We were unable to fix this quickly ourselves, so my daughter turned to Compaq tech support, and got a clearly bogus response. ("Talk to your ISP." "But I haven't changed the setup, and it's not even dialling my ISP." "Talk to your ISP.") She handed off to me the task of fixing the computer.

I called Compaq tech support again, and got someone who was much more interested in intervening. She had me do various things, including, eventually, testing the modem hardware, even though we were using the telephone line the modem was connected to.

She had me go into a DOS session within Windows '95, and echo two different strings to the modem port. The first was supposed to take the modem off-hook. We heard a click, so she concluded that was working. The second was supposed to dial the telephone. We heard no dialing tones, so she concluded the modem was faulty.

She said she would arrange to have our modem replaced (on site). This was the Saturday before Christmas, so she wasn't sure we'd get a response as quickly as normal.

After hanging up, I tried again the modem strings she had had me try while we talked on the telephone. This time, the off-hook command produced a dial tone (as I had expected), and the dial command produced dialing tones, as it should have. So the modem was not faulty, and the woman in tech support had been wrong about the validity of her test.

The woman at Compaq tech support had warned me that if my modem was not at fault, she would ask me to reload our hard drive (destroying its previous contents). I wasn't too keen on that prospect, since we had files we hadn't backed up. (We didn't have any way to back up those files, either, without installing a SCSI card - something I wanted to avoid until we had more experience with the computer.)

So, rather than immediately calling Compaq tech support for a third time, I resumed my previously conducted search for some way to reset the software switch which seemed to be in the wrong state. This time, I found (in the "My Computer" folder on the desktop) a 'Dial-Up Networking' folder. In this folder was an 'Iquest' icon. After selecting the IQuest icon, I was able to select "Connect" from a 'Connection' menu. The modem dialed, and connected to IQuest. This apparently reset the mysterious software switch:

- I disconnected, and started The Realm. The modem dialed, and connected to IQuest. So the problem was fixed.

I called Compaq tech support (less than an hour after finishing the previous call), and told them we didn't need a new modem. The woman I talked to said she would try to get the order canceled.

The following Tuesday, we got a message on our answering machine, from someone who identified himself as doing service for Compaq. He wanted to make arrangements for installing our new modem. This was within Compaq's hoped-for response time. Of course, this also meant the third tech support woman didn't succeed in canceling the order, for some reason.

So, if we had been total neophytes, slavishly followed Compaq's instructions, we would have made a call to IQuest (fruitless unless they recognized the problem and told us how to fix it), then would have waited half a week to have our modem replaced, then reloaded our hard drive (losing its previous contents) and redone the IQuest setup, at which point we would have been able to connect to the Internet again.

But as members of the Kokomo IBM PC Users' Group, we have learned enough about our computers to sift out the good advice from the bad. As a result, we had our computer fixed after a few hours, and without losing any of our files.

Richard Smiley

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

The previous page is a batch program that I use to make a copy of all my WIN95 system files before I make major configuration changes. It was inspired by the book Windows 95 Unleashed - by Paul McFedries from Sams Publishing.

NOTE: This program will only run correctly from a pure DOS session. This is because the windows registry is locked under Win95. The program will still run, but an ASCII dump of the registry will not be written.

The first part for the program checks to see what directory you want to put the files in and creates it if it does not exist.

Next, the normal boring windows system files are copied into the directory. User.dat and system.dat are the Win95 registry files.

We then use regedit to dump an ascii version of the registry files. These can be used to create a difference report in case something goes wrong.

The last few commands dump a directory listing of the windows and windows\system directories to text files. This will allow us to check for any DLLs or other system files that were changed.

The registry is the heart of your Win95 system. Protect it! I wish I had this batch file when I first got my system. I would have saved me a number of headaches.

Mark Pendergast

REM

REM Program to back up WIN95 critical files to a sub-dir of the backup directory.

REM

C:

CD \Windows

IF "%1"=="" GOTO BADDEST

IF EXIST C:\BACKUP\%1 GOTO BADDIR

ECHO CREATE DIRECTORY C:\BACKUP\%1 ...

MKDIR C:\BACKUP\%1

ECHO BACKING UP FILES TO C:\BACKUP\%1 ...

XCOPY C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT C:\BACKUP\%1\ /H /K

XCOPY C:\WINDOWS\USER.DAT C:\BACKUP\%1\ /H /K

XCOPY C:\WINDOWS\WIN.INI C:\BACKUP\%1\ /H /K

XCOPY C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI C:\BACKUP\%1\ /H /K

XCOPY C:\WINDOWS\PROTOCOL.INI C:\BACKUP\%1\ /H /K

XCOPY C:\CONFIG.SYS C:\BACKUP\%1\ /H /K

XCOPY C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT C:\BACKUP\%1\ /H /K

XCOPY C:\IO.SYS C:\BACKUP\%1\ /H /K

XCOPY C:\MSDOS.SYS C:\BACKUP\%1\ /H /K

REGEDIT /L:C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT /R:C:\WINDOWS\USER.DAT /E C:\BACKUP\%1\REG.REG

DIR C:\WINDOWS /A-D /ON > C:\BACKUP\%1\WINDIR.TXT

DIR C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM /A-D /ON > C:\BACKUP\%1\WINSYDIR.TXT

GOTO END

;

:BADDEST

ECHO *ERROR* NO DESTINATION SPECIFIED !!!

GOTO END

;

:BADDIR

ECHO *ERROR* DESTINATION EXISTS, PLEASE DELETE IT !!!

DIR C:\BACKUP\%1

GOTO END

;

:END

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The February issue of the newsletter contained a bug. (I suspect it came from one of those new viruses).

In the code example to back up your system files, I used the xcopy command with the /K and /H options. To my surprise I found that the system files were not being copied at all. The xcopy command was complaining about these options. As far as I can tell these options do not exist. I have written the publisher of the book, but have received no response.

The correct procedure to back up all the system files is shown on the previous page. Note the use of the attrib command to remove the s - system and h - hidden flags from the files so they can be copied and then putting them back on so the systems look the way we found them.

I have checked the operation of the new procedure and it works fine. Remember: You must run the procedure in DOS mode or the Registry files will be locked by Win95.

I added @echo off to the top of the file. I recommend that you comment out this line with a semicolon (;) the first few times so you can see what is going on behind the scenes. After that it is nice to see only the echos and any errors. (Another option would be to add a few more pause statements in strategic places so you can control the flow of the action.

If you have any cool Win95 tricks, I would like to hear about them. Please write your article in Windows Write, Wordpad, or MS Works, put it on a floppy disk, and give it to any of the officers at a Group meeting.

Mark Pendergast

@ECHO OFF

C:

IF "%1"=="" GOTO BADDEST

IF EXIST C:\BACKUP\%1 GOTO BADDIR

ECHO CREATE DIRECTORY C:\BACKUP\%1 ...

MKDIR C:\BACKUP\%1

ECHO BACKING UP FILES TO C:\BACKUP\%1 ...

ATTRIB -S -H C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT

XCOPY C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT C:\BACKUP\%1\

ATTRIB +S +H C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT

ATTRIB -S -H C:\WINDOWS\USER.DAT

XCOPY C:\WINDOWS\USER.DAT C:\BACKUP\%1\

ATTRIB +S +H C:\WINDOWS\USER.DAT

XCOPY C:\WINDOWS\WIN.INI C:\BACKUP\%1\

XCOPY C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI C:\BACKUP\%1\

XCOPY C:\WINDOWS\PROTOCOL.INI C:\BACKUP\%1\

XCOPY C:\CONFIG.SYS C:\BACKUP\%1\

XCOPY C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT C:\BACKUP\%1\

ATTRIB -S -H C:\IO.SYS

XCOPY C:\IO.SYS C:\BACKUP\%1\

ATTRIB +S +H C:\IO.SYS

ATTRIB -S -H C:\MSDOS.SYS

XCOPY C:\MSDOS.SYS C:\BACKUP\%1\

ATTRIB +S +H C:\MSDOS.SYS

;

REGEDIT /L:C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT /R:C:\WINDOWS\USER.DAT /E C:\BACKUP\%1\REG.TXT

DIR C:\WINDOWS /A-D /ON > C:\BACKUP\%1\WINDIR.TXT

DIR C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM /A-D /ON > C:\BACKUP\%1\WINSYDIR.TXT

DIR C:\BACKUP\%1

GOTO END

;

:BADDEST

ECHO *ERROR* NO DESTINATION SPECIFIED !!!

GOTO END

;

:BADDIR

ECHO *ERROR* DESTINATION EXISTS, PLEASE DELETE IT !!!

DIR C:\BACKUP\%1

GOTO END

;

:END

PAUSE

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Upgrade your system in a flash....

I got the opportunity to do some ‘high risk’ computing last week. I upgraded my system BIOS to handle a larger hard drive. Unlike my last BIOS upgrade, I didn’t pull the BIOS chip and put in a new one, I just reprogrammed my existing BIOS chip with new code.

My Gateway P5-100 has an Intel ‘Zappa’ mother board. It also has a 1GB hard disk drive. The original BIOS, 1.00.03.BSOT, supports hard drives up to 2GB in size. This was fine until I ran out of disk space a few weeks ago. (Something about Lotus Notes from work taking 100MB, and MS Internet Explorer with active desktop taking another 100MB. Ouch!)

