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Rounder this is not the kind of
chip they are talking about. They
are talking about a chip that goes
in your computer. No115- -Quick And Easy Backups
The problem with backups is that we don't do the backups if the backups are any problem to do. How about a backup
program that's no problem at all? All you have to do set up
a schedule, select the folders you want to back up, and
select a target. Then just let it run and do its thing.
This easy-to-use freeware program is Task Zip V2.10 from
PB Systems.
Download your copy of this software here!
http://www.pb-sys.com/
No116- -Use The Anonymizer
How anonymous are you on the Web? Not very. In fact, not atall. Whenever you navigate to a site, software at that sitecan very easily read your IP address.
The only way to obscure your identity on the Internet is to use a proxy server. What happens is that all your data goes through the server so that connected sites only seethe IP address of the proxy server. Note that this doesn't make you completely anonymous, since someone with a good reason (the government for example) could obtain your IP from the server management.
To read more about Internet privacy, go to Anonymizer.com.
Click here to go to Anonymizer.com!
http://www.anonymizer.com/
No117- -Data cleansing is key to CRM success
When it comes to CRM, the quality of your database is
only as good as the quality of your data. Gartner outlines
the benefits of monitoring data quality and warns of the
damage "dirty" data can do.
http://clickthru.online.com/Click?q=9f-o7CMQ1JJEBs5r0qXlZqxyqR6
NO119- -TROUBLESHOOTING COMMON INKJET PRINTER PROBLEMS
Thanks to their low price and maintenance costs, inkjet printers are
everywhere. For support pros, this means you'll probably be troubleshooting
an inkjet in the near future. To prepare, check out these fixes to the
most common inkjet problems.
http://click.online.com/Click?q=09-joDSIj8csJyuYs1LbJvNZM15684R
No120- -Freeze it
From: Travis Standen
One trick I have learned as a technician, when the problem is data-read errors off the platters themselves, is to freeze the hard drive overnight. It makes the data more 'readable,' but for a one-shot deal. If this data is critical, and you have a replacement hard drive (which, if it's a drive failure, you probably do), then you can hook up your frozen hard drive and immediately fetch the data off before it warms up.
From: Thedeedj
If the problem is heat related, I put the drive in the freezer for about 15 minutes to cool it down... sometimes this gets the drive up long enough to copy any critical files...
From: Itguy1
Put the drive in a waterproof sealed bag, put it in the fridge for an hour or so, then have another go.
From: Kelly Reid
Well, I won't start playing with your specific situation, too many steps or possible solutions where everything starts "If that last thing didn't work try..."
But I'll give you one for free that was a nice hero moment for me. Had a drive where it sounded like the drive motor was engaging but not getting anywhere, so we stuck it in the office freezer for an hour! I'll be darned if it didn't work. The drive was up long enough to get the data ghosted to another drive and we turfed it, even though it sounded fine at that point. I can't really take credit for it thoughI had heard it in some geek bull session but I thought it was some jedi-geek urban myth. Goes to show you that you know you're really screwed when you say something to the effect of "Okay, hold on tight, I'm gonna try something I saw in a cartoon once but I'm pretty sure I can do it"
From: mpicpu
If this drive isn't spinning up, putting it in the freezer for about an hour will usually get the drive spinning again so you can copy needed files before the drive warms up again. The first thing you want to do is run a disk utility like Norton disk doctor or wddiag (if it's a western digital drive) to verify whether the drive is working mechanically or not. If it is a master boot record problem, sometimes running Fdisk/mbr will correct the problem. It could also be a virus, and a program like F-prot will look at the drive as a physical unit. As an A+ PC technician I have seen this problem many times. Usually if the drive is not making a clicking sound I am successful in recovering the data.
From: Scott Greving
I've run into this scenario numerous times. One time it involved the main Novell SYS volume on our HP File Server. I was really sweating as the server would not boot. I took the drive out and put it in a freezer for 30 minutes. I then reinstalled it into the file server and Presto! I was up and running. Needless to say I quickly mirrored the drive onto another and got rid of the bad drive.
In stand alone client systems, the method I've had the most luck with reviving drives from death has been removing the drive, firmly tapping the top of its case several times, and then re-installing it making sure all cables are secure. I've had a better than 60 percent success rate with this method.
From: jphillips
If the drive is spinning and you are experiencing these kinds of errors, my experience has been that you are out of luck.
If the drive is not spinning, I have been able to remove it from the computer and 'spin' the drive on a flat smooth surface (much like spin the bottle). This will usually free the drive and when placed back in the machine, it will boot. You should immediately back up you data after a successful boot, because the problem will return.
The next 'fix' was actually given to me by a Compaq technician several years ago. I had a drive that would not spin and he told me to put the drive in a plastic bag in the freezer overnight and then install back in the computer. Believe it or not, the drive booted. I have only tried this the one time.
