Solve your Computer Problems: A Blog of Useful Information

brother mfc won't recognize cartridge

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:06:00 +0000

Problem Brother MFC-230C won't recognize new black ink cartridge. Seems the remanufactured cartridges appear to be empty. It seems there are light sensors in the printer that sense the cartridge is empty even when it is full. The solution is to put tape on the back of the ink jet cartridge. The danger of such a procedure is that the cartridge could be totally empty and it will burn out the printhead before you realize it.

Recover lost wireless network key

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Tue, 27 May 2008 00:28:00 +0000

Description WirelessKeyView recovers all wireless network keys (WEP/WPA) stored in your computer by the 'Wireless Zero Configuration' service of Windows XP and by the 'WLAN AutoConfig' service of Windows Vista. It allows you to easily save all keys to text/html/xml file, or copy a single key to the clipboard.

Recover lost password behind asterisks (***)

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Tue, 27 May 2008 00:24:00 +0000

Description Many applications, like CuteFTP, CoffeeCup Free FTP, VNC, IncrediMail, Outlook Express, and others, allows you to type a password for using it in the application. The typed password is not displayed on the screen, and instead of the real password, you see a sequence of asterisk ('****') characters. This utility can reveal the passwords stored behind the asterisks in standard password text-boxes. Asterisk Logger is a successor of AsterWin utility. It reveals the asterisk passwords in the same way as AsterWin utility, but it has some advantages over the previous utility: * You don't have to press a button in order to reveal the asterisk passwords. Whenever a new window containing a password box is opened, Asterisk Logger automatically reveals the password inside the password-box, and add a record to passwords list in the main window of Asterisk Logger. * Asterisk Logger displays additional information about the revealed password: The date/time that the password was revealed, the name of the application that contains the revealed password box, and the executable file of the application. * Asterisk Logger allows you the save the passwords to HTML file and to 3 types of text files.

A new way to make money from your computer

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:13:00 +0000

I am looking in to a new business called sendout cards. It seems like an easy way to keep in touch with people in a personal way. Here is a video about it:

jChicago a new resource for Chicago Jews

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 16:19:00 +0000

Since the beginning of December, jChicago.net has grown 20x. They claim to have hundreds of registered users and listserv subscribers, thousands of monthly visitors, and tens of thousands of monthly page views. jChicago.net is becoming a top hit for literally hundreds of Google searches related to Jewish Chicago, and has received a good amount of attention from leaders across the Chicago Jewish community. By joining the listserv, you will help them to connect Jewish Chicago.

Microsoft is offering a free software

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 15:40:00 +0000

Free Microsoft Software for Giving Feedback If you are a Windows Vista or Windows XP user and decide to join and participate, Microsoft will send you a free Microsoft product when you participate in the program. Limit one gift per person. This offer is non-transferable. This offer expires on 12/31/07, while supplies last, and is not redeemable for cash. - Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate (32-bit and 64-bit DVD) - Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 - Microsoft Money Plus Premium - Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008 - Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008

Does the software impact the performance of my computer? We have gone to great lengths to design the Windows Feedback Program software to limit the amount of computer resources it uses to collect data. You may see a minor change in performance when you first log in to Windows; however, this typically only occurs during the first few minutes after login while we are collecting basic configuration information.

What types of information will you collect and why? We are looking for information that will help us understand problems you encounter with Windows, how you have configured your computer and Windows, what hardware you are using, and general information about how you are using Windows and Microsoft Office products on your computer. You can see a list of examples of the data we collect in our FAQ.

How often will Microsoft collect data? How often you will share data depends on how actively you use your computer and how often your computer is connected to the internet. In general, the data is shared once per day.

When you choose to participate in the automated feedback program, most of the work is done behind the scenes, with no additional effort, time requirement, or inconvenience to you. Occasionally, we might send you an invitation to participate in a survey or another feedback program to get additional information about your use of computers.

Go to http://wfp.microsoft.com/Registration.aspx

doPDF version 5.3 free PDF converter for Windows

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:20:00 +0000

An easy way to do PDFs Adobe Acrobat is the industry standard for creating PDF files. But it comes with a hefty price tag. And most people don't need its features. There are easier and less expensive ways to create PDF files. doPDF is a free program that will create PDF files for you. It adds a PDF creator to your list of printers. This means it works in virtually any Windows program.

