Issue 90 - June 28, 2000

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements (c) 2000
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Welcome to the 90th issue of the PC Improvement News. PCIN consists of news, tips, thoughts, and contests. There is something for everyone, and if this is your first issue, I'm sure there will be something for you. I am willing to discuss any computer topic. Email me at mailto:editor@pcin.net with any suggestions. If you give me two or three issues, I know that you will come back for more!

Recommend PCIN to others and be entered in a monthly draw. The June prize will be Software602's 602Pro Lan Suite Lite, a program that lets you connect several computers to the Internet. Recommend PCIN at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml

OPENING THOUGHTS

Many of you who have won prizes from contest or from recommending PCIN have received little beaded lizards from my youngest sister Brianna. I just I'd let you all know that today is her 13th birthday.

For some reason the company that was distributing the Smileys book and the Cheap Tricks book is shutting down. The Smileys book is no longer available (as is the page on my site about the book), but the Cheap Tricks book is still available directly from the We Compute! Magazine web site at http://www.we-compute.com/ The cheap tricks will still continue as normal.

This is an exceptionally long issue of PCIN. No one answered the questions 2 weeks ago, so when I mentioned that last week, I had all sorts of answers come in. Add that to the large number of responses for last week's new questions and the I Need Help section is very long. I was going to only include a few suggestions, but I still feel that there are a lot of readers who like to read the different ideas so I left them in.

Don't forget to recommend PCIN before Saturday. The June prize will be Software602's 602Pro Lan Suite Lite. It allows your home network to access the Internet.

The NEWS

AOL Owes You Money?

Some people have brought a lawsuit against AOL "which revolves around the pop-up advertisements that AOL subscribers are required to view or dismiss before they can continue their use of the service. The plaintiffs -- Hampton Booker and Arthur Sweeney -- say AOL has breached its contract with them by requiring them to view these ads during the time that they have paid to use AOL services." A judge said that all AOL subscribers could take part in the lawsuit.

For more info:
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article/0,2171,3_402581,00.html

Microsoft/IE Rolls Along

The most recent numbers on browser usage shows that Microsoft Internet Explorer has 86% of the browser market. The study by WebSideStory Inc certainly supports the government's argument that Microsoft used their monopoly to push other products.

For more info:
http://www.bostonherald.com/business/technology/browser06262000.htm
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/1/11605.html

Why Leave Your ISP?

This comes from the July 2000 issue of PC Magazine, pg 199
Here are the top reasons our (PC Magazine's) readers have left one ISP for another:
23% Reliability of connections
20% Connection speed
14% Quality of service
12% Rates
9% Customer service and technical support
8% Services available
14% Other

I NEED HELP

I offer a free help service via email. If you have a question, you can email me and I will try my best to answer them. I can answer about most of them, but there are things that I have never tried or experienced so I don't have an answer. I post those questions here and see if any of the readers have any suggestions. I will include all reasonable suggestions with credit to you.
These are NOT my own questions and they are NOT my answers. I will NOT check the validity of these comments. That is up to you. If you do try one of these tips, please let me know how the suggestions worked out. Did they work or not? Please send in your questions or results to mailto:freehelp@pcin.net

Previous Question 1 (Two weeks ago)
Today when I tried to open my Word Perfect 7.0, I kept getting a message "PerfectFit dlls cannot be loaded". What does this mean and how do I fix it?

