Monday, January 12, 2004		Dr Tribune

Q I have a Pentium 4 chip Odyssey motherboard, Windows XP OS, Samsung HDD, NVidia TNT2 model 64 VGA BIOS, LG 52 MAX CD ROM etc. For about a month now, I am getting the following message on clicking my choice of Windows on starting the computer.

Message: "Windows cannot start normally because following file is missing or corrupt windows 32/pci.sys. Please insert the original Windows XP CD into CD ROM and press ‘r’ to start repair." If I want to undergo the repair process by inserting the Windows XP OS, original CD in the CD ROM drive`E0 and pressing ‘r’`E0no repair wizard opens up. But if the activated computer is restarted after 5 to 10 minutes to Windows XP start opening/operating normally.

I am unable to detect the cause of defect and don’t know what steps should I follow to start and complete the repair process normally?

Please note: My Motorola SM56 speakerphone internal modem software (on fax talk CD) is also digitally incompatible with the Windows XP OS. Please give a detailed stepwise reply/solution for the first as well as second problem.

A To restore the above-mentioned file, perform an in-place upgrade or expand the file from the recovery console:

1. Start the recovery console.

2. Select the installation you wish to access.

3. Type the administrator password.

4. Type MAP to determine the drive letter assigned to the CD-ROM.

5. Type Expand <CD-ROM DRIVE:>\ i386\ pci.sy_ c:\ Winnt\ System32\ drivers /y. You should receive: pci.sys 1 file(s) expanded.

6. Type exit.

I hope this will solve your problem. This problem, is sometimes caused by a faulty memory stick. Try removing memory sticks one by one and restart your system. This will solve your problem, if it has been caused by faulty RAM chip.

Q I have an assembled PC with Celeron 566 MHz processor, 10 GB hard disk, 64 MB RAM running on Windows ‘98 SE with Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 and an in-built modem. I have the following problems:

The speed with which the Windows used to open when I am online has considerably reduced. The same is true in the case when I am offline. I have refrained myself from loading extra software on the system. I had got the system formatted earlier because some bootable virus had engulfed my system. I had changed hard disk then. The number of programs on the hard disk had reduced since. Every component is working but slowly (as it seems). I had run Norton anti-virus twice but my problem has not been solved yet.

Please help me solve this problem.

A First check out for virus on your system online on either trendmicro.com or Mcafee.com to ensure that your system is virus free. Normally viruses make your PC slow. If no virus is detected in online virus checking, then you should try and improve the performance by running scan disk in thorough mode followed by disk defrag. Also, increase the size of RAM for better and improved performance. Also, reduce the number of colours in display settings to 16 million from 24 or 32 million. Also, set up your PC to be configured to work better for performance than for appearance by removing settings for smooth edges of fonts, shadow behind icons etc. as this will considerably improve the performance of your PC.

Q My PC has Celeron 1.7 GHz, 40 GB hard disk, D-link motherboard with 128 MB DDR and Dlink modem. My problem is when I started scandisk a message appears: "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." And disk starts scanning afresh after clicking "Yes." Previously, I had Via Cyrex-3, 600 MHz, with Vintron motherboard,128 SDR, 20 GB HDD that was also showing this message. Defragmentation also stops, asking for scandisk first. Now I have changed/upgraded my PC as above but the problem still persists.

R.K. Chawla, Jagadhri, Haryana.

A This problem is primarily due to programs, which run in the background and the most common instances of such programs are screen savers, video wall papers, anti-virus programs, or any other program, which is running in background. Firstly you should disable screensaver and also disable anti-virus software running on your system and then try scandisk. Most likely your problem would be solved. However, if the problem still persist then you may have to check our in the system tray to assess which other programs are running in back ground. I am sure this will solve your problem.

Q I have Pentium 4, 1.4 GHz With 128 MB RAM with Win ‘98 OS. When I open to check my e-mail it displays the following message, "Your browser must support cookies in order to use Web Mail. However, your browser apparently has cookies disabled. Please consult your browser’s documentation to re-enable cookies, then return to the login page."

A Assuming that you are using Internet Explorer as the browser, click on Tools> Internet Options> Privacy. Now adjust the slider downwards to risk setting of medium. Then click apply and OK. Now restart your browser and your problem will be solved. Alternatively, you can also click on default button in the privacy settings to return to default settings.

