Ever have blinking lights on your inkjet or laser printer that just will not go away? Ever install a new ink cartridge in your printer and it still thinks the old one is there? Well, instead of just getting angry at the printer or hunting around for your manual, you can try one simple thing: unplug it.
This technique has a few names that all mean the same thing: cycling the printer, resetting the printer or clearing the printer’s memory. Now unplugging your printer may seem like a low-tech solution to complex problems, and in reality it is. But, for problems like blinking error lights it is the only solution and also, it is typically the first one that will be recommended to you by a technician working for HP, Lexmark, Epson etc. They will recommend it right away if you install a new cartridge and it is registering as empty. If your printer isn’t registering it full, then that means it still thinks the old cartridge is in there and the memory needs to be cleared by unplugging it.
The first thing to remember about this solution is that unplugging the printer is not the same as turning the printer off. If you have error messages or cartridge communication problems, then turning off the printer is not going to do anything. It has to be physically unplugged from the wall or the back of the printer itself (you don’t have to unplug the printer from the computer). The second and most important thing is that the printer must be unplugged for at least one minute. It takes at least one minute for all the electricity to be cut off from the printer to allow it to completely reset and clear its memory. If you just unplug it for a few seconds, when it comes back on it is going to pick up right where it left off.
While this technique will not fix every problem, it is still a very quick and easy solution to a lot of annoying printer problems and it is always the best place to start when one of those problems arises.
Rabu, 24 Desember 2008
A Tip For Solving Most Printer Errors
Which Printer Manufacturer Should You Choose?
A question people frequently ask is "which brand of printers is the best?" The main manufacturers for inkjet and laser printers are Hewlett Packard, Epson, Canon, Brother, Lexmark, and Dell. Without picking one clear winner, here is a rundown of each one and some pros and cons of each:
Hewlett Packard - there is a reason that this name is synonymous with inkjet printers, laser printers and inkjet cartridges in general. HP has long been the leader of the printing industry in terms of size and selection of their machines and printer ink. But just because HP is the biggest does not mean they are the best. Something that has grown in popularity is individual printer ink cartridges for each color. From both an environmental and an economical standpoint, people like the idea of just replacing one individual color when it runs out instead of having to buy a whole new cartridge. This is something that HP was slow to adapt and they just recently introduced it on some of their Photosmart printers. At the same time, HP has also been decreasing the amount of ink in their cartridges. Their previous printer cartridges held anywhere from 20-40 ml of ink, while their newest cartridges hold as little as 5 ml in some cases. The cost of printing can still be low for HP users who do their own refilling, but it will mean more frequent refills for customers. So, as a trade-off for a vast selection and other benefits, you must consider the long term costs of operating an HP printer before buying.
* Pros - availability, dependability, name recognition
* Cons - no individual ink cartridges on almost all models, long term costs
Epson - along with Canon, Epson spearheaded the do-it-yourself photo printing movement with their collection of Stylus Photo printers. With Epson printers, you are going to find a large selection of photo machines and a good amount of entry level and high end machines. Epson has a limited number of multifunction inkjet printers, but the models that they do have are usually pretty popular and well-received. Based on customer feedback over the years, we have found that some Epson printers can require a little more maintenance than their counterparts in regards to running cleaning cycles for the print cartridges. So, this is something to consider when buying an entry level model from Epson. One downside with Epson is that you are unable to refill their ink cartridges.
* Pros - good photo printing, individual ink cartridges
* Cons - some maintenance issues, can't refill cartridges, machine may not last forever
Canon - Typically, Canon users are the most loyal to their brand. There was a period when Canon had a relatively small selection compared to other major brands, but the inkjet printers that they did have were always very popular. Most of the time, the top photo printer on the market will be a Canon model. For a while now, Canon has had individual ink tanks for their machines, and in general they have the lowest overall cost per page. Although their selection of inkjet and photo printers has grown recently, Canon still seems to prefer quality over quantity. So just know that although you might see a limited number of Canon printers in your local stores, what is available is likely of top quality. One downside is that there are some Canon inkjet cartridges that cannot be refilled. So for the newer machines the only product available is Canon brand ink.
