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Sunday, July 25, 2004

Show #60

Sixty shows and counting.

We’ll tape an extra couple of hours again today. So call in from noon-3p Pacific for the live show, or from 3–5p to be on a future show. 1–800–520–1KFI.

Noon-1p

Stacy in Riverside

uses Windows XP (WHICH REALLY SUCKS) and it is crashing as it loads up, it will launch in safe mode Since you can start it in safe mode you can start to diagnose what is causing the crash. You can try System Restore found in Accessories to see if you can go back to a point where the system was stable. If that doesn’t work you can try to re-install individual drivers. Check the show notes from yesterday for using the System File Checker.

JR in Fullerton

gets a Delay Write Fail error message at various times on his networked computers, he uses Perfect Disc on both computers Write Delay is a way for the computer to speed up processing and caching files. Another possibility is that you have a 40-pin cable versus an 80-pin cable. You might also have BIOS system set incorrectly. You’ll need to turn off Write Caching for each drive, but Perfect Disc may be causing your problem and you could easily disable it and check for the problem. You should also carefully check your cable.

Sue in Long Beach

Mom’s has a PC is infected with a virus and can’t access the internet You have a machine with Sasser. You can use a command line to stop the shut down by clicking the Start icon then choose Run and type: command Shutdown -A. The instructions for Sasser removal are in previous show notes. Sasser infects a computer without firewalls or one that hasn’t been updated recently.

Rick in Michigan

Rick is having a problem with his Windows Media Player, he can no longer hear a DVD on his PC after removing his old DVD playing software and installing new software. He may have removed the CODEC when he uninstalled the DVD playing software, making Windows Media Player unable to use that CODEC to play DVDs using it. DVDs use the MPEG2 video format with CSS encryption to protect the video content. The problem might also be a sound support issue or a problem with your Moonlight Decoder Card.

Updates for Rick: Use the command line dvdupgrd /detect to see which MPEG2 codec is installed.

1–2p

Kianoosh Salami from Seal Beach

has removed spyware but now gets a “search assistant” toolbar he didn’t install and it won’t go away. He has a browser hijacking issue and should visit Spywareinfo and find the removal tool specific to your hijacking malware. It also can be located in add/remove programs as Search Assitant or IE Desktop Search Bar. KianTech

Chris in Laguna

has difficulty typing and wants to know if Voice Recognition software is better than it was previously. Leo says they are better now, and the hardest part is training yourself to speak in a fashion that the computer can process. Dragon Dictate from Microsoft and ViaVoice by IBM are good products, but you will have to work to make them function for you.

Pete

is filling up his iBook with DVD movies and is looking for protection for his hard drive and backup and needs advice on an external firewire hard drive The most important thing is the brand of hard drive inside the enclosure, not the enclosure itself. Western Digital is probably your best bet and you could save money buy purchasing a drive and putting it into an enclosure on your own.

Arthur from Michigan

is visually impaired and is using Real Jukebox on Windows ME and is having stability problems and wants to know if other listeners have a program that will work with his configuration Here are two possibilities you can try: WinAmp is one possibility

Maria in Rancho Cucamonga

removed Norton 2004 temporarily and now it will not re-install. I recommend trashing Norton, it just causes problems and gives you a false sense of security. If you have a router, that will provide you with firewall protection. You will also need anti-virus protection, try AVG Free from toc and make sure you keep it updated. For spyware you should use [[http://www.adaware.com |Adware and Spybot Search and Destroy. Based on the fact that you can’t install Norton, you should visit Housecall.com and use their online virus remover first. Finally, stop using Internet Explorer and switch to Mozilla or Firefox. When you install the new browser, you will need to activate the pop-up blocker located in Tools.

2–3p

Ed from Chatsworth

is using XP Home and is having problem with a slow AOL browser and AOL blames MS and vice versa, and now he needs some real support The best bet would be to stop using the AOL browser, you do not need it to access your AOL email. Visit Communicator.AOL.com and download this application to access your email, then switch to Mozilla or Firefox. To speedup AOL browsers you can turn off the “store web pages” and the “compress the graphics” options if you are not using dial-up.
AOL’s new open mail system
AOL Communicator

Steve in Temucula

is having internet connection problems, he is using DSL Extreme and Explorer works but he can’t get Firefox to function It sounds like an issue with a proxy server and you might need to contact DSL Extreme to solve this issue.

James from Palmdale

is using Mozilla and has duplicate certificate problem and can’t access the internet This could be a bug in the browser, but you can go to the preferences and selecting Privacy & Security and use the Certificate Manager to delete the duplicate. Another option is to install Firefox or re-install Mozilla. Java problems can be solved by visiting Java.com and download the latest java script.

Lynn from Torrance

can’t access the internet unless she types in the IP address DNS Lookup is not functioning on your system and this resides in the host file. If DNS Lookup can’t find the address you have entered on the local file it checks with your ISP and continues until it reaches the correct information. Make sure you have the correct DNS addresses in your system. If these are correct then do a search for your host file. You can check the host file for 127.0.0.1; keep it and any remove any other addresses. This problem is consistent with a spyware infection so make sure you are not infected.

ipconfig /flushdns

Here’s a small GUI-utility for IPCONFIG which is sort of nice
Although I’ve not had any problem (short of a XP Zone Alarm
configuration issue still unresolved), this tool is a handy
way to review some network information.

- Greg San Jose CA U.S.A

Windows XP IP Configuration Tool
http://techrepublic.com.com/ (Downloads)

The basics of -ipconfig- are all a part of this GUI-interface

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Display basic TCP/IP configuration (Default)
Display help /? (Help Button)
Display full TCP/IP configuration /all
Release current DHCP configuration /release
Renew DHCP configuration /renew
Display the DNS client resolver cache /displaydns
Flush and reset the DNS client resolver cache /flushdns
Refresh DHCP lease and re-register DNS names /registerdns
Display the DHCP class ID /showclassid
Configure the DHCP class ID /setclassid

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