- Lenovo Personal Computer User's Guide

Symptom:Serialportcannotbeaccessed.
Actions:
•Makesuretheserialcableissecurelyconnectedtotheserialportonthecomputerandtotheserialdevice.
Iftheserialdevicehasitsownpowercord,makesureitisattachedtoaproperlygroundedelectricaloutlet.
•IftheserialdevicehasitsownOn/Offswitch,makesureitisintheOnposition.
•IftheserialdevicehasanOnlineswitch,makesureitisintheOnlineposition.
•Iftheserialdeviceisaprinter,makesurepaperisloadedcorrectly.
•Verifythatanysoftwaresuppliedwiththeserialdeviceiscorrectlyinstalled.Refertothedocumentation
fortheserial-deviceoption.
•Makesurethattheserial-portadapter,ifyouaddedone,isproperlyinstalledandrmlyseated.
Iftheseactionsdonotcorrecttheproblem,runthediagnosticprograms(see“Diagnosticprograms”on
page69
forinstructions).Ifyouneedtechnicalassistance,seeChapter11“Gettinginformation,help,
andservice”onpage73
.
Softwareproblems
Selectyoursymptomfromthefollowinglist:
•“Whenusingasortfeature,datesdonotsortinthecorrectorder”onpage68
•“Softwaredoesnotworkasexpected”onpage68
Whenusingasortfeature,datesdonotsortinthecorrectorder
Symptom:Whenusingasortfeature,datesdonotsortinthecorrectorder.
Action:Somesoftwaredevelopedbeforetheyear2000usedonlythelasttwodigitsofayeartosort
dates,alwaysassumingthersttwodigitswere19.Consequently,theseprogramssortdatesoutoforder.
Checkwithyoursoftwaremanufacturertoseeifanyupdatesareavailable.Manysoftwaremanufacturers
makeupdatesavailablefromtheWorldWideWeb.
Softwaredoesnotworkasexpected
Symptom:Softwaredoesnotworkasexpected.
Actions:
•Mostsoftwareprogramshavebuilt-inhelpsystemsthatprovideinstructionsformosttasks.Ifyouare
havingdifcultyperformingaspecictaskwithinasoftwareprogram,refertothehelpsystemforthat
program.Helpsystemsaretypicallyaccessiblefromamenuorbuttonintheprogram,andfrequently
fromtheF1key.
•IfyouarehavingdifcultywiththeWindowsoperatingsystemoroneofitscomponents,refertothe
Windowshelpsystem.ItisaccessiblefromtheWindowsStartmenu.
•Todetermineifproblemsarecausedbynewlyinstalledsoftware,verifythat:
–Yourcomputerhastheminimummemoryrequirementsneededtousethesoftware.Seethe
informationsuppliedwiththesoftwaretoverifymemoryrequirements.(Ifyoujustinstalledanadapter
ormemory,youmighthaveamemory-addressconict.)
–Thesoftwareisdesignedtooperateonyourcomputer.
–Othersoftwareworksonyourcomputer.
–Thesoftwareyouareusingworkscorrectlyonanothercomputer.
68ThinkCentreUserGuide