don't have two hours to call their Dell-on-Call. Besides, just as much knowledge (maybe more) here on Mudcat! Is there a way to adjust the contrast on the screen? I was in a backlit situation at the library and could barely see the screen. Is there a way to adjust volume just during the boot, so the Welcome chimes don't disturb everyone around me? Third, and this is for my desktop --sneaking this one in-- how can I find out what is running that causes an occasional white window to flash momentarily on the task bar and then go away before I can click on it to find out anything? |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Cluin Date: 01 Feb 06 - 05:09 PM Hit CTRL+ALT+DEL once to bring up the Task Manager. That will tell you what applications and processes are running. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Cluin Date: 01 Feb 06 - 05:14 PM And, by the way, are you running a firewall program (you should be), like ZoneAlarm or Norton? You should remove all programs from the "permission to access the Internet" list every once and a while and let them ask for permission again. Just to keep tabs on what you want acessing and sharing with the outside world. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Barbara Shaw Date: 01 Feb 06 - 05:15 PM There are 51 processes running. The window goes by too fast to see which one it is based on usage. And this never happened before. I don't notice anything new in the list of processes. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Cluin Date: 01 Feb 06 - 05:17 PM And adjusting the level of the Windows Volume Control before you turn off the computer should affect the volume of the Welcome chimes when it boots up next time. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Barbara Shaw Date: 01 Feb 06 - 05:17 PM I do run ZA, and yes, good idea to remove all the permissions. I'll do that. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Stilly River Sage Date: 01 Feb 06 - 05:20 PM Go into your Control Panel and you'll find all sorts of places to Sounds and Audio Devices, where you can set features. You should be able to find a place to turn off sounds, and in the instance of startup you should be able to turn off the chime altogether. Under the Sounds tab you'll find Sound Events you can turn on or off. You should find a Display box in Control Panel also, but I don't know if it will have any separate settings for your laptop. On my old laptop I would have gone into the system settings prior to Windows opening and fiddled with settings there. It must be easier to do now. SRS |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Stilly River Sage Date: 01 Feb 06 - 05:22 PM Oops. Sent before I finished taking out stuff. That should say "you'll find Sounds and Audio Devices." I started to tell you about all of the things you could set in there, but changed my mind (if not the copy). |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Cluin Date: 01 Feb 06 - 05:22 PM It could just be some application wanting to "call home" to keep tabs with the manufacturer. For instance my MS Intellimouse often wants to connect to the internet to check for updates. I have the firewall deny it permission and not let me know it has asked. A lot of software seems to think it is the only thing running on your computer and it wants to run in the background always upon boot-up and sit in my system tray and check for updates every 30 seconds. Screw that. I shut all those options off if I can. I'll decide when it runs and checks for updates, thank you. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Barbara Shaw Date: 01 Feb 06 - 05:24 PM Good idea about turning off certain sound events. I'll do that. Already tried to do something in control panel display for contrast, but couldn't find where to change it. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: JohnInKansas Date: 02 Feb 06 - 04:20 PM Assuming that your laptop display is the common liquid crystal type, there probably is not a contrast adjustment. The "crystal" in an individual pixel element can be on or off, but there's no such thing as x% on. The only adjustment many of them have is brightness of the backlight. Some plasma displays may have other adjustments; but they're often inaccessible, and usually given misleading or incorrect labels if you do find them. Plasma displays do appear, but the LC type are much more common. The only thing that should be "flashing a message" from the task bar is one of the icons in the toolbar. Such "notices" should only come spontaneously from the bar at the lower right, sometimes referred to as the "System Tray" or as the "Startup" bar. All of the icons there should be associated with running processes, since the reason they're there is that they start when you boot the machine AND they are processes that you can "edit" or make responses to. Processes that start at boot but that have no adjustments or responses you can make normally are not shown. Icons there can be associated with a number of individual "processes" shown in Task Manager, so looking at Task Manager often is rather uninformative about what goes with which icon. The most likely cause for a brief flash notification is that a process that you could have made an input to was doing something, but a default setting allowed it to proceed so that you didn't need to respond. The most common event that will cause this to happen could be that one of your processes "needed to call home" and the connection was open. It could also happen if one of your processes, such