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Computer Related Questions. Volume 2 - Dynamic Dave

***** Thread now full, see volume 3 *****

www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?f=2&t=19...0

In this thread you may ask any computer related question for which you need help, advice, suggestions or whatever.

Usual rules apply,

No motoring related discussion,
No politics,
No Speeding, speed cameras, traffic calming
No arguments or slanging matches
Nothing which I think is not following the spirit of the thread
Nothing that risks the future of this site (please see the small print for details www.honestjohn.co.uk/credits/index.htm )

Any of the above will be deleted. If the thread becomes difficult to maintain it will simply be removed.

There is a wealth of knowledge in here, much of which is not motoring related, but most of which is useful.

This is Volume 2. Previous Volumes will not be deleted.

A list of previous volumes can be found here:-
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=20892

\"My Privacy\" - drbe
Ooh! Luvverly jubbly, I\'m first - I think.

I have My Privacy loaded on my PC. Some weeks ago, I foolishly \"tidied up\" my desktop and deleted several icons which seemed to be doing nothing. I know, I know, silly drbe.

When booting up I get a message in a box (window?) on the opening screen which says: -
----------------------------------------------------------

Omniquad My Privacy Older

omniquad.com

The version of My Privacy you have installed is more than 4 months old and is probably out of date.

Please download the latest version from www.omniquad.com

------------------------------------------------------------

My question is this when I try to download the updated version, all seems to go well, (I think) but, I still get the same message at start-up. How do I either download it properly, or, and I am not fussed, get rid of it altogether.

From the foregoing you will gather that I am semi-literate, computer-wise, so, please type slowly, using, if possible, words of one syllable.

Thank you.

Don drbe

\"My Privacy\" - Dwight Van Driver
Firstly I am no expert but this may help and will do no harm to your machine.

From Control Panel go to Add/Remove Programmes.

Is the download listed? If so its on you machine.

When the box window appears try right clicking on it -you may come up with a delete button.

OR

If programme is listed in your add/remove list - remove it. Start again with the download and re=boot immediately after download complete.

DVD
"My Privacy" - Civic8
Deleting a shortcut from your desktop should not affect the program.
Will the program start up from the START menu/programs
And was it a trial version?. I don`t know the program myself
"My Privacy" - Civic8
On checking the program.Looks like you will have to delete
then re install it.dvd said how
"My Privacy" - drbe
DVD. Thank you, I did what you said and it worked perfectly. These things are so easy (when you know how!)

Tanks again

Don drbe
"My Privacy" - Stuartli
It's a popup stopper if I remember rightly. Deleting the Desktop shortcut will not affect the program in any way.

Why not try PopUpStopper from panicware.com or Proxomitron - if you choose the latter make sure you configure it exactly as detailed....
A Registry Job? - frostbite
I have a sneaking feeling the answer is in the registry - I added a second hard drive some time ago and moved a lot of regularly used folders there.

However, when I try to download or save a picture, the dialogue box always opens up pointing to my original folder and not the one that has been in use for some time.

It's not the end of the world to keep changing it, but it would be nice if it got it right. How? (W98)
A Registry Job? - Godfrey H {P}
More information needed, download from where - the internet? Save from where in what context?
A Registry Job? - Civic8
Godfrey. you lost me what was you trying to say?
A Registry Job? - Civic8
windows doe`s need to be educated on some things.
I have two H Drives havent had a prob.
A Registry Job? - Dynamic Dave
Frostbite, try repairing Internet Explorer. Go into Control Panel, select 'add/remove programs' scroll down the list until you find 'Microsoft Internet Explorer' and click on add/remove button. A menu should appear asking you one of three questions. Select the repair option.
A Registry Job? - frostbite
Thanks for responses chaps. I was referring to internet experiences but it also happens in resident programs which can't remember where I last saved/loaded from, only the first time ever.

DD, did you mean Explorer rather than IExplorer?
A Registry Job? - Dynamic Dave
Frostbite,

IExplorer.
???????. - mal
What was the following all about which appeared at the top of the HJ forum pages earlier on, and also I suspect prevented me from logging on ?.

warning; mysql_fetch_Row() supplied argument is not valid mysql result resource in/home/webded/mysql php on line 84.

