Geek Housecalls Computer Service Center raffle: Red Sox vs. Yankees opening day tickets – All proceeds go to Haitian Relief Fund

March 8th, 2010

The Geek Housecalls Carry-In Computer Service Center has teamed up with other local vendors in selling raffle tickets to benefit the Haitian Relief Effort.

Three drawing winners will each win a pair of tickets to opening day, Sunday April 4 at 8PM, when the Boston Red Sox will play the New York Yankees.

Tickets cost $10 each and may be purchased at the Geek Housecalls Computer Service Center, 7A Cypress Drive, Burlington, MA.

Service Center hours are:

8AM – 7PM Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday
11AM – 7PM Wednesday
8AM – 12PM Saturday
Closed on Sunday

The drawing will be held on March 28, at St. Mary’s Church in Lynn, MA at 3PM.

Click here for a map or to learn more about the Geek Housecalls local computer service center in Burlington.

Bookmark and Share

MacBook Flashing Questionmark-Over-Folder Icon May Indicate Failed Hard Drive

February 20th, 2010

geekablog-logoSome folks are waking up their MacBooks only to find an ominous grey screen with a flashing questionmark icon instead of their usual friendly desktop.

According to Mac expert Joe Riess from the Geek Housecalls Computer Service Center, this flashing questionmark-on-folder icon may indicate that the hard disk drive in your MacBook has failed.  According to Joe, Apple has acknowledged that some MacBooks sold in 2006 and 2007 are prone to hard drive failure, and while stopping short of issuing a full-blown product recall, Apple has announced a Repair Extension Program that provides warranty replacement of failed hard drives or reimbursement for previously replaced hard drives in certain qualifying machines.macbook hdd fail

Unfortunately for affected MacBook owners, the Apple offer does not extend to data recovery on failed hard drives, so if your drive has failed, you are left to fend for yourself when it comes to retrieval of your documents, data, emails, photos, music, etc.

If you suspect your hard drive has failed and need assistance with Data Recovery, please contact Geek Housecalls to discuss recovery options.

_______________ o ________________

WAS THIS ARTICLE HELPFUL? PLEASE SCROLL DOWN AND LEAVE A COMMENT!

_______________ o ________________

ghc-logo-341w-x-482hThis article was written by Andy Trask, Head Geek at Geek Housecalls, the New England area’s original traveling computer geeks, on the web at www.geekhousecalls.com. Geek Housecalls specializes in “anything computer” and, since 2001, has become the trusted in-home computer and technology support provider for over 15,000 families and small business computer users in eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and southern New Hampshire. For help with your computers, gadgets, or network at home or at the office, click here to contact Geek Housecalls via the web, or call toll free:

1-877-4PC-GEEK             (1-877-472-4335)

Bookmark and Share

OOPS! Cell Phone Took A Bath! Now What?!

February 17th, 2010

If you are reading this article because your phone just got wet, DON’T WAIT! Remove the battery from your wet phone now!  Then read on…

geekablog-logoEvery day, people experience the horror of cell-phone dousing - when their mobile phone takes an unexpected plunge into anything from swimming pool to soup bowl to toilet bowl (yes, gross, but possibly the most common as mobile phones seem to have a special knack for slipping out of your pocket while dressing/undressing).  This post offers advice for how to recover and possibly save your phone when the unexpected happens.

The first and most important step after getting the phone out of the water, is remove the battery.  This part of the process is so important, that I’ll restate it in “shoutspeak”; AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE, REMOVE THE BATTERY FROM THE PHONE!  Do not wait, do not check to see if it still works, do not attempt to turn it on (do not text a friend to tell them that you just fished your phone out of the toilet). The sooner you get the battery out of the phone, the greater the chances for a successful recovery!

Next, if your phone has a SIM card or any memory cards, it would be best to remove them as well as any other removable covers or panels.

Next, shake as much water as you can out of the phone and use paper towel or a hair blow dryer to dry as much of the device as possible.  If the liquid was plain water, you can proceed with drying, but if it was a food or drink such as soup, or soda, drying will not be enough as that will leave trace materials or acids behind that will damage the electronics over time even if the phone does seem to work immediately after drying. In this case, you may want to rinse your phone using distilled or purified water (usually available at supermarkets).  If the culprit was the toilet and you have the stomach for it, you’re best to disinfect with a careful cleaning using cotton swabs and rubbing alcohol.

