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ABC ~ All
'Bout Computers Ask the FleetHave your own question for the Fleet? Click here to ask it. Question submitted by Joe from Tasmania:I am trying to help one of our members from our Senior Group who has
a Answer from Vic Ferri: Did you check to see if it's listed in "AddRemove Programs" in the Control Panel? And if it loads on startup, you should check your main startup locations. Click Start>Run, type msconfig and click Ok. See if there is anything relating to it under the Startup tab. Answer from Hal Cardona: Jogor, A screen shot would be very helpful here. I looked for www.HappySt.PatricksDay , but unfortunately that isn't a complete URL. Working with the information you have supplied, here is where I would
start: Reply from Joe: I have searched high and low and even in-between for him but I can't find any entry any where. Active Desltop is enabled, and nowhere can I find the little fellow . I ran Hijack This and didn't find anything that looked as though it shouldn't be there The intriguing part is that when the computer is booting up he appears, then when the desktop is loading he is replaced by her choice of Wallpaper and he is not seen again until shut down when the Wallpaper unloads and he appears again. Hope this gives someone a clue:
Answer from Linda Johnson: Hi Joe...since I can see the taskbar in the screenshot you sent, I can see it's NOT a screensaver like you first said. A screensaver would not show the taskbar. This appears to be wallpaper that she got from the website clearly advertised on it ... http://www.theholidayspot.com/ so searching your computer for St.Patrick's Day won't find this, but if it IS spyware, it may show up if you search for theholidayspot ... but I don't think it's spyware ... I think she right clicked on her desktop and set this as wallpaper ... try right clicking on her desktop and going to Properties .... in there, click on the Background tab and make sure this is not what you see there. I doubt that it is, since you say it's disappearing, so I think what's happened is, she has TWO wallpapers set up in her registry.... The reason you see this wallpaper when you first boot up and then it goes away and comes back at shutdown is becuz Windows sometimes gets two of them "stuck" there. Try this: I really believe this picture is stuck in one of these three places, so removing it when you find it should solve the problem. Good luck Reply from Joe: Hello Linda, I do have some good news to report, when I visited the lady again I went to the site you mentioned, where she had downloaded it from and downloaded it again, saved and installed it and then uninstalled it and all was well again, rebooted several times and the little fella was nowhere to be seen. So all is well there now with the exception that every time the computer is started a message comes up saying "Accessibility Error Could not load the enable2.vxd module " I ran SFC and it did not find that the file was missing, I thought that I could extract it from the Hard drive or the Windows 98SE CD but I couldn't find it anywhere, whether I was typing in the correct wording for it or not I don't know. Have you any ideas on that please? Many thanks for all your help. Answer from Linda Johnson: Hi Joe ... glad you got the wallpaper problem fixed. The new problem you have, I have seen before...try this (you may need the Windows CD): First, go to START | SETTINGS | CONTROL PANEL | ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS | WINDOWS SETUP, uncheck Accessibility if it is checked, click OK, and reboot. Go back to the same place, recheck Accessibility so that it is white and checked, click OK, and reboot. If this does not resolve the problem, go to START | RUN and in the Open window type "SYSTEM.INI" (without the quotes) and click OK. Find the following entry: DEVICE=* ENABLE Change this entry to include a semicolon at the beginning of the line. It should appear as the following: ;DEVICE=* ENABLE Click FILE | SAVE, then close that window. Restart the computer for the changes to take effect. this comes from here: good luck Questions submitted by Fearless Freddy: I bought 2 Siemens Powerline USB Adapters. When I install them in Windows XP Pro, everything seems to complete, however even though the status window shows they find each other (the second one is on a Windows 98se laptop) and show max signal strength and the indicator lights flash, I can't get them to transfer data. I just don't get TCP/IP and the proper setup of Network Connections. Can anyone give me a URL with info or steps to get them to play nice? Thanks. Answer from Hal Cardona: Fearless, The powerline network adapters I've used connect via an Ethernet port. It appears that the Siemens units work similarly. If all you want to do is connect the 2 