TVCH FORUMS HOME . JOIN . FAN CLUBS . ABOUT US . CONTACT . CHAT  
Bomis   Quick Links   TOPICS . TREE-VIEW . SEARCH . HELP! . NEWS . PROFILE
Archive through December 16, 2004

The TVClubHouse: General Discussions ARCHIVES: 2004 Nov. - 2005 Jan.: All Things Technical: The Help Desk (ARCHIVES): Computer Problems? Ask Here (ARCHIVES): Archive through December 16, 2004 users admin

Author Message
Bob2112
Member

06-12-2002

Wednesday, December 08, 2004 - 4:58 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
For the most part, yes. You will need even more protection when you go to DSL, especially if you leave your computer on most of the time.

To start, you'll probably have anti-virus installed, so you should be able to get things working without too much risk. After you've got internet and email solid, then you want to look at the other programs to clean/protect your PC.

You can read through the archive for the past couple months and see the common programs that have been discussed often and in detail, including download links.

For me, Oracle could not tell me why it wasn't working my way, but we did find another way that is working correctly and is not a big hack. So now we are just left with your new computer. When will you put it together?


Karen
Member

09-07-2004

Wednesday, December 08, 2004 - 5:26 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Looks like I missed most of the fun here... but I do have another suggestion for getting info from the old computer to the new one, Vee. If some of the files are big and you don't want to take the time to email them to yourself (which, by the way, is a brilliant idea, Bob!), I was thinking you could also pick up a flash disk (memory stick). The one I have holds about half a CD worth of files, and it just plugs into the USB port at the back of your computer. You plug it in and it shows up in your "My Computer" folder as another drive (like your hard drive is C:, your CD drive is D:, etc...) and you can move files easily onto it, plug it into your new computer, and move the files off. Not quite as good as a CD, but better than a floppy disk.

YAY on the new machinery, btw!

Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Wednesday, December 08, 2004 - 7:42 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thanks, Karen, for your suggestions.

We, niece, daughter, and I, unpacked the new stuff and took apart the old stuff only to discover that the new stuff did not include a number of the features that were requested and paid for. So, after a call to the company, new stuff is repacked and ready to be returned and the old stuff has been set back up. Sigh...some days are like this!

Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Wednesday, December 08, 2004 - 10:17 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Oh goodie! We can postpone this discussion until Vee gets her REAL new computer back.

Vee, as Bob said, I would work on getting e-mail and internet working first. Then think about what files you need in the new computer. This will probably become obvious once you start using the new computer and realize you don't have something you need.

It will come. Don't worry about it too much. Just jump in and start dog paddling. You will be swimming soon.

Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Thursday, December 09, 2004 - 9:03 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thanks, Juju! You cannot imagine how calmly reassuring your words are.

One more question: Do I need a 3 1/2 floppy disk on my new computer? It doesn't have one, my dd says it doesn't need one, my niece and I tend to think that it does...what's the story?

Bob2112
Member

06-12-2002

Thursday, December 09, 2004 - 11:34 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
They are not used for much anymore, but then again they don't cost much and the space is usually there and will likely not be used by anything else. It cost me $5 to add it to the computer I built a few months ago and it comes in handy if you every need to boot from a floppy in the case of a problem.

Many people are using CD burners instead of floppys when they want to copy files to give to a friend. Or they just email them.

I see that you have to return the new computer. Is it too late to change your CD-ROM to a CD burner? Or better yet, a DVD reader/CD burner?
or maybe add the burner as a second drive?

Either of these can usually be added fairly easily after the fact and it's nice to have both a reader and burner so you can duplicate a CD directly.


Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Thursday, December 09, 2004 - 2:26 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I don't know, Bob, since my dd is handling it through her company. I've just sent her this information and I hope it works out. Oh, the new computer does have a cd burner on it, but I'm not sure about the DVD reader.

Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Thursday, December 09, 2004 - 10:11 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I decided to go ahead and get the floppy drive on the new desktop computer I got in August. I understand it will soon be obsolete, but I still have stuff on floppies that I might want to look at one of these days.

