Hardware Troubleshoot Guides, and Tips and Tricks

Hardware Troubleshoot Guides, and Tips and Tricks

How to connect your home computer from Remote location?

Using the Remote Desktop feature, you can connect your home computer (host) from any other remote computer (client) and can access all computer resources (installed programs, data and any network resources). You can run any computer application on the remote computer as you were running actually sitting in front of home computer.
Follow the given steps to configure your computer to connect remote computer:

• To use this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights.

• To perform this task, first make sure your both computers are connected to the internet.

• First you have to configure the host computer that allows the users to connect it remotely. On the host computer, right click on “My computer” and click on Properties option.

• Under the Remote tab, select the option “Allow users to connect remotely to this computer” and click Ok button.

• Now get the IP address of host computer (type the “ipconfig /all” on the command prompt of host computer to find IP address).

• Now make a connection on remote or client computer, click on Start button, go to All Programs> Accessories, and Communications, then click on Remote Desktop Connection, option. A Remote Desktop Connection, dialog box will appear.

• Click on Options button for detail configuration, under the General tab, type the IP address of host computer in the Computer box and also type username and password of host computer then click on Connect button to make a connection to remote computer.

• If your username and password is correct then a remote desktop windows will appear.

Graphic Card Troubleshooting

The graphic card is one of the most important pieces of hardware in your PC. Without it, your super monitor with all the bells and whistles is just a junk box.
Make Directional Input
Most video cards come with simple frame capture programs, but you’ll have to do some programming if you plan to integrate video capture with other operations on your computer, such as adding text data as an overlay or changing video-in channels on the fly. In this case you’ll need good programming libraries in a language with which you are familiar for the video card. Some companies include libraries with their cards, but most charge extra. Most often libraries, when available, are for C or BASIC, and sometimes Pascal.
Choose Between 24 bit and 32 bit
For True Color mode, some graphic cards offer 24 bit while some offer 32 bit. Which is the best? When True Colour mode was first suggested, it utilizes 32 bit which was very pleasing to the eye, they realize that 24 (with less coolers) won’t look much different since the human eye can only take about a certain amount of colors. On the other hand, 24 bit will run faster compared to 32 bit because it uses less colors. So if your card utilizes 24 bit, don’t worry, it isn’t bad.
Always Use The Latest Drivers
Yes, it is important to make sure you always have the latest drivers. The latest drivers will offer you better performance, more utilities and more compatibility (usually for DirectX or Direct3D). Take the effort to check you card manufacturer’s site to look for the latest driver updates.

How to change the windows default identity?

In windows XP, you can change the windows default identity (Computer Manufacturer Logo and other information’s) and share your own private identity there. First you right click on My Computer then click on Properties, here may be you will see computer manufacture logo or empty area. So add your own logo there to make your computer more private.
Follow the given steps to change the system default Properties identity:

• First click on Start button and type notepad in Run option then press Enter.
• Now type the following text in notepad.

[General] Manufacturer=”www.folsol.com”
Model=” Computer Free Tips and Tricks!”
[Support Information] Line1=”We offer various help topics including A to Z Computer Free Tips and Help.”
Line2=”Visit daily for new tips www.folsol.com”
Now choose your favorite picture to set as logo, using any picture editor resize the picture size approx. 150X150 pixels then save it in c:/windows/system32 folder with file name OEMLOGO.BMP.
Now close the all files and restart your computer after any changes to go into effect. To verify these changes, right click on My Computer and open Properties.
Under General tab, verify the system properties with new settings. Thats it.

