Basic Problem in a PC

By Pawan Bangar
Posted Monday, August 2, 2004

Basic Computer PROBLEMS

I have a p3 500MHz PC with 128MB RAM, 10.2 GB HDD Sony CD ROM 48x with window ME edition operating system. I have a problem- when I insert my audio cd, it shows the error message: “window cannot access the specified device path or file. You may not have appropriate permission the access the item.” Please tell me the solution of this error how can we configure the Yahoo! Account in outlook express. What is the pop mail and SMTP address of the Yahoo! Mail?

Dr Birbals: do you get this problem only in the case of audio CDs only or is it an every time phenomenon. If this problem is specific to audio CDs, then you must first check your sound card drivers and the compatibility of the player you are using to play audio CDs. Regarding configuration of Yahoo! Account in the outlook express, the procedure is simple. If this is your first account in outlook express, then on starting outlook express it will automatically start configuring an e-mail account for you, which could be your Yahoo! account also. However, if you are using outlook express already and would like to set another account i.e. Yahoo! Then you should add identity and start configuring the account as normally you would do by the following simple steps. However, when you are asked to enter the POP address, then use pop.mail.yahoo.com. In case of SMTP address, please use the address smtp.mail.yahoo.com. Enter the user name, which would be the first part of your yahoo e-mail ID. Then complete the rest of the step and this will finish the configuration.

I have assembled computer with Celeron 333MHz, Yamaha sound card, 32MB RAM and 4.3GB hard disk. I am using window’98 as OS. My problem is that whenever I make a call to the USA, the voice from the other side comes but my voice doesn’t go. What is the reason and how to solve the problem? My vendor advised me to add another sound card to solve the problem. Is it right? Guide me which card suitable for the same. I used Yahoo! Messenger for making a call.

Dr Birbals: in your case there is a good possibility that you are using a half-duplex sound card in your system. In the half-duplex sound card, the sound travels in only one channel, which means that if you are speaking then the sound of other person could not be transmitted, unless you stop speaking. However, in case of full-duplex sound cards, the sound travels in both channels, thus facilitating proper two-way communication. Therefore you must check, if your sound card is half-duplex, then you may need another full-duplex sound card, otherwise you do not need new sound card.

I have p3 (550 MHz) 810 motherboard, assembled computer. My PC speaker 480 w of dolphin makes a noise when I play a song, movie or any other program requiring sound output whether I play song in winamp, media player or anywhere.

Dr. Birbals: since you have not mentioned what kind of noise you are getting, so it is difficult to pinpoint your problem. However, generally the problem of noise is associated with the some kind of short-circuit or loose connection. So get your PC checked for any such problem. Also please check the earthing of your electricity connection, as improper earthing could also result in some kind of noise with other problem in your PC.

I am having p3 550MHz Intel processor with 810 Vinton motherboard, 20GB HDD, 52xCDD, Motorola 56 KBPS modems with WIN ME as operating system. Recently I installed win 2000 professional but can’t be able to install the driver of modem. I tried installing the driver from the original Motorola CD but got the message “your driver may get clash with win 2000 version because the driver is not having digital signatures.” Please guide me what should I do to install the driver of the modem.

Dr. Birbals: digital signature an encryption and decryption process allowing both the positive identification of the author of an electronic message (who wrote the message) and verification of integrity of the message. Since this is a modem security measure, thus it has become a standard in modern operating system like windows 2000. There for you require drivers, which are compatible with windows 2000. There could be a possibility that the driver you are trying to install is not for windows 2000. Therefore in order to solve this problem, you should install the version specific to Windows NT or windows 2000. However as far as Motorola internal modems are connected, windows 2000 automatically detects it and install the correct version of driver from its database and thus it does not require you to install the driver manually. Thus, in light of this fact, it is better to let the windows 2000 detect the correct driver and install the same.

Q. No.1

I want to know that what do satellites in a PC speaker system do.

Q. No.2

Do they act as tweeters or just normal speakers so that the sound comes from all around the room?

Q. No.3

I have a creative sound blaster live sound card, it has support for satellites so I want to buy jetway artis speakers (with 4 satellite and sub-woofer included).will the satellite create Dolby surround sound or will they just sound as four speakers placed at the vertices of the room?

Q. No.4

Is a 33.6kbps external modem slower than a 56kbps internal modem?

Q. No.5

Does having more RAM in your graphic card, mean better performance?

