Saturday, January 12, 2013

How To Format Your Hard Drive

How To Format Your Hard Drive:

Step 1 - Back up your data

You must backup all of the files you created or any other data you can’t afford to lose no matter where they are stored on the hard drive. When you format the hard drive, it will erase EVERYTHING on the hard drive. So backup up everything you don’t want to lose to DVDs or a second hard drive. Personally, I use a second hard drive and backup everything. That way I don’t lose anything. If I have enough room I will save the files uncompressed. If not, I save each top level folder as a zip file.

Step 2 - Print out your hardware configuration

It’s always useful to know exactly what hardware devices you have installed on your computer. You may need this information to find drivers for the hardware especially if you can’t find the original installation CDs.
The easiest way to print out you hardware configuration is to:
  • Open the Control Panel
  • Select the System icon
  • Chose the Hardware tab
  • Click on Device Manager
  • Select Action -> Print from the top menu

Step 3 - Shut down and Reboot from the windows installation CD

You must do the formatting from the CD. If you are not sure how to boot from your CD, check you computer’s user manual. If you can’t find it and it doesn’t tell you on the black boot up screen, go to the motherboard (or computer if it a name brand) manufacturer’s website and download a pdf version of your user manual. You cannot boot from your C drive because we are going to delete that partition.

Step 4 - Start the windows installation

I am using windows XP screen captures for this article. The screens may be slightly different with windows 2000 or vista. When the screen below appears, press Enter.
  • Follow the onscreen directions. At some point you will get to the screen shown below
  • Press Enter. The screen shown below will appear.

  • Using the down arrow key, highlight the Format the partition using the NTFS file system option
  • Press Enter to continue
The install program will now format your hard drive. When that is finished follow the on screen prompts to install a fresh new copy of windows.

Step 5 - Install hardware drivers

You now need to install all of the drivers for your hardware. The most important one will be the driver for your network card so you will be access the internet. As long as that one is working you will be able to download all of the others if you can’t find them. You can use the hardware print out to make sure you don’t forget to install any drivers. When you finish installing all of your hardware drivers, test you hardware to make sure that it is working. Test the printer, scanner, speakers, sound, camera, microphone, etc to make sure that everything is working properly. Go online and download any missing drivers and install them. When everything is working, go to the nest step.

Step 6 - Update windows

Either click on the update windows icon or go to Microsoft’s website, and select your version of windows and select update. Your system files will be updated with the latest patches.

Step 7 - Install all of your applications

After you windows operating system is updated to the latest service pack, it’s time to install all of your applications using the original installation CDs. This can take anywhere from several hours to several days depending on how many applications you have to install. After you install the applications make sure they are working properly. They should be.
The reason I told you to wait until after you did the windows update to install your applications was just in case a newer version of a dll one of your applications needs was installed during the update process. By waiting you will install the one your application needs to work properly.

Step 8 - Restore your files

If everything else is working properly, you can now copy all of the files you created back to your hard drive. You have a fresh install of both your windows operating system and all of your applications. Do not copy any system or application files…only the files that you created or downloaded.
Congratulations, you have successfully formatted your hard drive and reinstalled windows and all of your applications. Now take yourself out for a treat.

Related Post

Posted by at No comments:

What is a Windows DLL File

What is a Windows DLL File:
A windows .dll file is a dynamic link library which is a method that windows uses to house commonly used features to make application development easier and to maintain the modularity of modern programming. The windows operating system contains over 10 million lines of programming code. With out modular programming, a small change in one part of the code could cause the entire system to stop working. The idea behind the dlls is to let an application call common features such as printing, opening a hyperlink, opening and closing a file, etc. Many hardware drivers are now written as dll files to take advantage of the windows API and minimize the possibility of interoperability problems. So basically a .dll file is an executable program that cannot run as a stand alone program. It must be called by another application to run.Missing windows .dll is a common error message that users receive when they try to run an application. You get this message for any one of several reasons. The most common causes of this error are:
  • You removed a program that uninstalled the windows .dll file that the program you are trying to opens needs to run.
  • You installed a new application and it over wrote the version the application needs and the new version of the .dll file doesn’t contain the required information.
  • Some software event that occurred on your computer corrupted the .dll your application needs
  • A hardware problem on your hard drive caused the file to become corrupted.
In all of these cases the solution is to find and install an uncorrupted version, or in some cases, the correct version of the needed file. There are several websites that offer windows .dll files for download. Some web sites provide free downloads and others charge a per download fee. Another source of an uncorrupted windows .dll is the broken applications original install disk or the windows installation disk. Either one of them may have the correct version of the missing or corrupted file.
Restore Points
Both windows XP and Vista users can try to restore their computer to an earlier configuration using the windows system restore feature. This feature allows you to undo any recent changes by reverting to the last configuration saved by the system.
Use the SPC Command
You can also use the SPC command to have windows scan and repair files on your hard drive. Perform the following steps to use the SPC command:
  • Select Start
  • Choose Run
  • Type spc /scannow into the dialog box and then press Enter.
Windows will scan the system and will verify the files and report the results.

