Free Computer Help

[BUSGO]

There ya go.
Probably just needed to re-establish the slave IP address.
Glad its ok for you.

[DjPete]

another happy customer

[pan]

Hi DJ. Can you please re-post this or move it and make it a sticky in "Free Accommodation & Other Offers"?

Great stuff!

[Pommie]

Thanks for your help Pete, freaky as it was watchin mouse doing its thing without me doin it. All well is well again in the Pommie household. Wife can again Ebay, I can idle away the soggy hours here on the Gold Coast looking at stuff I can neither afford or be allowed to look at. My stress levels are back to normal, all is well with the world

[Louwai]

Hey DJ, got another one for you.

On my lappy that I use to drive the telescope, I have 4 x USB sockets & I need to use 3 of them.
All 3 are ph cable plugged into a ph/RS232 adaptor, which in turn is plugged into a RS232 / USB adaptor.
I have 4 x RS232 / USB adaptors. 1 of 1 brand & 3 of another. All cost around the $40ea.
All adaptors are "supposedly" the correct ones for what i am doing. (chipsets in the adaptor / USB2 etc.)

The scope ctrl cable is plugged into 1 USB socket & it works fine. It always has no issue. It is using the 1-off brand adaptor.

The other 2 I just can't get to work.
I've installed the drivers for the adaptors. I've setup & named the com ports correctly (I think).
When they are plugged in the Device Mgr is identifying that the particular port has something connected.
If I remove & replug the USB the traffic light in the adaptor flashes, so it is being recognised.
But when I try to connect to the specific device it says it can't find anything.

I have connected both extra items to the 1 USB port which is driving the scope & they seem to work intermittantly.
I've swapped the adaptors & that doesn't seem to have an effect.

Someone else suggested too much power drain through the USB sockets, but the connections are purely control. Each device has it's own independant power supply.

I could try a couple of different adaptors, but at $40 to $70 ea that can get expensive.

Any ideas???

EDIT: The lappy has just had the m/board replaced which includes all USB ports so I'm told.

[DjPete]

out of my league Louwai.
Could you try on another laptop to see if same problem.
Or talk to similar user from the Telescope Club?

Other than that...
Busgo??

[DjPete]

Hi DJ. Can you please re-post this or move it and make it a sticky in "Free Accommodation & Other Offers"?

Great stuff!

Not up to me Pan...

[Louwai]

Or talk to similar user from the Telescope Club?

Been there. No one knows. All anyone there has done is to keep changing the adaptors until they get one that works.
So I bought the ones which someone else swears by, & they don't flamin work.........

Shouldn't blame the adaptors tho.. Not yet at least.......

[BUSGO]

Sometimes when you fit a new USB adapter, the PC will ask for the device drivers for the peripherals connected to adapter to be re-installed because they are found in a different location. (It should not do this but some motherboards do it.)

You can try this routine.
Power up the PC with the devices all connected.
Right click on the "My Computer" icon on either the desktop or in the menu list.
Then right click on the "Properties" option.
Select the "Hardware" tab and then go to "Device Manager".
Once the hardware folder list opens, right click on the "Computer" ICON and select the
"Scan for new hardware" option.
In most cases this will cause the PC to find any items connected at all ports and after a short interval any items that were not seen before may become active.
I hope this suggestion works for you. It is the easiest solution to apply.

[Louwai]

Sometimes when you fit a new USB adapter, the PC will ask for the device drivers for the peripherals connected to adapter to be re-installed because they are found in a different location. (It should not do this but some motherboards do it.)

You can try this routine.
Power up the PC with the devices all connected.
Right click on the "My Computer" icon on either the desktop or in the menu list.
Then right click on the "Properties" option.
Select the "Hardware" tab and then go to "Device Manager".
Once the hardware folder list opens, right click on the "Computer" ICON and select the
"Scan for new hardware" option.
In most cases this will cause the PC to find any items connected at all ports and after a short interval any items that were not seen before may become active.
I hope this suggestion works for you. It is the easiest solution to apply.

Thanks Busgo. I'll give it a shot...........

[Andycool]

Thanks DJ for your help in fixing my computer!!!!

Paris is still wondering why she cant see the man in the computer :)
Anya has now recovered after having the cursor move around out of her control...lol

It is great that you give your time and experience to us non computer illiterate dummies :)

You make our lives more of a pleasure

Thankyou again Andrew :)

P.S> I still have a laptop

[DjPete]

Not sure about the virt memory issue you had Andy.
Feedback as to whether it has solved the issue appreciated via email.

[Andycool]

Not sure about the virt memory issue you had Andy.
Feedback as to whether it has solved the issue appreciated via email.

Its abit weird DJ

It still comes up as a warning it is low(virtual memory) and windows is increasing it???
Maybe it is a hard disc fault I absolutely would not have a clue!!

The Computer is definitely faster now with your help :)

[DjPete]

over to Busgo?
...

[BUSGO]

Andy, It would appear that your PC needs a scandisk and full defragmentation to increase the available free space that enables the Windows virtual memory (SWAPFILE) to operate properly.
At some stage in your PCs life, someone may have fixed the virtual memory to a certain percentage of free space on the hard drive or one of the partitions (A partition is a section of hard drive space that has been separated to another drive name. e.g. you can divide the C: DRIVE into smaller sections and name them in sequential order such as D: OR E: OR F: etc.
The naming of the drives is automatically handled by Windows. A: and B: are floppy drives and if you have a CD drive it is normally D: drive). The C: drive is the boot drive.
To do an error check (SCANDISK) or defragmentation on your c: drive do this.
Go the "My Computer" icon and open it.
When the list of devices (DRIVES) appears, right click on the C: drive and select "Properties" from the menu list.
Then select the "TOOLS" tab and you should have two options, "Error Checking" and "Defragmentation".
Do an error check first and when that finishes you should restart your pc and then do a defragmentation.

If you want to play with the "Virtual Memory" settings, you find them if you right click on the "My Computer" icon, and under "properties", select the "ADVANCED" tab and then "Performance".
As a guide, I have 30gb of free space on my C: drive and have allocated 2048mb as the maximum "Virtual Memory" space. This works fine on my machine but every PC is different and depends on whether you do video editing etc in which case you should select the option to allow Windows to handle the memory allocations.
If that is what you have got selected, Windows is doing what is required to handle your memory requirements and, as I have already said, you simply need to create more free "CONTIGUOUS" space for it. (Contiguous = all joined together).
Hope you understand this explanation and it works for you.

p.s. glad that your family is all back together mate.