Answers to Question 1 (Two weeks ago)
Rob said, "I turned this up on a search at Google:
http://www.ucs.vt.edu/4help/kb/vtonly/WPW70/06000665.asp "
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Nick Massey said, "I have had that same error on one of my pc's and reinstalling should do the trick. First you should uninstall if you can with "add remove programs" if for some reason it has not register there you will have to run regedit to get rid of it. If you don't really know much about your registry you should really learn. Here is a great program that I found that will help you learn about your registry. Look for "Mystery Behind Windows Registry" at the site below. IT'S FREE! http://www.pcmech.com/download/registry.htm "
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Tony Lowell said, "It can be found as a download from Wordplay.com I don't know why anyone would use a Corel product. Cowpland has a habit of destroying companies. This is his third. Word Perfect used to be a reasonable product until he took over. Wish the person good luck as one third of the staff are being laid off so support might be a bit spotty not to mention their attitude won't be to pleasant. Check the last 3 business quarters. He keeps adjusting earnings downwards. I'm afraid Microsoft WORD is the way to go."
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Ken Aspinwall said, "I guess the person with the problem doesn't know about Corel's Internet support. I found two suggestions at their site:
http://kb.corel.com/kbdocs/CWS7032/CWSWIN70/CWSWIN70_1726.htm and the other to reinstall Word Perfect."
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John Hills said, "Try an uninstall followed by a reinstall of the program. However, it is unusual for program files to have dll files with names that long so I am not too sure that these missing files are genuine."
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Silvan Kuipers said, "I don't know WordPerfect too well, but "PerfectFit" sounds like a part of WordPerfect or maybe an add-on. If so, uninstalling WordPerfect and then re-installing it should do the trick."
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Carlos Roman said, "I experience this error in the past. Somehow, the Windows register cannot make any reference to the related dll and failed to load it. The solution to this is to reinstall WordPerfect so the register can reference again the PerfectFit DLLs and load them in memory."

Previous Question 2 (Two weeks ago)
Yesterday I inserted some more RAM for my computer. But when I restart it, there was an error: "NLTD (or something like that, I can't remember) not found." Then I start my computer with the other disk. And I can not use the command "dir" with drive C. There's a error "invalid media type..." What can I do now?

Answers to Question 2 (Two weeks ago)
Rob said, "The question is vague, and the disk should not be affected by changing RAM so apparently you're doing more than you're reporting. Here are some things to consider:
1. You did get compatible RAM? (Type, speed, and so on)
2. Insert the bigger chip in the first slot.
3. As for the invalid media type, I'd say the disk is not formatted for DOS."
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Nick Massey said, "I think you maybe you have incompatible ram for your pc. I would remove the ram and see if you can boot normally. All this is just a guess but I tried to put new ram in my pc that a friend gave me and got similar issues as you. When I removed the new ram that I just installed the problem went away. If for some reason you cannot get the pc to boot normally even after taking out the ram. BACKUP!! as much as you can (if any) and fdisk man."
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John Hills said, "I have thought that the bios has probably been changed with the additional memory, choosing a different setting for the hard drive e.g. LBA or Normal etc. Therefore, this should be checked out first. If not, get a boot disk with sys.com on it and rewrite the system commands by typing "sys c:" at the A:> prompt. Then try "Format /MBR" which will rewrite the master boot record. This should sort it."
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Silvan Kuipers said, "Are you sure the extra memory use put in is of the same brand and type? If it isn't, that's probably the reason for it not working well. However, if it is, it may be wise to run a memory checker to see if the memory is in fact OK."
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John Patmore said, "First, remove the new memory, and go back to the original config. Does it work as before? Was the new memory seated correctly? You do not say what type of memory you are using. Do not mix SIMMS and DIMMS on a motherboard even if the manufacturer implies that you can. It screws up sooner or later. Do not mix different DIMM speeds i.e. 66 MHz with PC 100 etc. If you are just substituting memory rather than adding, check that the motherboard can take the new type AND that it is set correctly. Check the BIOS setup. Does the memory speed show up correctly i.e. 10-12 ns for DIMMS etc? Finally, if all else fails get different memory. Some systems will not work with some types of memory. It just happens."
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Joe said, "There could be a number of reasons why you are having this problem.
1. The ram you installed is not compatible with your computer. i.e.: the ram is non-error correction type, the ram is error correction type. The ram must match the type that is in your computer. Check the motherboard manual.
2. The ram is EDO, regular ram, SDRAM etc. Again the ram must match the type that is in your computer. NOTE: some mother boards allow you to mix the type of ram example: 72pin with 168pin type ram but it is not advisable.
3. The ram is defective.
4. The ram is not completely seated in the slot.
5. While installing the ram you may have knocked a cable loose connecting one of the components inside your computer. Check all connecting cables.
6.The "invalid media type" error you got is the result of the floppy you were using is defective."
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Carlos Roman said, "Removed the new RAM from you computer. Restart it and see if you can access the hard disk. If you can, then check if the RAM you added are of the same type and speed. For Pentium computers there are two types of RAM, 100Mhz RAM and non-100Mhz RAM. Consult you motherboard manual to see which type of RAM it may use."

