IT Queries: Computer problems answered

I have a problem with an error message telling me that I am running out of space on Presario (D). The message keeps appearing several times in the one sitting no matter what I do. Can you tell me how I can solve this very, very irritating problem. I am using Vista.

A full hard drive on your computer can be very irritating. There’s a few things you can do to free up space which we’ve covered in the Speeding Up A Computer post.

The CCleaner tool is really good for tidying up the hard drive so we’d recommend running that. Just make sure you’ve backed up any data first.

You may find your hard drive is simply full and there’s not much more you can do with the existing one.

It is possible to upgrade to a bigger drive but given the cost of computers and the labour involved in moving data to the new disk often make it cheaper to buy a new system so it’s worthwhile checking your options.

I wish to upgrade the RAM in my Dell Dimension 3000 from 2x512MB to 2x1GB.  The current ram is DDR400.  I have used the crucial.com memory scanner and it recommends DDR333. Which one should I use?

While the Crucial website tool is useful, it’s best to keep all your computer’s memory slots consistent. Sometimes motherboards don’t like mixing different types.

In your case, you’re looking at swapping out all the memory and given Dell installed DDR400 memory to start with, it’s probably safer to stick with it.

Play it safe and go with the DDR400.

My superseded XP PC tower will no longer fire up. When I switch it on all I get is an intermittent beep. Someone suggested that my RAM is kaput. Any comments? Alternatively is it possible to load my new Windows7 PC with XP as well as I have programs that will not run on Win7?

The Intermittent beep is what’s called a POST (Power On Self Test) error. When you turn the computer on it runs through a set of tests before trying to load up the operating system, in your case XP.

Because the computer has found an error before the video system started, it has to use beeps to communicate what the problem is and your motherboard manual should tell you what the POST error codes mean.

Often an error like this is due to something like the RAM modules or one of the expansion cards working itself loose so it’s worthwhile getting the local computer tech to have a look or – if you’re confident – pop the box yourself and make sure all the cards are firmly seated in their sockets. Remember to ground yourself first.

It is possible to run most XP programs on Windows 7, a service for this is Windows Virtual PC.

I have a external Seagate hard disk, I use this external hard disc with my sony laptop with Windows 7, a few days back i hide one folder in my external hard disc with free hide folder software, and that time my external hard disc notification is (I:).

Now I try to unhide the folder with same software but i can coz my external hard disc notification now showing is (J:),so the sofware shows that the folder name or path not find coz (I:) does not appear. please help me how I change the my external hard disc notification (J:) to (I:).

Changing drive letters is a nuisance on Windows Systems which often causes these sort of problems.

The easiest solution is to unplug any devices that have changed the hard drive letters, this includes other external drives, mobile phones, thumb drives or any other device with storage.

If this doesn’t work, you’ll have to change your drive letters manually. We covered this in a previous post, Changing a Drive Letter, which covers the instructions for Windows NT, XP and Vista.

For Windows 7, the instructions are similar and to get to the Administrative Tools panel you click on the Start Button, select Control Panel and the Administrative Tools.

You may have to change the letter of whatever device is hogging the I: drive and then change the J: to I:. The drive will have to be plugged in for this to work properly.

These instructions should help you change the drive letter on a Windows 7 computer.

I have a 2-year-old PC running Windows 7 32-bit with all updates current. I have 4 GB of RAM. When I try to play Computer games for relaxation, after 2 or 3 minutes the whole action slows down. When not game playing the PC seems to work fine, it is only when I start up a game that the slowing down occurs. I have run ScanDisk, Check disk,defragged and run Mal and Spy ware checks, but still with no effect. I am running AVG for security, but nothing seems to help. Is there something that you can suggest, either some program or systm check that might be able to help me please?

Figuring out why your computer slows down when playing games depends upon which type of games you play on computer. Most web based games run on Adobe Flash while others use various programs to create the graphics you see on screen.

If these are Flash games you are using, the first step is to reinstall Adobe Flash and see if that fixes the problem.