– DO NOT INSERT THE BATTERY YET – You have only begun the drying process. your phone is not ready for electricity yet!

Once you’ve “cleaned up” and removed as much water as possible, there are several approaches you can take to drying the phone. One common and readily accessible low-tech drying solution is to place the phone, battery, cards, etc. into a sealable ziploc bag along with as much uncooked dry white rice as will fit in the bag and seal. Store the bag of phone and rice in a warm place and over roughly three to five days time, the rice will draw out and absorb the moisture from the device.  I have personal experience with this method as two of my kids have sent their phones swimming on various occasions (including the classic “older son pushes younger son into swimming pool while phone swims in pocket”). In my experience, this method is very effective but you can count on being without your phone for  a full 4-5 days.

High-tech commercially prepared phone drying kits are also available and generally work on the same principle as the rice dryer, but use a manufactured dessicant such as silica gel (you know, the crystalline stuff in little white packets labeled “do not eat”).

Another method that some folks have reported success with is to bake the phone for several hours at a very low tempurature (125 degrees is recommended) in a conventional oven.  If attempting this, you should place the phone face (screen side) down on a piece of paper towel on the oven rack so moisture can escape through open panels on the back of the unit. This may or may not be a viable option as many ovens have a lowest temperature setting of 200 degrees.  And take note – batteries should never go in the oven under any circumstance, regardless of temperature. IMPORTANT AND VERY SERIOUS NOTE OF CAUTION: DO NOT PUT YOUR PHONE IN A MICROWAVE OVEN! YOU WILL DESTROY YOUR PHONE, POSSIBLY DESTROY YOUR MICROWAVE, AND COULD CAUSE FIRE OR EXPLOSION RESULTING IN BODILY INJURY OR DEATH.

Once you have completed your chosen drying process, and before you insert the cards and battery (yes, I know it’s hard, you’ve been without your phone for hours, possibly days), visually inspect the phone for signs of moisture. Pay close attention to the corners of the screen as this is where you are likely to observe condensation or “haze” that could indicate your phone is not completely dry yet. If your phone is not completely dry, continue with the drying process.  It may take a little more time, but can make all the difference between ending up with a fully working phone that lasts its intended lifetime, or ending up with a flaky (that’s a technical term we geeks use), unreliable, or dead phone that needs to be replaced.

One final note regarding dousing and warranties.   Most phone company warranties do not cover water damage.  Most phones have a built in moisture indicator label or sticker that changes color when it gets wet so the phone company knows if your phone got wet when you bring it to them for repair. Even phone “insurance” policies may not cover water damage, so if buying such a policy with your new phone, especially if you are buying it for water damage protection, ask to see the specific clause or clauses that address water-damage to phones.

_______________ o ________________

WAS THIS ARTICLE HELPFUL? PLEASE SCROLL DOWN AND LEAVE A COMMENT!

_______________ o ________________

ghc-logo-341w-x-482hThis article was written by Andy Trask, Head Geek at Geek Housecalls, the New England area’s original traveling computer geeks, on the web at www.geekhousecalls.com. Geek Housecalls specializes in “anything computer” and, since 2001, has become the trusted in-home computer and technology support provider for over 15,000 families and small business computer users in eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and southern New Hampshire. For help with your computers, gadgets, or network at home or at the office, click here to contact Geek Housecalls via the web, or call toll free:

1-877-4PC-GEEK             (1-877-472-4335)

Bookmark and Share

A Journey From Windows XP to Windows 7

February 8th, 2010

geekablog-logoOkay, so  my vintage 2004 laptop was having some serious cpu cooling problems and failing badly.  I thought about refurbing it, but in the end decided it was time to bite the bullet and upgrade to current technology.  

The big question for me at that point became:  ”do I go with tried and true winXP, or do I entrust all of my web development, email, blogging, and other work from home as well as personal and social computing to the new kid on the block?”