Rather than add a puny 2GB disk to my system, when drives are running $50 per GB, I decided I needed to get a BIOS upgrade to allow me to get a much larger drive. I read through my system documentation and realized I had Flash BIOS. In theory this meant I could download a new BIOS version from the Web and load it directly into my system.

My first move was to search the Yahoo Web site for information on Flash BIOS upgrades. There was so much information I never did find anything useful. I also looked at the AMI web page and the Intel Web page. Neither one of these gave me much information.

My next stop was the Gateway Web page. They had the BIOS update in their software library area. I downloaded it onto my system and stared at it for a few weeks. The reason I stared at the code for a few weeks goes back to my opening line about ‘high risk’ computing. The Gateway page made it very clear that if I loaded the wrong BIOS onto my system it would be toast. Ouch!

When I got up enough courage, and had checked all my facts about twenty times, I put the new BIOS download into a subdirectory and ran the self-extracting zip file to extract all the pieces. I read the ‘read me’ file. The instructions seemed straight forward.

To Flash my new BIOS, I had to create a bootable floppy. I used the property sheet on the ‘My Computer’ icon to format a new system disk.

I then dragged all the unzipped files onto the floppy disk. I booted the computer using my new boot disk and it ran the Flash BIOS update program. I selected update Flash memory from a file and then selected the BIOS file for the new BIOS. The update completed successfully and I was home free, or so I thought.

When I went to reboot the system the BIOS showed as 1.00.11.BSOT. Everything looked good until it was time to find the floppy disk. It couldn’t find it and gave some weird error message about system resource conflicts and reported a floppy disk controller failure. Yikes! Worse yet when I hit the ‘ESC’ key it asked me to "insert bootable media in the appropriate device" and wouldn’t let me out. Double Yikes!

At this point I decided to call Gateway support. I pay these guys good money to be on call to save my ‘bacon’. The Gateway representative asked me a number of questions and decided that my CMOS memory needed to be reset to allow the BIOS changes to take effect. He had me remove the case and flip a dip switch that cleared the CMOS. I rebooted, and the system came up and started to run Windows 95. I thanked the rep and hung up.

Just as the phone hit the cradle, Windows started complaining that none of my hardware was installed properly. (Don’t you just hate it when that happens.) The menu said something like "Unknown hardware: PIIX PCI IDE controller". Excuse me, isn’t that my hard drive?

I called Gateway again. The Gateway representative asked me a few questions and had me click "have driver disk" and try to access some files on the disk. None of them were there. He put me on hold for a few minutes.

When he returned he said that my system was shipped between Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 so I didn’t have any driver disks included in my system. (How nice.) He said I needed to download new ones from the Web. I reminded him that my new BIOS was not on speaking terms with my hard drive, so I suspected that the modem might not be very chummy either. He had me load the default Windows IDE disk driver and told me not to reboot until I had logged on to the Web and gotten the drivers.

I decided to look at the device table before I let the Gateway representative go. I had a conflict between the COM ports and the modem. This would not be helpful for dialing out to the Web. I don’t use my COM ports for anything because I have a bus mouse and internal modem. The Gateway representative recommended rebooting and disabling the COM ports in the CMOS. I tried to explain that I had not needed to do that before I reset the CMOS, but he insisted that the COM ports were only for show and were not needed to have an operational system. I did this and the system came up into Windows.

I was able to fire up the modem and access the Gateway web page. I found the disk driver page, but the driver had a different name than the one the representative had given me. I downloaded it anyway. (Who knows when I might get another chance.)

While I was trying to decide whether to load the driver in spite of the name change, I began reading my Gateway technical manual. In the CMOS setup section I came across a section that set plug-and-play on or off. I vaguely recalled that this was off in my newly reset CMOS. Could this be the problem?

I rebooted and got into the CMOS setup and set the plug-and-play switch to Windows 95. A quick save and reboot and everything came up normally. I had found the ‘holy grail’ - plug-and-play.

I rebooted again and got into the CMOS setup one more time. I re-enabled my COM ports. Then I started to sniff around to make sure all the settings made sense. I found the source of the original "insert bootable media" error. The CD ROM was listed as the primary boot device. I switched this to the floppy disk as primary and hard disk as secondary. When I was happy with all the settings, I saved and let it fly. Everything came up just right. I was happy.

I am now running my new BIOS and everything seems to be working just fine. I have learned a few lessons from this adventure. First, always copy down your CMOS settings before you need them. Second, service representatives are guessing, just like you are.

I hope my tale of woe helps you to avoid some problems with your system. I highly recommend recording your CMOS settings or getting a CMOS saver utility program. It is a real pain to try to reconstruct these settings from scratch.

I would also recommend printing a device table detailed listing for your computer. To access this report right click on the ‘my computer’ icon. Select properties and then select the device manager tab. Push the print button. Then select report type: ‘all devices and system summary’ and press the OK button. This prints a nice detailed report of all your IRQs, DMAs and memory addresses. This report is very handy for troubleshooting your hardware setup. It allowed me to check that I was back to normal after my problems.

If you have had an adventure working on your computer, please write it up and submit it for the newsletter. This will allow everyone else in the Group to learn from your mistakes and will make you a valuable contributor to the Group. Just write your story in wordpad or MS works and get it to any Group officer on a floppy disk. (I will even offer to spice it up for you if you want me to, I just need the basic facts). The Group also rewards contributions to the newsletter with one user buck per half page of original contribution, and one user buck per article from another source. We would love to hear from you.

Mark Pendergast

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

(With Active Desktop)

I just got the new Prodigy Internet CD. It comes with Internet explorer 4.0. I popped the CD in the drive and clicked install when the form came up. The first thing it asked was did I want to have IE 4.0 installed. Because this is the new standard for Prodigy Internet I clicked OK. The next question did I want the minimal, medium or large install. The Minimum was 40MB and the Large was 60MB. Holy Cow!

I picked the large install. It had a number of optional utility programs (Including MS Net meeting, Front page express and MS Chat.) Then it asked if I wanted to install the IE Active Desktop. This is the preview of Windows 98 with the browser as desktop. I must have been in a weird mood, because I said yes. It took forever to install.

The Prodigy Internet has been pretty stable. (I believe this has been due to my new Sportster WinModem 33.6, rather than Prodigy Internet, but I am happy.) The new interface is cleaner and has less do-dads than the old one. Redial is still broken (it just hangs up).

The Internet Explorer is similar to Netscape in general. I have found it to be a little clunky to use, but I have been using Netscape for over two years now. For the most part I just use the mouse and the forward and back buttons, so I have not seen a lot of difference between the two.

The mail program is not bad. It is very similar to the one in Netscape. I have not used it enough to have developed an opinion of it yet.

The big difference I have seen is in using MS outlook as a news reader. The download of the list of all newsgroups is blazing fast compared to Netscape. It also has a ‘find newsgroup’ search window that is very handy. It is much easier to configure your viewing window in IE.

The big disappointment in the whole thing has been the Active Desktop. I have transformed my desktop into the ‘slow desktop’. Everything I do seems to drag. And worst of all, I can’t figure out how to turn it off. Every ‘Windows Explorer’ window now looks like a web page. It also runs about the same speed it would if I was pulling it in from Japan. I am unimpressed. I also noticed it takes about 6 MB more RAM memory than Windows 95 by itself.

I have only been using the Active Desktop for a week or so, and I hope I warm up to it (or at least find out how to turn it off). I will give you an additional update as I learn more about it.

Mark Pendergast

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

(Watching your system run)

The System Monitor utility allows you to watch your system performance in real time while you work. It is a handy way to see why your system is acting the way it is and can even help diagnose poor performance and crashes.

The System Monitor utility is located under Programs > Accessories > System Tools.

The program displays graphs of various system variables and updates them on a regular basis. My favorite variables are Free Memory, Page Faults and Bytes Received from the modem. I have these update every 10 seconds on a line graph. I keep this in the upper right hand corner of my desktop and refer to it often, especially when I am on the Internet or using many applications at once.

The Free memory graph tells me when my system is getting tight on RAM memory. Usually when I get less than 200KB of free RAM my system starts doing weird things. This is because the system does not have as much space to play with and has to do housekeeping on the little memory it has left rather than doing the work I want it to do.

The Page faults show when the system is messing with the virtual memory on the hard drive. This is another indication that things are going to slow down.

Bytes received is only available when the modem is active. It helps me see how my Internet connection is doing without having to watch the modem light all the time.

The ten second update is a nice rate that is often enough to see things change, but slow enough that things don’t scroll off the screen too quickly.

Some other interesting parameters you can track are: Processor usage %, virtual machines, and allocated memory.

The program lets you see bar charts, line charts or numeric charts, but I see no value in anything but line charts.

The System Monitor Utility comes free with Windows 95 and can give you some valuable insights into why your system runs the way it does. Although some of the system parameters are a little obscure, you can figure most of them out, and the rest you can ask about at a Group meeting.

Mark Pendergast

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I ordered a new hard drive kit from Gateway 2000. It is a 6.4 GB Western Digital drive with all the mounting hardware. (I have learned from past experience that if I buy a cheaper drive somewhere else, I end up losing my savings buying the mounting kit from Gateway.) I can use this drive in my system because I upgraded the BIOS to handle larger drives. (As related in my article last month.)

