Computer lifespan

[scruffy]

Bird, you may consider uninstalling WINME, and installing your WIN98SE if you still have the cd. IMO, ME is not a stable O/S. At least by doing it now, you save the hassle of trying to do the same down the road, after you've gotten it personalized with additional software and files you want to save.

 

[Bird]

Whew, Scruffy & GlueGuy, you fellers talk way, way over my head./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif I'm hoping the problems with my computer yesterday were just the result of my tinkerin'.

I had downloaded and installed the trial version of Screen Shot, but yesterday I "uninstalled" and deleted it. I guess it's a good program for some for $46, but it has too many features for me. I used to have an older version on the other computer and all I wanted it to do is make the "Print Screen" key work. Is there a simple way to do that?

Then I set up the MSN Messenger Service and got it working.

And the SystemWorks that I've ordered is "Norton SystemWorks 2002" and their web site says it's for "Win XP Home/XP Pro/2000 Pro/NT WS/Me/98" so I hope it runs on this machine all right.

I don't know enough to do the "fixes" that are described in technical bulletins. When I install a new program, I usually just let it use its defaults. And of course, that doesn't always work. I had to download and install the software for my TrippLite Internet Office UPS that I've been using the last 3 years on the old computer, and sure enough it didn't work until I called the company and made one change to the settings (had to call them when I installed it on the old computer and make one change that was different from the change I had to make this time)./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif


Bird

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Bird,

Don't feel bad about system hang ups, its kind of a learning process, and as in most cases there's a curve. (MY curve seems to have curved into the dumpster /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif). I installed the latest version of my business software last week. Yesterday morning, I finally got past the system crashes and can reliably get on the net. But not until after I bought a new hard drive and another 256 megs of ram. I kept getting the message :MCSCAN32 etc., more and more frequently. Went to the MS website and searched their knowledge base for the mcsan file. Turns out it was the McAffee Virus scanner. Hit McAffee's website and couldn't find a fix, so I'm now cruising with Norton. Don't know if my business software interfered with the McAffee or what.

I agree with everybody else. The hardware usually goes down in the first 30 days or so. I've been lucky and it usually either works straight out of the box or it doesn't.

One problem I've found with windows programming is DLL files. All programs use these files, and most programs share the files back and forth. Windows, however doesn't like to reload the same file. So, if you have a program that loads a file say Tractor.dll (Version1) and then another program loads that also requires Tractor32.dll, only version 2, you have a problem. I've been clearing out the old DLL files for about a year now and it seems to have stabilized the system quite a bit.

Do NOT run without virus software and a personal Firewall. The free tools available on the net to every teenage wanna be hacker can let them enter your computer easily. Identity theft is the least of your worries. Why do kids break into houses? Beacuse its fun and easy. Why do they break into your computer? I also don't leave my machine attached to the net and unattended. Just my paranoid side coming out, I guess. But, I figure when kids break into houses they look for empty ones. An idle computer connected to the net is kind of like an empty house. A nice inviting target.

Virus software can save you headaches and money. I also feel it's kind of a personal courtesy to everyone in my address book. Its like covering my face when I sneeze or cough. A few months ago one of our friends got a virus and did nothing. His sister was scamming addresses off of forwarded emails and she also got the virus. HE took care of it. SHE we are still getting hokey emails from. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif. (And we've never even met her.)

I can't tell you much about the 98/ME debate since I'm still running 98. I can tell you that 98 will load with a lot of outdated DLL's, and agree that software is usually the culprit.

BTW, I did download IE 6.0 and its running great on my 98 based system, slightly faster than the 5.5.

SHF

 

[CVHoss]

Bird,
For a "Quick & Dirty" print screen function, this is what I do. When you have a screen showing what you want to capture, hold down the Alt key and press the PrintScrn key. It appears that nothing happened. For a quick printout, start up WordPad, right-click in the page and left-click on paste. This pastes an image of the screen into the page. If you left-click in the image to select it, sizing blocks will appear at the corners. You may need to left-click-hold on one of these and resize the image to get it to fit on a single page. If the screen shot contains text, this has the disadvantage of blurring the text somewhat. The second disadvantage of using the alt-printscrn method is that it doesn't actually take a shot of the entire screen, it takes a shot of the active window, so depending on what you're after, it may not produce the results you want. If you want better quality from the finished product, paste the copied screen into a photo editor instead of WordPad and edit it like any photo. Hope that helps some.

Hoss

 

[ERNIEB]

Thanks Scruffy, I'll print that out, so it will be handy/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Ernie

 

[Bird]

Thanks, Hoss. I just got back from town (wife had to go shopping) and I bought a book at Wal-mart: Dan Gookin Teaches Windows ME. The main reason I bought it was because when I picked it up it fell open to "Printing a Snapshot of the Desktop." It says just to hit the Print Screen key (nothing happens), start the Paint program, maximize it, press Ctrl+V to paste it, etc. Sounds like a similar method; haven't tried either one yet. But it beats spending $46 for a program that does a lot of other things I don't need./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Bird

 

[CVHoss]

Bird,
Here I am tryin' to help ya out and ya go and teach me something I didn't know about. Just tried your books method and it works like a charm. Had always used the alt-printscrn through don't know how many versions of Windows. Don't know if they changed it before or if it's new in ME, but thanks for the tip. Save me some "finger-stretchin' "

Hoss

 

[Bird]

Hoss, I guess I better read the rest of that book; just read the first chapter and the fellow seems to be an entertaining author at least./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif And his experience with ME sounds like a lot of others. He'll tell you how to do something, then admit it may not work./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

I had already tried that little crescent moon marked key on this keyboard without knowing what it was. Took a awhile to find out that's supposed to put the computer to "sleep." This author says it sometimes puts it in a coma, too, and you have no choice but to turn it off and back on./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Bird on 08/30/01 03:49 PM (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[scruffy]

SHF, I did not mean to make it sound as if not running without antivirus is a GOOD idea, but that it can be done, and you still have some sort of method to check your machine out.
A good firewall is a must! Particularly if you are running a cable modem with a 'constant' connection.
ZoneAlarm is a good 'free' firewall, and the ZoneAlarm Pro is even better. Which one is best, toss a coin.
The problem with IE v6.0, is NOT that it runs faster, etc, but that it gives Micro$haft too much access to your system, and actually lets them control your privacy. NO thanks! I prefer taking care of that data myself. XP carries that step even further.