Reinstall the broken application
You can always reinstall the broken application. Make sure that any files you have created that are stored in the program’s directory on the C drive are backed up because in most cases they will be deleted by the reinstallation. Since you are reinstalling your application, this would be a good time to visit the publisher’s website to see if there are free updates or patches available for the application and install them as well
In fact, if there are patches or updates, installing just them might fix your problem. If not, do the complete reinstall. If the problem was caused by another program overwriting the needed .dll file, that program may stop working after the reinstall.
Malware Infection
Another possible cause of windows .dll problems is your computer being infected with a virus, spyware or some other form of malware. Therefore, you need to run you anti-virus program to check for virus infections. Then run you spyware program. In both cases let the applications clean up the suspected files. Just to be on the safe side, when you have completed these scans use a good registry cleaner to remove any problems in the windows registry.
After completing these repair functions, then try reinstalling the broken application to see if that fixes the problem.
Summary
If none of the suggestions offered above solve your problem and it is a single application, contact the software’s publisher and ask their technical support how to fix the problem. As an alternative, you can check the online user forums for your application and see if anyone else has had this problem and how they fixed it. There usually is someone out there who can tell you how to fix almost any problem you might encounter.

Random Posts

Posted by at No comments:

Fix Sound Errors in Windows XP

Fix Sound Errors in Windows XP:
With sound and video bring ubiquitous on the internet, in voice and video email, in computer games and even many of the latest applications, working sound has almost become a necessity to use your computer. Sound causes more problems than any other single thing on every personal computer operating system.

Symptoms

A computer with sound problems will display one or several of the following symptoms:
  • There is no sound at all
  • The sound keeps fading in and out
  • The sound seems to skip or jump on everything you try to play
  • The sound is distorted or scratchy on everything you try to play
  • The computer freezes or reboots if you try to play sound
  • You receive one of the following error messages:
    • MIDI output error detected
    • No wave device that can play files in the current format is installed
    • The CD Audio device is in use by another application
    • WAV sound playback error detected
    • Your audio hardware cannot play files like the current file

Solutions for Sound Problems in XP

There are several common methods to troubleshoot and repair you windows XP sound problems:
  • Use the Windows Troubleshooter
  • Update sound card drivers
  • Update your media Player
  • Install a new sound card

Use the Windows Troubleshooter

Windows XP has a built in troubleshooter. To use this feature perform the following steps:
  • Click Start and then select Help and Support
  • Under Pick a Help Topic, select Fixing a problem in the window shown below
  • In the navigation pane, on the left, click Games, sound, and video problems as shown in the picture below.
  • In the topic pane, on the right, click Sound Troubleshooter

  • The window shown below will open. Select the option that describes the problem that is occurring, and then click Next.
  • Repeat the steps for each condition until your problem is resolved or until you have reached the end of the troubleshooting path.

You can click Back at any time to repeat the last step, or you can click Start Over to start the Sound Troubleshooter again. If your sound is still not working, try the next method.

Update the Sound Card Drivers

The easiest way to check your drivers is to use the DirectX diagnostic tool. To run the tool do the following:
  • Click Start -> Run, type dxdiag in the Open box, and then click OK. The screen below will open.
  • Click on the Sound tab. The window shown below will open.

  • Click on Test DirectSound. Repeat the test on the Music tab as shown below for item listed in the Test Using this Port box.

Alternately you can go to:
  • Start -> Run -> Control Panel
  • Click on the System icon
  • Select Hardware
  • Click on the Device Manager Button
  • Open the Sound, Video and Game Controllers as show below
  • Right click on each device and select Update Driver as shown below
  • The driver wizard will open as shown below
  • Follow the directions to update the drivers.
  • Repeat the process for each device
If you are still having problems then try the next method.

Update Your Media Player

If you are using Window Media Player, go to the Microsoft website and download the latest version. For other media players such as Real Player, iTunes, Quick Time and VLC media Player, go to the publisher’s website and download and install the latest version.
If that doesn’t fix the problem then try the next method.

Install New Hardware

If you got this far, you most likely have a hardware problem. Either you sound cable, your speakers or your sound card is bad. We tried all of the repairs that were free in the preceding methods. Perform the following steps to test your sound.
Borrow a known good sound cable and replace the one on your system. If the sound works, buy a new cable.
If not, leave the good cable installed and borrow known good speakers and replace your speakers. If the sound works, buy new speakers.
Next, either borrow a known good sound card and replace your sound card. If it is a different card than the one you have, make sure you install the correct drivers for the sound card before testing the sound. If the sound works, replace your sound card.
If the sound still doesn’t work, either buy a new computer (you probably need a new motherboard) or take your computer to a repair shop and let see if they can fix the problem since they have equipment that can test all of the hardware components.

