dacs.doc electric

Random Access
November 2001

by Bruce Preston

Members who are unable to attend the General Meeting may submit questions to askdacs@aol.com -- they will be presented at the meeting, and the response(s) will be placed in the Random Access column. Q. In Windows Temporary Internet Files I have files and folders with names such as GX34M3QOUX7 and so forth. They all contain cookies I would like to delete them, but when I do, I get a message: "Warning, you are about to delete a system file, doing so may cause Windows not to work." May I delete them? A. Yes, they will be recreated if needed. The "safe" way to delete them is via Internet Explorer (or Internet Options in Control Panel--you get the same thing) and click on DELETE FILES. Q. At the September meeting I asked questions as to why my machine was running slow. The main suggestion was to add RAM. It is better, but I think that it can do still better. Next step(s)? A. Delete files in \WINDOWS\TEMP, and \TEMP--anything dated prior to your most recent boot is fair game. Then run a SCANDISK and fix any damaged clusters. Then immediately run a defrag so that when you load files you get them with one disk access rather than having to move the disk drive head all over the place for segments of files. Make sure that you are not running things that you don’t need--there are a lot of things that can get loaded at startup that you really don’t need--I highly recommend that you look at StartStop http://www.tfi-technology.com/startstop.htm--a free utility that gives you control over what loads, without uninstalling them. The "Task Manager"--what you get when you do a Control-Alt-Delete, doesn’t show you everything. Q. A friend double-clicked on an e-mail attachment in error, and picked up a virus. He had not updated his McAfee anti-virus signature files for a long time, and the virus got in. McAfee says he needs a rescue disk for his Dell System--it is running Windows 98 Can anyone supply one? A. The rescue disk can be created by any machine that is running Windows 98, it does not have to be a Dell System. Q. I won an eBay Auction--the seller wants to be paid in German Marks. How do I get money over to Germany? The US Post Office no longer issues International Money Orders; the bank wants $30 to do an electronic money transfer. How do I pay him? A. You might be able to get a money order in Euro Dollars. You can wire money using Western Union (the local Stop & Shop courtesy desk has this service available). Also look on the web for MoneyGram by Traveler’s Express--www.moneygram.com--I have received payments from Italy using this service. Q. I was using AOL and clicked on a link--got an error message--WAOL has problem with WSP.DLL--I have SyGate’s firewall. Any suggestions as to how to fix the conflict? A. AOL does things "differently" from other sites. They won’t help you, because, by virtue of their being the largest consumer ISP, they essentially think that the rest of the world is out-of-step. However, SyGate (www.sygate.com) will tell you what you need to do to run with their products--look in their FAQ for work-arounds. For example, there are pages dated September, 2001 that mention fixes for AOL compatability. I have had good response from SyGate’s technical service. Another member suggested looking at BugToaster (www.bugtoaster.com) which is a free service that analyzes crashes and matches them to a database of known problems and fixes. Q. I am planning on purchasing a DVD player for my TV - I understand that they can also play CD audio, and CDR and CDRW audio. Can they also be used to display slide-shows that I have put on CDR or CDRW? A. Someone in the audience said that such a capability is in Windows XP--stay for the presentation! Q. Does anyone have experience with AOL Broadband--Charter Pipeline? Which release of AOL will work--I’ve heard that 6.0 doesn’t work; AOL has just come out with 7.0; anybody using 4 or 5? A. A few reported using 5.0; no one had yet ventured into 7.0--tune in next month. Q. Is anyone using Ztree--(successor to X-Tree Gold). As a replacement for Windows Explorer, does it work? A. Yes, it works fine. Q. I am using a program called Starbase to handle pictures and records. I have exported registery keys from Windows 98 and tried to import them into Windows 2000 and they don’t load. A. The format of the exported registry files are different--however, if you compare the exports of the same "something" from both Windows 98 and Windows 2000 you should be able to discern the difference and modify the Windows 98 export file to be compatible with a Windows 2000 import. Q. I have 128MB memory modules in my machine. I’ve tried to add a 64MB module, but it isn’t recognized. Any suggestions? A. The memory refresh rate must be the same for the modules, although some motherboards will downgrade the bus to run at the slower modules’ speed. Also, some motherboards require that the memory modules be matched in size. To determine which memory modules will work with your machine, you really need to check the specs page in the manual that came with your motherboard or system. Companies that specialize in memory (as opposed to a generalist mail-order house or office supply store, etc.) should be ableto work with you on this. I have had good support from Coast to-Coast Memory in New Jersey--800-4MEMORY www.coastmemory.com. Q. I still like my WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS and it runs fine under Windows 98 It works fine for relatively small text files, but if I receive a file beyond a certain size, it locks up, complaining about running out of memory. Is there anyway that I can get more "extended memory"? A. Create a shortcut for the executable, then right-click on it and go to Properties, where you can tell it that you need a lot more memory. You can even give it a custom AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS file that will let you provide FILES, BUFFERS, etc as well. Note that putting these into AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS at the ‘system level’ on your C: drive will not give you the desired results. Comment from Member: Point of Interest--my machine dual-boots Linux and Windows 98SE. It has 1GB of RAM--I couldn’t re-install Windows 98 SE on it until I removed memory down to 512MB Once installed, I was able to return the memory to the machine.