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Thread: Computer Question. . .What are These Buttons For?

  1. #1
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    Computer Question. . .What are These Buttons For?

    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!
    Steven "redwood973" Wood

    "Man does not fail. He gives up trying."

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  3. #3
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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.
    Steven "redwood973" Wood

    "Man does not fail. He gives up trying."

  4. #4
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    "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.
    Last edited by Owen E Oulton; 03-23-2004 at 07:18 PM.

  5. #5
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    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!
    "The misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all."
    -Joan Robinson, economist

  6. #6
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    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?
    Steven "redwood973" Wood

    "Man does not fail. He gives up trying."

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  8. #8
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    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?
    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.
    "If it ain't the Devil's music, you ain't doin' it right" -- Chris Thomas King

    "C makes for an awfully long lever." - H. Beam Piper

  9. #9
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    Okay, new question.

    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 ).

    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.
    Steven "redwood973" Wood

    "Man does not fail. He gives up trying."

  10. #10
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    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.

  11. #11
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    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?
    Steven "redwood973" Wood

    "Man does not fail. He gives up trying."

  12. #12
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    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 ) 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.
    Ta Muchly

  13. #13
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    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?
    Steven "redwood973" Wood

    "Man does not fail. He gives up trying."

  14. #14
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    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.

  15. #15
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    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!
    Ta Muchly

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