Q. While I was installing a game, a program named WhenUSave got installed on my computer. Now when I start my computer, it appears immediately on screen and starts connecting, and asks me to have patience as if it is trying to install something. The computer gets very slow. If I switch over to another user it hangs.
Satish Chandra
WhenUSave is adware that installs with many free software, but it usually gives you the choice to install it or not. It can be easily removed using a spyware removal software such as Spybot-Search & Destroy (version 1.4.0) from www.safer-networking.org. Spybot is freeware, and you’ll find it on this month’s CD.
It’s The Drivers Again
Q. I have two 250 GB Seagate hard drives and I want to set them up in a RAID configuration. When I try to install XP on them, they aren’t detected during the installation. What could be the problem?
Aneesh Jagtiani
We’re assuming you’ve already set up your computer in a RAID configuration. XP setup needs to be provided the RAID drivers to be able to detect the hard drives in this configuration. When you run the XP installation, press [F6] at the start at the point you see Press F6 if you need to install a third-party SCSI or RAID driver (at the bottom of the screen). Keep ready a clean floppy with the drivers copied in the root. You can find these drivers at the manufacturer’s Web site. Select from the list of devices enumerated in the next screen (usually the first). Press [Enter] and continue. Your drive will be detected, and you can proceed with the XP installation.
Power Play
Q. I have an external USB 2.0 hard drive that works very well on my Desktop PC. But when I connect it to my laptop, it does not work.
Binu Mathias
Windows XP can still find it tricky to deal with USB devices that aren’t keyboards, mice, or printers. The external USB drive may not be receiving enough power to initialise, so try the following. Open the Device Manager by running devmgmt.msc. Open the Universal Serial Bus controllers tree and double-click on all the USB Root Hub entries. There should be two or more such entries. Click on the Power Management tab for each one and remove any check-mark in the box that has Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power next to it. Then disconnect the drive, restart Windows, and connect the drive. If doing that doesn’t work, the drive may have come with a USB-to-5V cable, which you should use; it provides extra power. If it’s not come with the drive, you can purchase one for Rs 100.
Doing Me A Disservice!
Q. I recently installed a program after which Windows XP refuses to boot. I have searched on the Internet and found that this particular program installs a service at startup and causes the problem. But I have not been able to find a solution. I know the name of the service but am not able to disable it, because I cannot boot at all. I use Windows 2000 Server.
Atul Shrivastav
To disable the offending service, start your computer with the Windows boot disks, or with the Windows installation CD-ROM if your computer supports booting from the CD drive. When the Welcome to Setup dialog box is displayed, press [R] to repair when prompted to do so. Then press [C] to start the Recovery Console. Choose to install Windows and log on to your computer using your Administrator account. From the %SystemRoot%System32 folder at the command prompt, type listsvc and press [Enter]. Since you know the name of the offending service, locate the service or driver that is causing the problem in the provided list. Note that selecting the wrong service or device could cause further problems. Type disable servicename where servicename is the name of the service, and press [Enter]. Note that the disable command displays the old start_type of the service before resetting it to SERVICE_DISABLED. You should note down the old start_type, just in case you need to re-enable the service. Type exit, and the computer will restart automatically. You should now be able to boot normally.
Let There Be Light!
Q. When I Open the User Accounts in the Control Panel in XP Professional, I do not see the Administrator account in the list. I need to change the password for the Administrator account.
Ritesh Chakraborty
The Administrator account is normally visible in the Normal mode booting of Windows XP only if there is no other user account, but is always visible in Safe Mode. To work around your problem in Normal mode, follow the following steps.
Start the Microsoft Management Console (Start > Run > mmc), and start the Local Users and Groups snap-in. To do this, go to File > Add/Remove Snap-in, click on Add in the Standalone tab, select Local Users and Groups, and go through Add > Finish > Close > OK. Under Console Root, expand Local Users and Groups, and then click Users. In the right pane, right-click Administrator, and click Set Password. Click Proceed in the message box that appears. Type and confirm the new password in the appropriate boxes. Click OK.
#advanceampadstable0#
No SP2, No Problem
Q. I am a programmer. I’ve found that my Windows XP Pro computer takes considerably longer to compile programs and access files from the network than it took when I was using Windows NT on the same hardware.
Samir Ahmed
This is a documented problem; installing Service Pack 2 will fix it. If you are unable to install Service Pack 2 for some reason, here is a workaround.
1. Map a network drive to the SMB server. Follow these steps to do this:
Start Windows Explorer. On the Tools menu, click Map Network Drive. In the Drive list, click a drive letter. Then in the Folder list, type the UNC path of the shared resource on the server. Use the following format:
ServerNameSharedItem
Alternatively, click Browse, and then locate the shared resource. Click Finish.