CD-ROM Troubleshooting

This tip will help you to block any windows built-in applications or other third party programs from being executed on a target computer. If you want to restrict an application from running your family members and co-workers then AppLocker provides a simple solution to do so. However this tip is very useful for you, if you are sharing your computer with others or you do not want that other persons run all installed applications. This trick will work in nearly all of the windows versions like windows 2000, XP, 2003 and 2008.
AppLocker provides us a complete solution to block any programs from being executed on a target computer. You can download this tool for any windows version using AppLocker link. Download it and run the easy setup.
After installation, double click on AppLocker icon on your desktop to start the Application Locker software. Now this application will display the list of computer software programs like Microsoft Word, Excel, Internet Explorer and many others.
Here click on any application checkbox and then click on Save button to block any software. For example, if you want to block Internet Explorer then select the checkbox of internet explorer and now after saving the change click on Internet Explorer to start it. Here you will get following message:
Now here you can add other application other than the default lock application list, you can lock other programs by clicking the “Configure” button to open the configuration window. Type the caption you want displayed on the ‘Lock application list’. Then, type the programs executable file name and click the ‘Add’ button to add new applications.

How to block any installed application from lunching on your computer?

This tip will help you to block any windows built-in applications or other third party programs from being executed on a target computer. If you want to restrict an application from running your family members and co-workers then App Locker provides a simple solution to do so. However this tip is very useful for you, if you are sharing your computer with others or you do not want that other persons run all installed applications. This trick will work in nearly all of the windows versions like windows 2000, XP, 2003 and 2008.
App Locker provides us a complete solution to block any programs from being executed on a target computer. You can download this tool for any windows version using App Locker link. Download it and run the easy setup.
After installation, double click on App Locker icon on your desktop to start the Application Locker software. Now this application will display the list of computer software programs like Microsoft Word, Excel, Internet Explorer and many others.
Here click on any application checkbox and then click on Save button to block any software. For example, if you want to block Internet Explorer then select the checkbox of internet explorer and now after saving the change click on Internet Explorer to start it. Here you will get following message:
Now here you can add other application other than the default lock application list, you can lock other programs by clicking the “Configure” button to open the configuration window. Type the caption you want displayed on the ‘Lock application list’. Then, type the programs executable file name and click the ‘Add’ button to add new applications.

How to send a voice mail to your friend using Windows XP?

E-mail is a most popular and effective way to communicate with others through the internet. You can send documents, pictures and other types of files to any destination but the interesting thing is that you can send also your voice in a mail by attaching the file with e-mail. In windows XP, you can record your voice using Sound Recorder and a microphone options.
Follow the given steps to record your voice in windows XP:

• To use this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights.

• To start recording process, first make sure you have attached a microphone to your computer.

• First click on Start button> All programs> Accessories> click Entertainment and then click on Sound Recorder option.

• Now a small “Sound – Sound Recorder” will appear, go to File menu and click on New to start a new file for recording.

• Click on Record button to start recording process and start talking then click on Stop button to stop the recording.

• Now again click on File menu to save this file with .wav extension to a folder of your choice.

• Now send this voice file as an attachment via e-mail message to your friends.

How to backup of your computer installed drivers?

You can easily create the backup of your computer installed drivers (just the particular or all drivers) and use it to troubleshoot any driver problems. This backup will be very useful when you will format your computer window due to any reason. There is no need to search the drivers from internet or drivers CD, just import the driver backup and within five minute, you will complete the driver installation process. You can move this backup from one computer to other computer for installation.
To complete the all process, we will use a simple tool called DriverMax. Using this tool, we can easily export the backup of any specific or all drivers and then import it for reinstallation later or elsewhere. You can free download (with free registration code) this tool for windows XP and Vista also. Download it and run the easy setup.
After Installation launch DriverMax, the first screen you will get with title “DriverMax – Version” and options “Export drivers, Import drivers and Installed drivers report”. Just click on “Export Driver” option to start backup process.
Now after welcome screen, system will take few seconds to create the list of all installed drivers and then show you all installed drivers list.
Here you can select any specific device driver or click on “Select all” button to create the backup of entire installed drivers.
Press the Next button and in next screen you can select the export type (simple backup or in zip format) and then choose the backup location (always choose drive other than C drive).
Again press the Next and system will take some time (depend upon the size of your drivers) to finish exporting the selected drivers.
Click the “Open extraction folder button” to view the backup files or press Close button to finish it.
Now you can use this backup files (using import option) to restore drivers backup or move to any other computer. Copy the Following link to download it.

