IT Queries: Computer problems answered

I have a external Seagate hard disk, I use this external hard disc with my sony laptop with Windows 7, a few days back i hide one folder in my external hard disc with free hide folder software, and that time my external hard disc notification is (I:).

Now I try to unhide the folder with same software but i can coz my external hard disc notification now showing is (J:),so the sofware shows that the folder name or path not find coz (I:) does not appear. please help me how I change the my external hard disc notification (J:) to (I:).

Changing drive letters is a nuisance on Windows Systems which often causes these sort of problems.

The easiest solution is to unplug any devices that have changed the hard drive letters, this includes other external drives, mobile phones, thumb drives or any other device with storage.

If this doesn’t work, you’ll have to change your drive letters manually. We covered this in a previous post, Changing a Drive Letter, which covers the instructions for Windows NT, XP and Vista.

For Windows 7, the instructions are similar and to get to the Administrative Tools panel you click on the Start Button, select Control Panel and the Administrative Tools.

You may have to change the letter of whatever device is hogging the I: drive and then change the J: to I:. The drive will have to be plugged in for this to work properly.

These instructions should help you change the drive letter on a Windows 7 computer.

I have a 2-year-old PC running Windows 7 32-bit with all updates current. I have 4 GB of RAM. When I try to play Computer games for relaxation, after 2 or 3 minutes the whole action slows down. When not game playing the PC seems to work fine, it is only when I start up a game that the slowing down occurs. I have run ScanDisk, Check disk,defragged and run Mal and Spy ware checks, but still with no effect. I am running AVG for security, but nothing seems to help. Is there something that you can suggest, either some program or systm check that might be able to help me please?

Figuring out why your computer slows down when playing games depends upon which type of games you play on computer. Most web based games run on Adobe Flash while others use various programs to create the graphics you see on screen.

If these are Flash games you are using, the first step is to reinstall Adobe Flash and see if that fixes the problem.

For other platforms, you might want to check with the specific game websites to see if there is an upload available.

Another thing that will slow your computer when playing games is your computer’s graphic capacities. It may well be that your computer takes capacity off the main processor to run the graphics rather than use a dedicated Graphics Processor Unit (GPU), so a game will drag resources from the rest of the system and slow it down. This is quite common with cheaper computers.

There are usually settings you can use to change how the computer allocates resources, but the best solution to games slowing down your computer is to install a dedicated graphics card that will improve the system’s performance. This will probably cost a few hundred dollars including installation.

When I open photos on my iPhone, my camera roll album is hidden under the top header “Albums” and I can’t open the roll. How can I access the iPhone’s camera roll?

This problem where the Albums header hides the iPhone camera roll seems to be a bug in the recent iOS software update which Apple will probably fix soon.

Fixing the Albums heading from hiding the camera roll can be done by doing a hard re-start of the phone.

Hold down the “Home” key, the big button on the front, and the off button on the top of the iPhone at the same time and hold both down for ten seconds.

The phone will restart and the iPhone Albums heading should no longer hide the camera roll album.

I was given a friend’s computer after she died. I think the hard drive is over 10 years old. It’s a Compaq Presario Colorreal with Windows XP. I had a lot of trouble with very slow functioning and then trouble getting connection. TPG weren’t able to solve the problem so I just cancelled them after months of back & forwards with them. I haven’t used it since.

When I connect my ipod/mobile/cd to computer and I open its folder/subfolder the computer gets restarted. Even after scanning above said icons I could not get rid of said problem?

The problem is your computer’s power supply can’t deal with the power load, each device draws some power from the system and when you start using them the computer deals with the overload by shutting down.

To fix this, first look at what you have currently connected to the computer. It may be you have a printer, scanner or external hard drive that is drawing a lot of power. Disconnecting these may resolve the problem.

Another fix is to purchase a powered external USB hub to plug your phone, iPod and other devices into. The power will be drawn through the mains connection to the hub rather than your computer. Some devices, like iPods and printers don’t always like this solution however.

If your computer is a desktop system you can also upgrade the power supply for under a hundred dollars, if you’re not comfortable doing that yourself the local computer tech will be able to do it for you.

When I try to play YouTube clips, I often get a blank screen. Why can’t I play these videos on my computer?

This is usually due to problems with the Adobe Flash software on the computer.

To fix it, first uninstall all the versions of Adobe Flash on the computer. Then run a computer cleanup on the system.

Once the clean up is finished, reboot your computer then reinstall Adobe Flash Player.

Another reboot and you should have fixed the problem.

I use Windows Live Hotmail on Windows 7. How do I backup my emails?

One of the most irritating things to lose when a computer crashes or you replace it are your email and contacts.

Windows 7 comes with its own backup program which Microsoft shows you how to use it on their website.

If you select all your data, or at least your profile, the backup will save your Windows Live Hotmail data along with your contacts, favorites and all your other settings.

Once you’ve created the backup, we’d suggest using an online service like Dropbox or Box.net to keep a secure copy of these files.

When I surf the web using Internet Explorer, I can’t see any images and just get an empty box with a red X in it. How do I see my images?

You can turn images on in Internet Explorer by clicking the Options menu in Internet Explorer then choose the Advanced Tab and make sure the Show Pictures check box is ticked. Click Okay and you should find that resolves the problem.

If it doesn’t you may have a security program interfering or there may be an other setting you need to change, Microsoft go into some detail on this in their Pictures are not displayed on Web sites in Internet Explorer Knowledge Base post.

At dinner time somebody called saying they were from a company working for Microsoft, they told me my Windows computer had a security problem, probably a virus, and they needed to fix it for me. Do Microsoft make these calls and could I have an infected PC?”

The answer to first question is “no”, Microsoft don’t make these calls and you’re being targeted by a silly little scam that’s looking at conning you out of a $100 or so.

If you agree to these people running their remote service they will log in using a legitimate software program, usually LogMeIn and play around for a little while. At the end of their “repairs” they will have done little more than charge your credit card.

To date we haven’t heard of anyone having their data stolen or credit cards misused by these people but that’s all possible if you’ve let them onto your computer.

In answer to your second question, if you are worried you’re infected then you should follow our Removing a Trojan instructions or call a computer technician to check your system.

Should you have let one of these scammers onto your system, we’d strongly recommend getting your computer checked by an experienced technician and dispute any payments charged by these people.

I have just changed to ADSL2 & I got a wireless modem as I am now using laptop & Desk PC at home office. I live in a three floor townhouse in a strata property & the concrete floor slabs are proving too difficult for the wireless network if I’m on a different floor to  the modem location when using laptop. The ISP  told me to get a “cheap” wireless router but i am unclear how this will help if i have to plug the router into the modem.

Can you help explain?

Since changing to ADSL 2 I have had bad phone connection so I don’t want a router to make that deteriorate further.

The problem you have is the construction of your building, it’s almost certainly built with reinforced concrete floors which contain metal bars to make the concrete slabs stronger. This combination of rocks, cement and steel make it almost impenetrable for wireless networks.

You might be able to improve the signal between floors by putting the router in or close to the stairwell so the signal can get between floors, but even that will probably not get you good coverage throughout the house.

Probably the only reliable solution will be to run cables between each floor and set up a wireless base station on each. This shouldn’t affect your phone signal.

The phone signal problem is probably related to your phone not having line filters properly installed, we cover this in our Bad Phone Connection After Installing ADSL Post.