Monday, March 10, 2003		Dr Tribune

Q. My problem is when I boot my computer it boots normally but after a few seconds colour of all application backgrounds and fonts, even Windows, changes to light pink. When I reboot, the font of booting information also gets the same colour. When I run a CD it also gets the same colour. I have CPU Cyrix-III, Windows ’98. Please solve my problem It is not solved from Properties>Appearence

A. The solution to your problem is very simple. Please check the Monitor cable and reinsert its connector to the AGP/PCI VGA card of your computer. IN all probabilities your problem would be solved. However, if the problem still persists then you should get the monitor cable checked for any loose connections.

Q. I have an assembled PC having configuration — P III, 733 MHz, 128 MB, motherboard 810E Intel chipset, 54 KBPS modem & OS is Windows 98 SE. My problem is when I boot my computer it takes more time to boot as compared to the computer of my friend having the same configuration. I also defragged it but there is no improvement. The speed of the Internet is also slow. The PC is going slow day by day. Please tell me the solution

A. The booting process of a computer depends on the items, which the Windows loads when it is started. If there are many programs, which are to be loaded, then obviously Windows will get slow. Also, if you have virus protection enabled on Windows start up, then also the booting process is likely to slow down. There could be many such reasons, which could slow down the PC and this does not show any kind of inferiority of the PC. All you need to do is tune up you PC well. For example remove all those unnecessary programs and processes, which start while the Windows loads and which are not of any use to you. Thus if you do not have a network to share and your network start on startup, this my increase the booting time. Similarly remove all unnecessary programs residing in your system tray. You can get a better idea of these programs and processes in the file autoexec.bat.

Your query about slow Internet speed is be a problem and it could be a resultant of many factors. For example, poor line condition, wrong modem setting and wrong driver installation etc. There could be many such reasons for slow Internet connection.

If you think your PC is getting slower over, then you should first trim the size of the hard disk by removing all junk, which could be shareware, games, fonts, drivers or for that matter useless memory resident programs. Secondly, you should also check if you have installed any program, which might be causing memory leak. If you suspect that the performance is substantially slower, then you must also check for virus in your computer.

Q. I have two computers connected to each other by LAN cards. The configurations of both of them are as follows:

Cyrix 733
128 MB RAM,
20 GB Hard Disk,
Windows ME OS,
HP 640C Inkjet printer connect to this computer

Intel Pentium 1 200 MMX,
32 MB of RAM,
10 GB Hard Disk,
TVSE MSP245 Dot Matrix Printer connected to this computer

My networking is working fine and I am able to share the Internet on both. Also, I can use my TVSE printer from both printers. But I can’t use my HP 640c printer from Computer 2. It prints fine from Computer 1 but show "network access denied" error while printing from Computer 2.

I have tried scandisk, reinstalled the driver but no gain.

A. You must first ensure that your second printer i.e. the HP desk jet is installed on network and is shared on the host PC. You should also make sure that you have given the necessary permission for file and printer sharing. I am sure taking these precautions will solve your problem.

Q. I have P III, 600 MHz, Azza 815tm Integrated Sound and Graphics with Intel Chipset, 128 MB PC133 SDRAM, 20GB Samsung hard disk and Window ME as operating system. 1.I have IE6 and Outlook Express 6 installed. I used it to download my e-mails from www.sancharnet.in by using their incoming mail server. But those e-mails that are downloaded successfully are not removed from their server. How can I do so?
2.I want upgrade memory i.e. RAM. Which type of RAM is best and available in market for my system.

A. For a simple solution to your problem, open Outlook Express and then open the identity, which you are using for checking your mails, then click on Tools menu. From the drop down menu click on your mail account and then click on properties. Now click on the advanced tab and then remove the check mark from the option "Leave a copy of the message on server." Then click OK and click close. Now on whenever you will check your mails, they will be deleted from the server. Regarding the RAM, you can use the SDRAM-PIII in your system. Prefer a RAM with lifetime warranty.

Q. I have connected my AIWA VCD/ACD player’s video L/R speaker output to my computer by the help of a 2 RCA + stereo pin wire. The purpose for connecting this is just to play my computer songs on my AIWA player. The music played in the computer are working well with good output in my AIWA player. I wanted to ask whether it would harm my PC or my Aiwa player. Also tell what is the sound output of computers in watts? My second query is - I wanted to ask whether there is any software through which I could make CD sticker covers and get printed through my Canon colour printer. Thirdly, I downloaded the latest Directx 9 from Microsoft Website but the computer doesn’t show the drivers installed. The files have been copied also and the setup was also completed successfully. Please guide me?

