June 2008

Site Hints | Shop Hours

Clean it up!

Newsletter Index

"Violence has always been and remains a central interest of humankind and a recurrent, even obsessive theme of culture both high and low... It engages the interest of children from an early age, as anyone familiar with the classic fairy tales collected by Grimm, Andersen, and Perrault are aware. To shield children right up to the age of 18 from exposure to violent descriptions and images would not only be quixotic, but deforming; it would leave them unequipped to cope with the world as we know it."
- Judge Richard Posner in striking down an anti-video game law

Chili Cook-off  --top

A slightly cool breeze made this event comfortable and fun.  We served about 500 samples at our shop.  The total number of votes cast at City Hall was 582, which is about 200 more than last year.  

Congratulations to Oak Realty for judges first place, Country Chev second and Market Place third.  This year the Fire Department took peoples first place and St Ignatius took second.

Odd issues --top

These are last minute items and details are still sketchy...  In the last few days we have seen a handful of machines with two different problems.

The first problem:  Somehow, Windows print spooler becomes corrupt.  If you look under the Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services and find the Print Spooler, you will see the service is not running.  If you attempt to start the spool service you receive an error message that the file is missing.  The file in question is spoolsv.exe and it should be in the Windows\System32 folder, but for whatever reason, that file is missing.

Fortunately there seems to be an easy fix.  Copy that file from another (properly operating) machine that is running the same operating system, e.g., Professional or Home.  Copy the new file into your Windows/System32 folder then try to start the print spooler service.  If it fails again, you have a serious issue...

The second problem:  Upon start up, you will get a window indicating your personal settings are being configured (or something along those lines), but in that box you will also see something about System32.exe. 

On these machines, bring up the Task Manager and end that application, which then allows Windows to finish booting with no more apparent problems.  But having said that, we know very little about this problem so far and have not had one in the shop to look further into.  As far as we can tell System32.exe is not a legitimate Windows file... 

USB drives also fail!  --top

USB/Thumb/Flash drives are these handy little storage devices.  They are great for backing up to, and transferring files between computers, but like hard drives, CDs and tapes, USB drives also fail.

We have now seen multiple instances where, rather than using it as a backup device, people are using it as a hard drive, i.e., they were working directly from it.  Then when the device failed, everything was lost!

One of these failures was interesting in that the device suddenly became "unrecognizable" to the operating system, at least when plugged into a high speed USB 2 port.  When plugged into a USB 1 port, the device was recognized and Windows even showed the list of files and folders.  But trying to copy the data resulted in an IO (Input/Output) error.

If we immediately unplugged it then plugged it back in, Windows would not recognize it at all.  If we unplugged it and let it sit for a couple of hours then tried again, Windows would recognize it.  So there seemed to be a pattern of IO failures when it was worked. 

With this apparent temperature related pattern and out of desperation, we froze the device overnight.  The next morning, when we plugged it in, we were able to copy the entire contents to our hard drive!  In this case the customer was extremely lucky and got his data back.

So remember, do not work directly from the device, instead copy the file(s) to your Desktop (or another folder) and work on them from there.  When you are done, save and send a copy back to the device.

And as always, back up often!  And that means saving data over multiple medias...

Windows XP Service Pack 3  --top

Microsoft has released Windows XP SP3 and placed it on the critical list.  By the time we publish this newsletter, many of you may already have installed this release, but if not you should consider doing so.  Note: SP3 does not seem to automatically load, rather you must go to Windows Update and manually initiate a scan for updates.

SP3 contains literally hundreds of security enhancements and bug fixes.  Here are just a few of the more common issues (apparently) resolved:

• New drive or mapped network drive not available in Windows Explorer

• Internet Explorer may not use the default system printer if you change printers

• The computer does not resume from hibernation or does not Wake-on-LAN from standby

• If you delete or add folders in a network-shared folder, Windows Explorer does not show the change in Windows XP

• Battery power may be drained more quickly than expected on your Windows XP-based portable computer

• A Windows XP-based computer stops responding when you try to shut down the computer

• You cannot access network resources after you try to log on to a Windows XP Service Pack 2-based computer

• You may receive an "access denied" error message when a Web site redirects you to another Web page on a computer that is running Windows XP Service Pack 2

• You lose access to network resources after you resume your Windows XP-based computer from standby

• Sounds do not play after you resume Windows from hibernation on a computer that is running Windows XP Service Pack 2

• CPU usage may reach 100 percent when you resume a computer that is running Windows XP from standby multiple times

• When you print an e-mail message in either Office Outlook 2003 or Outlook Express, the printed message is so small that it is unreadable

If you are not sure what service pack your computer has, right click the My Computer Icon, select Properties then look near the top of the General tab. While you are there, the lower section (red circle) tells you what your processor speed is, and how much memory (RAM) your computer has. If you do not have at least 1 GB of RAM, you should consider adding some...