There are a few bits missing as I could not remember it all.

Mal.

???????. - Dynamic Dave
Mal,

This is an email I recieved from Stephen Khoo:-

"There was loss of power to the server about 4:30. Called up the ISP and they started it manually.
Then of course it has to fix its disk - and all the MySQL databases are not closed properly. I am going through fixing them so see what it is like in a mo."
???????. - Civic8
I sent an e`mail to HJ about the same problem.
rather than post.but you have answered as to what the problem
was.I thought at first it was a problem on my PC.sorry if I was wrong in sending HJ mail.
Computer Related Questions. Volume 2 - Dynamic Dave
Hi,

As with the request I made in the IHAQ, vol 33 thread,

When posting a NEW question, can you \"Reply to\" the first message in this thread, i.e. the topmost one? This keeps each question in it\'s own separate segment and stops each new question from getting mixed up in amongst existing questions. Don\'t forget to also include your question within the subject header.

Obviously when replying to any existing questions, just reply to those as per normal.

I\'ve just managed to re-arrange this thread so that DVD\'s reply is actually in reply to drbe\'s question and not frostbite\'s; and that Frostbite\'s question is a new one, and not a reply to drbe\'s. (I think?)

Many thanks,
DD, BR Moderator.
IE6 Status Bar Problem - DL
IE6

How can I get IE6 to 'remember' to display the status bar at the bottom of the 'page' - I have to manually display it using View>Status Bar..
--
groups.msn.com/honestjohn - Pictures say a thousand words..... Reply | Report as offensive | Link
IE6 Status Bar Problem - alan kearn
Have you tried
View/Toolbars/then left click Lock The Toolbars. This should leave a tick in front of Lock the Toolbars
IE6 Status Bar Problem - DL
I'll try that & report back
--
groups.msn.com/honestjohn - Pictures say a thousand words..... Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Bootup problem after installing more RAM - DavidHM
Okay, this is an awkward one.

I\'ve just installed an extra 256MB of PC133 RAM and a combination USB2.0/Firewire card in my PC. (Compaq 5446EA P41.8 although precious little other than the motherboard is still original, running Windows XP). I don\'t know if this is at all relevant but the RAM sockets are arranged like this

|A|-|B|-|C|

and the original RAM is in A, for ease of access the new RAM is in C. The new RAM is a single sided DIMM; the old one is double sided, but both are PC133.

Everything worked first time, perfectly - everything is read and recognised - until I tried to shut it down and it just restarted. Even hitting the power button after the restart causes it to restart, although I did manage to switch it off by hitting the power button immediately after switching on but before booting into Windows.

Nothing I have tried in the BIOS seems to change anything. I\'ve updated the drivers, disabled network boot/wake on events, and so on. I will be dismantling the machine and removing each of the new components and testing it without them to eliminate the source of the problem, but in the meantime, any suggestions would be appreciated.
Bootup problem after installing more RAM - malteser
I had this problem of constant re-starting some time ago! IIRC I posted a question on the MS help groups forums & got a helpful answer although I can't remember exactly what it was:(
Not much immediate help, I know, but I do suggest the help forums as a real source of knowledge!
Roger.
Bootup problem after installing more RAM - Civic8
As I recall if the memory is a problem the bios will tell you Either by visual or giving off beeps.
If the OS has loaded ok more likely to be a problem with XP possible driver conflict. Have you checked Control panel / system / hardware / devicemanager, that will tell you if there is a problem?
Bootup problem after installing more RAM - Kuang
It might be worth trolling over the power management settings in both XP and your BIOS. If you kill all power management and it still restarts then you're looking at a hardware quirk (and may dismantle at will), but if it solves it then you may have an iffy setting in XP itself and needn't resort to pulling things to bits :)

I have had a lot of cases recently where the power requirements of USB2 cards have caused massive power problems. A USB device can draw up to 500mA, and so a 4-port card can theoretically suck up 2 amps through the PCI bus. I swear that some cards draw this much power when you first enable them just to check that they can (Belkins, for example) as I had a PC in a few days ago that would restart the second you enabled any of the root hubs on the USB card. When you consider that this power all comes from the 5V rail of the power supply, you have to take care that it's capable of supplying that sort of juice. Just having a serious graphics card and a couple of big case fans can severely hammer the 5V supply..

