PCPowerGuide.com

Windows Tips – Fix My Slow PC!

admin — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:15:25 +0000

Isn’t it annoying to be surfing the web and all of a sudden, your computer drags to a crawl and you sit impatiently waiting for a page to load or a download to start? There are several common causes of the slowing down effect on your PC. I will discuss the following three things you can do to speed things up a little bit:

First, download a recommended registry cleaner
Clean and defrag the hard drive
Optimize Memory
Eliminate unnecessary programs from Loading into memory

Clan and Defrag the Hard Drive

A computer’s hard drive is the primary area on your computer used to store the operating system, applications and all the files you create. The hard drive is divided up into areas called sectors. Each sector can hold a certain amount of data. Each sector is further broken up into address spaces. Each address is unique so the operating system can find the data stored on the hard drive. Windows uses a master file table to store the address locations of every file on the hard drive.

Please notice that I said locations. Most files need more than one address location to store the whole thing. Windows will write each piece of the file in locations next to each other (called contiguous space) if possible. If that is not possible, the operating system finds an empty location and writes the data there. As a result, over time, as you edit different files the pieces of a file can be located all over the hard drive.

For example, this disjoint storage is like you putting your shoes in the garage, your pants in the kitchen, your socks in the bedroom, you shirt in the bathroom and you coat in the attic. Obviously if you did that, if would take a lot longer to get dressed in the morning. The same thing happens with files. When they are spread all over the place, it takes longer for windows to find the individual pieces and load them into memory.

This is why you need to both clean up and defrag your hard drive. The clean up process deletes temporary files, file fragments (pieces left over after being deleted), orphans (data whose owner can’t be determined) and data marked for deletion.

Defragging your hard drive is the process of moving all of the pieces of a file into contiguous space so it can be retrieved faster. The operating system will move data around until it gets all the correct pieces together. To defrag:

Turn the screen save off by right clicking anywhere on the desktop
Select Properties then click on the Screen Saver tab and select None.
Next, select My Computer then right click on the hard drive Select Properties then click on Tools.
Select Check Now as shown below to let windows check the hard drive for errors and fix them if necessary. This could take a while so you might want go do something else.

When that is finished, select Defragment Now.

This can take a really long time depending on the size of the hard disk. You might as well go do something else because you CANNOT use the computer while it is defragging.

WARNING: DO NOT TURN THE MACHINE OFF UNTIL DEFRAGGING IS COMPLETE OR IT MAY DAMAGE THE HARD DRIVE

Optimize Memory

There is an old saying in the computer field. “You can never have too much memory.” When I say memory I am talking about random access memory or RAM. RAM is the temporary storage area the operating system uses to store data that is being used currently and to load itself in so all of the commands are immediately available for use.

Otherwise, you would have to wait for the data to be retrieved from the hard drive and then be loaded into memory before you could use it. It would be similar to when you are waiting for a web page to download although not as long a wait.

When the system runs out of physical RAM it uses the hard drive as Virtual Memory and does have to retrieve and load data every time you need it. Virtual memory is also called a swap file. Optimizing reduces the need to swap data into and out of the swap file. You want to put as much memory as you can afford or the machine can hold to significantly speed up your machine.

Eliminate Unnecessary Programs from Loading into Memory

When your computer boots up, it loads all kinds of applications into memory. Most of these programs are called terminate and stay resident programs or TSRs. Closing these programs will free up memory and speed up your computer. In fact, it is even better if you don’t load the ones you really don’t need.

To prevent TSRs from loading go to:

Start -> Run and type msconfig into the dialog box
The System Configuration Utility will open.
Select the Startup Tab as shown below.

Uncheck any that you don’t use very often.
Click OK to exit.
Then reboot the computer.

If you don’t know what a file or what a service does, don’t uncheck it.

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Fix .EXE File Association Errors

admin — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:12:30 +0000

The operating system has to know where a file is located and what to do with it before it can open the file. File extensions are a method of telling the operating system what kind of file it is and by using associations what application should be used to open the file. The operating system uses the file extension…the three letters after the period such as word.exe to determine the association.The .exe extension states that a file is an executable application. A .doc extension identifies the file as a word processing document that can be opened with MS Word, Wordperfect, Wordpad and several other word processing applications.

File associations are stored in the windows registry in the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT hive. The picture below shows the .exe entry in my windows registry.