Previous Question 1
Is it possible to watch a DVD on my TV from my computer's DVD-ROM?

Answers to Question 1
Nick Massey said, "Yes you can watch your DVD from your pc or Mac. You need a special converter box that you can get from any pc of Mac supply house. I believe either or will work on both systems. We watched that matrix the other night at a friend's house that very way. It was very cool"
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John Hills said, "You need a graphics card or tuner card with TV out and then you can watch DVD on your TV or even your desktop if your family will put up with it."
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Silvan Kuipers said, "Yes it is. If you have a TV-out on your video card, use it to connect to your TV."
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Leeor Geva said, "You can buy a PCI card which has an output to your TV and thus see your Monitor on your TV, I don't know about the quality, or if there is a specific PCI card for Digital Video Wires."
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Simon Duffy said, "It is possible to watch DVD on TV as long as you have a graphics card/ mpeg card with TV out and the relevant leads i.e. ATI Rage 128 TV out. Depending on which country you live in you will need some other leads."
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Aleksandar Mujadin said, "Yes, it is possible, first you must have TV-out on your graphics card or if you have a hardware decoder card, they usually have TV-out. Then you need the right cable to connect to the TV, you usually get one pretty short with the graphics card, where you connect the real cable. For example, I got a cable with my card where I can either connect Video-Out or S-Video-Out, to that I bought a cable with a SCART connection at one end, the one that goes to the TV and it has both Video and S-Video connection for the picture and Left- and Right Audio cables that go to the Line Out on my Soundcard. Then I just hit the AV button on the remote and watch movies... There is one more step and it's setting up your software, it depends on the card/hardware decoder but is usually found in Display Properties on the Control Panel."
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Matthew Chapman said, "I currently have a Cyrix 333MMX Desktop, with 64 Meg Ram and a 13 Meg TNT Graphics Card. Over the last 12 months I have upgraded the standard CD-ROM to a Mitsumi CD-RW and a Creative Encore DVD Kit.
The Encore DVD kit consists of a 6XDVD, an MPEG Decoder Card, cables, software and manual.
I have to say the installation went as easily as the Manual suggested - Take time to read this first.
There is a link cable from the graphics card output to the Decoder card input. From the decoder card there is an output for a standard monitor, SVIDEO to Composite mini din TV out - (not a standard 6 pin), sound input and output.
To connect to the TV - Use the SVIDEO cable, you will need to purchase an additional cable to link from the audio output and SVIDEO output to either the SVIDEO Input or the SCART Input of the TV.
The cables cost around £10.00 from most HI-FI shops.
I played around with the audio inputs and outputs to get sound on both PC and TV, you can only watch the picture on PC or TV not both.
The CD-RW also works correctly, recording on the Fly from the DVD acting as a CD Player.
I believe the Creative Encore DVD kit has now been upgraded, I would recommend buying this kit and using a Hardware MPEG Solution, though I believe with the latest software there may be region locks, these can be removed with a variety of programs."
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Carlos Roman said, "Definitely YES! However, to accomplish this you need to installed a graphics video card with TV output so you can connect your TV to your PC to be able to see your DVD movie in your TV screen from your computer's DVD-ROM."

Previous Question 2
I just wanted to ask if you knew of any single program that would protect you from hacking type stuff such as BackOrifice and NetBus?

