Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic XP/Excel help

As some of you know, my pc died on me late on Tuesday evening. Git.

LabRat (loathing XP already )

Erm, resize the column. We've had the problem a few times here at work, and that's what fixed it.

Thanks, Karen - someone else has just suggested that, so going to check it out and crossing my fingers. Not sure it will work though as all the columns are the same size - so why would it affect only some of the dates and not others?

On the other hand - who looks for logic when pcs are involved?

LabRat (off to give it a go...)

EDIT: It worked! Boy, you guys are good.

Glad you got it sorted, Rat! ) and give me back my cherished Windows 98 SE!

But that all changed when I got XP. Within minutes I was a convert, and over time I've become an ever-more zealous missionary for the benefits of XP. Fed up with Windows crashing? Well, I think in the almost two years I've been using XP, at home and at work, I've had about three crashes in total. I don't run out of virtual memory because XP actually manages resources sensibly - so there isn't as much need to reboot so frequently. And I love the hibernate facility!

Sorry; I could wax lyrical about XP all day... Anyway, Rat, now that you've got your Excel files sorted properly, I hope you decide that you like it!


Wendy

LOL, Wendy. I'm sure I'll get used to it. I'm afraid I'm one of those people who absolutely loathes change of any kind when it comes to working with her pc. <G> I like everything to be exactly where I last left it and expect it to be. Took me three months to stop grumbling last time I changed to a new WP program. So, finally, Stuart had to dump it and reinstall my old WORD.

Then there was the fact that I've successfully avoided any virus infection for five years and only had XP installed for half an hour before AVG informed me I was infected with the Nachi worm. :rolleyes: Which may not have been XP's fault, but I blamed it anyway.

But I'm slowly getting used to it. <g> It's a darn improvement on the glitch-ridden monster my pc had become before it died, that's for sure. It still has some strange quirks to it - like telling me a file is already open when it isn't if I try to access it through my docs instead of through WORD and telling me it's saved a file to disk but then telling me when I try and access it from the disk that it doesn't exist, but I can live with those as I've found ways around them.

LabRat (who sure isn't missing the frequent crashes and freeze-ups and is starting to quite enjoy herself working with this one... )

I'm back again. <G>

Got a slight glitch that's more irksome than vital, but would like to correct it if anyone can help me do it.

When I shut down my pc, all I get is a screen saying "It is now safe to turn off your computer". As I have no manual means to switch off the pc, I'm left with the option of pulling the plug out the back of the tower to get it to shut down.

I'm sure this is as simple as setting something right, but I've had a hunt around and can't see anything obvious.

Anyone? Thanks!

LabRat (who, nonetheless, is enjoying a hassle free pc these days... <g> )

Rat, what I'm not clear on still is just how you have no manual means to turn off your computer. Is your power button broken? If so, how do you turn your computer on?

I have a vague memory of someone telling me once that computers dating from before a certain point - and don't ask me when! - don't have the capability of using the Windows automatic shut-down, and so will always leave you at the 'It's now safe to turn off your computer' screen. And at that point you simply use the power button to turn the computer off.

By the way, since I've been using XP I rarely shut my computer down fully - its more efficient use of resources means that if I want to 'deactivate' the computer I tend to use the hibernate facility instead.

Sorry I can't offer much more help than that, Rat, but without knowing what the issue is with your power on/off button I'm finding it hard to picture the situation.

Wendy

Don't ask me why this is so, because I really don't know, but on both our computers at home the power button only turns the computer on, not off. And on one of them there isn't a restart button either.

Possibly it's to stop silly people just turning their computer off willy-nilly...

Which would be a good idea but for those few occasions when your computer really does go belly up and the only solution is to press the restart button and pray. Nowadays, I have to clamber around behind the desk searching for the right plug and pray. I'm not sure that's progress. :p

I know that hasn't helped solve Labby's problem, on our computers they switch themselves off when they get to the black and orange screen.

Helga

Actually, if you hold the "on" button in for 10 seconds, the computer will turn off.

I have the feeling the answer may lie in your computer's BIOS, but I'm not sure. But check out these links:

"It is Now Safe to Turn Off Yo... When You Try to Shut Down Your Computer


Your Computer May Not Shut Down After You Upgrade to Windows XP

My PC does the same thing and reports "It is now safe to turn off your computer"

I have to hold the power button in and wait for PC to shut down. The problem exists due to the motherboard not being ATX compatable
My mum's machine on the other hand swtiches off when you ask it to shutdown, but I have recently put a new motherboard in that

I found the following tip on techtv.com :-


1.Go to your Control Panel and choose Power Options.

2.Select the Advanced tab.

3.Under "Power buttons" you can choose what happens when you press the power button on your computer. It's probably already set to shut down, but it's a good idea to make sure before you start wantonly shutting down your machine.
NOTE: Some motherboards simply don't support this feature. If you don't have "Power buttons" in your Advanced tab, and feel comfortable poking around your BIOS, you can see if you can enable this feature in BIOS. But you may just be out of luck due to your motherboard -- sorry!

4.If it's not set to shut down, choose that item from the drop-down list.

5.Now you're ready to shut your computer off. Just hit the power button. Don't touch the keyboard, and keep your hands off that mouse. It's perfectly safe to shut down your computer with the touch of a button. Enjoy!

-----
I haven't tried this yet, as my machine is on 24/7

Hope this helps

Clare

Heh, my PC used to freeze all the time without shutting off completely, what I do is hold the on button until it shuts off (if you just press it I think it'll just restart).

A friend of mine uses the XP, and it is comfortable (from what I've seen, it can even act like all the other Windows OSs- correct me if I'm wrong), but I'm so used to my Windows 98 that I don't think I can bear a change.

Julie

Sorry for the late reply - my internet connection has been at best intermittant lately.

Yes, as Helga said, my on button doesn't shut down the pc, only switch it on. But I'll try that 10 second thing. Also those links - thanks, Karen! And the other suggestions - thanks for delurking to answer my problem, Clare, and welcome to the mbs!

At least I'm slightly ahead - had a brief problem yesterday when it would't even get to the safe to shut off message, but simply restarted everytime I shut down instead. Managed to stop that with an adjustment to the power settings, so confident this one can be as easily solved, thanks to your help.

LabRat

I'm glad I could help LabRat

I've just had a look at my settings and I dont have the option for shutdown I'm going to try and build a new PC after the New Year
as my present one has issues with being slow and freezing

Clare