The registry key also contains the following information:

preferred program that can open the file
the full path to the location of the preferred program
Actions that can be performed on the file
A default action (what happens if you double click on it)
Other programs that can open the file
Other actions that can be performed

For example, the registry entry for the .mp3 file extension on my machine is shown below. On my machine both Quick Time and Real Player are associated with and therefore can play the file. Notice that Quick Time is the default.

Since an executable file is an application that runs on your computer. Every program you open in windows has an executable file associated with it. .exe executable files are opened by the windows application launcher. If the file association listed in the registry for .exe files is incorrect, applications using that file extension will not be able to run.

EXE File Association Error in Windows Vista

How does the registry entry get changed? It can happen when someone inadvertently assigns the .exe extension to an incorrect program. If they have not established a system restore point before making the change, the registry gets changed and executables using the .exe extension stop working. Usually the first symptom is that shortcuts suddenly have the .lnk extension which means they are no longer pointing to a valid operation.

Solutions

First off, if you are not comfortable changing your windows registry files, you should try a free registry cleaner scan first and check for any potential errors that might be able to be fixed automatically.

Since programs like anti virus, spyware detectors and firewalls monitor the registry in real time, you must turn them off before you edit the registry to avoid unexpected unpleasant consequences. At worst they can either trash your system or prevent you from making the necessary corrections by not letting you save your changes.

Creating a New File Extension

Since almost all of the tools available in windows use the .exe extension very little will work. If you can get windows explorer, My Documents or My Computer to open, perform the following steps:

Open the File Types dialog box from Windows Explorer, My Documents or My Computer by selecting Tools -> Folder Options -> File Types as shown below.
Click on the New button and the Create New Extension window will open up
Next, click on the Advanced button. Your window should look like the one below.

Type in EXE for the extension and select Application from the drop down list if it doesn’t appear automatically.
Click OK and reboot the machine.

If this procedure does not work or none of the applications would run, you will have to edit the registry.

Editing the Registry

Warning—Back up all of the files you created before you attempt to edit the registry. Also create a restore point so that you will be able to restore the system if you accidentally trash the operating system to the point that it will not boot up.

The EXE association problem can occur in all versions of windows and is normally fixed by editing the registry. We will only discuss how to fix the problem in windows vista. You must delete a registry key to correct this problem. Perform the following steps:

Open up the registry editor by going to Start -> Run
Type regedit in the dialog box.
Select Edit -> Find as shown below.

The dialog box shown below will open. If the file association problem exists the registry key listed below will exist. Type exe in the search field as shown below or you can manually navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe Manual navigation is usually faster.

By existing, this registry key’s configuration is overwriting the default file association for .exe files. Therefore, to fix the problem you must delete the registry key by right clicking and selecting Delete from the drop down context menu.
Reboot the machine. When it reboots, the system will use the default values. Therefore, the EXE extension should work properly again.

EXE File Errors

Fix Windows Vista Internet Explorer Icon

admin — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:25:12 +0000

Back in the 1980s McDonald’s decided to make ringing up products easier, minimize errors and save time by putting pictures (icons) of the food items on their cash registers. Following McDonald’s lead, both Apple and Microsoft decided that rather than just listing the names of applications on the computer’s desktop, they would provide little pictures to the represent the programs. Usually the picture is the logo of the application.

Clicking on the icon will launch the application’s executable file. The first icon below will execute the Internet Explorer executable, iexplore.exe. The second icon will open filename.doc by running word.exe to open Microsoft Word if it is available on the computer. If Word is not available windows will open the file by executing wordpad.exe to launch Wordpad. The third icon calls exe.exe to launch the temp folder.

Each icon has a set of properties associated with it that are stored in the master file table. The icon’s properties will contain the full path to the executable or the location of the file or folder as shown below. Notice on the word document property sheet it tells the operating system that the file opens with Microsoft Word.

Shortcuts are pictures that represent active links to a windows object. The shortcut below is for an application called New Novelist. Notice the arrow in the bottom left hand side of the icon. It denotes that this is a shortcut rather than an icon. Also notice that the path to the program is in double quotes. That is because it will be passed as a variable to the program launcher so that the application can be opened. It also tells the operating system what folder to use as the root for the application. If it didn’t do that the operating system would not know where to find all of the other files the application needs to run.

