Chapter 8. Hardware Headaches

What You’ll Learn

In this chapter, I’ll show you:

• How to enable disabled ports

• How to perform a BIOS upgrade

• How to connect and use a secondary display

• How to fix problems with mice, printers, scanners, and CD/DVD drives

Hardware Hiccups and Horrors

Malfunctioning hardware and peripherals connected to your Vista computer has got to be one of the more difficult issues to resolve. I’m talking about your humble mouse, scanner, DVD burner, and other innocuous-looking devices that either malfunction or make your system erratic or unusable.

Hardware problems can sometimes render your system unbootable, although typically this is caused by three malfunctioning or misconfigured culprits:

• Video card

• RAM

• Hard drive

But let me first show you some basic hardware troubleshooting tips that might solve many of your hardware hiccups. Then, later in the chapter, I’ll go over troubleshooting techniques for specific devices.

Diagnosing Hardware with Device Manager

The first step to solving hardware problems is to find out whether Windows recognizes your hardware, and Device Manager is the place to go for this information.

In Windows Vista, you can find links to Device Manager in several places, as follows:

• Open Control Panel and then open the System and Maintenance category.

• Open Control Panel and then open the Hardware and Sound category.

• Right-click Computer and then select Properties and look in the Tasks pane.

Any way you get there, Device Manager provides a list of all the device categories detected in your computer (see Figure 8.1).

Figure 8.1. Device Manager lists all the device categories detected in your computer and displays problem hardware.

The system shown in Figure 8.1 has a couple of problems—and Device Manager makes it easy to see them:

• The modem is disabled—Windows Vista uses a down-arrow icon for disabled devices instead of the red X used in previous Windows versions.

• An unknown device lacks a driver—Windows Vista uses a yellow triangle ! (exclamation mark) symbol for devices with driver or other problems instead of the circled ! symbol used in previous versions.

If Device Manager displays hardware devices with problems, the next step is to use Device Manager to resolve those problems. Double-click the device to open its properties sheet and look at the General tab to see what’s wrong (see Figure 8.2).

Figure 8.2. Use the General tab of a problem device’s properties sheet to start the solution process.

The Device Status box provides an error code for malfunctioning devices and instructions for solving the problem. In most cases, the instructions ask you to click the solution button below the Device Status window. Depending on the problem, the solution button is labeled in different ways to match the task it performs. For example, with a disabled device (see Figure 8.2, left), the button says Enable Device. Click the button to enable the device. With a device that needs a driver, the button is labeled Reinstall Driver. Click the button to check for a driver and install it.

You will learn more about using Device Manager to solve problems with specific devices later in this chapter.

Dealing with Disabled Ports

What do you do when you are having problems with a device and it’s not listed in Device Manager, even as an Unknown Device? If the device is attached to a port on your system’s motherboard, the port itself might be disabled in the system BIOS setup program. A port that is disabled in the system BIOS setup program is never detected by Windows. If the port is “invisible,” so are the devices connected to it.

Figure 8.3 shows typical examples of internal built-in ports used for hard disks and CD/DVD drives.

Figure 8.3. ATA/IDE and SATA ports on a typical motherboard.

Figure 8.4 shows typical examples of external ports such as USB, audio, and others.

Figure 8.4. The port cluster on the rear of a typical desktop motherboard.

If you have never used an internal or external port on your system before, and a device plugged into that port cannot be detected by Windows Vista, it’s possible the port is disabled.

Starting the System BIOS Setup Program

So, how do you enable a port? Simply, start your computer’s BIOS setup program and enable the port.

The BIOS setup program is built into the BIOS chip and can be started by pressing a specified key during system startup. Many computers display a message indicating which key to press when you start the system, although a few might require you to crack open the instruction manual for help.

There are many variations on BIOS setup screens, in part because there are two major BIOS vendors (Phoenix and American Megatrends [also known as AMI]). And, to make life even more interesting, Phoenix offers both the Phoenix BIOS and the Award BIOS (Phoenix bought Award Software some years ago). Anyway, don’t expect to see exactly the screens shown in the following section on your system, but you should see something similar.

After you start the BIOS configuration program, you might see a standard BIOS setup screen displaying hard disk drives and a top-level menu for access to other dialogs, or you might see a full-screen menu.

Enabling Ports

On most recent systems, the Integrated Peripherals menu in the system BIOS is where to go to enable ports (your system might vary; check your system or motherboard manual for details). The system shown in Figure 8.5 places USB configuration on the main Integrated Peripherals menu and uses submenus for additional ports:

• Onboard Devices—IEEE-1394, audio, and LAN (Ethernet) ports

• I/O Devices—Floppy, COM, and LPT ports (see Figure 8.6)

• IDE Devices—ATA/IDE ports

• SATA Devices—SATA ports and RAID configuration

Figure 8.5. The Integrated Peripherals menu on a typical system.

Figure 8.6. Enabling a serial (COM) port.

If you need to enable a port, it might be a simple matter of selecting Enable from the options menu, or, as in the case of a legacy port (serial/COM or parallel/LPT), you might need to select a particular hardware configuration (IRQ/IO port address), as shown in Figure 8.6.

After you enable the ports needed to make your peripherals work, save your changes. Your system will restart, and after the Windows Vista desktop opens, Vista will detect and install support for newly enabled ports.

