Date: 02/19/08     Keywords: no keywords

This is a pretty basic question, but I can't figure it out. I made a worksheet on Excel of all of the movies I have, and I want to randomize them. I tried the =RAND function, but I feel like I'm doing it wrong. Can someone help me through a step-by-step process of doing this right? I'm running on Office 2003, I believe (I just know it's not the 2007 one!). Thanks!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ms_windows/90060.html

Date: 01/28/08     Keywords: software, microsoft

There are three different personal computers in my household, and each computer is incapacitated by its own individual problems. One machine runs Win98, another runs WinMe, and the brand new one runs Windows Vista. (Yes, I'm aware that Win98 is old, and WinXP usually preferred to both of the latter. I'm not changing their operating systems.) I'm somewhat experienced with troubleshooting problems on the computers of family and friends, and I've had some successes with machines that seemed to be lost causes, but I'm at my wit's end with these particular problems. Can you help diagnose these problems, and/or suggest any fixes or work-arounds for these problems?


Nine-year-old(?) desktop PC running Windows 98:

1. This problem started last August. Computer shuts down spontaneously, often at startup. Rarely makes it far enough for Windows to boot up in the first place. Happens so fast that it's probably not overheating, and isn't kept in conditions where it would overheat, either: room temperature, not in an enclosed space, well-ventilated. Several knowledgeable people have said that its symptoms might mean that it has bad RAM. Supposedly replacing the RAM would be so expensive that the computer might as well be junked and replaced. Is that true, or does more affordable RAM exist? Is it possible that the symptoms mean something else?

Seven-year-old desktop PC, a Compaq running Windows Millennium:

1. Can't play streaming .rm (Real Media) files through RealPlayer or through alternative players such as SMPlayer. Problem is not with the .rm files themselves, which play okay on the other computers. How can I get .rm to play?

2. I installed a DivX codec that was too new to run on WinMe. The official Microsoft site said that the codec was compatible with WinMe, but other sites said it was not. Result is that games like Zuma do not display. Supposedly can't downgrade DivX to a compatible version without uninstalling whole OS. Upgrading the OS isn't possible because the machine is supposedly too old to run WinXP. Can I do something so that Zuma will run?

New (bought last September) desktop PC, a Dell running Windows Vista:

1. Computer is not communicating with flatbed scanner at all, and communicating intermittently with USB keyboard. The problem is not with the scanner or keyboard hardware themselves. Scanner has been tested on another computer and worked fine. The scanner connects to the computer by USB, so this may be a problem with the computer's USB ports or drivers. On this computer, when I tell it to scan, the software says "Warming up the scanner bar," the scanner hardware makes a noise like it's about to scan, and then it locks up and has to be closed by ctrl+alt+del. The scanner software won't open again until the computer has been rebooted. As for the keyboard, sometimes it communicates with the computer in a normal way, and sometimes the computer seems unaware that anything is being typed into that keyboard. What can I do to make the computer communicate with the USB scanner and USB keyboard?

a) draque and kistaro suggest: plug into different USB port, because the USB ports I've tried so far might be defective. (I've tried plugging the scanner and keyboard into a few different ports, but I haven't exhausted this possibility yet by trying ALL the ports.)

b) draque suggests: install any drivers that came with the keyboard. (No drivers came with the keyboard that I'm aware of, but I'll dig through my CDs to make sure.)

c) baxil suggests: for keyboard, Add New Hardware wizard, then plug it in, then manually select generic "new USB keyboard" driver. (I've tried this before, but it's worth another try. Sigh.)

d) ridayah says this (or the Bluetooth problem below) is an inherent problem with Windows Vista, although Kistaro begs to differ, having not run into it on a Vista machine.

e) kistaro says a USB problem is so uncommon that it's almost certainly a problem with the computer's hardware, so the computer should be sent in for repair or return.

2. Computer is intermittently failing to communicate with Bluetooth devices, including the Bluetooth mouse and the Bluetooth keyboard that came with the computer. Problem is probably not with the Bluetooth devices themselves: their batteries have been changed, their status lights look okay, they have no signs of physical damage. Sometimes I have to go through the Add Hardware wizard to re-introduce the computer to the Bluetooth keyboard or mouse. What can I do to make the computer reliably communicate with its Bluetooth peripherals?

a) kistaro suggests: the computer's bluetooth antenna is internally connected by USB, so this is part of the same USB problem described above.