The maximum allowable size for an icon in Vista is 256 x256 pixels which allows them to be shown in high resolution.

Displaying the Internet Explorer Icon in Vista

I have absolutely no idea why Microsoft chose to so it, but by default the internet explorer is not displayed in Vista. There is a graphical user interface tool for displaying other system icons but it does not work for internet explorer. If you want it to be available on your desktop you will need to edit the windows registry by performing the following steps.

Click on Start -> Run
When the dialog box opens, type Regedit in the Start Search box.
Press Enter
When the Registry Editor appears, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Explorer\HidedesktopIcons\NewStartPanel The picture below shows the area of the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive where you need to go.

Find the HidedesktopIcons\NewStartPanel key and click anywhere inside the NewStartPanel folder.
Pull down the Edit menu and select the New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value command as shown below and

Type in {871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D in the Value Name text Box as shown above
Then put the value 0 in the Value Data text box
Click OK

To complete the operation, click OK and close the Registry Editor. In a few moments, you’ll see an Internet Explorer icon on your desktop
If the new icon isn’t already there, click on any free area of your desktop and press the F5 key to refresh your desktop

Delete the Internet Explorer Icon

If you change your mind later and want to delete the icon, follow these steps:

Click on Start -> Run
Type Regedit in the Start Search box.
Press Enter
When the Registry Editor appears, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Explorer\HidedesktopIcons\NewStartPanel
Delete the DWORD (32-bit) entry
Close the registry editor
Click on any free area of your desktop and press the F5 key to refresh your desktop. The IE icon should be gone.

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Customizing Windows Vista Settings

admin — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:42:18 +0000

One of the biggest features that Microsoft has been using to sell Vista besides its spectacular graphics capabilities is the ability to customize the operating system and truly personalize your PC. While you have always been able to customize windows, vista does allow you to customize the following items:

Colors
Desktop Background
Screen Saver
Sounds
User account picture
Windows Themes
Windows Sidebar
Sidebar Gadgets

The Control Panel

Since windows 3.1, the windows control panel is the place to go if you want to change the default settings for any aspect of the windows graphical user interface GUI. Some of vista’s control panel functions are different and others identical to those in windows XP. Most XP users do not like the default view that vista provides for the control panel. To an inexperienced user this may be easier but it usually annoys the experienced users who really want to see all of the available applets in a single window. The picture below shows the default control panel view in vista.

You can change it back to the classic view as shown below simply by selecting Classic View in the left pane.

There is a compromise between the default and classic views. You can choose the classic view and click on the Category column heading at the top shown above to sort and then choose group. This groups related icons together.

Personalization

Switch to the classic view of the control panel because it will require less steps than using the default view. Select the personalization applet in the control panel.

Themes

This is toward the bottom of the window. Themes allow you to select different schemes. If you like one of the available schemes, a single click will change all of the setting to provide the theme. It’s basically a one click settings control.

Choose the Windows Vista theme and click OK. Your selection will be displayed as My Current Theme. You can save any theme you create by selecting Save As and giving the file a name. It will be saved in the .theme format.

Colors

If you have Aero capability and is already enabled you will see the screen below.

If not, you will see the next screen. Features unique to Aero is the ability to adjust the transparency of a window, Flip (Alt?) which shows live thumbnails of all of your open windows and Flip 3D (Win?) which lets you go through the thumbnails like you were looking at them on a rolodex. If your hardware supports, select to run windows aero.

Effects

Regardless of the selected color scheme, there are three options under Effects. All are checked:

Standard
ClearType (default)
None (uncheck the box)

Show shadows under menus – puts shadows under menus. Personally I don’t like this feature

Show window contents while dragging – again this is a preference and entirely up to you.

Desktop Background

Select Desktop Background. This is a much better interface as shown below than the one in XP because it lets you select the background by choosing the picture. The pictures are selected from the following disk locations: Windows Wallpapers, Pictures, Sample Pictures, Public Pictures and Solid Colors. You can limit background choices to your pictures folder. There is also a browse button to let you search elsewhere.

Screen Saver

This hasn’t changed since XP so there are no real surprises here. Your options are:

None – standard presentation setting
3D Text – you select the text
Aurora – looks something like the northern lights
Blank – actually blank
Bubbles – cute
Mystify – animated geometric shapes
Photos – you select a folder or use image tags to select them as a slide show
Ribbons – color displays
Windows Energy – requires a 3D card combination of Mystify and Ribbons
Windows Logo – a fancier version of the logo

Sounds

There really isn’t anything new her either. To apply a sound scheme:

Select the Sounds tab
Under Sound Scheme, select the sound scheme you want to use.