Updating the BIOS

The BIOS is a chip on your system’s motherboard that controls all of the built-in devices on your system, from the CPU socket to the USB ports. The BIOS chip is an example of firmware (software inside a chip), which is a good thing. Software problems are often solved with updates (patches, hotfixes, service packs). Similarly, system problems related to the BIOS can be solved with BIOS updates.

Because BIOS chips use flash memory (it’s similar to the memory in your digital camera, enabling long-term data storage), updating the BIOS doesn’t require you to remove the chip and insert a new one. Instead, you download an update program from the motherboard or system maker and install the update (a process that takes about 3–5 minutes).

So, what kinds of problems can you solve with a BIOS update? The exact list of solutions provided by a particular BIOS update is provided by the system or motherboard vendor, but here’s a sampling of fixes provided by various BIOS updates for various systems:

• Resolves USB compatibility issues with some USB 2.0 devices

• Updates smart fan (temperature-controlled fan) function

• Fixes problems with certain graphics cards

• Supports additional memory speeds

• Enables low-RPM CPU fan to be properly recognized

• Enables support of new processor models

• Enables or fixes problems with CPU temperature monitor

• Solves audio problems

• Solves problems with RAID setup

In other words, if there’s a problem with anything connected to your motherboard, a BIOS update might (I repeat, might) be the solution.

Before you jump on the Internet and blindly grab a BIOS update, though, note the following:

• You need to know the exact model number and revision of your system (if it’s from a major vendor) or motherboard (if your system is from a white-box builder or if you replaced the original motherboard). Installing a BIOS update made for a different system or motherboard wipes out your BIOS—and turns your motherboard into the digital equivalent of roadkill.

• Don’t install a BIOS update just because it’s available. A BIOS update should be installed only if it solves a problem you have now, or if you need to install it to enable you to install a hardware upgrade, such as a new processor or faster memory modules.

• Make sure you understand exactly how the BIOS upgrade is installed. Some BIOS upgrades require you to use a floppy boot disk to perform the upgrade, either using a special installer program you download or by using an existing boot disk. However, some vendors now provide BIOS updates you can install from within Windows. Read the installation instructions carefully and completely before you start.

• Make sure your system won’t be interrupted by a power outage during the upgrade process. It can take as much as three to five minutes to perform a BIOS upgrade. A power outage or interruption breaks the process—and breaks your BIOS, too!

Performing a Windows-Based BIOS Upgrade

If you can perform a BIOS upgrade from within Windows, great! It’s the easiest BIOS upgrade you can perform. Many system vendors now offer this type of upgrade.

To perform a typical BIOS upgrade from within Windows:

1. Download the upgrade file from the vendor’s website and save it to your hard disk.

2. Close all other programs.

3. Open the file to start the installation process.

4. Follow the prompts and cautions to complete the installation.

Performing a BIOS Upgrade with a Boot Disk

If you cannot perform a BIOS upgrade from within Windows, you will need to perform the upgrade after booting from a startup disk. Most BIOS upgrades performed this way use separate BIOS loader and BIOS image files; frequently, you download a single .ZIP or .EXE archive file and extract the files from it.

This type of upgrade has a number of potential problems. Your system might not have a floppy disk drive (a lot of systems don’t anymore). You might be directed to copy the BIOS loader and image files to a folder on your hard disk. The problem is that when you boot from a floppy disk, you will not be able to access your hard disk and will not be able to access your files. That’s because boot disks don’t support the NTFS file system used by Windows Vista.

Here’s how to get around these problems:

1. Copy the BIOS loader and BIOS image files to a CD-R disc using Vista. Format the disc using the Mastered file system.

2. To enable your system to access the CD, use a Windows 98 boot disk (which contains CD-ROM drive support) to boot your system if your system has a floppy disk drive. If you (or a friend) have a Windows 98 CD, you can create a boot disk directly from the CD. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/187632/en-us (you can perform the tasks in this article from Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Vista). You can also download a Windows 98 boot floppy image from various websites and use it to create a boot floppy disk.

3. If your system doesn’t have a floppy disk drive, you can create a bootable CD and use it in place of a boot floppy. See the sidebar “Creating a Boot CD” for details (later in this chapter).

Here’s how to perform the upgrade if you can’t do it from within Windows:

1. Download the BIOS upgrade from the vendor’s website.

2. If the upgrade is a compressed file (such as a ZIP archive file), extract it to a folder and note the exact location.

3. Copy the extracted files to a CD-R disc. Format it using Mastered as the format type.

4. Create a bootable Windows 98 floppy disk (if you don’t have one handy). Yes, I said Windows 98, not Vista. Keep reading to learn why.

5. Restart your system using the floppy disk. When prompted, select Start with CD-ROM support. If your system does not start from the floppy disk, see the next Note for help.

6. Insert the CD-R containing the BIOS loader and BIOS image files.

7. At the end of the startup process, you will see a message indicating the drive letter assigned to your CD/DVD drive (generally, D:).

8. Switch to that drive (in this example, we’ll assume the D: drive) and press Enter.

9. Type the command to perform the upgrade: biosloader biosimage.xxx and press Enter. Replace biosloader with the name of the BIOS loader program. On the system illustrated in this section, it’s Afud408.exe. Also, replace biosimage.xxx with the name of the BIOS image to be installed. On the system illustrated in this section, it’s A7250NMS.160.

