CD-R Media hold about 74 minutes of audio, or about 650MB of data. This is the equivalent to 450 1.44 MB floppy discs. Some CD-R blanks can hold up to 80 minutes of audio, or about 700MB of data.
CD-R Diagnostic is specifically designed for:
- People with a CD recorder that occasionally have problems with recorded CD’s.
- People involved in the production of CD-ROMs.
- People that have had problems with CD-R or CD-RW discs and have discs with inaccessible files
- People that are curious about the construction of CD’s in general
This program doesn’t repair ”coasters” or exploit features of specific CD recorders for recovering CD-R’s which have been incorrectly written. It doesn’t even require a CD recorder to operate – it should function very well with all CD-ROM drives which have been manufactured in the last few years. An exception to this is packet-written CD-R and CD-RW discs which have not been finalized yet. These discs are only readable in a CD recorder and sometimes only the recorder which wrote them.
Here are some very important tips how to configure the system to avoid burning coasters:
- When using Win95 OSR2 or Win98 change the workstation Typical Role from: Desktop computer -> Network serverThis must be done here:
- [START] -> Settings -> Control Panel -> System -> Performance -> File System -> Typical role of this computer
This will increase the system file-system cache settings from 32/677 paths/files to 64/2729 paths/files. This will be very helpful for burning On-The-Fly.
- Disable the Auto insert notification for the CD-Writer & CD-ROMs).
This is done here (read the note below):
- [START] -> Settings -> Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager -> CDROM -> Device Name -> Settings
- When having problems burning On-The-Fly, just use CD-Writer software, like Nero or CDRWIN, to first create a CD Image on harddisk and then to write the CD-R from the image.
- Use a separate disk partition/harddisk to burn from as this partition can be formatted to avoid fragmentation. If there is only one partition then regularly defragment the harddisk, containing the files which are to be burned.
Right-Click on the disk-icon and select Properties. Click the Tools tab and click Defragment Now. This can take some time to complete depending how often this has been done and how big the drive is.CD writing is a real-time process which must run constantly at the selected recording speed, without interruptions. The CD recorder’s buffer is constantly filled with a reserve of data waiting to be written, so that small slowdowns or interruptions in the flow of data from the computer do not interrupt writing.
A buffer underrun error means that for some reason the flow of data from source (e.g., hard disk, CD-ROM drive) to CD recorder was interrupted long enough for the CD recorder’s buffer to be emptied, and writing was halted. If this occurs during an actual write operation rather than a test, your recordable disc may be ruined.
Possible Causes of Buffer Underrun:
Hard Disk
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Extremely fragmented hard drive.
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Not enough space in temporary directory.
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Hard disk compression may cause buffer underruns. We do not recommend writing from a compressed hard disk or disk partition.
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“Dumb” thermal recalibration (only on very old hard drives).
Other Hardware
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Spindown of CD-ROM drives you’re copying data or audio from.
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Slow source devices.
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Source devices that transfer data in bursts.
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Incorrect recorder controller settings.
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Inability of the devices to sync properly.
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Overall system configuration.
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Computer unable to allow fast enough data transfer.
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Conflicts with old device drivers. Do not use 16-bit (real-mode) device drivers in Windows 95 or 98. REM out any old CD-ROM drives you may have in your CONFIG.SYS file. (You don’t need them anyway.)
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Setting hard drive read ahead optimization to “none” may cure buffer underruns in some cases. (Go to the Start menu | Settings | Control Panel | System
| Performance | Advanced Settings/File System | Hard Disk and set “Read-ahead optimization” to “None.”)
Networks
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Recording across the network (a network may be too slow to maintain adequate throughput speed).
Files to Be Recorded
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Recording many small files.
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Damaged source files (data loss).
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Trying to record files in use by the system or other applications.
Other
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Copying from a CD that is scratched, dirty, or damaged.
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Recorder malfunction.
Checks / Prevention
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Defragment your hard drives at least once a week.
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Do not record across a network. Copy the desired files to your local hard drive.
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If your source hard disk is more than five years old, make sure it does smart thermal recalibration.
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Record at a slower speed.
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In any operating system, always using the newest drivers from your SCSI controller card manufacturer.
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It may be necessary to write audio at slower speeds than those you can achieve for data, since writing CD-DA audio requires streaming more bits per second to the recorder.
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Keep the CDs, the recorder, and your source CD-ROM drive free of dust.
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Make sure your SCSI card is FULLY ASPI-compliant.
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Do not try to copy empty directories, zero byte files, or files that may be in use by the system at the time of recording.
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If your data includes more than 10,000 very small files, create a disc image first, or record at a slower speed.
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The temporary directory should always have space free at least twice the size of the largest file you are recording.
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The entire computer, from the motherboard bus to the recorder itself, needs to be configured properly for faster recording and highest maximum sync transfer rate.
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Change the DMA transfer rate for the SCSI card being used.
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Try a different brand of recordable disc.
- Create a boot DOS diskette with FORMAT A:/S, then copy the CD-ROM device driver, msCDex.exe, sys.com and xcopy.exe (see note A 2) create a simple config.sys with the line: lastdrive=z device=my_CDrom_driver.sys /d:restore Also create a simple autoexec.bat with MSCDEX.exe /d:restore /l:z (where z is the drive letter of the cd) and copy it to the boot disk.
- Launch Easy CD Creator.
- Add all of your hard drive’s contents to the Data CD layout page.
- Select File | CD Layout Properties | Data Settings.
- Check “Bootable CD.”
- Select “ISO 9660″ and click on the Properties button. Select “Any MS-DOS 8+3 name.”
- Proceed with creating the CD. You will be asked to insert a bootable diskette; insert the disk you created in steps 1 & 2.
