IT Queries: Computer problems answered

I have dial up email, if I connected the phone line to the wrong connector on the back of my computer will I damage the programs or my computer? ie the network connector and the other one?

No, the plugging the phone line into the wrong socket normally won’t affect your computer, although it’s pretty pointless as your modem won’t work.

I want to rewire my home internet. We have FIOS that is primarily disseminated from a wireless router in our kitchen which I would like to move. The Verizon crew could only find a “signal” from coaxial cable, which they used. Is there a way I can convert the coaxial cable to a more standard cat5e without going outside my house?

It sounds like the Verizon installer took the quickest solution they could find. This should be a fairly straightforward job for a licensed electrician to run some Cat 5 cable from the Optical Network Terminal (ONT) box Verizon installed outside your home to the locations you want.

Most places have regulations regarding who can install cat5 and you should check with Verizon before doing any work around their equipment.

Hi. I am using Windows XP. Once in a while after turning on my computer and then open up files, my computer would go blank (black screen) for about 3 secs. This happens when I any file inluding when I am on the web and I open a new tab or go to another website. I don’t know what’s wrong with it and it really bothers me.

This could either be a problem with your monitor, video card or the display settings.

To change your display settings, right-click the background of your desktop and select properties. The Display Properties box will appear.

In the Display Properties, click the settings tab. In the bottom left hand corner of the box you’ll find Screen Resolution and a sliding bar below it. NOTE THE CURRENT SETTING then move the bar to the left and try the 800×600 or 640×480 resolutions to see if the problem goes away.

Should you have a wide screen monitor the dimensions will be different and keep in mind changing the resolution will affect the size and appearance of the screen.

You may have to call a technician to figure out which is the best resolution for your system.

For the other two possiblities — the graphics card or monitor, these are both hardware related and it’s best to have your local computer store have a look at the problem and give you quote for replacing them if necessary.

Would it be possible for me to install a new video card in desktop pentium 4 cpu 2.66ghz windows XP? The system shuts down then shows message thread stuck in device driver.The video card is nvidia gforce.Thanks.

It would be if you could find the right card, which in the case of this machine is probably an AGP card. The problem you will hit is finding a card is going to be expensive as these aren’t common any more.

You may find replacing the card isn’t necessary and it’s a software driver problem. This can be fixed by booting the computer into Safe Mode, deleting the existing video card drivers and copying the latest software across.

This isn’t a simple task though and it’s best done by a computer technician. You might want to speak with your local tech or computer store to see what the options are. It may be replacing the computer is a more cost effective option.

Hello – we have 2 identical Brother DCP-350C printers and both all of a sudden have stopped printing “red” and why this has affected the printing of black when we have an exclusive black ink in the machines I don’t know but it has and now anything we print out in supposed black comes out in green! I have cleaned and cleaned and cleaned some more but still it hasn’t worked plus replaced cartridges. One printer has already had a printer head replaced under warranty. Neither are under warranty now and are approximately 2 years old. Can you advise anything we might be able to do to get this working as I don’t really think it is worthwhile taking them to a repairer as they only cost $99 each at time of purchase but want to cover all avenues in case there might a simple solution.

If not what machines would you recommend. We only use them for home purposes but my husband does do a lot of graphic printouts so a relatively good quality print would be beneficial. Also are there any just solely black inkjet printers available these days – this would be for the second computer.

The problem lies in the way the Brother printer deals with colours. What is probably happening is if the printer thinks there is any colour in the document, it mixes the red, green and blue cartridges to make something close to black rather than using the black document. Apart from your current problem this is an insanely expensive way to print.

We’d recommend ditching the printers and getting a cheap colour laser. While this may cost a few hundred dollars more than an inkjet, you’ll get better quality prints from a more reliable system. If the two computers are networked, you’ll be able to share them or be able to plug the printer directly into the network.

I am using windows XP. I am on Microsoft Outlook for my email and I have gmail as my default email.

