FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  502 28/02/06)

Q. Recently I ended up having three laptops, each with its own power adaptor, which doesn't fit the other two. Since (I presume) the electrical supply from each is similar it would make more sense to have just one standard fitting that could be used for any laptop, otherwise you have to buy a new one each time one fails (as I did recently - very annoying when you have two others to hand).  Until computer manufacturers get together and see some sense (perish the thought that they do this to ensure more sales of their spares!) is there anyone out there who manufactures adaptors for laptop power supplies, allowing one supply to be used with different laptops?  If not, would anyone consider making one?
Philip Whitehead, via email

A. I have to say your situation is a little unusual and most of us manage to get by with just one laptop, and power supply failures are quite rare. Nevertheless they do go wrong and replacements are readily available -- ebay is a good cheap source, try also Laptop Chargers.co.uk, which stocks most types. There is also no shortage of  ‘universal’ type laptop adaptors, costing from around £35, from the likes of laptopshop.co.uk and MCM Computers and these come with a range of connectors to fit most popular models.

In fact the voltage requirements for laptops does vary quite widely (15, 16, 17, 18, 20 and 22 volts being the most common), and power consumption is typically between 75 and 95 watts, depending on screen size, processor type, etc. so there can be quite significant differences. The real fly in the ointment, though, is the complete lack of standardisation in power connectors, which can lead to expensive accidents. Even ones that look the same can be wired differently.

Q

My 6-year-old IBM PC has failed. When the power on button is pressed, the power supply attempts to start, but dies almost immediately. The power supply has been checked, so the assumption is that the motherboard is faulty. I was quite happy to buy a new PC but it is important that I recover the email files on the old PC. When I took the hard drive to a local PC shop, they were able to recover all the data files, but told me that it is impossible to recover emails. According to them the hard drive insists on being the boot drive (regardless of whether it is jumpered as master or slave), and will only work with an IBM motherboard. Is there really nothing I can do, to recover the emails, short of buying an obsolete motherboard?

Brian Mellor, via mail

A. Locking a drive to a motherboard normally only affects the operating system and the way the PC boots up, it should have nothing whatsoever to do with the way the PC stores emails. I think you need to have another chat with the people that recovered your data files because there is no reason why your email messages cannot be copied from the drive in the same manner. It depends which email program you are using, but if it is Outlook or Outlook Express then -- assuming that your old PC was using Windows 98 -- they can be found in the following folders:

C:\windows\local settings\application data\Microsoft\Outlook

C:\windows\application data\identities\{GUID}\Microsoft\Outlook Express

Q

I am having a problem installing my scanner and I keep getting a Twain error message saying ‘...failed to open Twain driver. I have tried to reinstall and uninstall a number of times. Any suggestions please? I am using Windows XP.

Rohazy, via email

A. We haven’t had a Twain query for ages. For those who haven’t heard of it or only seen it mentioned in passing when using their scanner, all you need to know is that it’s a set of industry standard software protocols that allows PCs to communicate with imaging devices like scanners. In case you were wondering the name comes from the Kipling poem ‘The Ballad of East and West’ and the line ‘…and never the twain shall meet’, a reference to the early difficulties in getting PCs to link up to scanners. Some sources claim it is an acronym ‘Technology Without An Interesting Name’, but that came about following an unofficial attempt to find a better name for it.

But I digress… It sounds as though the scanner software, which contains the Twain components, is corrupt. See if there is a newer version of the driver software available from the scanner manufacturer’s website. If so download it onto your PC but don’t install it just yet.

Uninstall the old software once again but this time run the freeware Registry tool RegSeeker before you reinstall. Use the Clean the Registry utility, make sure Backup is ticked and set a System Restore Point before you begin. This should clear out any remnants of the old program and allow you to do a clean install.

Q

Windows Media Player used to open with the Media Library window. It now opens with the 'Now Playing' window and one has to go through the rigmarole of View then Go To and Media Library to access one's list of albums. Is there a way to have the Media Library window open by default as it used to?

W. Gordon Whittington, via email

A This program does seem to have a mind of its own but in general it should always open on the last window or view that was showing, so if you close it with the Library windows open that should appear next time. One thing you might like to try is to display the tabbed Taskbar as apart from making it easier to select the Library it seems to have some influence on the way Media Player opens. To do that go to View > Menu Bar options and uncheck ‘Hide Taskbar’.

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© R. Maybury 2006, 2102