as your AV program, completed downloading an update. You could have been asked whether to install, but probably are set up to allow automatic installation of updates. In this case the "flag" might pop up when the download completed, but would disappear when the preset "permission" to install was found. Occasionally a "new icon" will open in this tray, and will disappear as soon as it's done its duty. Even if you can't catch what's on the flag, you'd likely catch the expansion of the bar length to make room for the new icon, and/or contraction when the icon disappeared, so if you haven't seen the bar itself "pulse" this way it's most likely one of the regular running things. This is all just guesswork, of course, unless you can pin down precise times when it happens and associate the happening with something else that is happening. It's an indication, probably, that your computer is just doing something it's supposed to be doing; but it's like when the kid say's "Look Ma, I ate all my brocolli." Until you confirm what's been going on, you don't really know the brocolli's inside the kid and not outside the window or in the dog. But computers are probably more reliable than kids (my kids anyway). John |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Cluin Date: 02 Feb 06 - 04:28 PM I have a notification that flashes up for a second when I boot up as well. It is the Windows Security Centre telling me that I have no anti-virus protecing my computer. It does this before my Norton AntiVirus has a chance to load, which it does a fraction of a second later and the notification banner vanishes then. I barely have time to register what it says. This is a fairly new development that started after on of the recent downloaded Windows XP Updates from MicroSoft. It also insists on reminding me to turn on Automatic Update. Screw that! I'll update at MY convenience and discretion, not automatically. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: JohnInKansas Date: 02 Feb 06 - 05:05 PM Cluin - Go to Start | Settings | Control Panel and double-click on "Security Center." If you click on "Anti Virus" there, if the system has not recognized your AV, there should be a place where you can click something like "I have an AntiVirus program installed and I cross my heart and hope to die I promise that I will manage keeping it up to date myself and I'll eat worms if I don't." This should turn off the flag at least until you've had time to let your AV be registered and recognized. Once you've received Norton updates that recognize that you have the new updates, your Norton AV should automatically tell your Windows setup that it is installed, is running, and it will report the last time your definitions were updated. Once that happens you'll only get the Windows flag if you let your subscription expire or don't connect to get the AV signatures regularly. (Note: If this just appeared, you may be a bit behind on updates(?)) If, as I suspect, you're suggesting that this may be the cause of Barbara's Some other perfectly good AV programs may fail to "register" their presence with the OS, so you may have to do it (as loosely described above) manually. With autoupdates, Norton will eventually take care of it - usually - under normal circumstances - if everything works - ... Sometimes, a manual AV update (Norton "check for updates") will cause Norton to "discover" that you need the AV registration feature immediately, since in the manual process the update site should look at enough info about your machine to see that you should have it. That may speed up getting things in order. John |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Barbara Shaw Date: 02 Feb 06 - 05:30 PM Nope, it's a little white flashing window that opens on the taskbar, not an icon! I'm suspecting the HP software. Seems to me I told it to go ahead recently and look for updates, but it may be that ZA is blocking it based on my previous whim. Will check. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Cluin Date: 02 Feb 06 - 06:13 PM Actually, John, Windows Security recognizes my NAV alright. A nice green "ON" light. And I update the virus definitions and program updates first thing upon boot-up of the computer every day. It's all up-to-date. The only thing in Security Center that is not that tickity-boo shade of green is Automatic Updates, because I have it turned off; I update manually. I think I know the reason Windows Security Center flashes me about my anti-virus being off, though, even though it's not... Last February, my hard drive cacked out on me. So Dell sent me a new one, free, since it was still under warranty. Actually they sent me one twice the size (240 Gig) since they didn't supply the original 120 Gig model anymore (Hey, Thanksabunch, Dell). So I got busy reinstalling Windows XP and all my software and updates and settings, etc. Took a good 20+ hours to get back to where I was before the "Whatthef__knodon'ttellmeohshititstheharddriveIbet" fun & games. Now, when the hard drive went for a poop, I had only about 6 months subscription left on my NAV updates. But here, 5 months after it was to have run out, I'm still getting the virus definition updates free. But I guess something is telling Security Center that my NAV is expired. I can only suppose my free lunch will run out in the next few weeks as the anniversary of my reinstalling my old NAV on a new hard drive comes round. At which point, I'll go to Staples and buy a new Norton package that includes Norton Utilities too, since you can't by that as a standalone package anymore, dammit. I always preferred the defragger and other utilities that Norton put out in NU. But you have to buy it as part of Norton System Works, which includes Norton AntiVirus (which I already had a working, fully-registered-for-a-year copy of). So, in conclusion, it doesn't bother me too much (though I did try to find a way of stopping it) and I'm hoping the notification will stop popping up after I install a new copy of NAV. