Don't Be Beaten by the Ink Cartridge

If there's one thing guaranteed to flummox half the office staff for a whole morning, it's going to be the changing of an ink cartridge in a printer or copier. God forbid you should be the one on the printer when the light comes on to tell you the ink cartridge is running low!

If this is you, then there are two options. You can either a) do what men do and retreat, whistling, as if you changed your mind and didn't want to print after all or b) take the bull by the horns, so to speak, and attempt to change the ink cartridge yourself.

How difficult can it be, I hear you ask. Well, first you have to find the right flap. You will go through a sequence of flaps from paper feeder through to paper storage to one that displays all the scary inner workings of a printer. Eventually, you will find a flap with idiot instructions on the inside. This will be a simple drawing of how to change an ink cartridge.

Except, of course, the picture won't represent anything that looks like your printer unless you tilt your head upside down, stand on one leg and squint. You begin by reading the written instructions in conjunction with trying to associate the pictures to what appears before you, swiftly giving up the latter. Basically, it will tell you to pop one out and pop the other in.

What it doesn't tell you is that it will take a degree in mechanics to get this last one out! Operations that are meant to be simple will need to be carried out by the flick of several small plastic clips which will immediately snap off in your fingers leaving the cartridge well and truly wedged. After a spell of trying to do it properly, you will then resort to wedging in plastic rulers and pens in an attempt to prize it from its location.

Bits of snapped off stationary are often responsible for printer blockages and will lead to some very loud tut tutting by printer engineers who come out on expensive call, amid what they would have you believe is a very busy schedule, and who will make it look easy. They will pick out the bits of pen, change the cartridge, look at you like you are dense and charge you an extortionate fee for the trouble.

To avoid this, most office staff will learn quickly from the pen incident and in future continue attempts at the instructions. Any fly on any office wall will tell you that you can sit back and watch one person struggling with cartridge replacement on a printer for a short period and they will soon be joined by a plethora of people that all know how to do it.

"Come here, let me have a go" is an oft bandied about phrase. They will do exactly the same as the last attemptee, but help by reading the instructions louder and slower. If it's a man looking to help a damsel in distress he will take off his jacket, roll up his sleeves and go in like he's about to perform brain surgery, demanding ruler, pen, any long, strong object and a swab for the sweat on his forehead.

Whenever an ink cartridge needs replacing, the simple answer is to call the oldest, most experienced woman in the office. With an air of confidence she will click, slap and generally be pretty heavy handed with various parts of the printer in a well practiced sequence. You will have fresh ink in no time with barely a drop of spillage.

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What to Do When Your Computer Freezes Up

Do not panic, if you can believe it, a computer freezes up in the modern world every 40 seconds, which means you will have someone joining you soon. Keep calm and try to figure out what you last did. Tapping on the keyboard and wildly swinging your mouse around will not help the situation much. If your keyboard is still responsive, try to ALT-TAB and see whether you can end the problem program. Usually it would be earmarked with something like 'not responding' tagged to its status on the task bar. If your keyboard is locked up, see whether or not you can move your mouse around. If the answer is a yes, then try to move it to the restart button, or try to right click and shut down some programs.

Well, these are the options that you have if your keyboard and mouse are still functioning. If you are tapping your keyboard and you get a beeping sound, then the entire system has locked you out, meaning Windows has gone into a freeze state that is irreparable. You will have no choice but to find your manual reset button (usually next to the power button on your CPU's tower) and flick your computer back to life. This article is more of a venture into the root of the problem and surveys around the world have revealed a single problem to this one woe of computer users all over the world - the registry of Windows.

What is the registry? The registry is the nexus of the Windows operating system, where all commands are written within its matrix. Windows uses it as a log book of all the activities that happen within the OS as well as an instruction book to execute programs and launch sensitive .DLL and system files. Normally, if all goes well and the registry is intact, bad program launches and system freezes will not happen. But of course, this is not a perfect world, and the computer as well as the end user is not perfect as well. In the end of the day, the registry can get bombarded from many different angles, which include viruses and worms, which infiltrate the registry and leave malicious command lines and false embedded keys inside.

They can also be attacked by malware which has the same effect. Bad program installs and uninstalls can leave negative zero values, orphan keys and bad command lines within its matrix; and these are just some of the problems that can arise. In summary, these bad hats within the registry can and will confuse the Windows operating system, which will lead to problems like crashes and of course systems hangs. The best way to prevent yourself from these problems is for you to get a reliable anti virus, anti malware/spyware program as well as a good registry cleaner. These three in combination will give you a speedy machine with minimal hiccups, leaving you without a situation of what to do when your computer freezes up.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Logan_Albright

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The Best Windows XP Registry Fix

There is no one best Windows XP registry fix, I think you have plenty of options when it comes to choosing registry cleaners for Windows XP. Hundreds are available online, and it is up to your own inquisitiveness to choose which is the best, weigh their features and in some cases their price - and make that decision to download. Why all the hype about the Windows Registry? Well for many important reasons. The registry was written to simplify the entire computing process, even from the simpler Windows 95 machines that were around not so long ago.

The reason for this is that the amount of data executions that a computer goes through a day is enormous and engineers over at Microsoft realised that they needed an efficient way to track all the activities of the Operating System as well as have a sort of 'instruction guide' for launching the thousands of different configured programs out there. Not to get too technical, there are many shared .DLL or system files that Windows and other programs use to launch themselves, and with the expansion of Flash, Java, Active X and other third party systems, it has gotten pretty complicated.