As the saying goes, it was time to fish or cut bait.

software_winxp_whiteI gave serious consideration to staying comfortable, staying with windows XP, but ultimately, I realized that going  to Windows 7 was the best choice for me because first and foremost, it’s what my customers are now getting and there’s something to be said for sharing your customers’  joy and pain.  More importantly though, what kind of geek would I be if I took the safe route and chose familiarity over learning and discovery?  So this blog post comes to you from my new  Windows 7  laptop.windows-7-logo-290x290

With just under a week of use, I’m already finding a certain familiarity as I navigate new routes to screens and settings that I recognize.  I have to say, the greatest difficulty I’ve encountered thus far has been the touchpad on this Acer laptop. At first, it appeared to be possessed by demons as every touch seemed to send me someplace I hadn’t intended to go, or opened screens that I hadn’t meant to open. I made short work of that problem by going to the control panel mouse properties and turning off most of the autoscrolling and execution features.  Two features that I did find handy (and not prone to accidental execution) and left running though were two-finger scrolling, and mouse pointer momentum (iphone and itouch users should be familiar with these two features). Two-finger scrolling lets me scroll up and down or across a page by dragging two fingers across the touchpad surface. Mouse pointer momentum is great for getting the mouse across the wide screen by dragging quickly or as I call it, ”flinging it” across the screen. With those changes, I exorcised the demons from my touchpad and was once again able to navigate without the constant threat of accidental diversion.

Next up, email.  Windows 7 doesn’t come with a built-in email client like Outlook Express or Windows Mail as had come bundled in previous versions of Windows.  I decided to download and install the free Windows Live Mail offering from Microsoft. I found it to be as easy to install and set up as Outlook Express and with a lot of the look and feel of that old standby.  It took a little getting used to the fact that Windows Live Mail creates a complete set of inbox, sent items folders, etc. for every email account I set up (I have 5), but I was able to sort all my emails handily into organized folders by using message rules that thankfully, can be written to move data between accounts.

Now, one of the pleasant surprises of my Windows 7 experience.  As Windows users, we’ve all had the experience at one time or another of trying to add a new device or gadget and had windows report that it’s going to “go online” to try and find the driver.  And as well, we’ve all experienced the resulting disappointment when it searches forever then finally admits defeat and asks for the manufacturer’s CD which, if you’re like me or anyone I know, you just can’t find right now! Well, with my new Windows 7 laptop, I browsed the network to one of my shared printers and clicked it open to install. Of course it immediately started with the “Searching online…” routine to much eye-rolling by me. Imagine my surprise then, when it suddenly switched from “searching” to “downloading,” and then seconds later, to “finished.” Lo and behold! I can print, and it didn’t require a trip to the manufacturer’s website to wade through ill-conceived screens seemingly designed to deter me from finding the driver or software I seek! Chalk one up for Windows 7 in this geek’s book. That was easy!

I’m sure there’s more and I can’t wait to discover! So till next time, if you’re on the brink of buying a new PC and can’t decide between Windows XP and Windows 7, this geek is recommending Windows 7  :)

_______________ o ________________

WAS THIS ARTICLE HELPFUL? PLEASE SCROLL DOWN AND LEAVE A COMMENT!

_______________ o ________________

ghc-logo-341w-x-482hThis article was written by Andy Trask, Head Geek at Geek Housecalls, the New England area’s original traveling computer geeks, on the web at www.geekhousecalls.com. Geek Housecalls specializes in “anything computer” and, since 2001, has become the trusted in-home computer and technology support provider for over 15,000 families and small business computer users in eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and southern New Hampshire. For help with your computers, gadgets, or network at home or at the office, click here to contact Geek Housecalls via the web, or call toll free:

1-877-4PC-GEEK             (1-877-472-4335)

Bookmark and Share

Why Won’t My Printer Print? – Part I, Hardware

January 31st, 2010

geekablog-logoSo there I am, reviewing my google analytics (that’s geekspeak for “checking the stats on my website”) and I can’t help but notice that month after month, one of the top searches that brings people to the Geek Housecalls website is the benign-sounding  ”Why won’t my printer print?”

Printers seem like simple enough devices and, well, they’ve certainly been around long enough to be considered a mature technology.

Geekstorical note:  The birth of what could be considered the modern computer printer was  the production of a “high speed” printer in 1953 (Wow!!) by Remington-Rand for use on the Univac computer.

With the current breathless pace of technological advancement, one would think that a device conceived more than a half-century ago would not only be working reliably, but by now, really ought to be self-installing, self configuring, and self-repairing (and bringing me my slippers and a cup of coffee on Saturday mornings). So why are printers such a source of angst for so many people?

The simple answer is this:   They just stop printing.