Answers to Question 2
Nick Massey said, "BlackIce! From a company called NetIce at http://www.netice.com/ It is a very good program that can lock down your network or pc."
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Ken Aspinwall said, "I use The Cleaner to protect me from Trojans at http://www.moosoft.com/ I recommend it highly."
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John Hills said, "Probably the only way is to use Linux. This also stops you getting "I love you" type viruses. Linux will not run games but you can dual boot it and then use win98 for work and games and Linux for downloading emails and surfing."
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Joe said, "You can protect your self from a hacker by putting up a firewall. There is a free program for personal use called ZoneAlarm that will protect your computer from outside intrusions. You can download ZoneAlarm from this address http://www.zonelabs.com/download_ZA.htm or you can buy firewall software such as McAfee or Norton."

New Questions
Q1) One of my users (Using Win2000) is getting and "Index Error" upon closing IE5.5. Does anyone know what this might be related to or the cause of? I have checked several sites and have yet to even hear of it.
Q2) How do I remove dos 6.22 and go back to old dos? I would like to load windows 98.

If you have an answer to these questions or have a question of your own, please email me at mailto:freehelp@pcin.net

THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF

Cheap Trick of the Week

**No more pointless disk scans **
If you use Windows 98 or a late version of Windows 95, you'll find the system scans the hard drive for problems every time you start it after it was shut down improperly.
But it hardly ever finds a problem with the hard disk. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the illegal shutdown was caused by Windows itself crashing! Yet that Scandisk process is launched and slowly checks your hard drive until you get fed up and click on Exit.
But you can prevent the scan in the first place.
Start Notepad and open the Msdos.sys file in your root directory. At the end of the [Options] section of the file, add the line AutoScan=0 (that's a zero) and resave the file.
The Msdos.sys file may resist this, claiming to be a read-only file, in which case you should first rename the old file to something like Msdos.old, make the revision and save your new file as Msdos.sys.
Now the next time, Windows shuts you down unexpectedly, it won't further punish you by making you sit through a pointless disk scan.
And if you find this trick too much trouble, we'll tell you another way to accomplish the same results next week.

More Information About Your Computer

Last week's "Cheap Trick" was about using MSInfo32 to find out details about your computer. Subscriber Matthew Chapman sent this to me:
"Re your article on MSD or MSINFO, in Windows 98, go to Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Information, and you should be there.
Another good little program in MSCONFIG in Win98 - select, Start, Run, then type MSCONFIG in the box, Ok and up it comes, lets you change the start up config.sys etc."

More Remote Software Ideas

Last week I mentioned how Microsoft Netmeeting could be used to control someone's desktop and run programs on their computer as if it was their own. Subscriber Don Nicholls sent me this in:
"Made note of your use of Netmeeting and remembered the difficulties many users had with it, but if it works, it is great. However, AT & T in UK has provided free remote access for some time and the latest version is excellent. Found at http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/ Comes in 2 parts, viewer and host. We created an addition to the host or user part, about 35k, so we can email the batch file, install vnc on the remote instantly, perform the tasks in remote, and the host can remove the batch file with a click, to maintain their security. We have not found anything better, stable, and of course, free."

Remove URL History Manually

There are lots of utilities out there that will clean out sections of the registry, but sometimes you just want to change one thing. To remove URLS from showing up in the Internet Explorer address bar, then start the registry editor and find HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU
The keys that are labeled a, b, c are the entries from the Start-Run history. The keys that are labeled url1, url2, url3 are the web site address. You can just click on a key and delete it and it won't show any more.

DISCLAIMER and OTHER STUFF

PCIN is brought to you by PC Improvements. The opinions expressed are those of the editor, Graham Wing. PC Improvements and Graham Wing accept no responsibility for the results obtained from trying the tips in this newsletter.

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Graham Wing can be reached at mailto:editor@pcin.net
Copyright 1998-2000, PC Improvements and Graham Wing. All rights reserved. This publication may be reproduced in hole, or in part, as long as the author is notified and the newsletter is presented as is.

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