IT Queries: Computer problems answered

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.

Hi Paul,
Unfortunately you had run out of time on the excellent radio program last night when I called. Wondering if you have any idea what has suddenly happened to my pc, XP o/s, HP9002.
1. All of my Inbox in Outlook Express disappeared. The 400 emails had been sent to the Deleted folder. This always happens when I first go in to Outlook
2. The Delete keyboard key no longer works.
3. When I click on the task bar Start menu a pop-up asks me if I want to send the Start Menu to the Recycle bin. This only seems to happen intermittently.

Hope you can help.

This certainly is very suspicious behaviour and the first step would be to follow our Removing a Trojan instructions. Before doing that, make sure all your data has been backed up.

Both free versions of AVG and Avast! are good programs and you should use whichever one you find easiest to install.

If no malware is found, it might be best to have a technician look at the system and your security settings.

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 am trying to upgrade from XP to Windows 7 and I’ve purchased a Western Digital external Hard drive so that I use the Windows easy transfer but I cannot save anything to this drive as it doesn’t appear as one of the available drives.

In Device Manager it shows as working correctly. It uses Windows USB drives so I have checked these. I have also used WD Help and they initially thought I had a faulty or damaged drive but I have the same problem with the replacement drive.

The likely problem is Windows has given the wrong drive letter to your external disk which is already in use by another device. This is a common problem on networks.

To fix it, you need to tell the system to change the drive letter. To do this, right-click My Computer, then click Manage and select Computer Management (Local)

On the right hand side of the screen (pictured above) click Disk Management then right-click the new drive and select Change Drive Letter and Path(s).

Click Change, and in the list, select a drive letter for the external drive that isn’t being used by another drive. It’s usually best to leave a few letters spare so this doesn’t happen again, for instance if the existing drives are C:, D: and E:, choose H or I. A good choice is R for “Removable Drive”.

When you’ve selected the new drive letter, click OK, and then click OK again.

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.

I have many things that appear twice or more in my add or Delete programs file.Why is this …J2SE Runtime three times.

What is all this stuff and do i really need it all taking up space on my hard-drive…. Grateful for any intelligent but simple language reply Thanks

Sometimes Windows programs don’t behave as they should and you get multiple entries but in this case, it appears they are legitimate programs. Java is particularly notorious for leaving older versions on your computer.

The first thing to do is to run the Windows Installer clean up tool which we’ve described in an earlier post. This will clear out any problems.

For programs like Java which have installed multiple versions, it’s probably best to uninstall all of them then download and install the latest version from the Sun Java website.

In the case of the Windows Updates, these are best left alone as they are specific fixes for known Windows problems. Should Microsoft release a Windows XP Service Pack 4, then it may be worthwhile deleting these before installing the new upgrade.

The Visual C++, we don’t know. Do you have a programmer in your household? If so, best let them deal with it or leave the program alone.

Otherwise, it’s best to delete anything you don’t use often. However the general rule with computer is “if you don’t know what it does, then leave it alone” and that certainly applies to your Add/Remove programs.

What is indexing?

Indexing is noting the names and contents of files so it’s easier to find them later. It’s like the index of a book where you can quickly look up which pages a word, name or phrase appears rather than reading the whole book.

In the computer world and on the Internet, indexing speeds up looking for things as the process of searching through millions of websites or folders for your search would be painfully slow.

On Windows computers, there is the Indexing Service which was designed by Microsoft to speed up search. Unfortunately it never really worked that well and we recommend disabling it.

Overall, Indexing is a good thing as it makes life easier for us in the Information economy. It isn’t foolproof though and if it’s poorly done it can cause problems.

I am running windows 7 ultimate, and installed office 2003. I use outlook for my emails, but when I connect to myInternet service provider (ISP) to retrieve messages from a Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) server, my password is not retained even though I chose to save the password. Entering the correct password again does not resolve the issue. I have tried deleting that account and redoing it, but I still have the same trouble. Also when some friends sent pictures they come in as attachments rather than on the email. I asked it they pasted onto the email or sent as attachments but they have said that they sent it pasted on the email. Is there is a setting that I must change to fix this?

This is a difficult problem as there’s a number of settings that affect how Windows and Outlook retain passwords. The first thing is to visit the Microsoft Update site and make sure both Windows and Office are updated with the latest patches and service packs. Sometimes you have to repeat the process a number of times so keep visiting the update site until you’re told there are no more critical updates.

Once you’ve fully updated your computer, reboot and see if the problem has gone away. If not, open Outlook, choose Tools from the menu bar and select options . In the Options window, select Security.

In the Security settings, select the Zone Settings box. You’ll be prompted about the fact you’re about to change security settings, click OK.

The box that will then open is the Internet Options windows. Select Local intranet and click the custom level button.

Security Settings – Local Intranet Zone will then appear. Scroll to the bottom of the list to User Authentication and tick the Automatic logon with current user name and password. Click okay until you’re back to Outlook, shut down Outlook and reboot your computer.

On rebooting, you’ll be asked for your password one more time, make sure the Remember this password box is ticked and the problem should go away.