TVCH FORUMS HOME . JOIN . FAN CLUBS . ABOUT US . CONTACT . CHAT  
Bomis   Quick Links   TOPICS . TREE-VIEW . SEARCH . HELP! . NEWS . PROFILE
Archive through January 22, 2004

The TVClubHouse: Archives: 2004 January - Arpil: Computer Problems? Ask here... (ARCHIVES): Archive through January 22, 2004 users admin

Author Message
Tabbyking

Monday, January 19, 2004 - 5:36 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
thanks, draheid...son is on the phone with dad right now trying to see if the number of brackets were off or too many here and there, or whatever.

Tabbyking

Monday, January 19, 2004 - 5:50 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
the worst part is, ds asked other students about things that may have been off on his lab (they all had different ones so no one could just copy each other) and he said the other students get 'pissed off' when he asks because they don't want to help anyone else. i don't know why it should be so competitive; there is no reason not to be able to help someone else out, i would think. it's not like the prof grades on a curve or something. ds said he asked specific questions, such as, "i have an extra bracket at the end. where should i have an opening one?" he didn't just ask for someone else to do his assignment. but no one helped.

Bob2112

Monday, January 19, 2004 - 6:34 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Tabbyking: I have emailed you a working version of the code, but it was not really all that different than what you sent me. There was an extra } on the second line, but I think that may just have been a cut and paste error. With that in the code nothing would have run due to a syntax error.

The code you sent me did not have the Main or show how the object was being created or how the getName() function was being called. I added all this and the program ran fine and displayed the name correctly.

I'm thinking your son got the class right and was making a mistake when instantiating the object. Have him compare the code I sent you to how he was making the call and maybe he will see a difference.

You can let us know here so you won't have to mail multiple people.

Tabbyking

Monday, January 19, 2004 - 7:10 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
bob, i have forwarded your email to kyle and hope it clears some things up for him! i really appreciate the time people took to try and help us. thank you!

Juju2bigdog

Monday, January 19, 2004 - 10:48 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Bob and Jed, thanks for the input. Friend has a 2.4 GHz celeron processor. On the other hand, my 633 at home is a Celeron, and it is way faster than this one. I mean, we are talking (on friend's computer) maybe 2 seconds for the menu to come up after I right click on my computer to check the Properties. He does only have 120 MB RAM.

It is so slow, I keep thinking the computer has frozen up on me, but it eventually does something (of course, I have a very quick mind ... :))

Oh! Here is a cute story. I was over at Mommy's house today (Mommy is 75 and not my real Mommy, but she is just like my itty bitty Japanese-American-Hawaiian Mommy). Anyway, Mommy is very brave and learning computers at age 75, and whenever I visit her, I spend a couple hours a day showing her various tricks. Today I was trying to show her how to save pictures off the internet, or how to save photo attachments from e-mail, and I was showing her how to right click on the picture and then Save Picture As. It would only let her save as a .bmp, which I don't want her to do. So then I had to figure out why that was. I Googled and found out that happens when the temporary internet files are full.

So I asked Mommy how often she clears out her temporary internet files. She said, "what's that?" So we went to Tools, Internet Options and deleted temporary internet files. It took about TEN minutes. So then I looked at Mommy's settings. It was set to allow 1221 MB of temporary internet files. No wonder it took ten minutes. LOL. I reset it to 3 MB.

And, oh yeah, Bigdog was in the room while I was giving this lesson. He didn't know about temporary internet files either. Sheesh!

Bob2112

Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 12:33 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Juju: Is your friend running Windows XP? I assume he is since you stated it was fairly new. Although the minimum requirement to run XP is 128MB (his must be using 8MB for video memory, which can also slow the computer down), 196MB or 256MB is really needed to avoid filling memory. 512MB is even better. :)
If your programs use more than the 120MB of RAM (which I reach with just the OS, anti-virus and 2-3 browser windows open) the computer will start swapping RAM out to disk in order to run more programs. This is what the virtual memory setting is for. While this lets you run more programs, performance drops off dramatically.