User Account Picture

You can select what picture you want to appear next to your user name on the welcome screen and on the start menu. The picture can be one of the ones included in windows or one of your own.

Windows Sidebar

You can customize the sidebar by keeping it on top,, hiding it and adding and removing gadgets from it. There are many gadgets available from the Windows Live Gallery website.

Open the Windows Sidebar by clicking the Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Windows Sidebar.

You can’t change the width of Sidebar. However, you can detach gadgets from the Sidebar and place them anywhere on the desktop. When you close the sidebar, the detached gadgets will remain open.

Top Windows Media Center Features

Fix Sound Errors in Windows XP

admin — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:16:34 +0000

With sound and video bring ubiquitous on the internet, in voice and video email, in computer games and even many of the latest applications, working sound has almost become a necessity to use your computer. Sound causes more problems than any other single thing on every personal computer operating system.

Symptoms

A computer with sound problems will display one or several of the following symptoms:

There is no sound at all
The sound keeps fading in and out
The sound seems to skip or jump on everything you try to play
The sound is distorted or scratchy on everything you try to play
The computer freezes or reboots if you try to play sound
You receive one of the following error messages:
- MIDI output error detected
- No wave device that can play files in the current format is installed
- The CD Audio device is in use by another application
- WAV sound playback error detected
- Your audio hardware cannot play files like the current file

Solutions for Sound Problems in XP

There are several common methods to troubleshoot and repair you windows XP sound problems:

Use the Windows Troubleshooter
Update sound card drivers
Update your media Player
Install a new sound card

Use the Windows Troubleshooter

Windows XP has a built in troubleshooter. To use this feature perform the following steps:

Click Start and then select Help and Support
Under Pick a Help Topic, select Fixing a problem in the window shown below

In the navigation pane, on the left, click Games, sound, and video problems as shown in the picture below.

In the topic pane, on the right, click Sound Troubleshooter

The window shown below will open. Select the option that describes the problem that is occurring, and then click Next.

Repeat the steps for each condition until your problem is resolved or until you have reached the end of the troubleshooting path.

You can click Back at any time to repeat the last step, or you can click Start Over to start the Sound Troubleshooter again. If your sound is still not working, try the next method.

Update the Sound Card Drivers

The easiest way to check your drivers is to use the DirectX diagnostic tool. To run the tool do the following:

Click Start -> Run, type dxdiag in the Open box, and then click OK. The screen below will open.

Click on the Sound tab. The window shown below will open.

Click on Test DirectSound. Repeat the test on the Music tab as shown below for item listed in the Test Using this Port box.

Alternately you can go to:

Start -> Run -> Control Panel
Click on the System icon
Select Hardware
Click on the Device Manager Button
Open the Sound, Video and Game Controllers as show below

Right click on each device and select Update Driver as shown below

The driver wizard will open as shown below

Follow the directions to update the drivers.
Repeat the process for each device

If you are still having problems then try the next method.

Update Your Media Player

If you are using Window Media Player, go to the Microsoft website and download the latest version. For other media players such as Real Player, iTunes, Quick Time and VLC media Player, go to the publisher’s website and download and install the latest version.

If that doesn’t fix the problem then try the next method.

Install New Hardware

If you got this far, you most likely have a hardware problem. Either you sound cable, your speakers or your sound card is bad. We tried all of the repairs that were free in the preceding methods. Perform the following steps to test your sound.

Borrow a known good sound cable and replace the one on your system. If the sound works, buy a new cable.

If not, leave the good cable installed and borrow known good speakers and replace your speakers. If the sound works, buy new speakers.

Next, either borrow a known good sound card and replace your sound card. If it is a different card than the one you have, make sure you install the correct drivers for the sound card before testing the sound. If the sound works, replace your sound card.

If the sound still doesn’t work, either buy a new computer (you probably need a new motherboard) or take your computer to a repair shop and let see if they can fix the problem since they have equipment that can test all of the hardware components.

