Replies

Hi Chuck,
I don’t know much about cable modems but your mention of the NIC made me think that maybe there could be a hardware interrrupt (IRQ) conflict between the printer/port and the NIC? I know that normally LPTs use IRQs 7 & 5 and an NIC uses IRQ 10 (I think). Also, is the system set up so that the network software is releasing the printer after a print job? That’s all I can contribute, but I’m sure a more ‘network-savvy’ person will jump in!

Hi Jefferson(?),
Thanks for the suggestions. I had already put the board digests into separate sub-folders, there is about 42MB total plus another 12MB of Woody’s various Watches. I’ll certainly try to help anyone if I can and as I’m keen on Hardware, I’ll concentrate on that board and the Win98 that I mainly use.
Re the web space, I have a little space with my ISP, but am embarrassed to say that I don’t know how to make use of it or upload to it. I’d better view the relevant board and start learning!
Re the dictionary, thanks for the clarification – I’ll stop moaning about it!
I’ll end my contribution to this thread now as I’ve taken it off-topic. As we might say in the UK – ‘ Woody’s Lounge rules OK! ‘

Hi jscher,
I’ve only recently started looking at this board so I can’t help with the original query, but being a bit of a hoarder my mailbox is a bit on the large side (~175MB). A terminal mobo failure on my faithful Win95 system forced me to upgrade the system, import 5 years worth of mail and set up a proper archive! As a result of this I have the daily digests available for varying numbers of days (nnn) in the following categories since I first subscribed to the Lounge in 2001:
Gen Office (561), Gen Windows (474), Hardware (501), IE (568), OE (437), Win2000 (508) and Win98 (565).
I’m not sure about the mechanics of circulating a particular item but I don’t mind doing the odd search here and there if someone is stuck. Is this likely to be of any help?
ps Belated thanks to the Loungers who helped me a while back when I enquired about Outlook98 and where to get it.
pps Lounge dictionary still flags common terms like mobo, IE, OE!

Unless your Office97 CD includes SR-1, I think you must install SR-1 before trying to install SR-2 or SR-2b. Unlike Service Packs (SP) for the OSs, these SRs for Office97 are not cumulative, ie SR-2/2b does not include SR-1. Suggest you download the version checker from the MS Office site and run that. It is only a small file. If you are in the UK, contact me off-line and I can lend you a magazine cover CD with the SRs on them and/or email you the version checker if it is not available elsewhere. Good luck.
PS To anybody: How come a spellcheck says that CD, SP, OS, MS and UK (!) are not in the Lounge dictionary? What am I doing wrong?
PPS and spellcheck as well!

Just a thought or three: is the laptop BIOS boot order set to boot first from the floppy before the HDD or CD-ROM? Can you do a DIR from the a:> prompt and see fdisk in the list? Is the boot floppy a known good working one: try it in another machine, and try another copy of a boot disk. Provided the floppy drive itself is OK as well as the floppy disk, then typing fdisk at the a:> prompt should be sufficient. Caveat: brain fade may be making me miss something obvious or getting the wrong end of the stick! Good luck.

Mark – I didn’t see your post till I posted mine a few minutes later! I forgot some of the basics you mentioned. I suggest that logically Lynn should go through your checks first and then the cards and/or RAM if necessary.

Hi – Yes, loads more ideas, but now we need to narrow the field a bit. I have no knowledge of Cybermax but will check in a couple of BIOS handbooks. Have a look at the Cybermax web site if there is one, for FAQs relating to beep codes or other errors. More detail needed on the beep rate ie short or long; an average of 4 per min (1 every 15 secs?) or 4 in quick succession and then a 1min interval, etc. I recall that on some BIOSs 4 quick successive beeps indicates RAM or video errors but will need to confirm this. Will get back to you in a couple of days (urgent correspondence with taxman has priority!).
Meantime, some quick and easy checks, (using an anti-static strap): –
1) remove video card (assuming video is not on the motherboard), inspect gold edge connector pads, clean lightly with soft eraser, check for copper bleeding through the gold (copper oxidises and insulates, gold doesn’t), if it appears OK, replace card and secure.
2) repeat procedure in 1) for the RAM modules. You can also try swapping the module positions if they are the same size.
3) repeat 1) for any other cards, just in case.
FYI – Cards can creep in their sockets over time due to cycle of heating/cooling and consequent expansion/contraction. Prevalent with AGP graphic cards due to staggered layout of pads.
Good luck.

