FAULTY GRAPHICS DRIVERS
Q I recently bought a Palicomp PC running Windows 7 64bit and a 512MB ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics card. The screen frequently freezes and reports the error message: 'Display Driver 'AMD driver' stopped responding and has successfully recovered'. Disabling the ATI drivers fixes the problem, but also removes some functionality. Palicomp advised me to uninstall and reinstall the drivers, but this didn't solve the problem. A Google search for answers has revealed several other users of this graphics card with the same problem. Is there a definitive fix, please? Richard Thompson Palicomp has assured us that your specific problem is down to a faulty graphics card. It will be sending you a replacement card. However, since this appears to be a common issue, the following suggestions may be of use to other readers. This error message often pops up when graphics-card drivers haven't been completely uninstalled and Windows is still trying to use the old driver. First, download the latest driver for your graphics card from ati.com - but don't install it yet. Click Start, Control Panel, Program and Features, then remove the old driver and restart the machine. Next, type Device Manager in the Start menu Search bar to bring up the Device Manager. Expand the entry for 'Display adaptors' and double-click your graphics card to reveal its Properties. Click the Driver tab and jot down the version noted there. Click 'Uninstall' and select 'Delete the driver software for this device'. Click Ok and restart the computer. Allow Windows to install the generic ATI driver when it starts up, then head back to the Device Manager and compare the driver version numbers. If it's the same as before, you'll need to repeat this process. Install the new driver and restart the PC. If this doesn't fix your problem, check that any onboard graphics chips are disabled in the Bios. You should also update the Bios and motherboard drivers. MEMoRY UPGRADE ISSUE Q I want to increase the memory in my six-year-old XP PC from 1GB to 2GB to accommodate Windows 7, but keep getting Memtest errors with the pair of 512MB modules I'm using. I receive multiple error reports when I install them, plus stop errors or sudden shutdowns. The machine seems happy to run three RAM modules, but not four. Crucial advised me to increase the VDIMM from 2.5 to 2.7, which made no difference, and reduce the memory frequency from DDR400 to DDR333 (adjusted to 320MHz), which solves the problem. Why are these problems occurring and how can I run the memory at the correct frequency? Will I need to upgrade my motherboard and processor to install Windows 7? Charlie Horne If your PC has no problem recognising three RAM modules, swap them around to find out whether one of your four slots or Dimms isn't functioning correctly. (It's unlikely to be the original ones, since the PC was working previously.) If no problems are found, it may be that the new RAM modules are incompatible with the existing ones. Each module you use must have the same clock speed. Ensure you have the latest version of your Bios installed, too. Your motherboard can accept up to 4GB (4 x 1GB) of RAM. Consider upgrading your machine using four new 1GB modules rather than two 512MB sticks. This will be more expensive, but it will afford twice the amount of memory and ensure compatibility. Once you've successfully installed the extra RAM, you may want to consider a new motherboard - it's likely to offer better graphics and sound than you have currently. PRInTInG FRoM WInDoWS 7 Q I want to use my new Windows 7 Home Premium PC with my Canon i865 printer, but I can't find a driver for it. Harry Beard There is a driver available for your printer, Harry. Canon also has a Windows 7 product page for your printer ( tinyurl.com/2 grams j7rh). Choose Windows 7 as the operating system and English as the language. To check your printer is set up correctly, click Start, Devices and Printers. If your printer is listed, right-click it and select 'Set as default printer'. If it isn't listed, change the USB cable. As a 10-year-old printer, it's had a very good innings. We were pleasantly surprised to find Canon still provides updated drivers. However, it's unlikely that Canon will offer direct support for the i865. pASS IT ON: QUICkEN ON WINDOWS 7 In your January issue ( page 102) Edward Powell had a query about installing Quicken on a Windows 7 PC. I've had exactly the same problem, even using the final release CD that was sent out before Quicken was discontinued. The only solution that worked for me was to copy the entire Quicken folder from Program Files on an XP or Vista machine and use that. on the few occasions that I've needed to reset my Windows 7 PC to its factory