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Outlook Express Errors

admin — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:41:25 +0000

As we become more dependent on email as a primary method of communication in both our professional and business life, errors can be especially annoying and possibly serious when it affects out livelihood. The table below lists to common error codes and the various methods of fixing the errors after that. I recommend you start repairs by performing each of the solution in order to get the best results. I’ve listed them from the easiest to the most difficult.

Common Errors

Error 0×800ccc91	(POP3 username invalid)
Error 0×800ccc92	(POP3 password invalid)
Error 0×800ccc7d	(Server does not support SSL)
Error 0×800420cb	Message could not be opened
Error 800ccc0131	MSIMN Errors
Kernel Errors	Messages involving kernel32.dll
Wininet Errors	Messages involving wininet.dll
MSOE Errors	Messages involving msoe.dll
Riched Errors	Messages involving riched32
Errors 0×800ccc0d & 0×800ccc0e	(Can’t find Host – cannot Locate Server and Failed to Connect – Cannot Connect to Server)
Error 0×800ccc0f	(Connection dropped (DUN connection disconnected)
Error 0×800ccc79	(SMTP rejected recipients (sending email to invalid email address)
Error 0×800ccc90	(POP3 response error – Client Response invalid)
Problems opening attachments
Messages lost if you are running Windows XP
Can’t start Outlook Express
Other problems sending messages
Authentication Problems
http://www.plus.net/support/email/email_troubleshooting/oe_error_guide.shtml for excruitating detail

Here are some basic steps to repair any of the errors listed above for Outlook Express:

Reboot the computer – this can fix any problems that are being caused by improperly closed files, memory data corruption and damage to system files.

Close other programs – close everything except internet explorer and outlook express so you don’t cause problem in any of your open programs while attempting to repair outlook express.

Delete Temporary internet files – In internet explorer

Select Internet Option from the Tools menu
Then in the temporary internet files panel, select Delete files.
In the pop up window check Delete all offline files
Click OK

You need to delete the temporary files because every time you view anything in outlook it creates a temporary file to display the contents of the message. If this multitude, it can grow to a rather large number fairly quickly) of temporary files gets damaged strange things can happen in outlook express.

Compact your folders – on the file menu select Folder -> Compact all Folders. Then go for a walk. Do not use your computer until the compacting process is complete. You should compact your folders periodically to prevent common problems.

Registry fix- sometimes registry corruption prevents outlook express from being recognized as the default email client. To fix this problem perform the following steps:

Click Start -> Run and type msimn /reg
Click OK. Nothing appears to happen.
Select Tools -> Options in internet explorer
On the programs tab select outlook express as the default email client

Library Fix – sometimes there can be problems in one or more of the dynamic link libraries that outlook express routinely used. The easiest way to be sure all of the libraries ae working properly is to re-register them using regsvr32. Perform the folloing steps:

Go to Start -> run
Type regsrv32 urlmon.dll and click OK
Type regsrv32 mshtml.dll and click OK
Type regsrv32 shdocvw.dll and click OK
Type regsrv32 browseui.dll and click OK
Type regsrv32 msjava.dll and click OK

Create a new identity – if nothing else we done works, try this. Creating a new identity will create a new message store folder and all new registry keys which should correct the problems you are experiencing. To create a new identity, perform the following steps:

Select Tools -> Accounts
Select the Mail tab and select the default account
Select Export and give the file a name. Make sure the extension is .iaf
Repeat steps 2 and 3 for all existing email accounts
Do the same for all news accounts
When finished, select Close
On the File menu select Identities
Click on Add New Identity
Type in a name for the new identity as shown below

Click yes to switch to the new identity
Select Cancel to close the wizard and select Cancel if any other windows pop up
Next, select Tools -> Accounts
Select import and start importing the .iaf files you created one at a time until you have imported all of them
Next, select File -> Import -> Messages
Highlight Microsoft Outlook Express 6 on the list
Select Next
Select the name of your old identity and then click OK

Last Resort – reinstall outlook express. Go to the Microsoft website and download the guide to reinstall and repair both internet explorer and outlook express. There are also several good third party tools available to repair outlook express.

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Program not responding errors

admin — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:07:50 +0000

Every computer user has asked themselves the following questions:

Why is my program not responding?
What is taking so long…why is it running so slow?

Most of the time we think the program is actually doing something until we get frustrated enough to start clicking in the window and we get the Programming not Responding Error.

