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Bristol Time & Temperature
Paul Malone - My Web Page Go directly to my HELP !! and Information page here. Just a note .... This page is developed with the idea of helping those with computer problems ... either with error messages, "how to's", or just understanding the basics of good computing. There are hundreds of good sites with mountains of information available to us IF we can find it. Many times finding what we want to know is the frustrating part. I will attempt to put several of these resources here, using links to some of the pages I have found.
Welcome to my home page.
First, the basics. In order for any system to operate correctly, it must be given proper care and maintenance. One of the worst enemies of your computer is heat. If you listen closely, you can hear fans inside your computer. Usually there are at least two of them in there trying hard to cool down that processor, hard drive, and video card. They cool by drawing in cooler air from the outside of the case and blowing it across these components to cool them. But guess what ... as the outside air is brought in, so is the dust particles in the air. Depending on the location, humidity, ect., this can cause the inside of your computer to look like the floor under and behind your refrigerator. When a system begins to get too hot, you will start seeing the "symptoms" of a computer with a "temperature". Most of the time, this will give you random and unexplainable lock ups and error messages. Taking the cover off and blowing out all that dust is always a good start. HINT ... take the computer outside before you do this or the wife might be the one that gets hot. You don't want to see, or hear, those error messages. Also, help the flow of air by not blocking the vents in the front, sides, and rear of your computer. The fans cannot do their job if the air supply is blocked. A very hard problem to diagnose is power problems. Either with the incoming flow of electricity or how the power supply inside your computer is able to handle that power after receiving it. A poor power source is a real threat to your system. The best way I would advise you to guard against this enemy is a good surge suppressor (both for the electrical and telephone line) and an uninterruptable power supply (called UPS). These can protect you from not only power surges and black outs, but also "brown outs". This is when the electrical flow drops low enough to cause damage, but the electricity does not completely go out. This can cause the same errors as the heat enemy. A very good article to look at concerning power is The Problem With Power . Windows Problems. Books ... volumes of books ... have been written about this "problem". What more can I say other than what has already been said a thousand times over? Sometimes the operating system just doesn't work right. Or it doesn't communicate properly with other software programs ... or a file needed to help it communicate with a video card, modem, sound card, CD ROM, ect., becomes damaged, deleted or miswritten. Or perhaps trying to operate more than one program at the same time causes conflicts. It's a fact of life that some programs just do not get along well with some other programs. There are some good measures we can take to help ourselves. I call these the Good Housekeeping Measures. Keeping unnecessary file installation to a minimum keeps this problem at bay. The resources available are too numerous to list here, but several of the help pages concerning windows will have tips. And then, thank goodness for news groups and bulliten boards. Here, hundreds and thousands of us having difficulties with our computers meet to post questions. A very excellent news groups for Windows 98 is "alt.windows98". Some other good sites for helpful info is PCForrest - Home by Peter Forrest and Windows 98 Help by James Liles. Both of these are contributors to the above mentioned news group. One of the absolute BEST pages to aid in learning how to use the Internet, EMail, ect., is www.thirdage.com . Most of the questions about getting around, finding others, and lots of other useful information can be found here. Take a look. All of us struggle from time to time with learning something new to us. Sometimes, we just need a little help. If I can assist you, here's my e-mail address ... PMalone@Prodigy.net . Please, no SPAM. Also, if you have comments on how to improve this page, I would really like to hear from you. Paul
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