Doug Bob's PC Info

Outlook 2003 will not completely close. Outlook 2003 remains running after I close it.

DougBob — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:40:00 GMT

Description: After using outlook to check my mail, I close Outlook 2003 the process keeps running and the icon remains on the task tray. If I have the option to "Use Microsoft Office Word 2003 to edit e-mail messages" selected the winword.exe also remains running. I have had this problem for a few months now and finally got tired of it and was determine to figure out what was going on.

Problem: After some checking of COM Add-Ins... and the Add-In Manager... I found the iTunes Outlook Addin was keeping Outlook from completely closing and allowing it to constantly check email after it was closed.

Resolution: To resolve this issue and stop the rogue Addin from keeping outlook open for it's own use perform the following procedure:

1. If not already, open Outlook.
2. Click on Tools and select Options
3. Select the Other tab and click on the [Advanced Options...] button.
4. Click on the [COMM Add-Ins...] button.
5. De-select the iTunes Outlook Addin and click on the [Ok] button.
6. Click on the [Ok] button to close the Advance Options window.
7. Click on the [Ok] button to close the Options window.
8. Close Outlook, by click on the X in the upper right of the outlook window or select File > Exit.
9. Reboot your computer or just logout and log back in again to ensure outlook.exe is completely closed.
10. Launch outlook and verify it actually closes when you tell it too.

{PC INFO Tip} If you are familiar with Task Manager, you can use it to ensure the outlook.exe process is closed instead of rebooting or logging off the machine.

Facebook with not display a friend I just added to a Friend List.

DougBob — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 05:00:00 GMT

FOLLOW UP: It appears the latest Firefox update 3.5.7 may have resolved this issue.

Problem: This is a very interesting problem that I had and it only existed in Firefox 3. I use list to organize friends from work, home town, etc. I recently added a friend to one of the list. When I went back to All Friends and selected the friend list that I added them to, they did not show up.

While checking the problem I was curious is IE 8 and Google Chome had the same problem and they did NOT. So now I had it isolated to a FireFox problem. I spent about an hour trying to figure out why it was not displaying. I out of curiousity figured it might be a caching problem so I tried deleting offline files and reducing the size to 1 MB. This made no difference and the problem still existed.

Out of frustration I uninstalled firefox and reinstalled it, which to my surprise the re-installing Firefox did NOT fix the problem.

I will post a resolution if I find it, but I just wanted to get this out there so you would know your are not crazy in case you have the same problem.

FOLLOW UP: This is very interesting. I didn't find a fix for firefox, but I did determine it is definetly a Firefox unique problem. IE 8 and Google Chrome to NOT have this problem. I have or at least tried submitting a trouble ticket to Firefox, but it was a pain. Seems they don't take problem reports very easily.

Anyway if you have this problem, use another browser to edit your lists.

How To Change FaceBook Security settings - Updated with latest FB privacy settings.

DougBob — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:08:00 GMT

This How-To will give you an idea of how to make your FaceBook account a little more secure.

{PCINFO TIP} It may be useful if you open this page in one browser window and your facebook account in another.

The following steps will show you how to get to the privacy area of you Facebook account and make a few changes so only the people you want can see your information.

1. Login to you face book account.

2. Left mouse click on Account shown on the right here:


3. Once the dropdown menu below appears, click on Privacy Settings:


4. From the privacy Page {shown below} click on the Profile Information link:

5. From the Privacy > Profile page {shown below} you can edit who you wish to see each
area of information.
{PCINFO TIP} I recommend for each of the fields you select Only Friends. Also while on this page you can see how someone else views you information by checking out the PCINFO TIP at the bottom of this page.

{PCINFO TIP:} Secure your photos using the "Edit Photo Albums Privacy Settings" too. This will display a similiar screen with settings for each of your photo albums.

Selections available for each part of your Facebook show to the left.

NOTE: Your changes are saved as you make them.

6. One you have finished making the changings you want, at the top left, click on the [Back to Privacy] button.

7. Now you are back at the Privacy Settings page, click on the Contact Information Link and set each of the privacy settings the way you want them.
NOTE: Remember to click on the [Back to Privacy] button when you are finished to save your changes and return to the main Privacy Settings page.

8. Once you have completed your Contact Information settings and have clicked the [Back to Privacy] button, click on the Applications and Websites link and configure these settings the way you want them.

NOTE: Each of the areas of the Applications and Websites page is pretty self explanatory. Remember to use the [Back to Privacy] button to return to the main Privacy page.

9. If you haven't already ensure you completed your Applications and Websites settings and have clicked the [Back to Privacy] button to return to the main Privacy page

10. Click on the Search link and the following page will display.

NOTE: If the following popup displays after clicking the Seach link, click on the [Close] button to close it.

