Having a problem with your computer?

Don't fret! Post your questions and problems here and one of our many, (yea, still three,) Staff members or one of your fellow posters might be able to help you out!
Cheers!
Admin2

PS; When posting your problem, please include the Operating System (ie, Windows 2000, XP, Mac ect.) and any other info you might think important.

If eTater doesn't look right on your screen, you might need to change your screen resoluition.

Here's how;

First right-click on your desktop and then left click on Properties from the menu that appears.

The display properties dialogue box will appear as shown in the picture below, click on the settings tab at the top right of the box.



Screen Resolution
This slide bar is what you use to change the resolution, the options you have will depend on your graphics card and monitor, but the standard options are 800x600, 1024x768 and 1152x864. eTater.com is set up to display properly on the 1024x768 setting, because this is the standard for most modern desktop computers with CRT (TV tube style) monitors. Flat screens and notebook computers are another matter.

Changing the Resolution
To change your resolution simply slide the bar along to the resolution of your choice and then click the Apply button.

After clicking Apply your screen will resize to the new resolution and you will be presented with a confirm dialogue box, if you are happy with the way your screen looks then simply click Yes, if you would like to try a different resolution click No.

When you have finished simply close the Display properties box.

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Now, if you want to change your PCs' Font Size

Again, right-click on your desktop and then left click on Properties from the menu that appears.

The display properties dialogue box will appear as before, but as shown in the picture below, click on the Appearance tab at the top of the box.



Click on Font size, and select Larde Fonts or Extra Large Fonts depending on what size your comfortable with. Then click the Apply button as before.

When you have finished simply close the Display properties box.

Admin2

My monitor all of a sudden lost all color but a sick green.Sence it happened after a storm in the spring,I thought I had gotten a power surge.
My son bought me a flat screen and I got it changed out and I have the same sick green.Could it be the vidio card has gone bad?
I have done all the adjustments,but no better.

Yes it does sound like the video card or the on board video controller has went bad. Good news is that decent graphics cards are reasonably inexpensive and easy to install. If you're not into the high-end PC games a standard PCI or AGP card can be bought on ebay or any PC surplus parts site for between $10 and $50 (plus shipping) depending on how fancy/ advanced a card you want.

Merry Christmas!

Thanks Admin.2.I belive you have told me right.I will go on line and find one of them cards.It sure will be nice to have color again.One more ? what is, if any, differance between vidio card or the on board vidio controller?

On-board means that its built into the motherboard, otherwise it's a plugin card that goes inside your PCs' case. There are three common types of "plugin" type cards; PCI, AGP and PCIe.

PCI is the most common, followed by AGP and many of newer PCs have PCIe (PCI express) as well as the other two.
If you have the users manual that came with your PC then it should tell you which one(s) you have. If you don't then you can just take the cover off the case and look to see which type slots your motherboard has.
Also;
Most older PCs have a "VGA" monitor output; (see below)


Some newer PCs (high end) have a "DVI" monitor output; (see below)


If your PC is more then a couple of years old, it will most likely need a PCI graphics card with a VGA output, but it's best to make sure before ordering.

What make and model PC do you have??

Here is a good name brand PCI card with a standard VGA output on ebay; nVIDIA GeForce with 64Mb of memory for $20 bucks and free shipping.

Admin's, this is probably a dumb question for you (sorry, this is my first computer), How can I tell when my mouse is going bad? It is getting harder & harder to control the arrow. Also the arrow will all of a sudden jump around when I'm trying to move it.
I know you are busy, thanks for any advice.

Three things it could be;
1; There is something running in the background hogging the processor time and causing the system to freeze momentarily, does the cursor (pointer) turn into an hourglass a lot? if so it could be your virus scanner scanning the hard drive, a virus/ trojin, or you just don't have enough RAM (memory) for all the stuff that's running on your PC. This last one would produce "memory error" messages if that were the case.
2; The "driver" for the mouse controller is bad or needs updating, but before you try updating the driver (I'll explain how if nothing else works) try #3
3a; There are two main types of "mice" Ball and optical, a ball mouse has a rubber ball that rotates as you move the mouse, and it picks up dirt and grime as it goes. Turn the mouse over and (if it's a ball mouse) you'll see a rubber ball, there's a ring around this ball that rotates and unlocks so you can remove the ball for cleaning.
This ball moves two shafts inside the mouse, you can see them after the ball is removed. Wash the ball with soap and water. Then take a small piece of plastic or something similar and scrap the gunk off of these two small shafts inside the mouse. there's also a spring loaded wheel or shaft that holds the ball against the other two shafts, clean that also if need be.
Drop the ball back in and replace the ring, see if that helped.
3b; If you have an optical mouse, clean the undersid of the mouse with a damp cloth, dry it off and try it on different surfaces, sometimes shiny surfaces can mess with an optical mouse and make it preform erratically.
Also try using another mouse if you can borrow one, it could be the mouse its self going bad, tho that doesn't happen often. If you have the money, buy a USB optical mouse, walmart has them, they work WAY better then the old PS2 (round connector that goes in the back) ball mice.
I use the Logitech LX3 optical mouse, got it at walmart for about $12.oo (i think) works great!

Let me know how it goes.

Update the Mouse Driver
1. Open control panel by clicking on "Start", then "Control Panel"
2. In "Classic View", Click on "Mouse"
3. Click on the "Pointer Options" tab
4. Uncheck "HIDE POINTER WHILE TYPING", sometimes this helps.
5. Click on the "Hardware" tab
6. Click on the "Properties" button
7. In the "Mouse Properties" window, Click on "Update Driver"
8. In The "Update Hardware Wizard" window, check "Yes, this time only" click next
9. When the Wizard's done click "Finish"
Click "Apply"
Click "OK"

Is it possible to connect two different networks and block programs that you don't want viewed or will the whole computer be open to the other network?

If you're talking about connecting two PCs on a home network, then yes, you can.
If you're talking about connecting two home networks or home network or home PC to a work (business)network, that's called "remote access". There are services that do this, like Go To My PC
I believe there is a way to set this up without a service, but it's complected and easy to hack.

I am talking about setting up a connection from one location to another location ( which is not the same network (like in an office) Remote access I believe is what it would be. Back to the question, would the entire computer files be available to the other connection (computer) which is at another location. OR could you block it just to let only the program or file be used through the remote access?

The only thing the other PCs on the network would be able to "see" on your PC is the Shared folder, or any folder or Drive that you mark as shared. Any shared folder or drive (besides the default shared folder visible in My Computer) will have a hand under the icon, like this;

I believe you are talking about office networking.

This is my problem. I have a program that another person wants to be able to access and view. The other person is on another network about 30 miles away from me. If I were to let them have acess to my computer by means of Logmein.com or etc. is there anyway to block all files and programs except the one they want to view?

I can't say for sure, but on a standard network you cant share programs, just files. Services like GoToMyPC (I'm not familiar with LogMeIn) allow full access to your home or work PC, software and files. However, you can setup a limited user account on your PC to limit access to files and folders as well as software.

Okay thanks for your help. The person that wants to view the one program I can not trust to view the other files. So it best not to do anything like that. Right.

Correct. Setting up networks, enabling remote access and even using services like Go to my PC open holes (ports) on your network (router) Firewall and/or PC Firewall that make hacking into your system much easier.
A good secure Firewall is more important then your anti virus software.

Admins, thanks for the help with my mouse. I did not expect to recieve that much info & help!
You guys are doing a great job!!

You're more then welcome.