Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with reset

Internet, you're being weird. Stop it.

Rhaomi — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 18:01:41 -0800

Trying to set up a new wireless network and running into all kinds of strange problems. Connections dropped every few hours! Some machines work, some don't! Can connect to internet, can't connect to router! DOGS AND CATS LIVING TOGETHER (literally). Please help. The set-up is a little convoluted, but does work (until it doesn't).

The original router is an ISP-provided 2wire HomePortal 1700HW, a combination DSL modem/router that plugs directly into a phone jack and broadcasts it as a WiFi network. It's a few years old but has worked decently on its own up to this point, so I don't think the problem lies there.

The newcomer is a brand-new Western Digital My Net N600 router, acquired both to improve on the range of the old one and to provide networked storage capability for shared music and such.

Configuring the two of them to work properly was a bit of a dog, but I finally did get it working. The phone jack plugs into the old 2wire, now set to bridge mode to disable its built-in wireless capability. The 2wire plugs into the N600 via Ethernet. And the N600, armed with all the correct PPPoE login information from the ISP, correctly connects to and interprets the DSL coming in from the 2wire and broadcasts it out. Even the network storage works!

Problem is, every couple of hours this connection fails, and in the weirdest way possible.

Right now, I'm typing this on an old 'n' busted laptop running Windows XP. It's currently connected to the N600's wireless network and can browse the web no problem. All the status lights on the routers are green, running an ipconfig command returns normal IP address information (including the router's IP), I can ping the router at that location fine.

But I can't connect to the router's settings page (192.168.1.1). WTF?

Also, a visiting Chromebook can connect to the network but can't load any websites... except for AOL webmail, of all things. A test email sent from a phone showed up in the inbox fine, while Google, Facebook, etc. look dead. Not even Gmail, mail.live.com, or even just plain old aol.com work -- just mail.aol.com. This Chromebook doesn't have a data connection, btw, just WiFi. I say again: WTF?

Meanwhile, a newer Windows 7 laptop can't connect to the N600 network at all ("Unable to connect..."), and even plugging directly into the N600 router via Ethernet won't work -- I can ping it fine, but neither websites nor the router settings page itself will load.

Various mobile devices are likewise denied -- various iPhones and iPads can't connect to the network at all.

Power-cycling the N600 router solves all these problems and things work alright for all devices... for a few hours. Until everything craps out again, for no apparent reason.

What could be triggering this issue, and how do I fix it? I've dealt with wonky router stuff before, but it seems totally bizarre to me that:

- the status lights on both routers are fine, including the N600's "internet connection OK" light
- ONE laptop can connect to the router's WiFi and browse the web, and can ping the router, but can't access the router itself
- the other laptop can ping the router through a wired connection, but can't access the router settings or browse the web that way
- a Chromebook can connect to the network and can load *one* website (mail.aol.com), but nothing else
- no other device (apart from that first laptop that mysteriously works fine) can connect to the WiFi network at all

Any thoughts or advice appreciated; I'd love to get this problem fixed rather than have to venture back to Best Buy and try to find a replacement (maybe an N900? who knows).

Prisoner of Work Getting Released

5845(f)(1)(D) — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 09:10:50 -0800

Making a change from a job that has never been a great fit--long hours, high stress, high demands on availability--to something that should be a lot better. But I'm feeling burned out, scattered, underperforming, and foggy. What are your best tips for getting your head back on straight at work when you're leaving a job that wasn't good for you? How do I make a fresh start? I got a verbal offer I discussed in this thread, and now I'm just waiting for the written offer before handing in my notice. So, yay!

I've been at my current job for 7 years, and it's made me a bundle of nerves. I am a slave to my Blackberry and check it constantly. I'm always in apprehension of rush projects that will take over my day/night/weekend/life. Constant availability has made me jumpy. And, I have to say, the stress, and never relaxing, never making plans with friends, the caginess with my schedule, have made me a little weird and hermity. I feel really scattered, but that may just be because I'm long overdue for a vacation. People have been nice though; this is not a toxic workplace scenario, if that changes your answers.

I'll have 2-3 weeks between my last day at the old job and the first day at the new job. I'll get out of town and do something relaxing for the whole time.

How can I best reset my brain in that time? I want to skough off this bad experience to start fresh, open heart and mind, at the new place. I realize that new place will have its own unique challenges, but has great potential; I'm just looking for tips and hacks to be in the best mental shape on day 1.

