Home Recipes to Save Computers

Sometimes we find problems in our computers that we cannot immediately diagnose or solve.

We found that, in those occasions, there is a sort of standard procedure that usually leads to success.

You can follow these steps in any order you want and, to save your resources, you should stop when the problem is solved.

1. Run sfc/scannow from the command prompt;
2. Run chkdsk/f/r from the command prompt;
3. Run an antivirus program, then an anti-spyware program, then an anti-adware program, preferably all of them the best available, or run an anti-malware program, the best available, since this one should detect all previously mentioned problems (viruses, spying programs and malign programs that come in the shape of uninvited ads);
4. If the problem you are having is also with the Internet, then test the connection with the Internet provider first, so say use the command ping at the command prompt. You can ping any site you like, so say you ping Google, just because it has one of the strongest signals on the Internet, and you then type ping 74.125.227.112;
5. If the ping returns general failure or timed out, there is a chance the problem is with your provider (not passing the signal to you), you must repeat the test a few times and perhaps test a few other sites, say yahoo (106.10.212.150);
6. If the ping returns 100% success, then it is likely to be a problem with the browser you are using, so that you must test different browsers and choose the best one available for you;
7. You can also simply reinstall the browser, since there is malware that affects only the browser;
8. If nothing works (1 to 7), then you should try to reinstall the operational system (last resource because nowadays you have to backup everything. In the past, you could simply reinstall, so that we could be reinstalling everything again with no fear. Nowadays, the OS installation may lead to losing all data previously stored in the machine).

If you use this recipe and it works for you, please come back and print on this page that you love us. That helps us on a certain level. If you are unable to do that, please buy one of our online courses or books, that is, do something that matters to us in return. A compliment somewhere also helps if it is meaningful, say a written compliment on our service provision or on our work. Even reassuring others that we have solved a scientific problem through your scientific paper helps.

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Internet Navigators

The name navigator is really good for our purposes: We navigate on the sea of data or bits when we go to the Internet. It appeared because of the Netscape Navigator, from Netscape Communications.

Some people could say that we browse The Web with our navigators and therefore they are browsers but we may call Google and Lycos browsers instead of search machines/engines and we then will feel confused about the words.

We would like to tell you that we have some interesting options in what regards this tool, which is pretty much basic: We tend to think that we cannot really get into the Internet without a navigator.

For that, we first mention a few problems that come with them and are non-negligible: how quickly we can browse through the Internet, how efficiently, how vulnerable our privacy is, how much we can control in terms of security in general, etc.

The most complete these days are probably Comodo Dragon from Comodo, Firefox from Mozilla and Edge from Microsoft.

There is a growing interest in the navigators Opera and Google Chrome, one from Mozilla (Opera) and the other from Google.

The older a navigator, the better: All new pieces of software should contain more bugs than the old pieces of software, if we talk about conscientious companies. 

About two months ago, we tried to run Linkedin inside of the MS Internet Explorer but it did not work very well, even though we could still do something: The interface became really messy.

At the moment, Comodo seems to be doing better than all other navigators we here have mentioned.

In order to choose a navigator, you probably should test a few things at some Internet cafes and places like that: navigability (does it open all sites I usually visit in the expected way?), options (can I use my normal settings with it? We here talk about disallowing cookies, using certificates and things like that), difficulties to start (some take really long compared to others) and close it, downloads and difficulties involved (do we get a .pdf-reader program being started as we click over a .pdf file? Some navigators oblige us to download the .pdf to our machines and then open it instead), tools (can we look for a term on a page easily? Some navigators do not have an easy way to look for a word inside of a page, so that you would have to go manually or download the page and then search it using an application inside of your machine), looks (you want something that does not annoy your eyes, where you can have letters being as huge as necessary, for instance, also on the tabs of the own navigator) and others.

If you are not that lucky on the Internet and you have to continuously investigate possibilities of malware and things like that, you'd better have a few navigators to count on, since only in this way you can see if the problem is with the navigator (and it then might be a bug of the own program, say something that the systems analysts did not think of, or a virus that sticks exclusively to that sort of navigator) or with the own Internet, for instance.

