How to Fix the Biggest PC Annoyances

Inharmonious Hardware

Keep the Paper Flowing

The Fix: To avoid printer paper jams, make sure that all the paper in the tray is the same type and weight. (The most common paper weight is 20 pounds; it's usually listed on the package.) Don't mix photo paper, heavy card stock, and plain paper, for example. Always store your paper flat. If your printer comes with a vertical feed tray and you don't print often, flip the paper around to prevent it from curling in the tray. Use a can of compressed air (it costs about $6 at your local electronics store) to keep the insides of the printer free of dust and dirt. Gently remove bits of paper or labels that may be stuck on the feed rollers. Squirt a light coating of window cleaner on a sheet of paper (don't saturate it), and use the paper-feed button to send the sheet through the printer a few times. Then repeat the operation with several passes of dry paper to remove excess moisture from the rollers.

Bonus Printer Tip: You'll find dozens of additional tricks for laser printers at Fixyourownprinter.com. (A buddy found a fix there for a paper pick-up problem on his HP LaserJet 5P printer, which is still chugging along after nine years.) Another great laser-advice site is PrinterTechs.com.

Quintuple Up Your Cables

The Annoyance: Since my MP3 player, my digital camera, my PDA, and all the other USB devices cluttering my office each came with its own USB cable, I had more USB cables snaking under my desk than Starbucks has lattes.

The Fix: The $30 QuickConnect 5-in-1 USB Cable from GoldX Products has five interchangeable tips that attach to either end--so instead of unplugging a cable when I want to switch from my MP3 player to an external hard drive, for example, I just change the cable's tip. The cable also connects my PDA directly to my printer.

No-Fuss Backups

The Annoyance: Though I love my home-office network, lugging my external USB hard drive to each computer one by one to back them up used to be a real bother. And no, no, no--I didn't want to set up a file server.

The Fix: Instead of installing a server, I attached the drive to Linksys's Network Storage Link (see FIGURE 1 ), a $99 device that connects to a wired or wireless router. Now everyone on my network (well, my wife and I) can access the drive for quick and easy backups. Fair warning: During installation the Storage Link needs to format the external USB drive that it connects to, so make sure you've backed up the data on that drive first.

Lighten Your Power Load

The Annoyance: It never failed: I would fall in love with some handy little gadget for my PC only to find that it used an AC adapter large and heavy enough to double as an anchor for an oil tanker. I'm telling you, I amassed enough bricks under my desk to rebuild Hadrian's Wall.

The Fix: A smart, though not cheap, fix for my power crisis came by way of the PowerCore DC Hub from GoldX; see FIGURE 2 ). This $30 hub powers up to five of my favorite electronic devices that would ordinarily need their own AC adapters. You can run one 12-volt, one 9-volt, and three 5-volt devices simultaneously. It's ideal for providing a constant stream of power to different devices. The downside? You also need to have the company's $30 PowerCore System Base Unit with surge protector to power the hub.

Quiet a Shrieking Monitor

The Annoyance: My six-year-old monitor, a 17-inch CRT that I affectionately call "Gramps," started making a high-pitched, drive-me-up-the-wall sound. I thought I'd landed in a low-budget sci-fi thriller.

The Fix: This was no horror-movie soundtrack. It turns out the whine was caused by a vibrating flyback transformer (don't ask; it's a voltage thing). I was finally able to muzzle my monitor by changing its refresh rate. To do so, right-click the desktop and choose Properties, Settings, Advanced. In Windows 98 and Me, click the Adapter tab and change the setting under 'Refresh rate' to 72 Hz or above (generally speaking, the higher your monitor's refresh rate, the less eyestrain you'll experience). In Windows XP and 2000, click the Monitor tab and change the setting under 'Screen refresh rate' (in XP; see FIGURE 3 ) or 'Refresh Frequency' (in 2000).

An alternate fix is to perform "percussive maintenance": Give the monitor a good, solid whack on the side. Really. This might stop the vibration, albeit temporarily. Keep in mind that repairing your monitor will likely cost more in the long run than replacing it. Of course, this may be your best excuse yet to buy that new LCD monitor you've had your eye on.

CD Burner Runs Hot and Cold

The Annoyance: How's this for irritating? Some days my external CD burner--which connected via FireWire to an add-in USB/FireWire card in my PC--worked perfectly, but other times my computer didn't recognize the darn thing. And here I thought it was the disc that was supposed to be burning, not me.

The Fix: As I began to investigate the matter, my prime suspect was the add-in card. First I tried removing the FireWire cable from the PC, rebooting the system, and plugging in the cable again. Sometimes this got Windows to see the drive, but other times it didn't. The next thing I tried was plugging the drive into a different port on the FireWire card: I turned off my PC, unplugged the external drive, turned the PC back on again; then, once Windows had loaded, I reconnected the FireWire cable and powered up the CD burner. This finally cured my system's glitch, but if it doesn't do the trick for you, try moving the add-in card to a different PCI slot on your motherboard (just make sure that you don't plug it into the slot nearest the AGP video adapter, since that could cause motherboard woes). And check your PC's manual to confirm that you're using a "bus-mastered slot."

Straighten Up and Display Right

The Annoyance: My mother called recently with yet another gripe about her PC (kvetching must run in the family). This time she was upset because she couldn't figure out why all of the images on her screen were tilted at a slight angle. Sometimes I wish Mom weren't such a geek.

The Fix: I quickly figured out that the problem was with her monitor's controls, which needed fine-tuning. Each monitor is different, but the controls are basically the same. Begin by looking for a button named 'Manual Image Adjustment' or something similar. The buttons on Mom's monitor enabled her to fix its tilt in a flash (with my help, of course). While she was fiddling, good ol' Mom found other settings that let her get more screen bang for her buck. Most monitors are factory-set with an annoying border, but she figured out how to enlarge her display to fill the entire screen by expanding the vertical and horizontal image areas until the black borders disappeared. (Note: Doing this may require that you adjust the image up or down, or maybe sideways, to keep it centered.) Sorry, folks: This screen-expansion trick works only on CRTs, not LCDs.

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