Monday, January 15, 2001		Dr Tribune

Dr Tribune: There could be several reasons for your problem, First you have installed and then uninstalled a lots of graphics based programs in your computer in the past, which includes games. Actually, when you install such shareware programs in your computer, it installs a number of drivers on your computer, which are often not removed when you either uninstall these programs or stop using them, which eventually makes your computer very slow. Moreover, by installing these software in your computer your registry becomes too long and the computer takes a lot of time to load it.

Second, there could be some bad sectors on your hard disk, which can also make your computer run slowly. This also gets reflected from the fact that you are not able to complete defrag on your computer. So, Check for bad sectors first by running Scandisk in thorough mode and if any bad sectors are found, then you may want to replace your hard disk. However, if there are no bad sectors, try some registry cleaner software to clear the mess from your registry.

Dr Tribune: Having bad sectors in your hard disk is surely not desirable. This reduces the efficiency as well as dependability of your computer. Though, if the bad sectors are few then you may mark them and continue using your system, but remember there is always a chance of loosing data. Moreover, the bad sectors have a tendency to grow. So, now if there are only 2 or 3 bad sectors, then it is more likely that they may increase in future. So, if your data is critical then it is advisable to get your hard disk replaced. But if your data is not so critical, then you may get the all your bad sectors wiped after formatting it and then using it.

Dr Tribune: You probably have too many drivers, games, anti-virus software installed on your system, resulting in out of memory error. Since you have not mentioned the operating system you use, we presume you are using Windows 98. To be able to run scandisk, boot your system in safe mode. You can do this by pressing the F8 key while your system is starting. Run scandisk in safe mode and your effort should be successful. To run scandisk in MS DOS mode, either boot in MS DOS Mode by pressing the F8 key and choosing option of command mode or when you shut your computer chose restart in MS Dos Mode. After booting the computer type scandisk at the DOS prompt (C:\ Scandisk).

Dr Tribune: You too need to boot your computer in the safe mode and then run scandisk and defrag. This should resolve your problem, but if this does not happen then some .dll or some other vital files may have got corrupted. In that case you will have to reinstall Windows 98 using the start > run > setup command from the installable copy of the Windows 98.

Dr Tribune: I am not able to understand, what do you mean by "POST operation". However, from your problem it seems that you have just one partition on your hard disk, which in itself could be the reason for slow performance of your PC, as your processor has to seek a wide area to pick up the necessary cluster. As a possible solutions, first you must run defrag very regularly, this will arrange the clusters in your hard disk. Second, you must empty all your *.tmp files present in your temp directory. Also, you must keep your Recycle bin empty as it also takes a lot of space. If you have too many graphic based programs loaded on your computer, then you must uninstall some of these. Graphic based programs mainly include games.

— Narinder Singh

Dr Tribune: Netscape Messenger is a good option for sending and receiving mails and is quite powerful too. We have discussed this topic in length in the previous issues of Login…Tribune. Please go through previous articles for details. But briefly you can open an account from the utilities sub folder in the Netscape Communication directory loaded on your program menu. Click on Start>Programs>Netscape Communicator> Utilities and Click on the user profile manager. Follow the instructions as it comes and your account will be created for the Netscape Messenger.

Dr Tribune: In your problem, you have mentioned that after upgrading your machine all the things have remained the same. If you mean that your system hangs quite often, then most likely there is a problem in your motherboard. As far as the speed of the computer is concerned, it is reflected mainly in the applications and not much otherwise. However, with up gradation from Celeron to Pentium –III, you should get better performance. Therefore, for your first problem, get your motherboard checked for any possible errors. I think that changing your motherboard would solve your problem. Now, as far as the speed of your hard disk is concerned, hard disks with 7200 rpm certainly improve the overall performance of your computer. However, you can get satisfactory performance from even 5400-RPM hard disk, if your other problem is sorted out. So, primarily you must focus on your motherboard first.

Now, regarding your Internet speed, the results mentioned by you are really a cause of concern, as with this figure you can neither maintain a stable connection nor you can get desirable speed. I think that besides doing something for your computer, you must also do something for your telephone lines also. Possible solution would be to clean your telephone line by removing any extensions, fax machine etc from the line.

Dr Tribune: Regarding your first problem, it appears that your AGP driver has been disturbed. Either some one has wrongly configured it or partial crashing of your system might have done it. In order to restore the resolution, you must reinstall the correct driver of your AGP card. For your second problem, disable the sleep time of the hard disk in the BIOS setting of your computer and also remove the password, which you might have provided for your screensaver. Regarding your third question, it is generally believed that branded computers are more efficient as they are fully standardised products. However, if get your own PC assembled, using all the box packed and standardised components, then there would be no difference between the performance of the assembled PC and the branded PC. But the irony is that a number of PC Assemblers themselves do not know, what the standard products are. So, generally speaking you can say that branded PC’s are more efficient.