computers for file transfers then run the Windows XP networking wizard. If you want to share an Internet connection then you need to turn on ICS (Internet Connection Sharing). To start the Network Setup Wizard, click Start, click Control Panel, click Network and Internet Connections, and then click Network Connections. Under Common Tasks, click Network Setup Wizard. To enable ICS, right click on your Internet connection and select properties, then the Advanced tab and select the check box that says "Allow other network users to connect through this computers Internet connection". This will start a wizard that will walk you through setting up ICS and configuring other computers to use your connection. By the way, Windows XP Help System does a pretty good job of explaining these wizards. Some sites that may be useful for you are:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc/authors.htm#corey If you more questions, please try to give us some additional info and specific problems or issues. Question submitted by Chris in northeastern Arizona: On my laptop and several other systems running Windows98se, when I double click on an e-mail, that e-mail is brought up in a full screen. And then I can double click on an attachment and the attachment is displayed n full screen (and of course, I make sure first that it is an attachment that I'm expecting to get!) A friend of mine had some computer problems that turned out to be 3 copies of NetSky worm which had infected over 1100 executables! And Jay did remember getting an e-mail with an attachment, but it sounded like it might be something important, so he went ahead and opened it. With all the damage that NetSky had done, I was very lucky to get AVG from Grisoft.com downloaded and installed without having to format the C: drive. NetSky had taken away the ability to double click an executable to run a program and I then had to right click and then click OPEN in order to run a program. But enough about the horror story. I did have to reinstall Windows over itself to clean up some minor problems after AVG had taken care of the real damage. After everything was back and running correctly, I noticed that Jay had taught himself to run attachments by clicking on the paperclip and then selecting the attachment to be run and that was the only way he had ever been able to run an attachment. So I showed him on my laptop the method specified in the first paragraph above, but that wouldn't work on his system no matter how many settings I tried looking at to get a clue. So where is the setting that allows me to be able to double click on an e-mail to get the e-mail in full screen. and then double click on the name of the attachment in that full screen? On Jay's system, double clicking the e-mail does NOTHING!! Thanks for your help. Answer from Hal Cardona: It sounds like your friend's Outlook Express has some corruption. To correct it we will need to repair Internet Explorer 6. Before I tell you how do that though, I think you need to talk to your friend about Antivirus software. Your fiend will have continuing problems unless he starts using and keeping up to date Antivirus software. All of the major AV software vendors do a pretty good job. Just have your friend choose one and use it. Teach him how to keep the definitions of signature files up to date. If money is an issue, there is free antivirus software available from AVG and Avast to name two. To repair IE 6 in Windows 98, open the Control Panel and then Add/Remove programs and select Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and then hit the Add/Remove button. Now select the repair option, then select OK. Follow the prompts to complete the process. Question submitted by Ira: The background has to do with my having to reinstall programs because some inept people recently repaired my computer, and in doing so made me agree to let them format my disk. (If I tell you what the problem actually was, what I suggested that they do at the outset and what they actually wound up doing, it would either fascinate you or bore you to tears.) I did indeed save everything, but even so, the experience is unpleasant. Not to mention the fact that I have Office 97, 2000 and XP installed in various places. I know, I know, but this is a fact that I have to live with. In any event, one of the things that I developed over the years is using the autocorrect feature to simplify typing, such as replacing "iaw" with "in accordance with". I am always surprised to see (I have had to reinstall also in the past) is that just using my previous instance of Normal.dot does not carry along these "corrections" in Word. Do you know where they are actually stored? Much obliged for your help. Answer from Linda Johnson: Ira ... Normal.dot stores formatted AutoCorrect entries, AutoText entries, keyboard