10. Wait while the new BIOS version is installed. Do not turn off the power to your PC while the BIOS installation is being performed!

11. When the system indicates the installation is successful (see Figure 8.7), remove the floppy disk and restart your system.

Figure 8.7. Performing a BIOS upgrade using a boot disk.

12. When you restart your system, you will need to run the BIOS setup program to reconfigure your settings. See the Tip provided earlier for recording your settings.

13. Save your settings and restart, and your system boots normally.

If you don’t have a floppy drive, don’t panic. Read the sidebar “Creating a Boot CD” to learn how to perform the upgrade.

USB Problems—Solved!

USB stands for Universal Serial Bus, and believe me, it’s a great name. As I look around my systems, here’s a partial list of devices I can use thanks to USB ports:

• Mouse

• Keyboard

• Printer

• Scanner

• Flash memory card reader

• External hard disk

• Wi-Fi wireless network adapter

• Webcam

• And even a USB-powered fan

You can use USB ports for virtually every external device you can plug into your system. If your USB ports aren’t working, you have problems—big problems.

USB is a plug-and-play and hot-swap technology. When you plug in a USB device, the system is supposed to recognize it and make it available to you. You can disconnect and reconnect USB devices without shutting down your computer. USB sounds great, and when it works, it is great! Obviously, it doesn’t always work, however (or you wouldn’t need to read this chapter). So, what should you do when a USB device stops working?

• Disconnect and then reconnect the device.

• Check driver issues.

• Check power issues in Device Manager.

• Make sure USB 2.0 (Hi-Speed USB) support is enabled.

• Try a powered USB hub.

• Use a different USB port.

• Drop in a USB card and plug your devices into it instead of built-in ports.

Ready to start fixing bad USB ports and devices? Let’s get started!

Unplug, Plug, Then Play

The easiest way, and one of the most effective, to fix problems with a USB device is to disconnect it from your system, wait a few seconds, and then reconnect it. Depending on the device, you might not need to do anything, or you might need to click Locate and Install Driver Software on the Found New Hardware dialog to permit device drivers to be reinstalled to finish the process.

Before you try any other USB troubleshooting methods in this chapter, try this one first. However, keep a couple of things in mind:

• The safest place to plug a USB device into your system is into the built-in USB ports on the port cluster at the rear of a desktop system (refer to Figure 8.4) or any built-in USB port on a laptop. Front-mounted USB ports on desktop computers might not be connected properly to the motherboard, and USB ports on hubs might not provide enough power to run some USB devices.

• If you are having problems with a USB storage device (hard disk, flash drive, or card reader), use the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the System Tray to eject the device. If you have only one USB storage device, click the icon and select the device. If you have more than one, or if you want to see details, right-click the icon, select Safely Remove Hardware, and select the device from the menu (see Figure 8.8). To determine the drive letter(s) used by the device and other information, click the Display Device Components box.

Figure 8.8. Preparing to stop a USB flash memory drive before removing it.

Driver and Device-Recognition Woes and Solutions

USB is plug-and-play, so it’s easy to assume that your computer should be able to recognize any and every USB device when it’s plugged into the system without installing drivers first. Don’t believe it. Although Windows Vista includes lots of drivers (it’s easy to do it when you distribute the program on a DVD, instead of a CD as Windows XP was distributed), there’s no way it can support all USB devices, especially devices that didn’t exist at the store last week.

How can you tell whether you need to install drivers for your USB device? If you received a CD (or a floppy disk) with drivers for Windows versions other than Windows 98, you need to install drivers. But which drivers should you install?

If the CD includes drivers for Windows Vista, you can install them before you connect the device, or better still, get the latest Windows Vista drivers from the manufacturer’s website and install them before connecting the device. I recommend this method because some vendors might not include Vista drivers with hardware, or might offer updated drivers on their websites. In most cases, you should install device drivers before you connect the device, but follow the manufacturer’s instructions if they vary.

Any device that lacks a driver, including USB devices, is exiled to the Other Devices category in Device Manager and is labeled an Unknown Device (refer to Figure 8.1). In such cases, I recommend the following:

1. Disconnect the device.

2. Download and install the drivers.

3. Connect the device.

USB devices that often require custom drivers include printers, all-in-one devices, and scanners.

You can also use Device Manager to disconnect and reconnect a USB or other plug-and-play device, which is handy if you don’t like reaching behind your system or crawling on the floor:

1. Select the device you want to disconnect and click the Uninstall button.

2. Click OK to confirm.

3. To redetect the device, click the Scan for Hardware Changes button.

4. If the Found New Hardware dialog appears, follow the prompts to finish the installation process.

USB Port and Hub Power Woes and Solutions

No matter how many USB ports a system has, you might need even more USB ports. The easiest way to add more USB ports is to connect a USB hub to a USB port on your system. A hub is a box that includes four (or more) USB ports for devices and a separate USB port for the connection to your computer.

If you need to buy a hub, keep in mind that there are two types of hubs:

• Self-powered

• Bus-powered

So-called self-powered hubs include an AC adapter that plugs into the wall and provides a full 500mA of power (the same power level provided by built-in USB ports) to each USB port in the hub, whereas bus-powered hubs provide only 100mA per port. Does it matter which type of hub you use?

