Monday, July 30, 2001		Dr Tribune

Q. I am having Celeron 500, 32 MB RAM, and 8.4 GB HDD. My problem is that there are a lot of pictures stored on my hard disk with extensions .jpg, .gif and .bmp. I am able to get the previews of the .gif and .bmp files but not of the .jpg files. Please let me know how to get the previews of .jpg images. The Internet Explorer is in the view as Web page option.

A. You can view .jpg files in Microsoft Paint (brush), which is a part of the default standard installation. As another option you can also view the .jpg files in Microsoft Word. All you would be required to do is go to Insert Menu and then choose Picture from file. Here you can preview as well as insert .jpg files in your document. Other than this the .jpg files can also be viewed in Corel, Photoshop etc. In fact, today all programs, which supports .bmp and .gif file formats also support jpg formats.

Q. I have an assembled PC with the following configuration — Cyrix MII - 300, 64 MB RAM, 4.3 GB hard disk and Windows ’95 running on my PC as operating system. I have about 2 GB free space. I wanted to install software like Java, Oracle and Visual Studio. Can I install this software without any problem? Would it make my PC slow? Please help me.

A. You can install all programs mentioned on your computer. However, it will not be a good idea as your PC would not give you desired level of performance due to its hardware features. If performance does not matter you much, then you can use your PC for running these software otherwise you will have to upgrade your machine.

Q. I have recently purchased an assembled PC with following configuration — Pentium III 800 MHz, Asus SIS 630 chip set mother board, 128 MB RAM, 20 GB HDD, 52x LG CD drive. My problem is whenever I eject or insert CD drive, the tray system hangs for a few seconds. Otherwise it runs very smoothly. Secondly, I want use my PC for designing so I will run Corel 5, Corel 10, Adobe Photoshop and Auto cad 2000. Will this motherboard serve my purpose effectively or not? Please suggest best alternative.

A. The problem mentioned by you actually does not relate to hanging and is quite normal. So practically, there is nothing to worry about. However, you can still minimise this problem, by enabling UltraDMA feature for your CD ROM also. Regarding your second query, your computer is adequate enough for running the programs you have mentioned.

Q. My PC has the following configuration: Celeron 466 MHz , 8.4GB, Sony floppy drive, Mercury CD ROM. Recently I loaded few songs from my friend’s hard disk by adding it onto my PC slot . After nearly 20 days, I noticed that the icon for accessing CD ROM drive was not available in my computer. I searched for the drive using find and also tried accessing the drive from the DOS prompt but could not find the CD ROM drive. For this reason I am unable to run a CD. Also I tried to use the CD player from accessories to entertainment, I got a message "There is no CD ROM player attached to this computer. CD player cannot start." Please help.

A. It appears that the CD ROM driver of your computer has been corrupted or is deleted. Kindly reinstall the CD ROM driver again in order to solve your problem. You can find the CD ROM driver from the CD or floppy provided by your hardware vendor along with the hardware (CD ROM).

Q. I have a PC with Celeron 633 MHz, 128 MB RAM, Logitech mouse, Internal modem. I want to know that how can I change the settings of system. I want to go directly into MS DOS mode when my system starts. I don’t want that my PC should go to Windows everytime on starting. Rather I would prefer the DOS mode. Kindly tell me the command line or settings of the system or CMOS so that I can change the settings.

A. You have not mentioned the details of your operating system in your problem. For answering your query it is very important to know which operating system you are using. The solution to your would be based on the information about the operating system furnished by you.

Q. I have purchased an assembled PC with Pentium III, 933 MHz processor, 128 MB SD RAM, 20GB Seagate HDD, 52xSamsung CD ROM, Sony FDD and D815EEA2 Intel motherboard. I have installed Win ’98 and Win 2000 as OS. My problem is that sometimes I get a warning regarding the heating up of processor. The viewer active alert icon opens up and gives the warning about the rise in temperature and asks me to shutdown the computer. I have a fan in my ATX cabinet but, I frequently face this problem and I don’t know what to do. Also kindly describe about the settings of temperature of processor.

A. The rise in temperature of the processor is risky and should be taken care of very seriously. Normally, this kind of problem occurs either when your CPU cooler fan is not working or the temperature setting of your processor has not been set correctly. However, first you must check the CPU cooler fan and replace it if it is not working. But if it is working fine, then you must check the power settings of your processor. Normally, if the voltage of the processor does not match with the specifications mentioned in the manual, then also this type of problem could occur. You must get it checked by your hardware vendor in the light of the specifications mentioned in your processor and motherboard’s manual. These settings may vary for different processors and thus it is advisable to consult the relevant manual only. Last, but not the least, also make sure that your processor has not been over clocked as the over clocked processors also gets heated up without extra provision for temperature.

Q. I have an assembled Celeron 466 MHz PC with 10 GB hard disk and 64 MB RAM. I have colour monitor (LG) and have loaded Windows ’98 working properly. But when I shutdown the PC, it does not display the message (it’s now safe to turn off your computer). The screen becomes blank at the last moment so we shut down the PC.

Hardev Dhaliwal, Lopon

A. If you are using the ATX motherboard, then the PC gets automatically off and does not display the message, "its now safe to shut down your computer." However, if your motherboard is AT, then it represents a problem, which is quite common with Windows 98 users. This problem has been discussed in the previous issues of Dr Tribune and an article has also been carried out on the Page 2 of Login…Tribune recently. Please refer to the article for the solution.

Q. I recently came to know about telephone conversation via the Internet. Please let me know about the requirements. I have speakers with mic, Internet and MSN messenger installed on my machine with SM56 PCI speakerphone internal modem. Also tell me in detail how conversation is made using the MSN messenger and oblige.

A. Voice over Internet or Net telephony is present in various forms like PC-to-PC and PC to Phone. Normally PC-to-PC calling services are free of charge and you can us this service for as long as you want. The second service i.e. PC to phone is sometimes paid service and using this service; you can call a normal telephone from your PC. For using this service all you need is a mic and a set of speakers and an account with any of the service providers like Net2phone etc. This service is free for some countries like the USA, Canada and some countries of Europe and Australia. But for other countries you will have to pay the charges. Regarding the MSN Messenger service, you need to have a hotmail account. And after downloading the MSN messenger, you can configure your account and start using it.

Q. I have an assembled Pentium III processor with following configuration: 700 MHz, 20 GB HDD, 52 X CD ROM, 128 MB RAM. My problem is whenever I try to send e-mails from Outlook Express, the Internet gets disconnected. And I am not able to send my mail. Please tell me about any site where I can call Canada for free, except go2call.com and hottelephone.com.

A. It appears that in your Outlook Express setting, you have set the setting to disconnect from Internet after receiving the messages. Therefore, you get automatically disconnected even if you are still using the Outlook Express for sending the mails. Try removing this setting and then see the results. However, similar problem could also be caused by several reasons. Normally internal modems especially modem using the Rockwell Chipset is very sensitive to line noise. Thus, any micro disturbance in line can cause disconnection. You can try by adding the init string AT+MS=V34, in advanced settings of your modem configuration. By doing this you disable 56k and stay online. Secondly since internal modems draw their power from the processor to process connection information. Therefore if, once connected, you open many process-intensive programs, you may slow the connection down enough to cause disconnection. A good idea is also to hard boot your system by shutting it down for roughly a minute, if the system has been running for too long. This way, the modem will get reset and could solve your problem. Regarding calling free to Canada you can visit sites like www.4ecalls.com, www.etn.nl/telecom etc. You can search many more sites on the Internet, which enables you free PC to phone calling through the Internet.