tech help

[Kim Kelly]

Sarah, I've had those soundsticks for a couple of years now. I mostly use it for listening to mp3s and stuff. It does turn up pretty darn loud without distorting the music, and I think it sounds pretty good.

I kind of wish they didn't block the headphone input and connected via USB instead, but it's not that big a deal. It also took me a few minutes to figure out the touch-sensitive volume control. These are kind of nitpicky complaints though.

If this system ever conks out, I'm considering upgrading to these things by Klipsch, which are a tad more expensive (by about 40 bucks, compared to the HK Soundsticks).

[Sarah]

Okay, I'm a booby.  A lazy one whose brain can't handle modern devices as well as it used to.  So, as usual, I turn to you.

First question:  I just switched over to my new computer.  How do I get on my existing Thunderbird account?  I've downloaded the latest version of Thunderbird but can't figure out how to get to all my old messages.  There's important stuff there, like recipes and chat transcripts.  I'm talking vital material here. 

Note:  I'm glad I resisted the temptation to ask why the new forum was behaving so badly for me on the old computer.  It's working just fine on this one.  One stupid question avoided!

[Martin]

There's a very good backup software for the Mozilla-developed Firefox and Thunderbird called MozBackup. With it you can backup as much or as little as you want from either FF, TB or both - only settings, all the email, etc. You'll end up with a backup file (which can be huge depending on what you back up) which you then can import into the new version of Thunderbird. Hope that makes sense.

http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/

[Sarah]

Hm.  The problem is that I think I'd need to run that on the old computer and then move the backup file to the new computer, and I now can't go online on the old computer.   Maybe when I transfer the contents of the old computer to this new one, I'll magically be able to access the account? 

[Martin]

I'm not sure what you mean by "transfer the contents of the old computer to this new one", but yes, if you indeed transfer every file from the old computer to the new, the files should all be there. They might be 'hidden' in some way, or just buried deep in the hard drive (it won't be enough just to transfer the Documents, for instance), like:

C:\Users\Martin Degrell\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles

Are you not able to download the MozBackup tool to a USB drive or CDR, install it on the old computer, make the backup, but the backup on the USB/CDR, and transfer it to the new computer? Seems a bit easier than to lug the entire contents of the old machine onto the new - though I'm guessing you have other stuff that needs transferin'.

[yesno]

Is your email stored online somewhere, and you just keep a local copy?

I might need to fly up to Maine to take care of this.

[Sarah]

Are you not able to download the MozBackup tool to a USB drive or CDR, install it on the old computer, make the backup, but the backup on the USB/CDR, and transfer it to the new computer? Seems a bit easier than to lug the entire contents of the old machine onto the new - though I'm guessing you have other stuff that needs transferin'.

I have something called a Belkin Easy Transfer cable that is supposed to let me move everything from the old machine onto the new one.  In fact, it works both ways, so I could probably download this magic tool of which you speak onto the new computer and use the cable to transfer it to the old one.  But I'm betting the files will turn up when I make the big move.

I did figure out how to get my email working, at least.

And, yesno, you may have to.  You can help me move furniture while you're at it.  And rent a car so that my old computer can be driven to the recycling center in Machias.  Doesn't all that sound like fun?

[Sarah]

Today's problems:

1.  Couldn't send emails.  After much faffing about (during which I discovered that many another user of Thunderbird has faced this difficulty), I figured out what box to uncheck in order to get things moving.  So far, so good.

2.  Trying to remove the black border that appears around the display on my monitor, I downloaded the Catalyst Control Center from ATI/AMD (I knew when I bought the monitor that this border was going to appear and that the CCC could get rid of it).  After installing the CCC, however, I cannot get it to run.  Googling informs me that many others have enjoyed this delightful experience.  Apparently once the CCC actually starts working, it's a thing of beauty, but till then it's an evil monster from hell that wants to drive me insane.  I'm done trying to find out what to do for the day.

Unrelated fun fact:  Did you know that MSNBC's Contessa Brewer is from western Maine?

[Sarah]

I lied; here is a straightforward question:  How do I "go into the graphic card properties and click on configure display and change the bordering percent to 0"?  (This is a solution from another source.)  I guess what I'm really asking is, where are these "graphic card properties" I'm supposed to "go into"?  I've gone to device manager > display adapters > ATI Radeon HD 5450, which gets me to something labeled "ATI Radeon HD 5450 Properties," but I find no "configure display" on which to click. 

I have to stop this.  I'm driving myself nuts.

[Gilly]

A lot of times with graphic cards that aren't onboard, you can right click the desktop and then bring up display properties and there will be a tab that shows your graphic card and you should be able to configure in there.

[Sarah]

Thanks, Gilly.  Sadly, when I do that, I bring up what I've been able to bring up before, which allows me to change the resolution but not to scale the display to fill the full screen.  Everything I've read so far tells me I need this Catalyst Control Center thingamabob to solve my problem--a thingamabob that, unfortunately, is incredibly difficult to get to work (I am by no means alone in having this trouble). 

Oh well.  The quest continues.

[Sarah]

SUCCESS!  Why?  Who knows?  After attempting to solve my problem by installing older versions of CCC, I decided, on a whim, to try the most recent version--the one that was so intransigent yesterday.  For some reason, this time, it installed.  It then opened.  And I found the slider I needed to set to 0% and did so.  The black border disappeared.  It was a little gift from the tech gods.  And, I suspect, Martin, who supplied me with a link to CCleaner, which program allowed me to scrub my infernal box of all traces of the offending earlier versions, thus opening the way for a successful installation to occur.

Thanks to all who came to my aid.  I can but hope that you will be as generous when the next tempest begins to blow in my teapot.

[fonpr]

On a whim, on a whirl
Thanks to Martin,
Sarah's a happy girl.

[Sarah]

Egads, the shame . . . "on a whim" paired with "on a whirl"?  Thus spake Allan's Coffee Brandy (its garbling influence now eradicated from the post, it will live on, a ghost, in Frederix's doggerel). 

And let's not get ahead of ourselves here:  happier, at best.

[fonpr]

On a whim, on a whirl
Thanks to Martin,
Sarah's a happy girl.

On a whim, On a whirl
Thanks, Martin
She's a happier
Pearl.