settings, I've always backed up this folder first. I'd recommend that Edward does the same - provided that he has access to another computer and his licence allows it. (If he also has the final release disc then he should be okay.) Michael Powell VIDEo ConVERSIon Q I need some advice about video conversion. Using DivX Converter, a WDTV Live drive and a large hard drive, I've copied my entire DVD collection to disk. I've been reading about the H.264 format, however, which apparently retains the same quality at a lower bitrate. I'm interested in switching DivX Converter for Handbrake, which is free. Will it really give me the same quality with smaller file sizes, and is it only beneficial for HD video? Paul Gazzard Converting video from one format or another is often a minefield. Differences in file size can be down to a variety of factors, including the screen resolution and picture quality. If you convert a DVD to display in full-HD, a DivX conversion will have a larger file size than H.264. If you're converting DVDs to go on your WDTV box, you'll want the best image and sound quality. Try the following settings in Handbrake: Mpeg4 file format; AVC/H.264 video codec; AAC audio codec; x.264 encoder; average bitrate of 200K; two-pass encoding enabled. An audio bitrate of 192Kbps will result in the best sound. Finally, under Picture settings, choose 'Keep aspect ratio: On (unless needs correction)' and 'Crop: Automatic (unless needs correction)'. InSTALLATIon LooP Q Microsoft office Home & Student keeps trying to reinstall itself on my partner's Vista laptop. If she cancels the installation, nothing works correctly and she has to wait until it configures and installs itself again before being able to use it. How can we fix this? James Witt Back up anything of importance, pop in your Windows installation disc and reboot the laptop. The laptop will try to boot from disc, and an 'Install Windows' screen should appear. Click 'Install now'. Follow the installation wizard until you get to the 'Where do you want to install Windows?' screen. Click 'Drive options (advanced)', then choose Format and click Ok. This will wipe your hard drive and remove corrupt installation files. Following this process, you can install Vista as normal. If you're worried about having backed up everything of importance, you can choose to 'Repair Windows' from the 'Install Windows' screen rather than reinstall it. This will prompt Vista's diagnostics program to detect any problems you might be facing. If it finds none, restore your computer to an earlier time using System Restore (you can find a walkthrough for using System Restore on our DVD under Troubleshooter). WInDoWS WIPEoUT Q on booting up my desktop PC I was greeted with the error message: 'nTLDR missing - press Ctrl, Alt, Del'. I followed the instruction and the message was repeated, so I reinstalled Windows XP. When I switched it on, there were no programs or files. In fact, all the programs remained on my machine, but the hard drives were listed with new letters and were inaccessible. I use Acronis True Image 9.0 and an external hard drive for backup, but when I try to access the saved data Acronis reports: 'These are not Acronis files, or files are corrupted'. Help! Brian Hawley Reinstalling Windows wipes (formats) your hard drive, deleting all your files and programs and leaving you with a fresh copy of the operating system. This process has also rearranged your hard drives, labelling them in a logical order. Windows has kept all your files intact, but you'll need to change the security permissions to access them. Click Start, Control Panel, Folder Options, View, then clear the option to 'Use simple file sharing (recommended)'. Click Ok. Now locate your 'original' Documents and Settings folder. This should contain all your old files, such as photos and documents. Right-click it and select Properties, Security (click Ok if a warning appears). Click Advanced, then Owners. In the name list, select your current user account. Tick the box marked 'Replace owner on sub-container and objects' and click Ok. This will grant your user account the permissions it requires to access the contents within. Repeat these steps for any further folders you need to access. For your Acronis images, run a disk check on the external drive. Plug it into your PC, then right-click it in Windows Explorer and choose Properties, Tools, Error-checking, Check Now. Ensure both boxes are ticked and click Start. Allow Windows to fix any problems it finds. You should also apply any updates to Acronis - especially if the backups were created using a newer version of Acronis. Visit acronis.com/support for more updates. RECYCLE BIn IS RUBBISH Q I recently installed a program to mimic Vista's Start menu in XP. After