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O.K., I can't find the answer anywhere. I seem to be missing a manual or two.
On my monitor there are two buttons. Above one is an upside down "U" with a slash through it. Beside that is a button with a down arrow which curves left.
What are these for?
If it matters the monitor has "hp pavilion v70s" on the front of it. Other than that all I can tell you about it is, its grey.
Thanks!
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Thanks Liz.
Now that I know it does nothing I had to push the first button. My monitor didn't like that. It clicked and made a funny hum sound a second or two, and the picture went funny then everything went back to normal. Now that that temptation has been checked off the list I don't think I will do that anymore.
I lack the courage to push the second button. :o
"Now that I know it does nothing I had to push the first button. My monitor didn't like that. It clicked and made a funny hum sound a second or two, and the picture went funny then everything went back to normal."
Well, it's not so much that your computer didn't like it, it's just that the monitor did exactly what it was supposed to do. It's like saying you car didn't like it when you pushed that bugle icon on the steering wheel because it made a loud "honk" noise.
That sound is normal. I haven't had a tube screen in a while since I bought my LCD, but de-gaussing regularly helps to prevent an early death of the screen.
I'd press all the buttons and see what they do. Unless some genius reset a button to control your power supply then everything should be a-ok!;)
Well, I didn't like it thats for sure. Thought I screwed something up.
So I am not finding anything in my dictionary. . .what is degauss and what exactly did it do when I pushed it? I assume it has something to do with magnetics?
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Grab a magnet off your fridge & hold it near your screen. It'll warp the picture & color tinting by pulling the CRT's electron beam off course. A strong enough magnet would mess up the color even after you take it away. The degaussing button fixes it. It's really nice that it's included in the monitor now. Used to be that you had to pay a tech to come out with a degaussing ring. :DQuote:
Originally posted by redwood973
Well, I didn't like it thats for sure. Thought I screwed something up.
So I am not finding anything in my dictionary. . .what is degauss and what exactly did it do when I pushed it? I assume it has something to do with magnetics?
My friends tell me I removed a program important to the burning of CD's and thus my being unable to burn CD's that would play in a CD player (big surprise, I screwed up the computer. . .again.)
Now all I have to do is run the recovery drive and everything will be back as it was when the computer was fresh out of the box for the first time.
So as the computer instructed (thankfully this thing sometimes says hay idiot what your about to do ain't a good idea) I backed up my files (and in the case of my checking account stuff double backed up :D ).
Now what I want to know is will I lose my Favorite E-Links when I do this? Is it possible to save these too and if so how? For reference I am using CD-RW and Zip250MB disks for saving.
In most cases, if you restore your machine using a recovery disk, it does exactly what you said: restores the computer to the state it had when you first opened the box.
This means that you must back up *anything* you want to save -- including e-links. Then you must restore them from backup when recovery is complete.
Okay, my computer did not come with recovery disks. The recovery stuff is on the recovery drive (the D: drive). So if I save all my files and links to the D: drive when I run the recovery drive it not only restores the computer to out of the box condition but also puts my files back on the computer. . .right? :confused:
Ok as a quick rundown of what you need to backup in these circumstances I'll go through it with you.
While this is highly windows-version independant I'll try and be as generic as possible.
Ok if you're using newer windows (2k XP etc) you need to look in your C:\documents and setting\*username*\
in there you shoudl find your favourites folder - just copy and paste it somewhere else for safe keeping - even with hundreds of them it won't be a big file space..
In windows 9x - try looking in C:\Windows\favourties\
or if you have more than one account installed it will be under
C:\windows\profiles\*username*\favourites\
(or somethinglike that, it's been a while..
Alternativelly just do a search for *favourites* :)
Ok here's another tip - saving your email:
If like me you have dozens (Ok I confess it's probably tens of thousands :D ) of emails - then you might want to keep them.
Ok assuming you use outlook Express here :)
Do a search of your hard drive for files using - *.dbx - to find all files with that extension..
Again if you're using a modern 2k computer or XP - they should be located somewhere close to....
Application C:\Documents and Settings\*username*\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\*huge big long random string number*\Microsoft\Outlook Express\
Copy out that entire folder and back it up..
Then to save your email favourites, do a search for - *.wab* - this is your email address book
It should only find one file with the username you are using..
Copy this file to a safe place
(NB: Make sure you have outlook express closed while doing all of this!)
Ok now to the restoring part..
Assuming you've reinstalled windows to a clean state again - and you have a squeaky clean favourites / inbox / address book..
Well with the favourites you can simply find the same location as you had before, and copy the contents of that folder into your favourites.. they will appear back in your favourites..
With the email: open outlook express go to >File>import>
then select what you are going to import - point it towards your archive (I am guessing here you wrote a CD !) - and tell it to do it...
A short while later you will have your whole email back to the way it was! (though you willhave to put all of your dialup and login details in again!)
