Tech Support

We have gathered the must recent technical support helpful hints from our consultants to share with you.

MICROSOFT OFFICE TRAINING FREE – If you are new or need to get a refresher for learning Microsoft Office visit the link: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/default.aspx . This has an excellent outline and even audio that plays with screen shots of the learning material. Ok Maybe at an introduction level but it is a refresher.

LOVE THE BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH - When booting up with any newer Microsoft operating system and you get a blue screen, this normally means you are dealing with a hardware error. When the blue screen comes up write down the error message and search google to see if anyone else is having similar errors. For example… we had a BAD_POOL_ERROR which was later attributed to a CDROM. To diagnose the problem boot into safe mode and see if you a role back your last Microsoft update by uninstalling the patch. This does not work all the time. If you continue to get the blue screen of death. Then remove all you hardware (i.e. CDROM, FLOPPY DISK, SOUND CARD and any other cards)… and you know you should do this with the power off. Yes, pull the power cable. Then boot you computer putting in one piece of hardware at a time until you find the culprit.

AUTOFILL in Excel is great if you want to count from 1 to 100 in a 100 cell. Just put you mouse on the edge of the cell and drag it to the last cell that you want to copy to auto fill. If you want to do this auto fill with dates, then start with the date you want in to top field. Go down a field and type = and the cell will change and highlight the cell with the date, and hit enter. You have created the formula and now use the formula to do the auto fill.

NEED A QUICK CHART - In PowerPoint or Word, you can create diagrams by clicking on the toolbar

INSERT diagram, and then choose the diagrams you want. You can add and remove levels. In PowerPoint 2003 it will auto adjust size of the diagram to fit on the screen.

BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH 2 – If you get the Microsoft Blue screen, and you have check all the hardware and everything is fine. You are almost about to reload the Operating System (OS). Take your hard drive out of the machine and put it in another machine with the same OS as the Slave. When the machine you put it in boots, it will scan the SLAVE hard drive and check the disk. Let the disk check finish, and go into the operating system. Check your files on in explorer and see if they are all there. Then put the slave hard drive back into the original machine and turn it on. It should boot no problem. Then do the process again and copy your data once in explorer before you reload your OS.

FORGOT YOUR PASSWORD and you cannot get into you Windows XP machine, no problem. Boot into safe mode (Press F8 during boot) and type in administrator as the user and no password. Once you are in you can access your user name and change your password….. What you are the administrator and you still cannot get in. You are now going to have to crack your OS. No easy task if you are technical. Go to google and type your OS with password crack. You should find someone that has an ISO or IMG that you can burn to CD to boot and crack the SAM file.

AUTOMATICALLY FORWARD EMAIL Outlook has the ability to forward email to move email to folders. If you leave your computer on with Microsoft Outlook open, you can setup an Outlook rule to forward your email to another email address. For example, if you where waiting for an email and had access to another email account, you would do the following: Click on the Outlook Menu TOOLS/RULES and ALERTS Click new rule and STAY Up to DATE/ and follow the instructions

AUTOMATICALLY REPLY EMAIL Outlook has the ability to reply email with a template email to the person that sends you the email. If you leave your computer on with Microsoft Outlook open, you can setup an Outlook rule to reply your email. For example, if you have customers emailing you website and you email is up with the rule on, your customers would get an automated email back by doing the following: Click on the Outlook Menu TOOLS/RULES and ALERTS Follow the instructions

EMAIL CONTACTS – By putting all your contacts into Outlook will give you the ability to email and view all your contacts. Also, you can sync this with your PDA and your cell phone if you get the option. You can also print out label if you are doing a mass mail. This is not recommended for holidays (i.e. Christmas cards). You still need to hand write them.

EMAIL GROUP –Tired of clicking on all the contacts to send out a group email. Create a Distribution List in Outlook. Click on Contacts and then on FILE /NEW/DISTRIBUTION LIST select the users.