Absolutely, especially if you want to plug bus-powered USB storage devices into a hub. Devices that use 100mA of power or less (see Figure 8.9, left) can use either type of hub. However, most USB storage devices, such as USB flash memory drives, card readers, and bus-powered USB hard disks, need more than 100mA of power (see Figure 8.9, right). These devices will not work when plugged into a bus-powered hub, and some can be damaged.

Figure 8.9. USB device power consumption varies by device.

So, if you’re shopping for a USB hub, look over the candidates carefully. Make sure the hub supports USB 2.0 (Hi-Speed USB) performance and make sure it includes an AC adapter. If either feature is missing from a hub, it should be missing from your shopping cart.

Missing in Action! USB 2.0 Support

Although it’s easy to forget it, there are actually two USB standards. The original USB standard is USB 1.1, and it runs at a feeble 12Mbps. The current USB standard, USB 2.0, is also called Hi-Speed USB for a reason: It runs at 480Mbps (40× faster than USB 1.1, if you don’t want to do the math right now). So what? Well, if you see a warning that you have a Hi-Speed USB device plugged into a standard USB port, it means that something’s gone wrong with the USB 2.0 support on your computer:

• Your system’s USB 2.0 support might be disabled.

• You might have a problem with USB 2.0 support in Device Manager.

• You might be using a USB 1.1 hub (often labeled simply “USB”).

• You might have plugged a device into a USB 1.1 port on your system or on a hub.

Although most USB 2.0 devices will work at USB 1.1 speeds, they (and you) won’t like it: File transfers are very slow, and printing takes forever.

Device Manager can tell you whether your system’s USB 2.0 support is disabled. Open the Universal Serial Bus Controllers category in Device Manager and make sure that a USB 2.0 or EHCI controller is listed, as in Figure 8.10. Note that although you might have multiple USB 1.1 OHCI controllers listed, only one USB 2.0 EHCI controller is needed.

Figure 8.10. A system with USB 2.0 support enabled.

If you don’t see an EHCI/USB 2.0 controller listed in Device Manager, it’s probably been disabled in the system BIOS. Enable USB 2.0 support in the system BIOS, and it will appear in Device Manager.

If you see an EHCI/USB 2.0 controller entry in Device Manager, but it has been disabled or has another problem, open the properties sheet and follow the recommendations in the status box to solve the problem.

Replace USB 1.1 hubs with USB 2.0 hubs. Keep in mind that some systems with front-mounted USB ports feature USB 1.1 support on those ports, and USB 2.0 support on other ports, usually on the back of the system.

If your system doesn’t have USB 2.0 ports or they don’t work, install a USB 2.0 add-on card and plug your USB 2.0 devices into the card.

Graphics Adapters

Graphics adapters (also known as video cards) are critical to Windows Vista’s proper operation. Here are some of the problems you can have with graphics adapters:

• Problems with using a secondary display

• Program running in wrong display

• Performance and visual-quality problems in some 3D games

• No support for Windows Aero 3D desktop

I’m Not Sure I Can Attach a Secondary Display

Most graphics cards include some form of dual-display capability, from TV out to support for a standard or flat panel monitor. To connect an additional display to your system, you need to know what type of connectors your graphics card offers:

• VGA—Can be used for standard CRT-style displays and most flat panel LCD displays.

• DVI—Can be used for many recent LCD displays, and widely used DVI-I version can be adapted to work with displays that use VGA connectors.

• S-video—Works with many recent TVs and VCRs, and can be adapted to work with displays that use composite connectors.

• Composite—Uses a single RCA jack connector, works with most TVs and VCRs, but provides lower image quality than S-video.

Figure 8.11 illustrates VGA, S-video, and DVI-I ports and cables.

Figure 8.11. VGA, S-Video, and DVI-I ports (top) and cables (bottom).

Many graphics cards now feature two DVI-I ports. If you need to connect a VGA-type display to a DVI-I port, use the VGA/DVI-I adapter packaged with the graphics card (or order one from the card vendor).

I Can’t Use My Secondary Display

After you connect an additional display, you need to enable it before you can use it. If you want to display different programs on each monitor, open the Personalization menu from the desktop or Control Panel, open the Display Settings menu, select the secondary display, and click the box Extend the Desktop Onto This Monitor. You can then drag a nonmaximized (windowed) program to the new display, enabling you to run different programs in each display.

I Want the Same Information on Both Displays

If you want both displays to show the same information (such as when you run a projector with your laptop), you need to select a feature known as display cloning. Display cloning requires you to configure your primary (regular) display to run at the same resolution as the other display you are using, so do that first (using the Personalization menu). Next, click the Advanced button in the Display Settings menu. Do not click the Extend the Desktop box.

To enable display cloning on a computer that uses an ATI graphics card or chipset, use the ATI Displays tab. To enable display cloning on a computer that uses Intel-integrated graphics, open the Intel Extreme Graphics tab, click Graphics Properties, and select Intel Dual Display clone. To enable display cloning on a computer that uses an nVidia graphics card or chipset, open the GeForce tab and open the green tab to display the nVidia menu. Select nView display mode, and choose Clone.

My Program Runs in the Wrong Display

OK, you’re dual-displaying along nicely, and you open Media Center. Instead of showing up on your 42-inch HDTV you connected as your secondary display, it’s running on your puny 19-inch primary display. Rats!

