IT Queries: Computer problems answered

I have Windows XP Professional with Windows Media Player version 11.0.5721.5230 and all the current updates. I am having trouble burning CDs…it may burn 2 out of 12 songs and then just says it can’t burn and finalises the CD so its wasted. It doesn’t do this all the time, just sometimes but I am wasting far too many CDs. I like making compilation CDs from my own collection and I am getting very frustrated. I have slowed the speed right down, tried different brands of CD. Is there another music program which would do this for me more consistently?

Burning CDs is a bit of a black art. There are a lot of variables and results can be unpredictable.

The first thing we do when confronted with a CD burning problem is to turn the burning speed down to the bare minimum.

In Windows Media Player 11 you can turn the burning speed down the following way, click the Tools menu, select Options then under the Burn tab change the burning speed to “slow”.

If this doesn’t work, we’d suggest getting another CD burning program such as Nero. You may find your computer has a copy of Nero Express or a similar program already on it as part of the package.

Just wondering what you think about registry cleaning software. Is it a good idea? I visited a comparison website at compareregistrycleaners.org and the test results for Max Registry cleaner shape up the best.

We’re a little wary of any registry cleaners. While the theory of deleting unnecessary registry entries is good, there’s a lot of scope for things to go horribly, horribly wrong.

In our view the risk of messing up the computer doesn’t justify the speed improvement most computers will see after running an effective registry cleaner.

If you do want to try a registry cleaner we’d suggest the venerable and free CleanReg from Armstong Systems. This will scan the registry and find redundant entries. It’s best to run it after uninstalling any unused programs as poor uninstall routines are the main cause of unnecessary registry keys.

Before running a registry cleaner, make sure you’ve created a restore point. This will save your system should the scanner delete a critical value.

Also note that we haven’t tested any registry cleaners on Windows Vista. We’d suggest not running any until there’s a better body of knowledge on how Vista behaves with these cleaners.

I have a Dell pc running xp pro. (well – it used to)
The pc while running was unplugged. Now I need to try a repair or reinstall XP.
With the xp disk in I am prompted for the rego number. It now refuses to accept that Rego Number for that disk.

The disk is in clean and in good condition and the relevant rego number (sticker) was attached to pc case for safe keeping. That bit worked out.

A little history
XP home use to exist on the machine but I formatted away in the XP Pro install.
Or did I ?.

Have you herd of this problem before?

The sticker on the computer refers to the original XP Home installation. So it’s not the right number. If you want to reinstall XP Professional, you’ll need the number from that disk.

Your problem with the “reinstall Windows” message is probably due to a damaged registry. This can be fixed by recovering the registry files from one of the system restore points. Microsoft have instructions on their website.

Keep in mind this is a complex task and we strongly recommend any work like this should be done by an experienced computer technician.

I am currently running Windows XP. My PC is only a few years old but lately I have noticed that the whole system runs v e r y slow.

I have heard on an ABC radio show that this may have something to do with windows trying to update either Windows Exploer or Microsoft Office product. I can’t remember which.

I have Trend PC Cillin as my anti virus and Fire wall. And this is all up to date and no spyware, viruses or harmfull windows programs have been found. I schedule anti virus scans daily.

Can anyone offer any help?

Brett

Hi Brett,

It is possible the Microsoft Update service is slowing the machine. We’ve covered this previously. Some of the recent revisions to Microsoft’s update services may have addressed this problem so it may solve itself in the next round of updates.

We’d also recommend uninstalling any software you no longer use, checking your hard drive isn’t full and running a cleanup program like Microsoft’s Cleanup Manager or the superior Cleanup! and CCleaner.

I have been a McAfee user for a year, but my subscription has run out and when I tried to renew nothing happened, they took the money and I did not get renewed. They have repaid me the money , but I need to have virus protection, can you help me with my problem please.

Unfortunately McAfee and Symantec don’t make it easy for customers to renew their subscriptions and it’s one of the reasons why we recommend other products.

For antivirus, we’d recommend something like Kaspersky, F-Secure and AVG Professional. These are paid-for programs which give you support.

If you want to save money, there are free programs like AVG Free and Anti-Vir. Be aware that free software comes with no support. So if you hit problems you are on your own.

Another criticism we have of the bigger anti-virus programs is they have convoluted and unreliable removal programs. We’d strongly recommend going to the Add/Remove programs section of the Control Panel and removing anything with McAfee in its name.