Unfortunately, it is easy to get the memoery usage over 120MB just with a few processes that start automatically, even before you get the desktop up. If this happens, boot times will get very long.

A week ago I spent the day clearing up my niece's computer which is a Dell 2.4GHz with 128MB of RAM running XP. It was taking 10 minutes to boot and was starting all sorts of unneeded programs in the back ground. After disabling all the unneeded startup junk, her memory usage was below 128MB and the computer was booting in under a minute.

Since your friend is letting you use his computer, maybe you can find him one of those 256MB RAM upgrades for $30 after rebate as a thank you.

NOTE: A nice tool I have found for viewing, disabling and deleting startup programs is
Startup Control Panel

It is only 59KB and works unders all Windows OS's from Windows 95 and newer. Windows 95 may need an update to your Common Controls library, but that is available from the same link.

You run this program from the Control Panel and it shows everything that is started at boot time, even things that are set to run only once, like when you have to reboot to complete an install or when Spybot Search & Destroy can't clean everything and needs to run after a reboot. The nice thing is that it looks the same on all the different OS's, so if you find yourself working on different OS's or supporting your friends computers, you don't have to rememeber all the different ways to find the startup info.

Costacat

Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 6:53 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
For those of you using Windows XP who find that it takes an inordinately long time for a computer to boot up, here's a little known tip for you. In your Windows folder is a directory called Prefetch. These tiny little files are used to help you start up an APPLICATION faster, but are what makes WinXP load slower. You can go into this folder and delete all of the files. It's a bit of a tradeoff -- loading XP or loading apps. Generally, I'll go in once every couple of weeks and delete all but the files dated within the last day or two.

Jan

Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 8:12 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thanks Costa and Bob for your advice.

Costa, I tried again after I shut down but still no go. I kept fooling around with the button...then all of a sudden it opened but would not close.I was very leery of putting a CD in though so I tapped the tray closed and tried to open it again..Again it would not work. It looks like whatever is supposed to happen when you hit the button, is no longer working. SIGHHHHHHH. Is that costly to get fixed?

Juju2bigdog

Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 10:06 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Bob!!! Thanks a whole bunch for your explanation. I had an idea 128 MB of RAM wasn't enough and that was probably the problem.

Hope you or somebody else sees this and can answer fast. I am also Googling as I type.

Office Max has 256 MB DDR PC2100 RAM on sale today for $20 after two rebates. Would that work in the Compaq Presario? A sticker on the front of it says it takes DDR SDRAM.

If it would work, we are willing to go get it and put it in today. Today is our last day here.

Okay, just looked at the Office Depot ad. Their advertisements for RAM say DDR SDRAM, so I am betting PC2100 is something different. Office Depot RAM is $50 for 256 MB. Kind of more than I want to go, considering we have been fixing up this guy's place all week.

Juju2bigdog

Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 10:37 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Just looked at more Sunday newspaper ads. Looks like the PC2100 RAM is for laptops.

Uhhhhh, if we put in a new 256 module, he would have 256 PLUS the 128 that is in there, right? So, 384.

Leaving the house now for possibly many hours. Oh well.

Landi

Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 11:13 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
don't know if compaq has the same problem that it used to have, but it used to have proprietary ram - meaning you had to buy it from compaq or the damn stupid machine didn't recognize it. told that stupid boss of mine to not buy a dumb compaq

Bob2112

Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 11:53 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Juju: do you have the model number of the Compaq Presario?

My BIL was able to add 256MB RAM from Bestbuy to his Compaq Presario which is about a year old, so there's a good chance you won't need to go proprietary. I rememeber having RAM issues with Compaq in the mid-late 90's, so hopefully they have gotten away from proprietary memory.

I always check at crucial.com using the model number. If it needs proprietary memeory, they will tell you. If not, then I see if I can get it cheaper at Bestbuy or just order form them if it's a good price.