Random Posts

Posted by at No comments:

Fix .EXE File Association Errors

Fix .EXE File Association Errors:
The operating system has to know where a file is located and what to do with it before it can open the file. File extensions are a method of telling the operating system what kind of file it is and by using associations what application should be used to open the file. The operating system uses the file extension…the three letters after the period such as word.exe to determine the association.The .exe extension states that a file is an executable application. A .doc extension identifies the file as a word processing document that can be opened with MS Word, Wordperfect, Wordpad and several other word processing applications.
File associations are stored in the windows registry in the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT hive. The picture below shows the .exe entry in my windows registry.
The registry key also contains the following information:
  • preferred program that can open the file
  • the full path to the location of the preferred program
  • Actions that can be performed on the file
  • A default action (what happens if you double click on it)
  • Other programs that can open the file
  • Other actions that can be performed
For example, the registry entry for the .mp3 file extension on my machine is shown below. On my machine both Quick Time and Real Player are associated with and therefore can play the file. Notice that Quick Time is the default.
Since an executable file is an application that runs on your computer. Every program you open in windows has an executable file associated with it. .exe executable files are opened by the windows application launcher. If the file association listed in the registry for .exe files is incorrect, applications using that file extension will not be able to run.
EXE File Association Error in Windows Vista
How does the registry entry get changed? It can happen when someone inadvertently assigns the .exe extension to an incorrect program. If they have not established a system restore point before making the change, the registry gets changed and executables using the .exe extension stop working. Usually the first symptom is that shortcuts suddenly have the .lnk extension which means they are no longer pointing to a valid operation.

Solutions

First off, if you are not comfortable changing your windows registry files, you should try a free registry cleaner scan first and check for any potential errors that might be able to be fixed automatically.
Since programs like anti virus, spyware detectors and firewalls monitor the registry in real time, you must turn them off before you edit the registry to avoid unexpected unpleasant consequences. At worst they can either trash your system or prevent you from making the necessary corrections by not letting you save your changes.
Creating a New File Extension
Since almost all of the tools available in windows use the .exe extension very little will work. If you can get windows explorer, My Documents or My Computer to open, perform the following steps:
  • Open the File Types dialog box from Windows Explorer, My Documents or My Computer by selecting Tools -> Folder Options -> File Types as shown below.
  • Click on the New button and the Create New Extension window will open up
  • Next, click on the Advanced button. Your window should look like the one below.
  • Type in EXE for the extension and select Application from the drop down list if it doesn’t appear automatically.
  • Click OK and reboot the machine.
If this procedure does not work or none of the applications would run, you will have to edit the registry.
Editing the Registry
Warning—Back up all of the files you created before you attempt to edit the registry. Also create a restore point so that you will be able to restore the system if you accidentally trash the operating system to the point that it will not boot up.
The EXE association problem can occur in all versions of windows and is normally fixed by editing the registry. We will only discuss how to fix the problem in windows vista. You must delete a registry key to correct this problem. Perform the following steps:
  • Open up the registry editor by going to Start -> Run
  • Type regedit in the dialog box.
  • Select Edit -> Find as shown below.
  • The dialog box shown below will open. If the file association problem exists the registry key listed below will exist. Type exe in the search field as shown below or you can manually navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe Manual navigation is usually faster.
  • By existing, this registry key’s configuration is overwriting the default file association for .exe files. Therefore, to fix the problem you must delete the registry key by right clicking and selecting Delete from the drop down context menu.
  • Reboot the machine. When it reboots, the system will use the default values. Therefore, the EXE extension should work properly again.

Related Post

Posted by at No comments:

Windows Tips - Fix My Slow PC!

Windows Tips - Fix My Slow PC!:
Isn’t it annoying to be surfing the web and all of a sudden, your computer drags to a crawl and you sit impatiently waiting for a page to load or a download to start? There are several common causes of the slowing down effect on your PC. I will discuss the following three things you can do to speed things up a little bit:
  • First, download a recommended registry cleaner
  • Clean and defrag the hard drive
  • Optimize Memory
  • Eliminate unnecessary programs from Loading into memory

Clan and Defrag the Hard Drive

A computer’s hard drive is the primary area on your computer used to store the operating system, applications and all the files you create. The hard drive is divided up into areas called sectors. Each sector can hold a certain amount of data. Each sector is further broken up into address spaces. Each address is unique so the operating system can find the data stored on the hard drive. Windows uses a master file table to store the address locations of every file on the hard drive.
Please notice that I said locations. Most files need more than one address location to store the whole thing. Windows will write each piece of the file in locations next to each other (called contiguous space) if possible. If that is not possible, the operating system finds an empty location and writes the data there. As a result, over time, as you edit different files the pieces of a file can be located all over the hard drive.
For example, this disjoint storage is like you putting your shoes in the garage, your pants in the kitchen, your socks in the bedroom, you shirt in the bathroom and you coat in the attic. Obviously if you did that, if would take a lot longer to get dressed in the morning. The same thing happens with files. When they are spread all over the place, it takes longer for windows to find the individual pieces and load them into memory.
This is why you need to both clean up and defrag your hard drive. The clean up process deletes temporary files, file fragments (pieces left over after being deleted), orphans (data whose owner can’t be determined) and data marked for deletion.
Defragging your hard drive is the process of moving all of the pieces of a file into contiguous space so it can be retrieved faster. The operating system will move data around until it gets all the correct pieces together. To defrag:
  • Turn the screen save off by right clicking anywhere on the desktop
  • Select Properties then click on the Screen Saver tab and select None.
  • Next, select My Computer then right click on the hard drive Select Properties then click on Tools.
  • Select Check Now as shown below to let windows check the hard drive for errors and fix them if necessary. This could take a while so you might want go do something else.
  • When that is finished, select Defragment Now.
This can take a really long time depending on the size of the hard disk. You might as well go do something else because you CANNOT use the computer while it is defragging.
WARNING: DO NOT TURN THE MACHINE OFF UNTIL DEFRAGGING IS COMPLETE OR IT MAY DAMAGE THE HARD DRIVE

