The Help Desk

Q: I have a Hewlett-Packard Deskjet Model 682C that is about 4 years old and has never given me any trouble until recently. <br><br>Now when I try to print something, it stalls and informs me that it is

Friday, March 3rd 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Q: I have a Hewlett-Packard Deskjet Model 682C that is about 4 years old and has never given me any trouble until recently.

Now when I try to print something, it stalls and informs me that it is out of paper. Of course, it is not.

When this happens, I notice that the piece of paper endeavoring to advance goes only about a quarter of an inch into the channel.

Sometimes when I pull it out and try to print again, it will print OK. But the next time the same thing happens! Can you help me with this?
-- J.C., Montgomery, Texas

A: Your printer's clutch actuator may not be engaging properly. I'd explain it, but Hewlett-Packard's Web page at www.hp.com/cposupport/printers/support_doc/bpd04237.html details the problem, complete with photos, much better than I can here.

The problem could be caused by forcefully removing a jammed piece of paper, which we have all done at one time or another.

Another possible cause is a buildup of dirt on the rollers that feed the paper into the printer. You can try cleaning them with a mild soap and water solution. I would stay away from alcohol on rubber rollers because it will cause them to prematurely fail.

Q: I currently have an eMachines PC with a Cyrix MII 333 MMX processor and a 3.2-gigabyte hard drive.

Recently I changed Internet services from MSN to AT&T@Home. This is the only change I have made since I last did any maintenance on this machine.

I uninstalled the MSN program and its related components. I have attempted on several occasions to do ScanDisk in thorough mode and it will finally get to the point where it is starting to scan the disk surface (data area). It repeatedly stops and restarts, picks up where it stopped and proceeds for a short period, then it restarts. Finally a message will appear saying "ScanDisk has restarted 10 times because Windows or another program has been writing to this drive. Quitting some running programs may enable ScanDisk to finish sooner."

A standard ScanDisk will complete its task but only after several tries.

Basically the same thing is occurring with the defragmentation process. The error message there is "Drive contents changed: restarting."
I have turned off the modem for the @Home Internet program, disabled the anti-virus program, closed the tool bar and I am not aware of any other programs that could be running.

Before running these programs, I delete whatever is in the Internet Temp files and the Recycle Bin.
-- C.B., Farmers Branch

A: You need to look deeper for running programs.

Just because there is no program showing on your taskbar doesn't mean that software such as virus checkers aren't running transparently.
In fact, Microsoft Office installs a small program called FastFind, which constantly reads from your hard disk looking for Office files. This activity can cause ScanDisk to fail.

Some scanners, printers or modems use Status Readback software, which regularly checks the status of your peripheral to notify you if the printer is out of paper, for instance.
Screen savers can also cause this problem.

To see what programs your computer is running, press the Control-Alt-Delete keys all at once. This will bring up the Close Program window.

You will need to shut down each program except Explorer and Systray by clicking once on the name of the program and clicking the End Task button.

Now try running ScanDisk.

If you still have problems, try turning off the screen saver. Right-click on the desktop and select Properties from the pop-up menu. Click the Screen Saver tab and choose None from the pop-up menu. If this doesn't work, you'll need more help than I can give here. It might be time to reload Windows.

Q: What would cause an Internet dialing progress window to come up when my computer is first turned on? It will stay on until clicked off or the computer dials. I have not been able to find anything that would prompt it to dial.
-- R.M., Childress, Texas

A: There could be a program on your computer that wants to connect to its home on the Internet to see if there is an update to download.

Norton Antivirus can be set to automatically check the Symantec Web site for updated virus definitions or updates to the application itself. This is called LiveUpdate in Norton's settings. Check to make sure this or any other virus checker is set to not automatically check the Web for updates. Norton Antivirus adds LiveUpdate to your system's Task Scheduler.
To view the list of automated tasks set to run on your computer via the Task Scheduler, click the Start button. Then choose Programs, Accessories and System Tools. Click Scheduled Tasks. You will see a list of all the tasks your computer is set to run automatically. The entry that you need to remove is the one that says Run LiveUpdate (for Norton Antivirus). Click it once to highlight it and then press Delete. This will send the entry in the scheduler to the Recycle Bin and will keep your computer from dialing in automatically to run LiveUpdate.

Internet Explorer can also be set to check the Microsoft Web site for updates. On my version of Internet Explorer 5, under the Tools menu is a selection for Internet Options. Choose the Advanced tab and look for "Automatically check for Internet Explorer updates" under the Browse settings. If this is checked, uncheck it.

Q: How do I register a name for a Web page so no one else can use it even if my Web page is not yet designed?
-- J.C., Dallas

A: The process is called registering a domain name, and it can be done through many companies. Two that come to mind are www.register.com and www.networksolutions.com. Both have a search engine on their home page to let you search for the domain name you want to register.

If you want to register a name, type it in the box and click the domain (.com, .net, .org) you want. A list of still-available names will pop up.
You can secure the domain name through these companies for as little as $35 per year. The more years you sign up for, the lower the annual cost -- a 10-year contract will cost you $299. You can hang onto the name until you are ready to post the site.

When the time comes to put the site on the Internet, you will need an Internet service provider or an in-house Internet server to host the site.

The registering company will arrange to tie your domain name with the host so that servers around the world will point to your site when your Internet address is typed in.