{PCINFO TIP} Ensure you uncheck the Allow checkbox for Public Search Results unless you want search engines to index you page information.

11. Click the [Back to Privacy] button until you return to the main Privacy page.

12. Now go thru each section again just as a double check to ensure you have set your privacy settings the way you want them and to verify the changes are still in place.

{PCINFO TIP}
Want to know what your page looks like for someone else. Periodically use the following buttom to show what you page may look like to someone else.

Linux error: "Your session only lasted less than 10 seconds. If you have not logged out yourself, this could mean that there is some installation problem or you may be out of diskspace. Try logging in with one of the failsafe sessions to see if you can fi

DougBob — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:06:00 GMT

Description:

When a normal non-administrator user tries to logon to the linux machine they get the following error:
"Your session only lasted less than 10 seconds. If you have not logged out yourself, this could mean that there is some installation problem or you may be out of diskspace. Try logging in with one of the failsafe sessions to see if you can fix the problem."

Problem:
The /tmp directory lost it's correct persmissions.

Fix:
Open a terminal window and as root run the following command:
chmod 1777 /tmp

Calibrating a laptop Battery in Vista

DougBob — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 08:33:00 GMT

PROBLEM:
Unlike previous versions of Windows, Vista does not have a way to calibrate your battery for those laptops that do not have a BIOS option to do so.
In previous version you just set all the power options to NEVER and the laptop would run until the battery completely discharges.
In Vista the NEVER or Do Nothing option is not available for the "Critical battery action" > "On battery"
This means the only way to accomplish this is for the OS to run until all power is gone and it turns off. I don't mean windows turns it off, but it just turns off due to loss of power. It's not graceful and I highly do not recommend anyone performing this procedure unless you are an advanced admin that is willing to accept the potential consequences in case the OS is crashed and not recoverable.

Use following procedure to create a new power scheme for critical action on battery to "Do Nothing(0)".

{PCINFO CAUTION: This setting is only for running the battery completely down. It may cause loss of date and you need to make sure you are doing nothing when the batter runs out and the system turns off. This setting will not allow the computer to shutdown, hibernate or sleep. It will just turn off.}

Method One:
1. Create Start > Control Panel and double click Power Options
2. Click Create a power plan on the left side of window
3. Select the Power Saver radio button
4. In the Plan Name field, type the name you want to call the power plan, i.e. Battery Calibration
5. Click the [Next] button.
6. Click the [Create] button.
{PCINFO NOTE: At this point your new power plan is active and you can choose to change other settings in the plan, (i.e. "Put the computer to sleep" to "Never"), from the Select a power plan window that is active or just close the window and continue.}
7. Change the Critical battery action to Do Nothing by clicking Start > Run or Windows Key+R and
type powercfg -setdcvalueindex scheme_current sub_battery batactioncrit 0
8. Click on the [OK] button.
9. Use the laptop as normal and stop any work before the battery runs out.
{PCINFO NOTE: Remember to change back to your normal power scheme once you boot the laptop.}
10. After the laptop battery is completely discharge reconnect you powersupply and turn on the laptop.
11. Once the laptop boots, login and restore your previous Battery critical action by using Control Panel > Power Options and change you plan settings for your current power scheme back to the way you had it or use the same command in step 7 as follows:
Use the following command for Setting you critical battery action to Sleep
powercfg -setdcvalueindex scheme_current sub_battery batactioncrit 1

Use the following command for Setting you critical battery action to Hibernate
powercfg -setdcvalueindex scheme_current sub_battery batactioncrit 2

Use the following command for Setting you critical battery action to Shut down
powercfg -setdcvalueindex scheme_current sub_battery batactioncrit 3

How to turn on Windows Firewall in XP

DougBob — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 05:27:00 GMT

Use the following method to turn on windows firewall.

{PCINFO: Windows Firewall is the default firewall built into Windows XP Home and XP Pro. It blocks unwanted network traffic and aids in preventing users from hacking a computer or non-authorized programs i.e. trojans from connecting to the internet from your computer.}

Method One:
1. Click on Start > Control Panel.
2. Double click on the Windows Firewall icon and a Windows firewall window will open.
3. Select the On(recommended) radio button to turn the firewall on.
4. Click on the [OK] button in the Windows Firewall window and the selection will be saved and the window will close.

How To Fan Mod a MSI NX8800GT-T2D512E-OC

DougBob — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:38:00 GMT

Just wanted to share a little information with you in case you have a video card overheating due to poor engineering like I did. This is advanced information, so you novices, don't try this at home without someone experienced assisting you.

