5.17 TROUBLESHOOTING Be prepared! If someone installs new software for you or borrows your computer, do make sure it works the way you like it before they leave! It’s also a good idea to back up your precious information regularly in case anything goes wrong. Ask someone with more computer knowledge what would be best for you. There are a range of options. It might also be a good idea to buy an anti-surge plug to avoid losing data or preventing damage to your computer if there’s a sudden surge in your power supply. WHEN SPEECH FAILS When speech fails, life is difficult and one automatically blames the talking software, but Thunder rarely crashes as it has a sophisticated restart system built in. It’s worth trying one of the following solutions when things aren’t working: Wait a few minutes before attempting to do anything. Your computer will go quiet when you are receiving a big batch of emails or Microsoft is downloading updates. Check that leads to headphones/speakers and the mains are fully connected. Rebooting your machine is often the next thing to try. This means switching it off in the proper way and switching back on again. Checking the mute setting is sometimes worthwhile. Maybe you touched the mute key in error and Windows has been known to mute the sound for no obvious reason. XP users will find the mute setting by going to Start Menu, Accessories, Entertainment, Volume and tabbing twice to the main volume mute then pressing SPACEBAR which is a mute on mute off toggle key. Windows Vista and Windows 7 users can type "vol" at the Start Menu to get straight to similar controls. Laptop users may be able to hold down the Fn Key, next to the left-hand Control key while pressing the Escape key or searching the manual to find out how to mute or unmute. It is worth going into Thunder Settings. Press TAB once and ARROW DOWN to hear if there are any other voices that you can use. Windows machines come with an onboard voice which is Sam with XP and Anna with Vista and Windows 7. Thunder’s "Settings" menu does not have a mute on off option but the volume may be too low to hear. WINDOWS XP SPEECH PROBLEM There is a particular problem when using XP RealSpeak voices. This involves a file called "userlexicons" which appears to become corrupt occasionally. When this happens, the speech is lost and rebooting the computer doesn’t sort the problem. You need to get to that file, delete it and then reboot your computer. "Userlexocons" is a system file so it is automatically recreated for you and speech is restored. You can either search for it and delete it or go to "My Computer", Documents & Settings, Users, (user or your name), Application Data, Microsoft, Files then speech. There you will find Userlexicons which you can delete then reboot your machine. If you can’t find emails you have received, you may have got into "Hide read messages". Go into "View" with ALT V, RIGHT ARROW to "show all messages" and if it’s "unchecked" press ENTER. WEBBIE When using WebbIE, if a webpage you’re reading seems stuck and you can’t do anything with it, press Function Key 5 (F5) to refresh it, i.e. to download it again. If you are trying to do a web search with CONTROL W (search words) and ENTER and you don’t get anything, Google has probably made changes to their search engine. We aim to put things right quickly. WebbIE sends you automatic updates but you can get the latest version from www.webbie.org.uk. Very occasionally, you will come across a website that doesn’t speak. This is because of the way it has been constructed. VIRUSES Another cause of trouble could be a virus which you may need help dealing with. SORTING PRINTER ERRORS You may find occasionally that even though your printer seems OK, you still can’t print. You may have a printer error message which you will need to clear before you can print again. When this happens, try the following routine: Test the obvious first: make sure the printer is plugged in, switched on, connected to your computer and loaded with paper and that there is ink in the cartridge. If the printer still doesn’t spring to life: Press START, RIGHT ARROW once, keep Pressing C until you reach Control Panel and press ENTER. Keep pressing P till you reach Printers. For Windows 7 and later, ARROW DOWN once and press ENTER. For earlier versions, just press ENTER. ARROW Down the list of printers until you hear yours and press ENTER. You now have a list of documents which haven’t printed, so you will need to delete them from this list. Select each document filename by holding down the SHIFT key and then press DELETE. Don’t worry, The documents themselves won’t be deleted! When everything has gone from the list, press ALT F4 three times to come out of the list, out of the printers list and out of the Control Panel. Next time you need to print, nothing should be blocking you. PROTECTED DOCUMENTS IN OFFICE 2010 When you download documents or attachments in Office 2010, you may find they won't speak to you. This is because your computer has put them into "protected mode" in order to prevent a virus (if there is one) from infecting your computer. Seeing people can view them but they can't be edited, changed or read to us by a screenreader. You can unprotect such files in Microsoft "Trust centre" where you will find there are many ways of protecting documents. If you trust the sender, you should be safe but don’t take risks by opening attachments from people you don’t know. From the Start Menu, select MS Word. Press Alt F and Arrow Up to hear "options" and press Enter. Arrow all the way down to hear "Microsoft Trust Centre". TAB several times until you hear "Trust Centre Settings" and press ENTER. Arrow Down to hear "protected view" and, in this case, Tab until you hear the checkbox relating to Outlook Attachments. If this is ticked, your attachments will be in protected mode and you can't hear them. Untick the option and your screenreader will read them. SCREENSAVERS If you leave your computer and come back to find nothing happens when you press the keys and your precious work appears to have gone, just press ESCAPE and any screensaver you might have running will disappear and you are back at your work where you left off. Screensavers were invented to avoid damage to monitors that were left running for more than a few minutes showing the same images. These days, however, monitors are much more robust and screensavers aren’t really needed.
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