Welcome to AskAW! This lets you, the visitors submit questions about any problems/queries that you may have about Windows. Be it from a little icon that annoys you to hardware freezing your PC, we will try and help you out. You can submit your questions by e-mailing us at askaw@activewin.com.

Here are the questions posted on: 09-14-00

Question: Can anyone help me find the device file for my cdrom? My computer lost it on its own. here is the stats of my system and what happened. My computer shut down and restarted by it self. Now I get a message, device file not found sys,ini refers to this file. If you deleted this file on purpose, try uninstalling the application to replace this file. Ever since this has happened, I can no longer access my cdrom. I get the message" NO CDROM INSTALLED " What can I do to get access to my cdrom? If you can help, please advise. Thanks

Solution 2: Do you have an IDE CD-ROM drive? If so, the error message you are receiving is odd because IDE CD-ROM's are supported natively in 9x/NT/2000 without any special drivers. My Toshiba laptop has such a file that gets loaded, but only for real-mode DOS support. It is not necessary for use in Windows 98. Try editing the system.ini file and commenting out the line that loads that file by placing a semicolon ; in front of the line. See if that helps.  Philip Tan

Solution 3: Check your system for a possible virus, Windows will not lost any device files, and will not remove cd-rom from your system, unless your cd-rom is broken, and there are active virus on your system that hides the cd-rom, a good example is CIH which hides the cd-rom for the starter, and then hides your hard drives when the deadline comes.  Bill Wiriawan

Question: When I shutdown, /Windoze hangs at the "Windoze is shutting down" screen. How do I fix this short of shooting my personal confuser?? Thank You

Solution 1: Hiya, Have you checked Windows Update lately? There is a bug fix on Windows Update that should stop Windows 98SE shutdown hanging. Check out http://www.windowsupdate.com to see if you have downloaded that fix yet. If you haven't, downloading it should fix the problem. I hope this helps you.  Scott Cederbaum

Submitted By: Al

Question: Hi.... Is the Win98 version of Plus compatible with ME....and if it is, should I uninstall it before installing ME and then re-install it after ME ??Thanks for any help.

Solution 1: No.  I would not recommend installing Plus98 on top of ME, because Plus98 has a version of IE that is earlier than ME.  I am positive that ME can upgrade and Plus components for you....and there may even be a PlusME in the works.  However, it is most likely that you will be unable to install any Plus98 components on top of ME the same way Windows 98 won't let you install Plus95 components.  Keep Plus98 installed when you upgrade unless ME setup tells you it can't upgrade with it installed.  However, this shouldn't be an issue.  Adam Sowalsky

Solution 1: Explanation: This question is pretty easy to answer and is to do with the differences between types of files, and the programs that run them.  Files are normally differentiated by their extension.  eg. ".doc" is the extension that symbolises that the file is from MS Word (or compatible program).  The files which you are trying to open should also have an extension.  Windows is quite intelligent as it 'associates' a particular extension with a particular file.  However, sometimes an install program doesnt tell Windows that it has added files of a certain type, and also hasn't asked for them to be associated with a certain program.
What to do: If the program isn't in the list displayed you have to find it.  Your program will exist typically in C:\Program Files\<program_name>, however this may be different.  Once you have found the program select OK in the dialog box.  Now enter a name for the type of files in the Open with... dialog eg. Word Document.  Check the "Always use..." checkbox so you dont have to go through this whole procedure again.  Finally click OK and the files should open in your program. Brian Lyttle

Submitted By: Henry White

Question: I am running Windows 2000 Professional both in my office pc and my home pc. In my office pc, it's an ACPI machine with an i810 motherboard. Windows 2000 automatically put my (USB root, Sound Card, Network Card) all using the irq 11 . However it doesn't allow me to change the resources(the use "use automatic settings" check box is grayed.) Even with an administrator account and safe mode cannot change it. As I am always on the LAN, I've to disable the on-board sound card and not using any of my USB device(ex. my hp scanner.) In my home pc, I can disable the ACPI in the BIOS and thus I can change the resources(especially the IRQ). However I don't have that option in the BIOs of my office pc. So how can I change the irq settings win w2k in my office pc? I do have some spare irq there... (Should I enable the PNP OS or now in the BIOS ? and does this helps?)

Solution 1: Read this: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q252/4/20.ASP It answers your question directly. :) Michael Hicks

Submitted By: Benjamin

Question: Have Outlook 98 (IMO) running well on my system. The only issue is that my passwords to my POP3 e-mail sites are not saved even though I have selected Microsoft Support article that addresses this issue under Win 98 & NT4 but not W2k Pro. I have pasted the link to their article here http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q235/8/65.ASP?LN=EN-US&SD=gn&FR=0 for your reference. How can I cache password for my POP3 e-mail accounts under W2k Pro? Have looked at the article's suggestions (just on the off chance I could fix the issue on my own) but to no avail. Your thoughts and comments are most welcome. Thanks in advance!

