Monday, October 21, 2002		Dr Tribune

Q. I have Celeron 766, Intel processor with memory 64 MB RAM, 20 GB HDD, file system 32 bit, Windows '98 operating system. The problem with system is that when I connect to the Internet it shows a warning message: "SM56 hardware warning - unable to support current country setting. Change country to USA in tray helper application." I tried to change it by clicking on a Phone icon on task bar and on settings. I've changed the country to USA. After that I restarted the system, according to the message displayed and reconnected for the Internet. Still it gives the same warning. After clicking OK button it gets connected. Please tell me how to rectify this problem. And the next thing that I want to know is when I switch on my system for the first time at the time of configuration checking I get the following messages: C:\ > c:\ windows\ netstart Invalid value for binding specified Error loading device driver NDISHLP.SYS Error 7373: one or more network transport drivers failed to load. Although this type of message doesn't give any problem while running the system still I want to know what is it exactly.

Sonia Bhardwaj, Chandigarh

A. Regarding your first problem, you should select the country setting as CTR 21 instead of USA as this is the correct setting. This will solve your problem. Your next problem is related to networking. Since, there is a system entry for starting the network, because of which you are getting this problem. If you don't have the network installed in your system, write REM in front of the entry in the Autoexec.bat file and this will prevent Windows from loading the Network on your system. From the description of your problem it also appears that the driver for network adapter is also corrupt. For correcting it, you must either uninstall the Network adapter or reinstall the driver correctly. I hope these solutions will solve your problem.

Q. I have a P III 600 MHz processor with 20 GB hard disk and 2 partitions. Windows Me is installed on C: I have Motorola SM56 modem installed on Com 3. I have a problem in using my modem. I am not able to connect to the Internet. The modem connects to the Internet properly when I give username and password in post-dial terminal screen and press continue. But when the connection is made, the modem does not send or receive any bytes. It stops after sending 270 bytes and receiving 270 bytes. I’ve installed modem again on Com 3 but the problem is not solved. When I click on driver info in modem properties window properly communicates with modem and shows speed of 115 baud. I have lowered the level of buffering but the problem still continues. I have tried 3 ISPs but the problem persists. Earlier modem used to work when I connected my PC from other place but after changing my place modem stopped connecting to the Internet. Please solve my problem.

A. You have given a clue to your problem, since changing the place has caused this problem, thus I would suggest you to check the telephone cable for any faults. Also, please uninstall any extensions or extra gadgets like fax before you connect to the Internet. If you find your telephone line is worn out, please get it replaced. Also, you should fix all cuts and joints in your telephone line. I hope these solutions will solve the problems.

Q. I have an assembled PC with 810DTC motherboard, Celeron 455 MHz Processor, Windows XP and 64 MB RAM. Now I need more RAM because system speed is very slow. My first RAM is PC 100 type and nowadays only PC 133 RAM is coming in the market. Is this is possible that the new 128 MB RAM of PC 133 type works properly with 64 MB RAM of PC 100 type.

A. I think that putting a 133 MHz RAM will not do any good to your system, because the system speed (front side bus speed) of your machine running on your Celeron processor was limited to 66 MHz only. Therefore putting a fast RAM could be a wasteful exercise, as it may not deliver the desired results. However, you can still check out with the manual of your motherboard for more details.

Q. I have PC 800 MHz, Mercury motherboard with 20 GB HDD, 128 MB RAM. I have Win NT OS. I was trying to install Win 2000-Advanced server on the same PC. After almost 99 per cent installation was completed, the system hangs. I waited for nearly 45 minutes to check what is happening. At last I rebooted the PC and found that it is not getting booted at all. It comes up to Building DMI pool and hangs. I tried changing the BIOS settings disabling HDD and made first boot as floppy. It is not even booting. So I started browsing the Internet for the help. I found some interesting solutions (disabling internal cache etc.). I tried all but no luck. Can you please help me? I would be grateful to you. Also please clarify, can we change BIOS chip? Is it available in the market?

A. This happens quite often if you wrongly install an operating system with Windows NT. However from the description of your problem, it appears that the situation has become complicated in your case. Now in order to handle this problem, you should reboot your system normally and press F8, as soon as the BIOS test the memory and immediately before the process of loading windows begins. Now choose the option to load Windows with the last known good configuration. If the PC detects the System files correctly, it will load Windows NT. But if this process fails, then you will have to reload Windows. In your case changing the BIOS settings will not help, as this problem is not related to BIOS.

