Gurmail Chand, Delhi
The error you are experiencing is known as the CRC or ‘Cyclic Redundancy Check’ fail error. This error occurs when the data being copied appears to have lost its integrity or is corrupt. In your case, there may be two possible reasons for the error to occur: either your CD media is damaged or your CD drive has developed a fault. You may check if it is the first by trying to copy files to the hard disk on another computer. Or, get the CD drive serviced at an authorised service centre.
Mute Computer
Q. I have a Pentium III 700 MHz system with an Intel 815 motherboard, 128 MB of RAM and a 20 GB hard drive with three partitions running Windows XP Professional. My problem is that I don’t have my sound card drivers for XP. I searched the Intel Web site but found nothing. I have an AC 97 sound ALC100 integrated sound card. Windows XP has installed its default drivers for my card, but the sound is very low even at full volume. My speakers are fine. Please tell me where can I get the drivers, and if possible, please include the drivers on the CD with the next issue!
Bijesh K, Thane
The latest version of the driver for the ALC100 sound card is 3.71. You can download this driver from the RealTek Web site at http:// snipurl.com/86p8. The size of these drivers is 11,453 KB. After installing, you will be able to access the extended features of your sound card as well. Please install the latest version of DirectX for smooth functioning of this sound card along with the drivers.
Write Error, Wrong Error?
Q. When I write CDs on my PC, after 90 per cent writing is completed, a write error occurs and the CD becomes unusable. Although not consistent, this is a frequent occurrence. This problem occurs once in three to four write attempts. In the process column it shows ‘Lead in’ and ‘Lead out’, and in the action column, ‘Failed’ when the error occurs. The problem occurs in Windows 98 and XP Professional. My PC configuration is: ASUS CD writer, AMD Athlon processor, 512 MB of RAM, 80 GB hard disk, and the software used was Nero 5 and Nero 6 OEM version. I had also tried reinstalling the CD-Writing software.
Mahendra Gajbhiye, Indore
Your problem could be caused by a variety of reasons. The most probable reason is that the brand of media you use might have a compatibility issue with your writer. You could try using another brand and confirm this. Another reason is that your CD-Writer’s lens might have become dirty. This may be cleaned using a CD cleaner disc. If the problem is not solved, you might try upgrading the firmware for your CD-Writer. You may find the latest firmware for your CD-Writer from the ASUS Web site: www.asus.com/support/support.aspx.
If your drive is very old, the laser calibration could also have developed a fault. This is a result of the aging process of the CD writer and cannot be rectified.
Anti-virus In Hiding?
Q. I own a Celeron 2 GHz Intel motherboard and 256 MB of RAM running Windows XP SP2. Recently, I installed Avast 4.6 Home edition. But the Windows security centre doesn’t detect my anti-virus and it alerts me to install an anti-virus. Why does this happen? How can I overcome this?
T A Ravishankar, Palghat, Kerala
Avast 4.6 Home Edition and other anti-virus software are not recognised by the Windows Security Centre. Hence, many anti-virus manufacturers have released newer versions of their products to make them compatible with Windows XP SP2. You need to upgrade to the latest version of Avast, which is 4.6.652.
Q. I have a Pentium 3 733 MHz with 256 MB of SDRAM, an Intel 810 motherboard and a Seagate 40 GB hard disk. I use Windows XP. I have not been able to completely shut down my computer for the past few weeks. When I select try to shut down, Windows shuts down but my PC does not power down. Is there any way to re-enable my PC to completely power down?
Parag Trivedi, Nashik
While starting your PC, enter the CMOS setup. This may be done by pressing the [Del] key on most PCs. In the BIOS, go to the ‘Power Options’ page and enable ‘Advanced Power Management’. Save the settings and restart the computer.
Now, run Regedit. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop. Edit the key ‘PoweroffActive’ and give it a value of 1. Do the same in HKEY_USERS.DEFAULTControl Panel Desktop. Close Regedit and restart the computer. Now your PC will completely power down after you shut down Windows.
Hide Folder
Q. I have a Celeron 1.2 GHz, Intel 815E motherboard, 128 MB of PC100 SDRAM, and a 20 GB hard disk with an nVidia Riva TNT2 M64 32 MB display card. I have Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 installed. I have also installed WinZip 9 on my computer. In Windows Explorer, the .zip files are still shown as folders. I wish to turn this off. Is there any way to do this?
Supriya Khambatkone, Mumbai
The feature of Windows XP/ME Explorer showing .zip files as folders is not affected by installing WinZip. You can turn this feature off by running a command as follows. Click Start > Run, enter “regsvr32/u zipfldr.dll” in the dialog box and press [Enter]. Restart Windows and you will notice that .zip files are no longer viewed as folders. To re-enable this feature, just run this command at the command prompt: “regsvr32 zipfldr.dll”.
Windows-A Non-Starter
Q. I have a Pentium 4 3.0 GHz, 512 MB of DDR RAM and an 80 GB hard drive with Windows XP. I have recently started getting an error message- “NTLDR not found”-during bootup, and I am not able to boot into Windows XP. Please help me as I do not wish to reinstall Windows and lose all my data and settings.
Ashutosh Rane, Panjim, Goa
You have not specified whether you have FAT32 or NTFS on your boot drive. We shall assume that you have FAT32 on your boot drive, that is, the drive on which Windows resides. Just boot with a Windows 98 bootable floppy. Select the ‘Boot with CD-ROM’ support option and hit [Enter]. Insert the Windows XP CD into the CD-ROM drive. Copy NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM files from the i386 folder of the CD to the root of the boot drive.
