Archive Magazine CD 1995/Archive Magazine CD 1995.iso/text/hints/volume_07/issue_04

Text File | 1995-02-16 | 5.3 KB | 97 lines

Hints & Tips
7.4
•    Backing up PC partitions. When backing up a PC partition (with
filetype DosDisc) from a HardDrive with RISC OS 3 the ADFS sees the
files in the partition as individual files so backs them up as such. So
when you come to reinstate the partition afterwards the PC partition
will no longer work, i.e. it will be a normal directory with files in.
The way to overcome this is to reset the file type to Text before
backing up and change it back afterwards.  Brian Cocksedge, W Sussex.
7.4
•    Elite Cheat. On this month’s program disc (£2 through Archive) is a
cheat for Elite v1.02 made with The Hacker program from DoggySoft. The
cheat allows you to do more than the normal game will allow. The
functions are made by using the right Ctrl key and some other keys not
used in the game. Load the cheat module after you have the Elite
commander on the iconbar and read the instructions carefully. It enables
you to stop dead in space, go like a bat out of hell, have loads of
energy bombs (useful for blasting those rock grabbers), have an
indestructible energy unit, unlimited rockets and, as a small bonus,
kills the asking of the word from the book when saving a commander file
after you have run the game, back to the Desktop (saving time).
S Edwards, W Midlands.
7.4
•    Epson Stylus 800 cartridge life − When the cartridge I had in my new
Epson Stylus 800 ran out after it had printed only about 300 to 400
sheets (instead of the quoted 700), I contacted Epson to discuss the
matter! They asked whether I pressed Pause before switching off the
printer. I said I did not and asked why it was important. They told me
that it was because the printer goes through the print head cleaning
process on every start-up unless Pause is pressed before switch-off. It
is only necessary to clean the print head “about once a month”. They
admitted that this is not mentioned in the manual(!), so I thought I
would pass this gem of information on to other Archive subscribers!
Stan Haselton, Abbots Langley.
7.4
•    JP150 sheet feeder − Owners of JP150 printers may be interested to
know that the sheet feeder for the Integrex Betajet seems to be exactly
the same as the one for the JP150. The good news is that the Integrex
one costs approximately £40 +VAT (£47) as against £77 inc VAT. I wonder
why the Acorn product is so much more expensive?  Alan Shelton, Sutton-
in-Ashfield.
7.4
•    Magazine storage − An alternative to the Archive magazine binders is
to use what are called K-Bins which are basically topless cardboard
boxes. They are designed for storing components but work quite nicely
for Archive magazines and cost about £1.15 each. I am happy to supply
them to people at cost plus postage − let me know if you are interested.
Bob Ames, Dept of Music, City University, Northampton Square, London
EC1V 0HB.
7.4
•    Mouse mat grooming − Next time you groom your mouse, take a look at
your mat. If it has a layer of stubborn fibres, cat hairs etc, try using
one of those rolling, tacky lint removers that you use on suits and
jackets.  Nik Kelly, Liverpool.
7.4
•    PC card and screen blanking − After installing a new hard drive, I had
to re-install everything and set the computer up as though it were new.
While I was restoring some of the PC programs, my screen went blank and
no keypresses would bring it  back. What seemed odd was that the
computer was still working, reading the disc.
7.4
Each time this happened, I reset the computer and then, when I was at
Acorn World 93, I had a word with Aleph One. They explained that, when
the PC card had “input focus” all keystrokes were passed through to the
card and so RISC OS was unaware that keys had been pressed − so the
screen blanker was coming into operation and was locking in the blank
state. Because of this, I would need to disable the screen blanker in
order to use the PC card.
7.4
As I don’t use the blanker very much, it was only a slight nuisance, but
I carried out an experiment and found out that mouse movement was still
done via the main operating system. Because of this, all that is needed
to get the screen back is a very slight movement of the mouse.
7.4
I suppose that if you were wanting to work with text in a word processor
it would be a good idea to disable the screen blanker, but most of the
time it is unnecessary.  David Wild, Hemel Hempstead.
7.4
•     Scanners and Turbo Drivers − A slight problem for users of Turbo
Drivers is that, sometimes, the printout from ArcFax with CC’s scanner
becomes garbled for no sensible reason. The solution is to turn your
printer on. It does not have to be online but just switched on. It works
every time.  Tord Eriksson, Sweden.
7.4
•    Time errors − Recently, I found that whilst !Alarm, and indeed most
other applications, could work out the correct time, those I had written
in C were wildly inaccurate (over a year and a half out!).  The same
program would work fine on the office A5000 but on my RISC OS 3 A3000,
it refused to give me anything but 1995.  Finally, I tracked the problem
down to the Territory Manager (literally just by chance, I was actually
looking up ‘time’ in the PRM’s and spotted it.  Somehow the configured
timezone was −23:45, well outside the allowed limits of +/−13 hrs.
!Alarm took off the correct value but when I reset it to zero, the
machine jumped ahead by a day. Why CLib gave such a large error, I don’t
know.  Matthew Hunter, NCS.  A
7.4