How to log off, restart and shutdown, connected computer from one location?

Windows XP has a built-in feature (shutdown tools) that is used to shutdown any connected computers from any one computer. Using this feature, you can log off, restart and shutdown any computer in your network. This tip is very useful for you, if you are a Network Administrator at your company, because if you have experience to shutdown all connected computers daily in your local area network one by one, definitely that job is annoying responsibility for you.
Follow the given steps to configure shutdown tool on your computer:

• To use this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights.

• To perform this task, first make sure your both computers are directly connected or connected to network.

• Click Start button then type shutdown -i in Run option then press Enter for next.

• A small windows dialog box will appear with the title “Remote Shutdown Dialog”.

• Here first click on “Add” button to add computer, a small Add computers window will open, here type the name or IP address of the computer (you can add many computer for same action) that you want to turned off, then press OK for next.

• Now select the action “What do you want these computers to do (log off, restart or shutdown)”. If you want to warn your users about this action, select the check box “Warn users of the action” then set time, display warning for 30 seconds or more.

• Now select the option that describes the reason to shutdown the computers and also type some comments for users.

• Now when you press the OK button, the users will see a “System Shutdown Windows “with time and comments that you had been set.

How to enable the Windows Task Manager and Regedit Editor?

This tip will help you to unlock the windows Regedit Editor and Task Manager. Normally the reason of this message is that your computer has been infected by virus, trojan, or piece of spyware and message look like” Registry editor has been disabled by your administrator” or “Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator”. By default Windows Task Manager and registry editor status is enabled, but a user can also disable or enable it manually. Some time a registry hack applies on both editors to disable it. Before proceeding further, first scan your system with up-to-date antivirus, and then follow the given steps to enable it.
To enable this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights.
First go to the link of registry tools to access the useful script file and download it to your computer hard disk.
Now double click on this file to run this .vbs file and then a small message will appear on screen.
Here click on Open button to execute this file and you will get a confirmation message on screen.
Click on Ok button to finish the process and now you can run the both windows editors.

How to solve low memory problems?

Normally this warning message shows when you run many programs same time than the RAM installed on your computer is designed to support. Your can solve this problem by increasing the system paging file size also called as virtual memory. Using this virtual memory windows moving information to and from the paging file for fast processing. This will free up enough RAM for other programs to run properly.
To increase the system page file follow the give path:
Control Panel > System > Advanced > Click on Settings (Under Performance) > Advanced > Change
Here under Drive (Volume label), you have option to select any of your hard disk drive, but the best choice is, select any drive other than C drive for virtual memory.
Set the double Initial & Maximum Size of your Virtual Memory. Here set initial size 700 MB and maximum size up to 1000MB; you can change this size according to the free space available on your hard drive.

How to uninstall hidden devices, drivers using device manager?

This tip will help you to display the hidden devices in system Device Manger. Normally windows device manager displays the information about the hardware that ever been recognized by windows, whether it is currently present in the computer or not connected to the computer (for example USB or any other removable devices). The “Show hidden devices” option on View menu would not display the all hidden information, so you can force your system to display the detail of all hidden drives.
Follow the given steps to display the all hidden information in device manager:

• To edit the computer registry, first you should log onto your computer with administrative rights.

• Click Start button and type CMD in Run option then press Enter for next.

• At the command prompt, type the following command and press Enter button.

• Set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

• Here again type the following command at command prompt and then press Enter button.

• Start devmgmt.msc

• Now in the Device Manager Console go to View menu and select the “Show hidden devices” option.

• Now expand the different devices and drivers option in devices manger and you will find the devices which have been loaded in the past.

• When you finish troubleshooting, close Device Manager and also exit from command prompt to clear the opened sessions.

How to Enable Logging to solve windows startup issue?

