TV To VCD

There’s no difference between a regular video file and one you’ve captured using your card. If you’re able to capture video without any problems, you should be able to write the files to CD in VCD mode. You will need to purchase and install a CD-burning software (such as Nero Burning ROM) to do this.

After you start Nero, select the CD format as ‘Video CD’, select ‘PAL’, and click OK. Now simply drag and drop the file you captured using your TV-Tuner card into the Nero window. If the file format is not conformant with VCD standards, Nero will prompt you to re-encode the file so it becomes compliant with VCD 2.0 standards. Opt to re-encode the file. This process takes some time, but it produces VCDs that can be played on any VCD player.

Some of the better PVR software are InterVideo WinDVR from www.intervideo.com, Cyberlink PowerVCR from www.cyberlink.com, SageTV from www.sage.tv and ChrisTV from www.chris-tv.com.

Adobe Premiere InterVideo WinProducer and Ulead VideoStudio are some of the many video editing software, and Sony Sound Forge 8.0, Adobe Audition, Cool Edit Pro and GoldWave are some of the good audio editing software available.

An Autopatcher Accident
Q. I am using Windows XP with SP2. I’ve installed Autopatcher XP, which was provided with the last issue of Digit. From the time that I’ve installed it, I’m not getting the usual welcome screen, and during shutdown I see a different interface. When I press [Ctrl] [Alt] [Del], a window opens, describing something about shutdown, logging off, etc. I want all these set to the defaults.
Vinayak Vijayan

This happens because you accidentally checked the box next to ‘Disable welcome screen, force classic logon’. To restore the usual welcome screen, start the Group Policy Editor by clicking Start > Run and entering “gpedit.msc”. Here, navigate to ‘Computer Configuration’, expand ‘Administrative Templates’ and click on ‘Logon’. In the right pane, double-click ‘Always use classic logon’ and set it to ‘Not configured’. Exit the Group Policy Editor.

845: 266, 333?
Q. I have an Intel 845GL motherboard with 128 MB of DDR 266 MHz RAM installed. I’ve heard that the 845GL can also support DDR 333 MHz RAM with a BIOS upgrade. Is that true?
Manmohan Behera

The Intel 845 series of motherboards supports DDR 200 and 266 MHz RAM, and does not support DDR 333 MHz RAM even with a BIOS upgrade. You may still be able to use a DDR 333 MHz module on this motherboard,but it will run at a clock speed of DDR 266 MHz.

Download The Drivers!
Q. I recently purchased a Nokia 6225 CDMA cell phone with a data cable (DKU 5). I installed PC Suite from Nokia to facilitate data transfer. My problem is, I’m not able to transfer data from my PC to the phone. Do I need to install additional software?
Kavoor Branch

In order to connect the Nokia 6225 phone with the DKU-5 to a PC, you’ll need to download and install the drivers for the DKU-5 cable from www.nokia.com. These drivers must be installed before you connect the phone to the PC. It’s only after installing these drivers that Windows will be able to successfully install and configure the cable. Also, download the latest version of Nokia PC Suite from the same Web site.

The reason for this error could be one or more of the following files being missing or damaged: config.nt, autoexec.nt and/or command.com. To resolve this issue, insert your Windows XP CD in your drive, and open a command prompt. At the prompt, type in the following commands, pressing [Enter] after each command (assuming X is your CD-ROM drive letter).

expand X:i386config.nt_ %systemroot%system32config.nt
expand X:i386autoexec.nt_ %systemroot%system32autoexec.nt
expand X:i386command.co_ %systemroot%system32command.com
exit

Try running the installation to see if the problem is resolved. If it persists:
 In Notepad, type in the following:
dos=high, umb device=%systemroot%system32
himem.sys
files=40
Click File > Save As. In the file name dialog box, type in “%systemroot% system32config.nt” and click ‘Save’.
 Click File > New. Type the following entries in this new text document:
@echo off
lh %systemroot%system32mscdexnt.exe
lh %systemroot%system32redir
lh %systemroot%system32dosx
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 P330 T3
 Click File > Save As, and in the file name dialog box, type in “%systemroot%system32
autoexec.nt” and click ‘Save’.
If the problem is still not resolved, then do the following:
 Go to Start > Run, type in “%systemroot%repair” and hit [Enter].
 We’re concerned with two files in this folder: ‘Autoexec.nt’ and ‘Config.nt’. Right-click on the Autoexec.nt file and select ‘Copy’.
 Go to Start > Run, type in “%systemroot%system32” and hit [Enter].
 Right-click anywhere in the folder and select ‘Paste’.
 Right-click on the Autoexec.nt file just copied and choose ‘Properties’.
 Select ‘Read-only’ and click OK.
 Repeat the above steps for ‘Config.nt’.

