Q–When I installed a program from a CD-ROM, the CD-ROM drive froze up. The installation disk is still in the drive and the drive tray will not open or respond. The system says the drive is inaccessible. The problem persists upon reboot. The system is searching the CD-ROM drive upon start-up and if the button controlling the tray is pressed then, a partial black screen results. How do I get the CD-ROM drive to function again?
Tom Harris @hotcoco.infi.net
A–You need to find a paper clip and bend it into a straight wire, Mr. H. Then look for the little hole in the front of your CD-ROM drive. When you stick the wire in that opening, it will trigger a spring and release your CD.
Ideally, the drive will work in the future, because it sounds like some kind of software glitch is causing the computer to crash each time it tries to access that CD.
Try another CD. If the same lock-up happens, you have a mechanical problem and will need to repair or, more likely, replace the CD-ROM drive.
Q–My toolbar has two lines of icons. How do I make them all appear on one line?
Al Marzilli @cs.com
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A–It’s easier to do what you need to do than to write about it, Mr. M. The toolbar on Windows 98 can be expanded and contracted by moving the cursor arrow to the very edge and waiting for a set of up/down arrows to appear. Then click and drag.
A similar technique is used to move the tool bar to the top, bottom or sides of the screen. Here you click on the toolbar and then sweep the mouse cursor to the left or the right, causing the bar to move around the screen.
I like to move the bar to the top of the screen instead of the bottom from time to time because that way the various menus pop down, Macintosh-style, rather than pop up, Windows-style.
Q–My question relates to a task I used to be able to perform with DOS and now am wondering if Windows has that ability. In past years in order to print a label for a disk, I could call up the directory and print using something like A:dir(greater than)prt. However, I have not found in Explorer or other Windows options that ability. I now have a Zip drive with lots of files and have to go to Explorer to read the list and would prefer to just look at a label for that info. Can you offer any help besides an outside vendor?
David Hoadley, Coarsegold, Calif.
A–Why don’t you just continue using that DOS command line technique to print out lists? You can open a DOS window by looking under the Windows Program menu for the MS-DOS icon.
Another approach is to use the Windows “Find Files/Folders” feature to call up a list of files. This module is part of Windows 98 but it allows advanced users to order searches by typing in traditional DOS commands such as A:*.bmp.
Just as in DOS, this command in Find will fill a window with all the specified files so that you can click on Edit then Select All and Copy. Then open the WordPad program and hit Control + V to paste the list into a document. Now all you need to do is pick a nice small font and print out that label you want.
The Find Files/Folder module that accepts these DOS prompts can be accessed by clicking on the Start button.
Q–I have developed a list of my favorite URLs in AOL and I want to import this list into Internet Explorer. Is there a way I can accomplish it?
Mohammed AbdulQayyum @aol.com
A–The fact that the answer to your question is a flat no is particularly frustrating for uncounted hordes of America Online users who prefer the bookmarking of either Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape to the clunky (heart) favorites scheme in the AOL software.
The only fix is to use America Online to log on to the Internet but then to call up one of the other browsers to do all of your Web visits, setting up bookmarks in the process.
About the only good news in this area is that the new AOL 5.0 software does allow users to save Favorite Places on one computer and then move them to another computer using a save/replace function.
Q–A few days back I received an e-mail with an attachment. The attachment has a file extension of .pps and I can’t open it. Does this require a different software or can I change the file extension to suit my software?
Charles E. Wilfawn @prodigy.net
A–The suffix .pps designates files created for Microsoft PowerPoint, which is an excellent presentation package that lets users prepare graphical accompaniments for speeches, sales talks, etc.
Unless your computer has PowerPoint installed, the files are useless and changing the extension will do nothing to help.
Q–Help! I border on being computer-illiterate. I have had reasons to uninstall and install AOL 4.0 several times. Each time I install, a new AOL 4.0x folder is created. I now have folders AOL 4.0a, AOL 4.0b, AOL 4.0c, AOL 4.0d and AOL 4.0e and each has material inside. I have very little idea what each folder holds (other than my download folder) or how critical that info is to the overall operation of my computer. Now I just installed AOL 5.0 and a new folder, AOL 5.0x, has been created.
Is there any way I can delete folders AOL 4.0a through AOL 4.0e but ensure that any info in those folders that is necessary to the operation of my computer is automatically saved to my AOL 5.0 folder? It would have to be automatically saved because I haven’t the slightest idea what is in those folders that might be essential to keep, if anything.
Bill Burvic @aol.com
A–Enough, Mr. B. You are cluttering your hard drive with identical copies of America Online and need to delete all but one version and get on with life.
As a fail-safe precaution, the America Online software installer does not uninstall prior versions while loading new ones. It does, however, import all of the individual files like address books, favorite Internet sites and downloads from the prior version into the new version.
When you upgraded to 5.0 the software added all of the data in your AOL 4.0e folder.
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So fire up your computer, right-click on the Start button to call up the Explorer and search out AOL 4.0a through e and nuke ’em all.
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Contact Jim Coates via e-mail at [email protected] or snail mail at the baiduhai, Room 400, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago 60611. If you think you’ve got a better answer to any of these questions, add your point of view at www.chicagotribune.com/go/askjim.