Resolving ATI Drivers Installation Problems

By: Logan Albright

ATI is a company that is well known for providing entry-level graphics solutions to many PCs sold all over the world and they are also quite renowned for working with motherboard manufacturers to produce some of the best motherboards out there. But of course, we all know that within the graphics industry, ATI is one of the leading brands out there, jostling for top position with NVIDIA, who arguably holds a larger market share of the consumer graphics solution. Both of these brands are well known for producing cutting edge solutions tailor made for the hard core gamer and sometimes these boards are also generations ahead of even the latest games, which make their longevity even more tantamount.

While most technological computing equipment fall prey to the evolving hyperbole which makes them last 6 months (if you are lucky) before the next better thing comes out, graphics cards have a slightly better half life in the PC casing and ATI is a great choice. However, if you have purchased an ATI graphics card, then you might be one of the few hundred thousand gamers all over the world who might have encountered some driver installation problems when tinkering around with the initial installation.

Do not worry, this is sometimes completely normal and all you need to do is read this article. While it will not resolve major issues like manufacturing errors or corrupt memory modules, some of the simple software problems and driver conflicts can be resolved by you right at home. One of the common problems of driver installation problems is that the end user, in the rush to plug in their new graphics card, has forgotten to follow procedure.

This means they would have to uninstall the old card, shut down the computer, restart to ensure that all trailing device driver and hardware profiles are no longer there, then shut down the computer again. By bypassing this process, many people have problems where the computer either refuses to recognise the new hardware or they are in a position where they list your new card under your previous card’s name, which can be quite pain.

Also, remember to update the drivers by visiting ATI’s website and downloading the latest drivers, because the ones in the box may have been sitting there for months and you might end up with conflicts and problems that already have been resolved by the new drivers.

Lastly, you must download the latest DirectX drivers that Microsoft has posted (especially if you running Windows!) because they are made to optimally use your card’s drivers to their fullest potential. You have to understand that glitches in the game and crashes are down to installation problems where new DirectX drivers are not installed.

If you follow these simple steps, you will have no problem in getting your brand new, cutting edge card in working order and you will be immersed in another world within a few moments. You do not need to lug your card back to the computer store, all it takes is just some tinkering around and everything will be in good order.

Troubleshooting the Top 3 Common HP Drivers Problems

By: Logan Albright

There is a lot of tradition and reliability when one mentions the HP brand, and this is applicable to all the products within the market name. When one thinks of HP, printers, scanners and a whole slew of office equipment will dominate thinking; a company which has successfully branded itself as an all in one solution for office and even personal needs. Many people out there own HP equipment and the one thing they will say to you is that these machines are generally reliable, but with all aspects of technology and the random environments that they categorized, there are often many hiccups that can appear along the way.

While HP has a very strong and competent technical support team, their presence is not always there and sometimes getting to them can prove to be quite difficult, as they have a whole host of customers to deal with. And lugging the piece of machinery down to the local repair man or dealer is also something that can be quite an inconvenience at times.

So you need to be able to solve these problems, or at least some of the simpler problems from the comforts of your home, and the most common ones that occur and are completely solvable at home are software issues and driver problems. One common problem is an outdated driver, which normally comes with the product that you buy. Driver files are often updated every few months and sometimes every few weeks, so you need to make sure you have the latest drivers.

This is done because of changes to the Operating System, like Windows and HP has to adapt and change the drivers to fit the new environment if certain trouble arises from the new shell. Another common problem of course is conflicts that the driver has with other programmes or shared system files within the Windows environment.

This is quite common as we often use equipment and machinery from all sorts of manufacturers and sometimes the design of the drivers, their DLL structure and system files that they share commonly across the board might not be optimal and can conflict with each other. One way to solve this of course is to consult the internet and more than likely, HP itself will have technical forums that will allow you to view common problems and solve them on your own.