 

[jimmoore]

Gosh, I guess I am just brush league. I have a 1996 Packard Bell pentium 200 mhz, 32 mb ram, video mem 2 mb, cache memory 256 kb, hard drive 2559.8 mb
The school has some 700mhz computers and mine is just as fast on the internet as they are, due to the phone lines. This old junk heap gets me on TBN just fine!

jim

 

[Alan L.]

You're right about running virus protection software, but if someone will direct me to one that just checks emails for viruses and otherwise stays out of the way and does not (a) slow my system down and (b) cause GPFs and page fault errors because of conflicts with my REAL software, I will be happy to install and run it. So far I have not found such a package. I do use Zone Alarm on my office PC (on a T1) and its seems to behave pretty well.

I have gotten worms and viruses before and it was a pain, but the particular software combination I use at work just will NOT run with any virus protection software running, that I have tried. The symptoms are illegal operations (page fault errors) and times when the system seems extremely slow to perform certain tasks. I can disable the virus protection software (lately it was Mcaffee) and fix the problem immediately.

Alan L., TX

 

[scruffy]

Alan, are you running it on a networked machine? Does not your server run a virus protection scheme? There are very viable network capable anti-virus programs for networks...McAfee has one (a very good one) for interprise application.
I realize you said you were just running McAfee, but my question was it the Interprise version? (If you are networked through a file server, etc.)

 

[Bird]

Got an e-mail this morning that Norton SystemWorks 2002 is out of stock, on back-order, and will be shipped when the stock becomes available./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif No guesstimate as to when that will be.

Bird

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Scruffy,

I hope it didn't sound like I was jumping down your throat. I knew you weren't suggesting its good to not use a virus program. I just wanted to clarify your point for posterity. There's an awful lot of people that read these posts, and we're not always sure every one of them understands what we're discussing. (Besides which, I'm paranoid as heck about this). So, I apologize if you felt like I was jumping on you.

I've heard that both the cable and DSL modems can have real problems with hacking. I'm not sure I understand why these types would be more interesting to hackers than standard connections. Something to do with security protocols? Different ports open?

MS has more access to the system? In what way? I pretty much figured they had access anyway.

I realize it's the Great American Way to crush competition, but I sure wish Red Hat luck. Part of MS's problem is that they DON'T have any competition so they can pretty much do whatever they want.

BTW, just read an article on the upcoming 64 bit chips. Looks like Intel and AMD are at it again. AMD's chip will run 32 bit applications off the old 86 code. Intel's will not. It's the DDR vs Rambus fight all over again.

SHF

 

[scruffy]

Bird, go to http://www.symantec.com/product and you can download a trial version of the antivirus software. That will hold you until your 2002 arrives!

 

[Bird]

Thanks, Scruffy, but this computer came with Norton AntiVirus; just not the other parts of SystemWorks. I'd been running Norton AntiVirus on the old computer, too, and I do regularly update it.

Bird

 

[scruffy]

AlanL, check into Symantic Mail Gear at:
http://enterprisesecurity.symantec.com/content/productlink.cfm#0
It is designed just for mail.

 

[scruffy]

SHF, the cable and DSL modems have the good 'constant' connection. It is using the same ports, AND pretty much static IP addresses. Therein lies the problem. With the dial in modem, your are assigned a different IP address at every connection, but with the DSL and cable modems, its always the assigned address. The hacker has a constant target that he can come back to time, and time again. W/O a firewall, you are leaving yourself wide open to having your system broken into....it's so easy that the proverbial baby would be crying because the candy got stolen! On the VAX networks, I've had hackers spend days with a program that makes a 'hit' every second or two, trying to break in. Uncle Sammy's little security team set there tracing the attempts, don't know the final outcome, as business went on. My son's gamer got hacked several months back, because he kept shutting the firewall down (complained it slowed down his internet games), he learned WHY I insisted he keep it up and running.
M$ has security holes big enough to drive a truck through, ME is bad enough, XP is much worse.
WINME took away many abilities from the user, and XP takes away much more in the management of the O/S. I am in a situation right now, where I need to flash the system bios chip with updated bios software, mine has an error that does not recognize a UDMA drive. I can't, due to M$' removal of the ability to format a floppy with system files (i.e. format a: /s in DOS, OR "copy system files only" switch under My Computer/drive/format) I've got to go 'borrow' the computer I sold to a friend that has WIN98SE on it to make the disk, whereas I can delete the autoexec.bat and config.sys files, load the update exe file and bin files on it to create the flash update disk.
P.S.- I didn't take you wrong. I had reread what I posted, and realized it sounded ambiguous at best. The 64bit bus issue is going to be a battle, but personally, I will opt for the flexibility of AMD's approach.

 

[scruffy]

Alan, VCatch Virus protection works on email and downloaded files only. You can read up/download (if you wish) at:
http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10093-100-4892595.html?tag=st.dl.10014.list.10093-100-4892595

 

[scruffy]

Another reason not to like IE 6.0 OR IE 5.5SP2 . Look at the article on this link: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/zd/20010831/tc/ie_unplugged_1.html