uninstalling it, my Recycle Bin window no longer opens in full-screen mode. Do I need to tackle some Registry settings to get things back to how they were? dennis Wood There's no need to delve into the Registry, Dennis. Try using System Restore to roll back your computer to before you installed the program. Go to Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore and follow the wizard. For more information on System Restore, see the PDF on our DVD. If this doesn't fix the problem, open the Recycle Bin and maximise it manually. Close it by going to File, Close rather than clicking on the cross. Hold down Ctrl, Shift, Alt while you use the mouse to maximise the Recycle Bin window. Still holding down Ctrl, Shift, Alt, click the cross in the top right. Windows should now remember the size of the window you just closed. Another option is to download the free AutoSizer program ( southbaypc.com). This will let you define the window sizes for various applications. RoUTER WRAnGLES Q I've just installed a D-Link DIR-615 wireless router for my new HP computer and bought a USB Wi-Fi dongle (also D-Link) in order to add an older Sony laptop to the network. However, no software came with the dongle. What should I do next? geedad The router is a standalone device and shouldn't require any software to work with it. You can get the necessary drivers for your Sony laptop from the D-Link support site at dlink.co.uk. Download the drivers for your dongle on your HP PC and copy them to a USB drive to install them on your laptop. MoRE RoUTER WRAnGLES Q I've replaced my wireless router with a D-Link DSL-2740R. I followed the quick-setup instructions on the supplied CD and managed to get online using our cable-broadband service. I now want to add my netbook and BlackBerry to the wireless network. I couldn't get the BlackBerry to connect to the network using WPA2, so I instead used 128bit WEP. The netbook will go online, but the network symbol in the Taskbar reports that it can't validate the wireless network. The laptop threw up the same error message, but wouldn't go online at all. Andy625 It's often tricky to introduce a new wireless router to a network. Have you given the new router the same service set ID (SSID) as your old access point? And are you using - or trying to use - the same wireless security as your old router? If you've already checked these settings, you'll need to delete the wireless connection and let Windows set it up again. You should then do the same for the BlackBerry. You should definitely be using the WPA2 security settings rather than the far less secure WEP - and different passwords, too. CALLS MAY BE RECoRDED... Q I'm looking for a reasonably cheap way to record conversations over a digital enhanced cordless telecommunications (Dect) phone. I tried Googling for answers, but the numerous suggestions have left me bewildered. I need to be able to hook it up to the PC to transcribe conversations. gengiscant Dect phones have encrypted signals (albeit a weak 35bit and 64bit method), so any kind of device that 'sniffs out' the signal is out of the question. Most commercial phone-recording products are based around connecting to desktop phones using a microphone attached to the phone speaker or a USB device that's inserted 'in-line' between the phone and handset. Some Dect handsets have a built-in call-recording option, but getting these calls off the phone and on to your PC would be nigh-on impossible, I suspect. The quickest and easiest method is to buy a telephone-recording device - such as this ukp12 device from Maplin: tinyurl.com/63saL4 - and slave it to your PC's line-in socket. MARATHon RECoRDInG SESSIon Q My trusty olympus digital recorder was stolen, and I need to record about 10 hours of speech for burning on to CD. Before I go and get a replacement digital recorder, can you advise me of alternative recording options I could consider? I have Wavepad and Audacity software. Will these do the job? I'm likely to want to add background music to my recordings. Johnincrete Microphones cost anything from ukp5 to ukp250. You can then use the microphone/line-in port on your PC and use the computer hard drive to store the audio file. Your best bet may be a USB mic designed for podcasting. Hardware retailers and high-street electronics stores all sell such devices. Audacity is probably the best free recording package you can get and will allow you to lay many other tracks over the top of your voice should you need to in the future. For a tutorial on using Audacity, see tinyurl.com/3ybxr2f. HARD-DISk REPLACEMEnT Q I've had to replace the hard drive on an Acer laptop. I installed Vista and norton 360 using their product discs, then updated both. The LG DVD drive now displays a yellow triangle beside it