NOTE A:
1. If you wish, you can add: the keyboard files you need for your country (copy the same entries you find in the C drive Config.sys and Autoexec.bat without any paths on the new diskette Config.sys and Autoexec.bat, and the requested files); you might also want to include Fdisk.exe and Format.com to clear up or modify the partition (especially useful after a virus attack).2. If you’re using SCSI CD drivers, you will need the SCSI driver too and the line in the config.sys for the SCSI controller device driver (note that not all SCSI-controllers and motherboards can be used to boot from CD-ROM).
When writing at higher speeds, it is advised to enable DMA (Direct Memory Access) mode. This will help to avoid buffer underruns and other possible errors. Here’s how:
- In Windows 95/98/Me, go to Start> Settings> Control Panel> System and click the Device Manager tab.
- Double-click CD-ROM and select the model for your CD-RW drive.
- Click Properties and then click the Settings tab.
- Look for the DMA check box under Options and click it to put a check mark in the box.
- Click OK and your PC should reboot.
- You may also need to enable DMA mode in your BIOS settings. To learn how to do this, refer to your system’s documentation.
General Printer Troubleshooting:
- Make sure the printer has power and is on-line. If you are using a manual printer sharing device, make sure the switch is set to activate the correct printer.
- Turn it off and on again to reinitialize any internal settings that may have gone astray.
- Ensure that the tape that seals the cartridge ink port is removed prior to installing the cartridge.
- Use the printer’s own self-test, according to the manufacturer’s recommendation. If it fails, you have verified that the problem is within the printer. If the print head is not moving at all, the transport motor may have failed.
- If the printer that you are using is not set as the default printer in Windows or the printer driver is not installed, the printer may print garbled characters. You may also receive errors when you attempt to print from applications.
- If the printer passes the self-test, try a test print using the Print Screen capability within DOS. If the Print Screen fails, you know the problem is in the relationship between the printer and the computer. Inspect the cable and the cable connections. Replacing the cable with a known good cable is worth trying since cables are so frequently the source of printer problems. Cables can fail with broken wires, loose or broken pins, or incorrect pin-outs.
- If the printer is connected to the computer through an add-in device, remove the add-in device and connect the parallel cable to the printer and then directly to the port on the back of the computer. Some examples of add-in devices are: switchboxes, parallel port scanners, external disk drives, external tape drives, security lock keys, or external CD-ROM drives. Some add-in devices may interfere with proper communications with the printer. Try printing again. If the printer prints successfully, the cable may not have been connected properly, or the add-in device may have been interrupting communication with the printer.
- If the combined length of the cables connecting the add-in device and the printer exceeds 10 feet, communication can also be disrupted. In addition, the software that controls some add-in devices may take control of the printer port interfering with any other device attempting to use the same port. In some cases, the software for the add-in device should be disabled or uninstalled. Remove any add-in devices and uninstall the software for those devices, then try printing again.
- The message “out of paper” is sometimes erroneously reported when there is plenty of paper, and can indicate a physical problem with the printer.
- If the printer port is not properly identified in CMOS, the printer may not function properly and you may receive errors when trying to print. Check your User’s Guide on how to enter CMOS. Once in the Setup utility, locate the LPT1 settings. The address setting for the LPT1 port should be 3BCh or 378h depending on what kind of video card you have. The IRQ setting for the port should be 7 and LPT1 should be enabled in order for the printer to print correctly.
- If the Print Screen succeeds, the problem may be with your application or its configuration. For example, your application may be set up to direct output to a file instead of the printer, or you might be directing the output to the wrong communications port.
- Try connecting a different printer to this computer or try connecting the printer to a different computer and print a test page. If this printer works when connected to another computer, there may be a problem with the port on your PC. If this printer does not work when connected to another computer, there may be a physical problem with the printer.
Port Settings:
- Poor communication between the printer and the computer may cause garbled printing or printer error messages. This may be caused by incorrect parallel port configuration in the computer setup utility. Below is a list of some of the common parallel port settings with a brief explanation for each:>NOTE: For information on checking or changing the parallel port configuration, see the computer documentation or contact the computer manufacturer.
- ECP ECP stands for Extended Capabilities Port. This setting allows the computer parallel port to send and receive data in both directions simultaneously. This is the preferred and the fastest type of communication available to printers. It is the preferred parallel port setting for most HP DeskJet printers.
- SPP, output, compatible, standard, or Centronics These settings allow the parallel port to operate in an output-only mode where data can be sent out to the printer. In this mode, the parallel port can also receive limited feedback from the printer. These can be alternate port settings for HP DeskJet printers if the ECP port setting is not available.
- Standard bidi, bidi, or bi-directional These settings allow the computer parallel port to send and receive data but only in one direction at a time.
WARNING: Some printers differ from computers in that they do not have shielded power supplies. That means that a plugged-in printer can expose you to full outlet power, which is enough to kill you. Never open a printer case unless it is unplugged! Troubleshooting Laser Printers:
- Be sure all dip switches are properly set for your configuration. Laser configuration is sometimes done by a control panel of buttons with an LED display that permits you to alter configuration memory. Be sure that the application being used is properly configured for the printer as set up.
- Fuzzy laser output could mean you have a dirty corona wire or you are running out of toner. Horizontal lines or splotches indicate possible damaged or dirty print drums or rollers. Since some of these components are part of the cartridge, a useful quick fix is simply to change the cartridge.
- If laser images seem disproportionately long or short, the drive motor may not be moving the paper through at the correct speed.
- Failure of a laser printer to go on-line might be a communication interface problem. It could also indicate a faulty control panel. Try powering up the printer with the cable removed. If it now goes to “ONLINE” (or “READY”), suspect the cable or its connector.
