The General "Computer Issues" Thread

[defunctzombie]

You'll have to find that out for yourself. The ads pay for the site and as a moderator I can't help people get around them.

 

[PunkPhantom]

How do put shows you got from iTunes into iMovie?

 

[MDawg]

Please tell me how to temporarily disable flash on Safari on a Mac! I can't stand these video ads!

ClickToFlash will do the trick for you in Safari. It's of benefit to anyone with limited bandwidth (hi Comcast,U-Verse, Canada, Australia, etc!) since it allows you to decide if a flash object to load instead of all of them loading by default (which is just terrible and can eat up a bunch of your limit if you're not careful).

 

[cognitofalcon]

You'll have to find that out for yourself. The ads pay for the site and as a moderator I can't help people get around them.

We were under the impression that y'all would put a stop to video ads.

 

[defunctzombie]

Sigh. Think of the ads this way: You need money to get surgery, and a guy agrees to pay for it if you wear his company's hat for while. You already had the surgery, so you have to wear the hat until time's up or they'll rip the stitches out.

The videos will show up until the end of the campaign, which isn't for a bit (not at liberty to discuss end dates).

Now, no more talk about the ads or how to get around them in this thread. I will zap such posts on sight.

 

[PunkPhantom]

OK my printer is having a problem.

When I print something in color the colors are all wrong. For example when i tried to print a picture of Muscle Man from Regular Show, it made his skin pink and shirt green! (instead of green skin and blue shirt).

This is the first time I printed anything in color with this printer because it's a new printer.

Before, I had a problem where it wouldn't connect to the computer even though it was connect via USB. But I just unplugged the USB and replugged again and it worked.

My printer is an HP Deskjet 3054 connected to a Mac running OS X 10.6.6 with a USB cable. Also I think I threw away the alignment page and I don't know ho to print another if that's necessary.

 

[defunctzombie]

Does the printer have individual color cartridges or is it just a black and a color? If it's individual colors, check to make sure they're in the right spots.

The printer should have come with a CD of drivers. I don't know how it works on a Mac, but you should have a printer settings option somewhere. My HP lets you print an alignment page through the settings box.

 

[MDawg]

You can get the install software for that printer at HP's support page.

Considering it's a tri-color cartridge, it's highly unlikely it was installed improperly. Did you just connect the printer to the computer without doing anything? That is the likely cause of the issue. There's a guide at http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&dlc=en&lc=en&os=219&product=5109847&sw_lang= you may want to refer to.

 

[PunkPhantom]

Well I got it to work. It was just PDF that was being screwy so I screencapped the thing I was trying to print and save it as a JPG and it printed perfectly.

 

[MDawg]

Ah. If that ever happens with a PDF, your best option is to click the checkbox that says "Print as image" when you go to print it. I cant' recall where it is in the settings, but I've used it before when dealing with troublesome PDF files during printing.

 

[chalmers]

Does anyone have any idea why a computer would suddenly claim that the copy of Windows that it's running isn't genuine? I don't understand it, I have a HP laptop running the same copy of Windows 7 that it came with when I bought it brand new nearly two years ago, so why would my copy of Windows not be genuine?

The only thing I can think of is that I haven't been updating it regularly for a while now, because I haven't had a steady internet connection for quite some time. But it's annoying that I can't use my computer fully, or without a message popping up every five minutes saying I might be the victim of software counterfeiting, and I'm not about to pay all that money for a new product key, especially since I don't think I should have to.

 

[defunctzombie]

Did you replace any hardware recently? Sometimes a computer will do that after being altered. The other reason might be a virus problem. If a restart and update don't help, see if it lets you enter the product code from the blue Windows sticker. If all else fails, contact Microsoft or the PC manufacturer and they'll help you.

 

[wonderfly]

Does anyone remember if my HP Windows 7 computer which I bought earlier this year plays Blue Rays? Is that a standard feature on computers now?

