Computers: The Technical Thread [!OT]

[mrwiseman]

Then it's most surely a problem in your end. I'd need an answer for all these questions in point 8.

[Hell Knight]

Are people from the same ISP as you experiencing the same problems? Nope
Are you running online games or peer to peer? I ran an online game, but I don't think that's the prob
If P2P is slow, are you firewalled? I always use firewall since a year ago, so that's not the prob either(Zone alarm)
Has your computer been doing strange things, or working slower than usual with some other software? Nope, everything else is fine
Do you have a LAN (network at home)? Nope

[mrwiseman]

IRT HK: Are you running online games or peer to peer? I ran an online game, but I don't think that's the prob

It will slow down the connection but only while it's open.


I always use firewall since a year ago, so that's not the prob either(Zone alarm)

(1) You could try closing all programs (this includes Trillian, Winamp, etc.), disabling the firewall, and using Mozilla to browse a safe site (like Download.com, without running anything you download but downloading some files) and see if the speed is any better. The software firewall could have been glitched somehow.

(2) Also try disabling, in the same circumstances, any resident antiviruses you have.

(3) Try browsing the net with every other application - this includes Trillian, Winamp, media players, fancy stuff - closed. Does this make a difference?

(4) And while you do this - browse the net with Mozilla open *only*, open the Task Manager with Control+Shift+Escape, and go to the Performance tab. What's the CPU Usage at while you're downloading?

(5) Finally, when you're downloading a file, is the hard disk working all the time? This might be a memory related issue. In case of doubt take and attach a picture of the Performance tab of the Task Manager.

[Hell Knight]

Strange. My dload speed came back, but donno how. You know what? I don't even care how did it come back, I'm just glad it did ^_^

[mrwiseman]

IRT Dreamer from the "Random: What are you doing right now?" thread:

Can you work up a solution for my "problem"? I mean it's not a big deal, but the & symbol (copied it from word right now) can be generated by pressing Alt Gr + c in Hungary. But in my case, it brings up Trillian's connection manager, so I can't type the & symbol unless I exit Trillian.

All you have to do is to go to Trillian's options and edit the shortcut key associated to this event, changing it to something else you don't use.

If, for some reason, you can't (I'm sure you can change it though), or don't want to, there are three workarounds that I can think of, besides using character maps and visual keyboards:

● Try holding left Alt, then typing in the numeric keypad "38", and releasing Alt. If it doesn't work, change the Num Lock state by pressing Num Lock and try again.

● If that doesn't work, try typing 0026 (in the text box you want it in), then right after it, press Alt+X, which may convert it into the Unicode character U+0026 AMPERSAND. This only works in Office XP and might work in other applications, but only under Windows XP.

● Use the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (available freely to Windows customers) to modify the Hungarian keyboard layout and bind the & character elsewhere (you can bind it to a new key while keeping AltGr+C as well).

[Dreamer7000]

I'll use Alt+38 thank you. =] In Trillian I can't change this shortcut key, or I couldn't find where. This will be fine & dandy =D

[Xellos]

Oi, my FireFox is being a bitch. It just decided to erase my bookmarks and my skin and my about:config settings. It happened after I upgraded to 1.04. Help, before I kill this piece.

[Dreamer7000]

Well imo it happenned because the upgrading means you install the new firefox, and it doesn't have the skins and such. Altho I dunno about bookmarks. I upgraded as well, but I still have them.

<font color="#345E81" size="1">[ May 16, 2005 09:49 AM: Message edited by: Dreamer Hyper ]</font>

[mrwiseman]

It's pretty late and I have to work tomorrow, I'll reply this and the other questions when I'm back home in less than 15 hours.

[mrwiseman]

IRT OCB FROM "Random: What are you doing right now?":

As for the two versions of windows, i installed windows on a seperate drive. But it doesn't really matter if i can't remove it, as long as i can still use my computer.

Then you can manually uninstall it by deleting:

- The \WINDOWS , \WINNT , \WINXP , or whatever you named it directory
- The "\PROGRAM FILES" directory
- The "\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS" directory
- All the files in the root directory that aren't yours or an antivirus' (typically: \boot* , \config* , \default.fnt , \io.sys , \msdos.sys , \ntdetect.com , \ntldr , \videorom.bin ).

?????

IRT Dreamer FROM "Random: What are you doing right now?": I alkways format the HDD before reinstalling windows

That's not necessary, all you have to do is to delete the files I mentioned, you can keep your other stuff unless you want to get rid of everything and start over/reorder it from backups or other drives.

?????

WRT not seeing new avatars FROM "Computers: Firefox":

Internet contents are cached by your browser and when you want to access them, your browser asks the server if they changed. It seems this server sets up an expire date, and browsers (depending on configuration) don't even ask, or they report incorrectly the new avatar's date.

In any case, all you have to do is to press Ctrl+F5 to instruct your browser to reload everything regardless of what the server says.

?????

IRT Xellos: Oi, my FireFox is being a bitch. It just decided to erase my bookmarks and my skin and my about:config settings. It happened after I upgraded to 1.04. Help, before I kill this piece.

It seems there are some problems with the Firefox 1.04 update for some people.

See here and follow the steps just in case.

If this doesn't fix it, we'll try to save the bookmarks. Go here (note: directory names may vary a little) C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Program Data\%%Mozilla or Firefox%%\Profiles\default\%%name with 8.3 random characters%% where your bookmarks.html and prefs.js files (among others) should be. if you can't find it, search your hard drive for prefs.js . Open bookmarks.html with your browser. If it's empty or incorrect, try copying the file bookmarks.html.sbsd.bak (a backup copy - name might differ) over bookmarks.html . This might do something.

As a last resort, try completely uninstalling Firefox (this will keep your settings - waht's left of them anyways) and installing a fresh version. This is, AFAIK, the recommended procedure to upgrade Firefox (or, at least, it was, last time I checked).