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Ask Rick 033, 13/03/09
Pardon my French
Outlook Express on my PC
is set to spellcheck in French with no alternatives offered. How do I reset
this to English? The spell checker works normally in Word, in English.
Peter Hancock, by email
I naively thought Microsoft would have fixed this glitch by
now, which first appeared back in 2007. Clearly it hasn’t and my guess is that
it has been quietly forgotten in the hope that it will eventually go away as
users switch to Windows Mail in Vista. It’s due to a bug in Office 2007, which
deletes language files in Outlook Express. A patch was promised but Microsoft
Support (http://tinyurl.com/2zzk59) now
suggests that sufferers install a third-party spell checker. It’s not a very
satisfactory solution but it works, so try IE Spell or Spellchecker for OE;
they’re both free and you’ll find links to the download at: http://tinyurl.com/2tnq4k
Monitoring the
Changes
We are one of the
few households without a television and have no need of one. We can play DVDs
on our desktop PC, but that is in an upstairs room so it’s not very comfortable
for watching DVDs. What I'd like to do is buy a cheap DVD player and connect it
to the PC's 17-inch LCD monitor, which I would move to the living room when we
want to watch a DVD. There is a 15-pin connection from the PC to the monitor at
each end (as well as a lead with an audio jack at each end), but it appears
that DVD players have a different shaped connector. I'm told that it is not
possible to get a lead to connect a DVD player to the monitor. Is that so? Is
there any other solution?
Roger Davis, Leeds
DVD players and PCs
use different video systems so it’s more than just a problem with the plugs and
sockets. However, there are ways around this incompatibility and you need a
widget called a Video to VGA converter. There are lots of them on the market,
and quite a wide variation in performance so I would avoid the really cheap
ones. The Lindy Video to VGA converter is one of the better entry-level models
and it costs around £55 on line (Amazon etc.). You can spend a lot more than
that on higher performance converters but I doubt that you would notice the
difference on a 17-inch screen.
Refresher Course
Until recently on
ebay auction items there has been ‘Refresh’ button that appears during the
final 15 minutes and this instantly updates the screen to show the countdown
and the bid movements. A few months ago and for no apparent reason, the screen
layout changed and the Refresh button is no longer there. Last week the same
thing happened on one of my laptops. I contacted ebay by email but have
received no response. Do you have any answers?
Chris Paulin, by
email
The on-page refresh
button is a Javascript component and only updates time and bid amount
information and there does seem to be a problem with it on some versions Firefox.
There appears to be a conflict between ebay web page coding, a recent Firefox
security update and some extensions. Sorry for sounding so vague but it’s not
consistent and I have been unable to reproduce the fault but you may be able to
resolve it by disabling or uninstalling any Firefox add-ons that you have, one
at a time (Tools > Add-Ons). Afterwards try the Refresh button. However,
don’t be surprised if the button continues to work if you subsequently
re-install or enable the add-on…
Dicky Defender
For the last 6
months fault message has appeared at start up. It reads ‘Application
failed to initialise 0x800106ba, Windows Defender’. I have been able to
eliminate other error messages but this one persists. Can you help me, as
this one seems to slow start up?
B Watkins, by email
This message usually
means that you are using the obsolete beta version of Windows Defender, which
was released back in 2006. Updating to the latest version (download free from
Microsoft at: http://tinyurl.com/5q36co)
should make it go away. A similar message also appears if you are using Windows
2000, which is no longer supported by Windows Defender.
Spasmodic Socket
I have a 2-year old
Sony Vaio laptop and after a couple of months the USB sockets spasmodically
stopped working. When it happened the only way to turn the machine off was to
press and hold the on/off button. After having numerous phone calls to Sony,
and restoring the computer to its factory settings I returned the machine. They
said there nothing was wrong with it.
The problem is now
happening more frequently and my USB wireless mouse does not work. I have
checked wireless strength and the battery in the mouse, which is fine. My local
IT shop says it is a motherboard problem and it would cost £200 to replace;
they suggested I buy a new PC. I use the computer for my business so
reliability is paramount, any thoughts please?
Ian Coop, by email
Intermittent faults
like these can be difficult to diagnose, especially at a distance but you
should be able to establish the cause by a process of elimination. The first
thing to do with any USB problem is update the drivers, which you will find in
the Support section of the Sony Vaio website. If that makes no difference see if
the USB ports are working with other devices, such as a memory stick. If they
are then the problem lies with the wireless mouse. If not check the sockets and
motherboard. Insert a USB memory stick. Windows should recognise the device and
sound the ‘Connect’ beep. Now gently (and I mean gently!) press the device and
see if the connection is lost, at which point you will hear the Disconnect
beep. If so then it needs to be opened
up, though I think a replacement motherboard may be a bit drastic; it could be something
simple and a competent engineer should be able to mend or re solder the broken
connections.
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© R. Maybury 2009 1702
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