- If you are printing totally black pages, suspect a broken or fouled corona wire. If that is not the case, replace the toner cartridge.
- If the print appears speckled, it is probably the fault of the primary corona grid which is part of the toner cartridge. Replace the toner cartridge.
- If white streaks appear in your printing, shake the toner cartridge to insure an equal distribution of powder. If that doesn’t work, clean the transfer corona assembly. Contamination on the assembly will prevent it from holding the electrical charge needed to attract toner from the drum.
- A repetitive pattern of printing defects, such as an identical smudge every 2 inches may indicate a defective fusing roller. Try cleaning it according to your hardware vendor’s instructions. If that does not work, you may need to replace the fusing roller assembly.
Troubleshooting Dot Matrix Printers:
- If the printer self-tests OK but will not print jobs from the computer, check the following:
- Dip switch settings
- Proper driver for your application software
- Bad or disconnected cable
- Some printers have both serial and parallel connections. If one doesn’t work, change cables and try the other. Be sure to change any dip switch settings needed by the printer to acknowledge the change. If this works, you may have had a physical problem with the output port on the computer or the input port of the printer that you tried the first time.
- If a dot matrix printer shuts down and recovers frequently, it may be having problems with its “thermistor”. A thermistor is a device used to keep the printer from overheating. Try replacing this part before you replace the entire print head.
- Some printers can be set by dip switches for unidirectional or bi-directional printing. Bi-directional is normally faster, but might cause problems with graphic output for some combinations of applications and printers. If you suspect this problem, reset your dip switches for unidirectional printing.
- If your output is double-spaced when you expect single-spaced, you may be getting an extra Carriage Return and Line Feed at the end of every line. Reset the dip switch(es) controlling this.
- If your print quality is poor, first check the ribbon for wear. Also examine the print head spacing. Your head may be too far away from the platen for your current paper thickness. If adjusting the spacing doesn’t solve the problem, clean the print head itself with a cotton swab dipped lightly in alcohol.
Troubleshooting Network-Related Printer Problems:
- If a network printer sometimes goes off-line for no apparent reason and works fine when it is reinitialized, you may have a static problem. Large amounts of static can be generated by certain special papers, such as carbonless forms. Make sure your printer is properly grounded.
- Plotters need to function much as printers in order to accept a job to plot, but plotters can have no direct interaction between themselves and the application.
For example, the AutoCAD application talks directly to a COM port, then waits for a reply from that port. Since NetWare® software only redirects printing to LPT ports, AutoCAD ends up waiting for COM port activity when there won’t be any.
You can handle this problem by saving a print job to a file and then using NPRINT or PCONSOLE to print the job. An alternative would be to plot to a file named “LPT1″ after capturing the device LPT1 with the CAPTURE command.
ften times a document needs to be in a specific format to include font type and size. If this requirement is causing you to change the default font in nearly all of your Word 2000, 2002 and 2003 documents, then this tip will save you a great deal of time. Follow the steps below to change the default font in the Normal Template:
- Open a new document
- Go to Format>> Font
- Select the settings that you want for your default font.
- Click the Default button
- When the popup window appears, it will ask you to confirm this new setting. Click Yes.
The Normal Template is what all new documents are based on when you start Word, or when you click the New Document button.
If you would like to change another template, this is done by attaching the template to a new document before changing the default font. Here’s how:
- Open a new document
- Go to Tools>> Font
- Click the Attach button
- Select the template you would like to change
- Click the Open button and Click OK
Note: Be sure that when you download fonts from the Internet that you are doing this from a trusted source.Install a Font:
- Go to Start
- Select Control Panel
- Select Appearance and Personalization
- Select Fonts
- Select File (if the File option is not visible, press the ALT key on your keyboard)
- Select Install New Font
- Select the drive where the fonts you are trying to add are located
- Select eh folder where your downloaded fonts are located
- Select the font that you would like to install
- Select Install
Uninstall a Font:
- Follow steps 1 – 4 above
- Select eh font that you would like to uninstall (to select multiple fonts, hold down the CTRL key then click each individual font)
- Select File
- Select Delete
If installing an updated driver creates system problems, you can rollback the driver to its pervious version. Here’s how:
Note: You must be logged in as the Administrator.
1. Go to Start
2. Select Control Panel
3. Select System and Maintenance
4. Select Device Manager (you may receive a UAC prompt for password information at this point)
5. Expand the category containing the device in question by double clicking the category.
6. Double click the device that contains the driver that you would like to rollback.
7. Select the Driver tab
8. Select Roll Back Driver
Note: If the Roll Back Driver button is not available, this means that there is no previous version for this device.
If you would like to either increase or decrease the size of your desktop icons quickly, here’s how:
- Click an open area of your desktop.
- While holding down the CTRL button on your keyboard, roll the scroll wheel on your mouse forward to “increase” the icon size and backwards to “decrease” its size.
The information contained in this article is useful to those that have installed the Windows Vista operating system using the “custom” installation.
When you perform a Custom Installation of Windows Vista, replacing a Windows XP installation. The old operating systems files will be created automatically in a Windows.old folder. This article will instruct users how they can retrieve thier personal files from the Windows.old file once their Windows Vista installation has been successfully installed.
The Windows.old folder contains the following from your replaced Windows XP installation:
- Windows XP files
- Documents and Settings
- Program Files
How To Locate The Windows.old Folder:
When the Windows.old folder is created in Windows Vista, here is where it can be found:
- Go to Start
- Type: drive:\windows.old in the Instant Search text box.
- Click to open the Windows.old file from the Programs list.
Note: You may be required to supply an Administrators password to access this folder.