Incidentally, you can almost always switch off an ATX based machine by holding down the power button for around 5 seconds - might get you out of a few spots :)
Bootup problem after installing more RAM - smokie
Just a thought - de-install the bits you put in just to make sure the problem goes away...
Bootup problem after installing more RAM - Victorbox
As suggested elsewhere remove new RAM & try in slot B. Also go to www.crucial.com/uk/ and use their website to check whether you can split up RAM for your model of PC as normally I would always put RAM in adjacent slots. Your PC is probably "three banks of one" but it may say at Crucial whether the motherboard wants the chips next to each other. Also try Microsoft XP Windows Update to see if there is a shut down fix as there was for Win 98 & ME. Have you installed XP Service Pack 1 yet?
Internet Explorer Problem - BobbyG
Can anyone assist me with a problem on Internet Explorer? I am having problems accessing it. The chain of events is as follows:
I click on the \"explorer\" logo and it loads my homepage(honestjohn) but at the same time, I get a box up telling me that

Microsoft IE has encountered a problem and needs to close and then gives the option of sending an error report to Microsoft.

The error report contains the following:

Name: iexplore.exe App Ver 6.0.2800.1106 Modname Kernel32.dll

It then comes up with the standard box

\"This program has performed an illegal function etc etc

However, in the background the page actally loads up and as I am typing this I have the
\"This program has performed an illegal function etc\" in the middle of my screen.

Email is working fine, Yahoo and MSN Messengers are working fine

Norton AV is up to date, I have ran it and nothing found. I have also used Norton Utilities to check for window / system problems and it says there are no errors.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Internet Explorer Problem - DavidHM
Almost certainly a corrupted installation of your browser.

Given that you're posting this, I imagine you can get on the net somehow. If it's with the PC that's having problems, then try downloading a new version of IE from Microsoft.

And (dare I say it) could you try having your page set to Google or something a little less programming intensive temporarily and see how that goes?

If you don't have the patience to download a new version, you could always try repairing it - see the Computer Related Problems thread #1 for instructions. Your third alternative, if this does not work and you don't have the time/patience, is to buy a magazine with IE on the cover CD and install it from that.

Oh and if anyone's interested, I solved my problem by disabling the onboard LAN - probably shutting down was causing the PC to interpret that as a wake-up call and come out of 'suspend' mode. Most likely this was a conflict with the Firewire but I'm unlikely to need the Ethernet for anything given that this is the only PC at the moment.
Internet Explorer Problem - Welliesorter
You could try Dynamic Dave's advice on repairing IE above. Alternatively Mozilla or Mozilla Firebird (www.mozilla.org ).
Internet Explorer Problem - frostbite
I have had this message about three times in a year from IE and have always chosen not to report to MS, let it close down and then restarted IE without problems.

What versions of IE and windoze are you running?
Internet Explorer Problem - Dalglish
bobbyg: after reinstallling ie6sp1, remember to install all the security patches and cumulative updates.
Internet Explorer Problem - BobbyG
Thanks for suggestions so far.
I have managed to access the windows site by setting that as my homepage and updated my windows but it still has not made any difference. I have deleted all temp internet files, done fragmenter, ran Norton AV and Norton window checker.

I take it that if I went into add/remove programs and removed internet explorer, then I wouldn't be able toaccess the microsoft website to reinstall it?

However this has still not cured it. Although I am typing this, I am doing it with the error window still on my page.

The error is as follows

IEXPLORE caused an invalid page fault in
module KERNEL32.DLL at 0177:bff7a379.
Registers:
EAX=01f10dd4 CS=0177 EIP=bff7a379 EFLGS=00010206
EBX=01e14ab4 SS=017f ESP=021bf68c EBP=021bf6b0
ECX=6172676f DS=017f ESI=00000404 FS=5ee7
EDX=01e10000 ES=017f EDI=02701c60 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
89 41 08 8b 53 04 8b 43 08 89 50 04 8d 04 33 50
Stack dump:
02701c60 00000000 01e1000c 01e10000 01e14ab4 00000000 00000000 00004516 00001e15 021bf6d8 bff7a541 01e10000 01e14ab4 00000404 00000000 00cc0010

Any further ideas? As you can tell, I am not in the slightest bit technically minded!!


