Frequently Asked Questions 
about The Drill Machine

There are many reasons why a download will not work. Most of them are the same reasons why sometimes certain sites are slow to load or why sometimes the whole Internet seems to be slow.

1. Don't continue to surf the Internet while you are downloading. This makes your computer work extra hard.
2. Don't read and answer your E-mail while you're waiting. E-mails are also downloaded files. You download them to read them and you send a download when you answer them. This really slows down everything.
3. Don't open up other non-Internet programs either. Don't do your bills or play Duke Nukem. Any extra work that you ask your computer to do, even screensavers, will slow down your computer. Slow it down enough and the download may stop.
4. Don't disregard the above reasons just because you have one of those super fast connections. That speeds up the download process between you and CourtReportingHelp.com, but it doesn't speed up your computer itself. You can still overwork your computer by opening up too many programs or web sites.
5. The whole Internet is slow. This happens when everybody goes online at the same time. If other sites appear slower than normal or if you can't make connection at all with some sites, then you may be better off trying to download at a later time.
6. You have a virus checker active on your computer. These programs are wonderful, but they are notorious with interfering with other programs, especially downloads. This is a last-resort solution.  Turn off the virus checker, and your download will probably finish.
  Once you have downloaded anything, you should turn your virus checker back on before you open up the download.  Please remember to turn it back on.
7. You have programs open that monitor your computer activity. Some of these are wonderful, but they can interfere with a download. On the lower right-hand side of the normal Windows desktop are icons for all of the programs that are active and ready to jump into action. If you rest your mouse pointer over these, a little box will appear with the name of the program that you are presently on top of. For example, a program that saves your passwords or fills in blanks may butt in when it isn't needed. Virus programs can usually be found here. Look for any program that you don't need right now and turn it off. Don't turn off everything. Some might control things like your mouse or the volume control.  You shouldn't have any trouble here, but if you do, restarting your computer should turn all of these programs back on.
8. Your screensaver starts up and your download stops. Screensavers are usually full of graphics. Graphics are relatively large files. That's why when the Internet is slow, it is the graphics that appear last. They are the largest files. Stop your screensaver, and your computer will not have to work as hard.
9. Your computer doesn't recognize that a file is being downloaded, and after a certain time, it goes into sleep mode. You have to change the settings on your computer so it doesn't do this, or you can shake your mouse once in a while so that the computer knows you are still working.
10. Your Internet connection doesn't recognize that a file is being downloaded, and after a certain time, it disconnects you from the Internet. There are some services that have a hard time recognizing that you are downloading. As long as you shake your mouse once in a while or scroll up and down the screen, most of them can tell that you are still working. Some of them require that you navigate to another site once in a while. Even worse, a number of the free services demand that you click on ads or do other things at specific times or they will kick you off. Do what you have to do to satisfy their requirements, but keep your activity to a minimum.

The first thing to do is to determine whether The Drill Machine has already unzipped and installed itself.  If it did unzip, then you can find it from your desktop by clicking Start, then Programs.  If The Drill Machine is unzipped, it will be listed.  It will probably be at or near the bottom.

If it is not there, then go to where you had it downloaded.  The default location is My Documents.  This means that your download is in My Documents unless you told it to go to a different location.

If you really really can't find the location of the download, this is an easy solution.  Start to download it again.  One of the Windows that pops up will show you where the download will go.  Your download went to that location unless you changed the location.  As soon as you find the location, you can cancel the download.  It won't hurt anything.

Go to where you downloaded The Drill Machine and click on it.  It will start to unzip and install itself.  The whole process is very quick.  It takes less than two minutes. 

Once it is unzipped, you can find it from your desktop by clicking Start, then Programs.  The Drill Machine will probably be listed at the bottom.  All you have to do is click on it, and you will be in.

