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Dave Maitland'sQuestions and Answers QUESTION: Is it normal for the desktop icons to redraw frequently? - NEIL, Internet ANSWER: I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but if the icons seem to disappear and reappear every time you move a window, try the following registry edit - as always, be careful when fooling around with the registry. Open up the registry editor (click on the "start" button on your task bar, choose "run", then type "regedit" and press "enter"). When regedit opens, navigate (the same way you would in Windows Explorer) to HKey\Local\Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer. Right-click in the right pane and choose "New", "DWORD value". Name the new DWORD "Max Cached Icons". Now, double click on the new entry and, when the "Edit DWORD value" dialogue box opens, enter 8 000 and click on "OK". Close regedit by choosing "registry", exit, and restart the computer.
QUESTION: There are some WordArt shapes I'd like to use in PowerPoint slides, but they have shadows that I don't want. I've been through all the WordArt dialogue boxes but can't find any way to get rid of the shadows. Am I missing something? - PETER, Internet ANSWER: Don't feel alone - the place to change the shadows is well hidden and not at all intuitive. Like the rest of us, you probably looked in WordArt to add or delete WordArt shadows. Instead, select the WordArt object by clicking on it once. Now click on the shadow icon in the drawing toolbar (it looks like a square with a shadow). When the shadow dialogue box opens, click on "No Shadow". This is also the place to go to change the type of shadow or add a shadow where there is none.
QUESTION: When is it safe to get rid of .TMP and .CHK files, and when not? - OLIVER, Internet ANSWER: As far as .TMP files are concerned, pretty much any time, if you don't mind getting error messages telling you that some can't be deleted. Windows is pretty good at not letting you delete files currently in use. Otherwise, boot into DOS and delete them from there. You can delete .CHK files when you are sure there is nothing in them you might need. They are created by ScanDisk while it tries to repair other files. If ScanDisk finds lost fragments of files, it creates a .CHK file from the fragment by default.
QUESTION: I need your help with a warning window that comes up on my screen and then shuts down back to my start-up screen. The window says I have committed an illegal operation, before it shuts down. - ALLEN, Internet ANSWER: Illegal operations are generally caused by memory conflicts, such as when one program wants to use memory space in use by another. If this happens regularly and you can perform the same actions to get this error, as seems to be the case here, then the program generating this error is probably corrupt. Your best bet is to try reinstalling the program causing the problem. If that doesn't work, you may need to reinstall all the software on the computer.
QUESTION: My information technology people tell me I have to put up with the font on my computer, but I can't believe there is nothing one can do to change it. It's probably the simplest thing. - CAROL, Internet ANSWER: Fortunately, there is a fairly simple answer to this - simply change the font you are using to display. Open the display settings and click on the "Appearance" tab. In the display area, click on the "File" menu in the active window. You'll see that "Menu" appears under the "Item" list and the font details change accordingly. Choose something that suits your. As a guide, I use the font MS Sans Serif (Western) with size 8. Click on "OK" and your changes will be made.
QUESTION: What do I do about playing music after adding a new CD-ROM drive? - FRANCOIS, Internet ANSWER: I'm assuming your original CD designation was D, and you now have two CD-ROM drives, D and E, and you'd like to listen to music on E. Firstly, you need to move the audio cable that runs from the sound card to the new drive. Next, click on "Start", "Settings" and "Control Panel". When "Control Panel" opens, double-click on the Multimedia icon. When the dialogue box opens, click on the "CD Music" tab. Now, under "CD-ROM Drive", select Drive E. Click on "OK" to close the dialogue box. You might as well close "Control Panel" while you're at it (in "File").
QUESTION: My sound card doesn't accept input from the Line or the Microphone. - JAMES, Internet ANSWER: You can change these settings. Click on "Start", "Programs", "Accessories", "Multimedia", "Volume Control". When "Volume Control" opens, choose "Options", "Properties". This opens a dialogue box from which you can select the inputs you want to use. After you make the selections, click on "OK". This takes you back to the volume control panel. Now select the input device that you want to activate, and close the panel.
QUESTION: I have a dreadful problem that no-one seems to be able to solve. I have a P100, 32MB RAM, Windows 95, a 2.5GB hard drive, Norton Anti-Virus, Coral Office Suite 7, Microsoft Office Suite 97, a Panasonic KS-P6100 laser printer, an HP690C Deskjet, Genius SP2X scanner, Microcom Deskport 28.8, FX600 CD-ROM, and a connection to the Internet through PiX. My original hard drive crashed in November and was replaced with a Seagate 1.6GB drive. This proved to be faulty, and was replaced by Axiz with the above Western Digital. I run a secretarial/typing service from home, so I can't afford to be without the equipment to have it repaired - if only I knew what needed repairing. The following is a typical series of events that happens daily, sometimes up to five times a day. Working in WordPerfect, I receive a "Fatal Exception" error, then a stream of "General Protection Fault" errors. I try to restart the PC using CTRL+ALT+DEL, but I get another "Fatal" error. Then the shut-down screen appears, and hangs. I reboot, get the "Run ScanDisk" message, which usually comes up with a few errors. I then go back to my programs, and start all over again. I have replaced my RAM with 2 SIMMs that are identical. - BRENDA, Randburg ANSWER: This sounds like a memory conflict between applications, or a hardware clash. While general protection faults and the "Blue Screen of Death" are going to be part of computing life until everyone is using Windows NT, they shouldn't be occurring with this sort of frequency. Since you have already replaced your SIMMs, the problem is unlikely to be there. Something else you can do to try and calm things down is to do a ScanDisk run, after which run Defrag. Delete your temporary files and your temporary Internet files, and clean out your Internet cache. Don't open more than one application at a time if possible, don't load more documents in each application than you have to, and reboot often. Since you have a lot of hardware, you could be experiencing IRQ conflicts, but I'm sure the people who have looked at your system would have noticed any conflicts. The other common cause of general protection faults is a slightly incompatible BIOS and/or mother board. Shortly after Win95 was released, I upgraded my mother board. The first board just didn't like my system, and I was getting the same sort of problems. The next board worked perfectly. But before you start looking for hardware problems, make sure the software side is as clean as possible by following the steps above. If hardware is the problem then you'll have to bite the bullet and send it in for testing. A number of companies rent out computers for short periods, so you don't need to be totally PC-less.
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