What’s not so simple though, is the fact that the reasons they stop printing are as manifold and complicated as any problem faced by home computer users.  Let’s examine some possibilities…

In this article I’m going to address common hardware problems.  I’m going to save software, configuration, and communication problems for the next installment because frankly, there’s so much, trying to take it all in at once would make your head explode…

Hardware problems range from failed components such as switches, motors, and electronic circuits to problems with ink and toner delivery systems to paper jams (I once found a nickle that had dropped down into the paper feed path of a customer’s $400 laser printer).

What to do?  Look for indicator lights or software error messages that may offer a clue as to what’s happening. Most printers will indicate a variety of conditions that can help you troubleshoot.

Ink & Toner

Try replacing ink or toner if that’s what’s indicated. And If you just replaced them, check to make sure you installed them properly including removing any protective seals or tapes.

For inkjet printers, even when you have plenty of  ink and no error messages, you may experience blotchy, striped, or oddly-colored printing. This can usually be traced directly to a bad or empty ink cartridge or clogged print head.  Most printer software offers some form of  automated head cleaning or maintenance operation that may solve this.  When going the head-cleaning route, it’s best to try at least a few cleaning operations before giving up, as the first time doesn’t always work. If after several cleaning attempts, it’s still not working, try replacing the ink. Otherwise you may have damaged printheads which are sometimes user replaceable and sometimes not.  Check your printer manufacturer’s website for information/instructions. 

One more thing to watch for with inkjet printers is when your ink runs out but your software says there’s plenty (I’ll skip the technical explanation of why this happens but suffice  it to say, the software works by counting microdroplets of ink as they leave the cartridge and head for the page). Usually when this happens, the color of your color printing or photos will come out the wrong shade, or if you’re out of black ink, you will get color images on the page, but no text. Some manufacturers make clear ink cartridges so you can visually check if any ink remains.  If this isn’t an option though, try holding a new full cartridge in one hand and compare the heft of it with the suspect cartridge in the other hand. One can usually feel the difference between a full and an empty cartridge using this technique.

Cover open

If a cover-open condition is indicated, check to make sure all covers are completely closed and that no papers or other objects are obstructing the covers from completely closing. Check the back of the unit as many printers have a back cover used for clearing  jams or for adding a duplexing unit. If everything looks okay othewise, your printer may have a bad switch or sensor and you need to decide whether to repair or  replace.

Paper out

This condition may seem obvious, but many printers have multiple paper feed options and if the wrong option is selected, it may report paper out or ask you to insert paper even when the paper tray  is full. One common problem is that some programs will automatically switch to manual feed mode for printing certain types of jobs like envelopes or labels. If your printer has paper but keeps asking for paper or reporting paper out, try locating the manual feed slot (usually up front, sometimes inside a small flip-down cover) and feeding a piece of paper into it that way. If you have paper in every tray and have tried manual feed with no success, you may have a bad switch or sensor and you need to decide whether to repair or  replace.

Paper jam

Paper jams may be one of the most frustrating problems because you’re so close to successfully printing then *SCRAWWWW! CHUNK! CHUNK! WRINNNKLE!!* – paper destroyed – it’s all over!

Sometimes paper jams are caused by loose objects such as paper clips or staples (or Nickles!) getting into the paper path.  Try unloading all your paper and turning the printer upside down with a quick shake, you could be surprised by what emerges.

Older printers are prone to jamming because the rubber or soft plastic parts that separate and transport the paper become dried out and don’t “grip” the paper well. One typical characteristic of this problem is when your printer sucks in a whole bunch of paper at once instead of a single sheet (this also often happens to the auto sheet feeders in older copiers, scanners, and faxes). This can sometimes be remedied by making the rubber feed wheels and sheet separator tacky through the use of a product like MG Chemicals’ Rubber Renu

Over time, especially with heavily used printers, paper jams can be caused by the accumulation of paper dust or tiny torn-off  bits and corners of paper that coat the transport mechanisms of the paper path. Unplug the printer and use your household vacuum with the crevice cleaner attachment to suck dust and paper bits out of your printer.  Use caution to avoid damaging delicate wiring, belts,  or ribbbon cables.

Another frequent cause of paper jams is misfed stickers or labels that may attach to the platen or other rollers or surfaces or that leave adhesive behind and will never come clean without a thorough (and usually expensive!) disassembly of the unit.  My advice to all is prevent this problem in the first place by not using your expensive color laser or other expensive printer to print stickers or labels. Instead buy an inexpensive inkjet for under $100 and use that exclusively for stickers and labels!

