I have an Intel Pentium 4 2.93 GHz, 1 GB DDR2 RAM, 80 GB 7200 RPM HDD and an Intel 945 motherboard. I am using Vista Ultimate with SP1 installed and it is regularly updated. Whenever I launch two or more applications I get low memory error. I have even turned of aero. But it has not even helped. Please tell how to reduce vista memory usage.
The problem of memory shortage could be to do with the pagefile especially because you are running Vista on 1 GB of memory which is the bare minimum. Check the page file settings for your system by starting up the System properties. Click on the Advanced tab and click on Settings under Performance. Again, click on Advanced and click the Change button under the Virtual memory section. Here, set a size for the page file if there isn’t one set already.
I have an AMD Athlon 64 processor with 1 GB of RAM and an 80 GB HDD with Windows XP SP2. I am facing a problem of user32.dll. When I was trying to install pc suite for my mobile, I got some errors relating to use32.dll. Also I can’t access the calculator application in Windows. Everytime I try to open CALC from Start > Run, it gives me a similar error. Both the errors are same. I have got these errors before as well so I have reinstalled Windows but problem still remains. Also while reinstalling the windows, first time I got a blue screen. The next time it installed properly. Can you please advise me on this issue? Sometimes my pc suddenly restarts randomly.
The user32.dll and shell32.dll errors suggest that those files have been tampered with. Your screenshots you’ve sent have some modifications done to the operating system. This could be some kind of desktop replacement or interface theme software to change to look of your operating system. Even after you reinstalled Windows, you might have reinstalled this software. Try uninstalling these software properly and see if the error stops. If it doesn’t work, then the files have been corrupted and you might have to repair them by reinstalling Windows or by using the recovery mode while booting off the XP CD.
My PC configuration: Motherboard: Intel 945GC- M7 TE; Processor: Intel Celeron 1.80 GHz; RAM: 512 DDR2
Recently, I bought a NVIDIA XFX GeForce 8400GS 512 MB graphics card. But I haven’t got the desired performance from it. I cannot run games like NFS: Most Wanted and NFS: Carbon beyond the resolution of 800 x 600 with a few settings in medium. The games slow down. Even F.E.A.R. with resolution 640 x 480 with settings like anti-aliasing at 2x and medium shadow quality give around 40 fps. Please tell me what should I do to get good performance out of it? I have heard that over-clocking a graphics card boosts its performance. Should I over-clock my card? I have no idea how to do that. Please explain its procedure.
The 8400GS is an entry level graphics card and the processor you are using is also very outdated. Overclocking the card would only bring a marginal improvement. Besides, there’s a bigger risk involved which means you could damage the card and the processor if you overclock it. A better processor would probably add an average 10 to 15 fps more to the performance but a completely new system is highly recommended if you wish to play all these games with all the details and resolution turned up.
I am using a Pentium IV computer which I assembled in 2004. Since then it was working fine. But since last week it is giving me headache.
My PC configuration is 845 GVSR Intel motherboard with an Intel Pentium 4 Processor 2.4 GHz
256 MB DDR SDRAM DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive
CD-Rom Drive 1.44 floppy Hard Disk – 40 GB PATA
Internet – Data One Broadband with 2 Mbps speed
Antivirus – Avast Home Edition updated every day. Since the last four years it was working fine. Now there are a few problems –
1. Sometimes, it hangs and then restarts automatically
2. Sometimes after hanging for a few seconds gives an error that the display driver has stopped working normally. To work properly, I must restart the computer.
3. Sometimes, it gives a boot disk error and a press any key to start error.
Thanks
The instability you are facing could be because of a faulty hard drive. Your 40 GB hard drive has last a long time. Run some diagnostic tools to verify if the hard drive is indeed failing. Backup any important data onto other drives or discs. Try a software called Speedfan which has a hard drive health utility. You can also download a bootable disc called Ultimate Boot CD and boot from it and run some more disk checking utilities.