in Device Manager, yet Windows reports that it's already using the best driver for it. LG told me the drive works with Windows drivers. Peter Glaston I know you've already had some suggestions in our Helproom forum ( pcadvisor.co.uk/ helproom), including uninstalling the driver. First, try uninstalling the drive. Click Start, type device manager and click the Device Manager shortcut returned in the results. Expand the 'DVD/CD-ROM drives' entry and right-click your drive. Choose Uninstall, then press Ok when prompted. Reboot the PC and Vista should reinstall the device correctly. If this doesn't resolve the problem, try updating the Bios. Head to Acer's support site at acer.co.uk to download the latest version. You should then repeat the steps above to uninstall and reinstall the drive. If you still can't access the drive, reinstall Vista using the installation disc. This time, you should be sure to apply all its updates before you begin installing Norton 360 or any other software. Games people play Q I recently got a new laptop and still have my old desktop pC. What would I need to do to turn it into a gaming computer? Will Cameron Rosemary Hattersley, associate editor, replies: Unlike a laptop, which is limited in its upgrade scope, desktop PCs can be more easily brought up to date for entertainment duties. More RAM, a better graphics card and a widescreen flat-panel display with a response time of 5 milliseconds or less are the main criteria here. If you wish to play the very latest games, you have two choices: one is to install a single high-end graphics card; the second is to get a less powerful - and equally less expensive - card that supports ATI CrossFireX or nVidia scalable link interface (SLI) and can be installed alongside a second compatible card (see "Top 5 Sub-ukp150 Graphics Cards" for buying advice). If you plump for the latter, you'll need to check your motherboard has an additional PCI Express slot and supports the technology. The manufacturer's site should tell you what cards your PC supports. For flight-simulators and other games titles that offer immersive, 360-degree environments, an extended desktop with a second screen sitting beside the main display can be a real boon. Graphics cards that support ATI's EyeFinity and adaptors such as Matrox's TripleHead2Go will even let you add a third screen. If it's a really old PC running Windows XP or Me that you want to use for gaming, your options are limited. A DVD drive, as much RAM as the PC can take and a screen that offers faster response rates will be useful for less demanding games. For both elderly PCs and laptops, however, emulators and online games are likely to be more satisfactory. You don't need much firepower to play Angry Birds or Peggle, but you may prefer to rediscover the joys of older platforms such as the Sega Mega Drive, Nintendo 64, ZX Spectrum and even arcade games using the Mame program. See How to play classic games on your PC (tinyurl.com/666 grams s2k). Data on tHe move Q I want to transfer data from a pair of external hard drives to a new 1.5-terabyte (tB) drive. How do I copy across the contents? I have an asus Z9200U laptop running Windows Xp. Cameron Carter As your laptop has several USB ports, you can simply plug in all three drives, open them in Windows Explorer and drag-and-drop the files from old to new. Once you're done, the old external drives can be kept as backups or wiped clean. Note that the process may take some time over a USB 2.0 connection. To maximise the transfer rate, do not attempt to copy data from both drives at once. sloW staRtUps Q When I turn on my pC it runs through the startup sequence until it reaches the Windows login screen. I enter my details and it then takes around half an hour for the desktop to load. the system is reasonably powerful, with an amD phenom II x4 965 processor and atI Radeon HD 5850 graphics. Mark Gillam There are several possible causes for this problem, Mark. However, the key thing to determine is whether the PC runs correctly and at the speed it once did following completion of the lengthy startup process. Windows may be trying to log into a network or network resource that is no longer there. Alternatively, you may have a corrupt user profile, or there may be disk errors on your hard drive. Run a disk check to establish the culprit. Go to Start, Computer and right-click your primary drive (usually C). Select Properties, Tools, Error-checking, Check now. Ensure the 'Automatically fix file system errors' box is ticked. Click Start and press Ok when prompted. You'll need to reboot the machine to run the automated disk check. It will fix any problems it finds. If you once had the PC set up to log into a network such as a Windows domain, or you mapped a drive to