Great Tutorials for Fixing your Windows

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 18:40:00 +0000

Bleepingcomputer.com is a great free resource on the web to learn how to maintain and repair your Windows computer. From "How the Web Works" to how to remove malware, it's quite comprehensive. One example: Tracing a hacker > Written by: Paperghost 24/02/2005 Sometimes, it's just not enough to simply know that there's a Trojan or Virus onboard. Sometimes you need to know exactly why that file is onboard, how it got there - but most importantly, who put it there. By enumerating the attacker in the same way that they have enumerated the victim, you will be able to see the bigger picture and establish what you're up against. But how can you do this? Read on... The explanations are clear and knowledgeable.

File Recovery - Copy files from damaged media

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 04:48:00 +0000

File Recovery - Copy files from damaged media What a wonderful tool! I just copied an AVI file from a CD using this piec of software. It was fast and quick and did the job! CDs, DVDs and hard disks are increasingly being used for storage of music and videos. For such multimedia a perfect copy is not always important. Who cares about a few kilobytes of corrupt data that may only equate to one bad video frame or a fraction of a second of audio loss? Most users won't even notice the difference. The CRC checks, however, usually make it impossible to transfer or use the corrupted file and sometimes even cause the computer to stop responding. JFileRecovery will recover music and videos from damaged hard drives, CDs, DVDs and Flash media and usually the corrupted area will not be noticeable.

Learn how to add streaming media to your website

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:22:00 +0000

This seems like a really good deal more than 150 individual videos. A Staggering 22+ Hours Of Quality Training at a very resonable cost. Find out more here.
MSI Jukebox is a simple piece of software that allows you to add two or more mp3 audio files to the Jukebox player. This is so easy that anyone can do it. The software will link the files for you to upload and will then stream those files either automatically or on request. You choose the quality and type of MP3 files you want to stream.
I needed this once for a client who was selling his own music from his site.

You will find many uses for it too.

Thanks for taking a look!

New Free Tool - Jing!

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:48:00 +0000

Jing is a great new tool that allows you to capture screens and videos of your computers and immediately upload them and share them with a friend, just go to http://www.jingproject.com/

Mobile Zmanim!

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 02:00:00 +0000

Mobile Zmanim!SM

Call 516-7-ZMANIM (516-796-2646)*.
Enter your ZIP code.
Receive an SMS Zmanim Text-Message.

*Currently available to US Cell phones only. MyZmanim.com is devoted to providing Yiddin around the world with the zmanim times needed to properly serve Hashem. MyZmanim.com is now providing zmanim via mobile phone as SMS text messages. Lookup zmanim on the go, for anywhere in the world, using nothing more than a cell phone. Just call 516-7-ZMANIM using your cell phone and enter your ZIP code or Worldwide MyZmanim Location ID. (Your Location ID appears in the orange Location Bar on the daily zmanim page.) Our Mobile ZmanimSM system knows the current time in your location, so all the zmanim you receive will be relevant to the future.

Dadnab transit at your fingertips

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 01:54:00 +0000

This is a great service that you can actuall use from your cell phone. To use Dadnab?, send your query as a text message from your mobile phone to region@dadnab.com. Here is an example.

How to defend your Computer From Hacker

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 16:49:00 +0000

How to defend your Computer From Hacker

Stop using Internet Explorer and make the switch to Firefox, it's more secure, plain and simple.
Get Spybot Search and Destroy and immediately update it.
Get Adaware SE and immediately update it.
Update your antivirus
Boot into safe mode and run all three scans
While the scans are going check your registry (Click start --> Run and type regedit to get intot he registry) and look in HKEY_CurrentUser/software/microsoft/windows/currentversion/run & HKEY_Local_Machine/software/microsoft/windows/currentversion/run. Verify that all programs listed are legitimate and wanted.
If or when your antivirus scan comes across anything, search for that file name in your registry and delete it.
Use explorer to go to the windows/system32 folder and sort by date. If you haven't already done so, make sure you can see the entire file names. click Tools --> Folder Options and unclick the box labeled "Hide extensions for known file types" and under Hidden files and folders click "Show hidden files and folders." However, make sure you choose "Hide protected operating system files" so you don't accidentally remove anything that would cripple your computer.. You are looking for recent files with names ending with .exe and .dll that look suspicious. Major culprits will have gibberish names such as alkjdlkjfa.exe.
Once you can get clean scans in safe mode, reboot in normal mode and scan all over again. If you can't get a clean scan in regular mode then you have something more persistant that could take more research.
Make sure your firewall doesn't have strange exceptions.
If you suspect anything that is going wrong with your computer is the action of a stalker, on a more secure system change all your passwords.
If your system has been specifically targeted and hacked you can never be 100% sure that your system is no longer compromised so start with, make backups of personal files on the infected system and format and re-install Windows. Good luck!

