Monday, February 19, 2001		Dr Tribune

I have a multimedia Cyrix 233 MHz PC with 64 MB of RAM, 4.3 GB Hard Drive and integrated display card. I have both Windows ’98 as well as Windows 2000 installed on my PC in two different partitions of FAT 32. My Win ’98 is running properly. But Win 2000 is not. When I start Windows 2000, it runs properly for some time and then a fatal error on a blue screen appears with an error message "Physical Memory Dump." Then system restart immediately. My display card is "Cyrix Corporation GX", sound card of "Yamaha" and monitor is "Samsung Samtron 4Bni". My display card is in built on motherboard and sound card is externally fitted on a PCI slot.

— Bhupinder Singh

Dr Tribune: You must first format the partition, where you wish to install Windows 2000 and then start Windows ’98 and from Start>Run Windows 2000 set-up. Here specify the drive where you wish to load Windows 2000 and follow the instructions that follow. Also make sure that this drive has good amount of space. On installing Windows 2000 afresh, you will get rid of this problem. There could be many reasons for the problem mentioned by you. Some of the main ones could be problem on your hard disk like bad sector, installation of incorrect version of any software, which changes your .ini files etc.

I have 2 Intel Celeron 566 MHz PC’s with Intel 810 chipset, 64 MB RAM running Windows ’98. How can I connect them in order to use a single telephone line for the Internet browsing on both? Is ping useful for reliable and fast connection?

Dr Tribune: Sharing Internet connection is a standard feature in Windows ’98 SE (Second Edition). Thus if you have Windows ’98 SE as your operating system on both PCs, then you can easily do so by enabling Internet sharing in configuration of your modem settings.

However, if you do not have Windows ’98 SE on your system, then you can download the Internet sharing programs. Some of these programs have been mentioned in downloads section of our previous issues. Using these programs also you can share your Internet connection with other PCs.

Regarding the query related to ping command, it is important to understand that this command is useful only in case of system inactivity above a stipulated period. In case of some ISPs, the Internet connection gets disconnected if there is no activity for some time. The ping command, which is pre-programmed automatically interacts with the Internet server before such stipulated time in order to avoid the disconnection from the ISP. Thus you need not give this command manually as it programmed in some applications.

I have Cyrix 233 MHz Computer, based on socket 7 motherboard with two slots for EDO and SDRAM each. I have 32MB EDO RAM in two 16MB chips. When I replaced it with SDRAM of 64 MB single chip it shows only 16 MB during memory test. Why it is so?

Dr Tribune: You must consult the manual of the motherboard that you must have got from your vendor. Normally, in all motherboards, which have compatibility for EDO as well as SD RAM, it is important to check how you should place the RAM in different banks. There could also be a restriction of placing SDRAM of only up to 32 MB in one slot or use it in combination with the EDO RAM. Thus you must check the manual of the motherboard as the solution to your problem lies there only.

I have an assembled AMD K6-2 500 MHz PC with 64 MB RAM and 20 GB HDD running on Windows ’98. I am using LG-Flatron monitor. My problem is that whenever I switch on my computer, I get this message — Out of frequency, operating range: horizontal frequency 30-70 KHz, vertical frequency: 50-160 Hz. Actual frequency: horizontal-73 KHz, vertical-163 Hz and the screen goes black. If I restart from CPU, it goes into safe mode. When I restart then, it becomes alright.

Dr Tribune: You must set the refresh frequency in your desktop settings correctly. If you will enter any frequency, which is beyond the range of your monitor, you will get this message on opening the computer. Since in safe mode, the computer takes the default settings thus you are able to boot your system correctly. However, in order to correct this problem, right click on the desktop and then in the drop-down window, click on properties. This will open a Window named display properties on your computer screen. Now click on Settings tab and then in the corresponding Window, click on refresh frequency. Select the frequency 60 Hz and then test display settings before applying it. If your system supports it, then you must save this setting by applying and then clicking OK. Though your monitor would support higher frequencies also yet that can make your computer slow. The refresh frequency at 60 Hz is satisfactory.

I am using @nyMail for sending and receiving mails. Tell me about DNS and SMTP in it. Do I have to mention server address of Glide (I am using Glide Internet service)?

Dr Tribune: In general you can normally configure only POP mails in your e-mail clients, however in some specialised software like @nymail you can configure both POP as well as Web mail accounts. For configuring any e-mail account in the mail client you need the POP and SMTP address. However, in case of @nymail, you need not configure the SMTP and POP addresses of Web mails like Yahoo, Excite, Hotmail, Usa.net as it is pre-configured in it. However, in case of POP mails like Glide, VSNL, Satyam etc., you need to configure it by entering their POP and SMTP address. Regarding defrag, Windows NT does not install it. However, you can use scan disk and disk clean up. As an alternative you can install Windows ’98 also on your system in a different partition and use the defrag feature in ’98 to defrag all the drives in your system.

Getting the message of Dr Watson is quite common and though it represent some error in the application program yet it does not necessarily mean the need to format your hard disk. You need not worry about this error and it is common with NT users.

I have Celeron 466 MHz, 64 MB RAM, 10.2 GB HDD having two partitions of 6 GB and 4GB and Windows ’98 as operating system. My problem is that my computer does not perform scandisk and defrag the C drive (while it does scan and defrag the D drive). When the scan disk runs, it displays a message "Scandisk has run 10 times. Do you want to continue." While performing defrag it proceeds up to 2 per cent and than comes back at 0 per cent.

Dr Tribune: You must first stop all running programs from the task manager and then run scandisk. However, if this does not work then you must run scan disk from the DOS mode. This you can do you pressing F8 immediately before Windows starts loading. This problem sometimes occurs due to cross-linking and can be solved easily by scandisk. It is important to note that only after running scandisk successfully, you will be able to get satisfactory results from defrag.

I have a PC with Pentium 166 MHz, 32 MB RAM. I have reloaded Windows ’98 and am having problem with my display adapter. My display adapter is ACER (alicat3). Earlier I used to have 256 colours but now I couldn’t use them. Now I could only have 16 colours. Please tell me any solution to this problem.

Dr Tribune: The solution to your problem is simple. All you need to do is reinstall the driver for your display adapter from the CD, which must have got along with your PC/display card. You can do so by clicking the right mouse button on your desktop and then click on properties. In the display properties window, click on the Settings tab and then click on display adapter. Install the correct version of display driver and save the settings. This will make good your display settings.

I have a Pentium III 500 MHz processor with 64 MB RAM, 10.2 GB hard disk and Windows ’98 operating system installed. I have two partitions on my hard disk. My problems are:

Dr Tribune: All your problems show that Windows operating system is corrupt. As the first solution, you must reinstall your Windows again. If this does not solve your problem, then you should get your hard disk checked for bad sectors.

I have a Celeron 400 processor with 4.3 GB hard disk and 32 MB RAM, 48x CD-ROM drive. I am having a problem that whenever I start my computer at the time of booting, a black screen appears with the message that
1.Start a computer with CD ROM support

Dr Tribune: You have set the boot sequence in your BIOS set-up to CD ROM, C. Therefore, when you boot your machine it seeks the data from the CD ROM drive first. However, in the normal course the boot sequence should be set to C first and then the choices could be either CD-ROM or A. Please change the boot sequence in your BIOS Set-up from the current sequence of CD ROM to C to either C to CD ROM or C only. After changing this problem reboot your machine and this problem will disappear.