Archive through September 11, 2003
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TV ClubHouse: Archive: Computer Problem - I need advice/help (ARCHIVES): Archive through September 11, 2003

Juju2bigdog

Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - 08:12 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Weinermr, thanks for the advice. I got brave and went down and tried that. It didn't work, wouldn't let me go in Normal Mode, took me back to Safe Mode.

So, then I read the message that popped up when it loaded in safe mode, and it said to go to the Control Pannel and make sure the settings are set right (Hahahahahaha, yeah, right). Undaunted I did that when I stopped laughing. AND, I found something! I don't know what to do with it, but I found something.

In Control Panel, Under System, System Properties, Performance - for File System, it says: Some drives are using MS-DOS compatibility mode. Then Virtual Memory says: MS-DOS compatibility mode Then there are three messages in the white box below. The first one says: Compatibility mode paging reduces overall system performance. When I highlighted that and clicked on details, it says: Windows was unable to identify a real-mode driver or memory-resident program loaded in your config.sys or autoexec.bat file. You will see another message that lists the name of the driver or program causing the problem. Because Windows could not identify the driver or program, it has switched to MS-DOS compatibility mode to ensure the program will run. However this decreases overall performance. To improve performance remove the program or driver causing the problem or contact its manufacturer for upgraded version

There are two more messages in the white box below. One says something like A: drive MS-DOS compatibility, and the other says C: drive MS-DOS compatibility. When I highlight either of those, I get the message that says if you have multiple drives listed, you should "see Windows Help for Compatibility paging reduces overall performance."

Naturally I can't find a Help topic by that title.

And of course, I have been down in the cave writing all of this down with a dull pencil, and came back upstairs to write it up. I'll Google it and see what I find until Draheid rides up to the rescue. Keep in mind the play computer did not come with a Windows 98 CD, and I don't have one.

Edit: well, poop. Just did a search on Google and found those messages are most likely a result of being in Safe Mode. Sigh.

Juju2bigdog

Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - 08:27 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Huh! I am finding a whole bunch of conflicting advice on Google. Here is an interesting one: http://www.help2go.com/public/postt3525.html

Anyhow, BB comes on in 13 minutes, and tomorrow is another day, AND there is an endurance contest for HOH going on!!! ACK!!! Where are my priorities???

Texannie

Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - 09:11 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Juju..thanks..all is up to date. grrrrrr

Juju2bigdog

Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 08:35 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Anybody? Has Draheid tossed us to the gators?

I should mention that Bigdog's computer was left on for the week we were gone. I believe it was set for a sleep mode when not in use, although danged if I can find the sleep settings now. Maybe I can't get to them in Safe mode?

Texannie

Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 09:24 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Juju..I went ahead and ran a virus scan and the problem cleared up! Wonder what the heck it was!!!

Draheid

Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 09:26 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Texannie: How much memory to you have? What version of operating system (Windows) are you using? Have you checked all the programs that are running on the system when you start to experience these problems?

My first thought is that you do not have enough memory for everything that is running when you start noticing the problem. Does the problem seem to clear up for a little while after rebooting or is it constant? If it helps to reboot then I would definitely say you have something called a 'memory leak' where programs that you are using claim portions of memory and, even if you are no longer using that/those program(s), the memory hasn't been properly released. Often increasing the memory can help, othertimes it simply requires you to reboot.

Let me know if any of this sounds applicable and if not, give me some more details about your system and I will try to find more information for you.

Edit to add: Well that will certainly teach me to refresh before posting. I'll leave this here anyway in case someone else has similar difficulties.

Draheid

Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 09:35 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Juju2bigdog: The 'sleep mode' settings probably are not accessible while in safe mode. They are usually located in the same screen as your screensaver settings under the heading of 'Power Management' or something similar. There is also the possibility that the feature could be a BIOS setting which you would have to get to through the computer setup utility prior to going into Windows.

As for the 16-bit drivers (Compatibility mode drivers), most devices have newer drivers available for them to enable you to stop using these and allow Windows to better manage those resources. If you follow the instructions from that link you provided and then determine what suddenly isn't working, that should enable you to know what you need to get the new drivers.

