Q. I’ve saved some of your columns over the years. Maybe I learn slowly or I need to be able to refer to them for reinforcement.
So how do I restore computer sounds? On occasions separated by months, the computer stops producing sounds.
One time, I resorted to uninstalling most of my programs and reinstalling them. That brought the sounds back. That seems a drastic approach.
Ed Jones@wideopenwest.com
A. Put this column on top of the others you’ve clipped, Mr. J. You are probably going to need to return to it. PCs get rendered mute at a somewhat alarming rate because various programs that play sounds conflict with each other.
Software for playing movies often conflicts with programs that play sounds for CDs–and both of those can conflict with modules to play computer music files. What often happens is that a program will switch the sound off from other sources in order to optimize the volume and quality of its own audio output.
These various settings can be viewed by calling up the Windows Sound Control Panel. In Windows 98, click on Start and then Settings and you will find an icon for Control Panel. In Windows XP the icon for the Control Panel is a choice on the Start menu itself.
So open the Sound Control Panel and look for the Advanced button under the heading Volume. Click that and you’ll get a display showing all of the volume settings for each of several different sources including a synthesizer, a CD player, a video card, wave files and line-in. There also is a master volume setting. Make sure that none of the mute boxes for the various sources are clicked on and that the volume level sliders are well above the halfway marks.
This will restore your sound, but keep in mind that since this has happened before, whatever your computer has been doing to create the problem likely will return–requiring this same fix.
To simplify future fixing, look on the Volume tab of the Sound Control Panel for a check box to order an icon for these settings to be added to the system tray in the lower-right corner of the display.
That way you can quickly call up the settings without fishing for the proper Control Panel each time.
Q. I have a problem with unwanted mouse clicks with my Windows XP-based PC. When I move my pointer over a Window, even without clicking the mouse, the window becomes active. Sometimes this is useful, but mostly it is an annoyance.
Can you please tell me how to set the system so that this does not happen?
Earl P. Yates, Virginia Beach, Va.
A. After reading the above answer about using Control Panels to fix stuff I’ll bet you think you can fix this by going to the Control Panel for Mouse. Right E.P.Y.? Wrong.
That’s exactly what anybody might think, so Microsoft put the fix elsewhere.
This setting to make the mouse automatically activate an item when the cursor arrow passes over it is kept under the Folder Options commands in Windows XP.
So click on Tools in the window for any folder and then select Folder Options. There you will find a set of tabs including one for General. Look for the Click Items as Follows entry and you will find a box checked to open items with a single click. Uncheck it and your computer henceforth will require you to click on an item once to make it active and then give a second click to open it.
The one-click setting works because the item is automatically highlighted as the mouse arrives over it.
Q. When I try to copy music from my D drive to the E drive using the Easy CD Creator software that came with my computer everything appears to run correctly and the program runs to completion. The problem is that when I put the newly created CD into a regular CD player for use, the new CD won’t play.
It just sits there as though there are no tracks on the new CD. When I put it back into the computer and check the contents of the new CD, everything appears to be correct.
Any suggestions?
Butch Waldrop @century.net
A. Some crucial details get lost in all of the hype over how one can use a PC to create customized music CDs that can simply be inserted into any music player, Mr. W.
Forgive my acronyms, but you’re ripping music into MP3s or other formats and then putting them on CDs without converting them to the required CDA format that is the only convention that regular music machines can see.
Software abounds to do this, but I fear there is very little documentation to explain it all in context. Roxio’s various versions of Easy CD Creator include stand-alone music modules that convert music files (usually MP3 format) into CD audio compatible form and record them on discs. But you don’t need to mess with Roxio on this issue.
You see, Windows already includes Microsoft Media Player, which also can be used to create music CDs. So do competing products like Musicmatch Jukebox and RealNetworks’ software. Because Windows Media Player comes with the computer, the easiest way for you to proceed is to fire it up and then tap F3 to have it find all of the music and other media files on your computer.
Then all that remains is to go through the list of tunes that Media Center will display and put a check mark alongside each one you want to include on an 80-minute audio CD.
Now click on File and Copy and you will be given the prompts to copy the selected music onto an audio CD.
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Contact Jim Coates via e-mail at jcoates@tribune.com or snail mail at the Chicago Tribune, Room 400, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago IL 60611. Questions can be answered only through this column.
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