Great info to combat scams
Everyone thinks they’re too saavy to be scammed, but believe me these guys use some pretty slick methods that have separated intelligent people out of gobs of cash.
I was looking through Craigs List today and read their “how to recognize a scam” link. I learned a few things, so I decided to post it on the top right group of links on my main computer repair blog page.
I plan to review it regularly, hope you do too.
More on HP / Compaq Known MoBo Issue
Regarding the faulty Hewlett-Packard and Compaq Motherboards….
There was a comment on my previous post from Dave Farr: “Any Canadians wishing to join a class action suit in Canada (Vancouver) regarding defective video chipsets and motherbaords in the HP brand dv series (perhaps others as well) please contact me. davefarr1967@gmail.com”
I wrote to him to ask more about this, and he replied more at length. I present his email here as information about this motherboard malfunction.
Hi Dave,
Well, I own an HP dv9000cto which died in Brazil on me around June
after 2 years of service, the symptoms of the graphics chipset failure
began in April and I then started a service file with HP- this is an
American model and they strung things out long enough to be out of
every warranty and recall. HP then offered to ‘fix all issues’ for
$400cdn. I had researched the problems and wasn’t convinced that they
could fix the problem to last a reasonable length of time- I suppose
my expectation of a laptop lasting 5+ years is unrealistic. I used the
unit for work so that was a real problem as well.
When researching this I couldn’t believe the extent of the problem as
the name HP stood for quality (a lot of people, including myself
mistakenly thought), and I was bothered that Americans had their s**t
together and could go after HP for some kind of settlement. I then
decided ‘why not?’ and investigated a similar action here, it can be
done but it requires alot of work and I get the feeling that Canadians
are too busy to be bothered taking on a giant corporation… I found a
lawyer in Vancouver who is willing to take a shot at this with some
backup from down south. The biggest problem I have found is getting
the word out to HP-dv owners (especially in Ontario- why? because the
laws there favor cross country suites), any help on this issue would
be greatly appreciated. Bruce Lemer is the lawyers name and he made a
good point that these companies make and keep hundreds of dollars
profit on any owner that doesn’t squawk about the quality of the
product they sell to the public. I don’t know what issues Compaq has,
but I am sure HP has warehouses full of dead dv’s.
Thanks for the email…
Dave Farr”
HP – Compaq Screws it’s Customers
I had an unusual coincidence this week. Two different laptop owners within twelve hours of each other reported a similar set of symptoms, and could not start their laptops. One customer has a Hewlett-Packard dv6000 laptop, and the other has a Compaq Presario v6000.
Both companies are one and the same, and the computer is basically the same.
Both have known issues with the motherboard. Hewlett-Packard / Compaq seems to be completely ignoring the issue on their public forums, but knows about the issue. They have ducked responsibility on all users who’s laptops happen to last longer than two years.
Here’s where Hewlett Packard Compaq tells you how to get your laptop fixed.
Here is just one of many forums where users are completely frustrated by this problem in HP mother boards that doesn’t go away after HPs “fix” and others who are refused any help at all from HP Compaq simply because their computers lasted more than two years. Here’s another discussion about the new HP-Paperweight® And here’s another. And another.
So I recommend highly that you purchase a computer made for you by your local computer store. It’s the least expensive way to do it, and you’re likely to be able to get a more positive response when something goes wrong.
This feels a lot like an Hewlett Packard – Compaq rant than it did an informative column. But you get what I’m getting at. If a company doesn’t care that your $1200 laptop isn’t working after two years because of THEIR mistake, you should never, ever buy a computer from that company again. I’ll never buy or recommend an HP or a Compaq computer to anyone. I don’t know how they sleep at night.
Windows 7 : Great News for Vista Users, Not So Great for XP Users
I’ve been running Microsoft’s release candidate of Windows 7, the next version after Vista and I thought I’d share a few thoughts about it.
If you’re a Vista user (or, rather, victim) you’re in luck because this latest incarnation of Uncle Bill’s ubiquitous operating system is much smoother, much more hassle-free than Vista.
Vista users will immediately recognize the interface, because basically it IS Vista, but without all the nagging, sluggish, painful experiences. In fact, except for the loss of a couple of minor software programs that it won’t run, I am almost convinced it’s time to give up XP.
Almost convinced.
