Computer Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread

[SS-18 ICBM]

Can my laptop power settings affect Internet performance?

 

[Genocidicbunny]

If the wireless card's power setting reduce performance, then yes, but it shouldnt really be noticeable on a normal wireless connection.

 

[Sashie VII]

My laptop is nearly 4 years old and not in a very good shape, since I was learning about laptop care and maintenance as I went along. Recently it can't connect to local wireless networks even though it detects it and the signal is strong. Even after connecting, it's unstable and is prone to regular disconnections.

Is this normal for an ageing laptop? Or is there a possibility of other reasons?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Question: How on earth is this possible? It doesn't say whether its wired or wireless.
http://trurodaily.com/index.cfm?sid=278260&sc=68

And apparently I didn't even know there were other ISPs around here

Also, why is it when I look at satellite images of my town on Google Maps, the town is blurry and you can't zoom in too much, while the area around it is clear?

 

[Turner]

This

“Their service has interfered with North Nova, making North Nova unusable. North Nova tried different frequencies for me ... but it just didn’t work,”

suggests it's wireless service.

Googling their name takes you to their home page. You can then put in Colchester County and Portaupique Mountain as a location, and see they offer wireless internet service.

Really, Aimee, you need to learn how to google.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Thanks, but how is it possible? Are the signals too strong or something?

 

[Atticus]

My mother's computer went down, and I've been reinstalling it and so on. The machine is Windows 2000, 3/8 gb RAM, pentium III. I propabaly chose the file system to be FAT (and not NTFS), because at the time I didn't know which one is better.

There's two problems: pages with flash animation freeze the machine. YouTube does it (I don't remember if the videos are actually in flash format). I think that didn't happen before, and the computer has now more RAM than before. I've downloaded the adobe flash-thing and JRE. Are there other possible reasons for this? Would reinstalling with NTFS be notably beneficial?

Another problem is that the computer shuts down for very long time, it takes something like 10-20 minutes, and the machine just displays text "saving settings".

 

[ainwood]

DOesn't sound like a file system problem, but you can actually convert to NTFS (yes, it is better) without a reinstall.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb456984.aspx

 

[admiral-bell]

Whenever I cruise Wikipedia ()and other sites) on Firefox I get boxes filled with little numbers in some articles. I want to install a character/font/whatever pack to stop that, but I can't seem to find one. Where can I get an add-on or something to allow me to view these interesting pieces of Unicode?

 

[Bratmon]

Can you give us an example?

 

[admiral-bell]

Can you give us an example?

For example, the Chinese language: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language
And the irony mark: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_mark

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Question: I found an old portable CD player (I dropped and broke my most recent one and was looking for a replacement 'cause the only ones I can find are $40 -- I guess everyone but me has moved on to MP3s) and I popped some rechargable batteries in. And nothing happened. But then I popped some regular ones in and it spun up properly and played. What would cause this?

Also, my mom is trying to find a 9V adaptor, we can't find one. There's a 12V but I'm not letting her use it in case it damages the electronic. Can it?

 

[Bratmon]

Question: I found an old portable CD player (I dropped and broke my most recent one and was looking for a replacement 'cause the only ones I can find are $40 -- I guess everyone but me has moved on to MP3s) and I popped some rechargable batteries in. And nothing happened. But then I popped some regular ones in and it spun up properly and played. What would cause this?

Dieing rechargeable batteries?

Also, my mom is trying to find a 9V adaptor, we can't find one. There's a 12V but I'm not letting her use it in case it damages the electronic. Can it?

Google?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Dieing rechargeable batteries?

No, Tried two pairs.

Google?

Lots of sales for adaptors.

 

[Turner]

Those aren't really computer questions.

Rechargeable batteries don't have the same amperage as alkaline batteries. It's quite possible they're simply not putting out enough amps to run the device. At lot of electronic devices advise against using rechargeables, and this particular device may be why they do so.

Any electronic store should have any kind of adapter you need.

 

[Zelig]

Those aren't really computer questions.

Rechargeable batteries don't have the same amperage as alkaline batteries. It's quite possible they're simply not putting out enough amps to run the device. At lot of electronic devices advise against using rechargeables, and this particular device may be why they do so.

Any electronic store should have any kind of adapter you need.

That's what I use my rechargeable alkaline batteries for.

(And it's really the voltage difference that matters between different battery types.)

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Thanks.

I couldn't think of where else to put the questions.

I have six pairs of rechargables, one of them (I found it in the garbage along with a broken charger) is alkaline.

 

[Turner]

Oh, I don't know....maybe there should be a thread or something for general questions, or something.....

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Ok, keep in mind.

What in Vista would cause the volume to automatically go up to 100%? I didn't touch it. Googled it and got specific drivers, but I just have generic ones (on-board sound)

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

When looking at computers online, how can I tell whether it has regular USB ports, either with or without USB 2.0 ports?