IT Queries: Computer problems answered

“I am having trouble synchronising ipod shuffle with windows XP error message of ‘Cannot find required disk’ are you able to help”

What’s happening is iTunes cannot find the correct disk.

Windows handles disk names by giving each drive a letter. When you plug in an iPod or anything else that has some sort of storage in it, Windows will allocate a letter for that device.

What we usually find with this problem is that you have some removable and network drives connected and Windows has messed up the drive letters so the iPod is now a different letter to what iTunes is looking for.

The simplest solution is to unplug all the external drives, scanner, cameras, printers and anything else that might have been connected since the iPod last worked.

If that doesn’t work, Apple have instructions on fixing this at their website. We’d suggest giving the drive a letter further down the alphabet so it doesn’t get mixed up, “P” for “Pod” might not be a bad one.

Because computers can go wrong, Windows has the System Restore facility. This makes a backup of all your system settings and allows you to go back to a previous setup to fix a problem.

It is important to remember that this doesn’t backup your data files, it also won’t wipe them if you go back to an earlier point.

Before running System restore close all programs, disable your virus protection and disconnect from the Internet.

To open the program, click Start, Programs, Accessories ,System Tools and System Restore.

The System Restore wizard will start and ask if you want to restore to an earlier time or create a new restore point. Creating a new restore point is recommended if you are going to install some software or make changes to your system.

To go back, choose the “restore to an earlier time” button and click Next.

A calendar will appear in the next screen. The dates in bold are when restore points were created. You can click next to the month to move between different months.

Select a date before you noticed the problem first appearing, on the right hand side it will list the restore points made on that day and a description on why the computer made that point. Choose whichever point seems right and click Next.

You will then be asked to confirm the restore point. Click Next.

The computer will take some time to go through the restore process, an hour is not unknown. You must not do anything to the computer while it is running. Eventually it will ask to restart which you should do.

On restarting, it will give you a summary of what happened. Unfortunately, it’s not unknown for the restore process to fail. If that happens, then go through the process again and choose another point.

System restore is very much prone to failing, particularly if you have a spyware or virus infection. If this happens, you may need to contact your local computer tech.

I’m using Windows XP Home. When i hit the space bar (no programs open) a window pops up with ‘search results’ and below this search companion and then asks what does she want to search for……pictures/music/video.

… documents…..etc

On your system you have a shortcut key setup so the space bar is associated with the search function. You’ll need to look on your desktop, toolbars or start menu for a “Shortcut to Search” function.

If you find it, right-click it and choose properties, click the Shortcut tab and delete anything in the Shortcut key box.

It might turn out that you can’t find the errant shortcut. You may have to take the computer back to an earlier restore point which we’ll discuss in the next IT Query.

Over the last couple of months, my outlook has become very slow — so slow that when I go to type a reply – I have to wait for the letters that I type to appear on the screen.
I have XP Pro SP2 and have even gone to the trouble of doing a clean install of all my disk. I have Norton up to date and running as well as using Window Defender and Spybot with no viruses etc found.
I don’t seem to have the same problem at different times of the day or even on weekends.
Any clues??

The quickest way of finding what is tying up your system is to press the Ctrl, Alt and Delete keys at the same time to bring up the Windows Task Manager.

In the Task Manager box, there is tab marked as Processes. The two right hand columns on that list show what is using the memory and the CPU processes.

Once you’ve identified what processes are hogging the system, you can then search the net for those processes to find if they are legitimate and what the problem might be.

One problem we have encountered is the Windows Update service which we have covered previously. It might be worthwhile checking this is not affecting you.

I have a 802.11g network with my two grandchildren. (Windows XP Home) I keep getting the message System Error. “There is an IP address conflict with another system on the network”. This doesn’t appear to cause any problems, but please can you tell me how I can find out what the conflict is and how to correct it.

What’s happening is two computers have the same Internet Protocol (IP) address on your network. This can cause problems, but if you’re just surfing the net with these machines then you won’t notice them.

As part of your network you will have a router. Its the router’s job to give out addresses and for some reason one of the computers is holding onto it’s address and confusing the router.

The simplest way is to open the Control Panel on each computer and go to Network Connections. You will find all the different network connections listed, right click on the wireless connection and choose Repair. This will force the computer to get a new address from the router.

It is also possible one of the computers isn’t set up to get it’s address from the network. We’ll look at resolving that in another query.

