Monday, July 23, 2001		Dr Tribune

Q. I have an assembled PC with configurations Pentium III, 500 MHZ, 20 GB Hard Disk, Motorola 56 Kbps internal modem, 52X ASUS CD Drive and Windows '98 SE. I want the solution to the problem that occurs after formatting the C: Drive. After the reinstallation of Windows ’98 SE, I inserted the CD of Mother Board (Magic Install) in the CD drive to install the driver of sound card (ALC 100). But it does not show the box of sound card from where the driver could be installed. The same CD (Magic Install) shows Sound Card box in any other PC. My second problem is that whenever I want to connect my PC to the Net, it shows an error "No Dialtone." But when I try twice or thrice it gets connected showing no error.

A. You can always install or add any hardware components by detecting it manually. On detecting the hardware or component, you are asked for the options to search the appropriate driver. Here you can give the destination of the CD drive for searching appropriate driver and thus your sound card would be installed. However, before all this you must make sure that you have installed the correct driver of the CD drive. Regarding your second problem, you must enable the option wait for dial tone before dialing in your modem configuration settings. But if this gives you error while dialing, then you must refer to your modem’s manual and find the relevant setting to add a delay in dialing. This will take care of your problem. You must, however, try the first option first and should go for the second option only when the first option gives you some error.

Q. Whenever I start my PC sometimes it gives an error message after booting stating "Terminating thread due to a stack overflow problem. A VxD, possibly recently installed, has consumed too much stack space. Increase the setting of 'MinSPs' in SYSTEM.INI or remove recently installed VxD's. There are currently 5 SPs allocated. Press any key to continue." This message appears sometimes only. I have a P II 266 system having 96 MB RAM and 20 GB HDD. I have 2 partitions and I mostly use Windows Me edition. Please solve my problem.

A. This problem in Windows could occur, when Windows encounters an internal overflow of the stacks that are used by 32-bit Windows-based device drivers. However this is not related to the "Stacks=" line in the Config.sys file, which is used for 16-bit MS-DOS-based device drivers. These errors are indicative of errors in the device driver. In order to solve this problem, you must add the line MinSPs=4 to the [386Enh] section of the System.ini file, and then restart your computer. This will solve your problem. However, if the problem continues to occur then you must increase the number of spare stack pages in increments of 4 (for example, 8, 12, 16). You can edit the system.ini file by clicking on Start and then click on search, for files or folders. Now in the Search files or folders box type System.ini. In the look in drop down menu, choose C: Drive. Then click on Search now button. From the search results now double click on the system.ini file that is listed in folder C:\ Windows. This would open the System.ini file in the Notepad. In the [386Enh] section, add or edit the line MinSPs=4. On the File menu, click Save, then click the File menu again and click Exit. Now restart your computer.

Q. I have P III, 733 MHz processor with internal modem, 20 GB HDD, 128 MB RAM. Yesterday, I was downloading WINZIP 8.0 from Internet (through Dishnet connection). The entire package was of 1.2 MB, but when 1.1 MB was downloaded, the connection got disconnected. The download rate was around 1 Kbps and it took nearly 20 minutes. Is there any way I can download the remaining 0.1 MB file instead of downloading the entire file of 1.2 MB? Also, help me to increase the speed of downloading. I have heard that there are ways to increase the speed 4 times through some settings.

A. Regarding your first question of resuming the download, which got disconnected, if you were downloading the software by using some third party software like Download Demon etc, then it is quite possible to resume your downloading from the point your connection got disconnected. However, if you were not using any such software, then it is not possible to resume the download and you will have to start it afresh. There are many freeware available on the Internet, which allows the feature of resuming in case of disconnection. Regarding your second question, the speed mentioned by you is quite poor and you must try to improve it by checking your line condition first. If your line condition is not good then you may not be able to improve your downloading speed. However, you can also improve the performance of your Internet connection by disabling the settings like Enable Hardware Flow Control, Enable Modem Compression etc. in your modem configuration settings. You can also add a line S1=11 in the advanced settings of your modem configuration.