Activate, Reinstall, Activate, …
Q. Whenever my computer got corrupt beyond repair, I would reinstall the OS. I have a registered version of Windows XP. Once reinstallation is complete, the system asks me to activate Windows. This has become a nuisance because beyond 30 days, it just stops working. Is there anything I can do?
Dr K A Rasheed

Every single-user licensed edition of Windows XP needs to be activated within 30 days of installation, failing which you will not be able to log into Windows without activation. Re-activation may be necessary when either you re-install Windows or when there are major changes to your computer hardware. Activating Windows XP is very easy, and there are more than one ways to do it. We’ll explain two of these.

A. Activating over the Internet:
>Click on Start, point to All Programs > Accessories > System Tools, and click ‘Activate Windows’.

>Click ‘Yes, let’s activate Windows over the Internet now’.

>Click ‘Read the Windows Product Activation Privacy Statement’, then click ‘Back’, and then click ‘Next’.    

>Click ‘No, I don’t want to register now; let’s just activate Windows’ (if you just want to activate Windows) and click ‘Next’. The wizard will now establish a connection with the activation server, which will process the activation request.

>When the activation process is complete, you’ll see a message: “You have successfully activated your copy of Windows”. Click OK.

B. Activating over the Phone:
This method is useful if you do not have an Internet connection. You’ll need to call a Microsoft customer service representative over the phone. The first step is the same as in the previous method.
>Click ‘Yes, I want to telephone a customer service representative to active Windows now’.

>Repeat the third step from (A) above.

>Follow the steps in the ‘Activate Windows by phone’ dialog box, and click ‘Next’.

>Call the toll-free number for your country from the list.

>An installation ID number will be displayed on the screen, and you need to provide this to the customer service representative, who will return a confirmation ID to you. If you are re-activating, you will have to cite the reason for re-installing Windows. Once you type in the confirmation ID, activation will be complete.

If you do not wish to re-activate XP, there is a way to back up the activation and restore it when you re-install XP. Follow these steps:

>Navigate to the %windir%System32 folder and locate the ‘wpa.dbl’ and ‘wpa.bak’ files, and copy them to a safe location.

>When you re-install XP, boot into Safe Mode by pressing [F8] at boot time.

>Navigate to the %windir%System32 folder and rename the files ‘wpa.dbl’ and ‘wpa.bak’ to ‘wpaold.dbl’ and ‘wpaold.bak’ respectively. Copy the ‘wpa.dbl’ and ‘wpa.bak’ files from the previous Windows installation to this location. Windows XP will be activated when you reboot.

Note that this procedure will not work if you’ve made significant changes to the computer hardware, or if you’re trying to install XP on another computer.

The display got inverted because your niece accidentally pressed the hotkey combination that inverts the Intel Extreme Graphics adapter’s display. To set it straight again, press [Ctrl] [Alt] [Up]. To disable rotation, right click the Intel Extreme Graphics icon on the taskbar, select ‘Graphics Options’, and then ‘Graphics Properties’. Click on the ‘Rotation’ tab and remove the checkmark from the ‘Enable rotation’ box.
Alternatively, this can be accessed from Display Properties > Settings > Advanced > Intel Extreme Graphics > Graphics Properties.

Spanning A Backup
Q. I took a backup of my C drive, and the size is 9.72 GB. I have a DVD-Writer, and the space available on a DVD is 4.72 GB. I would like to copy my backup file to DVDs.
Glenn Philips

Most file archiving utilities are capable of spanning archives across volumes of specified sizes. WinRAR and WinZip are two such. Let’s use WinRAR: install it from www.rarsoft.com. Open Windows Explorer and right-click on the backup file you created. Click ‘Add to archive…’. Choose a name for the archive and set the compression parameters according to what you want. Let the archive type remain as RAR, and select ‘Create SFX archive’ if you wish to create a self-extracting archive, using which you’ll be able to extract the archive even without installing WinRAR. In the ‘Split to volumes, bytes’ dialog box, set the volume size to 4,500,000,000 and click OK. Volumes of 4291 MB each will be created, and you can write these to individual DVDs.