I ordered the drive on a Thursday and was told that it would arrive between five and eight business days later. The next morning my wife handed me a box from Gateway that had been delivered via UPS. My drive was in! I let the box collect dust for a few days.

I opened the box and checked out the contents. Rail kit, cable, install guide, and drive. I started reading the install guide. Everything looked good until I read the part about FAT-16 files systems require that all drives be partitioned into 2GB pieces. Only FAT-32 systems would allow the drive to be used as one 6.4GB drive. The manual stated that only Windows 95 rev B and rev C support FAT-32.

I called Gateway technical support. There is no way to add FAT-32 into a Win95A system. You can not download it. The service packs do not provide it. The only possible way is to buy a Win95 upgrade off the shelf and hope it is new enough to be a B or C revision. The service representative did offer that I could wait until Win98 comes out. I pointed out that by the time Win98 comes out I would have gobs of files on my new hard drive and would be reluctant to repartition and reformat my hard drive to get the benefit of one drive at that point.

I decided that the best course of action would be to install the drive as 2GB chunks and migrate as many data files to the other drives as possible. I yanked the cover off my machine and assembled the rail kit to the drive. To my surprise the rails fit perfectly. (For those of you who didn’t follow my last hard drive upgrade, it took me the better part of a month to get the right screws to mount the drive.) I slid the drive into the drive bay. To mount the drive I had to remove the module that held the old hard drive and the floppy drive in two 3.5 inch bays. I also had to remove the power switch. The drive screwed in easily. I reassembled the other components.

It is my policy to bring up a new drive in standalone (master) mode before connecting the old drive in as a slave. This process has a number of advantages. First, it prevents me from messing up the original drive while trying to get the new one working. Second, The newer drive is usually faster and bigger and make a better ‘C’ drive for loading the operating system. Last, it eliminates worrying about jumpers and drive interference until after I know that the new drive works in the system. I went ahead and disconnected the ribbon cable and power from the old drive.

As I was plugging the ribbon cable and power into the new drive, I decided to test fit the cables back to the old drive (just call me paranoid). They wouldn’t reach! I got on the phone to Gateway technical support again. They just couldn’t believe that it wouldn’t reach. I checked all three cables, the old one, the new one in the install kit and the one to the CD ROM. The one I had was the longest. I noticed that one of my problems was that the way the old disk drive was placed required me to put a 180 degree bend in the cable that ate up a lot of my slack. I asked the Gateway guy if I could install the drive backwards. (It was already on edge, so It would just be on edge the other way.) He replied I could just leave it loose in the case, but he didn’t recommend it. I pulled the 3.5 inch drive bay module, turned the drive upside down and reinstalled the module. The cable just reached. I said thanks and hung up.

Now that the new drive was all hooked up, I inserted the ‘magic’ boot disk that Gateway provided with my system and the Windows 95 CD. The system came up and ran a system startup utility program. I selected ‘exit to DOS’ and ran the Fdisk utility. I made a 2 GB primary partition, made a 2GB logical DOS drive on it and made it active. Then I made a 2GB extended partition and made a 2GB logical DOS drive on it. I tried to make a second extended DOS partition, but the program wouldn’t let me. Fdisk only allows one extended partition. I had to delete the second partition and recreate it to fill the remainder of the disk. I then created two 2Gb logical DOS drives. I exited Fdisk.

Next, I ran the Format utility. I got to type the most exciting command I know: FORMAT C:. Wow! I used format with the /s option to create the boot tracks and load the system files. I also formatted the D: and E: drives. Following the Gateway instructions I pushed the reset button on my computer to reboot.

The system again booted into the Gateway system startup utility program. This time I told it to begin the Windows 95 installation. The CD ROM drive was setup as Z: to prevent conflicts with other devices. The Windows 95 setup wizard began to run and asked me a bunch of questions. I answered these and the setup process began.

When it was done the setup program told me to reboot to begin the second phase of setup. I rebooted and the system came up in Windows 95. Cool!

The first problem I encountered was when I got a dialog box asking me to please help Windows find something called CSPMAN.DLL. I aimed it at the Z: drive, but it reported the same error. Once again I called Gateway support (might as well get my moneys worth). They told me to cancel out of the dialog. Then I got a few other files not found dialogs. The Gateway rep told me to cancel out of all of them as well. They were for the setup on my sound card, video card and modem.

The next thing that happened was that Windows started the MS Exchange setup wizard. The Gateway rep had me cancel that as well. When we finally got into Windows 95 he had me restart Windows 95. At this point he taught me a trick that was really cool. He had me restart the computer, but told me hold down the shift key when I clicked YES. This just restarted Windows and skipped the POST code (full reboot) sequence. This is a real timesaver to change configuration info without the need for a full reboot.

The computer came back up and we went into the control panel to reload the sound card driver. It still could not find the drivers. Then I looked at "My Computer". I noticed that the CD ROM drive was F: not Z:. This had been the problem all along. The setup wizard was still defaulted to Z: as the CD ROM drive from our original install from the emergency startup disk. We when back into the control panel and reloaded the sound card, video and modem from F:. At this point my system seemed to be running normally. I thanked the Gateway representative and hung up.

At his point I loaded my INISAVE.BAT file from a backup floppy and saved all my system files. (You may remember this program from a few issues back). I then loaded MS Works and MS Publisher, my two favorite applications, and did another save of all my system files. Last, I loaded my Prodigy Internet and Internet Explorer 4.0. This time I ‘just said NO’ to Active Desktop. [As you may recall Active Desktop is a web enabled desktop for Windows 95 that was developed to help sell new Intel processors. It is so slow you have to double your megahertz just to stay even.]

When I rebooted after the IE 4.0 install, my system reported an error on boot-up. It was "Bad Plug and Play Serial ID". Huh? I had never seen this error before. I turned my system off, reseated the cards and cables in my system and turned it back on. The error went away. [ I don’t know what this has to do with my story, but I’ll include it in case someone would like to use it as a springboard to write an article on Plug-and-Play or weird error messages or some combination of the two.]

At this point I started to use my machine. I wanted to print out a detailed device information report from the device manager and found I had no printer defined. The default printer was set to MS Exchange fax. (So this is why Exchange kept asking to be set up.) I loaded the printer driver and everything worked great.

The next phase of the project was to hook up my old drive as a slave and then my project would be complete. I would have the new drive as my primary drive and still have access to the files on my old drive as a secondary. I shut down my system and went to work.

First, I set the jumpers on both drives to the appropriate master and slave configurations. Then I tried to plug in the old drive. Even though I had tested the fit of the cable earlier, it did not fit. You would be surprised how unforgiving a cable that is one sixteenth of an inch too short can be. I decided to stare at the cable for about twenty minutes to see if I had some sort of psychic power to lengthen the cable. When it became clear that this didn’t work I tried an old engineering trick, I got a cup of coffee and read the paper.

When I got up enough gumption to work on the system again, I noticed that the CD ROM drive was about one sixteenth of an inch closer to the old hard drive than the new one was. I decided to swap positions of the new drive and the CD ROM. This seemed to work. The cable would just reach between the drives. [The cable is stretched to the max, if anyone knows a good source of custom IDE cables I would like to hear from you.]

I fired up the computer and everything came up fine. I got quite a shock when I started looking for my old files. They were not on the F drive where they should be, they were on the D drive.

I called Gateway one more time. I asked them what was going on. They told me that the second drive was D because it was still an active partition. It pushed the extended partitions out of the way. The Gateway representative said that he had learned this the hard way when he brought up a new disk as a master-slave pair and formatted the wrong drive because he assumed that the slave drive would be at the end. Ouch! [ The is another good reason to use my system of bringing up the new drive alone and then adding the old drive back into the system only after the new one is working.]

I hope this article helps you understand a little more about your computer and how to navigate the upgrade process. If you have a tale of a successful, or unsuccessful, upgrade that you would like to share with the Group, please write it up in MS Works or Wordpad, place it on a floppy disk and give it to one of the Group officers to hand to me. It will help guide others to avoid costly errors and earn you the esteem of your peers (as well as a few user bucks.)

Mark Pendergast

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

It is with deep regret that I announce the passing of one of the great leaders of our Group. Dave Colwell passed away on May 19. He died as a result of a one car traffic accident on south U.S. 31.

At first it may seem odd to call Dave a great leader. He was a quiet man (unless he was talking about his latest call to tech support) and was easily overlooked in a crowd. But Dave was one of the great movers and shakers in the Group. He always had time to help out and was always ready to volunteer time to help make the Group work. Dave has served as Vice-President and as Newsletter Editor for the group.

Dave was most recently helping me copy and distribute the newsletter. This behind the scenes leadership was the way Dave got things done and the way he endeared himself to those of us who worked closely with him.

Dave was a very positive influence in my life. His presence and influence made my years as President and Newsletter Editor of the Group very enjoyable. I will miss him deeply.

Mark Pendergast

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I have compiled a disk with all the articles I have written for the newsletter over the last few years. I have also included a few that were contributed by other people while I was Newsletter Editor.

The Group is offering the whole collection for just one dollar, including the disk. The files are in Windows Write format. I have included the entire table of contents in the newsletter. I don’t want to brag, but there is some good stuff here. A few of the articles are out of date, but the vast majority have stood the test of time.

