A Tip A Day ~ {ERG}

[LoneRanger]

17 July 2008:

Troubleshoot Multiple Monitors

I connected a larger monitor to an unused monitor port on the back of my PC, but I can't get a picture on it. Am I taking the phrase "plug-and-play" too seriously?

Plug-and-play technology allows Windows to recognize newly attached devices and install drivers for them automatically. Sometimes this is sufficient; other times, you need to help things along. If you plug in a USB microphone, for instance, Windows will change your sound settings immediately so the new microphone works, but monitors do not enjoy the same privileged service. Here's how to get it to work.

If you're using a laptop, there's probably a key on your keyboard (CTRL/LCD ) that switches between the built-in LCD screen and any external monitor that might be attached. Press this key (typically while holding the Fn key) repeatedly until the video shows up where you want it.

Don't have a monitor key? Want more control? Right-click an empty area of the desktop, select Properties, and choose the Settings tab. If Windows has detected both monitors (as well as both video cards, if applicable), they'll show up here as numbered rectangles. If you're not sure which monitor is which, click the Identify button, and an enormous number "1" will appear on the primary monitor.

To use both monitors simultaneously side by side, creating one huge desktop, click the #2 rectangle and place a checkmark by the "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor" box.

If you only want to use the second monitor (and turn off the first one), click the #2 rectangle and then place a checkmark next to the "Use this device as the primary monitor" option. When the numbers switch, click the new #2 rectangle, and remove the checkmark next to the "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor" option.

If you still have problems, click the Advanced button, choose the Monitor tab, and click the Properties button to verify that the correct drivers are installed for each of your monitors. Then do the same (via the Adapter tab) for your video card(s).

[LoneRanger]

18 July 2008:

Fix Cranky Mice

When I move the mouse around, the pointer seems to skip around the screen instead of floating smoothly. Can I whip this rodent into shape?

Both mice and keyboards suffer from the same types of problems, and for the same reasons: despite the fact that they are the primary interface devices for your PC, they're usually the most cheaply built and poorly designed components of your system. Don't hesitate to replace a cranky mouse or a sticky keyboard, rather than spending hours trying to get it to work.

If you're still using a mouse with a little ball on the bottom, you could improve its reliability somewhat by cracking it open and cleaning the rollers and the ball, but you'll be much better off simply replacing it with an "optical" mouse. Optical mice have no moving parts, but rather use a small sensor to more reliably detect the movements of your hand. (If you're in the market for a new one, go down to your local computer store and try out a few models to see which one feels the most comfortable and well made.)

Troubleshooting Tips
The most important step and usually the most difficult in troubleshooting a computer system is isolating the problem. Some questions to ask yourself:

IS THIS AN ISOLATED INCIDENT, OR DOES THIS PROBLEM OCCUR EVERY TIME I PERFORM SOME ACTION? Crashing is a fact of life on a Windows system. An isolated incident is often just that. On the other hand, if a given error message or crash repeatedly occurs at the same time, in the same place, or as a result of the same mouse click, remember this fact if you hope to solve the problem.

DID I INSTALL OR REMOVE ANY SOFTWARE OR HARDWARE JUST BEFORE THIS PROBLEM OCCURRED? Sudden changes in your computer's behavior are almost never spontaneous; if something suddenly stops working, you can bet that there was a discernible trigger.

IS A SPECIFIC APPLICATION, A HARDWARE DEVICE, OR WINDOWS AT FAULT? You can rule out specific applications if the problem doesn't just occur in one program. You can rule out most hardware by removing or disabling unnecessary devices attached to your system. If applications and hardware aren't to blame, shine the spotlight on Windows.

DID I READ THE DIRECTIONS? I know, I knowa well-designed interface should mean never having to crack open the manual. But the reality is that you've got to read the directions (and release notes) that accompany any product you've bought and installed. While you're at it, go to the vendor's site and make sure you've got the latest updates, drivers, fixes, patches, and so on.

HAS SOMEONE ELSE ENCOUNTERED THE SAME PROBLEM? This is often the most useful question to ask, because odds are someone else has not only suffered the same fate, but discovered a solution and written about it in some online forum… such as the Windows XP discussion forum at http://annoyances.org !

AM I ASKING THE RIGHT PEOPLE? If you just installed a new version of America Online and now your Internet connection doesn't work, don't call Microsoft. On the other hand, nothing compares to trying to convince a technical support representative that the problem you're experiencing is actually their company's fault and not someone else's.