Internet Explorer Problem - Welliesorter
I take it that if I went into add/remove programs and
removed internet explorer, then I wouldn't be able toaccess the microsoft
website to reinstall it?


You can't uninstall IE, at least not easily. The option to repair it is in Add/remove programs.

Internet Explorer Problem - Martin Wall
Hi

Have you had a look at: support.microsoft.com yet?

Which version of Windows are you running? 98/ME/NT/2000/XP?

Which version of IE are you running? (From Help/About Internet Explorer in IE)

Have you installed any new software recently?
Have you uninstalled any software recently?

Internet Explorer Problem - Martin Wall
Which version of IE are you running?


Apologies, just noticed your email indicated which version...
Internet Explorer Problem - PhilW
I know absolutely nothing about this except that having read your post it sounds like a Kernel32.dll problem rather than IE problem. I had a prob with this some time ago where a program had replaced the kernel 32.dll with an older version. Went to Microsoft site, looked up Kernel32 and found a solution, not had a problem since.
However, I might be talking absolute rubbish. Don't waste your time telling me if I am - just ignore post!!!
Phil
Internet Explorer Problem - Dalglish
>>>>
IEXPLORE caused an invalid page fault in
module KERNEL32.DLL at 0177:bff7a379.

Any further ideas? As you can tell, I am not in
the slightest bit technically minded!!


bobbyg:

support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;2...0

this is advice of what i would do and not advice of waht you should do. do it at your own risk if you want to. dont blame me if it dont work. ok?

the easist way i can think of to trace your probs is:

i think your probs possible by faulty video driver, or memory module, or norton, kazza, gator, or some spyware on your pc.

read previous replies on this forum on how to remove spyware using spybot or ad-aware.

then see if prob still there.

if it is:
go to start, run, type in "msconfig", go to startup tab.
then untick from list one program and restart computer.
if prob still there, tick that program back to on, untick another one, and restart your computer.
do this process until you find the problem program.
Internet Explorer Problem - Dalglish
bobbyg:
here is an example of a similar problem caused by an adveritising module as reported in a techie newsgroup:

IEXPLORE caused an invalid page fault in module KERNEL32.DLL at 025f:bff87ede
Or
IEXPLORE caused an invalid page fault in module at 0000.78581f00

This error can occur if the Aureate Radiate advertising module is installed on your computer. Note that this advertising module is included with over 250 shareware programs.

To identify if the Aureate Radiate advertising module is installed on your computer, download Ad-Aware, it will help you identify if the Aureate Radiate advertising module is installed on your system, and which software is using it.


if your prob is similarly caused by spyware, then scanning with ad-aware or spybot should sort it.
Internet Explorer Problem - BobbyG
Dalglish and everyone who replied

I have installed Ad Ware and it detected 150 problems which it subsequently removed and the internet is now working properly.
A million thanks to all for your assistance and suggestions. Yet again the power of this website is very evident.

Fyi, I am making a donation to my local Hospice as without your assistance, I reckon I would have incurred a healthy fee from my local computer shop to fix this.

Now to catch up on the last 5 days posts..........
Internet Explorer Problem - Stuartli
You should also install Search and Destroy 1.2 and use it in conjunction with AdAware 6 as one often finds something the other doesn't; in addition install SpywareBlaster, which will stop spybots from getting on your system in the first place.

All must be updated regularly and, in addition, it;'s worth installing AVG's free antivirus program if you haven't already got one (www.grisoft.com) which, again, needs to be updated regularly.
Internet Explorer Problem - BobbyG
Dalglish, I tempted fate!
Installed adware (my brother emailed me it) and I thought all was cured. However, I still have a couple of problems

- if someone sends me a web link as aprt of an email, and I click on it, instead of opening that web pah#ge, I just get a blank page
- If I am on certain websites, I can't progress further through them eg. my egg visa web site, you get your statement up on screen abd then there is an option of getting a "printer friendly" statement, but when I click on this it opens a blank screen.
Bearing in mind my ignorance on all things computer, is there anything further you can suggest?

