OT: Help Computer Folks! And Mac Opinions

In article <[email hidden]>,
"karen" <[email hidden]> wrote:
(snip)

Quoted message said:

I've been dealing with this for the last 4 days and it's so tiresome.
I sure don't know much about computers, but it should be easier than
this.

How about a computer repair shop?

Quoted message said:

Mac users...any suggestions? I might order one very soon.

comp.sys.mac.misc - or check the Google recent archives for that group.

http://www.apple.com/retail/ - there are retail stores in Denver (Cherry
Creek) and Littleton (Aspen Grove). IME their staff is knowledgeable
and helpful.
--
-Barb, <http://www.jamlady.eboard.com> Arizona vacation pics added 3-24-05.
"I read recipes the way I read science fiction: I get to the end and
say,'Well, that's not going to happen.'" - Comedian Rita Rudner,
performance at New York, New York, January 10, 2005.

karen said:

The computer was making funny noises for a week or so, and got a
little slower, not unlike me. This happened after I had downloaded
the Microsoft updates to protect it from the intrinsic flaws in the
system. Then, a few times I had to unplug the thing to turn it off.
Then, it totally crashed.

So, I found this one disc for Windows and downloaded it. This is for
Windows XP. I can't find any other discs. Should I have more discs
somewhere? I've torn up the house looking for them. Luckily for me, I
found the manual to my long-gone Windows '95. That was just so
helpful.

Now the windows are too huge to be workable. I can't read email
(except from the website) and can't respond to mail. The toolbar up
top is like about 2 inches deep. A lot of windows are cut off at the
bottom, so I can't do anything.

Start --> Control Panel --> Appearance & Themes --> Change the Screen
Resolution. Select the one that fits your vision/screen. Note: The higher
the numbers the smaller the images and may require scrolling across the
bottom or side of a window in order to be able to "do" something.

Jill

"karen" <[email hidden]> wrote:
I don't know how you "downloaded" xp, but for a long time Dells have
come with a "recovery" type cd, which should boot up your machine and
take you through the steps to restore it the way it was when you got
it. You may have to go into the bios to enable boot from cd. I'm not
sure exactly what they call it, but I'll look through this junkpile of
CD's to see if I can find it. There will also be a driver/utility cd
that will get used at some point. Personally, I haven't used this
method but know someone who has. And Jill's comment about right-click
on desktop, go to to properties and then "settings" to change the
resolution is right on. However, if you don't have any other
resolution to select there, you don't have the proper driver installed
yet. Try it first and post back if you have no other choices
displayed (ie, if all you have is 640 by 480).

Have gone totally Mac after purchasing the new Mini Mac. Am in love.
The computer is fast (we did upgrade memory etc. during the initial
purchase) and installed Virtual PC so I can run my Mastercook 6.xx.
4.xx will only work on System 9.xx and below from what I understand.
I've always used System 8.xx or 9.xx at home or at work.

The big plus for the Mac is:

Ease of dumping files into the trash. No more missing "links".
Less exposure to viruses/trojans/worms. Still have antivirus software
installed.
Better color values.
Smooth operating system with less system failures.

I'm Mac proud and am glad that Apple has brought out the Mac Mini which
allows you to use existing hardware at home. You just need to buy the
hard drive.

Mary
Proud owner of an iMac and a Mac Mini

jmcquown' said:

Start --> Control Panel --> Appearance & Themes --> Change the Screen
Resolution. Select the one that fits your vision/screen. Note: The higher
the numbers the smaller the images and may require scrolling across the
bottom or side of a window in order to be able to "do" something.

I talked Karen through the same thing a couple nights ago. She had already
tried it a few times on her own. Her computer hates her. Personally, I
think she's nice. 🙂

Carol
--
Coming at you live, from beautiful Lake Woebegon

"Damsel in dis Dress" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

jmcquown' said:

Start --> Control Panel --> Appearance & Themes --> Change the Screen
Resolution. Select the one that fits your vision/screen. Note: The
higher
the numbers the smaller the images and may require scrolling across the
bottom or side of a window in order to be able to "do" something.

I talked Karen through the same thing a couple nights ago. She had
already
tried it a few times on her own. Her computer hates her. Personally, I
think she's nice. 🙂

LOL

In article <[email hidden]>,

Mash said:

I'm Mac proud and am glad that Apple has brought out the Mac Mini which
allows you to use existing hardware at home. You just need to buy the
hard drive.

