IT Queries: Computer problems answered

I have been given a Compaq Presario C 700 series with Vista preloaded. The PC is operated by XP professional – Compucon . My problem is that I want to transfer my Money 99 programme and MS Office, together with Family Tree Maker, Arcsoft, Personal Historian, and other bits and pieces. Which is the best way to go about this? I intend to take the laptop with us when we go touring and use it to keep track on expenses and also download photos from the camera.

Sadly there’s no easy way to transfer programs between computers. You have to reload the programs from their original disks. If you find the older programs, like Money 99 don’t work on the new Vista system then you’ll have to find replacement programs.

Transferring the data can also be problematic, the easiest way is to use the backup function on the old programs and put the backup on a USB drive then restore to the new system.

If you have had to get a replacement program then you may find the backup doesn’t work properly. This is part of the drama with computers and why you may have to call a computer tech to help you.

One important thing to remember when setting up a new machine is not to get rid of the old one until everything is across.

We’ll answer the second part of this question in the next post.

In outlook express, when running an email with a video attachment, I get audio, but no video.

It depends upon what audio you are trying to run. Check what type of attachment it is and that you are trying to run the correct program. The following types are the common formats with the correct programs to run them.

Once you’ve determined you are running the right programs, check your video settings. We can’t really help any more until we know exactly what software is causing the problem.

I use Windows and my problem occurs when I am in hotmail using mozilla firefox. Typical scenario: I’m reading a long email, and as I scroll down using the wheel on my mouse, I get white stripes at the bottom of the screen. However, instead if I drag the bar on the right side of the screen down, there are no stripes. How can I stop the stripes from happening when using the wheel on the mouse? Or should I just use Internet Explorer and avoid the whole thing?

The problem sounds like the wheel is moving too fast and the video card can’t keep up with the change in the screen.

To change this, you can change the wheel speed in the Control Panel. Click on Start, settings and Control Panel. In the Control Panel, click on Mouse and you can change the wheel speed there.

When I install the Hewlett Packard F380 all in one printer on my daughters PC, it fails to fully load properly, its a Vista Home edition sytem, I have used the vista software CD supplied with the printer, all loads OK, but when you turn off the PC and turn it on the next time it does’nt recognise the printer!!!

You then have to put the CD back in again, load the last bit again and then it works?????? trouble is, you have to do this every time! (it is connected via a top quality gold USB cable by the way)

This problem of devices not loading at startup is quite common in Vista. It’s usually a driver problem.

The first thing is to download the latest F380 drivers from HP.

Then, disconnect the printer and uninstall all the F380 printer software. Restart the computer when you are finished.

When the computer has restarted, open the downloaded file and run it. Connect the printer when you are asked to do so.

This should clear the problem, however we have had reports of Vista having problems with multifunction printers, specifically with the scanning functions. If this is case, you need to contact HP.

Can you convert old audio cassette tapes to CD and MP3.

Walter

You certainly can, Walter. You need to plug your cassette player into the Line In jack on your computer’s sound card. You may need to buy the right cable from your local electronics shop.

Having done that, you should download the free Audacity program to capture the sound files and save them to your computer.

Audacity also includes a feature to remove any pops or hisses that were on the original cassette and we’d recommend doing this.

Finally you can burn the files to a CD or convert them to MP3.

While the process sounds fairly simple, it usually takes a few attempts to get right. Make sure you have at least a Gb free on your computer and that the line in function on your soundcard hasn’t been muted.

An excellent tutorial on this can be found on the nsftools site.

Best of luck.

I have bought a webcam and can see myself clearly but not the person I am talking to. I get stripes down the screen?

The fact you can see yourself means it is a problem with the software you are using or the Internet connection. The first thing to check is if this problem is happening in other programs.

Discuss the problem with the people you are trying to talk to and try using another program to see if the problem goes away. Trillian is a popular program but you can also use Yahoo! Messenger, Skype, ICQ or any other service that supports video.

If it is still a problem, you’ll need to check with your Internet provider as certain ports or services might be blocked or your plan is too slow to support video calls.

In this case, without knowing what the software is that you’re using it’s difficult to give detailed advice.

I recently had problems with my computer. Have down loaded new virus scanners etc but my problem is now with Windows Media Played 9. When I run it I have sound but no picture…. has any one got a solution.. running windows 2000

The usual solution for this is to change the video acceleration setting. Open Windows Media Player, click Tools and Options.

In the Performance tab you’ll find the video acceleration settings, if it’s available click the Default Settings button. If it isn’t, slide the performance bar to none at the extreme left.

Click okay, shut down media player and restart your computer.

I have been using Pinnacle V 8 for video editing but I have edited program but due to a fault I am unable to render my final edit as the prog asks for prog to be reinstalled I have tried but there is an operating system fault which requires a re format of hd. I am not sure as to what I have to do to do this operation and not loosing any of my data and drivers
System Dual core 240g hdd XP with external hdd 500g.
Can you help?
I have orig discs and not copies

A reformat is the last resort and we certainly don’t recommend doing that lightly. In this case we’d recommend fully uninstalling the Pinnacle program, Click Start, Settings, Control Panel and open the Add/Remove Programs applet.

Double click Pinnacle 8 and choose the remove function. Follow the onscreen instructions and fully remove it.

When the uninstaller is finished, restart your computer the delete the program folder which will probably be “c:\program files\pinnacle”. If you have other Pinnacle products you may have to go further into the folder to delete the correct program.

Once you’ve done this, reinstall the program and see if the problems have gone away.

If the Add/Remove function is not working properly, Microsoft have a repair tool for the function. This is a free download and you can run it to remove errant programs.

There are some more advanced things you can do to repair these problems, but these require a higher level of computer expertise and we’d recommend calling a computer tech to assist you with this.

I have I Dantz Retrospect Backup Program and recently I receive the following message every day. I assume my back up is not working properly.

What can I do to get my back up working again properly? Thanks for your advice

There’s two basic ways to address Restrospect Express backup errors.

Option One: Remove restore points

The first thing to try is to delete restore points. On your Maxtor drive find the folder called “Retrospect Restore Points” and delete the file named RestorePoint.rbc

Reboot your computer, start a backup and Retrospect Express HD will recreate the RestorePoint.rbc file.

Delete configuration files

Retrospect cpp errors often refer to damaged configuration files. To do this, you’ll have to remove them.

Open My Computer and go to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data and rename the Retrospect folder to Retrospect.BAD. The restart your computer and Retrospect.

If you do this, you will have to reset all your backup settings as Retrospect won’t see the old ones.

We’d also recommend checking the EMC site for updates to your program. Retrospect Express also uses Microsoft’s .NET framework which sometimes gets itself in trouble and can be updated from the Windows Update website.

I have just bought a Ipod shuffle and have not been able to sync my music from my desk top (windows XP sp2) error messages are, could not find required disk and unknown error 1418. I have tried with out success is any one able to help??

It sounds like there is a problem with the disk format. The first thing to do is format the disk. In Windows, open My Computer, the iPod should appear there as a device. Right click it and choose Format.

The format settings should be as follows;

Capacity: The full size of the iPod.
File System: FAT 32
Allocation Unit Size: Default Allocation Size
Volume Label: Can be anything you like

The format options are important, none of the options should be ticked.

Click start, leave it until it is reformatted then eject it. Restart your computer, update iTunes and try again.

If it still doesn’t work on the computer, try it on another. If that still fails return it to the shop for a replacement.