Don’t be the last one in your ‘Network Neighborhood’ to get one. They are available at meetings or through Rodney Malkoff.

Visual Basic - GW Basic does Windows.

Help, they’ve ZIPed me and I can’t UnZIP...

Quicken 2.0 for Windows: Wow!

MS-DOS 6: Odds and Ends, but worth the price.

PKZIP and PKUNZIP, a quick guide to operation and use.

How my family computed on our summer vacation.

Windows Tips, Tricks, and other cool stuff ...

Stupid WIndows Tricks - Part 2

Stupid DOS tricks

Stupid Hardware Tricks

The ghost of Christmas yet to come ....

Computer industry news, gossip, and other parables of our age.

The Internet: The Information Oregon Trail.

Microsoft Works 3.0 - First look, first thoughts ...

Trade Rag Update.

Expert Home Design for Windows ... Not.

Book Review: More Windows 3.1 Secrets

Book Review: The Cuckoo’s Egg

Memory, memory, who’s got the memory ?

The little case against Microsoft gets bigger...

Using the BBS (Finding your way around)

Industry News and Comment

Mark’s Incomplete Buyers Guide to CD ROM Upgrades

The CD ROM upgrade continues ...

CD ROM Upgrade 2: The Empire Strikes Back

CD ROM Upgrade Part 3: The Money Pit

How to invoke Applications from Windows File Manager

CD ROM Upgrade 4 - The Final Chapter

The Windows StartUp Group

Microsoft Publisher 2.0

CD Roms I have known ...

Quick online backup of config files

CD ROM Review: Harry and the Haunted House

Cyberporn

Spreadsheet Auditing

The Order Maker

Epson Stylus Color Printer

Oh where, oh where have my little hackers gone ...

Essential Peripherals / Accessories

Batch files for a rainy day ...

Win95 Easter Egg

Refinements to Multiple Configurations

Win95 Easter Egg - 2

Gateway Online CD, OOPS!

Windows 95 for Dummies!

World Wide Web Sites

How to copy files in Windows File Manager

Top Ten reasons to Buy a MAC ...

Two cool things I’ve found in Win95 (so far)

An Internet Lexicon

Windows 95 Power Toys

Why me? , an AOL odyssey

Prodigy’s NEW Usenet News Reader

The officers and Directors of the Kokomo IBM PC Users Group

The Airstream Trailer Campers meeting in Tipton

A quick look at Windows 95

Buying from the Computer Shopper

What the heck is the Web ?

News from the On-Line Industry

The ‘New’ Newsletter

Feel the Power

Prodigy Internet

New JPEG Format ?

Is the Internet Real ?

PC Data Security: Protect your assets

WWW - Home page construction

A call for volunteers for the Kokomo - Howard County Public Library

Technology Watch

Ode to a computer

Windows 95 Tips

Java - Have a cup

Yellow Alert, First Warning

You may be an Engineer if:

First Aid for Win95

Yellow Alert - Part Two

Sim-mania

Yellow Alert - Part Three

Product Review - Disney’s Animated Storybook: Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree

NFL.COM - Feel the Power

Microsoft Freebies

Gateway 2000 - Networking Info

Yellow Alert - Part Four

Direct Cable Connection

CD-Recordable (CD-R) Disks are Cheap!

Computer Humor

New Virus Warning

Unstable Internet - Fixed

Gateway Country Store

Mark Pendergast

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(How I see it ...)

There has been a lot of talk on the news about the Department Of Justice (DOJ) probe into anti-trust violations by Microsoft. As usual the Media seems to have no idea what the facts are and is just looking for an angle to make it appeal to the masses. So if that is your only source of information, you probably have no idea what is going on.

I would like to start with Bill Gates famous quote. "Having to bundle Netscape with Win95 is like forcing Coke to put 3 cans of Pepsi in every six-pack." This is great spin, but has no connection with the facts. This is my scenario:

Coke has just cornered the market on water. You need water to live - Coke is the only place you can get it. Coke thinks "Pepsi has been cutting into my sales of New Coke. Everyone has heard of Pepsi and likes it. Nobody likes New Coke." So Coke says "If you want to buy water, you have to buy New Coke too. In fact we have made it such that the water is in the same can as the New Coke so you can’t split it out." At this point the DOJ steps in and says "This is not fair. You are using your monopoly on water to run Pepsi out of the cola market." They demand that Coke stop shipping New Coke in the water cans. Coke responds that the world will die of thirst if it is forced to delay water shipments to remove the new Coke. The DOJ foolishly gives and then tries to make a compromise. They try to force Coke to ship 3 cans of Pepsi in each six pack of water / New Coke to help keep them in business until they can work something out.

As you can see the DOJ plan is silly, but not for the reason that it seems in the first scenario. The real problem is that Pepsi can never win because Coke was allowed to create a linkage between their monopoly and an unrelated product and use this to drive everyone else from the market. (You may also notice that the spin version, which ignores the monopoly implications, is a much better sound bite for the 6 o’clock news.)

The problem with Microsoft is not that they have established a Monopoly. There are a number of companies that have monopolies in some technology or other and get along fine with DOJ. In this case the monopoly is legally referred to as an ‘essential facility’. (Something you must have to do business.) The legal rules for essential facilities are that you can not use them to discourage competition in the area you have the monopoly and that you must allow everyone that needs to use your essential facility equal access to it.

Microsoft has violated the second part of the law when they tried to crush Netscape by giving Internet Explorer (Themselves in this case) preferential access to the essential facility by including it in Win98. (This is why DOJ tried to give equal access by including Netscape as well.) This is also the issue with the MS application developers having better access to Windows developers than the rest of the application developers in the world.

Microsoft also violated the first part of the law when they gave computer OEMs the ultimatum to load only Windows on their PCs (Not OS2, Linux or Dos) or they would not get reasonable pricing on the essential facility, Windows. This was also the case when Microsoft introduced glitches in Windows that caused it to be incompatible with DR DOS or OS2.

Microsoft has done some tremendous things with the PC market. They have really won much of the business they have gotten through innovative products and good marketing. But there comes a time when MS has become unresponsive and is using its monopoly to prevent innovation and good marketing by other firms from eroding its position. This can not be tolerated in a young and dynamic market like computers.

When IBM did this with mainframes the DOJ stepped in and put a stop to it with a consent decree. When ATT did this with long distance the DOJ stepped in and put a stop to it by breaking them up. I feel it is equally appropriate that when Microsoft does it that they should be stopped as well.

I do not think that a simple consent decree will be enough to keep Bill Gates honest.

Mark Pendergast

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The Group officers would like input from all our members on the fate of the Kokomo IBM PC Users Group conference on Ron Shue’s BBS. Should we continue to support the Conference or ask that it be deleted?

In the past the BBS conference was a great place to broadcast Group messages, share programs and information, and keep our stuff. Many members used the board because it was free and ran just fine with an XT and a 1200 baud modem.

In recent times people have moved to the Internet. We have e-mail accounts and web pages and access to more computer information and programs than we know what to do with.

As far as I can tell nobody has used the BBS conference for many months. I log on every once in a while just to see if anyone is home. It looks like even the local teenagers have abandoned it.

We pay no rent for our space on the BBS. Ron Shue has provided it out of the goodness of his heart and past loyalty to the Group. We have a conference for the general membership and one for officers only.

If we plan to advertise the BBS conference as a feature of the Group, then we should support it and keep the information there up to date.

If we do not plan to use the BBS conference, I would like to see it removed from the BBS so we do not appear to be getting stagnant. We should also stop advertising it as a feature of the Group.

Please forward your thoughts on this subject to any Group Board Member. Use the phone numbers published on the last page of the newsletter, the return address of the newsletter, or just talk with an officer at the next Group meeting.

The BBS conference is an important part of our history, but it should not be a distraction for our future. Please let us know how you feel.

Mark Pendergast

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1. Write a newsletter article. (had to get my plug in...)

