Monday, January 13, 2003		Dr Tribune

Q. I have a P4 processor with 128 MB RAM, 40 GB HDD, CD ROM in E: Hard disk drive C: and D:. I have the following problems: Whenever I shut down my PC, after hitting OK, the Windows disappears as normally happens. But then the PC restarts automatically until I switch it off from the UPS. Please advise.

Gagan, Patiala.

A. This is a legitimate problem and its specific solution would depend upon the operating system you are using. Since you have not mentioned the operating system in which you are facing this problem, so it would be difficult to give the exact solution. I request to kindly send me the details of your operating system also for exact solution of your problem.

Q. I have a "D-Link DFM-560ES " modem and Satyam as well as mantra online Internet connection. These were working well, but since last few days they both are not able to open Yahoo.com, Bazee.com and MSN.com whereas rest of the sites are loaded easily and work fine. Please suggest how to open these sites. Secondly, I have an Aiwa VCD/ACD Player that I have connected to the computer in the speaker output. Please tell whether it may harm my PC or CD Player? My third problem is that I have a Website "www.anujvohra.talk.to" but it takes lots of time to open. How can I decrease that time taken for loading?

A. Regarding your first problem, first of all I would suggest you to clear your disk and memory cache in the browser, as clearing this would solve your problem. Secondly, make sure that these sites have not been saved to be viewed in offline mode. As this could also be a potential cause of problem mentioned by you. Regarding, your second problem it is not proper to connect the VCD player in the speaker out port of the computer as this is not the right place to connect the VCD player. I don’t think that you would be able to use VCD player in this setting. Regarding your third problem, if you think that other sites are working fine on the computer and only this site is not working properly, then this would probably mean that the problem in this case is with the site and not in your PC and thus it would not help you much in this case as this could be due to the problems in the server on which you have hosted your website. I assume that the performance of only this site is not good, as you have not mention it for other sites.

Q. I have some problem with my computer. My computer has configuration P III, 1GHz, 810e mercury motherboard, 40 GB HDD, Win ’98 and 2000 installed on it. I have BSNL Internet connection. I am not able to configure my Microsoft Outlook to receive and send mail. It shows error "Task!"nmma.sancharnet.in-Sending reported error 0x80040154" (Unknown error 0x80040154). Please help me. I will be grateful.

A. I think the problem is due to wrong setting of e-mail account. Please reconfigure your account with correct SMTP and POP address. Secondly, also provide the necessary authentication to the send and receive email. As this could also cause the problem in your mail account. So, check out the setting under the Tools>Accounts>Properties>Then in General Tab, click the setting for "Include this account when receiving mail or synchronizing" and then in the Server tab check the setting for "My server requires authentication" under the Outgoing mail server option. I think using these settings beside correct configuration of your email account using right SMTP and POP addresses would solve your problem.

Q. I have a PC with following configuration.

1. Processor P III, 667 MHz

2. SIS motherboard with onboard Sound Card, LAN, Modem (HSP Micromodem)

3. 128 RAM

4. Samsung CD ROM

5. Samsung 20 GB without partition

My PC runs well on Windows ‘98. But recently I loaded Windows 2000. It installed properly But when I try to work on it, it gets struck and I have to reboot the system. At the same time when I run Win 98, it works well. I have tried all methods of installing like partition and load only Win 2000 with MS DOS in FAT32 as well as NTFS system . But the result is the same. So kindly suggest where the problem is.

A. There could be many reasons for the problem mentioned by you, which includes bad sectors in the hard disk or using some old program, which might be causing the system to fail. Start from the basic and check out the bad sectors on the hard disk by running the scandisk in thorough mode. If you find bad sectors, you can blame it for the trouble, however, if you do not find any bad sectors, then you should hunt down the program, which might not be suitable for the Windows 2000. I think that these solutions would solve your problem. It is in your interest to regularly scandisk and defrag your hard disk as it eliminates the chances of any problems in your system.

Q. I have two Celeron computers, 433 MHz, 64 MB RAM, 10 GB hard disk having Windows 2000 loaded as the operating system. Both systems have network cards in them. I want to connect both systems for doing video conferencing and video chatting. Kindly tell me the details of requirements for connecting both systems for the same. Is there any special software needed to install video conferencing? If yes, I would like to know the name of the software.

