IT Queries: Computer problems answered

I have received a fraudulent email from a bogus UPS parcel delivery site. As I have been expecting a delivery, I mistakenly opened the email and clicked on the attachment.

My AVG 9 program promptly detected 2 viruses which I thought I had then successfully removed. However now, when I boot up, I get the following 2 error messages:
C:\\WINDOWS\\rhstap.dll – Specified module could not be found
C:WINDOWS\\olamobel.dll -Specified module could not be found

1. Does this mean the registry is damaged?

2. How can I repair the registry and avoid getting these error messages … can you recommend a safe registry repair tool?

It’s good your antivirus picked up the problem and removed the malware. Just to be safe, we’d recommend following our Removing a Trojan instructions as well.

Once you’re happy you’ve cleaned the computer out, you can fix the missing .dll issues. The registry itself isn’t damaged, it’s just trying to find the files the malware installed and told it to run on startup.

The best tool for cleaning out the errant registry entries is CCleaner and running that after making sure you are free of viruses should give your computer a significant performance boost.

I’m told my copy of Windows Vista is “at the end of support”. What does that mean?

Being at the end of support is Microsoft’s way of saying they won’t help you with that version of Windows any more and other people will probably stop writing programs for it. Microsoft explain it in a bit more detail on their website.

If your system is legitimate and working well, you can upgrade Vista or Windows XP to their latest Service Packs through the Windows Update site.

For most people though it doesn’t mean much. As long as your system is working fine, there should be few problems and experience has shown Microsoft will still provide important updates over time.

You should ask your computer tech to upgrade your system to the latest Windows service pack though at the first opportunity.

Hi, I’m using Windows XP. I’ve been trying to access iTunes store and create an account but every time I try it tells me I’m not connected to the internet which I know I am. I have tried everything Apple have suggested on their website – removed and reinstalled iTunes & Quicktime, and various other things- but I noted today that I should be sure to be logged on as “Administrator” before I download iTunes.

I don’t know what that means and could that be the problem. If that isn’t the problem can you please suggest what I should do to access the store.It’s driving me crazy!!! Thank you.

iTunes is being blocked by a firewall or Windows XP’s security settings. The role of these tools is stop potentially nasty programs from connecting to the Internet. Sometime during iTunes’ installation the system has decided iTunes is untrustworthy shouldn’t be allowed to access the Internet.

To change this, you’ll have to tell the firewall or security program that you want iTunes to access the net. If you are using the built in firewall then Microsoft have instructions on changing the settings on their website.

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.