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Archive for the 'Stump: Computers' Tag

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PC Club: Fixing a computer that won’t sleep

December 24th, 2008, 1:00 am by

North Orange County Computer Club Q&AThe North Orange County Computer Club helps The Gadgetress tackle the multitude of readers’ cries for help. NOCCC group has experts in Windows, Word and all sorts of computer topics. The club, which meets monthly on various topics, has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. 

Question: I am unable to enter sleep or hibernation mode. I continually get an error message: “The device driver for the ‘ATA Channel 1′ device is preventing the machine from entering hibernation. You may need to update this driver.” I have determined that I have the latest update for the driver, so that’s not the problem. Would like to be able to enter the hibernation or sleep mode to avoid having the monitor on all the time, and getting the above error message.  Thanks for your help. ~ Eliot Brody

PC Club: First of all Eliot, based on my research of the error message, this particular message may not provide sufficient clues as to what the real cause of your problem is. I did track down several other instances of this problem but there were no conclusive causes or solutions. Therefore, we’re forced to resort to some troubleshooting steps. Be sure to backup any data before embarking on this journey. Read the rest of this entry »

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PC Club: Tips on removing ‘Antivirus 2009′ malware

December 17th, 2008, 4:15 pm by

North Orange County Computer Club Q&AThe North Orange County Computer Club helps The Gadgetress tackle the multitude of readers’ cries for help. NOCCC group has experts in Windows, Word and all sorts of computer topics. The club, which meets monthly on various topics, has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. To get this answer delivered to your computer automatically, sign up for the e-mail update HERE.

QUESTION: I received a spyware warning and lost the screensaver, but not the desktop icons. I purchased Mcafee complete edition and installed it. But when it comes to updating it, I got a message “no internet connection” even though I was on Yahoo. The Windows Messenger kept telling me to install “Windows virus 2009″ and that my computer was infected.
How come Mcafee did not help? What can I do now? 

PC Club: Sounds like you inadvertently installed Windows Anti Virus 2009, a known rogue anti-spyware program. It is installed through the use of misleading Web sites that attempt to make you buy even more software to cure the problem. Do not give in!

I’ve seen several computers that have been rendered almost useless by Anti Virus 2009 but don’t despair yet. I would start by backing up all of my data by any means available to you such as an external hard drive, a flash drive or even CDs. Read the rest of this entry »

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PC Club: How to display hidden files

October 28th, 2008, 12:01 am by

North Orange County Computer Club Q&AThe North Orange County Computer Club helps The Gadgetress tackle the multitude of readers cries for help. NOCCC group has experts in Windows, Word and all sorts of computer topics. The club, which meets monthly on various topics, has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. To get this answer delivered to your computer automatically, sign up for the e-mail update HERE.

Question: I enjoy reading your column in the Charleston Post & Courier (www.charleston.net). I wonder if you could help me eliminate a “System 32″ screen that pops up when I launch Windows XP Professional Version 2002 on my Dell Dimension 4600. I have attached a screen capture. The system appears to operate normally after I close (x) the screen. ~ Paul Bush

PC Club: The screen shot (on right – click image to enlarge) that you included is one of the several faces of Windows Explorer. In this case, it’s the face with the Tasks window on the left and the Contents window on the right.

Instead of actually displaying the contents of the C:\windows\system32 disk folder (AKA directory), the message “These files are hidden.” is displayed.

That message is displayed, instead of the contents, because that is the default for the option “Display the contents of system folders.”

With Windows Explorer open, you can change that option by going to the menu bar and select options in this order:  

Tools > Folder Options > view

Whether you [X] the window closed, or change the path, to My Documents for instance, your computer will be operating normally.

The probable cause of this happening is a minor error in the Windows XP Registry. All of the caveats about “Don’t mess with the Registry unless you know what you are doing” apply to this problem. The probable cause and solution are covered in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article #170086. Or you can take no action, continue to be annoyed, but stop worrying about having a serious problem.