an external storage device that is no longer present, this will also cause problems when logging in. If your computer still suffers slow logins, your user profile may need replacing. Go to Start, right-click Computer and select Manage. Expand 'Local users and groups'. Right-click Users and select 'New user'. Fill in the details in the dialog box and give the account a strong but memorable password, then clear the 'User must change password at next logon' option. Click Create. The new user account will now be listed in Computer Management. Double-click it and select the 'Member of' tab. Click 'Add' and, in the 'Enter the object names to select' field, type 'Administrators' and click Ok. While it's bad practice to create new user accounts with administrator privileges, it's often necessary to do so to ensure access to certain applications and the old user account. Reboot your computer and log in using the new user account. It may take a minute or so to set up the correct folders and profile. Once logged in, you'll need to copy your documents and media folders from the old account to their respective folders in the new account. Head to C:\Users to access these files. Note that you'll need to be logged in as an administrator and enable hidden files and folders in the Folder Options Control Panel applet if you wish to access your email and browser shortcuts. sCReen maGIC Q I have a redundant 19 inches flat-panel display that I can't bear to throw away. Is there a simple way to turn it into a picture display? Ian Rutter If you hunt around online or at hardware stores such as Maplin you'll find small media players that are in essence SD Card readers that connect to a TV. This is the easiest option if you simply want to have a set of images from a single folder display on a connected screen. A fancier option, assuming you want to have the screen in the same room as your PC or laptop, is to connect it as a secondary monitor and 'extend' the desktop on to it such that only a photo slideshow plays on it. See our workshop at tinyurl.com/67esheu. A more complex option is to buy an old netbook with an SD Card slot, remove the screen and connect it to the back of the display. You could then use Google Picasa (picasa.google.com) to display the pictures. For advice, see tinyurl.com/d5qw3q. Alternatively, you can use the spare monitor as a second display for your computer. If desk space is an issue, special desktop monitor arms that let you mount it on to the back of your desk are available for around ukp20. offICe InstallatIon Q PC Advisor recently published a workaround to a problem where microsoft office tries to reinstall itself when you click on an open document (march issue). Can you tell me some more about this, please - I have a similar issue but none of your suggestions seems to apply to my machine. Mat Gazeley This issue has many possible causes and there are several suggested fixes, Mat. The problem you're experiencing could be down to a bad or partial Office installation, a corrupt user profile or incorrectly applied patches, for example. The first thing to try is System Restore. Using this utility, you can roll back the PC to a time when it was functioning properly. Other things you can try include uninstalling Office and ensuring all Windows patches are applied before you reinstall it. You should also download and apply any Office patches before you launch the productivity suite. Re-register Office with the system. Click Start, Run and type msiexec /unregister. Press Enter and click Ok. Next, click Start, Run and enter msiexec /regserver. A final resort is to reinstall Windows. Be sure to back up important files first. WInDoWs maIl malaDy Q A message appears on startup and on closing down Windows mail that reports: 'Windows mail can compress the message store. this may take up to a few minutes'. It's becoming annoying. Could you help me get rid of it please? Peter scadding The best way to get rid of this message is to let Windows do what it's after: compress the message store. This process has no adverse effect and will simply reduce the amount of space available on your hard drive for storing email messages. To prevent the compression, however, first check that you are using the latest version of Live Mail. You can update your copy at tinyurl.com/39mcgac. Open the blue 'Windows Live Mail' tab, then click Options, Mail, Advanced, Maintenance. Deselect the option to 'Compact the database on shutdown'. Xp aDD-on anXIety Q My Windows Xp pC is experiencing problems with Internet explorer 8.0 add-ons. microsoft's mats Run program shows that the browser is running 36 add-ons. I don't recognise most of these items and would like to remove them, but they aren't listed in manage add-ons. Can you help? Mervyn Fletcher