Q I am having P4 (1.6 GHz) with operating systems Win Me, Win XP and Server 2003. CD-ROM is not detected in my Win Me. I have given path in config.sys and autoexec.bat files for that but that also does not work. Please tell me the perfect way to do it.

A Simply load the default settings in the BIOS feature setup and restart your system. On restarting you will find the CD ROM in My Computer. Also please make sure that unless you are sure what exactly should be done, please do not edit the system files, including the one mentioned by you. In modern operating systems you need not handle these files manually in normal circumstances.

Q I have an assembled P III, 800 EB, MB-810i and 128MB SD Ram system running WinXP Pro, Version 5.1, Build 2600 on D: and Win ‘98 SE on C: Drive. My query is in Win XP, I am getting the following Error frequently: "Windows Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience. If you are in the middle of something, the information you were working on might be lost." The error pops up when I do copy paste 2-3 times on any like such operation in Explorer windows. And then all explorer windows close. I am using RegCleaner 4.1 by Jouni Vuorio, EasyCleaner 1.5 by ToniArts and Norton AV 2002, Version 8.07.17C with Virus Definations updated. I also scanned my PC for viruses and do scandisk thoroughly. Tell me how can I get rid of this error.

A From the description of your problem, I could only narrow down that this problem could be related to some memory module. But for exact solution of your problem I would need finer details. I would need the exact memory address, which is causing this problem. When you restart your system, you must be getting a message, which would read something like "Your system has recovered from a serious error." The details related to this error are also provided in the Windows below it. Please copy and paste this error message and mail it to me. This error message will give the necessary clue to handle your problem.

Q I have e-mail accounts with Yahoo! and Hotmail and am using Outlook Express as the e-mail client. It retrieves all my mails from Hotmail but I don’t know the incoming mail server for Yahoo! In case of Hotmail, this field was there by default as http://services.msn.com/ svcs/hotmail/httpmail.asp. Is there any such address for Yahoo!?

A Yahoo! used to provide its POP and SMTP address, which were used in any email client. But now this has become a paid service and not available free of cost. If you are interested in getting this service at a cost, you can contact Yahoo! for the same.

Q I have P III, 500 MHz processor with 64 MB RAM having Windows ‘98 operating system. My problem is regarding installation of new fonts. As the Windows help says I need to go to "fonts" folder from control panel and there choose ‘install new font’ from the File menu. But when I do this, I don’t find any "install new font" in the File menu of the ‘fonts’ folder in my system. Please tell me how to do this. Do I need to reinstall Windows?

A From the description of your problem, it appears the fonts you are trying to install are not true type fonts and therefore they are reflected in the install new font Window. To install these fonts, you would need software called ATM or Adobe Type Manager. This problem has however got removed in more recent operating systems like Windows 2000 and Windows XP. You do not need to reinstall Windows, but if you wish you can buy an upgrade of Windows and upgrade your system.

Q I have Pentium III with Motorola SM56 PCI Speakerphone Modem (internal). I deleted the driver or software (or whatever it’s called) by mistake which dials the modem. I want to make it functional again. Please advise from where can I download the driver or what exactly do I need to do.

A From the description of your problem, what I could understand is you have deleted the dialer and not the software or driver. First of all, check out if it is there in the recycle bin. If you find it in the recycle bin, simply restore it from there. Or if it is not there in the recycle bin, then all you need to do, to use your modem now is make a new dial up connection from dial up networking. For creating a new dial up connection, Click on Start>Program>My Computer and then right click on it. Now click on explore and then click on Dial up networking. I would like to mention here categorically, that the settings may vary a bit here depending upon the operating system. But you will find dial-up networking/ network connections under one of the options available here. For example you will get dial up networking in Windows ‘98, directly on clicking explore (as mentioned above). Whereas in case of Windows XP, you will have to click Start>Program>My Computer and then right click on it> explore>Control panel>network connections. Click on either of these options depending upon your operating systems and create a new dial up connection by filling in the required entries and this way you can create a dial up connection. If you are not sure whether you modem is installed or not, you can check out from the control panel itself under the modem option.

For all your computer-related problems contact Dr Tribune at drtribune@tribuneindia.com