They might also release software patches, either for the HP hardware or direct you to the other vendor’s website, where an update driver to resolve this issue might have been posted. The last common problem is driver compatibility with some operating systems, which would mean that some of the features cannot be utilised. Of the top of the list are features like duplex printing, framed printing, which cannot be used for HP printers when they are attached to a LINUX or MAC system. There may be software workarounds for this, or you can simply install Windows as a backup OS on your system.

Basic Explanation of Hyperlink Types

by: Jeyanth Watson

This article deals with the basic classifications of links. Links can be broken into many categories and types, and having the basic knowledge of what each category means is important. This article does not go heavily into actual linking strategies, since that is a far broader subject.

Reciprocal Links

Reciprocal linking is a classic and very common type of link. Also known sometimes as two ways linking, it is basically the process of link trading with other webmasters. It's the whole idea of 'You link to me, and I’ll link to you'. Oftentimes you will see websites with a 'links' page someplace on their site, often buried at the bottom someplace. These pages are filled with various links to other sites that hopefully have something sort of in common with the site you’re visiting.

Reciprocal links are falling somewhat out of fashion lately in favor of one way links, which are considered more powerful, and requiring less maintenance. It is widely thought that the search engines recognize the links are reciprocal ones and give the link somewhat less weight than if it was just a one way incoming link. One other issue with reciprocal linking is that once you setup a reciprocal link with another webmaster, you have to return to their site occasionally to check and make sure your link is still actually there. Overall this is still a powerful way to get links however and should not be overlooked.

One Way Links

One way links are links that are incoming to your site, but are different than reciprocal links in that you don't have an outgoing link back out to the site that linked to you. For instance if I throw up a link to the Google homepage, that’s a one way link to Google. They are not putting a link on their homepage back to here, though wouldn't that be nice! This is essentially the most basic type of linking there is, but it can also be the most powerful.

When the search engines go through someone’s site and see a link to your site, they give weight to your site. When they see that you are not linking straight back to the site that linked you, that you don't have some sort of linking agreement going on, they give it more weight as a link. The assumption is that someone of their own free will linked to your content, and did not require you to link back to them to do it. If that is the case, then your content must be of high quality. Since one way links are so powerful, and don't require any ongoing maintenance, most linking strategies out there today revolve around one way links of some form.

Three Way Links

Three way links are a variation on reciprocal links. However instead of the 'You link to my site, I link to yours' idea, the correct term would be 'You link to my site, I link to yours from a different site of mine'. It's basically a reciprocal link, but your incoming link is coming from some 3rd site instead.

It is thought that the search engines don't particularly care much for three way linking. The thought is that you may be trying to fool the search engines into thinking you are getting a one way link from someplace, when its really just a reciprocal link in disguise. One use of three way linking that is common is for when you have 2 very popular sites, and one brand new one. The idea is that 'I link to your brand new, unpopular site from my very popular site, and instead of me linking back to you from my new site that isn't as popular. I will link to you from one of my other, very popular sites so you get a better weight with the search engines'. Three ways linking is fairly common, but I don't do it and I would not recommend it.

Getting a Free Adobe PhotoShop Tutorial

by: Jeyanth Watson

In the world today, almost nothing is free. Even oxygen is being sold in bars. It is quite comforting, therefore, to find out that you can still get the gift of knowledge without having to pull out your wallet. Getting a free Adobe PhotoShop tutorial is equal to getting a very precious gift when it's not even your birthday.

Did you know that a lot of companies today are hiring people with knowledge in Adobe PhotoShop? This is because of the fact that PhotoShop is the most widely used image manipulation program today. This means that getting a free PhotoShop tutorial will help you avoid the problem that most people are facing today: unemployment. Because of free tutorials, you would be able to increase your chances of being hired. And it won't even cost you a dime!

There are many ways through which you can obtain a free tutorial. The first way actually comes automatically when you buy the program. Adobe PhotoShop actually comes with a free tutorial.

