Terry's Computer Tips - Newsletter
October 22, 2006

Volume 2, Number 19 — Sunday, October 22, 2006

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Find and Repair Windows Registry Errors
Download and scan for free
Read my review of XP Repair Pro 2006

Erase your Windows and Internet History Files
And, it works with Firefox and Opera, too!
Read my review of XP Privacy Pro

3.  Windows XP Service Pack 3

With the emphasis on IE7 and Windows Vista, Microsoft has announced that the next Service Pack for Windows XP will be delayed until 2008. Quoting Microsoft's site:

SP3 for Windows XP Home Edition is currently planned for 1H CY2008. This date is preliminary. SP3 for Windows XP Professional is currently planned for 1H CY2008. This date is preliminary.

What? Some time in the first half of 2008?

Can you believe that hogwash, given as many security patches as have been released for Windows XP and with the scheduled push-out of Internet Explorer 7 as a "Critical Update" in November?

Of course, they may just want to wait until they've got some of the bugs out of IE7 <grin>...

Already, some of the press is speculating that this is part of a Microsoft push to get people and businesses to upgrade to Windows Vista.

Like that's going to happen... Microsoft is going to have to do a real sales job on WHY we ought to upgrade to Vista --— given that we'll have to spend a fortune on the latest video cards and memory to upgrade our current computers.

So far, I haven't seen or heard anything that makes me want to jump on the Vista bandwagon.

Of course, notebook users like me will be out of luck. We'll stay with Winodws XP until we replace our notebooks for other reasons. Vista's cute graphics won't be usable on our notebooks, since most of our notebook video cards don't meet the graphics requirements for "AeroGlass," so Vista would revert to XP-style graphics.

With Microsoft saying 512MB memory minimum, you know that means you need 1GB if you want to run one program -- and 2GB if you like to multi-task like I do.

Windows XP is here to stay for a long time. But, different releases have already reached end of support. The original, no-service-pack version has already gone to "unsupported" status. Support for Service Packs 1 and 1A ended on October 10, 2006.

If you're not running Service Pack 2, update NOW!

4.  Power Director Failure

We had a scare yesterday...

The power director (switch box) for my wife's computer, monitor, printer, etc. had a problem -- the rocker part of one of the rocker switches fell out. Without thinking, my wife plugged it back in -- FLASH! Sparks!

Three computers shut down instantly, despite their UPS systems.

Needless to say, she unplugged her power director from its UPS.

I got home a couple hours later (I was leading the Web Design Special Interest Group at the Cajun Clickers Computer Club), so the panic was over. The question would be "What's ruined or damaged?"

First, I tried to turn on my Windows XP desktop and my Linux box (CentOS v4.4, which acts mainly as a file storage / backup machine, which we can access via Windows File & Printer Sharing just as if it was another Windows computer).

But, my desktop and my Linux computer didn't want to turn on.

At this point, I'm not sure what the problem was with either. When I tried the desktop, it powered on just fine. The Linux box didn't -- not a hint of power.

Then, it was time to look at the one I was really worried about -- hers! For testing, I used a heavy gauge extension cord, from a separate electrical circuit across the room, and a surge protector. I plugged in her computer and peripherals and flipped the On switch. Yea! It all appeared to work just fine -- at least the computer booted into Windows and her LCD monitor worked.

I disconnected the Linux computer, moved it to my workbench, opened it and used canned air to blow out the dust. The power supply and the CPU's heat sink both were quite dusty. Then, I plugged it in on my workbench, connected it to a monitor, keyboard, mouse and Ethernet cable, and it powered on almost perfectly. One cooling fan made a lot of noise, which it hadn't before. Of course, this computer had run without rebooting for several months, so the fan bearings had probably worn out during that time (this wouldn't be a power-related problem).

So, fortunately, I get to replace a cheap power switch box and a cheap fan -- and don't have major computer repairs facing me.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Volume 2, Number 19 — Sunday, October 22, 2006

Copyright © 2006 Terry A. Stockdale.  All rights reserved.