Looking for an Epson printer reset solution.

citybuddha — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:27:37 -0800

My 6 year old Epson C87 printer works fine. However Epson thinks I need to get a a new one. Anyone aware of a reset hack/trick for mac OS? My 6 year old Epson C87 printer works fine. However Epson thinks I need to get a a new one. Anyone aware of a reset hack/trick for mac OS?
While in process of doing some printing my printer shows the followinf error."PARTS INSIDE YOUR PRINTER ARE NEAR OR AT THE END OF THERE LIFE?"
I see there are many non mac fixes. I am looking for an OSX solution.
Any hive experience would be a godsend.

Delete iPad data, yeah?

Hermanos — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 21:48:17 -0800

My folks are mailing their iPad to Joe's Cheap Screen Repair, and I'm urging them to delete all their data before sending it off. They're afraid deleting/factory reset means all their emails and games are lost and gone forever. Am I insane, can't they just sync to iTunes when it returns in the mail and get everything back as they left it? Apologies for this Sunday night brain fart.

How to reset CMOS on a Samsung N150

KokuRyu — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:34:54 -0800

How to reset CMOS on a Samsung N150 netbook? My wife's Samsung N150 is not turning on (it's fully charged and plugged in, and there's a little green light that says so).

When I say it's not turning on, it's not turning on. I'm hoping it's just a BIOS update error, rather than a hard drive failure (it's a solid-state drive).

We bought the N150 about 18 months ago.

Before I buy her a new netbook, I'd like to try doing a hard-CMOS-reset. However, I can't quite figure out how to do this on her machine.

There is a how-to on the internet here (it's in Italian, but Chrome does an okay job of translating) about how to disassemble a Samsung N150, but I'm kind of at a loss as to which stage counts as the CMOS reset on the N150.

Anything I should pay attention to?

My monitor shifts position every time it loses signal or shuts off.

Mr_Crazyhorse — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 13:33:08 -0800

I have a Dell E248WFP monitor. Every time it loses signal (IE turning off/on the computer), the entire screen will move about 1/8" down and to the right. This problem has been replicated with different computers and DVI cables. This problem is easily remedied by opening up the monitor options on the monitor itself and telling it to reset to factory default settings for "Position Only." Turn the monitor off, and I have to reset position all over again. I am at 1920x1200 resolution. Any help will be greatly appreciated. I will be online all day working so I will be available to provide any additional information, should it be requested. Thank you.

The reset and the restore, they do nothing.

molecicco — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 05:02:06 -0800

Is there an archive of old firmware for iPods? I have a 30GB 5th gen iPod - songs often skip, the device freezes, and audible excessive spinning is causing major battery drain. Reset and restore are useless, and I am thinking it is maybe a quirk of the latest firmware. I have formatted, reset, restored, and checked for updates over and over again but nothing I do seems to be able to return my 5th generation iPod back to normal working order.

I am pretty sure that there are a lot of bad sectors on the drive, and that this is the cause of the excessive spinning and song skipping --- but shouldn't good firmware be able to handle this situation properly? Some online research suggests to me that reverting from firmware 1.3 back to 1.2.x might be able to help, but I have been unable to locate an online archive of older firmware.

So, askme, I am asking either for a link to some old firmware, or any kind of other helpful advice or suggestions on how to get more life out of my iPod. Thanks!

Hello IT, have you tried turning off and on again?

chambers — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 07:51:05 -0800

Hello IT, have you tried turning off and on again? I'm in need of a short extension cord, with a separate, big button toggle switch. Extra difficulty: It needs a short time delay before it powers back on. Any ideas? [specifics inside] I manage IT for about 30 bar/restaurant/catering locations, and there are occasionally times when a network device (in this case, a firewall and/or a wifi router for customer's use) needs to be rebooted. This could happen day or night, when I'm at the office, at home, or out having drinks with friends.

The people at the locations are not that tech savvy, and change frequently. I have to direct them over the phone to where each device is, and how to unplug it. Usually its fine, but when paying customers for private events are waiting, they are looking at a mess of wires, get stressed, and it's much harder to settle them down and do they easy thing of resetting them.

I am really in need for is a power cord with a big button or rocker switch on a separate lead, that would cut the power, wait about 15 seconds or so, then turn it back on. It would make phone support so much easier.

Then all I would have to say is " go to the office, there is a big red button on the wall that's labeled 'firewall'. Press that. "Now go to the waitress station. There's another button labeled 'WIFI Reset.' Press that. You should be back up in about 5 minutes. If it's not, call me back.

The 15 second delay is important, because I want a true restart, short interrupts don't always work, and i don't want to stress the electronics on the devices.

