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Ancestry Daily News
11/7/2002 - Archive
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RootsWorks: Online Technical Support |
RootsWorks: Online Technical Support
I have a printer that I have become accustomed to, an HP 970cxi. It prints
fine unless I send it something I really want. Then it prints about half a page,
and mutates into the "Evil Device." It prints a few garbage characters
on the first line of each page, and will go through a lot of paper before it
stops its rampage. I have learned that I can turn the printer off quickly, and
then reboot the computer that it's attached to, and start over. If I print two
or three pages, I'm usually okay. Any more, I'm flirting with a quick trip to
the dark depths of Computer Misbehavior Depression.
Simply put, computers don't exactly work. PCs and Macs both have their quirks.
The number of things that a person needs to know to deal with these beasts dwarfs
the capacity of the human brain, not to mention challenging the lifespan. I
hope that I live long enough to see computers work.
Most people who have computer problems talk to their friends about them. But
sometimes your friends aren't around — like when it's late at night and you
finally found time to install that upgrade.
Wouldn't it be great if, when something breaks or doesn't work, you could just
go online and find the answers to your questions? Sort of like asking a question
to the Oracle of Delphi. Surprisingly, you can get a quick answer quite often,
and for free.
What Kind Of Problem Is It?
We're going to talk about three kinds of problems: installation, compatibility,
and maintenance. The lines between them can be fuzzy at times. If it's a new
computer, or a new piece of equipment, most problems are "installation
problems." If you're trying to add or change a feature on a computer that
previously worked, most problems are "compatibility problems." If
you didn't change anything, and the infernal machine just went on the blink,
most problems are "maintenance problems."
Name Two Of Them
You can receive several kinds of help online. Some manufacturers have chat,
e-mail, downloads, and frequently asked questions (FAQs) that you can browse.
Generally, if they have chat, it's only during business hours.
You can also benefit from the experiences of other users. There are help sites
on the Web. They all provide some sort of online help function. They all have
a database of previous cases — as FAQs, Tips and Tricks, or tutorials. I visited
four sites to view this information.
5 Star Support
Technical Information, Troubleshooting FAQ, Support Services.
ComputerHope.com
Help. Links. Drivers. Big old database.
HelpOnThe.Net
"Tech Support Guy." Forums.
Protonic.com
Discussion Forums. Tech support.
If you have had an online help experience — good or bad — that you would like
to share with others, please send an e-mail to the address following this column.
What Else?
Another way to receive online help is to use Usenet. Usenet is a group of
online discussion groups. There are over 45,000 of them, devoted to a wide group
of topics that includes computer help topics. These discussions resemble a series
of e-mail exchanges on technical topics. The good news is that you don't have
to know which newsgroups have discussions about your problem, and often, you
don't have to wait for other users to answer your question. If you've been reading
RootsWorks long, you know that I use Google for just about everything except
defrosting the freezer. We can use it here, too.
I have installed the "Google Toolbar" in my browser, and I just type
my search phrase whenever I want to search. I typed "970 prints garbage"
and the resulting screen in google has a number of tabs. The typical Web search
is what I use most often, but when I am working on a computing problem, I click
on the "Groups" tab. When I did, I saw two very useful things.
Of course, I saw a number of results that contained those words. In addition,
I saw,
"Related groups
Comp.periphs.printers"
That told me that the news group devoted to "computer peripherals - printers"
was the one with the most "hits." That might tell me where I'd want
to put a new message if I don't find anything that helps me.
The other thing that I saw was:
Communication problems with HP 970 Cxi
. . . recently purchased a Hewlett Packard 970 DeskJet printer. Periodically
the printer loses culmination with the computer and prints garbage. This can
usually be . . .
comp.periphs.printers - Feb. 11, 2000 by John Doe - View Thread (2 articles)
My search terms show up in bold face. This entry tells me that there are two
posts about this topic in an old thread on comp.periphs.printers. I can click
on the "Communication problems" link and see the specific post excerpted
above. Or I can click on "View Thread" and see both articles, one
above the other.
You might have to try several different search phrases before you find what
you are looking for, but the odds are that if you use popular components, you
will find that many other people have encountered the same problem that you
have. You can use Google Groups to find them.
Sometimes the answers are more helpful than others. It's a lot like asking your
friends for help.
The RootsWorks series of articles focuses on genealogical applications for
generic technologies. Beau would like to hear from you at sharbrough@rootsworks.com,
but due to the volume of e-mail received, he is unable to answer some e-mail
messages. Please note that he cannot assist you with your individual computer
problems. Visit the RootsWorks website at www.sharbrough.net
for links to previous articles and Beau's lecture schedule.
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