PC question

[dvtimes]

PC question

My mate has a 1 year old pc.

First time ever she tried using the 5" floppy.

Keeps getting message "insert floppy disc".

I used one of my floppies which does work.

Still get the same message.

So I swap the drives.

Still same message.

So I change leads. Still same message.

Any ideas.

Power works fine.

[-HF]

5"? 5.25"? you sure? not 3.5"?

anyway, i had quite a number of FDDs die without reason - as the prices for them drop and drop, i blame a constantly worse quality level - most never really used. why bother with FDD these days? burning a CD is more convenient and safer than an FD. kick the drive altogether.

[cock-a-leekie]

Uh. 5" floppy? Haven't seen one of those in years, you must mean 3.5"

First things first - go into windows control panel, select system, select hardware, select device manager. Look for "floppy disk controllers" and you should have a standard floppy disk controller enabled.

If you do (and you should) the next step is to see if the floppy drive units light flashes during boot. If not, re-boot but this keep pressing the delete key to enter the Bios. In Bios, select "standard Cmos features" if it's an Award Bios, or Cmos feature equivalents if not. You'll see an option for drive a: and drive b: Make sure drive a: is enabled. If it is and still no-go, check the IDE cables from the drive to the main board. Unplug and re-plug IDE and power.

If it's still a no-go during boot - it's buggered.

[dvtimes]

sorry. old habit. yes 3.5 drive.

[dvtimes]

Ta.

I will pop back later and see if it works.

I shall make sure that her kids are asleep.

[SGS]

http://www.dvtimes.com/he.htm

DVTimes.com guide to keeping your PC happy.

I have set this page up as I have been asked a lot to fix peoples PC's as they are not working properly. Often this takes up a lot of my time, and its a real pain.

So this page should help you keep your PC in good health.

These tips are based on a PC running windows XP, but in truth you should find most of my tips should apply to most versions of windows.

*
If you can get broadband in your area get it. The cost is not much more than dial up, and you will find the speed so much faster, plus you can make phone calls while you surfer.

*
Get rid of your temp files. These are files that windows uses part of its memory, which when you shut your pc down these should automatically be removed. But if your computer does not shut down properly it can create lots of problems, as they are not removed, and can build up over time. So its worth removing these from time to time. You can find these by going to the C drive icon (or whatever drive windows is stored), then go to the windows folder. Then look for the Temp folder. Go into this folder and delete all the files. You will probably find that a few files will not be removed - if you find this do not worry as these are probably being used by your pc, just delete all the others. Temp files are just that, temp. Its best to have nothing in this folder.

*
There is also a second temp file. The easiest way to find this is to launch Internet Explorer (the program you use to serf the web) then click on Tools, then click on Internet Options. This should open a box. Click on settings, then click on View Files. This should open up a folder. The folder is probably called tempory internet files [at this point I like to select all the files and delight them, but that's up to you. I find it saves a lot of space]. Press the up button. You should now see another folder called Temp. Again go into this and delete all the files that you can.

*
Remove all the files in your recycle bin. I personally have the recycle bin set to automatically remove the files, but this is a personal preference.

*
Backup all your work. I suggest once a month backup all your files such as word files, photographs and so on to a backup device. Personally I suggest a DVD or cd as they are so cheap and can store lots of data. Backup your pda data, and mobile phone numbers too.

*
At least once a month go to your C drive icon (probably in your 'my computer folder', and press the right button on your mouse. This should bring up a box. Select properties (this is probably the option at the bottom of the box). This should bring up another box. It should show you how big the drive is, and how much space you have used. Click on tools. It should give you at least two options, one being check for errors and the other to defrag your PC. I suggest you run both of these at least once a month. Defrag simply tidies up your pc files, making them easer to read.

*
Find the control panel folder. This can sometimes be found in the my computer folder, or by pressing on the start button (bottom left) then select settings then control panel. Now click on display. Press on the settings option. You should see a box that says color quality, and a drop down box. My advise is to have this set to the highest you can (this will be different depending on your graphics card and monitor), but the higher quality you have the better and more realistic photographs, games and so on will be. You may also wish to change the screen resolution to a size you like.