On the other hand, I did NOT get a floppy drive on my new laptop, BUT I have an external floppy drive that I can plug into a USB port for my old laptop, and I have already used it on my new laptop.

So I am in the yes, get the floppy drive camp.

I agree with Bob that if it is possible to do so, and not much more expensive (say, around $30-39), I would get the CD writer/DVD reader combination. I sort of regret not getting that on my new desktop. I did get that combo on my laptop. On the other hand, it caused me to purchase and install an after-market DVD writer for the desktop, and I am fairly happy with that. Okay, okay, technically Bigdog installed it, but I probably could have done it. :-)

Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Friday, December 10, 2004 - 8:00 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thanks, Juju, just e-mailed your experience to my dd. Hope that she gets it figured out the way I want her to. Or that I get something good out of this considering I am not too savvy and must depend on all you techies, whom I have grown to adore, btw!

My dd swears by her HP so she really was not happy with what she ordered for me through Dell. It may just be her personal preferences rearing up.

Mak1
Member

08-12-2002

Saturday, December 11, 2004 - 12:43 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
This seems complicated to me, but I have faith the techies here can help me. I hope I can explain in enough computerese to make sense.

I have Windows 98 and am using Firefox for my default browser, with a broadband internet connection.

My C drive has a capacity of 7.85 GB. Suddenly, sometime this week, we went from having approximately 5 GB free to having only 2.63 free. I haven't added any programs this week and am puzzled.

Here's what I've done to try to reclaim some disk space: ran ScanDisk and Defrag; did a McAfee virus scan and Quick clean lite; ran AdAware and Stinger; deleted my GoBack history; emptied the recycle bin, cache and cookies; deleted some unnecessary files. None of the scans turned up any viruses or errors.

After all this, now it shows 5.01 GB used, 2.84 GB free. Of course, this is causing some problems. What else should I look for?

It may or may not be helpful to know that just before I noticed the lowered amount of free space, I had been printing pictures. These were already in my computer. I was only printing them. Also, earlier in the week, my dh had lost a file and used GoBack to revert the hard drive a few times (maybe 15 times) to search for it.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions. I'll check back tonight.

Jan
Member

08-01-2000

Saturday, December 11, 2004 - 1:32 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I certainly have no techie talent at all Mak but just a suggestion..have you checked for a virus or spyware. It sounds like something is eating up your space and, if you haven't added anything , maybe some hijacker has...

but I have no idea how these things work so don't worry about my suggestion unless some techie backs me up!

Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Saturday, December 11, 2004 - 1:52 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Ditto for not being a techie, but Dra says to run computer in safe mode to scan with Ad-aware and Spybot and do it several times. He also has the directions for doing a specific scan for Ad-aware here somewhere...let me check on it for you.

I tried, Mak, but my search didn't work out so well. Hopefully, someone knows what and where they are...maybe Dra even!

Mak1
Member

08-12-2002

Saturday, December 11, 2004 - 3:45 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thanks, Jan and Vee. Yes, Jan, I've checked for a virus. I haven't run Spybot. In fact, that's one of the programs I deleted. I should probably download it and run it.

Vee, this might be a really stupid question. How do I run the computer in safe mode? I think I knew a long time ago, but I don't remember. I run Ad-aware almost every day and my virus scan every day.

Mak1
Member

08-12-2002

Saturday, December 11, 2004 - 4:15 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I downloaded and ran Spybot. It found one problem, which I told it to fix. It was a DSO Exploit. It didn't free up any space for me. :-(

Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Saturday, December 11, 2004 - 5:38 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Mak, when you start your computer, press and hold the F8 key at the same time. This will bring up a menu where you can select safe mode. Everything will be gray because the colors, etc. are reduced. Then run SpyBot and Ad-aware. Don't worry about DSO Exploits coming up on SpyBot; that's just one of their little clinkers...nothing to be alarmed about.