I think what you're mostly buying is the Macintosh operating system in
its box.
--
-Barb, <http://www.jamlady.eboard.com> Arizona vacation pics added 3-24-05.
"I read recipes the way I read science fiction: I get to the end and
say,'Well, that's not going to happen.'" - Comedian Rita Rudner,
performance at New York, New York, January 10, 2005.

"karen" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

The computer was making funny noises for a week or so, and got a little
slower, not unlike me. This happened after I had downloaded the
Microsoft updates to protect it from the intrinsic flaws in the system.
Then, a few times I had to unplug the thing to turn it off. Then, it
totally crashed.

So, I found this one disc for Windows and downloaded it. This is for
Windows XP. I can't find any other discs. Should I have more discs
somewhere? I've torn up the house looking for them. Luckily for me, I
found the manual to my long-gone Windows '95. That was just so helpful.

Now the windows are too huge to be workable. I can't read email
(except from the website) and can't respond to mail. The toolbar up
top is like about 2 inches deep. A lot of windows are cut off at the
bottom, so I can't do anything. I've asked for help at a windows
problem group and hope that there are some answers. I haven't been
able to find a phone # for Microsoft. This is a Dell.

I've been dealing with this for the last 4 days and it's so tiresome.
I sure don't know much about computers, but it should be easier than
this.

Mac users...any suggestions? I might order one very soon.

snip

WinXP is on ONE disk only.

There would be a second disk (possibly) to upgrade to WinXP Service Pack2,
but that can be downloaded from Microsoft.

You can resize a window that has gone off the screen by putting the mouse on
any one corner, click and hold and dragging inwards at 45 deg.

Adjust the screen resolution (1024 x 768 is a normal one) by right clicking
anywhere on the desktop and select PROPERTIES and then SETTINGS. Slide the
slider until it shows 1024 x 768. Make sure while you are in this screen
that it shows 32 Bit HIGHEST colour. Click APPLY and exit.

Sounds like you have moved the toolbar in error to the top. Right click on
it and make sure that LOCK THE TOOLBAR is not ticked, then left click the
OUTER edge of the toolbar (the edge not against the edge of the screen And
the cursor turns into a double headed arrow) and hold and pull it towards
the edge of the screen and let go when it comes back to the "normal" width.
Now getting it back down to the bottom is a little trickier. Left click and
hold in an empty space on the toolbar and drag to the bottom and let go.
You may have to try this a few times to get the exact position. MAKE SURE
you then go back and LOCK the toolbar to keep it in position so this doesn't
happen again <smile>

Frenchy

In article <[email hidden]>, "Mash"

Quoted message said:

Have gone totally Mac after purchasing the new Mini Mac. Am in love.
The computer is fast (we did upgrade memory etc. during the initial
purchase) and installed Virtual PC so I can run my Mastercook 6.xx.
4.xx will only work on System 9.xx and below from what I understand.
I've always used System 8.xx or 9.xx at home or at work.

Mac OS X features a Classic environment, which runs 9.2. I haven't run
into a v9 program yet that doesn't run on my OS X machine.

Quoted message said:

I'm Mac proud and am glad that Apple has brought out the Mac Mini which
allows you to use existing hardware at home. You just need to buy the
hard drive.

Actually, the Mac Mini is a whole computer, even though it's about the
size of a hard drive. All that you don't need to buy if you currently
have a PC is the monitor and keyboard.

--
Dan Abel
Sonoma State University
AIS
[email hidden]

Dan,

Perhaps I wasn't clear in my writing. Yes, the Mac Mini is a "whole"
computer of sorts but you do have to add a monitor, keyboard and mouse.
All of which we have thanks to our years of collecting computer stuff.
Most, if not all Macs, come with the whole enchilada so you don't have
to supply the remaining hardware. The Mac Mini is a new idea because
all it is, is a very small hard drive. I love it!

As to the Mac Mini, it can not run in the classic environment,
according to the manual (and my computer whiz daughter) unlike the
iMac. I can still run MC on the iMac, if I so desire.

Mary

I'm am sorry to not be able to quote now. I'm lucky to be able to post
at all.

I want to thank everyone for their helpful posts. Good, fast advice -
off-topic, too boot!

Instead of spending another night trying to fix this broken computer, I
decided to give it up and go to the other side. The Imac should arrive
on Thursday or Friday. I am looking forward to it!

Thank you all again!

karen

In article <[email hidden]>,

karen said:

I'm am sorry to not be able to quote now. I'm lucky to be able to post
at all.

I want to thank everyone for their helpful posts. Good, fast advice -
off-topic, too boot!

Instead of spending another night trying to fix this broken computer, I
decided to give it up and go to the other side. The Imac should arrive
on Thursday or Friday. I am looking forward to it!