Posted by SABI at 10:32 AM

Resources for making money from home

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 04:11:00 +0000

Start Making $300 - $2500+ a Day! Working At Home only 30 to 45 minutes a Day! There is NO experience required! All you are required to have is a computer and internet access. This program is available for everyone worldwide! You will be typing and submitting forms on the internet. This is not like anything you tried on the internet before! Most ideas out there on the internet today are MLM programs that promise and don't deliver or a scam. This works. This program is a legitimate one, and they personally guarantee that by giving you 30 days Risk Free trial. If you are not 110% satisfied they will give you a refund! Programs like this do NOT come by very often...So don't pass up this great offer!

How to open your Microsoft office box

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 22:19:00 +0000

A client gave me a copy of Office 2007 to install. I needed to google to find out how to open the box! Here is the information from

http://www.hive.net/Member/blogs/the_wow/archive/2007/02/28/How-to-open-your-Windows-Vista-Box.aspx

Windows vista has the same packaging.

Believe it or not, quite a few people have asked how do you open the nifty Windows Vista Box or packaging after purchasing Windows Vista at the store. So I figured I'd do a step-by-step process on how to open your nice new copy of Windows Vista without smashing or destroying its cool packaging.

Step 1: Understand how the Box is sealed.

Windows Vista's box is sealed when you get it so nothing falls out, like the DVD's and Quick Start Guide.

Step 2: Remove the seal.

You've got to remove the seal first on the side of the box to proceed to actually getting the box open.

Step 3: Pull the pulley.

There is a red pulley on the top of the Windows Vista box. After the seal has been removed, pull the pulley out away from the box. Don't squeeze the box when doing this. You don't need to squeeze. The box should just open up.

Step 4: Enjoy Windows Vista!

I've done this on quite a few Windows Vista boxes and never ran into any problems with the packaging being unable to open. However, that is not to say some packaging may be a bit harder to open than others. But you should be able to use the steps above to open the packaging none-the-less without damaging the packaging itself.

Published Wednesday, February 28, 2007 6:02 PM by Sidebar Geek

Please backup your hard drive now? twice! at goodCRIMETHINK

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 16:50:00 +0000

Please backup your hard drive now? twice! at goodCRIMETHINK here is the beginning of an article of someone who did not backup their data: There is a tightness in my chest, and I am crying right now. I have just suffered a catastrophic data loss for the second time in my life. Fool me once, shame on, shame on, fool me can?t get fooled again, or something like that. In college, a freak transformer explosion and subsequent power surge killed my hard drive. From that point on, I swore to always back up my data, and mostly I did just that. As of mid this summer, I had a ridiculous mirrored RAID drive setup with external SATA drives and all sorts of doohickies. I had about 1 terabyte of data backed up locally and had started to upload it offsite to a service called Mozy. But then I started selling off my desktop in preparation for my move from Boston to NYC. I purchased a LaCie 1TB Big Disk and put all my media files and documents from my ?Atlas? drive on it. That drive literally held my world on its shoulders. I reasoned that after the move, I would re-establish my redundant data setup. I was not given the time. Two days after moving in, the drive started clicking. I knew that sound from my college crash, and raced to B&H Photo Video in Midtown. I purchased a Drobo storage device (a redundant storage array), hoping to save my Atlas drive. I was too late. I took the drive to Tekserve on 23rd St. It would cost $2,000, but can you put a price tag on your memories and thousands of hours of media production? They couldn?t recover it. They sent it on to DriveSavers who said it may cost up to $6,000.

Speed Up Firefox

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 04:59:00 +0000

I never realized how fast firefox could be. I came across http://www.ubuntugeek.com/speed-up-firefox-web-browser.html and followed the tips there and my browser is so much faster. Try it and let me know what your experience is

SystemRescueCd a free bootable CD-ROM for repairing your system

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 04:09:00 +0000

SystemRescueCd is a Linux system on a bootable CD-ROM for repairing your system and recovering your data after a crash. It aims to provide an easy way to carry out admin tasks on your computer, such as creating and editing the partitions of the hard disk. It contains a lot of system utilities (parted, partimage, fstools, ...) and basic tools (editors, midnight commander, network tools). It is very easy to use: just boot the CDROM. The kernel supports most of the important file systems (ext2/ext3, reiserfs, reiser4, xfs, jfs, vfat, ntfs, iso9660), as well as network filesystems (samba and nfs).

