Thank you.  Sue

Dear Sue,

This is a rather common problem, one that I experience sometimes when I am using my laptop.

Most of the time when your cursor jumps around during typing, it is because you are accidentally brushing your hand against the touchpad.

The easiest way to prevent this problem is to turn off the touchpad during typing. How you turn off the touchpad can vary from one laptop model to another. Here are some common methods.

Most HP laptops have a small switch near the edge of the touchpad. Press it once to turn it off, then press it again to turn it back on.

If your laptop has a small light on one of the corners of the touchpad, try tapping the light twice, if it changes color, you have turned off the touchpad. Double tap on the light agaon to turn it back on.

Many laptops have a keyboard combination that turns off the touchpad. Look closely at the keyboard to determine if you have this option.

Some Dell laptops require that you use the control panel to turn off the touchpad.

Sometimes, plugging in a USB mouse automatically disables the touchpad.

If all else fails, tape a small piece of cardboard or plastic over the touchpad.

Elizabeth

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Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, bill

Dear Bill,

This is actually a setting that you can change. The screen doesn’t run as bright when it is running on batter in an attempt to increase the amount of time you can run on the battery.

Fortunately, you can change this setting.

I don’t know what version of Windows you are running, so I can’t give you step by step directions.

Just go to the Control Panel and search for “Power Settings” to find and change the setting for screen brightness when running on battery power.

Elizabeth

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thank you, Don

Dear Don,

The metal key that you describe will fit into any USB port on your computer. While most USB devices look a little different from your key, that is because they have a guide that helps you insert it correctly into the USB port.

Just look closely at the key, then at the USB port and try to gently slide the key in. Don’t force it. If you have trouble, flip the key over and try again.

Now that you know what kind of port it fits in, you should be able to figure it out with a little bit of trial and error.

Elizabeth

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Please advise, ReBecca

Dear ReBecca,

I don’t think you need a new keyboard or mouse at all.

The problems you are describing are symptoms of your computer being slow to respond or freezing up.

While you don’t need to go out and buy a new mouse or keyboard, you will have to spend a bit of time and/or money to figure out and fix what is wrong with your computer. Here are a few things that can cause your computer to freeze up like yours is.

Overheating. Kind of ironic that our computer freezes up when it overheats, but that is one of the main symptoms of overheating. Actually, if the computer gets too hot, it will either lock up completely, or even shut off. Check to make sure your computer is not getting too hot, and open up the case and verify that all the internal fans are working. If the fan cooling the processor is not working, you can actually damage the processor.

Conflicting programs: If your problems started after you installed a new software program, try going back and removing that program to see if it fixes the problem.

Conflicting hardware: If our problems started after you added some new hardware to your computer (perhaps a printer or scanner, even a usb data stick) try removing that device and see if your problem is resolved.

Software Rot: Over time, your operating system (Windows XP in your case) develops small errors that build up until the computer is slow, and often stops working at all. The best solution for this condition is to backup your data files, erase the hard drive and do a clean install of Windows. If this is something you are not comfortable doing, find a local computer shop (This is a service I provide for my customers all the time) and have them do the clean install.

I hope this helps you find your problem and get your computer working smoothly again.

Elizabeth

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HOW DO I RUN THIS?  THANK YOU, Dpaul

Dear Dpaul,

I can give you directions for running scandisk, but before I do, I want to warn you. On an older computer (or any computer for that matter) that is prompting you to run a disk scan, it is an indication that there are problems with your hard drive.

Since the hard drive is where all your information (documents, pictures, music, etc…) is stored, you need to make sure you have your information backed up! Even before you scan your hard drive, you should back up. Otherwise, you run the risk of losing all information on the drive.

Now, for directions on running the scan in Windows XP:

1. Double click on “My Computer” on the desktop.

2. Right click on your hard drive icon in the “My Computer” window.

3. Click “Properties” in the context menu that appears.

4. Click on “Tools”.

5. Under “Error Checking” click “Check Now” then click “Start”.

Your computer will probably need to restart and run the check before it goes back into windows. It will prompt you for this with a small dialog box. Just click “Yes” and then restart your computer.

I hope the scan finds and is able to fix any problems you are having with your disk.

Elizabeth

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Thank You ,Mike

Dear Mike,

The best thing you can do, is start collecting older computers from family and friends who are getting rid of them, and set up your own network at home.

This will give you a lot of experience fixing the computers up, and experience setting different operating systems up to “talk” to each other through a network.

In addition, one of the best resources I can tell you about is a mailing list called, PCBUILD. This is a tech support mailing list for networking and computer hardware. You will find PCBUILD at www.freePCtech.com.

When you join the list, you will be able to learn from real problems that others are having, and also you will be able to ask questions about your networking issues and get help from some of the most experienced techs in the country.