Thank you all again!

karen

CONGRATULATIONS!!! :-)

You are gonna love it!

Kat (a 6 year Mac user with an I-mac G4)

--
K.

Sprout the Mung Bean to reply...

There is no need to change the world. All we have to do is toilet train the world and we'll never have to change it again. -- Swami Beyondanada

Quoted message said:

,,<Cat's Haven Hobby Farm>,,<Katraatcenturyteldotnet>,,<

http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&include=0&userid=katra

In article <[email hidden]>,

Mash said:

Perhaps I wasn't clear in my writing. Yes, the Mac Mini is a "whole"
computer of sorts but you do have to add a monitor, keyboard and mouse.
All of which we have thanks to our years of collecting computer stuff.
Most, if not all Macs, come with the whole enchilada so you don't have
to supply the remaining hardware. The Mac Mini is a new idea because
all it is, is a very small hard drive. I love it!

The Mac Mini is about the size of an external hard drive enclosure
(maybe a bit bigger than most). But there's a lot more in there.
There's a motherboard with a G4 processor, RAM, CD/DVD drive, and a
separate graphics processor (many bargain PCs use the main processor for
graphics, which can slow it down).

Quoted message said:

As to the Mac Mini, it can not run in the classic environment,
according to the manual (and my computer whiz daughter) unlike the
iMac. I can still run MC on the iMac, if I so desire.

Are you sure that the Mini can not run Classic? That would surprise me.
Newer Macs cannot boot into OS 9, you have to boot into OS X. But you
can run old pre-OS X applications in a software emulation of OS 9. That
emulator is what is properly called the "Classic" environment. But you
may need to install the Classic emulator (it may not be installed by
default, but it should be on your system installer disks). You may also
need to purchase a copy of the OS 9 installer if you don't already have
it. After you install Classic and OS 9, the Mac will still not boot in
OS 9. But when you start up one of your old applications, the emulator
will start up, OS 9 will load and run in the emulator, and the old app
will run in OS 9.

--
Julian Vrieslander

In article <[email hidden]>,

Mash said:

Perhaps I wasn't clear in my writing. Yes, the Mac Mini is a "whole"
computer of sorts but you do have to add a monitor, keyboard and mouse.
All of which we have thanks to our years of collecting computer stuff.
Most, if not all Macs, come with the whole enchilada so you don't have
to supply the remaining hardware. The Mac Mini is a new idea because
all it is, is a very small hard drive. I love it!

The Mac Mini is about the size of an external hard drive enclosure
(maybe a bit bigger than most). But there's a lot more in there.
There's a motherboard with a G4 processor, RAM, CD/DVD drive, and a
separate graphics processor (many bargain PCs use the main processor for
graphics, which can slow it down).

Quoted message said:

As to the Mac Mini, it can not run in the classic environment,
according to the manual (and my computer whiz daughter) unlike the
iMac. I can still run MC on the iMac, if I so desire.

Are you sure that the Mini can not run Classic? That would surprise me.
Newer Macs cannot boot into OS 9, you have to boot into OS X. But you
can run old pre-OS X applications in a software emulation of OS 9. That
emulator is what is properly called the "Classic" environment. But you
may need to install the Classic emulator (it may not be installed by
default, but it should be on your system installer disks). You may also
need to purchase a copy of the OS 9 installer if you don't already have
it. After you install Classic and OS 9, the Mac will still not boot in
OS 9. But when you start up one of your old applications, the emulator
will start up, OS 9 will load and run in the emulator, and the old app
will run in OS 9.

--
Julian Vrieslander

In Katra said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

karen said:

I'm am sorry to not be able to quote now. I'm lucky to be able to
post at all. I want to thank everyone for their helpful posts. Good,
fast advice - off-topic, too boot! Instead of spending another night
trying to fix this broken computer, I decided to give it up and go to
the other side. The Imac should arrive on Thursday or Friday. I am
looking forward to it! Thank you all again! karen

CONGRATULATIONS!!! :-)

You are gonna love it!

Kat (a 6 year Mac user with an I-mac G4)

Yes, once you get the feel of a Mac you'll never turn back. I've got OS-
X on an iBook and OS-8.6 on my iMac. Don't use the iMac much these days
as my iBook is connected via an Airport so it's mobile around the house.
But I love Macs. In fact, I've still got a Centris 610 which works
perfectly fine on the internet although via dial-up...