My SLI video card configuration of 2x8800GT had a very bad problem over heating when they were under a heavy graphics load like playing COD4 or Crysis. This resulted in a lot of lockup during game play which was really annoying.

Normal operating temps for the card were as follows:

Normal temps during idle conditions:

Normal room temp:	65 to 70 F 18.3 to 21.1 C
GPU1 avg idle temp:	140 F 60 C
GPU2 avg idle temp:	134.6 F 57 C

Normal temps during game play of COD4:

Normal room temp:	65 to 70 F 18.3 to 21.1 C
GPU1 avg idle temp:	194 90 C
GPU2 avg idle temp:	183.2 F 84 C

The temp that pushed me over the edge and I finally made my mind up to fix it was 96C/204.8C
So, with out further delay, let's get to it. A lot of pics and maybe some explaination to help in case anyone out there wants to give it a try.

So first here's what we're working with. This is the video card, single slot wide with a metal case and small fan.
The item below it is the excellent Thermaltake CL-G0102 DuOrb VGA Cooler

So, to begin, we have to get the metal side casing off in order to remove the old heat sink. So, as shown below in the 2 different pics, we find the slots holding the casing in place.

Once the fastening points are located you have to very carefully use a screw driver or similiar type tool to gently pry away the casing from around the metal tabs on holding it in place.
Here's a couple pics as an example. I can't stress enough how careful you need to be, these cards have surface mount micro components, resistor, capacitors, op-amps, etc, that you could snap off and not even realize it.

NOTE: The case isn't just going to fall off, all your trying to do here is get the slots away from the tabs so you can move it when ready. The next step is coming. Be patent and don't rush, knuckle head!

After you done a little losening of the case, it's not going to just fall off I said, stop it.
Now you have to use the screw driver to slowly pry the case away from the heat sink that is still firmly attached with a seal around the fan intake area. The seal needs to slowly give way as you move the case away from the heat sink.
Here's a pic showing where I started at.

I slowly lifted the casing away from the heat sink.

Now, here it is after I got pryed it away. You can see the ring where the seal was holding it in place.

Now there are 10 screws you have to remove in order to remove the heat sink from the card.

Once these screws are removed, you're going to lay the card down and slowly flip the entire, rather large, heat sink assembly over so you can disconnect the fan power cable as shown below.

Notice that high quality thermal coupling they had between the heat sink and components.
I'm joking in case you didn't get it. This design was terrible!

See the connector, slowly disconnect it and don't force it.

Once the fan power is disconnected, We can begin the fun part
That would be the cleaning of the memory, GPU and op-amps.
As shown below, I layed out the following supplies:

1. 91% medical grade alcohol
NOTE: Don't mess with that crappy rubbing stuff. There is too much water and it leaves residue. Take my word for it, I know from 22+ years experience.
2. Plenty of que tips
3. A paper plate
4. A shot glass (To put the some alcohol in, don't drink it knuckle head)
5. A couple paper towels(get the whole roll it you like)
6. Some Arctic Silver ASTA-7G (2-PC-SET) Premium Silver Thermal Adhesive (For use on the Memory and op-amp only)
7. Some Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
8. The heat sinks and other parts from the Tt coolers(Tt=Thermaltake)

Now that your prepared to clean. You're going to do the following:

1. Put about 1 inch of alcohol in the shot glass.
2. Use one que tip per memory chip, only wetting one end of the que tip with alcohol so you can use the other end to dry and wipe off the dirt and excess alcohol.
NOTE: Clean the chips using a circular motion while gently applying a little pressure. When you think the chip is clean, use the other end of the que tip to dry off the excess alcohol.
3. Use two que tips to clean the GPU (be careful here, there are 4 rows of micro resistors along each side of the GPU)
4. Use one que tip to clean the op-amps.
Reference the pic below to identify the components:

Now that should have taken you a little while, here are 2 pics, one it should NOT look like and the other what your cleaning should have resulted in. Yeah right!!!

This is NOT clean!!!!

This IS clean Notice the mirror look on the GPU.

Ok, folks, now you have a clean card or at least the places your mounting heat sinks should be clean. Remember you're going to use the adhesive compound on the memory and op-amps and the plain old Artic Silver Thermal compound on the GPU.

Don't mix the thermal adhesive yet, you still have a little more work to do I said that already didn't I
Oh well, I said it again

Now, you have to remove the backing from the heat sinks and clean off the sticky gunk they thought for some reason would work. Well it won't Gomer, so, get to work.