VirtualBox - Run Windows on Your Linux Box

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 02:55:00 +0000

nnotek VirtualBox is a general-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware. Targeted at server, desktop and embedded use, it is now the only professional-quality virtualization solution that is also Open Source Software.

Some of the features of VirtualBox are:

Modularity. VirtualBox has an extremely modular design with well-defined internal programming interfaces and a client/server design. This makes it easy to control it from several interfaces at once: for example, you can start a virtual machine in a typical virtual machine GUI and then control that machine from the command line, or possibly remotely. VirtualBox also comes with a full Software Development Kit: even though it is Open Source Software, you don't have to hack the source to write a new interface for VirtualBox.

Virtual machine descriptions in XML. The configuration settings of virtual machines are stored entirely in XML and are independent of the local machines. Virtual machine definitions can therefore easily be ported to other computers.

Guest Additions for Windows and Linux. VirtualBox has special software that can be installed inside Windows and Linux virtual machines to improve performance and make integration much more seamless. Among the features provided by these Guest Additions are mouse pointer integration and arbitrary screen solutions (e.g. by resizing the guest window).

Shared folders. Like many other virtualization solutions, for easy data exchange between hosts and guests, VirtualBox allows for declaring certain host directories as "shared folders", which can then be accessed from within virtual machines.

A number of extra features are available with the full VirtualBox release only (see the "Editions" page for details):

Virtual USB Controllers. VirtualBox implements a virtual USB controller and allows you to connect arbitrary USB devices to your virtual machines without having to install device specific drivers on the host.

Remote Desktop Protocol. Unlike any other virtualization software, VirtualBox fully supports the standard Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). A virtual machine can act as an RDP server, allowing you to "run" the virtual machine remotely on some thin client that merely displays the RDP data.

USB over RDP. With this unique feature, a virtual machine that acts as an RDP server can still access arbitrary USB devices that are connected on the RDP client. This way, a powerful server machine can virtualize a lot of thin clients that merely need to display RDP data and have USB devices plugged in.

?OLD? virus infects ?NEW? Vista

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 22:31:00 +0000

A consignment of laptops from German manufacturer Medion, sold through German and Danish branches of giant retail chain Aldi, have been found to be infected with the boot sector virus ?Stoned.Angelina?, first seen as long ago as 1994 and last included on the official WildList in 2001. According to German sources, anywhere between 10,000 and 100,000 systems may be infected, but as the machines apparently ship without floppy drives the virus is unlikely to spread. The systems come pre-installed with Windows Vista and Bullguard anti-virus, which will warn of the ?harmless? infection on booting the machines, but is unable to remove it.

About Stoned.Angelina from Symantec

The boot virus code is one sector in length with the infectious code being stored at side 0, track 0, sector 1 and the original master boot record code being stored at side 0, track 0 sector 2. On floppy disks, Stoned.Angelina calculates the last sector of the root directory and uses this location to store a copy of the original DOS boot sector.

In addition to standard viral replication, Stoned.Angelina contains a block of code designed to stealth (by means of redirection) any reads to the physical location side 0, track 0 sector 1 on both floppy disks and hard disks.

Contained within the virus code body is the following encrypted text, which is never displayed on the screen: Greetings for ANGELINA!!!/by Garfield/Zielona Gora

System Cannot Access CD-Rom, CD-Recorder or DVD Devices

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 20:45:00 +0000

If you uninstalled and reinstalled Nero in XP, or did an upgrade from a previous OS to XP without uninstalling Nero first, this is a known error (for both Adaptec and Nero). There is a problem caused by an association created in the system registry between some Adaptec driver files and the CD file system drivers for Windows 2000/XP. If the Adaptec driver files are renamed or removed, then the system will loose access to any CD drive (CD ROM, CD recorder, or DVD)
IMPORTANT: The following contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs.
If Windows XP won't start you can restore the registry by rebooting while pressing the F8 Key. Select "Last Known Good Configuration". Or you can use "System Restore" from Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools.

