http://www.bootdisk.com/ 270 June 2006

The BootLIST

Welcome to the 270th Edition of The BootLIST

INDEX
1) Hardware/Video Acceleration
2) Games Rebooting. Heat Related?
3) BootIT NG 1. 76c For Download
4) F8 Not Working On Some MS Keyboards
5) How To Move Taskbar Buttons
6) COM Port Resources For Old PCs
7) Really Early Rebooting Problem
8) Spending Too Much Time On The Internet?
9) Blank CDRW Discs Not Working
10) So You Want To Be A PC Geek?


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1) Hardware/Video Acceleration

LMO posted - My system keeps crashing. I'll be downloading something, or watching a video on WMP, or just reading mail, when everything freezes. Mouse wont move, can't even Ctrl-Alt-Del. I have to completely reboot. I have a year and a half old Compaq SR1550NX. I have over a GB of RAM, and a new ATI 9660 graphics card with 250MB of RAM. My Norton is up to date, and I can find no Spyware. Where should I start to look for the problem?


*** Try lowering hardware acceleration and/or video acceleration. Assuming of course that you dont have a heat/fan problem.


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2) Games Rebooting. Heat Related?

Ms. Melinda telephoned - My children use the only PC in my apartment for homework and games. But just recently the games are rebooting after only a few minutes of use. I haven't changed anything nor have my children downloaded or installed anything new. There is no problem if they just do their homework or search the Internet for information. I guarantee that there are no viruses or trojans or spyware on my computer. What should I check first?


*** Number 1. If you keep your PC on the floor it tends to act as a vacuum cleaner and sucks in all the dust from your apartment floor. Number 2. Feel the side of your computer case. If it feels warm or even very warm chances are that one or more fans are either not working and/or are clogged with dust and grime. Take the cover off and clean the fans with a bottle of "compressed air". Be sure to hit the cpu heatsink as well.


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3) BootIT NG 1. 76c For Download

BootIt NG:
Version 1.76c made available on Jun 7, 2006:
http://terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html


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4) F8 Not Working On Some MS Keyboards

joe asked - Just built my first pc. Put my Windows XP Home disc in my drive. Upon finishing gathering info, it gave me 3 options, one of which said, Press Enter To Install XP, which I did. It then proceeded to the "end user lic. agreement [several pages] I scrolled to the bottom reading very little as it is far too wordy. At the bottom of the page, three options were present:

1 - F8=I agree
2 - ESQ if you disagree.
3 - Exit the setup. Or something very close to that.

I pressed F8 and nothing happened, it just hangs, doing nothing. Rebooted many times and tried to no avail. If I press ESQ it will just reboots and the process starts all over again. I'm hoping someone can give me some advice. Would be very appreciative.


*** F8 doesn't work on some keyboards during the installation process. For example, I cant use my MS Natural keyboard to install XP as it ignores the F8 key when you need it. Often I have to temporarily use a standard PS/2 keyboard like a Keytronics or Mitsumi to complete the XP install.


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5) How To Move Taskbar Buttons

MOTKU requested - If say I've got half a dozen apps open showing on the Taskbar at the bottom of the screen in XP. Is there any way to drag and drop these apps around so that I change the order they're showing from left to right on the Taskbar? If it can't be done through XP, is there any freeware available that will do what I want?

SgtMinor replied:
Try the Taskbar Shuffle:
http://www.freewebs.com/nerdcave/taskbarshuffle.htm

Moskie added:
For those who, like me, are still using windows 2000, try this out:
http://users.forthnet.gr/pat/efotinis/programs/taskarrange.html

For Win98:
http://www.freewaretool.de/files/btnboog.zip


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6) COM Port Resources For Old PCs

COM1 3F8 IRQ4
COM2 2F8 IRQ3
COM3 3E8 IRQ4
COM4 2E8 IRQ3


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7) Really Early Rebooting Problem

Chewy wrote - When I try to boot into windows right after the windows xp logo loads, the screen flashes, and the computer reboots. It just does this over and over.

TaurArian suggested:
Windows XP Logon Screen Does not Appear and the Computer Continuously Restarts:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310396

Resources for Troubleshooting Startup Problems in Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308041


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8) Spending Too Much Time On The Internet?

How to tell if you are spending too much time on the Internet:
http://www.bootdisk.com/art/toomuch.gif


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9) Blank CDRW Discs Not Working

Baffled said - My cd drive will read a cd but when I try to copy to a blank cdrw disk the computer is telling me that there is no disk in the drive. When I reinsert a blank disk I still get the same message.

Unk replied:
Double-click "My Computer", right-click the CD writer, select "Properties", click the "Recording" tab, and make sure that the box, "Enable CD recording on this drive" is checked.

HOW TO: Copy Information to a CD in Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=306524

Description of CD-ROM Recording in Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=279157

Free cd burning software - CDBurnerXP Pro:
http://www.cdburnerxp.se/


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10) So You Want To Be A PC Geek?

Erica emailed - I'd like to figure out how to my other computer back up and running. It's odd; it boots up into Windows (it shows the Windows thing, then I get that darn blue screen saying something about "pages in a nonpaged area." The only reason I want to get in it is because of pictures and about 2 gigs of music.


*** Hi Erica. Every now and then I like to let my readers know a little bit about the real life of an on-site computer repair guy. For starters, it seems it's often commonly assumed that once a customer calls in a tech the tech is "supposed" to "instantly" recognize the particular error and have a magic fix right there in their bag of tricks. Sure, with experience, lots of times one has seen the exact same problem before and about half the time the tech can fix it using a procedure that has worked in the past.

The other half of the time the geek has to be a detective and figure out both the reason for the problem AND, the fix for the problem. When one sees a patient one may ask the customer for example:

1. What was the last thing you did before the problem started?
2. Is your hard drive filled?
3. Do you regularly update and run anti-virus, anti-spyware scans?
4. Did you just run a driver update or download a file from a warez site?
5. And other questions as needed as you learn about the system and the habits of the customer.

Another thing to consider is that when you go out to fix a pc its NEVER only one thing wrong with it. It's always a few things combined. And often, you may be getting an error message that has NOTHING to do with the recommended fixes for "that" specific error. As if a computer is compromised by lets say a virus/trojan/spyware it may NOT be able to even give you a CORRECT error message to work on.

So OK you're a computer geek/guru and have to learn about the above error, what do you do? Well yeah you can page [pun intended] your partner or do some research on your own. Or, my entire site has been setup to help you. For example, for Erica's problem I did a search of the resources below:

Using Google:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=page+fault+in+non+paged+area&btnG=Search

Using UpdateXP.Com
Stop 0x00000050 or PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
http://www.updatexp.com/stop-messages.html

Using Aumha.Org:
http://aumha.org/win5/kbestop.htm
Item 50

Using TheElderGeek.Com:
http://www.theeldergeek.com/stop_error_messages.htm

Using the help forums on my helpdesk page:
http://www.bootdisk.com/helpdesk.htm

As you can see tho it's not a 1-2-3 fix. Which makes it VERY hard to fix PCs via email. Or telephone support for that matter. In Erica's case it's a good argument that her important files "should" have been kept on a FAT32 partition to make them VERY easy to reclaim if XP is not working.


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