PC Shuts Down While Playing Games
My PC configuration is as follows:
Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz
Intel P35 EC M/B
WD 500 GB HDD
Palit 1 GB 9600 GT Sonic Graphics Card
VIP 450 W Power Supply
Altec Lansing 2.1 Speakers
APC Backup 500
My problem is as follows. Whenever I play games like Medal of Honour – Airborne or Crysis, My system crashes i.e. my PC shutdown automatically. I don’t understand what the problem is. My OS is Win XP- SP2 and Win Vista – Ultimate. Kindly reply me urgently as this is very important and if you reply me through email I will highly appreciate.
Your PC could be shutting down either because your processor is overheating a lot or your power supply isn’t sufficient enough which doesn’t seem to be the case. You could try swapping out the current power supply with a slightly more powerful one. Be sure to update all the drivers for the motherboard and graphics card before you do.
After I insert my Windows XP bootable CD and restart my computer, it first gives the message “Press any key to boot from CD”. Then I press my enter key and then it gives a mesage “Setup is inspecting your hardware configuration”. After that nothing happens, I left it for 3 to 4 hours but still nothing happened. I tried few more CDs and they work fine on my friends computers. What should I do?
This is my system information:
Processor- Intel Core 2 Duo
Motherboard- Intel D945GCL
Memory- 1 GB DDR2 RAM
Hard disk- Seagate 250 GB SATA
If the same CD works on your friend’s computer, then the CD is perfectly fine. It is either the drive you are using that is spoilt or it could also be faulty memory. Try a different CD drive first. If you use multiple RAM sticks, then try one RAM stick at a time to rule out problems with the RAM.
I am a regular reader of the Digit magazine and I liked it a lot. It’s full of stuff needed in daily routine. Keep the great work. The problem I am facing is that my system has 4GB RAM installed but the Windows XP (in system properties) shows only 3.25GB available. Why so? The BIOS shows up 4GB RAM but not XP.
This is a limitation faced by 32-bit operating systems. Install a 64-bit Windows XP or Vista and you will be able to use the entire 4 GB.
I am a regular reader of Digit. My PC’s configuration is as follows processor – AMD Athlon 64 3500 2.20GHz. I have a MSI motherboard with 2 GB of RAM. I want to upgrade my system’s memory to 4 GB. Will it be possible with this processor and will it affect my system’s stability or performance? Please help.
If your motherboard supports it, yes you can put 4 GB of RAM. The performance boost that you get from the additional memory will be minimal unless you run applications such as Photoshop and work on projects that require that amount of memory.
My BSNL broadband connection is 256 Kbps (fixed). When I download something big like files of over 200 to 300 MB in size, the download starts at 12.5 to 17 Kbps and at times a maximum of 25 Kbps but nothing more than that.
I want to know that how could I speed up my download speed. I’ve already tried the limit reversible bandwidth scheme by using the QOS Packet Scheduler using gpedit.msc application in QOS packet scheduler. I enable it and decrease it zero per-cent, but it does not work. My friend has the same ISP and the same scheme with the same speed but when I downloaded 311.5 MB file from his computer it shows 167 kbps download speed. The 311.5 MB file downloaded within 25 min. Please suggest me how could I get the max speed. Can you give me some suggestions?
A 256 kbps on most ISPs will give you between 25 and 30 KB (kilobits) per second. If you are getting 12.5 to 17 KB/s, then that is more or less the equivalent of a 128 kbps (kilobits per second) connection. If your friend gets 167 KB/s, then that most definitely isn’t a 256 Kbps connection but it might be a 2 Mbps connection.
The connection speeds also depend on the state of your telephone line, the amount of load between you and the site you are downloading from. It could also be some kind of server end issue on BSNL’s end. Contact them for your problem and ask them to rectify it. You can also check your connection by going to http://speedtest.dataone.in:83/bandwidthmeter/initialmeter.php or some international services such as www.speedtest.net. Ask your friend to do the same.
My PC configuration is:
Zenith PC, Pentium 4 2.93GHz,
MSI Intel 915GL ICH6 chipset,
DDR 400 RAM 512 256 MB,
DVD Combo Optical drive,
Windows XP SP2.
