Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2011 August 7

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August 7

Lappy keeps shutting down

Does anyone here have any idea why my laptop shuts down at random without so much as a warning message or bluescreen? It is a Toughbook CF-48, running Windows XP, 256 MB RAM. The only two programs open both times I've shut down are Opera and KVIRC. —Jeremy v^_^v ^{Components:V S M} 05:34, 7 August 2011 (UTC)

Impossible to know. Take it to a repair shop. It could be a loose connection somewhere. Try removing the battery pack and any leads and then replacing then firmly.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 07:31, 7 August 2011 (UTC)

Not a connection issue. Still shuts down. —Jeremy v^_^v ^{Components:V S M} 18:07, 8 August 2011 (UTC)

For an old laptop a common reason is automatic shutdown due to overheating, which in turn is caused by dust blocking the airflow. Removing the dust fixes the problem. 98.248.42.252 (talk) 22:43, 7 August 2011 (UTC)

How would I be able to undust the fan? It's very small and, as far as I know, not very dusty... —Jeremy v^_^v ^{Components:V S M} 18:07, 8 August 2011 (UTC)

I had exactly this problem a fortnight ago. Remedy was to unscrew the case and open it, remove dusty hairball, and put back together. You /might/ be able to remove a dust blockage by blowing on the fan. It would be handy if you could ascertain that the fan or air-path is blocked before doing all of this. FWIW, I found that I could get access to the fan after removing the keyboard, and need not have removed a dozen and more screws from the bottom of the machine. --Tagishsimon (talk) 18:12, 9 August 2011 (UTC)

The fan is blowing hot air out of the back of the rig.. —Jeremy v^_^v ^{Components:V S M} 20:34, 9 August 2011 (UTC)

Note, however, that laptops are not designed to be user-serviceable. For example, when I opened up my IBM ThinkPad, the paper cable to the track point tore, and it became unusable. StuRat (talk) 18:28, 9 August 2011 (UTC)

"Go to a web site" displayed in Firefox address slot rather than the URL

Much of the time, although not always, I see "Go to a web site" displayed in the Firefox address slot rather than the URL of the page I'm looking at. I'm using Firefox 5.0 and WinXP.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

I've found this on the internet https://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.support.firefox/browse_thread/thread/b82e76ad30161d16/7f80d5c69fc11bcf which seems to blame openSUSE, but as I'm using Windows, not Linux, then I don't see how this applies.

How would I disable the openSuse thing in Firefox anyhow, if it is present even though I'm using Windows? 92.24.133.68 (talk) 15:14, 7 August 2011 (UTC)

MS Word - Highlighting

Is it possible to use Word's 'find' function to locate every instance of a word, and then highlight those instances in a colour I specify? For example, if I have a document with the phrase, 'the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,' and I wish to highlight both of the instances of 'the', can I use the 'find' function to do it? Of course, with such a short sentence, I could do it myself. I am thinking about using this in a 20 page document, where I need all instances of the words that appear in an attached .xls glossary highlighted in the Word .doc I am working on. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 19:07, 7 August 2011 (UTC)

The Search and Replace dialog has a "format" button (possibly hidden behind a "more" button) that allows you to specify all sorts of formatting in both the search and replace text. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 20:03, 7 August 2011 (UTC)

Ah, thanks - it turned out to be more obvious than that. There is a 'reading highlight' button, and an option to 'highlight all', and the highlights remain even after closing the 'find' dialogue, reopening, and then 'finding' all instances of a different word and highlighting them - just what I need! Cheers! --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 20:35, 7 August 2011 (UTC)

Batch renaming in Linux

In Linux, how can I batch rename a number of files with names such as oa0*.jpg (where the * part includes varying digits) to p80*.jpg, so that only the first two characters of the names change from oa to p8? JIP | Talk 19:25, 7 August 2011 (UTC)

You should be able to do: rename 's/oa0/p80/g' *.jpg. This assumes you don't have any files like baroa0.jpg the you don't want to rename.- Akamad (talk) 23:01, 7 August 2011 (UTC)

And if that doesn't work, try rename 'oa0' 'p80' oa0*.jpg (there are two popular rename applications out there). ¦ Reisio (talk) 18:36, 8 August 2011 (UTC)

The first one didn't work but the second one did. Thanks! The reason I was asking was that I had transferred image files from my brand-new Olympus E-620 camera but had accidentally set the filename to begin with "oa" instead of "p" and a digit/letter indicating the month. JIP | Talk 20:08, 8 August 2011 (UTC)