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Saturday, January 31, 2004

Show 9

Our poll question today: “Will you watch the Super Bowl tomorrow?” Cast your vote on the message boards

Emiliano, the Karl T. Rove of KFI, called asking me about a persistant bit of spyware that Ad-aware couldn’t remove. It keeps adding search buttons to his toolbar. I think he might have been bitten by CoolWebSearch aka the CWS Trojan. This is spyware so annoying it gives other spyware a bad name. I recommend trying the CWSShredder removal tool to get rid of it. You can download a copy free from SpywareInfo.com

The camerasare on if you want to watch while you listen.

Ann in the South Bay wants to eliminate HP’s proprietary partition because it uses up 4 gigs on the hard drive. She also wants to install Windows 98. She has the full set of HP install disks and a non-destructive partition manager (Partition Commander). Here’s how. First restore your disk using the HP install disks. Now use Partition Commander to unhide the HP partition. Install Windows 98 there. Then install System Commander (it comes with Partition Commander) so you can choose which operating system to use when you boot up.

Jeff says every time he tries to open a PDF file he gets this message “Error Parsing Voucher.” Hunh? Turns out that it’s an Adobe error message. Try their fix or just reinstall the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Kevin in on the beach in Malibu was wondering if there’s any way to back up his Mac with one of those video DVD recorders. I don’t think so. If you know how, tell us. And while you’re at it, where can he get a waterproof CD player?

Jeff wanted to get a new computer. He uses fancy Dells at work to design automobiles, but he has nothing at home. He does plan some Photoshopping, so I recommend getting a fast Pentium IV or AMD Athlon XP, 1GB of RAM, two big hard drives - I prefer two 60 GB to a single 120 for redundancy and backup - a DVD burner for backups. He’ll also want a 19″ LCD flat panel - anything else and he’ll feel bad after using those big screens at work.

A caller is having trouble with stuttering video. His processor is fast enough (1.6 Ghz), but there are other reasons video can play back choppily. Make sure you’ve defragged the hard drive. He was a little low on RAM - I like 512MB for Windows XP. You should also check for other programs running in the background that are hogging your CPU. Hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete and check the background processes. I also recommend Black Viper’ssite for a list of Windows XP services you can can.

Kenny in Oceanside lent his computer to his roommate and now it’s filled with spyware. You could spend hours getting rid of it all, but I recommend formatting and re-installing Windows. You’ll save a lot of time and get a nice clean system.

Russell in Hemet wants to copy his DVD rentals so he doesn’t have to pay late fees. First he needs to get a DVD burner. If price is an issue try the Lite-On DVD burner, for top reliability I like Sony, but if it’s speed you’re looking for try the Plextor 8x burner. (Good luck finding 8x blanks, though.) Then you’ll need software to make copies. The easiest is DVDXCopy. On the other hand you could save a lot of money by just subscribing to Netflix. $20/month, all the movies you can watch, and no late fees.

Mary couldn’t figure out how to get her Compaq IJ300 printer working with her Dell Computer. Any time you add hardware to your computer you’ll also have to install some software to help that hardware work. The software is called a driver, and each particular piece of hardware has a specific driver. Fortunately she’s using Windows XP so she doesn’t need to download a driver - XP has one ready to install. Click the Start Menu and select Settings. Click Printers and Faxes then Add a Printer. Click the printer manufacturer (Compaq) and select your particular model (IJ300) then keep pressing Next until the driver is installed. The next time you print you should be able to find the IJ300 on the list of printers. Select it and you’re good to go.

Bruce in Encinitas is infected with a Trojan called Java.nocheat. Norton can’t seem to remove it. Make sure you update your anti-virus (and that you’re using the latest version). You can also read about manual disinfection at the Symantec Anti-Virus Research

Carol from Ontario wanted to copy her files over from her old computer. The easiest way to get an entire system moved over is Aloha Bob’s PC Relocator. It even comes with the cable you need. Of course the cheapest way is to use Windows file sharing and a cross-over cable, assuming you have ethernet on both systems. The Windows XP Help System has an excellent step-by-step description of how to do it.