The General "Computer Issues" Thread

[Noah The Rex]

Printer Problem

Yeah, one of my friends just got a new printer, and I know this sounds stupid, but he actually bought a small glass jar of ink he bought at Michaels (an art and craft store) he poured the ink where you feed it the paper, and now every paper we put in comes out with large smudges, I think it's the ink but it might be a defect. Help!

 

[Silverstar]

It sounds like the ink to me. You can't just put any kind of ink into any brand of printer; most brands call for specific ink cartridges. Your friend should check the printer's brand and purchase whichever ink cartridge(s) are recommended or are specially made for it.

 

[defunctzombie]

Geez. Well, if you can take the back off of the printer, do so and clean out all that ink as soon as possible. There's a chance you're not going to be able to use it if there is too much ink on the parts.

 

[En Sabah Nur]

He might need a new printer now.

 

[Flame Alchemist]

Before I go any further:

What's this about how it might void my warranty?!

Actually, I get keyword.url AND keyword.enabled.

I ran Windows Update, so I may well have installed Windows Live Software. Why would that affect Firefox?

EDIT: I have three Firefox icons on the desktop that I cannot seem to delete. I am given the message "Cannot delete file cannot read from the source file or disk. WTH?

It won't void any warranty. The Firefox team just has a good sense of humor. It's just a warning that don't mess with you anything you don't know the function of. See "accessibility.accesskeycausesactivation" at the top of the list? I have no idea what that means, so I won't go messing around with it.

I have both keyword.URL and keyword.enabled. Don't mess around with keyword.enabled. Just change keyword.URL to what I told you.

I'm not completely sure Windows Live changed anything, but it seems it did. It would do just so you'd be using Windows Live services. It might've been option that you left checked during installation that said "Change my default search provider to Window Live". A lot of software wants to change that to things. If you install Yahoo! software, it'll want Yahoo! to be your default search. I've installed other programs that have nothing to do with Yahoo!, Google or search engines, and they want me to install the Ask Toolbar. Just read everything you see (except the EULA. Nobody has the time to do that. The jist is to not do anything illegal with your software.)

The Firefox shortcuts could be read-only for some reason. Right-click on them, choose Properties and uncheck "Read-only".

 

[Beefy]

I have now tried with both.

Please list the steps you took to uninstall your printer.
Did you use Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel?
It looks like the uninstaller program does a good job of cleaning up after itself.

After you uninstall the printer and reboot, check to make sure the Dell Photo AIO Printer 962 folder is gone from C:\Program Files\
Also go to the Printers and Faxes Control Panel and click on File > Server Properties > Drivers and make sure the driver is not listed.

 

[Hanshotfirst1138]

It won't void any warranty. The Firefox team just has a good sense of humor. It's just a warning that don't mess with you anything you don't know the function of. See "accessibility.accesskeycausesactivation" at the top of the list? I have no idea what that means, so I won't go messing around with it.

I have both keyword.URL and keyword.enabled. Don't mess around with keyword.enabled. Just change keyword.URL to what I told you.

I'm not completely sure Windows Live changed anything, but it seems it did. It would do just so you'd be using Windows Live services. It might've been option that you left checked during installation that said "Change my default search provider to Window Live". A lot of software wants to change that to things. If you install Yahoo! software, it'll want Yahoo! to be your default search. I've installed other programs that have nothing to do with Yahoo!, Google or search engines, and they want me to install the Ask Toolbar. Just read everything you see (except the EULA. Nobody has the time to do that. The jist is to not do anything illegal with your software.)

The Firefox shortcuts could be read-only for some reason. Right-click on them, choose Properties and uncheck "Read-only".

Hmm. Said icons have now disappeared ! Don't know why, but don't look a gift horse in the mouth, I suppose. Anyway, I tried what you said, and it did indeed fix my search bar. Don't know how that happened, but I'm glad it's fixed! Thanks!

Please list the steps you took to uninstall your printer.
Did you use Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel?
It looks like the uninstaller program does a good job of cleaning up after itself.

After you uninstall the printer and reboot, check to make sure the Dell Photo AIO Printer 962 folder is gone from C:\Program Files\
Also go to the Printers and Faxes Control Panel and click on File > Server Properties > Drivers and make sure the driver is not listed.

