dacs.doc electric

Random Access
June 2001

by Bruce Preston

Members who are unable to attend the General Meeting may submit questions to askdacs@aol.com -- they will be presented at the meeting, and the response(s) will be placed in the Random Access column. Q. I have a printer that prints three pages for every page that I request from Quicken. I get the page that I want plus two blank pages. I am using Windows 98 and an OkiData 400e printer. I also get the words "Hidden Fram" on the "blank" page. A. It sounds like the printer settings within Quicken have been changed--that the page margins have changed or the paper type has changed. For example, if Quicken ‘thinks’ that you have a different page width it would send additional data to the printer, which then prints it out as panels. The words "Hidden Frame" are being printed by the application--check your printer dialog box, options button, for ‘print hidden frames’ and clear it. Lastly, you might have to call Intuit. Q. I use AOL Instant Messenger--I can hear others, but they can’t hear me. My microphone works for other applications, but it doesn’t send to others. A. In the Multimedia icon of Control Panel, make sure that you have the correct microphone selected, and then within AOL IM, make sure that the sound source matches the active one in Multimedia. Q. I’m using Windows 98SE with Windows 97 First Aid--and get an indication that I don’t have enough GDI, system resources are less than 20% and User Resources are less than 20%. I have 128MB of RAM. A. The main problem is that First Aid is a great consumer of resources, as is Norton System Doctor. You really should use these tools only as diagnostic tools rather than system monitors. "Resources" are not the same as RAM--instead, resources are a fixed number of table entries (which happen to be in RAM) that keep track of objects in your system. In this context, an object is anything that is clickable, addressable, or measurable. For example, every distinct thing on your screen--an icon, a button, a scroller bar (actually, a scroller is five objects) etc. consumes a resource. A normal, sizeable window with nothing in it, probably contains 30 or so clickable objects. Add to that all of the little icons in the system tray, fast launch, task bar, etc., and you can see that you are consuming resources at a great rate. When Windows 95 came out, it needed some ‘tuning’ and had a few problems--so the after-market applications such as First Aid and System Doctor were published by third-party vendors. Most of the problems got fixed in 98 and 98SE--turn off First Aid and System Doctor. Q. I am using Concentric to get to the Internet. I get constant drop outs when I am online. I am wondering if it is a problem with Concentric? A. Some ISPs have a maximum call duration and/or an inactivity timer which can cause you to be disconnected. Since in follow-up you indicated that the disconnects are random--sometimes only minutes after the call is placed, we will rule that out. It could just be a poor quality telephone line. You can check the quality of the telephone line by using a line test utility provided by U.S. Robotics--it is a toll call. Find the complete details on the bottom of this page on the USR website - http://www.usrobotics.com/support/s_modem/s_modem_docs/14115.htm--it will explain.You will need the HyperTerminal application which is in Windows. If you don’t have Hyperterminal in START / ACCESSORIES / HyperTerminal, (or START / ACCESSORIES / COMMUNICATIONS / HyperTerminal, then you may have to install it. Go to Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Windows tab and put an 'X' next to HyperTerminal. Follow up discussion revealed a similar problem with an AT&T user who lives in Bethel--which is notorious for having poor quality phone lines. SNET only guarantees 28.8 service on residential phone lines--if the phone test doesn’t show that you are getting this level, call repair. By the way, in the 15 years that I have been in my location, SNET has had to come to my site about four times to replace some sort of fuse or cartridge in the junction box on the outside of my house, near the power meter. They get corroded and cause crackling in the line. Other suggestions: #1 - A line filter from Radio Shack might reduce some of the noise without reducing your bandwidth; #2 - Reduce the ‘maximum connection’ speed on the modem. (This will help if the line quality varies during the duration of the call--but getting a noisy line fixed would be better.) Q. I have a Windows 2000 system with 4GB C drive--I have been adding software to my system, but putting things on other drives than C--yet I am still running out of space on C. I have 1GB of RAM. A. Your swap file is on C unless you put it somewhere else--move it to another drive, if you have 1GB of RAM, your swap file is probably consuming 2GB of the drive. Right click My Computer--select Properties, then Advanced, then Performance Options--and you can control your swap file. You might want to consider getting a larger drive--someone in the audience reported that he got a new Maxtor 40GB hard drive for $98 last week. Q. I also am using OS/2 on the drive--it has a limitation of 4GB--it can’t 'see' anything beyond that. A. Generally, I don’t like using multiple OS’s on the same drive--even if you do have a reliable boot manager. I would suggest that you look into using removable drive rack and tray sets for your primary drive--it lets you switch hard drives mechanically--put your OS on the removable drive--then put your data on a large, second drive, and use a drive format that is recognizable by the various OS’s. Q. I have 128MB of RAM on my machine--Windows 98, AMD K7-500. Will adding RAM make the machine run faster? A. For general purpose usage (word processing, web browsing, etc.) 64 to 128MB is the ‘sweet spot’ as far as cost/performance is concerned with Windows 95/98. However, if you are into graphics manipulation, or voice recognition, then you definitely want to increase memory as these applications consume memory at a higher rate.