~ Jim Sanders, President, NOCCC

More PC Club questions: 

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Stump the PC Club: Diagnose powerless USB port

September 16th, 2008, 1:07 am by

North Orange County Computer Club Q&AThe North Orange County Computer Club helps The Gadgetress tackle the multitude of readers cries for help. NOCCC group has experts in Windows, Word and all sorts of computer topics. The club, which meets monthly on various topics, has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. To get this answer delivered to your computer automatically, sign up for the e-mail update HERE.

Question: I have an HP s7700n running Windows Vista. The unit works flawlessly in all areas except the USB access has stopped working! There are 9 USB ports on this PC and none will acknowledge when anything is “plugged” into the slot. This includes standard USB ports as well as Multicard reading slots.

It worked flawlessly until one day I tried to use the USB port and it would not respond. I then tried all the card slots and still no response.

I’ve tried all the fixes I could think of – removed and reinstalled the drivers and checked and installed any USB updates. Nothing seems to have any effect on the problem. Is this a hardware problem and will I have to have a tech rewire something or do you have an alternative?

NOCCC: We hope that your motherboard is still under warranty.

We had a case recently where the keyboard and USB ports failed while the mouse worked fine. The five-volt power source was missing from the USB and keyboard ports.

You can check the power supply with one of those reading lamps powered by the USB port. Alternately, if you have and can use a volt meter, carefully measure the voltage between the two outside pins of the USB port. It should read right at 5 volts.

Our Taiwan-manufactured motherboard troubleshooter said the fault was a “voltage controller” but did not supply information on a replacement part, nor steps to have it repaired.

Since USB ports are “hot pluggable” the five volt supply has to be current limited. You are fortunate that your computer is an HP. They offer on-line tech support for the S7700N and can supply in or out of warranty replacement parts. The S7700N is BIOS USB capable which is very good for USB keyboards or mouse but is sometimes confusing to set up to work with XP. Go to www.hp.com. That site has downloadable FAQ and repair manuals that could help. - Leonard Prince, Member, NOCCC

Have your own quandary? E-mail gadgetress@ocregister.com and put “Help ME!” in the subject line. Please include your computer’s operating system and amount of memory. Visit the archive and subscribe to answers via e-mail at ocregister.com/gadgetress/stump.



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Fixing Windows error messages

June 24th, 2008, 12:55 am by

North Orange County Computer Club Q&AQuestion: I get this error message: Idamfilt.dll specified module could not be found. Please help me.

NOCCC: Regretfully, there is no quick and easy solution to your problem. It is an error message that can pop up when there is a problem with any one of a number of different USB devices: a flash drive, iPod, camera or external hard disk drive.

There are a number of suggestions on how to track down the problem on this Web page: support.microsoft.com/kb/310575. Most of the suggestions require a fair amount of computer troubleshooting skills. Bearing in mind your limited finances, you might try attending one of the North Orange County Computer Club meetings and see if you can find a volunteer willing to help. – Jim Sanders, NOCCC president

The North Orange County Computer Club is helping The Gadgetress tackle the multitude of readers cries for help. NOCCC group has experts in Windows, Word and all sorts of computer topics. The club, which meets monthly on various topics, has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. To get this answer delivered to your computer automatically, sign up for the e-mail update at ocregister.com/gadgetress/stump.

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How do you autofill addresses in Outlook?

June 10th, 2008, 1:02 am by

North Orange County Computer Club Q&AThe North Orange County Computer Club helps The Gadgetress tackle the multitude of readers cries for help. NOCCC group has experts in Windows, Word and all sorts of computer topics. The club, which meets monthly on various topics, has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org.

Question: I also have problems with Microsoft Outlook 2000. I had Outlook on Windows 98 and when I started typing in an email address it would automatically fill them in. This saved a lot of time. I can’t even find any autotyping category to make the change. Can it be done on this version and how? Second problem is that the signatures box won’t let me access a signature let alone create one. What’s wrong with this Outlook program?