shortcuts, menu customizations, custom toolbars, styles, macros....however the unformatted AutoCorrect entries (the majority of your AutoCorrect entries) are stored in a file with an .acl extension. The name of the .acl file depends on your version of Office, so, in your case, you will have more than one. Search your hard drive for *.acl and you will find them. Question submitted by Gary in Knoxville: I find that sometimes when emailing attachments, MS Word and even .jpg files, that they arrive at the recipients as "winmail.dat" files. At first I thought it was a problem somehow tied to sending attachments to distribution lists (up to 50 addresses) but some people received the same item ok while others got the .dat file. In some instances if I followed up and sent the file to only one of the addresses it came though ok, in other cases it was still a problem. However, I find I sometimes have a problem just sending the initial attachment to only one person. The size of the file doesn't seem to matter. To make matters more confusing, I have been notified by some recipients that they didn't receive any file, though I am unsure whether they really meant they got nothing or simply couldn't open the file. I am at a loss as to whether the problem is at my end or the recipients' and if there is anything I can do to eliminate the problem. I have not been able to find anything relevant to the issue using the MS HELP files or in the ABC Archives. Thanks for any help, I can't afford to pull out any more of my hair! Answer from Linda Johnson: This happens when you use Outlook's Rich Text format to send mail to people who use an email program other than Outlook (it's probably the Outlook users who received the attachments ok, and the non-Outlook users who got the winmail.dat files). Also, some people have their email programs set up to block certain types of attachments, so those blocking .dat files wouldn't receive anything at all. To fix this, go into your Outlook Inbox and click on the Tools menu and choose Options. In there, click on the Mail Format tab and choose either Plain Text or HTML (anything but Rich Text). This should solve your problem. Outlook's Rich Text format is only compatible with Outlook and that's why this file is created. Good luck. Reply from Gary in Knoxville: I appreciate the quick response. I
changed the formatting and it seems to Question submitted by Mark from Ontario, Canada: When booting up the computer everything seems to load really quick except for norton antivirus. It sometimes does not load or show up on the task bar for 2or 3 minutes after everything else has loaded. Is there a setting somewhere to speed this up? On my other computer there seems to be no problem with the same computer set up. Any help would be appreciated. thanks in advance. Answer from Mike Baynes: Hi Mark. The delay you are experiencing may be caused by Norton AV scanning all files and folders when booting up. I belive this as an option in the settings. Question submitted by Arthur from UK: I want to do a complete re-install of XP (no probs there) but I want to avoid spending too much time downloading all the updates etc from ms. Is there any way I can "save" or take the updates, patches etc from my current set up and save them (to another) drive or CD and then install those on top of the re-installed os? ABC must be amongst the very best newsletters around and I thank you & the Fleet for the time & effort put into it. I've been subscribing for ages now and along with the admirable Fred Langa's newsletter, ABC is one of those I look forward to receiving most of all. Keep on keeping on (please!) Answer from Linda Johnson: Hi Arthur. Other than re-downloading all the updates manually and saving them to a CD or something, I would suggest, at this point, the easiest thing you can do is go to this page, where you can order a CD from Microsoft which includes ALL the critical updates to Windows and it's TOTALLY FREE....not even a shipping charge.....Since you are in the UK, I'm not sure if it's totally free, but look at the bottom of this page where it says "Customers outside the US and Canada: Please select a location and language below to order a CD. (CD availability varies by country.)"...I see UK is listed there, so I'm hoping it's free for you too. http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/cd/order.asp Another alternative method is to Create A Bootable Windows XP
Installation CD Slipstreamed with SP1 ... Instructions for that are
here: And remember, if you reinstall XP without the SP1 patch, you will be vulnerable to the Blaster worm, so make sure you install SP1 BEFORE you connect to the Internet. (or turn on XP's built-in firewall if you don't get the CD and choose to download SP1...otherwise Blaster will definitely nab you.) Good luck...and thanks for the nice comments about ABC. I'm a Langa fan too, so it always makes me feel good when someone mentions ABC and Fred in the same sentence. :-) Answer from Vic Ferri: Just to add, you can also download
