Computer help?

Here's my theory on HP printers.You don't need to install any software. Just plug the printer in to the USB port and it'll work. But...HP printers come with software that allows them to work as a print server for your home network. They like you to install this software. They don't like their software to be ignored.But you don't have a home network, you just have the one computer? Is that right?If so, then if it will let you get away with not installing the software, just don't install it. Click on "cancel" or "no" or whatever choice they give you, if they give you a choice. The printer should still work fine.Now, about that AOL... Best of luck! I'm supposedly a computer professional and PC's make a fool of me regularly. Eventually someone comes up with the right answer for a particular problem and I'm going again. In other words, don't worry or panic, even if it doesn't get going today or tomorrow, it will soon if you keep at it.So I'm nosy, er, I mean curious, what's the deal between you and Iano?--Percy

Yes. OK, I'll try that, but I'm going to uninstall it all first.At this point I'm in a further muddle, but I'm going to take a LONG break and then come back and take it step by step very slowly. I got the thing REinstalled, but it only took 96%. It will not print. A crucial instruction about when to plug in the USB cable did not show up -- I figure that is the reason for this problem. If I plug it in at this point, it won't print. It also seems to resist being uninstalled. But that's what I'm going to do, uninstall the kit and kaboodle and start over with everything unplugged. I hate AOL but I'm afraid of getting something worse (believe me, things that are easy for others don't work out that way for me, such as this computer problem), and I get six months of AOL free with this new Dell so I figure that's worth it. But you don't want to hear about the AOL problems I had yesterday -- four customer service calls, three aborted tech service calls. He's a Christian, I'm a Christian. We recognize each other at EvC as Christian brother and sister. That's all. Don't know him from Adam otherwise, except for some friendly email exchanges. This is a Christian service he did for me as the Spirit prompted him.--------------later update: I uninstalled all the parts of the printer software and one of them wouldn't uninstall no matter how I went about it. I shut off the computer and did it again and all that. It won't go away. I suspect this has to do with the last attempt to install it when it only got 96% finished. It won't print no matter what.So now I'm just taking a break, and tomorrow sometime I'll try another installation and hope if I do it according to the book that 1)it will just take the place of the fragment that won't uninstall, 2)it will alert me to plug it in at the right point, and 3) will completely install this time. Otherwise I've got real trouble I think.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Here's an idea to try...There's a neat program called VNC that allows someone anywhere else on the Internet to see your computer screen and control it through their own mouse and keyboard, assuming you give them the VNC password you set up, and assuming you're running VNC at the time. It installs in seconds and is VERY easy to use - you just run it and it works, which is untypical of most software. My mother lives in another state, and whenever she has a computer problem I just bring up her computer screen on my own computer using VNC and poke around to see what I can figure out.If you want to try this let me know and I'll tell you where to download it from. Anyone who has VNC installed and who knows the password you set up can help you, like Iano, Me, Jar, etc...If you think you feel helpless with computers, it might help to know you're not alone. I like to tell this story about the first PC I bought back in 1995. Both my wife and I have computers at work, and we never saw the need for a home computer, but as the kids approached school age we felt we needed a home computer, so we bought one around Christmas of 1995.The workstations where I worked, which were state of the art at the time, had boot proms that would bring up a line oriented operating system, and then you had to type the right command to bring up the graphical interface. This is what I was expecting.So I read and reread all the instructions for our new computer looking for how to do this and never found it. I was on the verge of calling technical support when I suddenly realized what the instructions were telling me: all I had to do was turn it on! Who woulda thought?I have a feeling you're in a somewhat similar boat. The expectations based upon your old computer combined with HP's over-mothering software for their printers caused you to do more than you had to do, and now you might very possibly be temporarily wedged. Don't worry, it'll all work out eventually.--Percy

What is the model of your printer?Is the new computer connected to the internet when you are trying to install the software?What is the name of the application that will not uninstall?