I found this previous question, but it doesn't have the delay option.

Please help!!!!

hoperaiseshell — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 21:45:45 -0800

Help! My TI-86 just fried itself and I have a stats exam tomorrow! Basically, it wasn't behaving the way the internets said it should in terms of calculating statistical data, so I worried that the settings had been messed with (it's used). I followed the instructions in the manual on p. 232 to reset the calculator. I reset the defaults and then figured I may as well reset everything, so I pressed "ALL", hit "Enter" for "Are you sure?", and then the screen went blank and now it won't turn on at all. Is anyone familiar with this problem, and can it be fixed?

New Laptop Video Card = Reset Blues.

ennui.bz — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:26:05 -0800

BrokenLaptopFilter. Bad News: the graphics card in my laptop died. Good News: the part is a Nvidia MXM II modular card and is replaceable. Bad News: I replaced the card (didn't forget the thermal paste) but the laptop does a hard reset about 5 seconds after getting to the desktop. Before I replaced the card, the laptop would boot (as checked by ssh'ing into the machine) but the screen displayed a lovely pulsing pattern of colored lines. Now, it appears to display correctly when booting but in both Vista and Ubuntu it does a hard reset and reboots just after reaching the desktop. However, if I boot into Windows safe mode or the Ubuntu recovery terminal the machine does not reset.

What gives?

Is it possible to build or join a tight knit group of friends after you're out of your young 20's, etc?

twiggy — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:55:30 -0800

Watching this video should have made me smile. Instead it has brought me to the sad and striking realization that I'm getting older, and have lost a lot of the meaningful connections I had through my younger 20's. Is it possible to get that sort of thing back in your 30s? Back in college, I had a tight knit group of friends - lots of them. Of course college is a fantastic place to facilitate the existence of such groups, but we've since all grown / moved apart.

Now, I just have a decent number of acquaintances. I don't have good friends I hang out with on any sort of a regular basis, and as a 31 year old single guy, this video made me really sad about these facts. I'm sure I'll get married some day, and I can't even think of anyone I'd consider to be my "best man", let alone have a cool enough group of friends to pull something this awesome and fun off.

I really don't have a "best friend" or anyone I'd go to in an emergency, etc, aside from my oldest brother.

Is it possible for someone my age to rebuild his life in such a way that these kinds of friendships are found again? I feel like I've aged past my ability to do that, but maybe I'm wrong. I do live in Chicago, which has tons of social outlets, but I'm some sort of weird amalgam of part-time introvert, part-time socially outgoing friendly guy, and I find it difficult to "get out there and meet people."

Mysterious Kindle Krapouts -- Help?

Harvey Jerkwater — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:43:40 -0800

My Kindle ebook reader crashes and requires resetting during my commute home. Any ideas why? Here's the situation: I have a first-generation Kindle, and it's been reliable. However, three times in the last week, it's required that I crack open the back panel and push the reset button to unfreeze it. What makes this weird is that it happens under the same conditions.

I work in downtown Washington, DC, near the "Metro Center" train station. I'll read my Kindle as I head for the Metro, and all is well. When I get underground and to the platform itself, the Kindle's frozen. This doesn't happen on the way to work in the morning -- only in the evening. It doesn't happen in my office, or at home. It's only when I go in the Metro Center station, in the evening.

To save on battery power, I leave the wireless dingus switched off. But I wonder: is the Kindle receiving some signal or electromagnetic interference that causes it to lock up? Can that happen? Any ideas as to why the lockup happens only during the evening and not in the morning? It's happened three times in the last few days, so something is definitely up.

I have three theories: (1) the Kindle is locking up for generic reasons, and the "strange" timing will prove to be coincidental; (2) a powerful EM source that's active in the evening near the Metro Center station is making my machine hiccup, possibly through the wireless device; and (3) evil spirits haunt my machine.

idkfa - do not want!

phredgreen — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:13:17 -0800

I'm fairly noobish to Team Fortress 2, and wanted a place to practice some sniping and heavy action without getting my face blown off by seasoned pros. Some light reading online indicated that there were "achievement servers" - special custom levels set up to practice your skills, so I found one in the serverlist and connected. Once in, another player chatted me to type in !givemeall for more information. What happened was quite jarring. All of a sudden I'm getting nearly every achievement in the roster. Achievements that I was looking forward to working for - boom, there. Every unlockable (except hats), in my backpack. Sounds like a noob's dream come true, but I wanted to earn my goodies, just like everyone else.

