ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements (c) 2000
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Welcome to the 99th issue of the PC Improvement News. PCIN consists of news, tips, thoughts, and contests. There is something for everyone, and if this is your first issue, I'm sure there will be something for you. I am willing to discuss any computer topic. Email me at mailto:editor@pcin.net with any suggestions. If you give me two or three issues, I know that you will come back for more!
Recommend PCIN to others and be entered in a monthly draw. The August prize will be Microsoft Word 2000. Recommend PCIN at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
I start school for my last semester on Tuesday. I guess I am technically a Computer Programmer right now, but the summer co-op that I've been on and the fall semester is part of an Analyst diploma, so in December I will officially be a Computer Programmer/Analyst. I will continue to work during the fall as well as go to school and continue with PC Improvements. It should be a busy time.
I'm still looking for comments on digital cameras. See the Special Feature section below for more details.
Lastly, don't forget to recommend PCIN before the end of August (recommend as many times as you'd like) and win Microsoft Word 2000. Tomorrow is the last day to recommend PCIN. Friday morning (Eastern Time) I will randomly choose a winner. You can recommend PCIN at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
Pentium III Chips Recalled
From the August 29, 2000 WinInfo Update:
"In the latest of a long string of embarrassments, Intel recalled the 1.13GHz Pentium III microprocessor yesterday, confirming complaints from hardware enthusiast Web site Tom's Hardware that the chip is unstable and unreliable. Tom's Hardware proprietor Thomas Pabst first publicly complained about the 1.13GHz Pentium III on July 31, when he called off benchmarking tests because the new chip was so unstable. Concerned, he contacted Intel, which has been responding more quickly to chip problems since the embarrassing "divide" error that plagued early Pentium designs. This problem had turned into a public relations nightmare, ultimately costing the company more than $450 million. Intel was initially unconcerned about the Pentium III issues, but Pabst realized something was wrong when he discovered that other reviewers' chips had similar problems. So he posted a second Pentium III article, this time accusing Intel of supplying customers with faulty processors."For more info:
http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/00q3/0008281/
http://www.wininformant.com/display.asp?ID=2891
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/08/29/BU14751.DTL
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/00/08/28/000828hnfastchip.xml?
0829tuam
Reaction to DVD crack
Subscriber Tony wrote, "This law only applies to the United States. Other nation states do not adhere to U.S. law. Think of Iraq. A user could continue to access this code LEGALLY from England, France wherever. It is the main issue that the Internet poses to all countries. Censorship varies from country to country as do copyright laws. Yes there is the WTO (the former GATT) but they can't even agree on plywood, pork bellies, English beef etc. Do you really think they can control the net? I think not."
Trojan Horses/Viruses on Handhelds
On the weekend, the first Trojan Horse for the Palm was discovered. Called the Liberty Crack, it erased applications when users installed it on Palm personal digital assistants. McAfee has just recently released its VirusScan for Handhelds. It seems like no matter what kind of digital device there is, there is a way to "infect" it.
For more info:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2621395,00.html?
chkpt=zdhpnews01
http://www.mcafee.com/wireless/handscan/default.asp
More on the Windows ME Step-Up
In a letter sent to Paul Thurrott of WinInfo Update newsletter, Microsoft stated, "Both versions (Step-Up and Upgrade) offer customers the same full (clean) installation experience option. As with all Windows upgrades, users will need to have a previous version of Windows installed on their PCs." This still doesn't clear anything up for me. You can have the same full installation experience with Windows installed on your PC?
Last week I asked for people to send in their comments on
their digital cameras. I have heard from 34 people so far.
I hope to get to 50 submissions, so if you haven't sent in
your comments on your digital camera, or reasons why you don't
have one yet, I'd like to hear from you at mailto:editor@pcin.net
Here are the types of questions I hope to have answered:
Do you have a digital camera?
If not, what is holding you back? (Price, quality,
etc.)
What camera do you have?
Would you recommend it to anyone else?
What features are most important to you?
Whether or not you have one, which camera would you
like to have?
Which manufacturers do you trust/rely on the most?
Do you understand all of the terminology? (Megapixels,
zoom, etc.)
Send in you thoughts on digital cameras, and more specifically, your digital camera to mailto:editor@pcin.net
I offer a free help service via email. If you have a question,
you can email me and I will try my best to answer them. I
can answer about most of them, but there are things that I
have never tried or experienced so I don't have an answer.
I post those questions here and see if any of the readers
have any suggestions. I will include all reasonable suggestions
with credit to you.
These are NOT my own questions and they are NOT my answers.
I will NOT check the validity of these comments. That is up
to you. If you do try one of these tips, please let me know
how the suggestions worked out. Did they work or not? Please
send in your questions or results to mailto:freehelp@pcin.net
Previous Questions
Q 97-02)
All the icons in my personal folder will change. For no reason at all that I know of. All GIFs to something new and all JPGs as well. Sometimes they will change to an icon that's on the desktop & other times something else.
