ICS Web: Welcome to Steven and Andy from Home PC Online!!!
ICS Web: Greetings Everyone!
Andy HPC: Actually, Steven is outta here.
ICS Web: In that case.. Hi Andy!
Andy HPC: Hi, I'm one of Doc PC's assistants and hopefully the other assistants got stuck in traffic. Welcome all to Dr. PC Online.
ICS Web: Great! I think we have plenty of questions to keep you busy for quite some time, Andy!
Andy HPC: Reversal: Steven has decided to help out with the Mac questions! Yay!
ICS Web: LOL! And the Ally-Oop!
Andy HPC: Fire away!!
ICS Sharon: Vin would like to know
Question: I cannot communicate to NEC BBS, I get there but cannot communicate to get around can you help ?
Steven HPC: Hello everyone.. ;-)
Andy HPC: It sounds like you're having a modem configuration problem. Check with NEC to make sure you have the right speed and parity settings for your modem/software. Another possibility is that the BBS desires a modem type that you don't have. Best to check with NEC for help on this one to get the right settings.
ICS Web: SJP15 wants to switch OS's....
Question: I'm thinking of going from Win3.1 to WinNT, how should I prepare? Do I need to save all my data and just re-install my apps?
Andy HPC: First of all: BACKUP YOUR DATA!! If it's important, it's worth backing up. Second: the upgrade is simple. NT will let you overwrite Windows or it will let you install on the same partition and set up your boot partition so you can boot either operating system. If you go the dual-boot route, you'll lose all those great program groups you've set up, so if you have a lot of programs installed that you don't want to re-install for NT as well, go ahead and just overwrite Win 3.1 and head for NT full time. I haven't found too many programs that won't run on it... just a few of the DOS-centric games that try to talk directly to hardware. Good luck!
ICS Sharon: R845 looking for some antibiotics
Question: Are there any antivirus programs onAOL that I can download
Andy HPC: McAfee has VirusScan for Windows, NT, and Windows 95 for download. It's one of the most popular virus checkers out there (probably because you _can_ download it).
Steven HPC: AOL has made the AOL Gold virus area available for those of you looking for specific anti-virus programs, specific to problems encountered on AOL.. keyword VIRUS
Andy HPC: If you can't find it on AOL, look for it at http://www.mcafee.com/
ICS Web: DLatona has a big prob...
Question: I'm getting alot of errors loading various programs. Sometimes it says I have a corrupt system.ini file & that I will have to run setup again. Does anyone know why?
Andy HPC: Sounds like you need to run CHKDSK or SCANDISK immediately. If your system crashes (or loses power or you turn it off) while you're in Windows, you're guarenteed to create areas of corruption on your disk. Use CHKDSK /F or SCANDISK (both DOS utilities) to clean them up. Another area you might also have missed is your TEMP directory (see your DOS environment variable settings for where this is located; usually \WINDOWS\TEMP or \TEMP), which fills with files ending in .TMP or .~MP. These files are left-overs from previous crashes of Windows software. Delete them to free up more disk space for your real data. If that doesn't fix it, either hunt for a virus (see above :-) or go ahead and re-install Windows. Sometimes that's just the easiest way to solve the problem, although it's a lot of work.
ICS Sharon: GHendiljc needs a pick-up, Andy...
Question: Is there a way to test the speed of a modem while on-line. I have a 14.4 ext. and sometimes is seems to take forever for the computer to stop retreaving.
Steven HPC: Sometimes the connection speed will default down to a slower setting if the higher speed access are busy...
Andy HPC: Sounds like AOL is just really busy :-) Seriously....Most modems will automatically adjust their speed (if configured that way) to match the quality of the line. Once you connect, you really have no way of knowing (except by the lights on the front panel, if your modem has a front panel) what speed you are really getting.
ICS Web: Keahii needs access...
Question: i tried to install windows 95 on my other computer and it messed the whole system up and won't start up at all. how can i back out of the installation and just go back to windows 3.1. the files were saved on the hard drive which i can't access.
