FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  567 (29/05/07)

Q. I help an elderly lady maintain a home computer set up, which she uses for keeping in touch with her family and a few home uses.  The PC is reasonably new, it uses Windows XP Home and is connected to an Epson C42XU printer. 

She has had some problems with the printer and asked me to look at it. I found that I could get the printer to work but not on all facilities. I decided to uninstall it and then reinstall the software but when I tried to use the uninstall utility an error message appeared saying: ‘…the system is not suitable for using MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows Applications’.  I also tried to uninstall the printer software using Add or Remove Programs with the same result.

When I try to run the driver disc the same message appears and the disc will not open.  Can you suggest how I can uninstall the present drivers and reinstall either the driver?

Jim Phillips, via email

A. When this type of thing happens you can end up going around in circles so you have to take drastic action. Disconnect the printer then go to Printers and Faxes on the Start menu. Right click on the Printer icon and select Delete. Next, right click in an empty area of the window, select Server Properties then the Drivers tab. Highlight the drivers shown and click Remove. Set a new System Restore point, open Windows Explorer and delete any folders in Program Files relating to the Epson printer. Finally download and install RegSeeker run the Clean the Registry utility and reboot. The PC should now be clear of printer software so you can go to the Epson support site and download the latest drivers and utility program and start afresh.

Q. My CRT television has to sit opposite a window resulting in bad screen reflections. Do you know of a film I can apply to the screen either liquid or plastic to reduce this annoyance?

J. Holmes, via email

A. Many TV screens (and that includes LCD and plasma models) have an anti-reflective coating, though there is an occasional fad for shiny black and mirror like screen finishes, which look great when the set is switched off… Assuming that you are suffering with one of those trendy designer sets, and you have exhausted all other possibilities then there is an aerosol product called Glare Buster, which purports to reduce screen reflections by up to 95 percent. However, as far as I am aware it is not available in the UK but you should be able to buy it through Amanzon.com, which is currently selling it for $21.95, plus shipping.

Incidentally, I think a stick-on film would be a non-starter. It would have to be very flexible to follow the contours of the screen and avoid wrinkles. I have had experience with something similar – albeit on a much smaller scale – with hand-held games and computer screens and I can tell you it is virtually impossible to eliminate air bubbles and trapped dust particles, which become even more noticeable when the screen is on.

Q. I would very much like to have broadband connection but my problem is that I travel in Europe for a large part of the year. I am a landscape artist and have a studio in Catalonia but it is isolated and there is no hope there with my feeble Telefonica telephone link. I am in Britain for only about four months each year and I'm not that keen on paying a continuous monthly fee for a broadband connection when I'm not here.

I have a wireless equipped laptop though when travelling the type of hotels I stay in tend not to have Wi-Fi. Up until now I have been using my mobile phone for GPRS connecting whilst on the move but it is ridiculously expensive and other services I have looked at cost far too much for the kind of limited use I require.

I have asked everyone if they have any ideas but it seems without a fixed phone line broadband at an affordable cost doesn't exist. Surely I am not alone with this problem?

Philip Richardson, via email

A. You are not alone, but there are simply not enough people like you to persuade the mobile phone companies to reduce their prices for data services. Nevertheless, contracts and tariffs are changing all the time so stay alert for special deals, and not just in the UK, the Spanish mobile phone market is very competitive.

Meanwhile, there are a number of pay-as-you-go broadband offerings in the UK to tide you over on your four-month stays. Have a look at the Lixxus package, which has a rolling 1-month contract and you only pay for the bandwidth you use. The rest of the time and when you are on the road I would take advantage of your laptop’s Wi-Fi facilities. Whilst the hotels you have stayed may not have had wireless in the past I suspect some of them will have in the future, otherwise, no matter where you are, there’s usually a wireless Hotspot or Internet café’ nearby. 

Q. I check incoming emails using Mail Washer and delete all those from unknown or "iffy" looking senders prior to importing them into OE and reading them. Today I received a number of emails, one of which was definitely Spam, but after marking it for deletion, I forgot to click "Process" and it went straight to the Outlook Express Inbox. I immediately deleted it then emptied the Deleted Items folder without opening the message. Will I have any exposure to risk, even though the message was not opened?

Rod Jackson, via email

A. If the message did carry a malicious payload it would have been inside an attachment, which you would have had to open separately. Even if you had there’s a good chance it would have been blocked by Windows (assuming your security is up to date) and your anti-virus software should have picked it up, before any damage would have been done.

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© R. Maybury 2007 2205