Restore XPs My Documents Folder to Vista:
This is the most commonly restored folder from the old installation due to it typically having most of the personal files stored. It is advisable when restoring this folder to place it in Windows Vista’s “Documents” folder. However, you can relocate this folder where-ever you would like. Here’s how to restore the old My Documents folder:
- Locate your Windows.old folder.
- Open Windows.old and locate: Documents and Settings\UserName
- Right click the My Documents folder and select “Cut”.
- Go to Start>> Documents.
- Right click the Documents folderand select “Paste”.
Your XP My Documents folder will now reside in the Documents folder of Windows Vista.
Restore other personal files located in your Windows.old folder in the same mannor as outlined above. Once you are finished restoring all of the files that you need, you can safely delete the Windows.old folder.
Once you’ve got your computer set up, you probably want it to connect to the Internet, this can be a surprisingly confusing task at sometimes, and hopefully this will guide you through it.
First you must have an account of some type with an Internet Service Provider. This can be cable, DSL or good old dial-up. Which one you have will pretty much depend on where your computer is. In the city you’ve likely got high-speed and in the country you likely will have to settle for dial-up. This task usually takes care of itself really, ISPs will be glad to exchange your money for their service.
Once that is taken care of you have to connect your computer in the appropriate manner, plugging in a phone line to the modem for dial-up or connecting the networking cable for cable or DSL. If you get cable or DSL Mr. Installer guy will usually handle all the connection and likely the initial software setup, but we’ll walk through the software setups anyway.
Open up your Internet Explorer, choose Tools from the top menu and then select Internet Options.
The Internet Options window will open.
Choose the Connections tab and click Setup. This launches a wizard that will take you through the setup process.
The wizard if fairly self explanatory, but what you will need to have on hand when you begin is your account name and password as well as a phone number if you have a dial up connection. All of these things should be provided to you by your ISP.
You first want to select the ‘Connect to Internet’ option. Click Next to continue. You next want to select ‘Set up my connection manually’. Click Next to continue. Now you can follow along and fill in the right fields with the corresponding information and there you go, you’ll have Internet.
About mid-way through the Internet Connection Wizard you’ll run into some question pertaining to setting up and email account, that brings up to our next topic which is setting up your email account.
There are four basic things you need to set up your email account: An account name, password, a POP3 server name and a SMTP server name.
Again all four of these things should be provided to you by your ISP and the account name and password are likely the same as the ones for your Internet account.
The POP3 and SMTP server names will usually follow the pattern of pop3.company.com and smpt.company.com respectively; occasionally they will be simply the companyname.com
The first thing you’ll have to do in setting up and account is enter a display name, this will be the name that appears in the email boxes of other people, so using your own name is a good idea, next is your email address, this is usually provided to you by your ISP. Next is your incoming and outgoing servers, plug in the appropriate addresses and choose Next. Your account name and password are next and last once you put those in, provided by your ISP, you’re off and running.
he last section in the Tools tab of the Properties menu is the backup option. Backing up your hard drive serves several purposes. The main reason you should back up your hard drive is really fairly obvious, in the event your working hard drive fails if you have no back-up what so ever you’ll have lost everything that is on your disk, with virtually no way to recover it. But do you have to back up everything? Not really. If you have your programs on a CD there is really no need to actually back up the installed versions. What you want to back up are the files you have created and are vital to you.
To start the back up process click on Backup Now. The Backup or Restore Wizard window will open. Click Next to continue. The first option allows you to backup files and settings. Click Next to continue. You now have to choose what you want to back up. You either want to back up all your documents and settings or all of the information on your computer.
By backing up all of your documents you will still have all your files if your hard drive were to fail. Backing up all your information will create a System Recover Disk. A System Recover Disk will restore your system if your operating system were to become corrupt. It will not help if your hard drive dies.
Click Next to continue. Now you can either save a floppy disk in your A: drive or select a different location. Once you have designated where you want to save your backup click Next to continue.
Defragmenting your hard drive is a long process but it is also a very important one since it can speed up your computer and gain disk space.
What defragging does is re-organize the files on your drive. When you save files or add programs to your disk, the file system finds the first available space that is large enough to hold the files. When you delete programs or files they are taken out of their memory blocks wherever they may be on the drive. So what happens is that as time passes and files are created, save and installed as well as erased and deleted gaps of various size appear on your disk, defragging compacts the files on your disk to fit better at the front of the drive. When the disk defragmenter is done, it’s easier and quicker for the computer to access the files, and you save all of that space that was in little tiny bits here and there on your disk.
Before you begin stop all programs that are running. By having programs running while you try to defragment your disk will cause the defragmenter to restart over and over again.
Start defragging from the same place as you check for errors. This is accessible by right-clicking on your C: drive and selecting Properties. Open up the Disk Defragmenter dialogue under the Tools tab. Click the Defragment Now under the Defragmentation section.
The Disk Defragmenter window will open. To start running defrag click on Defragment.
When the defragmentation has started you will see a graphical interpretation of you disk in the area labeled ‘Estimated disk usage before defragmentation’.
Defragging is a good thing to do over night or when you know you won’t be using your computer for an hour or two. The first time you defragment will be the one that takes the longest, if you do it every month or two weeks thereafter it will take a much shorter amount of time.
To check for errors o pen My Computer by double-clicking the My Computer icon on your desktop or accessing My Computer in your Start menu. My Computer window will open and then right click on your C: drive.
Then select the Properties option.
Choose the Tools tab.
You will see three options; check for errors, defragment and back up.
The best thing to do first is to check for errors. This is because if you try to defragment your drive and it hasn’t been checked for errors, you’ll have to do that anyway. Checking for errors is a quick process that will scan the surface of your disk looking for inaccuracies.