Another option you have would be to select Boot Normal w/Logging (I'm not sure of the exact wording on the menu, sorry) which attempts to bring up the system and writes a bootlog.txt file logging each process that is loading during boot. When it stops, the most likely candidate for causing the problem will be the last item logged in this file. Once you're sure it isn't going to finish, you can restart into safe mode and then look for that file on the hard drive to review and hopefully discover what you need to look at for repair.

Let me know if any of this is effective in resolving your problems. If the log file doesn't make sense, you could copy it to a diskette and bring it to 'this' computer to paste the last few lines into a post here and I can review and interpret for you.

Draheid

Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 09:44 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Whoami: 1st a definition for you. dpi stands for Dots Per Inch. The higher the dpi, the better quality scan you will be able to get. This is most important relative to what you want to do with the image after you have scanned it. The 'standard' resolution for posting a picture online is only 75dpi . However, if you are scanning with the desire to then print a photo quality copy, the higher dpi scan will give you a better looking print. The other measurement that is often associated with scanners is the number of bits (32-bit, 40-bit, 24-bit, etc) which determines the number of colors it is possible for the scanner to 'see' when scanning something. The higher the number, again the better quality image.

As to what to buy, well again it depends on your goal for having a scanner. If you only want to scan for online posting or sharing then a less expensive device will be fine for most things. If you want to scan, edit, and print an image, then you should also consider the resolution of your printer when you shop for a scanner.

My personal experience has been with Visioneer scanners. The newer machines are extremely simple and intuitive, especially ones in their category of 'One-Touch'. With these, you simply place your photo/document to be scanned and then press the appropriate button such as e-mail and the scanner will call up the program on your computer, adjust the settings for an e-mailed image, scan the image, and finally it can even load it into a message ready for you to address and send.

Hope that helps. If there are any particular models you would like an opinion on, please post the information here and I will be happy to review and give you some information on that too.

Draheid

Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 09:48 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Texannie: Now that I've finished blurting out these answers, let me address your last 'question'. I suspect you either had a virus that the scan took care of or your virus scanner was attempting to scan which was taking up computer 'power' to run while you were trying to type. Allowing the system to complete a scan then let the virus scanner know everything was ok and to stop trying to run a complete system scan for you.

Just a theory though based on the assumption that you have an anti-virus program installed and running.

Juju2bigdog

Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 10:05 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Dra, haven't got back to messing with it yet, but for some reason, some of the Googling I did last night before I got my priorities straight and went off to watch BB, caused me to go check the computer this morning. Checked in My Computer, and the D: and E: drives, old CD reader and new CD writer, are not showing up.

Would this change your advice? Or is that also as a result of the Safe Mode?

Got to run out for a couple hours and hope to get back to messing with it by around mid-afternoon your time. Now, I know when I was working and I took a week off, it took two weeks to get caught up when I got back, but how does that seem to happen in retirement? And I only have four weeks before I leave the country for the winter. I am not ready. Ack!!

Thanks for your reply, Draheid.

Juju2bigdog

Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 10:11 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Whoami, Office Max (I think, either them or Office Depot; wouldn't you know, Bigdog just policed up the newspaper pile) has a Visioneer One Touch on sale this week for $49 after rebates. That is the one I have, and it is fine. That is a very good price.

Draheid

Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 12:06 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Juju2bigdog: Most likely that is a result of Safe Mode - the system simply doesn't load anything more then the absolutely required drivers and files to get into safe mode - thus allowing you to try to determine what may be causing problems. I would still recommend the suggestions I made earlier.

Juju2bigdog

Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 12:33 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Okay, Dra, just got back home. I am going to have to hustle to do it because the overly helpful neighbor who doesn't know crapola but likes to pretend he does is coming over to straighten Bigdog out this afternoon, and we could be fixing to have a homicide here.

Juju2bigdog

Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 12:45 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Dra, gonna eat lunch now. If necessary, and if you are going to be around later today, I could take the laptop down to the cave, and we could IM off that.

Texannie

Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 12:48 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Thanks Dra..the virus scan came up with a bunch of "potential suspect files" that were adaware files but no virus. BUT, the problem is all gone after the scan.