You can troubleshoot many of computer startup problems using windows boot logging. When you start you computer with enable boot logging feature, a log file will be created to identify the drivers and services that is creating the problem during startup. The name of this file is ntbootlog.txt and located in root directory (%SYSTEMROOT%, normally in C drive). You can search this file with the name “ntbootlog.txt” in C drive. Follow the example of ntbootlog.txt in windows XP.
Service Pack 2 8 7 2007 22:02:09.500
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\hal.dll
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\KDCOM.DLL
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\BOOTVID.dll
Loaded driver ACPI.sys
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\WMILIB.SYS
Loaded driver pci.sys
Loaded driver isapnp.sys
Loaded driver intelide.sys
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\PCIIDEX.SYS
Loaded driver MountMgr.sys
Loaded driver ftdisk.sys
Loaded driver dmload.sys
Loaded driver dmio.sys
Loaded driver PartMgr.sys
Loaded driver VolSnap.sys
Loaded driver atapi.sys
Loaded driver disk.sys
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\CLASSPNP.SYS
Loaded driver fltMgr.sys
Loaded driver sr.sys
Loaded driver Fastfat.sys
Loaded driver KSecDD.sys
Loaded driver NDIS.sys
Loaded driver Mup.sys
Loaded driver agp440.sys
Did not load driver ACPI Uniprocessor PC
Did not load driver Audio Codecs
Did not load driver Legacy Audio Drivers
Did not load driver Media Control Devices
Did not load driver Legacy Video Capture Devices
Did not load driver Video Codecs
To enable boot logging, boot your computer and press F8 keys. An advance menu screen will appear with different options.

• Safe Mode

• Safe Mode with Networking

• Safe Mode with Command Prompt

• Enable Boot Logging

• Enable VGA Mode.

• Last known Good Configuration

• Start Windows Normally

• Reboot

Here select the option Enable Boot Logging, and press Enter button, your system will be returned to main menu screen and again press Enter button to start logging.
If there is no problem in windows startup, then your system will boot successfully in normal mode, and you can review the log file. In case any problems in log file regarding loading services and drivers then you can troubleshoot that services (stop and restart) and drivers (reinstall).
If your problem does cause Windows to crash then restart your system and again Press F8 button to boot your system in safe mode. In safe mode again reviewing the ntbootlog.txt file and identifies the problems either disable any device or uninstall any third party application. If your problem is still there then visit your hardware vendor website for help.

How to change the default location of program installation?

You might want to change the location of your system default folder (C:\Program Files) from C drive to another system drives (D or E drive). By default software setup will attempt to install program in C:\Program Files directory. It is good practice to make the backup of the installed programs, if you installed all your programs in other than C drive. If you have little knowledge about editing windows registry then you can configure your computer for this purpose.
Follow the given steps to configure windows registry:
First click on Start button then type Regedit in Run option.
Here locate the location to:
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
Here in right side panel, double click on ProgramFileDir and here its default value is
C:\Program Files.
Now modify the value to any other drive (for example D:\Program Files).
Now close the registry editor and restart your computer after any changes to go into effect.

