IT Queries: Computer problems answered

I mainly print black and white photos from my printer. No matter what I do, I cannot get pure B&W prints – the blacks are never dense black and there is a pale greenish tinge across all the grays. I get the same effect whether I print from the PC or direct from the printer. Selection of “Grayscale” at the printer Properties does not help.

My printer is an Epson Sylus Photo RX630.

My PC is a professionally supplied custom build using Gigabyte Technology motherboard S Series 945GMF-DS2 with Intel Core 2 Duo.

Hoping you can help – I would like to be able to make correct B&W prints

The problem is with your printer settings. Rather than using the black cartridge, the printer is mixing colours to create the “gray” tones.

This isn’t just irritating, it’s also a waste of ink.

To fix this, you’ll need to go into the advanced printer options where you should find an option to use the black only for grayscale. There should also be a setting to only print in black and white which will disable the colour cartridges.

Unfortunately the Epson website doesn’t explain how to do this, but a bit of exploration in the printer settings (click the Advanced buttons) should find it.

This sort of problem – poor software and bad documentation – is common with Epson printers which is a shame as the printers themselves are very good products. It’s worth considering this the next time you look at a printer purchase.

My computer I have just set up. When working ok last night I switched it off then turned it back on this morning it kept repeating itself by logging in then switching itself back off again. The erorr comes up as PRI slave HDD erorr. What can I do to sort it out please?

Unfortunately it sounds like your hard drive has failed. The PRI slave HDD error means the computer can’t talk to the main hard drive.

It could be something as simple as a loose connection or it could be something as serious the drive failing. 

Either way, you’ll need to contact the supplier if the computer is still in warranty or call a computer technician.

I’ve got a 5+year old Dell PC – everything is fine but performance is a bit slow – I expect this is due to upgrades of software (XP and Norton) without upgrading the hardware. Its a 2.4G Pentium with 384M of memory.

I think upgrading memory will improve performance. I can expand the memory to 1G. But is this much memory ineffective with a 2.4G processor speed. For example, would i cap out with 512M of memory?

If there is a limit on memory it won’t be so much the processor limiting it as the motherboard. The easiest way to check the limitations of your system is to log onto the support section of the Dell website and enter your service tag number which normally appears on a sticker on the top or back of the system.

You’ll probably find a computer of that age will probably support up to 2Gb of RAM however it will probably be an older type so it will be more expensive than the current models.

Generally it’s best to buy memory for these sort of systems from the manufacturer. While you’ll pay more, you’ll avoid strange bugs and incompatibilities.

I have a lenovo laptop running Windows XP that shows a blue screen when it is turned on. The message reads “STOP: c000021a {Fatal System Error} The windows Logon process system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0×00000000 (0×00000000 0×00000000). The system has been shut down.”

many thanks for your help.

Windows is trying to do something like rename or update a file on starting and failing. Microsoft explain the process here. As result the computer won’t start.

This isn’t simple to fix and we wouldn’t recommend Microsoft’s solution. Instead we would use a Knoppix or BartPE disk to repair the problem which may involve moving system files from a repair directory back to their correct location.

Using recovery disks such as Bart or Knoppix is not something we would recommend to inexperienced users. If you aren’t sure about any of this you should call a computer tech to do this for you.

It’s also possible your hard drive is damaged and you should get your computer tech to check this and make sure your important data is backed up.

I have DSl modem it works great. If I hook either of my computers to the DSl modem they works fine. If I hook up my 4 port D-Link or Linksys router the computer which is 25′ away will work but the other which is 150′ away will not connect. I have ran a new line, replaced the router ,and talked to someone for an hour at D-link that did everthing but fix my problem. Dell wants to charge me $50.00 just to tell me the problem please HELP?????????????

Normally the first thing I would look at with this problem is the cable running to the computer 150′ away. However you say that you “ran a new line” so I’m assuming you’ve replaced the cable.

The most likely cause of the problem is the network card in the remote computer has a problem with detecting the connection to the routers.

