September 2002 Volume 20, Issue 9

Kokomo PC

Users Group

September 2002

Presidents Message:

School has started, the sounds of football are in the air - the first signs that PC computing season is just around the corner. (Of course it is still a little warm and the leaves are still green, but we take what we can get.)

I will have a busy month this month. I will be off to make a presentation to the Airstream Campers Jamboree in Tipton. I plan to do a repeat performance of the Excel tips and tricks presentation I made at one of our meetings this summer. I hope it goes over as well as it did for our Users Group. I have done several of the Airstream Jamborees in the past and have always enjoyed them. They are a good group and always seem interested in getting more mileage out of their computers.

The Group’s membership seems to be declining at a pretty rapid rate. We now have under forty members and the trend is going in the wrong direction. At some point we may have to call it quits and fold our tent. I believe our Users Group is having a hard time competing with all the availability of information on the Internet. If you have any ideas about what more we can offer potential members, please let me know.

I am interested in feedback on our low budget presentations. Are they too advanced, too simple or just right. Our selection of topics has been pretty basic. Is that the right mix of subjects or do we need to mix in something more exotic. I plan to start repeating the presentations with MS Word again soon. Hopefully everyone will soak up additional information the second time around. We can probably go deeper into the program and do some additional tricks.

As I mentioned last month we may have some competition for meeting space now that school is back in session. Hopefully we will be able to continue to use the executive conference room. It is a really nice facility and would be difficult to use for classroom space. Keep your fingers crossed.

If you have a desire to express yourself, please write a newsletter article and email it to me at the address below. It will allow others in the Group to share your joy or frustration and may save them a few steps by pointing out a tip or trick they could use or a problem they could avoid. No need to fear rejection because we print just about everything we receive.

Mark Pendergast

Da Prez

[email protected]

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My first service call on the new Dell

My wife was right. I hate to admit it, but the fan on the new Dell is just too noisy. I have tried to ignore it since we got it last December - This was easy because it is the kids computer, not mine - but I finally had to admit that it was a bit loud.

I finally got some vacation time the week before school started and decided it was time to get it fixed.

The first task was to verify the problem and see what I could do to fix it myself. I pulled the unit out of the computer hutch and poked around until I figured out how to open it up. The insides of the system were pretty cool. The Pentium 3 processor and heat synch were humongous. There was a fairly large fan dedicated to blowing on the processor and a wicked looking ducting system that routed the air right on top of the processor.

I left the case open and fired up the power. The whine was pretty loud. I stuck my head inside the case and tried to find the source of the noise. The sound seemed to be coming from the back of the unit, but I could not say for sure. I put my finger on the spindle of the CPU fan and slowed it down by friction - the sound went away. When I released the fan and let it spin up to full speed the whine was back. Looks like I had a bad CPU fan.

I dug through the Dell box and found all the service call documentation. I got out my trusty spiral notebook and began to write down the date and the phone number I needed to call. (I have a spiral notebook for each of my computers. I write down all the support numbers, serial numbers, support employee names, dates, part numbers, confirmation numbers, suggestions, etc. I find this to be very valuable when making future calls.)

I called the Dell number listed in the book. I was transferred to a voice menu system that must have been a dozen levels deep. None of the options in the phone menu seemed to be "I need a repair part!". I ended up selecting reasonable sounding choices and ended up at technical support. (I have no idea how I got there - I must have selected half a dozen picks.)

At one point the automated system asked me for my Service Tag number. Well, I had no idea what they were talking about. I skipped that entry and the system eventually forwarded me into yet another holding pattern. As I was waiting the system told me that the that the Service Tag Number is on the underside of the unit or on the front door. Since I have a cordless phone, I took a trip to the front room and got the number off the computer. (I wrote it in the spiral notebook.)

When I got to Tech support the woman asked me for my Service Tag number. I gave it to her. She proceeded to verify my name, address and phone. Then she started to ask me what operating system I was running. I suggested that we might save some time by ignoring my configuration and proceeding directly to my obvious problem. To my surprise, she agreed. (Perhaps Dell does have excellent support.)

She couldn’t find loud fan in her troubleshooting guide, so she decided to wing it. She asked me how I knew it was the fan. I described my diagnostic journey and how I had slowed the fan and allowed it to spin back up. This seemed to impress her. She agreed that the fan was at fault and agreed to replace it.

This is where we hit the first snag. She offered to send out a repair technician. I suggested if she would just send me the fan I would replace it. After all I am the President of the Kokomo PC Users Group. (Did I mention that in my day job I am an IT professional?). She began to scan through her catalog in search of a part number for my CPU fan.

A few minutes later she gave up and put me on hold. A few minutes later she returned with the part number. She sent it out via Airborne Express and gave me a confirmation number that I dutifully wrote down in my spiral notebook. She also instructed me to send back the old one. (I assume they don’t want me to go into the used fan business.)

