Archive through November 26, 2002
TV ClubHouse: Archives: Computer Problem - I need advice/help (ARCHIVE):
Archive through November 26, 2002
Draheid | Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 04:37 pm     Wargod: The only thing that comes to mind is that you might have a bad keyboard driver. You can find information about updating your keyboard drivers for your computer at HP Support. Try downloading the update for your system and follow the instructions to see if that helps any. Let me know. |
Wargod | Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 04:45 pm     Hey Dra, you know how techy I am....think I can do this on my own or shoud I holler for hubby to do it when he gets the chance? Like..I just read through the page, and it says (step 2 or thereabouts) that I have to delete my exsisting keyboard software before installing the new download....but if I delete my keyboard software..how am I suppossed to install the new stuff, LOL! |
Whit4you | Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 05:07 pm     Having this exact same problem with 3 keyboards seems very unusual to me... have hubby go out to the dos prompt and type in some #s - see if it works there...? If the #s are working at the Dos prompt but not in Windows - my guess is you have a program that is remapping your keyboard. I'd just assume it was a bad keyboard but 3 in a row??? Unless your buying the exact same keyboard from same place each time? Definately a unique problem LOL. |
Draheid | Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 05:40 pm     Excellent idea, Whit. Thanks for thinking 'outside the box' on that one. I hadn't even considered it myself! *self-thwap*. War, it looks like the upgrade on that page is primarily for the multi-media portion of the keyboard, but I think it will install an updated version of the main driver as well. Try Whit's suggestion first and see what happens. It could easily be a remapping program. If it works in DOS mode, try rebooting and immediately go into Notepad and try it. If it works there, load a program then go back to notepad and try again. Keep trying it with different programs until it starts acting up. Then don't use that program anymore! lol Seriously, if you do find a program that is causing problems, you might need to re-install that program. Certainly worth a try to see if you can diagnose it yourself. Good luck! |
Juju2bigdog | Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 07:30 pm     Got a question from a friend of mine whose house I am staying at tonight. He has a lot of Word documents that he creates for his business. Let's say it is 65 folders of 50-325 K each. He has a Compaq laptop, Windows ME, maybe 128 mb ram, maybe 233 operating system, 4 gig hard drive, only has a floppy drive. He wants to be able to back up these documents in a somewhat efficient manner. He doesn't have a Zip drive or a CD writer, has a somewhat slow computer, is not a sophisticated computer user. I showed him tonight how to copy a group of documents to a diskette without copying them one at a time, and that is acceptable, but he will have to use multiple diskettes obviously. What he would like to do is have a large capacity backup device and a software that he could use at the end of the day where he could just punch a button, and it would backup all the documents he has worked on and changed that day. He is amenable to purchasing an external zip drive or CD writer if that would be his best solution. He is capable of researching these things, but is hampered by lack of technical jargon, so that even if he reads comparisons of various options in, say, PC World, he can't translate them into non-techie language that say, "go out and buy an Acme brand widget and install it on your computer." Anybody got any plain language solutions for my buddy? Let's call him Spot. |
Draheid | Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 07:53 pm     Juju2bigdog: Since I can't tell from your description of "Spot's" computers, I'm not sure if there are USB ports avaialable. If USB is available on both machines, then an external USB backup device would be a good choice. If not, then a parallel (printer port) interface would be necessary in order for it to work easily on both computers. Iomega ZIP drives are now available in 100MB & 250MB capacity for both parallel and USB ports. For roughly $80 & $150, respectively. Iomega also now offers a 750MB ZIP drive for $150 that runs on the newer USB 2.0 interface, unfortunately, I doubt Spot has this interface on either machine. As far as I remember, Iomega packages some pretty good 'synchronizing' software that could be setup to be a 'one-button' operation. If you need more information, let me know. PS: If Spot has USB ports, then a CD-RW might be a good consideration too. Iomega also makes these. |
