Restarting Problem.

[sheepdog 10]

Where we live we get frequent brief power outages. The power will only go off for one or two seconds, but of course, that causes all the electronics in the house to go haywire and have to be reset. With most things it's no big deal, resetting the time on the alarm clock takes a minute, and the TV takes a few minutes to reset, but my computer really screws up every time the power goes out. It takes forever to restart, and then for about an hour or so nothing works right. Some times even though I can see my desk top, the mouse won't work. Or pages take forever to load. Even just my files and stuff on the desk top are painfully slow to open. Heaven forbid I want to check my email. I have to mess around with it and eventually it will start working, but every time it happens I wonder if this is the big one and my computer is going to bit the dust.

Any ideas on what is going on or what I can do to speed up the process of getting it back to working? Or am I due for a new computer?

[demonboy1990 0]

maybe you do need a new one sheepdog, but if it still works fine and you do not have the money for a new one maybe a tuning would be cheaper maybe deleting some useless things off your computer you do not want maybe disabling some plugins on your browser will make it go faster, or get a better provider (internet), but maybe you just need a new one but try the things I suggested before spending money (you prob do not have lying around) and then if they do not work then by all means go and get a new one.

by the way sheepdog sorry if my comment above sounded abit commanding because reading it back it does sound that way which was not my intention.

[sheepdog 10]

That's good advice, I have removed as much junk from the old computer that I possibly can, and have emptied the system files and defragged it. That helped some but not very much. I also got Spy Bot and installed it, thinking maybe that was the problem. It doesn't seem to help much, about all it acomplishes is getting rid of all my cookies so ever time I run it after word I have to look up and retype in all my passwords, which is a royal pain the rear.

 

I have a pretty good internet servic provider, it's DSL from my phone company, it seems to be a lot faster than eve the satalite internet I used to have, and oh forget dial up that I started with! Now there was slow for you!

[demonboy1990 0]

thank you sheepdog for your reply, I have DSL Also (Broadband) I have never had dial up except on a dongle (mobile internet) and it was no good,

I never had dial up on home internet though I only got internet for the first time in 2005 and my first computer (I have a few since then) in 2001

I have seen dial up though (only in movies my favourite Sandra bullock movie is the net I have watched it loads of times except for the dongle I was telling you about) she did not seem to have a problem with it except for the problems in the movie (only reverent if you have watched the movie otherwise not important)

I have glad the advice I give was of some use sometimes my computer goes slow also or crashes especially when I open a certain amount of internet windows.

[k_nitin_r 8]

sheepdog,

I think the best thing you can do is get a Linux LiveCD, or a LiveUSB, plug it into your computer and then hit the power button to start it up. Linux is nothing like Windows, but it is free and you can customize it to your liking. There are different 'vendors' (they are more like non-profit organizations or non-governmental organizations because they do not charge for providing the software) and they offer slight differences in how Linux looks so you can pick one to suit your style. Linux Mint Mate seems the closest to Microsoft Windows XP because it has a start menu. If you want to use something that is a bit of the cutting edge in Linux desktop technology, you should opt for Ubuntu Linux instead. Ubuntu Linux has a lot of critics because they step out of the norm and create some rather innovative user interfaces, which may have been created out of inspiration from Windows, but they do have the largest community of users and there is a lot of support from the community too. The first of the LiveCD Linux distributions that I have tried is Knoppix Linux and I would still recommend it. Knoppix Linux was not meant to be installed on a computer so when you start it up, it does not ask you to choose between installing it to disk or running it directly from the CD or USB. That's one less click for me when starting up, which is why I recommend it to anyone wanting to use a LiveCD Linux distribution. Ubuntu Linux was meant to be installed to disk so whenever you start it up using the CD or from USB, it would ask you if you want to install Ubuntu Linux or if you want to start it from the CD or USB disk. As I mentioned earlier, there are slight variances between different vendors' distributions of Linux and this is just one of those minor differences between the two. You can further customize the Linux installation, such as by deciding what kind of a start menu you want (for instance, there's the KDE desktop interface, which is also popular for all the software that comes as a part of the KDE project) but if you just want to stick with the basics, you can choose to install either Knoppix Linux or Ubuntu Linux and boot directly from the CD or USB instead of getting your computer to boot into Windows. It takes about a day or two to get used to using Linux instead of Windows, but you don't have to install a separate Office suite to work with documents and you will be able to get all the tools that you need to update your website too.