Hard Drive Troubleshooting

Your hard drive, or also called hard disk, is a gigantic diskette in your computer. It is one disk big enough to store you Operating System, games and programs. Without it, your PC is just an empty shell.
Check Your BIOS
Better beware of older systems with large hard drives. If you have an older motherboard, your BIOS might not recognize hard drives larger than 2.1 GB. Hopefully, your BIOS is EPROM which means although read only (noticed the ROM?) it can be edited by authorized editors. Nearly all newer motherboards support that. All you need to do is to go online, go to your motherboard manufacturer’s website and try to download a flash BIOS update. Install it and it should be done.
Are You FAT Enough?
If you have a large capacity hard drive with more than 2.1 GB, you might have a problem. Windows 95 itself will only recognize a partition with not more than 2.1 GB. You need FAT32. With FAT32, you can have one large capacity hard drive without partitioning. You will also save some space with FAT32. In short, larger hard drives require FAT32.
Consider Partitioning
Although you can have one big fat hard drive as one partition, you should consider partitioning as well, if you have a big hare drive. Partitioning is the method of dividing an area on a disk into smaller portions of lesser capacities that can be recognized by the operating system. Picture this: your hard drive is a cake. It is easier to eat a cake divided into pieces than to eat it whole.
Partitioning enables you to achieve greater efficiency and functionality from high-capacity disks (2.1GB or greater). You can create partitions by using FDISK on a system running in MS-DOS mode or by using a third-party disk utility. Remember that after partitioning, all data will be loss so be careful.
You can set aside a small partition for backup purposes. In case you should decided to format, just format the partition you use to store Windows. Your data in the backup partition is still there. But be careful! If you format a FAT32 partition with a FAT16 formatting utility, your partitions with data in it will all be loss! So never install DOS after formatting Windows. Because DOS utilizes FAT16, your FAT32 partition will all be gone.
Access Time or Seek Time?
If you want to buy a hard drive but are confused with the specifications of access time and seek time, remember that the key to the speed of a hard drive is the average access time. This is the time taken to access a single sector to the time when the drive’s head reaches the sector. But beware, some ads quote seek time that is not the appropriate measurement. Access time is seek time plus latency (the time it takes for the chosen sector to come around to be positioned under the read/write head)
Speed, Not Space
A lot of people are confused between speed and space. If you have a Quantum Fireball with 1.2 GB and a Quantum Bigfoot with 3.5 GB surely you should put the Bigfoot as the master and Fireball as the slave right? Wrong! You should always consider speed as well as space. The Quantum Fireball has a faster access time. A faster hard drive means better performance. Make sure your operating system is store in the faster hard drive. You can use the Bigfoot to store your programs or games which makes not much difference to the speed. With speed hungry programs or games, store them in the faster drive too. You must know what to put where.
The status of the drives is determined by setting small jumpers that are usually located next to the IDE connector on the drive itself.

How to clear all windows history files with a single click?

This tip will help you to manage the all types of user history in windows operating system. This is a built-in feature of all windows keeps track the user’s history, for example the websites you have visited, the documents you have opened and the keywords or files for which you’ve searched. However this tip is very useful for you, if you are sharing your computer with others or you do not want that the other persons know about your last visited documents history. You can clear these kinds of user’s history with a single click on desktop icon named Cleanmru.reg. There is no need to clear each history file one by one. This trick will work in nearly all of the windows versions like windows 2000, XP and 2003.
Follow the given steps for configuration to clear recently opened documents automatically:
To edit the computer registry, first you should log onto your computer with administrative rights.
Here copy the following 6 lines and paste in notepad then save with the name Cleanmru.reg on your desktop.
REGEDIT4
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TypedURLs] [-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU] [-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RecentDocs] [-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ComDlg32\ LastVisitedMRU] [-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Search Assistant\ACMru]
When you double-click Cleanmru.reg icon to remove the windows history, a small dialog box will appear with the information “Are you sure you want to add the information in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\desktop\Clearmru.reg to the registry?”
At the end, you will get the message “Information in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\desktop\Clearmru.reg has been successfully entered into the registry.” Click on Ok button and verify that your all history will have been clear.

Detect viruses in a computer using multiple antivirus engines

Virus detection and its removal are made through an antivirus program which finds out viruses in a computer and then possibly removes or repairs the virus problem. But today an interesting tip, how to scan your system without any installed antivirus program. You can scan any specific file for viruses, malware, worms and trojans on your system without any preloaded antivirus protection.
VirusTotal is a free service that facilitates you for quick scan to detect viruses, malware, worms and trojans. VirusTotal will analyze your system files using multiple antivirus engines. VirusTotal is not a proper substitute of installed antivirus program, because this service works only when you will be connected to internet.
Now open the VirusTotal site to start scan process.
Now under the “Upload the file” section, click on browse button to select the virus affected file and press “Send File” button.
Here VirusTotal will takes some time to upload file (depends upon the file size and internet speed).
Now scanning process will be started to scan affected file.
It will again takes some time to scan affected file using latest antivirus version and gives you detailed results from each antivirus engine with statistics.

How to restore the windows default icons?

You can restore the all windows default desktop icons, if you accidentally deleted them from your computer desktop.
List of windows default icons.