Optimize Memory

There is an old saying in the computer field. “You can never have too much memory.” When I say memory I am talking about random access memory or RAM. RAM is the temporary storage area the operating system uses to store data that is being used currently and to load itself in so all of the commands are immediately available for use.
Otherwise, you would have to wait for the data to be retrieved from the hard drive and then be loaded into memory before you could use it. It would be similar to when you are waiting for a web page to download although not as long a wait.
When the system runs out of physical RAM it uses the hard drive as Virtual Memory and does have to retrieve and load data every time you need it. Virtual memory is also called a swap file. Optimizing reduces the need to swap data into and out of the swap file. You want to put as much memory as you can afford or the machine can hold to significantly speed up your machine.

Eliminate Unnecessary Programs from Loading into Memory

When your computer boots up, it loads all kinds of applications into memory. Most of these programs are called terminate and stay resident programs or TSRs. Closing these programs will free up memory and speed up your computer. In fact, it is even better if you don’t load the ones you really don’t need.
To prevent TSRs from loading go to:
  • Start -> Run and type msconfig into the dialog box
  • The System Configuration Utility will open.
  • Select the Startup Tab as shown below.

  • Uncheck any that you don’t use very often.
  • Click OK to exit.
  • Then reboot the computer.
If you don’t know what a file or what a service does, don’t uncheck it.

Random Posts

Posted by at No comments:

What are Device Drivers?

What are Device Drivers?:
Device drivers are software programs that allow the operating system in your computer to communicate with different hardware devices inside of or attached to the computer. The computer bus, which is a series of parallel wires on the motherboard, transports the communication to various subsystems of the operating system that accepts the requests and transports the data for the hardware device.
It is absolutely essential to have the correct device drivers for your operating system and the hardware attached to it.  You also need to periodically update to the latest drivers the manufacture releases to keep you computer operating at peak efficiency. You can update your drivers manually or download an automated tool to find the drivers you need automatically.
Device drivers have to be written for each hardware device used in the computer. In addition, device drivers are operating system specific. That means that device drivers written for windows XP will not work in windows 7 or any other operating system. Most device are either packaged as Windows dynamic link library (DLL), executable (.exe) files for real hardware drivers and .vxd for virtual drivers.
Some common hardware drivers are:

  • Printer Drivers



  • Video Card Drivers



  • Network Drivers



  • Sound Card Drivers



  • Mouse Drivers



  • Keyboard Drivers



  • USB Drivers



  • Local Bus Drivers



  • Hard Disk Drivers



  • SCSI Controller Drivers



  • CD-ROM Drivers



  • Scanner Drivers



  • Camera Drivers



  • External Speaker Drivers



  • TWAIN drivers for scanners



  • Post Script – a high level printer driver


    • There are also virtual drivers that are used in VMware, Microsoft HyperV  server and the XEN virtualization programs.

    What happens if you don’t have the right driver?

    It depends but most of the time the hardware will not work at all. However sometimes it will work but very poorly. In fact, Microsoft created a development for device drivers called the
    Windows Driver Foundation (WDF) to help make windows a more stable operating environment.   Within this program there are two separate components, the User Mode Driver Framework (UMDF) and the Kernel-Mode Drive Framework (KMDF).
    User Mode Kernel drives use a message based protocol to communicate. When these drivers fail, they do not take down the operating system. Failed Kernel Mode drivers usually cause a Blue screen of death.
    Posted by at No comments:

    The Windows Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)

    The Windows Blue Screen of Death (BSOD):
    Ah— the dreaded Blue screen of Death. When your windows operating system crashes, you will get the dreaded Blue Screen of Death, which is a stop error. Only, in this case, it means that your operating system has totally crashed.
    Most people don’t realize that the Blue Screen of Death is actually a protective mechanism that the operating system uses to prevent irreparable damage to the system files by immediately shutting down the entire system the instant it discovers a critical system error. If it shuts down fast enough, damage will be avoided. If not, you could end up having to reinstall your operating system depending on what caused the error. The picture below shows a BSOD error.

    What Causes the BSOD Error?

