GuruNews, Volume 9 Number 8, 2-26-09

Thu Feb 26 21:03:39 EST 2009

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Vol. 9, No. 8                   

2-26-09

1 Potpourri II         

2 Save those passwords

3 USofFacebook, improvements to the Vista killer, Apple beta, Microsoft homophobia 

4 USB manager     

5 Acrobat danger

6 Absent services

Last week's tip ran a bit long.  This week I'll keep them shorter and give several, I promise :)

We all get error messages, and sometimes just rebooting the PC will clear the problem.  If you see the same error message over and over, or if you get a serious error like a blue screen or the dreaded black screen on boot up you need to make some notes.

If it's a short message that has buttons (basically a dialog box) write down the entire message if it actually contains information.  Something like "We're sorry but Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close." is worthless so don't bother, but messages about missing files or dependencies, memory errors or any that contain an actual error code are important and should be noted.

On blue screen or black screen errors don't bother trying to write down everything.  Black screens usually have a line near the top about something missing, like "C:\Windows\System32" or "Hal.sys", make a note of what's missing.  Blue screens usually have an error code that looks similar to "0X0000007E" and a message like "PAGE_FAILT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA".  Those are the important parts, ignore the rest.

Use your information to research the problem on Google or call your favorite tech.  Or, of course, email The Gurus ;)

On another note, if you use a USB keyboard you should probably create a profile on your PC that doesn't require a password.  The reason is many newer computers lack PS/2 ports, which are the round ports for keyboards and mice.  These are fine and replacing one of them won't make a difference, but USB devices are different.  You need to get all the way into Windows before the drivers are loaded and, in the case of unexpected failure, you won't get back into Windows if you need to type in a password.

If you have a PS/2 port available just buy a spare keyboard of that type and keep it as a spare, just remember to power the PC off before you plug it in.  If you're just getting a new keyboard and the old one still works just plug the new one into a USB port while the PC is on.  Those are hot pluggable and when you reboot Windows will already know about the new one and you won't have any problems.

For a last quick tip, we've mentioned System Information for Windows (SIW) as a handy tool for determining exactly what hardware is in your computer, but it can do far more.  It can uncover hidden passwords using the Eureka utility (Tools/Eureka), it can pull passwords you've saved and forgotten for websites out of the Registry (Secrets) and software keys (Licenses).

Since Internet Explorer and many programs like Outlook Express and Panda will retain your passwords you likely have set them and forgotten them soon after.  Before a format and reload or hard drive replacement it's important to have all the information you need to reinstall your important software, set up your email etc. and SIW will help greatly with that chore.  You might want to do it now, before catastrophe strikes, so you have the information on hand in an emergency.

Get the program at:

http://www.gtopala.com/download/siw.exe

Kevin Mefford, Editor

pcguru at microdome.net

Terry Wise

www.ratland.com

Tech News of the Week

 Is Facebook a democracy or a business? Facebook is giving its 175
million-plus members an unprecedented voice in helping dictate the
social networking giant's future governing direction. They may even
get to vote on those policies:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2009-02-26-facebook_N.htm

Microsoft on Thursday released a lengthy list of 36 improvements it
plans to make to the release candidate (RC) for Windows 7, though the
company did not provide any details on when that RC might actually be
available:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2341805,00.asp

Earlier this week Apple went public with the beta version of its Web
browser, Safari 4:

http://www.crn.com/software/214600329

Xbox Live isn't known for the social graces of its users, and one
gamer was harassed for outing herself as a lesbian... with Microsoft
then banning her account:

http://tinyurl.com/cqkrqd

Copy us on the good stuff!

Matt Dattilo

www.mattstodayinhostory.com

thepcgurus at gmail.com

Download of the Week

If you want to identify a USB device on your system, use Nirsoft's handy utility USBDeview. This freebie provides names, serial numbers, USB ports, and other useful information for keeping track of all your connected gadgets.  Think of it as a device manager for USB thingies.  Get it here:

http://www.freewarefiles.com/USBDeview_program_23786.html 

Carlita Lupino

Cards57 at gmail.com

Threat of the Week

Adobe has warned of a serious flaw in all versions of Adobe Reader and Acrobat that could lead to complete loss of control of your PC.  A buffer overflow vulnerability could all a hacker to take complete control through a "poisoned" .pdf file.

Adobe suggests users follow the following procedure to mitigate the threat:

"Launch Acrobat or Adobe Reader 

Select Edit>Preferences 

Select the JavaScript Category 

Uncheck the 'Enable Acrobat JavaScript' option 

Click OK"

Adobe hopes to have a patch available by March 11th.

Kevin Mefford

pcguru at microdome.net

Email Question of the Week

Q:  I have a Minolta Magic Color 2400W laser printer that quit printing 2
days ago and it gives the following error message: (fatal print spool
error the RPC server is unavailable Problem with the windows print
spooler spooler could be off line or no printer installed). I
uninstalled and reinstalled the software from the original cd and from
their website and did a system restore from 2 weeks ago but still get
the same message. The computer uses windows xp.

A:  It sounds like you have some services that are disabled.  Open
your Control Panel and double click on Administrative Tools.  Double
click on Services and scroll down through the list for Remote
Procedure Call (RPC).  Double click that, set the Startup type as
Automatic and click the Start button if it isn't grayed out.

Scroll back up and do the same thing for Print Spooler, then
reboot the PC.  That should set both services to start with Windows
and fix the problem.

Hope that helps and keep us posted...

Kevin Mefford

pcguru at microdome.net

Contact info and legal stuff

If you have tech support questions or ideas and/or submissions for our newsletter please submit them by visiting www.thepcgurus.com and click on the "Email the Team" icon. 

Copyright 2001-2009 The PC Gurus, all rights reserved.  Publication, rebroadcast or storage is prohibited without prior consent, however you may freely forward this publication to friends as long as A) it is forwarded in its entirety and B) no fee is charged.

Information provided in this publication is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied.  Although the information provided is known to work on most systems, it may not work on ALL systems.  Make use of any information supplied at your own risk.

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