2. Create your own letterhead.

3. Write a letter to the Editor.

4. Do your taxes.

5. Surf the Web.

6. Send an E-mail.

7. Look up a book at the Library.

8. Make a calendar.

9. Make Christmas cards.

10. Print personal business cards.

11. Print mailing labels to someone you like to write to.

12. Make a paper airplane.

13. Paint a picture of a tree.

14. Write a poem.

15. Track your home inventory.

16. Play solitaire.

17. Keep a list of things to do.

18. Make a flyer for a party.

19. Balance your checkbook.

20. Edit your video tapes.

21. Write your memoirs.

22. Draw a map to your house.

23. Play a music CD.

24. Print return address labels.

25. Create a home budget.

26. Track your Christmas card mailing list.

27. Defragment your hard drive.

28. Make a banner for the Colts.

29. Construct a family tree.

30. Plan an addition to your house.

31. Learn to touch type.

32. Play Pac-Man.

33. Learn Spanish.

34. Make a photo collage.

35. Make web pages.

36. Look up quotations.

37. Check your spelling.

38. Check your Grammar.

39. Track your investments.

40. Calculate mortgage payments.

41. Make a banner for the Pacers.

42. Plan your retirement.

43. Reserve airline tickets.

44. Write the great American novel.

45. Track all your recipes.

46. Plan a diet.

47. Write checks.

48. Keep golf league standings.

49. Keep bowling league standings.

50. Publish a newsletter.

51. Record a music CD.

52. Check stock prices.

53. Fax in song requests.

54. Backup all your files.

55. Format a diskette.

56. Hold a video conference.

57. Simulate the world.

58. Learn Phonics.

59. Make a movie.

60. Learn to read.

61. Compose music.

62. Learn about Dinosaurs.

63. Design a better mousetrap.

64. Plan a trip.

65. Look up a phone number.

66. Play golf.

67. Simulate a city.

68. Fly an F-16.

69. Watch a short movie.

70. Check the weather in Seattle.

71. Scan for computer viruses.

72. Investigate dungeons.

73. Solve crossword puzzles.

74. Write to the president.

75. Watch TV.

76. Visit a chat room.

77. Check status of a Fed-ex package.

78. Control your appliances.

79. Scan a picture.

80. Play Christmas carols.

81. Diagnose your symptoms.

82. Design landscaping.

83. Read a newspaper.

84. Plan this weeks menu.

85. Find information on Legg-Perthes disease.

86. Find Carmen Sandiego.

87. Edit a photo to remove red eyes.

88. Find a synonym for compute.

89. Tour the White House.

90. Listen to a children’s book.

91. Study the stars and planets.

92. Study for the SAT test.

93. Read a magazine.

94. Check the TV listings.

95. Buy a book.

96. Keep track of important dates.

97. Plan a garden.

98. Look up the capital of Wyoming.

99. Exercise your carpal tunnel.

100. Heat a small room.

101. Turn it off.

I hope you like the list. If you have any of your own ideas, bring them to the next Users Group meeting to share with everyone.

Mark Pendergast

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Have you ever received a Microsoft Excel file and been unable to open it? How about Powerpoint? This can be a very frustrating experience for those of us that got Works with our computers, instead of Office.

Well, Microsoft has a solution for you. They provide free viewers for most of their popular Office applications. There are viewers for Word, Excel and Powerpoint. I have not seen viewers for Project or Access. (I’m not even sure what an Access viewer would do???)

The viewers allow you to look at the contents of the Office files, but will not allow you to change them. But, in many cases this is all you need.

I belong to a golf league. Our fearless leader sends out the weekly results in an Excel spreadsheet. In the past he sent them out at work, so I had access to MS Office and could read them. This year he tried to send them out at home, to avoid any questions at work. Well, this was OK except that I could not read the files. He tried RTF format, but it did not really work with the spreadsheet format.

This is when I downloaded the Excel viewer. It took about half an hour to download the Excel viewer. I had no trouble setting it up. It worked like a charm, just like using Excel.

These viewers are available for download on the Microsoft web site. (www.microsoft.com) Be prepared to wait a good long time, as these files are rather large and the server is getting pounded by all the other folks that want these free software packages.

The setup of the viewers is very simple. Download the file from the web. Run the file, it is usually a self-extracting .EXE file. Then run the setup program. It seems to be a very simple process

If anyone else has found any tips or tricks and would like to share them with the Group, I would love to hear them. Please become an active participant in the Newsletter, rather than a passive reader. You’ll be glad you did. (And so will I.)

Mark Pendergast

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It has come to my attention that there is one part of our standard computer setups that has not kept pace with the rest of the industry. This is the lowly floppy disk. While the rest of our standard computers have gotten bigger , faster, and cheaper every year, the floppy disk has just stagnated.

Now don’t get me wrong. There are all manner of removable storage media available for computers. Zip drives, removable hard drives, CD-R drives, DVD drives, etc. But none of these is standard equipment on the mainstream of new computers being sold. They all come with the 3.5 inch floppy.

This seems to be changing with DVD becoming the new floppy disk (but will it fit in my shirt pocket?). Some of the high end computer makers like Gateway 2000 now include DVD drives in their standard mainstream configurations, but this is the exception rather than the rule.

This is all the more confusing because the floppy disk did get off to a good start. First the hulking 5.25 inch drives with 360K disks were introduced. (No I don’t want to talk about 8 inchers.) Then the standard switched to 3.5 inch drives with 720K disks that would fit in your pocket. And last the upgrade from 720K to 1.44 Meg. But then nothing more. The standard off-the-shelf systems from all the major manufacturers have head steady with this standard for the bulk of the nineteen-nineties. Yikes!

We have had to wait from the 286 to the Pentium-II 400, till we got some relief. We have had to wait from 40MB hard drives to 9GB drives till the floppy became obsolete.

I have no explanation for this phenomenon. I think it may be a good episode for the X-files. Are aliens or supernatural demons responsible for this stagnation? Stay tuned.

The truth is always stranger than fiction.

Mark Pendergast

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In the previous newsletter there was a comment made that certain Excel programs could not be read when sent to participants’ home computer but ok at work. In the latest copy of PC COMPUTING magazine page 141 top of page, is an article about Newer Office. What they are saying is that there is a new patch out for the Office series that will expand help files, file viewers, bug fixes, and new templates and wizards for Word, Excel, Access, Outlook, Publisher, and Power Point. You can either download Service Release Microsoft Office 97, SR-1 or call Microsoft at 1-800-360-7561 and get a free CD of all the programs including some that are not included in the download version.

I called Microsoft and asked for the CD and told him there were several around that were having problems reading Excel files that were sent to our homes due to having earlier version software. He said this Service Patch for Excel will correct that problem. When I receive that CD I will be glad to loan it to anyone that has Office 97.

Steve Lee

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We were perfectly happy with our set up with 3.1 until my oldest daughter offered us her computer with Windows 95. It was sent by UPS. They left it off at the wrong address. I had to pick it up two houses down. Hang on, it gets better. When we started it up, it indicated we needed a system disk. We called my daughter. She said she didn’t have a system disk. I finally decided to take it to Beckleys. The computer wizard said the fan was broken and that the hard drive had not been fastened down. Cost $110. Fixed.

The computer then worked fine, but the printer would not print. After several hours of trying to fix the problem, I took it back to Beckleys. He could find nothing basically wrong. I went to the IBM Club meeting and explained my problem. We got two possible solutions -- 1 EEE Cable or reinstalling Windows 95. Tried both. We decided the printer we had just would not work with this computer. Bought a new printer. Had the same result. Had help from another IBM Club member. She spent about 5 hours trying to get it to work. My daughter, who sent us the computer, arrived. She spent quite some time doing this and that but with no solution.

We had the computer a month by this time. I was getting pretty desperate. My daughter called Hewlett-Packard support. They suggested a new printer port. The man at Beckleys did too. Cost $160. I just didn’t believe it. I continued to talk to other knowledgeable people. One of the people I called was the guys who upgraded my 3.1 -- DACO. He immediately said to disable the bi-directional cable. I tried but could not get the thing to work. In the mean time, my daughter-in-law showed up. She has an associate degree in Computer Science from Purdue. I told her the problem and what was suggested by DACO. In about an hour, she had the printer working. I think she reinstalled the printer and managed to disable the bi-directional cable.

Saved $160. If anyone else has the same problem, DISABLE THE BI-DIRECTIONAL CABLE.

Ken Berryman

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First, I would like to offer my apology to Richard Coop for pooh-poohing his Yellow Alert series of articles. Although I still do not believe that the Y2K problem will bring on the doomsday scenario called out in his article, I now believe this will be a painful time for those who do not prepare for it. (Translation: I will not buy Gold Bullion, but I will stock a little extra food - just in case.)

Also, unlike a recent letter to the editor in the paper, I have no fear for my IBM PC at home. If it died, I’d never miss it. (well, maybe a little.) My concern is the technology that enables our economic infrastructure to function.

My conversion has come via C-Span, of all places. Weekend after weekend I have listened to all the best Y2K experts in the world explain the problem in great detail. They have given scenarios, scorecards, anecdotes and predictions. Somewhere among all that stuff I changed my mind about Y2K and saw it transformed into a sort of Pascal’s Wager for economics rather than theology.

You may recall that Pascal’s Wager was: ‘It is best to bet that God exists and live a virtuous life, rather than risk eternal damnation’. Thus it is better to trade off a few thrills on earth, for the hope of avoiding eternal damnation, so go ahead and believe in God.

With Y2K the wager shapes up as ‘It is better to lay in a few supplies against the threat of economic disruption, rather than risk starvation’, so go ahead and believe Y2K will cause a problem big enough to disrupt your community.

Anyway, back to C-Span. The two individual issues that the experts cited that concern me the most are: International response and Embedded controllers. The multiplier that makes it almost a sure thing is the Integrated Economy.

It is the unanimous opinion of all the experts that the rest of the world outside of the US is largely ignoring the Y2K problem. This scares me. In today’s global economy we are dependent on materials and services from all over the world. If their systems fail we are only a few days behind failing as well. We may not fail because of the Y2K problem here in the US, we may fail because a shipment of XYZ from Outer Mongolia didn’t arrive in time to make a batch of ABC that we need in the US. This will be true of many of the exotic materials needed for advanced electronics manufacturing as well as many of the food products we get on our shelves every day.

The issue of imbedded controllers scares me because it is a gray area. For the most part there is little Y2K information on what is out there. This is of great concern because these controllers are everywhere. The estimate I heard was that there are 20 billion embedded controllers in the world. If we were able to find, test and fix them at a rate of 20 million a day we would still take till 2002 to check them all. Embedded controllers are in our cars, TVs, watches, VCRs, Camcorders, Refrigerators and Washing Machines. Outside our home the problem is even worse. The systems that switch electric power, natural gas, railroads, traffic signals and waste water all have millions of embedded controllers comprised of hundreds of makes and models. If any of these critical pieces of economic infrastructure stop working we will see disruptions in our community.

