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Sunday, March 7, 2004
Show 20
What a day! I’m up in the snow, you’re in the heat down below, but let’s meet in the middle and talk tech!
- A big study came out this week from Ball State University. They found that people grossly underestimated their use of media, in particular the home computer.
- People are still swapping music, but these days they’re doing it at work, not at home.
- The Microsoft codec will be endorsed for the new HD-DVD standard.
Carrie from Huntington Beach is looking to buy an LCD monitor with a TV tuner and wants a recommendation. She also wants to make sure they’re compatible with satellite.
I recommend the Samsung. I love it.
Alex in Riverside has a bad BIOS. He built the computer, and when he boots up he gets a CMOS error and his keyboard locks up.
It could be a BIOS checksum error or a CMOS checksum error. If you can’t flash the BIOS, you might have to bring the motherboard back.
Also, Alex wants to know how to do a multiboot with SCSI drives. The easiest way to do this is with a software multiboot. You can do it with hardware, but that’s not very practical.
Lou in Anaheim has a Mac at work that he’s trying to access remotely at home. You need a program called Remote Desktop from Apple. You buy the software for your work computer and then you can download the free client for any computer you want to use to access your Mac at work. If you have Panther, it will now support it.
Another program that’s been around for a while is called Timbuktu from Netopia. It supports Panther too. Although it may be a little more expensive than Remote Desktop.
If you want to access a Windows computer, you can use Go to My PC.
Scott from Simi Valley wants to know how to get to ScanDisk in Windows XP. Open My Computer and right-click the disk you want to scan. Select properties and choose the diskcheck tab.
If you’re using NTFS (as opposed to Fat32), you don’t really need ScanDisk because you’re using a journal file system.
Scott also wants to know the best website for learning about what’s going on with the Playstation3 and how to hack his X-Box.
Try PS3 Insider
To learn about hacking your X-Box go to XBox Scene. You need a mod chip that will bypass the copy protection in the X-Box. I used the Executer 2, which was about $30. The first thing I did was add a huge hard drive. Then I copied all my kids’ games to the hard drive so they wouldn’t scratch the DVDs and ruin them.
Microsoft doesn’t like this and it may be illegal. You might also have to do a little bit of soldering.
Dan in Loma Linda is a pack rat. He has a 11 computers from as far back as 1980 and wants to know how to delete all the information on them so he can get rid of them.
You should recycle them. Don’t bring them to the dump because of all the chemicals in them.
One way to destroy the data is to simply take it apart with a screwdriver. If you want someone to be able to use the computer again, use a file shredder that will erase and overwrite the file several times. You can find a list of good programs in this article by my buddy Patrick Norton.
Annie from Pasadena wants to know how to move old files from a very old computer to a new computer and wants advice on buying a used computer..
Annie, you can copy files onto a floppy disk and then put the floppy in the new computer. If you have Microsoft Word on the new computer, it should read those files.
If you’re looking for a new computer, try the $595 Leo Laporte Special from PC Solutions. Their phone number is 1–800–487–3778.
This isn’t the only PC out there. The important thing to remember is that you don’t have to spend more than $600 or $700, including a printer.
Try to find a family member or friend to come over and help you set it up.
Justin from Irvine has a tech illiterate friend named Keith. Keith is a comedian who travels all the time with his laptop and wants high-speed interconnectivity on the road.
That depends on what he means by “on the road.” In hotels, yes. On the actual road, probably not.
There are T-Mobile hotspots in any Starbucks, many airports, and other spots. It’s $20 a month if you’re already a T-Mobile customer.
Keith will definitely need a wireless card on his laptop. They’re all about the same. Get the cheapest 802.11b card you can get.
Andy in Anaheim says his XP system refuses to save all his settings.
This has to do with permissions. If your permissions were messed up, you wouldn’t be able to save the changes in your settings you’ve made.
Andy, you can test this by creating a new account. Go to control panel, settings, user accounts, create a new user. If it remembers your settings in the new account then the problem is with your old account.
This is a great troubleshooting technique with XP or Mac, OS X which are both multi-user operating systems.
You can also right-click a file to view permissions. Make sure they’re not all read-only.
I searched Google Groups and found that many people have the same problem. One intriguing suggestion was to right-click on My Computer and select Manage from the pop-up. This will bring up the Computer Management Console. Check Services that are running on your system. This will tell you everything that’s running on your computer. Something called “protective storage service” should be running. Otherwise Windows will not be able to save any of your settings. Make sure it’s running and that it starts automatically
Kris from Ocean Side is having a problem with her Sony laptop with Windows Me, which she bought used without any software. It freezes and won’t restart until she lets it run out of power. You can take the battery out instead of letting it run out of power, but that’s not a solution. That’s just a suggestion if you need to restart it again.
