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Archive through February 01, 2004

The TVClubHouse: Archives: 2004 January - Arpil: Computer Problems? Ask here... (ARCHIVES): Archive through February 01, 2004 users admin

Author Message
Draheid
Moderator

09-09-2001

Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - 11:10 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Curlyq: My first suggestion is more preventative and not absolutely required if you are not comfortable with the process.

Please skip Step 1 if you are not comfortable opening your computer. Skip to Step 2.

Step 1. First, shut down your computer completely, power off, etc. Then unplug the power cable from the back of the computer. Next remove the cover. Place one hand on the metal frame of the computer and keep it there. Carefully locate any wide 'ribbon cables' (these are usually grey and approximately 1.5 to 2 inches wide) you see and follow them to each end, one on the main circuit board, the other on the disk drives. Press on them to be sure they are firmly seated at each end to the devices. Replace the cover and reinsert the power cord.

Step 2. Start up your computer again and see if it detects any new hardware. If not, click 'Start - Settings - Control Panel' and locate the 'Add/Remove Hardware' icon. Double click on that and follow the prompts for Windows to attempt to detect any hardware installed on the computer. This should find your CD-ROM and re-install the drivers for you. Hopefully the computer will find all the necessary drivers already on your system.

Let me know if you have any problems with any of this or what results you see. Any messages displayed while you are performing these steps, etc.

Curlyq
Member

07-01-2003

Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - 11:31 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Okay, I tried step 2, but it didn't detect any new hardware at startup or when I went into "Add/Remove Hardware."

You're right about step 1. I think I'm just going to wait until my brother stops by and let him do that for me. I know he's more practiced at playing around inside these things.

If nothing else this may be the perfect excuse to finally get that CD burner I've been wanting for so long.

Thanks for all your help, Draheid and Bob 2112.

Juju2bigdog
Member

01-02-2002

Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 11:51 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Curlyq, if you are in or near a major city with an Office Max, and you are the kind of person who can remember to send in and keep track of rebates, watch the Sunday newspaper advertising supplements for Office Max. They are all the time having special offers for CD burners free or extremely cheap after rebate.

Tabbyking
Member

10-06-2002

Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 1:25 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
bob, can i email you something from my son? he is struggling terribly in his java class and needs some pointers on a lab. again, it's an 'all or nothing' scoring, so if he does anything wrong, he gets a zero. he is at the point of 'why try?' because he is so lost.


Bob2112
Member

08-16-2002

Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 1:55 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Email away. I'll see if I can help.

Tabbyking
Member

10-06-2002

Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 7:07 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
bob, i emailed the thing several hours ago. just want to make sure you got it?

Bob2112
Member

08-16-2002

Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 7:27 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Just got home from work, but I've got the email. I'll take a look at it and email a response.

Bob2112
Member

08-16-2002

Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 10:45 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
OK. I suck, but so does that assignment.
Tabby, you have email with a few of my thoughts, but nothing too great. Sorry.
Hope your son can find a classmate or two to work with. That would probably help him the most.

Tabbyking
Member

10-06-2002

Friday, January 30, 2004 - 12:14 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
i am glad that you thought it sucked, too. no wonder son was confused and desperate. thanks for your time looking it over, bob.

Jan
Member

05-27-2003

Friday, January 30, 2004 - 3:36 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I have a friend with a computer from about 1999. He has Windows 98...but he has no usb port!! We looked all over for one for his digital camera but could not find one. Is this some hardware that can be added? How difficult? how much?

thanks for any help you can offer. You guys are real angels

Draheid
Moderator

09-09-2001

Friday, January 30, 2004 - 3:48 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Jan: There are a couple of options your friend can choose from depending on the type of camera. If it uses a removable memory, there are floppy 'readers' to insert the memory into that you then would 'read' from the floppy drive.

USB ports can also be added very easily. Purchase a USB card from any of the major electronics retail stores and insert it into the computer. The instructions included should be fairly easy to follow. These retail from around $30.00. The main requirement is that the Windows/98 version must be 'Second Edition', also known as Windos/98SE for support of a USB adapter card.

Hope this helps.

Jan
Member

05-27-2003

Friday, January 30, 2004 - 4:05 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thanks Dra :-) I will pass this info along to him! You are so special :-)

Bob2112
Member

08-16-2002

Saturday, January 31, 2004 - 12:27 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Sign me up on the Dell sucks list.

Do you know what the following picture means?

ATX Power Connector Wiring

It means that I was one connection away from blowing up a new power supply and likely frying my computer in the process. The only thing that saved me was that the connector on the new power supply was "keyed" differently than the old power supply. (For those who don't know, keys are extra knotches and tabs on connectors that force you to plug a connector in correctly).

A little googling turned up an interesting fact that many Dell P3 computers (starting around 1998 and ending with the P4) use a non-standard power supply and have Intel custom build the motherboard with a non-standard wiring layout. In the picture above it shows that only 2 of the 20 wires are actually connected to follow the standard. In many cases I would have been connecting +5v to +3.3v, Ground to +3.3v, +5v to Ground, etc.... None of these connections is healthy for the motherboard.