1. My drill is full of strange symbols and letters in crazy patterns. 
       You haven't hurt anything.  You are using a file that The Drill Machine cannot read. Those symbols are formatting symbols.  If this file is a drill that you made, you can turn it into a file that The Drill Machine can use.  Try saving your file as a text (txt) file or a rich text file (rtf).  
       The other reason for this problem is that you are trying to load a drill that has not been unzipped yet.  To fix this, exit The Drill Machine.  Go to where the drill is.  The default location is My Documents.  Click on the drill.  It will unzip almost instantly.  You may notice that the zip file has one kind of icon and the unzipped file has a different icon.  This may help you tell them apart.  When you go back to The Drill Machine and load the drill, you may see two drills with the same name, but different icons.  One is the zip file.  The other is the drill.  
2. How can I tell the zip files from the drills?  You can unzip the drills and then immediately delete the zip files.  Or you can add a letter to the name of the drill when you unzip it.  For example, if the zip file is called MyDrill, change it to UMyDrill or MyDrillU (U for unzipped) or DMyDrill or MyDrillD (D for drill).  Or when you unzip the drills, you can unzip them to a new folder.  It is easier to make the folder before you start the unzipping, but if you know what you are doing, you can make it when the zip file asks you where you want to unzip it. 
3. How come some of the drills look like Word files?  These files are really rtf files or rich text files.  They are the generic equivalent of Word files and they share their icon.  They are not the same however.  If you work with Word documents, make sure that you save them to rtf or text files before you use them in The Drill Machine.
4. I turned on all of the options I could think of and now my text disappears word by word when I click Start. If you use a Background that matches the Color of your text, then it will appear that your words disappear one by one. You have stumbled upon one of the best teaching techniques of The Drill Machine. When your colors match, you have no choice except to stay up with the drill. It is highly recommended that you use this function frequently.
5. I used Color. How can I restore the original drill. Some drills use more than one color. These drills don't work very well with the Color function. Luckily it is very easy to restore the drill to its original colors. Hit Reset. Your drill will now be in its original state. The Drill Machine will start at the top of the drill, but you can reposition it in the normal way.
6. The Drill Machine doesn't start where I want it to start. This is an easy function to master. Suppose you want to start on the second paragraph of a drill. What you would do is take your mouse and click on the word that you want to start the drill. After that, just hit Start. Now suppose you want to start on the last paragraph of a very long drill. To do this, use the scrollbar on the right-hand side of The Drill Machine and scroll to the section that you want. Take your mouse and click on the word that you want to begin your drill. Click Start.
7. Do I have to remove the last drill before I exit? No. This is just a copy of the drill. It is deleted by exiting. The original of the drill is okay.
8. What is the best way to drill on multicolor drills? Two things.  First go to the menu at the top.  Select Customize and then color.  Make sure that No Change is checked.  Second click Reset.  This will restore your drill to its original color configuration.  In other words, if it is a multicolor drill, don't add extra colors to it.
9. The Start button isn't visible. There are two ways to make the Start, Reset, Pause, and Continue buttons appear.  Load a file.  The buttons will appear.  Or you can click Help, and then click Show Controls.
10. I can get the program to open but when I hit the start button it gives me a message that the drill is over.  How come?  You just need to load a drill.  We have them available on our site. Do this first so that you get an understanding of what happens.  Go to your desktop and right click on an empty area.  Click New and then click Text Document.  Now write a few lines of whatever you want.  Close the text document. Open the Drill Machine.  Click File at the top left of your screen.  Then click Open.  This will bring up a box that allows you to choose any file on your computer.  Navigate to the desktop and choose the Text Document that you just created.  Click on it.  It will load in the Drill Machine.  Choose your speed and click Start. Naturally, that isn't much of a drill. Now go to our site and download a few drills.  Write down where these drills are downloading to.  It only takes a second or two to download each drill.  After a drill is downloaded, you may have a message box asking you if you want to open the download.  If you do have one, then open the download.  It will start to unzip.  It will also tell you where the unzipped file is going.  Write down this new location. If you don't get a message box asking you if you want to open the download, then you have to go to the location that you wrote down the first time.  This is where your downloaded file is located.  It is a zip file.  It has to be opened. Go to that location and click on the download to start unzipping it.  It will show you where the unzipped file will be located.  Write down this location. When you go to the Drill Machine and click File and then Open, you will need to go to the place where the unzipped file is located.  The unzipped file is the real drill. After clicking File and the Open, you navigate to where your unzipped file is located and click on it to load it into the Drill Machine.  Then all you have to do is choose your speed, and click Start. 

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