Modern Ethenet cards automatically detect the speed of the device at the other end of the cable and adjust their settings accordingly.

Most modems have compartively slow, and older, 10 Mbit Ethernet connections while most routers have 100 or 1,000 Mbit ports and sometimes defective Ethernet ports struggle to detect the faster ports properly.

The simplest solution is to replace the network card. You can do this yourself with a cheap USB adaptor or you can get your local computer tech to install a new internal card.

I keep getting a pop up saying “this device can perform faster USB 2.0″ i usually use skype for video chat. after i get this pop up my cam doesnt work until i restart… plz help me out.

The problem is the USB port you are plugging the web cam into is the older and slower USB 1.1 standard and your webcam doesn’t like it.

Some computers have a combination of USB 1.1 and 2.0 ports so you may want to try your other USB ports to see if they are the newer, faster variety.

If you don’t have USB 2.0 ports, your local computer shop can install a USB 2.0 card into a desktop system for under $100.

Otherwise, you may want to reinstall your webcam software as it sounds like it isn’t working properly. Download the latest software for your webcam, disconnect the cam and uninstall the software.

Reboot your computer, run the downloaded updates, plug in the webcam and see if that clears the problem.

My HP laptop has an 80GB hard drive.  With photos etc it is getting very full,

I have ordered a 160GB 2.5in PATA drive to replace however I do not want to reload the world.

Is it possible to mirror the existing hard drive (using XP pro Backup), remove and install the new C drive and reload the software??

I have a 500GB USB external hard drive I can use for this.

If this will not work; what are my options without having to reload everything.

Thanks Howard.

Hi Howard,

There’s a couple of utilities that will mirror the old drive entirely to the new drive, but they aren’t for inexperienced players. Probably the best product is Acronis True Image.

The advantage with this is, if everything works, the new hard drive is identical to the old one except you have more space. It saves hours of reloading software and remembering settings.

You’d use the drive cloning software to create a file on the external drive, then install the new drive, run the cloning software again and recreate the system on the new, bigger drive.

Another option is to simply copy your profiles (a folder like c:\documents and settings\howard or c:\users\howard) to the new hard drive and then you can nstall windows. It’s possible to get all your settings across that way.

Another way is to use the built in Windows Backup (NTBackup) to create a full backup of your computer on the external drive, reinstall Windows on the new drive and then restore your system using NT Backup off the external drive.

All of these are time consuming and you will find the local computer shop should be able to do if for you for a couple of hundred dollars.

I just purchased a Canon PIXMA MX310 multifunction printer.  I have an HP slimline desktop computer.  I installed it but the printer doesn’t print.  I think it has something to do with how I identify my port.  Also there are so many usb places to plug in – I don’t know which one to use.

Can you help me please?

It shouldn’t matter which USB port you use, normally they will sort themselves out.

However sometimes ports will malfunction so you may want to try each port until you find one that works.

If none of them work, it may be the sofware isn’t properly installed. You may need to reinstall it by unplugging the printer and putting the installation CD back in.

Should the installation program only give you an uninstall option, do that then restart the computer and run the install software again.

When asked, plug the printer back into the USB port.

If the software doesn’t detect it, try another USB cable and if that fails return the printer to the supplier.

I have a fairly new HP Pavillion with Vista Home Premium – It regularly ( once a day at least ) “crash dumps” I have not added any hardware since purchace except more memory- now 3gig – what could be causing this?

It sounds like something is wrong with the memory. 

The first thing to do is take the memory out and see if the crash dumps go away. If they don’t then some more troubleshooting is in order.

If the crashing does go away, try reinstalling the memory. Some motherboards are little fiddly with the memory slots and it’s not unusual to find one or more of the memory modules aren’t quite fitted correctly which will cause this random crashing.

It is also possible the memory needs to be installed in a certain order. You’ll need to check in the manual that the modules are in the right slots.

Finally, if the problems reappear when the memory is installed correctly then the RAM modules are either incompatible with the system or defective and they should be returned to the supplier.