and save all the updates available for
Correction from Linda Johnson: Arthur ... I made a mistake concerning Blaster (was typing faster than I was thinking I guess) ... It's one of the other patches that protects you from Blaster, not SP1 ... please read William Warren's reply and add this to what Vic Ferri and I told you previously: Answer from William Warren: SP1 will not protect you against blaster. The first step BEFORE you connect that xp computer to the net is to turn on the built in firewall. That will protect you from blaster and sasser long enough to get all the updates (there are a ton of them), either downloaded or installed from the cd. If you are on broadband you can go to windowsupdate then click personalize windowsupdate, then put a check in the box that says Display the link to the Windows Update Catalog under See Also, then click the save settings button. Next click windows update catalog, then click Find Updates for Microsoft Windows Operating Systems, select windowsxp rtm, click the advanced search options, then click search at the bottom. Select all the critical updates with the exceoption of the .net stuff. Click go to download basket. When done, select where you want to download these to on your hdd. Burn these off to a cd.. You will have to get sp1a from elsewhere (have no idea why ms does that). Get sp1a from here: http://tinyurl.com/5er3 Question submitted by 2x: Thank you for using one of my
questions in your Q&A section. I found a
pre-written HTML code that when pasted into the signature area of ones
E-mail it will let your name scroll across the marquee at the bottom of
the Answer from Vic Ferri: You didn't mention what email client you are using. I will assume Outlook Express where you can easily edit the code. Start a new message, choose your stationary and make sure you have View>Source Edit checked. Then click the Source tab and simply place the text you want to srcoll between an opening and closing marquee tag, at the end - just before the </body> tag example: <MARQUEE> Greetings from Kleo </MARQUEE> To change the text font, color or size: Example - this will make your text comic sans ms, color purplish, and size 5 <MARQUEE> <FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080 size=5>Greetings from Kleo</font></MARQUEE> To make it all easier to get the text formatting code you want, just type your text first at the bottom of the email and format to your preference. Then click View>Source and place marquee tags. around the code it generated. Even easier would be to use a wysiwyg editor like Front Page where you can make your marquee and set different actions to it without having to know html coding. In Front Page, it's as easy as selecting your text and choosing Insert>WebComponent>Marquee Finally, the scrolling problem you have is most likely due to a missing closing marquee tag. Make sure you end the text to be scrolled with </marquee> If not, everything after <marquee> will scroll. Sample of Marquee in action from Linda (remember marquees are not viewable in all browsers): Question submitted by Bill from Kansas City, MO: Much attention is pointed to doing backups. I
agree and have made backups for my data files on a regular basis. I am
told that CD-Rs can not be added to. That must mean that a new cd must
be used or CD-RWs must be used each and every time a file needs to be
backed up. This seems to be a waste of CD-RS if that is the route I
would like to take. I have all my backed up files on 3 1/2 floppies. I
would like to put them on CDs but am thwarted by the number of CDs
required (CD-Rs). Answer from Linda Johnson: Hi Bill. 1. Yes, CD-Rs can be added to ... as long as you don't close the session when you burn them. Depending on which CD burning software you use, the option will be in a different place, but all CD burning software gives you the option to leave the session open. As long as the session is left open, you can continue to add files to the CD until it is full. What you *can't* do with CD-Rs is overwrite, change, or delete files ... for that you need CD-RWs. But, if all you want to do is add files, the answer is yes, you can. And one CD-R will hold about 500 times the amount of data that a floppy holds, so if you saved all the copies on a CD-R instead of constantly overwriting the single copy on a floppy, you would still probably get more life out of the CD-R than you would the floppy. 2. However, yes, if your files are relatively small and you are
constantly replacing the old ones with new ones, it would not seem
effective to use CD-R's for this purpose. I would think a CD-RW would be