Thanks,
Internet Explorer Problem - Dynamic Dave
Bobby G,

As previously mentioned at least twice now, try the Repair option. Details further up the thread. This will at least cure your opening blank page when someone sends you a url via email, and more than likely resolve all your other problems as well. If you have already tried this, then please reply in Volume 3 to say so, as this thread is now locked. There is no mention anywhere in any of your replies to say that you have tried it.
Lindows - Baskerville
A while back someone (was it THe Growler?) asked about Lindows, which is a commercial Linux distribution that normally costs $59. But today only you can get it for free (or for $10 if you want the boxed version). Go to this site:

www.overclockersclub.com/newscomment.php?article=7...0

and follow the instructions. As long as you sign up today you can download it for free at your leisure (and when the servers become available again--this is popular).

Chris
Lindows - Welliesorter
Sadly, the offer seems to have expired. I'll just have to stick with Mandrake.
Lindows - Civic8
Welliesorter
After a four hour wait I am now downloading it
Lindows - Welliesorter
After a four hour wait I am now downloading it


Presumably you registered much earlier though?
Freezing - owen
For a while now our laptop has developed the annoying habit of freezing for a short period of time, anything from 5 seconds to about a minute. When it does this, you can move the pointer, but it doesn't respond to clicking on anything or pressing the keyboard. It happens whatever program we're using. Last night i reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled windows (98SE) but it's still happening. Any ideas?
Freezing - Mark (RLBS)
hit ctrl-alt-delete & go into task manager. There are three tabls - applications, processes & performance.

Looking at performance should tell you how much of your resources are being used elsewhere. Looking at processes should tell you which one is doing it.

Once you've found that out, either work out what it is, or come back here and we'll try and help more.

Just a thought though, have you got an active virus checker ? It might be that either running scans or getting updates from the internet.

On the other hand, if you do not have one then you may have picked something up.

Basically your machine is probably not hanging, its just very very busy. The mouse pointer is the highest priority process on your machine, hence the reason that it keeps working.

My money is on either something looking for updates from the internet or a running virus checker.
Freezing - owen
After formatting the hard drive, but before reinstalling Norton antivirus, i think the problem was still there. After installing Norton i scanned everything and everything was clean (although i do need to do it again with updated definitions when i get the internet stuff reinstalled and working again). I'll try turning the active virus checking off for a bit though, to see if it works. Ta!
Freezing - smokie
There is a Microsoft program which can cause very slow running (looks like freezing). It's called findfast, and is an indexing tool which indexes things in background to help speed seaerches along. It runs for a bit then stops, then runs again.

I can't remember if it comes with Windows 9x or with Office 9x. But I never saw any benefit to using it, so found out how to stop it from the Microsoft support website.

Music recording/CD burning. - M.M
After the questions I asked a while back on previous IHAQ threads my new CDR/RW is working well in my old PC, using the bundled Nero Express program. Completed loads of data and image CDs OK.

Trying to get to grips with recording old vinyl from the hi-fi to eventually burn on a CD. Realised there was no direct way with Nero Express as there is no WAV recorder/editor.

So downloaded a very useful WAV recorder progam from a Cambridge based small software house (only £4.70!).

See.. www.wieser-software.com/ripvinyl/index.shtml

All works OK apart from one thing, I seem unable to reduce the recording levels so they avoid the red section of the "virtual" vu meters. The meters are part of the RipVinyl software but the level controls are those in Windows found by right clicking on the speaker icon near the PC clock.

The lead from my amplifier is to the line-in on the soundcard. But even if you take the line-in slider on the Windows recording mixer to zero there is still a healthy input that peaks up into the red on loud passages.

Anyone had experience of this...or is there a better (simple please!) free/budget sound recorder for download?

Also when I try and use the Nero de-click or hiss removal prior to burning it ruins the sound.

M.M
Music recording/CD burning. - SpamCan61 {P}
M.M. When you right click on the windows loudspeaker are you sure you are setting the recording level and not the playback level? In windows you need to do options > properties to set the controls to playback rather than record. It always seems to default to playback rather than record.

