Atanu's Do-It-Yourself tips
Atanu's Do-It-Yourself TIP 1
FLOPPY DRIVE HEAD CLEANING KIT:
Consists of :
a) Floppy Jacket b) Cleaning disk - White cloth like inner disk
c) Cleaning Fluid
STEP 1 : Buy a Floppy Disk Cleaning kit of a brand which provides
extra cleaning disks and a refillable cleaning fluid bottle. Avoid
buying kits which have a spray type of bottle.
STEP 2 : After the cleaning fluid provided with the kit is consumed,
instead of buying a new kit, get a bottle of PROPYL ALCOHOL from any
chemical shop. Fill this alcohol in your existing bottle and use.
It is certainly much more cheaper than a new kit.
STEP 3 : When the cleaning disk gets dirty (turns brownish red) take
it out of the jacket. Put some PROPYL ALCOHOL in a shallow tray and
soak the disk in it. Do not bend the disk. After the disk is clean
take it out and dry. Then happily re use it.
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Atanu's Do-It-Yourself TIP 2
KEYBOARD - REPEATING/STUCK/NON-RESPONSIVE KEYS:
STEP 1 : Get a bottle of PROPYL ALCOHOL. Buy a disposable plastic
syringe from your friendly neighbourhood chemist/medical shop.
STEP 2 : Spot Test - put a little drop of PROPYL ALCOHOL on any of
the key tops or plastic part of the keyboard and wait for some time.
Then see if any damage like corrosion occurs. Normally it is very
safe but it is also quite possible that the plastic of your type of
keyboard might get corroded. If this is so then this TIP is NOT for
you. As a matter of fact I have not faced this corrosion problem
till now.
STEP 3 : Remove the KEYTOP of the problematic key with the aid of
a small flat screwdriver. You will notice a stem like thing known
as the plunger.
STEP 4 : Draw in a small amount of alcohol in the syringe. Then put
the needle alongside the plunger and inject the alcohol in the base
of the key. Now press and release the plunger several times.
STEP 5 : Repeat STEP 4 few times till the problem is solved.
If the problem is still not solved then it may mean that the Key
has to be replaced.
NOTE : STEP 4 has to be done with the machine ON. The above TIP is
only meant for key problems due to dirt inside the Key.
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Atanu's Do-It-Yourself TIP 3
Once upon a time I had a cute lil Floppy,
I filled it with data, Oh, I was so happy,
Then down came the rains an' up came the moisture,
My cute lil floppy turned to a brute lil Floppy,
And to the fungus I lost all my data.
(floppy cleaning - to be continued)
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Atanu's Do-It-Yourself TIP 4
Have you ever faced the nauseating message, after formmating a
perfectingly working floppy (or maybe even a NEW floppy), saying that
so many clusters are bad, which according to you is mathematically and
magnetically impossible, try this simple test-cum-remedy :
STEP 1 : Format the floppy.
STEP 2 : Repeat the above step at least TWO more times.
The offending number of bad clusters would go away or reduce in
number. In fact you can use the following batch file, "formt.bat",
alongwith the response file, "formt.rsp", to do this -
BATCH FILE (FORMT.BAT) :
========================
@echo off
rem Floppy Formmatter
rem Formats a floppy three times
rem Usage : FORMT <:drive-letter>
format %1 /u/f:1.44 <: formt.rsp
RESPONSE FILE (FORMT.RSP) :
===========================
<:ENTER>
<:ENTER>
y<:ENTER>
<:ENTER>
<:ENTER>
y<:ENTER>
<:ENTER>
<:ENTER>
n<:ENTER>
To Create the response file use the following command :
COPY CON FMTRESP
And then enter the responses as if you were answering a FORMAT
command queries. Follow the above sequence of keystrokes.
<:ENTER> means press the Enter Key.
Press CTRL+Z to save the file.
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Atanu's Do-It-Yourself TIP 5
CVT (Constant Voltage Transformer) is your first line of defence
against the ravages of fluctuating AC power supply. And since you value
your computer you go ahead and install a CVT. But how do you know if
the CVT is working properly or for that matter whether it is reliable.
Try the following rough test:
-----------------------------
Listen to the hum produced by your CVT. If it is steady (does not
matter how low or high it may be) then most probably it is working fine.
If the sound is too low or if you have a difficulty in determining the
steadiness by ear then you can place your hand (palm down) on the CVT
and feel the vibration. The vibrations should be steady without any
fluctuations in intensity or in the frequency.
If it varies, like going on and off or swaying to and fro or there is
a rise and fall in the intensity or frequency then you better call
a technical CVT person to have a look.