I've done some more searching online and the only things I've found were links to apps that I don't much trust, along with dire warnings of being VAC-banned for modding your setup. Beyond that, I joined the forums, but again, all threads about this subject led to little. I have no idea how to directly contact a Moderator or Valve to see if they can correct this issue.

Now I'm kitted up like a champ, but feel like a chump. I'm wondering if anyone here knows of a way to (legitimately) reset their achievements/unlocks themselves or contact Valve and ask them to do so. I feel cheated, and would much rather just reset and then start all of my achievements over again. Any help or suggestions you could offer would be much appreciated.

Help me fix a wayward office phone!

nataliecay — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 08:53:02 -0800

I need help resetting a NEC Dterm80 office phone. Our office manager was fired and now we have two phones with old employee passwords that need to be reset. We need to change the voicemail message, code, etc. but can't access the menu to do this without resetting the phone. We can reset the phone without the ex-employee's password. Quite the conundrum.

Can anyone help?

The manual has proven to be useless....

Thanks!

Is Big Brother Surfing With Me?

watercarrier — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 09:56:56 -0800

Very strange DSL behavior - Is it Big Brother? I've been dealing with this daily now and after extensive research - I've pretty much concluded that something or someone is surfing with me. But maybe I'm wrong and it's something else.

For about 2 weeks I've been experiencing very weird ISP behavior. Dial up problems, weird error messages, disconnects and just plain slow surfing. My machine is a clean machine - no viruses, adware - trojans or cookies. No cache older than a few hours either.

All surfing, streaming, downloading were effected during these lags. I've run Hijack This and nothing seems out of the ordinary except 2 exceptions - which are

AF891CD7E25B}: NameServer = XXXXXX
O17 - HKLM\System\CS1\Services\Tcpip\..\{470F728C-8ABE-4657-B74C-AF891CD7E25B}: NameServer = XXXXXX

(I've x'd out the addy)

The only remedy that seems to work in this situation is CMD
netsh winsock reset catalog - and restarting. Then it works perfectly.

I'm running XP Pro on a pretty new machine. No network. I've run diagnostics and there don't seem to be any problems with the network card or the modem. The cable is fine as well. I've run msconfig and taken out anything that could be a problem or culprit. I've set up new dialers. Currently I have only 2 things that I can see running at start up - one is the AV and the other is a desktop clock - both when disabled did nothing to present the above mentioned problems.

I tried firewalling and disabling firewall - same results in both instances.

I've tried accessing the web via a different machine and had same exact issue. It's not the puter - it's the line. ISP will not admit to any fault or problem only mentioning that there have been some *problems on their end and the issues should be cleared up now*.

Should be mentioned - trying to surf via proxy gets me disconnected.

Could this be some kind of filter placed on my line by the ISP that only the complete reset rids me of (albeit temporarily)? I am currently out of the country living in a war zone where there have been cases of close monitoring. So this isn't completely out of left field.

Is there anyway to find out what/who is messing up my internet connection via tracking software and is there anyway I can track someone who is tracking me?

Help me reactivate my car radio!

a lot is two words — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 08:00:11 -0800

AAA replaced my car battery which caused my radio to reset itself. I need a code to re-activate it that can only be found in the manual (lost), or obtained from a dealer (all away for the holidays). Help me reactivate my car radio before my three hour road trip tomorrow! I've got a 1999 Nissan Altima that is equipped with an anti-theft device which makes the radio reset when a new battery is installed. The problem is, I've long lost the manual, and every service station within 30 miles is (rightfully) closed for the holidays. I've searched high and low for the code on the internet to no avail. Can anyone help? MeFi mail me if you need registration/serial number specifics, and, of course, Happy Holidays!

iPhone 2.01 Hacking Help

aburd — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:33:30 -0800

I want to give my old iPhone to my girlfriend, but I'd like to get rid of my information first and turn it into a perfectly usable iPod Touch. She's in another nation and can't use it as a phone. But she would love to use it as a Ipod Touch. So how do I wipe the iPhone of all information while retaining it's usefulness on wifi? I just read here that if I hit the "reset" button, it will reset the phone to the factory condition. I want it to be usable as an iPod Touch, but without my info on there. Plus I'd like to hack it but I don't know how anymore. It's got the iPhone 2.01 software on it and currently I don't know if I should update it to the 2.2 software or not?

low-impact solution to hung router problem?

segatakai — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 21:33:09 -0800

Is it possible to remotely reset a router from my Mac that is connected to it? I live in buildingB, and my boss lives with his family in buildingA. Cable internet service comes into buildingA from the street, then is passed through a router to two computers in buildingA, and (by way of a 30? 50? metre ethernet cable strung between the buildings) my laptop in buildingB. My boss is good at that kind of thing (?), so he strung the cable and passed it into my apartment for me. I paid for the actual cable; he isn't charging me for access. Nice deal, right? It's all good.

