Monday, June 16, 2003		Dr Tribune

Q I have a Zenith PC having the following configuration: Pentium IV, 1.6 GHZ Processor, 40 GB Hard Disk, 256 MB RAM, partitions are C: = 20 GB, D: = 20 GB and Windows XP installed. My problem is that I want to remove 40 GB hard disk and install 20 GB hard disk but I failed to install it. Is there any jumper setting in motherboard? Do I have to try using formatted one?

A Let’s break your problem into three parts and handle each one independently. First, you want to install 20 GB hard disk. There is no problem in it. For the computer, there is no difference between 20 GB and 40 GB hard disk. Second part of the problem arise if the hard disk is brand new and unformatted. Then you will have to format and make it usable for your computer. However, if the hard disk is pre-formatted then you need not format it again to make it usable. The third part of the problem is about jumper settings. If you are using two hard disks in the same computer, then you will have to change the jumper settings on the back side of the hard disk, to make one primary master and the other one either primary slave, secondary master or secondary slave. The jumper settings for all these are slightly different from each other and are clearly mentioned at the front side of the hard disk. You just need to follow this and you can do it yourself.

Q I have an assembled computer with 866MH Intel Processor, 128 RAM, 40 GB hard disk and installed Windows ‘98. My computer restarts automatically after some time. I have formatted all my hard drives but the problem still persists.

A Please check your power source i.e. the UPS for weak batteries or spikes in your electricity line. Also make sure that you do not have any loose connections in and from your PC. Loose connections can also cause this problem. I am sure taking care of these points would solve your problem.

Q I bought an assembled PC (one month ago) with configuration – AMD Athlon 1700+, ASUS motherboard, 128 MB DDR RAM, 40 GB hard disk (Seagate), Sony’s CD-ROM, 65K Internal modem of Motorola, Onboard 32-bit AGP and sound card. I was using Windows 2000 as operating system and Windows Media Player 9.0. It was playing every VCD and ACD except three of some marriage party in .DAT format. Neither the system was playing those CDs nor was it copying. The error message while copying was "Invalid MS-DOS function." But, they were running on every other PC on which I tried.

Initially, I reinstalled Windows Media Player and tried other software like VCD Power Player, but all in vain. Now, I formatted the C: drive and installed Windows 98 SE and again loaded Windows Media Player 9.0, Winamp 3.0, VCD Power Player, etc. The problem now is every software is playing every video or audio but with triple speed. They are playing a file in 20 seconds, which is actually of 1 minute. What could be the possible problem?

A Please check the playback speed in your software and reset it to the default setting. Also, please lower the hardware acceleration to one count lower. Also please load the default setting in BIOS feature setup for solving this problem.

Q I have Win 2000 OS and Motorola 56 PCI modem. I want to set networking with another computer using mobile phones both sides. I want to access other computer drives and data through this. If possible tell me the hardware and software required if any and the settings in OS. I have seen an option in network & dial-up setting under ‘Make New Connection’ of Win2000(Pro) i.e. ‘Dial up private network using phone line’. Please guide.

A For using mobile phones for connecting two computers, you would need GPRS enabled handset and service along with a data cable, which will be needed to link your computer to the mobile phone. You can also create a dial up account like the one you have mentioned in your problem under Windows 2000 and can use to connect to other PC. However, you must make sure that you have shared the drives on the computer, which you want to access.

Q I have assembled PC with the configuration - Processor- Celron -850 MHz., motherboard- 810-E (Vintron), 128 MB RAM and 20 GB HDD (Samsung) with C:, D,: E:. I use Win 98 as OS & Linux Red Hat (Ver. - 7.2). Earlier, I had two OS which were Win ’98 & Linux Red Hat (7.2) with dual booting . But now due to some reason, Linux link corrupted and the system goes directly to Win 98. Please tell me how can I use Linux space (having file system ext3 & swap) in Windows with Fat32 (Vfat) file system. Can low-level formatting is only way to do this? Please also tell me its syntax. Does low-level formatting reduce the life of hard disk. Also after Linux installation Fdisk does not run either from Windows or DOS mode. How can I enable Fdisk command again?

