Archived CalgaryPuck Computer Help Thread

[ricosuave]

Originally Posted by Displaced Flames fan

Cheese, your wrong! There IS a God!

I couldn't find the back-up file or the autosave file when I did a complete search of my system. So I gave up and Ctrl-alt-del shutdown of my word file happened.

I reopen word and lo and behold there it is with only a paragraph missing from where I was when it froze! THANK YOU DION!

Thanks for the link Rico. It helped me!

no problem, glad to hear its sorted.

now, turn on that autosave, and also save to another location like a flash drive or something every so often!

[mykalberta]

Originally Posted by Picquic

My computer wont start up on the boot all I get is a black screen is that meaning my mobo is fried?

Is your computer actually starting - first thing I would check is PS.

MYK

[mykalberta]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

My laptop has an open port has a symbol underneath it that looks mostly like this: {.....} (the dots are a little higher -- in the middle).

Does anyone know what that symbol means? All the other ports are obvious -- monitor, printer, headphones et cetera but this one is a mystery. I'd like to plug a keyboard into it but it doesn't have a port for that. Just this mysterious thing that will not accomodate a keyboard wire.

Does that look like a fat phone cable - it might be your network connection?

MYK

[mykalberta]

Originally Posted by postal

ive been trying for months to figure out how burn avi files on dvd-r discs using a variety of burning programs with no success. The latest being Nero 7...in which the problem is that my laptpop simply shuts down (power turns off) about 10 minutes into the process. Ive done a lot of searching on the net about this topic and i believe that the problem may be that the computer is overheating or using too much power. Any ideas on how i can overcome this problem?

I would check your hibernation settings. I am going to assume you are just letting it burn and not doing anything with it. If thats the case under contol panel? power setting see what the hibernation/sleep etc mode times are set for.

MYK

[mykalberta]

Originally Posted by Buff

I found out what the problem was!

It was a PEBKAC error (Problem Exsists Between Keyboard And Chair)

When I checked my mouse configuration it for some reason unbeknownst to me thought that I was using a wireless mouse. So I changed it, for some unknown reason, to yet another wrong mouse! I checked again today to see if there was something I just wasn't seeing and I saw that I had chosen the wrong mouse, so I chose the CORRECT mouse this time. I also changed the middle button function to be "middleclick" instead of "next window".

(and I do this kind of stuff for a living!)

I prefer telling people it was an I D 10 T (ID10T) error.

If they dont write it down they will never figure it out.

MYK

[mykalberta]

Originally Posted by Displaced Flames fan

Cheese, your wrong! There IS a God!

I couldn't find the back-up file or the autosave file when I did a complete search of my system. So I gave up and Ctrl-alt-del shutdown of my word file happened.

I reopen word and lo and behold there it is with only a paragraph missing from where I was when it froze! THANK YOU DION!

Thanks for the link Rico. It helped me!

Try unhiding all files on your c and then do a search for *.doc files.

Word will place temporary copies in the strangest places (usually in the Temporary Internet Files of \local settings\application data\microsft

MYK

[lucid]

nm. all fixed

[Fobulous]

Hello All,

I was having some problems with my USB key. When I try and double click the USB key to open it, an error message saying "Your USB key has not been formatted, format now?" comes up... I click ok and it says access denied.

Any ideas of how I can fix this problem? Or should I just pick up another one?

Thanks in advance!

-FOB

[icarus]

Is there anyway to take a form on PDF, type your responses into (or more like onto) the blanks, and send it back as a PDF?

Okay, I guess I've been fata'd... I need Acrobat (which I don't have) instead of Acrobat Reader.

[Phanuthier]

My USB connection seems to fail for stretches of time, and sometimes, only some devices (external HD, USB key) will work and some won't (printer). Does anyone have any ideas?

I was thinking its either
a) something on the board is shorting out
b) the drivers are screwed up

Anyone have any ideas? Could it be the speed of the connection for the printer?

Thanks

[gottabekd]

Originally Posted by icarus

Is there anyway to take a form on PDF, type your responses into (or more like onto) the blanks, and send it back as a PDF?

Okay, I guess I've been fata'd... I need Acrobat (which I don't have) instead of Acrobat Reader.