Dell would be happy to sell me a 200 watt power supply for more than triple the cost of a better quality 300 watt power supply. The fan is failing in the current power supply, plus I have added a second hard drive, CD-RW and Zip drive to the original configuration, so I figured this would be a good time to blow up, um..., er..., I mean upgrade the power supply. Instead I'll open up the old power supply and replace the fan and hope that holds out.

I did find a third party power supply manufacturer than offers a special Dell wired power supply. They also charge about triple, but at least I can get it from them and not give my money to Dell.

This was too techy for the rant thread, so I thought I'd put it here. There are a ton of these 3-5 year old P3 Dell's out there which are just at the age where power supplies start failing. Hopefully this info may save someone's computer.

Resortgirl
Member

09-23-2000

Saturday, January 31, 2004 - 10:08 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I'm hoping Dra can help me here, or someone PLEASE!
Whenever I click on a topic the user name and password box comes up. Somehow there are two resortgirls in there and I never know which one to click on because they both work sometimes. And then since the new board came I have two of these boxes come up with resortgirl in them twice, so I'm constantly having to figure out which one to click on. Is there anyway to get rid of one of the boxes and one of the names> Does this make any sense at all> LOL! Thanks if you can help@

Draheid
Moderator

09-09-2001

Saturday, January 31, 2004 - 10:49 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Resortgirl: It sounds like you have somehow 'saved' two different usernames stored in your cookies on internet explorer. You need to go in and delete them both then check back on the board and enter it again. Unfortunately, the only option IE offers is to delete all cookies. This means any other site you visit that uses cookies for login, you will have to login again there too. To delete the cookies, click on 'Tools - Internet Options' then click 'Delete Cookies'. That should take care of it for you. Check back on the board again and things should work properly again.

Hope that helps.

Resortgirl
Member

09-23-2000

Saturday, January 31, 2004 - 11:09 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
dra, I use netscape.

Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Saturday, January 31, 2004 - 11:19 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Good thing you are a techie geek, Spongie!

<sweats bullets until the Sponge gets his power rangers supply back up to snuff>

Draheid
Moderator

09-09-2001

Saturday, January 31, 2004 - 11:24 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Resortgirl: Click on 'Edit - Preferences' Scroll down to find 'Privacy & Security' and expand that by clicking the '+' sign. Then click on 'Passwords' and then click 'Manage Passwords' - find the ones for TVClubhouse and delete them both. That should take care of it for you.

Hope that helps.

Resortgirl
Member

09-23-2000

Saturday, January 31, 2004 - 1:05 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
DRA God bless you!!!! It has been driving me nuts and I couldn't find any information on how to change it!! I think I love you!!

Zachsmom
Member

07-13-2000

Saturday, January 31, 2004 - 7:49 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Actually, you don't need to "all" cookies. You can delete just 1 at a time. Go to your temp internet files folder and click last accessed column to show todays date. Find the cookie and right click delete.

Rosie
Member

11-12-2003

Sunday, February 01, 2004 - 3:30 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
No urgent need to reply but I cannot get into chat. I get to the click on Enter part and then it says Done but nothing. I waited 5 minutes and still nothing.

I think the last time I was in chat was the transfer to the board date. 27th?

Any suggestions? TY.

Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Sunday, February 01, 2004 - 4:35 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
WiFi Question

Okay, so you mean all I have to do is get one of these wireless network cards 802.11b or 802.11g (on sale today for $29.99 after rebate at Office Max) and install it in my laptop, and I can take MY laptop next door and automatically tap into my neighbor's cable network and upload my Prague and Cyprus photos to Snapfish in minutes instead of hours?

Is it really that easy?}

Draheid
Moderator

09-09-2001

Sunday, February 01, 2004 - 6:24 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Rosie: I recommend you try clearing your temporary internet files (cache). In Internet Explorer, click 'Tools - Internet Options' then click 'Delete Files'. On the next dialog, check the box for 'Delete all offline content' then click 'Ok' to clear your cache. Once you have done this, close IE and restart the program. That should enable you to then go into chat.

Juju: Yes, WiFi is just about that simple, unless...your neighbor has configured wireless security on their system. In that case, you would have to ask for the required settings in order to allow you access to their network. Of course, the 802.11b or 802.11g would also have to match. Hopefully it will be 802.11g because that has better range and reliability as well as being faster.

If this is something your neighbor is willing to share with you, I would suggest you also ask them what equipment they have and purchase the same type for compatibility.

Hope that helps.

Rosie
Member

11-12-2003

Sunday, February 01, 2004 - 6:40 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
TY Dra. I will try this later tonight and let you know. You are the cat's meow! Or, would you rather be the bee's knees?

Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Sunday, February 01, 2004 - 7:44 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thanks, Dra. Huh! Of course, I may just ask them if I can come over and use their computer to upload my photos.