It’s time for your friendly reminder. If you haven’t done it lately, you need to defragment your hard drive. This should be done at least monthly. To learn what it’s all about, scroll down for the gory details. To just defrag and move on, the instructions are here if you need them.
Defragmenting hard drive (C:)
- Click on Start – Programs – Accessories – System Tools – Disk Defragmenter
- Click the Defragment button.
- If you have less than 15% of your hard drive free, it will ask if you’re sure you want to defrag now anyway. Click Yes.
- (If it’s much less than 15%, you may want to delete some unneeded larger files or file folders (and empty the Trash) or else run the Defrag program a second time.)
OR
- Open My Computer
- Right click on C:
- Select “properties”
- Click on tab labeled “Tools”
- Under “Defragmentation” select
“Defragment Now”
- When the service opens first
select “Analyze”. After this runs it will tell you whether or not the
drive needs to be defragmented. If it does simply select the defragment
option.
What is file fragmentation
Sometimes when you install a program or create a data file, the file ends
up chopped up into chunks and stored in multiple locations on the disk. This
is called fragmentation.
What makes this happen?
When you first install your operating system and programs on your hard
disk, they are written to the disk, for the most part, in one contiguous block
without any gaps. The exceptions are certain system files that must be stored
in specific locations. Over time, as you create and then delete documents or
uninstall programs, once-filled locations are left empty and you end up with
files dotted all over the disk.
Now, when Windows is writing a file to the disk, it looks for a suitable
piece of free space in which to store it. What happens, then, when you copy a 40M
database or audio file to the disk and the biggest slice of free space is only
30M? Or say you modify an existing file, appending a whole bunch of data so
the file now takes up more space on the disk. To accommodate the files,
Windows writes the first part of the file in one section of the disk and then
scouts around for other places to store the rest of the file. The end result
is that a single file may be stored in several chunks scattered about the
disk.
Before you get alarmed, this will be happening on a weekend after Commencement.
On Friday, May 16, at 6:00pm, Information Resources will be taking down most of the on-campus systems so they can relocate to their new server room (part of the construction projects over there). This means moving the air conditioners, the UPS systems, and all the servers to a new location.
On-campus computers should still be able to access the internet, but it will be much slower. Most other services will be unavailable during this time, which should last from 24 to 30 hours. PALNI services should be unaffected, especially from off campus.
Occasionally the printers in Reference will say “Load MP Tray.” The MP tray is the Manual Feed tray. The printers give this “error” when they’re sent a document that is not regular letter size (8.5 x 11).
This is not by any means the fault of the printer; it’s because of the paper size of the document being printed. From what I’ve seen, this is typically because a professor put a document on Blackboard that for some reason wasn’t Letter size. Maybe it was Legal or A4 or even “custom” sized. I’ve seen that happen. You can tell what size paper is needed by watching the error message. It will go back and forth between “PLAIN” and “Legal” or “A4.” (By the way, A4 paper is a size used in most of the rest of the world and is 6 mm narrower and 18 mm longer than “Letter” size.)
When this does happen, the student can check all their print settings and they’ll all look right. It’s because the original document was not properly sized; the browser or word processor or printer settings will not be able to change it.
SOLUTION: Insert paper in the Manual Tray and hit the Green GO button.
If the irregular size is longer than A4, you’ll need to insert LEGAL SIZE paper in the MP tray. We now have some kept at the Reference Desk on the low shelf to the right of the desk. Anything shorter and the printer will jam because it’s expecting longer paper.
If it’s asking for A4 or anything shorter than that, you can just take some blank paper and load it in the MP tray and hit the green Go button. When the job is finished, the printer will go back to drawing paper from the regular trays and you can remove the extra paper from the MP tray.
It appears we are having some problems with the computers in room 119 printing to the Reference printers. I know I’ve asked I.R. to check on this before and I’ll work on that during the next week or so.
In the meantime, until they fix the problem, please be aware that some of the computers in room 119 are not defaulting to IL_120_K and may not even have that printer installed. If a student is not finding their print jobs, please check what printer their computer is trying to send the job to. It will most likely be some Image Writer type of thing, which won’t print anywhere. If IL_120_K is installed, have them choose it. If not, please add the printer for them (using Add Printer or Start-Run: \\ada) and then they should print fine.
Thanks much.
Scott
This is just a clarification of the error messages that the Reference Printers give us.
Paper Jam: Printer means “underneath the toner cartridge”
Paper Jam: Duplexer means inside above the top paper tray.
For the first one, simply remove the entire toner cartridge and fuser. That is NOT the blue lever. Just lift the entire thing and it will all come out. Remove the paper jam and use the green arrows to line up the toner unit and replace it.
For the second one, you have to remove the top paper tray (#1). In the top of the paper tray cavity you’ll see a green tab. Pull that down to expose the paper that is stuck. Remove it, let go of the green tab, and replace the paper tray.
For ALL paper jams, they have GREEN tabs, levers, and arrows to help you know where to look. The BLUE lever in the top is only for removing empty toner cartridges. Please don’t use the blue lever when removing paper jams, since it doesn’t help and often results in toner leakage inside the printer and on the first batch of print jobs.
If you’re more of a visual person, Kyocera has a web page with step by step instructions and pictures for clearing each type of paper jam.
Hope that helps.
Scott
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