Minutes of C&C Meeting 14 July 1998

Co-ordinator John welcomed 26 attendees, including Imelda who is making
progress with her new computer and has used PCUG training.  Apologies were
received from Gloria, who is in Ballarat at the training course for
volunteers to help isolated communities obtain Internet access.  Through
John, she sent the message that would-be trainers do not need extremely
high-level knowledge to be accepted for this program.

Tony asked if anyone could volunteer to help with the seniors' Internet
classes at the Belconnen Public Library:  Jim has been in hospital, and
Tony himself is soon to be hospitalised, so another two volunteers are
needed to keep the seniors' training effort going.  Please contact
tssalvage@pcug.org.au if you are able to help.

Roger offered a 2D video accelerator to the Group, and with numerous
takers, it was decided to raffle the accelerator at the next meeting, with
proceeds to C&C.  John thanked Roger for his generous offer.

Allan sought nominations for the PCUG Committee, including the position of
President.  Nominations close in a fortnight.

There was no Treasurer's report.

Wolf announced that the PCUG Centre now has a high-technology doorbell,
useful for example, when training is in session.

John announced the good news of the birth of his seventh grandchild.

1. 	TIP Upgrade

Allan said that TIP will soon be upgraded, replacing Kryten.  Under the new
system, 72 modems will probably enable 56k transmission, and there will be
70 lines (the discrepancy between modems and lines is due to Telecom's
sales arrangements).  Cost will be $60 000 to $70 000.

2. 	Trade-in

The firm PC Connections was recommended as a good source of advice on
trading in a Pentium 233 for a 300.

3.  Late email messages

Check the full header of any email received late, to see where it was
received along the way and when.  This information can be seen when
printing out the message. 

4.  Changing from FAT32 to FAT16

When Trevor updated from W95 to W98, problems included losing his sound
system and finding his A and B floppy drives reversed. He eventually did a
"Format C:" but as he had used the W98 FAT32 converter he could not return
to his W95 (FAT16) version. It was suggested that he could FDISK and FORMAT
using his old W95 software or use Partition Magic software, but the
consensus was that he should persevere with W98 and FAT32 to obtain
significant disk space savings. It was also suggested that opening the case
and physically checking the cabling to the floppy drives might help - and
if all else failed to disconnect the B (5¼ inch) drive, re-install W98; and
double check the floppy drive CMOS settings.  Leigh suggested switching the
cable so that it goes from drive A to B instead of vice versa.  

Trevor also said that he had lost his access icon to TIP, Emil and Mike
have instructions on gaining access using W95B or W98.

Chess noted that manufacturers sometimes do not admit responsibility for
common problems causing crashes, instead telling users to reformat their
hard disks.  John noted that many problems can result from unregistered
software and viruses in the computer system.

5.  Javascript and Internet

Geoff, using IE4, gets a message: "error occurred in the script on this
page" and wanted to know what can be done.  Chess advised Geoff to look
under Internet options and enable Javascript (which must now be disabled
for the message to occur).

6.  Audio CD

John's computer locked up when playing an audio CD.  After the first 6-7
tracks, an apparent software loop occurred (CD drive activity alternating
with HDD activity).  The only exit was to open and close the CD drive
drawer.  The problem soon recurred until only a few bars would play.  BCM
Diagnostics passed the drive, and different CD player software was tried
with similar results.  John re-installed W98, with multiple failures during
that process confirming that the problem was hardware based.  It took 4
hours to reinstall W98, but despite drive failures the W98 setup procedure
survived, demonstrating its robustness.

A borrowed CD ROM drive later confirmed that the problems were caused by a
faulty drive despite BCM Diagnostics' having passed the drive.  

7.  Corel presentation

Bob happened to see an ad for a Corel presentation in Saturday's Canberra
Times and went to a first-class session at the Hyatt.  The presentation was
so good he wishes Corel had alerted PCUG to it.  Darrell said this used to
happen, and Bob suggested we keep in touch with Corel in future.

A hands-free voice operated system, Dragon, was demonstrated.  In dictation
mode, the speed is 90 words per minute, but if the presenter reads from a
prepared script, the speed is 150 wpm.  Peter suggested presenters might
usefully add Victor Borge's phonetic punctuation marks to their readings.

8.  PC Magazine disks

Anne, who uses a NS3 browser, said that while single disks bought with PC
Magazine worked well, a recent double disk did not.  She complained to the
magazine and received replacement double disks which didn't work either. 
Darrell noted that if you use old browsers you will have problems because
HTML is changing so fast.  Allan said that PC Magazine had had a lot of
quality control problems with their disks.  Neville said that the browser
provided by the magazine should enable the disks to work.  John said it was
unfortunate when magazines use facilities such as browsers which are not
downward-compatible.

9.  Netscape Navigator 4

Mike asked where in NS4 can you define which "mail to", "news", "gopher"
and other programs to use.  John will have a look at this and report back.

10.  W95 and IE4

Sylvia asked whether there was a problem with using IE4 with W95.  There
have been complaints of many crashes, but problems depend on which version
of W95 you possess.  In reply to Lew's question about backing out of W95
installation, John said he thought this might not be too easy, though W98
goes back perfectly.

11. 	Hardware problems

Imelda reported that her IBM Activa started in save mode but corrects on
restart.  Receiving faxes is also a problem.  The first complaint is a
serious hardware problem which will only get worse, the second might be
related to it.  Imelda should take the computer back to Harvey Norman and
get it fixed under warranty.

JL 16/7/98 1 058

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