Peculiar Ping Problem!

Either your network card drivers are corrupt or your network card is damaged. Try to uninstall and then install the latest network card drivers to see if the problem goes away. If not, you will have to get a new network card, which should cost about Rs 300.

Nokia Know-How
How can I use my Nokia 3230 as a modem to surf using my PC? What PC configuration do I require? How can I transfer downloaded games to a Nokia 6600?
Raj Raj
 
In order to use your phone as a modem to surf the Internet, you need to first install the modem drivers for the Nokia 3230 on your PC. These drivers are provided on the CD that came with the phone; if you do not have it, you can download and install them from http://europe.nokia.com/A4144325. You will then have to subscribe to a GPRS plan from your mobile service provider, who will send you an SMS message with the required settings-just open this message and accept the settings, and they will automatically be saved on your phone.

Connect the phone to the PC using the DKU-2 cable when the PC Suite prompts you to do so. After the installation completes, the Get Connected wizard will launch to help you set up your connection. A dial-up connection will be created inside Network Connections. Your service provider will give you the number you need to dial. You should then be able to connect to the Internet.

When you download a game to your Nokia mobile, it will be saved as a message with attachment (the game in this case), which you can install later. You can therefore forward this message to the 6600, and that user will be able to install and play the game you downloaded.

Setting It Right
The left and right audio channels seem to be swapped in my games. I can correct this problem in movies by custom mapping in Media Player Classic. But how can I do this in games?
Neyo Kiran

A simple workaround for your problem would be to simply switch your speakers around, that is, interchange the right and left speakers-but if you want to really get to the root of the issue, read on. Most games allow you to swap audio channels from within the in-game audio options. There is no way to do it in Windows, except in certain cases where the sound card is bundled with a software utility that can let you do so. A probable solution for this problem would be to update to the latest drivers for the sound card. If the sound card is an old and obsolete one and no driver updates are available, then purchasing a new sound card would be your option.

One Two Ka Four!
I’m running Windows XP SP2. When I plug my Transcend 512 MB pen drive into the computer, a message pops up in the notification area: “Hi Speed USB Device plugged into a non Hi Speed USB hub.” Where can I get drivers to make it Hi-Speed? I have four USB 2.0 ports.

Is there any method to automatically transfer all the messages I receive in Outlook Express to my e-mail ID at Yahoo?
Can you mention any freeware or trialware that converts Real Media files (like *.rmj) to MP3?
Devraj Santosh

It seems that your pen drive is not formatted. Try to format it by opening Windows Explorer, right-clicking on it and selecting Format. If this does not seem to work, try using the HP Disk Storage Format Tool, which can be downloaded from http://selfdestruct.net/misc/ usbboot/SP27213.exe. If this doesn’t work either, your pen drive is probably damaged.

Driving Me Nuts!
My system configuration is 1.2 GHz Intel Celeron, 256 MB RAM, 80 GB hard drive with six Windows partition of 10 GB each, and in the rest of the space, I’d installed Red Hat Enterprise Edition. I have dual-booting of Windows-Windows 98 SE on the C: drive and Windows XP on D:. My BenQ CD-Writer connected as secondary master, and Samsung combo drive connected as secondary slave, don’t work in Windows XP, but work fine in Windows 98. The icons cannot be seen in My Computer, and when I go to Device Manager, it shows a yellow exclamation mark. I’ve tried uninstalling and restarting the PC, and also clicking on the option scan for hardware changes.
Manish Gupta

This problem occurs when the chipset drivers for the motherboard get corrupted. You can go to www.intel.com and download the latest version of chipset drivers for your motherboard and install them. You should be able to access your optical drives on the next boot.

Giving Vista The Boot
I installed the beta version of Windows Vista on my computer, dual-booting with Windows XP Professional. How do I it?
Raghu Kolhe

We’re assuming you installed Vista on a separate partition with nothing else on it. Boot into Windows XP. Insert your Vista DVD into the drive, or load the image in DVD emulation software. Run “X:bootbootsect.exe /nt52 ALL /force” (where X is your Vista DVD drive letter). Restart the computer and you will find that the old XP boot menu has returned. Format the partition where installed Vista, and remove Boot.BAK and Bootsect.BAK.

Got A Minute… Or More?
The default time limit for recording in the Windows Sound Recorder utility is one minute. Is there a way to increase this to, say, 15 minutes?
Kallol Das

To increase Sound Recorder’s time limit, you need to follow this (somewhat tedious) procedure.

Open Sound Recorder and click on the Record button. Let it record for a period of one minute until it stops. Now click on File > Save and save the file as Blank.wav. Next, click on Edit > Insert File… and insert the blank.wav file you just created. You will see that the recording time limit increases by one minute. In this way, if you wish to increase it to 15 minutes, insert this file 15 times. If you wish to make 15 minutes as the default recording length, do the following: save the file you created in the previous step (this will be a 15-minute blank WAV file). Go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > Entertainment, right-click on Sound Recorder, and click Properties. In the Target box, you will see “%SystemRoot% system32sndrec32.exe”; change it to “%SystemRoot% system32 sndrec32.exe C:Soundblank.wav” (without the quotes), assuming you saved the blank.wav file to C:Sound. When you start Sound Recorder the next time, this file will open automatically. After recording your audio, you can click on Edit > Delete After Current Position to remove the blank space after the recording is done. Don’t forget to save this newly-recorded file with a new filename, because if you accidentally overwrite the blank.wav file, the recording limit will become equal to the time for which you just recorded the audio.

This is just a workaround; you can use other utilities such as Nero Wave Editor (bundled with Nero) or Goldwave from www.goldwave.com, for making the task easier-or even WavePad from www.nch.com.au/wavepad.

Genuine Disadvantage?
I have a Compaq laptop and Windows XP with 512 MB of RAM. Recently, when I was surfing the Net, a Windows update was available and I was asked whether to update it or to reject it. I selected the option of updating it, as it was free of cost. Now the problem is that every time I start Windows, it gives me a warning that the Windows what I use is not a genuine one and says that I am a victim of software counterfeiting, and I will be asked to either get genuine or to resolve later. What can I do to avoid that message? Is it possible to cancel that update or delete that?
Dr. Spoorthi

Windows Update installs the Genuine Windows Component, which verifies whether the copy of Windows XP you are using is legally licensed. If this is the copy of Windows XP your laptop came with, contact Compaq and have them resolve the issue. If, however, it was installed by someone else or you did so yourself, your copy might be illegal. This is a common case in India, because bootleg copies of Windows XP are often installed by computer “engineers” without the knowledge of the customer.

The solution to this problem is, of course, to buy a legal copy of Windows XP. If you did buy a legal copy of Windows, read on.
On validation failure, you are directed to a page where you are given the details about why the validation failed and what are the recommended steps to be taken to fix the problem. One of the steps lets you check whether you can use the online Product Key Update Tool. If you have Genuine Windows, but it was improperly installed using an invalid product key, this tool allows you to convert your computer to a genuine status without having to purchase a new copy of Windows. If this fails, you should contact the Microsoft Customer Service at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/contactwga.