PTNSYSTEMS NEWSLETTER XMAS 2007

Part 1 – Printing the screen

One problem we have when troubleshooting problems on computers is getting enough accurate information on the problem itself, very often we will get a call and be given no more than a vague description of the fault making it difficult to diagnose. If you ever get a message popping up and you are not sure what it means or it happens just before the computer slows down or crashes it can be more valuable than you think so in the first part of this newsletter we will look at ways of recording tell tale information on our PC's.

Most standard computer keyboards have three keys in the top right hand corner, the first of which should say print screen or prnt scrn or pscrn (it maybe elsewhere on your laptop). On many occasions we get comments that this button doesn't work as nothing appears from the printer, certainly not the image on the screen, once the key has been depressed, this is because the key itself is a touch misleading and should probably say copy screen.

Try this, left click the start button in the bottom left of your screen, open the run command and type cmd (if run is not available go to all programs, accessories, command prompt) you should now have a black command line dialogue box in the screen somewhere, i.e. the old Dos prompt. Now press the print screen button on the keyboard (don't worry, nothing is supposed to happen yet) now open Microsoft Word or Wordpad, right click anywhere in the blank document and select paste, you should now have a picture on the document of your screen with the black box in the middle. This image can be cropped, stretched and printed like any other and more importantly saved for future reference, you will notice you have a picture of the entire screen on the Word/WordPad document, sometimes we may only need to record a small message box on the screen, to do this press the ALT key and Print screen simultaneously and you will only have copied the active window on the screen ready for pasting, as follows. Try minimising all windows so you just have the black command prompt dialogue box open on the screen, make sure the window is active by left clicking once on the blue title bar at the top of the window, now hold down the Alt key on the keyboard and press the print screen key, now open a blank or existing Word or WordPad document, right click in a blank area and select paste, you should now have just a picture of the black dialogue box on the page. Remember you are using Word or WordPad so this picture is effectively a large piece of text, therefore it can be justified left or right and moved around in the same way as you would a paragraph of text, it can also be printed, saved and/or emailed to someone. Ultimately by being able to record exactly what is on the screen you can send or store more accurate information if there is a fault or help someone by showing them what they should be looking at when configuring the PC, screenshots can be invaluable, if and when, problems arise.

Here's a link to a Microsoft site with more pictures and explanations regarding print screen, please click here

Part 2 - Lost Broadband Connections

If you live in and around the Purbecks and more than spitting distance from the local telephone exchange then you will, at some stage, lose your broadband connection. If you are using any kind of USB modem/router then unplugging/reconnecting the device or rebooting the computer will normally reset the loop and get you going again. If you are connected via a network cable, wireless or your broadband device has its own power supply then you are almost definitely connected via a router and it is this which needs restarting (not the computer as it does not affect the connection). If you can get online but frequently get disconnected this normally indicates a fault with either your telephone equipment or the telephone line bringing the ADSL (Broadband) into the house. Before calling the Broadband supplier/BT/Police/your MP to complain it is worth ensuring the fault is not at your end, this is quite easy to do by removing everything in the house connected to a telephone line and seeing if the problem persists (remembering to use the filters provided) you can now start plugging devices in one at a time and testing the reliability of the connection. Here's a list of scenarios which can cause a seemingly dodgy broadband connection:

1. Alarm systems connected to the telephone line

2. No filter on Sky telephone connection

3. Too many filters on the same cable (only one generally needed per socket)

4. Dodgy wiring

5. Finally, faults outside the house, water in the junction box down the road, faulty BT wiring etc.

Basically, once you know the fault is not caused by equipment in your own home you are more confident when it does come to making a support call, bear in mind though that the ISP (broadband supplier) is not responsible for the copper wire carrying the broadband into your home but they should deal with BT on your behalf when it comes to any problems.

Part 3 – Christmas

We generally close down during the Christmas period for a couple of weeks, this year we will be closing on Friday 21st December and reopening as normal on Monday 7th January, PTNSystems would like to take this opportunity to wish all our customers a merry Christmas and happy New Year, see you in 2008!