Computer Questions & Answers

Answer
Hi are you behind any type of proxy server? check this by going to Tools > Internet Options > Connections > LAN Settings > now check under proxy server, if so set the computer to remember the password, to do this delete all temp files, passwords, cookies then the next time you connect select remember password, another area worth setting is Windows Authentication, once again go to Tools > Internet Options > Advanced tab > Scroll down to the security section > and make sure Enable Integrated Windows Authentication is ticked. The last resort is to run a repair across your browser more here on that ..

Sreekumar: Question
I own a Toshiba Tecra laptop-the problem is that I am unable to find any icons on my desktop, it happened suddenly, now if I want to open anything i go for cont-alt-delete, then go for run and access the file. Please advise to rectify this problem so that i can work on it. I  face a lot of problems due to it I have run antivirus but it has not detected any problem kindly



Answer
Hi, it sounds as though a setting has simply been changed, if you right click on the desktop > select Arrange Icons By > Now look for the item Show Desktop Icons & make sure this it selected, might take a few seconds but your icons should all return.

James: Question
I have put a slave hard drive in my pc and now it runs slow and my music jumps a lot. How do I stop that from happening ? thankz

Answer
Hi James, If the hard drives have a IDE interfaces it sounds as though they are running on the same channel, this can then cause issues due to a theoretical doubling of data through put on a single IDE channel, to increase performance try moving the slave hard drive onto the secondary IDE channel sharing it with the CD/DVD drive rather than your primary hard drive. Checkout our DVD install page where we cover this.

Louise: Question
I can't get people to hear me.

I have tried to move the speaker slider on the top right hand side of the

video but it won't shift. It is not on mute.

Answer
Due to the fact the volume control cannot be moved, your sound card may not be

setup properly, to check this go to Start menu > Control Panel > system > hardware

tab > device manager , look for sound, video and game controllers, do any of these have exclamation marks on them, if so right click on it, select properties, update drive, and select yes to update, this can be done on the internet or via the driver disk that came with your computer.

Caz: Question
Would you know who can tell me how to disable Microsoft office picture manager? Its opening my pictures by default whereas my pictures used to be opened by IE or I could choose which program to open them

Answer
The easiest way is to simply remove it, Start Menu > Control Panel > Add remove programs > find Microsoft Office > Change > Now find Office picture manager and remove.

Or if you know the image type you can change the default application by going to My Computer > Tools menu > Folder Options > File Types tab > scroll down until you find the chosen file type, for example JPG for jpeg you’ll then see the default application, select change and choose your preferred application.

Nick: Question
Hello..I am writing seeking help. My laptop fell during an earthquake and since then it's stick in ms dos and in the a drive. It begins to show the msg that it is starting windows 98 and then quickly stops in two seconds with a:\> It has no other drives that it recognizes either and the letters a,q,z and 1 are disabled. The cd drive is not working and only the floppy seems to be my answer but no boot disk seems to work. I don't care about losing any info. I just want to get my pc back to working order. I thank You in advance! 

Answer
After looking into this, if neither the hard drive nor the CD drives are functioning it sounds like the motherboard has been damaged. I don’t really know how much impact the laptop suffered when it fell, but this is the most likely scenario.

To confirm this remove the hard drive, and check state of disk by putting into a USB caddy and plugging into another computer to check if the drive is still functioning.
Secondly I’d also remove the CD drive and visually inspect it for any type of damage.

As the earthquake may have damaged individual parts of the laptop.

Colin: Question
Hi there, im having trouble with my wireless network I've recently had to re-install all my software including windows xp home edition and my aol software before i did this my wireless network worked fine and it still does now except for when i turn the computer on and off or restart it. whenever i do this and my computer loads up the wireless settings are gone and i have to do certain procedures to get it back up and running. first i have to go into admin settings and then service settings and then go onto wireless zero config and then restart it then i have to go onto view my wireless networks and a message comes up saying windows cannot manage my wireless network so then i go onto advance settings and check the box to let windows manage my wireless network after all this is done the wireless network is back up and running with no problems. am i not saving the settings etc for when the computer is shutdown and re booted. like i said earlier before i re installed all the software there where no problems but i think i had a similar problem when i first got my laptop and tried to set up wireless but i cant remember how i solved it. thanks

Answer
We seem to encounter lots of problems with third party wifi connection software that keeps setting itself as the default WiFi managing software.

