Saturday, January 15, 2011

Network printing problem solved

How I solved the network printer problem between the Dell XPS laptop and the Dell One Desktop.

The Situation:
I have a Brother HL-2140 b/w laser printer attached to a Dell One desktop via a USB cable. The printer works fine from the Dell One. I have a home network that works fine. I want to be able to print from my Dell XPS laptop to the Brother printer via my wireless network.

The Problem:
Every time I shut down and restarted the XPS, I could not print to the Brother HL2140 printer

If I reinstalled the network printer in the normal manner, I could print.

How I solved the problem:
  1. Rebooted the XPS laptop
  2. Tried to print a test page, but it would not print
  3. I then exported the services.msc file as a CSV file BEFORE reinstalling the printer.
  4. Next, I reinstalled the network printer and tried to print a test page. Two test pages were printed: the first attempt and the second attempt printed.
  5. I then exported the services.msc file as a CSV file AFTER reinstalling eh printer.
  6. I printed both files that I exported.
  7. I then compared both files to see the difference.

The only difference was one line item on the AFTER file that was NOT on the BEFORE file.
The line item name was:
Diagnostic System Host.

When I opened the Services file AFTER reinstalling the network printer, this line item was set to Manual. I changed it to Automatic, saved the file and rebooted the XPS.

Then I tried to print a test page and I was successful

Saturday, January 8, 2011

How to copy one or more photos to Dropbox.

This lesson will explain how to copy one or more photos from a Windows PC to your Dropbox. It assumes you already have a Dropbox account. If not, go to www.dropbox.com and sign up for a free account. This lesson further assumes you are copying photos from your Pictures folder on the Windows computer.

To copy one photo from Pictures folder to Dropbox folder

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Open your Pictures folder by clicking on Start (1) then Pictures (2)

Your Pictures folder will open

media_1294302377128.png

Now, let's open your Dropbox folder

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To open Dropbox folder, click on Start (1), then click on Documents (2)

Your Documents window will open as shown below

media_1294302493907.png

To open your Dropbox folder, left click on "Dropbox" in the upper left section of the Documents window

Now both your Pictures window and your Dropbox window will be on your Desktop

media_1294303284525.png

To copy one photo at a time

Now with both Windows on your Desktop, point your mouse to a photo in your Pictures folder that you want to copy to Dropbox, then right click and then left click on "Copy" from the drop down menu.
Now, point your mouse to the Dropbox folder and right click and then left click on "Paste" from the drop down menu.
You have just copied one photo to your Dropbox folder.

To copy multiple photos from your Pictures folder to your Dropbox folder

keyboard.png

While holding down the "Ctrl" key, point your mouse to each photo in your Pictures folder that you want to copy to your Dropbox folder.

Clicking on multiple photos

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While holding down "Ctrl" key, left click on first photo (1), then second photo (2). If you want to copy more phots, simply continue left clicking on more photos, while still holding down the "Ctrl" key.
Now, release the "Ctrl" key and point your mouse to any one of the multiple photos selected and right click and then left click on "Copy" from the drop down menu.

Now point your mouse to your Dropbox folder, then right click and then left click on "Paste" from the drop down menu.

You have now copied multiple photos to your Dropbox folder