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Clinton Hammond Date: 02 Feb 06 - 06:36 PM Cluin... You don't really run Norton in any form do you?!?!? For shame! |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Cluin Date: 02 Feb 06 - 06:38 PM For many years now, buck. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Clinton Hammond Date: 02 Feb 06 - 06:39 PM Tisk tisk.... bloated, resource hogging, crash-ware.... Though I suppose it's an "Old Dogs, New Tricks" kinda thing eh? Heh |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Cluin Date: 02 Feb 06 - 06:43 PM Tried MacAfee once. Didn't like it. Nosir, not1bit. Put AVG on the GF's computer but it slows things down there too much for my liking. I'll stick with the devil I know. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Clinton Hammond Date: 02 Feb 06 - 07:44 PM Ug... the only thing worse than Norton is MacAfee! AVG slows the PC? Really?? I never notice it on at all... Unless I happen to be on the PC when it does it's daily complete scan... "the devil I know" I hear ya, dawg.... |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: JohnInKansas Date: 03 Feb 06 - 12:36 AM Barbara - HP may be a very good guess on your flasher. We haven't had much problem with our "professional grade" HP stuff, but the consumer class inkjet/scanner/multipurpose on Lin's machine insisted on loading a bunch of "automatic duzitalls" and persists in attempting to call home to look for more junk to foist on us. It's almost annoying enough to trash the printer and get a real one, but we got it 'cause it's small enough to toss in the camper when we go festivate. John |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Barbara Shaw Date: 03 Feb 06 - 09:22 AM It's not HP. In fact, it only happens when I'm on the mudcat, so now I'm suspecting some sort of tracking done by mudcat. By the way, I bought a $98 hp officejet 4215 all-in-one which does printing, scanning, faxing, copying, and I have to admit I love it, now that I got rid of all the HP automatic updates. Has a very small footprint and works well, replacing several pieces on my desktop, and good enough quality for what I need. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Barbara Shaw Date: 03 Feb 06 - 10:07 AM Nope, I take it back about mudcat. The latest suspect is Outlook Express and my ISP. I have OE check several mail accounts every few minutes, and all of a sudden it wants me to re-enter the passwords or at least hit OK for the remembered password. This may be what causes a window to flash on the toolbar. Or maybe it's one of those government projects using my computer for something? Would love to catch the thing and see if I can get it to click open! |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Stilly River Sage Date: 03 Feb 06 - 12:07 PM I have various spam blockers and ad and spyware blockers that catch javascript windows and close them down before I have a chance to do it myself. And unfortunately, they often prohibit windows I want to open. I have to track down the URL and go there myself (sans the javascript) if I want the information in the window. It's the price one pays to keep out some of the crud. SRS |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: JohnInKansas Date: 03 Feb 06 - 12:39 PM Barbara If I read things correctly, the flasher is appearing on the "Open Windows" portion of the Start bar(?). The normal setup is the Start Button at the left, with a "Quick Start" bar next with shortcuts to a few programs, the larger center area where there's a button for each Window that's open, and the SysTray with icons for the Startup processes. It the "flasher" is in the central "Open Windows" part of the bar, it should mean that whatever is running is opening a Window, and you might catch more of a glimpse of it if you can arrange to observe it when there are no other Windows (programs) on the screen. It is possible to set a program to "Open Minimized," so the button may still be the only thing that would appear. Most processes that open and then close themselves appear only as flags that pop up from an icon in the SysTray part of the bar. About the only things I've seen that actually open a window that closes itself are generally something to do with external connections, usually to the web. This may narrow it down to a browser or email action, but the action could be triggered by any program that wants to call out. Your email checks are as good a guess as any, probably. You mentioned earlier that you found 51 running processes. That's not a remarkably high number, but I seldom see more than about 45. I currently see only 41 with 5 program windows open, LAN connection, and a couple of USB devices running in addition to the usual Windows things. WinXP actually does quite a lot of "logging" of what's running, and theirs an "error logger" built in that you can turn on to record what's happening, for troubleshooting. I don't use them often enough to suggest where to look without some research. Start | Help | Index and and "Event Viewer" in the topic box may be a place to start, if the "flash" is associated with an "error" that gets logged. The built in error recorder, that you can turn on or off, is called "Dr. Watson" which might be another topic to look at. Neiter of these are likely to record anything that's a "normal" process, but they're places to look if things get desparate. Stilly - I find that the WinXP Firewall does a good job of blocking java and popups, and nearly always gives you enough time to "enable for this page" to avoid missing out on anything essential. Unfortunately (IMO) a lot of the diagnostics, drivers, and utility download sites do require !