My problem is that when I play any music file on either headphone or speaker, the sound stutters like a damaged speaker. I checked the same files with WMP11, iTunes and Winamp but the results are the same. I checked the headphone & speaker with another PC it works properly. So please guide me now what to do?
The problem is obviously not with your headphones and speakers so the only culprit is the sound card. Either the sound sockets on the back of the motherboard are damaged or there is some kind of a driver issue. Uninstall the existing drives and also uninstall the sound card by right clicking on the sound card in the Device manager. Reboot once and let it reinstall or if required, download and install the latest drivers from the Internet.
I’ve been reading your magazine from its sixth month of inception. I reside in Chennai. Coming to the point, I have a brand new Asus P320 aka Galaxy Mini. I need to know whether we have GPS systems in India? If so, can I connect to the satellites and know my location without connecting to the net? Moreover I need to know clearly how to connect to the satellites with my mobile, if that is possible in India. Do I need anything other than my mobile and its bundled software?
GPS systems work everywhere and India is no exception. You can connect to satellites without any kind of payment or services to subscribe to. To make use of the data, you can use all kinds of applications. There are all kinds of applications for GPS receivers – some of which will guide you to your destination, some that will record your path for you to look at later and some that can do everything. GPS Tuner is commercial software that does a lot of things with the GPS receiver. You can also find free GPS software for Windows Mobile on sites such as www.freewarepocketpc.net and www.mobiletopsoft.com.
Other than the mobile software itself, you might need to purchase software that gives you maps of your region if you want to be able to use it for use on the road. There are ways of creating your own maps with some of the software.
I have a Pentium 4 2.6 GHz, 512 MB DDR RAM with Windows XP Pro and Service Pack 3 installed on it. Recently I have been facing a series of annoying problems.
1. Whenever I use SHIFT ‘some of the keys’, for e.g., say I use SHIFT ‘2’; so instead of getting ‘@’, I get ‘ “ ‘ and vice versa. And if I use SHIFT ’3’, I get ‘£’. And there are lots of other key combinations with the same problems. I checked the keyboard on another PC and its working fine.
2. The Windows Security Center icon never appears at startup. So I doubt if Firewall is protecting me whenever I access the net. Neither does it update itself even if automatic updates are turned on. I have set it to update everyday at 11 am as I use the net at that time.
3. I have a D-Link ADSL 2 Router. Just recently I have known from a friend that my Broadband connection (256 kbps) is not giving me the required speed. It mostly stays at 25-30 kbps whereas I found at my friend’s place that he gets a minimum speed of 80kbps. I checked my modem at my friend’s home and it is working fine. The telephone exchange told me that my telephone line is okay.
4. I have Avast 4.8 (registered Home Edition) and Spybot Search and Destroy installed and update it regularly. They show no errors or viruses on scanning even at ‘thorough scan’. But after I bought the Kaspersky antivirus, it has started showing a lot of errors.
Why? Aren’t free home editions reliable? My broadband provider says your net might be slow because I am using a free edition and so my computer is infected with virus.
I am not thinking of using dual antivirus as I don’t think my pc could handle it.
If you are sure the keyboard works fine on other PCs, then the problem lies with the connector on your PC. Try cleaning it and make sure it isn’t damaged. It could be something much sillier that could be wrong. Click on Regional and Language Options in the Control Panel. Click on the Languages tab and then on Details. Make sure the keyboard layout is correct. Make sure Sticky keys and other accessibility options are turned off from the Control Panel as well.
If your Windows Security option isn’t visible on the system tray, then you might have disabled in the past. Other anti-spyware, antivirus and firewalls can disable the Windows firewall during installation as well. To enable it again, go to the Security Center from the Control Panel. Click on Change the way Security Center alerts me. Here you can choose to have the system tray icon displayed. To verify if the update downloading is enabled, click on Automatic updates and Windows Firewall in the Control Panel.
Your 256 kbps connection should give you around 30 kilobytes per second. If your friend gets 80 kilobytes per second on his 256 kbps connection, then his connection isn’t working properly by giving him a higher speed.
The efficiency of an antivirus application depends on its engine and how often virus updates are released online. There are way too many virus and worms on the Internet and many released every single day.