A. Regarding your first query, there is no harm in connecting the PC output to an external source and it would not cause any damage to the PC or CD player. As such there is no sound output of the computer, but the sound output is of the speakers and that depends from computer to computer. The best way to create CD stickers is to use DeSmat CD labels, these are already cut to the size of the CD and thus it makes printing on them very easy. You can print on them even using your ink jet printer. Regarding the Direct X driver, you can check it out from the control panel.

Q. I have a system with Windows ‘98 operating system, P III processor. Some days ago, I loaded one game to my system. After that whenever I boot the system, it asks for scanning because of bad sectors. I have scanned the full hard disk with thorough mode. Then it shows no bad sectors, but again when I boot the system, system asks to scan again. I have loaded Windows 98 in C: drive. And I cannot defragment C: drive. When I give the option of defragmentation, it gives a message that defragmentation restarted several times. And in between the work, it gives a message disk write error, some thing like sharing violation. Please suggest a solution.

A. Since this game is giving this problem, so the best solution is to remove it, as it might be conflicting with your system settings. Regarding the defrag problems, make sure that you have disabled the anti-virus, and also you are not using any video wall paper or any screen saver. You should also check out if there is any program running in the background. If it is so, then you must stop it before running defrag. You should also close all programs in the system tray before attempting to run defrag. I think taking these precautions will solve your problem.

Q. I have a Zenith brand 533/10GB/Intel 810-chipset-motherboard/64 MB RAM with Windows ‘98 installed computer. For sometime now, my computer while starting the Net gets jammed i.e. the globe on the Window stops moving and the computer doesn’t accept any commands. It is only after a few minutes that the Internet gets started. Sometimes it doesn’t start at all and the Internet is required to be restarted after its closure. The CPU makes odd intermittent sound. Kindly advise the preventive action because a lot of Internet time is wasted in just getting connected to the first Web page (default).

A. From the description of your problem, it seems that the system might be low on resources. In the first step remove all clutter from your system and go for disk cleanup. Then you should run scandisk followed by defrag. I hope this will solve the problem. Remember to clear the PC of disk cache and memory cache as this could form a lot of clutter and clogs of your computer. You should also increase the paging file size and keep a good amount of the hard disk free for getting rid of this type of problem. Lastly, you should also check some program, which is either not compatible or causing memory leak or is a large memory resident program.

Q. I have a branded PC (HCL) and I have the following configuration - Intel PIII, 1.10 GHz, 256 RAM, 52x CD ROM, 40 GB hard disk Seagate joystick, 52 KBPS modem internal. Now I have purchased LG CD RE-WR and I got some problems on my PC:

1. I have an audio driver (cmi8738/c3dx pci audio device and cmi8738/c3dx pci audio device) that is shown in the properties of my computer. Whenever, I installed Win XP on my system, it tells it can’t support the audio driver but on my friends computer, XP automatically installs the audio driver but his audio driver is different. How can I install the audio driver? Please tell in detail including about the smart drive and how XP is installed with the help of DOS.

2.When I purchased my new CD RE-WR, it works properly. One day I faced improper shutdown. After that my CD ROM doesn’t work. It hangs the system on the first screen of the computer. I restarted many times but it doesn’t work. Now I have attached only CD RE-WR on my computer. It works well but whenever I attach CD ROM, the same problem arises. Further, when I attach another hard disk on that BUS, it works properly but again when I attach CD ROM the problem arises again. I have hard disk as primary master slave and secondary master slave is CD RE-WR. Please solve my problem as soon as possible.

A. Yours is a simple problem of incompatible driver for Windows XP. The Audio driver you have mentioned should not be compatible with the Windows XP, which in turn is causing this problem. You should download the Windows XP driver from the site of the manufacturer of the hardware or you may try using the Windows 2000 driver. In some cases it works well but in other cases, the specific Windows XP driver is required. Regarding your second problem, you should make the hard disk as primary master, the CD writer as the secondary master and CD ROM as secondary slave. Also correct the necessary jumper setting at the back of your hard disk so as to be able to recognise both the drives. I am sure this will solve your problem.