$%##! java to function now. It works just fine behind my other firewall (on another net-connection machine) but multiple firewalls on the same machine might cause some conflicts(?). John |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: GUEST,Putermoron Date: 05 Feb 06 - 08:19 AM I have a Dell Inspiron 2299- I went into the Security center to make sure the firewall was on. The message on the top of the page is telling me that the service is unavailable because it either has not been activated or has been shut off. How do i turn it on? What do I click on? I know very little about computers, so please feel free to talk down to me. Puter- moron |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Stilly River Sage Date: 05 Feb 06 - 10:34 AM When did you buy this computer? Some things (like a trial period on OEM software) might be effected by the purchase date, but things like the firewall aren't. Follow the steps below to reach two separate functions within the control panel. The first one lets you set the firewall and automatic updates and tell it what antivirus software you're using (have your Windows authentication numbers handy, from that little bandaid-sized Microsoft sticker that should be on your computer somewhere). START --> CONTROL PANEL --> ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS --> SECURITY CENTER --> If you need to set up an administrator account or review what is going on in your computer concerning separate users, follow this set if links: START --> CONTROL PANEL --> ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS --> USER ACCOUNTS Ideally you use the administrator setting when you make changes and use a sub-account setting the rest of the time. This way bad stuff can't write to your registry (no authorization). Alas, most of us work on our computers as administrators. But I never have mine set to just logon automatcially. If my computer is stolen again, they'll have to do some work to figure out what's in there. SRS |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: JohnInKansas Date: 05 Feb 06 - 02:53 PM Dell's site doesn't show any easily accessible info for 2200 Series Inspiron; and their "yard sale" pages don't show any units in inventory as returned/unused, refurbished, or "cosmetically damaged" so I'd have to assume it's not a current model. The max 1.7 GHz processor shown in the short spec sheet suggests a couple of years old, but that's pure speculation. When asking for computer help, it's always a good idea to give the name/version of the Operating System (OS) you're using, since it avoids confusion. Since Windows XP is the only Microsoft OS that I know of that has a "Security Center" in its Control Panel, we can probably assume that's what you have. Some third party security programs could put one there, or elsewhere, but I haven't heard of one that uses that specific name. The Security Center Box (Start|Settings|Control Panel, and double click "Security Center") should have a section at the bottom labelled "Manage Security Settings" and a box/button for "Firewall." If you click there, it should give you the option to turn the built-in firewall on or off. Since the Windows firewall is a standard part of WinXP, this setting should always be there, although there are ways an "Administrator" can make it "disappear" using "Policies" to restrict what individual users can do. Creating and managing Policies is an "advanced subject" so it's not too likely to be something an inexperienced user would have gotten into. If the "Manage Firewall" button doesn't appear when you go to the Security Center, there are really only 3 obvious causes: 1. You're not logged on with Administrator privileges. Start|Turn Off Computer, and click Restart, and it should give you the option to log on as Administrator or as another user with Admin privileges. If you have more than one user account, it may show a "Log Off" option that you can use in place of the "Turn off computer" that will force it to ask which user to log when it restarts. 2. Someone has turned off the Firewall in a Group Policy. See Stilly's comments above. 