I’m an architecture student and an advance user of AutoCAD Architecture 2009, Revit Architecture 2009, 3ds Max 9, Photoshop CS3, Corel Draw and V-Ray for rendering. I use them for making technical drawings, Panels, rendering and walkthroughs. I want to upgrade my PC. I’ve figured out the following configuration:
Processor: Intel Core2 Duo E8500 3.16 GHz
Motherboard: Asus Formula Rampage OR Asus P5Q Pro
RAM: Transcend 2X2GB DDR2, 800 MHz
Graphics card: XFX GeForce 8800GTS, 512MB Alfa Dog OR ATI Radeon HD3870, 512MB
Power supply: Cooler Master 600W
Most probably I’ll be using Windows Vista Home Premium SP1. Kindly suggest necessary changes in the configuration. What is the cost of a 4GB DDR3 RAM? Is it better? Also, suggest a free but powerful Antivirus. My Budget is Rs 45,000 approx.
Your configuration needs a few corrections. Quad-core processors will suite your work better than a dual-core E8500. An entry level quad-core – the Intel Q6600 which is around Rs 9,000 would be a far better option for rendering purposes. More the cores the better it is for rendering. DDR3 is still a lot more expensive than DDR2 at the moment. 4 GB of DDR3 could be priced anywhere around Rs ______. The advantages of using DDR3 aren’t visible right now so DDR2 is your best bet.
As far as your selection of graphics cards go, you should opt for the GeForce 8800GTS. Prices for graphics cards have plummeted, so can even consider cards like the ATI Radeon 4850 at around Rs. 11,000. GeForce 9800GTX cards are also available around the same price.
The two ASUS boards you have mentioned use two completely different chipsets. The Formula Rampage is one of the best X48 boards one can buy but it should be a bit more expensive than the P5Q-Pro. Look at your budget and choose accordingly because the P45 powered P5Q-Pro is also a very good board at its price bracket.
If you are going for a Cooler Master, make sure you go for one from the Real Power series. You can also look for power supplies from the other manufacturers such as the Corsair HX620. All the above components should easily fit in your Rs 45,000 budget.
I am planning to buy a digital camera and a handy cam. I will be using it for my tours/family functions at the most. For the digital camera, based on digit/other reviews I have decided to buy Canon PowerShot A590 IS. Is A720IS worth the extra money for 6x zoom? I have also settled on canon because it has an optical viewfinder and will help in saving battery life. Are my assumptions correct? Are there any better cameras for around Rs 8000 to 10,000. Kindly advice.
For handy cam I have settled on Canon FS10/FS11. Are they good? Among others I settled on them due to their storage. I feel that they will be more stable compared to hard disk based cams. Is this correct? My budget is around Rs 24,000 to 26,000. Please advice.
The A590 IS and A720 IS are both very good cameras for their prices. The A720 is worth the extra money you spend. Not only does it have a slightly more powerful zoom lens but it also is slightly superior in quality. Using the optical viewfinder might save a little bit of battery power but using it all the time is not always going to be possible.
The Canon FS 10 should be around your budget price range but keep in mind these are SD-based camcorders. They are quieter and the batteries should last longer than on hard drive and tape based ones.
I want to buy a PC and my Budget is Rs 30,000 to 35,000. I am doing a course of animation and VFX. Please tell me the best configuration that I can get in this budget. Also mention the prices of the required hardware like CPU, motherboard, RAM, graphics card, LCD monitor and must tell about cabinet and the power supply. Tell me which O/S is better for animation and gaming – XP or Vista. Also tell about a good internal T.V. tuner card.
For a budget of Rs 35,000, you should be able to get the following components with these approximate prices.
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 (Around Rs 5,500)
Motherboard: Abit IP35-E or Biostar TP35D2-A7 (Around Rs 5,000)
Graphics card: GeForce 9600GT (Around Rs 6,500)
Memory: 2 GB DDR2 Value RAM (Around Rs 2,000)
Hard drive: Western Digital 640GB (WD6400AAKS)
LCD Screen: 19” Samsung (Around Rs 8,500)
Power supply: VIP 500W
Generic cabinet
Windows Vista and XP are both fine for gaming as well as computer graphics work. Vista is definitely prettier but also consumes a lot more memory. With the 2 GB of RAM you put on your system, Vista should run just alright.