When I try to open outlook express a box comes up which reads outlook express could not be started because MOSE.DLL could not be initialized

Are you sure the file is MOSE.DLL or MSOE.DLL?  We’ll work on the assumption it could be either.

The first step is to re-register these dll files.

Click Start, then Run and type regsvr32 msoe.dll.  Then click okay and a confirmation box should appear. Repeat this process for mose.dll.

Reboot your computer.

You might find the Outlook Express files are damaged. If this is the case, refer to our fixing Windows installation files tip.

Sometimes you’ll find an important Windows file has been damaged, for instance Internet Explorer will tell you a critical file won’t load.

Windows has built in tool called the System File Checker which will reload system files. SFC has been part of Windows since Windows 98.

To run it, disconnect from the Internet, turn off all programs including virus protection and security programs, insert your original system or Windows CD and then click Run and Start, then type SFC /Scannow. The System File Checker will take up to an hour to run.

At the end of the scan, remove your CD and reboot your computer.

Please advise if there is a FREE download to remove the Crap from my computer. I have tried two but they want a $30 US payment. pcdecrappifier and crapcleaner.com. Can you help?

There’s plenty of tools for removing rubbish from your PC. If you are looking at cleaning your computer up then two free tools are the excellent Cleanup! and the slightly more comprehensive, but more likely to mess up your system, CCleaner.

If you are talking about removing trialware from a new computer. Then we’d recommend going to “Add or Remove Program Files” in the Control Panel and uninstalling unwanted programs first. When you’re finished, download and run the PC Decrapifier.

For all three of these programs, we’d recommend backing up your critical data before running them.

“Most times I switch my computer on my sound doesn’t work.Other times it does.Do you have any idea what is wrong?”

The most common problem is the Windows Audio Service being set to “manual”. To fix this, open your Control Panel, click Administrative Tools then Services.

Scroll down the list until you find Windows Audio, double click on it and change the Startup Type to Automatic.

Click Start and once the service starts, click Okay and you’re back in business.

Hi. I moved from Optus broadband to Iprimus broadband. Every time I want to send an email on a site I still get the Optus verson of Outlook Express which of course doesn’t work.

How can I get the screen to go to Iprimus email, please?

I have tried looking up the instructions on the web, but I never seem to have the right boxes needed to activate things.

I am a novice in all this and would really appreciate your (very simple) instructions.

Kind regards.
Sylvia.

Hi Sylvia,

There’s a couple points here. First, across the top of your Outlook Express screen you’ll see the Optus name and possibly their logo. Ignore these as they are only for decoration and don’t affect your email.

To receive your email, you’ll need to change your mail server settings. A mail server is a like a post box. Your email gets delivered to that post box and Outlook Express collects the mail from there.

Currently Outlook Express is going to the old Optus mail box. You have to tell it where the new iPrimus mail box is.

This is something you’ll need to ask the ISP. From Primus’ website their settings are pop.iprimus.com.au for the incoming mail and smtp.iprimus.com.au for sending mail.

The Internet is a dangerous neighbourhood so your Internet Service Provider protects your mailbox with a lock and key, known as a username and password. You’ll need those to get the contents of your mailbox.

Finally, you need your email address. This the address people need to send you email. Just like your street address, no-one can send you mail if they don’t know your address.

Once you have those four settings, you’ll need to enter them into your Outlook Express.

Open Outlook Express, click the Tools menu and click Accounts and then click the Mail tab.

Under mail, highlight the account that’s currently there, this is the old Optus account and press the Remove button. This gets rid of the old account.

Next, click the Add button, click Mail and the setup wizard for a new email account will start.

The first question will be your Display Name. This is the name at will appear on your emails, this is NOT your email address. Use the name people know you by.

Click Next and you will be asked for your email address, make sure you enter this correctly or people will send replies to the wrong address.

After you click Next again, you’ll be asked for the mail server accounts; the account type is POP, the incoming mail server is pop.iprimus.com.au and the outgoing is smtp.iprimus.com.au.

Once again click Next and you’ll be asked for your username and password. Make sure your username is correct, for Iprimus it’s the email address but for other providers it might just be the part before the @ symbol.

Then click Finish.

That’s it, done! If you’ve made a mistake you’ll get an error message. We’ll look at what Outlook Express error messages mean in another ITQueries post.