Most of my computer education came from the two lists at www.freePCtech.com

Elizabeth

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thanks so much, Barbara in Arkansas.

Dear Barbara,

From your description, it sounds like the monitor settings are off a bit. (I am assuming you are using a desktop computer attached to a monitor, and not a laptop)

What you need to do, is find the adjustment buttons on the monitor itself. Most monitors have an “Auto” or “Auto Adjust” button. Press that and the monitor will sense the signal coming in and adjust itself so that the picture is centered on the screen and straight.

If that doesn’t work, use the other buttons on the monitor to manually adjust the position of the image on your screen. I can’t tell you exactly how to do this since it is different for each model of monitor, but look for the button that brings up a menu on the screen, and then use the adjustment buttons to navigate through that menu, select the settings you want to change, and then make the adjustments.

If you get stuck, try to find the manual that came with the monitor, or look up the model of the monitor online, and you can usually find a PDF version of the manual on the manufacturers website.

I hope this helps, Elizabeth

Thank you, Lance

Dear Lance,

When a computer comes in for repair with the symptoms you describe, I always suspect the power supply. If your computer is a standard sized desktop computer (not a laptop) the power supply is fairly easy to replace. I keep them in stock, because the best way to tell if the power supply is the cause of the problem, is to try hooking up a new one. If the computer boots up with the new power supply, the computer is fixed. I usually like to use StarTech power supplies, but there are many other brands to choose from. Don’t get less than 400 Watts as you want to make sure you have enough power to run your drives.

If the power supply is not the cause of the problem, you are looking at a very expensive and complicated repair. You will need to replace either the motherboard or processor, but in the process you will probably end up replacing both of them. Unless the computer is a few months old (then it would still be under warranty) you are not going to find a processor that works with your motherboard, or a motherboard that works with your processor. Once you have replaced the motherboard, you might also have to replace the RAM depending on if the new motherboard works with your current RAM or not.

In addition to replacing those hardware components, you will need to do a clean install of Windows. Your current install is set up to work with the hardware on your motherboard, simply replacing it with a new motherboard and starting the computer up will not work.

By the time you have purchased the parts needed to fix the computer, and paid labor (if you are not a computer tech yourself) you could have bought a completely new tower.

I hope your problem is just a power supply and easy to fix.

Elizabeth

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Do you have experience diagnosing dead computers? Share your troubleshooting tips in the comments box below.

Thank you as always for the help, Phil in Boston

Dear Phil,

It is possible to install a new, larger hard drive in your computer, and create a mirror image of the old drive on the new one, then run the computer from the new, imaged drive.

I have done this before, and it has worked well, however, I have a couple of concerns about your computer. First is the fact that your old computer has completely filled a 2TB hard drive. That is a lot of space and unless you are storing tens of thousands of photos, or hours and hours of video, I would suspect that some kind of problem is causing your drive to fill up. There are viruses that create tons of junk files that fill up a hard drive, or perhaps the drive is old and developing bad sectors and the remaining good sectors are running out of free space.

Next is the fact that your computer is 5 years old. The average computer gets replaced every 5 years, so in computer years, yours is nearing the end of its life. If you install a new, larger hard drive, you still have 5 year old hardware in the rest of the computer, and while it could run for another 5 years, any one of those 5 year old parts could go in the coming weeks or months.

In addition to purchasing a new hard drive, you would also have to either purchase drive imaging software, or hire a computer shop to transfer your files from the old drive to the new one. Since you want to be able to boot the computer from this new, larger drive, you need to do more than just copy the files, you need to make and image. Both Nero and Roxio have programs that will help you with this

Nero:

Roxio:

No matter what you decide to do, it is wise to backup your files. You never know when a computer hard drive will crash, and when it does, your files that you can’t afford to lose will be gone. You might be able to get them back with a data recovery service, but that will cost you thousands of dollars. Be sure to back up your files now, before disaster strikes!

My ideal solution for your situation would be to purchase a larger hard drive, install Windows XP on it (a clean install, not a copy of windows on your old drive) and then copy your files over to the new drive. This will speed up your computer, and correct any problems caused by software rot. This will give you the longest possible life for your older computer.

Elizabeth

Please advise and thank you again! CAE

Dear CAE,

The settings you need to change to fix your problem are listed under the power settings of your computer. Here is how to change them.

1. Click on “Start” then click on “Control Panel”.

2. Click on “Hardware and Sound”.

3. Click on “Power Options”.

4. Click the blue words that say, Change Plan Settings.

5. In the column that says, “On Battery” find the line that says, “Dim the Display” and change the time to “Never”.

6. At the bottom of that column is a slider for screen brightness. Drag the slider to the right to make the screen brighter.

7. Click the “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the window to save your changes, then close the window.

Elizabeth