A 97-02)
Dirk Peeters said, "Maybe you should try this. Start Tweak UI in Control Panel. (If not installed, it's on your Win98 CD) Click on Repair and choose Rebuild Icons, and click Repair now."
Q 98-01)
I would like to have my Internet Explorer windows open at full screen size but every time I click on a link or a window port it opens to a partial window. I am sure this can be corrected but I don't know how.
A 98-01)
Lino Supino said, "IE remembers screen positions, so when you open it up it will open a window the size that it was when IE was last closed. So the simple answer is to open a single IE window, set it to full screen, and then close it. And now every time you open a new window it will be full screen!"
Q 98-02)
I am looking for a website where I can find the specifications for computer models no longer being manufactured--name brands, not "orphans".
A 98-02)
JamSpam suggest that you try http://obsoletecomputermuseum.org/helpline/helpline.html
Q 98-03)
Often times my screen momentarily turns completely black when I'm on line, then comes back on like nothing has happened. Can you tell me what may cause this?
A 98-03)
Dirk Peeters said, "Your screensaver is set as "Blank screen"?"
New Questions
Q 99-01)
I have a 586 Cyrix chip computer. It was upgraded from a 386. My problem is that I have a 2 gig hard drive but my computer only shows 500MB. Due to the old architecture of my computer was partitioned into five Drive Letters A B C D and E. D was the logical drive and the cd-rom occupied the E drive. I was downloading some info from the net and my system got screwed up. I had to format my C drive I did not do anything to my D Drive. I installed my cd-rom that's when the problem started for the logical drive with i.5 gigs of my memory was lost. What steps do I have to take in order to regain this memory?
Q 99-02)
When I go to turn my computer on (Compaq Presario 1245) after it is resting, I often get a scary note that says You have a stack overflow problem, and then it goes on with other gobbledygook.
If you have an answer to these questions or have a question of your own, please email me at mailto:freehelp@pcin.net
Cheap Trick of the Week
**Elementary, Watson**
The great sleuth's famous sidekick is available in your computer, prepared to help you track down problems with your system: Dr. Watson has been part of Windows through several versions but most users don't realize it.
If you're having computer problems, give the good doctor a try.
First you have to make Dr. Watson active. In Windows 95 you can probably find the file drwatson.exe in the System folder within your Windows folder. In Windows 98 it's usually directly in the Windows folder. In Win98 you can also activate it by going through the Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools and System Information menus and then selecting Dr. Watson from the Tools menu. The Dr. Watson icon should appear on the taskbar in the lower-right corner of your screen.
You can also put a shortcut to drwatson.exe in your Startup folder to have it automatically activated whenever you boot your computer.
To get a report on the current status of your system and possibly suggestions on how to fix any problems, just click on the Dr. Watson icon on your taskbar and select Dr. Watson from the pop-up menu.
You can also use Dr. Watson to keep log of ongoing problems and refer to this information when you contact a help desk by phone or on the Internet.
System Tweak Utility
A lot of you have heard of and used the X-Setup utility by Xteq. Subscriber Joe Crowe sent me a nice recommendation/review of it, so here it is:
I use a program that in my opinion is the mother of all tweaking utilities. Xteq x-Setup 5.6 has more tweaks than carter has pills. If anyone is into tweaking their systems than this program is worth a look. Just installing this program does not change any system settings or alter the system registry in any way or interfere with any other system utility such as Tweak UI. Changes are only made when the user activates a system tweak and only for the tweak or tweaks that the user wishes to use. Any changes can be undone if the desired result isn't acceptable. Xteq x-Setup 5.6 is freeware and can be downloaded from this link:
http://download.cnet.com/downloads/1,10150,0-10001-103-0-1-
7,00.html?tag=st%2Edl%2E10001%2Esbsr&qt=xteq&cn=&ca=10001
The File System Spy - Part II
Last week I suggest that people having a hard time running Defrag or ScanDisk could download a utility from Symantec. The link I gave doesn't seem to work if you access it through your browser, but if you use an FTP program, it downloads fine.
Here is the original posting:
People are always having trouble using Defrag or Scandisk. It keeps restarting. Well, if you have Norton Utilities installed, then there is a very handy utility that you can try. Go to ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/products/
norton_utilities/ver3_win95/updates/ and download the fssetup.exe file. You can then run the File System Spy. This is a little utility that runs in the background and monitors what programs are writing to the disk (the file system). This utility is used by technical support at Symantec, but it is freely available and might help you find out what program is writing to your hard drive and causing Defrag or Scandisk to restart.
PCIN is brought to you by PC Improvements. The opinions expressed are those of the editor, Graham Wing. PC Improvements and Graham Wing accept no responsibility for the results obtained from trying the tips in this newsletter.
Graham Wing can be reached at mailto:editor@pcin.net
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