Clogged Ink Jet Cartridges

Clear the Clogs
By Alfred Poor
September 16, 2003
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1229056,00.asp

Ink jet printheads can be temperamental devices, and if one or more jets get clogged, print quality suffers noticeably. Most printers have a purging utility that tries to flush out the clog by forcing ink through the jets, but this does not always solve the problem. If your print cartridges include the ink jets—as most do—you can get a fresh set of unclogged printheads just by putting in new cartridges.

Before you throw away either ink cartridges or separate printheads, make a last-ditch effort to revive them.
1. Soak the ink jets in a small container of warm water for a few minutes
2. Gently blot the water from the printhead. Don't rub, as you can easily damage the delicate devices.
3. Reinstall the cartridge or printhead back in the printer and try again.

If that doesn't clear the problem, repeat the process using rubbing alcohol.

Blast From the Past

Several years ago I was at a Microsoft-hosted event in which the 'Softies were looking for feedback on how to improve the product. No, really! Well, OK, they said they wanted input.

When billg@microsoft.com asked for audience input on MS Office, he was expecting an orderly flow of suggestions, one at a time, from visitors using microphone. What he got was most of the audience (several hundred) chanting "Kill the Clip, Kill the Clip".

Bernie Spencer nailed it:
"When that little paper clip guy comes up on my Windows help and asks me what I want to do, shouldn't there be an option box that says, 'I want this feature to die a slow, agonizing, painful, ugly death and never appear on my screen again'?"

Note: I have, over the past 12 years, maintained a series of business relationships with Microsoft Corporation. I also own Microsoft stock. This disclosure is intended to put the readers on notice that my views, opinions, facts, and recommendations may be tainted.

Advice for next time the [ wind ] comes up

Advice next time the [ insert your bad weather condition here ] comes up:

1. When the lights flicker, you should assume that your computer is going to lose power. If you have work that is near and dear to your heart, or if your files are saved on a shared network drive, then save your work and do something else until the power is stable again. This includes those of you who have a UPS at your desk. The batteries are to allow you to shut down in an orderly fashion, not camp out when the power's gone and keep working.

2. The servers will be shut down if there is a loss of power at your building. If your building has a generator, the servers will still stay shut down until there is normal, stable power restored. Loss of power is an EMERGENCY so it's a little unreasonable to continue to work and expect the network to remain up for you.

3. "Rebooting the server" is a big deal. It disconnects everyone at your site from the server and takes a considerable amount of coordination. As such, we won't do it without a considerable amount of thought or troubleshooting and consultation with everyone involved.

Lastly, if you are having trouble getting to a website and it's howling outside, the many things that are all plugged together to give you this service are probably affected by the wind. There will be temporary outages, but as long as there are sparks, the network is designed to heal itself and come back up. Be patient.

Stop getting tricked into running viruses

Stop getting tricked into running viruses because you don’t see the file extension of an attachment.

Click Start, click My Computer, and on the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
Clear the check box forb Hide File Extensions for Known File Types, and then click OK.
Now when you receive a file called something.jpg.vbs, you’ll see the .vbs extension and know that it is not an ordinary .jpg file.

A .jpg file in an e-mail is usually inocuous: it's most likely an image that a friend is sending you.
A .vbs file in an e-mail is ALWAYS a bad thing. Never, ever open an e-mail or attachment if it contains a .vbs file.

Note: I know that this is an overly broad swipe at .vbs files. Nevertheless, non-experts should follow this advise to the letter. Experts can take their chances.

Do teenagers use your computer? Pay heed.

All the computer techs I know agree on this one:

If you have teenagers using your computer, they probably use a file-sharing service such as Kazaa. Kazaa is software which allows your computer to connect to other Kazaa-enabled computers (and vice versa). Once connected, users share files - typically music files. All too often they also share viruses, worms, and trojan horses.

Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak..
-- William Congreve, 1670-1729, in The Mourning Bride
Music is a good thing.

Duplicating and distributing copyrighted materials without permission is a bad thing. The software, music, and film industries are aggressively pursuing people who do so. Violators are receiving huge fines and even face jail time. "Sharing" music is a bad thing.

Computer viruses, worms, and trojan horses are bad things. Bad, bad, bad.