Dr. Birbals: basically, satellite nothing to do with PC speakers; it’s only the satellite speakers, which are related to PC’s. The satellite speakers are magnetically shielded speakers, which are meant for use with video monitors. It delivers powerful audio playback from multiple piece system, normally three pieces. The use of this technology brings about dramatic improvement normal speakers that come bundled with your PC. They do not act as tweeters, however, but has its own technology to improve the sound quality. It is not just limited to Dolby surround sound, because it features are much advanced. Regarding your query for modems. It is a matter of fact that the 56kbps modems are faster than the 33.6kbps modems. It is irrespective of the fact whether it is an external modems or internal modem. However at places, where the downloading speed is very slow, the difference between 56kbps modem and 33.6 modem will not be much. Regarding your query related to higher video memory, it is indeed true that the higher video memory means better performance.

I am using internet connection from the VSNL. My problem is that while I am online, the telephone automatically gets disconnected and I have to redial. Again after few minutes of being online, I am disconnected. I have got two phone lines. This problem is with one phone line while no such problem occurs with other phone line. Win’98 is my OS and my computer is p2 with 333MHz.

Dr. Birbals: it is clearly evident from your mail that the problem in your case lies in your telephone line rather than your computer hardware. You must get your telephone line checked for any kind of phone joints, cuts, and improper extensions. Normally, it is happens because of these factors only. However, if you are satisfied of these factors, then you may opt to change the line of your telephone right from the nearest DOT point to your PC. I am sure these things will help you in getting this problem corrected. However, in order to avoid too frequent disconnection, you may also add the string S10=50 in the advanced option in your modem configuration. But, this in itself will not be able to solve your problem, if there is a defect in your telephone line.

I have Celeron 533with 1-0GB hard disk and 64 MB RAM. I have windows ME operating system. I have a problem that when I want to connect to the net, my system hangs. Please tell me how I can solve this problem.

Dr. Birbals: the problem of system hanging could be due to several reasons; please write back at what stage of connection dose your system hangs. Whether it hanging on dialing, or it hangs while hard shaking with the ISP server or at the time of logging on to the windows. This information would be essential to answer your question correctly.

I want to know how to get m Yahoo! Mail in my outlook express. I entered pop.mail, yahoo.com as many incoming server and smtp.mail.Yahoo.com as my outgoing server. When I press send and receive I get “outgoing mail failed.” For incoming it asks me my password. I entered it correctly 3 times yet could not get the mail.

Dr. Birbals: while entering the pop and SMTP server please take care that it is enter correctly and there are no space in it. In the setting of outlook express, you can save your password, which will save you from the botheration of entering your password again and will also not return this error. However, in case of sending mail through outlook express using Yahoo! Services; it sometime gives this problem, which is specific to Yahoo services only.

I have p3 computer. I have a problem while working on net. Whenever I try to open any site, mantra online opens as a default. Please tell me why does it open as a default and how can I get of rid on it

Dr. Birbals: this is actually not a problem and can be corrected easily by some simple changes in your browser settings. If you are using internet explorer, then simply open the internet explorer and check on the tool menu. Now click on the internet options and in the home page address box, either choose site of your choice or choose about blank. This will help you get rid of this problem. Similarly in case you are using Netscape communicator, then to change the default page, click on edit menu and then click preferences. In homepage location box, either enter the site address of your choice or leave it blank. This simple measure will help you get red of your problem.

I use my computer mostly for audio-CAD work, which is precise; precious I store the whole data on my hard disk. Other members of the family also use the same computer. From the safety point of view, I want to have some reliable backup arrangement that can be updated for additional work from time to time. At present there are about 2500 files that I want to store in the back-up also. Floppy disk are of low capacity, CD drive requires CD-writer and is expensive. So kindly advise suitable mode for backup.

Dr. Birbals: these days the hard disks normally have a large capacity so the easiest solution is to dedicate a specific partition of your hard disk for backing up your files. You can protect them with password and can even hide it so that it is not accessible to anybody. The second solution could be Zip drive, where you can keep your data in large capacity floppies and can even carry them with you. This option is a bit expensive, as you will have to additionally buy external Zip drive. However, the option of CD-writer is the best as you can store a large amount of data on your CD. Besides that the data on a CD is safest.