Draheid

Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 01:15 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Well Juju, considering your later in the day is my evening - then I bet I'll be somewhere around - if not I should be back soon - so take a look when you get ready and see if I'm online.

Juju2bigdog

Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 01:31 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Heading to the cave now without the laptop but with the intsructions printed out. I'll either be back to report here or look for you on IM. Pray the neighbor stays home. Did I mention he also never shuts up?

Juju2bigdog

Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 02:08 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Draheid - Okay, I am back. Renaming the autoexec.bat and config.sys did not work. When I restarted, it went to the windows startup screen and froze up there. So then I held the on-off button in for five seconds and shut it off, then turned it back on, which brought up the option to start in one of five modes. I selected the BOOTLOG option, and it almost looked like it was going to start, based on flickering of the hard drive light, but then it froze at the startup screen again.

I'll give you a couple mins. to read this and then see if you are on IM.

Draheid

Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 02:18 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Juju - if you can get it back into safe mode and then copy the bootlog.txt file onto a floppy diskette - then load it in notepad on your 'online' machine to see what the last few entries are - that should give you a clue what is causing the computer to lock up.

I'm on AIM at the moment but will have to leave soon to pick up JMM from work so if you don't catch me this time, I will be back on later this evening.

Juju2bigdog

Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 04:49 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Alrighty then, I know there are probably folks on pins and needles refreshing every couple minutes to know how Bigdog's play computer problems and Draheid consultation turned out. Draheid and I IM'd for maybe a half hour.

First of all, I found the bootlog.txt and we reviewed that without it telling us much. Dra concluded it was not a virus, however.

Finally decided to try this: I restarted to DOS, then typed scanreg/fix at C: prompt. It worked on processing that for about 12-13 mins. while Draheid changed his clothes. then it got done and we went back to C: prompt, and Dra told me to type scanreg/opt, which I did. It processed that for about 10 seconds and went back to C: prompt. I then did soft boot (Ctrl-Alt-Del) ... and ...

it booted up!!! YAY!!!

Now the only problem remaining is I can't seem to get the monitor resolution to reset and hold the setting. When it finally booted up, it booted up to the lowest setting, like 640 by 480 and 16 colors. When I right click on the desktop and go to Properties, Settings and then go to the color and resolution settings, it will let me change them, and I then hit Apply. I then get a message saying I have to restart computer for new settings to take effect. However, when I restart, the settings have changed themselves back to the lowest resolution and colors. Now, as Bigdog is a big receptor of soft porn, it is very important for him to be able to clearly see those flesh tones his little buddies so kindly send him. AND, of course, he is anxious to process the vacation pictures he took with his NEW digital camera.

So, any help on the screen resolution settings will be greatly appreciated

And once again, a bazillion thanks to Draheid for taking his time to bail out yet another of the TVCH "little people."

Juju2tinyDra

Grannyg

Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 05:05 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Juju, this might work. Go to control panel and select System. Then go to Device Manager and find your Video Card and select properties. Then try to update your driver. It may be that the best driver isn't loaded for your video card. I usually hope that Windows just finds the best driver. If it comes back and say it's already using the best driver, you could go to the website of the video card and see if there is a new driver and download it and see if that works. I don't know a whole lot about computers I just keep fiddling with it until it works and then I don't know exactly what I did to make it work.

Disclaimer: I AM NOT A DRA. ONLY A PROTEGE OF DRA. (who constantly needs his help.)

Juju2bigdog

Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 05:13 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Thanks, GrannyDra. I have copied that out and will go try it shortly.

Grannyg

Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 05:47 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Just remember Juju2bigDra that if that doesn't work, it's all Dra's fault!!

Juju2bigdog

Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 06:39 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Nice footwork, GrannyDra. It didn't work. BUT, stuff was also not showing up in the icon tray, so I went to Msconfig which we had messed around with last night before throwing ourselves on Dra's mercy. Everything in there was unchecked. Before we started messing around, some instruction or other had said to make a backup, which we did. So, I put a bunch of checkmarks back in there, and stuff is working again.

Yay!!!

Juju2bigDra

Grannyg

Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 06:44 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
So glad things are hunky dory down in the cave again. Wouldn't want Bigdog not to get to see the pics his friends send him.