Frankly, although Windows 7 has benchmarked higher than XP and Vista, I personally don’t feel it’s “faster” than XP. It’s just cooler. There’s a couple of decent new features, like “Libraries” which sort of work like a shortcut to any drive or folder you want. So you can set up a “Downloads” library, and add any “downloads” folder on your system. Then, when you go to download something, the libraries show up immediately alongside your documents folder in the save dialog. This eliminates painful and time-wasting navagation to folders you might have buried somewhere.
Vista users will appreciate that you can just put in the disc and upgrade. No reinstalling programs or settings.
Not so for XP users. Although XP users get upgrade pricing, there is no upgrade path to Windows 7 from XP. This means that you have to back up all of your settings (there’s a program on the disc that lets you do that – backs up your email settings, program settings, etc.). Then you have to do a clean install of Windows 7. Then you have to restore all of your settings. Then, you have to re-install ALL of your software. For me, “upgrading” from XP to Windows 7 took about five hours.
This lack of upgrade path from XP to 7 makes me hesitant about recommending that anyone give up XP for the supposed “power” of Windows 7. Of course, Windows will stop supporting XP soon after it releases 7, just to make sure you upgrade.
For Vista users, it’s my opinion that Microsoft should give a free copy of Windows 7 just to apologize for years of painful computing. As well, Windows 7 is just the way Vista SHOULD have been from the start, and there are not that many changes to warrant releasing it as a “new version” of windows. It’s basically Vista that’s not so broken, and Microsoft should have released it as a Vista service pack. An apology from Microsoft or free copies to Vista victims is not likely to happen, though.
You can still download the free release candidate from the Microsoft web site. Just google “Download microsoft 7 rc” to find the link. It changes from time to time. Interestingly enough, I was unable to use Internet Explorer to do the download. It kept failing. When I switched to Mozilla Firefox, I had no problems. Go figure.
If you are in the Kelowna area and don’t want to deal with the download or if you don’t know how to burn iso files to disc, feel free to contact me if you’d like me to install it for you. I’ll charge my call-out fee for the installation, but the software is free. It will run on your computer until July of 2010, but in March 2010 it will begin rebooting your machine every two hours until you buy a full copy.
You can pre-order Windows 7 on the Microsoft site and receive a substantial discount. Home version upgrades are only $49, and Professional version upgrades are only $99.
All in all, I like Windows 7, but frankly, I’m not convinced it’s going to be better than XP. I’m fully convinced it’s better than Vista.
Brother Printers Dirty Little Secret
I hate Brother printers.
A couple of years ago, I purchased a $400 Brother HL-4040CN colour laserjet printer. Prints great, but I hate that it lies to me about the printer being out of toner.
After a little while of using it, all three colour toner cartridge indicators started flashing that they were out of toner. That’s ok; I did get a lot of use out of them.
The thing that got me angry was, that the black toner was NOT empty, but the printer refused to allow me to print anything in just black. In other words, even though I had black toner, I had to spend over $200 to replace the colour cartridges before it would allow me to print using the black.
I refuse to be the victim of Brother Printer’s extortion, so for the last year, this printer has been a $400 paperweight sitting on my filing cabinet.
I’ve had dreams of finding a construction worker with legal access to dynamite, and creating a protest video of us blowing this printer to smithereens, rather than succumb to Brother’s demands that I spend a couple hundred bucks just to get the printer going again.
Then today I found something that made me even more certain I will never, EVER buy a Brother printer again:
Seems there is a hidden menu in this printer that allows me to reset the printer life. I found the information here: http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/forums/laser/39806#66
So by pressing a few buttons on my Brother printer’s menu I was able to re-set the “automatic end-of-life” settings on my toner cartridges. This information, of course, can be found nowhere in the printer documentation or on the Brother printer web site.
So not only did I find that yes I can print with my black toner, but the colour toner cartridges were NOT empty. I can print beautiful colour photos and documents, even though I did not spend the hundreds of dollars Brother printers tried to trick me into spending.
According to the fixyourownprinter web site, I can expect to get HUNDREDS more print outs.
And so now I have been looking at my Brother MFC-240C Colour inkjet printer, and did a search on that, and found instructions for blocking the ink cartridge sensors. That printer says its out of ink, but when you shake the cartridges, you can hear that they are at least half full. (I’m an optimist, or they’d be half empty).
So the moral of the story is, Brother Printers lies to their customers. DO NOT BUY BROTHER PRINTERS unless you enjoy being lied to, and being forced to replace ink or toner when they are not even empty.