 

[MDawg]

Does anyone have any idea why a computer would suddenly claim that the copy of Windows that it's running isn't genuine? I don't understand it, I have a HP laptop running the same copy of Windows 7 that it came with when I bought it brand new nearly two years ago, so why would my copy of Windows not be genuine?

The only thing I can think of is that I haven't been updating it regularly for a while now, because I haven't had a steady internet connection for quite some time. But it's annoying that I can't use my computer fully, or without a message popping up every five minutes saying I might be the victim of software counterfeiting, and I'm not about to pay all that money for a new product key, especially since I don't think I should have to.

The lack of internet connection more than likely did you in. Windows requires a connection to check in like every 3 to 6 months or it will deactivate. You can easily re-active by going to http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/activate-windows-7-on-this-computer and following the instructions there. If you need to re-enter the key, flip your laptop over. There should be a Windows sticker on there with the product key.

Does anyone remember if my HP Windows 7 computer which I bought earlier this year plays Blue Rays? Is that a standard feature on computers now?

No, your model does not. And no, Blu-ray is not a standard feature on computers even today. In most cases it's still the upgrade option.

 

[Marvin Tikvah]

But it's annoying that I can't use my computer fully, or without a message popping up every five minutes saying I might be the victim of software counterfeiting, and I'm not about to pay all that money for a new product key, especially since I don't think I should have to.

I've had this problem since last June, and since HP didn't bother laminating my Activation Key on my laptop and its so worn out its completely unreadable now, I just go to System Restore and go to the last working back-up I have. It's a temporary solution but one you just have to keep doing since the HP rep basically told me I'm SOL if I don't have that key.

I didn't know about the updates thing though, I haven't updated since February since I turned auto-updates off. Might have to try that tonight.

 

[chalmers]

Another thing, my battery won't charge. It's at zero percent, and it says "Plugged in, not charging". When I turn it off and plug it in, the LED's on the front blink at me three to four times, and I know this is supposed to tell me something but I don't know what.

 

[Jave]

Another thing, my battery won't charge. It's at zero percent, and it says "Plugged in, not charging". When I turn it off and plug it in, the LED's on the front blink at me three to four times, and I know this is supposed to tell me something but I don't know what.

This seems to be an ongoing problem with Windows 7. I don't have it so I can't speak for experience, but here's a possible solution:

http://jeffreypalermo.com/blog/plugged-in-not-charging-windows-7-solution/

No idea if it will fix it for you, but it seems to work for a lot of people.

 

[Beefy]

Does anyone have any idea why a computer would suddenly claim that the copy of Windows that it's running isn't genuine? I don't understand it, I have a HP laptop running the same copy of Windows 7 that it came with when I bought it brand new nearly two years ago, so why would my copy of Windows not be genuine?

The only thing I can think of is that I haven't been updating it regularly for a while now, because I haven't had a steady internet connection for quite some time. But it's annoying that I can't use my computer fully, or without a message popping up every five minutes saying I might be the victim of software counterfeiting, and I'm not about to pay all that money for a new product key, especially since I don't think I should have to.

Were you using the Windows Updates or the updates from HP? If you were using the HP updates and one of the installed updates was a BIOS update, then Windows would deactivate because it thinks you replaced the motherboard.

Windows 7 deactivated itself when I updated the BIOS on my desktop PC. You should be able to reactivate it from the System control panel without having to enter a product key.

 

[MDawg]

I've had this problem since last June, and since HP didn't bother laminating my Activation Key on my laptop and its so worn out its completely unreadable now, I just go to System Restore and go to the last working back-up I have. It's a temporary solution but one you just have to keep doing since the HP rep basically told me I'm SOL if I don't have that key.

It's still possibly to get your key with a free third-party option.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/productkeysactivation/tp/topkeyfinder.htm

 

[Marvin Tikvah]

Oh wow, thanks for that link Matt. I had no idea the key could be retrieved from the Registry.

I'll be sure to try that the next time I'm prompted for a key.