Spedi Retail Software - EPOS for the convenience sector

Help! My Computer Will Not Start! It Was OK When I Last Used It, But Now.....

Sunday 6th September 2009

Before you start reaching for the Windows CD (or a Dell catalogue!), there are actually several other avenues to explore.

As always when troubleshooting faults with electronic equipment, start working from the bottom upwards rather than the top down. It is reliably estimated that, when rectifying faults, computer engineers find that three-quarters are due to a problem with one of the most basic physical components such as wires and connectors. Frequently, this will be as simple as a loose power lead or monitor connector. Another common fault in this area includes connecting an ADSL router to a non-ADSL telephone socket - easily done if there are several apparently-identical but inadequately-labelled sockets in a group and some kind soul has been rearranging the connections for his own purposes.

When a PC boots up, it will normally display a few lines of text messages on the screen before Windows takes over. If the coloured Windows startup screen does not appear, professional assistance will usually be required. However, even if Windows hangs or dies during its startup, all is not necessarily lost. Pressing the function key F8 repeatedly, as soon as the Windows screen appears, will usually allow it to be started in "Safe Mode". Surprisingly often, if Windows is then closed down properly and the PC rebooted, all will be well, since Windows does have quite a useful degree of ability to heal itself.

The next technique is to boot off the installation CD. As well as offering to install Windows, it will also offer a "Recovery Console", i.e. a Command Prompt. This is most useful when dealing with a damaged or missing system file, which can thus be repaired or replaced.

If the Recovery Console technique fails, boot off the CD again and accept the offer to install Windows. The installer will detect the existing installation and will ask whether to repair it or destroy it. It is always worth trying the "Repair" option, as it represents the "Last Chance Saloon" as far as all your precious data is concerned.

Hopefully, all is now well. If not, you may be best reaching for that Dell catalogue, particularly if your PC is more than three or four years old, since there is now nothing left but to format the hard disk and reinstall Windows. Even this tedious process is only the beginning - you will need to download and install all the numerous updates and any Service Packs issued since your installation CD was made. Next, you will need to reinstall all your applications and restore their data files from backups. Finally, it will be necessary to reinstall your favourite wallpaper and screensaver etc. After all that, you should finally have your computer back in working order. Far from being a "Cup of tea and a biscuit" job, this one is far more like "A gallon of tea and several packets of biscuits".

Will Santa Be Bringing You A New Computer For Christmas?

Sunday 30th August 2009

If so, you really should start doing his homework for him right away.....

Choosing a new computer is just as hard for the big man with the white beard and the reindeer as it is for anyone else. There are so many different models, all promoted as if they were "The best thing since sliced bread", that it is very easy to discover, too late, that one has made an expensive mistake.

Some aspects of a computer are of little consequence except to the most image-conscious of people - what real difference does it make to a computer's performance or usability if, instead of the standard white or matt black, it is painted in pink, Lamborghini yellow or Ferrari red? There is one notable exception - the latest fashion of using "Piano Black". This high-gloss, jet-black finish certainly looks impressive when the machine is sitting safely behind a glass screen, but a better magnet for disfiguring fingerprints has yet to be invented!

Apart from performance, where "more is better" and cost, where "less is better", there are a number of factors which can significantly affect the user's satisfaction with the new machine. It is often said that "Size matters" and indeed it does, but sometimes in surprising ways. One the one hand, the screen should be as large as possible, except with a laptop, where weight is a significant consideration. A screen's size is much less important than its quality. Unless the image is razor-sharp, eyestrain and headaches will soon result. Keyboards are often overlooked, especially with laptops, until it is too late. Noone can determine the quality of a keyboard merely by looking at it and a poor keyboard will cause considerable irritation. After all, if the manufacturer has skimped on those parts of the system which are visible, such as the screen or keyboard, it is highly likely that he has also skimped on the internal components, which are not visible.

It is certainly wise to check specifications and read online independent reviews, but really there is no substitute for actually inspecting the image on the screen and trying out the keyboard. Christmas is still four months away, so there is plenty of time to help Santa make the right choice!

Watch Out! There's A £1000 Fine About!

Sunday 23rd August 2009

Unfortunately, ignorance of the law is no defence in this situation, as in any other.

In October 2008, the Government made changes to the trading disclosures which must be made by incorporated companies to demonstrate their legal identity. Although this might, at first glance, seem to have only peripheral relevance to daily business practice, the reality is very different. One of the provisions in the new regulations is to make it mandatory for all outgoing business emails to include the company's Registration Number, Place of Registration and the address of its Registered Office. Failure to do so carries a fine on conviction of up to £1000.

Many companies are fond of placing disclaimers at the foot of their outgoing emails. Although some disclaimers may be relatively short and others quite long, they all have two factors in common. One is that they have almost no legal validity, which may or not be considered to be of any consequence. The second factor, by contrast, is very important - the longer they are, the greater the annoyance they cause to the recipient. When a single email message is viewed on a full-sized screen, even a long disclaimer is little more than a nuisance. It is a very different matter when a threaded email is being viewed on the small screen of a Blackberry or similar device and the hapless recipient has to scroll through seemingly endless rubbish, just to reach the next message.

If you want to address two problems with one solution, simply replace your lengthy disclaimer with the legally-required information. There is only one downside - you will miss out on the opportunity of contributing to yet another Stealth Tax!

Have You Lost Your Only Administrator-level Password For Your Windows NT4/2000/XP/Vista System? Oh, Dear!

Sunday 16th August 2009

Actually, this is a serious problem, since you will need it whenever you wish to maintain and update your system.....

It is possible, of course, to reinstall Windows from scratch, then download and apply all the Service Packs and updates which have been released since the date of the installation CD you have used. Then you are ready to re-install all your applications and reload your data from your backups. Unless there are other reasons to make reinstalling everything from scratch an attractive option, it should only be used as a last resort.

There are two alternatives. Searching on Google for a string such as "recover lost xp password" will produce pages of results, most of which require some form of payment. Since there are not usually any money-back guarantees, these sites are very much a case of "Caveat emptor", or "Let the buyer beware". Fortunately, there is a much better way.

The Web is infamous for the scammers, fraudsters and other criminals who frequent it in such large numbers. However, there are also many honest people who genuinely desire to share their expertise with others, with little or no financial reward. One of the best-known examples of this is the Open Source movement, which includes the excellent browser Mozilla Firefox, as well as the many Linux distributions. Among the public-spirited individuals, Peter Nordahl must be ranked up there with the best. His Windows Password Recovery Utility is free to download and easy-to-use even for those with limited technical ability, due to the comprehensive help provided.

Peter's technique is delightfully simple. In May 1940, the Nazis did not attempt to break through the heavily-fortified French Maginot Line. Instead, they circumvented it. Similarly, Peter boots a customised copy of Linux from a floppy disk, CD-ROM or USB memory stick as appropriate, which then runs his utility. This includes drivers for the various Windows file systems which it may encounter, such as FAT-16, FAT-32 and NTFS. After autodetecting the file system concerned, it uses a text-based screen to interact with the user and thus reset the lost password.

Although this utility is only rarely needed, it is a real life-saver of which everyone should be aware. Peter's website is at
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html

As a measure of his public-spiritedness, it should be noted that Peter does not merely make the utility available without any form of payment or registration - on his FAQ page, he even explicitly states that he will not accept any payment!

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