Juju2bigdog

Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 2:40 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Dang! I sure am glad I came home to check this thread. It is a Compaq Presario S4000 NX. I went to crucial.com, just like Bob said. It said it takes 256MB DDR PC2100 !!! That is the one Office Max has on sale for $20 after rebates. Yay!!!

Uhhhhhh, Bob, or somebody? Think you could double check me to see if I am reading the site right? I am going to buy the memory now but will check here before we open the package or try to install it.

Smoochies, Landi and Bob.

Bob2112

Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 3:23 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Dawg: You got it right. You may use PC2100 or PC2700.
Bestbuy wants $25 for 256MB and $50 for 512MB.
If it were me, I would get the 512MB to make a total of 640MB, but I tend to run more than many users.
The 384MB that he will now have should certainly improve the performance dramatically.

If you bring up the Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Delete and then click Task List...), you will see a line at the bottom that shows Commit Charge: followed by 2 numbers. The first number is approximately how much RAM all the running processes are using. The second number is the total memory available and includes both the physical RAM plus the amount of disk space configured for virtual memory.
You want that first number to be smaller that the amount of physical RAM installed, otherwise the computer will slow down.

Bob2112

Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 3:36 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
A correction to my AMD comment way back somewhere.

I saw a bunch of computers with AMD processors in them at Best Buy, so I'm not sure why I thought they were harder to find. I would still get am AMD processor before a Celeron, but for many people the Celeron will work just fine.

Juju2bigdog

Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 6:17 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thanks, Bob. I bought the 256 MB PC2100 at Office Max and we will go install it now (I am at Mommy's house just checking in to see if I should return the PC2100). 384 will be fine for my friend, who would have gone the next five years with only 128 had I not intervened.

Heading home tomorrow. I will try not have any more borrowed computer problems along the way. LOL.

Ddr1135

Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 3:13 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Good Morning. This was on my local tv station's website today. Thought I would post it as a warning for everyone.


NEW YORK — A new Internet virus was spreading fast throughout Asia, Australia and Europe but computer security experts were divided on the seriousness of the threat from the "Bagle" worm, and reckoned home users were most at risk.

Experts expected some impact in the United States when people returned to work Tuesday after a holiday weekend.

The "Bagle" or "Beagle" worm arrives in an e-mail with the subject "hi" and the word "test" in the message body. If the accompanying attachment is executed, the worm is unleashed and tries to send itself to all e-mails listed in the user's address book.

Sometimes the attachment is designed to look like a Microsoft calculator, said David Perry, spokesman for antivirus software firm Trend Micro Inc.

The virus only affects machines running Microsoft Windows operating systems.

"It's clumsy," Perry said from Lake Forest, Calif., adding that most people knew better than to click on an attached calculator: "I don't get e-mails with calculators in it, do you?"

The worm started spreading on Monday and most corporations have already protected themselves against it, Perry said.

Carey Nachenberg, chief architect of Symantec Research Labs in Cupertino, Calif., said home users, not corporations, were most at risk because companies had protected themselves quickly.

"We could see this fizzle out in several days," Nachenberg said. "Or we could also see a lot of people infected" if they don't update their antivirus software."

Juju2bigdog

Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 11:15 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    

Quote:

If you bring up the Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Delete and then click Task List...), you will see a line at the bottom that shows Commit Charge: followed by 2 numbers. The first number is approximately how much RAM all the running processes are using. The second number is the total memory available and includes both the physical RAM plus the amount of disk space configured for virtual memory.
You want that first number to be smaller that the amount of physical RAM installed, otherwise the computer will slow down.




Bigdog is about to install the new RAM. Or soon anyway. Did this test before he does it. The Commit Charge numbers are 191904K / 2951:

So, with 120 or 128 MB RAM now, that is definitely slow.

Let's all cross our fingers on the RAM install.

