Monday, July 16, 2001		Dr Tribune

Q. I have two P III machines with Windows ’98 SE in both. I want to know how to connect these two with a single direct cable to transfer huge files from one to the other. Also what would be my software and hardware needs?

A. For connecting two machines, it is best to have LAN cards installed on both machines. LAN cards are not very expensive and offer high transfer rate of data. However, if you do not have LAN cards installed on your system, then you can use software like PC Anywhere, Really anywhere etc. Using these software, you can connect two PCs using a LPT port to LPT port cable to serial port to serial port cable and transfer files from one computer to another. For using this software you would not require any special hardware and can be easily installed on your system.

Q. I have an assembled PC with the following configuration — Intel P III, 500 MHz, 512 KB cache memory, 8.4 GB hard disk, 1.44 MB FDD; OS Windows ’98. My problem is that sometimes when I am working on the computer, both online and offline, the system hangs and there is no effect of the mouse. It doesn’t obey the Ctrl + Alt + Del command and I have to shut down from the CPU. My other problem is whenever I am disconnected from the Internet, though the line is disconnected, still the window (status: disconnecting) remains on the screen for long. Because of this, I am unable to reconnect again.

A. Please run scandisk in thorough mode followed by disk Defrag. If the scandisk detects some errors then let scandisk fix it. However, if it reports some bad sectors on your hard disk, then you are in trouble. Normally if bad sectors are present in the hard disk, then they can create problems like this. However, if there are no bad sectors, then you should ideally reinstall operating system and see if this problem is sorted out. If the problem persists, then the needle of suspicion would point to the motherboard, which is also a common cause for similar problems.

Q. I have an assembled P III 500 MHz, 20 GB Hard Disk, 64 MB RAM, Intel 810 Motherboard (Tomato), 52X CD ROM (LG) and Win ’98 SE Operating System. My hard disk is on a Primary Master and CD ROM on Secondary Master. The problem is with my CD ROM. When I try to play a Video CD it does not perform. When I open any Magazine CD (except Chip) it does not show full component of CD. Sometimes, it shows an X sign. Secondly, when I right click on My Computer>Property>Device manager, I cannot find option to CD ROM.

A. There is a possibility that you have not installed the correct version of driver on your PC. Try installing the correct driver of your CD ROM. You can opt to add hardware option, do the detection manually and then install the best driver out of the various options that might be available to you. Regarding playing video CD, you need to have the necessary plugin installed in your system. If it is not there then you may not be able to play the CD. You must also check in the control manager, sound and multimedia properties for the preferred devices installed and their settings. If it is not installed then you must install the correct device to use you CD for multimedia purposes.

Q.. I have a Pentium III, 1.3 GHz, 133 FSB, 30GB HDD with Windows ’98 Hewlett Packard PC. My problem is that whenever I am using Windows Explorer and close, it gives the following error "Illegal function. Contact your vendor". Please help! Also, please tell the command with which I can scandisk in DOS mode. I have tried using Chkdsk unsuccessfully. Secondly are there any utilities available with which we can remove bad sectors from floppy disks?

A. You will have to reinstall your operating system and run scandisk thoroughly for checking any kind of cross-linking of files. Reinstalling Windows would help you solve this problem. Regarding your second query, first you will have to start the computer in DOS mode by pressing F8 key immediately before the Windows starts loading. Then choose the option of command prompt. Now change the directory to one where Windows is installed. Normally Windows is installed in C:\ >Windows. So, you must change directory to Windows, give the command scandisk C: and then press enter. This will scandisk C: drive of your computer. Remember running scandisk in DOS prompt does not mean opening a DOS prompt Window in Windows environment and running scandisk in it. Regarding your third query for removing the bad sectors from the floppy disk, you can use Norton Disk Doctor or NDD.

Q.. I have recently purchased a new PC. I configured my account for Hotmail. When I receive a mail and read it offline, I get a message that there it a written error. Please help.