What should i do? should i go to control panel, firewall, and go to advanced and press return to default? i am scared to as it said some things could be lost. I think at some point last week I pressed a button somewhere saying ‘reset’ but i can’t remember what i did . thank you so much.

Email error 554 really doesn’t tell you much except the message has been rejected by the recipient’s server. It could be for any of a number of reasons which could lie on your system, your Internet provider’s servers or a problem at the other end.

One common problem is time and dates. If the clock on your computer is seriously out, then some servers will reject emails sent from it. So checking your computer’s time and date is a good first step.

You should also check your return addresses are correct; for instance if you are sending out emails saying you’re with AOL when you are really with Comcast will be another reason for servers to reject your emails.

If the problem continues, call your Internet provider and get their support line to walk through your email settings to ensure they are correct. Beyond that, the problems are either with the various mail servers or your ISP.

I have been having issues associated with my PC from the past 6 months. Whenever I try to insert a single stick of 512Mb of memory or two of them in pair, my PC either freezes or restarts with a blink of blue screen on booting up. Occasionally, if it does load successfully, there is no obvious increase in performance of the speed and the games as well like The Matrix Path of Neo, NFS Mostwanted etc. My PC has a 2.0Ghz of Intel Processor, an ASUS P4S533-VM board, 256MB of DDR memory, 128MB of nVIDIA Geforce FX5500 AGP card, 80GB HDD and a 350 Watts Cooler Master PSU.

It sounds like the problem lies with the memory not being compatible with the motherboard or the RAM sticks you already have on the system. Often there are timing issues between different sets of memory sticks which negate any benefit the additional memory might add.

The best solution is to take the system to your local computer supplier along with any manuals and invoices that came with the equipment and RAM so the technicians can get the right memory.

Keep in mind it may be necessary to replace the older memory with some newer sticks as this could overcome the problem, also as the ASUS P4S533-VM is an older board it may be difficult and expensive to find the right upgrades.

My windows XP won’t start. I shut down the computer yesterday, today when I started it it will run till the windows boot screen, when the bar reaches the end the screen will stay black and nothings happens

Really appreciate any help.

The problem sounds hard drive related and running the Windows XP CHKDSK command to see if there are any errors on the disk is the best first step to fix the problem. The old Scandisk command went out with Windows ME.

When you boot from the hard drive, you need to choose the Recovery Mode option which allows you to run basic operations on the system without reintsalling. Microsoft have instructions getting into it on their website. Once you are in the Recovery Mode, type the command CHKDSK /r and be prepared to let the disk check run for anything up to several hours.

If you have important data on the system, it would be best to boot the system from a Knoppix disk and copy all valuable information across to an external drive before carrying out any work.

This post is a follow up our earlier answer on Windows XP won’t install

I’ve run the Dell diagnostic CD and no problems were found. I’ve loaded a different version of XP from another CD with similar results. When I try another reload, you receive a message that there is already an operating system on the hard drive do you want it deleted.

This suggests that XP is being loaded but can’t be booted/activated. I now have a variation on the earlier results in that when the computer attempts to boot into XP it requests that the Service Pack 2 CD be inserted then press Enter. Doing this had absolutely no effect.

What you’re describing is consistent with what we suggested in our previous post. If anything, it indicates the problem is with your hard drive.

The Dell Diagnostic CD doesn’t run a disk surface check unless you choose Extended Test and this is what you’ll need to do. Note that Dell advise this may take an hour, however if errors are found it can take substantially longer.

Dell have more details on their Diagnostic programs on their website. If your system is still under a Dell warranty, you should note any errors reported by the Diagnostic routines and call Dell support for further assistance.

When I shut down my computer, it makes a sound (like grunting). Do you know why?

Inside computers there are many things that spin and it sounds like one of those is having a problem when you shut down.

The most likely cause is a disk in your CD/DVD drive or a floppy disk so make sure these drives are empty when shutting down. The other culprit could be tape drives, as older ones can make these sort of noises, your power supply may also be having some problems although that usually makes “grunting noises” when starting the computer.

It may be worthwhile getting a computer tech in to give the system a clean and check all the fans and drives are working properly.