what you want, since this DOES allow you to overwrite. Here's a place
where you can buy one Samsung 700MB CD-RW for 99 cents. However, remember that CD-Rs and CD-RWs require that you have a CD burner (not just a CD-ROM player) and CD burning software, so that's an added cost and a small bit of learning. 3. Another option is a flash/pen drive, which simply plugs into the USB
port on any computer and works similar to a floppy (doesn't require
"burning" or any special software ... you simply copy/paste like you do
with a floppy, or just save the file right over top of itself). These
pen drives are about the size of a cigarette lighter and they hold
anywhere from 10MB to 8GB (and, I think, even more) and they are much
faster and more reliable than floppies. Here's a place that sells 64MB
(that's over 50 times as much as a floppy holds) flash pen drives for
$27.50 .. And these last forever (or at least as long as the average
hard drive). 4. If you have never had a floppy disk fail on you, you are indeed lucky, my friend. Floppies are NOT a reliable medium for storing important backups. They become corrupt way too easily and are simply too fragile. So, if you continue to use floppies as your backup medium of choice, I HIGHLY recommend you start making multiple copies of those backups or some day you may be very unhappy when you pop that floppy into your computer and it's unreadable. And, in my opinion, THAT's the main reason people recommend you switch to something like CD-Rs, CD-RWs, Zip drives, or flash drives instead. It's not only a matter of being able to put LOTS more on one disk; it's a matter of keeping your data on a more secure and reliable medium. Hope this answers your questions and helps you in making your decision. Take care and good luck to you. Question submitted by Mr. Kihm: I have been running a web query in Excel to grab data off of the internet; the data is constantly being updated until time=ended, and 1 month after this time the data is lost from the website. After I bring the data into Excel I sort it by date and now I would like to automatically create an archive worksheet. Based on the contents of the imported cells I would like to archive the row of data only if time has expired (if time=auction ended). When attempting to do this myself with Excel formulas I found that it's difficult to automatically copy/paste values when using conditional formulas; also, I am unsure how to set the archive up so that the cells are not overwritten over time. Talking to Linda, I understand this may be possible to address using VBA. I tried learning some myself to attempt to solve this problem but I am lost already. If you have ANY input at all or would like to have more information on this problem please contact me. Answer from Ray Blake: Well, it could be done fairly simply, I suppose. The tricky part would be selection of the first empty row in your archive table; the rest you could rely on the macro recorder to do for you (I think you could even paste rather than paste special-values, but I haven't tried it.) There are a few ways to get to the first empty line, but this is probably the most straightforward: Range("A65536").End(xlUp).Offset(1, 0).Select Question submitted by Robin: I have a problem, and I need your expertise. I'm
using Microsoft Word for Answer from Linda Johnson: You haven't done anything "wrong". It's a
known issue. Read this: Question submitted by David from Iran: Where I can get the effects in 3d Max? Answer from Charlene Russ: There are many types of effects available in 3D studio Max. Are you referring to lighting effects or model modifier effects? There are also scene warp effects that may be applied. If you are referring to lighting effects, you can access these from the render menu or under lighting by scrolling down the rollup after adding a light to a scene. Note from Linda: Charlene teaches Intro to 3D Studio Max at Eclectic Academy Question submitted by Tom from Kenly: I want to add a second hard drive to my computer to store files and pictures. What is the best size and type of hard drive to install? I notice on some of the ads, its says "non PC" does this mean it cannot be used on a personal computer? Also, I notice that you can purchase a 80GB for about the same price as a 20 or 40GB. Is bigger better? Finally, what accessories do I need to order with it: cables, etc.? Thanks for your help. Answer from Mike Baynes: Hi Tom. I recommend getting the largest you can afford, 60 or 80 gig. In the last year or so I have been getting the external hard drives so I can easily switch them between computers. The external dives may require the addition of a USB2 card. Otherwise, you can just add the new drive to your computer, most have the extra cables inside to accept a second hard drive. Answer from William Warren: You can use external hdds with any usb port ...