The last nail in the Y2K coffin is the Integrated Economy. The powerful economic engine that has sent the stock market soaring, is a highly integrated machine. Each company relies on thousands of other companies, which in turn rely on thousands of others. If one ingredient fails to show up at the bakery they ship no bread. If one embedded controller in a power grid locks up a neighborhood may go without power.

I usually don’t believe people who benefit from a crisis that they predict. But unlike some modern doom and gloom problems. This one is provably real and has a deadline that is within the next two years. It is also echoed by people who have nothing to gain from the problem.

I DO NOT recommend that you panic. I believe most disruptions and shortages will be temporary and of relatively short duration. In most cases a few days or weeks. Although some may last a few months. I do advise that you plan ahead and take some simple precautions that could save you some grief.

The major areas to address are: Power, Food, Sanitation, Health, Financial.

If your power grid or gas line fails in January you will need heat and light fast. One option many people have is a wood stove or kerosene heater. Make sure you stock fuel for a few months. Light is not essential, but will comfort you in a difficult time. Stock candles or flashlight batteries. A gas grill or camp stove may be a good place to cook. Stock extra fuel.

Food delivery to your local store may be disrupted by faulty rail switches or faulty ordering software. Like the Mormons, it might be good to stock a years worth of food - just in case. Food that does not require preparation or preservation is best. Pre-cooked canned foods work well. Stay away from things that might spoil. City water may be disrupted if embedded controllers fail. If you use a well, the lack of power may prevent you from pumping water. In the winter you may be able to use the snow as a water supply, but it might be good to have a backup plan.

Without water your sanitation system will not work. A camping toilet may work well.

The maintenance of your health is dependent on thousands of interlocking systems. If you are dependent of medicines or treatments to live, be sure you have access to them. Ask your doctor if you can have an extended prescription. Have first aid supplies at home.

The financial system is highly dependent on computers. You may wish to have some extra cash at home in case the bank computer goes down for a few weeks or there is a run on the bank. See if you can pre-pay loans through the first few months of the new year.

I have come to believe that Y2K has the potential to cause significant economic and service failures across many areas of the US for a few weeks to months as Y2K problems are cleaned up after-the-fact. I believe that the best bet is to prepare in advance for some serious disruptions, and then laugh if nothing happens.

Mark Pendergast

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I purchased a new HP 1120Cse printer and an HP 3266 desktop computer for the Kokomo Senior Center. I decided to install the new printer to an existing HP 8260 computer which would get heavier use as this printer will print up to 13 x 19 inches.

The HP 8260 was attached to a HP 722 printer (these were both less than 4 months old).

No problem at all installing the HP 722 printer to the HP 3266 desktop. Everything worked great the first time. Then I set the HP1120Cse beside the HP8260 computer, attached all cables and power and tried to install the CDrom printer software. No response! I called Staple’s and they thought the CDrom was dead. Too simple for me!

I looked in the control panel and discovered no CDrom drive. There was no trace of the CDrom drive in Windows Explorer either. I decided to re-install the drivers using the hardware command in control panel. The CDrom couldn’t be detected as part of the hardware. I called Dick Grover and Dick Seagrave, and found that Seagrave was having the same problem and was taking it back to Kling’s. Now I ask you, isn’t that a wimpy way to solve a problem (no reflection on you, Dick)!

After a few more days I called in Lee Duffins, who went through the same steps to convince himself. Then, a momentous decision to use the "HP Recovery Disk" occurred to us. This program will restore the software to it’s original condition with several options. Still no CDrom!!!! I’m really getting irritated and six moons have come and gone.

I thought of Mark Pendergast, who has had, and solved many a problem and he couldn’t think of any new things to try.

Finally. the ultimate form of giving up...........I CALLED HP SUPPORT!

After fifteen minutes of explaining what I had done, the man says..." NO PROBLEM!" (don’t you just hate to hear that)! Are you ready for this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Place "Recovery Disk" in CDrom drive.

Reboot the computer.

Reboot the computer. PROBLEM SOLVED!!!

I was told that this problem was caused by a virus.

Jim Shotwell

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By now you have heard all the jokes, read the analyses, and listened to the doomsday predictions about what will happen to computers everywhere when the clock strikes midnight on December 31, 1999. But what about the system that’s sitting on your desktop? What dread calamity is likely to befall your own PC at the dawning of the millennium?

The good news is that Windows 98 and NT 4.0 don’t have any known problems with the year 2000. And even earlier versions of Windows won’t suddenly go berserk when the milestone is reached (at least not as a result of the date). But you may discover a few quirks lurking in Windows as you enter the new century. And beware: The tips listed here do not cover problems in individual applications. You will need to check with the manufacturer of those systems.

Upgrade your copy of File Manager: If you use File Manager – whether in Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups 3.11 or early releases of Windows 95 – expect to see some funny looking dates for files created after January 1, 2000. Windows 95 users can find out whether their File Manager will have year 2000 troubles by choosing Start-Find-Files or Folders, typing winfile.exe, and pressing <enter>. Make sure Details is checked on the view menu so you can see the file’s date. If the file date is earlier than 3/11/97, your version of the operating system has the garbled date problem.

To upgrade your copy of File Manager, download w31filup.exe (for Windows 3.x), wfwfilup.exe (for Windows for Workgroups 3.11), or w95filup.exe from Microsoft’s support Web site: First go to support.microft.com/support/downloads: then follow the links to the Updates and Utilities section for your particular version of Windows. If you are using Windows 3.x, move the download to an otherwise empty directory. In all Windows version double-click on the .exe file to extract the files and instructions you need (Windows 3.x) or to start the upgrade installer (Windows 95).

If you use the DOS prompt in Windows 95, you’ll notice other minor glitches. For starters, the Dir command will display only two digits to represent the date in file listings. And in the Date command, if you try to set a new date using two digits from 00 to 79, you’ll receive an ‘Invalid date’ error message. The work-around is to use four digits when setting a new date with the Date command.

For a permanent solution to the Dir and Date problems, download and install win95y2k.exe from the Microsoft support site, as explained above. Even this upgrade isn’t without quirks, though: If after updating, you use the Date command to specify a date using only two digits from 00 to 79, Windows will assume you mean a date between 2000 and 2079. If you specify a two-digit date from 80 to 99, Windows will take it to mean a year between 1980 and 1999.

I checked this out on my Gateway 2000 purchased in Sept 1998 and found the winfile.exe file was dated 3/17/97, so hopefully I will not have any problems with the system date when the millennium rolls around.

Check yours out and be sure.

Ed Danley

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I had to compose a Program book for the PTO in my school. I wanted some cool clip art to make the cover interesting. When I went into MS Works and executed the Insert-Clip Art command, it gave me an error message that it could not find mswrkall.cag on the F: drive.

All the preview images came up all right so I thought everything was fine. When I went to insert the clip art in my document it said it couldn’t find it.

At this point I began thinking that F: was one of my hard drive partitions, not my CD Rom drive. I must have installed MS Works before I added my second drive back in.

(For readers who are not following the continuing saga of Mark and his computer – I recently added a second hard drive as the C:,D:, and E: drives. I re-installed my old drive as the second drive and had it mysteriously show up as the D: drive bumping D: to E: and E: to F:.)

Now I needed to be able to point clip art gallery to the G: drive – my CD Rom -to make everything work right. There is no button to set the default path to the actual clip art. (The preview images seem to be loaded with the main software onto the C: drive.)

I gave a quick thought to hacking the Windows 95 registry using the regedit program. When I got done laughing, I tried to come up with some more serious alternatives.

I looked through the options menu in MS Works. There was nothing that looked like the path to clip art. MS Works seems to rely on Clip Art Gallery to manage all the details about clip art.

I tried all the menu options on Clip Art Gallery. Import looked like it might work, but it never did.

I then started looking around on the MS Works CD Rom. I found the MS Works setup program and gave it a try.

The only option that made sense in setup was to un-install the clipart and reinstall it. I had to go through a number of layers of check boxes to remove the clip art library. I then had to add it back in. When I was done everything worked just fine.

I did the same thing with the MS Publisher CD Rom and setup program. Just in case.

As far as I can tell everything is working now. I found a nice school bus for the cover of my PTO program book. It looks great.

Mark Pendergast

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Terry Tribby joined Miller & Miller IMS in December 1993 as a Systems Consultant / Technical Sales Representative. His duties include the marketing and sale of microcomputer hardware, software, and related products and services with special emphasis on business networks, document image management applications and network design / consulting. Terry came to Miller & Miller IMS from Farm Bureau Insurance, where he provided system design, implementation, training, and maintenance services for their state-wide computer network. He has 20 years of experience in the mainframe and microcomputer environment. Terry is a 1974 graduate of Purdue University and was a graduate teaching assistant while working toward a master’s degree. He has been working on the Membership Committee for the Kokomo / Howard Chamber of Commerce for the last four years and participates in the chamber’s Leads Exchange program.