Q. I have assembled PC with the following configuration: 1.0AGhz Celeron Processor, ASUS TUSI-M Socket 370 micro ATX motherboard with onboard CMI-8738 PCI 3D extension positional audio chip, 40 GB HDD with four partition, 128 MB RAM, 52x CD ROM, 1.44 FDD, Motorola Internal Modem and Windows 2000 server as operating system with NTFS on C: drive and FAT on other 3. I have two problems:

Firstly, whenever I switch on my computer for the first time it shows me a stop error with message of INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE. Further on it says if this is the first time I am seeing this message then "restart the computer. If not then check the system for virus, remove any newly installed hard drive or drives and to check whether the hard drive is properly configured and terminated." It also asks to run the CHKDSK/F for hard drive corruption. I have done all that is said but I am unable to remove this error. Please help me.

A. Have you installed Windows 2000 service pack recently? If this problem has occurred after installing the Windows 2000 service pack, which is the most common reason for this kind of problem, then you should remove the jumper that limits cylinders from each affected IDE hard disks so that the drive can be addressed properly after you apply Windows 2000 SP1. This issue can occur because Windows 2000 service packs introduced a fix to correct when CHS or LBA addressing should be used to address a drive. Some IDE hard disks provide a jumper that limits the number of cylinders. If this jumper is in use, the hard disk is not addressed properly after you apply Windows 2000 Service Packs. However, if it does not solve your problem, then please write back the exact error message, especially the message with "Stop" error. Also please write back, whether you have used this Hard disk on a different computer also as it is. This information would be crucial for the solution of your problem.

Q. I have P III, 866 MHz, 40 GB HDD, Win ’98 SE operating system, 128 MB RAM. My problem is whenever I run DOS or C/C++, my Winamp 2.78 and Jetaudio 4.0 gets interrupted on every operation. But Windows Media Player works well. My vendor is unable to solve the problem. Please suggest a solution and mail me back.

A. Try increasing the paging file size and also free up more hard disk space. Also avoid using too many open windows at the same time. I hope these solutions will solve your problem.

Q. I have 2 systems. Recently on one of my system, I installed Turboc but unfortunately it had a virus in CD and when my firewall scanning started it showed the message that there is a virus in d:\ turboc\ turboc. The name of virus is "touchvirus." It gave the option to clear and clear all so I just clicked on clear. After sometime when I again scanned there was no virus found in my complete system. Kindly tell me whether the virus is still there or not as my system is working properly now. Kindly give some details on virus also in your edition. My next query is on my second system. It happened 2-3 times. When I log in after few minutes, I get the message "someone is going to attack on your computer" or "your computer is being hacked." What does it mean? After reading this, I used to switch off my system. My next query is related to the files or mails I want to read if I am not saving the mails sent by my system. Is there any option to check the mails sent from my system? I’ve already tried to check it through temp. Internet files and history files but it doesn’t work.

A. There is no virus by the name of "touch virus". The virus, which sounds similar to this is touch.308 virus, which is a non-destructive, but it attacks the.com and .exe files in the current directory. Now, since your system shows that the virus is removed, you should not get over alarmed and forget about it. However, you must be extra careful about viruses next time, Regarding your second query, it sounds more like a hoax or a payload of some other virus or Trojan horse. The best solution is to keep your system regularly checked and ignore any such hoaxes.

Q. What are the POP3 and SMTP server addresses for Yahoo! So as to configure my Yahoo.com e-mail account on to the Outlook Express?

A. POP3 and SMTP services of Yahoo! are no longer free and are paid services now. In order to use the POP and SMTP addresses, you will have to buy an account from Yahoo.

Q. I have Pentium 4, 1.6 GHz, Intel processor and 845 Vintron motherboard, 40 GB hard disk with two partitions C: and D: I have Windows ’98 second edition installed on C. The problem is when I open .jpg image files then the file does not open and becomes .jpg.exe file. I want to know, is it a virus or do I have to install Windows again. I also want to know if it is a virus then what do I have to do? My all other software are working properly.

A. This problem is not due to any virus, but it is because of wrongly associating the .jpg files with a program to open it. Simply double click on any .jpg file and then choose the option open with, then choose either Paintbrush or any other graphic software to open these files and check mark "always open with the program". You can even associate Internet explorer to open these files. This solution will solve your problem.