--
Cheers

Dennis

Remove 'Elle-Kabong' to reply

In Katra said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

karen said:

I'm am sorry to not be able to quote now. I'm lucky to be able to
post at all. I want to thank everyone for their helpful posts. Good,
fast advice - off-topic, too boot! Instead of spending another night
trying to fix this broken computer, I decided to give it up and go to
the other side. The Imac should arrive on Thursday or Friday. I am
looking forward to it! Thank you all again! karen

CONGRATULATIONS!!! :-)

You are gonna love it!

Kat (a 6 year Mac user with an I-mac G4)

Yes, once you get the feel of a Mac you'll never turn back. I've got OS-
X on an iBook and OS-8.6 on my iMac. Don't use the iMac much these days
as my iBook is connected via an Airport so it's mobile around the house.
But I love Macs. In fact, I've still got a Centris 610 which works
perfectly fine on the internet although via dial-up...

--
Cheers

Dennis

Remove 'Elle-Kabong' to reply

In article <[email hidden]>,

karen said:

The computer was making funny noises for a week or so, and got a little
slower, not unlike me. This happened after I had downloaded the
Microsoft updates to protect it from the intrinsic flaws in the system.
Then, a few times I had to unplug the thing to turn it off. Then, it
totally crashed.

So, I found this one disc for Windows and downloaded it. This is for
Windows XP. I can't find any other discs. Should I have more discs
somewhere? I've torn up the house looking for them. Luckily for me, I
found the manual to my long-gone Windows '95. That was just so helpful.

Now the windows are too huge to be workable. I can't read email
(except from the website) and can't respond to mail. The toolbar up
top is like about 2 inches deep. A lot of windows are cut off at the
bottom, so I can't do anything. I've asked for help at a windows
problem group and hope that there are some answers. I haven't been
able to find a phone # for Microsoft. This is a Dell.

I've been dealing with this for the last 4 days and it's so tiresome.
I sure don't know much about computers, but it should be easier than
this.

Mac users...any suggestions? I might order one very soon.

I am a long-time Mac user (and Windows). I am also very active in two
local Mac user groups. Without knowing what your requirements are for a
computer, making a recommendation for a Mac (or Windows) system is not
possible. Feel free to write to me and I will be glad to give you some
suggestions, provided you let me know what you need to do with a new
computer.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Mash said:

Have gone totally Mac after purchasing the new Mini Mac. Am in love.
The computer is fast (we did upgrade memory etc. during the initial
purchase) and installed Virtual PC so I can run my Mastercook 6.xx.
4.xx will only work on System 9.xx and below from what I understand.
I've always used System 8.xx or 9.xx at home or at work.

The big plus for the Mac is:

Ease of dumping files into the trash. No more missing "links".
Less exposure to viruses/trojans/worms. Still have antivirus software
installed.
Better color values.
Smooth operating system with less system failures.

I'm Mac proud and am glad that Apple has brought out the Mac Mini which
allows you to use existing hardware at home. You just need to buy the
hard drive.

Huh? That's not true. The Mac mini already has a hard drive in it.

In article
<[email hidden]>,

Julian Vrieslander said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Mash said:

Perhaps I wasn't clear in my writing. Yes, the Mac Mini is a "whole"
computer of sorts but you do have to add a monitor, keyboard and mouse.
All of which we have thanks to our years of collecting computer stuff.
Most, if not all Macs, come with the whole enchilada so you don't have
to supply the remaining hardware. The Mac Mini is a new idea because
all it is, is a very small hard drive. I love it!

The Mac Mini is about the size of an external hard drive enclosure
(maybe a bit bigger than most). But there's a lot more in there.
There's a motherboard with a G4 processor, RAM, CD/DVD drive, and a
separate graphics processor (many bargain PCs use the main processor for
graphics, which can slow it down).

Quoted message said:

As to the Mac Mini, it can not run in the classic environment,
according to the manual (and my computer whiz daughter) unlike the
iMac. I can still run MC on the iMac, if I so desire.

Are you sure that the Mini can not run Classic? That would surprise me.
Newer Macs cannot boot into OS 9, you have to boot into OS X. But you
can run old pre-OS X applications in a software emulation of OS 9. That
emulator is what is properly called the "Classic" environment. But you
may need to install the Classic emulator (it may not be installed by
default, but it should be on your system installer disks). You may also
need to purchase a copy of the OS 9 installer if you don't already have
it. After you install Classic and OS 9, the Mac will still not boot in
OS 9. But when you start up one of your old applications, the emulator
will start up, OS 9 will load and run in the emulator, and the old app
will run in OS 9.

I find that hard to believe. Classic should work if you install OS 9 on
a Mac mini.