These days I get more service calls to clean up post-Kazaa computers than I do to fix hardware failures or user errors. What happens is that unsuspecting users download music and get viruses, worms, and trojan horses along with their music.

The cost of cleanup is often more than the cost of 15-20 CDs. Add in the cost of a hacker getting your credit card or other personal data, or fines and lawyers fees, and it just isn't worth it.

Your teenagers' free music costs WAY too much.

So you want to do Tech Support....

Rule #1: Stay calm.

How to build character

EXCEL: Repeat rows and columns in printouts

Shamelessly purloined from TechRepublic, January 5, 2004

Here's a tip to pass on to your Excel users who often have big print jobs: When you need to print hundreds or thousands of rows of data, you don’t want to simply print the range. If you do, only the first page of the printout will contain column labels. To repeat the row(s) that contain column labels on every page of your printout:

Go to File | Page Setup.
In the Print Titles section of the Sheet tab, click the button to the right of the Rows To Repeat At Top field.

When you do, Excel will wait for you to select the row(s) you want to repeat on every page. To return to the Sheet tab, click the button again and then click OK. You don't have to worry about changing the print area for the page that already contains the rows you selected; Excel knows not to repeat them twice on the same page.

Sometimes, due to inevitable spreadsheet bloat, you wind up with more columns than will fit from left to right on legal-size paper in Landscape mode, and Excel prints them on separate pages. If the important columns are on the leftmost side of the print range, your readers may have difficulty matching up the rows on those extra pages.

A quick workaround to orphaned columns is to tell Excel to repeat the key column(s) on the left side of every single page.

Go to File | Page Setup.
In the Print Titles section of the Sheet tab, click the button to the right of the Columns To Repeat At Left field.
Select the column(s) you want to repeat on the left, click the button to return to the Sheet tab, and click OK.

Screwy Hardware Problems

You drop a screw and it rolls under the sofa, and now you are faced with getting a hernia or getting a replacement screw. No problem you think. You go to your trusty collection of assorted screws, only to discover that that was the last of the special screws that you need to mount your new hard drive! Arrrgggghhh! Do you have to go to a special computer or electronics store, or can you get the right screws at the corner hardware store? Well, you cannot very well go into a hardware store and ask for hard drive mounting screws, you have to speak the right hardware language, and that is what this article will help you conquer! And a hardware store is about the only place where you can talk about screws in polite company. The poor little fastener that holds our computers together has gotten a bad alternate meaning.

Is that what's bothering you, Bunkie? All about screws for your computer.

What's the WinKey?

Keyboards built for Windows computers usually have a WinKey.
It looks like this:
It's located on the bottom row of keys.

It is used as part of a series of keyboard "hotkeys" that enable shortcuts to common operations.

WinKey = Displays taskbar and Start Menu
WinKey + E = Opens Explorer
WinKey + F = Opens Find
WinKey + R = Opens Run
WinKey + D = Maximize/Minimize all windows
WinKey + M = Minimize all windows
WinKey + Pause = Opens System Resources
WinKey + Tab = Flip between open application in the taskbar
WinKey + CTRL + F = Finds a computer
WinKey + Shift + M = Maximize all "WinKey + E" minimized windows
WinKey + Break = Displays the System Properties sheet

CAT Scan

Cleaning LCD Monitors

Cleaning solutions:
Improper cleaners could cause the surface of the screen to yellow and/or make the screen brittle and eventually cause cracking on the screen surface. Avoid the following:

• Acetone


• Ethyl alcohol


• Ethyl acid


• Ammonia


• Methyl chloride


• Alcohol or ammonia - based cleaners

These are OK

• Water


• Vinegar (mixed with water)


• Isopropyl Alcohol


• Petroleum Benzene

Cleaning materials:

• Use a soft cotton cloth, rather than an old rag. Some materials, such as paper towels, could cause scratches and damage the LCD screen.


• Computer wipes - if the package specifically states that the wipes are for LCD laptop screens.

Methods:

• Apply the cleaning solution to your cloth. Do not spray any liquids on the LCD screen directly.


• Stroke the cloth across the display in one direction, moving from the top of the display to the bottom.

Anti-virus software