Click the Check Now button under the Error-checking section of the Properties window. The Checking Disk window will open. Clicking OK will start the ScanDisk.
Checking the box marked ‘Automatically fix file system errors’ will only take effect on start-up and this message box will open.
If you do not select that option you can run ScanDisk immediately. Once this process is completed you may have fixed some errors or simply had some sections of your disk marked off so information won’t be stored in a corrupt section. You will receive a message when the ScanDisk has been completed.
If errors are found ScanDisk may offer to correct them. Choose Yes and then you can close the program.
First I’ll just mention a few of the basic things that you should or should not do when using a PC, unless of course the situation calls for it.
You should always let your computer boot up once Windows has started to load, interrupting Windows by shutting off will make your next boot up that much longer, because the computer will run through ScanDisk.
When ScanDisk does run it’s a good idea to, once in a while, let it run all the way through as it may find a bad sector that otherwise would be used to store data. If data is stored in a bad sector that data could be lost. If ScanDisk finds several bad sectors that may indicate that your hard disk is failing and will be nothing more than a doorstop in a week or two. If that is the case you will need to back up your system onto another drive to CDs otherwise all your information will be lost.
When you shut off your computer be sure to use the shut-down command doing so lets the computer shut-down all the running programs and properly turn off. Simply turning it off or pressing the restart button on the box will make it so that you have to run ScanDisk on the next start up. The exception to this is when the computer locks up, or freezes, and then there is no choice but to restart.
Input devices:
Input devices are simply the components that a person uses get data into a computer. The most basic input devices are a mouse and keyboard.
Keyboards:
In the following image, you can see a keyboard with a relatively standard 104 button layout. he next two keyboards are ‘multimedia’ keyboards. They are designed to allow quick access to various options through special buttons. The keyboard immediately below is a standard straight layout that you’ll see on most keyboards. The second keyboard has the ‘natural’ layout. For many people, it is much more comfortable. At first it may look strange but it takes very little time to get used to it.The Mouse:
The following image is a Microsoft mouse. As you can see it has 2 visible buttons and a center-mounted scroll wheel. The left button is used to select various objects on the screen, The right button will bring up a dialog box to allow you to select several other options/functions. As I said before, this mouse has 2 ‘visible’ buttons. It also has a 3rd button. It’s located ‘under’ the wheel. If you press the wheel down, the mouse produces a third function. There are typically several selectable functions for the center button. I usually set it to ‘double-click’. The ‘wheel’ on the mouse is typically for scrolling down a page but its function can change depending on the application (program) you’re running. For example, if you’re watching a video, the scroll may act as a volume control (since there is no need to scroll in a video). Sometimes, the software allows you to select the function of the wheel (volume, zoom, fast-forward/rewind speed…).
Notice that the mouse has what looks like a rather large plug on it. It’s actually a USB connector plugged into a USB-PS/2 adapter. If you wanted to connect the mouse to a USB port, you’d unplug it from the adapter and plug it directly into the USB port. I’ll cover the different types of ports later in the tutorial.
In the next image, you can see the bottom of two mice (mouses?). The one on the left is the older style mouse that uses a rubber coated metallic ball to transmit movement to the electronics inside the mouse. The mouse on the right is a newer style ‘optical’ mouse. To sense motion, the mouse uses an optical sensor. The surface on which the mouse is sitting is illuminated by the red LED. When the mouse is moved, the optical sensor can ’see’ the motion and moves the cursor (on the screen) accordingly. The optical system is generally better (no need to periodically clean the ball and the rollers in the mouse) but in the case of a wireless mouse, the optical system will draw more current (and therefore drain batteries more quickly than the ball type system. If you don’t need a wireless mouse, I’d strongly recommend buying an optical mouse. The Microsoft mouse shown is the best I’ve found.
Output Devices:
Output devices are simply the devices that allow you to ’see’ the data being produced by the computer. The most basic output device is the monitor. The printer is also an output device. For early computers, printers or plotters were the only output devices.
Note: The PS/2 plugs on the keyboards and mice are color coded. Later in the tutorial, you will see that the sockets are also color-coded.
Keyboard Basics:
The following are basic key functions. Most people already know this but I’ve found a few that didn’t so I’ll cover it briefly.
The ‘control’ key provides extended operations to several of the keys. In the following image, you can see many of the most common functions. To activate the function, you press and hold the control key and hit the appropriate button. For example, if you want to copy something, you would press and hold the control key and hit the ‘c’ on the keyboard (then release both buttons).
The F1 button is almost universally the ‘help’ button. Pressing it will bring up the help dialog box for the program you’re currently using.
The Shift key gives you the upper-case of whatever key is pressed while you’re holding the shift key down. It also gives you the characters above the numbers that lie along the top of the letters on the keyboard.
The Caps Lock key makes all letters that you type appear in upper-case form. It does not, however give you the characters above the numbers as the shift key does.
When pressed, the delete key deletes the character just to the ‘right’ of the cursor.
When pressed, the backspace key deletes the character just to the ‘left’ of the cursor.
This button is not used much anymore and only works in a few programs. The only program that I have that uses it is Excel. In Excel, if the scroll lock is ON, the arrow keys can be used to scroll the page without changing the ‘active’ or highlighted cell.
When active, this enables the numbers on the keypad. When the num-lock is not enabled, the numbers act the same as the keyboard ‘arrows’. The indicator lamp on the keyboard will let you know if it’s on or off.
On newer keyboards, you will have a ‘Windows’ button. It opens the start menu.
The Alt button acts similarly to the Ctrl button. It provides extended functions to some of the keys. For example, the ‘PrtScn’ button copies the screen to the clipboard (to be covered later). If you use Alt-PrtScn, you will copy only the active window to the clipboard. The Alt-PrtScn function is how I captured many of the sample windows in this tutorial.