3. New Wacom Intuos 3 tablet mouse recognizes a single-click as a double-click, although its option screen claims that it's recognizing a single-click as a single-click. (Likewise, the tablet's pen sometimes recognizes a single-tap as a double-tap.) Previous Wacom tablet worked perfectly on this computer, and its drivers were uninstalled before installing this one, so probably no conflict from older drivers... although there may well be a conflict in something else. Maybe there's another options screen somewhere, where I can change the setting so that it works...? Is this another USB communication problem? What can I do to make the tablet recognize a single-click as an actual single-click?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ms_windows/89213.html

Date: 01/24/08     Keywords: no keywords

My keyboard now registers the @ key as the " key and vice versa. (None of the other keys appear to be reversed, strangely enough)

Also, audio/video playback has stopped working entirely and it says that there is a problem with my audio configuration. I didn't have a problem with it until I installed the new OS.

Anyone able to help in either case?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ms_windows/88956.html

Date: 01/23/08     Keywords: web

I'm looking for a webcam driver for Windows vista. It's a generic CIF Single Chip camera VID 093A PID 2468 REV 0100.

(It's a pixart chipset)


Anyone know where I can get one? All the links I've found by googling are for XP drivers, or dead.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ms_windows/88827.html

Date: 01/22/08     Keywords: no keywords

I am getting an error message coded as C00D1199 when trying to play AVI files downloaded from megaupload.com on Windows Media Player. I have done all sorts of uninstalling and reinstalling and installing GOM Player or whatever but I don't know what codec I need. Can anyone help?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ms_windows/88530.html

Date: 01/22/08     Keywords: software

About half a year ago, My brother installed an upgrade of Windows Vista Home Premium on my notebook (it had Windows XP before, but the computer is Windows Vista Capable).

Anyway, because my laptop was really slow, I decided to format the disk a few weeks ago and to install Windows Vista again.

But now, I have a problem with the online registration. When I try that, I always get a message that the registration code has already been used. Which is kind of the truth, six months ago with my laptop…

My brother, the computerwizard of my family, doesn’t know what the problem is. According to him it shouldn’t be a problem installing the same uprade/software again on a pc. We haven’t used it on any other pc!
Anyway, he has checked all his sources but hasn’t come up with any solutions. The deadline is closing in the meantime, I’ve only got 5 more days for the registration before I can’t use my laptop again.

Can someone give me some advice on how to solve this problem?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ms_windows/88271.html

Date: 01/21/08     Keywords: no keywords

when i've been using powerpoint on my pc, i've recently noticed that after i create my powerpoint slides and try to "view show" the program stalls. it opens up another tab for the show on my desktop but i can't access it.

some additional info..
it's the 2002 version of powerpoint. i'm using windows xp.

any ideas?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ms_windows/87996.html

Date: 01/19/08     Keywords: no keywords

 Hey guys, I'm new here....I'm wondering if anyone can tell me how to reset the play count in Windows Media Player? For some reason, the add date for a lot of my music was changed from the actual date added to today (??) and, as a result, the play counts for those tracks were reset. I don't know how it happened, so I can't do it with the rest of my music, but I also can't figure out how to simply reset all of them. This shouldn't be a big deal, I know, but I'm anal and want it to be either correct, which is not possible now, or at least correct in relation to each other. I hope that made sense! Thanks! :)

-Heidee

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ms_windows/87627.html

Date: 01/14/08     Keywords: no keywords

Everything had been working perfectly when, WHAM!, I suddenly only get "local only" when trying to connect to the internet. I haven't touched anything or deleted anything, so this is very curious. I've just started to poke around for help today, but I've already seen lots of Vista users having a similar problem, but with no solution.

Any ideas?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ms_windows/87266.html

Date: 01/12/08     Keywords: no keywords

today i was trying to order something online from eddie bauer and a dialong box came up and it asked me what type of program i wanted to use to complete the purchase. has this ever happened to any of you people? please help. and i want to know what program do i use to open it up with? i wonder if i am being clear but it was really strange.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ms_windows/86928.html

Date: 12/28/07     Keywords: no keywords

How do I set up a network connection between two computers running Windows XP and Vista Ultimate? The computer running Vista says it detects the network ( I use static home network IPs), but simultaneously it can't see the XP computer. When I try to search for the Vista computer from the XP one by specifying the name of the computer(Start-Search-Computers or people), it can't find it, though both of them still say the network is OK.
The network worked perfectly when I had XP on both of them, by the way.

What's up?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ms_windows/85785.html

Date: 12/24/07     Keywords: no keywords

WINDOWS VISTA:

I am the administrator on this computer. When I try to move or edit some files, I am denied because I need special permissions. I can't grant myself special permissions. In the check boxes where it says "allow" and "deny" for special permissions, I can't check "allow."

