You probably notice your hardware only when it causes problems. When everything goes according to plan, it’s invisible, which is the way we like it.

You can tweak your hardware in a variety of ways to make it run better, and you can use XP’s built-in utilities to troubleshoot any problems. In this chapter, we’ll look at hacks to help you troubleshoot hardware problems, remap your keyboard, make laptop and LCD screens more readable, and set up a cheap network by connecting two PCs.

The Device Manager is a great hardware troubleshooting tool, but you’ll need this hack to make sense of the error messages it relays to you. Here’s how to decode the cryptic messages and how to use the messages to solve hardware woes.

If you install and uninstall enough hardware on your system, error messages and system conflicts are a way of life. XP does a far better job than previous versions of Windows at keeping conflicts to a minimum, but on occasion they still pop up.

The first step in resolving these problems is to use XP’s built-in Hardware Troubleshooters. Choose Start → Help and Support → Hardware → “Fixing a hardware problem,” and under “Fix a problem” click Hardware Troubleshooter. It’s a wizard-style interface, so follow the prompts.

But that won’t always solve the conflict. Luckily, XP includes a built-in way to resolve system conflicts by hand: using the Device Manager, XP’s best all-around hardware-troubleshooting tool. Run it by typing devmgmt.msc at a command prompt or in the Run box. You’ll see a list of all the devices installed on your system, as shown in Figure 13-1.

Figure 13-1. The Device Manager displaying all the devices installed on your system

To find information about any device, right-click it and choose Properties. The device’s multi-tabbed Properties dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 13-2. You’ll be able to get comprehensive information about the device from here. You can also troubleshoot by clicking the Troubleshoot button.

Figure 13-2. The Device Manager’s General tab

When you open the Device Manager to the view shown in Figure 13-1, an icon will be displayed next to any device involved in a system conflict. A yellow exclamation point means the device has a problem or conflict of some sort. A red “X” means the device is disabled. A blue “i” (which stands for information) means the device’s resource configuration has been altered via the Device Manager.

Only the yellow and red icons mean there’s a problem of some sort. To find out more details about the problem, double-click the device that has an icon next to it, and an error message and error code will appear in the “Device status” section of the General tab shown in Figure 13-2. Those error messages are supposed to help you solve the hardware problem. Unfortunately, though, they’re cryptic at best, and, as a general rule, you won’t be any closer to resolving the problem after you read them.

However, armed with the right knowledge, you can resolve the problems based on the error message you see. The advice in Table 13-1 (adapted from Microsoft Knowledgebase Article 125174) tells you how to use the Device Manager to solve the problem.

Hardware ghosts and other hidden devices can cause system conflicts, and the Device Manager won’t report on them. This hack forces the Device Manager to uncover all your hidden hardware so that you can resolve any conflicts.

One of the strangest hardware problems you’ll encounter in XP are hidden and ghosted hardware devices that are invisible to you but that can cause system conflicts. You won’t be able to see them in the Device Manager [Hack #115] When you use that troubleshooting tool, you won’t be able to uncover any problems they might be causing.

The Device Manager hides several types of these devices. Non-Plug and Play printers, drivers, and similar devices don’t show up. Most newer devices are Plug and Play, so you’ll most likely encounter this problem only if you have old hardware attached to your PC. (Plug and Play devices are automatically recognized and installed in XP.) In this instance, the device is physically present on your PC, but the Device Manager doesn’t show you it’s there.

Then there are the so-called nonpresent or ghosted devices—devices you’ve removed from your system without doing an uninstall, or whose uninstallation did not work properly. These devices aren’t physically present in your system, but XP treats them as if they were and devotes system resources to them. For example, if you physically remove an old network card without doing an uninstall, it might cause IP and other kinds of conflicts because XP treats it as if it were still in your system.

The Device Manager also might not give you details about USB devices that you use only temporarily and that you frequently attach and remove—for example, MP3 players that you attach to your PC only when you want to add or delete MP3 files from them. Even when these devices aren’t present in your system, XP devotes resources to them. If you replace one USB device with another of the same model, it’s best to go through the uninstall process rather than just swap them.