Personally I've been using 'goldwave' for a while; this seem to do the vinyl/tape to CD thing pretty well.
Music recording/CD burning. - M.M
Thanks SC, that would have been possible a week ago before I'd looked into every nook and cranny of the Windows mixer/level/input sliders.

However I've tried un-ticking all the recording inputs and then just adding them one slider at a time so I know exactly what is what. No matter what I do setting the input slider to zero doesn't reduce the levels to any significant degree. If i set the line-in slider to half or above the levels go hard into the red all the time.

As a matter of interest ticking the mute box will kill the input to nothing....odd.

M.M
Music recording/CD burning. - Kuang
Hmm.. that's an interesting one..

When you click mute, windows will kill the input dead before it hits the monitor stage (as you've discovered) so that's sort of to be expected.

If your monitor level is going haywire regardless of what you do, there's a very good chance that your line out from the stereo is overpowering it. It might be an idea to connect a different device to it to see what happens - a CD player is always a safe bet. The chances of you creating a feedback loop are slim, unless you've got an SB Live and have set the 'What U Hear' output as the recording source, but I'm pretty certain you won't have done that! :)

If it happens regardless then your soundcard might be applying unnecessary amplification to the signal. Just out of interest, what is the card? Also, what does the signal actually sound like - are you getting the expected leel of digital clipping when it peaks?
Music recording/CD burning. - Civic8
M.M have you checked out the FAQ on the site it does mention
playback levels before burning to cd and possible causes ie sound card driver problems or sound card itself.Hope that helps?
Music recording/CD burning. - M.M
Kuang,
Thanks. No I haven't any odd loops, the line-in is connected from the tape-out on my older Mission amp. I have no line-out connection to the hi-fi.
The sound doesn't seem distorted on the CD I've made but the levels are only just popping into the red at odd times. However it puzzles me that I'm unable to control these levels...you'd think a slider at minimum would mean no sound! Sadly the only CD player I have that will connect to the PC line-in is one where the output is controlled by the volume knob...that won't help with what I wanted to be a permanent line-in from the hi-fi which is a fixed level.

Mech1,
Thanks. You mean the Nero site FAQs?? Yes I did give them a look and somewhere I noticed that bit about soundcard drivers. I looked on my PC support site (HP) but only found updated drivers for the floppy unit and Internet keyboard.
On another website I did find links to loads of soundcard drivers but none semed to match my PC and I was very wary of mucking up by downloading anything.

M.M
Buying a new pc. - Phoenicks
A bit off M.M\'s post (sorry M.M)

{In that case why not post it as a NEW question? Too late, I have done so for you. DD}

but i wonder on a side note if anyone has view on this:

I\'m thinking of buying a new PC soon and am waiting really for an Athlon 64 system as i think it may be the way forward for the next few years, what with a new windows system for it etc.

I am waiting till i can get a full pacakge price for about £1-1200. I\'ve read all the computer mags and they all seem to just think its a good idea, but they still think the old Athlon 2800-3000 chips are ok as well.

I am thinking of a MESH system with 1Meg Ram, decent graphics card, 17-19\'\' TFT with DVI input and a DVD RW. Anyone got an input on what i should or shouldnt look for?

Do any of you have an thoughts on the 64 chip and also what you would be looking for if you were buying one?

Buying a new pc. - Victorbox
I\'m not up to speed with Athlon 64 (I\'m more of a Intel Pentium fan) but I hope you mean 1 Gig of RAM rather than 1 Meg? I would get a DVD RW & a separate CD Drive rather than a combo. ATI Radeon cards (9600 etc) seem to be flavour of the month, although I\'ve always used Nvidia video cards as they update the drivers regularly to keep up with the latest DirectX version. I assume you are going for a 128mb video card? Don\'t skimp on speakers either and rather than onboard sound go for the best soundcard you can afford. Of course whatever you choose it will out of date in 2 years!
Buying a new pc. - Kuang
There's no doubt that the Athlon 64s are fine chips, but they're not significantly better for the average user than a 'normal' Athlon would be. The main advantage of a 64 bit architecture is that it allows addressing of far more memory at once, which is great for serious users with ludicrous amounts of memory (video editors, 3d artists, etc) but doesn't really make a great deal of difference in most cases.