3. A malware infection has disabled security features. A fourth possibility is that you're not up to date with all the latest WinXP patches; but I frankly don't remember the "which/when" of where some of the "possibly applicable" things may have appeared. Prior to WinXP SP1, the default installation was to run with the Firewall off, and it may have been possible to do an installation that omitted the program bits that it needs. Updating security patches should fix it, if that's your situation. John |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: GUEST,Putermoron Date: 05 Feb 06 - 07:35 PM We just purchashed the notebook about 6 months ago, so I'm pretty sure it's a current model. I checked- I do have administrative privledges, but i do not know where to click. We also have Norton Internet Security and antivirus programs on the unit. I make sure everything is updated and run virus and spyware scans regularly. As I said, I know very little about the computer, other than doing things I need to do. Thanks for your imput. Putermoron |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: JohnInKansas Date: 05 Feb 06 - 08:59 PM Puter - Dell isn't too helpful with looking up someone else's models, so it's not surprising I didn't find yours. If you have Norton Internet Security, it should include both the Norton Firewall and Norton Antivirus. All of the setup and management is done in Norton, preferably during installation although you should be able to access the programs to make adjustments after installing. Once the installation is in place, you shouldn't have to go to Control Panel for AV or Firewall management, since it's all turned over to Norton. Some people don't have problems leaving both the Norton and WinXP firewalls turned on at the same time, but it's possible to get conflicts, so turning off the built-in Windows (WinXP) firewall is recommended - even by Microsoft - when you have another firewall on the same machine. Your installation of Norton Internet Security should already have done this for you, which would explain why you don't see anything in the Control Panel/Security Panel to adjust. I don't have a recent copy of Norton Firewall to refer to, but generally Norton places an icon in the System Tray at the bottom right of your monitor screen. (It usually looks like a tiny computer with a yellow screen.) If you double click on the icon, it should open the Norton manager, and it's usually pretty good about telling you what's properly set and what needs attention. With the Internet Security package, I would expect all the adjustments you can make to be there, for both AV and Firewall. In some older versions, or if you installed the firewall separately, you might find the Firewall stuff in a separate control panel that you would probably find in a folder labelled either "Norton" or "Symantec." I suspect that the reason you're not finding any settings in Control Panel is that Norton does it all, and the user adjustable security settings in Control Panel are turned off to avoid conflicts. John |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: GUEST,Putermoron Date: 06 Feb 06 - 02:19 PM Thanks John- I went into Norton- my personal firewall is indeed on as is everything else that should be. Your comments about Dell are very well founded. I usually go on to their "online chat" (my speech is very bad) and their answer to just about everything is to do a "system resore". I had trouble shutting down this computer last night. It just would not shut- I went on to the "online chat" and was told to do a system restore- just like I was told to proform one after I had difficulty turning it on a few days ago. I am convinced that the "techs" have little more knowledge about this system as I do. Putermoron |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: JohnInKansas Date: 06 Feb 06 - 03:14 PM Most computers these days don't have a hard-wired on/off switch. When you flip the switch it sends a message to the system to shut down, but the system does all the paper work before it turns itself off. Sometimes it doesn't find all the bits and pieces, so it "waits for a response" from some gremlin in the innards that's not being communicative. This is a fairly common happening with Win2K and earlier Windows. It's rather rare on WinXP desktops, but happens occasionally with laptops - probably because of the much slower response of laptop Hard Drives as much as for any other reason. On a desktop, you resort to the technique widely known as "The BRS" method, for BIG RED SWITCH. (From the days when all mainframe computers had a BIG RED SWITCH for this purpose.) I usually just flip the switch on the surge suppressor that the PC is plugged into. There is an equally simple "hard shutdown" for a laptop. You just disconnect the power cord and then remove the battery. When you restart after any UI (Unexpected Interruption - pronounced you-eee.) you can expect a complaint that Windows was not shut down properly, a Disk Scan will be run before the computer starts Windows, and you'll likely get some snide message informing you what an idiot you are for not following proper shutdown procedure. It is permissible to talk back while you wait for the boot to complete. When you get Windows fully open, which almost always is the result, it is recommended (by me especially) that you attempt to do a normal full shutdown and then turn back on. You can also just do a "Restart" if you're feeling lucky. In most cases you'll find that everything will be just fine. During the first boot after your hard shutdown, Windows will scan the hard drive and automatically attempt to fix any file errors it finds. It will also run the full PnP (Plug and Play) routine to assess all the connected devices, and will attempt to correct any errors it finds. It will enter all the corrections into the Registry, temporarily, to use the next time, but the "new" Registry settings will not necessarily be written to the Hard Drive (and stored in System Recovery) until the next shutdown. You do the shutdown and reboot to make sure that any changes are written down in the Registry files. It is, of course, possible that there's really something wrong with your setup, in which case after you get turned back on and have rebooted to write a clean Registry entry, you may need to do a system