Andy HPC: Ooh boy. This one is going to be a painful experience for you. First of all, it sounds like you missed the first rule of OS upgrades: BACKUP! One thing you can try is to just go ahead and re-install Win 95. Sometimes that works. Another option is to take the disk and attach it to another system. Win 95 uses essentially the same disk format as DOS (FAT), although long file names are also available under Win 95. Anyway, you should be able to examine the disk from another DOS system without problem. Use SCANDISK to try and clean it; if that doesn't work, then head to Norton's Disk Doctor for more assistance. If it's just so screwed up that the utilities can't make heads or tails of it, then check out firms that do data recovery on bad disks for more help. It'll cost you $$$, but that may be cheaper than trying to re-create your data.
ICS Sharon: BBCA needs a handyman around...
Question: my hard drive is fragmented, can you reccomend a way to fix it?
Andy HPC: If you don't have a recent version of DOS or Win 95, then you don't have a de-fragmenter and will need to go purchase one or find one online in the AOL archives. If you do have DOS 6 or later, I believe it's called DEFRAG. If you have Win 95, you'll find a menu shortcut leading for running the disk defragmenter. Just got confirmation on the DEFRAG command by Web. Anyway, find one of those and run
it.
ICS Web: ARosenb needs to *see* VidRAM clearly...
Question: whats the diff. from 512 video Dram 1mag video dram, how does it make a diff. if I upgrade to 1 mag video dram.
Andy HPC: Video RAM is what you need to display all those pixels you see on the screen on your Windows display. Each pixel on most video boards requires a full byte of RAM to display one of 256 colors (2^8bits = 256 colors in arithmetic terms). With only ---- change that. You can do the math (I can't find my calculator just now) to figure out what resolution you want to run. With 1 MB of video RAM, you can see 1024 by 768 pixels that can each display 256 colors (or 8 bits of color). With half that, you either have to reduce your color choices down to 16 colors or reduce the number of pixels (to 640 x 480, for example). The difference between DRAM and VRAM is performance. DRAM is the same type of RAM you have on your computer's motherboard, and is quick, but not well-tuned to video uses (which need to sequentially access the entire block of memory on one pass). VRAM is video RAM, which _is_ tuned to the needs of a video card, so you'll get better performance from the upgrade you mention -- as well as better resolution.
ICS Sharon: GoatMilk has a problem here fellas,
Question: I was on AOL earlier today, and I was on the web going to a site, in the middle of the transfer AOL said I do not have enough disk space. I have over 500 mb's free on my new Presario. Please help!!
ICS Web: Goat.. that sounds like you might have a full browser cache... if you're on a PC.. you can simply
ICS Web: delete the contents of the c:\aol25\cache directory
ICS Web: if you're on a Mac.. just kill the cache folder...
Andy HPC: Presario is a PC. :-)
ICS Web: If all else fails.. head over to keyword TECH LIVE LOL! forgot that part!
ICS Web: MuzicMann needs some serious TEMP help..
Question: Regarding TMP files: I have them all over my HD! I can't get rid of them unless I exit to DOS and delete them. I have the SET TEMP = C:\TEMP and even SET WINTEMP = C:\TEMP, and I STILL have them. Please help!
Andy HPC: You'll get them while applications are running. Once those applications complete, fragmented means, they know to run defrag.
Andy HPC: they should be kind enough to clean them up for you. HOWEVER, if your Windows crash, then the applications won't clean up after themselves (or, if they're just plain misbehavin', they won't clean up afterward, either). In that case, you'll have to do the cleanup work yourself. Best done from DOS to get them all, but you can usually get rid of older TMP files from Windows if you shut down all extraneous apps (like MS Office :-).
ICS Sharon: Hunkydude would like to know...
Question: I have a 133 pentium with win95 and its running in MS-DOS compatibility mode. How do I correct this problem?