1. Remove the sticky back
2. Use your thumb or finger to remove the sticky stuff from each and every heat sink your going to use. It may hurt a little but I'm sure some of you won't have a problem, it's just like rolling a booger off your finger, keep pushing and pushing until you get it off the heat sink, AND DON"T FLICK IT.
3. Once you get all the sticky gunk off the heat sinks, back to the alcohol and que tip method to clean off the rest of the left over residue from the heat sinks. You want these things really clean and don't use a knife or something to cheat and try and get the sticky stuff off that way. All you're going to do it scratch the things up, so STOP IT.
4. Now, you have them clean, so you're ready to mount the first one. Pick one of the memory chips for a guinea pig and apply a little of the thermal adhesive to it. Not too much, all it has to be is just enough to cover it when you seat the heat sink on it. Remember, your putting the compound on the component, not the heat sink.
5. Once you have the right amount of thermal adhesive in place, carefully place the heat sink on the guinea pig and apply very light pressure while slowly moving the heatsink in a little circular motion. This is only to spread the adhesive around and ensure the top of the chip is covered and good thermal contact is made.
NOTE: If you got thermal adhesive oozing out of everywhere you messed up. Clean it and do it again, BEFORE it hardens
6. Once you get the first test one mounted, repeat for the rest.
NOTE: You'll notice in my pic below I used one of the long heat sinks for the bottom op-amps and two square heat sinks for the other 2 sets. Be careful not to let the heat sinks touch the contacts on any components before them. Plus be very careful when putting the compound on the tiny little op-amps. There not much surface space there and it only takes enough to cover them with a very thin coat and not ooze over the sides.

Once you have all the heat sinks mounted it should look like this:

Let them set for 5+ minutes before continuing on to mount the main Fan assembly.

Now once you're ready, follow the instructions for the DuOrbs and be careful when mounting it and ensure to use the right set of screws. The screws are the dual ended ones and there are 2 sets, one for more space between the fan base and the card, the other set a little shorter. You have to ensure you use the ones that will allow the fans copper base to come into good thermal contact with the top of the GPU.

When it's mounted it will look like this.

Now I want you to notice something in the pic of the back of the card. See the nuts and how much they stick out. Since I run in SLI mode, I had to grind off about 3/4 of the length so it would not contact the other card. Of course I used a bench grinder and vise grips since otherwise a dremel would have been a real pain to hold onto

Well that's pretty much it. Once you get the card(s) mounted back in the PC I think you'll enjoy the light show it gives off
Oh, I'm not covering how to mount the card back in the case and hooking up the fan power connector. I figure if you're doing this and you don't know how to do that, there better be an experience person helping you.

Cheers and enjoy the last few pics below and I put the temp results of the fantastic mod at the bottom, enjoy and have fun.

RESULTS OF MOD, Thank you Thermaltake DuOrbs, you rock.
These cards have NEVER ran this cool when idle and I should note the previous high temp during game play were with the factory fans running at 100%. These DuOrbs are much quiter and you can't beat the out come

Normal temps during idle conditions:

Normal room temp:	65 to 70 F 18.3 to 21.1 C
GPU1 avg idle temp:	114.8 F 46 C
GPU2 avg idle temp:	109.4 F 44 C

Normal temps during game play of COD4:

Normal room temp:	65 to 70 F 18.3 to 21.1 C
GPU1 avg idle temp:	156.2 69 C
GPU2 avg idle temp:	136.4 F 58 C

Video doesn't work with Solaris in Virtual PC 2007

DougBob — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:10:00 GMT

Ok, here's one I just stumbled across the fix on. Ever since I install Solaris in a Virtual PC environment I haven't been able to get video. It appeared it was a sync problem, but my experience hope it was something as simple as a color depth problem and that's what all the research pointed to. The resolution was actually simple and it was due to the way the Solaris 10 manages X11 now.

Problem: Video appears double scanned when running Solaris 10 in a Virtual PC 2007 environment.

Fix: Usually from the windows you can see well enough to start a command line boot. Boot into a command line interface and perform the following procedure to change video color depth to 8 instead of 24 which Virtual PC does not support:

# svccfg <ENTER>
svc:> select application/x11/x11-server <ENTER>
svc:/application/x11/x11-server> listprop options/default_depth <ENTER>
options/default_depth integer 24
 
svc:/application/x11/x11-server> setprop options/default_depth = 8 <ENTER>
svc:/application/x11/x11-server> listprop options/default_depth <ENTER>
options/default_depth integer 8
 
svc:/application/x11/x11-server> end <ENTER>
#

CREDIT: I want to give all credit to the site I found this on which of course was http://docs.sun.com and of course to Sun Microsystems. Thanks guys, great information.