Juju2bigdog | Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 08:21 pm     Dra, I think I wrote that in a confusing fashion. I added something onto the beginning without deleting what I had previously written. Anyway, it is just one computer, the laptop. I just went in and checked it, and it has two USB ports. I have neither a zip drive nor a CD-RW myself. Would you think he should go with the CD-RW because it is newer technology and thus might be viable longer than the zip drive? And then, is there software that comes with the hardware that would do what he wants it to do, which is to back up a specific group of documents daily and perhaps even just backup those that have been altered since the last backup? Gotta get off the computer now. Will hopefully check back tomorrow. Thanks a bunch. |
Draheid | Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 08:33 pm     Juju: He might be able to just use the 'Briefcase' feature built into Windows/ME to synchronize files on a removeable drive. Click on 'Start' then 'Help' then type 'briefcase' into the search window to read about it. Might be just the information he needs. My interpretation of the help info is that he could use any external backup device he prefers. In which case, for more versatility, and since he has USB ports, I'd recommend he look into an external USB CD-RW drive. That would allow a lot of other possibilities besides just backing up files! Again, hope that helps. |
Gadzooks | Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 09:49 pm     Hi again, I have a pc camera and want to know how I can convert a bmp. file to a .jpeg file? |
Draheid | Monday, November 25, 2002 - 06:31 am     Gadzooks: Depending on which version of Windows you are running, the program MS Paint included with the system should be able to. Open your file using MS Paint then click 'File' and 'Save As' and change the format at the bottom of the dialog box to Jpg. However, if you are using an older version of Windows, you may need to download a software program to do that for you. Click Here to search google for programs that might suit your needs. |
Juju2bigdog | Monday, November 25, 2002 - 08:55 am     Thanks, Draheid. Discussed it with Spot this morning, and it sounds like he is just going to go ahead and get an external CD-RW drive. |
Ryn | Monday, November 25, 2002 - 09:15 am     Paint in Windows 95/98, by default cannot save JPG. I discovered this myself recently. Since I set up a number of machines I had always assumed it worked, then I discovered that it was the installing of WORD (or office) that enabled Paint to save JPGs. It was the installing for MS Word that also installed the correct items needed to be able to save jpg files in their native format |
Mosessupposes | Monday, November 25, 2002 - 12:55 pm     Just a few comments here on external CD-RW Burners with USB connectivity. They are great...no internal installation necessary...just plug and play...portability...etc...(but)...they are resource hogs. I bought a Sony Spressa Burner a few years ago with USB connectivity. At the time most external CD Burners were $150.00 and this was on closeout for $69.00. Also...design-wise...a thing of beauty. This paragraph is crucial. These external burners and their accompanying software are an extreme resource drain on an old underpowered computer. Just a word of caution...the simpler the software...the better. The popular burning software Roxio Easy CD Platinum 5.0 with the CD Burner running can lock-up a 266 before you can blink an eye. Most "techies" love Nero Burning ROM. For burning small data files, freeware or shareware off the Internet is the best bet. No bells and whistles...but no resource drain either. I have used my burner on a 266 with 128MB of ram and Windows 98 SE...it locked up and caused more "blue screens" than you can imagine. Every type of Media Player on the computer tried to take over the CD Burner at the same time. I found out the hard way that you can "tweak" your way out of all of this, and it will eventually work...but only about 80% of the time. The burner works with 100% reliablility on a 466 with 256MB ram, but I attribute this more to the operating system (Windows XP) than to the processor or ram. There should be no problem with an external CD burner. There should be no problem with most burner software. But this is usually *not* the case when used with a 266 computer with 128MB ram. It most likely will eventually work...but it could also cause a lot of headaches before it does. |
Ryn | Monday, November 25, 2002 - 01:02 pm     Only thing I can think or with an external CD burner is to check if its USB 1 or USB 2 - and know what your computer has. I have not dealt with any USB 2 stuff yet, but if the burner is listed as for "USB 2" and you only have "USB 1" on your system, you might be in for headaches. |
Draheid | Monday, November 25, 2002 - 01:21 pm     For the purposes Juju talked about, I would recommend only installing the minimum software required to make the CD-RW drive accessible as another storage device. This should alleviate the resource-hogging programs such as Easy CD Creator or even Nero Burning ROM. By only installing the driver software to access the drive, you should be able to use the Briefcase feature to save your documents as you work then 'drop' the briefcase onto the CD-RW drive for backup. There are other ways to do this, of course, but this seems to me like it would be the easiest to accomplish the task required. Mosessupposes is correct in stating that fully burning a CD demands a considerable amount of resources that older computers just don't have. Especially when dealing with newer drives with faster access times. As for USB2 vs USB1, I don't know if any but the absolute latest computers are being shipped with the newer ports. I purchased my computer in February of this year and it does NOT have USB2 ports. It does have 1394 (Firewire) ports built in though, in addition to the 4 USB1 ports. More information to consider! |
