GuruNews, Volume 9 Number 43, 11-21-09

Sat Nov 21 17:28:32 PST 2009

Welcome to GuruNews

Brought to you each week by the PC Gurus, a loose collection of volunteers from around the Kentuckiana region.

You can interact with the PC Guru team via our Web site, located at http://www.thepcgurus.com.  On our site you can post your computer questions, comments and rants on the forums, e-mail the PC Guru

team members and chat one on one in our nightly IRC chat beginning around 8:00 PM EDT.  You can also subscribe to our RSS feeds so you can get the latest news and forum updates from the PC Guru Web site directly on your computer.

If you're new to the Newsletter you can read back issues at Team member JP Durbin's website at http://www.jpdurbin.net.  There are links to all the old 84 Online issues as well as the new GuruNews missives.

The WHAS Crusade for Children provides year round support for needy children throughout the Kentuckiana region.  Visit http://www.whascrusade.org to make donations online.

USS Rover’s list of streaming computer shows is now available for download in Excel, Open Office and Linux ready formats from http://sheet.zoho.com/public/ussrover/shows. 

To subscribe to this newsletter just drop by www.thepcgurus.com and sign up!

Vol. 9, No. 43                           

11-21-09

1 Maintenance while upgrading 

2 Turkey time!

3 Google OS, AT&T goof, Oxford pick, Office beta, Xbox warnings

4 Puzzled?

5 IE lockup

With Christmas just around the corner it’s time to start considering some things to do to your PC to keep it in tiptop shape.  After all, many of you will receive new internal gizmos as gifts like a new wiz-bang video card or a Blue-Ray drive.  As long as you’re already in there you might as well do a little upkeep.

These things should be done once or twice a year, anyway, so don’t wait for installation of new hardware.  Regardless of when and why you do it it’s best to go in prepared.

You’ll need a can of compressed air, a bottle of rubbing alcohol and some cotton swabs.  Usually you’ll need a Phillips screwdriver and you might want to go ahead and purchase a new CPU heatsink/fan combo.

The CPU gear requires you to know the socket your processor uses so you may need to do a little research.  Either your original paperwork that came with the PC or a quick Google search of the model of the PC or motherboard should give you that information.  Worst case scenario, just remove the assembly (most clip down on the motherboard socket, some use screws) and take it to a local shop.  They can sell you what you need.

Take the side panel off the PC, usually the left side but newer PCs may be accessible from the right, and bring out the air.  It’s important when using canned air to keep the can upright and never shake it.  The propellant (and no, it isn’t Freon) settles to the bottom and you want it to stay there.  Shaking or tilting the can may result in a freezing cold spray across delicate electrical components and cause some serious damage.

Start on the outside of the case, clearing the air vents on the front and back and blowing out around the drives.

Spray around inside the case to clear residual dust in the bottom and around the cabling.  Place you finger on the hub of any fans like the case and CPU fans and spray around through the blades.  Holding the hubs prevents the blades from over spinning and damaging the motor.

Blow around the front vent of the power supply as best you can.  Often there are wires and cables in the way so you can’t get a good bead on it, just do the best you can.

If a dusty rime remains around the leading edges of the fan blades use a cotton swab dipped in alcohol to remove them.  The residue won’t do any real damage but it can cause drag on the blades and slow them down.

Keep in mind there may be fans on your video card or cards that you can’t see from the side.  You might want to disconnect your monitor and remove the card(s) to check and use the same method to clean any you find.

Now reassemble everything and, with the side panel still off, power on the PC and look and listen to all the fans.  If any seem to be slow or make groaning/grinding noises go ahead and power down and replace them.

I mentioned having a CPU fan on hand because they are the most likely to fail.  If yours checks OK now you’ll still need that replacement in the future.

Now install any new hardware if applicable, close everything up and get back to life as usual.

Now I need to make a correction.  In last week’s issue about misinformation I made a major goof and misinformed you myself.  In giving the location of the Large Hadron Collider I cited the border between France and Sweden.  Reader Jim from Kansas pointed out that it was actually Switzerland, not Sweden.  I was aware of its location but the old fingers were apparently on autopilot and veered a bit off course.  Thanks for the proof reading Jim!