Juju2bigdog

Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 11:42 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
RAM is installed!!! System now shows 376 MB RAM. YAY!!! Will go look at Commit Charge.

197264K / 5347:

Thanks, Spongie! Especially for the advice about crucial.com.

Rabbit

Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 12:24 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Good Dawg

Bob2112

Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 1:15 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I see Rabbit has the SpyCam working again! Yay!

yw, Dawg.

The only other thing I see is the second number went from 2951MB to 5347MB. That says 2 things. First, the system is managing the pagefile size and second there is potentially too much hard disk space being used for file pagefile.

The pagefile is a hidden file and usually found on the c: drive as c:\pagefile.sys
You have to change windows explorer to show hidden files and then you can actually see how much space is allocated.

Many people prefer to set the limits of the pagefile manually. There certainly is no way that you will run 5GB of processes on a system with 376MB of RAM. Over 90% of your memory would be swapped out to disk and most of the time would be spent moving stuff between RAM and disk, and almost no time would be spent running your application.

A more reasonable setting may be something like an Initial Size of 376MB and a Maximum size of 1024MB. These values are set in the foillowing screen:

Virtual Memory

which you get to by selecting Properties on My Computer, then select the Advanced tab, under Performance click Settings, then select another Advanced tab and finally click Change under Virtual Memory.

Click the Custom Size button and set the initial and max values to 376 and 1024. Click OK enough times to exit all the windows and you should now see a pagefile.sys that is about 376MB. The pagefile.sys will grow if you use more than double the RAM, but will not exceed 1024MB. It will shrink back to 376MB when it is no longer needed.

Many people like to defragment the hard drive before adjusting the pagefile size, just to have the 376MB be contiguous on the disk. This does not really seem to affect paging performance, since the OS is only swapping out smaller chunks of RAM at a time, but it may help the disk stay less fragmented by not getting in the way of other files (plus it looks better on the disk mapping ). In either case, defraging should not hurt anything and will only cost you some time.

In most cases you will not exceed the 376MB of RAM, so swapping will not be an issue.

Now, somebody want to fix the fan in my main computer's power supply? It sounds like it is taxiing for take-off, so I have the CDR in an upright and locked position. I think I'll just replace it and keep the old one as a spare.

Juju2bigdog

Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 2:35 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Spongie, the settings were custom set at 180 MB and 360 MB, not managed by the system. I changed them to 376 and 1024.

Commit charge is now 201632K / 7354

Uhhhhh, are we going the wrong way here? I am leaving TOWN in minutes, and my buddy will never be able to do this techie stuff. Well, he probably could ...

Bob2112

Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 3:05 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Either of those settings should be good, so everything is probably OK. I would be surprised if he every uses more than the 376MB of RAM, so the computer should be running much faster for him.

I'm not sure what is going on with the number after the / but the first number going up just means you probably have another window or two open. My second number is always close to the sum of the RAM size and the pagefile.sys size.

In the picture below, are you reading the numbers marked by A or B? They should really be the same, but maybe something strange is going on. The Peak number by A is good to read since that shows the highest demand for memory reached since you booted the computer. Good thing I got 512MB in this computer. I run too much junk.

Memory

In any case, I wouldn't worry about it.

Does the computer boot faster and continue to run faster?

Juju2bigdog

Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 6:48 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Didn't get above message until we arrived 200 miles away, just now. I am sure it will be fine. There couldn't be too much wrong with his computer, new as it is and as little as he uses it.

Hey, Hare! That is a very cute, and VERY accurate picture. Laptop right next to desktop, Hahahahahaha!!!

Spongie, yes, computer was booting and running faster, way faster. Thanks for all your help. I am real glad we were able to put that RAM in for him.

Herckleperckle

Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 7:14 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Got to leave very soon. But if you'd leave an answer, I'd really appreciate it. I was cleaning my keyboard and accidentally hit something that made the print on each page huge!! How do I change it back? Just restart?