This means that you don't really have to look farther than your own computer to obtain a free Adobe PhotoShop tutorial. There is, however, a problem with this type of free Adobe PhotoShop tutorial. Some people find it boring and hard to understand. This is because the basic free Adobe PhotoShop tutorial comes in the form of a text file. This means you have to read about what you should do and then find out how to apply what you read.

Another source of free PhotoShop tutorials is the Internet. Users write most free tutorials being offered in various websites who have managed to decipher the basic tutorial and who now wish to share their knowledge to other people.

The problem with this is that most tutorials are focused on something cool that the user has learned how to do. It is hard to find an online manual explaining every detail of how the program works. Unless, of course, you check out Adobe's website, which brings you back to square one.

You should also try to find interactive or video tutorials. This is because these types of free Adobe PhotoShop tutorials can show you how to do stuff, not just tell you. You would be able to grasp concepts much easier and much faster.

This is because the medium of instruction allows you to actually see how the instructions would be translated into actions. However, one disadvantage of this is the fact that you will not be able to find answers to questions that the creator of the tutorial wasn't able to anticipate.

An alternative to this is you could also ask someone who knows how to work the program to teach you how to use it. This way, you would get a free Adobe PhotoShop tutorial from a source that you can trust. You would be able to ask questions about certain procedures that you cannot understand. This way, the entire learning process would be more productive for you.

As you can see, there are many things that you can do in order to get free Adobe PhotoShop tutorials. Just because you do not have money does not mean you are out of resources. Use everything that you can and you will be able to find the free Adobe PhotoShop tutorial that you need.

Troubleshooting Internet Explorer 7.0 Issues

by: SalemHassan

Introduction:

Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) is light years ahead of its predecessors, but by no means does that proclamation mean that the browser is perfect. You are still going to encounter issues with IE from time to time.

Here are some of the concise guides that deliver some troubleshooting steps that will clear up the majority of issues we encountered with IE7.

Issues with Internet Explorer 7.0 with solutions

Problem: Crashes or hangs

If IE crashes, the most likely problem is that there's a buggy add-on (Toolbar or Browser Helper Object). In order to verify and isolate the buggy add-on, follow these steps:

1.) Start IE in No Add-ons mode, either by right-clicking the Desktop icon, or clicking START - RUN and typing: iexplore.exe -extoff

2.) Determine if IE fails.

3.) If not, use Tools - Manage Add-ons to disable all browser extensions and toolbars.

4.) Restart IE and re-enable browser extensions one-by-one.

5.) Once you've found a broken extension, contact the manufacturer and ask for an update.

(Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=928426)

If IE still crashes often, even when browser add-ons are disabled:

• Please ensure that you are running the very latest version of your anti-virus, anti-malware, and/or firewall programs.

• Please ensure that the drivers for your graphics card are up to date.

• If you have Google Desktop installed, please ensure that you update to the latest version of Google Desktop.

• If you have 7-Zip or other Windows Explorer extensions installed, please ensure that you update to the latest.

Problem: Cannot connect to Internet using IE after updates installed

If you see the "Page Cannot be Displayed" error after installing Internet Explorer updates from Windows Updates, it's possible that you have a 3rd party firewall installed that is blocking access because the IE files have been updated. Please see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942818/en-us for more information.

Problem: IE always starts in "No Add-ons" mode

The problem is that you're launching Internet Explorer using a shortcut icon that has the "-extoff" command line parameter. That parameter causes IE to start without add-ons. Thus, every time you use that shortcut icon, IE will start in No Add-ons Mode.

1.) How do you normally start Internet Explorer? Right-click whatever icon you're using to start IE, choose "Properties" and remove the -extoff part of the shortcut.

2.) If you click the green START button, click Run, type iexplore.exe in the RUN box, then hit the ENTER key, IE will start with Addons enabled.