Finally, look at the paper itself; sometimes, particularly during warm humid months, paper that is left out of its original packaging, even when in your printer’s paper tray, will become curled and not feed properly.

Power problems

Of course, if there are no lights or displays, you’ll want to make sure the power cord hasn’t jiggled loose from the back of the unit! (Hey! it happens!)

That covers most of the common hardware related failures that cause printers to stop printing.  Bookmark or subscribe to Geekablog.com and watch for the next installment when  I’ll address the headaches associated with software, drivers, ports, networking, and printer communications issues in general!

_______________ o ________________

WAS THIS ARTICLE HELPFUL? PLEASE SCROLL DOWN AND LEAVE A COMMENT!

_______________ o ________________

ghc-logo-341w-x-482hThis article was written by Andy Trask, Head Geek at Geek Housecalls, the New England area’s original traveling computer geeks, on the web at www.geekhousecalls.com. Geek Housecalls specializes in “anything computer” and, since 2001, has become the trusted in-home computer and technology support provider for over 15,000 families and small business computer users in eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and southern New Hampshire. For help with your computers, gadgets, or network at home or at the office, click here to contact Geek Housecalls via the web, or call toll free:

1-877-4PC-GEEK             (1-877-472-4335)

Bookmark and Share

Don’t Send Your Laptop to an Early Grave!

December 24th, 2009

geekablog-logoOkay folks, pop quiz:  Next to spilled drinks, what’s the #2 cause of premature laptop death? Anybody guess plush bedding or cozy couch throws? You should have, and here’s why:

The real enemy of laptop longevity is heat. And unlike spilling your drink into your laptop which yields sudden and traumatic failure, heat failure is usually something that takes place over the course of weeks or months and goes practically unnoticed until too late, a ”silent killer” so to speak (See related article HERE on being prepared for laptop spills).

So why condemn the cozy comforter? Why demonize delightful down? And what have plush pillows done to deserve the “killer” rap?

It’s simple really, if you start with the fact that laptops contain about a zillion heat-generating components crammed into a tiny enclosed space, and then add in cooling methods that are barely adequate under the best of circumstances, it doesn’t take much to tilt the odds in favor of overheating.

Most laptop cooling works by sucking air in through vents on the bottom, moving that air past the hotter components, and then expelling it through vents on the side or back of the unit.  So when you cozy up with your laptop on the bed or with that plush “Snuggie” on the couch, the laptop usually sinks down into the bedding just enough to block the cool air intake on the bottom of the unit which starts the process of  “cooking” your CPU and other critical components in their own heat.

Another even less obvious problem is when you’re not using your laptop but leave it powered on and place it on a soft surface like an upholstered chair or couch which again, unless very very firm, will conform to the shape of the laptop bottom and block the cooling intake.

The real shame here is that by the time you notice a heat-related failure like sudden inexplicable shutdowns, “freezing” or lock-up of the operating system, or straight-out failure to boot up, it’s usually too late- the damage has already been done.

Depending on the extent of damage, you may be able to eke out continued use of a mildly heat-damaged laptop through the use of a “cooling mat” which sits underneath your laptop and has its own fans that blow up into the laptop as a supplement to the laptop’s own cooling methods.

The better approach however is to prevent the problem in the first place by using any of the methods described below:

  1. Use a “lap desk” with a hard surface. There are many designs available, some made specifically for laptop computers. The benefit of the lap desk is that it usually has a soft underside to make it comfortable on you, but a hard surface towards the laptop means the laptop’s feet can do their job of creating an air-gap beneath the laptop for optimum cooling.
  2. Use a laptop cooling pad. As mentioned earlier, these devices actually supplement laptop cooling with additional fans designed to force more cool air into the laptop chassis. The best designs are self-powered meaning they plug into an electrical outlet for power.  The less desirable alternative to this is a design that is powered through a USB cable connected directly to your computer. Less desirable because it puts extra stress on your system’s power supply, and when running on batteries, can significantly reduce battery life.
  3. Use your laptop computer on a hard desk or table surface. This isn’t always your first choice for “cozying up” with facebook or online shopping, but certainly helps eliminate cooling problems.
  4. And last but certainly not least, be aware of where you’re putting your laptop when you’re not using it! If you toss it onto a soft surface like a bed, couch, pillow, or upholstered furniture, or if you store it in a laptop bag without completely shutting down first, odds are, you’re introducing your laptop to the “silent killer.”