From: John Turcotte
In the past, when a drive has failed after it has been running for a short period, I have removed it from the machine and placed it in a freezer for a couple of hours, then hooked it up again. It sometimes will run long enough to remove the data to another safe storage medium.
Drop it
From: Bob Matott
Besides the typical use of sys C: to transfer back the system files deleted during "housecleaning" by typical users, I've gotten lucky by turning the drive upside down and setting it on top of the power supply (which seemed to remove "a static charge" that had built up).
Also have used various Disk Manager packages to "talk" to drives with FAT/NTFS corruptions just to recover the data. If drives are being reformatted from an operating system that doesn't want to "fully go away" (can name a few!), the disk manager software has also worked in this scenario many times to get rid of the old and allow you to reformat with the new.
Of course, there's always the "drop it from 4-5" onto a flat hard surface" or "smack the side of the case with the flat of your hand" approaches. Believe it or not, both techniques have worked. Rumor has it that sometimes the heads "stick" to the platters during parking/cooldown.
From: Kenneth Lillemo
Sometimes a hard drive that has been running since nearly forever won't spin up after being shutdown for a while. This can be caused by the heads sticking to the platter. As a LAST resort, I will drop the drive onto a firm surface from approximately eight inches. Inevitably, this will solve the problem and the drive is useable long enough to remove the data. My Sys admin spouse gives me a funny look every time I do it but can't argue with the results.
From: Peter Tello
If the low level diagnostics fail, I declare it officially dead. At that point, I have nothing to lose, so I pull it out and over a thin carpet, drop it 6" squarely on all 4 sides, repeating this 2 or 3 times. I have approximately a 50 percent successful boot-up rate, usually enough to copy the data off and save my behind for not having it backed up in the first place.
From: TDC Tech
This is a one-time fixlong enough to revive HD to get data. Take the HD out of the computer and squarely drop it on the closed side of the drive (to your bench) with perhaps a little slam.
This seems to free up the bearings long enough to copy data off of the hard drive. I have quite a bit of luck, but 90 percent of the time it only works once.
Hit it
From: Karen_Roman
1. Check CMOS settings to make sure the drive setting are what they should bethe CMOS battery could be dead or the user may have changed the settings. A bad hard drive could cause the Autodetect to misread settings.
2. Boot from a floppy disk and run fdisk/mbr to restore the backup copy of the master boot record.
3. Image the drive with drive copy program to a new drive.
4. Its possible the HDD controller is bad. Try the drive in another machine.
5. Boot from a floppy attach to a network drive or have a secondary drive installed and if you can access the data copy it off to there.
6. The drive could have a stiction problem. Tap it gently on the sides, preferably with a rubber mallet.
From: Alan Gates
As "unscientific" as this sounds, I have found that rapping the drive case a couple of times sometimes allows the drive to come up. I have had several experiences in the past like this. Sometimes the drive is having trouble "spinning up." Obviously, the drive is on its last legs but a rap on the drive case will sometimes free it to spin up. This will allow the system to boot so the data can be backed up before the drive goes into the trash...
From: Bob Barker
I have found on more than a few occasions that older disks can develop a sticking problem. I believe it is a combination of weak motor and surface-to-surface tension between the disk and heads. This problem usually shows up on older disks that have been running a few years (usually 24 hours a day) and then shut down for service or other reasons. When you try to start up again, the disk will not spin and you get disk errors trying to boot. After checking for the usual problems (power, cables, jumpers, etc.) and finding that the drive was in fact not spinning, I have had great success jarring the disk with my palm (of my hand, not my PDA). I some times have to be a little more violent to get it to start but I have never had to use a hammer.
I would be careful using this method if the data on the disk must be recovered at any cost which I would then send to On-Track or some other expensive data recovery company.
I have found this problem mostly with older servers, but a few weeks ago I ran into the same thing on a two-year-old Compaq IDE drive that was only used a few hours a day.
From: Randy Forston
If the hard drive isn't making noise and when you place your hand on it (not on the PC Board side, but on the metal casing), you don't feel any vibration from the drive, you may have a sticking problem (some older drives with a variety of drive lube no longer used have this problem).
If the above describes the symptoms you're seeing, try rapping around the drive case with the plastic handle of a screwdriver.
This will quite often remedy the stiction and allow the drive to come back up as normal.
From: philn
Hi there,
A few things can be performed on a crashed drive before declaring it DEAD:
1. Touch the drive (or listen to it) to feel whether it's spinning. Some drives gradually suffer from spin-up problem but otherwise work fine once spinning. If it doesn't spin at power up, gently knock on the side the drive once or twice to jump start it. This works best if you knock on the drive approx. one or two seconds after power is applied. Repeat the procedure a few times and add a little more force if necessary. Remember that too much force can permanently damage the drive, but again, you have nothing too lose at this point.