Once you enter the settings the first time the system should save them by default.

To get around the issue, firstly make sure you have administrator access equivalents to your operating system; otherwise the system may not be able to write the settings to the registry.

Next remove the third party WiFi software keeping the driver for the actual WiFi card, this way Windows will manage all your WiFi connections by default.

If you really wish to keep the third party WiFi management software check with the cards manufacturer and download the latest software package.

If the problem is still occurring please feel free to contact us again, letting us know the particular details of the WiFi card and the software that’s bundled with it.

Pooja: Question
Hello, My monitor continuously flickers i.e. it becomes light n dark. Also sometimes the color also changes from white to red/green. I dont understand what to do? Need help. Than You!

Answer
Hopefully this will just be a simple connection problem with the video cable, so check all connections and another cable if the problem is still occurring.
Next check the video card itself, either by checking your monitor plugged into another computer or another monitor plugged into your computer.

If the problem still occurs after this, it sounds as though the monitors high voltage power supply is faulty. If this is the case depending on the monitor it may be cheaper to replace than to repair.

Thomas: Question cannot download files using Firefox or Internet Explorer
hi my computer wont download it was fine until last weekend. I use Firefox and i am on xp i tried to download on windows explorer and it still dose not work just keeps coming up this object is blocked what can i do

Answer
Checkout our Internet Explorer repair article here.. this will reset Internet Explorer back to its default settings, but if the issue is occurring using both Internet Explorer and Firefox the finger must be pointed to your firewall settings, try turning it off, downloading something, remember to switch it back on, then customise the settings, we have seen this happen before with Norton internet protection

Stephanie: Question Windows Vista Keyboard Issue
I have windows vista and when ever I try to type a letter with a question mark at the end of it all I get is an e with a line above it. How can I change it back to show the ? instead?

Wil: Question: External Sata Hard Drive Problem
Hi, Hope you can help!!! and THANK YOU for anything you can advise me on. I have a Hitachi Deskstar 500gb sata external hard drive, its about 80% full and I don’t want to lose the data on it - Problem: It starts up the light come on but its not connecting anymore, its now making like a buzzing short beep sound that’s between 9 and 11 beeps varies every time I start it - if tried hooking it up to different USB ports - starting the computer over - tried hooking it up to my laptop - even took it out the casing and made sure that everything inside was still properly connected - STILL nothing !!! only the same beeping sound when I turned it on - Google possible problems about the hard drive with no luck - any ideas ??? do you know what the problem might be and how to fix it ??? I really would appreciate all the help you can give me. Once again THANK YOU!!!

Answer
Is the drive under warranty? Some external hard drive manufacturers do offer free recovery services when they replace the faulty unit.

If not you need to establish is the drive actually spinning? You’ll normally either feel the vibration of this when the drive is switched, or by removing the case and touching the drive.

Now if the drive is not spinning it may just mean the drive has developed a sticking point, by gently shaking the drive it is possible to get the drive to move past this, and it may boot up normally.

If the drive is spinning download the trial version of some recovery software such as GetDataBack for FAT or NTFS (whatever your drives format is) you can run the trial version and if it can see the data on your drive then you’ll need to purchase the full version to recover your files.

After this the only other route is to use a dedicated data recovery company, but this is very costly.

Question can I write to a CD after closing the session
My Prob. is Regarding CD, i have 2 cd's which i had burn using Nero 6 but i forgot to put multisession option "ON",now i am unable to write further on the same CD's as multission is there any software which can multisessioned the ulready burnt cd's which does not have multisession option ON.. plz reply as soon as possible waiting for u r reply....thank you.

Answer
Unfortunately not, if the multisession option has not been enabled and the session is closed it in effect turns a standard CD into WORM type media (Write Once Read Many) this is a physical change to the CD which cannot be reverted.

If however the CD’s you are using are CD-RW then you can simply back them up and burn them again with multisession enabled.

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