Q. I have a P III 800 MHz, 128 MB RAM, 20 GB HDD, 52x CD ROM, McAfee Anti virus. I have a problem running scandisk and disk defragmenter in my system. Whenever I try to do so it gives a message that system does not have enough memory to run the program even when no other programs are running. Another problem that is related to floppies is some times the system gives a message that the floppy is not formatted, even though data has been stored into it. My floppy drive also does not support making copies and gives a message "unable to read from source disk." But this floppy can easily be opened and read.

A. This kind of problem could occur, when the virus scanner is either quite old or is not updated for long. As the best solution, you must both uninstall the Virus scanner and then after shutting down your PC reinstall it again. This will solve your problem, however if it does not solve your problem, then you must try by reinstalling your Windows again and then run scandisk and Disk defrag. Also, if you have installed too many drivers, fonts and games, then also this problem could erupt. In order to take care of these problems and also boost the performance of your PC, you can also increase the size of the paging file.

Q. I use Win ’98 operating system. My problem is that when I installed Office 2000 from the new Office CD, I was unable to get all paper sizes (like A4, letter etc), instead it was showing only custom size. I tried to reinstall the office but this problem was again not solved.

A. I have not been able to understand your question properly. Please mention it clearly that is this problem specific to any particular program or you encounter this problem, when you attempt to print it. Please write back your question in detail along with other necessary details about hardware, including your printer.

Q. I've got a PC 833 MHz, 64 MB RAM, 20 GB HDD. I would request you to let me know some free audio-video chat sites and how to tweak my PC to enhance its performance. I'll be grateful for your help and suggestions.

A. There are many audio-enabled chat sites on the Internet and virtually all major chat sites are voice enabled. However out of these sites Yahoo! is the most popular. All you need to have for audio chatting is a mic, speaker and sound card installed in your system. However, for video chatting you would require software, which allows video. I have found Internet phone a good software for video chat and you can download it’s shareware version from www.vocaltec.com. On loading this software, it will automatically connect you to a lot of sites, which have video chat enabled. You also get the option of entering a room of your choice. Besides, this you can also find video chatting on some popular chat sites. Regarding your second query, you can visit Microsoft Web site for the tweak software for your operating system.

Q. My system configuration is Zenith P III, 533 MHz, 20GB HDD, 64 MB RAM, Windows Me OS and an HCL Infinet connection. My problem is that my system is getting slower day-by-day. It takes almost 5 to 7 seconds to open any application, especially browser Window (internet explorer). It was not so when I purchased it in October last year. I tried doing Defrag several times but that didn't help much. I basically use my PC for programming in C# and office applications. Please help me solve my problem.

Kanika Bhalla, Ludhiana.

A. You must clean your PC of junk files for boosting its performance and in this regard, you should regularly clean your disk cache and memory cache or you should delete the .tmp files in your temp directory. These files can make the computer slow as they consume a lot of system resources. Besides these measures, you should also uninstall all the unnecessary and irrelevant shareware software’s from your system. I hope this will boost the performance of your system. As another alternative you can also try by increasing the RAM of your PC to 128 MB or higher. Remember, higher RAM is always a boon for the better Internet performance.

Q. I have an assembled PC with the following configuration. My OS is Windows ’98.
Intel P III, 500 MHz, 512 KB cache memory, 8.4 GB Hard Disk 1.44 MB FDD. Whenever I switch on my PC, it shows the message "Checking NV RAM...Wait."
This message remains for about 30 to 40 seconds and then it shows, "Press F1 to resume." On doing so, it says, "Insert diskette in A:, Drive not ready." Then I have to reset my computer. I have to face this problem each time I switch on the PC.
It also hangs in between. On performing surface scan and defrag I found 2 bad sectors which according to my program vendor have been fixed and would not create problem. Is he right?

Mary

A. In order to solve your first problem, please load all setup defaults in the BIOS settings. This should solve your problem. Now regarding your second problem of bad sectors in your disk, it is advisable that if the hard disk is under warranty, then you must get it changed in case bad sectors are discovered. Fixing the bad sectors is not a permanent solution and they can erupt again and can create problems. It case of bad sectors, you must always back up your critical data.