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Rick

Know when to hold ’em and know when to fold ’em

This Shotgun is going out late because I’m still working on a couple of computer that I brought home with me to repair. Because of some kid commitments, I didn’t get started until after 9pm. Working on sick computers reminds me of my Dad listening to Kenny Rogers sing the card song. Sometimes it just makes sense to fold up the cards, backup data, and completely start over with a computer. It takes a little time, but often less than trying to troubleshoot a knarly problem.

A couple of benefits of starting over with a fresh system are that it forces you to backup and once finished, your system runs as good (or better) than new! 

Troubleshooting sound problems

"I’m not getting any sound," is a very common problem I hear. While there are a few technical issues that can prevent the sound from working on your computer, typically the problem is one of three things:

1. The speakers aren’t plugged in – either to the electricity or to the correct jack on the back of the computer. There are at least 3 jacks where you can plug the speakers in, but only one of them will allow you to hear sound.

2. The volume isn’t turned up or on. There are a number of places you need to check for this problem.

First, check to see if the speakers have a volume control, often a friend or family member will turn the speakers all the way down or off.

Make Disk Cleanup Run Faster

WARNING:  This tip involves editing the Registry, so only perform these steps IF you feel comfortable making changes to a part of the computer where one wrong move can bring your whole system down.

Performing these steps will disable the "compress files" part of the Windows Clean Up utility:

  1. Click Start –> Run
  2. Type:   regedit
  3. Navigate to and expand the following registry key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE  –> SOFTWARE –>   Microsoft –>   Windows –>  CurrentVersion –> Explorer –> VolumeCaches

Fix Winsock Problem

Lost of spyware and networking problems can cause things to go screwy with the way your computer plays well with others. This is primarily a problem with broadband users but it can also prevent dialup users from connecting to the Internet.

Try this little tool if you have problems getting your computer can’t connect to the web.

WinsockXPfix 

Windows Accessibility Options

Microsoft has built in a few features into Windows to make the operation of the computer a little less annoying. As the word Accessibility suggests, they were designed to aid computer users who have a hearing, visual or physical disability. However, many of the features can help any computer user.

To access the Accessibility Options, Click Start –> Control Panel, then double-click the "Accessibility Options" icon.

 

Keyboard Options


StickyKeys – If your fingers don’t function like a contortionist or you find it hard to press combinations of keys for shortcuts, enable this feature. It configures the computer so that if you need to push a combination of keys, you can push them one at a time and get the same affect as pushing them together.

FilterKeys – For heavy hands or if you tend to rest your fingers too long on the keys, enabling and tweaking the settings in this section will teach the computer to understand your individual touch of the keyboard.

ToggleKeys – If you tend to accidentally push the Num Lock or Caps Lock keys, this feature will give you an audible beep when those keys are turned on and off to bring your attention to them.

Sound Options

Use these settings to give you visual cues when your computer is making error or warning sounds.

Display

Set High Contrast mode if full color is hard to distinguish

Cursor Options – Make the "blinking cursor" easier to say by changing the width of the cursor (very helpful) and the speed at which it blinks.

Mouse

Enable this setting to use the directional keys on the keyboard like a mouse.

Other options available for accessibility can be found by clicking Start –> All Programs –> Accessories –> Accessibility.  You can find a basic "screen narrator" that reads the screen to you, a screen magnifier, and an on-screen keyboard to use in place of a traditional keyboard.

For more details on these tools and more, visit the Windows XP Accessibility Resources section of Microsoft’s web site.

 

Automating Word

Almost seven years ago, I created some form templates for a customer of mine who is a salesman. He wanted to automate some forms that he filled out frequently so that he could minimize his time filling out forms and increase his time selling products. He gave me the forms that he currently filled out by hand, and I re-created them in Microsoft Word using Tables and the form features available in Word.

The final form was then saved as a Word Template (so it could be used over and over without affecting the original). All he had to do was double-click on a shortcut that pulled up a blank form for him to fill out and then print, email, and or save. The form even contained calculated fields to total his line items and the entire order. Did you know Word could do that?

I visited my client again today and we tweaked those seven year old documents to match his current needs. I really enjoy helping clients come up with ways to improve their efficiency using tools already on their computer.

If you are interested in how to create fillable forms with Microsoft Word, I found these online tutorials to be a good start:

I have my own website

I have felt like a kid with a new toy all day.

Last night Rick and I stayed up late (until a little after midnight) experimenting with my website.

Since we don’t like to experiment with the show site, we often use my site to play around with ideas.

All day I have been wanting to come home and play with the new features we setup on my site. I must say that I am giddy.

While we can’t say how soom HelpMeRick.com will have these features implemented, I think you will see some of the cool features that may be in store for the show site. When you look around my site, please take note that I have only had it up and running with the new changes for about 16 hours so there is still a lot of tweaking to do. However, I am very excited about the possibilities this new system gives us. 

Overheard at a gas station

While grabbing a quick water bottle at a local gas station, I overheard two ladies talking about computers. The younger one (in her 20’s) stated that she doesn’t understand anything about computers AND doesn’t want to learn.
The other woman (40’s) agreed but wanted to get a laptop for a graduating niece.

I smiled at them (wearing my HelpMeRick.com shirt) as I paid my bill, but didn’t say anything. I didn:t have time to intervene or I would have. First, it is hard for me to understand NOT wanting to learn about anything.

NASCAR has absolutely no appeal to me, but if I run across an article talking about the science and tech involved in the sport (can you really call it a sport?), I devour it. Like NASCAR to me, computers hold no interest those ladies, but for them to not want to learn just surprises me.

Is this computer good enough?

I get a lot of calls from people who are planning on purchasing a new computer. I really enjoy these calls because I am typically able to help people keep from making some big mistakes based on the advice of their teenage children.

Today I had a call from a client who had purchased a computer but wanted to make sure she got the right thing. She had asked my advice about a week ago and I told her to set a $700-800 budget and anything she found should work great.

She called me to tell me about her decision. She chose to go with an HP, she didn’t know all of the details, but she said it had 1024 "of something" and 160 "of something" and "two processors or something" and a 19-inch flat panel monitor.

DVD Burners

Seeing all the blank DVD’s and CD’s in a store can confuse a computer user. And with most computers shipping with a DVD-ROM over the past four or so years, it is even more confusing. And to make matters even more difficult, many CD/DVD-ROM manufacturers have black fronts with black text! Yikes that’s hard to read.

One of my customer’s today assumed that his laptop had a DVD burner because it could play DVD’s. He is not alone as many people fall into the same category…it is not that clearly written. For many years, we used floppy disks and if a computer had a floppy drive, we knew we could read and write to a floppy. Unfortunately, that is not the case today. CD and DVD players come in two primary flavors (I won’t discuss all the hybrids here); ROM (Read Only Memory) and R/RW (Recordable / Re-writable).