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Non-Tech : Freezing Computers

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To: Wooly who wrote (7)	3/10/1999 10:45:00 PM
From: Curly Q	of 13

Your inputs are more valuable than what I have found in the "Ask Jim Why" column. I found this totally useless piece in my digging and scratching... Q: About half the times when I try to open an Excel spreadsheet attached to e-mail, my Win98 computer will freeze and even the ol' CTRL-ALT-DEL has no effect. The On/Off button on the computer becomes inoperative. Only solution to gaining control is to unplug the computer to reboot. This started shortly after purchase of the machine (400 MHz) this summer. Win98 was an original installation. I have noticed that the problem will also happen if I leave Outlook Express and Internet Explorer open overnight (I leave the computer on all the time). A: Your nasty lock-up problem is becoming widespread as ever more computers are equipped with the Energy Star power management system endorsed by the federal government and intended to automatically shut down monitors and hard drives after varying periods of disuse to save energy. The bug bites when a glitch elsewhere triggers the Energy Star standby function. Once the computer goes on standby, it is supposed to resume when you press any key. But because there is another glitch – the Excel hang-up in the case – the standby software can no longer respond to a keystroke and restore power. Since the standby function also overrides the on/off button on the front of most PCs, the only choice is to pull the plug from the wall and start over. To fix things, right-click on the desktop and go to Properties and then Screen saver. Then set the power management timer to Never. That should take care of the freezing problem. I suspect that your Excel problem is simply that when you click the icon in your e-mail program to open a spreadsheet, the next dialog box is popping up behind the window the e-mail so you can't see it. Hold down the Alt + Tab keys, which will call up a bar with icons, including the one for Excel. Once your power glitch is fixed, you can choose the Excel icon and get on with life.

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