Monday, October 7, 2002		Dr Tribune

Q. I have ASUS motherboard, 810 chipset, 40 GB Samsung hard disk, 128 MB RAM. At first my PC does not detect hard disk during boot up. It displays message — Invalid system disk, insert system disk, then press Enter." Secondly, wherever I run some C++ program it displays a message — This program has caused illegal operation. If the problem persists contact the program vendor. Please suggest what to do.

A. Regarding your first problem, you should detect your hard disk manually in the BIOS feature set up and then after saving the settings, exit BIOS set up and restart your system. This way the system will detect the hard disk. Regarding your second problem, you should first clean up your system of all junk files and programs and also trim the registry using some registry cleaning software. Also make sure that you have good amount of hard disk space free. Then try increasing the paging file size. I hope these solutions will solve your problem.

Q. I’ve a Pentium PC with multimedia speakers. I seek advice on the following queries:

A. Regarding your first question, there is a rule of thumb that you should keep your PC away from magnetic and electromagnetic fields. Strong magnetic field can harm your PC. Since, the music system does not have a high degree of magnetic field, so it may not affect your computer. However for the sake of precaution, you may keep the speakers little far from your computer as it may affect your PC, though not significantly. Regarding your second query, it is always better to have a 56 KBPS modem as its higher capabilities can deliver better performance. Since most of the ISP’s now support 56 KBPS, which you will never get actually, but you may still get a better performance. As far as the question of increase in surfing speed is concerned, it may depend on quite a lot of factors, which we have mentioned a number of times in this column. But, generally speaking you may benefit by putting 56 KBPS. As far as the brands of modems are concerned, the price depends upon their technologies, features, brand and support. Therefore the prices vary from brand to brand.

Q. My system configuration is P4, 1.50 GHz, Mercury Motherboad 845, 40 GB HDD Windows 98 & Windows 2000. For the last few days, my system started giving message "WinZip Self-Extractor header corrupt. Possible cause: bad disk or file transfer error" while we open self extract file of winzip or winzip installation or also my webshorts. Please solve my problem my important programs cannot run on my system. Please help me while solving my problem.

Harpinder Sidhu, Chandigarh

A. Your computer is affected by the Virus called "Moridin" or "I-Worm.Petik.b", which gives this fake error message. Actually, WinZip Self-Extractor is not corrupt. Now in order to solve your problem, you must get your system clean of all the viruses.

Q. While defragging the hard disk drives of my Pentium 4, 1.5 GHz, 128 MB RAM computer with Windows ’98 operating system, I have found the defragging process starts all over again after every few moments, which substantially increases the defragging time. The same message that ‘reading drive information,’ appears again and again. Is there any remedy? Please detail the procedure to enable defragging in the smoothest way and shortest possible time. I shall be thankful to you.

A. For effective solution of your problem, first of all disable anti-virus software, as this is the main reason for this kind of problem in majority of cases, I have handled so far. The second possible reason could be the uses of screensavers, which being active create this problem. I hope these solutions will solve your problem.

Q. I am a regular reader of Log in Tribune and would like some help in resolving a situation. I have been facing one peculiar problem ever since I installed Windows ME on my system. The problem is whenever I shut down my computer system (especially after running several programs simultaneously), instead of shutting it halts mid-way and displays the message, "Windows protection error. Restart your computer. The system has halted". After that when I restart my computer, it shows improper shutdown and runs scandisk. I have P4, 1.6 GHz with 32 MB NVIDIA Graphics card, 40 GB HDD, CDROM, 128 MB SDRAM and ATX cabinet.

A. You may have to increase the paging file size of your computer and also clear the disk and memory cache of browsers. Remember by keeping the system clean of the junk files, you can save yourself from all these problems. Also make sure that you are not using an old version of software. This problem could also come up in case of some software, which hinders the process of shutting down of Windows. If the above solutions work for you, then you have a reason to smile. However, if it does not work, then you must shut down the programs, one by one from the explorer and then see, which program is causing the problem. You should either remove it from your system or close it manually, before shutting down the system.