Andy HPC: Sounds like you're having problems getting 32-bit drivers for your hardware. Since it's a 133 MHZ system, perhaps you have specialized hardware (or Compaq hardware) for which drivers are not available? If so, contact the vendor of that hardware for updated drivers. That should clear up the problem for you.
ICS Web: UncMarts feels the need for speed...
Question: My Computer seems to have slowed down ever since I installed Win95. Lots of hard drive activity. My system is a 75 Pentium 8 Megs of Ram. By the way this is my home system. AT Work I have the same basic setup except with 16 Megs of RAM. Faster AT work??
Andy HPC: WINDOWS RULE OF THUMB: MORE MEMORY == FASTER RESPONSE TIME. In other words, the problem you are running into is that your home system needs more RAM. The office system will run better, since your applications won't need to swap out to disk (which is slower than just staying and running in RAM). With only 8 MB of RAM, you won't be able to run many apps without swapping. Better performance can be yours with as little as 4 MB more of RAM; going to 16 MB will be better, of course.
ICS Sharon: Fordsan has one for you!
Question: does anybody know about upgrading a gateway 2000 386dx/33 to a 486?
Andy HPC: A lot of options out there for this one....First, as Web whispered to me, replace the motherboard with one of the newer ones that will let you run a 486 or even a Pentium (depending on which board you pick). Second, get an upgrade chip that will replace your existing 386 chip. Cyrix, I believe, makes one and it's not too expensive. However, just speeding up the CPU will point out other bottlenecks in your system. Like an older, slower disk drive, slower RAM (most systems come with 70 ns or faster RAM now), and a slower video card. You might also get the additional speed you want by getting more RAM for your system. Take a serious look at just purchasing a whole new system before spending on just a CPU upgrade.
ICS Web: ShansSec is suspecting a problem...
Question: Today my computer came up with: EMM386 has detected error #06 in an application at memory address 00B8:OBBD. To minimize the chance of data loss, EMM386 has halted your computer. Hit Enter to restart...is there a major problem on my comp?
Andy HPC: Sounds like you are having a memory conflict between EMM386 and one of the boards in your computer. Some computer peripherals require small areas of upper memory for their own use. If EMM386 hasn't been told (with the X= option) to exclude those regions from its memory managing, you'll get a conflict like the one you saw. Just an uneducated guess, but I'd look for a board taking memory at B8000. It could be your video card as well, so check _all_ boards in your system for the problem and then exclude all those memory regions when EMM386 loads.
ICS Sharon: OCD wants to know...
Question: I'm having trouble with getting pages to come up on the internet, help!
Andy HPC: Sometimes Internet sites go down. Sometimes they just take forever to display their bitmaps. If you're working with the AOL browser, it could just mean that the NO GRAPHICS preference is set. Or, it could just mean that the Internet is crowded and slow.
Steven HPC: You should also check with your internet provider..If you are running a connection over AOL try accessing at slower times when the "Net" traffic is not so busy..They have "rush hours" accessing information just as commuters do.. ;-)
ICS Web: MarFeit needs a little Mac help..
Question: Help! I am having trouble after I download images on my computer(Mac). I get a box that says something about JPeg and not being able to read it "OX4y" or something. HELP
Steven HPC: This sounds like a corrupted file You should first check to verify that your program is working correctly and can read write to JPEG, GIF and PICT. Once you have verified that try downloading the graphic again.. More than likely teh file was corrupted when uploaded though..
ICS Sharon: Chewis wanting to know the difference...
Question: What's the difference in a IDE controller and a EIDE controller?
Andy HPC: An IDE controller is only able to handle disks up to 528 MB. An EIDE controller has the additional firmware to handle larger drives as well as other devices, like CD-ROMs. If you're purchasing a controller for your system stick with EIDE - IDE is history.
ICS Web: Andy and Steve from Home PC.. Thanks so much for being with us tonight! Thanks for some GREAT questions, everyone!
