Posts by davidchilders

@Daave
Are you referring to this book?
http://simplebits.com/publications/bulletproof/

Hello, Afoolery -

Unfortunately, the symptoms you describe indicate that the battery is on its last legs. It's almost dead. Soon, the system will not start up with the battery installed at all because all of the voltage is going to recharge the battery.

You will need a new battery.

Fortunately, there are companies selling replacement batteries at reasonable rates. Here's a search for your particular computer at amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Delectronics&field-keywords=everex+SA2050T+laptop+battery&x=17&y=21

I don't know if any of those look like your battery. It's normally good to remove the battery and find the battery model number to get an exact match.

I hope this helps.

Could you post a screen shot of the existing layout with sensitive information blanked out?

Dynamic sizing of both rows and columns usually produces the most pleasing results.

That's why I prefaced my comment about with things like "I may be off base here" and other diminutives to indicate that I have no idea if this is the case or not - however I also presented my personal opinion. No big deal - simply observing a reason why your post languished for two days before I picked it up.

The handling of your particular issue (end user support) is one that Microsoft officially delegates to be handled by the retailer. If you purchased from Costco, then they contractually, with Microsoft, must provide end user support for that copy of Windows.

At the Costco.com web site . . .

http://www.costco.com

Near the top of the page, if you hover over the "Computers" button, the last item listed in the drop down is "Free Technical Support".

I would also have presumed that technical support would be unavailable through Costco, but knowing of the requirement by Microsoft that retailers support the end user . . . I thought it would be worth a look-see . . .

and there it is.

Assume nothing.
Be ready for anything.

I hope all of this has helped - thank you!

AND . . .

I just now lost my Next background image menu item!

I switched back to my default background that has only a single static image. Because it is the only background image available within that scheme the menu item has gone away.

Changing back to one of the Aero themes restores the Next background image menu item.

Now that we know what causes the menu item to go missing, all we have to do is figure out how the theme is getting changed back to a static, single image theme without your consent.

I hope this helps.

Ah! OK - thank you for that information. Now that I'm back at my home computer, I can see exactly what you're doing.

Very interesting. I had no idea that a person could do that.

I also believe that I know why no one answered your post for two days.

Let me start by suggesting that you contact the company that sold you your copy of Windows 7. That's really always the best route to go for advice on how to use Windows 7 and minor problems like this that crop up. If it came on your computer, that would be Dell. Here's a page with all of your contact options for Dell:

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dellcare/contact_technical_support?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=anavml

They most likely have something in their knowledge database that has the answer to your question.

Next, even though it's really simple to choose that menu item, it's not really what it was designed for. And since it's not working for you consistently - you may want to start up Windows Media Player and open the folder that contains all the pictures you want to display. Then it's a simple matter to go to the next picture by clicking the next button (right next to the play/pause button in the center).

I appreciate people who want to participate. And I certainly don't know what the 'rules' or 'norms' are around here - but I thought this was an "IT Discussion Community". To me, personally, the term IT …

Another thought is that menu items sometimes are not presented or 'go missing' depending on the context of what you are doing. What are you normally doing when the menu item disappears?

Why does the number of results returned bother you if the first few results may be relevant to your problem?

There's nothing that says you have to search through every single one for your answer . . .

Here's a good one - what is your color pallete set to?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935265

Try reducing your search to desktop background

I have no idea because I don't use this at home. I will try to enable it tonight and see what happens. While you wait for that to happen, have you tried searching the Microsoft help site?

http://support.microsoft.com/search/

Typically, the entity that has responsibility for the public IP address space that you're using would set up the PTR record in their DNS for you. This is most often an ISP or telco carrier.

You can set up your own PTR record, but since your name server isn't authoritative for that IP range, it would most likely not provide the confirmation that other mail servers are looking to receive. They are going to trace down from the root name servers to the assigned entity for your IP space. You can find that by doing a whois lookup at this web site:

https://www.arin.net/

Search whois is in the upper right corner.

Enter your router's public IP and you will be able to see who has responsibility for that address. Contact them to submit your request for the PTR record.

Not sure about the Webmin interface - I've never used it myself. Sorry about that.

I hope this helps -

/David C.

It's very difficult to tell without more information.

When I am troubleshooting email problems, I like to test each link of the process individually. That way I can eventually arrive - at least - where the problem is located. That way I can apply my attention to the proper component instead of having to consider the entire chain at once.

First of all, let's have a look at your domain name and how it stacks up at www.dnsstuff.com:
http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/dnsreport?domain=wattzup.com&format=raw&loadresults=true&token=15211bcd8a853d343097ca1b2f18e016
(link valid for 7 days)

As you can see, there may be a problem with remote mail servers connecting to your email server.

Check your firewall settings to ensure that there is a rule allowing traffic (only) from the public IP of your firewall to the internal IP address of your mail server on port 25. (For additional security you can also configure your mail server to use an alternate port and shift the port from 25 on the public side of your router to the alternate port on your mail server's internal IP address.)

THEN - the really bad part is - if your sender's mail server is configured properly, they will never ever even attempt to connect to your email server because your public IP address does not have a reverse lookup entry at your IP address provider. (ISP)

This is normally used when accepting connections from your mail server . . . but a lot of mail servers are …

I'm not sure exactly what's going on here - but the first thing I would try is connecting both USB flash drives to the system at the same time. Backups write what is called a 'catalog' file that keeps track of what was backed up and which device was used to backup your stuff.

Another (less happy) thought is that, if you removed your USB flash drives from your old computer without dismounting them using the 'Safely Remove USB Device' tool tray application, you may have caused some file corruption to your backup. In this case, you may never be able to restore your files and settings.

But try connecting both USB flash drives first and see how that goes.

I hope this helps -

I could use some more information - when you say "Tune Up Process Manager" are you referring to the Performance Troubleshooter? Or is this a third party application?

Thanks!

/David C.

A dead battery is the only thing I can think of that would reset the system clock each time that it is rebooted.

Just because you bought the computer three to four years ago doesn't mean the battery didn't sit around on a shelf waiting to be installed in the computer. Also, there may have been a manufacturing defect in the battery that caused it to lose charge over time.

Don't waste your time wondering why - replace the battery and get on with your computer using happiness! :-)

I hope this helps!

Does you application access anything not located on the local computer? If it's connecting out of Windows 7 to, say, a database server then you may need to allow the application to initiate an outbound connection in the Windows firewall settings.

Hope this helps!

/David C.