    The primary causes for BSOD errors are:
    • Poorly written device drivers. In this case you should update your drivers.
    • Malfunctioning hardware such as bad memory, power supplies, overheating, etc
    • Two applications attempting to write to the same memory location simultaneously because a record lock failed
    • Invalid / corrupt registry entries. You can repair this with a good registry cleaner.
    When the encounters a fatal error, it will send diagnostic information to the display screen right before it reboots the system. In many cases, the reboot will clear the problem and the system will run normally.

    What Does All That Stuff on the Screen Mean?

    Each stop error is paired with a description of theerror and an eight digit hexadecimal error code number. You can use thisinformation tofigure out what is ci\ausing the problem. Let’s dissect the error screen above. A copy is shown below.
    In the first red box, it says that the spcmdcon.sys file has cause a PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA. That is the type of error the system encountered. This error occurs when the data requested from memory by the processor cannot be found at the location address provided. This can be caused by defective RAM including main memory, video RAM, L2 or L3 cache, etc.
    The second red box contains the technical information about exactly what memory locations are involved.

    Can You Fix a BSOD Error?

    In the case above, there is a good chance that one of the memory modules has some bad blocks. Even if the machine reboots and runs fine, you should get the memory tested and replace it if necessary or at least use a repair utility that can mark the block that are bad so the system doesn’t use them again.
    If there is nothing wrong with the hardware and the problem keeps reoccurring, you will need to do an operating system repair using the repair console or you can just reinstall the operating system.
    Some Common BSOD Errors are:
    IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL – a kernel mode process tried to access restricted memory, which means memory reserved for processes that have a higher IRQL level than it does.
    KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED – an illegal or unknown processor instruction was encountered
    PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA – the requested data could not be found at the supplied address

    INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE – the system cannot access the boot sector which usually means there is a hard drive disk  problem or a boot sector virus.
    UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP – caused by defective or mismatched memory, a bad CPU or a bad CPU fan and the processor  is overheating
    DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE – caused by a defective device driver
    THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER – a bad driver is causing an infinite loop
    NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM – the file system is not working properly
    UNKNOWN_HARD_ERROR – one of the registry hives could not be loaded into memory usually because of a hard disk failure or a corrupted registry hive
    STATUS_IMAGE_CHECKSUM_MISMATCH – usually caused by a damaged paging file but can occur for other reasons

    Conclusion

    The BSOD, especially if it reoccurs, usually means there is a serious problem that will eventually require you to replace hardware or to reinstall the operating system. In fact, many times it may be necessary to do both … replace the faulty hardware and then reinstall the operating system.


    Posted by at No comments:

    What is lsass.exe Error?

    What is lsass.exe Error?:
    Lsass.exe is the Local Security Authentication Server. This is the operating system module that processes the log in ID and password pair entered by users when they log in. If the user ID/password pair is found in the database, lsass.exe creates the user’s access token and attaches it to the process that launches the user’s shell.  Otherwise, the process will return an error message to the user that his credentials are not valid. The file is located in the C:\Windows\System32 folder. A screen shot of the error is shown below.

    Can Lsass.exe be a virus, Trojan, Worm or other Malware?

    Yes, it can be. There are several known malware files that use the name lsass.exe but they are not located in the C:\Windows\System32 folder such as the W32.Nimos.Worm, W32.Sasser.E.Worm (Lsasss.exe), and W32.HLLW.Lovgate.C@mm.
    In fact, if it is not located in the correct folder, it probably is some form of malware. Anytime you are getting system errors, the first thing you should do is run a complete scan of your computer for viruses, worm, spyware, Trojans and other forms of malware.

    How to Fix a Lsass.exe Error

    The easiest way to fix this problem is to follow these steps:
    1. Run a good registry cleaner and fix any and all problems that might exist in the registry
    2. Run a complete virus and malware scan just in case it is some form of malware
    3. If that doesn’t fix the problem, use the repair console to check and fix the windows operating system files
    4. If that doesn’t work or just don’t know how to use the recovery console, go to http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.aspx and download Microsoft’s Malicious Software Removal Tool and follow the directions
    Once you have completed all of these steps, the problem should be resolved.

    Conclusion

    Routine maintenance of your computer is necessary to keep it running properly. You should do the following at least monthly:
    1. Run a full virus, spyware and malware scan
    2. Run a good registry cleaner
    3. Defrag your hard drive
    4. Do a system state backup
    If you follow that schedule you should not have very many problems.
    Posted by at No comments:

    How To Make Your PC Ready for Blu-Ray

    How To Make Your PC Ready for Blu-Ray:
    Apparently Sony Corporation did learn from it past mistakes. It lost the Beta versus VHS format war, not because its beta product was inferior but because Sony refused to license its technology to other manufacturer’s so they could build hardware for it.  The high-definition video war is over and Blu-ray is the undisputed winner.
    Now that the war is over, many PC owners want to add Blu-ray capability to their PCs.  If you are running Windows 7 or Mac OS/X, you are all ready to add Blu-ray since both of those operating systems support Blu-ray.