Q. I am working in NIIT computer centre. I am having some problems while executing java 1.2 in my one of the machine. The problem is whenever I use any exe file of JDK it throws the error of illegal operation for a file MSVCRT.DLL. My machine configuration is P-4 1.6, GHz with 850 Intel chipset motherboard and 128 RDRAM. I have tried it on Win XP , Win 98 and even Win Me. The same problem is there in all OS. I have even formatted my hard disk but of no use. Please help me to solve this problem.

A. Please write back the exact error message as this holds the key to the exact solution of your problem, part messages may not help us solve your problem.

Q. I have a computer with Pentium 3, 866 MHz processor, 256 MB SDRAM, 40 GB hard disk with 4 parts of roughly 10 GB each. On one part I installed Windows ’98 Se and on another Windows XP professional. Due to some problem I encountered in Windows ’98, I formatted the specific disk part and installed Windows ’98 again. The problem I have is that now after reinstalling Windows ’98, the menu for choosing operating system at startup does not come and Windows ’98 loads automatically. Please tell me how can I correct this problem. Will I have to reinstall Windows XP also?

A. Regarding the solution of your problem, change the attributes for MSDOS.SYS so it is not Read Only, MSDOS.SYS is found in the root directory of your C:\ drive. Open the file using Notepad or another text editor and change the value of BootMenu= to BootMenu=1 for enabled or BootMenu=0 for disabled. If the boot menu is enabled you can control how long it waits before continuing to boot with the BootMenuDelay= option. Set BootMenuDelay= to the amount of time to wait in seconds. i.e. BootMenuDelay=5 would wait 5 seconds before continuing to load Windows. Other than this the BootKeys must also be enabled for this option to function i.e. BootKeys=1.

Q. I’ve a Pentium 3, 866 MHz processor with Jetways (Intel 815 chipset) motherboard and 128 MB or RAM. Since my motherboard supports overclocking, I would like to know till what speed can I overclock processor from its current speed ? Moreover do I have to install a different fan on the processor? It already has one though? My second problem is that since I’ve a Geforce 4 Ti graphics card, I would like to know of any other card I could install with it to get TV out since my graphics card doesn’t have one.

A. Regarding your first query, you would get the best answer in the manual of your motherboard as there are several ways of overclocking. Since normally these days changing the system clock in BIOS setup is the most common way, and this is absolutely a hit and trial method. In other cases also, where the jumpers are being used for changing the clock multiplier ratio, you would need the extensive help of your motherboard manual. So consult the manual, understand, which method is applicable in your case and then try it out. Regarding the CPU fan, you may use Turbo fans or over capacity or bigger fans to provide extra cooling to the CPU, also you should take care to use the thermal compound on the surface of CPU, on which the CPU Fan has to be put. Also use the system fan in your PC, which further reduces the temperature of the machine by blowing air inside your computer. Regarding your second query, there are many AGP cards available in the market today with TV Out option, you can choose a card based on your specifications and install it on your PC.

Q My system configuration is Operating System: Microsoft Windows ’98 (4.10, Build 1998) and Windows XP and Processor: VIA Samuel 2, MMX, 3DNow, 733MHz . Memory:128MB RAM. I have the following problems:

2) I have a game CD named WWF Smack Down which when I insert it gives the message "loading game" but the game does not start. It is a conectix virtual game station CD and needs P2 or higher 32 MB RAM 3D Video card . I will be thankful if you solve my problems.

A. Regarding your problem, you should boot your system, with the disk, which you must have got with your Windows ’98 package. However, if you have lost this disk, then you can boot your system using a bootable floppy disk and then load it from the CD ROM.

Regarding your second problem, please increase the paging file size and also free up your hard disk. Also make sure that you have Active X drivers installed on your PC. I hope by taking care of above-mentioned points, your second problem could be solved.