Given the difference in price and the relatively unknown stability of Athlon 64 compliant motherboards, it might be worth going for a top end 32 bit Athlon with a decent board, and putting the extra into memory (now exceptionally cheap) and a good graphics card.

I can strongly recommend Novatech's PCs for build quality and value for money. you can find them here:

www.novatech.co.uk
Buying a new pc. - Altea Ego
For all things "whats best in bleeding edge pc technology" go to

www.tomshardware.com
Soundless in Manila - THe Growler
Decided to take advantage of the plunging Peso x-rate to bin my 3 year old system and go for an upgrade, so I got a new CPU full of goodies P4, 80Gb, 512 RAM 2 CD drives, one for DVD (region-free to boot), ethernet etc all in a nice new case and the guy threw in speakers keyboard and mouse all for a little under £200 of your money after some haggling as is the norm. Got it all home, loaded the OS, found all the drivers for everything, hooked up the DSL, no worries. Except no sound. Device Manager shows the PCI driver is installed and working correctly. The BIOS shows the sound card is enabled. The ordinary CD will play sound via headphones thru the jack in front, the DVD won't. Everything else is apples, just the sound. The MS System Info diagnostic reports no problems. The speakers are OK, I checked them on my laptop.

I'll be taking it back on Thursday which means a long walk in the current heat so if there's something I've missed and anyone can see what it is I would be glad to know......
Soundless in Manila - THe Growler
.....oh and the above post reminded me, yes the Mute boxes are all unticked on the Volume Control.
Soundless in Manila - Mark (RLBS)
Are you getting warning tones sounding through the speakers, sounding through an internal speaker, or not sounding ?

M.

p.s. I mean the beep you get when clicking on the wrong thing, for example.
Soundless in Manila - Kuang
Are the audio leads from the CD drives correctly connected to the headers on the motherboard? If so, do you get the choice of digital (2 pin) and analogue (4 pin) connectors on the board so you can do some testing?

Apologies of this is covering old ground - I'm not sure of your level of techiness! :)
Soundless in Manila - THe Growler
Well as usual the obvious is never that obvious: it appears the drivers on the installation disc with the motherboard, while showing OK, were out of date for the DVD drive -- a Sony -- and after 3 combined brains from 3 different computer shops in the mall had applied themselves (while I applied myself to some San Mig Lights in Tequila Joe's and watched the motorbike Macau Grand Prix), problem solved. Thanks all.

But this gives rise to another question: In Asia-Pacific we get mostly Region 3 DVD's plus US Region 1, along with a whole swag of Aus/NZ Region 4's, plus people travel a lot throughout the area and are always bringing back DVD's from different countries, so we need open region DVD players. This DVD drive I've got will change regions on demand but only up to 5 times. I don't know if this is some kind of scam by the media industry or atechnical limitation. We can get lots of pirate copies of just about anything but their quality is often poor. I was able to hack my Kenwood system to play any region with some help from someone on the Net. My point is that regardless of what the makers would like, I bought the disc, it's mine and I have the right to play it anywhere and anyhow I want. Does anyone have any idea whether a Sony DVD drive is similarly hackable?
Soundless in Manila - Kuang
Weird - I've never had a DVD drive that actually needed any drivers before! :)

There is a very good firmware flash page out there, but it appears to be temporarily unavailable/in transit to another domain - I'll let you know when it resurfaces.

Just as an aside though, I hacked an old DVD drive of mine a while back that had a Sony chipset, and discovered a very interesting 'feature' in that particular revision - holding down the eject button for five seconds caused the region count to reset, indicated by a flashing drive light. It might well have been particular to that model, but it has to be worth a try :)

I seem to remember hearing there are also programs you can use that work alongside your playback software to knock out the code, but I can't remember any more details about them off the top of my head.
Soundless in Manila - Mark (RLBS)
Interesting and useful though it is, its probably also illegal.

So enough about hacking DVD protection please.
Soundless in Manila - THe Growler
Sorry- wasn't the DVD ROM drivers, but the sound driver

The word "hacking" is misleading: in my Kenwood for example, pressing the stop and ff together brought up a menu in which I was able to change region codes, it just didn't mention it in the handbook. I can't see how it can possibly be illegal to modify your own equipment to play your own purchase anywhere you want. Since many DVD players are now "open-region" anyway (my daughter just bought one in UK) the makers themselves have come to terms with the issue.