2. Disable NetBT on a network interface. Do the following:
Run ncpa.cpl. Right-click the network connection you want to configure, and click Properties. If the connection is a local area connection, click the General tab, click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) in the This connection uses the following items box, and click Properties. If the connection is not a local area connection, click the Networking tab. Click Advanced, and then the WINS tab. In the NetBIOS settings area, click Disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP. Click OK thrice.
3. Add the ScavengerTimeLimit value to the Registry:
In the Registry Editor, locate the key called
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesMRxSmbParameters
Right-click on Parameters, go to New, and click DWORD value. Name it ScavengerTimeLimit. Double-click ScavengerTimeLimit, and In the Value data box, type 60. Click OK and close the Registry Editor.
A Sound Solution
Q. I have a Creative SoundBlaster Live! installed on my Windows XP computer. Every time I try to shut down the computer, I get an error message that says, “DEVLDR not responding.” When I click End Now, the computer stops responding.
Sarabjeet Singh
This is most likely a corrupt driver. Go to Control Panel > System > Hardware tab > Device Manager. Expand Sound, Video and Game Controllers. Right-click on Creative Labs SoundBlaster, and select Uninstall. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes. Then download and install the updated driver from the SoundBlaster Web site: www.soundblaster.com/support/winxp
Out, Junk!
Q. I frequently get the low disk space notification on my C drive and so tried to run the Disk Cleanup utility, but it stops responding while searching for compressed files.
Veronica Gonzales
This problem can be caused by a corrupt temporary directory. You need to clear this directory to get rid of the problem: close all applications. Run %temp% to open the Temp folder. Delete all the files there. Close Windows Explorer. Open the Control Panel and double-click the Internet Options applet. Select the General tab, and click Delete Files. Check Delete All Offline Content. Click OK.
Who’s The Boss?
Q. In Windows XP, I accidentally marked a partition on my hard drive as active, and am not able to boot ever since. I get this error message:
NTLDR is missing
Press Ctrl Alt Del to restart
Please help.
Rajesh Pai
The partition you’ve marked as active does not contain the Windows boot files. Try changing the active partition by booting via a floppy disk and then using disk utilities to manually change the active partition: boot to a command prompt using a Microsoft Windows 9x / ME boot floppy disk. At the prompt, type fdisk and press [Enter]. When you are prompted to enable large disk support, click Yes. Click Set active partition, press the number of the partition that you want to make active, and then press [Enter]. Press [Esc]. Remove the boot floppy disk and restart the computer. If you don’t have a floppy drive, use Parted Magic from our August DVD-it gives you a graphical interface to do the same thing.
Telling The Tale
Q. I’ve often wondered that if Windows creates dump files when it crashes, shouldn’t there be a way to read and interpret them?
Amit Chanana
Memory dump file creation is a very useful diagnostic tool found in all Windows systems based on NT. A memory dump is an output file generated by the operating system during a crash and is very useful in determining the cause of the crash. This file is saved as a file with the DMP extension in the system32 directory. The option (if it is currently disabled) to create a dump file can be set up by opening Control Panel > System > Advanced tab > Settings button under Startup and Recovery. The dump file can be analysed using a tool from Microsoft known as dumpchk.exe, available for download from www.microsoft.com/ whdc/devtools/debugging/default.mspx. There are different versions of this tool available for different versions of Windows; choose yours. Detailed information about using dumpchk.exe can be found at http://support. microsoft.com/?kbid=156280. To actually interpret the dump, though, you need to know Windows’ ins and outs.
Reinstalling The Installer!
Q. When I try to uninstall certain programs, I get the following error:
Error 1719. The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed. You may be running in safe mode or Windows Installer may not be correctly installed.
Manish Sen
Your Windows Installer seems to be corrupt and reinstalling it should solve your problem. At a command prompt, type in the following line and then press [Enter] (“Drive” is the drive where Windows is installed; “%Windir%” is the folder where Windows is installed):
attrib -r -s -h drive: %Windir%system32dllcache
For example, you might type in
attrib -r -s -h c:windows system32dllcache
Then at the prompt, type in the following lines, pressing [Enter] after each line:
ren msi.dll msi.old
ren msiexec.exe msiexec.old
ren msihnd.dll msihnd.old
Exit the DOS prompt and restart your computer. Update the Windows Installer files on your hard disk to the latest version. Get it from the Microsoft Download Center at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893803/. Shut down your computer, and then restart it in standard mode.