Hey, relax, it’s no big deal. As long as a program isn’t running maximized, you can drag it to any working display. If it’s maximized, click the Restore Down button (it’s the dual-box button next to the Close [X] button in the upper-right corner of the program) to run the program in a window. Drag the program window to the other display; then click the Maximize button (it takes the place of the Restore Down button) to use all of your secondary display’s digital goodness.

My 3D Game Looks Lousy or Runs Very Slowly

Virtually all card-based graphics adapters and many integrated (motherboard-based) adapters feature some level of 3D acceleration. 3D gaming can look incredibly realistic. However, 3D gaming is the most demanding type of program your system will ever run. And, there’s a trade-off with all but the most expensive 3D cards: To improve frame rates, you usually need to reduce 3D quality.

There are two ways to adjust 3D settings: inside the game itself, or with the Advanced properties sheet for your display. Depending on the driver, you might access 3D or other advanced settings from a tab on the Advanced dialog, or you might need to run a proprietary program. Figure 8.12 shows the 3D settings dialog used by the NVIDIA Control Panel.

Figure 8.12. Adjusting 3D settings using the NVIDIA Control Panel.

Hard Drives and Storage

Hard disk drives tend to be very reliable over time, but they can cause problems for you when you first install them or when they fail.

I Installed a Hard Disk, But Windows Can’t Find It

If you connected your hard disk to an external port (USB or FireWire), make sure the port is visible in Device Manager. If the drive includes an AC adapter, make sure the AC adapter is plugged into a wall outlet and the drive is turned on. After a few moments, the drive should be visible by clicking on Computer in the Start menu.

For internal hard disks, more work is involved to make them ready for use. If the drive plugs into an SATA port, make sure the SATA ports are enabled in the system BIOS. Also, make sure the SATA power and data cables are properly attached to the drive and motherboard. If the drive plugs into the ATA/IDE port, you must also set a jumper block on the rear of the drive. Generally, you use the Cable Select position with either a single-drive or dual-drive configuration (including hard disks and CD/DVD drives), and the cable sorts out which drive is which. If you are installing a drive as the only drive on an ATA/IDE cable, see the documentation provided with the drive. Incorrectly set jumpers can cause drives to fail. Figure 8.13 shows a typical Cable Select jumper block setting on a hard disk.

Figure 8.13. Cable Select (CS) jumper on a typical ATA/IDE hard disk.

After installing an internal hard disk, you must prepare it, either with a vendor-supplied program (recommended if you are replacing your system drive with a larger one) or with Windows Vista’s Disk Management (recommended if the drive is being used as additional storage) before you can use it. For help with Disk Management, search for Disk Management Vista (using all words) at http://windowshelp.microsoft.com.

My Hard Disk Is Failing

Internal hard disk drives include a self-testing feature called S.M.A.R.T. You can enable (or disable) S.M.A.R.T. monitoring in the system BIOS. When S.M.A.R.T. detects problems with the drive, it relocates data to spare sectors within the drive. However, when it runs short of spare sectors or determines the drive is about to fail, it displays a message indicating the drive is about to fail. There might not be time to run a backup (although you should try a backup to a USB hard disk if you haven’t been good about making backups) before the drive fails. If the drive is still under warranty, contact the vendor for a replacement. If the drive is out of warranty, it’s time to go shopping.

Check Your RAM

Windows Vista loves RAM—and lots of it. However, bad RAM can cause your system to fail to boot or result in mysterious crashes. To test your RAM, run the Windows Memory Diagnostics program included in Windows Vista. You can start it from Control Panel’s Administrative Tools folder, by pressing F8 when the system starts and selecting it from the Windows Boot Manager, or by starting your system with the Windows Vista DVD and running it from the System Recovery menu.

You can fiddle around with many different settings, but the default settings do a good job of finding problems. And, if any problems are detected, you can find them in Problem Reports and Solutions (also part of Control Panel). If you find memory problems and you have more than one memory module, remove it (be careful—avoid static electricity!) and rerun Windows Memory Diagnostics. If the problems persist, replace the module still in your system. If the problems are no longer present, insert the memory you removed into a different socket and retest. If you cannot use a different socket, or if the problem persists no matter which socket is used, replace that module.

My Mouse Doesn’t Work

If your mouse does not work when you power on your computer, what to do? There are a few things to check to diagnose, troubleshoot, and hopefully resolve this issue. There are five main things to consider and look for in a situation such as this one:

• Your mouse port or mouse is suspect.

• Your mouse’s trackball is dirty.

• You’re using an optical mouse on a clear or uniform surface.

• Your mouse driver is damaged or missing.

• It’s a device configuration issue.

Check Your Mouse Port and Mouse

First, make sure your mouse is plugged in. If it is a mouse with a PS/2 connector, check the (usually) color-coded port on the back of your computer to confirm that the mouse is actually plugged in (refer to Figure 8.4). Turn off the system, plug in the mouse, and then turn it back on. If the mouse is in fact properly connected, check to make sure that all of the pins are in their correct location on the PS/2 connector. If one or more pins are missing, the mouse might not work at all.

If your mouse connects via a USB port, check that the USB plug is properly connected into the USB port and clicks when it goes in. If you are using a USB mouse, connect the mouse to another USB port to make sure that it is not the port. With either a USB or PS/2 mouse, try a different mouse. If the other mouse works, you know that the old mouse was the problem.