    First Decision

    Even if your operating system supports Blu-ray, your hardware may not. The Blu-ray drive uses SATA to connect to your motherboard. The important thing to check is to see if your graphics card and monitor are HDCP compliant. HDCP stands for High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection created by Intel to prevent pirating while the content is dent over DVI or HDMI connections between a source and a receiver.
    So if either your graphics (the source) or your monitor (the receiver) fails the HDCP test, you will still get a signal but it won’t be high definition and you will have wasted your money.

    Second Decision

    If your hardware supports Blu-ray, then your second decision is whether to buy a Blu-ray player or a burner. Players are cheaper but only let your play the disks. Burner will give you the ability to create all varieties of Blu-ray, DVD and CD disks including dual layer disks. With 25GB storage on a single layer disk and 50 GB on a dual layer disk, the storage capacity is inviting. At the moment, single layer disks run around $3 each and dual layer disks around $10 each.

    Third Decision

    You will also need software to run your Blu-ray player or burner.  Both Windows 7 and the Mac OS/X have built in software capable of Blu-ray playback. However, for burning or ripping, you will most likely want to purchase a commercial application like Cyberlink’s Power DVD Ultra or Nero.

    Recommendation

    If your hardware supports Blu-ray but your operating system doesn’t, you really should consider upgrading to Windows 7 or Max OS/X. I did read about some tweaked drivers available for Windows XP, but no one seems to be having much luck getting them to work right.
    Posted by at No comments:

    What is Kernel Memory Corruption?

    What is Kernel Memory Corruption?:
    If you have ever experienced the blur screen of death, then you have most likely been a victim of kernel memory corruption. Figuring out what happened is almost like solving a crime. The bad guy did the damage and is long gone leaving you to clean up the mess and salvage whatever you can salvage.
    As we discussed before, kernel memory corruption can be caused by either hardware of software problems but it is usually the result of a poor quality or incorrect device driver. There are several tools available to help diagnose and repair these problems.
    Let’s look at the memory architecture so you can understand what is actually happening in that mysterious memory world where the players are like ghosts that you know are there but never really can see.
    Most drivers run in high memory in either the paged or non paged memory pool. A pool is just a block of addresses reserved for a specific purpose. Data residing in paged memory may be ion the RAM or it may on the hard drive in the memory swap file. Data residing in non-paged memory is always in the RAM. The picture below shows the allocation table for a block of memory.

    Of course this picture means nothing to most people.
    Each row is a bock of memory that has been allocated to specific data. Notice the last one is marked as free which means any application that is allowed to write to this part of the memory can use this block for its data. Each block is marked with an four character identifier called a tag that and the size of the data. The memory manager uses this information to find the requested data.
    The most common error caused by poor driver software is for the program to write to it allocated block and then write to the next block overwriting data that belongs to someone else which causes an immediate crash With the stop error code similar to STOP 0×0000001e
    If the memory manager tried to read the memory location later, it will probably crash with one of the following error codes:

    Bug Check 0×19: BAD_POOL_HEADER
    Bug Check 0xC2: BAD_POOL_CALLER

    Windows 7 has added a guard page that is similar to the guard bands used in digital transmission. It is a small area of memory that no process can write to so that if a faulty driver overflows its memory block, the system won’t crash.

    How to fix the Problem

    There are tools that can go in and remove bad data, mark bad sectors in RAM “bad” so no process attempts to write to them. For the professional these are a good investment but for the rest of us. A hard reboot, which means a complete shutdown, should clear all memory blocks. If it doesn’t then there is some other problem with the memory.
    As cheap as memory is today, it makes more sense to take your RAM chips to a dealer and have them tested. If they have any bad blocks, replace them.
    After you install your new memory, run a good registry cleaner, cleanup and then defrag your hard drive. Next update all of the hardware drivers to the latest versions and your computer should run good as new.
    Posted by at No comments:

    Where Do Empty Registry Keys Come From?

    Where Do Empty Registry Keys Come From?:
    Before we talk about where they come from we should first discuss what they are. An empty registry key is a registry that has no values in it.  Usually they are left over placeholders that were left behind when you uninstalled an application, device driver, etc. They can also be left behind when a registry cleaner removes malicious code but didn’t delete the actual key. Empty registry keys are also called registry “holes”.

    Are Empty Registry Keys Harmful to my Computer?

    They do not usually cause any harm to your operating system but the can make the registry grow very large because there may be obsolete data, invalid shared DLLs, incorrect file associations as well as a significant amount of redundant data. All of this causes the registry to grow very large. All the extra junk can eventually corrupt the registry.

    How to Delete Empty Registry Keys

    There are two ways to delete empty registry keys. One is to manually delete them using regedit. The second method is to use a good registry cleaner that specifically states that it removes empty registry keys.

    Manual Deletion

    if you are an experienced IT support person, this method is free and may even be easier and faster than purchasing a registry cleaning application. But if you are an average user, deleting things in the registry can be very dangerous and result in your operating system having to be reinstalled.

