ABC ~ All 'Bout Computers
The Online Web-azine for Computer Enthusiasts
-- brought to you by

contents page for this issue

Have your own question for the Fleet?  Click here to ask it.

Question submitted by mike from sudbury:

every once in awhile my computor simply does not respond to the keyboard. the mouse works fine but i cannot fill in any forms urls or anything..the curser shows on the url but type as i may i canot fill in any forms words or anything from the keyboard i then have to reboot and most times the computor will get back to normal...this problem often happens on a fresh boot if i play with the system and can get into the history or favorites i can then go to that site and again if anything needs typing if simply does not work...this problem happens sporadically ....in fact i might be working with the computor for a number of hours and suddenly this happens to me...again the only way out is to reboot  any ideas..

Answer from Hal Cardona:

Does it only happen when you are connected to the internet? If so run a virus scan with up to date signatures. Download and run Adaware from http://lavasoftusa.com , and Spybot Search and Destroy from download.com.  Install and run them and have them remove the problems they find.

Reply from mike from sudbury:

good question...im not really sure if the problem only happens when im
connected..cause ive never tried it but rest assured i will next time it happens  my virus protection is avg and its upto date...i also run adaware spybot search and destroy and have a decent firewall and my patches are all up to date..i also visit some of the virus online programs on occasion and i am virus free.....i keep thinking its a hardware problem... i have a little hp scanner (one that scans 4 by 6 pics) it has a usb connection every once in awhile on reboot my emachine freezes at the
emachine logon if i remove the usb the machine then starts up normally...dont know if thats related..just thought of it as it doesnt present that much of a problem to me the keyboard came with the machine (about a year old now) and plugs in the old way with a non usb plug

Answer from Hal Cardona:

Have you tried a different Keyboard? They aren't very expensive.

Reply from mike from sudbury:

no i havent but i will do exactly that i have another keyboard tks for the advice

Question submitted by mahaveer:

i dont know why my system runs so slow even for burning a cd it takes almost 10 minutes for me to burn it i.e first read it then write it even my system hangs a bit please help me out of this situation

Answer from Hal Cardona:

Perhaps your burn speed is set too low. Look in the options for your burning software and try setting it for the maximum speed of your drive. Also make sure the blank CDs you are using are compatible with the fastest speed of your drive.

Question submitted by Ruth Justice:

When I connect to the server and type in a URL it continues to tell me it cannot display the page. This is to any address that I try or any Url that I click within my E-mail. I have re-installed Windows, Internet Explorer, ISP  and I'm wondering if maybe the modem is bad. It tells me how many bites are sent and how many are received, which is quite a few, but it will not display anything but "this page cannot be displayed." I've had this problem for about a month now and I'm getting ready to pull my hair out over this issue!

Answer from Hal Cardona:

Can you ping the addresses you are trying to reach? From a Command prompt type in ping yahoo.com and see if you get a response.  Search for and locate a file called hosts (no extension). Open it in notepad.  There should be one entry without preceding # signs. If it says anything other than 127.0.0.1 localhost, delete all lines except that and those preceded by # signs.

Question submitted by patti:

just have a question regarding winbackup, and internet security. do you need winback up if you have Norton internet sercuity?

Answer from Linda Johnson:

Hi Patti. WinBackup and Norton Internet Security are two different things. Norton's program basically keeps you safe from hackers, spyware, popups etc. while you are connected to the Internet. WinBackup is just a program that lets you backup your important files in case you ever lose them from hard drive failure, file corruption, etc. So, comparing them is like comparing apples and oranges. I don't think you "need" WinBackup, but I do believe you DO need to backup your important files some way...an ounce of prevention goes a long way :-)

Question submitted by Karen:

My Mum's PC has some problems after a power fluctuation.  The screen shows up in 600 x 800 format (from 1024x768) and there is a reported problem "either the adapter or display" Going to display properties settings, I can change the colour settings from 256 to 16bit and the resolution back but I am required to reboot the computer for changes to take place. After the reboot nothing has changed. Trying to connect to the internet I find that the keyboard will not allow me to type e or a or d. The e keypress brings up explorer and other programs get launched on the other keypresses. These are the problems I know about! I hope someone has an idea. Thanks

Answer from William Warren:

Was this machine connected to a power strip? What you can do is this .. unplug everything from the tower .. then open up the case and remove the battery .. let it sit like this for at least an hour (i would do two) then rehook everything and see if that fixes it.