My last tidbit of hard-earned wisdom? In some cases, it makes more sense to replace a product that's giving you endless hours of grief instead of trying to fix it. Keep that in mind when it's four o'clock in the morning and Windows refuses to recognize your ninety-dollar scanner.

Of course, even top-of-the-line mice aren't entirely trouble-free. Does your pointer jitter when you move the mouse around? If you're using a cordless mouse, this is almost always a reception problem: either the mouse is too far from the receiver or, more likely, the battery needs to be replaced or recharged.

If you have a corded mouse that plugs into a USB port, plug it into a different port and see if its performance improves. If you're using a USB hub, try bypassing it by plugging the mouse directly into one of your PC's USB ports. Other USB devices can sometimes suck up too much USB power or use too much bandwidth, which can interfere with the mouse as well, so try disconnecting them one by one to see if you notice a difference.

If It Ain't Broke…
Remember the Golden Rule: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Many problems are actually caused by people looking for problems to solve. For example, installing a new driver just for the sake of having the "latest and greatest" version on your system may introduce new bugs or uncover some bizarre incompatibility. This doesn't mean that updating your drivers isn't a good idea, but only do this if something isn't working or performing at its best.

[LoneRanger]

19 July 2008:

Disappearing CD and DVD Drives

Recently, my D : drive (a DVD writer) disappeared in Windows Explorer. How do I get it back?

The obvious solution is to open up your PC and make sure the cables are firmly connected, but if that doesn't help, an errant Registry setting may be the cause of the problem.

Open the Registry Editor (go to Start --> Run and type regedit ), and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} .

You'll know if you're in the right place if the (Default) value in the right pane says "DVD/CD-ROM drives."
Highlight the UpperFilters value on the right, press the F2 key, rename the value UpperFilters.old , and press Enter. Do the same for the LowerFilters value.

Next, navigateto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services , and click [+] to expand the Services branch to reveal all the subkeys. Look for the Cdr4_2K key on the tree, and delete it if it's present. Do the same for the following keys: Cdralw2k, Cdudf , and UdfReadr .

Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows when you're done.

[LoneRanger]

20 July 2008:

Send and Receive Faxes

Thanks to DSL, I haven't used my old dialup modem in years. But now I have to send a document to someone who apparently thinks it's still 1986 and can only accept it via fax. Isn't that modem supposed to let me send faxes? I'm darned if I can figure out how to do it.


Windows XP's built-in fax service actually works pretty well, but it's not installed by default, and it's not entirely obvious how to use it once you set it up. Here's how you do it.

Open the Add or Remove Programs control panel, and click the Add/Remove Windows Components button on the left. Place a check mark next to the Fax Services component, click the Next button, and then complete the wizard. (If the Fax Services box is already checked, the required software is installed; click the Cancel button and continue to the next step.)

Once the fax service is installed, you'll need to do a little setup. Open the Printers and Faxes control panel, right-click the Microsoft Shared Fax Driver icon (the name may vary), and select Properties. Choose the Devices tab, find your modem in the list (if it's not there, you'll need to install your modem driver), and click the Properties button. On the Send tab, place a check mark next to the "Enable device to send" option, and type your phone number in the TSID field.

Note: Rather than using your PC to receive faxes, set up a free account with an online fax service such as eFax (http://efax.com ). You get your own dedicated phone number, albeit in a distant area code (local phone numbers are available for a fee), and any faxes you receive are emailed to you as attachments. You use the service's special advertiser-sponsored viewer to read and print your received faxes, all without tying up your phone line .

Next, choose the Receive tab. If you want to receive faxes with your PC, place a check mark next to the "Enable device to receive" option. Give this some thought, though, particularly if you use this phone line for other things (such as placing and receiving phone calls). You may not want your PC picking up the phone every time Mom calls (or then again, maybe you do). There's also a "Manual" setting in the "Answer mode" section, which causes the fax service to listen on your line but only pick up when you tell it to. But beware: this "listening" can wreak havoc with some phones and answering machines and may result in dropped calls.

When you're done with the fax modem properties page, click OK. Back in the Fax Properties window, choose the Tracking tab to configure the fax monitor. The fax monitor is the little progress window that pops up when you send and receive faxes, from which you can manually receive faxes, cancel an outgoing call, and so on. Finally, choose the Archives tab and specify where you want Windows to store your sent and received faxes (the defaults are subfolders of \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\MSFax\ ).