2.0 is faster but not
required for proper operation. usb 2.0 equipment is compatible with any
Reply from Tom from Kenly: I use my USB port to download pictures from my digital camera. If I also use an external hard drive, do I have to alternate between the two or can I use them simultaneously if I have more than one port? Answer from Linda Johnson: Yes...if you have two ports, you can use both of them at the same time. Question submitted by Tom Clayton: What exactly is a "rib card"? Is it the same as a network card or is it something different ? Answer from Hal Cardona: See here: http://www.geocities.com/sganz.geo/RibPage.html Question submitted by Ron357: Computer (Windows XP) Freezes Randomly. Before each freeze there were two error messages in System Events. 1. The Softex Omni service failed to start due to the following error: System could not find path specified. 2. The ioMonkey service failed to start due to the following error: System could not find file specified. This will happen 2/3 times in a four hour session. Would appreciates your thoughts.Have found quite a bit of info on what causes freezes, but can't find anything on error messages, (softex omni service and iomonkey service), but always errors in the system events log at the exact time of the freeze. Answer from Linda Johnson: Hi Ron ... from what I can find, the Softex Omni
thing is something you may have installed that translates web pages?
Here's the link for that: The iomonkey thing is a bit harder to track down, but all I found were discussions by people having the same problem as you and none of them knew what it was either. The solution that seems to fix it is to disable the service, since you don't seem to know what it is, therefore I'm assuming you aren't using it. (It's possible you've removed them but Windows XP is still trying to run the services but can't find them) To disable both of these services, go to your control panel and open the Administrative Tools....go to Services and find the two that are giving you problems (Softex Omni and iomonkey). Double click on them and use the dropdown that says "Startup Type" and choose "Disabled" If they come back, I would suspect some type of spyware and suggest you run Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy to see if they detect them and remove them for you. (You can find both of these with a Google search) Good luck. Question submitted by Ranga: Since a couple weeks the CD-RW/DVD drive is not working. The computer does not recognize the drive. There is (!) mark for the driver in the Device Manager. I did uninstall the driver and then reinstall it but the problem is same. How can I get it back to the track ? Answer from Mike Baynes: Hi Ranga. Sometimes when hardware is not recognized we have to delete the drivers, and reboot. Windows plug and play should recognize the drive and try it install the correct driver. Or you could check on Sony's site for an updated driver that you could download and save. Then use the "have disk" option during plug and play, and point the installer to the hard drive with the drivers on it. Question submitted by CB from Canada: The cell margins of my Word table are all set identically to 0, yet some cells leave spaces and some don't. I need to eliminate those spaces but nothing works. I don't know what version of Word I have - it's whatever comes with Windows XP. Answer from Linda Johnson: Hi CB. First of all, no version of Word comes with Windows XP. Word is part of either Microsoft Works or Microsoft Office, not part of Windows ... if you got Word with your computer, that's becuz the place you bought it from put it there for you...it's not part of Windows XP. To see what version you have, open Word, then go to the Help menu and click on "About Microsoft Word"...in there it will tell you if it's Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003. Now...on to your question. I need to know where and how you set these "margins" in a Word table. These instructions are for Word 2003 and may be slightly different if you have a different version. To make sure all cells have 0 margins, highlight ALL of the cells, then go to the Table menu and select Table Properties...in there, click on the Cell tab, then click on the Options button and remove the check where it says "Same as the whole table", then put zeroes in all four boxes below that. If you still have spaces after that, make sure you haven't hit the space bar before or after the text in the cells where you see extra spaces (you may have a space in there that you don't know about). To see the spaces, turn on your hidden characters (click the button that looks like a backwards P on your toolbar...it's called the Show/Hide button), then look for dots. Every time you hit the space bar, there will be a dot. Also, make sure the horizontal alignment is set the same in the different cells. Also, it could be an illusion based on the font you are using. Some fonts (especially italicized ones) give the illusion of more or less space in front of or after a letter. You can adjust this somewhat by highlighting the text and going to the Format menu, choose Font, then click on the "Character Spacing" tab. Good luck. Reply from CB from Canada: Thanx for your quick reply! The version is 2002. I set the margins just like you said. Nope, no