Monday, January 14, 2002		Dr Tribune

Q. I have recently switched from 'Windows Me' to 'Windows XP' (Professional). I am quite new to this OS and as such not qualified to comment on its relative efficacy over Windows Me. I am facing a peculiar problem now. I am in the habit of running ScanDisk quite often but have not been able to run it in Windows XP since this utility is not there at all. Neither could I find it in Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools. Where is it then? Please let me know how to trace ScanDisk utility in Windows XP (if it is there) or suggest ways on how to ScanDisk the removable media like floppy. 

— S.K.Sharma, Jagadhri

A. This is a known non-compatibility issue with upgrading to Windows XP from Windows '98 or Windows Me as some system tools like Scan disk and DriveSpace does not get upgraded to Windows XP Professional. If you clean install Windows XP on a new drive, then you will not face this problem, whereas in case of upgrading, you may face this problem. As a possible solution, you can as the best option install it afresh so that compatibilities issues like these are taken care of. Otherwise you can use migration dynamic-link libraries (DLLs) for the applications that are not migrated during the upgrade.

Q. I have a PCS Orion Pentium 4,1.5 GHz, Intel 845 chipset, 128 MB SD RAM, 20 GB ultra ATA hard disk, 1.44MB FDD, AGP with 32 MB RAM, 52x IDE CD ROM drive, 56 KBPS internal modem and Windows '98 running as operating system. My problem is that whenever I play a 3D game with high graphics, it suddenly closes and comes back to the desktop. There is no taskbar of the game left on the desktop. The desktop comes to 640-480 pixels instead of 800-600 pixels. Then when I try to run the game, I fail to do it and a message flashes, "I cannot find directX5." Then I have to restart the computer. When I play the game the same thing happens again. This means that the computer adjusts its colours with the colours of the game.

Tushar, Chandigarh

A. It appears that in your computer Direct X Drivers are not installed, because of which this at its problem is occuring. You must install these drivers first to run the high-end graphic and video game. You can download these drivers from www.microsoft.com/directx/homeuser/downloads/default.asp.

Q. I have Celeron 850 MHz processor, 40 GB HDD, 128 MB RAM, 815 TM Intel motherboard (Azza), Windows '98 operating system. I have created two users from the control panel where user option is given that I deleted afterwards. My problem is that the window that prompts for user password still appears which I either cancel or escape to come to Windows environment. I want to remove that window. Please tell me the way. I shall be highly thankful to you.

Inderjeet Singh, Amritsar

A. For solving this problem follow these simple steps. First of all double click on My Computer icon and then click on Control Panel. Now click on Password icon and then in the Password Properties Windows click on tab user profiles. Click on the second option that is Users can Customize their preferences… and then click on tab change passwords. Now type in your old password and leave the space for new password blank. Click OK and then click on network icon. Now in primary network logon box choose the option Windows logon and click OK. The system will now ask you to reboot your system. On rebooting the system, you will find the problem solved.

Q. I have P II 266 MHz, 64 MB RAM, 810 Azza motherboard, Win '98 SE and VSNL Internet connection. My problem is that whenever I try to open the Website www.hallmark.com (A JSP Website), explorer does not display the page and processing status of IE stops within two seconds. Even "This Page can't be displayed" page is not shown by IE. First I had IE 5.0 (Win Se), so I installed IE 5.5, but problem still persists. Also I'm not able to view hallmark greetings sent by my friends. However I'm able to see all other Websites. The second problem is whenever I try to login to mail.yahoo.com, I receive a message "You are going to enter an insecure Website, to continue click Yes, otherwise click No. How can I get rid of this message? Third problem is that I'm not able to view flash greetings in MSN Explorer.

A. From your problem it appears that the plugin for flash is not installed in your computer. Please download and install the plugin to play flash files as this will solve the first and the last problem related to Hallmark greetings and flash greetings from explorer. Regarding your other problem, please disable the option to prompt you for the error message. This can be disabled in the pop up message that comes on your screen. Disabling it stops displaying this message again and again.

