Monthly Archives: February 2010

Windows 98 still going!

Computer Aid Posted on by

I saw a rare PC the other day… It was running Windows 98.

The customer was using dial-up internet, and was using the PC mainly to write a book, and to send/receive emails.

Now, I was called out because she could not get  the specific emails she was expecting or any others.

As I suspected, the emails were timing out because there was an inbound message with a large attachment.

Given the limited knowledge of this customer, explaining how to use a web browser, and then logging into her webmail account in order to delete the large emails, was just not possible.

I could see that even explaining the relevance and relationship between Kb and Mb was going to be near impossible.

So now the customer could get another friend  inadvertently send her large attachments, and the process will repeat itself.

The solution is to get broadband… but to get Broadband, you need a new PC that can make the most of broadband speeds.

So now the customer is in a strange situation, where, if she wants to receive large attachments, she needs to upgrade her internet connection, and buy a new PC.

Netbooks as a low cost PC

Computer Aid Posted on by

I recently made a low-cost backup computer for a customer who couldn’t afford to have her PC fail and be off the air for a few day.

What I did was use an Acer One Netbook (windows XP), a new LCD monitor, a keyboard, mouse, and a WiFi router.

I then setup the Netbook, so that it would use the external monitor, installed logmein, installed syncback, changed the power settings, so that closing the netbook lid would not send it into standby.

Now the netbook can sit unobtrusively behind the monitor, is networked with the main PC, and it runs a daily backup of: My Documents, Desktop, and the Outlook Express email database.

Now if any component of the main PC breaks, it can be replaced with the backup PC.

And I can occasionally connect to the netbook from “home”, via logmein, to make sure the backups are running correctly.

password doesn’t work: make sure you have the right computer

Computer Aid Posted on by

It seems like assumptions can cause the biggest problems.

In this case, a small business has 2 PCs, that went into storage over the Christmas break, while renovations were in progress.

When they returned, I was on hand to help get the PCs connected and running again.

So the director goes over to a PC and says: this is the PC for the main office, and this is the box with all the cables, mice, etc.

So I connect up everything, start the PC, then ask the director for the password.

She tells me, but it doesn’t work. She tries it herself, but it still doesn’t work.

Since I don’t know what happened during the “renovations”, I decide to reset the XP password.

At the same time, the director connects up the “staff” PC, to see if there were any problems with that as well.

Sure enough, it also has a password problem, so I reset the password on that as well.

As I’m doing the password reset, I noticed something a bit worrying: the main PC didn’t seem to have its main application… When I saw the QK application on the staff PC, the penny dropped: the PCs have been swapped! So the “staff” PC was actually the main office PC.

A quick swap of the computer towers, and re-entering the passwords got everything back to normal.

So: don’t assume that customers can actually recognise their own PCs…

monitor displays “no signal”

Computer Aid Posted on by

This computer starts (the HDD light shows disk activity, so the PC is starting normally), but the monitor displays “no signal”

The no signal message could mean many things, from the PC being switched off, to a faulty monitor, and almost anything else in-between.

Next step: swap digital and analogue cables (Monitor & PC has both cables and plugs): still nothing.

OK, before I open the PC & test a new video card, I try a different monitor (I take the power cord from original monitor): Now the PC boots & I can see XP starting on my spare monitor.

This means that its not the video card that’s a problem, so its looking like a faulty monitor

I plug original monitor back in, and now it works too!

So now I suspect that the monitor might have needed a power cycle.

I normally see this kind of problem with motherboards… This is the first time I’ve seen a monitor with scrambled electronics that need a proper power cycle!)

Vista: the things some people will tolerate

Computer Aid Posted on by

I’m still amazed that there are people who purchased low-end PCs when Vista was first released, and are still living in the painful world of a 512Mb Celeron running Vista.

I saw one the other day, and what should have taken me 5 minutes, took over 1 hour… and that was after I removed startup applications that didn’t need to start!

The owner was trying to use the PC to run a business, but she could only use it for a few seconds, then had to walk away, and return a few minutes later to do a few more seconds of work.

I was appalled.

Given that the PC was being leased, then I told her, she would be much, much better off returning the PC, and buying a new one. Or at lease get the leasing company to upgrade the PC.

Microsoft probably don’t realise the extent of the problems that they caused with Vista. They don’t realise that many people don’t know what the problem is, let alone how to fix it, so people will just put up with a horribly slow PC.

cleaning overheating laptops that have a separate video card

Computer Aid Posted on by

Nowadays, many laptops have dedicated video cards from Nvidia and ATI.

Its a good idea if you want to play graphics-intensive games on your laptop, or if you need the video power for other reasons.