* Pros - excellent photo printing, reliability
* Cons - some lack of selection/availability of machines
All Others - the three other main manufacturers of printers are Dell, Lexmark and Brother. Dell has become a big player in the market, simply because of their ability to sell directly to such a large number of people. Both Lexmark and Dell (who has Lexmark manufacturer products for them) tend to focus on inkjet and multifunction machines, so if you are looking for a photo printer then they are most likely not the manufacturers for you. Lexmark does have a selection of some quality all-in-one machines, but both the machines and the products for them can be hard to find. Also, Lexmark/Dell currently do not have individual ink tanks for their machines, so even with our remanufactured cartridges the cost of ink can be as high or higher than Hewlett Packard's. The good news is that you are able to use ink refill kits on Dell/Lexmark ink cartridges or have them recycled, so there are some benefits to their cartridges. Brother tends to focus more on laser printers and fax machines, so their selection for home users is pretty limited. Like Lexmark, they do manufacturer some quality all-in-one machines, but their lack of selection and availability is one downside.
Work_Grew.A” Virus, Threat, Hype Or Dud And Its Impact
The Worm_Grew.A Virus Got Allot Of Attention
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The 3rd has come and gone. What has been the real effect or impact of the “WORM_GREW.A (Also know as Nyxem, BlackMal, MyWife, and so on)” virus? For weeks there has been tons of warnings, in the news, print, e-zines, you name the forum and it has been a discussion topic. Current information indicates that the WORM_GREW.A virus has not caused mass destruction as promised or suspected. I’m sure some of those 600,000 or so suspected infected computers were impacted, but who really knows at this point.
Viruses Can Impact You In Various Ways
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There is one thing I do know however; Even if the BlackMal virus has not done as much physical damage as predicted, it has done a good deal of indirect damage. Think about how much time corporate technical people have spent preparing for the possibilities, making sure their enterprise anti-virus solution is functioning properly, the time devoted to discussing and planning for disaster recovery in the event a direct impact is realized. What about all the home and small business people stressed about the doom looming over their computers head in the form of a “possible” destructive and wide spread infection.
How Do You Know If Your Business Is Protected Against Viruses
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A business associate of mine recently worked on a project in which he performed a complete infrastructure upgrade for a document / information heavy business. During the upgrade, he found that the anti-virus solution they were using was not functioning properly, had not updated its virus signatures for eight months, and on top of this, their very expensive tape backup solution had not been working for about as long. The customer kept changing the tapes, but they were blank. Just imagine what would have happened if they had not had this upgrade done, and an effective anti-virus and tape backup solution put back in place. If they had contracted this virus it could have not only shut them down for a period of time, it very well may have cost them huge financial losses or worse.
Virus Threat, Hype, or Somewhere in Between
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Do I think this particular virus scare is a product of a real threat, fueled by hype, or a dud? Quite frankly I think it has been a little of all three. The threat was / is definitely real, the hype was all over the media and other information outlets, and as far as being a dud, if you analyze it using the equation threat+hype= impact, maybe.
I think what really has set this virus apart from recent malware / threats, is its destructive capabilities. Many malware developers have moved away from creating destructive worms and viruses in favor of creating cash generating malware. There’s no money in it for them if they just blow up your system.
Conclusion
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It’s quite interesting, the parallel between how we deal with threats and risks in our personal lives, and that of the technology world. Many of us only prepare for a negative or damaging event shortly before the event takes place. That is if we have been warned with time to prepare. The bottom line is we can never let our guard down. Consistency, persistence, awareness, and preparedness need to be in the forefront of our minds.
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Recycling Inkjet Cartridges
It is estimated that roughly 350 million cartridges end up in landfills every year. Obviously this is a staggering number, but what is upsetting about it is that number could easily be greatly reduced. If everyone made an effort to recycle their cartridges in some way, either through a recycling service or just by refilling and reusing the cartridges themselves, we would not face such an ugly statistic. Here are some other reasons why recycling inkjet and laser toners is a good idea:
* It is estimated that between 80-90% of cartridges are simply thrown in the trash.
* The number of cartridges ending up in landfills increases by more than 10% annually.
* A brand new laser cartridge requires 3/4 of a gallon of oil to be produced.
* Discarded cartridges still have small amounts of ink in them which can leak into the ground.
In addition to environmental benefits, there are also economic benefits to a consumer when they recycle. In general, if fewer ink cartridges are thrown away and more empty cartridges are available for remanufacturing or refilling, then prices will go down. There is an increased economic benefit to customers if they keep the cartridges and recycle or reuse them themselves. The best way for consumers to save on ink is to refill their own cartridges. You can typically refill an inkjet cartridge three times before it fully wears out. If you use a refill kit, it usually works out to be about $3 or $4 per refill. Add up those numbers over the course of six months or a year and you realize what a huge savings refilling can be. Then, once the cartridge is worn out and cannot be refilled anymore, you can have it professionally recycled.