Solution 1: I guess Tools>Accounts>Properties>Servers should get you to the location where you can tick the save password option.  Mean Drake

Submitted By: Brad Cole

Question: I would like to minimize the number of "Services" the start automatically. Like to keep things clean and neat :) I have W2K Pro loaded on my laptop. Travel often and it is not used as a server. Not connected to any office, Corp or home network. I do connect to the Internet via ADSL (dynamically assigned) and occasionally via 56k dial up (AOL & Earthlink). Have standard business types of software running e.g. Microsoft Office 97, IE5.5, QuickBooks 2000, McAfee v5.1 etc. What should be the non-essential services running in "automatic" mode and what can be changed to "manual" mode based upon W2K Pro default installation and the use of my computer as described above. I realize some programs may create "services" to run when the new software is installed (McAfee) and have dealt with those independent of this question. Some examples that are currently running automatically are as follows:

COM + Event System

Indexing Service

RunAs Service

System Event Notification

I appreciate your thoughts and look forward to your suggestions.

Solution 1: I'm running Windows 2000 Professional on a desktop system.  I havent run it on a laptop, so there are perhaps so Microsoft-written laptop only services.

I have disabled...
Alerter - Security Risk [Hardening Windows NT 4, Espinola]
Indexing Services - Speeds up file searches etc.  I don't have to search often so it's probably better being off.
IPSec Policy Agent - Only if you use IPSec on network
Messenger - Security Risk
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing - Definite security risk
Remote Registry Service - Definite security risk
RunAs Service - Possible security risk.
SmartCard
SmartCard Helper
Still Image Scanner - Only required for Scanners and Digital Camera users.
Task Scheduler - I don't use it.
Uninterruptable Power Supply - Only needed if you have one.
WMDM PMSP Service - Windows Media Player 7 widget.
ZipToA - Removed and SCSI Zip drive is still working fine.

In the past I tried disabling Event Log but it breaks Dial-Up Networking etc. The Event Log typically records everything (successes and failures).  Change the settings from the Management Snap-In to just record events that go wrong, and this will possibly give you a slight performance boost. If you have the World Wide Publishing service running, and you don't use this web server then remove the whole thing via the Add/Remove Applet in Control Panel.  This application wastes resources, and is a security risk. Disable the Services one at a time to see how it affects your system.  Start with the ones you consider to be least essential.  Brian Lyttle

Solution 2: Dear Brad, After disabling the services already recommemded, a small utility called "startup Control Panel by Mike Lin can help you further. http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml. Its a great small Freeware utility that controls various programs at startup, from Mikes site......

• Startup (user) - the current user's Startup folder in the Start Menu.
• Startup (common) - the common (all users) Startup folder in the Start Menu. Appears only on NT and multi-user Win9x systems.
• HKLM / Run - the Run registry key located in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. These apply for all users.
• HKCU / Run - the Run registry key located in HKEY_CURRENT_USER. These apply for the current user only.
• Services - system services that are started before the user logs in. Does not appear on NT since it has its own Services control panel.
• Run Once - started once and once only at the next system startup.
• Deleted - programs go to the Deleted tab when you remove them from another location. They will not run at system startup, but will merely be stored should you ever want to use them again. If you delete an item from the Deleted tab, it is removed permanently.

Try it, items can be enabled and disabled easily good luck Craig Catapano

Submitted By:  Brad Cole

Question: Hi everyone, I have recently bought a modem and got connected to an ISP via a pack with up. Unfortunately although everything else worked fine I cannot now get access to Microsoft Windows Update the page loads with nothing displayed and the DONE message in the bottom left and reveals the following message: COMPONENT MISSING, CLICK TO DOWNLOAD, LOADING PLEASE WAIT. But it never lists the component and another window opens suggesting I try Windows Update from the Tools menu Help

Solution 1: Make sure your cookies are enabled.  If your cookies are disabled Windows Update will not work.  That is the only suggestion I have.  Shawn Abramson

Solution 2:The first time you visit windows update, an activex control gets downloaded to your pc and you install it by clicking yes. This seems to have got improperly installed or corrupted. Try if you can remove the downloaded activex controls from your pc and revisit the windows update site.  Mean Drake

Submitted By: Dave

Question: Hi, I have a Compaq Presario 1930 running Windows 98. I need to connect to an iMAC LAN running Appletalk with Windows 98 applications. What do I need to achieve the connection ??

Solution 1: A crucifix(or your preferred religious icon) and lots of prayer. Seriously though...connecting a Mac and pc's can be mind boggling and very frustrating. Better than any answer I could provide in a few paragraphs, is this;

http://www.macwindows.com  an entire site devoted to what you seek. May God be with you!   Michael Hicks

Submitted By: Richard

Question: I have a new laptop with Windows ME, and am going crazy regarding backups. Does anybody realize that Microsoft removed their backup utility from this new OS. Also HP has not released backup software for their 14GB external tape drive that works with Windows ME, so I can't use this either to get any of my files on this new hard drive. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Solution 1: Hiya, Microsoft did not remove the MS Backup utility from Windows Me, it is just hiding on the Windows Me CD. To install MS Backup insert your Windows Me CD and click "Browse this CD." Then follow these steps:

1. Enter Add-Ons folder.

2. Enter MSBackup Folder

3. Click msbexp.exe

That should install MS Backup onto your computer. I hope this helps you :)   Scott Cederbaum

Submitted By: ????