Finally, to send a fax, open your document in whatever application created it (e.g., Word or Excel), go to File --> Print, and select the fax driver from the list of printers. (A fax machine is nothing more than a remote printer, after all.) Click OK, and the Send Fax Wizard walks you through the rest of the process; type the recipient's fax number, choose a cover sheet, pick a time to send the fax, and you're off!

[LoneRanger]

21 July 2008:

Find Drivers for Old Hardware

I have an old USB webcam that I'd like to use. When I plug it in, Windows recognizes it and prompts me for drivers, but then it tells me that the CD that came with the webcam doesn't have "drivers that match my hardware." What do I do?

It sounds like your webcam was made before Windows XP came out, and as a result, the CD that accompanies it doesn't include XP-compatible drivers. This is a really common problem, particularly among the glut of USB devices that hit the market during the Windows 98 era.

Since few companies will support every product from the original date of sale until the Morlocks roam the Earth, it's possible that XP-compatible drivers may simply not exist for your device. But it can't hurt to visit the webcam manufacturer's web site and scour the Support and Downloads sections for any drivers or information for Windows XP.

Of course, the manufacturer may no longer offer any drivers for your device. The company may have gone out of business or had its assets bought up by another company. In this case, you'll have to turn to others to find a driver. Start by visiting a driver repository (the web equivalent of an auto salvage yard), such as DriverGuide (http://driverguide.com ) or DriverFiles (http://driverfiles.net ). No luck? Search Google for the word "driver" followed by the name or model number of your device.

If you don't find anything, it may be wiser to simply cut your losses. Instead of spending half a day trying to get a seven-year-old webcam to work with XP, just spend the $15 on a new webcam, and use the old one as a nifty toy for your cat.

[LoneRanger]

22 July 2008:

What's a Digitally Signed Driver?

I'm trying to install the drivers for this new device, and all of a sudden, Windows warns me that the drivers are not digitally signed. Is this something to worry about?

Not even a little. A driver with a digital signature is one that has earned Microsoft's esteemed seal of approval, indicating that it has passed a series of rigorous compatibility tests administered by the Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL). In theory, this warning is supposed to scare customers into rejecting any driver that does not come with Microsoft's digital signature, thereby coercing hardware manufacturers into submitting their drivers to the aforementioned WHQL tests.

In practice, however, digitally signed drivers are rarely any more stable, reliable, or safe than drivers lacking the signature. In other words, if you see this warning, just click the Install Anyway button and forget about it.

If the decision makers at Microsoft had thought about it, they might have applied this sort of warning to all software installations, not just hardware drivers. If Windows users were warned before installing software components that weren't digitally signed, we could probably say goodbye to spyware, viruses, Trojan horses, worms, and all the other forms of malware that can make their way onto your PC without so much as a peep from Windows!

[LoneRanger]

23 July 2008:

Windows Won't Detect New Device

My PC has four USB ports, and they're all full. Rather than using a USB hub, which I've heard can be problematic, I bought a PCI card that gave me another six USB ports and a pair of FireWire ports to boot. When I installed it, however, Windows appeared to detect it but couldn't properly identify it or accept the installation of the included drivers.

There are essentially two reasons why Windows doesn't detect a device, or detects that a device has been added but can't identify it properly: either the device isn't compatible with Windows XP, or some other device is causing a conflict.

You can test the first hypothesis pretty easily by consulting the documentation or checking the manufacturer's web site for XP compatibility.

The second possibility is a little harder to troubleshoot. You'll encounter this problem mostly in desktop PCs as opposed to laptops that have a bunch of internal expansion slots. (Laptops have fewer expansion options, and thus fewer opportunities for conflict.) The system BIOS and chipset are responsible for parceling out IRQs to all the devices in your system, but when you add a handful of cards to the dozen or so devices already built onto your PC's motherboard, devices must share IRQs, and that's when the conflicts start making life difficult.

You can confirm that this is the problem by simply moving the card to a different PCI slot. This fools Windows into thinking the card is an entirely new device, which gives you another shot at installing the right drivers; the new location may also eliminate a conflict with a device on your motherboard. Despite Windows's plug-and-play capabilities, you may have to shuffle PCI cards in a full system until you find a setup that works.