When the part arrived my wife opened the box - decided she didn’t want anything to do with it - and set it aside for me when I got home. (This process ensured that I would have no idea if any small parts were lost or just not included when the unit was shipped.)

When I found time to work on the Computer the first thing I did was open the case and draw a nice diagram of how everything was hooked up. (Yes, I drew it in the spiral notebook so I would not lose it.) I sketched the position of the fan, the position of the wires and the color code of the connector. I matched this with the layout of the new fan and everything looked right.

I removed the old fan. The fan just snaps into a small alcove in the back of the case. I checked the orientation of the new fan about ten times to make sure the air was blowing the right way. I routed the cable just like the old one. (Although the cable was about half an inch shorter than the old one it fit reasonably well.) I plugged in the cable and noticed that the color code was different. (I finally decided that a keyed connector was probably more reliable than a color code for something as simple as a fan.)

I cranked up the power and was greeted by blissful silence. The new fan was very quiet. I checked to see that it was blowing the right way and was happy to see that it was.

Now I needed to send back the old fan. The box and packing materials were fine, but there was no return address label or RMA (Return Material Authorization) number. Big companies get very upset if you send them things for no reason. The RMA number tells the people on the receiving dock what to do with the item you are returning. It also prevents their system from sending you nasty-grams telling you to return the item or you will be billed.

I called the Dell support number again. This time I tried selecting Customer Service from the phone menu. I told the representative what had happened and that I needed an RMA number and a shipping label. He said that they would send it out ASAP.

In about two days I not only got my RMA number and shipping label, but the shipping was pre-paid and I was authorized to have Airborne Express come to my house to pick it up. Cool!

The rest is history. Dell got my noisy fan. I have a nice new quiet one. My wife is happy with the new computer. Life is good.

If you have an exciting story of computer repair - or even a dull one - please share your experiences with us by writing a newsletter article and sending it to me. You will provide a great benefit to the Group and save me a few hours of typing.

Mark Pendergast

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CELLULAR PHONES & YOUR COMPUTER

Are you ready to connect to the internet wherever you are at. You can be and at much less cost than you think.

First step is choosing your cell phone provider. I took quite a lot of time looking at the different providers out there and getting the answers I needed. Don’t depend on what a salesperson locally will tell you as chances are it’s wrong. I picked up literature and called the providers 800 numbers and finally settled on Verizon Wireless as they covered more of the territory I was interested in. I chose the America’s Choice program as I travel and was going to be out west several months. Most of the other providers could be fine if you plan to stay in your local area. I took the $35.00 a month plan which gives me 300 minutes on the regular time 7 AM to 9 PM on weekdays and 3000 minutes after 9 PM on Friday to 7 AM on Monday morning. I have yet to even come close to using up my minutes so far.

Now lets look at the phones, I chose a Motorola Star Tec flip phone which was one of the few that are set up for the connectivity to a computer. Note this is not the program to pick up the internet directly on the cell phone which you have to pay extra for and which the sales people will tell you is the only way to get there. With the correct phone, connectivity kit and soft ware you can get there and not pay any extra charges except the regular airtime for when you are using your phone. The software seems to be different for the different brands and so far I like the Motorola the best of any I have seen.

Now we have the phone, service and have bought the proper kit for our phone and only have to put the included CD into the slot. I found that it started on its own and I only had to follow a few simple instructions and I was set up. You will need to put the numbers for your internet provider into the program and this may change as you move about the country or you can use the included long distance of your phone program and let it dial back to your home area. Once your are on the net you can go anywhere you normally can go. I have found that since the modem speed is a slow 14.4 that some sites will not seem to work as well as they should. I found that I could go out on AOL and other high end sites without much trouble.

Verizon Wireless also offers a program called Quick2Net, this is included in the connectivity kit at no extra cost. It is a service provider on its own and no other internet provider is needed anytime you are connected to Verizion Wireless. I have found this to be the easiest method to connect to the net and it seems to drop out the least of any the servers.

I used this system this past summer on our trip to Rapid City, South Dakota and found that I could connect without much trouble around the large cities. In areas of less population where only analog service is offered it will not work. It requires a digital service and thus you must chose a tri mode phone and a server who offers digital in most of its area.

The cost of the connectivity kit from Verizon was $69.99 and the other cost is only your air time. I enjoy using this service.

By Gene Sturdevant

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Excel quick tip

If you drag to select multiple column headers in Excel you can use the right click pop-up menu to set all the formatting the same.

My favorite trick is to select all the columns of a section and set the column width .

This ensures that all the columns look the same width for your table.

It is also a good way to adjust all the columns to ensure they fit on a page. Just do a print preview and then adjust the width. Repeat this operation until the columns all fit.

Mark Pendergast

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