Except when the internet goes out, which is far too often for my liking. It seems like about once every day or two, I have no access, for anywhere from a half an hour to a half a day. The connection is fine, then suddenly gone. Then suddenly back, seemingly for no reason. I've tried restarting. I've tried unplugging (then waiting) and plugging back in the ethernet cord. I've tried fussing with the Network sysprefs (when I go to the Ethernet panel, it says "Ethernet is currently active and has the IP address xxx.xxx.x.x."), and the Network Diagnostics tool. I've tried pinging with the Network Utility (though I don't really know what I'm doing and don't know if I've got the ipadd right). This has been going on for about 2 months or so, and *seems* more prevalent since the internet connection was changed from ?fibre-optic? to cable.

Since it always comes back (eventually); I'm not paying for it; my boss is bending over backwards for me already, in so many ways; and I like to keep a low profile, I have been reluctant to complain. I'm quite sure that I use the internet here WAY more than my boss does. I have mentioned it to him a few times, and on one or two occasions, he has gone and reset the router, which has worked. Obviously, I don't want to be running to his house every day and asking him to reset the router, and there are times when he is not at home or asleep. I suppose what really should be done is to have somebody come and look at the cable and the router, but I'm trying to avoid that if at all possible.

My question is, generally, what to do? But also, specifically, is there a piece of software that can remotely reset the router? I've looked at the software on my laptop (PowerBook G4), and I've googled, to no avail (the only hint I found is that it might be possible to "change the IP address from the computer" ? ). Please understand that I'll need kid gloves treatment if it isn't basic stuff. Thanks kindly for any advice.

I don't want to call India again...

wastelands — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:27:09 -0800

Why does my DSL connection keep dropping connections? I have a DSL connection from Qwest. The last couple weeks, I have seen the following:

* My connection with a torrent tracker drops (red arrows in uTorrent)
* My connection with an IRC server drops several times a day
* Often my browser will take a long time to start downloading web pages... I have to try the address again to "reset" it, otherwise it will just spin for a long time

No major hardware or software changes, except for minor stuff like upgrading VLC player, installing Chrome, the usual software changes. (Note: I'm on XP SP3... relatively fresh install, a few months old)

Normally I'd bug my ISP, but the last time I did that, they gave me a rated-limited modem. So instead of getting 5 Mb/s down, I was getting a third of that, and uploads were also slower. So I'm sticking with my old, but trusty, DSL modem from 2006. Is it just crapping out?

Is there anything I can do? I've tried unplugging power from the modem, waiting a minute, and plugging back in. Tried rebooting the computer. My overall speed for download/upload is the same as always, but it just keeps dropping connections.

Any help is appreciated!

Dell Inspiron 5100 BIOS password reset?

doomtop — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:04:46 -0800

Dell Inspiron 5100 BIOS password reset? Dell Inspiron 5100 has a BIOS password set. Won't boot the computer, won't allow access to the BIOS without entering password. Don't know password.

From what I've read you have to completely disassemble the laptop to disconnect something and then re-solder it afterwards in order to reset the password.

I've also read that Dell can generate a master password if you can prove ownership. I don't know who owned this thing originally though.

Any way to generate a master password without Dell's help??

I found a master password generator software, but doesn't work for my system number, which ends in A95B. I guess if I had an older model this would work. Is there a master password generator for these newer ones? I've looked and looked, but came up short.

I saw this previous question but the guy didn't get the answer I'm looking for. I'm hoping the newer master password generator may be more available nowadays...

