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COMPUTER BITS By JENNIFER BONNITCHA What to do when your computer goes bung You've tried everything you can think of but your computer won't cooperate. It just sits there defiantly, seemingly gloating at your lack of knowledge. This is the first in a series of articles that will give you the whip hand. Not so long ago - at least it seems that way - when personal computers were still a glint in the designers' eyes, most people who had anything to do with computing worked on mainframes and mainframe terminals. The disadvantages have been well documented and need not be related now (although it is interesting to note the "flavour of the month" treatment networking currently enjoys). One of the main advantages of early computing for the average computer user was the computer terminal. When all functioned correctly, work progressed at a frantic pace and nobody worried too much about maintenance, backups, etc since "they" took care of the more mundane activities. "They" of course, were the computer room staff - a mythical, almost mystical group who moved around a company with a certain air of distraction as befits those who aspire to greatness. Whenever a problem arose, the first step was to check whether cries of anguish could be heard emanating from other terminals close by. By listening to the level of sobbing, you could easily tell how long it had been since a "save" 82 SILICON CHIP command had been issued on hours of precious work. However, sometimes you were all alone - everyone else just kept on tapping away. "So what's the problem?" you would ask. "Why me? What have I done to deserve this?" Are the computer operators playing a trick on me just because I beat the senior shift operator to the last drop of the milk this morning? There are certainly times when, even with the best will in the world and the combined efforts of a multitude of prevention procedures, things just don't work. That darned computer, screen, printer, etc just won't do what it's supposed to do. So problem determination seems to be the order of the day. You check to see whether the thing has any life in it at all. When nothing seems to work, you take the only alternative left to you: you call the computer room or information services or the computer support group (call it what it like) and let "them" figure it out. After all, that's what they are paid for isn't it?! Once upon a time, computing really was this simple. You could pass the buck reliably to at least one other person - maybe even a whole department! If the terminal didn't come back to life, you either amused yourself with other work or found another vacant terminal (good luck) until yours was fixed. Sometimes an even more ethereal being, the Customer Service Engineer, arrived armed with a bulging case full of the latest technology to work on your errant terminal. With luck all would be well within a matter of minutes/ hours. Personal computing Today, things are quite different for a large number of computer users. Often, the person in a small business charged with the responsibility of operating a personal computer is the only one who has the slightest idea of what is going on. What happens when a problem arises? This article and several following seek to provide a guide for just such a user. The series will examine all kinds of disasters, from the humble cup of coffee in the keyboard (white with two thanks), through discs folded in half by the friendly staff at the post office (remember how you were strongly advised to use a disc mailer?), to hard disc failures and printer problems (it's just printing rows and rows of garbage). There will also be some software tips, just for a change. Many of the points raised will be quite obvious. However, that is only true when you have experienced a particular problem yourself and discovered the solution. education and training. Technical support and "Help Line" operators could write a book about the problems they encounter from distressed souls out there in user land. Particularly frustrating is the appalling lack of knowledge on even the simple points. What kind of computer do you use? Does it have a hard disc? Do you have a dot matrix or laser printer? Are you using high density or low density discs? Is your printer parallel or serial? Software manuals, as we all know, frequently leave a lot to the imagination. With experience you know that, for example, most word processing programs automatically generate a carriage return at the end of every line. I know that and you know that, but the user new to word processing hasn't the faintest idea what this feature is, let alone how to look it up in the reference manual. The same often applies to computer hardware. That which seems obvious is only so with the benefit of prior knowledge. A true story There's nothing more frustrating than a computer system that's misbehaving. Our series will explore computer problems primarily from a hardware angle but will also cover some operating system problems as well. In the "real world", I spend my time training company staff to use computer software packages. These people range from the absolute beginner who doesn't realise the difference between the letter "O" and the number "O" , right through to those users who are very experienced with a particular program. One of the most difficult points to remember is that the absolute beginner has no idea as to what is going on. An experienced user knows that the DEL and DELETE, ENTER and RETURN, and PAGE UP and PGUP keys each perform identically but the new user doesn't have the luxury of this prior knowledge. To this type of computer user, a 101-key enhanced keyboard corn- plete with 12 function keys, numeric keypad and separate cursor control area represents an enormous challenge. Added to this is the difference in operation of the DELETE and BACKSPACE keys and the rather surprising features of the CAPS LOCK and SHIFT keys (what do you mean there isn't a SHIFT LOCK key, how do you stop the capitals?). Everyone has heard the old chestnut about the computer user who was asked to send a copy of a disc