[sheepdog 10]

LOL, I sure don't need to take on anything new to learn right now! This new computer is driving me crazy. I've got most of my stuff working ok, but not my camera and photo editing program, and I miss them horribly. I tried last night to look for some new program, but it seems everything I saw there was virtually no information about it, just a button to click on to download it. I sure don't need to start filling up the new computer with junk I have no use for. I'd like to see what a program looks like and what it does before I down load it. Hopefully I'll come up with something here in the next few days. I still have the old computer set up and running on my desk next to me, I cleared off a table in my office and set the new one up on it, so I'm getting lots of exercise pushing myself back and forth between the 2. I really do need to get the old one finished off so I can have my desk back for the new one. The table is just enough lower than the desk I'm getting a crick in my neck working on the new one.

 

I'm open to suggestions on photo editing software. Preferably a free and simple one. I need one to crop of course, darken/lighten but I also need hue/saturation, a handy adjustment that can take the yellowish cast I get on pups with my camera.

[demonboy1990 0]

sheepdog try taking the computer to a computer tech and they can check it over for you if the computer is driving you crazy.

[k_nitin_r 8]

sheepdog,

Did you try Google's Picasa and Adobe's Photoshop Express? I have used Picasa and it is quite simple to use - you can use the same tool to upload the pictures to Picasa and you can then link to the images using the URLs from PicasaWeb. Or better yet, why not simply maintain Picasa albums instead of uploading the images to the website? You can link to the Picasa Web URL for visitors to look at the pets that are available for sale. I have not tried Adobe's Photoshop Express, but they are popular for the professional Adobe Photoshop - almost every photography studio and advertising firm uses Adobe Photoshop.

For web page editing, Adobe's DreamWeaver is pretty much the best you can get. The software is also the choice of almost every web design studio and is similar to Microsoft's Frontpage or Microsoft's Publisher.

Once you get started using Linux, there's literally nothing that can pull you away because it's free, it can run off a CD or USB drive so even if you have the hard disk completely trashed, you can boot up the computer and still be able to connect to the Internet. There is also a cloud storage feature so you can store data on a server on the Internet instead of on your hard disk - it's great for keeping copies of important data that you cannot afford to lose.

Do you have any volunteering opportunities for people to help out with the website? I'd be asking about helping out with the plants and pets too, but I'm neither in good physical shape nor will the United States let me in as a volunteer (they let me in as a student and as a tourist, but they need to investigate a paper trail for just about everything and probably the United Nations and the Red Cross are the only organizations that can arrange for that kind of paper work for volunteers). BTW, I always meant to ask - what do you do to get over the phobia of insects that hang around the plants?

[sheepdog 10]

For my web site I use the much hated and cussed over program Front Page. I more or less have it figured out now that most of my site is up and about all I do these days it change pictures and birth dates of litters. So maintaining it is not much of a chore anymore. Which is peculiar in a way, because I still hate doing it. I hold my breath every time I fire up Front Page to see how it is going to annoy me this time. It seems like it never works the same way twice.

 

I still miss my image expert program. I download the pictures out of the camera right into that program, and can do most of the editing right in it, with cropping, lightening, saturation, etc. And I can rearrange the albums easily, dragging and dropping pictures from one album to another. I have to take a ton of pictures ever time to get that just right shot of a puppy, so I have a lot to download and delete most of them right away.

 

Bugs? They don't bug me unless they are biting or stinging me or eating my plants. I do truly hate those big fat juicy green ones that can decimate a tomato plant in a days time. I am a bit creeped out about spiders, but am getting better about those. Basicly, if they leave me alone I leave them alone. I've had a wee bit of experience as a bee keeper. If you can handle swarms of bees little bugs become a lot less of a threat or annoyance.