windows xp

Tue
16
Sep
Dennis Faas's picture

SiS KHooker, DownloadWare, and Video Display Trouble?

Infopackets Gazette Reader Niel L. writes: " Dear Dennis, Greetings from Trinidad ... (view more)

Tue
02
Sep
Dennis Faas's picture

Windows XP Dialup Internet reports 'no connection available'?

Infopackets Reader Temple D. writes: " I have just bought a new Dell computer that has Windows XP and I use dial-up Internet. Every time I disconnect from the Internet, my computer defaults back to 'Never Dial a Connection'. I've reset it to 'always ... dial my default connection', hit 'Apply', and 'OK' -- but, when I try to connect again, I get an error message which reads 'No Connection Available.' Subsequently, when I go into Tools -> Internet Options -> Connections, the option 'Never Dial a Connection' has been re-enabled (again!). What do I have to do to keep this from happening? ... (view more)

Tue
29
Jul
Dennis Faas's picture

Windows Theme Software

Infopackets Reader Colette C. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'm running Windows XP Professional and would like to know where I can find some easy-to-understand information about how to install and uninstall Windows XP themes. I'm having trouble try to ... disable the sounds which play when Maximizing and Minimizing a window. What can you suggest? " Side note: A theme for Windows consists of sounds and pictures which encapsulate a subject (for example: sports, art, computers, etc). Events on the PC coincide with particular sound files, such as opening or closing a window, or perhaps shutting ... (view more)

Thu
24
Apr
Dennis Faas's picture

Windows XP won't Shut Down, Part 2

In the last newsletter, a user named Rezzy47 had problems shutting down and restarting his system in order to run ScanDisk on his hard drive. Recall: " I run Windows XP Home Edition. Every time I attempt to run ScanDisk [CHKDSK] on one of my hard ... drives, Windows gives me the message, ' Please wait while windows restarts ... ', but never does. Is there a fix to this problem? " My response: I didn't have a sure-fire fix for Rezzy47, but suggested the following: Install the latest Windows XP Service Pack (1) and bug fixes. Searching the Microsoft Knowledge Base / Dell web site for a fix. As a ... (view more)

Tue
22
Apr
Dennis Faas's picture

Windows Wont Shut Down?

Rezzy47 asks: " I'm running Windows XP Home Edition on a Dell 8200 Desktop computer. Every time I attempt to run ScanDisk [CHKDSK] on one of my hard drives, Windows gives me the message, ' Please wait while windows restarts ... ', but never does. I ... have to shut the computer down manually by turning off the power. Is there any solution to this problem? " My response: I know that the "shut down" feature under Windows hasn't worked properly since the days of Windows 95 ... but I figured that Microsoft licked this problem once-and-for-all with Windows XP. I guess not. ... (view more)

Tue
15
Apr
Dennis Faas's picture

CD Burner won't write at maximum recording speed?, Part 2

Last week, Ben M. from Australia wrote about a problem he was having with his 40x CD burner not being able to write at maximum speed under Windows XP. Ben's main problem: both Roxio Easy CD Creator and Nero Burning ROM (CD burning software) only ... allow the burner to write at 16x instead of 40x write speed. Ben's computer is running Windows XP with 256 meg RAM on a 1.7 GHz machine and a 40 gig [7200 RPM] hard drive. In short, here's what Ben has already tried: Replaced the burner with another (same model / brand); Changed the buffer size for CDFS (CD File System) under Windows XP; Updated both ... (view more)

Thu
10
Apr
Dennis Faas's picture

CD Burner won't write at maximum recording speed?

Ben M. from The Land Down Under (Australia) recently told me about a problem he's been having with his 40x CD burner. In a nutshell, Ben can't get the writer to record at maximum speed and asked me for some troubleshooting suggestions. Ben writes: " ... Dennis, I religiously read Infopackets 3 times a week! Thank you. As a computer technician, I find your newsletter a valuable troubleshooting resource. Unfortunately, I'm having a problem that has got me stumped and was wondering if you had any suggestions? I recently purchased a new computer (Celeron 1.7GHz) with 256MB RAM, 40GB hard drive, ... (view more)

Thu
13
Feb
Dennis Faas's picture

Windows Thumbnails won't appear?, Part 2

Yesterday, I wrote about a problem that Ed B. from Long Island, New York had with some pictures not showing up as "thumbnails" in Windows XP. I suggested that Ed may have inadvertently saved some of his graphic files with the wrong extension. I ... received a few suggestions from readers with their thoughts. In fact, Pippie wrote to tell me about a security issue with viewing thumbnails in Windows XP: " MS turned off a few features in the Thumbnail View for stability ... (view more)

Wed
05
Feb
Dennis Faas's picture

Windows XP Crashes with My Nvidia Geforce Mx 400 Video Card?, Part 2

Lately I've been getting a lot of emails from folks who are in the same predicament as I am: Windows XP crashes when an Nvidia video driver is installed. MSI (MicroStar, Incorporated) is the company that manufactured my particular video card; Nvidia ... makes the graphic chip (GPU, or Graphics Processing Unit) present on the card which allows me to play 3D games. I'm using the video card in combination with a Tyan Tiger MP2460 multiprocessor motherboard (AMD 760MP chipset). In the past, I've tried to get my Ge-Force MX-400 video card to work with Windows XP using many suggested methods, including ... (view more)

Wed
15
Jan
Dennis Faas's picture

Why won't CHKDSK (Scandisk) for Windows XP fix file errors while Windows is loaded?

My friend Abba from California called me on the phone this morning after he received yesterday's issue of the Gazette which talked about Disk Imaging and Partitioning. Abba asked me why Windows XP didn't come with Scandisk and wondered why something ... so important such as Scandisk isn't easily accessible on the Desktop. I told Abba Windows XP doesn't use Scandisk anymore and now uses a program called CHKDSK. By the way, CHKDSK actually means "check disk." To use CHKDSK on Windows XP and scan your hard drive for errors usually caused by an improper shutdown: Double-click My Computer ... (view more)

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