Mouse doesn't work with Ubunto in Virtual PC 2007 environment

DougBob — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:40:00 GMT

Here's a problem I had a while back when setting up Ubunto in VPC 2007. I found the fix somewhere else, but I can't remember what site to give them credit. Who ever it was, thanks a hundred times for the info and I just wanted to break it down a little to add to the available sites the fix can be found at.

Problem: Installed Ubunto version 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic in a Virtual PC 2007 environment. Video was detected with no problem but the mouse recognized properly. Tried different mouse types in configuration files but none worked.

Fix:
To fix this problem, perform the following procedure to update the /boot/grub/menu.lst file as follows:

1. Boot the VPC 2007 Ubunto environment.
2. Log on as the user you created during the install.
3. Using the keyboard, since the mouse is not available, press ALT+F1 to open the Applications drop down menu.
4. Open a terminal window by using the arrow keys navigate to Accessories > Terminal and press the <ENTER> key.
5. In order to have permissions to write to the file, enter the following to switch user to root:
    su   -   <ENTER>
6. Backup the file by entering:
    cd /boot/grub <ENTER>
    cp -p menu.lst menu.lst.orig
7. Update the file as follows, I listed what my option looks like, yours will be slightly different. The actual edit you are performing is appending the 'i8042.noloop' option to the end of the kernel line for the main boot option. You'll see about 3 boot definitions at the end of the file. Find the main one, not the recovery mode line, unless you want to add it to that one also.

FROM:
title       Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic
root        (hd0,0)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=65dd91f8-72d7-4986-b714-c76324dbf61b ro quiet splash
initrd      /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
quiet

TO: (Added i8042.noloop to end of the kernel line)
title       Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic
root        (hd0,0)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=65dd91f8-72d7-4986-b714-c76324dbf61b ro quiet splash i8042.noloop
initrd      /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
quiet

Save the file and reboot your VPC using the reboot command. Hopefully you'll be good to go and have a working mouse in VPC for your Ubunto. I'm sure this will be fixed in later versions of Ubunto, but right now this fix works great. Happy Linux'ing

Vista, is it worth it? (Followup)

DougBob — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 03:10:00 GMT

Well, after using Vista since it came out I figured I would follow up with what I've experienced so far.
The main question I attempted to answer at the start was is Vista worth the upgrade. I still stand by my original statement. Vista is a well deserved improvement. I have encountered problems while using Vista and the main one I have not isolated to the real cause.
Let me expand on that. During my use of Vista I have traveled with my laptop on business and used it as the primary means of work while on the road. I have no complaints! The functionality is sound, the driver support is still lacking from third party vendors. Unfortunated some vendors have still not provided realiable drivers for hardware included in some laptops and desktops purchased with the Vista Ready logo.
My personal challenge with Vista occurred sometime during installs of non-approved drivers or advanced software. The symptom was simple, it kept locking up or rebooting daily, sometimes multiple times daily.
After weeks of trying to isolate the problem, which I had almost convinced myself it was hardware due to certain indications like high heat and sounds during the lockup that was very familiar to the old sounds you use to get when a DMA conflict occurred on old machines with 95 and 98. To eliminate hardware as a possibility once and for all I restored a image I had previously created of Windows Media Center. To my amazement it performed flawless, no lockups even during the high heat I witnessed before.
With this new experience I ran the system for 2 weeks just to make sure and never had a problem. After the 2 weeks were up I reinstalled Vista reformatting the harddrive to ensure it was a clean install. That was mid October and I'm happy to say I have not had a lockup, reboot or any other sign of instability with Vista. My conclusion was it was something I had installed causing a serious conflict, wheather it was a driver(video, sound, etc.) or software like a Network monitor or such.
The reason, despite the problem I have encountered, I still say Vista is a much needed improvement over XP is once you get over the reluctance to change and adapt to it differences, Vista functions very well and provides a much needed engine overhaul, plus a change of eye candy some people believe is all Vista is. The enhancements such as thread handling to mention one is a step in the right direction to provide a stable and manageable OS that is not matching Unix yet, but is closer.
Bottom line and I'll quit rambling on!
  Should a person currently using XP Home or XP Pro run out and purchase Vista since it's the latest and greatest. The answer is no, Just cause is not the reason. If your current OS is performing good for you and meeting you needs, I would keep it until the support for XP is deprecated or you hardware needs upgrading and you want to purchase a new computer.
If you are a advanced individual that loves trying the new releases and learning new ways things work by all means go get it.  You will get a kick out of some of the logging, advanced firewall settings, etc.  Microsoft has added.
If you have heard stories of how Vista is such a resource hog and it needs all this memory and runs so much slower than XP, stop listening to people. First no one in their right mind can expect a new OS with such a engine overhaul to perform the same or better using the same amount of memory and hardware specs. Second, the performance of Vista is slower, but to the average person, you won't notice it. If you have the right hardware, yeah yeah, better faster hardware the common fix it solution, you will not notice a difference.
For the advanced individual, get over the flaws they will be fixed and after a few years the next OS will be even better, but you sure don't want to miss learning and digging into Vista.
I don't know if any of this helps, but keep an open mind and remember never be scared to use something because you know your current setup by heart and don't want to change the way you do things.

