Monday, April 8, 2002		Dr Tribune

Q. I have Celeron 850 MHz, 20 GB HDD, 810e MB Win '98 Second edition as OS. I've three partition - C: 5.58 GB, D: 6.97 GB, E: 6.05GB of my 20 GB HD. Adding these quantity amounts to 18.6GB. Now the point is where are the rest of 1.4 GB. I have 128 MB RAM but in the system information, it shows 120 MB at startup time. On Memory test it shows 122800K OK+8192 shared memory. Why doesn't it show 128 or 126MB in Sys. Info. Please help.

Arash Dhillon, Amritsar

A. Regarding your first query, this is a problem related to formatting the hard disk as some of the space in the normal method of formatting is lost, while some of the space is used for critical formatting and disk information. The best solution is to recover this space at the time of formatting only by partitioning the hard disk correctly and using powerful third party formatting utilities. But you can recover this space also later on. Regarding your second query, the lesser memory shown in sys. info is due to the fact that the Graphic adapter or the VGA card shares the memory with the RAM and therefore some of the memory is diverted to the VGA or AGP. Therefore, due to the shared memory the system shows the net memory available only. This does not reflect a problem and is quite normal.

Q. I have P III, 866 MHz, 128 MB RAM and my friend has P III, 850 MHz, 256 RAM. None of us has LAN card. I want to know - can we connect our PCs to share information, files and drives (like a LAN). He lives 50 metres away. Can we do that? We do not want to spend much on any hardware. Tell me about software that could be had from the Web.

Vivek, Hisar

A. First thing first. You will need hardware interface for sure to connect two computers. 50 meters is too long a distance for connecting two PCs through direct cable networking, which does not involve LAN card. But for PCs kept so far this solution is not feasible. Second, without setting up a LAN cards, you can connect two PCs by dial up networking or by virtual private networking. However, this also does not sound too logical, as this would involve a lot of running cost. Thus, in your case the best solution is to have a LAN installed and wired properly through out. However if running cost does not matter you, then the dial up networking would be the best option and you can use software like PC anywhere to connect the two PCs.

Q. I have Intel Pentium III, 800 MHz processor with 64 RAM, 19 GB hard disk and Windows Me as operating system. My problem is that when I start my PC, it displays the message, "CMOS error- default loaded" or "Cannot load defaults." I have to enter the setup and then load the default and save it to the CMOS. It works correctly. After turning off the power from the UPS, when I again start it, it displays the same message. Please tell me what to do.

A.The problem mentioned by you can be resolved by only two methods. First, you should load the default settings in BIOS feature setup and after saving the settings you should exit. On rebooting, this problem should disappear, however, if this also does not solve your problem, then you should change the CMOS battery located on the motherboard as in majority of the cases, this problem is caused by the weak CMOS battery.

Q. There are 2 OS on my PC and the hard disk is partitioned - Windows '98 and 2000 Professional. When I start my Windows '98, first that Windows '98 screen appears and then after a long time, desktop screen appears but without icons and then that too disappears after a while and a warning comes:" An Exception OE has occurred at 0028:C1771F48 in VXD cmaudio(01)+00029250. It may be possible to continue " and when I press enter, then again this warning appears: " A fatal exception OE has occurred at 0028:C195D058 in VXD on audio (05)+00012018. The current application will be terminated". Windows 2000 works properly. Please help and suggest what to do.

A. From the description of the problem it appears that the sound card driver has become corrupt. Now in order to solve this problem, first of all reboot your system in safe mode and then from the device manager uninstall the sound card. Also, if needed you should also remove the entry from the autoexec.bat file. Restart your system, on restarting, your system will detect sound card and will install the driver afresh. However, if it does not install the drivers, then you may need to detect the hard ware manually and then install it manually.

Q. I own a P-III processor, 1 GHz Hewlett Packard pavilion PC with Windows Me home version. Sometimes, while on the Internet the computer shuts off automatically and restarts by itself. I get a "restore my active desktop" button on the desktop view. What could be the solution to this problem? I have a Satyam online Internet connection with 56 KBPS internal modem.

Ajay

A.You must run scan disk in thorough mode and then check the results of it. If the scan disk reports any bad sectors, then you can attribute this problem to the bad sectors. However, if no bad sectors are reported even then the scandisk would take care of other possible problems related to hard disk like cross linking of data etc. and your problem may get solved. However, if this does not solve your problem, then you should get the motherboard and the RAM checked by hardware experts for any problems in them.

Q. I have a problem with my CD ROM drive. My computer has Windows '98, Pentium (r) processor, 15 MB RAM, 4 GB hard disk, Creative 3600 CD ROM drive. The problem is I can't access my CD ROM drive. Whenever I click on the CD-ROM drive icon, it gives the error, E:\ is not accessible. The device is not ready. What should I do?

Monika, Hoshiarpur

A. In order to solve this problem, first of all you must reinstall CD ROM driver again and then check out by clicking on it. This problem could occur if CD ROM driver is corrupt. However, if by any chance, it does not solve your problem, then you must clean the CD ROM drive thoroughly by using a head cleaning CD or get it serviced, as presence of dust could be another reason responsible for this error. I am hopeful that the first solution mentioned above will solve your problem.

Q. I have Intel Celeron 635 MHz PC with 30 GB HDD, 64 MB RAM, 15" LG Studioworks monitor, onboard sound card on an Intel 810 motherboard. I don't know the name of my motherboard manufacturer. I have 5 partitions having FAT32. I have a dual booting system with Win '98 SE on C: and Win 2000 PRO on D: drive. I have the following problems:

1)My Win '98 SE does not detect sound card and represents it as an unknown device and does not install drivers for it. Also it displays only 16 colours. I have the motherboard CD but that is corrupt. But a year ago, I had Win '98 SE and everything was alright. After that I had Win ME. Then I formatted my C: drive to install Win '98 SE. After that everything is going wrong. Please help.

2) I want to partition my hard disk into three drives without losing any data. I used Partition magic 2.0 but it showed partition table error110. Can I have the latest version of partition magic from the Internet?

Manish Bansal, Samana.

A. Regarding first problem, if you have the onboard sound and VGA card, then you will need the motherboard CD for the installation of appropriate drivers. If you do not have it or if it is corrupt, then it will pose a problem. As a possible solution you can consult any hardware expert and have motherboard recognised and then visit the Website of the manufacturer and download the necessary drivers. Once you have the necessary drivers with you, then you should first remove the hardware i.e. sound card represented by unknown device from the device manager and then reboot the system. On rebooting, the Windows will detect the sound card and will ask for driver. Here you can give the path of the directory, where these drivers are stored. You can apply the same process to the installation of the driver of the VGA card. This is how your first problem would be solved. Regarding your second problem, you can download PartitionMagic 7.0 from www.powerquest.com/products/desktop.html for changing the partitions on your hard disk. This is useful software and can solve your problem.