SETUP OUTLOOK TO USE EMAIL (POPS) – Your ISP probably has POP and some type of configuration to pull down your email to your computer. You can contact your ISP or visit their website to setup your email. Once you have completed this remember to backup your PST file. This is where all your email is stored.

HOW TO BACKUP YOUR COMPUTER BACKUP YOUR OUTLOOK EMAIL – If you are using Outlook email your email is going to a file that has an extension of XXXXX.PST to find out where your file is go to START/CONTROL PANEL/MAIL/DATAFILES. This will tell you where your data file is to backup. If you close your Outlook, and find the folder and backup your file to another machine, USB slick, or external hard drive.

OUTLOOK SLOW FIX – When was the last time you deleted your emails… No I mean actually deleted them. People say they delete their emails; however they are still in the folder called TRASH. If you right click on the trash folder, there is a menu that comes up and you can select empty trash. This deletes the files… well not really… You can still retrieve the emails with other 3rd party programs. Now you need to go to START/CONTROL PANEL/MAIL/DATAFILES and highlight the personal folders and click on SETTINGS. You should see an option to COMPACT. This will compact your email to a responsible size. If you check your email file PST and the size is larger than 500-900mb, then you need to archive your email see ARCHIVE email.

ARCHIVE EMAIL – To archive email you click on FILE/ARCHIVE, you now want to select/highlight the folder to email. It is recommended to highlight the top folder (i.e. Mailbox Your name) Select the date, and the archive file path and name. Click OK… You think you are done… OH no… your computer is archive now... this will slow you computer and will be displayed in the lower right tool bar in Outlook which says ARCHIVING normally blinking if you have a lot of data.

CHECK YOUR EMPLOYEES EMAIL – How to check your emails email if there is a problem or you needs to investigate them. First check the send emails. Normally, employees will not remember to delete sent emails. Also, just because they delete the emails, does not mean they are erased. The email is not removed until another email is creating in the data block space. There are programs to recover deleted emails. The demos let you view the emails but do allow to restore them.

COMPLEX PASSSWORDS – Can complex passwords be access? Yes. Two variables time and the complexity of the password. In a matter of time 5-10 minutes I can crack a password that is not complex. However, if it is complex, it takes hours, days, weeks if not longer... ( i.e. Easy password: Eagles Hard password: A_eFr#s@h%6.... But can you remember the hard one or how about a compromise ( E@gle$#1) not bad….. Well if they go to the play-offs.

JUNK EMAIL BLOCK – Outlook 2003 has a junk email block that automatically looks at email incoming and check it for specific words and will move it to a Junk Email folder if it thinks it is junk email. To check Junk Email Options go to MAIL /JUNK EMAIL/JUNK EMAIL OPTIONS SCAN DOCUMENTS TO FAX – Have documents that you have to fax, if you have a scanner scan the documents into your computer and they email them to the person you have to fax. This cuts down on getting up and going to the fax machine, dialing the number if it is busy… Much easily… Plus you now have a digital document you can save and catalog on your computer. No need for filing cabinets.

SHORTCUT TO EXPLORER – Right click on the START button… I love this and use it all the time….. WHAT IS MY PUBLIC IP ADDRESS – To find you public ip address go to www.ipchicken.com this will tell you your public ip address. Why does this change? Your ISP has ranges of public ip addresses that are assigned to them and they will change your ip address at random. Unless your ISP is with your company and normally this is static (not changing).

MY GRAPHICS ARE NOT SHOWING UP ON MY EMAILS – If you are using Outlook 2003 the default security settings are set to not view images that come with emails. This is easy to fix. Click on the image and change the security options.