causing some distress. In due course, a photocopy of the offending disc was delivered by Australia Post! Although this seems too laughable to be true, it has happenecl and for a very good reason - lack of Once, a long, long time ago, I was a humble network liaison officer for a computer room at the centre of the Earth. Actually, the computer room was in the basement of a large building - it just seemed like the centre of the Earth! This position involved all kinds of interesting work on the retail point of sale system for a large department store. One aspect of the job was the weekly "on-call" rotation of liaison officers. Whenever the network control boys encountered a problem they couldn't deal with in a store, the liaison officer was beeped and asked to call and hopefully sort out the problem. One Saturday morning, it was my turn. Funny, that doesn't sound like the usual alarm. Oh, the beeper is going off its head. I got up, called network control, found out the problem, made a cup of coffee and rang the offending store. Didn't they realise that at 7.00am on a Saturday real people were still sleeping? The store operator was in conMAY 1990 83 organisation. This is fine in theory and the people who received the formal training can usually show their colleagues what they need to The basic workings of the IBM PC Inside the IBM PC, by Peter Norton. Revised edition. Published 1986 by Brady Books, New York. soft covers, 235 x 188mm, 386 pages. ISBN 0-89303-583-1. If you want a good introductory text on the IBM PC family of computers, this has to be one of the best books around. The author is Peter Norton who created the famed Norton utilities software package, so he really knows what he is talking about. The book covers some of the hardware aspects, the disc operating system and describes siderable distress since the in-store controller (a minicomputer of dubious intelligence) wasn't working as it should. No matter what, it wouldn't display the correct date and time. Not a problem, I thought. There's plenty of time until the store opens at 8.00am and the start-up procedure usually takes only 5-10 minutes. OK, let's go through the procedure slowly - me first, then you. At the end, all seemed to function as it should but the store operator insisted that all was not right. We went through the procedure again and the situation started to get a little tense. Opening time was fast approaching and if we cou~dn't resolve the problem, the store would have to start implementing a different operating procedure. Then it came to me in a blinding (and most welcome) flash of inspiration. At what seemed like the eleventh hour (in hindsight it probably wasn't so desperate but you know what it's like when the pressure is on), I remembered my last visit to the store. Attached to the minicomputer was a small magnetic clock which the operators used for checking the date and time. Today's operator only worked Thursday nights and Saturday mornings. Casually, I asked whether the date and time were correct on the 84 SILICON CHIP know. the built BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). A full review appeared in the February 1 990 issue of SILICON CHIP. printed report produced by the computer. The affirmative answer confirmed my diagnosis - the battery had run down in the digital clock! I explained to a very relieved operator that the clock was not, in fact, a part of the minicomputer. It was there only for convenience and yes, the morning's procedures could continue as usual. We all had a good laugh about it on the following Monday but it emphasised a very important point. Never assume anything. Even if you think that the situation is under control, check again. The store operator worked only in one store. The computer centre people had the benefit of exposure to equipment in different stores and so knew that the digital clock had no connection with the in-store computer. But how was the store operator supposed to know that? The answer, of course, is education. Problem solving Problem determination is one half of the battle. Satisfactory resolution is the other. One of my pet dislikes is the practice some companies adopt in a misguided effort to keep costs down. Often, one or two staff members are sent on a training course. The idea is that they will then impart their knowledge to others in their What they are often not good at is explaining why a certain procedure functions as it does. They are also usually unable to explain why varying a series of steps gives an entirely different result to that obtained previously. Or why a problem has cropped up when the procedure has been carried out errorfree many times before. By the end of this series, computing will present less problems and provide more answers. One of the interesting things about computing is that the more you know, the more you realise you don't know. You attend a DOS introduction course to learn all about the operating system. At the conclusion, you know how to format a floppy disc as either a data or a system disc and you know the difference between them. However, you may not fully realise just what formatting actually does to the disc. You should also know how to run CHKDSK to determine, among other things, how much standard memory your computer has on board. But what about extended memory? How can you find out whether your computer has any and if so, how much? Sure you can interpret the basic results of CHKDSK but what is "Lost Clusters Found in N Chains" or "File x Cross-Linked on Cluster N" ? That's pretty heavy stuff. So you purchase one of the excellent " tell me more" books like The Paul Mace Guide to Data Recovery or one of Peter Norton's books: Peter Norton's DOS Guide, Inside the IBM PC or Inside the Norton Utilities. As I said, the more you know, the more you realise you don't know. The coming series will seek to explore day-to-day problems primarily from a hardware angle. However, some operating system problems will creep in simply because the two sometimes can't easily be separated. Sit back, arm yourself with something cold and enjoy your trip to the restaurant at the end of the universe. ~