FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  421 (29/06/04)

Q

Is there a device available for displaying digital photos? Obviously I can view them on computer or from my camera directly on a TV set, however, my wife is not best pleased. She cannot show the photographs to her friends the way
that she used to by passing them round if they go out for a meal or a coffee mornings. I need something that will fit her handbag, preferably with a 7 x  5-inch screen and simple to operate. The hand-held PCs I've looked at have small screens and laptops are too big. I'm surprised that one of the far eastern electronics companies has not addressed this market - a sort of electronic photo wallet.
Dave Hoyle, via email

A

Digital ‘photo frames’ do exist but your wife will need a capacious handbag – in all senses of the word -- have a look at the Pacific Memoryframe, which costs around £260 for one with a 5.6-inch screen, there’s more details at: www.21stcentury.co.uk/special_promotions/

memoryframe.asp. But why not just print out the photos? If you haven’t got a suitable photo quality colour printer at home most camera shops and high-street photo processors can run off a set of high quality prints while you wait from images stored on digital camera memory cards.

Q

I have just bought a laptop for use when abroad. On arrival in France I had to find a branch of France Telecom and in Italy, a computer shop so that Internet access could be arranged. This is difficult and time consuming. I seem to remember reading in one of the Connected columns a mention of a company, which could provide all these details?

Gerald Harrison.

A

The quickest and often cheapest way to get Internet access abroad is to subscribe to a global ISP like CompuServe, which has hundreds of local access numbers around the world. Go to www.compuserve.co.uk; click Support and the Access Numbers link for details of the locations covered.

Q 

I am changing my computer can you tell me how to delete personal files etc. from the old machine prior to disposal?

Beryl Saville, via email

A

You should format the hard disc, which effectively wipes the drive and gets around any problems involving the transfer of licences for the operating system and programs to the new owner. To format the drive you will need the Emergency Recovery Disc or Startup floppy disc that should have been supplied with the PC, if you don’t have one you can make one on any Windows 9x (95, 98, ME, SE) PC by going to Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel and click the Startup Disk tab and follow the prompts.

To format your hard drive insert the disc and boot the PC, a menu will appear, select ‘Start Computer without CD-ROM support’ and when it has finished loading you should see a flashing command prompt A:\>, type C: then Return and at the C: \> prompt type ‘format c:’ (without the quotes), type Y to confirm and follow the prompts. If your hard disc was partitioned follow the same procedure with partition drive letter ‘D:’, and so on.

Whilst this method will deter all but the most determined snoopers it is worth knowing that data can still be retrieved using specialist data recovery software, if you are concerned there’s a free hard disc cleaner utility, which you can download and run from a floppy disc from www.samsung.com/Products/

HardDiskDrive/utilities/clearhdd.htm

Q

I have a new Windows XP PC and my daughter has my old Windows 98 computer. Emails to me are also duplicated on my old computer. How may we solve this problem?

A T Anthony

A

On your old PC open Outlook Express go to Accounts on the Tools menu then select the Mail tab, highlight your old email account and click Remove.

Q

When opening or closing programs using Windows ME the Connect To box for BT Open World continually pops up, how can I stop this?

M. J. Buck

A

This is probably the program’s concerned trying to connect to the web to search for updates or newer versions or it could be the action of spyware or a Trojan infecting your PC. To check the former go to Run on the Start menu type ‘msconfig’ (without the quotes) and click the Startup tab. Look for entries like ‘svc’, ‘sched’, ‘updtmgr’ and so on, linked to the names of programs that trigger a Dial-Up connection; uncheck those boxes and reboot. In fact you can safely uncheck most entries not linked to your virus checker or firewall programs, if a problems arises you can always reinstate the entry. To rid your PC of nasties run a freeware cleaner utility like AdAware (www.lavasoftusa.com) or Spybot (www.safer-networking.org/)

Q

Several years ago you gave an extremely useful tip on how to get the Caps Lock key to ‘dong’ when accidentally pressed. I have lined up my new computer with XP and Works 7 alongside my old Windows 95 and Works 4 and seem to have identical settings via Accessibility in Control Panel, but I cannot get a dong! All the other Windows bells and whistles are there (can't remember how to switch them off) so I wondered if I am doing something stupid? It was such a useful tip I would be grateful if you could repeat it?

Sue Fletcher, via email

A

The caps lock bleeper in Windows Accessibility only works if the PC in question is fitted with a working internal system speaker. Does your PC bleep when you first switch it on? If not the internal speaker may not be working or properly connected. The alternative is a simple little freeware program called First Cap, which uses a sound alert, heard through the main speakers. You can download it from: www.falsinsoft.altervista.org/