A. In order to help us solve your problem, please write your problem in detail, which also includes writing the errors exactly as they are reported by the computer. I am unable to make out from your mail, whether you have configured your Hotmail account in Outlook, Outlook Express or any other e-mail client or you are facing this problem on the Web-based hotmail site. Also state the critical details of your system like your PC configuration, operating system etc.

Q. I have Celeron 600 MHz, 64 MB RAM, 10 GB hard disk, 810 motherboard and Win Me operating system. The problem is when I delete a program icon from the desktop, it gives the following message: "Explorer has caused an error in NAVSHELL.DLL. Explorer will now close. If you continue to experience problems, try restarting your computer. Please tell me the way out.

— Jinny

A. This problem is specific to the Norton AntiVirus 2001 and has not been resolved yet as the cause is still not known. However whenever a solution comes up you can find it on http://service1.symantec.com. Till then as a possible solution you can remove "Scan with Norton AntiVirus" from the right-click menu. This only removes the ability to right-click a file in Widows Explorer and then scan it with Norton Anti Virus. You can still scan files from within the program. I hope this will solve your problem.

Q. I have an old machine with limited capacity (Win ’95, 8 MB RAM, 1.7 GB with no partition on it). I want to format disk and load Win Me, Office 2000 on it. Is it possible? Please advice as I use this set only for text purpose.

A. I am afraid with the configuration mentioned by you, you will not be able to load any of the operating system mentioned above. You need to have at least 32 MB RAM to run these operating systems successfully. With 8 MB RAM, if you are able to run Windows ’95 satisfactorily, then I think this is the best solution in the given circumstances. However, please send other details of your hardware like its speed and category along with other details, this will help us in judging whether your machine can be upgraded economically to run the operating systems of your choice.

Q. I am unable to update my legally purchased Norton Anti Virus 2001 using live update of Norton Anti Virus. After downloading the Norton Anti Virus definitions, it displays the message, "unable to install any of the downloaded components." Another error message that appears is "Norton Anti Virus is unable to start e-mail protection. Please ensure that TCP/IP is installed and port 110 is available."

A. Symantec Corporation runs online support for their clients.You can avail this facility and rectify your problem. However as a possible solution to this problem, you can uninstall this software and then install it fresh. In this case it will automatically solve your problem.

Q. I have a PC with Celeron processor, 32 MB RAM, CD ROM and HDD 6 GB. My problem is that whenever I download anything from the Internet, there is always an error that says; "The operation timed out. Cannot download. What should I do? Please help.

A. This error could occur in case either your Internet speed is too slow or you are facing some problem with cache memory. This may even occur in case of lower RAM. Since Celeron processors had no L2 cache thus this problem may occur. As a possible solution, you should try and streamline your Internet connection and also increase the RAM. Also please, at least keep some of your hard disk space free.

Q. I have a Hewlett Packard pavilion 8624 667 MHz P III running on Win ’98 SE with 64 MB RAM and a 15 GB HDD. Files and buffers in the config.sys are 95 and 85 respectively. My problem is the system hangs quite often when I surf the Net or whenever I use Corel 10. When restarted it hangs sometimes on scandisk during the booting process. My reason for buying a branded and an expensive system was keeping the quality and performance at priority. A Hewlett Packard branded system should not have such problems if configured to the optimum standards of performance. My second problem is whenever my system boots up MS DOS prompt window opens up by itself. Please advice!

A.The problem in your computer appears to be related with hardware. By all probabilities either are some bad sectors in your hard disk or your motherboard is giving you these problems. In order to solve this problem, you must run scandisk from the DOS mode first and let scandisk report and fix any errors, which may be there in your hard disk. If there are some errors, like bad sectors or clusters, then you must get your hard disk changed. However, you do not find any errors on your hard disk, and then the fault could be associated with your motherboard. However, the problems mentioned by you are indicating problem in your hard disk only.

Regarding your second problem, if you have chosen MS DOS to be your first choice of operating system, then automatically, this will be loaded. But if you have chosen all default settings and have not altered them, then Windows should load automatically and this error could reflect some errors. You can correct this problem by editing your autoexec.bat file and adding the command line C:\ Windows>Win (Enter) after the DOS prompt. This will start loading Windows automatically.