    Registry Cleaners

    There are several good registry cleaners available, some free but most are commercial programs. While a few of the free programs work fairly well, to get the best cleaning of your registry you will most likely need to use a paid program.
    Before you do the registry, you should run a complete anti-virus and malware check to eliminate any potential problems.
    Next, defrag your hard drive using the windows defrag utility by going to the Control Panel, then selecting administrative tools, computer management, defragmenter. Highlight your hard drive and click on the Defragment button.
    You are now ready to scan your registry. This is how the typical commercial registry cleaner works.
    1. You go to the website and download the program to your hard drive
    2. Install the program and do a free scan of your computer. It will tell you what is wrong but you cannot fix anything unless you purchase the program
    3. Pay for the program.
    4. If the program asks you if you want to backup your registry, say “yes” and make a backup
    5. Then follow the direction to fix all the errors.

    Recommendation

    Anti-virus checks, malware scans, defragging the hard drive, and cleaning the registry are all part of the routine maintenance you should be doing for your computer. It’s really like doing a tune up and changing the oil in your car.
    You should do this maintenance at least once a month to keep your system running in top shape.
    Posted by at No comments:

    Damaged MBR Error Message

    Damaged MBR Error Message:
    MBR is the acronym for Master Boot Record. The master boot record is located in the boot section of your hard drive, which is the first sector on the first platter. When you boot your computer, the master boot record tells the computer’s BIOS (Basic Input Output System) where to find the bootstrap code for the operating system.
    So if the MBR is corrupted, the BIOS can’t find the operating system and you can get error messages like the following ones:
    • Missing operating system
    • Error loading system
    • Invalid partition table
    Looks pretty scary, doesn’t it?
    However, it is usually not that hard to fix a corrupted MBR and usually the rest f the hard drive is just fine and will boot normally once your fix the master boot record.

    What Causes Damage to the MBR?

    A lot of things can cause damage to the MBR such as viruses designed to corrupt the boot sector.  Some of them copy the original MBR to another file. Others do this by overwriting the MBR with virus code. In fact viruses and malware are one of the most frequent causes but, any file can become corrupted especially files that are accessed as frequently as the MBR.

    How to Fix the MBR

    The stapes to fix the MBR are slightly different in the different versions of Windows. So I will cover them separately.

    Windows XP

    1. Insert your XP installation disk in the CD-Rom and reboot the computer
    2. When asked, press any key to boot from the CD
    3. When you get the Welcome to Setup screen, press “R” to open the repair console
    4. Enter your administrator password when prompted
    5. At the command prompt, type fixmbr and press enter
    6. When a new command prompt appears, type exit
    7. Remove your installation CD
    8. Restart the computer

    Windows Vista

    1. Insert your Vista installation disk in the CD-ROM and reboot the computer
    2. When asked, press any key to boot from the CD
    3. When you get the Install Windows screen, fill in the language and location options and then click Next
    4. Click on the Repair your computer option
    5. Select the Windows Vista operating system and click Next
    6. Enter your administrator password when prompted
    7. In the System Recovery Options, select Command Prompt
    8. When a command prompt appears, type bootrec.exe and press enter to fix the MBR
    9. When a new command prompt appears, type exit
    10. Remove your installation CD
    11. Click Restart in the System Recovery Options window

    Windows 7

    1. Insert your Windows 7 installation disk in the CD-ROM and reboot the computer
    2. When asked, press any key to boot from the CD
    3. When you get the Install Windows screen, fill in the language, Time and Keyboard Input options and then click Next
    4. Click on the Repair your computer option
    5. In the System Recovery Options, select Command Prompt
    6. When a command prompt appears, change to the boot directory
    7. Now type bootsect /nt60 SYS and press enter to fix the MBR
    8. When a new command prompt appears, type exit
    9. Remove your installation CD
    10. Reboot the computer
    Posted by at No comments:

    What Is the Windows Registry?

    What Is the Windows Registry?:
    Everything in your computer needs configuration information to work properly. That includes both hardware and software. Originally all operating systems used flat text files to hold the configuration information. These were called initialization files (.ini) in windows and configuration (.cfg) files in Linux.
    You will still an occasional .ini file in windows if an application needs some special configuration that is not available in one of the standard dynamic link libraries (.dll files) used by different applications for common functions.
    All of the configurations information or a pointer to where that information is stored contained in the windows registry. Since all of the configuration information is access through the registry, it is pretty obvious why any errors or corruption in the registry can cause serious problems.
    To view each hive while we discuss it below select Start->run->and type regedit. The registry editor will open a window like the one pictured below and you can view the structure and look around a little.

    Registry Structure

    The windows registry is a hierarchical database consisting of five root HIVES. I heard they were called hives because one of the original engineers working on it was afraid of bees. I have no idea whether or not that is true. But it is an interesting story. The five root hivers are:
    HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT – stores all the information that the operating systems needs to open up the correct application when you double click on a file. That means that it contains the file association information. For example if you double click on a .htm or .html file, the operating system will open up a web browser by default because that is the default application for those two extensions even though other applications also use them.
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER – stores all the information that is associated with a user or users who are currently logged into the system. This information will also be used a part of a user’s roaming profile as well.