Why can't I grant myself special permissions on my own computer?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ms_windows/85544.html

Date: 12/21/07     Keywords: no keywords

When I start up my OS, everything seems to be working, but later after I've worked a little with the stuff I get messages like the following one popping up:"XXX encountered a problems and needs to close". Whatever I launch is non-operational - I always get the same message! I tried to repair the system ( I have Windows XP) by selecting the repair option during installing, but it didn't help ... I don't want to install a new copy as I'll lose my logs, games, programs, etc... What do I do?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ms_windows/85292.html

Date: 12/13/07     Keywords: browser

I've been getting this error message dozens upon dozen times a day. It doesn't happen when I use the AOL or Firefox browser, just IE - but I prefer using IE so it's annoying! Anyone know what it means? :-(




xxx

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ms_windows/85135.html

Date: 12/12/07     Keywords: web

Recently I downloaded a film that when I play it, all I have is sound, no video.  What code am I missing.  I tried it in another player the DizX (I know it starts with a D I can't remember the correct spelling), and it said I need a dirrect source code or something close to that.  

I'm now lost because I can't seem to find anything on ms's website to help me.  

Does anyone know what I'm missing?  If I try to convert this file to a mp4 will it have video?   

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ms_windows/84801.html

Date: 12/05/07     Keywords: no keywords

How to execute some program from command prompt, on defined display if there is a multiple display configuration?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ms_windows/84520.html

Date: 11/22/07     Keywords: no keywords

How do I stop Windows from creating files on its own? Whenever I download some music or pictures, folders "My Music" or "My Pictures" automatically appear and if you delete them, they appear again. I don't want these files, it's not helpful.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ms_windows/84368.html

Date: 11/22/07     Keywords: no keywords

Please help!

The disk space on my hard drive seems to constantly fill up very quickly. I delete large files perennially but tonight decided to do a more thorough look at what exactly is taking up so much space. I searched for the ".avi" extension, which is the largest file extension I tend to have on my computer, & in the search results several .avi files appeared that I deleted several days, weeks, even months ago. They appeared along with the size details underneath, which said they were around 700mb each which is the standard size.

I tried to delete these files from the search box window, but when I click on them it just says "file location not found". It seems that these files have disappeared off my computer, which would make sense as I deleted them, however they're still coming up in the search results.

How can I rectify this? & are these files still physically taking up space on my hard drive?

I use the OS Windows Vista.

Cheers.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ms_windows/84153.html

Date: 11/20/07     Keywords: microsoft

I'm having something of an issue with the Japanese IME in Windows Vista (Home Premium edition) that I hope someone can help me with. Most of the improvements to the IME I like and am getting used to, but there seems to be some kind of insert or overwrite function that is annoying me. It's happened on a few occasions, but here's the specific thing that's causing it right now.

I'm on page two of a three page document in the Works Word Processor. I want to begin a new line and have one full-width space before any text. I hit return and then the space key, and instead of simply inserting a space, it inserts the space and highlights the next space. If I type anything at this point, it will jump to the next line of text, and if I hit space again it'll select the next phrase. If I hit the left key and then the right key after inserting the space, then it deselects it and I can write as normal, but it's a frustrating thing to have to work around and for the life of me I cannot figure out how to disable it. I've made sure that I don't have the insert key selected by mistake, and I've gone through the Knowledge Base on the Microsoft site, plus the help files for the IME and just can't seem to find it.

Help? If my explanation doesn't make sense, please let me know and I'll add some images to explain what I mean. Thanks in advance!

Cross-posted to tech_support 

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ms_windows/83883.html

Date: 09/16/07     Keywords: software, web

It's me, the Vista n00b again. I want to thank everyone for the tips on my printer. I haven't had a chance to try them yet but I particularly liked getting one from someone who was specifically a vista user.

OK, question. I know that on Pee Cees unlike Macs or *nix systems, virii are an issue. My computer came with a trial of Norton. I don't use P2P filesharing (not yet at least) and whenever I've downloaded a file off the interweb I scan it with ClamWin and then do a custom install to make sure that it only installs exactly what I want it to. I also like how Vista asks my permission to do most things.

So realistically, given my using habits, how susceptible am I to getting infected? Should I pay to subscribe to Norton? In the Mac/*nix world there are a lot of horror stories of every windows computer being infected with dozens of evil virii and that it's just assumed to be a part of the windows experience.

Also, where is a good place to learn about basic common software packages that windows users use? Mostly I've been looking for versions of open source programmes that I know that are ported to Windows as well (like OpenOffice, GIMP, R, I haven't sorted out how to get gcc working yet).

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ms_windows/83128.html