Most probably you might have to change the CVT.
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Atanu's Do-It-Yourself TIP 6
How bad are Inverter :
----------------------
Most of the Inverters available today have square wave output in contrast
to the normal sine wave AC voltage.
This square wave output voltage damages and reduces the life of your house
wiring and any wirewound components like transformer, motors,etc.
Running computers on an square wave invertor is not advisable.
If you need an uinterruptable power source then use an UPS with sine
wave output and built in CVT or else you can use an sine wave inverter with
an additional CVT. A sine wave inverter is more expensive than a square wave
inverter.
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Atanu's Do-It-Yourself TIP 7
CHKDSK:
-------
Include the following line(s) in your autoexec.bat-
ECHO "n" | CHKDSK <drive letter> /F
where <drive letter> is C:, D:, etc
for all the logical/physical hard drives you have in your computer.
This will reduce the chances of hard drive corruption especially if you
use MS Windows.
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Atanu's Do-It-Yourself TIP 8
How to put off your computer:
-----------------------------
1) Always quit the current application you are running especially windows
2) Soft boot the system by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL
3) Then put off the power switch.
Soft booting forces the system to write any updated data in the RAM to
the hard drive. This is very important if you are using any disk caching
software like SMARTDRV, NWCACHE, etc or using any disk compression utility
like DoubleSpace, Stacker, etc.
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Atanu's Do-It-Yourself TIP 9
CPT and ACPT:
-------------
*** WARNING : This tip is for adventurous folks or who don't mind buying
a new system once in a while.
Whenever you have any hardware problems then do this before calling the
service people. Open the computer and press all the cards, socket mounted
IC chips, connecters and anything else which joined together by mechanical
means. This is known as CPT (Chip Pressing Technology). And this is mostly
what a service chap will do and charge you for your troubles. This
would take care of at least 90% of all types of computer hardware problems.
If this does not work then take out the cards, clean the edge connectors and
insert them back. Prise loose the IC chips with a small flat screwdriver
and press them back onto their mounts. Take out the cable connectors, clean
and put them back.
For cleaning use a cotton wad or swab dipped in PROPYL ALCOHOL. This method
is known as ACPT (Advanced CPT) and will cover another 5% of all hardware
problems.
After all this if the problem does not go away, well, then it is high time
to call a service guy because your computer does have a serious malfunction.
And off course do check for viruses, software problems, hard drive data
corruption, power plug, fuse, etc before doing all the above.
Otherwise you will feel damn silly to discover that you had not plugged in
the system or had the monitor brightness turned to zero.
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Atanu's Do-It-Yourself TIP 10
Floppy drives/storage/use:
--------------------------
Folks nowadays are knowlegeable enough not to keep their floppies near
magnetic sources but there was a time when the situation was slightly
different. For instance there is this story related by a hardware
engineer friend of mine. One of his new clients had been lodging complaints
about his floppies not working, quite regularly. Even brand new floppies.
Everytime the engineer used to go, check out the system and would find
absolutely no problem at all. The floppy drive and the floppies would
function beatifully. But the next day again the customer would call up.
At last it was discovered that the gentleman had been using a curious
paper weight, namely the rear end of an old loudspeaker, to hold down his
papers and floppies onto his metal topped desk.
There are other innocuous objects on a office desk top which are equally
disasterous like telephone, handset, paper weights with magnet (for
storing pins/clips) and most of all the computer monitor.
A floppy kept on/near a monitor does not lose data immediately but the
data gets slowly degraded. Similarly do not keep a floppy in the floppy
drive when not in use.
Here are a few tips:
--------------------
* Use a metal drawer/almirah/cabinet to store floppies with long term data
on them.
* Clean floppy drive heads only when you start having read/write problems.
Regular head cleaning is a myth and might damage the heads. Always buy
a floppy cleaner which has a white cloth like disk and has a cleaning
fluid with it. Never go in for dry type of cleaning floppy.
* Don't use a fungus coated floppy. This will dirty the heads so badly
that it is very difficult to clean them normally.
Treatment of fungus coated floppies will be dealt in a different TIP.
* In the newer computers set "Floppy seek at Boot" on. This can be done
thru the CMOS in most of the machines.
* Don't carry unprotected micro-floppies (3 1/2") in your shirt pocket
specially if you drive a two wheeler. Dust and sand particles get
trapped at the edges of the shutter and when you put this floppy
in a drive these particles act as sandpaper on the floppy and the heads.
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O'Riordan's Theorem: Brains x Beauty = Constant.
Purmal's Corollary: As the limit of (Brains x Beauty) goes to infinity,
availability goes to zero.
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