PC Memoirs

Today I don’t feel like writing about viruses, spyware or error messages. I thought I’d take a break and rather try to list top 10 movies about computers or hacking.

Note: I realize there are also foreign movies about hacking, but I listed only English speaking movies that I have seen.

Here are my choices:

1. Sneakers (1992) – Old but very entertaining movie with Robert Redford, Ben Kingsley and Dan Aykroyd.

2. Live Free or Die Hard (2007) – Great Die Hard movie with cyber terrorists and lots of action. Bruce Willis rules!

3. War Games (1983) – This movie is dated by today’s technology standards but it was one of the first movies to show what kind of damage hacking can cause. It almost started a nuclear war.

4. Untraceable (2008) – Features a sick criminal displaying a victim on an Internet Web site who is trapped and will die if the visitor count increases. Diane Lane stars as FBI computer expert trying to trace the criminal.

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Problem: When you watch a video clip, the picture is upside down.

Before you try any of my solutions, you should make sure that the problem doesn’t lie in the video itself. It is quite possible that it was flipped on its head before it was sent to your computer. To be sure, try any other video clip in the same media player. If every video is upside down, try some of the following solutions:

1. Have you recently installed any new codecs? If yes and you know which one, uninstall it and test the video again.

2. If you have the NIMO codec pack, uninstall it. It is known to cause this problem and I have seen it on my computer too.

3. If you have the ffdshow codec pack, uninstall it. If not, try to install it and maybe it will fix the problem.

4. If everything else fails, try to restore the system to a date when the video was working normally. Go to Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools and select System Restore. Then proceed with the restore process and select a date when you think everything worked fine.

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Is your computer unbelievably slow? Does it take several minutes to load Windows and start programs? Is it using up all the RAM (physical memory)?

If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, it’s time to do something about it.

There are many reasons why a computer slows down. Maybe it is simply old and the processor can’t do all the work any more, and/or there is not enough RAM to handle several applications at the same time. Or it is related to software problems, such as virus and spyware infections.

Fortunately, you can improve the speed of your computer with some simple tweaks and installations. Except for an old computer that cannot handle today’s application speeds, there are always solutions to slow processing times. Here are my 5 choices:

1. First, you should clean your History and delete Temporary Internet Files and Cookies from your browser. In Internet Explorer, you can find this in Tools, Internet Options and Browsing History. Then use a program such as CCleaner to remove all unnecessary files from your PC and clean your registry. Finally, defragment you hard drive (Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter).

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Let’s say you click on a zip file and a media player tries to open it. Or you select a video file, but you don’t want this file to be played in Windows Media Player. You want to choose your own player.

This problem can be solved by configuring the file extension associations. To select which program should open the file, right click on the file and choose Properties. In the General tab, under Opens with, click on Change and select the correct program from the list. If you want to open a zip file, choose Winzip or Winrar, or if it is a video or audio file, choose your preferred media player. For documents you will probably look for Adobe Reader, Microsoft Word or Works. If the required program is not in the list, click on Browse and look for the right program in C:\Program files. Then click on Apply and OK. Close all windows and that’s it. Next time you double click the same file, it will open with the program you just selected.

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Have you ever experienced this problem: When you plug in a new USB device such as mouse, external hard drive or digital camera, the new hardware is detected but automatic driver installation fails every time with a ‘data invalid’ error message? Don’t worry, there are several possible solutions that you can test.

Solution 1: Use the advanced installation option and manually select the Windows folder which holds the drivers. The location is C:\Windows\inf (keep in mind that this folder may be hidden. To unhide the folder, open Windows Explorer, click on Tools, Folder Options, View and select the ’show hidden files and folders‘ option). If you have the CD with the drivers, try to find and select the folder that contains the driver files.

Solution 2: Go to C:\Windows\Driver Cache\i386 and find SP2.cab. Right click on this file and select explore. Next, find usbstor.sys, right click on it and extract to desktop. Insert the USB device and try to install again (use automatic installation option).

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