If you replace the PS/2 mouse and it still does not work, it might be time to play with the BIOS to solve the problem. The PS/2 mouse port uses a hardware resource called IRQ 12. When you reboot the computer and get into the BIOS, make sure no other devices are using IRQ 12. If no other devices are connected to the resource, make sure that IRQ 12 is enabled. If the IRQ 12 resource is enabled and the PS/2 mouse is in fact using this resource, the PS/2 port is out of commission, and you must connect a new mouse to the USB ports in your computer. Or you might need to get a new motherboard (main circuit board)—but hey, a new USB mouse is cheaper! If your mouse works on another computer, you can narrow your troubleshooting to the following: a driver issue, a device configuration issue, or a bad port. The next thing to try is to get a new (updated) driver for your mouse.

Check Your Driver

Most mice are supported by drivers included on the Windows Vista DVD. However, you can download a replacement driver for your mouse by using the keyboard:

1. Press the Microsoft logo key on your keyboard or press Ctrl+Esc. Next, press the down arrow key (↓) once to highlight Internet Explorer. Press Enter to launch your browser.

2. Use the Tab key to move the cursor to navigate within a web page or to jump between the various clickable elements on a web page. To move forward, press the Tab key on the keyboard; to move backward, press Shift+Tab on the keyboard.

3. Press Alt+D or Tab until your cursor is in the address bar; then type in the website address (URL) for the manufacturer of your mouse. In this example, we’ll use the Logitech website (after all, I’m using a Logitech mouse): www.logitech.com. Press Enter to go to the Logitech website.

4. Press the Tab key until the words Site Map are highlighted; then press Enter. Press Tab until the Downloads section is highlighted. Open it by pressing Enter. This takes you to the Logitech Software Updates & Downloads page. Press Tab until the Mice category is highlighted; then to select it, press Enter.

5. Now press Tab until you find the make and model of your mouse; once highlighted, select it by pressing Enter. By default, the Windows Vista driver page should be loaded when selecting the make and model of your mouse. Press Tab until the Download button is highlighted, and then press Enter to initialize downloading of the software package for your mouse (the driver is included in this package).

6. A warning indicates that the website you are visiting is attempting a download; press Enter to initiate it. When the download dialog window appears, either run the setup file from the Logitech web page, or save the setup file to your hard disk.

7. You will want to run the software from the Logitech web page. A File Download security warning window appears. To run the software package from the Logitech web page, press the Tab key until the Run button is highlighted and then press the Space Bar once. This in turn installs the program first by downloading it to your computer’s temporary Internet files folder.

8. Upon completion of the file download, an Internet Explorer security warning window appears on your screen, asking whether you trust the publisher of the software you just downloaded from the Logitech web page. Press the Tab key until the word Run is highlighted and then press the Space Bar—this installs the software package and associated drivers for your mouse. A Windows Security window appears. To confirm that you want to install the program press Tab until Allow is highlighted and then press the Space Bar. The software package installs.

Your mouse might start to work at this point, although, to complete the software package installation process, you should restart your computer.

1. To restart your computer, press the Microsoft logo key on your keyboard or press Ctrl+Esc.

2. Next, press the right arrow key (→) three times, followed by the up arrow key (↑) three times to select Restart.

3. This restarts your computer, and if all goes well, your mouse should then be fully functional and working properly.

Check Device Manager with the Keyboard

If your mouse is still not working after installing the driver from the manufacturer, the next thing to look at is a device configuration issue. It might also be caused by a disabled setting in the computer’s BIOS. That said, the BIOS issue is not as likely if you are using a USB keyboard.

Here’s what to do next:

1. Press the Microsoft logo key on your keyboard or press Ctrl+Esc. Type Device Manager. When it appears, use the up or down arrow key to highlight Device Manager and then press Enter.

2. If the UAC (User Account Control) warning screen appears, press Shift+Tab to highlight Continue; then press Enter. From the Device Manager window, look to see whether a Device Conflict or error code is preventing your mouse from functioning properly.

3. Press the Tab key once, followed by the down arrow key (↓) until the Mice and Other Pointing Devices line item is highlighted. Next, press the right arrow key (→) one time to expand the tree for the Mice and Other Pointing Devices line item.

4. Press the down arrow key (↓) once to highlight your mouse if it is indeed installed but still has a problem. You can then determine whether there is an issue by pressing Enter to launch the properties window for your mouse. In this example, it shows the device is working properly. However, if it was not working properly, it could show up as a device with problems within the Windows Device Manager under Other Devices with a yellow circle and black “!”.

5. Navigate to and highlight the item with the device problem. Press Enter to open the properties window. You will see a description of the device error and associated code.

I Want to Customize Mouse Movement

The easiest way to make the mouse work the way you want it to in Vista is to click your way over to the Mouse Pointers section under Personalization. To get there, right-click on the desktop, click Personalize and then choose Mouse Pointers. You can also access the rest of the Mouse properties by selecting other tabs:

• Buttons tab—If you are left-handed, or prefer the feel of the right mouse button being the primary click button, check the box entitled Switch Primary and Secondary Buttons.

• Double-click too fast for you? That’s easy—move the slider over a little to adjust it exactly the way you like it. After you try it, double-click on the picture to the left to see whether it feels right.

