Title: “Suddenly…” OR “I didn’t do anything!” Part 2
Subtitle: Or — a month’s log of a SCA Computer Club “house call” doctor.
By Charles W. Davis, Newsletter editor & webmaster, Sun City Anthem Computer Club, Henderson, NV
Chas@anthemwebs.com 
www.myscacc.org

These first two paragraphs are a repeat of the introduction to Part 1 of this article. In working to help Club members and others with their computer problems during the Thursday morning Computer Talk sessions, or more often when making “house calls,” I often hear strange tales that usually involve acts of some gremlin like creature. However, gremlins are more closely related to mechanical problems in aircraft.

Generally the caller’s comments start with “all of a sudden” or “suddenly” and end with “I didn't’ do anything.” I can only surmise that it was probably one of cartoonist Bil Keane’s ghostly imps “Not Me.” “Nobody” or even “Ida Know.”

A very frequent “Suddenly”
Quite frequently, I get a call and the party on the other end is complaining about the fact that suddenly there are small dashes between words accompanied with the backward “P.” I kind of like this one, as I can generally “fix” it over the phone. This one is usually caused by the imp “Nobody.” “Nobody” placed the pointer on the Show/Hide icon on the Office Word tool bar. In the image below you will note the parenthetical expression (Ctrl+*). Holding Ctrl+Shift+8 will turn them on, do it again to turn them off. Note that “shift + 8” is the *.

Naturally, in MS Office Publisher the keyboard short cut is Ctrl+Shift+Y.

By the way, that backward “P” is called a pilcrow. For a complete rundown of funny dots and arrows, see: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/NonPrintChars.htm

“Suddenly” I can’t print!
This call came in late in the afternoon. A member had changed his printer cartridge and could no longer print. He could no longer receive e-mail messages. To my surprise, there was no task bar visible on the desktop! He had been without a means of normal shutdown for weeks! After installing 23 critical updates to his Windows 98 SE system, the task bar was still not visible. However, the printer was now back in working condition.

Now was time to address the e-mail problem. He showed me an article he had clipped from the Las Vegas Review-Journal by the syndicated columnist James Coates. The article revolved around a question submitted by a customer of Comcast, an Internet Service Provider. James walked the reader through the steps to properly set up Outlook Express for the Comcast e-mail account. Unfortunately our club member had followed the instructions completely and therefore attempted to access Comcast’s e-mail server. “Suddenly” incoming e-mail messages had ceased to arrive. I reset the account to the member’s Cox Communications server. Messages were now arriving as desired.
Following a phone call and suggestions from another trouble shooter (“Silly,” he said: “Hit the start key!”), the task bar was located hiding off to the right of the screen! I started to drag it to the bottom of the screen and the thing snapped up to the top of the screen. I started to drag it to the bottom, but he didn’t want it moved! Suddenly, he is back in the retiree business! “Ida Know” had clearly been involved here. The evening was warm and clear with a view of the sparkling lights of the Las Vegas Strip in the distance as my Miata carried me and the $20 check home.

My Miata has sat in the sun with the top down for many hours each day for the past six years. One morning I made a trip to a shop to have the interior panels on both doors replaced. While I was gone, two members called and one explained to Vickie that he had four Word files that when opened immediately shut down word. The other told Vickie that he had major computer problems and it was probably ready for burial.

In the first instance “Ida Know” was definitely involved. Big time! Norton Antivirus hadn’t been updated since 2002! I downloaded the free AVG Antivirus, uninstalled Norton Antivirus via Control Panel’s Add/Remove function. I installed AVG, after the Roxio update as mentioned earlier, then updated AVG and scanned for viruses. None! I downloaded and installed Ad-Aware SE Personal and scanned. Ad-Aware found 335 malware programs that were removed. Still, it didn’t fix Word.

During the scans, which seem to take forever, the lady of the house was distraught over the loss of her Quicken backup data. She thought that she had backed up to a new USB Flash memory drive prior to buying her new computer. I opened the My Computer folder and double clicked on the USB drive and located the Quicken file and double clicked on it. Quicken opened and her checking balances were as expected. I renamed the USB Flash Memory drive to her name. Hoping to avoid future trips to her home, I had her practice the routine several times.

The above scans were now complete.

I returned to his computer and I chose Detect & Repair from Word’s Help drop down menu. Following this repair function, things were still the same. I finally opened one of the documents and immediately chose “Save As” from the File drop down menu. I changed the file name by one digit and closed. I reopened the newly saved document and Word remained open. I followed the same procedure on the others with success in each case! Why? “Ida Know.”