Problem: IE opens small windows

IE opens new windows at the size of the last closed window. If you find that IE is opening small windows, do this:

• Close all IE windows.
• Open one new IE window.
• Adjust that window to the size you prefer. Do this by dragging the window borders. Do not use the maximize button:
• Close the IE window.
• New IE windows will open at the size you chose.

Problem: ClearType Text appears fuzzy

IE7 turns on a text-smoothing technology called "ClearType" by default. ClearType is scientifically proven to make text easier to read, particularly on LCD flat panel monitors.

If ClearType looks fuzzy on your monitor, you might want to try the ClearType tuning wizard, which can help you adjust the display of ClearType.

If you still don't like the appearance of ClearType, you can turn it off by unchecking the checkbox: Tools - Internet Options - Advanced - Multimedia - Always use ClearType for HTML.

Problem: IE Startup takes a long time (>3 seconds)

1.) IE may start very slowly if you have a huge number of sites listed in your Restricted or Trusted sites zone. Some tools, like "SpyBot Search & Destroy" will place thousands of sites in these zones if you use their "immunize" feature.

2.) Follow the "Crashing on startup" steps above to see if starting in No Add-ons mode starts much faster

3.) If you're not using a proxy, uncheck IE's "Automatically detect settings" option on the Tools - Internet Options - Connections - LAN Settings dialog.

Problem: Slow Page rendering

1.) Increase the connection limit. This tweak allows IE to make up to 16 connections per server.

2.) Ensure that both "HTTP1.1" checkboxes in Tools - Internet Options - Advanced are checked.

Problem: IE7 Setup fails to install Internet Explorer

See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917925

Problem: My address bar won't turn green?

IE7 includes a cool new feature that turns the address bar green when a secure site presents an Extended Validation certificate:

If you're having trouble with this feature, on a site you know has an EV certificate:

1.) Ensure that you either have the Phishing Filter set to "Automatic" mode or Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Security > Check for Server Certificate revocation checked.

2.) If that doesn't work, install this: Windows Root Certificate Update and restart.

Problem: After installing, IE7 starts then vanishes

It's possible that one of IE's DLLs isn't installed correctly

1.) Click START - RUN and type cmd
2.) In the command prompt, type cd\
3.) In the command prompt, type cd Program Files
4.) In the command prompt, type cd Internet Explorer
5.) In the command prompt, type regsvr32 IEPROXY.DLL

(Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=928427)

Problem: Error message about PSAPI.DLL

If you install IE7 and the following error message begins to show:

The procedure entry point GetProcessImageFileNameW could not be located in the dynamic link library PSAPI.DLL

1.) Search your hard disk for PSAPI.dll.

2.) Any copies of this DLL that are found outside of the Windows or Windows\System32 folder should be renamed to PSAPI.bak.

Problem: IE always goes to http://runonce.msn.com/runonce2.aspx instead of my homepage

If IE7 always goes to the RunOnce page on startup, even after you've tried to save the first run settings, it's possible that the mechanism that IE is using to save the settings does not work for some reason.

You can prevent IE from going to the RunOnce page and cause it to go directly to your homepage by running this script.

For more info, check out this Knowledge Base article.]

Problem: IE always goes to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ie/getitnow.mspx instead of my homepage

If Internet Explorer always goes to this page on startup, it's likely that you have an anti-spyware package (like "SpyBot") that prevented IE from correctly modifying your registry.

Try running this script. Note: you may need to disable your anti-spyware tool temporarily for the script to work.

Problem: On startup, IE always shows an error message about the AOL toolbar

If you see the following error message every time IE starts:

"Cannot find 'file:///C:/Program%20Files/AOL%20Toolbar/welcome.html'. Make sure the path or Internet address is correct."

..then you've hit a bug in the AOL Toolbar.

Try running this script. Note: you may need to disable your anti-spyware tool temporarily for the script to work.

Problem: I installed a "branded" version of IE7, but I'd prefer a "plain" copy without toolbars and customizations.

An article on this topic can be found here: How to remove branding in Internet Explorer 7.