• My Computer

• Internet Explorer

• My Documents

• My Network Places

• Recycle Bin

Here we are discussing the recovering process of four windows default icons “My Computer, Internet Explorer, My Documents and My Network Places’ and we will cover recovery process of the Recycle Bin icon in next tip.
Fellow the given steps to restore the windows default icons:

• Go to Start Button and open Run then type the given command to open windows Desktop items dialog box.

• Control desk.cpl,,@Web

• Simple copy the above command and paste it in Run box and press Ok,

• Now “Desktop Items” dialog box will appear with different options.

• Under the “General” tab, select the all check box in “Desktop icons” area or click on “Restore default” button to restore the all default icons on your computer desktop.

• Press Ok to close the entire dialog box.

Monitor Trouble Shooting

The monitor is a television-like box except it is used in a computer for display. You can’t use the computer at all without a monitor. The monitor is different from the television is many ways. It is flatter compared to the television. Television refreshes the screen by interlacing while the monitor is using non-interlaced functions. Monitors uses pixels to display, making it finer and better to display text.
Larger Resolution, Smaller Display
One thing you should know, since monitors measure by pixels, you should always set the resolution right. A larger resolution uses smaller pixels, making everything smaller but you have a larger view. The default is 640×480 but most prefer 800×600. For larger monitors, you can decide on 1024×800 or 1280×1024. Also remember, since there are more pixels, the higher the resolution, the slower the screen refreshes.
Decide On A Screen Filter
Although computer screens are just 30% of the radioactivity from the TV or less, you still might want to consider a screen filter. It helps filter up radioactivity. Never settle for a cheap screen filter. A lousy one won’t filter the screen – it just darkens it. Always make sure that it won’t make everything look dark. Some good screen filters provide a wire to clip it at the back of the casing to lose the radioactivity.
On the other hand, you should also make sure you don’t need one. Here are a few points to guide you.
* Your computer (& monitor) is placed under a bright place and can balance with the brightness of the monitor
* Your monitor is anti-glare and non-reflective.
* Your monitor produces little static and radioactivity.
* Your monitor produces clear, crisp and not-too-bright images.
* You won’t have problems staring at the monitor for a long time.
If your monitor fits that criteria, you can forget the screen filter.
Blink Your Eyes!
This is not actually a hardware tip, just to let you know how important it is to blink your eyes. Your eyes don’t actually get strained staring at the monitor, just loses moisture and making the eyes dry. It has been proven that people staring at the monitor for a long time has the tendency to blink less than the normal rate. Make an effort to blink your eyes. If not, try eye moisture drops.
Degauss
Degauss is a very important function that helps you restore your monitor when colors are distorted or you noticed weird colors at the corners of your monitor. This is cause by magnetization that can be caused by jerking the monitor, shifting to a different direction or moving it across the globe (different magnetic field). The degauss control removes magnetization from your monitor
Use the degauss control lightly. You should only degauss if you see color purity problems. Otherwise, don’t use it. Too much degaussing stresses the circuitry components and overheats the large coil around the CRT. If possible, when the display clears up, shut down the monitor/computer for a while to let it cool down.
Take Control
When your monitor comes, modify the factory default setting of your monitor! Get more colors or brightness. And stretch the screen to the fullest! Although this may sound trivial, a lot of people just think it’s alright to follow the original setting, losing valuable screen space, you will be surprised to know how much bigger you can stretch the screen. A bigger display is always better.

How to set security on your Recycle Bin properties?

This tip is very useful to manage the security of Recycle Bin properties because by default everyone can change the recycle bin sittings using windows default rights. If you want to restrict your users to modify these settings, simply edit the “Permissions for BitBucket” and set the read only rights for all users. Using windows registry editor you can set the Recycle Bin rights for all user.
The best technique to edit the windows registry, always backup the whole windows registry keys on backup drive before editing. Because any mistake in Registry can cause serious problem in your computer to run properly. Follow the given steps to edit computer registry for Recycle Bin properties:
To enable this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights.
First click on Start button then type Regedit in Run option.
Here locate the location to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\BitBucket
Here in left side panel, right click on “BitBucket” keys and click on Permissions option.
Now “Permissions for Bitbucket” dialog box will appear to manage the user’s rights.
Here select the user name or group “Everyone” from the list under the “Group or user names” category and then allow read only permissions for selected user under the “Permissions for everyone” section.
Now click on Apply button to save these settings and again click on Ok button to finish the process.
Close the registry editor and restart your computer after any changes to go into effect.
To verify these sittings, simply right click on Recycle bin and go to “Properties” dialog box and any changes here will give you a message “You do not have permission to modify the settings for the Recycle Bin”.

