Monday, October 2, 2000		Dr Tribune

Dr Tribune: If you wish to make a Web page your desktop item or wallpaper, then you must open that page first and then right click the mouse button. You will find several options in a drop down menu. Choose save as wallpaper option. This will make any Web page your desktop item.

Second, if you wish to make a Web page or Web site as your opening page on opening your browser, then in Internet Explorer, go to the Tools menu and select the Internet options. In the general tab, you will find the home page section, put the desired Home page/Web site address here and click apply at the bottom. Similarly, in case of Netscape Navigator, click on the Edit menu, from the drop down menu click on the preference menu. Once you click, you will find preference window on computer screen. Put the desired address in the location bar and click OK. Now, whenever, you open any of these browser, your favourite Web site/ page will be opened.

Dr Tribune: From your mail, it’s not clear why you want to increase the cache size? As per my belief, your computer must be having 256 kb L2 cache — full speed. So, practically there is no need to look for 512 kb cache. 256 kb L2 full speed cache is sufficient. However, if your requirement is hi-tech, then you should upgrade your PC to 133 MHz fsb. Otherwise, I feel your PC is powerful enough to handle any kind of operations.

2) You can delete the contents of your address/location bar as and when you want. If you use Internet explorer, then click on the Tools menu on the menu bar. This will open a drop down menu. Click on the Internet options located at the bottom of the drop down menu. This will open another window on your computer screen. Look at the Temporary Internet files option. Click "Delete files" button. This will delete all temporary Internet files. Then look at the third option and click "Clear History" button. This will clear the contents of your address bar. If you use Netscape, then open your browser and click the edit button, this will open a drop down menu. Click Preference. Now this will open preference window on your computer screen. Click "clear history" button and "clear location bar button". Now all the contents from the location bar will be removed.

Dr Tribune: You have mentioned two instances when your computer hangs. Are these the only instances that hang your computer or does it hang with other programmes also? Moreover, you mentioned that you formatted your hard disk thrice. During all those three times, did your computer hang in similar fashion or was it different?

I am asking you this question because, after formatting hard disk your computer should not behave like this. Either your hard disk has developed bad sectors or your motherboard has some problem. Before concluding anything, I need more facts, so kindly send me the details.

Dr Tribune: The problem of bad tracks is difficult to cure. You should have got your hard disk wiped off completely or corrected by some disk utilities before you created partitions. Moreover, if a hard disk start developing bad sectors, then it is independent of partitions and at times partition may create more problems. You must get your hard disk reformatted but remember rectifying the bad sectors first or get the hard disk wiped completely and then create partitions. Avoid jerks as it may damage hard disk.

We have one server and two clients. Whenever air conditioner restarts our one client shuts down and restarts. Our system of supply is through CVT to UPS to systems. Kindly advise.

— Balwinder Singh

Dr Tribune: There is no need to route your UPS through the CVT since a UPS generates sine waves, like a CVT. Moreover, since the air conditioner is also routed through the CVT, so the extra load that AC takes while starting causes the computer to shut down. It is not advisable to connect both computers and AC on one point. Too frequent rebooting may damage computers.

Dr Tribune: You can easily run Windows 95 on your computer (486 DX 2 with 16 mb RAM). The 8.4-gb hard disk should not be a problem. However, for better performance, it is advisable to get it partitioned. As the performance of machine would be slow, the non-partitioned hard disk will make it slow further as the data cluster will have to be searched in a relatively big area of 8.4 gb. It would be ideal to get 3 or 4 partitions in your case.

Dr Tribune: We are grateful for your valuable feedback. Regarding your query, all computers have cache memory. Cache is actually random access memory, which the processor can access quicker than the regular RAM. You can say that this is a temporary but the fastest memory in computer as whenever the processor requires some information, it looks into the cache memory first. If it finds it there, then it picks it up from the cache. If it is not there, then it searches the RAM. Cache is represented by L1 and L2 cache, which is present on the same chip as the microprocessor. However, these are separate static RAM whereas the main RAM is usually a dynamic RAM.

Dr Tribune: Checking the memory in a computer is very simple. When you boot your system, it does the memory test first. While doing the memory test you will see a very fast counting, which is actually memory count. If you have two chips of RAM installed, then your computer will do this counting twice, If one chip is installed, then this memory test will take place once. Moreover you can also know about the memory from the next window that opens after the memory count is over. In this, you will have detailed information about the memory, like the size and also its place, i.e. the slot (bank) in which it is placed and the slot (bank) that is empty. Another source of seeking information on your memory is standard CMOS set up window, which you can open by pressing Del, while your computer does the memory count and shows the message "press Del to enter setup". When you press Del, the CMOS set up window will be opened. Now open the standard CMOS setup Window. Here you will find memory details of your computer.

Dr Tribune: You can configure only those e-mail accounts in Outlook Express, whose POP3 and SMTP server address are known. As far as a free e-mail account with www.sify.com is concerned, the portal does not give the POP3 and SMTP address. As of now it is not possible to configure your sify account in the Outlook Express. However, if you have an Internet account with Satyam Online and if they offer you the POP3 and SMTP address, then you can configure it in Outlook Express. As far as Yahoo is concerned, it works well. Outlook Express and its POP3 address is pop.mail.yahoo.com, whereas, the SMTP address is smtp.mail.yahoo.com. I would like to mention here that receiving e-mails of yahoo account through Outlook Express or Eudora or Netscape is very efficient. But sending mail through the SMTP address of yahoo is very slow.

Dr Tribune: In your case you have chosen to delete file from the server after downloading. Because of this, all mails from your Yahoo account have now being transferred to the Outlook Express. But do not worry as you can still access the Yahoo account from anywhere you want. If you wish to have mails in both Yahoo as well Outlook Express, then you should not opt for deleting the mails from the server. Rather download only a copy of the mail. This way you will be able to maintain your mail in both Yahoo as well as Outlook Express. With the present settings you can log on to Yahoo account and check mail. However if you open Outlook Express, then your mails will be downloaded in it.