Next week is Thanksgiving so there won’t be an issue.  We’ll pick up on December 3rd for three weeks of gizmo gift suggestions and then take a two-week holiday break, seeing you again after New Years Day.

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Kevin Mefford, Editor

microdome at seidata.com

Terry Wise

www.ratland.com

Tech News of the Week

 Google Chrome OS, which I brought to you a few weeks ago, has been officially unveiled by Google today and I'm impressed.  You won't be able to just download it and install it on your own PC, but when it does come to machines next year look for it to make headway into the netbook machines as a lightweight operating system:

http://gizmodo.com/5408504/

A judge ruled this week that while AT&T may be complaining that the Verizon "There's a map for that" commercials are hurting business, the judge found no deception by Verizon and will look into it further during a full trial:

http://tinyurl.com/yk86en4

"Unfriend" is declared the word of the year by the Oxford English Dictionary.  Last year's word "hypermiling" unavailable for comment, as no one has heard from that word since last year's selection:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/17/unfriend.word/

Microsoft released the next version of their Office suite in beta form this week:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx

The state of New York is testing warning systems that will deliver warnings on gaming networks such as Xbox Live.  Now I'll really never leave the front of my TV:

http://tinyurl.com/y8kxv79 

It's the best of the web, but you make it that way.  Feel free to send in ideas or suggestions!

Daniel A. Williams

daniel at thepcgurus.com

Download of the Week

Sudoku is a number puzzle in which you fill in the blanks on a nine-by-nine grid so that every row and column contains the numbers one through nine, and every three-by-three square contains the numbers one through nine.  (You probably already knew that.) No number can be repeated in any line, row, or three-by-three square. The game starts with a group of numbers already filled in, and you have to fill in the rest. This program is a way to get games on your PC, and for free.  Have at it:

http://tinyurl.com/ygrkkrt 

Carlita Lupino

Cards57 at gmail.com

Email Question of the Week

Q:  I'm running Windows XP and trying to launch Internet Explorer, latest version.  I click on the icon and the browser page tries to load.  It says it's connecting but nothing else happens.  Eventually it says it is not responding.

If I tell it to end program, the CPU usage goes to 100% and after a couple minutes it ends.  If I then click on the IE icon again the program goes ahead and loads properly.

I can also get it to load properly by just ignoring the "not responding" page, leaving it up there, and clicking on the IE icon again.  It will load properly, on top of the "not responding" page.

I use a cable modem and a dial up modem.  The problem happens with both.

Have you heard of this before?

A:  That usually happens from either a bad plug-in to the browser or some known issues between IE 8 and security programs that use the Restricted Sites Zone (like Spybot or Spyware Blaster).

You can try going to Start/Programs (or All Programs)/Accessories/System Tools/ and using Internet Explorer (no add-ons) for a couple of days.  

If that stops it then you can open IE normally and click Tools and Manage Add-Ons and disable anything you don't use.  You'll have to experiment to figure out what causes the problem but it's just basic trial and error.

If it continues go to Control Panel/Add-Remove Programs and uninstall Windows Internet Explorer 8.  You'll get a warning about all the programs that may not work, just ignore that and uninstall it.  That will roll it back to the last version and should fix it.

Hope that helps and keep us posted...

Kevin Mefford

microdome at seidata.com

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.

The PC Gurus are a group of volunteers who provide support for the PC, Mac and Linux users in the Kentuckiana region.

To unsubscribe from this newsletter visit http://thepcgurus.com/mailman/listinfo/newsletter_thepcgurus.com or send an email to microdome at seidata.com with the words “unsubscribe newsletter” (without the quotes) at the top of the body of the message.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.thepcgurus.com/pipermail/newsletter_thepcgurus.com/attachments/20091121/2e115dd6/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 122177 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mail.thepcgurus.com/pipermail/newsletter_thepcgurus.com/attachments/20091121/2e115dd6/attachment.jpe>