spaces. Yup, horizontal alignment is the same in all. "Character Spacing" tab. No italics; it’s exactly the same (100%/ Normal/Normal) as the font in the adjoining cells that are snug right up against the line. It’s a fairly complex table, containing a geneological family tree. I’ve messed around with it a lot but cannot find any discrepancies between the “snug” cells and the “spaced” cells. Any other possibilities you can think of???? Thanx Answer from Linda Johnson: The only other thing I can think of is send me the table so I can look at it. That may be the only way I can see what's causing it. Remember that cells in tables are controlled by column widths also, so if you use the autofit option, a full cell in one row may be widened so the cell below it is larger than the text included in it and therefore will appear to have space on either side. But, other than that, the only way I can see for sure why you have this problem is to see the actual table. Reply from CB from Canada: Okay, here you go – check out the first two (sideways) rows of names. Have fun. Answer from Linda Johnson: I figured out the problem. It wasn't your table settings at all, it was your paragraph indent settings. If you click in one of the cells with the problem and go to the Format menu and choose Paragraph, you will see the left and right indents are set at .08". So I just went to the Table menu and chose Select> Table, then went to Format> Paragraph and set the left and right indents to 0 and they're all fixed now. My fixed copy is attached. Take a look at it, then do the same to your original, just so you can see how it's done. Take care. Reply from CB from Canada: Bless you! And THANK YOU! Question submitted by Jen: I have 2 hard drives, and was putting Windows 2000 sp3 on the 4 GB one. I booted from the CD that came with the hard drive. The 40GB hard drive I set up as a storage device. I set it up using the Western Digital CD that came with it. When I started Windows up, it says that it was not formatted, and asked if I wanted to format it then. I chose yes, and it formatted. When I went to use it, it says I only have a 7.87GB hard drive. I put the cd back in and tried to work with it again, and now it had the same serial # or whatever as the 4GB, and said that it was not a western digital drive- which is not true. How do I fix this?? Answer from William Warren: First off, boot back to the Windows cd ... at the hard disk setup area remove all partitions. Then create a partition on the 4.x gig drive and format it as ntfs. Install windows the rest of the way. Once windows is loaded get internet setup and download and install sp4 and all updates ... then go into drive management and setup the other drive from inside windows itself..:) ... do not use the WD cd. Question submitted by Marenga at core.com: Using Winodws XP, every time I try to change the view to Print Preview, or try to Print a document, I get an error window that says "The Printer Drive is Missing or Not Valid." I currently have an HP PSC 2110 all-in-one printer, scanner, copier. Previously, the HP PSC worked absolutely fine with Microsoft Works, and I even typed many reports and printed them off fine...until this morning on the 29th of May when it suddenly decides to act up. What can be done to solve this problem? (It says to re-install the software, so I did and it still wont work) Answer from Linda Johnson: First thing to try whenever you have a printer error is a reboot. Rebooting often fixes many printer errors. However, if rebooting doesn't fix it, try this ... go to Start> Settings> Printers and Faxes ... find the icon for your HP PSC and delete it .... get out the disk for the printer and reboot ... when Windows tells you it's detected a new printer, reinstall it the same way you did when you originally got it. Problem is you probably didn't uninstall it the first time, so reinstalling it didn't reinstall a clean driver ... this way that WILL happen. If that doesn't fix it, then I would suspect maybe your printer cables are loose or bad. Can you print from anything else? Try printing from notepad or something and see if you have the same problem ... if so, something's probably wrong with the printer connection. Or, when you say it worked fine with Works before, was this also on Windows XP? If this is the first time you are trying to use this printer with XP, you need to go to HP's website and see if they have drivers for XP. XP often requires different drivers (that's what's on the software you got with your printer) ... if HP has them for XP, they will be a free download. Good luck. Reply from Marenga at core.com: Thank you for the quick reply, but before I tried anything I went back in and it didn't give me the error message it was giving me. Odd.. Either way .. Thanks again for the quick reply and the useful information. I'll save it in case I need it. Thanks again! Thanks to all who submitted questions this month. If you submitted a question and did not get an answer, and the problem still persists, try going here and submitting it again. Just remember that we cannot guarantee that we will answer every question, though I think the Fleet did a bang-up job this month! Thanks to all of the Fleet for your expert advice and your valuable time :-) |
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