restore. I really doubt that you'll see the need for it; but if you do you should have at least five earlier Registry copies for Windows to choose from if System Restore has been turned on all the time, and it can usually decide automatically which earlier version it needs. Unless you do something stupid (that's a tech term, not a personal insult) the only time you should really need to do a system restore is when Windows says "Oh SHIT, something isn't working. Would you like me to revert to the last good Registry version?" (It actually will say that sometimes, although perhaps my paraphrasing is a little loose.) System restore, unless you're a compulsive twiddler, is there so that Windows can use it if needed. In most cases all you do is make sure it's turned on, and wait for Windows to ask for permission to use it. John |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Barbara Shaw Date: 06 Feb 06 - 03:44 PM Me again with more notebook problems, this time trying to set up a wireless network. I happily and fairly easily set up my 2wire wireless router and the notebook was happily networking away. Then the speakers on my desktop starting tapping and getting static. Then the desktop screen went white, then went black and died!! A call to the wireless router provider said it was the computer maker's problem (of course). The Dell tech said it was the wireless router provider's problem (of course) but he also told me to do a restore (like mentioned above) and said to restore to the wired modem to see if things would work without the wireless. Sure enough, things work when wired but the desktop crashes with the wireless router. Have any of you run into this?? |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: GUEST,putermoron Date: 06 Feb 06 - 04:01 PM John- thanks for all the info and no insult taken. I have already admitted to being a computer moron. Barbara- yes, I have run into the same problem. Dell will tell me my problem is Verizon's fault and Verizon will tell me to talk to Dell. I have done numberous system restores. I did 2 last week because the tollbar kept disappearing- my daughter told me that most likely I clicked on something wrong and I should LOCK the toolbar (didn't know I could do that- DUH!) Thanks again- I'll mist probably be back! Putermoron |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: GUEST,Putermoron Date: 06 Feb 06 - 04:08 PM I forgot to say- my neighbor (who knows considerably more than I) told me that if it would not shut down to just press the button until it does. I did that when it wouldn't shut down. It worked, but about 10 minutes later, I got a little paranoid and started it. It started normally and a short while later, i attempted to do a normal shutdown. It did shut off- rather quickly I must add. I don't know if I did right or wrong,but all's well that end's well. Putermoron |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Cluin Date: 06 Feb 06 - 05:31 PM Yes, a lot of computers will let you do a "hard" shutdown (shut it off right away without Windows housekeeping finishing it's diddling around first) if you hold the ON/OFF button in for more than a few seconds. This is useful in a computer lock-up situation. I've never experienced a problem with the computer booting up after doing this. Killing the power at the power bar does the same thing. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: GUEST,Putermoron Date: 06 Feb 06 - 06:41 PM "Killing the powerbar"? What does that mean? Still a putermoron! |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Cluin Date: 06 Feb 06 - 06:50 PM Turn off the swith at the power bar (or unplugging the computer). |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Putermoron Date: 06 Feb 06 - 06:53 PM Thanks! |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Cluin Date: 06 Feb 06 - 07:00 PM Swith? Nithe. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: JohnInKansas Date: 06 Feb 06 - 07:54 PM I generally use plugin surge protectors as power bars, since my household wiring isn't amenable to putting in a clean installation. In some places I've got a couple of surge protector/power strips running off of a surge protector/power strip. Your computer and every device that connects to it that uses AC power should be connected through a surge protector of some sort to prevent voltage transients when the lightening hits the power pole (common in my area), or when the truck knocks one pole into another (common in some areas), or just when the air conditioner and/or refrigerator kick on/off etc. Ideally, everything would connect from the same surge-protected "power bar" so that everything grounds to the same point. If you're on a dial-up connection, the telephone wire should run through a similar device, and many of the economical "extension cord" type surge devices have in-and-out phone jacks for doing that. Voltage transients that won't harm your telephone can destroy the modem in your computer. (In fact, a couple of the built-in modems have been our only "surge loss" in the past several years, even with protectors on the lines; but that was a pretty horrendous lightning storm-event.) John |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 06 Feb 06 - 10:21 PM The latest, up to date (last weekend) sound tech was running the entire mix and control through a lap-top. I should of taken note....he was still reading the manuals four hours before curtain.
