By admin on Feb 14, 2009 | In PC Crash, Windows XP | No Comments »
After you install Service Pack 3, sometimes Windows XP won’t load. All you can see is a blank screen.
Unfortunately, you have to uninstall SP3 to resolve this problem. To do this, you must restart the system and boot into Safe Mode (press and hold F8 after the restart until you see the new menu).
Once you are in Safe Mode, go into the Control Panel and click on Add/Remove Programs. Tick the Show updates option on top. Select Service Pack 3 from the list and click on Remove. That should take care of the problem. Next time you restart, Windows should load normally.
If the remove option doesn’t work, you’ll have to boot your PC with the Windows XP CD and go into the Recovery Console (press R at the Welcome screen). Select the required Windows Installation (usually just press 1) and type in the administrator password if there is one, otherwise press Enter. In the command prompt, type cd $ntservicepackuninstall$\spuninst and press Enter. Then, type in batch spuninst.txt and press Enter. A text file appears with a list of errors and files that are being copied. After the uninstall process, type Exit. Restart the computer and load Safe Mode again.
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By admin on Feb 11, 2009 | In Hardware | No Comments »
Have you ever had this problem: you turn on your computer, but the monitor shows nothing – the screen is blank? I have encountered this problem many times and I found that the cause wasn’t always the same.
There are a few things you can do to find out what is causing this, but I would suspect a faulty power supply first. It helps if you have some spare parts for testing, such as second power supply, another video card and perhaps a spare memory module (RAM). That should help you find the cause fairly quickly.
First of all, make sure the monitor works. Simply connect it to another computer and test it. Also, check if the power cord is connected properly to the monitor and the monitor cable to the PC.
Before you start testing the parts mentioned above, unplug the power cord. When you open the case, touch any piece of metal to discharge static electricity. You have to do this before you start touching any components in the PC. Then check all connections and see if everything sits tight: video card, motherboard, RAM…
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By admin on Feb 10, 2009 | In Software | No Comments »
I found an interesting article about free alternatives to Microsoft Office, written by a fellow blogger. The blog is called Windows Tips Tricks Tweaks and Hacks (not online any more) and the writer mentions 6 programs that can substitute MS Office.
They are:
I stumbled upon his blog when I was making my regular entrecard visits.
By admin on Feb 9, 2009 | In Windows XP | No Comments »
When you start up your PC, the antivirus definitions are out of date even though you updated them recently. When you try to update again, you are told there are no new updates or you should reinstall the program.
I have had this problem several times it was always caused by the wrong time and date. The system clock was misconfigured and displayed something like year 2011. This confused the antivirus program and it acted as if the definitions were few years old, even though I updated them the previous day.
To fix this problem, simply set the clock again. Double click on the time displayed in the lower right corner and you’ll see the Date and Time Properties. Set the correct date and the year, and then the time (read this off another clock) and click OK.
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By admin on Feb 8, 2009 | In Software, Windows 7, Windows 8 | No Comments »
If you are looking for a quick way to resize your large photos and keep the same quality, try my solution using Microsoft Office Picture Manager. This software usually comes bundled with Microsoft Office. I hope you have it, because it’s a good program for basic photo and picture modifications.
Once you download the picture from a Web site or from your digital camera, find it on your hard drive (open containing folder) and check the resolution. To do this, click once on the file and the dimensions will be shown in the sidebar on the left side (in Windows XP). For example, 400×600 or 600×800 pixels is considered medium size. 1000 pixels and more in height or width is considered large.
If you want to make the photo smaller, right click on the picture and select Open With, and then click on Microsoft Office Picture Manager in the side menu. If it’s not there, click on Choose Program and then Browse. Navigate to the folder C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office 11 and select OIS (this is a short name for the Picture Manager).
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