Laptops All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies- P73 ppt

✦ Check for updates to specific devices ✦ Set the utility to automatically check for new versions of drivers To update drivers using Windows Update, follow along: 1.Choose Start ➪ Window

✦ Check for updates to specific devices

✦ Set the utility to automatically check for new versions of drivers

To update drivers using Windows Update, follow along:

1.Choose Start ➪ Windows Update

2.Click Check for Updates

This option is in the left pane See Figure 1-3

3.If updates are available, click the driver you want to put in place

4.Click Install.

To set Windows to automatically check for recommended updates, follow these steps:

1.Open Windows Update

2.Click Change Settings from the options in the left pane

3.Choose Install Updates Automatically.

This is the recommended option You can instruct the system to install new updates every day at a particular time, or select a specific day of the week You might want to tell the system to do so every day during your lunch hour or at 4:30 on Friday afternoon, when you anticipate not being at your desk

Sub-options here include:

• Downloading updates but waiting for the user to choose whether to install them

• Checking for updates but allowing the user to choose whether to download and install them

• Never check for updates This is the officially not-recommended sub-option This makes your machine more vulnerable to security prob-lems, and you may also miss all kinds of nifty improvements to the system

If you chose to update automatically, go to Step 4

The recommended setting is Install Updates Automatically

4.Choose a time to install any downloaded updates

Manually updating drivers

The automatic process works well for most users and most equipment com-binations However, some especially obscure pieces of hardware (or obscure uses for that hardware) may require you to seek out and install a device driver on your own; you might also be told to do so by a technical support department

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To manually install a driver, follow along:

1.Open Device Manager

2.Double-click the device name you want to update

3.Click the Driver tab

4.Click Update Driver

5.Follow the instructions

See Figure 1-4

Printers are treated differently than other devices internal or external to a laptop To find out the status of printer drivers or to change printer settings,

go to the Control Panel and click the Printers icon

Restoring a driver to a previous version

Oops The new driver stopped a device from working Windows offers a

quick way to roll back a driver to its previous version:

1.Open Device Manager

2.Double-click the category that includes the device to be fixed

3.Double-click the name of the device.

Figure 1-3:

When Windows Update appears, click View Available Updates to see if updated drivers for the devices

in your machine are available

This is the Windows Vista version of the facility

4.Click the Driver tab.

5.Click Roll Back Driver.

This solution only works if a previous version of the driver is stored within Windows If you haven’t previously updated the driver, or if (for some reason) the earlier driver has been deleted, the Roll Back Driver button isn’t available

Running a diagnostics program

Laptop: Heal thyself If Dr “Bones” McCoy could diagnose and cure most ailments with a wave of his sensor probe, why can’t you do the same with

laptops? Okay, okay Star Trek was fiction, and we live in the real world or

something like that We haven’t quite reached the point where humans or machines can be healed with the wave of a tricorder, but diagnostic tools have made tremendous advances Physicians can peer into the body with CAT scans and MRIs And from the very first days of computers, we’ve been able to examine the function of many technical components by running sophisticated diagnostic programs

One big caveat here: You can’t run a diagnostic program on a laptop that won’t boot up and show at least minimal signs of life The program needs to use the processor and the system’s basic pathways to explore the hardware

Figure 1-4:

The Driver tab includes

a button to update the driver manually

You’re asked for the new driver’s location

Book X Chapter 1

Many laptop manufacturers provide diagnostics programs as part of the basic software that comes with the machine This helps both the user and the company, because it pinpoints problems with the hope that at least some can be fixed without sending the machine back to its maker

For example, current models of Toshiba laptops come with a utility cre-atively named Toshiba PC Diagnostic Tool The first part consists of a basic information window that displays hardware details, including the model, its serial number, the version of the operating system detected, and major hard-ware components See Figure 1-5

The second part of the utility delivers the tricorder The Diagnostic Tool tests all of the components installed within the machine; its tests stop at the ports You can choose to run all tests or concentrate on specific suspects

See Figure 1-6

If your laptop doesn’t come with a diagnostic program, or if you want to add software that includes more detailed or more rigorous testing, you can

pur-chase utilities from other sources Some programs let you loop a particular

test over and over again, which is one way to find an intermittent failure

One product that does a good job is CheckIt diagnostics from Smith Micro Software, Inc See Figure 1-7

Figure 1-5:

The Toshiba diagnostics information screen offers a quick inventory

of the essential parts of your machine

Figure 1-7:

Advanced diagnostics tests include detailed exercises and reports

on all of the components

of your computer

Figure 1-6:

Testing this Toshiba laptop model, I excluded the dial-up modem and told the software not

to bother testing the floppy disk because it’s not there

Chapter 2: Knowing When Good Software Goes Bad

In This Chapter

Identifying possible problems

Getting help from Remote Assistance

Using Microsoft Office Diagnostics

Don’t go lookin’ for trouble; trouble will find you That’s the sentiment of

a modern blues song by Steve Goodman; I don’t think he was referring

to laptops, but maybe he was

I do know that I once had a few extra minutes while sailing on a ship up at the top of the world, about a hundred miles from the North Pole, and I chose that moment to make an adjustment to Windows I’d never tried before: I changed the LCD screen resolution Click and there I was, 1,500 miles from the nearest computer technician with a laptop as frozen as the ice-bergs bobbing all around Quite an image, eh? And quite true

Now if I were just an ordinary computer user and not the well-traveled, highly experienced expert who gets to write books about laptops, I might have been up the North Pole without a laptop But not me: I had in my laptop bag a backup copy of Windows along with a set of standard display drivers and some data recovery utilities What can I say? I don’t travel light After a few minutes of tinkering, I restored my laptop to the condition it was

in before I screwed it up I tell you this story to bring the basic Boy Scout motto into the computer age: Be Prepared

What’s changed since the last time the laptop worked properly?

