'Rolling lines' likely fault of cable firm

By BILL HUSTED

Cox News Service

November 4, 2008

Q:  We have a 1-year-old, 42-inch, 1080p Panasonic plasma TV that has developed two horizontal "rolling lines" on the screen. Our TV worked fine until recently, when our cable company came out to do some work at our home, including the switching out of our HDTV cable box. What can we do to fix this problem?

— Doug Calvert

A:  There's a strong chance there's nothing wrong with your television. The cable installation almost certainly is to blame. While it's impossible to know for sure without checking out the television, you seem to be experiencing a well-known problem called ground loop.

If you search Google with the terms "rolling lines tv" you'll find plenty of others in the same boat. The problem is caused by an improper ground for the cable system.

You'll find some homebrew grounding solutions on the Internet, but I strongly recommend you not try to fix the problem yourself unless you are a trained electrician.

Instead, call the cable folks and tell them you believe the installation is not correctly grounded. If you're lucky, they'll understand the ground loop problem. If not, your Google search should give you enough background to explain the problem to a technician.

Q:  In one of your columns, you spoke of free MS Office downloads and named a site where it can be found. As is usual, I misplaced the article, so could you redirect me?

— R. Shawn Bennett

A:  It's not a free Microsoft Office download, it's a program that performs the same functions Ñ including the ability to use files created by Office. You'll find the program at http://www.openoffice.org/.

While the download is free, there is a charge of around $65 for a full version. That's still a sizeable discount from the price of Microsoft Office.

Q:  I have a problem that is driving me nuts. These days, most of my e-mails come with attachments. When I click to open an attachment and I see .htm on it, I automatically know the text will be there, but the pictures will be blocked. I just get big empty boxes with a red X in the left corner. I have tried everything to remedy this problem to no avail. I have been told it must be the way I have my security set, but what should I do?

— Diane Farina

A:  It's a common problem. If you're using Microsoft Outlook as your e-mail program, go to Tools, then Options then Security. You'll see an item that offers to block images when sent in HTML format used on the Web.

I'll bet there is a checkmark by the entry that offers to block HTML images. Remove it. The feature is designed to protect you against malicious attachments and some sneaky programs that hide in image form and let spammers determine if you actually received the e-mail.

Other e-mail programs may use slightly different terms but generally you'll find an entry like the one I just described in either the Advanced Options or Security section.

Please send your questions to Bill Husted at tecbud@bellsouth.net. While he reads every e-mail, not all are answered. E-mails are selected for publication based on the likelihood that the answers will be of general interest.