Vista, Is it worth it?

DougBob — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 13:52:00 GMT

Well, I have been using Vista on my HP laptop since I got my free upgrade in March. I have reserved my opinion and been very thorough in my analysis of the new OS and here's my conclusion. Microsoft has done it again. I didn't think they could improve much on the stable XP Pro version, but from the information and personal experience I give Vista a big "Good Job". If you're happy with the copy of XP Home or Pro you currently have and you are not experiencing any problems I would say your fine where your at, but, if you like staying up on things and improving your experience and reliability I would say go ahead and upgrade. Do not bother with the Home Basic version, go ahead and jump to the Home Premium Vista.
I can't say I take upgrading my OS lightly, but I will say I like change and just because of that, Vista is a good improvement for me. There are a lot of under the hood improvements not to mention just the plain old look and feel experience. All always, whether or not some individuals do not believe it; Microsoft has done their usual good implementation of customer suggestions.
One of the best improvements in my opinion is the search function they have tied or integrated a tighter with their file indexing system. Not only does it find the files you have set to keep in your indexing, which defaults to your document area or home directory, but it also will return hits within the files. What I mean is if you’re looking for a specific word, not just a file name it will tell you what file that is in and "bonus" it doesn't take that long to find it. With the improved indexing Microsoft has included the results come back almost within 5 seconds every time, unless you do some advanced searching.
Another great improvement is the redo they have successfully improved on the way the system prioritizes threads and IO. They took a close look at the way XP had problems with some processes getting the short straw and updated their engine to handle threading processes better. This was one of many engine improvements.
So, bottom line, don't take upgrading to Vista lightly. You may have to upgrade your computer hardware too, but it's well worth it. Vista is not just a improvement on the look and feel of Windows, there are some good under the hood items some of us geeks really like. As soon as the third party vendors catch up with driver updates and get them out for everyone that has the computer that will run Vista, all will be good in Windows land .
I definitely recommend Vista, you may have to upgrade your computer, but you know what, that's the price you pay for progress. All the Apple commercials are WRONG, Vista is not just a big clunky piece of code that puts a poor guy in a hospital gown for a enema, it is really a drastic well needed change in the direction Windows needed to go for the 21 century.
Well done Microsoft, keep up the good work.

How to Defragment your Harddrive in XP

DougBob — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 01:36:00 GMT

Use one of the following methods to launch Disk Defragmenter, then follow the Defragment Procedure below to actually Start Defragmenting a volume.

{PCINFO: Disk Defragmenter scans you hard drive and attempts to put each file together in a contiguous space. A contiguous space means each part of the file is together instead of seperated across your drive. This can improve drive access performance.}

Method One:
1. Click on Start > Run and in the Open: field enter dfrg.msc, then click on the OK button.

Method Two:
1. Click on Start and select Control Panel.
2. Double click on Administrative Tools.
3. Double click on Computer Management.
4. In the left pane, if a is beside Storage, click the to expand Storage.
5. In the left pane, select Disk Defragmenter.

Method Three:
1. Click on Start and right click on My Computer and select Manage.
2. In the left pane, if a is beside Storage, click the to expand Storage.
3. In the left pane, select Disk Defragmenter.

Method Four:
1. Open My Computer and right click on the drive you want to defragment and select Properties.
2. Click on the Tools tab.
3. Click the Defragment Now... button.

Defragment Procedure:
1. Select the volume(C, D, etc.) you want to defrag.
2. Click on the Defragment button.

How to open the "Computer Management" Console in XP

DougBob — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 04:31:00 GMT

Here are 3 different way to open the Computer Management Console:

Method One:
1. Click on Start > Run and in the Open: field enter compmgmt.msc, then click on the OK button.

Method Two:
1. Click on Start and select Control Panel.
2. Double click on Administrative Tools.
3. Double click on Computer Management.

Method Three:
1. Click on Start and right click on My Computer and select Manage.

How to open the Event Viewer in XP

DougBob — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 21:58:00 GMT

There are a couple of different ways to do this.

Method One:
1. Click on Start > Run and in the Open: field enter eventvwr.msc, then click on the OK button.

Method Two:
1. Click on Start and select Control Panel.
2. Double click on Administrative Tools.
3. Double click on Event Viewer.