2. If drive spins normally and stays spinning, try listening for irregular sounds emitting from the drive. A series of 'clicking' sound usually signifies multiple bad sectors including the boot sector that can prevent drive from booting. If drive 'Auto Detect' is enabled, make sure that its signature is shown at boot screen. If not, drive is certainly suffered from major hardware failure.
3. Check system's CPU to make sure it's not overheating (CPU can run warm, but should not be hot) due to a failed cooling fan, etc. Overheating the CPU can cause the system to be unbootable or cause the system to reboot itself frequently.
4. You could use another system to test the problematic drive to make sure that the controller is not at fault. Try both "Auto" and "User Type" (where you manually enter the drive's parameters) settings.
5. Try booting with a floppy and run 'fdisk' to view drive information. Some drives suddenly lost all of their data possibly due to corrupted FAT, but otherwise, continue to work fine once initialized and formatted. In many cases, FAT can be restored by executing Norton Utilities from floppy.
If all failed and data from drive must be retrieved, you can try swapping its hardware (drive's main board) with similar working drive. Though this procedure can void drive warranty, but your data is more important, right? Or else, you try services that can save your data from dead drive for a fee.
From: Lyle Giese
Put CMOS back to auto for HD and see if it sees an HD at all. Put in a bootable floppycan you see the HD? (Don't forget to write protect the floppy in case this was a virus.) Now try EZ-Drive. Some versions (I have several on hand with different advanced options) show what parameters the hard drive is set to in CMOS and what parameters the drive was formatted with. The second set is important. Sometimes the BIOS doesn't auto correctly.
Listen to the HD. If it powers up normally by sound (no strong thumping sound) and the platters seem to spin up, you still have a chance. If the drive spins up and then down or if it emits a strong thumping sound, the hard drive is toast and only a professional recovery company with a clean room can help.
If the HD doesn't spin up at all, occasionally you can gently slam it down to get stuck platters unstuck and it will spin up long enough to back up your data. The HD is toast physically at this point, and it needs to be replaced before trying the slam technique. There were also a few older HDs that had the flywheel exposed, and you could nudge it slightly and they would spin up long enough to back up the data. Again these are last resort techniques and you ARE planning on replacing the HD anyway.
From here, one of several software products are available to assist you as long as the drive spins up physically to assist the technician. Most of these products can read drives with damaged FAT tables or missing sectors.
And it could be just a simple matter of losing the Active attribute for the partition! Also, viruses can cause this by blasting the partition table, and some of the professional revival products can assist from here.
Good luck!
No121- -How Do I Overclock My CPU?
November 5, 2001
If a processor is rated to run at 1 GHz, the manufacturer has rated it as reliable when running at that speed. Most processors, however, can run faster than their rated speed. For example, if you bought a 1-GHz processor, you may be able to run it at 1.3 GHz. When you are running it faster than its rated speed, you have overclocked the processor. The tradeoff? You sacrifice some reliability. That could mean a system that won't reboot till you turn the settings back down, that will only run for short periods of time before crashing, or that randomly crashes. To overclock, you need a motherboard that you can change the settings on. While there are two settings that govern processor speed, you can generally only change one: 1. The bus speedThis is the internal speed of the motherboard. For example, you can often set a normal 66-MHz PCI bus to run at 75 MHz, 83 MHz, or even 100 MHz. Some of the latest mobos with a 133-MHz bus can run at 150 MHz or more -- if they don't crash first. 2. The multiplierThe processor speed is a multiple of the bus speed, so the multiplier determines how fast the processor runs. For instance, a 200-MHz processor is three times faster than the 66-MHz bus, so its multiplier is 3X. If you make it 3.5X or 4X, then the processor is going to run that much faster. Every processor we know of today ships "clock locked." That means if you change this setting on the motherboard, the chip will refuse to run.If you have a machine built by a major manufacturer such as Dell, Gateway, or HP, you won't be able to change the speeds on the motherboard. You'll need to buy a new motherboard to overclock the chip. Otherwise, you can look to the manual for your motherboard. With luck, you'll be able to adjust the settings in the BIOS. You might have to fiddle with jumper pins down on the motherboard. (Get the manual for your motherboard, a flashlight, and a pair of hemostats.) If your motherboard allows you to change bus speed, then you can probably clock the chip up faster. You might only gain a small bit. Overclockers.com's CPU Database lists processors and the speeds different folks have ramped 'em up to. It's an outstanding guide to how well your processor will respond to overclocking. Remember, just because you can tweak the settings doesn't guarantee that the chip will actually run at that higher speed.
Praht Nad I do beleave
they are talking about
the Port on your computer
and not the port wine. This page was last updated on
12/17/2001 at 5:00PM EST By
Mr BOOTS PC- -HELP #10 |