By this time, I was late to the second appointment. Earlier, I had tried to call, but got an answering machine. I left the message that I was running late and would be there soon. I had called the wrong number, and I have wondered whether the unknown party was still waiting. I collected the $20 donation check and departed.
On arrival at the second destination, the member had meticulously written down the steps that led to his problem, and more important, the steps that he had attempted to resolve the issue. I listened to all the steps as he read from the sheet of paper. Then he explained that the screen went haywire when Windows XP booted up, and the system crashed. It seemed that the problems started with the installation of eight Windows updates that he had downloaded on a dialup connection. “Ida Know” was definitely involved here, as I have not heard of any Critical update causing this reaction. On rebooting he received several messages that indicated some drivers were back level. He couldn’t access the Internet via his Earthlink access. The Earthlink Tech Rep had told him install some drivers from the Dell CD that came with the computer. Big mistake! I looked at the CD and it was for Windows 98! This member was running Windows XP with SP2 installed.

I started the system in Safe mode and went to a System Restore point that preceded the first of the steps that he had outlined.

He was now back in business—well, as much in business as any of us retirees.
His wife wrote the $20 check and I arrived home on a Friday evening just in time for our cocktail hour.

Desperate Housewife
A desperate housewife called and let me know that she needed some help with her computer. AOL had “Suddenly” gone berserk! What’s new? I thought. My Miata soon delivered me to her driveway in Ridgecrest Village.

AOL was unresponsive. When opening, a message would appear stating that a file was not a Windows image. OK, so what? I finally uninstalled AOL and using the installation disk re-installed it. Same message, but we did manage to open an e-mail message and print a picture taken at her first great-grandson’s first birthday.

I soon found that Norton’s subscription had expired some 14 months before! Next order of business was to uninstall Norton’s Anti-virus and then download the free AVG Antivirus. Following the start of the download, I read that it would take approximately three hours on the dial-up connection.

I asked her to install the program upon completion of the download and left. Later that day, a power glitch hit and I lost my next issue of the Anthem Compendium.
There is no auto-save function in FrontPage.

Two days later the desperate one called again and said nothing had worked. Sure enough that power glitch had shut the download off. Further, it was corrupted. Once again I started the download and went home for lunch. On my return, there were still a few minutes to wait. AVG Antivirus was successfully installed.

Now, I had to address her problem with AOL, the same message as before, and it would not respond when one clicked on the mail icon. Yet the Windows Task Manager said it was running. Upon trying to close it using the Task Manager, one discovered an update being applied. Later, I would start to shut it down but, then it was downloading a program update. It had been months (years) while since the CD had been produced so there were several updates to install.

I decided a different tack was needed. I did a search for a file with a .tol file extension and found three. On a subsequent restart of AOL, I noticed the one in trouble was in a “b” version?

I then opened Windows Explorer and plowed down through the C drive folders and located the three files. There were really three different versions of AOL installed. The un-install hadn’t uninstalled a thing! That proved to be the answer, as I simply copied the .tol file from one installation to the “b” folder. All is well in AOL land once again.

She made me take a second $20 donation to the Club and I was soon back home writing this.

The parking lot approach!
Last week, as I walked from the Computer Club classroom to the parking lot, a lady called to me. She explained that one of our other “house call” volunteers had spent hours attempting to download and install a new version of Norton antivirus at $59.99. It appeared to him to be a bad download as it kept saying something needed to be “fixed.” After a while he assumed that the download was corrupted and they called Symantec. After several hours with Tech support, they finally ordered a box copy mailed to the house, another $59.99. She added that she had also bought a router as recommended and that needed to be installed.
The next morning at the Computer Club’s “Computer Talk” session I asked why he had not installed the free AVG Antivirus. He explained that the member was only doing as her late husband had instructed. ‘Nuf said.

The next day, I called and made an appointment for Saturday. Since she lives only two blocks away, I walked. No one answered the bell. So I returned home and about 45 minutes later she called. I had been at the house next to hers! Another mutual time was arranged. On this day the temperature was hovering around 100 degrees, so I drove the Miata. With the top down and the air conditioner on full blast, of course.

When I started her computer, the Norton product indicated a problem with a button to “fix it.” I clicked on it and it started a system scan. After several minutes, that wasn’t going to accomplish anything, so I stopped the scan and re-booted. Same routine! This time though, I decided that the programmers at Symantec, thought the lack of a scan meant something needed “fixing” and Tech support didn’t pick up on the lack of clarity in their message! Sure enough, when the scan was completed, the need for a fix went away.

I easily installed the router and then went online to the URL that Symantec had provided on the receipt and applied for a return of the boxed versions that had been mailed. No problem!

“Suddenly” or “not so suddenly” all of the incidents reported here are of a real concern to the Club members that called for assistance.
When you have a problem, contact your Computer Club’s President.

This article was originally published in Bits, PCs & Macs. Bits PCs & Macs is the newsletter of the Sun City Anthem Computer Club. All copies are available online at: http://www.myscacc.org/newsletters.htm 

There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author. The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.