If you still aren't having any luck, enter your PC's BIOS setup screen, find the "Reset Config Data" option (sometimes called "Reset NVRAM"), and set it to Yes. When you're done, save your settings and reboot. This setting makes the BIOS reset and reconfigure all your plug-and-play devices every time your system starts, which forces Windows to do the same. The change may increase boot time, but you can turn it off later, and it may be just the thing to get all your devices to work in harmony.

[LoneRanger]

24 July 2008:

Replace an Incorrect Driver

I installed the wrong driver for a new piece of hardware, and now Windows can't install the correct one. Isn't there any way to uninstall drivers?

Yes most of the time but it's not always obvious how to do it. You could open the Device Manager (go to Start --> Run and type devmgmt.msc ), right-click the device, and select Uninstall, but oddly enough, this usually doesn't remove all traces of the driver. Unfortunately, Windows saves details about uninstalled hardware both in the Registry and in .inf files located in the \Windows\inf folder, which means the next time your device is detected, Windows is likely to detect it incorrectly again.

If it's listed in the Add or Remove Programs control panel, or if there's an uninstaller hiding in your Start menu or in the driver's folder, you may be able to remove the driver completely. However, odds are you'll have to turn to the manufacturer's support web site for help. Search the site for "uninstall," and you might find a procedure or even a download able utility to cleanse your system of the driver. If not, search Google for the word "uninstall" and the name of your device.(Don't be surprised if the instructions you find have you deleting obscure Registry keys and renaming DLLs in your \Windows\System32\drivers folder .)

The good news is that uninstalling the driver isn't always necessary. Windows ties each detected device to the port or slot to which it's connected. If you pull a sound card out of PCI slot 2 and insert it into PCI slot 3, Windows will detect the card as a brand new device and offer you a chance to install the device correctly. The same goes for hard disks and CD/DVD drives (all IDE/ATA devices, really), all SCSI devices, cards inserted into your laptop's PCMCIA/PC Card slots, and even USB devices; just plug them into different ports to force Windows to re-detect them, and your plug-and-play woes may simply melt away.

[LoneRanger]

25 July 2008:

Undo an Unwanted Driver Update

During a recent visit to the Windows Update web site, I was tempted by a driver update listed in the "Hardware, Optional" category. I installed the driver and restarted Windows, and now the device no longer works. Did I do something wrong, or did I just fall for a trap?

While Microsoft has the right intentions, it doesn't always have the right drivers. In theory, Windows Update should only suggest a driver upgrade if your device is already using a Microsoft driver, but sometimes it oversteps its bounds. Fortunately, Windows is prepared for this!

Open the Device Manager (go to Start --> Run and type devmgmt.msc ), find your device in the tree, right-click it, and select Properties. Choose the Driver tab and click the Roll Back Driver button. If all goes well, Windows should remove the new driver and reinstate the old functional driver automatically.

Sometimes this doesn't work, though. If Windows complains that it can't roll back the driver, or if the device still doesn't work after the old driver was supposedly restored, your best bet is to dig through your disks and install the original driver that came with your gadget. Better yet, visit the manufacturer's web site, download the latest driver for your model, and install it over the one already on your system.

[LoneRanger]

26 July 2008:

Find Out More About Your Hardware

I've read of a bug that affects a certain type of motherboard chipset, but this information isn't exactly laseretched on the front of my PC. How can I find out what's inside my PC without having to pop the hood?

Your PC is made up of dozens of separate components, most of which aren't made by your PC vendor. Although you can certainly open up your computer and look at the label on your hard disk or CPU, most of the "devices" are nothing more than chips soldered to your PC's motherboard. Rather than trying to read the microscopic text on each chip, you can use software to scan your system and produce reports in excruciating detail.

First, open up Windows's own Device Manager by going to Start --> Run and typing devmgmt.msc .

Here, you'll see a manifest of every device for which a driver is loaded. Unfortunately, the information can be spotty at best. For instance, your FireWire controller is probably called simply "1394 Net Adapter." If you're trying to find out whether or not it's a VIA VT6306, for instance, you'll have to look elsewhere.

One of the best tools for this, and a free one at that, is Everest Home Edition, available at http://lavalys.com . (Lavalys also offers commercial versions with more features.) Among other things, Everest displays copious details about your hardware, digs into your CPU (indicating, for example, whether or not it can be overclocked), and even performs system diagnostics and memory benchmark tests.

Another worthy tool is WCPUID/XCPUID, available for free at http://h-oda.com , which provides exhaustive details about your processor (CPU). This tool's output is useful for overclocking, as well as for finding a compatible CPU if you're interested in upgrading.