Having problems accessing that shared filesystem on your XP Home PC. Keep getting "don't have permission" error.

DougBob — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 20:51:00 GMT

{PCINFO TIP:} Recently found this error will occur on a Vista machine when trying to access an admin or manual share. Usually due to the XP machine has enough drives the IRPStack has ran out and needs increasing.

I recently had this problem and it was a simple fix actually.

Problem: You have a shared directory on a XP Home machine(1) and when you try and access it from one of your other computers, let's call it POS, you get an error. The funny thing is you can access XP Home machine(1) from POS.
Well what is actually happening is POS has the directory shared but he doesn't have enough resources to allow you to access it. Let's say POS is a single minded machine right now and it doesn't have enough attention span to do more than one thing.
Microsoft has an article explaining the problem you can read at, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/177078/en-us

Fix:
To verify the following procedure is what you need to do, go to the Event Viewer, on POS, and look for the following Error in System:
NOTE: To open the Event Viewer, click here to go to the How to Open the Event Viewer area of PCINFO:

Type: Error      Source: Srv     Event ID: 2011
Description: The server's configuration parameter "irpstacksize" is too small for the server ...

NOTE: You'll notice is use ... when I'm too lazy to finish the sentance and I've given you enough to find it.

To fix the problem do the following:

1. Select Start > Run and type regedit in the Open: field, then click the Ok button.
2. In the Registry Editor Window expand each of the following by click the + to the left of it.
+HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
   +SYSTEM
     +CurrentControlSet
       +Services
         +lanmanserver
3. In the left pane, select parameters
4. In the right pane, double click IRPStackSize.
5. In the Edit DWORD Value window, select the Decimal radio option
6. In the Value data: field the value needs to be increased, usually by increments of 5.
Example: If the value is 11 change it to 15. If the value is 14 or 15 change it to 20...
7. Click on the OK button, then close the Registry Editory window.
NOTE: Now the Server service needs to be restarted for the new setting to take effect.
8. Select Start > Run and type services.msc in the Open: field, then click the Ok button.
9. In the Services Window's right pane, scroll down to the item in the Name column called Server
10. Right click on Server and select Restart       {PCINFO TIP: You can also do this by selecting the button on the Services toolbar.}
11. If a Restart Other Services window appears, click on the Yes button.

Now the new IRPStackSize setting on POS should be ready. Make sure you close the Explorer window(s) on the XP Home machine(1) you were trying to access the share on POS with and try and access the share again. Yes you'll have to open the window I just had you close, but there was a reason for that.
If you still get the error, repeat the steps above and increase the IRPStackSize by 5 again. Usually from what I've seen in XP Home the size is 11 and on XP Pro it's 30.

Basic PC Hardware troubleshooting!

DougBob — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 00:30:00 GMT

This is a quick one, well maybe not, and not really technical, just suggestive.
I want to talk about troubleshooting hardware problems with your Computer(PC).

Say your computer all the sudden just stops working. Now before I continue, let me say the first thing to do, is determine if you problem is something to do with drivers or software by booting into safe mode. You can do this by turning on the computer and as soon as you see your screen start to show signs of life, start pressing the F8 key about once a second. The computer should come up with a screen to select Safe Mode as one of the options. If you can boot into safe mode then odds are there is a driver or some piece of software that is causing a problem. Have fun with that
   Mean while back at the ranch, your computer may have not rebooted correctly or just might have crashed while your were doing something or you sat down at it to browse your favorite web page and it was locked up.
First ask yourself the most important questions of all:
    What have I done lately?
    Have I installed new software? (not really applicable since were talking about hardware)
    Have I added new hardware?
  If you haven't added/installed anything new or you can't remember doing so, which is my case is most the time. This is why I have to keep a .txt file on my thumb drive documenting everytime I install or add hardware. It sucks to start getting old.
Also ask your self this question, have I done anything like deleting files and I didn't realize what they were, to clean up harddrive space.
If you answer yes to any of the above questions, it's time to start digging. First disconnect the new hardware and if possible deinstall the drivers for it.
  After removing/disconnecting the new hardware, reboot the computer and see if you have the same problem.
First make sure the computer is off, shut it down if possible and if you can't, do it the hard way, turn off the power. Of course turning off the power should be used as a last resort. Work you way from the computer to the wall socket. First try the power button on the front of the computer, if you have one. Some computers require you to hold the button for 5 to 10 seconds depending on it type. Some will require you to reach around the back of the computer to flip the switch on the power supply. That's usually as far as you should have to go.
I do not recommend using the power strip or unplugging it, do this only if you can't turn it off any other way.
There are reasons for this, let just say without getting technical that turning a computer off by unplugging the cord from the wall socket or using the power strip is like simulating a power surge and can cause even more damage to the computer.
Ok, after spouting that out, now that you have the power turned off, unplug ever thing from the computer except for the monitor, keyboard and mouse. This will eliminate any external device you may have as a possible cause for crashing or causing the computer to lock up. Once you have done this there should only be a cable plugged into the computer for the Power, keyboard(USB or PS2), mouse(USB or PS2) and the Monitor(DVI or VGA).
Now try booting the computer and see if it starts up like you would normally expect it to. If it does, don't start plugging stuff back into it yet. Give it a day or to and then plug in one item at a time and remember to reboot each time you do. Hopefully the troublesome device will cause the computer to not boot or crash. If you find it, get someone that knows how to check the suspected bad device or buy a new one. Sometimes buying a new one is easier said than done.
Now the interesting thing here is this doesn't really eliminate all possible hardware, peripherals, devices, or what ever you call them things in the box called a computer. There are probably still a lot of devices that could cause a problem, hmm, where could they be. Look inside the box! You may have a modem, network card(NIC), video card(which is kind of important), scanner interface card(possibly SCSI), etc. etc. The tough item here most people will not be able to troubleshoot due to the lack of having an extra one laying around the house. Some geeks like my self, will have to admit, we keep a couple cheap video cards laying around for just such an occasion.   Hell I have to admit, I even have a 17" monitor sitting by my feet right now for just that reason. Call me crazy
Anyway, if you can't resolve the problem by disconnecting external devices, it may be possible it's one of your internal devices. If you don't feel comfortable opening your computer case and removing cards and such, ask someone you may know to help or find you a book for beginners on PC hardware.

