Hardware

Infopackets Reader "Rayla Wolff44" writes: " Dear Dennis, Our computer monitor stopped working, and so we ended up borrowing our daughters old monitor and plugged it into our machine. The old monitor worked fine on her computer, however, when it's ... plugged into our machine, the icons appear to 'quiver' some times. What do you think is causing this problem? " My response: I have a number of suggestions off the top of my head. If the 'quivering icons' was a problem with your old monitor, then it is possible that the problem lies with your video card. If not, then try moving ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Sandie 'littleone' writes: " Dear Dennis, Lately I've been having problems with my CD writer drive whenever I try to burn a disc. I get strange error messages which tell me that my computer wasn't able to fill the data quickly ... enough during the burn. I have tried to reinstall the software for the CD burner, but it hasn't helped. Do you have any suggestions for me, other than buy a new CD ROM? Thanks for your input. " My response: The problem you are experiencing sounds like a CD buffer underrun error . All CD burn sessions must be uninterrupted or the resulting ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Margie100' writes: "Dear Dennis, You've probably have answered this question a million times, but I am having trouble finding the right answer for me. I am running XP and lately this PC just freezes up when I open just about ... everything. Pressing CTRL + ALT + DEL usually fixes it but I know that this is a temporary fix and it usually locks up again shortly after that. I've scanned my system for viruses, cleaned my hard drive using the defrag utility, and use scandisk to check for file-system errors. I know from your newsletters that it may be possible that there is ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Becks1969' writes: " Dear Dennis, When I try to download my pictures off my camera or my memory card, it doesn't seem to do anything -- and some times, my camera beeps. I used to be able to do this, but now my camera software ... doesn't even ask me if I want to download my pictures. Would you have any idea what I need to do to try to get this working again? I have been reading your newsletters and a lot of your information has helped me a great deal. I'm hoping you might be able to help me with this matter." My response: A number of things may prohibiting your ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Chris W. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'm having a little problem running my wireless laptop PC. It seems every time someone in my home picks up one of the cordless phone, the Internet service from the Linksys is interrupted. The ... Linksys router is attached to my sons desktop computer. Do you any solution to this problem? " My response: Unfortunately, I'm still using old technology which requires me to use wires to connect more than one computer to my router. I did, however, forward this question to Jake Ludington and he was able to shed some insight. Jake comments: ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Joel M. writes: " Hello Dennis, This is my first time to write to you because I have usually found the answers to my questions in your wonderful articles. Please keep them coming! I do not have the call waiting feature disabled on ... my computer, nor do I have one of those 'catch-a-call' boxes which allows me to answer an incoming call when I'm connected to the Internet. Instead, I gone to Control Panel -> Modems -> Advanced Settings, and used the modem command 'ATS11=254' which (I believe) has given me the option of ignoring / allow incoming calls. Unfortunately, a ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Robert H. writes: " I am running Windows 98 Second Edition on a HP Omnibook XE2 laptop, which has 64.0 MB of RAM. I was wondering if I can add 256 of RAM in order to install Windows XP? PS: Thanks for a great newsletter and your ... eBooks, I have bought several and they have been a real help." My response: Memory configurations for laptops vary from machine to machine. Most laptops have 2 memory banks and have a limit as to how much memory they can recognize. In my experience, I've found Kingston's web site to be a great resource when researching memory ... (view more)

Recall -- A few weeks back, Infopackets Reader Brad B. asked if it was possible to transfer his digital camera photo software from his work computer to his home PC: " Dear Dennis, Many years ago, I bought a digital camera that came with the software ... program called 'Camedia'. Unfortunately my computer crashed last year and (worse yet) I can't find the CD to reinstall it on my PC! Before I lost the disc, I managed to install Camedia on the computer at work, and thankfully, it's still working fine. I have tried copying the Camedia files from the work computer to my home computer, but it won ... (view more)

Speaking of Windows optimization, Infopackets Reader 'Harkatcan' asked me a very interesting question the other day that dealt with the Windows Swap File. " Dear Dennis, How can I get my swap file to empty when I start my computer? When my system ... boots up, a dialogue window appears and reports that I have 572meg in my swap file. Could this be why my computer is running so slow? I use win98se. A techie friend of mine suggested that I write a simple batch file [program] so that my swap file is deleted every time I reboot the computer. That way, it will be replaced with a new swap file that ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Brad B. writes: " Dear Dennis, Many years ago, I bought a digital camera that came with the software program called 'Camedia'. Unfortunately my computer crashed last year and (worse yet) I can't find the CD to reinstall it on my ... PC! Before I lost the disc, I managed to install Camedia on the computer at work, and thankfully, it's still working fine. I have tried copying the Camedia files from the work computer to my home computer, but it won't run. Is there some sort of program I can use to transport Camedia onto my home computer without having to use the installation ... (view more)