There are other options outside of just throwing your printer cartridges away:
* You can have them professionally refilled for you through the mail.
* You can take them to your local office store, as most should accept them and many even have a promotion where they give you something in exchange for your cartridge.
* Many times local schools will collect empty cartridges for fundraisers.
* If all else fails, you can contact your local sanitation department to see if they have a special recycling location where products like ink cartridges can be dropped off.
Hopefully after reading this you will realize that there are plenty of alternatives to throwing away empty ink cartridges. If you don’t want to reuse them yourself, then there is always somebody out there who will accept them from you. And as you can see from the statistics we quoted, with that much potential environmental damage happening every year, it really makes sense to make some kind of effort to keep these cartridges out of the trash.
Senin, 22 Desember 2008
Spyware – What Is It? Why Should You Care?
Not many disagree that the expansion of the internet and technology related to advances with the various aspects of interacting on the internet continues to accelerate at a dizzying pace. As with most advances, with the good side, also comes a not so good – dark side. More than ever, the criminal element continues to make great strides in finding ways to perpetrate mischief, mayhem, and mal-intended scams.
One of the latest growing ways criminals have employed to profit at the expense of unsuspecting internet users is the spread of spyware viruses. Spyware and adware quickly are becoming all too prevalent for anyone. It has become vitally important that everyone take precautions to protect themselves from the malicious effects through the use of virus protection software.
Spyware: What Is It?
By definition, a spyware virus includes a wide variety of virus, some of which are the good kind; some are relatively harmless in nature. For example some spyware programs are “documenters, or scribes” if you will. Their primary purpose is to keep a record of basic information on users’ activities. This can include such things as what websites and other actions you have taken over a period of time. This allows the program to target your IP address with advertisements (many of which are popups) that are related to the theme of the sites you frequent. Giving you what you want, based on where you visit on the internet is the general method for this type of spyware. Again, being a nuisance is the primary offense of this type of virus.
Spyware: Why Should I Care?
Spyware’s “evil cousin” is not so virtuous and clearly much more harmful. These types seek to target financial related information (all personal and private information of course), using the information for criminal purposes. Identity theft is the more common example of this type of spyware virus. The sheer number of attacks, severity of the attacks is growing at alarming rates.
And just when we thought identity theft was bad enough, another type of spyware virus is growing with even more damaging effects. These are essentially key logger programs. This type of spyware is designed to capture highly sensitive data (account numbers and passwords to online banking, financial records, etc.) by recording actual keystrokes by a user on the keyboard. This data is collected and reported back to the author – who in turn uses the information or gives the information to others to undertake criminal actions to steal all they can using this information.
What Can I Do?
By far, the best protection one can use against these kinds of spyware viruses is to obtain (and maintain) a reputable anti virus software program, combined with a good anti spyware program and spyware removal tool. More and more anti virus programs are incorporating spyware detection and removal into their products. However, many still feel that to be 100% safe, it is best to install several different products at once. Of course the best way to keep those spyware viruses off your computer is to run your anti virus software and spyware removal programs: 1) with the option of “real time coverage” whenever possible, and 2) run on a daily basis. Each program will then report back on problems it has found giving users the option of how to handle anything found.
It does not take much thought when you hear the horror stories of unsuspecting internet users who have “lost everything” because of the effects of spyware in its various forms to realize you must be proactive. To ignore the warnings of internet security experts and reports of the damage caused by spyware is truly a formula for disaster. Don’t let yourself be the next victim.
Hard Drive Crash Prevention And Recovery Tips
The hard drive in our computers right now stores all of our data, and our computer could not function without it. There would be no World Wide Web, email or even an operating system without hard drives. Since hard drives are so important, a hard drive crash is without a doubt the biggest problem that someone could face on their computer.
Hard drive crashes can happen for many reasons, and usually the owner is not to blame. One reason your hard drive can crash is because of a hard ware problem. See your hard drive is a magnetic disc that spins and has an extended arm hovering over it, to access any area, and collect the data. If the motor overheats and stops spinning or the arm fails to function, then your hard drive will crash and not be accessible at all.
Another way for your hard drive to crash is from corrupt system files, registry files and viruses. Viruses come in many forms as spy ware, ad ware, in emails and many other places all over the web. I recommend a good virus protection program from McAfee or Norton to stop those viruses and prevent your hard drive from crashing.