Increased drop-out rate ???? - Pete
Does anyone else out there have Claranet as their ISP please?
If so, you will know that on 12 Jan, they changed their access number.
I am now experiencing a poor connection rate and a high drop out rate, has anyone else noticed this please?
Please reply direct on < petel@clara.co.uk > as I do not wish to put the Forum at risk.
Thank you.
Regcleaner Availablity - THe Growler
There were some posts about RegCleaner freeware and how it is no longer available, and that download requests for it now default to RegSupreme.

Anybody still wants RegCleaner you can get it here:

www.pldtdsl.com/support/downloads.asp
Regcleaner Availablity - No Do$h
I\'ve found regcleaner recently from the pcworld.com site (not that PCWorld) but there is a note to say that the product is no longer supported by Microsoft. Perhaps that\'s why people are struggling to find it?
Regcleaner Availablity - THe Growler
Ah, that\'s RegClean. I\'m referring to RegCleanER.
MyDoom Virus? - M.M
Just received this odd e-mail...

It shows as from the IT support dept at Moat House Hotels. Its subject is...Virus Detected by Network Associates, Inc. Webshield SMTP V4.5 MR1a P0803.345

Content...SMTP Scanner has detected virus W32/Mydoom.a@MM in attachment text.zip from to xxxxxxxxxxx@moathousehotels.com> and it was Deleted and
Quarantined.


*Note I have inserted the xxxxx's. It refered to our home mail adress and a valid looking mail address of a person at Moat House Hotels...who I don't know.

There is no attachment. What is that about?

M.M
MyDoom Virus? - No Do$h
Either your PC has the mydoom virus or, more likely, a friend or associate with your email address in their address book has picked up the virus. It's common to see email "cloning" where the address line indicates the mail originate from a blameless third-party.

Have you scanned your pc with the latest virus software updates?
MyDoom Virus? - M.M
Thanks ND. Hopefully not this PC infected as we run Norton with auto update. Will force a manual update now and do a system sweep.

The second option is more likely...but who do we know who can afford to stay in a hotel?

M.M
MyDoom Virus? - No Do$h
The second option is more likely...but who do we know who
can afford to stay in a hotel?


You're asking the wrong person......
MyDoom Virus? - Baskerville
M.M

Apparently MyDoom also scans the IE cache of infected machines to find likely-looking urls and turns them into email addresses. Someone with an infected machine has been booking a holiday at Moathousehotels and hasn't cleared the cache. I doubt yours is infected as you'd have noticed the Internet connection grind to a halt while it sends all those emails.

Chris
MyDoom Virus? - mark
Hello David

I had the same thing happen to me at the weekend except the incoming mail was from Tesco.com.

If you are seeking free removal tools for MyDoom A and B variants there is one on the Norton site. Or try Bitdefender.com they have free removal tools for all the latest viral offerings and a very good free anti virus programme with free live updates.

As ever

Mark
DOS Program - Display Problems - Keith S
I have an old DOS program.

When I run it in Windows 2000 my monitor goes blank and says "Video Mode not Supported"

This program works fine with a normal monitor. I have a Samsung 151N Flat panel.

Is there some way to fix the display properties for a DOS program? I think this is the main problem. The monitor seems to automatically resize the DOS window, seperate from the windows window.

I've tried installing older and the latest drivers for the monitor and graphics adaptor (intel 82845G integrated)

Many Thanks
Surge protection - L'escargot
The modem and telephone line sockets on current versions of Belkin "Surgemaster" surge protectors are marked "Modem" and "Line". All very self-explanatory. My 2-year old version is marked "Input" and "Output" ~ which isn't self explanatory. Well, not to me it isn't. Which socket is which, please, in terms of Modem and Line? (Presumably they changed the markings specifically for the benefit of ignoramuses like me!)
--
L'escargot by name, but not by nature.
Surge protection - Mark (RLBS)
line = input
Surge protection - L'escargot
line = input


Thanks Mark (beautiful RLS)
--
L'escargot by name, but not by nature.