Luckily, you have the restore disks, but if you use them you will not be able to get any of your data off the computer.
Job one is to get your data off the system. Without a backup solution (a CD burner, zip drive, etc.), you might have to take it to someone to backup the data. The person you take it to will also be able to tell you if this is a software problem or a hardware problem. This might cost about $100. You may want to upgrade to Windows XP or you may need to buy a new laptop.
This is a good reminder to backup (early and often)!
Kris would also like to install an Internet Security program. Will it interfere with eBay? The answer is no. eBay identifies you as your password, not as your IP address.
Bart in Marino Valley wants to configure Windows 2000 so that the computer will go off when he shuts it down (instead of just going to sleep.) This may be a problem with your computer seeing ACPI. Open the device manager and clicking on your computer. It will say if it’s an ACPI installation or not.
Your best bet may be to reinstall Windows 2000. But first you can check your BIOS to see if it’s configured correctly. Then go to Control Panel and see if it gives you the options for shutting down.
Bart also wants to know how to find Msconfig in Windows 2000? It’s not there, but there is a freeware program that will do it for you. It’s called Startup Control Panel by Mike Lin.
Tim from Los Angeles (MacUser from the chat room) is trying to find a website that will tell him his upload and his download speed. Try BroadbandReports (formerly DSLReports). On the left click the tools button. Try a few different servers.
There’s also a link at the bottom of BroadbandReports to tons of other broadband speeds reports. Try different ones.
Joe in Ventura has two problems. The first is that his browser keeps getting hijacked. He runs Ad Aware, but it doesn’t help.
This is a nasty piece of spyware, probably a trojan horse called Cool Web Search. This is the most intrusive stuff I’ve ever seen. It’s not destructive, but it is highly intrusive and very difficult to get rid of.
There is a Cool Web Search removal tool. You can find it at Spywareinfo.com
The second problem is with his girlfriend’s computer that he built a few years ago. He’s having trouble finding a bigger SCSI drive for it. The problem is that SCSI has run out of steam, replaced by ATA drives. Either yank out the SCSI drives or leave them in as backup drives and buy a $30 ATA PCI card. Then you can add serial ATA drives.
Allison in West Hollywood has a Dell computer with 128 MB of RAM and a pretty big hard drive. She keeps getting a blue screen saying “preparing to dump physical memory” followed by a string of codes.
First, there’s no useful information in the blue screen. There’s no point in recording all the information.
She’s using Windows 2000, so this is almost always caused by a device driver. (Single programs can rarely make all of Windows crash on Windows 2000 or Windows XP.) This could be a problem with your video drivers or with your hardware. Start by upgrading your video drivers. Then make sure the computer is off the floor, that the fan is working and that the system isn’t covered in dust.
Arnie from Rancho PV is using Norton 2000 antivirus, which he updates on a daily basis. Is there any advantage to upgrading to Norton 2004? If you can run the updates, then you don’t need to upgrade. Norton will let you know if you need to upgrade.
He also wants to know if he has to keep his computer on all the time if he uses GotoMyPC. Yes. But you can save power by setting your PC to turn itself on when the phone rings. Look for something called “Wake on Ring” in the BIOS.
His third (and last) question is that when his computer is turned on and he’s listening to the radio he gets an RF whine. He’s tried an RF suppresser, but that doesn’t help at all.
You have leaking radio frequency. You might try a UPS device between the computer plug and the wall. Sometimes a surge suppresser isn’t enough. You might also try moving the computer. Or you could wrap it in tinfoil. However, you may just be out of luck. How annoying is it to you?
Leif in San Diego has a 120 gig external USB 2.0 hard drive that he uses for all of his music. He leaves it on all the time and wonders if this is bad for it. Because it doesn’t have a fan, can it overheat?
You should turn it off at night if you’re not going to use it. But it’s better not to turn it off and on all day.
Don’t forget to back it up!
Rhonda in La Hobra installed a trial version of Norton on her new Sony computer. Then she bought the real version, but she couldn’t install it because the trial version was still there. When she tried to uninstall the trial version, but there was no option to uninstall.
Antivirus programs are generally difficult to remove. They have to be so it’s harder for virus writers to create programs that will automatically uninstall their software
Return the Norton antivirus to the store and try Trend Micro PCcillin, which also includes a firewall.
Zach’s friend can’t remember her passphrase on her iMac and can’t track down any of disks. Get a Jaguar install disk. When you boot into it you’ll see a utility that will let you reset the password.
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