If your boot drive has been formatted with NTFS, then first boot with the Windows XP CD. At the first ‘R=Repair’ option, press hit ‘R’. Press the number that corresponds to the correct location of the boot drive. If Windows is installed in the C: drive, this number is 1. Enter the administrative password when prompted to do so and then enter the following commands:
COPY X:i386NTLDR C:
COPY X:i386NTDETEC.COM C:
Bear in mind that you will have to replace the letter ‘X’ with your CDROM’s drive letter. Take out the CDROM and type “exit”. This should fix your problem.
Clean Title Bar
Q. I have Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2 installed. My Internet Explorer 6 window has title that goes like “Internet Explorer – provided by XYZ company”. I wish to restore the window title to the default.
Aarti Gupte, Indore
The Internet Explorer window title you are referring to is sometimes used by OEMs to brand their computers. You can easily get rid of it.
Open Regedit. Go to HKEY_CURRENT _USER SoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerMain, and in the right pane, search for a string named ‘Window Title’. You will be able to view the OEM branding next to this string. Delete this string to get rid of the window title.
Q. I use an AMD Athlon XP 2000 laptop with 512 MB of RAM and a 30 GB HDD single partition running Windows XP Professional SP2. Of late, I seem to be losing hard disk space on the sole partition of my laptop. Once, when I transferred a file of 700 MB via FTP, I encountered the error due to insufficient disk space and I lost those 700 MB permanently and could not recover it.
Another strange thing I have observed is that my ‘Temporary Internet Files’ folder is unusually large in size (961MB) and keeps increasing. Windows says that it contains 14 folders but I can’t see even a single folder in it. Since this is a special OS folder, I can’t even delete it and recreate it. Please help me recover my HDD space!
Nikhil Wason, New Delhi
Windows creates a lot of temporary files during the course of its operations. The sad thing is that it forgets to delete each and every one of these temporary files and hence these files go on accumulating and eating up your hard disk space.
Most of these files can be done away with, though, using the provided ‘Disk Cleanup’ utility. But even this utility cannot delete all the unwanted files from the hard drive and you have to live with these files, since some of these are required for the functioning of Windows.
Alternatively, you may use third-party utilities such as Cleanup! from http://cleanup.stevengould.org and System Cleaner from www.systemcleaner.com to cleanup your system and registry and free up some more space. Since these third party utilities deal with the registry and system files, use them with a little caution. You may not be able to view the folders inside your ‘Windows’ folders because these are system folders and your Explorer might not be configured to view hidden and system files and folders. The other solution would be to do a clean install of Windows XP on your hard drive.
| Divide And Rule! Q. My computer configuration is as follows: 2.40 GHz Intel Celeron processor, 40 GB hard disk and 256 MB RAM. My OS is Windows XP. I also want to run Windows 98 on my computer and this is where the problem arises. I have only two partitions on the hard disk. One (D 🙂 is full of system recovery i.e., of 4 GB while the other (C:) has Windows XP, taking up 36 GB.
Here, nearly 10 GB of space is free. I want to make another partition without backing up my data so as to install Windows 98 there. Is there any software that allows a partition out of the free space available on C: while working on it?
Another problem related to installing Windows 98 over XP. Will it replace the boot loader of Windows XP and boot to Windows 98? If yes, what should be done to correct the boot loader so as when I boot up my PC, it will prompt me whether I want go for 98 or XP. I don’t want reinstall Windows XP.
Sunil S Kewade, Nagpur
To create a partition in the free space of your hard drive without losing any data, you will need to use a utility known as Ranish Partition Manager from www.ranish.com or Norton Partition Magic 8 from www.powerquest.com. It is never 100 per cent safe to play with partitions and be assured that your data will not be lost. Still it is advisable to back up your important data before you begin the creation of the partition.
In order to restore the Windows XP boot loader, you need to follow these steps: Create a Win98 Startup Disk. Create a text file with the following entries, exactly as shown:
L 100 2 0 1 N C:BOOTSECT.DOS R BX 0 R CX 200 W Q Save the file to the Win98 Startup Disk as READ.SCR. Boot the computer with the Win98 Startup Disk and at the A: prompt, type DEBUG <READ.SCR
These steps will create the BOOTSECT.DOS file needed to boot Win98. You may need to use the ATTRIB C:BOOTSECT.DOS -S -H -R command if BOOTSECT.DOS already exists. Configure your computer to boot from the CD drive. To do this, enter the CMOS setup which is usually done by pressing Del key during booting. Go to the Advanced BIOS Settings and here you will be able to change the boot sequence of your computer. Boot from your Windows XP CD. When you are presented with a choice of installing or repairing an existing installation, choose repair. You’ll be asked which XP installation you want to log into. Enter ‘1’. There is usually only one installation. You’ll be prompted for the Administrator password. For XP Home, the default password is blank, so just hit [Enter]. For XP Professional, enter the same password you did during setup for the Administrator account. At the C:Windows prompt, type ‘FIXBOOT’. You’ll be prompted to confirm.
When FIXBOOT is finished, remove the XP CD and type EXIT and the machine will reboot. Reconfigure your computer to boot from the hard drive if necessary. Now you will get the XP boot loader with your choice of operating systems.
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Return To The Game
Q. I want to know how I can back up my saved games in Grand Theft Auto Vice City, so I can use them after I have reinstalled Windows.
Aamir Khan, Via E-mail
All GTA Vice City saved games and profiles are placed under “GTA Vice City User Files” in “My Documents”. Just copy these to a folder of your choice. When you reinstall Windows and GTA Vice City, just copy these to the original location and you can access your saved games.