Backing up the whole of your C drive, just to save your favourites is a little messy - and generates vast multi CD spanning volumes of information, so I recommend you try this first.
Any queries just PM me. :D
Thanks guys. I guess saving this stuff to the recovery drive then doesn't restore the system and keep my files then?
And what about my stuff like Adobe, Norton, and my zip drive? That stuff was all added on by me. Does that all get lost and need to be added again or will it be left alone?
You are safest if you save these files to a floppy or a zip disk. I can't say for certain, but it wouldn't surprise me if the restoration process wiped everything. I know you can't burn them, but you should try to save them somewhere that isn't the disk you're restoring.
It might even be worth purchasing a second hard drive and copying them there.
As far as apps you've installed, you will need to reinstall them. If you downloaded the installers, copy 'em to some other disc; don't assume they'll be there when restoration is done.
Well I'm not sure I've heard of this 'recovery drive' - clarify, is it a partition of your hard drive with a windows install on it, or do you mean a CD drive ?
Depending on the software you have on your 'recovery drive' I suspect that, based on a friend of mine who had a similar problem recently, and no windows installer disk, that you will in fact get one squeaky clean hard drive with a bog standard version of windows - and you will have to manually reinstall everyhing that does not come as default.
Depending on your version of windows however that would still be allot of stuff! Your Zip drive (mine did with XP) could work right off, and usually adobe Acrobat will be there.. I suspect however any other software you own (such as office etc) will have t be manually installed.
if you have a windows 'install' disk, then you can theoretically perform an install over your current install - this gives you a bog standard version of windows (without all the patches and security updates) but it does leave everything else in place, including your stored data and additional software.
it was a very controvertial move by Microsoft to not supply OEM computers with a windows install disk, but instead give 'restore' disks, because they are SO much more limited! - The don't do it any more, but that leaves a legacy of millions of people who are now stuck with it!
This 'recovery drive' is listed as 'D:' on the my computer screen. I don't understand what they mean my an 'image of the original software.' I assume they mean the softwear is actually copied to that drive. I just hope runing the recovery drive fixes the problem.Quote:
This is what my computer tells me
Instead of a system recovery CD, the HP system recovery program uses a special recovery partition on the hard disk that stores an image of the original software. This space on the hard disk is not available for your use.
If you ever replace the hard drive, or somehow damage the data in the special recovery partition on the hard drive, you must contact HP Support.
And now that I read that in quote on the post, I guess I couldn't have backed up those files to the recovery drive anyway. . .it says right there it ain't for my use. :rolleyes:
Ahh right, it's what I thought it was.
Effectivelly what it is is a 'drive image' of your C drive as per a base install - as in when you install it it will format your C drive and you will lose EVERYTHING that is not backed up.
Rather than giving you an install disk which manually interogates your hardware for components and installs all of the software you want etc, it is basically like a big copy of a generic install that the manufacturers chose for you.
Effectivelly what it does is restore your computer to the poiint when it left the manufacturer - which is a slightly misleading thing - while it does 'restore' your computer to working order, it destroys your data in the process.
if you bought another motherboard, added a new graphics card etc, then none of that would work from the install, because it wasn't on the original machine!
So I recommend backing up everything you can, because it will destroy all of your data on the C drive.
If you wanted too the easiest method for backing stuff up is indeed to simply copy all of your data to another hard drive - and copy it all there ! :)
Thanks for the help everyone!
I ran the recovery drive tonight. It left all the programs I put on the computer (Zone Alarm, ICW, Desk Top News Alert, ect.) alone and they don't need to be reinstalled. As far as I can tell all it did was put a bunch of short cuts on my desk top. I kinda wonder what would have happened had I left some files on the computer rather than moving them to zip or CD.
I have yet to see if my CDs now burn correctly or not. After talking thirty minutes to run the recovery drive and then fourty-five minutes to restart the computer. . .I have had enough with computers for one night. I will have to wait untill morning to check out the system and see what I can remove and undo again.
One thing I do notice is I had not realized how specialized I had my system until I ran the recovery and then logged on to post this. I wonder if I will be able to get it back to the way it was before. I am now thinking I should have left well enough alone, as so far all that seems changed is I have to reset everything back to the way I like it.
Okay, this is odd. While trying to log off TrekRPGNet I get sent to a page that says "You do not have permission to access this page. Now what did I screw up? :rolleyes: Anyone want to buy a computer really cheap?
I may not be back for a time. . .I got a feeling I won't be able to get the computer to work in the morning.
Hay look at that. Been eight months since I had to ask you for help. I must be learning how to use this blasted thing. :D
Okay, problem with the QuattroPro 10 program. It locks up shortly after opening a certain file, and some formula results are replaced with, "Not yet, Bret." The Application Recovery Window pops up, and after going through it I get this box:
This is the second file to do this, it happened last week to another. I had to trash it and start over. I have run my Norton AntiVirus on the file which shows no virus (my Norton is current and up to date). Besides, I run Norton every Sunday morning checking the whole computer.Quote:
QPW.exe - Application Error
The instruction at "0x73e2bf55" referenced memory at "0x00000000." The memory could not be "read."