Yes, I used Add/Remove Programs. However, I do not think that I uninstalled the driver, as someone who was helping me did so at a later date, and then reinstalled it. I think that this has it's roots in the old Windows Update that I did, maybe because we completely reformatted my hard drive a few years ago after a virus attack.

 

[Hanshotfirst1138]

My printer must hate me

Now it's printing pages diagonally! I don't recall setting it to landscaping. Where do I change it?

 

[Zorak Masaki]

There was a blackout in our neighborhood a few days ago, and once the computer and internet started working again, all video sites (youtube, gametrailers, etc) started working extremely slow. Is there a connection between the two?

 

[defunctzombie]

At least you still have internet. Last time that happened here it killed my ethernet port and my modem.

Do you know if your internet company is performing maintenance? That can affect speeds.

 

[defunctzombie]

I was having problems backing up files to disc. Every time I sent the folder to the drive, I got "windows encountered a problem when trying to copy this folder...". It turns out that when I take the blank disc out, it cooperated. This is odd, at work I can insert the disc before I send files. Any reason behind why it does this?

 

[En Sabah Nur]

I was having problems backing up files to disc. Every time I sent the folder to the drive, I got "windows encountered a problem when trying to copy this folder...". It turns out that when I take the blank disc out, it cooperated. This is odd, at work I can insert the disc before I send files. Any reason behind why it does this?

What software are you using to burn your disc? and what type of disk do you use? And what type/brand name of burner do you have?

 

[defunctzombie]

What software are you using to burn your disc?

Plain old windows cd burning application.

and what type of disk do you use?

HP dvd-r

And what type/brand name of burner do you have?

LG supermulti GH20LP20

I know for sure that I used to be able to burn things to a dvd this way with my old burner, but I had to take that one out because it would only open when I used a safety pin. In this current drive, when I had my files prepped and it asked for the disc it came back with "this disc is not writeable or it is full".

I ended up using roxio to make a data cd, so I can probably use that next time. I just wondered if there was something up with my windows application.

 

[MDawg]

The Windows CD burning app just seems to have issues period.

I'd suggest either ImgBurn or CDBurnerXP. Both are free CD and DVD burning apps that work much better than the built-in CD burning and are much more lightweight than the big and unruly Roxio.

I personally use ImgBurn for everything myself. It works really well and is just damn efficient at what it does without all the fluff that both Roxio and Nero pad their apps with. CDBurnerXP is the more hand-holdy of the two I think if you're not really sure of the whole burning process.

 

[En Sabah Nur]

The Windows CD burning app just seems to have issues period.

That was my experience as well. XP burning tool seems like its undeveloped and very buggy. its better in Vista though.

 

[Mynd Hed]

Yeah, I've never successfully gotten the built-in Windows disc burning function to, well, function. I've always used Nero, which, while it suffers from a severe case of feature bloat at this point, does have a nifty little app included in the package called Nero Express, which is basically what the program USED to be before bloat set in. (-:

 

[Hanshotfirst1138]

My printer is now printing pages landscaped and only printing part of what I print online, though Word seems to be functioning properly. What. The. Heck.

 

[En Sabah Nur]

My printer is now printing pages landscaped and only printing part of what I print online, though Word seems to be functioning properly. What. The. Heck.

you know with all the problems you are having, it would be best to do a system wipe, just format the damn thing and get yourself a fresh install. Nice, clean simple.

 

[Hanshotfirst1138]

you know with all the problems you are having, it would be best to do a system wipe, just format the damn thing and get yourself a fresh install. Nice, clean simple.

Wipe the entire hard drive and reformat, you mean? Thanks for your help. I must be driving you nuts .

 

[Elven Moon]

I don't know where else to ask, so I thought I'd try here.

My Sims 2 game is having issues. About 2 or 5 minutes into the game, the screen will go black, it'll say it's going into "power saving mode," and I can still hear the game sound, I just can't do anything, so I have to restart the computer. I've restarted the computer several times, fiddled with the power setting in the control panel, ran my anti-virus programs, switched what drive I put the CD into and done a drive defragment. But it's still doing this! Even if power saving mode was on, it should only be activated if there's nothing being done onscreen!

Recently, I had to have my computer wiped, so I basically had to reinstall all the expansions, though I managed to save one of my neighborhoods. Before all of this, the game worked FINE. I just don't understand! I have Windows XP.