SP3 install problems...

We have installed this on every computer we own and every computer we serviced (dozens by now) and so far, the only problem is on HP machines with an AMD processor.  On these, we must obtain an update from HP then install SP3. 

So it may very well be worthwhile looking at the computer manufacturer's site for any updates regarding SP3, especially if the machine has an AMD processor. 

Are you smarter than the spammers?--top

Reminder, email is really NOT a good media for secure information!  Your credit card and online accounts should never ask for secure information via email.  If they do, we highly recommend corresponding by phone or going directly to their website (not a link from the email). 

Here are two recent messages going around:

Subject: ACCOUNT UPDATE

Dear User

This mail is to inform all our users that we will be upgrading our site in a couple of days from now. Hence, as a user of our site, you are required to send us your Email account details so as to enable us know if you are still making use of your mail box.

Furthermore, be informed that we will be deleting all mail account that is not active so as to create more space for new users.

Therefore you are advise to send us your mail account details as requested below

*User name:.........
*Password:..............
*Date of birth:................
*Security question:.............
*Security answer:......................

All users are advise to complete this update. Regards

Mark Anderson Tech/Maintainance officer

 

And...

Attention:

Please beware that there are current reports of phishing emails. Phishing is a type of scam designed to steal your personal information.

We will never request your information such as social security number, card number or PIN through email. Please do not respond to email requests for this information. Being informed is your best defense. See the Protect Yourself link for ways of avoiding identity theft.

To help protect your account, we may occasionally need to take immediate action to block transactions in a particular area of the country.

For your protection, we have temporary deactivate your MasterCard/Debit Card.

How to reactivate your card

Activate your card online.

Enter your card number and Personal Identification Number (PIN)

After your card is activated, you are directed to additional information and shopping discounts

Copy and paste tricks --top

Here are some copy (CTRL C) and paste (CTRL V) hints... 

If you can highlight or select something, you can probably copy then paste it somewhere else, e.g., from the Internet to a word processor. You can also copy web addresses and local folder addresses as shown here.  In Windows Vista the menu would read Copy or Copy Address as Text, where the Copy option copies the contents of that folder. Here are a couple of copy/paste issues to be aware of...

When you copy and paste text, often you will get the formatting as well, e.g., bold, certain fonts, sizes, etc.  But if you would rather have only the text and not the formatting, use the Paste Special option from the Edit menu.  Alternatively you could paste the contents to Notepad then re-copy it from there.

When you copy an image and paste to a Word document, Word will embed the image making it difficult to work with.  If you have images saved in a Word document that you would like to extract, here are two ways to do that:

1. Extract the images:

   • On the File menu click Save as Web Page

   • In the Save As drop down select Web Page (*.htm; *.html)
     Images will be extracted from the document and placed in the folder named <DocumentName>_files in the same location as the saved web page.

2. Right click and copy the image then paste it to an image editor like IrfanView.  IrfanView is a nice little shareware editor and is available here.

See Microsoft's Word Smart Paste article for other information.

(More) Internet junk --top

Just an FYI.  This window opened after my wife was at either the Shockwave or the Spadeclub site. Clicking anywhere other than "X-ing out" would likely have tried to install something. Be sure to ignore sudden warning windows like this especially when you are on the Internet.

Quick Links...  --top

Perhaps the ultimate in government stupidity? Probably not but this one is close...

Want to run Control Panel options from a command line?  See this MS article.

We will leave you with this from Al Lowe

Why Men Don't Write Advice Columns: Dear Andy, the other day I went to work as usual, leaving my husband alone at home watching TV. I didn't get more than a mile before my engine conked out and my car shuddered to a halt. I walked home to get my husband's help, but when I got there, I couldn't believe my eyes: he was making love to our neighbor. He tried to make me believe that he heard her screaming, came to her rescue, but by the time he found her she was unconscious, so he carried her into our bedroom and was giving her CPR when she awoke. He said she merely wanted to thank him and he was trying to break free. "Then why were you both naked?" I shouted. He broke down and admitted that he'd been having an affair with her for nearly a year! I told him it had to stop or I would leave him. Since he was laid off about that time, he's felt worthless and depressed. I love him very much, but ever since I gave him the ultimatum he's become increasingly distant. I just don't feel I can get through to him any more. Andy, can you help me? Signed, Susie in Sussex. Andy's Response: Dear Susie, a car stalling after being driven such a short distance might be caused by debris in the fuel line or air leaks in the vacuum lines to the intake manifold. Or, check the fuel pump; it may be delivering low pressure to the carburetor float chamber. I hope this helps, Andy.