Sorry I'm too lazy to search, but there are 'free' open source programs for reading/writing PDFs. However, not sure if they can handle anything beyond the basics (ie, forms).
0

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Fobulous

Hello All,

I was having some problems with my USB key. When I try and double click the USB key to open it, an error message saying "Your USB key has not been formatted, format now?" comes up... I click ok and it says access denied.

Any ideas of how I can fix this problem? Or should I just pick up another one?

Thanks in advance!

-FOB

Pick up another. They can (and do) go bad. Newer ones are much more reliable, but sometimes pulling them out when they are still being written to will screw them.

[mykalberta]

Try to format the USB key to NTFS permissions (or FAT it you are going to use on Pre W2K computers). Just right click on the drive letter and choose format, else go into computer management.

Some USB Keys have a hardware lock switch that wont let you write to the drive - make sure that is off. Also - I have seen some that require you to use its own proprietary encryption software to use.

MYK

[mykalberta]

Open Office allows you to modify PDF documents and then save them. The problem is on most Adobe documents security guards are in place to prevent that - cracks are available.

PDF is the recognized standard that everyone should be using when sending documents to those outside of a company.

MYK

[mykalberta]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

My USB connection seems to fail for stretches of time, and sometimes, only some devices (external HD, USB key) will work and some won't (printer). Does anyone have any ideas?

I was thinking its either
a) something on the board is shorting out
b) the drivers are screwed up

Anyone have any ideas? Could it be the speed of the connection for the printer?

Thanks

What OS are you running. Some devices require the device to be powered - example USB keys and External HD. Mice/Keyboards/Cameras normally are either self powered or dont require enough power to matter. I would guess its either:

Mobo USB ports arent rated to handle power over usb devices.
Mobo USB ports are just wonky.

Intermitent problems are likely hardware (the reason for the above suggestions), and not driver problems unless you are running pre W2K.

MYK

[GKDarts]

I'm having a bizarre problem on my home PC....I run Explorer as my web browser and in the last couple of days, it won't let me get to a site by typing a url in the address field. Basically what happens is that the Explorer icon starts to spin and nothing happens...the only way to stop it is to close the Explorer window. As a workaround, I've been typing the url in the Google homepage field and getting to the site through the link it brings up. I've run Norton and come up clean on viruses...any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by GKDarts

I'm having a bizarre problem on my home PC....I run Explorer as my web browser and in the last couple of days, it won't let me get to a site by typing a url in the address field. Basically what happens is that the Explorer icon starts to spin and nothing happens...the only way to stop it is to close the Explorer window. As a workaround, I've been typing the url in the Google homepage field and getting to the site through the link it brings up. I've run Norton and come up clean on viruses...any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

I'm kind of anti-Norton. It misses stuff. As an occassional sanity check, run Housecall

Have tried any anti-spyware tools? Microsoft anti-spyware, Ad-Aware or Spybot S&D are all things to try.

Also, you can try How to reinstall or repair IE from Microsoft's site.

Finally, Get Firefox or try Opera

[arsenal]

Another thing you can try is look at the HOSTS file and make sure that there are no other entries other than 127.0.0.1 localhost. Alot of the the time, spyware alters the hosts file to redirect you through their sites and such.
You can find the hosts file in the following directory:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc
Just right click on it and open with notepad, or select from list and find notepad.

Before you try this though, do attempt to fix it by using anti-spyware software.

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

I'm kind of anti-Norton. It misses stuff.

Every AV vendor misses stuff, so it is best to use a number of different tools to keep your computer safe and clean.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by arsenal

Every AV vendor misses stuff, so it is best to use a number of different tools to keep your computer safe and clean.

For sure, but Norton has been resting on it's laurels for a long time and, IMHO has been surpassed by many AV vendors. AVG or Avast do a better job for free. Kaspersky & NOD32 are very highly rated.

Norton seemed to lose their edge when they started selling their Internet Suite. Their corporate stuff isn't too bad, but their retail offerings suck donkey balls.


In this case, I suspect something has tried to install a BHO. Probably not Hosts ot he wouldn't be able to get to sites through links either. A reinstall will probably fix it if the removal of malware doesn't work.

[GKDarts]

Thanks to Bobblehead et al.... I ran Housecall and it found a shwack of worms/spyware, etc... got rid of that but the issuer didn;t go away. I ended up downloading firefox and that seems to run perfectly

Thanks again