These buttons scroll one full screen at a time.
These buttons send the text cursor to the left or the right of the line of text in which your text cursor is flashing. This only works in editable text areas.
Note: The keyboard shown above has functions not available on a standard keyboard. The ‘F’ keys on most keyboards don’t perform functions such as ‘Undo’ and ‘Redo’. Cleaning a Ball-Type Mouse:
On the ball-type mice, you will eventually have problems with tracking. Assuming that nothing on your desktop has changed, the problem will likely be that the rollers inside the mouse have become contaminated. The rollers transfer motion from the ball to the encoders. When they get dirty, they fail to roll properly and therefore, the encoders will not ’see’ the motion properly. Luckily, the problem is easily corrected. What you need to do is remove the ball retaining cover. It typically either slides off or unscrews ~1/4 turn. There should be some sort of arrow on the cover to tell you what to do. When you remove the cover, the ball will be free to fall out (just letting you know so you don’t have to bend down and pick it up off of the floor). When you get it open, you will see three rollers. Two of the rollers are active. The third is spring-loaded and is used to keep the ball in contact with the other rollers. All three rollers need to be free of foreign material. If you look at the following picture (a little disgusting, I know), you can see that the black roller has some gray material on it. It’s a combination of cloth and paper fibers and oil from the users hands. To clean it, use a dry paper towel and wipe sideways while rolling the roller a little on each pass. It may take quite a few passes to get it clean. When you think it’s clean, turn it by hand and make sure that it is actually clean. Do this on all three rollers. When finished, simply replace the ball and the retainer cover.
Virus:
Many people refer to all types of malware as viruses. To be more precise, viruses are malicious code that are designed to do damage. Some delete or corrupt files. These are the most damaging type of infection because you will, many times, lose important information.
Macro Virus:
If you’ve used spreadsheets or software like Word, you know that there are ‘macros’ that allow you to do common, repetitive tasks more easily. While these tools may be helpful, they are also a danger to your computer. If you open an infected document into a program that supports macros, the macro could perform some malicious task and cause you grief. If you don’t know who sent you the document, don’t open it.
Worm:
A worm is a self replicating piece of malware that copies itself onto as many computers as possible. This type of software can bog down networks but usually doesn’t purposely damage or delete files.
Trojan:
Trojans are malware the arrive within a seemingly benign piece of software or code. The malicious code can come in as a screensaver or even as an image file‡. They are designed to do several things but generally, they provide access to your computer to a hacker. Many times, the trojan will open a backdoor and allow access to information including passwords, personal information or any other information on your computer.
Hybrid:
Hybrids are malware that are a combination of one or more of the previous types of malicious code. These will likely become more and more common as the malware writers seek to inflict the most damage possible.
Adware:
Adware is software that is used to place ads on your computer. Typically, they are in the form of pop-ups. These are commonly loaded when you visit sites where you expect to get something (bootlegged/illegal software, free music…) for nothing. Some of offending software includes music download software (kazaa, grokster…), smiley face animations, screensavers, search bars (with a few exceptions), fancy cursors and in many circumstances codec packs. When you unpack/install the software, the installer program loads additional software onto your computer that spies on your surfing habits and loads ads to try to sell you something. These can easily overwhelm your computer and render it unusable.
To avoid problems with ads or undesirable tracking that are associated with any ‘free’ software, read the EULA (End User License Agreement) to learn the terms of use of the software you’re downloading. The EULA is the text that you typically blindly agree to when loading software. If the software manufacturer/author is honest, they will spell out all of the terms of use associated with the software. They should tell you what information is gathered and how it’s to be used. It should also tell you if other software is to be bundled with it. If other software is in the package, you may need to find the EULA for the respective software.
Dialer:
A dialer is a piece of software that uses your modem* to call very expensive sex chat lines. It can do this without your knowledge (until you get your phone bill).
*: Even if you have broadband service, you may still have a modem. Many people have the ability to send faxes with their computer. The fax software would require a standard phone line hook-up to be able to dial the other fax machines. If this is the case on your computer, be very careful about what software you download from the internet.
Keyloggers:
Malicious keyloggers (a form of trojan-horse malware) monitor and report keystrokes (on your keyboard) to a third party. Typically they are used to capture passwords and other sensitive information. The information collected is often used for credit card fraud. Some of the software recommended on this page detects a few keyloggers. If you want the best protection against this type of malware, you need to use a dedicated anti-keylogging program. A Google search should turn up quite a few. If you find one you think you want to use, do a search for it specifically to see if it’s a legitimate program. Check Major Geeks for applicable software.
CTRL-C:
When people first start to use computers, they may have little or no typing skills. This means that they are likely to make typos or type very slowly. If you highlight the needed text and use the ctrl-c (holding down the control key and pressing the c key) or the copy command from the edit menu, the selected text will be copied to the windows ‘clipboard’.
CTRL-A:
Ctrl-a is the ’select all’ command. It will select all text within the active text area (where the cursor is blinking). To make an area the active area, simply left click your mouse in the desired text area.
CTRL-V:
If you click in a text box (email, internet address, text editor…), ctrl-v (the ‘paste’ command) will paste the contents of the clipboard into the text area. The combination of ctrl-c and ctrl-v will make sure that you don’t make any mistakes when entering text.
CTRL-X:
Ctrl-x will also copy the selected text to the windows clipboard but it will (where possible) remove the selected text from the text area.
CTRL-S:
Ctrl-s will, on most applications, save a document.
CTRL-R:
In most browsers, ctrl-r will reload or refresh the page.