If you want to know if your printer is “really” out of ink or toner, just go to Google and search on “reset toner indicator for _______” and replace the underline with your printer make and model. Or if it’s an inkjet printer, replace the word toner with ink.
Really sad when companies who’s names we are supposed to be able to trust, turn out to be con artists like Brother printers.
Anyone out there got some dynamite I can borrow?
WARNING! Windows Passwords EZ to delete
I just learned something new today. A customer called to say that she forgot her Windows login password, and wanted to know if I could help her access her computer. Oddly, I’ve never had this particular request before.
I did some research and found (fairly easily) a free Linux-based program that I could put on a CD. The program boots the computer then runs through a routine by which you are able to access any Windows account on the computer, and blank out the password for that account.
I tried it on my own computer, and it worked quite well. This was a good solution for my customer.
But it occurred to me that a tool like this can be used by the Dark Forces as well. Anyone with a little computer knowledge can follow the instructions that come with the program I found (and there are surely others like it) and hack past a windows password like a breeze through a wind chime.
I don’t plan on posting the link to the software or the instructions for using it here, because I don’t want to provide anyone with the tools to steal data from others.
But I thought that it was worth mentioning that this is possible, and for someone who knows enough about computers to burn a CD, it’s pretty easy.
So the moral of the story is, if you have sensitive data on your computer, don’t trust your Windows login password to keep it safe. The best way to keep your data completely safe from prying eyes is to use encryption software to password protect a folder or files.
Just do a Google search on “freeware file encryption tools” and you’ll surely find plenty of security.
Just don’t encrypt your files and then forget your password, because then you are really hosed!
File Extensions and Registered Programs
Everything that you do on a computer involves files of one type or another. There are program files and library files that make your software run. There are data files that your software creates. Documents, spreadsheets, mp3s, videos, databases – all these are files.
On a Windows computer, each file name has what’s called an “extention” that identifies what kind of file you’ve got. For example, .doc is the extension for windows documents, and the file names would be “something.doc”. Excel spreadsheets have the extension .xls and the file name would be “something.xls”. (Office 2007 has introduced some new files extensions, but I’m using the old ones so more people can follow.) Mp3s have the file extension, well, .mp3, so you can have a filename “coolsong.mp3″. Videos can have a number of extensions: .wmv, .avi, .mpg, .divx, .mp4, .m4v and others.
Out of the box, windows doesn’t show the extensions to the file names. In order to see them, do the following:
1. Open My Computer, or any file window, like your C-drive, or My Documents.
2. Click the “tools” menu, then slide down and click “folder options”.
3. Click the “view” tab, and you’ll see the option for “Hide extensions for known file types”. If that is checked, your system won’t show the extensions to the files on yoru computer. Uncheck them, and you can determine the type of file from the extension.
Different extensions are set up to open in different programs in Windows, so you can just double-click the file to open it in the software that’s set to handle it. So if you double-click a .wmv file, it usually opens in Windows Media Player. “Wmv” stands for “Windows Media Video” by the way. A .doc file, will open in Microsoft word when its double-clicked, or if you don’t have Word installed, will open in a small Windows program called Wordpad.
You can right-click a file, and force it to open in a program other than the default program for that extension. So for example, if you want to open a .wmv file in, say, the DivX video player, you can right-click the file, and scroll down to where it says “Open With”. At that point you will be presented with one or more options of programs that Windows knows will open the file. If the program isn’t in that list, you can click “Choose default program” at the bottom of the menu. You’ll see a “browse” button, and you can then go to the program you want to use to open it. Most of your programs are in C:\Program Files, and then you can find the folder you want, and click the executable file (.exe) for that program.
If you leave the check mark next to “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file”, you change what program Windows will use to open that file by default. This is referred to as the “registered program” for that file extension.
That’s a little bit about files. There’s more to come in my next post about how to name files in an organized fashion.
Stay tuned!
Kelowna Computer Repair Blog
Welcome to the Kelowna Computer Repair Blog.
The purpose of this blog is to provide tips and advice about using your computer and other technology. I plan on posting information on computer hardware and software, file management, viruses and worms, using peripherals like digital cameras, scanners and printers, and more!
Please feel free to visit the Kelowna Computer Repair Forum to post questions and receive answers and help for your technology issues.
I hope that this blog will benefit the residents of Kelowna and perhaps the rest of the world. Come back soon!