And then there are devices you might have moved from one slot to another. XP might believe they are actually present in two slots, so it devotes resources for both slots to them.

Displaying these hidden devices can help with troubleshooting. For example, a hidden device could possibly conflict with a nonhidden device. And sometimes you might want to uninstall hidden devices—for example, when you’ve moved a non-Plug and Play network card from one slot to another and want to uninstall it from one slot.

But to do this kind of troubleshooting you’ll need to force the Device Manager to display information about the devices; otherwise, you won’t know how to solve the problem.

Forcing the Device Manager to display non-Plug and Play printers, drivers, and similar devices is a simple matter. Run the Device Manager by typing devmgmt.msc at a command prompt and pressing Enter, and then choosing View → Display Hidden Devices.

Displaying ghosted or nonpresent devices takes a little more work. You’ll set a systemwide environment variable that forces the Device Manager to display them. First, right-click My Computer and choose Properties → Advanced → Environment Variables. The Environment Variable dialog box opens. This dialog box lets you set system variables for the entire system or for individual users. Environment variables control a variety of XP features, such as the location of your Windows directory and TEMP directories and the filename and location of the command processor that will launch when you run the command prompt.

The Environment Variables dialog box contains two sections: “User variables” and “System variables.” To apply the variable to a single user, use the “User variables” dialog box; to apply the variable to all users, use the “System variables” dialog box. In this case, you’ll want to create the variable systemwide, so click New in the “System variables” section. The New System Variable dialog box appears. For “Variable name,” type devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices. Once you’ve created the name, you need to give it a value. To turn the setting on, type 1 in the “Variable value” box. You can see the box filled out properly in Figure 13-3. Click OK and then OK again.

Figure 13-3. Setting the Device Manager to always show ghosted devices

So, now you’ve set the system variable properly, but the Device Manager won’t display ghosted devices yet. First you have to tell it to display them. Run the Device Manager by typing devmgmt.msc at a command prompt or in the Run box and pressing Enter. Then, choose View → Display Hidden Devices and the ghosted devices will appear, as shown in Figure 13-4. You should see quite a few devices now, including a lengthy list of non-Plug and Play drivers. Typically, devices that are not currently present on your PC will be shown as gray, rather than the black that connotes present devices. You might also see some devices listed more than once, as shown in Figure 13-4.

Figure 13-4. Displaying ghosted devices in the Device Manager

Now, use the Device Manager to troubleshoot any of those ghosted devices, as detailed in [Hack #115] . If you find any ghosted devices that you will no longer use on your PC, uninstall them from the Device Manager by right-clicking the device and choosing Uninstall.

Find out how well your PC performs, peer under the hood to get diagnostic information, and get advice on tuning it with Sandra.

Do you know how well your PC is really performing? How well do you think it does compared to other systems? And do you have any idea of nitty-gritty information like its memory bank layout, the current video refresh rate, which currently running process consumes the most memory, or which services you most likely can safely disable [Hack #4] ?

Better yet—how about using that information to get tips on how to get your PC to run faster?

My favorite hardware analysis and tune-up program, Sandra (http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/), will do all that and more. Sandra is shareware and free to try for 30 days, but if you use it beyond that you’ll have to buy Sandra Pro for $29. Sandra Pro also gives you access to about a half dozen analysis modules that Sandra doesn’t have, such as modules about your network or fonts.

When you first run Sandra, you might be overwhelmed because you’ll see several dozen icons, each of which runs a different diagnostic and benchmark test when double-clicked. For example, run the Memory Bandwidth Benchmark and Sandra returns results similar to the results shown in Figure 13-5, which measure the performance of one of my PCs. As you can see, it measures the speed of your memory and compares it to other memory chipsets. It also shows you the layout of your motherboard’s memory bank, including the exact memory configuration in each bank. This is important when you want to add memory. Figure 13-5 shows me that I have two memory banks, each of which has a 128MB memory chip in it. That means if I want to upgrade I’m going to have to take out one of those chips and essentially throw it away.