Mark, thanks for the feedback. I thought it would be a longshot – left it far too late. Being the cautious type as anyone reading my other posts will guess, I didn’t start using Off97 and OL97 till mid 99! At some stage I’ll have to update the Organiser which was discounted heavily as Off2000 appeared. Now that XP is well established maybe I can get a similar bargain. (Off topic – I recommend the REX credit card sized PDA, a real neat device.)
BTW – If not used for email and only as an address book, calendar etc what is/was so bad about OL97? I’m just curious – I don’t want to start a whole new thread on an historical issue.

I think it is worth checking for overheating, if the BIOS settings have not been changed recently. The time delay before it happens and the shutdown problems suggest to me a heat problem. Possibly a fan has died or is running slow due to sticky/worn bearings, or there may be a build-up of conductive dust on the motherboard. With odd faults like this it often helps to clean out the PC first before undertaking more complicated investigation.

If all else fails, try this! Open the bonnet (or lift the hood), find the modem card and then its speaker (usually a small, round, black cylinder with a hole in the top). Now the techie bit. Install a small lump of Blutac, Plasticine or similar on top of the speaker to cover the hole. This can sometimes help to muffle the sound when the modem is operating. It is also cheap and quick. HTH.

Ed – Epson Stylus Color (sic) 740 also has both USB and // ports. Mine was about GB

Hi Duchess,
Interesting point – probably why my Agfa SnapScan 1212u (USB) scanner also does not have a power switch. It has a separate dc psu incorporated in the mains plug which of course generates heat. With all such peripherals I use switchable mains sockets and have them switched off unless I plan to use the device. Bitter experience with PC parts and in the Electrical industry has shown me that the OEM dc adaptors are usually underrated for current draw and heat dissipation and the least reliable part of a peripheral device. (Any Lounger in England got a spare psu for an HP DeskJet or Syquest SparQ for instance?)
Thanks Dave for the tip about USB device icons in the systray. Probably explains the BSODs I got when unplugging a USB SmartMedia reader on a test machine recently. The icon didn’t always appear in the systray and of course the instructions failed to mention this. (I might start a thread on the Hardware board about the various types, and problems!). With any other USB stuff I turn them on with the // printers and serial bits and make a cup of tea while they warm themselves and the room up, and then boot the PC!
Sorry for the length but I wanted to ‘kill two birds with one stone’.

Hi there,
I hate to disagree with more experienced loungers, but I would consider the behaviour described above to be perfectly normal. When I started on my first PC I was taught that peripherals should be turned on first before booting the PC and specifically that Windows (3.1 at the time) needed a (parallel port) printer to be ‘on’ for Windows to recognise/acknowledge the existence of the printer. These days presumably a USB printer can be powered up at any time and as for Firewire etc I wouldn’t know. I always advise people to boot the PC last but perhaps I’m overly cautious! I welcome other opinions.

I think this may be related to the STACKS settings in your system files. You can’t see this normally because in Win98 this and other settings that used to be controlled by Config.sys and Autoexec.bat are now managed by Io.sys. I believe the default is 9,256 i.e. 9 stacks each of 256 bytes, as in Win95.
You can still insert a line in your Config.sys and this will override the Io.sys setting, eg:
STACKS=9,256
Try in this order: 9,512 and then if necessary 12,256. Any more than this and you may run into other problems as each stack uses a slice of precious base memory (the first 640K).
As the system and scanner is old it may even be necessary to look at other legacy settings like FILES, BUFFERS and FCBS. Finally, IMHO the 64 MB RAM may be inadequate for a 166MHz CPU on Win98 while trying to use a scanner which tends to be a memory intensive task. Even though the motherboard is unlikely to be able to cache more than 64MB of RAM, adding some more will probably help matters, as will ensuring sufficient free space on the HDD for the Swapfile to handle the task.
Sorry for the lengthy reply but that’s just skimming the surface. Hope it helps.

Hi there,
I’m not sure wrt Win2k but when I used this procedure with 9x it required a specially wired cable (ie specifically for direct cable connection) as opposed to a ‘ faster parallel cable ‘. A Belkin type F3D508u10 or later version should do the trick. Also file sharing had to be enabled on both PCs.
Sounds like the concept is still just as user-unfriendly as I remember it! I suggest that USB-USB is the way to go. Here in the UK, ~