dacs.doc electric

Random Access

Instant Replay: April 2000

Bruce Preston, Moderator

Q. I reinstalled my HP printer, downloaded the latest driver, and installed it. Every time I reboot, the machine announces that Windows has found new hardware and says that it wants to install the printer. I cancel, and everything works fine, including the printer. But each time I reboot, the same thing happens. How can I stop this?

A. This is common in cases where device drivers as well as utility programs control a device. It is a fact of Windows life that a program or device driver may not be deleted or replaced while it is running. For example, your HP printer probably has some sort of printer management software that runs continuously, as is probably evident by a small icon in the system tray (next to the clock). For cases like this, try the following: First, make sure that you have the newest driver downloaded from the vendor’s Website. It is usually distributed as a single, self-extracting .exe file. Second, when you go to save the file, create a directory, perhaps C:\DriverUpdates, and create a folder in it called, say, HP Printer. Move or save the file to that directory, and then double-click to unpack it. Third, after you’ve unpacked the driver, place the files into this folder, i.e., C:\Driver Updates\HP Printer. Fourth, check to see if there is a README.TXT file, and if so read it. It will usually tell you to do one of two things, either let Windows discover and perform the installation, or run a unique standalone installation program. Fifth, “uninstall” the printer if there is a procedure for this. There are typically two places to do this: 1) Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel, as some printers work with printer-manager software, or 2) Go to START / SETTINGS / PRINTERS, highlight the printer, and then select FILE and DELETE. Windows may announce that some files are no longer being used and offer to delete them. If so, do so. Sixth, follow the procedure in the README.TXT file. If it says to run a specific “setup” program, do so. Otherwise, it will tell you to let Windows do the install. If that is the case restart the machine, and when Windows announces that it has found a new device and brings up the window asking for a driver, select the Have Disk button, and browse to the location where you put the printer software (in our example, C:\Driver Update\HP Printer). Windows will now install the printer and related software, and since the “old” copy wasn’t already running, it should be able to run to completion, thus flagging the entry in the registry that the installation has been completed. Seventh, as soon as the install is completed, you should restart the machine one more time. At this point, if there are any loose ends to be wrapped up as part of the installation, they will be applied as part of the first boot after install process, You may be told, “Please wait while Setup completes the installation.” Once this is completed, you should be done. The next boot should come up clean.

Q. Is anybody running games under Windows 2000? I have a number of fairly recent games using Direct-X that won’t run on a Windows 2000 machine.

A. No one admitted to running games on a Windows 2000 machine.

Q. We have a one-year-old Gateway computer. When it starts, it always comes up with just the “Windows” flag screen, and stops. The only way to get it to run is if we start it in Safe Mode.

A. Follow-up revealed that you had also installed a scanner using a USB interface, and that the machine will usually boot properly if the scanner is turned off. Uninstall the scanner and make sure that you can boot the machine properly to normal mode. If that is the case, then you have some sort of conflict with the scanner. Several things could be causing the problem: a) some early im plementations of USB were weak on the amount of power that they supplied to the USB interface. If there is more than one USB connector on the machine (some have USB ports on both the front and the back of the PC) try using the other port. b) get a powered USB hub (small box with several USB ports and a separate “brick” power supply) to guarantee that enough power is getting to the device.

Q. I previously had Netscape 3 on my machine. My nephew installed Netscape 4.7 and now my fax (via fax modem) is no longer working.

A. The Netscape 4.7 installation may have installed an optional fax service that replaced your local fax. Go to My Computer / Control Panel / Add Remove Programs, and see if there is a fax program listed. If so, remove it. Then go to My Computer / Control Panel / Add Remove Programs and select the Windows Setup page. In the list, look for Microsoft Fax. You may find it at the first level (Windows 95) or within Communications (Windows 98). If there is an “X,” remove it to deinstall it. Click OK, etc., and restart the machine to be sure that you are rid of all remnants of any fax software. After a clean boot, go to the Windows Setup page again, and this time put an “X” in the box for the fax program and then click your OKs to complete the install. You may be asked to insert the Windows CD. That should fix it.

Q. I have both AT&T WorldNet and CompuServe as dial-up Internet service providers. Sometimes an application (such as Quicken, RealPlayer, etc.) will require going to a Website for an update, and if I am already online, it tries to start the other dial-up networking connection, crashing both.

A. The applications “remember” which service you used when you installed. See if you can change the default or preferred connection associated with the application—usually via a drop-down list. Another place to adjust is in Control Panel / Internet Options. Go to the Connections page. Select each of your services and set “Never Dial” so that applications won’t try to start a connection automatically. Once things work, select one of the services and change it from “Never Dial” to “Dial when a connection is not present.” You indicated that you have a CompuServe account so that you can get at subscription content. You might want to look into a different plan available from CompuServe: If you use a different Internet provider (such as your AT&T account) for access, your membership charges will be about $10 instead of the $20 to $25 you may be currently paying. You still need a CIS account for content access, but you don’t need to use CIS’s network to get to it. AOL also has a discounted rate available if you use someone else’s network for access.

