computerwriter.com

April Mailbag 

Toronto Star Fast Forward column for April 19, 2001

Copyright, © Myles White, 2001

Time once again to delve into the Computer Wares Mailbag. First up, a justified complaint from Tony Fronda, via e-mail, who wrote, in part, "What perfect timing for your March 01/2001 column in the Star. (A review of Eurocom's 8500-V notebook – mw) I was looking for a notebook and your article convinced me to buy a Eurocom. However, there is a $180 discrepancy between your price for a standard model, the one I want, and the price on Eurocom's web site..."

Myles Replies: When this sort of thing occurs, it annoys readers, editors, and writers. 

I checked back with Eurocom and, sure enough, between the time I wrote the column and when it appeared (about a week), the company had revised their pricing. 

According to company spokesperson, Iwona Osmolska, "The price discrepancy is due to the fact that we change prices approximately every three months depending on the price changes for Intel processors and other 3rd party components (hard drives, memory, etc.). 

"The new prices were posted on our Web site right in between your writing the review and it being published. This happens all the time in hardware industry and customers are usually aware of a small discrepancy in price." 

It's true that Intel (and AMD) adjust their pricing every quarter, but the normal trend is for the prices to be lower, not higher, as a result. 

However, this particular story had a happy ending. Tony wrote back to report, "I am so impressed with your prompt response to my Eurocom pricing difference! Since my message, a local retailer, Computronic called on my behalf and obtained your advertised price for me! Thanks again!"

Another "oops" 

Recently, I ran afoul of a company's desire to be helpful. 

In my review of Macromedia's Dreamweaver/Fireworks 4 Studio, I reported that both PC and Mac versions shipped in the same box. The belief that this was so came about because the reviewer's copy I received did, indeed, come with both. It was only later, after an alert reader or several pointed it out, that I discovered I'd been sent a special package not available to consumers. 

I always request the same products that consumers can buy; it's a standard part of my policy for reviewing both software and hardware. Unfortunately, Macromedia's public relations people didn't warn me they were sending a special edition. I have ascertained that the version of the product I reviewed, the PC edition, is the same software, but you have to make a choice at the time of purchase, whether you want the PC or Mac edition. 

By the way, since that review went to press, the company has released updates for the Fireworks portion of the suite. Fireworks 4.02 is available from www.macromedia.com. 

What review rules? They're not private. Anyone can read them at www.computerwriter.com/pr_notes.htm#Reviews .

Memory Upgrade

Debtosh Sengupta wants to upgrade the memory on an ASUS motherboard, increasing it from 128 megs of SDRAM to 256. The question is about price quotes for doing the job ($128 from one retailer to $69 advertised by others), as well as an offer from the more expensive source: "...after upgrading he will reset my BIOS, and it is a requirement..." Debtosh's questions are why there is such a discrepancy in the prices and whether the BIOS needs to be reset.

Myles Replies: There are several reasons why there may be quite large discrepancies in advertised prices for memory modules. 

To begin with, the memory market is very volatile. That means prices go up and down, quite rapidly, and sometimes by surprising amounts. One retailer may have over-purchased stock when the price was low.

Secondly, all memory is not the same. You may describe a 128 MB synchronous dynamic random access memory dual inline memory module casually as a 128 MB SDRAM DIMM, but there are other considerations, such as its speed and clock cycle rate, whether it's buffered or unbuffered, whether it's a parity or non-parity module, and whether it uses lead-tin or gold contacts. Each motherboard manufacturer may have slightly different requirements and internationally advertised name-brand computer manufacturers are notorious for applying little tweaks to their memory so that special modules are required – all of which can affect price. 

Lastly, and I know this is going to sound like the second point, all memory is not the same. I'm not suggesting that there's anything wrong with the memory you see advertised at the lowest possible price but it's not a bad idea to consider that any deal that sounds too good to be true just might be. 

As for resetting your Basic In/Out System (BIOS), it's true that it's a requirement when you add more memory (or another hard drive or virtually any other internal component), but in modern systems (which Debtosh's definitely is), all that's required is to invoke the on-board BIOS setup program, allow it to automatically detect the changes, then to restart the system. It takes all of about 30 seconds.

Monitor upset

Sometimes, when you let your fingers do the walking, they can lead you into strange country, as in this plea for help from Mert Troch: "While in the process of moving my computer, I inadvertently changed the setting of the monitor display. Now when I boot the computer, I do not get a legible screen. All I get are horizontal lines, that appear to be just the broken up picture. I am unable to see enough to bring up the control panel to reset the display. Is there some way I can correct this?"

Myles Replies: You can get the same effect if you fiddle with your display settings and choose a resolution that's higher than the monitor can stand. Not only is it potentially damaging to the monitor (forcing it to attempt to display screen frequencies higher than it was designed to do), but there's the other problem of not being able to use your computer until the problem is fixed. 

Here's the solution. You need to start your system in "Safe Mode," so that your current video drivers don't load. How you get to the menu that allows you to pick Safe Mode depends on whether you have Windows 95 and below, or Windows 98 and above. You need to act shortly after the computer itself starts, between the time you see its first on-screen display (generally the name of the graphics adapter) and the message, "Starting Windows." 

If you have the older versions of Windows, tapping the F8 key will bring up an on-screen menu which permits you to start in Safe Mode. Newer versions of Windows did away with this handy option. Instead, you're supposed to press and hold the CTRL key (again, before you see the Starting Windows message). That will bring up the menu. 

The third solution is a little messy and should be used only if nothing else helps. Wait until after you see the "Starting Windows" message, then simply turn the computer off. The next time you restart, you should get a message that says, in effect, "Windows didn't start properly last time," along with a choice to start it in Safe Mode. 

• Once you're in Safe Mode, the screen will, by default, be set to a resolution of 640 by 480. 
• Right-click on an open space on the desktop, then choose Properties from the context menu. 
• In the Display Properties dialogue, choose Advanced (small button, lower right corner), then the Adapter tab.
  • You're going to choose one of Microsoft's generic VGA adapters from the list, so that the next time you start Windows in normal mode, that's what will be driving the screen. 
  • You can't reset your original graphics adapter driver because, in Safe Mode, it isn't loaded. 
• Once you have a stable display, restart Windows normally, then go through the process again, this time choosing your old graphics adapter driver, resetting its display to a resolution low enough to work on your monitor.

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