However, I’ve also noticed that many of these laptops don’t have their cooling system designed properly, which dramatically shortens the life of the laptop.

Here is an example of what a normal laptop CPU fan and heat sink might look like:

but when you add a high speed Graphics Processor (GPU), then it needs to be cooled as well as the CPU.

Ideally, the components will be arranged, so that 1 heatsink is used to cool both the CPU and the GPU.

But you get problems when laptop makers decide to take an existing laptop design, and just “bolt on” a GPU, giving it its own heatsink, but using the same fan to cool both heatsinks… placing one heat sink behind the other… so that the air leaving the first heat sink, then goes through the second heat sink.

What happens now, is that dust gets trapped at the entrance of both heat sinks.

This means that blowing compressed air into the heatsink exhaust vent won’t really clear much dust.

In particular, the dust thats “trapped” between the 2 heat sinks will just be pushed from the second heat sink onto the first one (and eventually back onto the second one during normal operation).

In these cases, the only way to clean the cooling system on these laptops, is to open the bottom of the laptop case, and pick away at the dust “by hand”… a slow, dirty and nasty job!

Overheating laptop

Computer Aid Posted on by

I’ve had a few laptops recently, which have had varying degrees of overheating problems.

The most severe I had seen, was a CPU failure… The PC just wouldn’t switch on, despite my cleaning the CPU heat sink.

Other laptops had varying problems, like shutting down after just 20 minutes.

In some cases, it very easy to prevent the problem: while the laptop is off, blow some compressed air into the CPU exhaust vent.

Here is an example of what a laptop fan and heat sink might look like:

The heat sink is the set of cooling fins on the right.

The problem is that as the fan blows air across the fins, dust builds up at the “entrance” to each small “tunnel” created by the cooling fins.

As more dust accumulates, less air flows through.

Eventually no air flows through, and both the CPU and the heat sink, get hotter, until the CPU shuts down.

So blowing air in the reverse direction, means that the dust can get pushed out past the fan itself.

But in some cases, its actually better to take the casing apart, in order to clean the fins properly.

And here is where some laptops are better than others: some will have a flap under the laptop, which allows you to easily access the fan and heat sink.

But others (often Toshiba) force you to dismantle the entire laptop, in order to clean the cooling fins.

The next article will be along similar lines: cleaning overheating laptops that have a separate Video card (eg Nvidia and ATI cards).

sql writer: sqldumper library failed initialization

Computer Aid Posted on by

After windows XP had started, the PC would pop up a window titled: SQL Writer

The window would say something like: sqldumper library failed initialization.

Its an inconvenience, and the customer wanted it removed.

I looked at various startup programs, but I couldn’t find anything obvious.

But after some research, I found an elegant solution:

Disable the SQL server service

ie:

Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative tools -> Services

or

Start -> run -> services.msc

go to the SQL server entry and change it from automatic to manual (or even disabled)

More fun with a HP M3027 CB416A printer scanner

Computer Aid Posted on by

This unusual printer has caused me some more problems recently.

In this case, the customer has only 1 laptop linked to this printer.

The laptop failed (under warranty), and was replaced with a different model.

Customer manages to install the HP scanner software on the new laptop, but cannot make use of the existing profiles on the scanner (I had previously setup 2 profiles called “colour” and “Black White”).

Since the printer does a lot of its work from its front panel, I decide to navigate around, and delete (or maybe rename) some profiles, to suit the new situation.

Except I can’t.

Scan profiles cannot be deleted or renamed from the scanner.

I then try the PC software, but it also won’t let me rename the existing profiles.

By this stage, I’m also on the phone to HP tech support.

And I’m shocked by what I’m told: you cannot rename or modify profiles: you must delete profiles, and then re-create them.

How quaint 🙂

So, I manually write down the parameters in the colour and “black white” profiles, so that I can re-create them on the new laptop… Grrr

Firefox navigates to reported attack site c.ppcxml.net

Computer Aid Posted on by

Another infected PC. This time, Windows XP also got corrupted.

So, as well as removing the infection, I also need to do a repair install of Windows.

But after all that, clicking on any google results (using Firefox) brings up a Firefox “reported attack site”… looking at the url, it seems I get redirected to c.ppcxml.net … regardless of which link I click on.

I quickly find the solution:

Use windows explorer to navigate to something like:

C:Program FilesMozilla Firefoxextensions{CAFEEFAC-0016-0000-0017-ABCDEFFEDCBA}chromecontentffjcext

Note that there might be more than 1 folder that starts with “{CAFEEFAC-“… you might need to look at all of them.

I ended up renaming any file that ends in .XUL (I changed the extension from .XUL to .LUX).

You might need to try a few combinations, as its a fairly important file for Firefox.