Q. I just took delivery of a new Athlon 750, Microsoft Office 2000 Professional, and Windows 2000. Can anyone suggest some utilities that I should add, and also a firewall.

A. It is still a bit early in the release cycle for Windows 2000. Most companies have announced that they won’t have “gold” releases until 60 days after the release of the “gold” Windows 2000. However, for firewalls, take a look at Sybergen Secure Desktop, and for antivirus, Sophos has released their Windows 2000 product. Other good products for Windows 9x, such as Black Ice, are not yet available for Windows 2000. If the machine is not networked, turn off file and printer sharing, and remove the NetBEUI protocol stack. Note that the antivirus software that comes bundled with many machines (such as McAfee or Norton) is fine, but the release placed on the hard drive by your vendor will be obsolete.

Q. I had been using RCN as my ISP, and everything was fine until a little while ago. To get more bandwidth I am going to have DSL service installed next month. Should I keep my dial-up account?

A. If you are 2.5 or miles from the telephone company’s CO (Central Office), you might want to hold onto one for a while, since DSL reliability falls off drastically once you get 2.5 miles out. As for the problems with RCN that several people reported, the company had some router-table problems that took a while to resolve. We understand that things are much better now.

Q. I have Windows 98 on my machine and tried to install Windows 98 SE. It refuses to do so, saying that I already have Windows 98 on the machine. How do I get the new “goodies” that are in Windows 98 SE?

A. Install Service Pack #1 for Windows 98. This has everything except Internet Explorer 5 (IE5) and Internet Connection Sharing (ICS). IE5 is available as a separate CD for a nominal $6 (although deliveries are slow). There are third-party packages that implement connection sharing if you need it and do a better job offering more features and functionality. SyGate for Home Office from Sybergen will support three concurrent sessions and provides Network Address Translation routing and protection for $39.

Q. How can I get rid of the password prompt when Windows 98 boots up?

A. Start / Find / Files and Folders - and look for *.pwl (password list). Select all and delete them. Restart the machine. When you start, it will ask you for a user name and password - do not type in a password - click OK, do not press “Esc”. This will tell Windows that you do not want a password. Do not activate “User Profiles” If you still have problems, then go to the Microsoft Website and find article Q152104 in the knowledge base. http://support .microsoft.com/ support/kb/articles Q152/1/ 04.asp?LNG =ENG&SA=ALLKB&FR= 0