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE – stores all of the hardware and software configuration information for the computer and all the peripherals attached to it. There are four sub keys in this hive:
    1. HARDWARE – stores all the hardware configuration information
    2. SAM – stores the local user account authentication database and access permissions for resources
    3. SECURITY – stores group policy and other policy information
    4. SOFTWARE – stores the configuration for every application installed on the local computer and the operating system itself
    5. SYSTEM – contains all of the control sets,  last known good configuration, restore points, WPA, WEP, etc settings and a list of the devices mounted on the operating systems such as hard drives, cd-roms, etc.
    HKEY_USERS – contains the configuration information for every user who has an account on the machine or has ever logged onto the machine. The information from this hive is loaded into the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive when a user logs onto the machine.
    HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG – stores the machines current runtime configuration which is regenerated at each boot up and is linked to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Hardware Profiles\Current

    Registry Data Formats

    Registry data uses special formats which seems to be based on the data formats used in SQL databases
    Value Name Data Type
    REG_BINARY Binary data in any form
    REG_DWORD A 32-bit number
    REG_DWORD_LITTLE_ENDIAN A 32-bit number in little-endian format which allows windows to run on little-endian architectures
    REG_DWORD_BIG_ENDIAN A 32-bit number in big-endian format which is supported by some UNIX systems
    REG_EXPAND_SZ A null-terminated string that contains unexpanded
    references to environment variables (e.g., “%PATH%”)
    REG_LINK A null-terminated Unicode string that contains the target path of a symbolic link
    REG_MULTI_SZ A sequence of null-terminated strings, terminated by an empty string ()
    REG_NONE No defined value type
    REG_QWORD A 64-bit number
    REG_QWORD_LITTLE_ENDIAN A 64-bit number in little-endian format
    REG_SZ A single null-terminated string

    Conclusion

    Like all databases, the windows registry needs periodic maintenance. The best to do this is to use a good registry cleaner periodically. How often depends on whether you upload and download a lot of file or install and uninstall a lot of applications. Once a month is reasonable for most people.
    Posted by at No comments:

    Why is it Necessary to Clean the Windows Registry?

    Why is it Necessary to Clean the Windows Registry?:
    As I discussed in my last post, all of the hardware, software and operating system configuration used by your computer are stored in the windows registry. All of the individual user preferences, profiles, accounts, etc. are also stored in the registry. That is why an problems with the registry can cause problems from an application not working quite right to the entire operating system crashing.

    How Do You Know if Something is wrong with the Windows Registry?

    Common symptoms of registry problems are:
    • Slow performance
    • Hardware not working correctly or not at all
    • Computer freezes
    • You keep getting windows or application error messages
    • System crashes (the famous blue screen of death)
    • Takes “forever” to boot up
    • Applications not opening or crashing periodically
    • System won’t boot
    The windows registry is a hierarchical database and like all databases, it requires routine maintenance such as compacting, correcting file association, removing corrupted entries, removing tombstones and orphans. Let’s look at each of these items individually.
    Compacting – process of reclaiming hard disk space used by the database. Basically it is the process of defragging the database to improve efficiency.
    Correcting file associations – anytime you install or uninstall something, changes are made to the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT registry hive. Over time there can be a lot of unnecessary or incorrect information stored in this key. Cleaning makes sure that file associations exist only for files that can actually be opened on the machine exist
    Corrupted entries – they are just taking up space and are useless and could cause problems if a process tried to use them so they need to be removed
    Tombstones – this is data that was written during a specific operation and then marked for deletion during the next compacting or cleaning.
    Orphans – are entries that no longer belong to any application or piece of hardware because it no longer exists or in no longer installed on the system

    How Do You Clean the Windows Registry?

    You could manually edit the registry and remove all of the unnecessary and corrupted data. But unless you are an expert on all of the possible entries in the windows registry, I don’t recommend that you try doing this because if you make a mistake, your operating system may never boot again.
    The best way is to use a windows registry cleaner. Registry are software programs written by people who are experts on every possible entry in the registry. These programs will perform all of the necessary maintenance we described above as well as specifically look for damage done by viruses, Trojans and other forms of malware. They will try to repair and/or recover corrupted data if possible. They do this by analyzing your registry entries and comparing then to a set of ‘normalized’ entries. Normalized means that the data is consistent and properly formatted and is a technical term used in databases.
    Registry cleaners are a much safer way of doing the routine maintenance on your windows registry.

    Where Do You Get Registry Cleaners?

    There are two kinds of registry cleaners, commercial and free ones. Here are some of the differences:
    Feature FREE Commercial
    Quarantine or delete suspected entries Delete Quarantine
    Provide technical support NO YES
    Offer a FREE scan NO YES
    Money Back Guarantee NO YES
    Recommendation
    Commercial registry cleaners usually do a better job and are safer to use. At least one free registry cleaner is good, but, unless you know a lot about the working registry, use a commercial program.
    Posted by at No comments:
    Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)