PC Memoirs

When you run the System Configuration Utility, you get an Access Denied error as soon as you make changes and click on Apply.

I had to repair a very troublesome PC that had this error. I wanted to make it load Windows XP faster, so I attempted to run msconfig in the hope of removing a few programs from the startup list. But as soon as I made my selection and clicked on Apply, this message came up: “An Access Denied error was returned while attempting to change a service. You may need to log on using an Administrator account to make the specified changes“. I restarted the PC and logged in as administrator, but I received the same error.

I researched this problem on the Internet and found out that it is probably caused by the HP printer driver HPZ12. Many people have tried the following solution and solved the problem, but I was not so lucky, and this PC was indeed a HP model. However, it didn’t have this particular driver.

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I already wrote a post about possible solutions for laptops shutting down unexpectedly, but this one is specifically for desktop computers.

If your PC turns off shortly after it boots up and it doesn’t let you do any work, you might want to try some of these possible solutions:

1. Boot into Safe Mode with Networking and scan your hard drive for viruses and spyware. It is quite possible that some spyware is responsible for this malfunction. If you don’t have a good scanning program, download Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware. Malwarebytes lets you do a quick scan.

2. Open up your case and see if the CPU fan is working and if the heatsink sits correctly. You might also want to check if there is enough thermal compound between the heatsink and the CPU (check your CPU manual to confirm that your model needs thermal compound). Thermal compund looks like cream and is used to cool down the CPU.

3. Maybe the power supply is faulty. Use a spare one to test this.

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Today I don’t have any new tips and tricks for my readers, but I do have an interesting Web site to recommend. Over at Freeware Mission I found a great post about 10 free programs that can speed up your computer. I hope you will visit Freeware Mission and check out the list.

Here are the programs the writer recommends:

• EasyCleaner
• CCleaner
• Wise Registry Cleaner
• Wise Disk Cleaner
• FreeRAM XP Pro
• RamBooster
• TuneXP
• Advanced Vista Optimizer
• Startup Optimizer
• Memtest86

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Let’s say you have downloaded Windows Vista OEM from the Internet and you want to install it on your PC. The problem is, you don’t have blank DVDs, or you don’t have access to your optical drive. However, you have a USB memory stick with enough capacity. You can copy the downloaded files to the memory stick, boot from the USB instead of CD/DVD and simply run the setup from there, right? Not quite. I tried to do this and quickly discovered that it’s not that easy.

First, you need to prepare your USB drive so it works like a bootable CD or DVD. To do this, you have to have a functioning Vista or 7 system, so you can run a few commands.

1. Plug in your USB stick (I suggest 4GB) and format it (right click/format) – this will erase everything from this drive.
2. Open the command prompt as administrator (click on Start, then All Programs, click on Accessories, then right click on Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator)
3. Type diskpart and press Enter
4. Type list disk and press Enter – this will show all available drives connected. Disk 0 will be the primary hard drive. Disk 1 should be the USB flash drive, unless you have other hard drives in your PC. The flash drive should have the highest number because you added it last. For this exercise, we’ll treat your USB drive as disk 1.
5. Type each of the following commands one by one and press Enter. Successful operation should be confirmed every time by the command prompt: Read the rest »

A friend of mine, let’s call him Mitch, had a problem with Microsoft Outlook. Whenever he tried to open it, this message came up: “Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot open the Microsoft Outlook window”. I was quite confident I could help. Foolishly, I attempted to repair the installation by running the setup from the CD. This didn’t make it worse, but it didn’t help either, as the problem was still there after the repair-installation. Before I did that, I also tried to open it while in Safe Mode and by selecting Run as Administrator – without success.

Then I remembered that I didn’t have to investigate as Google would probably find the solution for me :). I typed in the error message and found the solution in one of the first few links I clicked.

To fix the problem, all you have to do is click on Start, then on Run and type: outlook.exe /resetnavpane and that was it. After that I could open Outlook. In Windows Vista,  you just have to type the same command in the search field instead of selecting Run first. Thanks to the Microsoft Answers forum for the solution.

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