Random Access

Instant Replay: April 2000

*Bruce Preston, Moderator*
Q. I reinstalled my HP printer, downloaded the latest driver, and installed it. Every time I reboot, the machine announces that Windows has found new hardware and says that it wants to install the printer. I cancel, and everything works fine, including the printer. But each time I reboot, the same thing happens. How can I stop this? A. This is common in cases where device drivers as well as utility programs control a device. It is a fact of Windows life that a program or device driver may not be deleted or replaced while it is running. For example, your HP printer probably has some sort of printer management software that runs continuously, as is probably evident by a small icon in the system tray (next to the clock). For cases like this, try the following: First, make sure that you have the newest driver downloaded from the vendor’s Website. It is usually distributed as a single, self-extracting .exe file. Second, when you go to save the file, create a directory, perhaps C:\DriverUpdates, and create a folder in it called, say, HP Printer. Move or save the file to that directory, and then double-click to unpack it. Third, after you’ve unpacked the driver, place the files into this folder, i.e., C:\Driver Updates\HP Printer. Fourth, check to see if there is a README.TXT file, and if so read it. It will usually tell you to do one of two things, either let Windows discover and perform the installation, or run a unique standalone installation program. Fifth, “uninstall” the printer if there is a procedure for this. There are typically two places to do this: 1) Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel, as some printers work with printer-manager software, or 2) Go to START / SETTINGS / PRINTERS, highlight the printer, and then select FILE and DELETE. Windows may announce that some files are no longer being used and offer to delete them. If so, do so. Sixth, follow the procedure in the README.TXT file. If it says to run a specific “setup” program, do so. Otherwise, it will tell you to let Windows do the install. If that is the case restart the machine, and when Windows announces that it has found a new device and brings up the window asking for a driver, select the Have Disk button, and browse to the location where you put the printer software (in our example, C:\Driver Update\HP Printer). Windows will now install the printer and related software, and since the “old” copy wasn’t already running, it should be able to run to completion, thus flagging the entry in the registry that the installation has been completed. Seventh, as soon as the install is completed, you should restart the machine one more time. At this point, if there are any loose ends to be wrapped up as part of the installation, they will be applied as part of the first boot after install process, You may be told, “Please wait while Setup completes the installation.” Once this is completed, you should be done. The next boot should come up clean. Q. Is anybody running games under Windows 2000? I have a number of fairly recent games using Direct-X that won’t run on a Windows 2000 machine. A. No one admitted to running games on a Windows 2000 machine. Q. We have a one-year-old Gateway computer. When it starts, it always comes up with just the “Windows” flag screen, and stops. The only way to get it to run is if we start it in Safe Mode. A. Follow-up revealed that you had also installed a scanner using a USB interface, and that the machine will usually boot properly if the scanner is turned off. Uninstall the scanner and make sure that you can boot the machine properly to normal mode. If that is the case, then you have some sort of conflict with the scanner. Several things could be causing the problem: a) some early im plementations of USB were weak on the amount of power that they supplied to the USB interface. If there is more than one USB connector on the machine (some have USB ports on both the front and the back of the PC) try using the other port. b) get a powered USB hub (small box with several USB ports and a separate “brick” power supply) to guarantee that enough power is getting to the device. Q. I previously had Netscape 3 on my machine. My nephew installed Netscape 4.7 and now my fax (via fax modem) is no longer working. A. The Netscape 4.7 installation may have installed an optional fax service that replaced your local fax. Go to My Computer / Control Panel / Add Remove Programs, and see if there is a fax program listed. If so, remove it. Then go to My Computer / Control Panel / Add Remove Programs and select the Windows Setup page. In the list, look for Microsoft Fax. You may find it at the first level (Windows 95) or within Communications (Windows 98). If there is an “X,” remove it to deinstall it. Click OK, etc., and restart the machine to be sure that you are rid of all remnants of any fax software. After a clean boot, go to the Windows Setup page again, and this time put an “X” in the box for the fax program and then click your OKs to complete the install. You may be asked to insert the Windows CD. That should fix it. Q. I have both AT&T WorldNet and CompuServe as dial-up Internet service providers. Sometimes an application (such as Quicken, RealPlayer, etc.) will require going to a Website for an update, and if I am already online, it tries to start the other dial-up networking connection, crashing both. A. The applications “remember” which service you used when you installed. See if you can change the default or preferred connection associated with the application—usually via a drop-down list. Another place to adjust is in Control Panel / Internet Options. Go to the Connections page. Select each of your services and set “Never Dial” so that applications won’t try to start a connection automatically. Once things work, select one of the services and change it from “Never Dial” to “Dial when a connection is not present.” You indicated that you have a CompuServe account so that you can get at subscription content. You might want to look into a different plan available from CompuServe: If you use a different Internet provider (such as your AT&T account) for access, your membership charges will be about $10 instead of the $20 to $25 you may be currently paying. You still need a CIS account for content access, but you don’t need to use CIS’s network to get to it. AOL also has a discounted rate available if you use someone else’s network for access. Q. I just took delivery of a new Athlon 750, Microsoft Office 2000 Professional, and Windows 2000. Can anyone suggest some utilities that I should add, and also a firewall. A. It is still a bit early in the release cycle for Windows 2000. Most companies have announced that they won’t have “gold” releases until 60 days after the release of the “gold” Windows 2000. However, for firewalls, take a look at Sybergen Secure Desktop, and for antivirus, Sophos has released their Windows 2000 product. Other good products for Windows 9x, such as Black Ice, are not yet available for Windows 2000. If the machine is not networked, turn off file and printer sharing, and remove the NetBEUI protocol stack. Note that the antivirus software that comes bundled with many machines (such as McAfee or Norton) is fine, but the release placed on the hard drive by your vendor will be obsolete. Q. I had been using RCN as my ISP, and everything was fine until a little while ago. To get more bandwidth I am going to have DSL service installed next month. Should I keep my dial-up account? A. If you are 2.5 or miles from the telephone company’s CO (Central Office), you might want to hold onto one for a while, since DSL reliability falls off drastically once you get 2.5 miles out. As for the problems with RCN that several people reported, the company had some router-table problems that took a while to resolve. We understand that things are much better now. Q. I have Windows 98 on my machine and tried to install Windows 98 SE. It refuses to do so, saying that I already have Windows 98 on the machine. How do I get the new “goodies” that are in Windows 98 SE? A. Install Service Pack #1 for Windows 98. This has everything except Internet Explorer 5 (IE5) and Internet Connection Sharing (ICS). IE5 is available as a separate CD for a nominal $6 (although deliveries are slow). There are third-party packages that implement connection sharing if you need it and do a better job offering more features and functionality. SyGate for Home Office from Sybergen will support three concurrent sessions and provides Network Address Translation routing and protection for $39. Q. How can I get rid of the password prompt when Windows 98 boots up? A. Start / Find / Files and Folders - and look for *.pwl (password list). Select all and delete them. Restart the machine. When you start, it will ask you for a user name and password - do not type in a password - click OK, do not press “Esc”. This will tell Windows that you do not want a password. Do not activate “User Profiles” If you still have problems, then go to the Microsoft Website and find article Q152104 in the knowledge base. http://support .microsoft.com/ support/kb/articles Q152/1/ 04.asp?LNG =ENG&SA=ALLKB&FR= 0

Bruce Preston is president of West Mountain Systems, a consultancy in Ridgefield, CT, specializing in database applications. A DACS director and moderator of the Random Access segment at the monthly general meetings, Bruce also leads the Access SIG. Members may send tech queries to Bruce at askdacs@aol.com. Responses will be published in the next issue of dacs.doc.