CTRL-F:
In most browsers (and some other applications), ctrl-f will bring up the ‘find’ dialog box. This will allow you to search for words (topics) on long web pages. If the site uses frames, you will have to click inside the proper frame of the web page to set the ‘focus’ on that frame then you’d use ctrl-f as you’d do on a non-frames page.
CTRL-Z:
Ctrl-z will (in many programs) undo, the last action. If you delete something and decide that you didn’t really want to delete it, ctrl-z will generally undo what you’ve done. Some programs only allow you to undo a single operation where others allow multiple undo operations. Read the owner’s manual or help file of the software before you rely on ctrl-z to undo more than one operation.
CTRL-Y:
Ctrl-y operates much like ctrl-z but it redoes a command or operation that was undone. Sometimes it will redo a command multiple times but that function is even more rare than multiple undo. This command can vary from quite a bit in different software. Check the software’s manual for more info.
Print Screen:
The ‘PrtScn’ button on your keyboard will take a snapshot of whatever is displayed on your monitor. This image will be placed on the Windows clipboard (it will be temporarily stored). If you use a program like Irfan View, you can paste the image and save it or crop (remove the unnecessary areas) it and save it onto your hard drive.
Alt Print Screen:
Alt-PrtScn does essentially the same thing as the previous shortcut but it only captures the top/active window. If you have several windows open, the top-most window will be captured.
——————————————————————————– NetiquetteNetiqutte (internet etiquette) is something you should observe when visiting some sites. If you’re posting a message to a respectful site, person or forum, you should use the proper etiquette. Of course, if you’re on a site that resembles the wild west in manners, there’s really no point, is there? Below is a list of the most common offenses.
Typing in CAPITAL Letters:
Some people (mostly newbies) have a tendency to type in all capital letters. On the net, using all capital letters is SHOUTING. Besides being hard to read, it is VERY annoying. If you’re looking for help on the net and have to email or post a question, type the message with proper capitalization, grammar and spelling. If you’re asking well educated people for help, they will appreciate the extra time you take to make the message easy to understand.
Newsgroups and Pictures:
Most newsgroups do not accept pictures. If you send an image to a newsgroup that doesn’t have ‘binaries’ in its name, ask before posting the image. If you post an image to a non-binary newsgroup, your image may be deleted, your message may be deleted and/or you’ll probably receive no help. This is considered to be a serious offense and is considered to be extremely rude. If you want to know what the newsgroup allows, read its charter. This is a link to a newsgroup charter search. Click here for other newsgroup resources.
Email Attachments:
An attachment is any file that’s sent out with your email. Small sig files and other text files will generally be no problem for recipients. If you’re going to send an image or other large file, ask the recipient if it’s OK. Even if they don’t tell you that it bothers them, most people will get ticked-off if you continue to send files that cause excessive download times. If you want to distribute images, upload the image to a server and send them a link to the image. It’s very easy to do and it allows them to download the image at their leisure. Most people who have internet access, have server space allotted to them by their ISP (Internet Service Provider).
Subject Message:
When posting a message to a newsgroup or forum, include informative text in the subject text area. If you just say help something similarly vague, many otherwise helpful people will completely avoid the post. If they’re going to help people, they don’t want to have to read every post to determine which questions to which they’ll try to respond.
HTML or Plain Text Messages:
If you’re sending email or posting messages, send them in plain text unless you know that the group or person can or wants to receive HTML messages. A simple message like ‘Hello, How are you doing?‘ will look like the following code to people and groups that aren’t prepared to receive HTML posts. As you can see, without the highlighted text, it would be very difficult to understand the message. You should also realize that the total amount of data for the HTML version is more than 17 times the plain text version for this example (25 bytes vs 440 bytes). Posting in plain text, where possible, will reduce bandwidth usage and free up internet resources for everyone. This is especially important for usenet and mailing lists (where your message will be sent to tens of thousands of computers and servers).
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE></TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR=”#FFFFFF”>
<P><FONT FACE=”Arial” COLOR=”Green”><B>Hello,</B></FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE=”AvantGarde Md BT” COLOR=”Teal” SIZE=”4″><I>How are you doing?</I><B></B></FONT></P>
</BODY>
</HTML>
——————————————————————————– MiscellaneousExtended ASCII Characters:
If you ever wondered how people produce some of those strange characters in their messages, well… Some of them are extended ASCII characters. They are produced by holding down the ‘alt’ key, typing a zero, then the appropriate 3 digit code and then releasing the alt key. Nothing will show up until the alt key is released. The following codes and characters are a partial list of the extended ASCII characters.
