Monday, May 20, 2002		Dr Tribune

Q I’ve a system with following configuration: Celeron 566 MHz, 64 MB RAM, 20GB HDD (Seagate) having 5 partitions with 4 GB each. I’ve installed Win ’98 on drive C: and Linux (swap partition) on drive G: Now, I want to remove Linux (G: drive) from the system, make it (FAT -32) compatible with Win ’98. How I can? Please tell me in detail.

Sandeep Kumar, Barnala

A Since Linux is an independent operating system, thus you can remove it by deleing or formatting the partition in which this operating system is being installed. Formatting the drive G: is a better idea as you can have FAT 32 file system again on this partition.

Q. I use the Internet a lot and I want to have software that monitors the Internet usage i.e. for how much time I am logged on to the Net and total monthly usage of Internet. I shall be highly thankful to you if you give me this information. If you have given this information in earlier issue of Login then please repeat the forthcoming issue.

A For monitoring your Internet usage, you can download software called MagiTime from www.geocities.com/magistone. This is a freeware and a good Internet tracking utiility, that monitors online time, expense and data transfer. Magitime usually detects all types of Dial-Connection, specifically have PPP and SLIP standards. Another such software is Intercent 99, which can be downloaded from www.xs4all.nl/~finiware/en/home.htm.

Q I’m using Windows Me on Cyrix 500 MHz PC with 128 MB of RAM and 20 GB of HDD. Since few days the problem started when I was checking my mail and received an error message that the Inbox Store of the Outlook Express 5.0 is corrupted, try running scandisk and retry. I did thorough scandisk but could not get through. Then I reinstalled OE by removing the existing one followed by the complete reinstallation of Windows Me and other software (after completely removing all Windows files). After that I could download my mails, at least, but another problem has come up. Now, I find difficulty in installing new software like MS Office, PageMaker etc. During installation, after some of the files are copied, the application just exits from the memory (no error message or warning being shown), completely, and come back to display the Windows Desktop. This happens for once or twice. But I am still unable to load any of the anti-virus program, which does not move ahead beyond a certain point. Is this some kind of virus problem? Sometimes while fiddling with it, the system hangs up only to be restored by resetting again. Please let me know the possible solution of this problem. Also let me know if this problem can cause corruption to other useful files.

A The problem mentioned by could be probably because of two reasons. The first and the most likely reason is that your hard disk has developed some bad sectors. These bad sectors are causing this problem. However, the second reason could be that probably you did not format the disk before installing the operating system again and therefore the previous instances of software are causing the problems. Thus to solve your problem, you should first finish scandisk, either in normal mode or safe mode or in DOS mode. Try doing scandisk in thorough mode in normal mode and mark the bad sectors if any, this will solve your problem. However, in the later case, you must first remove previous instances of programs, which are not being removed earlier. For doing this, you can use any third party software or can also delete them manually. I am hopeful that this will solve your problem. I don’t think that this problem is because of any virus, though it can also not be ruled out completely.

Q. I have P III, 1GHz, 256 RAM, 815 EEA2 original Intel motherboard, Win ’98 second edition as O.S., 20 GB ultra ATA Hard disk, 52X CD ROM drive, Dlink 56 KBPS external modem with Internet connection. My problem is that when I start my computer a message runs as follows:

"There are no spare stack pages. It may be necessary to increase the setting of ‘MinSPs’ in SYSTEM.INI to prevent possible stacks faults. There are currently 6 SPs allocated. This problem remains whenever I start my computer. Please suggest me how to overcome the problem I shall be thankful to you.

A This error can occur when Windows encounters an internal overflow of the stacks that are used by 32- bit Windows-based device drivers. These messages are indicative of errors in the device driver. Device drivers are allocated 4 kilobytes (KB) or one page, of space to be used as a stack. If the device driver uses more than 4 KB of memory, a stack overflow condition occurs. Now in order to solve this problem, add the following line to the [386Enh] section of the System.ini file, and then restart your computer: MinSPs=4

If the behavior continues to occur, increase the number of spare stack pages in increments of 4 (for example, 8, 12, 16). I am sure this will solve your problem completely.

Q I have a branded PC of HCL with the following configuration - P III 750 MHz processor, 128 RAM, 18.6 GB HDD, 1.44 FDD etc. My floppy drive makes a lot of noise when I try to copy something to my floppy or I delete something from my floppy. Someone told me that it is due to some alignment problem of FDD but when I contacted my vendor, he told me that the noise is not a problem as the FDD reads from the floppy and the same floppy runs on other PC’s also. Should I get my FDD replaced as my PC is still in warranty period? Please suggest a solution.

A The problem of noise is common in computers and your friend is right partially in saying that this problem could be due to alignment as there could be many more reasons for such a situation. However, this noise is harmless and does not cause any problems. Now for solving this problem, you can start with reinstalling the floppy drive and in a different bay and by taking care of correct alignment. If the floppy still continues to create the noise, then you can actually get it cleaned and then try using it again. The problem of noise could be reduced in these cases. I am sure that proper alignment and cleaning of floppy drive can solve your problem.

Q I have assembled PC with AMD K6, 128 MB RAM, SIS motherboard, 10.2 HDD. My problem is that when I installed Winxp I was not able to install sound driver from my sound driver CD. It was installed in Win Me. Moreover display drivers was installed on Win XP but I had to install it on Win Me. Please solve my problem. Tell me the site from where I can install the driver.

A You can get the appropriate driver from the manufacturer of your sound card. Since the CD Provided along with the sound card might not be having the necessary driver for Windows XP, therefore you will have to source it from outside and the best place to source the driver is the website of the card manufacturer. Otherwise you can also search sites like www.windrivers.com for the drivers.

Q We are basically assembler-cum-dealer in computer hardware. We are facing a peculiar problem as one of our customers wants to upgrade or change his motherboard but his processor is slot 1 P3500. He wants that either 815 motherboard with AGP slot and slot1 socket or 810 motherboard slot1 with AGP slot. We shall be grateful if you could supply one if possible or guide us what to do because he wants his DVD output on his TV.

A After the initial range of Pentium III, the slot 1 motherboards and processors were discontinued and socket 370 motherboards were being used. And I am not aware of any 810 chipset or 815 chipset Slot 1 motherboard. So, practically speaking, this problem may not be solved with upgrading option and you would require new 810 or 815 socket 370 motherboard and also processor.

Q I have Celeron 850 MHz, 128 MB RAM, 40GB HDD, Win-Me as Operating system, 56 KBPS internal Motorola modem. I have the problem: when I connect to the Internet, it connects but does not open any Website. After sometime it gives an error: "Internet explorer could not open the search page". The speed of Internet Explorer is also slow. Why does it give the above written Error?

A The main problem in your case appears to be of poor connectivity and slow speed. You should first ensure that your telephone line is fault free i.e. free of cuts and joints, scrapping, extensions, loose connections etc. If needed you must change your telephone line, once you are fully satisfied, then you should focus on the speed of your COM port on which the modem is being installed. If this speed is being set at 9600 BPS, then you should increase it to 115200 or the maximum speed available. Free up some disk space and also increase the size of Swap file as these will also help in good surfing. Also, you should remove all the clutter from your PC, especially those memory resident programs, which are not being used often but take up a lot of disk space. I hope these measures would solve your problem.