There are several possible causes for this happening such as:

Resources conflicts
Programming Errors
No resources available
Hardware Errors
Viruses and Spyware

Symptoms

Windows expects applications to interact with it so when you type something or click on the application window, Windows expects the application to respond to the request. When it doesn’t, Program not Responding will appear in the window title bar. It may not be responding because it is doing something else at the moment or it may be hung and need closing. The application may eventually come out of the hung state and start responding again. Let’s look at the cause and a couple of examples.

Resource Conflicts

Sometimes there is nothing wrong. The application may just be doing something that is taking a lot of time because it is CPU intensive and you have several applications open and it has to wait its turn and share the CPU with other applications. A module on the computer schedules the amount of time each application is allowed to use the CPU before it has to stop and wait for its next turn. For example, let’s say you have Photoshop and Outlook both open. You are saving a file with multiple layers and special effects in Photoshop. That usually takes a little bit of time.

Now let’s suppose you have your email client configured to check for new mail every 5 minutes. If your email client is ready to check for new email while Photoshop is saving the file, the CPU scheduler may make Photoshop stop and let Outlook have a turn using the CPU. They will have to take turns until one of them is finished using the CPU.

In this case you have two options. Open the task manager and terminate the program that is not responding. Or you can go do something else for a while. In my case since I was saving a file that had taken hours to create, so I decided to have dinner. When I was finished and came back, everything was responding again and my file was saved.

Programming Error

Sometimes it is possible to cause an application to go into an infinite loop. When that happens, it cannot respond to windows and is definitely hung. All a user can do is use task manager to terminate the application. If it continues to happen, you can either reinstall the application or try to figure out what action you are taking that causes the problem.

For example, I use outlook as my email client at home. I have several email accounts being pulled into outlook from my ISP, yahoo and hotmail. In almost all cases, the To: field just has my name in it. Every time I would right click on my name to see what account the email was sent to, outlook would hang. I reinstalled it and it still did it. I reported it to Microsoft…tried one of their fixes…no success. My solution…I no longer right click on my name. I haven’t had the problem since.

No Resources Available

Since I do some very heavy duty graphics work, I frequently have Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, multiple instances of Firefox and Outlook open at the same time. All of those applications are greedy pigs when it comes to memory. Sometimes I just run out of memory and most if not all of the applications hang. By that I mean that I have run out of RAM and there is no more room in my swap file for the operating system to store the data being used by all of the open applications. I have had to increase my virtual memory (swap file size) several times during the past few months. I could also close some of the open files but I actually do need them all open to work efficiently.

Hardware Errors

If a hardware device fails for some reason, an application that tries to access the hardware device will most probably hang and stop responding. The same thing can happen if the hardware is busy and unable to respond or a driver gets corrupted. Always install the latest hardware drivers on your computer and if you suspect a problem, run the hardware diagnostics to see if they detect a problem.

Viruses and Spyware

Many viruses and malware programs can cause other applications to hang. Viruses hang application because they damage files or write malformed code to the registry. Malware hangs applications because they frequently are sending information to a database somewhere out on the internet and are gobbling up all of your computer’s resources. But since you are not aware that they are running, you probably won’t suspect that is what is causing the problem.

Summary

If you encounter a Program not Responding error, run you anti virus program, you anti spyware program and a good registry cleaner first. Then if you still see the problem, try using the other suggestions to determine the cause and find a solution.

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How To Fix kernel32.dll Errors

admin — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:16:55 +0000

Kernel32.dll is a dynamic link library used by the windows operating system to handle input, output, interrupts and memory management. That means that this file contains all of the programming code that controls your input and out put operations such as reading the input from your keyboard or mouse and writing that output to the screen or a printer, etc. Interrupts are how hardware devices let the CPU know that they want it to do something. For example, every time you press a key on the keyboard, a voltage is placed on an interrupt line that a CPU module monitors waiting for requests. Each device has its own interrupt line. When the CPU sees the request from the keyboard it starts collecting the input, processes it and sends it to the monitor to display.

Memory management involves taking data not being used at the moment from RAM and writing it to the page file located on the hard drive and then taking requested data from the hard drive and putting into RAM where an application can use it. Obviously, your computer can not function properly if something happens to the kernel32.dll file. Each version of windows uses its own version of the file and they cannot use one designed for another version of windows.