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When I first joined the PC club we had a Kokomo wide computer fair. The PC group, Apple group, Amiga group, Atari group, Commodore group, and several others I have forgotten met at the old Zook’s Hardware mall to show off their computers. It was a fun time and many spectators joined users groups as a result of that show.

I would like to do something like that Computer Fun Fair again. I know many of the other groups have died off, but I keep hearing rumors that other groups exist in the Kokomo area. I would enjoy setting up my computer in a Mall somewhere and doing demos for people.

If you think this is a good idea I would like to hear from you.

Mark Pendergast

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9810

After installing Windows 98 there was a Log off command in the start menu something very few people need especially if they are not connected to a network. I found the following article on the Internet that removes this command.

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Lose the Log Off Prompt

Do you really need a Log Off command on the Start menu? If you're attached to a network, the answer is yes--logging off and back on helps you keep your network secure. But on a home machine, where logon dialog boxes simply slow you down, it's easy to get rid of.

Start the Registry Editor and locate the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Choose Edit, New, Binary Value. Name the new entry NoLogOff. Press Enter and set it to the following value: 01 00 00 00

Click on OK, close the Registry Editor, and restart to make the change take effect.

Howard Ogle

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I experienced some weirdness with my Windows 95 that I would like to share with the Group. It seems to be a good weirdness so you may find it useful as well.

I needed to make a backup copy of my personal files. I keep all my files in a directory called 1mark. (The ‘1’ in front of mark makes it float to the top of an alphabetical directory listing – useful for finding it quickly.)

Normally I use Windows 95 backup and selectively back up the 1mark directory to floppy disk. This takes two to three floppies because it is compressed.

For some reason this month I decided that I should do a flat file backup without a utility and without compression. (I suspect my decision had something to do with the fact that I am looking at Windows 98 and Microsoft is notoriously bad about compatibility between backups for various versions of Windows – or DOS for that matter. (It may also have to do with the fact that I am on vacation and my brain never works quite right after a few days as a vegetable.)

I just stuffed a diskette in the floppy drive, opened the Windows Explorer, grabbed all my files and dragged them to the floppy drive icon. The files began copying to the diskette and eventually it filled up. Windows gave me an error that the disk was full and then to my surprise Windows asked me to insert a new disk.

I stuffed in a new disk and it continued the copy. This is amazing. You can copy files from a hard drive to multiple floppy disks with a simple drag and drop operation. Neat trick.

I got six disks full of my files before I ran out of empty disks. The only disks I had left were from an old full backup. They were jammed full of files, but I stuck one in anyway. The same disk full insert new disk message appeared.

I decided that my only hope was multi-tasking. I opened a second Windows Explorer window and accessed the floppy. I had no idea what would happen with two windows fighting for control of the drive, but the first window must have let go to display the error message because the new window showed me all the backup files. I selected them all and deleted them. Then I went back to the original windows explorer window and told it to continue. The copy picked up right where it left off. Multi-tasking with two Windows Explorers, another neat trick.

Mark Pendergast

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I find that more and more I am using the Internet to search for more and more obtuse knowledge. I have learned a few tricks that work on many of the search engines.

Find two words together: To find two words together put them in Double Quotes. This is very useful when you are looking for a topic that is represented by a word or phrase where the individual words are very common, but the arrangement of the words gives it a special meaning.

For example a search for Bill Clinton will find every reference to Bill – including duck bills, and every reference to Clinton – including Clinton county. To get a better match on the president of the United States search for "Bill Clinton" to get the two works together.

Find documents with a key word: To find documents where one word is the key to what you want, use the plus ‘+’ before the word. This tells the search engine that you only want documents that have that word. This is very useful when you are looking for a common topic, but want some particular subset of the topic.

For example a search for Pontiac radio antenna would find many results for radios and antennas that were of no interest to you because you own a Pontiac. To get a better match on your antenna search for +Pontiac radio antenna. This will limit the documents to ones that contain the word Pontiac.

Find documents without a key word:Many times we will do a search and get back all kinds of results that we don’t want. We may also notice a common theme to the documents that we don’t want and we can use the minus ‘-’ to eliminate these extraneous documents from our search.

For example we might be looking for our Pontiac radio antenna from the previous example. We might notice that we got a lot of documents from a radio station in Pontiac Michigan that was getting a new antenna for their station. If the call letters of the radio station were KORN, we could refine our search to be +Pontiac radio antenna –KORN. This would eliminate all the references to the radio station from our search results.

If you have any tips or tricks for searching on the Internet, I would love to hear them. Please write them up and give them to myself or one of the Group officers. We will publish them so the whole Group can enjoy the benefits of your expertise.

Mark Pendergast

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This is a stupid printer trick, but it may come in handy some time.

I need to print things in duplex from time to time. I do not have a duplex printer so I have to improvise. I have a simple technique for single pages and a more complex one for multi-page documents.

For single sided documents you first need to print the document normally onto two pages. You then take these printed pages and put them in reverse order. Now stick them in the paper supply of your printer such that they will feed as new sheets. (I have to place mine in face up and upside down to get them to feed correctly. This may be different for your printer, but a little experimentation should get you the right answer.) Now, print the document again. With any luck at all you will have two duplexed copies of your document.

This works very well with laser printers. It may bleed through a little if you have an ink jet printer and thin paper. I suspect you would have problems with a dot matrix.

To make many copies of a single sheet just use the same procedure as above, but print multiple copies of the original document (half as many as you want duplexes) and place the first sheet at the back of the pile. This will cause the pages to be aligned correctly. (ie: 2 1 2 1 2 1).

To make a duplex of a multiple page document is a little more complex. You must print a normal copy of the document and then swap the odd and even numbered pages. That is if the document was numbered 1 2 3 4 5 6, then you must switch the order to 2 1 4 3 6 5. Place the reordered document back in your paper feeder in the same manner you figured out for a single sheet and print the original document again. If you did everything correctly you should have two full duplex copies of your document.

I have used this technique to print double sided programs for my sons T-ball team as well as duplex fliers for events. I have even done it so see a mock up of the IBM PC Users Group newsletter when I try out new formats.

This is a good technique for me because I have a laser printer. It usually takes me few tries to remember how to put the paper back in the feeder tray.

Mark Pendergast

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What do you get if you cross Bill Gates and Attila the Hun?

A kinder and gentler version of Bill Gates.

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What do you get if you cross Bill Gates and Attila the Hun?

Run out of business. No one crosses Bill Gates and survives!

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What do you get if you cross Bill Gates and Attila the Hun?

A $50 Million mansion overlooking the steppes of Outer Mongolia.

Mark Pendergast

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Eric joined Miller and Miller IMS in May of 1997 as a Systems Consultant. Previously, he worked for Western Auto Supply Company as the Kokomo Store Manager for 5 years.

At Western Auto, Eric was responsible for customer relations as well as being in charge of software training for the Northern Indiana District. He has been involved with computers since 1985 and completed several management training courses.

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Does your Taskbar appear as a tiny bar on one edge of your screen, so that when you move your mouse pointer over it, the line only gets a tiny bit wider? Don’t panic. Your Taskbar isn’t being sucked into the dark abyss behind your monitor’s edge. You’ve just told it to disappear--twice.

Lets assume you like the task to jump out of the way when you aren’t using it, so you’ve set the auto-hide option (right-click a blank area on the Taskbar, select Properties, select Auto-hide, and click OK). Then, in a moment of Taskbar-be-gone passion (or more likely, by mistake), you’ve also manually clicked and dragged the Taskbar off the screen (hold the pointer over the Taskbar’s edge, and when it changes to a double- pointed arrow, click and drag it off screen). Now when you hold the mouse pointer over the Taskbar’s edge, Windows 95 attempts to drag the bar back on the screen (remember, auto-hide is on). However it can only get as large as the Taskbar size you’ve defined (at this point a tiny line at the edge of the screen).

What’s the solution? Hold the mouse pointer over the tiny Taskbar edge, and when it turns to a double-pointed arrow, click and haul the Taskbar back up on the where it belongs. You have to do this at least two times.

More Windows 95 Tips to come in future issues of the newsletter.

Ed Danley

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What they do, how they do it, and what you would be able to do if you step up to the challenge of leadership in our Group.

The President, as the name suggests, presides over the regular meeting and the board of directors meeting. The President sets the tone and direction for the Group. Traditionally, the President has included a short message in the newsletter. (Typical time budget: 4 hours per month. Regular meeting: 2 hours, Directors meeting: 1 hour, Newsletter: 1 hour.)

Although I may be biased, I believe this is the easiest job. Anyone who enjoys computers and has a basic understanding of why people attend Group meetings will do well. There is a need to do some speaking before the Group, but this is really easier than it looks.

The Vice-President backs up the President. Our Vice-President is also in charge of the program at the regular meeting. (Typical time budget: 5 hours per month. Regular meeting: 2 hours, Directors meeting: 1 hour, Coordinate Program: 2 hours.)

The other directors often suggest program topics, and sometimes even volunteer to present. Most of the extra work involves calling around to find someone willing to speak and coordinating any special arrangements with Ivy Tech for things like modem lines or computers. All in all it is a good way to meet a dozen interesting new people over the course of a year.

The Director of Membership Services is a new office. This position was originally the Librarian, but with the advent of free BBS downloads and $10 CDs full of games there has been little or no activity in the shareware library business. The Director of Membership Services is in the process of inventing the job so there are no fixed duties.