If your answer includes any of these, this chapter is for you:

✦ I installed new software

✦ I installed new or updated device drivers

✦ I changed the operating system’s configuration

✦ I deleted or changed one of the system files of Windows or a program component of an application on my machine

Bringing Big Problems via Tiny Changes

You know your laptop’s not infallible, and you know that doesn’t mean it has

an antigravity force field that keeps it from falling off a table Even the most carefully guarded and well-maintained machine occasionally loses its mind

A major meltdown cause is corruption of stored settings or Windows system files or unintended changes to those same essential elements How can this happen?

✦ An electrical fault If your laptop runs out of power while it is in the process of saving a file or installing a program, or if it somehow receives

a power surge or static shock, this can be the result

✦ A virus or other form of unwanted nasty code

✦ A poorly designed installation program — one that doesn’t follow all of Microsoft’s recommendations or doesn’t play well with other applications

✦ An incomplete installation, interrupted by a power failure or by an oper-ating system freeze

✦ A rare combination of incompatible software or hardware Although soft-ware makers spend a great deal of time testing their products, they can’t anticipate every possible permutation of code and device

Never install a program on your laptop while it runs off its batteries If the power runs out before the installation completes, the result could be damage to the system files

Taking your first tack: Undo changes

If you can identify the changes you made to a configuration setting in Windows, do this:

1.Undo the changes

2.Reboot the system

Is all well?

I always keep a notebook in front of me on my desk Each morning I start by marking down the date and a list of to-dos I also use the page to jot down any changes I make to configurations and settings That way if something goes wrong, I know where to start my troubleshooting

The same applies if you just installed software and you’re experiencing new problems instead of new solutions: Use the software’s uninstall function or follow these steps:

Book X Chapter 2

1.Go to the Control Panel

2.Click the appropriate icon:

• Windows XP: Add or Remove Programs icon

• Vista: Programs and Features icon The software is removed

3.Reboot

See Figure 2-1

Taking your second tack: System Restore

If manually changing settings or uninstalling a problematic new program doesn’t provide the cure, you may have a suffered (or enabled) a sudden, serious problem with your Windows operating system Microsoft offers a utility that — when it works — is like a silver bullet

System Restore offers a chance to go back in time when your laptop last worked properly No, this doesn’t require a date with Doc Brown; it does require a Windows utility called System Restore and a bit of luck System

Restore takes snapshots (called restore points) of your system files and

set-tings at regular intervals and anytime you manually instruct it to do so If you’ve lived a clean life, helped little old ladies cross the street, and haven’t

Figure 2-1:

You can uninstall or change the components

of most Windows programs by using the Programs and Features utility of Windows Vista or the similar Add

or Remove Programs utility of XP

done anything else to bollix up your system, it may allow you to undo damage For further information on System Restore, see Book III, Chapter 4

If undoing your changes doesn’t work and you’re thinking of heading over to System Restore, keep these points in mind:

✦ Go early System Restore is most likely to work if you go to it

immedi-ately after your machine shows problems The more time that elapses, the more likely you’ll make changes to your system; a restoration isn’t

as likely to fix them

✦ Personal files are exceptions When it comes to personal files including

e-mails, documents, photos, and music, there’s both good news and bad news The good news: If they’re still on the disk, using System Restore won’t help The bad news: If they’ve been erased or corrupted, you have

to try to repair or unerase them with another method

Of course, if you’re really a careful user, you made backup copies of your files on a different drive or on an external medium like a CD or DVD

✦ Don’t go too far Try restore points created just before problems

started If the first restore doesn’t work, go further back in time

Going further back than necessary could result in disabling updates and changes that you’d rather have available See Figure 2-2

Figure 2-2:

In System Restore, you can choose from

a list of all automatic-ally or manually created restore points on your drive

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Opening System Restore

A nearly identical utility exists in both Windows XP and Windows Vista, but the path to it has changed slightly

To open System Restore in Windows XP, follow along:

1.Click Start ➪ All Programs

2.Highlight the Accessories group

3.Click System Restore.

The standard System Restore configuration has it creating restore points every day, and also just before significant system events are begun; these include a program or device driver installation You can also create a restore point manually by following Step 5

4.Click Create a Restore Point

Windows automatically adds the date and time, but you can include a short note: “Before changing mouse device driver,” for example

You can use System Restore only if you’ve previously turned it on There’s

really no reason not to use this utility, and it’s enabled as part of a standard

Windows installation

In Windows Vista, take this quick route:

1.Click the Windows icon

The icon’s at the lower-left corner of the screen

2.Type System Restore in the search box

3.Press Enter.

Or this one:

1.Open the Control Panel

2.Double-click the Backup and Restore icon

3.Click Repair Windows Using System Restore

The option is in the panel on the left side of the window See Figure 2-3