Click on OK to terminate the program.
Anyone have any ideas?
Norton isn't a particularly good virus-checker (better than McAfee, but that's damning with faint praise). You'll be better off switching to the free AVG antivirus software. Once a week is not sufficient for a virus scan. It should be done every single day, and the software should be configured in "shield" mode to protect at all times. I have AVG scan my entire computer every morning at 4am.
I checked out AVG Antivirus. Ran it last night and the thing found 7 trojans [horses, not greeks or condoms :p ], so we'll see if the problem pops up again.
I now have it set to do a full system scan and checking for updates every morning. Maybe now I can prepare my monthly budget without having to start over each day.
Thanks Owen :D
Hay look at this! Been seven years and eight months since I've needed help with this blasted computer.
So here's the bad news: Monday night my ten or eleven year old computer finally stopped working. Hit the power button and it doesn't turn on. Power is on, as the little green light in the back comes on when I unplug and replug power in. I have most of my files backed up on ZIP 250MB disks, but there are several files missing and what files are on these disks won't open on my new computer! :(
I know you can buy external hard drives to use as extra storage memory, but does anyone know is it possible to take my old hard drive with my ICON projects on it and turn it into an external hard drive for this new contraption I have?
Yeah, they make adapters/docks that let you do that. I've got one hooked up to this work computer even as we speak. Probably run you about 40 bucks or so.
The one I'm using right now is a few years old, so they might not make this particular model anymore, but it's from StarTech.com, and its model number is UNIDOCK2U.
Hope that helps.
Your local comp. repair shop should be able to do that for you. Probably have to buy a casing for it yourself, though.
I've done one of those myself, it's trivially easy to do if the case is a decent one, just a couple of screws and push fit connectors. Just put it in a USB2 enclosure, as it's probably the most stable/most compatible (I've had problems with Firewire, and USB3 / E-sata is not ubiquitous yet).
Good luck recovering your data!
Thanks, guys.
I'm exploring the StarTech option.
Due to financial concerns I'd like to stay as cheap as possible; thus the do it myself, rather than the easy option of the local computer repair place. I assume that getting the StarTech.com model UNIDOCK2U for $76 would be cheaper than having my local computer repair place do it as I'm sure their "labor" or however they term it would knock the costs up into the low $100's.
After spending the money for the new computer I need to get by as cheap as possible in recovering my ICON files.
I know some places will transfer your data for you. That might be a more inexpensive route as well. Or you could aslo try hooking up the old HD to your new comp.
Thanks for the help guys. With your help I went from having no clue on what to do to getting a drive enclosure from my local computer store for less than $55 and I was able to easily set it up myself avoiding the $25 fee the local store would have charged to do it for me.
Now the next problem. I have the old drive with the files on it, but I can't open them because the old computer used .qpw and .wpd for files which can't be opened on the blasted new computer. I've tried for some time now to find ways to convert them to the Microsoft Starter 2010 the new computer has, but every free converter I find the blasted computer won't open saying file is either corrupted or infected.
Getting to the point I just want to chuck the whole damn computer and enclosure out the window. From what I'm seeing on the enclosure drive all the old programs are still there in addition to the files, but for some reason I can't open the old files with the old programs on the enclosure drive. Long shot, but anyone have any suggestions?
Word should open the Wordperfect (.wpd) files. No idea what a .qpw file is, though.
Also, try downloading Open Office--it might be able to open it. It's also free. :)
Qpw extensions...it might be Quattro Pro. I think there might be a filter available for Open Office somewhere. If not, it might be possible to download a trial version somewhere, open it in that and then save it as an Excel file.
Okay, thanks to Owen I am able to get the .wpd files to open (I was just clicking on the files and expecting them to open, I now know I need open the file by having my Microsoft Starter 2010 running and selecting the specific file I want to open); however, most of the files say they are "corrupt" and I only get the first page of the document when I open the file (so the multi-page .wpd file of consolidated traits is lost except for the first page! :( Not looking forward to redoing all that work again.).
I've tried opening the .qpd in the Microsoft Excel Starter 2010, however, they will not open at all. I can confirm the .qpd is Quattro Pro, so looking at my options for getting into those files.
I know my .zip and .pdf Pro programs are on the old drive, does anyone know if I can just transfer those from the old drive to the new computer? I've not tired it so as to avoid screwing something up; but shouldn't I just be able to transfer those programs without having to download them from the net again? I hope to use the .pdf Pro to convert the .wpd files to .pdf and thus have the source material of the consolidated traits without having to go through all the books again!