• If you’d rather not hold on to the mouse button to drag an item, check the box Turn on Click Lock to drag whatever you want around the screen without having to hold down a button.

• Pointers tab—If you don’t like the way the pointer looks, simply choose your favorite scheme by clicking the arrow next to the drop-down box, or choose your favorite under Customize.

• Pointer Options tab—If you just can’t take the slow speed of the pointer, slide the pointer speed slider to the right and increase how fast it moves across your window. Too fast? Move it back over to the left to find the perfect spot.

• Moving the mouse to all of those dialog boxes can be a tall order sometimes. To make life a little easier, check the Snap To box, and your pointer automatically goes to the default button in every dialog box.

• To display a trail of where your pointer has been, check the box Display Pointer Trails, and then move the slider to decide how long the trails should be.

• If you want to see the pointer while typing, simply uncheck the box Hide Pointer While Typing.

• If you just can’t seem to find your pointer on a busy screen, check the pointer location box, and press Ctrl to find it wherever it might be hiding.

• Wheel tab—If your mouse comes equipped with a wheel, use the Wheel tab to choose how many lines each notch of the wheel moves a page, as well as how many characters the wheel scrolls through with each movement and how the tilt wheel feature works.

• Hardware tab—This tab tells you the type of mouse connected to your system, how it is connected, who makes it, and whether it is functioning correctly.

• Choose properties to get more information, and update or replace the driver. Replacing the driver is helpful when the mouse is not working properly or you have lost some functionality.

I Can’t Print

Whether you are using a laser printer or an inkjet, the connectors (LPT for older printers, USB for newer, or via a network)—must be properly connected for the printer to work.

If you are positive the connector on the back of your printer is snug and that the port works, a variety of issues could be causing your printer to malfunction. Let’s take a little walk through Vista and get that printer spitting out documents again.

The Printer Is Offline

A printer that is offline cannot receive any data. Your printer might have gone offline for any number of reasons, including recent installation of new toner or ink cartridges, paper jams, or new paper, to name a few. If you suspect your printer is offline, try turning it off and turning it back on. Normally, a simple power down and restart will reset the printer and bring it back online.

You Are Not Using the Default Printer

Windows Vista selects the last printer installed as the default printer (by the way, this includes programs that emulate printers, such as PDF creation programs), and some print routines don’t let you select the printer you want to use.

To change the default printer, go into the Control Panel, choose Printer under Hardware and Sound, right-click on the printer you want to make the default, and choose Set as Default Printer.

Windows Vista Doesn’t Recognize My Printer

If you are positive your printer is properly connected, there is a good chance the drivers for your printer are not installed. Open the Device Manager (available from the System applet in Control Panel) to see whether your printer is recognized by Windows. If it is not, you must reinstall the drivers for the printer.

To install the drivers, you might want to try reinstalling the software bundled with the printer when you bought it (particularly if Vista drivers were provided). When you do this, the software will revert the printer’s drivers back to whatever version was copied to the install disk.

If you can’t find the printer software, or installing it just does not work, try going to the manufacturer’s website to find any up-to-date drivers. This option will give you the most recent driver version and probably fix the problem once it is fully installed.

• Brother—www.brother.com

• Canon—www.canon.com

• Dell—www.dell.com

• Epson—www.epson.com

• Hewlett-Packard (HP)—www.hp.com

• Kodak—www.kodak.com

• Lexmark—www.lexmark.com

My Print Spooler Is Full, But Nothing Is Coming Out!

Before you run down to Kinko’s and beg the man in the funny smock to help you, try right-clicking the printer icon in the bottom-right corner of your taskbar to figure out what is going on. If your printer is set to offline mode, print jobs will continue to stack up until you set the printer online. Open the Printer menu and deselect Use Printer Offline to put the printer online. If the spooler says that your print jobs are paused, simply right-click on them and select Restart. If they are cancelled, try reprinting the document. If it tells you that everything is working normally, it’s lying. Cancel each document in the spooler and try reprinting them. If this doesn’t solve the problem, turn the printer off and back on again. Sometimes a simple reset will help solve all of these problems.

Oh, the Printer Prints All Right, But Look at the Print Quality!

Ugly printing got you down? Don’t worry about a thing: These fixes will get your document printing exactly the way you want it to.

Print quality problems with inkjet printing are usually caused by two problems: incorrect paper/media settings or clogged print heads.

For great prints, you need to select the right paper quality setting in your printer’s properties sheet. If you have banded, streaky printouts on glossy paper, you’ve probably been using the plain paper setting. If your plain paper prints are drowning in ink and have poor color quality, you’ve probably been using the glossy paper setting. Don’t mistake the print quality setting for the paper quality setting—in most printers, they can be set separately. For best results, select the right setting for what you’re printing (text, charts, or photos), the best quality setting, and the right paper setting (see Figure 8.14).

Figure 8.14. Selecting paper type and print quality with a typical inkjet photo printer.

Here’s how to unclog your print head. Depending on your printer brand, there is probably some type of maintenance utility in the printer properties of that specific printer (see the Maintenance tab in Figure 8.14). To get there, open the Control Panel, choose your printer, right-click properties, and work your way over to the maintenance utility in the properties window. Once there, clean and align the print heads and see whether this solves the problem. If it does, move along—there is nothing more for you to see here. If it doesn’t, get out a new cartridge and see whether that fixes the problem. If you are still looking at a smudged picture of Fluffy the cat, after replacing the cartridge, there is an issue with your printer and you might need to have it serviced. If it’s old and unfixable, you might want to chuck it and get a new one.