Problem: Malware / Adware

If Internet Explorer is behaving strangely (crashing, visiting unwanted sites, etc), it's possible that there is malicious software installed on your computer.

As a first step, you should allow your antivirus software to scan and attempt to repair your computer. Additionally, you may want to try the following Microsoft tools:

• Windows Defender
• Windows Live OneCare
• Windows Live Safety Center
• Malicious Software Removal Tool

You should also ensure your computer has all the security updates available at Microsoft Update.

Problem: My searches are redirected to unrelated sites and I cannot connect to WindowsUpdate or antivirus websites

If Internet Explorer searches are redirected to unrelated sites or search engines, it's possible that your computer was infected with malware (see the previous tip). However, if your computer is not currently infected with malware, it's possible that at some time in the past, malicious software altered your computer's DNS settings. DNS works like an "internet phonebook" that maps URLs (like "windowsupdate.microsoft.com") to internet protocol addresses (like "207.46.225.221").

To determine if a malicious DNS server is configured:

- Go to Start -> Control Panel ->Network Connections.

- Right click your default connection, usually Local Area Connection or Dial-up Connection, if you are using Dial-up, and left click on Properties.

- Double-click on the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) item

Check to see if you're set to something other than "Obtain DNS servers automatically". If so, contact your ISP to ensure that the address specified is correct, or set the "Obtain DNS servers automatically" checkbox. Then restart your computer.

Problem: After opening many tabs, Windows and IE paint abnormally.

See http://blogs.msdn.com/tonyschr/archive/2005/05/25/desktop-heap-limitations.aspx

Problem: A remote user is having networking problems with Internet Explorer. How can I collect information about his system to help me to troubleshoot?

Have the user run Netcheck and send you the log file.

Problem: Overlong headers result in HTTP/4xx or HTTP/5xx errors, particularly on devices like routers or webcams

Problems of this nature are usually caused by one of the two request headers in yellow being longer than the device expects.

GET / HTTP/1.1

Accept: image/gif, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, application/x-ms-application, application/vnd.ms-xpsdocument, application/xaml+xml, application/x-ms-xbap, application/vnd.ms-excel, application/vnd.ms-powerpoint, application/msword, application/x-shockwave-flash, application/x-silverlight, application/x-silverlight-2-b2, */*

Accept-Language: en-us

User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; WOW64; Trident/4.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; InfoPath.2; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30618; OfficeLiveConnector.1.3; OfficeLivePatch.1.3; MS-RTC LM 8)

Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate

Connection: Keep-Alive

Host: 192.168.10.1

These headers are dynamically generated out of registry keys. They can usually be trimmed by editing the registry without any important side-effects.

To trim the list in the Accept header, click START > RUN > REGEDIT.EXE. Using RegEdit, navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Accepted Documents

..and remove elements from the "Name/Type/Value" list to remove values that aren't strictly required. Elements in red are of lower importance than those in black:

image/gif, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, application/x-ms-application, application/vnd.ms-xpsdocument, application/xaml+xml, application/x-ms-xbap, application/vnd.ms-excel, application/vnd.ms-powerpoint, application/msword, application/x-shockwave-flash, application/x-silverlight, application/x-silverlight-2-b2, */*

A similar problem can occur with the User-Agent header.

To trim the list in the User-Agent header, click START > RUN > REGEDIT.EXE. Using RegEdit, navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent\Post Platform

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\User Agent\Post Platform

..and remove elements from the "Name/Type/Value" list to remove values that aren't strictly required. Elements in red are of lower importance than those in black:

User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; WOW64; Trident/4.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; InfoPath.2; .NET CLR 3.0.30618; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; OfficeLiveConnector.1.3; OfficeLivePatch.1.3; MS-RTC LM 8)

For more information please visit http://www.pleasehelpme.com/

Printer Driver Downloads - Your Best Troubleshooting Solution

By: Logan Albright

Printers are our friends, for students to the working individual, there is nothing like the convenience of being able to print from the comfort of where we are. They make our digital works come alive with colour and text, and for some, it is an essential part of their lives. You would be surprised to know that there are more than 100,000,000 pieces of paper being printed and discarded every month worldwide, and that is a staggering amount of trees.