DOTS ON MY LCD SCREEN – Your LCD screen is made of many pixels DOT pitch. When one of the pixels goes your screen will have a DOT that does not recognize color. This is common on older LCD screens

PLASMA SCREENS – Remember when you get a plasma screen there is a maximum life of 20,000 and 30,000 continuous hours and you can prolong it by changing your brightness in a low light room to be lower. If you leave your screen on there is a burn it factor with static images. Most plasma TVs come with screen saving features, but remember if you attach your computer and leave it on. Your computer screen will be burnt into the screen. The remedy is to do a white screen with the plasma TV or a professional has a tool that will erase the memory. (Hopefully)

USING THE SAME WORD DOCUMENT – Make a Word Template. When you have the same Word Document being used over again, save it as a template and put it out on the server so your co-workers can view it. You will be the talk of the water cooler.

COPIERS WITH SCANNING CAPABILITIES – If your copier has the capability to scan documents this will help employees cut down on the stored documents, and give them the ability to search their computer for them and email, as apposed to a filing cabinet and fax. Most new copiers come with the ability to transmit data SMB/FTP/EMAIL. You should have your copier setup this ability or a technical consultant. You can scan hundred of documents to purge file storage or archive and have them digital for all the office to view.

EMAIL TO YOUR PHONE –If you phone has internet access them you should have the ability to email your phone. Ok this is crazy… how am I going to email back to using the phone numbers. Well most phones have templates already with normal responses. If you are waiting for an important email this could save your contract or business link. Setup an Outlook rule to email your phone with the specific email address. Just remember to turn off the rule

COMPUTER SLOW – Could be hard drive need to be DEFRAGMENTED go to START/PROGRAM FILES/ACCESSORIES/SYSTEM TOOLS/DISK DEFRAGMENTER should analyze and defragmenter. If you move large files or delete many files, this will help. This erases blocks and moves all the data blocks to the same location for faster access.

EXPLORER HANGS – When I open MS Explorer it hangs then opens after a few minutes, this is normally cause by mapped drives to machines that are not active. When you have your explorer open, right click on the map drive and disconnect the drive.

INKJET PRINTERS LOOKS BAD –Clean the printer head. Normally the manufacture will have a program that will allow you as a user to open the printing program and run a clean inkjet, and then the inkjet printer will run. Then next page will look 100% better than before you cleaned it. UNABLE TO ACCESS INTERNET – This is a good one... Then how can you view this page…. Ok. If you reboot your cable modem/DSL modem and your router, this should fix the problem. Wait a few minutes. If this does not fix it, then determine if it is your router, by plugging in your computer directly to your cable modem/DSL modem.

COMPUTER SLOW – Does your computer load up slower and you have not added more programs? Two recommendations: go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com or download spybot and run the program. Get the updates and check your computer for spy ware. Normally loaded when you go to a few websites. Make sure you have a type of current antivirus (Norton, McAfee). Run this scan as well.

HARDWARE RESOURCES – How much hardware resources am I using? Go to the task manager. Right click on the toolbar, there is a menu, go to TASK MANAGER. There is three tabs or four is you are running XP. If you do not have task manager. You need to upgrade your OS. The first tab is Applications. This tab will show you the applications that are running. The next tab Process will show you the process that is running. You can sort these by CPU and Memory Usage by clicking on the name. This will give you an idea what is cause the performance problem. If it is running under SYSTEM as the user, you will not be able to stop the process. By clicking on performance, you will be able to determine if you computer need more memory or to be upgraded with the processor. Your memory level should be less than half of your physical memory. When you use more than your physical memory your computer uses a pages file that is stored on your hard drive. This hurts your performance of your computer.

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF THE TONER CARTAGE – When the laser printer cartage is looking light, take the cartage out of the printer and shake in back a forth. If you put it in, it will give you another 100 pages until it dies. HP Printer Maintenance – If you have an HP Printer and use it constantly then purchasing the maintenance kit is a valuable tool. The HP maintenance kit will have new printer heads, cost $100 and up and also new parts (i.e. roller and cleaner). This will make your printer go the distant. However, the cost the maintenance package is about $200. The inexpensive LaserJet printer starts at $500, which will not handle heavy loads.