IT Queries: Computer problems answered

I cannot hear anything on my computer when looking at websites( youtube etc) I can hear things when using media player or itunes but nothing else. When I go to control panel and click on sounds and audio devices it says no audio device. It use to work normally but all of a sudden stopped. any ideas please??

We’ve covered missing sound devices in a previous post.

In your case, the situation’s slightly different. The sound device is obviously working but Windows isn’t recognising it as being the default setting.

To change this open the Control Panel by going into Start, Settings, Control Panel and clicking on Sound and Audio Devices.

In the Sound and Audio Devices properties click the Voice tab. In this tab you will the default devices, click the drop down box and change the device then click okay. If you have a number of devices you may have to experiment to find the correct one.

my problem is when i try to save movie clips — i usually use windows media player as i can save them— but when i did a general update it changed over to quick time movies when they download and i cannot find were to save the movie clips

What has happened is Quicktime has become your default media player. To fix this, open Quick Time, click Edit, Preferences and Quicktime preferences.

In the Quicktime preferences select File Types and take the tick off MPEG. The next time you try to open an MPG video clip, the computer will ask you what program do you want to use and you can then choose Windows Media Player.

Quicktime caches files in the Temporary Internet Files folder on your computer, depending upon your setup this will be either in C:\Windows or C:\Documents and Settings\your user name\Local Settings.

In Vista, the Documents and Settings folder has been renamed Users, but the layout is the same.

If you can find them, it’s a simple matter of copying them to a more accessible location.

My previous computer was using Windows XP Pro. I used Outlook for my e-mail program. Many times I saved e-mails in the Outlook format – .msg I bought a new computer that now is Windows Vista and the Windows Mail is .eml format. I am unable to open any of my old saved messages of the .msg format. If I try, it opens a box asking me which file format I want to import contacts from, which makes no sense to me. Is there any way to open these .msg messages in Windows Vista? I am a bit frustrated that this hasn’t been a “uniform” type updated system. Thank you for your help.

You are quite right to be frustrated, Microsoft really dropped the ball with having different file formats for Outlook and Outlook Express/Windows Mail. It’s another example of how pointless the name “Outlook Express” was for Windows Mail was when the two programs have nothing in common.

All of that aside, there are tools that allow you to open .msg messages, but the simplest solution is to download the Office 2007 Trial Edition then use Outlook to open the files and then save them in .txt format where they can be read by almost any program.

Since my Grandchildren visited and downloaded music, I have been plagued by Pop-ups. What is the latest free program I can use to stop this nuisance.

Unfortunately you have a malware infection. Your computer has picked up a program that feeds adverts into your computer. The people who put this rubbish on computers deliberately prey on kids looking for free music.

We have instructions on removing this stuff in a previous post. Keep in mind it can be difficult to remove these infections so you may have to call a computer tech in to assist you.

We’d suggest setting up limited user profiles for your kids. We have instructions on doing this on our PC Rescue website.

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.

My son has a computer running Windows 2000 Professional. He created a user name and password to to prevent a minor from accessing the computer. On closing it down and rebooting it he was refused access to the computer. how can he bypass the password to get in?

There is no way of bypassing the login screen if it has been setup, luckily there’s a number of useful tools that allow you to reset passwords.

The best tool in my view is the free Offline NT Password & Registry Editor by Peter Nordahl.

Your son will need to download the tool on another computer and then either burn it to CD or extract it to a floppy disk.

Once he’s done that, the locked computer should be started with the floppy or CD. This will start a mini version of Linux that has allows you to reset the Administrator password.

Read the instructions carefully! and take your time with the tool.

You should also be aware that if there are encrypted files in the Administrator profile, they will be inaccessible after resetting the password. There are also some problems with more advanced functions on Windows servers.

Once the Admin password has been reset, remove the disk, restart the computer and login into Windows using the name Administrator with no password.

Once in Windows, go to the Control Panel, click Users and reset the passwords for all users to something secure.

With minors, it’s a good idea to setup each user with their own Limited User profile. We have instruction on doing this on the PC Rescue website.

This process requires a fairly high level of computer skill, so if you find it’s too complicated, it’s best to call a qualified technician.

Have updated to Norton 360 on main computer now can’t access this computer on my network places

Regards John

Hi John,

The problem is almost certainly firewall related. The Norton 360 is blocking access from other computers.

This is proper behaviour for a firewall, unless told otherwise the system will block anything that’s potentially a problem and other people trying to connect to the computer is certainly a problem.

To fix this, you’ll need to tell Norton 360 to trust your local network.

Open Norton 360, click Tasks and Settings then Advanced Settings and Firewall Protection Settings.

In the Firewall settings, click Network Location. In there your network will be listed under Limited Locations, highlight it and click the arrow to it the Trusted Locations box.

There are some other errors that can cause this with the network sharing in Vista and XP which can be fixed through changing file permissions and network locations in the Vista Network and Sharing Center.

I’ve been told to find my IP address. What is it and how do I find it?

IP stands for Internet Protocol, it’s the way computers talk to each other over the Internet. To do this, each computer has it’s own address on the network or Internet.

To find your computer’s IP address, open the Run (Windows XP) or Find (Windows Vista) and type CMD. A black screen will appear and you then type IPCONFIG (capitals don’t matter).

This will list all your IP addresses. IP addressed appear in the form of four groups of three separated by fulls stops (eg 192.168.100.203) disregard those that say “not connected” or have a number starting with 169.

One thing to be aware of is if your computer is connected to a home or office network then the IP address shown is that of the local network, the address on the Internet itself will be different and you can find that through online services like What is my IP.

If you require the IP address for something like Virtual Private Networking, it may be necessary to obtain a fixed IP address from your ISP. It may also be necessary to organise a computer tech to setup your service..

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.