Members who are unable
to attend the General Meeting may submit questions to "askdacs@dacs.org"
by the day prior to the meeting. We will attempt to get an answer
for you. Please provide enough detail, as we will not be able
to ask for additional information.
Q. (AskDacs) I did the Earthlink upgrade, and it hosed my system.
In addition, I can no longer
use IE - I no longer have browser access. How do I repair?
A. One member had same problem and had to
call up Earthlink's tech line - who were able to get
him going again. He could not remember the steps that they had
him go through. After a bit of
discussion, it was pointed out that it would be prudent to 'ghost'
the harddrive if you can do so,
such that if something really hoses the system it can be removed
by rolling back. A positive
comment was that their e-mail (which is web-based) does a good
job of blocking spam.
Q. I have a 48GB hard drive, and purchased
a 120GB Western
Digital hard drive. I used their
software to duplicate the 48 to the 120. Everything works just
fine, except that it won't boot. I
have checked master/slave jumpers, swap the drives around, etc.
All my data is there, once I
boot from the 48 things look perfect. I am running XP.
A. There is a utility on the XP CD called
"FixBoot" It is accessible from the "Recovery
Console". Take a look at this page: <http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;314058&>
Q. I have a new machine and found in the BIOS
setup the AGP Aperture. Anybody know what
this is? And of course, what should I set it to?
A. No one in attendance knew what it was,
but a subsequent Google search identified it. It is
NOT shared memory used for video mapping, as often found on motherboards
which have
integrated video. Instead, it is the amount of memory (from the
system RAM) that is given over
to the processor in the AGP card for use in performing rendering,
shading, and other video
processing. It does not affect how fast data is moved into the
video card, it is the 'scratch space'
used by the video card. Take a look at http://www.tweak3d.net/articles/aperture-size/.
Q. I used to get around 48kbps dial-up access
when I was in Colorado Springs. I know that a
56K connection really can only get to about 52K - but now I am
only getting to the low 30's. Is
this normal here?
A. After finding that you were in Bethel all
became clear. Bethel's telephone infrastructure is the
restriction, what you get is typical. They do not yet offer DSL,
and probably won't until the
entire plant is rebuilt. The schedule is not published. It was
suggested that you might be able to
get your line 'conditioned' a bit by complaining that you have
'static' on you line. The line test
utility site provided by US
Robotics (and subsequently 3Com) mentioned during the meeting has
been taken out of service. Other things that can have some effect
upon the line speed are the
quality of the modem, and whether it is a "WinModem"
or a modem with an internal controller.
In order to get more data through the connection than normal,
the v.90 protocol performs
on-the-fly data compression. This compression has to be performed
by a processor. The
processing is done by your computer's CPU if you have a WinModem
(and it will only compress
data if you are running Windows,) where if you have a modem with
a controller the processing is
done in the modem. All external modems have controllers. Most
internal modems are now
"WinModems" - but if you look you will find some (such
as by USRobotics/3Com) that have
controllers. If you want to get the best throughput with a machine
that is not running Windows
(such as Linux) then you really want a controller-based modem.
Q. What is Lycos Side Search? And now do I
get rid of it? I keep trying to unload it and it won't
go away.
A. Side Search provides a side-by-side comparison
of search results, so that you can compare, for
example, the results of a Lycos search versus a Google search.
This is for either web searching or
for 'shopping' searches. It requires IE 5.01 or above, and scripting
must be enabled. Add/Remove programs removes it from XP, but
it comes back on its own within about a week. It falls into the
category of "Browser Helper Object." This site (http://www.safersite.com/PestInfo/l/ lycos_ sidesearch.asp)
describes it in detail, and refers to it as a 'trojan', as 'adware',
and as being a 'pest'. They provide detailed instructions on
how to manually remove it, or offer to sell you their product
which will remove it (and presumably others as well.)
Q. I am looking for a portable, external hard
drive to be used to back up multiple systems. Can
anyone provide some names?
A. Seagate,
IOMega, MicroSolutions, Maxtor, LinkSys all make them. They are USB 2.0
devices (USB 1.1 is too slow.) You will need backup software
to make a full drive backup, or
you may just backup folders. Another thing to consider is a 'network
storage device' which is
just a box that you can connect to your local area network and
copy data to, rather than have to
carry a drive from machine to machine.
Q. I have a Western Digital external drive
and it gets HOT. Is this "normal"? Is there
someway to cool it down?
A. If this is in its own enclosure then there
isn't much you can do. If not, then a case fan may
help. Send an e-mail to the support department at WD and ask
if it is a problem.
Q. I bought and installed PowerQuest's v2i that was presented here
a while ago. They have a 1.1
update that I downloaded, but it won't install. It had to be
unpacked, and WinZIP didn't like it.
A. First, we need to now if you grabbed the
.ZIP file or the self-extracting .EXE. If it is a
self-unpacker, you don't need/want to open it with WinZIP it
should unpack itself. Second, if
you are running XP then XP should be able to unpack it without
an external program. Third, if
you installed WinZIP on your XP machine then it will have taken
over the task of unpacking .ZIP
files but you should be able to override that.
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