You should then worry about having independent navigators, so that having Opera and Firefox is not as wise as having Netscape and Firefox.

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Frozen Browser: The Freezers

We have recently encountered an interesting problem: One of our browsers (Firefox) was getting stuck, like it would park at the provider’s page and would not move from there. 

We knew we were owing nothing to the provider and things worked fine when we opened our other browser, so that it had to do with Firefox.

We tried all our current resources (anti-virus program, malware program, etc.) but nothing was being able to detect the problem.

We then finally run a cleaner on our computer and Firefox came back to life.

We got rid of cookies and other temporary files plus a few others.

Upon performing a multicriteria comparative analysis, we concluded that it had been either the cookies or the temporary files.

Whenever we have the same problem since back then, we run the cleaner and it all works fine after that.

 Because both the malware and the anti-virus program did not detect anything, we conclude that these freezers are embedded in the cookies or temporary programs as if they were normal items.

 

Because it freezes on the provider’s page, it is likely to be the case that it is using their system to make it happen.

 It must then work with the validation of credentials when we connect.

 The system would usually return a yes but will return a no and not let us navigate without telling us that.

 It only happens with Firefox.

 Our best theory so far is that Firefox allows for a local search in what regards the page of the provider and we are getting a Trojan page somehow as an image of another website that we are probably frequently accessing, which could even be a LinkedIn sort of fake discussion (we got a few of those from one of our human rights groups). 

Anyway, the hint is cleaning the computer whenever you get a freezer.

The program that we have used to clean those temporary files and cookies used to be freely available on the Internet until recently but now one has to pay to have it.

 You can still manually delete all those. 

 You actually can use the own browser to do that almost all the time (it will depend on the browser you have).

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Ink Cartridge: From Company X or From Company Y?

On the 2nd of October of 2013, we were after a certain cartridge for a certain printer for the second time. The printer is called HPDESKJET 930c but the cartridges that we should buy for it are HP 45 and HP 78 (black and other colors). 

The questions that occurred to us, as we went through all the other brands of cartridges, were:

1) Why do they not have an Epson 45 cartridge? Is it possible that they do?

2) This 45 has to do with shape? Why so many shapes? 

3) Why do they have to have one cartridge for color and another for black? That makes it all be so expensive!

These cartridges should cost at most AU$ 20 each, not mattering whether they are black or color. If there were competition, as with all other items of consumption, and Epson also produced a 45 cartridge, then we would be paying what they deserve, that is, at most AU$ 20 per item, so that we should have competition in that area.

We asked the seller that and they answered: You have to buy the number that they say is the number for your printer and only that number will be suitable. We only have one brand for that number, which is the brand of your printer.

Looking for information on the Internet helped with nothing, since the websites look as if they have been written by people on high heights: We were wondering about the numbers, the title refers to the numbers, yet their writing refers to at most the letters!

In a rational world, the number would mean shape and dimensions, like each different number would give us a different geometric shape for the cartridge and a geometric shape that has precisely certain dimensions. In a rational world, all ink cartridges manufacturers would sell all numbers, so that we would have the so healthy (for the consumers) competition. In a rational world, the government would not let the printer manufacturer change the shape of the cartridge without presenting a scientific reason to do that, since that would imply problems for the consumers in terms of supply and the appearance of what could be seen as illicit profit for the manufacturers. 

Epson has got an Epson Stylus c45 (https://www.epson.com.au/products/inkjet/c45.asp). The cartridge used with this one is called T038 (https://www.epson.com.au/products/inkjet/c45_specs.asp) however and is very different from the HP 45 in shape.

HP has got an R45 (http://www.hottoner.com.au/HP-Officejet-R45-Ink-Cartridges-c7474.html). Interesting that, according to the same website, we could be using the HP 45 with this one.

Canon has got a Canon mp45 according to the website http://www.fixya.com/support/t2374764-canon_mp45_printer_refuses_print_using. However, the website of the company seems to tell us that such a model doesn't exist (http://www.canon.com.au/).

Oh, well, all in all, we should fight for our rights also in this area.

Obs.: All the links have been visited on the 18th of November of 2024.

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Please help us keep on inspiring you by acquiring one of our online courses: 

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