The Mats Run program is a Microsoft automated troubleshooting tool. It shows what it thinks are add-ons to Internet Explorer, but some are idle components of other installed software. Examples include BitDefender and PDF Creator. Many add-ons in the list you attached to your query are browser toolbars, not add-ons. These can be easily disabled: right-click Internet Explorer's toolbar and deselect any you don't use. In some cases, you'll need to look in Manage add-ons or Add/Remove Programs to disable them. Finally, run a full antivirus and spyware scan to ensure that none of the entries detected by Microsoft is malicious. oUt of Room Q My Windows 7 Home premium laptop runs a 2.2GHz Intel Celeron processor and 2GB of Ram. It works well in general, but Windows has recently started reporting that the hard drive has no free space when I try to install programs. Tony Paine As Windows isn't reporting free space correctly, it's likely that your hard drive has corrupted. You should run a thorough disk check to ensure the integrity of information on the disk and its physical health. Go to Start, Computer, right-click your hard drive and select Properties. Click Tools, Error-checking, Check now. Select both options in the 'Check local disk' dialog that pops up, then click Start, 'Schedule disk check'. Close all open programs, then select the option to have Windows perform its check upon the next reboot. Restart the PC. The check will take some time, so be patient. Following completion of the disk check the computer will load Windows. You should now be able to install software correctly. However, if it reports that you have 'bad clusters/sectors' on your hard drive then it may be about to fail - you should replace it as soon as possible and be sure to back up your important files and folders in the meantime. If no bad sectors are found, it may be time to reinstall Windows. left speeCHless Q speech recognition will no longer load on my Windows 7 pC. Unless I first switch off User account Control, I get the error message: 'C:\Windows\ speech\Common\sapisvr.exe. a referral was returned from the server'. according to my online research this is a common problem, but I can't find a solution. system Restore and a full restore from my backup temporarily fix the problem until the next reboot. any ideas please? Harry Leeming As you say, this problem is widely reported, but solutions are few and far between, even on Microsoft's own support forums (see tinyurl.com/45oruwe). However, a fix for a Vista PC is likely to fix a Windows 7 PC, since the two platforms are so similar. Check that your sound card and microphone drivers are correct and up to date. You can then create a batch file that contains a series of commands - you simply double-click it and the computer will proceed through each task. Head to Start, Control Panel, Folder Options, View and disable the setting 'Hide extensions for known files types'. Right-click the desktop and select New, Text Document. Name it 'speech.txt' and double-click to open it. Type in the following commands, with each on a new line: c: cd\ cd windows cd speech cd common sapisvr -speechUX Save the file as 'speech.txt', then close Notepad. Right-click the file and select Rename, then change the .txt extension to .cmd. Press Enter to confirm the change. To use the file, right-click it and select 'Run as administrator'. You may find it helpful to drag the file to your Windows Taskbar for easy access. An alternative solution is to run the Windows System File Checker. Click Start and type CmD in the search box. Press Enter. In the black command box that pops up, type sfc /checknow and press return. Windows will then check all its system files and repair any corrupt versions it finds. If the problem keeps occurring, you may need to reinstall Windows. WHICH os WIll I Be toDay? Q I upgraded to Windows 7 on a new hard drive with three partitions. It unexpectedly installed itself on a reserved portion, but worked perfectly. However, on startup I am now offered a choice of loading linux or Windows. How do I set up the pC so that I don't have to go through this extra step every time? Neil Pamplin I suspect that the drive once booted into Linux - you didn't say whether the hard drive was brand-new or taken from a different PC. When this hard drive was partitioned, the boot partition remained and a Linux boot-loader is still present there. (If, however, you used Paragon Partition Manager to set up the drive partitions, you can skip the following three paragraphs.) The easiest solution is to boot from the Windows 7 installation disc. Once you get to the 'Where do you want to install Windows' screen, click the 'Advanced' option, highlight each partition in turn and click 'Delete'. Ensure you've backed