Kernel32.dll Errors

There are several common causes of kernel32.dll errors such as:

Memory

When windows starts, one of the first things it does is load the kernel32,dll file into a protected memory location so it will be available to both the operating system and applications. If a memory module is damaged and the CPU cannot load the file into a protected part of the memory, you will receive a page fault error. A temporary solution is to swap memory modules if you have more than one of them since most protected memory locations are in the first MB of RAM which is always located on the chip inserted in slot 0. If that fixes the problem, you have damaged blocks on the other module. You should replace the damaged memory chip.

Swap File

If your swap file is too small, non-existent, or located on an area of the hard drive with bad blocks, it can cause an error. The solution is to run a utility to mark bad blocks on the hard drive so that the operating system does not use them. Put the swap file on a different partition or replace the hard drive.

Video drivers

Although any bad hardware driver can cause errors, the most common drivers that cause kernel32.dll problems are video drivers. This usually only happens when new drivers are installed or the old file becomes corrupted. Boot the computer in Safe mode which causes it to use VGA display settings and update or replace the video drivers. If you can’t boot to safe mode, use the repair console to replace the driver file.

Over clocking

If you have over clocked your system, consult your motherboard manual and reset the BIOS setting back to the default and see if that fixes the problem. It is possible that a newly installed application cannot use the higher clock speed.

Overheating

Most CPUs have safety features that will shut down the CPU if it reaches a critical temperature to prevent it from getting fried. However, the operating system can experience failures such as a kerner32.dll error when the system is running hot. Check you CPU and case cooling fans and make sure they are clean and working properly. Dust tends to accumulate on the fan blades which slows them down and prevents proper cooling.

Graphic Accelerators

Check the manual for your graphics accelerator to see what settings are appropriate and how to trouble shoot it or visit the manufacturer’s website. If it was working properly, there may be a hardware problem. If so, you should replace the graphic accelerator.

Active Desktop

Active desktop can cause all sorts of annoying problems. Most of the time, the operating system will shut it down if there is a problem. I’m sure everybody has seen the white screen with the big triangle asking if you want to restore your active desktop. You can see if this is the problem by disabling all of the features and then re enabling them one at a time to see if one of them is causing the problem.

Registry entries

Corrupted data in the registry can cause the problem. Run a good registry cleaner to correct any problems. You should run anti virus and anti spyware programs as well since viruses and malware are what frequently causes the registry problems.

Summary

If none of these step work, you may need to reinstall the windows operating system. Just remember to backup all of the files you have created because most of them will be overwritten during the reinstallation.

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What is a Windows DLL File

admin — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:58:37 +0000

A windows .dll file is a dynamic link library which is a method that windows uses to house commonly used features to make application development easier and to maintain the modularity of modern programming. The windows operating system contains over 10 million lines of programming code. With out modular programming, a small change in one part of the code could cause the entire system to stop working. The idea behind the dlls is to let an application call common features such as printing, opening a hyperlink, opening and closing a file, etc. Many hardware drivers are now written as dll files to take advantage of the windows API and minimize the possibility of interoperability problems. So basically a .dll file is an executable program that cannot run as a stand alone program. It must be called by another application to run.Missing windows .dll is a common error message that users receive when they try to run an application. You get this message for any one of several reasons. The most common causes of this error are:

You removed a program that uninstalled the windows .dll file that the program you are trying to opens needs to run.
You installed a new application and it over wrote the version the application needs and the new version of the .dll file doesn’t contain the required information.
Some software event that occurred on your computer corrupted the .dll your application needs
A hardware problem on your hard drive caused the file to become corrupted.

In all of these cases the solution is to find and install an uncorrupted version, or in some cases, the correct version of the needed file. There are several websites that offer windows .dll files for download. Some web sites provide free downloads and others charge a per download fee. Another source of an uncorrupted windows .dll is the broken applications original install disk or the windows installation disk. Either one of them may have the correct version of the missing or corrupted file.

Restore Points

Both windows XP and Vista users can try to restore their computer to an earlier configuration using the windows system restore feature. This feature allows you to undo any recent changes by reverting to the last configuration saved by the system.

Use the SPC Command

You can also use the SPC command to have windows scan and repair files on your hard drive. Perform the following steps to use the SPC command:

Select Start
Choose Run
Type spc /scannow into the dialog box and then press Enter.

Windows will scan the system and will verify the files and report the results.

