One of the TV and internet services available in many areas in Tsukuba is provided by ACCS.

Despite its quick internet connection and good customer service, this company’s “credit card only” payment policy has turned away a lot of potential customers. The good news is that ACCS has recently started to offer a couple of other payment options. Now you can also choose to pay your bills at a convenience store or through your bank account. In both cases, a deposit of 10,000 yen (when using either the TV or the internet service) or 20,000 yen (when using both services) will be necessary, but
you can get the money back when terminating the contract. No charge for paying through the banks designated by ACCS (such as Joyo and Kanto banks), but a 105 yen/month transfer fee will be necessary when using non-designated banks. Paying at a convenience store will incur a service fee of 210 yen/month.

Call 029-852-6111 to check out the details.

I wrote to tell him that I have received good service from K's Denki (beside LaLa Garden) and Yamada Denki (beside the Cineplex theaters).

After my post, another Tsukuba resident mentioned that these shops will probably just offer to wipe your operating system and reinstall it, which is true. They generally deal more with hardware problems than software issues, so if you think you can reinstall the operating system yourself, you should probably just do it yourself and save a few thousand yen.

Other things to try before bringing it in to the stores:

• Try to use System Restore to revert your computer to the state that it was in a few months ago.
• Install an anti-virus package.
• Use programs to get rid of any spyware/malware that might be affecting your performance. Spybot and HijackThis were mentioned as good candidate for this job.

If none of these has the intended effect, you should probably just wipe the drive and reinstall the OS.

Another Tsukuba resident followed this up with an extensive list of things to try. I am reprinting his post here in its entirety (with the permission of the original author) so that it can be referenced in the future.

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Nearly always a fresh install is the best thing to do. In some cases its the ONLY thing that will help. Before going to all that effort though you can try some basic clean up techniques that will reduce the amount of work your computer has to do.

A common culprit is the number of programs you have running in the background. They are usually visible in the bottom right hand corner of the screen in windows software as little icons. The number of programs here should be as few as possible as these increase load-up times as well as take up precious memory. "Spybot S&D" has an advanced function that will let you edit your start-up programs and here you can disable all those little icons you don't need from appearing.

Next best thing is to clean your computer from temp files and registry inconsistencies. Use a program called "CCleaner". For maximum effect you may want to uninstall some programs you don't use anymore before cleaning. CCleaner also has a handy built in uninstaller wizard to help you speed up uninstalls.

Next up is to run antispyware software. I always think free is best so the programs I use are Spybot S&D and Lavasoft Ad-aware. Please be careful here as there are a lot of phoney spy-remover programs about that try and trick people into installing them. Stick with programs which are recommended either by magazines or professionals. After cleaning with Spybot its also a good idea to use the 'immunize' feature to tackle future problems. Most of the immunisations are for flaws in the IE internet browser which are common targets for hacks. If you can I would recommend a different browser other than IE, such as "Firefox", which has far fewer people trying to exploit its flaws.

Next up is make sure you have antivirus software and that your computer is clean. Again if you want a free one then I recommend "AVG antivirus" which is free for personal use. Get it from the AVG website but it can be hard to find as they tend to hide the links to download the free version behind all the pay for products. Look hard and you'll see its there.

Windows XP and Vista has a firewall built in. Firewalls are vital as they act as gate-keepers to your computer. Every computer comes with a number of 'doors' or ports which are gateways for information between the computer and the internet (only one physical slot however). If these ports are left unguarded then all kinds of uninvited stuff will flow from the internet to your computer. Due to a lack of foresight Windows XP has all the ports automatically open on install and hence the need for a firewall to protect your ports. Since Windows XP SP2 a firewall is now standard on all windows products however its not that good but it is automatic. If you know little about computers then the best step would be to just make sure that you have the windows firewall working. If you want to know more then I would
recommend ZoneAlarm firewall. Make sure you get the free product. It's a bit tricky at first. Remember that if you get your internet connection through a 'router' or a wireless transmitter then you don't need a software firewall as the 'router' or wireless transmitter is already a physical firewall. If in doubt, get a firewall.

Finally after you have done all this I would recommend as an option to use AusLogics disk defrag, which is also free. Defrag stands for defragmentation that is to gather all the fragments of data that are on your hard drive, organise them into the correct piles and then put them all at the front so that the hard drive can find them faster. Hard drive read speed is currently the slowest process in your computer so it makes sense to help it as much as possible. Read the AusLogics website for a more detailed argument but basically download the program and run it. If you do eventually go for a re-install then it is also quite important that you run this program after a fresh install because windows installation can be messy.

That's it. If you have no speed improvement after this then you need a fresh install. Remember to back up your data to an external hard drive or DVD.

As a final note, I personally never use Windows Restore to solve gradual decline in hardware performance. System restore I think was designed to overcome hardware problems that happen suddenly when you buy some new kit or you install some new device drivers or upgrades. I could be wrong but I'm not sure it would help much in this case.