Sound Card Troubleshooting

A world without sound is boring. The same goes to computers. Imagine playing quake with the beeps from the PC speaker. The sound card is a piece of hardware to generate high quality sound. It enables your to listen to your CD, record voices with the microphone and playing your sound files.
Don’t Throw Away Your Old RAM
If you have and old PC that utilizes old 32 bit RAM, don’t throw it away. If you have and AWE (advance wavetable effect) sound card, with empty memory slots, you may plug it into your soundcard to load more instruments. Very useful. If you want, you can go to computer junkyards or dealer with old computers to find some old 32 bit RAM. You can get it for almost nothing.
More, more!
If you are using an AWE soundcard, you might want to get more voices or instruments. Go to your manufacturer’s website and search for sound fonts. Like fonts, they are the same instruments but produces different sounds. The amount of sound fonts you can load at a time depends entirely on how much memory you have.
No Sound From Mike
An ageing sound card probably doesn’t supply the DC voltage needed to power a new electrets microphone-the kind with a mini-stereo (ring-tip-sleeve) plug on the cable. If so, you’ll need either an inline battery pack to power the new microphone, or an older dynamic microphone that doesn’t need DC power. But the best bet is to throw it away and get a new one.

RAM Won’t Work On New Motherboard

If you upgraded your motherboard and CPU to a brand new one, you might encounter with some RAM problems. Either the system seems slower or the total amount of RAM is displayed less than the actual amount during bootup (when you just power-up the computer).
The problem usually occur if you upgraded from a 486 to a Pentium or from non-EDO RAM to EDO. There are a few things you should know. In the older motherboards, you can slot in any RAM of any amount and run them smoothly. However, newer Pentium motherboards handle EDO RAMs differently. Every EDO RAM slots must run in pairs. For example, you can’t plug in a 8 meg RAM with a 16 meg RAM and expect them to run together, producing 24 meg. Instead, you must have 2 RAM slots that contains the same amount of RAM (8 meg+8 meg or 16 meg+16 meg e.g) to have them running together.
Also a reminder, you can’t plug in a single 32 meg RAM to produce 32 meg. You need 2 16 meg RAMs to produce that amount. So if you need 96 meg, you must fill the the RAM banks with a combination of (16+16 meg) + (32+32 meg). In short, every RAM must run in pairs. They must be placed side-by-side. You can’t place a combination of 16+32+16+32 to get 64 meg. You need to place the same amount side-by-side like this: 16+16+32+32. Most motherboard has 4 empty banks for you to place your RAM. Newer motherboards has 6 empty banks. Still, you have to run them in pairs.
Older motherboards and non-EDO RAM don’t have to run under this principle. That is why when you upgrade to a newer motherboard, it might not work. Now, back to the problem. Open the cover of your PC and check whether you RAMs are place in pairs side-by-side or not. If not, rearrange them. If you found out you have a combination of a mixture of amounts like: 4+4+8+16 meg, you have to plug one out, buy a new matching one, and replace it. (In this case, take out the 8 meg and by a new 16 meg to produce 4+4+16+16. You can take out the 16 and buy an 8 but that will be downgrading, isn’t it?)
This should solve the problem. Also another reminder. SDRAMs don’t have to run in pairs. Older motherboard only has 1 empty bank for SDRAM (however, newer ones have more banks). If you want 64 SDRAM, just buy one single 64 SDRAM slot, plug it out, and there you are! But, remember, SDRAM won’t work together with EDO. If you plug them in together, the computer will either identify the amount of EDO RAM or SDRAM you have, not both. And it will also only utilize one of them.
More Than 64 Meg RAM On HX Motherboard
It has been a myth that Windows 95 won’t work with more than 64 meg RAM. That is not true. But older motherboards do have problems with more than 64 MB RAM.
Motherboards with the Intel HX chipsets is one of them. You can upgrade to more than 64 meg RAM but you must be careful. the Intel HX chipset is built in such a way it requires an additional tag RAM chip used to cached the main memory. The main memory is cached to speed up memory access. Now the problem here is, the tag chip is only capable of handling a maximum of 64 MB. If more than 64 MB is installed, only the first (from the bottom) 64 MB is cached.
Most operating systems uses RAM from top to bottom and since only the bottom one is cached, the OS is using the top uncached memory thus slowing down your system and not utilizing your RAM to the fullest.
Some motherboards have no spare tag RAM socket so I’m sorry to say, you only have a limit of 64 RAM. Some motherboards have an extra tag RAM socket. Just order one from your computer dealer, plug it in, and you can happily increased the maximum of cached RAM to 128 MB.
In short, always check how many tag RAM chips you have before buying more RAM than the maximum allows or it might slow down your system instead of speeding it up.