Reinstall the broken application

You can always reinstall the broken application. Make sure that any files you have created that are stored in the program’s directory on the C drive are backed up because in most cases they will be deleted by the reinstallation. Since you are reinstalling your application, this would be a good time to visit the publisher’s website to see if there are free updates or patches available for the application and install them as well

In fact, if there are patches or updates, installing just them might fix your problem. If not, do the complete reinstall. If the problem was caused by another program overwriting the needed .dll file, that program may stop working after the reinstall.

Malware Infection

Another possible cause of windows .dll problems is your computer being infected with a virus, spyware or some other form of malware. Therefore, you need to run you anti-virus program to check for virus infections. Then run you spyware program. In both cases let the applications clean up the suspected files. Just to be on the safe side, when you have completed these scans use a good registry cleaner to remove any problems in the windows registry.

After completing these repair functions, then try reinstalling the broken application to see if that fixes the problem.

Summary

If none of the suggestions offered above solve your problem and it is a single application, contact the software’s publisher and ask their technical support how to fix the problem. As an alternative, you can check the online user forums for your application and see if anyone else has had this problem and how they fixed it. There usually is someone out there who can tell you how to fix almost any problem you might encounter.

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What is a Flash Player?

admin — Tue, 27 May 2008 00:32:04 +0000

As the internet has matured it is no longer a media of static information. Interactive web pages are the rule rather than the exception. A lot of that interactivity has been made possible by Flash. Flash was originally created by the Macromedia Corporation as a way to animate two dimensional graphics to create cartoons that could be displayed on websites. Later it was used to create special effects such as sparkling and letting a picture fade in. Eventually the ability to add sound was incorporated. The final addition was the ability to drop video from actual cameras into the timeline.

As a result, Flash is the format of choice for most video applications currently in use on the internet and the basis of many computer games. Then a few years ago, a scripting language called action script was added to Flash which gave web developers the ability to create entire websites using just flash. The current version of action script has pretty much all of the capabilities of java script. Adobe bought Macromedia and now the product is called Adobe Flash.

Adobe Flash is also called just Flash. The name applies to both the flash player which is distributed freely by adobe as a stand alone application and as a plug in for almost all commonly used web browsers and the name is also used for the application development environment that creates movies and animated shows. Flash movies require only a relatively small file size which makes it perfect for use on websites.

The flash development program contains the action script programming language that can be used to create interactive web pages. An example of this would be the yahoo television listings. When you click on a specific program name, the details open directly below the link without replacing anything else on the page. Flash has to the ability to display new information using animation techniques to make it appear to be part of the original page.

Flash uses both vector and raster graphics and bi directional streaming of audio and video. Strictly speaking Flash is the development environment and the Flash player is the viewer but most people do not make any real distinction between the two. The flash player was originally designed to display two dimensional vector animations. While it is now capable of streaming video and audio, it still uses vector graphics to create much smaller file sizes that allow streaming. The smaller file sizes also reduce the necessary web page downloading time.

The latest version of Flash is version 9. It is available for Windows (all versions), Linux (most versions), Solaris (all versions) and the MAC OSX. At present it is only available as a 32 bit application. Fortunately most 64 bit operating systems can still run 32 bit applications. Adobe is working on providing a version that provides a native 64 bit environment. Additional versions of the player are available for many mobile device operating systems such as:

Nokia phones
OS/2
Symbian OS
Palm OS
BeOS
IRIX
Kodak Easyshare One
Leap Frog devices
Playstation portables
Nintendo’s Wii

The SWF format is a proprietary format owned by adobe which they have not been willing to release for free software development. However they have released the action script virtual machine for development under GPL licensing. Anyone wanting to use the SWF format must pay licensing fees to Adobe.

One of the potential problems of using flash player is the fact that when it is connected to a web page that uses flash elements it uses tracking files somewhat similar to cookies called persistent identification elements or a local shared object file that are stored on your local hard drive. This could allow a hacker to access personal information. The flash control panel provides methods to prevent any possible problems. Of course you could turn the flash player off, but why would you want to do that.

The Flash player can capture and play audio and video data from almost any web camera or microphone connected to the user’s computer while it is sending and receiving over the internet. The Flash Player comes embedded as an integral part of some of the latest versions of web browsers and is available as an add on for most other versions. The Flash development environment and its associated Flash Player have revolutionized how we share information on the internet.

Adobe Flash Player

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