I am planning to purchase a laptop in November. I want a 256MB graphics card with DirectX 10 support, an AMD dual core processor, a 120 to 160 GB HDD, 2 GB of RAM along with features like a webcam, HDMI port, a LAN card, WiFi, Bluetooth and a Lightscribe DVD writer.
I have looked up on the Internet and have found products like the HP DV5z (which has not been launched in India yet), the Dell Studio and some others from Acer.
I’ve a budget of Rs 35000 to Rs 40000. I need to know if the Hp one that is shown as $700 to 900. Is this price going to be the same in the Indian market also and by what time this product is going to come in India. I need your assistance to buy a laptop for the value of money in my range of budget.
Typically when products reach the Indian shore, prices go up by a bit but there are also times when they are cheaper here than in some other countries. In the case of the HP laptop you’ve been talking of, HP India would know best. Check up on HP India’s site for any information or try and contact them from their site.
You should also know that features such as Bluetooth, WiFi, a webcam and a wired LAN card are common in almost all laptops today. A light scribe enabled DVD writer is a little more difficult to find. HDMI and DirectX 10 supported graphics cards with dedicated memory are some features usually found on costlier laptops.
Hi, I am going to buy a new mobile. It should have a good camera, good sound and memory at least of 2 GB. There is no need of features like 3G. I travel a lot so the phone should be built well too. Please suggest a mobile phone for me. My price range is between Rs 13,000 and Rs 15,000.
Your two best options for that price are the Nokia N81 and the Sony Ericsson K810i. The SE K810i has a slightly higher resolution camera as compared to the N81. You might need to purchase memory cards for the phones.
Hi,
I’m using PC with following configuration. An Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz, Intel 82845g motherboard, 1.25 GB DDR RAM, 80GB Samsung HDD, LG DVD writer and a CMI 8738 5.1 channel sound card. All this runs on Windows XP SP2. I want to upgrade my sound card. Please suggest to me which card would be good for my PC. I have TRUWAVE TW-1600(5.1ch) speakers.
So please tell me will it make any audible different by changing the sound card? My Budget is Rs 1000 to Rs 2,000. Are there any 5.1 channel plug-ins for Winamp?
There are decent sound cards available between the price range you’ve stated. Whether you will be able to make out the difference or improvement with the speakers you own is a different question all together. The CMI 8738 was a good sound card for its price even then. You can consider the Audigy Value.
All the music we listen to is in stereo so by default they are meant for 2 speakers only. There are plugins which can replicate the sound to other channels. One of the more well known plugins for Winamp is ATSurround Processor (www.andrewlabs.com). More can be found in the plugin section on Winamp’s site – www.winamp.com/plugins.
I have a 2 GB pen drive. A virus from the Internet infected it and now when I used the pen drive on my PC, it too got infected by the same virus. I formatted my computer to remove the virus from the particular drive. While formatting the PC, my pen drive was also connected to my PC. I also formatted my pen drive using FAT 32 to remove the virus it. After formatting it, my pen drive is not working anymore. If I try to format, it shows an error that Window cannot perform this operation.
If I want to send something in it says “Please insert a disk in the drive”. It is neither showing the name of pen drive nor the capacity of it nor the partition type means either it is NTFS/ FAT type please.
Do I have to buy a new pan drive? The warranty for the pen drive has expired. Please reply me.
First of all download Kaspersky Antivirus 2009 from http://www.kaspersky.com/anti-virus_trial
Activate it as a trial version and update it from the internet. Run a full system scan on your computer. Connect your pen drive to your computer. Then right click on My Computer and click on Manage. A window will appear which is called Computer Management. Now click on Storage on the left hand side pane and then click on Disk Management.
Here you will be able to see your pen drive as a removal drive. Try formatting it by right clicking on it and clicking on format. Format it using FAT32 partition type. If you face any problem while doing it, means that your pen drive is no more working and there is no solution to it.