Now let’s say your hard drive has crashed, how do you determine the problem and can it be fixed? Well determining whether the hard drive crash is mechanical of software related is actually pretty easy. The flashing light on front of your computer case, that blinks when the computer is busy, is a good tool to determine the problem. If you see the LED light flashing, but the computer will not boot up, then most likely it is a software related problem, which means an operating system glitch or a virus of some sort. Lucky for you this usually can be fixed and all of your files can be saved, but I recommend only letting a professional try and fix it since the average person might find it to difficult unless they have experience in formatting hard drives.
Worst case scenario is if you don’t see the LED light flashing in the front of your computer case, this means your hard drive has not activity which basically means it is a mechanical problem. A mechanical problem in your hard drive can be fixed, but I imagine it is pretty expensive. It is cheaper to get a new hard drive then to fix it, but of course if you have important data stored on the broken hard drive that you must get back, then you really have no choice but to have a professional fix it. You local computer store should have the expertise to repair it, but if not just ask them who can.
I should point out also though, that advanced hardware and software standards in today’s hard drives tell you when your drive is about to crash and gives you time to back up your important files.
Overall, the best way to stop your hard drive from crashing is to not neglect it and take care of it. The most important care tip is to make sure you defragment your hard drive at least once a month. Your operating system should come with a defragmenting program that is easy to use. Performing a defragment on your hard drive basically takes your data and organizes it into more convenient places so that the mechanical arm can access data faster and with the least amount of movement.
Another way to protect your hard drive from crashes is to purchase a good virus scanner, preferably by McAfee or Norton, and keep protection tools enabled and perform a full system scan of every file on your hard drive once a month.
Some other minor precautions that you can take are to enforce a SPAM guard on your emails and delete your temporary internet files every once in awhile. You should also keep your operating system up to date by downloading updates for it as soon as they come out. Windows makes this easy, but I am not sure how easy other operating systems make this or if they even provide this option.
If you are a person who downloads a lot of files from the internet, then you need to exercise caution in what you choose to download, as hard drive crashes are commonly associated with faulty software from unknown sources on the net.
Of course the best way to save you a headache if a hard drive crash happens is to back up your data regularly. Data loss is the reason a hard drive crash is so hurtful, so if you back up your data daily or whenever you work on it, then if a crash happens you will have no sweat on your back. I recommend you save your files to a rewritable CD/DVD or floppy disc as soon as you get done working on it, especially if the data is business related.
Make a Photo Collage with Style
Have you been trying to get a simple and practical photo editing tool? Have you been creating a photo collage with style?Wondershare Photo Collage Studio is a new digital photo collage utility that assembles favourite photos into an artistic compilation. With Photo Collage Studio, you can make great-looking photo collages, either quickly and easily - with templates, or creatively - with rich animated/static cliparts to choose from. And each masterpiece can printed over and over again. Truth to tell - I enjoy using it.
Some may ask: I have Photoshop; why do I need any other software to work with images? What's good about this Photo Collage Studio? Here's my opinion: Photo Collage Studio provides an alternative way for those people who would like to edit their photos, but would rather not spend time on some hard-to-master software like PhotoShop. In PhotoShop, you may need several steps to add mask or set an appropriate shadow. But in Photo Collage Studio, just select a sample, then with a click you can see the same effect right away. You may also see the detailed merits as following:
1. Drag and Drop - Want to turn your favorite photos & pictures into amazing standouts? You must have many memorable photos taking on various occasions,does it ever occur to you that, just a few clicks, you can touch up them even more? With Wondershare Photo Collage Studio, the process can be easier! This powerful software can instantly locate your photo in hard disk, all you need to do just drag and drop it to the main interface of software, and then decorate it with photo frames and mask effect. Simple and Practical!
2. Get Creative - Want to add more fun to photo & picture with you imagination? Photo Collage Studio allows you to resize and rotate photos & pictures, lighten up them with clipart and word arts, etc. This software also provides multiple selectable photo frames sorted in various themes, such as holiday templates, art templates and plant templates; completed with special mask effects, you can turn a so-so picture a work of art!
3. Print, Email and Wallpaper - What's the better ways to enjoy and share your masterpiece? Photo Collage Studio offers several ways to help distribute and share them. It can automatically attach the newly created photo & picture to your email or save it as wallpaper to personalize your despot; it can also print your collage at virtually any size. Those distribution methods make your works more available to your family and friends.
The trial version of Photo Collage Studio will place a water mark on the output. You may download it for a free trial at http://www.photo-collage-software.com, just feel free to make wallpapers or personal photo collages - that’s very easy and, I dare say, kinda addictive. Print or email your collages to your friends and family who'll think you're a genius for creating them!
Enjoy !