Q. From where can I download latest songs of pop artists? Secondly, from where can I download software for accelerating the surfing speed (please mention the name of software also). Thirdly, can disk defragmenter be upgraded? If yes, how?

A. Some of the sites for Music download are http://www.channelok.com, www.punjabonline.com, www.indiamp3.com etc. For boosting the Internet performance you can use Download accelerator plus available at site www.speedbit.com/Default.asp. Regarding you third query, please mention the details of the operating system, you are currently using. As such, disk defrag utility cannot be upgraded without upgrading your operating system. But you can use many other advanced third party disk defrag utilities available on the Internet.

Q. I have a PC with Celeron 500 MHz, 64 MB RAM, 40 GB HDD and 52x Samsung CD ROM Drive. My problems are as follows:

1. When Windows start after booting it displays the message, "Error starting program. A required .dll file, PNGU3263.DLL, was not found." Why does it appear and with which program this file is associated?

2. The speed of the system gets slow and it hangs frequently. But when it is freshly installed every time it works properly and after some days the position of the system becomes the same. Please tell me how I can maintain the speed of the processor so that it does not hang?

Vikas Garg, Barnala

A. Regarding your first query, the error message mentioned by is being displayed when the RealJukebox media player is installed on your computer. RealJukebox requires the Pngu3263.dll file for its operation. If this file is missing or corrupted, RealJukebox cannot start, which in turn causes this error message. Now for the possible solution of this problem, either uninstall and then reinstall Real JukeBox on your system again or turn off RealJukebox or Remove RealJukebox from the Startup Group. This will solve your problem. Regarding your second query, the problem does not appear to be of processor or other hardware. For proper maintenance of your system, you should regularly run scandisk followed by Disk Defrag and as far as possible avoid using screen savers involving heavy graphics. Also please remove all junk files from your PC using the disk clean up utility and also manually. You should also keep the memory and disk cache clean. I hope these measures will help you in maintaining the performance of your PC.

Q. My system configuration is Celeron 433 MHz, 128 MB RAM and we are using Windows '98. I am using HP 610 Deskjet Printer. Since the last few days whenever I try to print any PDF format document or text document the printer does not load the paper and the following error is displayed. "There was an error writing to LPT1: for the printer (HP 610C Series): There was a problem printing to the printer due to an unknown system error. Restart Windows and then try again." We have reinstalled the printer many times but after printing 1 or 2 documents same error is displayed. Please guide us on what to do. We shall be highly thankful to you.

Rishi Sood, Ludhiana.

A. You must check your cable connections first in order to ensure trouble-free printing, as this is the most basic cause of printing troubles. However, if you find the cable properly connected, then check out the system properties and make sure that the correct settings are being used, which includes, spooling enabled, correct paper size and print option, i.e. normal quality. If there are any special settings, reset it first and then after switching off the printer and PC, restart the PC and printer and set it again. Also check the cartridge and its compatibility with type of print command you have given. Lastly, clean your printer of dust and other foreign bodies and make sure that nothing is stuck in it. Taking all these precautions in mind your problem will be solved.

Q. I have an assembled PC with the following configuration - Cyrix III, 450 MHz, 64 MB RAM, Windows '98 platform, 8 GB hard disk, Samsung monitor 45Bn. Since last two months the usual shut down message, "It is now safe to turn off your computer" is not displayed and the monitor's power light start blinking. But I have no problem in starting the computer again as the scandisk does not show that the computer was safely shut down last time. I tried reinstalling Windows but of no use. Secondly, I had put a Windows password from the control panel option and every time I start the computer it asks me for the password. I want to remove this feature again as it was in the beginning. Sometimes my computer hangs when started initially on the Windows logo screen and has to be restarted again and then it goes into safe mode.

A. Please check your power management settings in the BIOS features setup and reset them to default. This will solve your first problem. Regarding your second problem please refer to the solution mentioned above to Mr. Inderjeet Singh, for solving your second problem.