up any important files and folders first as this will wipe your drive. The dialog box will now show a single hard drive, referred to as 'Disk 0 Unallocated Space'. Click 'New'. You can create your initial drive by allocating the space specified in the size box. Note that Windows 7 requires 10.5GB for installation, but we recommend using 40GB as a minimum. Windows will create the 'reserved drive' automatically, which is used to store recovery tools and important files that you'll need in the event of an emergency. Recreate your drives as required. Highlight the first partition you created, click Next and Windows will install to the first partition. You can format the other partitions once Windows has installed using the Disk Management applet. You didn't say so, but there's a chance that this problem was caused by Paragon Partition Manager. The fix listed above will work, but you'll find in-depth discussion about the cause and suggested fixes at tinyurl.com/6jl54kt. If you don't want to mess around with deleting partitions and you consider yourself technically minded, you can simply delete the old Linux boot-loader and have Windows boot correctly by following the instructions given at tinyurl.com/62w6fd. mIsBeHavInG moUse Q My wife dislikes laptop touchpads and used to have a UsB mouse that plugged into her Dell Inspiron 1520 laptop. she has now upgraded to a wireless mouse, but we can't get it to work. We've tried three different wireless mice, all with the same lack of results. all three mice work fine on another vista laptop and a Windows Xp desktop. Windows troubleshooting reports: 'this device is working properly'. Can you help? Chris Payne The USB ports on your Dell laptop are either faulty or underpowered, Chris. This prevents the wireless dongle from receiving enough current to operate correctly. Try connecting another USB device that has its own power source, such as a printer or digital camera, to confirm that the USB ports are at least working. If they are, you'll need to plug the wireless dongle into a powered USB hub connected to the laptop to get the mouse to function correctly. The down side here is that the laptop becomes less portable. Also check that the wireless dongle is being detected by Windows when you plug it in. Click Start and type device manager into the Search box, then select Device Manager from the list. Expand 'Mice and other pointing devices' in the Window that pops up and check that your dongle is listed. If it's listed but still not working, try pressing the 'Connect' buttons on the mouse and dongle. If it still doesn't work, go back to Device Manager, expand the USB controllers entry and look for any listing of 'generic USB hubs'. Double-click these, then select the Power Management tab in the dialog box that appears. Deselect the box next to 'Allow the computer to turn off the device to save power', click Ok and reboot the laptop with the dongle still attached. If you are still experiencing problems with your mouse, wireless interference could be to blame. If you have a number of wireless devices in the home, such as a wireless router, smartphones and other laptops, there could be a large amount of traffic swamping the signal between the mouse and the laptop. Try turning off the laptop's wireless radio to see if this makes a difference. You could also try changing the channel your wireless router works on (consult the router's documentation to find out how to do this). Finally, ensure that your laptop has the latest Bios and motherboard firmware installed. You'll find these updates at Dell's support site. pASS IT ON: BACkUp BOThER PC Advisor reader Robin Griffiths offers the following suggestions in response to Helproom queries in our march issue. "In Windows wipeout, Brian Hawley was getting error messages in acronis 9.0 stating that his files were corrupt. I ran into the same problem in acronis true Image Home 2010. my files backed up fine, but when I came to restore I kept getting these error messages. However, a trial offer of the latest version showed that the problem seems to be with the program rather than the disk. version 2011 (with the latest updates) can read and restore from the image files that version 2010 claimed were corrupt," he writes. Robin also has some advice on getting older printers to work with Windows 7. Rather than switching to Xp mode, he suggests not installing the printer's own setup program but to go to Devices and printers and add the printer from there. this forces Windows to look for the printer's .inf file on the printer CD. Robin says this approach worked for his Konica minolta magicolor printer, installing all the required Windows 7 files and the printer details. thanks Robin! Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
