TECH.MECHANIC

Hot phone is cause for concern

By J.D. BIERSDORFER

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Q. When I reach for my cell phone, it is sometimes hot to the touch. Is there something wrong with the battery?

A. There have been at least two reported instances in the last year in which batteries overheated and caught fire. Verizon Wireless is recalling 50,000 counterfeit cell phone batteries masquerading under the LG Mobile Phones brand.

Check with your wireless carrier if you are concerned about your phone or suspect that it might be having major battery problems. Do not charge the battery if you think there might be something wrong with it.

If the problem seems sporadic and you carry your phone in a purse, bag or briefcase along with keys and coins, it may be that metal objects are occasionally touching the phone's battery contacts and creating a very hot short circuit.

Keep your phone's metal parts protected. Storing the phone in a case that shields its battery contacts from metal items can help keep it shielded and cool.

Q. How do you defragment a Mac OS X system?

A. Hard-drive fragmentation, which occurs over time as files on the system are fragmented and saved in different places around the hard disk, can slow a computer system's performance.

The slowdown results from the added time it takes for the system to reassemble the file from several different places. The phenomenon is normal, and disk-defragmentation programs have been designed to reassemble the scattered files and restore system speed.

Windows systems have for years included a program called Disk Defragmenter to help PC owners keep their computers running smoothly. There are also many third-party utility programs that will defragment a drive, including Speed Disk in the Norton Utilities suite for Macintosh systems. Macs do not come with a defragmentation program installed.

Apple Computer says that you do not need to defragment a Mac OS X system, especially if you are running the current Panther version of Mac OS X, because the system can defragment files smaller than 20 megabytes in size automatically.

The formatting used on most Mac OS X hard drives, Mac OS X Extended formatting (HFS Plus), is also intended to store files and use space more efficiently than other hard-disk formats. Article No. 25668 in the technical area of Apple's Web site (docs.info.apple.com / article.html?artnum=25668) offers an extensive explanation of the company's position on hard-drive optimization and fragmentation.

Q. When I use Internet Explorer for Windows, I often get a message that says "Runtime Error has occurred. Do you wish to debug?" What does this mean, and is there a way to avoid it?

A. An Internet Explorer runtime error -- one that occurs when a program is running -- can be caused by several problems. Some older versions of the Internet Explorer browser will display the message if you try to open a Web page that contains an apostrophe in the title. Runtime errors are frequently caused by a mistake in the programming for a script on a Web page.

Compared with early sites, today's Web pages can be quite complex, with pop-up windows, animations and programming scripts designed to enhance your Web-browsing experience. With all of those bells and whistles, it is possible for a page's author to make a programming mistake that goes unnoticed during testing. Typically, it is only programmers who need to use the debug option in the error box.

Some types of spyware -- particularly the subset known as adware - - may be trying to open windows or run other types of scripts, and some of these programs may be causing the runtime errors.

If you have installed pop-up blocking software to cut down on distractions while you browse, the program may be zapping the extra windows before the rest of the Web page's intended script can run, thus causing the runtime error message.

You can adjust your settings so that you are not alerted every time the browser program trips over some bad code. In Internet Explorer, go to the Tools menu, select Internet Options and click on the Advanced tab. Check the box next to "Disable script debugging," uncheck the box next to "Display a notification about every script error" and click on OK.

J.D. Biersdorfer of The New York Times invites questions about computer-based technology by e-mail to qanda@nytimes.com.

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