I’m using Firefox and finding it keeps freezing up on me. I have to restart it everytime.

 Can I fix it?

System freezes are a pretty common complaint in the current version of Firefox. A good free program to fix it is FireTune. We recommend downloading this program and installing it on your computer.

When you run it, make sure Firefox is closed. Click the “Create backup of configuration” button so you can undo things if they go wrong.

In the first window, you’ll be asked what combination of computer and Internet connection you have. There’s an explanation of what is a fast computer and Internet connection at the bottom of the screen.

In the Other Useful Settings tab, click the Optimise Firefox memory usage button.

Click the Tune It! button and close the program.

Restart Firefox.

So far, trials on our machines have seen a good improvement. Give it a go and see how it works for you.

My anti virus program says it’s detected a Trojan on my work computer, and then requested delete, but the computer is still behaving strangely and the warning keeps happening. Is there another program that may help?

Simply deleting the Trojan probably won’t work. The problem with these programs is they are designed to hide in system files and reappear at the first opportunity.

Fixing a Trojan infection can be a very difficult process. The first step is to backup your data. It may be necessary to wipe your computer and reinstall everything.

Once you’ve backed up all your data, download as many spyware removal tools as possible to remove the trojan. We’d suggest starting with Malware Bytes, Spybot and Adaware.

A good anti-virus is also important. We’d recommend installing one of the free virus protection tools which we discuss at Which Free Anti-Virus is Best.

Each of these programs should be installed and their update routines run so they are fully up to date. DO NOT SCAN YOUR COMPUTER OR TRY TO REMOVE THE TROJAN YET.

Shutdown your computer and restart in Safe Mode. This will start the computer with the basic settings and, hopefully, without the Trojan starting, this is essential if you want to remove the trojan from your system.

With the computer running in Safe Mode, run all the anti virus and anti spyware programs you previously installed. Do one at a time and be aware this will take many hours.

This will clear all but the worst Trojan, virus or spyware infections, but what you should be aware of is modern malare is very good at hiding itself and if the problem persists you either have to call a technician or wipe the computer. This may be necessary to remove the Trojan from your computer

After any spyware or Trojan infection, you should be aware that any online services you’ve accessed might be compromised. We highly recommend you change all banking and other sensitive passwords and monitor your financial statements closely after finding an infection.

Safe mode is Windows with the bare minimum features. It is used for troubleshooting or to prevent viruses or troublesome programs starting with the computer.

In safe Mode you can’t access the Internet, hear any sound and the colours look dreadful.

To get into Windows safe mode you hold down the F8 starts. Timing is important and it can take a few attempts to get it right.

If you hold the key down too early you may get a key stuck error from the BIOS. Hold the key down too late then Windows will start normally.

In Windows XP and Vista you will get a menu. Normally you should select “Start Computer in Safe Mode”.

Once in Safe Mode you can navigate, remove files and uninstall programs. Scanning for viruses, running scandisk or defragmenting are common reasons for starting in Safe Mode as they won’t be distracted by other programs or locked files.

Running safe mode is not something you should do every day, but it is a useful tool when faced with a troublesome computer. Because it starts only the functions that Windows needs, it isn’t suitable for day-to-day use as you can’t use printers, CD’s or the Internet.

If your computer regularly starts in Safe Mode then you should back up your data and call a technician.

Hi,
I am running the latest version of Mozilla Firefox(it’s great). But after the latest update the toolbar link to Thunderbird (Email) has vanished.
Any thoughts about why and can it be reinstated?

It sounds like a recent upgrade has lost your email toolbar.

One of the features with Mozilla is the sheer number of add ins available for it. The add in you need is the Thunderbird Biff addin. There’s a lot of other addins you can install to make Firefox easier to use. We’d encourage exploring the packages available.

“In my computer when I double click on any of the drives I am getting the “open with” option to “choose the program you want to use to open this file:” & when I right click on the Drives I am getting “Auto” as  first option instead of  “open” what should I do?”

It sound like the drives has some files that Windows wants to run when it first looks at the drive.

The quickest way to fix this is to move as many files as possible into folders. This way Windows won’t assume you want that drive to run programs or videos. It’s good computer practice to keep what we call the root directory free of junk for this reason.

One of the most common culprits for this is an autorun.inf sitting in your root directory. Make sure you move any files that finish in .inf into another folder.

If your “c” drive that’s doing this then be very careful about moving files out of the root directory. It might be best to get a tech who knows which files are important to the Windows system.