Routers not working properly

CliffDiving44 — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:53:19 -0800

The last two routers I've owned, they needed to be reset every couple days to get my connection back. Now it happens with my new router, after months of it working perfectly. Any ideas? My first two routers were both standard Linksys routers, but this latest one is a Linksys WRTP54G Vonage router. Like I said, it worked perfectly and I didn't have to reset it until about a month ago, and now it happens once or twice a week. It's not the biggest problem in the world, but it's annoying and an inconvenience. Are all of these routers going bad because they're constantly on? Is there some setting that I'm not putting on?

unlocking the magic box

kerning — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 21:21:42 -0800

my work threw out an old g4 imac (the dome with the flat-panel type) and i took it home (with their permission). unfortunately, when i boot it up, the only option it gives me is to sign in under the admin, and i don't know that password. our IT guy wasn't too much help. how can i reset this imac? the IT guy seems reluctant to give me the pw, which i can understand. he's also pretty busy, so i can't really bring it in and ask him to do anything to it. i mean, i got it for free. :)

i have an os X install disk from my old g3 ibook (it's just 10.1). i'm also using a windows keyboard with it. i don't want to spend a lot of money trying to get this to work -- we're only using it until april, when we get our tax returns back and we can go buy a new imac. i tried holding down the "c" key while restarting with the os X install disk in the drive, but it didn't boot from the install disk like it's supposed to. what other options do i have? i can't even get past the login screen!

Password emergency / mystery with Filemaker

lorimer — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 00:26:24 -0800

Password emergency / mystery. I'm a new Filemaker user and I've somehow set a password that's keeping me from accessing the file I just put two days of work (and some not easily replaceable data) into. I'm running Filemaker Pro Advanced 8.5v1 on an Intel Mac (OS 10.4.8).

I installed and started learning Filemaker on Friday. I was playing around with all the settings and options, and one is password-protecting a file. Since I was only experimenting with making my first file, and since I (wrongly??) thought I was setting a file-level rather than application-level password, I put in a throwaway password which I now do not remember and have no record of. The next time I tried to open this file it prompted me for the password, I tried a few times but couldn't remember it, and I gave up and created a new file.

This second file DID open repeatedly without a password during the same session of the application (i.e. app had not been restarted since creation of this second file, but file closed and opened freely). Unfortunately this session didn't shut down properly because of an unrelated issue (buggy unrelated app -- which I must use -- that occasionally makes my system stop responding and need to be manually shut down by holding the power button).

After I restarted the computer and Filemaker, my attempt to open this second file gave me the same password prompt. I'm 100% positive I didn't set a file-level password for this second file. This second file was made from scratch, not from a template and not a copy of the first file.

I tried creating a third file -- doing nothing but defining a few fields and one record, saving the file, and restarting the app. This third file DOES OPEN without a password -- implying this is not an app-level password issue.

During all of this I've been logged in as an Administrator-level user. The username in the password prompt is my Administrator username (but my system-level Administrator password is definitely not the password Filemaker wants). The option to log in as "guest" is greyed out.

I've Googled and the only Filemaker password reset or recovery utilities I can find are for Windows. Filemaker's Help says nothing about removing a password.

Please tell me there's some way to open my second file. I unfortunately put a LOT of work into it over the weekend, both data entry & careful layout/formatting. I dutifully made running backups of it... which are of course as unopenable as the original. Trying to open the file in a plain text editor gives me nothing usable (just strings of random-seeming characters).

I'm ready to entirely uninstall and reinstall Filemaker if it will help, but I can only assume these first two files have some metadata that says "no copy of Filemaker can open me without this password." If I were the company, I would've put in many safeguards to prevent me from doing what I'm trying to do now...

How can I get my laptop to tell me how much charge it really has?

cholly — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 16:27:57 -0800

My laptop tells me that my battery is Critical, then it lasts for a further half hour! What is going on? I've got a four year old Dell Latitude X200. The battery usually has 35-50 minutes of charge, but Windows XP tells me that it is Low (5%) after 15 minutes, and Critical (2%) after 20. A few days ago, I decided to test it, and it lasted a good 15-20 minutes beyond when my computer told me it was critical. I've done it a couple of times since, and still the same outcome.

Is there a way to "re-zero" my laptop to recognize how much charge my battery actually has left?

I realise that it would probably be easier to replace the battery, but I really can't afford one right now.

Got To Delete Them Freakin All

jeribus — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 21:18:39 -0800

How to reset completely one of them new fangled game carts. Befuddled SNES user ahead inside. So, the kiddo got a hand me down Pokemon Mystery Dungreon Red Rescue Team gameboy advance cartridge from a cousin.

(and yes, he is also being steered towards more RPG based FF type games and is about to start Chrono Trigger soon).

But!

It apparently has a something called Wonder Mail. which apparently opens more missions or such. Via a complex code that is entered.

He deleted the old saved game, but can't access the already used Wonder Mail games.

Me, in my old console thinking popped the cartridge open and expected to find a battery I could remove. Since I have memories of losing saved games to an aging batteries.

No such luck!

Time has moved on!

Is there a way to restore a cart to a factory new sort of state any more?