Whit4you | Monday, November 25, 2002 - 02:53 pm     Can someone help me? First ya don't know what sort of 'pride' it takes for me to ask for help with this - I used to set up computer systems - from scratch for business's and now ... I'm clueless. I am gifted on computers and can pretty much learn any computer program with my eyes closed BUT - but the thing is - my son is going to be here for Thanksgiving and I would really like to have his menu thing done. Now I can do it with pen and paper and will probably do so if I can't find help but the thing is I've had alot of others ask for a copy of this... and also I'd like it easier for him to read and stuff... sigh. Well I don't know but what I need - see I don't even have a printer to test my setup if I use a word processor. What I really need is someone with either Microsoft Works - or some other word processor or spreadsheet that could set up a template for me and test it on a printer? What it needs to look like is this - (basically it'd look like a calendar I guess...4 or 5 squares across - 5 or 6 down .... where you could put in three menu items in each square?) I have a screen shot sort of - if that would help - let me know if anyone has some time between now and Wednesday for this? SORRY this is not going to look right when it's displayed for you - basically it's like a calendar - with three lines in each square sorta idea? Test A Test B Test C Test D yada a yada b yada c yada d yada a yada b yada c yada d ________________________________________________ Test E Yada e yada e _________________________________________________ etc F etc f etc f _________________________________________________ etc G etc g etc g _________________________________________________ etc H etc h etc h |
Draheid | Monday, November 25, 2002 - 03:00 pm     Whit: I have a ton of software ranging from MS Office 2000 Pro to Calendar Creator, Adobe Acrobat (full creation package, not just reader!), etc etc etc. What exactly are you looking for? I could probably create just about anything you want then export out to a PDF file for printing. I have both a DeskJet (Color Inkjet) & laserjet printer too. Let me know what you need and I'll try to help! Edit to add: PS: If you already have a file to start with, we could 'meet' in Chat and trade files!  |
Strawberry | Monday, November 25, 2002 - 03:02 pm     ok Whit I got something for ya. I think it's what you are lookin for. I made something up in Microsoft Excel. Let me know where you want me to send it and I'll send it. |
Whit4you | Monday, November 25, 2002 - 03:12 pm     WhitInWa@aol.com awesome - straw I'll let you know if it's what I need ok? ) |
Whit4you | Monday, November 25, 2002 - 03:16 pm     Dra - let me see if Straw's thing will work or if it'll just take her a little modifying ok if not I'll meet you in chat and we can see what we can figure out? Here's a screen shot of sort of what I need - but like I said I can't even print it out to make sure it'll fit on a page I set it up with 5 columns and 7 rows but just don't know if that'll fit on a page I'll see if Straws template will work for me if so I'll put some 'samples' in to fill all the rows and columns and see if the printout fits on a page...
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Whit4you | Monday, November 25, 2002 - 03:18 pm     See I know I can learn to do this myself but the thing is - I work 9 hours tommorow - and 9 on wednesday - and with my freetime I want to get the 'list together' but won't have time to do that AND relearn how to make tables and stuff in a word processor and also as I said I can't print it out to make sure it's going to fit all one a page it'd realyl be frustrating if I get it all typed in only to find out it won't fit you know? Anyhow Thanks Dra - I'll let you know if Straw's setup will work for me k |
Draheid | Monday, November 25, 2002 - 03:29 pm     Ok, Whit. Just let me know. |
Whit4you | Monday, November 25, 2002 - 03:46 pm     Dra - yup she's got what I need - she's going to tweak it a bit I hope - I'm assuming as fast as she whipped that up for me she'll be able to tweak it for me too. Thanks for your offer Dra - this was really stressing me out - cause I really want to have this done for him when he come to town - |
Draheid | Monday, November 25, 2002 - 03:54 pm     Alrighty then, Whit. Glad you got what you need. If it doesn't work, or you need something else, I'm ready to help anyway I can. Just let me know. |
Gadzooks | Tuesday, November 26, 2002 - 12:47 am     Thanks for the help Draheid....you're a gem. |
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