Mak1
Member

08-12-2002

Saturday, December 11, 2004 - 7:17 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thank you, Vee. I had SpyBot fix the DSO Exploit. Should I have ignored it?

Bob2112
Member

06-12-2002

Saturday, December 11, 2004 - 7:57 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Mak1, Here's a few thoughts, but I don't have time to tell you specifically how to do them for Windows 98. Many of these are in the archives of this thread in the past few months. I'm sure others can walk you through the clicks if you can't figure them out yourself.

Clear the cache/temporary internet files used by Firefox. Make sure the settings do not allow it to cache several GB of files. A couple hundred MB or less is usually plenty and yours might be set much higher.

Empty the recycle bin and check its settings. I think it defaults to 10% of your disk capacity, so it could be holding 785MB of deleted files. I would change it to 1% or 2% if it is not already that low.

Check how much space you are using for virtual memory. You want to control this and not leave it up to the operating system. Typically it is recommended to set it to the 150% of your RAM size, but there is not one correct size that works for all. How much RAM do you have?

If Windows 98 supports this, use windows explorer to search for all files greater than 10MB and see if anything interesting shows up. You may want to play with the size a bit if you get too many or too few results. Post any file names and sizes that you don't recognize


Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Saturday, December 11, 2004 - 8:05 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
No, Mak, it's okay to have SpyBot "fix" it; it's just that it will come up over and over again as needing to be fixed and that's what you shouldn't be concerned about.

Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Monday, December 13, 2004 - 7:40 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Anybody got any ideas as to why I can't print envelopes in Word with my new printer? It is just an el cheapo Lexmark Z25 that we got for Bigdog to print out the occasional recipe down in the cave. We brought it with us to Texas for the winter, since I still needed to print out a holiday letter. It is brand new. Hooked it up to the new Dell laptop which has never had a printer attached. Printed out my one-page-in-Word holiday letter just fine.

Then I wanted to print out a couple envelopes so I just used the envelope wizard under tools in Word. Been using it successfully for about ten years.

It did weird stuff. Only printed out EITHER the return or delivery addresses in a weird place on the envelope. Also got an error message in Word that said there was not enough memory to display the font. Just weird shit. Restarted computer just in case. Same thing.

Seems to me it should "just work."

Babyruth
Member

07-19-2001

Monday, December 13, 2004 - 8:01 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Juju, sorry I can't help. But while you're waiting for an answer, you can check your email :-)

Jimmer
Member

08-30-2000

Monday, December 13, 2004 - 8:08 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Juju, The old standard answer to this sort of thing is always do you have the latest print drivers installed that work with the operating system on the laptop? But you've probably already thought of that.

Mak1
Member

08-12-2002

Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - 7:20 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Bob and Vee, thank you for your helpful comments. I haven't spent much time on the computer the past couple days so still have the same problem.

I have 256MB RAM. My "large file" search turned up too many for me to have time right then to look at, but will get back to it later. The two biggest files are GoBack 805MB, which is a BIN file; and win386.swp 116MB.

In my Windows Temp files, I have several Windows Installer Packages. Even though they are in temp files, I've never dared to delete them because they sound important. Any advice?

Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - 8:58 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Jimmer, I had NOT thought of that. Thanks. Don't have the printer hooked up right now, so will try it later. Someone else told me to go into printer preferences in the Control Panel and see if I had to mess with any settings in there. Found an option for printing envelopes in there. I will try that too.

Shashakaye
Member

05-19-2003

Thursday, December 16, 2004 - 9:41 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I don't know if this is the right thread to put this question in or not but I didn't know where else to post it. My nephew wants to lip sync to a song for the talent show at school. I have the song in mp3 format but it has some inappropriate lyrics for school. Does anyone know how to edit a song either just cutting the words out or inserting another sound (beep)? Is it possible to do this?

Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Thursday, December 16, 2004 - 10:56 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Hi, I am having a problem with searching for information that Dra has already provided in here someplace and I'm wondering if anyone can help me out...

Once upon a time, Dra posted the directions for customizing Adaware settings. Does anyone know where that might be or how to find it? Thanks!