Sincerely, |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Stilly River Sage Date: 06 Feb 06 - 10:58 PM Sounds like there is a lot more to that story, Garg! Do tell! SRS |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Putermoron Date: 07 Feb 06 - 09:12 AM I'm now having problems with my outlook Express email. I can neither receive mail or send mail, It seems to be having problems connecting. Anything I can do to rectify this situation WITHOUT calling Verizon? Putermoron |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Stilly River Sage Date: 07 Feb 06 - 10:14 AM Is everything else connecting okay? Your browsers? I haven't used Outlook Express except as a test to try connecting my Gmail to a resident program. I have several free copies of things for my various email addresses. Pegasus is good, as is Eudora and Mozilla's Thunderbird. Chances are you need to examine your settings as far as your firewall scanning or restricting your email. I had that program a while back with a different operating system and firewall software. Sometimes just setting up a new email program allows you to see what the settings need to be for all programs. You can look at the Internet Options and Preferences and go back and reset what you need in Outlook. This is not a scientific approach, it's simply giving you a basis for comparison when it isn't clear what needs to be set. SRS |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Putermoron Date: 07 Feb 06 - 11:05 AM I called Verizon- definite communication problems!!! After the guy tried to connect to my computerby remote, he gave me Microsofts number. Everything else is working ok- as far as I know. I usually use yahoo as my main email,but i use Outlook Express to send a link or page. All the other settings seem to be fine! Putermoron |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Putermoron Date: 07 Feb 06 - 02:41 PM Can someone please tell me how to uninstall Outlook Express 6? I cannot get into it unless I disconnect my firewall. It was working until I started checking the firewall last week. I called Verizon. They told me to disconnect the firewall to get in. if I disconnect the OE, where will that mail go? Putermoron |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Barbara Shaw Date: 07 Feb 06 - 04:18 PM Outlook Express downloads mail from the server (in your case, sounds like you use Yahoo) to your computer. It stays on your computer unless you delete it. The web-based mail, such as when you go out to Yahoo to read your mail, stays on Yahoo's server (on the web) until you either download it or delete it yourself. Sometimes OE doesn't work because the ISP service is down for some reason and you just can't get out to their server to get your mail. Sometimes Internet Explorer also doesn't work for the same reason. Sometimes it's just that there is heavy traffic and the web is busy. If it consistently doesn't work after fixing the firewall issues, you may need some outside help from someone who can come and look at your setup. Someone from tech support from your ISP provider should be able & willing to walk you through fixing the problems. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Stilly River Sage Date: 07 Feb 06 - 04:57 PM I would make a backup of the computer before the tinkering begins. It's easy enough to uninstall Outlook Express, but what about your email and addresses? Are you willing to let all of that go? Uninstalling it will remove those files. Give this some more thought--I think you'd be better off uninstalling and then reinstalling the firewall software. When it is reinstalled it should recognize the programs you use, like Outlook Express, or if it doesn't, first time you use it you should get a firewall dialog box asking if you want to allow it access. After reinstalling the firewall you'll need to download all of the updates that go with it. And if it is a Symantec product, then you may need to uninstall and reinstall your Antivirus at the same time (if it is also Symantec) because if they're not installed at the same time they don't always play well together. To simply disable your firewall, look at the system tray in the bottom right-hand side of your screen. Click on the firewall icon that is bound to be there. Left click should give you a little menu of things you can do right there, right click will probably open the program itself. You should be able to disable it either way. You can disable it for a few minutes at a time or turn it off until you're through. Keep in mind that if you're online you're vulnerable to stuff your firewall is watching out for. SRS |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Notebook Adjustments From: Putermoron Date: 07 Feb 06 - 06:32 PM my email is yahoo, but OE has my verizon acct. Very few emails are received or sent from there, but what is, is usually important. My dr writes me there and I receive mail from certain sites that only let you use a non-web based email. Also, I use it to send links. When I click on the envelope on the toolbar, the Verizon (OE) email is the one used. The OE was working just fiine until I started checking that the firewall was on. now Verizon is telling me that I need to disable the Norton firewall to access the OE program. I don't really understand why. It was always on. Why, all of a sudden, has the firewall become an issue? I have heard that OE is not a good program and very vonerable to nasty things. I really do not know what to do. Putermoron |
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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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