1. Uninstall all CD Burning software from the system.
Make sure you create a System Restore Point before you make changes to the registry.
2. Go to the RUN line and type in Regedt32 and press Enter.
3. Go to the following registry locations and delete the key values for UPPERFILTERS and LOWERFILTERS
(Do NOT delete the entire 4D36E965-E325-11CE-BBFC1-08002BE10318 key just right click the individual keys and select Delete)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BBFC1-08002BE10318}

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BBFC1-08002BE10318}

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

4. Close out of Regedt32.exe and reboot the computer.
5. You should have access to your CDROM drives after reboot.
Make sure you create a System Restore Point before you make changes to the registry.

Continual Activation Requests

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:28:00 +0000

Recently I started getting prompts to activate Windows XP every time I turn my PC on . "This copy of windows must be activated with Microsoft before you can log on. Do you want to activate windows now?" coming up each time I turn the PC back on. I have activated over the internet now about 8 times and have also dialed the telephone number to access the codes - each time the activation is successful. I can then access but why do I have to keep doing it? I purchased this PC new from a manufacturer with XP as OEM.

Solution: Try the following and note, you may be prompted to activate again but this time it should preclude needing to do it again unless you reformat or change enough hardware to exceed the activation threshold:

Go to start/run, and type regsvr32.exe regwizc.dll
Click OK, then, regsvr32.exe licdll.dll and click OK.

If that doesn't work:
Try it again as follows and include the additional steps below:

Go to start/run, and type regsvr32.exe regwizc.dll
Click OK, then,
regsvr32.exe licdll.dll
Edit the Value:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Cu rrent Version\WPAEvents "OOBETimer "
Change at least one digit of this value to deactivate Windows.
Restart windows:
Start/Run, type:
%systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a

Answer provided by Michael Solomon MS-MVP

HP Printer Laserjet won't work with remote desktop

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 17:57:00 +0000

When you use Remote Desktop Connection or the Terminal Services Client version 4.0 or 5.0 to connect to another Windows-based computer from a computer that is not running Windows Server 2003, your local printers may not be redirected. As a result, your local printers are not available in the remote desktop or terminal services session. For example, if your Windows XP-based computer has a multifunction print device using a DOT4 port, it may not be redirected in a remote desktop session to a Windows 2000- or Windows Server 2003-based computer.

CAUSE

This problem occurs because the printer port does not begin with COM, LPT, or USB. By default, printer port names that do not begin with COM, LPT, or USB are only redirected in Windows Server 2003. By default, multifunction print devices may not be redirected unless you are running Windows Server 2003 on your local computer because they use DOT4 ports.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem on a computer that is not running Windows Server 2003, force all ports (including DOT4) on the client computer to be filtered for redirection. To do this, add a DWORD value named FilterQueueType to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Default\AddIns\RDPDR and set its value data to FFFFFFFF.

Follow these steps, and then quit Registry Editor:

Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
Locate and then click the following key in the registry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Default\AddIns\RDPDR
On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
Type FilterQueueType, and then press ENTER.
On the Edit menu, click Modify.
Type FFFFFFFF, and then click OK.This enables all ports on the client to be redirected. To work around this problem on a client computer that has a multifunction print device, change the port that the multifunction print device uses from DOT4 to an LPT port.

For example, to configure a multifunction print device to use an LPT port on a Windows XP-based computer, follow these steps:

InControl Panel, openPrinters and Faxes.
Right-click the local printer that is not redirected, and then click Properties.
Click the Ports tab, click an LPT port, and then click Apply.The printer should now appear next to that port.
Close the Printer Properties window, and then reconnect by using Remote Desktop.Important When a multifunction printer is using a standard LPT port instead of the DOT4 port, it loses its multifunction capabilities, such as scanning, faxing, or copying. To regain the multifunction capabilities, the print device must use the DOT4 port.

STATUS
This behavior is by design.

Free Anti Spam tool for your website

noreply@blogger.com (lnacomp) — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 15:46:00 +0000

You put up your address on your website so prospects can contact you and now you're getting spam . You can take off your email but then how do they contact you? Syronex has a free solution. Go to http://w2.syronex.com/jmr/safemailto/. Put in your email address and they will give you the javascript you need to put on your page for the link to open your prospects email program with the subject you determine. They even have a free captcha script. (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart, is a challenge-response system test designed to differentiate humans from automated programs.)