Aditya (TECH QNA Expert)
RAR Files Giving CRC Errors
I have the following PC configuration. An Intel C2D E7200, Intel original DG33FB motherboard, 4 GB RAM 667 MHz, Seagate Barracuda 400 GB SATA HDD, XFX Nvidia GeForce 9600GT video card and an LG 20x DVD writer. The problem is whenever I try to extract any huge RAR file I get CRC errors and extraction fails. But when the same file is extracted on other computer the extraction is successful without any errors. Please help me I am fed up of this.
CRC errors can occur due to many different types of problems. Some of these problems are:
1. Damage to file during the copying process.
2. Problems with the device that is accessing or opening the file.
3. Problems with the file itself.
Try re-downloading the file or transfer it from some other source, other than the one you are using currently.Try using some other compression software other than WinRAR. There are many good ones available. WinRAR has a repair mode. Accessible through [Ctrl] [R] or the link is there on the task menu of WinRAR. Try it.
Ramik Sadana (TECH QNA Expert)
I purchased a new WD hard disk of 80 GB, at the time of partition the system shutdown due to overheating issues but after that there weren’t any more error message. I installed the Windows XP SP3 but now I am facing a problem of sudden restarts which are almost at the same time interval but after three or four restarts the system becomes stable. Help me out.
You must check your processor first and make sure that it does not overheat again. Also check your hard disk for any bad sectors through chkdsk / scandisk. Also if possible take the data backup, repartition it and then do a standard format for each partition.
Sanjeev Chharia (TECH QNA Expert)
When I open my computer, “My Documents” opens up automatically.
If I understand you right — after your PC boots up your My Documents folder is opened on your desktop.
If that is correct, I think you should check your Startup folder in the Start > All Programs menu. Make sure a link to your My Documents folder is not listed in there.
If so just right click on it and select Delete. Also try this, check the Userinit and PersistBrowsers registry entries to make sure that they contain the correct values.
To check the Userinit and PersistBrowsers registry entries, follow these steps.
a. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
b. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogon
c. In the right pane, right-click Userinit, and then click Modify.
d. In the Edit String dialog box, type C:WINDOWSsystem32userinit.exe under Value data, and then click OK.
e. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced
f. in the right pane, right-click PersistBrowsers, and then click Modify.
g. In the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, type 0 under Value data, and then click OK.
h. Quit Registry Editor, and restart the computer.
Jagdeep Virdi (TECH QNA Expert)
I have Windows XP on my desktop PC. One day I installed Windows Vista on another partition. But after 30 days it stopped booting. So I formatted my Vista but every time I try to boot, it asks me for which OS I want to boot from that the OS selection menu. Now, I am working with only Windows XP. How can I erase the entry from the boot menu? I have been trying to edit the boot.ini file but there is no line of selecting option. Please help me.
Although you have erase Windows Vista from you hard drive and install a fresh Windows XP as a replacement, Vista boot loader will still remain on your system. This is quite annoying because you see it at every bootup.
There are two ways we can do to erase Windows Vista bootloader, the first one:
1. Boot to Windows XP. Put your Vista DVD to your DVD-Rom
2. Click on Start > Run, and type x:bootbootsect.exe /nt52 All /force
Note: “x” is your DVD-Rom drive name.
Or you can try the second steps:
1. Boot you PC using Windows XP SP2 CD.
2. Run the Recovery Console.
3. When the console is loaded, type “fixboot” (without quotes) and press Enter.
4. Then, type fixmbr and press Enter.
5. Reboot your PC to see the results.
Jagdeep Virdi (TECH QNA Expert)
How can I setup a wireless Internet connection? I’m now using BSNL Broadband connection with desktop PC, but I want to setup this connection with my Laptop. How can I set up Internet connection using mobile (using Blue Tooth and Data cable) with the laptop.
You just need a WiFi router, which costs around Rs 2,000. Connect the desktop using wires and laptop wirelessly and enjoy!
If your phone has WiFi, you can browse too. Bluetooth is possible too but is too slow and doesn’t have a very wide range.
Gopi (TECH QNA Expert)