Figure 13-5. A memory bandwidth test and diagnostic for my PC

Sandra doesn’t just give you diagnostics; it also offers recommendations on how you can fine-tune your PC. In this instance, it notes that my main system and my video system share memory, which reduces performance, and it suggests I install a video card with its own memory as a way to improve performance.

The fastest way to get an overview of your system—as well as to get comprehensive advice on fine-tuning every part of your system, not just one subsystem—is to run the Performance Tune-Up Wizard. It analyzes your entire system and offers tips on tuning up each subcomponent, as shown in Figure 13-6. For my PC, it offered about a dozen tips, including which background services I might want to disable, and ways to make my video system perform faster, among other advice.

Figure 13-6. Sandra’s systemwide tips for fine-tuning your PC’s performance

Create your own personalized, ultimate keyboard by remapping its keys to the way you want them to work.

Personal keyboard preferences are idiosyncratic; even a minor matter such as where the Alt or Ctrl keys should be located can inspire fevered debate. So, if you have personal preferences about where keys should be located, you can remap your keyboard to your own tastes using the TradeKeys utility from PC Magazine. It lets you map any key to any other key, including extended keys such as Right-Ctrl, Right-Alt, and the Windows logo key.

I find the utility particularly useful when I use one of my two laptops. Laptop keyboards are notoriously nonstandard, and I find the layout of my Dell Inspiron particularly maddening. Take the Windows key, for example. Instead of being located on the lower-left part of the keyboard, where Nature intended it to be, it’s hidden away on the upper right. Similarly, the Menu key, instead of being on the lower-right where all good Menu keys should be found, is tucked away up on the right. So, I use TradeKeys to remap my Left-Alt key to be a Windows key and my Right-Ctrl key to be a Menu key. True, it leaves me with only one Alt key and one Ctrl key, but that’s a small price to pay to get the Windows and Menu keys in their proper places.

Remapping the keys is simple, as shown in Figure 13-7. After you run the program, choose the key you want to change from the “Map from” area, and then choose the key you want it mapped to from the “Map to” area. For example, to remap my Left-Alt key to be a Windows key, I chose Left-Alt in “Map from” and Left-Window in “Map to.” Then, I clicked “Map.” Keep on mapping keys in this way until you’re satisfied with your new keyboard; then choose Save. The new mapping will not take effect until you log off and then log back on. On some systems, you’ll have to reboot.

Figure 13-7. Remapping keys with TradeKeys

You can also create different keyboard layouts and use each depending on how you’re using your computer. Some simple games, for example, use letter keys to control motions and actions. If you prefer using other keys, such as the larger Ctrl and Alt keys, for those motions and actions, you can create one keyboard layout for that game and another layout for your normal use. To create a new keyboard layout, first map it, then choose Save. Give it a descriptive name. Create multiple keyboard layouts that way. Then, when you want to use one, call up TradeKeys, choose Load, and choose the layout you want.

TradeKeys is free, but only if you pay an annual fee for access to PC Magazine utilities. You’ll have to pay $19.97 for a year, or $14.97 for a year if you’re a PC Magazine subscriber. Go to http://www.pcmag.com and click Downloads to download it and other “free” utilities.

Stop squinting at your laptop or LCD screen. Make any laptop or LCD screen easy to read.

Many people who use laptops complain that text is particularly difficult to read on LCD screens. Making matters worse is that many laptops are designed to work at very high resolutions (for example, 1400 1050 pixels), and at those resolutions the small type is particularly problematic on an LCD. The problem gets increasingly worse because laptop screens keep getting larger and their resolutions keep increasing. On my 15-inch laptop with 1400 1050-pixel resolution, it’s almost impossible to read text. Desktop-style LCD screens also have the same problems.

A simple hack will make text easier to read on both laptops and LCD screens: use Microsoft’s ClearType technology, built into XP. To enable ClearType, right-click the desktop and choose Properties. Select Appearance → Effects. The Effects dialog box appears. Check the box next to “Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts.” Select ClearType from the drop-down box, click OK, and then click OK again. You’ll notice the difference in how type is displayed.