| 129 | 154 | š | 179 | ³ | 204 | Ì | 230 | æ | |
| 130 | ‚ | 155 | › | 180 | ´ | 205 | Í | 231 | ç |
| 131 | ƒ | 156 | œ | 181 | µ | 206 | Î | 232 | è |
| 132 | „ | 157 | 182 | ¶ | 207 | Ï | 233 | é | |
| 133 | … | 158 | 183 | · | 208 | Ð | 234 | ê | |
| 134 | † | 159 | Ÿ | 184 | ¸ | 209 | Ñ | 235 | ë |
| 135 | ‡ | 160 | 185 | ¹ | 210 | Ò | 236 | ì | |
| 136 | ˆ | 161 | ¡ | 186 | º | 211 | Ó | 237 | í |
| 137 | ‰ | 162 | ¢ | 187 | » | 212 | Ô | 238 | î |
| 138 | Š | 163 | £ | 188 | ¼ | 213 | Õ | 239 | ï |
| 139 | ‹ | 164 | ¤ | 189 | ½ | 214 | Ö | 240 | ð |
| 140 | Œ | 165 | ¥ | 190 | ¾ | 216 | Ø | 241 | ñ |
| 141 | 166 | | | 191 | 217 | Ù | 242 | ò | ||
| 142 | 167 | § | 192 | À | 218 | Ú | 243 | ó | |
| 143 | 168 | ¨ | 193 | Á | 219 | Û | 244 | ô | |
| 144 | 169 | © | 194 | Â | 220 | Ü | 245 | õ | |
| 145 | ‘ | 170 | ª | 195 | Ã | 221 | Ý | 246 | ö |
| 146 | ’ | 171 | « | 196 | Ä | 222 | Þ | 248 | ø |
| 147 | “ | 172 | ¬ | 197 | Å | 223 | ß | 249 | ù |
| 148 | ” | 173 | | 198 | Æ | 224 | à | 250 | ú |
| 149 | • | 174 | ® | 199 | Ç | 225 | á | 251 | û |
| 150 | – | 175 | ¯ | 200 | È | 226 | â | 252 | ü |
| 151 | — | 176 | ° | 201 | É | 227 | ã | 253 | ý |
| 152 | ˜ | 177 | ± | 202 | Ê | 228 | ä | 254 | þ |
| 153 | ™ | 178 | ² | 203 | Ë | 229 | å |
——————————————————————————– AcronymsLOL:
Laughing Out Loud
ROTFLMAO:
: Rolling On The Floor Laughing My @$$ Off (censored)
BRB:
Be Right Back (~I’ll be right back)
BTW:
By The Way
IIRC:
If I Recall Correctly
TTFN:
Ta Ta For Now
AFAIK:
As Far As I Know
IMHO:
In My Humble Opinion
TIA:
Thanks In Advance
FWIW:
For What It’s Worth
IOW:
In Other Words
FAQ:
Frequently Asked Questions
FYI:
For Your Information
WYSIWYG:
What You see Is What You Get It refers to software packages that produce output that is precisely what you see on your monitor. Ex. Some web page design packages produce a final output that is the same as what’s on your monitor. This is very different from the code generated by the software that’s responsible for the WYSIWYG input.
<g>:
grin- generally indicates the message was cute or humorous
——————————————————————————– Internet TermsFlame:
If you ask a stupid question you will get ‘flamed’. IOW, everyone will let you know that what you did or said was less than desirable.
Newbie:
Someone that’s new to a group (newsgroup) or the like.
Troll:
Someone that purposely posts messages that will result in many flame type responses. IOW, someone trying to start trouble in a group.
The word network can be used to describe a very large and complicated set of equipment. In its most accurate and simplest definition a network refers to the cables and electronic components that amplify the signals going through the cables. The amplifying equipment is necessary to ensure accurate communication and make the signal stronger if it needs to go long distances.
Broader DefinitionWhen many people talk about a network, they are talking about a network using a very broad concept. For instance if someone cannot get to their email, they may say “the network is down”. Likewise they may say this if they cannot surf the internet or get to their files. They may not stop to think that in each specific instance there is a single piece of equipment that may provide the capability which they are trying to use. Most people who work on a corporate or organizational network think about the network in component parts. The three main parts are:
|
Services
Services include:
- Email service
- File service – Allows users to use and share file space on a computer with a lot of file space.
- Print service – Allows printing to printers connected on the network.
- Web surfing – Allowing someone to open web pages and see web sites on the internet.
- Filtering out undesired sites on the internet.
- Allowing someone to access the network from the outside (from home).
- Updating virus definitions on workstations.
- Allowing someone to log onto the network.
- Even giving a workstation an address on the network is a service. If your computer does not have an address, it cannot access the internet or any other resource on the network.
The terms computer program, software program, or just program are the instructions for a computer.[1] A computer requires programs to function, and a computer program does nothing unless its instructions are executed by a central processor.[2] Computer programs refer to either an executable program or the source code from which an executable program is derived (e.g., compiled).
Computer source code is often written by professionals known as computer programmers. Source code is written in a programming language that follows one of two main paradigms: imperative or declarative. Source code may be converted into an executable image by a compiler. Once an executable image is requested to be run, the central processor executes the program, instruction by instruction, until termination. Alternatively, computer programs may be executed immediately with the aid of an interpreter, generated by other computer programs, or may be embedded directly into hardware.
Computer programs may be categorized along functional lines: system software and application software. And many computer programs may run simultaneously on a single computer, a process known as multitasking.
A computer is a device that accepts information (in the form of digitalized data) and manipulates it for some result based on a program or sequence of instructions on how the data is to be processed. Complex computers also include the means for storing data (including the program, which is also a form of data) for some necessary duration. A program may be invariable and built into the computer (and called logic circuitry as it is on microprocessors) or different programs may be provided to the computer (loaded into its storage and then started by an administrator or user). Today’s computers have both kinds of programming. Most histories of the modern computer begin with the Analytical Engine envisioned by Charles Babbage following the mathematical ideas of George Boole, the mathematician who first stated the principles of logic inherent in today’s digital computer. Babbage’s assistant and collaborator, Ada Lovelace, is said to have introduced the ideas of program loops and subroutines and is sometimes considered the first programmer. Apart from mechanical calculators, the first really useable computers began with the vacuum tube, accelerated with the invention of the transistor, which then became embedded in large numbers in integrated circuits, ultimately making possible the relatively low-cost personal computer.
Modern computers inherently follow the ideas of the stored program laid out by John von Neumann in 1945. Essentially, the program is read by the computer one instruction at a time, an operation is performed, and the computer then reads in the next instruction, and so on. Recently, computers and programs have been devised that allow multiple programs (and computers) to work on the same problem at the same time in parallel. With the advent of the Internet and higher bandwidth data transmission, programs and data that are part of the same overall project can be distributed over a network and embody the Sun Microsystems slogan: “The network is the computer.”