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

HP PSC 1510xi All In One Printer-scanner. (A gift from another Christian friend at Christmas to replace the old but great HP laser printer hand-me-down from my brother's business. If the laser printer worked perfectly I'd go back to it.) It's been on and off both I think. Once it sent a notification about the problem to HP so it's been online at least that time. HP Image Zone Express

I've heard of that program where someone else can look into your computer, and in fact it was installed on my old system by the geek acquaintance who set it up but I never used it, and the geek disappeared.I'd be willing to try it.I've had many "duh" moments such as not having something plugged in.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Here's a problem that I have.My wife does systematics research (for her MS) and the phylogenetics software she has to use, which the company has apparently not seen fit to update since the year 2000, only runs under Mac OS 9. She'd previously been running it on a iMac G4 under the Classic environment, which if you're a Mac user you know is the emulation environment for running old Mac software in the BSD-based OS X.Her work is computationally intensive (and doing these processing jobs was starting to take too long) so she blew some research money on a Mac Pro; basically the same system (with two dual-core Xeons) as was mentioned above.The problem? Three different people, including me, the Apple vendor, and the department's sysadmin guy, either failed to recognize or didn't see fit to bring up the fact that Apple dropped Classic support on the Intel-based Macs.So I'm trying to figure out some kind of way to make it work, otherwise she dropped 4 grand on a very expensive (and good-looking) paperweight. Does anybody know of a decent Classic-like environment for the Intel-based Macs? Since performance is an issue I'd like one that runs with as few layers of emulation as possible - in other words, is Intel-native. It would be nice if this could somehow take advantage of the machine's four cores, but I fully expect that a program written for a single-core paradigm isn't going to take advantage of multiple cores.Barring that - does anybody know anything about an implementation or port of "PAUP", or something that does exactly the same thing (phylogenetic analysis by parsimony) but is optimized for multiprocessing environments?

There's a neat program called VNC that allows someone anywhere else on the Internet to see your computer screen and control it through their own mouse and keyboard, assuming you give them the VNC password you set up, and assuming you're running VNC at the time. It installs in seconds and is VERY easy to use - you just run it and it works, which is untypical of most software. My mother lives in another state, and whenever she has a computer problem I just bring up her computer screen on my own computer using VNC and poke around to see what I can figure out.

Faiths up and running on her new PC and has a hi-speed internet link instead of dial-up. But she's not completely out of the woods I gather. Emails back and forth ain't doing it so I reckon a little 'poke around' would do the trick.Is this VNC thing as easy at it sounds? Which software do you recommend?Ta..Edited by iano, : No reason given.

I use it on a lot of my computers around the house so I can control them remotely from my workstation. The software I use is a free download, for any platform, from RealVNC - Remote access software for desktop and mobile | RealVNC.Remember, though, with this great power comes great responsibility. When you use this tool you're adopting the role of a systems administrator, with the duties and ethical concerns that entails. VNC is a spy tool, too, and Faith will be handing over to you a control of her computer that you can assert at any time. There's a code of ethics that should govern your behavior and use of this tool (and, indeed, a code of ethics that mandates that I, who is telling you about this tool, tell you your responsibilities in the use of it.)Don't be evil. Be paranoid about her security; she won't know how to do that herself.She'll have to install and configure the server software and tell you her IP number. You'll need the client, obviously. You should grab the server too and learn to use it so that you can explain it to her.

So can somebody who has this power see absolutely everything on one's computer, read all the e-mails etc?I'd trust Iano with that over anyone else here, but still it's something to think about.

Yup. It's just as though they were sitting right at your computer, with all that entails.

Its likely the case that you would be able to see what I'm doing as I am doing it. Don't know though.I imagine to that you can uninstall the software when we're done meaning your PC is not an open book to me forever and ever. I'll check out Crashs link anyway to get going

About VNC, Faith would give you her IP address and the password she chooses for VNC. She can lock you out at any time by simply changing the password. Once installed, the VNC server runs every time you boot, but it has an icon in the system tray on which you can right click and select exit, another way of shutting people out.Setup of VNC to allow someone else to view your computer screen can be more complex if you're working through a router (instructions are available at the RealVNC website), and probably impossible with AOL, as I assume you don't get a fixed IP. When you VNC to a remote computer, whatever is displayed on the remote computer's monitor is displayed in a window on your screen. If you set it to full screen mode, it appears as if you're looking directly at the remote computer's monitor screen. When you move your mouse, the mouse on the remote computer screen moves. When you type on your keyboard, the keystrokes go to the remote computer. So yes, the other person can see precisely what you're doing. It is an especially effective remote teaching aid if you can also be on the phone at the same time.VNC is very similar to Microsoft's Remote Desktop (Start->Programs->Accessories->Communications->Remote Desktop Connection). I had occasion to use Remote Desktop recently, and it appears to work great, but it requires that you know the ID and password for an account on the remote computer. When I first started using VNC about 5 years ago, Remote Desktop was very primitive and virtually unusable in my environment, but it looks like it has come a long way. Anyway, I mention it because it is another alternative, and it is already installed on any XP system.--Percy

Found Remote Desktop easily enough but it wants some information from me, a password, name of a computer or something.