You can use ClearType on a normal desktop PC monitor as well as on a laptop, but I don’t recommend it. On a normal monitor, it makes text appear blurry, and people have complained that using it gives them headaches. I’ve tried it and can vouch for that—headaches quickly ensue.

The basic ClearType settings don’t work equally well on all systems, but you can download and use the free Microsoft PowerToy called the ClearType Tuning Control to fine-tune how ClearType looks on your system. Download and install it from http://www.microsoft.com/typography/ClearTypePowerToy.mspx. After it’s installed, when the first screen appears make sure the Turn on ClearType box is checked, and then click Start Wizard.

You’ll come to a page with two different samples of text. Click the one that looks best on your system, and then click Next. You’ll come to a page that displays a block of text in six different ways. Click the text that looks best and then click Finish. You’ll come to a final page that displays text in four different fonts. If you’re satisfied with the way the text looks, click Finish; you’re done. If you want to try a different setting, click Back, and you’ll come to the page that displays a block of text in six different ways. Choose a different text block, click Next, and if you’re satisfied, click Finish. Otherwise, keep going back to the page with six blocks of text until you choose one that’s best for your system.

From now on, if you want to fine-tune ClearType again, choose Control Panel → Appearance and Themes → ClearType Tuning, and the ClearType Tuning Control will run.

You don’t need a full-fledged network to connect two PCs using XP. Here’s how to create a fast, cheap connection that’s great for sharing files and other network needs.

If you are reading this book, which is (as you know) called Windows XP Hacks, you probably get questions and pleas for help from your friends and family all the time (or you will, now that you’ve read the book!). You’re the “computer guy” (women can be computer guys, too, my female editor tells me) and you have the ability to “make it better.” If that’s a fair assessment of your situation, let’s go through a scenario that happens to us hacker types quite often.

It’s 8:00 on a Sunday evening, and the phone rings. Your neighbor is panicking because his computer is acting crazy and he just finished working on a huge PowerPoint presentation for work the next day. You grab your trusty laptop and your bag of computer parts and go next door.

You sit down at the computer and play with it a bit. Sure enough, it’s got problems. The CD burner doesn’t work, and the floppy drive is shredding disks. How’s he going to transfer his file to his work machine? He doesn’t have a dial-up account or Internet access, so you can’t upload his file somewhere and download it to your computer—or perhaps it’s just too big for his 28.8bps modem to send.

Lucky for you (and for him), he’s running Windows XP and so are you. Since you’ve read this book, you have exactly what you need on hand to save the day. You transfer his files to your laptop, burn a CD of the contents, and yet again save the day. He offers you money, but you refuse because you’ll keep him in mind the next time you need to move your piano.

Remember the Boy Scout Creed: “Be Prepared”

Before you can be the hero in this story, you need to have the proper tools. You might not have all the parts you need on hand, but you can get them with a quick trip to your computer store. You could use three different cables: a null serial cable, a parallel data cable, or a null Ethernet cable. All three cables are shown in Figure 13-8.

Figure 13-8. Null serial cable with DB-9 and DB-25 connectors (left), null Ethernet cable (right), and parallel data cable (back)

A null serial cable is the most universal cable; nearly every computer manufactured in the last 10 years has a serial port. The disadvantage is that serial transfer speeds are slower than parallel or Ethernet speed.

A null serial cable is not a serial modem cable; they look the same, but the connections are different. For this purpose, you want a cable that has female connectors on both ends. Serial cables can have two different connectors on the ends: DB-9 and DB-25. The DB-25 is an older connector that has 25 pins. If a computer has a DB-25 connector, it is probably too old to run Windows XP. I own a serial cable that has a DB-9 and a DB-25 connector on each end but I haven’t used the DB-25 connector for years. If you want to carry a serial cable, it is probably safe to buy one that only has DB-9 connectors.