A. Video conferencing or video chatting is quite simple these days with modern age gadgets and gizmos. All it needs to start video chatting is a few settings. Since you already have a LAN card, so half of your job is done. Now, you would need video/web camera at both the ends. Also you should have the LAN pre-configured and working on both the systems. Now you would need software, which connects using the IP address. Since every computer has an IP address, so your computer should also be having one IP address. You can use software like Buddy Phone, which connects computers using IP address and also enables Video mode. You can simply dial the IP address and get connected. There are many other software available on the Internet, which work using the IP address. You can search them and download from Web.

Q. I have PC with the following configuration - Processor P-4, 1.60A GHz, 400-MHz System Bus, 512-KB l2 Advanced Transfer Cache, Intel desktop board D845WN. On board AC’97 Audio Featuring Sound max With SPX., 40 GB HDD (Samsung) C: & D: drive 52X Max CD ROM (Samsung) E: drive, HP CD-Writer CD 12 series F: drive, Logitech Webcam, Acer scanner, 1.44 Samsung floppy drive, 128 SD RAM, GVC 56K external modem, Yamaha gold speakers, Samsung keyboard and Frontech scroll mouse. I face the following problems:

1) Whenever I play a game, the sound or the sound effects go off after some time. To solve this problem, I either have to reboot the PC or start the game all over again. This problems also occurs when I use high end music creation software like cakewalk. There is no sound output while playing wav files. Again reboot the PC or log off. Should I install a new sound card? Can I have two sound cards? What can be the advantages?

2) What does Mic2 select and +20 DB gain refer to in the volume control bar.

3) Can you give me some tips of maintaining PC speed and is Windows XP more fast and useful than Win ’98? Which is the best operating system for office and home use.

A. Regarding our first problem, the most likely reason is that the game you are playing might have loaded its own codecs, which is conflicting with the settings of your sound card driver. Thus the best solution in this case is to fresh install the sound card driver in you system. I hope this will solve your problem. I certainly don’t feel that there is any need to install new sound card. You can install two sound cards in your system, but only one sound card would be active. So practically there are no advantages of having two sound cards. Regarding your second query, the Mic2 option is for digital echo for microphone mixing circuit. It could be useful for Karaoke equipments. Regarding the third query, the best tip I can offer for maintaining your PC well is to regularly Scandisk and Defrag it. Also, keep your system clean of all the junk like Shareware, games, fonts, drivers, demos etc. Cleaner the system faster it is. Next is do not use the highest display settings for optimal speed of your PC. They are normally inversely related. Also, you should keep the paging file of your PC large so that it never runs short of memory. There is a wrong general notion these days among the computer users that the Modern PC’s are not affected by dust and moisture. This simply wrong and detrimental to the performance of the PC. Keep your system clean physically also for good performance.

Regarding the choice of operating system between Windows XP and Windows 98, I would go for Windows ’98 SE, unless the work requires operating systems like Windows XP. There are three basic reasons. First Windows ’98 SE is relatively cheaper than the Windows XP Professional edition. Windows ’98 SE is well-featured and still the most widely used operating system and there is extensive help available for it. Third, Windows ’98 SE works well even on good old machines. However, this choice could depend from person to person and the usage.

Q. My ATX box has a Mercury 810e w/ Celeron 800 MHz, 256 MB RAM, 40 GB HDD (C:), 6 GB HDD (D:), CD RW (E:), DVD ROM (F:), 3 ½" FDD, XP professional OS. The problem is that my new HP 3225 printer connects via USB line and old programs (e.g. one I wrote in GW Basic) either hang or give an error message saying there is no printer found at the com1 port. And then the system hangs. Can I insert an instruction somewhere to redirect all com1 searches to the USB? Or any suggestion for me to get the printer working in these cases as it is fine for all other software, e.g. Microsoft Word etc.

A. USB is the default port of all modern systems. Now since the USB is working fine in all applications other than your own program, thus you would need to modify program accordingly. Since I don’t know what your program is exactly, so it would be difficult to guide you. But you can refer to the help section of your programming software for troubleshooting this problem. Alternatively, the printer should also be having the parallel port other than the USB port. Thus you can install another copy of its driver configured for parallel port and while printing from your own application, you can use the parallel port to print. Whereas for other application, you would able to choose between USB or parallel port.