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Sometimes people in Tsukuba complain that TAIRA is only good for sales, but exchanges like this make me appreciate the list and its contribution to our little community. Thanks, TAIRA!

3 Comments

• At April 17, 2008, Nitaya wrote:

  Thanks a lot Shaney.

• At October 20, 2008, Dai-Gaijin wrote:

  I second the recommendations given in the long post, and emphasize CCleaner. Get it from Majorgeeks (google both terms).

  In the tools section, go through the startup, examine each entry and google the thing launched.. You will remove a LOT of needlessly "idling" background stuff. READ the docs first so your changes can be reversed if you foul up. Then finally let it scan for registry issues, and re-do it until clean.

  You probably will get back most of your original pep to your xp load.

  Advanced users might want to hunt down "service tuner 2007".

  Really advanced users can try the "Experience tiny xp platinum" load from various places like the infamous "....bay" site via torrent. Remember it aint naughty if you have a valid xp pro license and dont install the "extras". It does a very clean XP self-instal, but you still lose everything..

  I only mention this because I hear that finding a fresh XP english cd in Japan can be a lot of fun.

  Last thing: Some of the external drives for sale for PC's in the Akihabra will choke on a english xp system.. Need a firmware update of something.. SO says the rumour... read the fine print.

• At October 20, 2008, Shaney wrote:

  Great advice. Thank you!

* The seminar will be in easy Japanese. English interpreter is available.

Date & time: February 4th (Sun.) 10:00a.m. to 12:00
Place: International Network Center
Member: 15 foreigners who live or work in Tsukuba
Lecturer: Mr. Kazuhiro Yamashima
Fee: 100 yen (text fee)
Application: By telephone or email
Registration & more information:

Tsukuba Cultural Foundation Tel.029-856-7007
Email class[AT]tsukubacity.or.jp

For more information, contact Tsukuba Cultural Foundation.

Tel: 029-869-7675
class[at]tsukubacity.or.jp

NTT has recently formed a department that handles services for foreigners; that is, their staff members speak English. I was able to talk to one yesterday as they have a campaign now on internet subscription.

If you have inquiries for NTT, you can call them at 0120-915-932.

It seems that the software is available through Amazon.co.jp for 3391 yen (which is less than it sells for at K's Denki where it was about 3900 yen). The Nintendo DS machine itself costs about 22,000 yen and is also available through Amazon.co.jp (or for a bit less than that on kakaku.com).

Here is a little thingy that will let you test out the interface. Unfortunately the sample questions are quite hard, but you should be able to get a feel for the software anyway.

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The following Panasonic Let's Note laptops may display a hard disk　error after installing Windows Vista update KB943899.

* CF-R6MWVAJP (BIOS V1.00L13)
* CF-R6AW7AJP (BIOS V2.00L10)
* CF-R6AWBAJP (BIOS V2.00L10)
* CF-R6MWVAJC (BIOS V1.00L13)
* CF-R6AW7AJC (BIOS V2.00L10)

(I believe that these are all Japanese models, but I am not sure.　Please check the model number on the bottom of your Panasonic Let's　Note laptop to be sure.)

Your laptop may be experiencing this problem if, after restarting it,　you get an error message ("0200: Hard Disk Error 0") and when you open　your BIOS setup utility, the size of the hard disk is shown as 0GB.
If you own one of these computers, please see the following page (in　Japanese) and follow the instructions.

To Owners of Panasonic Let's Note CF-R6M/CF-R6A Series Laptops

If your Panasonic laptop has not already downloaded and installed the　problematic Vista update (KB943899), try connecting to the internet　with a different computer, downloading the appropriate BIOS update that they provide on the above page (see #5), and installing the BIOS
update on your Panasonic laptop. (Do not connect your Panasonic laptop to the internet until you have done this.) Please note that these BIOS updates will only work if you have not already installed the problematic Vista update.

This only applies to the above-mentioned models. If your model is not listed, do not install any of the BIOS updates.

Product name: RUF2-FS512-W
Code: 07/09/11
Serial number: 000001～000360 (only certain ones)

Product name: RUF2-FS1G-W
Code: 07/09/11
Serial number: 000001～000360 (only certain ones)

Product name: RUF2-FS2G-W
Code: 07/09/11
Serial number: 000001～000120 (only certain ones)

If you have one of these memory sticks, you can return it to the manufacturer if it is found to have a virus. Use the Buffalo Virus Checking Tool to check for viruses.

Source: USBフラッシュメモリ　不具合のお知らせとお詫び

2 Comments

• At October 18, 2007, RrFish wrote:

  Whew, the one I use is safe!

  Thanks for posting this information, Shaney.

• At October 21, 2007, Shaney wrote:

  Glad to have helped! I think that the affected models might only be available in Japan because I couldn't find any information in English about this situation. I thought it might be a good idea to post this information in English just in case any of our readers have bought Buffalo memory sticks in Japan.