A Regarding your first problem of recovering your hard disk space, all you would need to do is run the setup of Linux (RedHat) again and run Disk Druid, when prompted. Under Disk Druid, format the portion of the hard disk with Linux on it with VFAT. This will recover your hard disk space and would make it available to DOS. Then you can choose to format it the way you want. Regarding low-level formatting, I would suggest you not to attempt unless it is most urgent, and moreover you do not even need it at all. As far as your query about Low level formatting and the life of hard disk is concerned, Low-level formatting does not actually reduce the life of your hard disk, but frequent LLF could affect the life of your disk. Regarding your next query, it is true that after installing Linux, the partition, which you have used for it would not be reflected by Fdisk, because Fdisk would not be able to read this partition as it is not a DOS partition. This is actually not a problem.

Q I have AMD Athlon XP 1800+ with 128 MB DDR RAM (shows only 96 MB) Window Me operating system. When I start my system, it shows error, "0E:0187:BFF7B018." Then I have to restart the system. After that it runs scandisk. This happens every

time and on second attempt the PC starts. Please solve my problem.

A Regarding your query for 96 MB RAM, instead of 128 MB RAM, it is because you are having memory share with your AGP, which must be 32 MB RAM. Since, this 32 MB RAM is being shared from the 128 MB RAM installed on your PC, so it shows only 96 MB RAM. This does not represent any problem. Regarding your problem of error message, this is a common problem in Windows Me. It mostly occurs, when you install CD writer software like NERO etc. on your system. This problem can be best resolved by reinstalling Windows ME on your system.

Q I have an assembled PC P III 866 MH. with 810 sis chipset motherboard, 128 RAM 20 GB HDD and Win 98 SE operating system installed in C: I have three partitions on my hard disk i.e. C: is 4 GB, D: is 6 GB and E: of 9 GB. I have problem regarding scanning of C: The problem is whenever I want to scan drive C: i.e. thorough scan, it starts scan and after completing almost 75 per cent, it start scanning again and after doing 75 per cent it again starts. Then after sometime give the following message: ScanDisk has restarted 10 times because Windows or another program has been writing to this drive. Quitting some running programs may enable Scandisk to finish sooner. Do you want to continue receiving this warning? Please help me

A Please disable your anti-virus software before attempting to run scandisk and in all probabilities this will solve your problem. Other possible solutions are close all applications running in the system trey icon and also disable any screen saver, which might be running on your system. These solutions will solve your problem.

Q My Internet opens all sites but when I open hotmail after filling name and password, it says page cannot be displayed. When we open it from other computer, it opens. Kindly help.

A Please check that you are not behind the firewall, which might be preventing the page to open. Also please remove all the cookies and delete temporary Internet files for effective solution of your problem.

Q I have a Zenith PC with the following configuration: Intel Pentium 4, 1.5 GH processor, Intel original motherboard, 128 DDR RAM, 40 GB Samsung hard disk, 52x CD ROM and 40x CD writer. Also two OS Win 98 on C: and Win XP on D: My problem is whenever I start my computer, after showing the logo of Intel motherboard the screen becomes blank for 30 seconds and then shows the page to choose between two windows. I want to get rid of this 30-second blackout

A Open Windows XP and then click on Start menu. Then right click on My computer and click on properties. This will open system properties Window on your computer screen. Click on Advance option and in the following Window, look at the option startup and recover and click on settings. Here you can default the default operating system and can also define time to display list of operating system as per your choice. This will solve your problem.

QI have Pentium III system with 128 RAM. My problem is I have found virus in my C: drive. I have 40 GB HDD with four partitions: C:, D:, E:, F: and Win ‘98 operating system. I work with Oracle 8 personal edition. I want to format the drive but when I will format my drive all data will be deleted which I do not want. There are so many tables in Oracle. Please tell me how can I save my data before I format my disk.

A The best option in your case is to take a back up of all your files on CD or Zip drive and then format your system. I suggest that you take back up of all your data in all drives and then opt to format. Now reload the operating system and your program afresh and then install a good latest anti-virus program. Check all files for virus and quarantine the infected files and then store it back to your computer.