_______________ o ________________

WAS THIS ARTICLE HELPFUL? PLEASE SCROLL DOWN AND LEAVE A COMMENT!

_______________ o ________________

ghc-logo-341w-x-482hThis article was written by Andy Trask, Head Geek at Geek Housecalls, the New England area’s original traveling computer geeks, on the web at www.geekhousecalls.com. Geek Housecalls specializes in “anything computer” and, since 2001, has become the trusted in-home computer and technology support provider for over 15,000 families and small business computer users in eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and southern New Hampshire. For help with your computers, gadgets, or network at home or at the office, click here to contact Geek Housecalls via the web, or call toll free:

1-877-4PC-GEEK             (1-877-472-4335)

Bookmark and Share

Unique Gifts: Give the Gift Of Geek!

December 17th, 2009

giftadenvelope

  • What’s the perfect gift for the person who has everything –  including computer headaches?
  • What’s a great gift for a high-school or college student with a laptop computer?
  • What’s the best accessory for someone getting a new computer or techno-gadget?

How about getting them their own personal geek to fix up, set up, or help out?

You can give the gift of geek by ordering our fancy embossed gift certificate for an hour of in-home service (or in-dorm service as the case may be), for just $150 from Geek Housecalls. It’s a great way for you to be the hero for someone in need of geek help.  Plus, with every order, we’ll include a $25 Geekbucks coupon good for an additional 15 minutes of service at no extra charge! A total value of $175 for just $150!

If the gift of geek sounds like the perfect gift to you, call today to order yours!

To order, or for info, call Noreen toll-free: 1-877-472-4335 X207

Give the gift of geek  from Geek Housecalls!

 

Bookmark and Share

Why Is Everything TOO BIG To Fit On My Screen?

December 10th, 2009

geekablog-logo

My PC
runneth
over

Every now and then, things can happen that cause the images and text on your screen to become so big they don’t fit on your screen anymore. In some cases this is done purposely, but more often than not, it’s done accidentally and can really make it difficult to navigate as you find yourself having to scroll all over the place to find what you’re looking for- never mind finding out how to return your screen to normal!

This article addresses some of the common causes for this problem and how to get things back to normal size.

There are several ways you may experience the problem and they’re not always the same. For example, in some cases the problem exists for everything on your screen where even your desktop icons have become gigantic.  In other cases, only the stuff inside a particular window or application has become too large to fit inside the window.  Common problems here include Internet web pages being too big, or documents such as Microsoft Word or Excel being too big to fit.  Here are a few scenarios…

Everything on the screen is too big, icons, text, everything. Even the desktop is too big

What it is:  This usually happens when your screen resolution is set too low. This also rarely happens by accident and may indicate a bigger problem like corrupted video drivers. 

What to do:  Click Start and go to Control Panel. In Control Panel open Display. In the Display Properties window choose the Settings tab. Look for a slider labeled ’screen resolution’ that slides from ‘less’ on the left to ‘more’ on the right. Slide it towards ‘more’ and you should see the numbers below the slider change. This is your screen resolution and higher numbers means everything on screen will appear smaller while lower numbers will make everything appear larger. After changing resolution, click the apply button to test the new settings.  Don’t worry if it blanks your screen, it will reset itself in 15 seconds if you can’t see it. If you can’t move the slider or the slider is ‘grayed-out’, you may have a more serious issue that is beyond the scope of this article, and may want to consider professional help.

Everything else on my screen is normal-sized, but web pages appear too large inside Internet Explorer

What it is:  There are several possible sources. One possibility is that the text display size is set to larger than normal. Another possibility (Internet Explorer 7 & 8 only) is that your screen view is ‘zoomed’ in. The latter problem is common because it’s easy to zoom by mistake

What to do: Look to the lower right-hand corner of your Internet Explorer screen for a magnifying glass icon followed by a numeric percentage (with Explorer maximized, it’s just above your system clock). If you don’t see the magnifying glass icon, you’re probably using an older version of Internet Explorer that doesn’t support zooming and should go on to the instructions for adjusting text size. If you do see the magnifying glass, look at the number next to it.  Anything over 100% means you’re zoomed in.  To change zoom level, click the magnifying glass and it will cycle through a variety of zoom settings then roll back around to 100%.  Adjusting text size in Internet Explorer: Pull down the View menu and hover your mouse pointer over Text Size which will open a submenu. The “normal” size is ‘Medium’.

