General Issues & Problems

Q: I have successfully burned (using Nero Express) some files on to the CD Rom. However all the files are read only - is this normal? There was one file I wanted to remove from the CD after putting it there in error and it wouldn't let me.

A: CDROM is an acronym for compact disc read-only memory, so yes, anything on a cd is read-only, by definition!! To change/edit documents that are on a cd, yes you have to move them off the cdrom disc first by copying them to, say, your My Documents folder. And no, you can't remove files from a burnt disc once you have put them on. There are there forever! This is why cdrom's are good for data backup and preservation

Q: Should I get Windows Vista?

A: There are varying opinions on this, but there are some things that are for certain:
- your existing computer is probably not powerful enough to run Vista - the fully featured version needs a fast CPU (3Ghz), lots of RAM (1GB minimum, preferably 2GB) and a good Gaming Quality graphics card; so, you would be best advised not to do an upgrade to Windows Vista
- many hardware suppliers have not yet developed the drivers needed for their hardware to work under Vista, including major players such as AMD and Ati; what this means is that a good deal of hardware will not work under Vista
- is your printer a few years old? How about your camera/scanner or any other peripherals? Chances are new drivers for these to work under Vista will not have been written yet (or at all) so it is likely you will have to replace all of these items
- do you use any specialised software? Check first if there is a Vista compatible version - chances are there is not
It is also worth remembering that Microsoft have a track record of bring software to the market that is 'not quite ready'. For instance, although Windows XP came out in Oct 2001, it was not until around Sept 2004 with the release of Service Pack Two that the major bugs and flaws had been ironed out. My advice: stick with Windows XP for at least the next two years!!

http://apcmag.com/5049/10_reasons_not_to_get_vista
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128669-page,1/article.html
http://www.dailytechnobabble.com/2006/11/09/4-reasons-why-windows-vista-is-just-not-worth-it/
http://www.olddogvt.net/downloads/VISTA-10-Reasons.htm

 

Q: After printing a document onto a floppy disc and then checking it had gone on ok, the floppy was taken out. Later I placed it back in the floppy drive, only to be told the "disc was not formatted, did I wish to format.' As this disc had been formatted originally and had some 1.1mbs of info on it, some 23 different files, I said no. It now will not recognise the disc. The floppy drive works ok on other floppy discs, but not this one now. It has happened to my wife before, and once only temporarily to me before this. Why should this be?

A: Sounds like the floppy disc itself has failed. If the drive can read other discs, then it is not the drive that is the problem, all I can suggest is that you try the disc in another computer and see if that can read it. If not, then it would seem that the disc has become corrupted, the formatting has gone - and so are all the files. It just happens sometimes - it's a bit random! Floppy discs are not the most reliable backup medium unfortunately.


Q: I can't find how to get to the printer queue - other than waiting for half a ream of paper and a print cartridge to be wasted waiting for a failed print prompt. Where has my printer info gone to and how can I now delete print runs that aren't working?

A: Click on the Start button, then Settings, then Printers and Faxes and that will take you to the printers folder. Double-click on the printer and then that will bring up the current print queue. Right click on the backlog of unprinted documents and choose 'Cancel'. It might take a few minutes for them to stop, but after a while they will all be removed. Reboot the computer and then try the printer again - and all should be well.

Also, often when the printer is printing, a little printer icon appears down by the clock in the right hand corner of the screen. If you double-click on that icon, it also opens the print queue for the printer and then you can right-click and 'cancel' the printing that way also.

Q: How do I make movies using Windows Movie Maker? I have attached my digital video camera to the computer but can't seem to capture the footage very well. I tried this and burnt it to CD but it looked awful when I tried watching it on my TV set. Also, how do I add effects etc into the movie?

A: Attach your digital video camera and start Windows Movie Maker. In Windows Movie Maker:
1) capture the video at the highest possible frame rate (2.1Mbps PAL) and capture the segment(s) from the original that you want
2) this then forms the 'collections' in Movie Maker
3) edit the clips as you want and drag them down to the Timeline/Storyboard, adding in transitions and fade ins/outs, titles etc
4) save the movie you have made at the highest possible frame rate (2.1Mbps)
Repeat for all the footage that you have that you want on CD and save all these clips into the same folder (eg: My Movies)

To burn these files to disc, using Nero CD Burning software:
1) start Nero
2) choose 'Make VCD'
3) select the clips from the 'My Movies' folder you want included on the Video CD (up to 700MB total size)
4) put a blank cd in the cdrom drive and click 'Burn' and wait for it to finish burning to disc
And then play the VCD in your DVD player and watch in the comfort of your sofa!
That is all there is to it. I know from what you have said that you have accomplished much of this, so you can't be far short. Give it another go. Hours and hours is always the best way to learn!! :-)

Q: I have just tried to find excel on Microsoft office on our Start Menu. We have word, power point etc on the sub menu but not excel?