If you’re using a laser printer, most print quality problems can be traced back to the toner cartridge, including uneven print quality (low toner) and repetitive print flaws (these can also be caused by dirt or debris on rollers in the printer; check your printer documentation to determine the exact cause). If the toner won’t stick to the paper, you need to replace your printer’s fuser mechanism (ouch!).

If you’re using a dye-sublimation printer such as the Kodak printer dock, make sure you’ve loaded the paper correctly and changed the ribbon when it’s time. If the ribbon breaks, it’s replacement time!

I Can’t Scan

Whether you use an all-in-one device that includes a scanner, or a separate scanner, use these solutions to solve scanning problems.

Scanner Not Recognized by Computer

First, make sure the scanner is properly connected to your computer.

If it is properly connected, try turning it on and then off and restarting the computer. Sometimes the scanner will lock up on you, and it isn’t recognized by Vista.

If you’re positive everything is working properly with the hardware, try reinstalling the drivers that came with the scanner. If that doesn’t work, go to the website of the manufacturer and download the latest drivers.

If that still doesn’t work, do you see any lights flashing? If so, they might represent some sort of a warning signal. Consult the manual that came with the scanner to determine the meaning of each signal. If so, correct the issue and retry the installation process.

Scanner Recognized, But Not Working

Typically this problem represents an issue with the drivers. Try going to the manufacturer’s website and reinstalling the drivers for the scanner. If that doesn’t work, make sure the power and data cables are properly connected. If this doesn’t work, you might have to contact the manufacturer for advanced troubleshooting.

Scanner Won’t Work with Certain Programs

To use a scanner with an imaging program, select File, Import (some programs might hide Import on a different menu), and choose the scanner from the list of devices. If your scanner is not listed, reinstall the drivers. Use Windows XP drivers if Vista drivers are not available; they might work.

I Can’t Burn a CD or DVD

So you unpackaged that new DVD-RW, hooked it up, and got ready to copy all sorts of stuff onto disks and it didn’t work right? Well, let’s see what we can do to help you with that.

Drive Not Recognized by Vista

First, make sure that the drive is connected properly to the motherboard. Pop open the case and make sure the data cable connecting your drive is connected to the motherboard in the correct spot and that the drive is connected to the power supply. If you don’t see any lights on the drive when you turn on the system, the drive is not connected to the power supply. Consult your motherboard maker’s website and/or manual to get a layout of the board and specifics on where certain connectors should go. Check the jumper block on the back of an ATA/IDE drive for positioning. Use Cable Select if you use the modern 80-wire ATA/IDE cable.

If you’re sure it is properly connected to the motherboard and you see lights on the front, try restarting the system and entering the BIOS. If you don’t see the drive in the BIOS, it is not properly connected to the motherboard. Go back to step one and reconnect it properly to the computer. Next, enter the BIOS again and check to see whether your drive shows up.

If your drive shows up in the BIOS, reinstall the packaged software with the drive. Usually this fixes the problem, but stranger things have gone wrong before.

After you are positive the software is properly installed and Vista still can’t see it, go to the manufacturer’s website and install the latest drivers.

If the drivers are installed and you still are left with a drive that refuses to work, the issue might be with the drive itself. Consult the manufacturer’s customer service center for more advanced troubleshooting, or beg someone with a higher geek pedigree to check over your work. Remember, geeks like snack cakes, beverages with caffeine, and gift certificates for large electronics stores.

Drive Recognized, But I Can’t Burn

First, make sure the drivers are up to date. If they aren’t, consult the manufacturer’s website and install the latest driver.

If this doesn’t work, make sure the software you are using with the drive is compatible and working correctly. Sometimes free programs don’t properly recognize a drive. Nero and Roxio Easy Media Creator are two fine programs that will definitely make the drive work properly. You can also use the built-in burning features in Windows Vista to burn CD or DVD media.

Make sure you are using the correct media with the drive. CD-RW drives will not be able to burn information on DVD media. Current rewritable DVD drives work with DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW media as well as CD-R and CD-RW media, but older drives support only one type of DVD media; check the drive’s labeling for support information.

DVD-RAM media is supported by SuperMulti drives, but not by drives that work with DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW media only.

You might also be using closed media. In other words, the media you are trying to use has already been burned and finalized, and you can no longer change the disc. Try a blank disc, and you should be able to burn.

I Can Burn with One Program, But Not Another

Chances are, the program that doesn’t work with the drive is either outdated or not compatible with your drive for some odd reason. Instead of deciding on ways to fix the problem, it would just be easier to use the programs that do work.

I Can’t Save

First and foremost, make sure that you have enough disk space on your hard drive to accommodate any more saving on the computer. If you don’t have any more space on the drive, Vista will give you an error message and suggest you delete items on the drive to free up space.

If you have enough room on the drive, but you still can’t save a file, make sure the file is not locked in any way that might prevent it from being saved on your system.

Make sure the file type is supported by Windows. If you try to save it in a file type that is not recognized by Vista, you will receive an error message saying the file cannot be saved.

If you are trying to save files to a floppy disk drive, you might have too many files in the root folder. Create a subfolder and save files into the subfolder.