(Typical time budget: 5 hours per month. Regular meeting: 2 hours, Directors meeting: 1 hour, Dream up and execute new ideas: 2 hours.)

I feel this office is vital to the future of the Group. We need to find more services to offer our members as our traditional services are being done better through technology. This would be a great way to express your creativity and plow new ground in serving our members.

The Treasurer maintains the financial records and archives of the Group. Group disbursements and receipts are handled by the Treasurer. (Typical time budget: 5 hours per month. Regular meeting: 2 hours, Directors meeting: 1 hour, Write checks, deposit receipts, balance the books, print membership mailing list: 2 hours.)

The Treasurer has a routine job that is very well defined. It doesn’t involve public speaking or creativity, just a great attention to detail. This position is a great way to get started as an officer.

The Newsletter Editor collects articles, arranges them in a newsletter format, gets the newsletter duplicated, and mails it out every month. (Typical time budget: 7 hours per month. Regular meeting: 2 hours, Directors meeting: 1 hour, Publish newsletter: 4 hours.)

The Newsletter Editor is a great position for someone with artistic abilities. Layout and distribution of the newsletter is one of the most visible services we provide to our members and one of the best ways to attract new members. This office does take a little more time than the others and has a pretty firm deadline.

This year we plan to begin allowing Directors at Large to help direct the Group. The job description is not very detailed, but Directors would be expected to attend Directors meetings once a month and contribute ideas for programs and perhaps a presentation or newsletter article from time to time. (Typical time budget: 4 hours per month. Regular meeting: 2 hours, Directors meeting: 1 hour, Activities to support the Group: 1 hour.)

Directorship is a great way to increase your commitment to the Group without making any major commitments of time or resources. You really have control over how involved you become.

Holding a position of leadership in the Group is an excellent addition to any resume. It is a powerful differentiator for people looking for a new job, or looking to take on increased responsibility in an existing position.

Holding a position of leadership in the Group is an excellent development opportunity. These positions can allow you to try out your leadership abilities in a non-threatening environment and develop those skills that will be required as you progress in your personal and professional life.

Holding a position of leadership in the Group is an excellent opportunity to provide service to the community. Our Group members are the community, we also arrange other events to serve the community (like our donation of the Visio Software to Ivy Tech). This is a very rewarding way to use your hobby to help others.

If you would be willing to help run the Group, please contact any of the officers. We would love to have you on board. All positions are open so you can have your pick. Hope to see you at a Board of Directors meeting next year.

Mark Pendergast

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This month, Greg Ogle will take us through the process of building a PC from a box full of components. Greg will help answer some of the questions everyone has when they think of building their own computer. What do you have to know? How do you know which component to use? What can go wrong? Where can you get help when things don't work? What are some of the tradeoffs between buying a PC already built compared to putting one together from components?

We've all heard that it isn't hard to build a PC, but for those who have never built one themselves the process can be a bit scary and intimidating. Greg will takes us through his experiences of building PCs over the years while he puts his next PC together during our November club meeting. You can watch, ask questions, and decide for yourselves if you want to take this approach for your next PC.

There are two sides to this process, and Greg will tell us what is easy and what is not. Hopefully, you will gain some insight on what you need to know, how to choose vendors for components, choosing between building your own PC versus buying one already built, who troubleshoots and repairs PCs that are built at home, and where to look for help.

This will be an interesting meeting, but Greg gets to take the PC home.

Greg has worked in the Systems Engineering role at Delphi Delco Electronics Systems for over twenty years. His experience with PCs began with IBM Personal Computers in 1982.

Greg Ogle

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Q: What’s the difference between Windows 98 and Windows 95?

A: I see you don’t know either.

Q: What’s the difference between Windows 98 and Mac OS?

A: About 10 years.

Q: What’s the difference between Windows 98 and a bad haircut?

A: The bad haircut only costs $10, and it will look OK again in two weeks.

Q: What’s the difference between Windows 98 and a broken clock?

A: It’s easy to understand why the broken clock doesn’t work.

Q: What’s the difference between Windows 98 and the millennium bug.

A: The millennium bug will arrive on schedule.

Q: What’s the difference between Windows 98 and Monica Lewinski?

A: You didn’t think I’d answer that in a family newsletter, did you?

(Actually, I had too many to fit on the page...)

Mark Pendergast

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(From Prodigy Internet)

If you’re worried about getting a virus via e-mail, you’re not alone. This is a big fear for many, partly perpetuated by well-publicized e-mail hoaxes. Although the risk of picking up a virus is slim, there are some nasty little critters out there and it’s important to know how to avoid them. (Or how to zap ‘em if need be.) The following Q&A can help you protect yourself. For more information go to the Computer Incident Advisory Capability site on Internet hoaxes, sponsored by of the U.S. Dept. of Energy. For more general virus information, another good site is Doug Muth’s Anti-Virus Help Page.

It’s a small program that makes copies of itself on computer disks. This unique ability to self-replicate is what distinguishes viruses from other programs, and gives them their name.

If you’re lucky, you’ll never encounter a virus. However, one could be concealed in some types of files attached to e-mail messages.

In fact, most types of attached files are safe, including graphic files, like JPG and GIF files.

Executable files that contain machine-readable code, and files with macros, such as MS-Word documents.

Yes. Simply reading e-mail (ASCII text-only) messages cannot spread a computer virus to your computer. The only risk comes from files attached to the e-mail message.

There’s a long list of hoax messages being circulated by e-mail, warning about non-existent "viruses" These include Good Times, Irina, Deeyenda, Pen Pals and others, and new ones that are constantly being dreamed up.

Hoax messages always warn that disaster will occur if one simply reads a suspicious e-mail message. That’s impossible, of course. They often claim (falsely) to have been received from an official source. And they always plead that you forward copies of them to every one you know.

To avoid annoying other people, do not forward such a warning unless you have verified its accuracy. When in doubt, delete it.

Ed Danley

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(complements of tipworld.com)

Here are some of the keyboard shortcuts involving the Windows key. So without further ado, press: Windows-E to open Windows Explorer Windows-F to open Find Windows-M to minimize all open windows (or Shift + Windows + M to undo this command) Windows-R to open the Run window Windows-F1 to open Help Windows-Tab to cycle through the Taskbar buttons Windows-Break to open the System Properties dialog box Note: Some keyboards have a Windows key, and some don't.

Once you've downloaded and installed this utility, open the Control Panel, double-click

Keyboard and select the Remap tab. Under Right-Hand Side, select the key you want to transform--such as Right Alt--in the left-hand box. Then, in the right-hand box, select Windows. Click OK, and your Right Alt key now functions as a Windows key.

Ed Danley

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Bill Gates dies in a car accident and finds himself being sized up by God.

"Well, Bill, I'm really confused on this call. I'm not sure whether to send you to Heaven or Hell. After all, you enormously helped society by putting a computer in almost every home in America, yet you also created that ghastly Windows 95. I'm going to do something I've never done before. I'm going to let you decide where you want to go."

Bill replied, "Well, what's the difference between the two?"

God said, "I'm willing to let you visit both places briefly, to see if it will help your decision."

Bill said, "Fine, but where should I go first?"

God says, "I'll leave that up to you."

"Okay then," said Bill, "let's try Hell first."

So Bill went to Hell. It was a beautiful, clean, sandy beach with clear waters and lots of beautiful women running around, playing in the water, laughing. and frolicking about. The sun was shining; the temperature perfect. He was very pleased.

"This is great!" he told God. "If this is Hell, I REALLY want to see Heaven!"

"Fine" said God, and off they went. Heaven was a place high in the clouds, with angels drifting about, playing harps and singing. It was nice, but not as enticing as Hell.

Bill thought for a quick minute, and rendered his decision.

"Hmmm. I think I'd prefer Hell," he told God.

"Fine," retorted God, "as you desire."

So Bill Gates went to Hell.

Two weeks later, God decided to check on the late billionaire to see how he was doing in Hell. When he got there, he found Bill, shackled to a wall, screaming amongst hot flames in dark caves, being burned and tortured by demons.

"How's everything going?" he asked Bill.

Bill responded with his voice filled with anguish and disappointment, "This is awful! This is nothing like the Hell I visited two weeks ago! I can't believe this is happening! What happened to that other place, with the beaches, and the beautiful women playing in the water ????"

Ed Danley

A man was crossing a road one day when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess." The man bent over, picked up the frog, and put it in his pocket.

The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will be your loving companion for an entire week". The man took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it, and returned it to his pocket.

The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I'll stay with you for a year and do ANYTHING you want." Again the man took the frog out, smiled at it, and put it back into his pocket.

Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful princess and I'll stay with you for a year and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?"

The man said, "Look, I'm a Software Engineer. I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog is cool."

Ed Danley

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Advanced Power Management (APM) is a feature on new computers to save power by turning your system off when you are not using it.

I have found that APM locks up Windows 95 regularly and causes other bizarre behavior. I have turned it off on all my computers. Since I turned it off, I have had no problems with lock-ups.

To turn off APM you need to go into your BIOS Setup at boot time (usually you need to press a function key or something). Then find the APM menu and disable it.

It may cost me a few extra kilowatt-hours a year, but I have found this to be a great frustration saver. Maybe I will try it again in Windows 98 – NOT!

Mark Pendergast