Tip

If you have cable and some connectors lying around your office, you can make a null serial cable by connecting the same numbered pins on each connector, starting from the upper left, except for pins 2 and 3. Those pins are crossed so that pin 2 on one connector goes to pin 3 on the other, and vice versa.

A parallel data cable allows for faster data transfers than a serial cable. A parallel data cable is not the same as a parallel printer cable! What you are looking for has a male DB-25 connector on each end. It is often called a LapLink cable or an FX cable. LapLink and FX were commercial products that performed this function in the past. Since Windows XP has the functionality built in, all you need is the cable.

A null Ethernet cable is your best bet in terms of speed and ease of use. The advantages are that it works with all modern Windows operating systems and will be the fastest connection you can get. The disadvantages are that older computers might not have an Ethernet card or might not have TCP/IP installed. You can purchase a null Ethernet card at most computer stores for a few dollars.

Tip

You can build a null Ethernet cable if you have an RJ45 crimper and RJ45 modular plugs by connecting the following pins with CAT-5 UTP cable: 1-3, 2-6, 3-1, and 6-2. The other pins are not necessary.

You can purchase the null serial cable and the null Ethernet cable for $3 or $4 each from almost any computer store. The parallel data cable is a little more difficult to find, but it’s still a good choice. No matter which one you choose, you will be limited to connecting only two computers.

Cheap Networking with a Serial or Parallel Cable

Connect the computers using the serial or parallel cable. Make certain you are connecting the same type of ports. Turn both computers on and log in so that both computers are waiting for you.

Decide which computer will be the host and which will be the guest. The host computer will be the one that supports the incoming connection. The guest will be the one accessing the remote computer.

On the host computer, open the Network Connections control panel. Click the link labeled “Create a new connection.” Click the Next button to get to the screen titled Network Connection Type. Choose the radio button labeled “Set up an advanced connection” and click Next. On the next screen, choose the radio button labeled “Connect directly to another computer” and click Next. When asked Host or Guest, choose Host and press Next. You will be asked what device you wish to use to make the connection. If you are using a parallel cable, choose Direct Parallel; if you are using a null serial cable, choose the appropriate Communications Port (the one to which you connected your null serial cable—it should be labeled on your PC, but if not, check the documentation) and press Next. Then you will be presented with the dialog box shown in Figure 13-9.

Figure 13-9. Host User Permissions screen

This dialog box asks you which users will have access to the host computer. If you are unsure about the computer’s security, you should choose an appropriate user. If you know the guest computer does not present a security risk, just choose the Guest account and press Next. Now the computer has a network connection called Incoming Connections.

You need to know the network name of the host computer. If you do not know it, on the host computer right-click My Computer → Properties → Computer Name. The network name is the name next to the words Full Computer Name.

Now it’s time to configure the guest computer. Again, go to the Network Connections control panel applet and click the “Create a new connection” link. Select “Set up an advanced connection,” click Next, choose “Connect directly to another computer,” and click Next. This time, when given a choice of Host or Guest, choose the Guest radio button and press the Next button. When asked for the connection name, type the network name of the host computer. If all goes well, you should see the dialog box shown in Figure 13-10. If you do, click the Finish button to close the dialog box.

Figure 13-10. The New Connection Wizard

At this point, you have a physical and logical connection between the two computers. Activate the connection by double-clicking its icon on the desktop or in the Network Connections control panel of the guest computer. When the computers recognize each other, you will be asked for the username and password. If you provided guest access on the host computer, you do not need to enter anything; just click the Connect button. If the connection is made, Windows XP will pop up a notification on the taskbar, as shown in Figure 13-11.

Figure 13-11. New connection notification

At this point, you have a network connection. You can use your Network Neighborhood window to browse or search for the host computer. Shared folders will work the same as if you were on an Ethernet network. If your folders and printers do not have permission for the user on the host computer, they will not have the ability to share files or print.

Keep in mind that this method is a one-way connection. One computer is specifically the host and the other is the guest. Those roles cannot be reversed without creating another connection. If you would like to be able to access the computers without designating one as the host, you will need to use an Ethernet connection.