A: Don't worry - you haven't lost the program; you appear to have lost the shortcut to it only. Click on Start > Search and search for Excel.exe. When you have found it, right click on it and choose the option 'Send To....." and from the sub-menu that appears, choose 'Desktop as Shortcut' and this will put a shortcut to it on the desktop
Alternatively, just navigate through the computer using Windows Explorer and go to:
c:\program files\Microsoft Office and when you find Excel.exe, create a shortcut and send it to the desktop.

Q: I downloaded the latest version of Real Player, because a window asked me to do
so. Now it is always this player that opens for every .wav file I get. How can I change it into the windows media player that I had before and I want as the standard player?

A: I'll give you three ways you can deal with this problem: (1) uninstall Real Player
or (2) find a .wav file, right-click on it and choose 'open with..' In the window that comes up, choose the program you want to open wav files with (eg Windows Media Player) and put a tick in the box which says 'always use this program to open this type of file' or (3) launch windows media player, click on Tools > Options and go to the File Type tab and put a tick against all the filetypes you want opened with media player. Any of these methods should do it.

Q: What is 'System Restore' and what does it do?

A: System restore is a system backup program that is a very useful feature of WIndows XP and Windows Vista. It basically backs up your registry and other system settings - and this can be very useful if you muck things up by installing new software or playing around with firewalls etc. When you do your maintenance routine, launch System Restore and 'create a new restore point', calling it System All OK, or something like that. You can also use this before/after you install any new software. You shouldn't use 'Restore my computer to an earlier time' - this is only done in an emergency! For more information on it, click Start > Help and read up about System Restore in the help files. It's a very good and useful thing.

Q: I was running the Ad-Aware programme today, & at the end of the system scan run through, a red spider came up, & told me that 1 object recognised, 1new critical object, &1 file identified. How do I delete this object, or does this happen automatically? Please advise.

A: Just put a tick in the box against the object(s) found and then click on 'Next' and it will delete them.

Q: Just got back and started using computer again but the graphics seem to have gone weird. Pictures and colour backgrounds all speckly and hard to make out. Any suggestions?

A: Click Start > Settings > Control Panel and then double click 'Display'. Go to the 'Settings' tab and up the colours to at least 'High Colour 16 Bit' & click 'apply & OK'. And that should sort it.

Q: I'm having problems running the scan disk in my toolbox. It suggested I run a thorough scan disk, which I attempted to do, I kept getting this message: "Scan disk has restarted 10 times because windows or another programme has been writing to this drive. Quitting some running programs may enable scan disk to finish sooner" - but I'm not running any other programs and I haven't been able to successfully run a scan disk. I am using Windows 98.

A: Have you disabled your screensaver? If not, click Start> Settings > Control Panel > Display, go to the Screensaver tab and make sure the screensaver being used is 'none'. Then re-start the computer and go into Safe Mode. To get into Safe Mode, press the F8 key repeatedly as your computer starts up and you'll get the Windows Boot Menu. Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to select 'Safe Mode' and press 'enter'. Once at the desktop in Safe Mode, click Start > Run and type scandskw and press OK. Better still, if you want to run scandisk in 'thorough mode' and scan all the individual clusters and check the sectors of the hard drive itself, reboot the computer, hit the F8 key and then choose 'command prompt only'. From the C:\> prompt, type scandisk and run the program in DOS mode. Be warned: doing a thorough scandisk can take hours - or even all night! So be patient.

Q: I can't launch Paint and can't seem to find it anywhere on the programs menu. How do I get it back?

A: MS Paint is (usually) one of the extra Microsoft programs that comes with Windows and is usually installed by default. You may have to re-install it, so make sure you have your Windows CD ROM handy. This is what you need to do:
Click Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs
In Add/Remove Programs, click on the tab called 'Windows Setup'
When this comes up, highlight 'Accessories' and click 'Details'
Make sure there is a tick against the box called 'Paint' (untick it and retick it if there is already). Click Ok / Apply / Ok - at which point you may need the CDROM - and it will re-install MS Paint.

Q: My computer is slowing down and I get a lot of pop-up adverts when I am looking at webpages, which are very frustrating. Why is this?

A: Sounds like you have some bad software on your computer - the pop-up adverts you are getting suggest that you have a Spyware infestation. Have a read of http://www.red-dragon.net.nz/anti/parasites.htm and follow the suggestions there. I suggest you download Ad Aware and SpyBot Search & Destroy - that should sort you out.

