FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  214 (01/06/00)

OUT OF SORTS

I use Freeserve with Outlook Express 5 for email. Until recently, new emails have joined the end of the stack in my Inbox, but suddenly they are merging in what appears to be an alphabetical sequence. This makes it hard to pick out the latest messages. What can I do to revert to the way it was?
R. Chambers

At the top of each message window there are three column headings: ‘From’, ‘Subject’ and ‘Received’, clicking on the headings sorts the lists. The From and Subject headers arrange the respective columns alphabetically and the Received header sorts the list by time and date. Click once to put the list in ascending order, twice for descending order.

PASSED ON

A friend has inherited a computer from a previous user and on trying to connect to the mail server using Outlook Express a connection box pops up but this is the connection information from the previous user, whose password etc. is unknown. The current user is able to connect to the Internet
via her own connection with Currant Bun but is unable to send e-mail as the rogue connection pre-empts the connection every time. The default connection has been set to the current users but still aborts when trying to use Outlook Express. I have tried to find a file relating to the old connection information using the Find tool in Windows Explorer using part of the connection name as the parameter but have failed, can you help please?
Margaret Dodd

Tell your friend to first remove the old Dial Up connection by opening My Computer, then Dial Up Networking, highlight the ‘rogue’ entry and click Delete. Next, open Outlook Express, go to the Tools menu and click on Accounts, select the Mail tab, highlight the unwanted account entry and then Remove. Lastly, use Find on the Start menu to locate any files with the extension ‘pwl’ (i.e. type *.pwl in the ‘Named’ field) and rename them with the extension .old. Your friend may be prompted to enter a new password the next time the machine boots up, if so leave the password field empty and click Cancel. When that’s done your fiend can set up the new e-mail account (if it hasn’t already been done) by clicking on Accounts then the Mail tab on the OE5 Tools menu, select Add and follow the instructions.

DEAD SLOW

My computer has ceased to have a sensible clock. It can be as much as 10 to 12 hours slow - which means it often doesn't change the date. I have to check every day to see where it has reached and put it forward several hours. Is there a cure for this? It happened in 1999 but it changed quite happily to 2000.

Aileen Hosea

It sounds very much like a dying clock backup battery on the PC’s motherboard, or the actual clock module could be faulty, but that’s quite rare. The battery keeps the clock running when the PC is switched off, or disconnected form the mains for any length of time and they normally have a life of five years or so but it’s not unknown for them to fail prematurely. Battery replacement varies from make to make, on some models it’s quite easy but if you’ve never opened up your PC before, or you don’t feel competent tinkering around inside, then your local PC store should be able to do it for you, for a modest fee.

ALPHABETTER

Regarding John Baker's query in the May 18th issue of F!F!F! There is a very easy way of putting all the programs in the Windows 98 Start Menu into alphabetical order without the need for a third party program. Just right click anywhere, on the programs menu and select "sort by name". This sorts the programs into alphabetical order.
Richard Roe

Well of course we knew that, it just slipped our minds, thanks to everyone for reminding us…

CLEAN MACHINE

I am running Windows 98 and I have several programs loaded onto myhard disc that I now wish to remove.  The programs are not shown in theAdd/Remove programs window and Windows Explorer tells me it is not safe to modify from that location. What should I do?
Ted Wooller

Open up the program folder using Windows Explorer to see if the application has its own uninstaller utility, it’s usually called something like uninstall.exe. If not it’s worth investing in a housekeeping utility like CleanSweep or WinDelete, which will attempt to remove the program safely, and keep a backup so that it can be re-installed if something goes wrong.

UBERSETZUNGSDIENST (probably…)

I don't know how it happened but as a 'wrinklie' I find myself embroiled in the mysteries of the Net and contacting a newspaper for the first time in my life. Having many German and Japanese speaking friends do you know of a free translation service on the Internet? The sort of thing where I type a letter in English and at the click of a mouse it's translated. I discovered something on AltaVista but after a few lines it all vanishes. As an alternative perhaps you could recommend CD-ROMs, which would do the trick?

John Buggins

There are quite a few web sites offering free a translation service for smallish chunks of text (usually a few hundred words) from English to German, and most other European languages, try www.freetrasnlations.com and www.onlinetrans.com/omega.html. We found they worked best if you prepare the text in a word processor first, then copy and paste it into the ‘translation window’, rather than compose on line. However we couldn’t find any English to Japanese sites so we’ll throw this one open, and invite suggestions from F!F!F! readers for German and Japanese translation Internet sites and software.

FAILED FORMAT

I decided to bite the bullet and format my hard drive. I found your Boot Camp article detailing the procedure (November 18th 1999) and set to work. All went well up to the warning and question ‘Proceed with Format (Y/N)?’ After typing "Y" the system swung into action.......for about three seconds and then came up with the message ‘Insufficient memory to transfer system files. Format terminated’. I thought the idea was to delete all the files so that I would have a shiny, clean hard drive. You're help would be appreciated.

Andrew Thompson

Assuming that you have booted your PC to the DOS command prompt using the Start-up disc, try changing the drive letter to from A: to C:, and then type the format command, i.e. ‘C:/ format C: /s’.