For other platforms, you might want to check with the specific game websites to see if there is an upload available.

Another thing that will slow your computer when playing games is your computer’s graphic capacities. It may well be that your computer takes capacity off the main processor to run the graphics rather than use a dedicated Graphics Processor Unit (GPU), so a game will drag resources from the rest of the system and slow it down. This is quite common with cheaper computers.

There are usually settings you can use to change how the computer allocates resources, but the best solution to games slowing down your computer is to install a dedicated graphics card that will improve the system’s performance. This will probably cost a few hundred dollars including installation.

When I open photos on my iPhone, my camera roll album is hidden under the top header “Albums” and I can’t open the roll. How can I access the iPhone’s camera roll?

This problem where the Albums header hides the iPhone camera roll seems to be a bug in the recent iOS software update which Apple will probably fix soon.

Fixing the Albums heading from hiding the camera roll can be done by doing a hard re-start of the phone.

Hold down the “Home” key, the big button on the front, and the off button on the top of the iPhone at the same time and hold both down for ten seconds.

The phone will restart and the iPhone Albums heading should no longer hide the camera roll album.

I was given a friend’s computer after she died. I think the hard drive is over 10 years old. It’s a Compaq Presario Colorreal with Windows XP. I had a lot of trouble with very slow functioning and then trouble getting connection. TPG weren’t able to solve the problem so I just cancelled them after months of back & forwards with them. I haven’t used it since.

When I connect my ipod/mobile/cd to computer and I open its folder/subfolder the computer gets restarted. Even after scanning above said icons I could not get rid of said problem?

The problem is your computer’s power supply can’t deal with the power load, each device draws some power from the system and when you start using them the computer deals with the overload by shutting down.

To fix this, first look at what you have currently connected to the computer. It may be you have a printer, scanner or external hard drive that is drawing a lot of power. Disconnecting these may resolve the problem.

Another fix is to purchase a powered external USB hub to plug your phone, iPod and other devices into. The power will be drawn through the mains connection to the hub rather than your computer. Some devices, like iPods and printers don’t always like this solution however.

If your computer is a desktop system you can also upgrade the power supply for under a hundred dollars, if you’re not comfortable doing that yourself the local computer tech will be able to do it for you.

I have just changed to ADSL2 & I got a wireless modem as I am now using laptop & Desk PC at home office. I live in a three floor townhouse in a strata property & the concrete floor slabs are proving too difficult for the wireless network if I’m on a different floor to  the modem location when using laptop. The ISP  told me to get a “cheap” wireless router but i am unclear how this will help if i have to plug the router into the modem.

Can you help explain?

Since changing to ADSL 2 I have had bad phone connection so I don’t want a router to make that deteriorate further.

The problem you have is the construction of your building, it’s almost certainly built with reinforced concrete floors which contain metal bars to make the concrete slabs stronger. This combination of rocks, cement and steel make it almost impenetrable for wireless networks.

You might be able to improve the signal between floors by putting the router in or close to the stairwell so the signal can get between floors, but even that will probably not get you good coverage throughout the house.

Probably the only reliable solution will be to run cables between each floor and set up a wireless base station on each. This shouldn’t affect your phone signal.

The phone signal problem is probably related to your phone not having line filters properly installed, we cover this in our Bad Phone Connection After Installing ADSL Post.

I’ve had an ADSL internet service installed to my house and since I’ve started using it, my telephone line quality has become terrible. How do I fix this?

ADSL internet services use a certain part of a phone line’s signal which is one of the reasons why you can still speak on the phone while surfing the web.

Because of this, the ADSL signals have to be separated from the other phone services using a little device called a filter, this makes sure the phone and ADSL won’t interfere with each other.

What’s probably happened at your home or office is that a filter is either not installed, not fitted properly or defective.

Check each device that has a telephone connection in your premises has a matchbox sized filter attached and that they are plugged in correctly as shown by the labels on the plugs. If the problem still continues, then you’ll need to unplug devices (called an isolation test) until the problem goes away which will tell you which filter isn’t working correctly.