I have a p3, 667 MHz (based 100 MHz SD RAM) with 64 RAM on HP pavilion. My operating system is windowa’98 SE on 10.2 GB ultra DMA ATA 66 hard drive (about 7GB free space). I have an internet connection from the BSNL. I face a problem--- the system sometime freezes and then neither keyboard nor mouse work. I have to turn the power off. Please guide me whether increasing RAM to 128 will solve my problem?

Dr. Birbals: you must run scandisk first in thorough mode in order to check any problems in your hard disk. if the scan disk does not work properly in windows, then you must run it in DOS mode. If there is any problem, then scan disk will report about it. Moreover, you must also check the result for any bad sector in your hard disk as this could be one of the reasons for your problem. However, if everything is reported fine by scan disk, then the needle of suspicion would go to motherboard of your computer. This you will have to get checked from your hardware vendor. Your problem has nothing to do with increasing the RAM and thus increasing it to 128 MB will not actually solve your problem.

I have p3 500MHz processor, 64 MB RAM, win’98 SE internal modem (Motorola SM56PCI speakerphone). Usually when I try to connect to the internet, I get an error 678 showing the message “dialup network was unable to complete the connection. Double click the connect icon to connect again” and after sometime I am able to connect. Somebody told me that this problem is due to internal modem and if I use an external modem, I may be able to connect the very first time. You have mentioned some techniques to improve the modem. I tried to check my phone line using HyperTerminal, but when I selected direct to com x in “connect to windows”, I did not get the com x properties. I got a blank window instead. When I enter the said terms (ATZ, AT&FDT ISP’s number) it dials using tone dialing that I don’t have. So please tell me what to do with my internal modem to avoid that error and also how I can check my telephone line using HyperTerminal.

Dr. Birbals: this is very common confusion in the minds of many persons that the internal modems are not efficient and gives error. However this is not correct. Though undoubtedly external modems are better in terms of overall performance and ease of use yet the internal modems give identical result as far as the net speed is concerned. Whether it is internal modem or external modem, what is more important is chip set of the modem. If the internal modem good chipset like Rockwell, then there is no problem in it. The problem mentioned by you is not linked to the internet modem and there could be many reasons for such kind of error. Now the technique you are talking about is to check the line conditions and not the modem. So it will really not help you in analysng your modem. However for a precise solution to your problem, please write in detail including the message you get.

Whenever I start my computer I get message: “NO ISDN devices were found. Please install an ISDN device and run the configuration wizard”. I neither had ever installed nor wish to install ISDN device. Kindly advise how to get rid on this message to avoid clicking “OK” ach time.

Dr. Birbals: although for solving your problem information about your operating system and system configuration is necessary. However, it appears that while configuration your internet connection, you had opted for ISDN connection. I think of because of this reason you get the warning for ISDN device. As a solution of this problem either remove the ISDN connection wizard or reconfigure your dial-up networking.

I have windows ME installed on my computer. I want to configure my outlook express to get my mail from my account on rediff.com but I don’t know how to configure. Please tell me what to write in the incoming mail server and the outgoing mail server fields.

Dr. Birbals: rediff mail is a web-based e-mail services, so its pop and SMTP server names are not available. However, for configuring an e-mail account in your e-mail client, the information about these two servers is quite essential. So, practically it is difficult to configure rediff mail account in outlook express.

I have problem with playing the VCDs. It hangs the system, then it play for 4 to 5 seconds and hang again. The HDD and CD ROM drive’s LED glows continuously with full light when it hangs. All other CDs (program and audio) run well. I tried everything I know. I have installed right drivers for the device. My system is p200 MMX, 32 MB RAM, cirrus 5446 VGA with 2MB RAM, creative CD ROM drive and OS is win’95.

Dr. Birbals: this problem is normally occurs in case of low memory. So in order to get rid of this problem you need to increase your memory if possible a better VGA card with higher VRAM. Moreover, you also need to increase the size of the panging file size. Also you should keep a good space on your hard disk free. So the first thing you should try to do is free up some hard disk space. As a rule of thumb you should always keep at least 10 percent of your hard disk capacity always free, though higher is better. If this solves your problem, its well and good, else you would be required to increase the memory.

About The Author
Pawan Bangar,
Technical Director,
Birbals, (Hbirbals,Seobirbals,Ebirbals,Ibirbals)
#1047,Sector 42-b,
Chandigarh.
Cell:+91-98153-52253
email:
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