Yesterday, my life's like, 'Uh-oh, pop quiz!' Today it's like, 'rain of toads.'

Xander ,'Beneath You'


Buffistechnology 3: "Press Some Buttons, See What Happens."

Got a question about technology? Ask it here. Discussion of hardware, software, TiVos, multi-region DVDs, Windows, Macs, LINUX, hand-helds, iPods, anything tech related. Better than any helpdesk!


meara - Mar 20, 2007 1:10:30 pm PDT #954 of 25496

I totally thought mouth-grill too. And then was a little surprised a $4K one would be noteworthy. Oh, how sad.


Sean K - Mar 20, 2007 1:48:24 pm PDT #955 of 25496
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty

sumi, from three days ago:

Okay, my computer just did this thing -- where it went to blue screen and told me that if it was the first time this happened I should restart, but if it had happened before I needed to do something. The message said something about a "device driver."

1. What is a device driver?

2. Messages from microsoft tell me how to get to the device driver but I have no idea how to figure out which thing is the one I need to do something about -- is there somewhere to go to figure that out?

I haven't loaded any new hardware and I think that the latest program I downloaded was an update of McAfee. I'm running Windows XP.

Did you ever get any of this answered? Have you had further problems along these lines?

1. A device driver is the little piece of software that tells XP how to make all your devices (basically, every individual hardware component of your computer) operate properly.

2. One way to check which device might be having problems is to right click on My Computer and select Properties. Once the Properties window is open, click on the Hardware tab. On that tab, click on the Device Manager button.

This will produce an expandable list of your devices (meaning they'll all have plus signs next to them, which will expand a detailed sublist if you were to click on any of those plus signs). If there is a problem with one of your device drivers, one of the expandable items will be expanded, and the problem device will be noted with a (I *think*) question mark. Either that or an exclamation point. I misremember.

If nothing is expanded, that is, if you just se a simple list of devices (computer, disk drives, display adapters, DVD/CD ROM drives, etc...), you probably don't have a driver problem.

That's the best way I know to check for driver problems.


sumi - Mar 20, 2007 3:48:57 pm PDT #956 of 25496
Art Crawl!!!

Ah, thank you!

And, no, nobody else answered my question.


sumi - Mar 20, 2007 3:51:08 pm PDT #957 of 25496
Art Crawl!!!

And no question marks -- excellent.


beth b - Mar 20, 2007 7:07:35 pm PDT #958 of 25496
oh joy! Oh Rapture ! I have a brain!

I just read the Alaskan problem

ummm, lets just say that this is a common problem in emergency services. That's why no one gets fired . It happens far more often than it should.

why it even happens in software companies - people who bread and butter depends on maintaining their intellectual property


amych - Mar 21, 2007 11:38:33 am PDT #959 of 25496
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?

My Harmony is here. I feel a little ridiculous being this excited about a remote.


Java cat - Mar 21, 2007 11:45:28 am PDT #960 of 25496
Not javachik

MS Word Technical Help Requested -- cross posted with LJ

WHY, in MS Word, in longish documents with many section and page breaks, does Word sometimes decide, on its own, that the section break (new page) that you really, really DO want, simply won't do. It will force, against your will, repeatedly, a section break (new page) turning into a section break (continuous )?

Meaning, you can't make the headers and footers and other such things exactly the way you want INSIDE THAT SECTION, and OMG it is SO SO SO annoying.

How do I force the section break (new page) to STAY there? Help? Please?

eta: it doesn't seem to be a style issue. Everything in that area is defined normal as I want normal style to be.


Sean K - Mar 21, 2007 11:47:22 am PDT #961 of 25496
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty

My Harmony is here. I feel a little ridiculous being this excited about a remote.

I can't wait to hear the report.


Jon B. - Mar 21, 2007 12:23:03 pm PDT #962 of 25496
A turkey in every toilet -- only in America!

My Harmony is here.

Mine shipped Monday....


Theodosia - Mar 21, 2007 12:54:24 pm PDT #963 of 25496
'we all walk this earth feeling we are frauds. The trick is to be grateful and hope the caper doesn't end any time soon"

What little Word "expertise" I have does not extend to the mysteries of section breaks, alas.