Of course, they have come out with the new wood free paper and other technology, but the amount of trees that are being cut is quite mammoth in the first place. Well this also gives you an idea of how many printers there are in the world today, and when it comes to this, you need to understand that the amount of mistakes being made on a daily basis when it comes to printer drivers is also something that has run into the hundreds of thousands.

Knowing this, what you need to know about this is that there are solutions out there that you can use to your advantage when thinking about the printer driver. The driver is the biggest cause of many of the problems that are being reported about printers and this is because of the sheer range of machines out there that the printers have to connect with and with this, they connections and communication between driver and computer will often come into many problems.

So what you need to do is to be able to keep a list of updated printer drivers, because this is how the industry of quality control works. What you need to know is that you as a human being, a computer user is someone who is actually a test bed for much of the hardware out there. Now, beta testing aside, the real test is when the hardware is being released to many of the systems out there and this is really where most of the engineers get their work cut out for them. Because they cannot test their hardware and engineered drivers against all possible software and hardware combinations in the world, what happens is that they leave it up to the world to tell them of the mistakes.

When this happens, they will then look at the reports and then look at the architecture of the drivers once again. Once they are able to do this, what happens is that they will then make the changes and this is when the version history of the driver comes in. So you need to be on top of the game when it comes to the printer driver downloads industry, and it is these quality checks that would be able to give you the advantage necessary. Sometimes what you can do is to subscribe to their online download and support sites, and you would be then notified of much of the changes made.

These are just some of the troubleshooting tips you can take into consideration when you encounter problems with your printer. Most of the time it is down to the drivers, and your best bet is to download a driver update from the manufacturer or a reliable third party source.

Troubleshooting Lexmark Drivers Problems - What to Do When You Printer Acts Up

By: Logan Albright

The printer is something that is quite important to people who are working from home, or when they need to do something and print it out. The technology of the printer is something that has come a long way, and back in the day, it was actually quite hard for anyone to print something from their home. Printers back then were quite big and clunky and they were quite expensive to bring over to your home and this meant that people were depending on the print shops to get something done, or if they needed some printing, they would be doing it in the comfort of their own office.

Not only was this much easier, but much cheaper as well. Now, however, the technology of the printer has come a long way and companies like Lexmark have brought their printers into many homes all over the world. But of course the picture is not always perfect and sometimes technology allows the odd error or two.

One common problem that people do face when it comes to printers is that sometimes the printer acts up and you see the common exclamation point error notice when you do try to print something. The all dependable printer suddenly becomes dead and the lights blink for no reason what so ever. So why is there a problem in the first place and what can you do to alleviate this problem. Well, for one thing, what you need to understand is that there are many ways for you to approach this problem, and this can range from hardware to software.

Hardware problems are pretty easy to spot and a problem with the mechanism of the printer is something that you most likely would not be able to fix on your own. Unless you would like the problem to increase and most likely electrify yourself, then I would advise that you send back the printer to the merchant who sold it to you in the first place. Now, if the problem is a software problem, then you would be looking at the drivers of the printer. One way you can address the issue easily is to do a simple reinstall of the product, and this requires that you remove its hardware signature from the computer, restart then do a clean install with the drivers given to you.

Now, there is a second part to this problem, and the problem could be because of the fact that the drivers are outdated and they have come into conflict with other softwares or even drivers newly installed. When this happens, what you need to do is to actually update these drivers on your own, and this can be easily achieved with a simple visit to the product’s website and downloading the drivers which would be the most updated ones. These are some of the things you can do when your printer acts up and these are proven methods to fix the issue, right in the comforts of your own home.