NOCCC: As it came from Microsoft, Outlook 2000 didn’t have the auto-complete feature you want. There may be some add-in or add-on software for Outlook 2000 that gives it that ability. It does have a feature that might best be called auto-choose. The first requirement for auto-choose is to have entries in your Contacts list. They can be entered manually or semi-automatically as follows:

Read the rest of this entry »

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Disabling Windows Autoplay

May 27th, 2008, 7:03 am by

Attention all fans of Stump the PC Club: I’ve added a feature to have this column e-mailed to your computer weekly. The e-mail is easy to read and print out! Sign up HERE.

Also, we need more questions! E-mail us at thegadgetress@ocregister.com and please include “Help Me” in the subject line and please include your computer’s operating system and amount of memory.

And one last thing: The PC Club meets this Sunday, June 1, at Chapman College. Visit the club’s site for more details.

North Orange County Computer Club Q&ANow, back to this week’s question:

Question: I have a Dell tower computer, Canon scanner and printer. I bought a Western Digital MyBook 320-GB backup hard drive a year ago, and it has worked flawlessly. However, a few months ago (being a bit paranoid) I decided to keep its USB cable unplugged until I want to backup some files. My problem is each time I plug in the backup’s USB cable, my scanner is activated. This is not only annoying, it can also interfere with the backup process.

NOCCC: What I consider the abuse of the Windows Autoplay feature is the source of your annoyance.

A quote from MSDN Magazine: “The typical user scenario is this: a CD is inserted into the CD drive, the setup program runs automatically, and the user simply follows the on-screen instructions generated by the setup software. Without this mechanism, the user needs to find and open the My Computer folder, find the CD drive, double-click the icon, find the right program to run, and launch it. For novice users, all of these steps are far from obvious and can contribute to the perceived complexity of the PC.”

The above quote applied to Autoplay version one. Version two of Autoplay was expanded to include USB hard drives, flash drives, cameras, and other devices.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Ask iGirl: Sort Microsoft Outlook contacts

February 26th, 2008, 3:00 am by

helpme!

Q: A month or so ago I purchased the Microsoft “Office standard 2007″ and ran into a problem with Outlook.

I have used Outlook Express for a number of years and have 1,000-plus e-mail addresses. These addresses were entered using Outlook Express to get the address list in order of last names. When I tried to import these addresses to Outlook, it came out with the order of first names (Jim, Jim, Jim, John, John, John etc.) Since I did not wish to re-type all the addresses into the new system I gave up and went back to Express.

Your advice appeared in the Virginian Pilot 1/21/08 suggesting that the reader shift to Outlook for better security. I can not agree if someone has an extensive list of e-mail addresses. The only thing I did not try was to order my Outlook Express by first names and import that into Outlook. The ability to order the names in Outlook does not seem to exist. Even the means to enter the new names did not allow the data to be entered identifying first and last names.

iGirl: Thanks for the note. Outlook does allow for sorting of contacts by last name, it’s just somewhat difficult to find. Here’s how:

  1. Open Microsoft Outlook.
  2. customoutlook1On the Welcome screen, in the lower left-hand corner you’ll see a tab for “Contacts.” Click on this to open your contacts.
  3. In the left pane you’ll see “Customize Current View.” Click on this to change the appearance of your contacts. Click on the image at right to see where this is on the screen.
  4. A pop-up window will appear on your screen. Click on “Sort.”
  5. customoutlook3Now another pop-up window will appear. The image at left (click to enlarge) shows the three things you’ll need to click to change the way contacts are sorted. First, click on the arrow below “Sort items by” and this will open up a menu. Now, choose “Last Name.” You can also choose to sort the contacts by company, country or many other fields. Make your selection, then click the “OK” button.
  6. Not all of my contacts have a last name entered. If you’re like me, Outlook will display a pop-up window that says “The field ‘Last Name’ that you want to sort by is not shown in the view. Do you want to show it?” This is just a warning that not all of the contacts can be sorted by last name. Still, it’s a valuable way to view contacts so click “Yes.”
  7. To finalize the view change click “OK” on the last pop-up window or the customization will not save.

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