While it would not be a problem for Windows to 'remember' what goes where, a compartmentalised filing system with all this data would be extremely messy, so engineers needed a consolidated core where all activities of the operating system would be logged in. This would include program installs, uninstalls, removal and installation of hardware, changes to the OS, program updates - you get the picture.

It would also be filled with command line instructions, written in code, of how certain programs are launched. So it would be a sort of a log book as well as a guide Windows can refer to whenever it needs. The problem with having everything in such a vulnerable singular location, is that it is an easy target for nefarious software as well as more prone to the normal wear and tear of computer use.

The flip side of this is that it would be much easier to track where problems came from and repair them with a single tool. Having a registry has its ups and downs, but the philosophy behind it is pretty good. It is an efficient filing system, in one location that maintains the integrity of the OS and everything in it, as well as a memory bank of all activities in the OS.

To maintain its function, you would need to fine tune it and send it for clean up once in a while, because problems in the registry are common and have been linked to some common problems; which include computer hands in XP, slowdowns and even outright crashes. What is the best Windows XP registry fix? The answer lies in the quality of registry cleaner that you get. Looking at the feature list, the ease of use and the history behind the program are guaranteed indications whether or not you have a quality product in your hands.

Click Here when windows are unable to load registry. Logan Albright helps thousands of people optimize their computers through a proper computer check up. He is an authority on troubleshooting computer problems at http://www.pcaholic.com.

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Increasing Computer Speed the Hassle-Free Way

We all want to be able to squeeze some extra juice from our computers and today, this write up will talk about how you can go about increasing computer speed the hassle free way. You do not need to spend hundreds and even thousands of dollars on new parts for your computer. If you are looking to eek out just a little more computing horsepower from under the hood, then there are certain things you can do which are cheap and hassle free.

One is to discover the true potential of your CPU and microchip - the heart of the motherboard in your system. Over clocking has become something of an easy past time for computer aficionados all over the world and with software tools and built in OC devices in computers, the hassle and trouble associated with over clocking a computer has literally disappeared. With some thought to extra cooling, anyone can start to ramp up the speed of their computer cores a little at a time. Once you get the hang of it and understand the complexities of your machine through the easy use of an over clocking software, you will be able to increase the performance of your CPU within moments.

Same goes for your graphics card and this is even easier as they come with stock software programs that can increase the speed ob the memory and core clocks with just a flick of a slider. Just remember that cooling is really important; make sure you purchase some cheap fans or ventilate your CPU. Purchase some memory as well, with memory prices becoming more and more affordable for the average consumer, it is a no brainer to increase RAM by a few gigs at a cost of less than $50 dollars. This is an excellent way to increase the computer speed, by giving it more virtual memory to play around with and keep programs running smoothly. On the software side of things, there are certain things you need to take note of. You need to maintain the performance of your OS and computer by doing certain tasks routinely. First and foremost, clean up your computer often as you can; this means deleting unwanted programs and start up software.

Make sure you defragment your hard disks at least once a month; nothing can slow a computer down to a crawl, especially when loading programs than a fragmented hard disk. It takes only a bit of your time, and if you have particularly large hard disks, all you need to do is load up the already available defragmenting software and leave in running for a few hours. Also, invest some money in a good anti virus and anti spyware program, malware and Trojans can not only slow down your computer, but do more harmful things to the sensitive data on it. One last thing you can do is to download a good registry cleaner - maintaining a healthy registry is one of the crucial aspects of a smooth running computer; Windows uses the registry for almost all of its day to day operations.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Logan_Albright

Secrets of Your Computer's Motherboard

While not science fiction, the motherboard in your computer does have some similarities with the idea of a mother ship in old science fiction movies. The motherboard is the one piece of equipment in your computer that ties everything else together in a workable manner. It is the piece of the computer that allows all other computer components to receive power and to communicate with one another to deliver the desired result when you give the computer a command.

Motherboards have developed over the past twenty years from where they started when first created. Back then, the motherboard held little in the way of components. Floppy drive controllers and memory slots comprised just about all that a motherboard held. Now, motherboards boast a variety of features that have been built in and directly affect the capability of your computer to be upgraded. This capability is mandatory when considering the speed at which operating systems change and evolve as end users require more from the desktop and laptop computers.

The main purpose of the motherboard is to hold the computer's microprocessor chip and then direct everything else connect to that chip. Everything that runs on your computer is either part of the motherboard or it plugs into the motherboard to be routed to the chip in order for it to be able to run.

The form factor, which is the shape and layout of the motherboard, affects where the components of your computer go and the shape of the computer's case. Most motherboards use some form of standard form factors in order to fit into standard cases in computer models today.

While the form factor is important to the motherboard, it isn't the only thing that controls how your computer works with the motherboard. The type of central processor your computer uses is determined by the socket for the microprocessor on the motherboard. The chipset, which is part of the logic system on a motherboard, connect the central processing unit to the rest of the computer. The BIOS chip controls the most basic checks on the computer every time you turn it on and does so from the motherboard. The real time clock chip maintains these basic settings and the time for the system.

Motherboards also contain slots for PCI, AGP, IDE, firewires, USB, and memory slots. Every one of these items requires a working motherboard in order to get power to run as expected by the end user. Each of these slots are necessary for computer operations to function in today's world of internet and business applications. Without these vital functions built into the motherboard, the average user could not conduct meaningful business in the competitive aspect of today's society.

New technologies are being added to motherboards all the time. They are not scary pieces of equipment to be avoided, but rather an integral part of your computer that enhances your computer using experience. It can be upgraded to fit your needs with little trouble and operates on a constant basis to deliver what you expect in your computer.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Victor_Epand

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