Reply from Karen:

Yes, it was connected to a surge protector strip. My mum has just given me further info. She says the power surge happened just as she was powering up the PC which then crashed to a power off state. The area you are alluding to is a likely candidate. I will try your proposal this evening. Thanks for the prompt reply.

Follow-up from Karen:

Obvious problems are now fixed, thanks William Warren. I removed the battery as suggested and downloaded a new driver for the s3 prosavage graphics card as the old one was toast.

Question submitted by mikerogs @ hotmail:

I am building a computer for my wife, and I have to pick between 2 graphics cards that I have laying around. I have a Nvidia GeForce 3 64 MB reference card, and a Nvidia Quadro FX 500 128 MB card. Both are AGP.  The Geforce 3 card says Model P50 on it-I do not think it is a Ti card, but I am not sure.  I realize that the Quadro is mostly for graphics design and CAD, but I know that it will play games too. My wife will primarily be using the card for basic desktop applications as well as for games.  Question is – Which card would Benchmark higher? Which is a better all around card? Which will do better at games? Thanks so much

Answer from Hal Cardona:

That is a hard question to answer. Which card is better really depends on how it is going to be used. Which games she is going to play with it. Which card benchmarks higher is dependent on which benchmarks you are comparing. I would just install one and let her use it for a week, then pull it out and install the other one for a week and let her try that one. Then ask her which one she prefers.

Question submitted by mowlbean:

How do you find someones e-mail adress,with only a first and last name?

Answer from Kathy Jacobs:

I use Yahoo!'s People Search. The URL is: http://people.yahoo.com/  In the second half of the page, provide the first and last name and click the email button. It's not great, but at least it is free. :)

Question submitted by duff:

The font...Marlett has taken over my machine and I cant figure out how to get the default font back. It all started with my zeal to keep current with the Microsoft upgrades by downloading that irritating ServicePack2 and taking my chances by NOT backing up my hard drive! (Bad Move and lesson learned). Anyway...my machine really started to go nuts and I tried System Restore to get sp2 off the machine but it(sp2) didnt want to leave without causing a little damage. Well, after a period of temporary panic, I tried one of those FREE registry tweakers (I forgot which one) and that was about the time...the pesky Marlett font took complete control of my OS and I cant read ANYTHING!  The funny thing is...my ISP is ok except for mouseovers, drop down menus and some toolbars. Is there a fix for this mess somewhere? I would sure like to know how to get my OS back to normal. If anyone can help me...Thank you. If not, well thanx for reading. :)

Answer from Mike Baynes:

Hi duff.  Windows XP SP2 should have created a before-SP2 restore point. It is a hidden folder on your C drive called $NtServicePackUninstall$ Did you create a restore point prior to installing the reg hack? You should be able to restore to that point. XP creates a restore point daily if it is enabled. Otherwise you can go into Display in Control Panel Click on Appearance tab> Advanced> Go through the drop down menu and change and Apply the different fonts in
each of the available windows.

Question submitted by Alex:

My windows Xp machine tries to boot but when the login screen appears the HD makes loud clicking sounds. I can boot into dos from a boot disk and copy files. What I need is I need a way to take my product key for XP and see it in DOS. I know of several xp solutions but no DOS solution. Is there a program or a location I can go to see what is the key is?

Answer from Vic Ferri:

Go to http://www.angelfire.com/va3/vic3/winkeys.htm and click on Download ViewKeyXP

Reply from Alex:

I did try the viewkeyxp tool and it says: This program cannot be run in dos
mode.

Answer from Vic Ferri:

No you can't see it in dos in xp, only in 9x. You will have to contact Microsoft if you lost the key. viewkeyxp is meant to be run in Windows, NOT dos mode.