FAQS! FACTS! FAX! 036 (10/12/96)

FLAT MAC

My trusty Mac Power Book 170 is starting to behave strangely. I purchased the machine whilst I was working in the US, back in 1993 and brought it back with me when I returned to the UK. It has worked perfectly until a couple of weeks ago, when it started to display a question mark on the screen, instead of the usual boot-up message. Is there anything obvious I can check, before being stung for an enormous repair bill?  

B. W., Betws-y-Coed

A

There are a couple of possibilities. The worst case scenario is a faulty hard disc drive. However, the age of your machine and its previous good record, suggests that it’s more likely to be the lithium backup battery on the motherboard, which has, or is about to expire. It’s not unusual on Macs more than three of four years old. Other symptoms to look out for include incorrect date and time  -- the date may reset to 1904 -- and a monochrome display at switch-on. Backup batteries are relatively easy to replace on desktop machines but on most Power Books, it’s a job for a service engineer.

FADING MEMORIES

My mother has a large box of fascinating wartime correspondence, much of it on flimsy airmail paper and slowly fading.  I would like to convert them to a machine readable form, using my PC.  Is this feasible, what equipment will I need and how much will it cost?

S. S., via e-mail

A

You should make a permanent record of the letters, before they disappear altogether. At the very least photocopy them or take photographs. Alternatively you could preserve them on your PC, using a scanner to convert the letters to graphics files. Desktop scanners with a resolution of more than 400 dpi (dots per inch), capable of capturing the detail in handwriting, are available for less than £200. Unfortunately, unless the letters are type-written it’s very unlikely you’ll be able to convert them directly into text, using the OCR (optical character recognition) software that comes with most scanners, though it’s always worth a try.

Unless you’re prepared to key in the text manually -- or pay someone else to do it for you -- then the only other alternative is to use voice dictation software. Several packages are available, they all have a fairly limited vocabulary, and have to be taught to recognise your voice, so it might be quicker to type them in manually. It will definitely be cheaper; market leaders such as Dragon Dictate and IBM Voice Type both cost around £400. AlpsSpeak, which works with most suite applications, sells for £300. There’s a useful web site, devoted to voice recognition software, with links to the various manufacturers, you can find it at:

http://www.unn.ac.uk/~bus516/vox_soft.html

GREEN SCREEN?

A light green patch has recently appeared in the bottom left hand corner of my Viewsonic monitor screen. It’s only about 18 months old, but it is used every day. Could this be a sign that the tube is failing?

M. L. G., Swanley

A

It’s far more likely the screen has become magnetised. Normally the picture tube is automatically ‘degaussed’ every time the monitor is switched on, but it can only cope with relatively weak magnetic fields, from the system unit, and other nearby devices, that generate magnetic fields. If the degauss system is faulty then the colour staining will only get worse, and will eventually require expert attention. As the patch of colour is very localised then you should look to see if there’s anything nearby that could be causing it; telephones, modems and multimedia loudspeakers are all likely candidates. You should move them away, or if it’s a speaker, replace it with a shielded type, that’s designed specifically for PC applications.