Hope this helps!
Cheers
DougBob

How many Task Manager Processes should I have?

DougBob — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 00:14:44 GMT

The answer to the question “How many Task Manager Process should I have?” has been pondered for centuries Based on my personal and professional experience I would say if you open your task manager and you have 60+ processes it’s time to start looking at how to reduce that number. I usually try to keep my processes below 60 and that in my opinion is still high. A good operating system should probably have around 45.

In case some of you as asking how do I see what processes are started when my computer boots or I log in, that’s easy?! There is a tool called msconfig.exe(XP) you can launch that will show you all the startup processes and BONUS, you can uncheck the ones you do not want to start. Of course this requires a little knowledge on what they are, but I suggest if you running this tool you should have that knowledge already.
You can also find this utility, depending on the computer you have, in the Start>Help and Support area. The reason I say, depending on your computer, some of the manufacturers like to customize this area with their own options and sometimes they accidentally hide the System Configuration Utility in the process, not on purpose mind you. That’s why its easier sometimes to just go Start>Run and enter msconfig and click Ok.

You’ll notice reading the PC Info site, most of our information is towards XP and up. That’s because, no offense, but if your running something older, you seriously need to look at upgrading or buying a new PC!

Cheers

DougBob

How to show hidden devices

DougBob — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 19:40:00 GMT

Want to see all the hidden devices you didn't know about in Windows XP?

The following link is to the Microsoft Site Knowledge Base and tells you how to view All the hidden devices in the Device Manager.

This is very useful when you want to see what device drivers have been loaded/installed but not currently present in the system. The device drivers exists, but are not being used since the related hardware is not plugged in.

You can use this information to do some cleanup, but I recommend being very careful when doing so. If you ask your self should I and will it break something, sounds like you shouldn't do it.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315539

Just in case the site is not available or the KB article changes heres a backup file of the article.

http://thepebkac.net/files/pdfs/show_hidden_devices.pdf

Outlook 2003 and AMD X2 Dual Core

DougBob — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 21:14:00 GMT

I finally discovered the cause to a problem I was having in Outlook 2003.

Problem: Everytime Outlook is closed the popup stating Outlook has encountered a problem displayed with the check box to restart Outlook. The only way I could keep outlook from generating the error was to pin the process to one of the cores on the CPU by opening task manager, right clicking on the outlook.exe process and select set affinity to pick one of the cpu settings.

Cause: I had kept logging turned on in Outlook. For some reason I have still yet to understand, the log files stored in the default path "C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Temp\OPMLog.log". After turning off the logging option and deleting the files Outlook gave no further problem when closing it.

NOTE: To access Outlook 2003 option to turn on or off Logging: Tools>Options>(tab)Other>(button)Advanced Options and check or uncheck the Enable Logging (troubleshooting) option.

Welcome!

DougBob — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 07:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the PC Info blog site! This Blog is for providing PC Tips and Troubleshooting Information! With the help of my big sis and friends we will provide you with some good information that can help you with maintaining your PC.