Well that's the basics that you should be doing all the time. Even with an old pc running windows 3.1, some of the above will improve the computer a lot. I once was at a big company and they employed a pc technician (who was paid a lot to do nothing). One of there pc's shut down every hour, I checked it and it was simply because it had over 78,000 temp files. I removed them, and problem solved.

Now there are also other things you should do to protect your pc.

*
Email. Viruses often come by email. Make sure who ever provides your email service has some sort of email scanner set up. Sometimes you may have to pay extra for this service, but its worth paying.

*
Virus programs. Be careful, as its not worth running more than one program on your pc. Sometimes two virus scanners can conflict and can shut your pc down. So I suggest just to use one. Its also important to have it up-to-date. One program I recommend is AVG. You can download a free version of this which is excellent. Keep checking at least once a week for updates. See www.grisoft.com.

*
Update windows. Its important to regularly check for updates of windows. If you use windows xp you may not have service pack 2 loaded, so download it. Its always better to scan your pc first for viruses before doing an update of windows. For ease I just go to www.google.com and type in windows update. Or you could try windowsupdate.microsoft.com. Why update windows? Updates will reduce the chances of getting viruses and other problems.

*
Ad aware. On some sites you get annoying programs that pop into your pc. These can make it so that every so often a webpage or advert pop up. They are very annoying. Luckily there are lots of programs that will remove them. Most are free. Plus you can run as many of these programs as you like. I suggest that you go to www.google.com and type in ad aware free. This will bring up a list of programs. Download as many as you want. Then scan your pc. Do not forget to check for updates. I scan my pc at least once a week.

*
If you use broadband, I always suggest that you get a router as these will give you some firewall protection, and also will allow you to plug more than one pc into the internet.

I hope you find this of help. Your pc is like a car. If you do not give it a regular service, it will probably brake down on you. I have seen PC technicians charge £200 or more per hour just to do the above.

If your PC is more than 5 years old, its also probably cheaper and easer to buy a new one, and use your old one as a second PC.

I would also suggest that if you plan on doing a lot of printing, buy a laser printer as it will work out exrtealy cheap compared to an ink jet. Ink jets are fine for just the odd letter or printing pictures, but they are expensive for printing lots of letters. Laser printers can now be bought so cheap it always makes sense to at least consider getting one.

A cheaper and better option than buying a fax machine is to get an old pc (say a 486) and run fax software on it. I used to do this a lot, as I could send word documents and other files direct from my pc. Plus it would give better quality prints on the other end. Plus any faxes sent to you can be saved to disc and printed out later or emailed to others. Its a great way to use an old pc. I also had software on it that would answer the phone (it would say press 1 to leave a message, press 2 to leave a fax and so on...).

[morefodder]

Uh. 5" floppy? Haven't seen one of those in years, you must mean 3.5"

First things first - go into windows control panel, select system, select hardware, select device manager. Look for "floppy disk controllers" and you should have a standard floppy disk controller enabled.

If you do (and you should) the next step is to see if the floppy drive units light flashes during boot. If not, re-boot but this keep pressing the delete key to enter the Bios. In Bios, select "standard Cmos features" if it's an Award Bios, or Cmos feature equivalents if not. You'll see an option for drive a: and drive b: Make sure drive a: is enabled. If it is and still no-go, check the IDE cables from the drive to the main board. Unplug and re-plug IDE and power.

If it's still a no-go during boot - it's buggered.

Sage advice, however, the default drive a setting might be to set a to 5.25 ( my bro in laws old comp did ) and if the cmos battery is getting low it will reset to defaults as there is no charge to keep the changes ... anyhoo,
1 boot into cmos .. make sure that the floppy is set to 3.5 and not anything else
2 change the bott order to boot from floppy first
3 make a win 98 boot disc ( plenty of places to dl the exe that does this ala bootdisc.com) on a working machine
4 try to boot the dodgy comp with this floppy, if it doesnt read, drives knackered, if it does its a os problem
just for reference, if the floppy light stays on after booting the comp, the ide cable is in the wrong way (can be done very easily) and needs turning over




Fuck me , Ive actually posted a useful reply .. my god !!

[JT]

tell him hes a cunt for using a floppy in this day and age

[JesseP]

PC question

My mate has a 1 year old pc.

First time ever she tried using the 5" floppy.



I wish I had a 5" floppy. :)