Fighting Unknown Problems

Hardware problems are quite difficult to tackle, worse if under Windows. There was once when installing a software, I accidentally inserted the Audio hardware diskette. Thinking it was harmless, I went on, thinking I can always “undo” everything again. How wrong was I. The next moment I restarted Windows, I got the blue screen of death. Yeah, Windows is very nasty when it comes to hardware.
Find The Culprit
Always calm down. Try to solve the problem yourself before resolving to formatting or sending to your computer dealer. First, know what’s happening and the cause of it. In my case, the installation must have overwrite my old setting and replaced the wrong file. There must be a reason why Windows is acting improperly.
Logging Back On
First, try to log back on. If you can’t log into Windows, don’t panic. Restart the computer. When the text “Starting Windows 98…” appears, press F8. A menu will appear. Choose “Safe Mode” to continue. Safe mode will take some time to load. When you are in Windows, go to Control Panel, System. Click on the Device Manager tab. Find the faulty hardware driver and delete it. Open autoexec.bat and config.sys (both are hidden files in your root directory) with notepad. If the hardware is a CD-ROM or sound card, it will probably write add some lines. Check whether there are backup file (autoexec.bak, autoexec.b~k e.g.) since most installation will back up the 2 important files. If there is, simply replace them with the backup files. If there isn’t, put “REM ” in front of every line that loads the hardware.
Repairing
When you restart, your computer is probably ok, since you have deleted all instances of the hardware drivers. But the hardware isn’t functioning. re-install the hardware drivers, restart and you’re done! If the problem persists, your probably have a system conflict go to the next page for more.

When Your Printer’s Buffer Overflows

Yes, the printer isn’t perfect. When you give the printer more load than it can “remember” from it’s memory buffer, it will either hang, stop, pause or abort the print and give you an error message. Here are a few ways to fight the problems.
Compress
From experience, I found out that a printer seldom or never encounter any buffer overflow from printing text. Rather, it is graphic files (up to 5 MB at a time) that crashes the printer. If you are printing multipage when you get errors, print one at a time. It may be painstaking but it sure beats having an error message. Now if a huge graphic file still makes your printer’s buffer overflow, try to compress the current format you are using. If you are using Photoshop, save it as a normal or “flatten” (without layers) to lower the file size. You might want to try using GIF or JPEG. JPEG is a high-color compression method that can reduce up to 90% less. But saving in this format can be “lossy” (image looks a bit different than the original). I prefer GIF. Although the file size may be bigger in high-colors, but it looks better.
Go For The Upgrade
Most printers allow you to upgrade the memory. The more memory, the less buffer overflow. This is the best solution. Go to your nearest computer dealer to ask for a memory upgrade. Make sure they can get the exact company and model. It might cost a bit but hey, that’s what upgrades are for!