My Microsoft Word or Excel files are too big and won’t fit inside the application window

What it is:  Word and Excel both support page resizing or zooming to allow you to view more or less detail.

What to do: Look through your toolbars/icons at the top of the page for a number followed by a percent sign (location varies depending on what version of Word or Excel you’re running). Clicking on the downward-pointing arrowhead to the right of that number will display a number of zoom levels including options like “page width”. Experimenting with different zoom levels is the best way to find what suits your own needs.

_______________ o ________________

WAS THIS ARTICLE HELPFUL? PLEASE SCROLL DOWN AND LEAVE A COMMENT!

_______________ o ________________

ghc-logo-341w-x-482hThis article was written by Andy Trask, Head Geek at Geek Housecalls, the New England area’s original traveling computer geeks, on the web at www.geekhousecalls.com. Geek Housecalls specializes in “anything computer” and, since 2001, has become the trusted in-home computer and technology support provider for over 15,000 families and small business computer users in eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and southern New Hampshire. For help with your computers, gadgets, or network at home or at the office, click here to contact Geek Housecalls via the web, or call toll free:

1-877-4PC-GEEK             (1-877-472-4335)

Bookmark and Share

BEFORE YOU PANIC! Why is your laptop suddenly reporting “no wireless networks available” ??

September 15th, 2009

geekablog-logoMy daughter moved into her freshman dorm last week and within two days called me in a panic because her brand spankin’ new Dell laptop was suddenly unable to “see” the college’s campus-wide wifi  network.  Of course, because I’m her dad, her first call was to me, and fortunately, because I’m a geek, I immediately knew what was going on and how to solve it.  But this got me thinking about all the other dads (you know… the non-geek dads) who at this very moment could be getting the same call from their own college or high-school student, so dads (and moms!), read up for your chance to be the hero…

Most laptop computers with built in wifi networking have some means of turning off that feature when not needed as a way of conserving battery life.  There are a few different approaches that manufacturers take to doing this. 

  1. Some laptops have a very tiny (and often difficult to find) sliding microswitch located somewhere along the side or front of the unit. 
  2. Some laptops have what’s called a “soft switch” where pressing a special combination of keystrokes toggles the wifi feature on and off.  This is usually a combination of the Function (Fn or Func) key along with another key that has a symbol looking like an antenna or radio waves on it.
  3. A third approach is a separate dedicated “wifi” or “wireless” (or equivilent icon) button usually above the keyboard or near the power button that toggles this feature on or off.

In almost all cases, there is a wifi indicator light of some sort that would be either lit or not lit to indicate whether wifi is enabled or disabled on your laptop. This indicator light is sometimes located near the power or battery light, but may be located near the switch in question, especially if your unit has the microswitch design. In some cases, particularly with the dedicated wifi button, the button itself lights up to indicated when wifi is enabled.

When wifi is disabled or turned off via one of these switches, the Windows operating system doesn’t “know” that it’s been turned off, it only “knows” that it no longer is able to detect any wireless networks, and thus the error message.  To solve, turn wifi back on. Newer laptops will likely connect immediately on their own.  Older laptops may need to be cajoled into connecting by right-clicking the wireless network connection icon down in the corner near the clock and choosing “view available wireless networks.”

And as it turned out, my daughter’s moment of panic was short-lived as we quickly found that her laptop did indeed have a tiny microswitch located along the right side of her laptop, that she had probably bumped to the off postion while sliding her laptop into or out of her backpack!

_______________ o ________________

WAS THIS ARTICLE HELPFUL? PLEASE SCROLL DOWN AND LEAVE A COMMENT!

_______________ o ________________

ghc-logo-341w-x-482hThis article was written by Andy Trask, Head Geek at Geek Housecalls, the New England area’s original traveling computer geeks, on the web at www.geekhousecalls.com. Geek Housecalls specializes in “anything computer” and, since 2001, has become the trusted in-home computer and technology support provider for over 15,000 families and small business computer users in eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and southern New Hampshire. For help with your computers, gadgets, or network at home or at the office, click here to contact Geek Housecalls via the web, or call toll free:

1-877-4PC-GEEK             (1-877-472-4335)

Bookmark and Share