Q: Could you tell me please, how do I create folders within the my documents folder so that I can tidy this up a bit. And when I have created new folders, how do I put files info in the folder?? Step by step instructions if you can!

A: Open the My documents folder and right click on a blank space in the folder. From the menu that pops up, choose New > Folder.
A new folder will be created called 'New Folder' - give it a name that you want (r-click on it and choose 'rename') and you are done.

To save files into that folder, from within Word/Excel when you go to save a file, choose 'Save As...' rather than 'Save' and in the window that pops up when you do this, navigate to the folder you want to put it in. By default, Word etc will save into the My Documents folder. When you do 'save as', you should see the folder you have created there; double click on it to open it as the save location and then click on the button that says 'Save'.

Q: Every time I start up my computer, it says it was not shut down properly and runs something called 'scandisk', which takes ages. How can I stop this from happening?

A: Scandisk is a utility built-in to Windows as a protection against possible hard drive damage. It does what it says it does - it scans the disk (the hard drive) for errors - and will automatically launch at start-up if Windows detects that Windows had not been closed down properly. You should always shutdown your computer using the proper Windows method - ie click on Start > Shut Down and then OK (or use your Fast Shutdown shortcut if you have one!).

The shutdown process is important - it allows programs that are running to be closed properly, allows for data to be flushed from RAM and the hard drive cache and gives time for the heads that read your hard drive disc to 'park' themselves - rather like the needle arm on a record player used to 'park' itself when finishing playing a 33rpm vinyl record (ah… those were the days…)

If the computer is shut down improperly - eg by just pressing the 'off' button, Windows does not have the time to go through this little routine. Moreover, the reading arm of the drive heads don't have time to 'park' and will just drop onto the surface of the disc. This is how the surface of the disc can become damaged. If the disc surface becomes damaged, then the data that was stored in that area of the disc may become lost. Running scandisk is your safeguard against lost data - so if Windows wants to run it when you start up, let it! Scandisk will try and retrieve and save the data and will then mark that area of the drive as 'Bad Clusters' so that no data can be written to that area of the drive again.

Scandisk also does various other things - such as check your file structure, check for cross-linked files and incorrect file names to make sure all these are all alright - and is a very helpful ally for general computer maintenance. You should run it from within Windows in 'standard' mode on a monthly basis. 'Thorough mode' is for more serious crashes - here Scandisk will perform a 'surface analysis' and look at every little sector of your drive for possible problems. Depending on the size of your hard drive, this can take a very long time - 8 hours or more is not uncommon!

Improper shutdowns can be very minor or can be very serious - if the drive head damages the area of the disc where your registry is stored, for example, then Windows will not start ever again! You should always be careful to shut your computer down properly.
However, if you are going through the right procedure and you are still getting Scandisk starting up every time, then it could be that you need to patch your Windows installation. Windows 98 and Windows 98SE both have known issues with shutting down, as discussed at the Microsoft Knowledge Base. See articles Q238096 and Q202633 at http://support.microsoft.com

If these patches have been applied and you are still getting the problem, then it is probably an indication that your hard drive is about to fail and needs to be replaced. This is a big job - after a new hard drive has been put in, Windows will need to be reinstalled, device drivers and software will need re-loading and, most importantly, your data needs to be backed up. So get all your discs ready and call in a technician. Don't delay - get onto it straight away.

Q: I have been sent some fonts that I would like to use but I can't find them when I am using Word. Its called sitcom__.pfm. How do I install them?

A: This sounds like an Adobe font… Adobe software is primarily designed for Apple Mac computers, so you need some 'interpretation' software to get it work with Windows, called Adobe Type Manager. You can download it for free from Adobe's website at http://www.adobe.com/products/atmlight/main.html Once the software is installed, it is easy to use to get the fonts installed and accessible in Word and other Windows programs.

Q: How do I install Windows Updates? I understand that this is important to do to get the latest security patches and fix the latest glitches, but I am not sure how to go about it.

A: Windows Update can be done from http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp
When it comes up, click on the line that says 'Scan for Updates'
If a message pops up saying 'do you trust Microsoft?' Tick yes and click OK. It will take a minute or two to scan your computer and will determine which updates you need. Then it will say: 'Review & Install Updates'. Click on this link and it will show you what it has found for you to install. This will list only the Critical Updates and Service Packs, which is all you really need. Click on the 'Install Now' button and when the new message box appears, click 'Accept' The updates will then download and install (this might take a while!!!). When done, you MUST restart your computer.
Installing the Windows updates is probably more important than anti-virus software - it fixes the holes that are exploited by viruses and stops them getting into your system in the first place.