Question: I have windowsme with windows media player7 installed but I didn't find it as good as winamp. I reinstalled winamp but it will not autorun even when the CD is in auto insert mode. I disabled all the winamp associated files and associated all the winamp files but still nothing. I have been looking for a solution for this problem but so far there have been no postings. If you have a solution or suggestion please let me know. thanks

Solution 1: Open WinAmp manually.  Right-click just about anywhere on the WinAmp program and you'll see the WimAmp context menu.  Go Options -> Preferences... CTRL+P is the Prefences hotkey in WinAmp if you are interested. There should be a tree on the right side of the Preferences dialog.  Click on the Filetypes node.  There are a number of options here whic will allow you to set up WinAmp as desired.   Brian Lyttle

Submitted By: Glen

Question: I have recently come across a problem after installing Nero Burning ROM on my computer. It installed fine (Demo Version - 5.0.1.8) and asked me if I wanted to restart my system (as per usual after installs). Anyways, when the system restarted, it "hung" at various places during startup (mostly while loading my desktop icons or when my virus scan program - Mcafee - was loading). I couldn't do anything so I tried several times to shutdown (by powering off) and starting up again (each time getting scan disk to run as Windows was not shut down properly). I tried start up in Safe Mode (to uninstall Nero) but it too "hung" after loading my icons. I do not believe (but am not sure) that it is because of the new install as I've had an earlier version of Nero running fine on my system (I uninstalled it prior to the new installation). I have a PI 200 w/MMX, 32 mb RAM, a 2.1G & 8.4G hard drive(s) installed, running Windows 98 SE. Help !!!!!

Solution 1: From your post it is obvious that you can't get into your system at all. That means the only thing to be attempted here is to correct things from good old DOS. Since you aren't able to get in even in safe mode, booting to DOS is the only option. And here I feel, you should try to restore system registry to a date before you installed Nero's new version. At the DOS prompt, type scanreg /restore and select what registry you want to restore.  Mean Drake

Submitted By: Tom

Question: Hi: I installed a video editing card and have and IRQ conflict.  The tech confirmed my thoughts and said to just move the card to another slot and restart the computer - that would change the IRQ. It sounds so simple, but after changing the card slot, the IRQ is the same. Is there something else I need to do? I have looked through a zillion forums but haven't found the details I need to fool around with the inside of my computer. It's a brand new Micron 833 256 with 2 hard drives (10 and 45) supposedly perfect for video editing...... Thanks for any help.

Solution 1: Ok. Well the tech you talked to was wrong.  Switching slots doesn't solve the problem all the time.  What you will need to do is go to your control panel and go to the System icon, or you can right click on the My Computer icon and select properties.  Once there go to Device Manager tab and go to display adapters and select the adapter that you are having problems with.  With the page of the adapter up select Resources.  Uncheck Use Automatic Settings, and proceed to the drop-down list of settings based on:  try selecting different settings in that box until Conflicting device lists "no conflicts."  If that does not work do change the setting for the Interupt request till you have an IRQ that is free.  I hope I could have been of some help to you.  Shawn Abramson

Submitted By: Donna

Question: Hi, Just got a new computer with a QDI BrillianX9 motherboard, 256K RAM, and PIII 733 MHz chip. We ran the system management program off the QDI CD-rom and now Win 98SE doesn't recognize my HP CD-Writer 9300 series internal or Pioneer 16x-40x DVD drive. I tried disconnecting them and then re-connecting the Pioneer drive hoping that Windoze might find it but that didn't happen. Any ideas would be helpful.

Solution 1: Check the cable connection with the motherboard, whether it's Primary or secondary, and make sure that you have the correct jumper settings, if during the restart, the motherboard recognize the drive, theres no reason that windows will not recognize it. Read the manuals on how to configure those settings.  Bill Wiriawan

Submitted By: Jack Marxer

Question: Hi. I've got a new Dell Dimension XPS B running Windows 2000 Professional. I just recently purchased an IntelliMouse Explorer and have installed it via the PS/2 port. I've also gone to Microsoft.com and installed the latest version of IntelliEye 3.2. The buttons and scroll wheel on the mouse work fine, but the pointer will occasionally try to jump in the opposite direction I move it in. Sometimes it becomes a fight to get it to move in the right direction, usually solved by picking the mouse up and putting it back down again. Is there any way to fix this problem, or is it some bug due to Win2K? I've tried installing the IntelliMouse Explorer via the USB port, but it tells me it can't find the appropriate .inf file to continue the installation.

Solution 1: Hmm, sounds like it could be a mouse tracking issue. Have you tried using the mouse on a different surface, such as a new mouse pad?  Philip Tan

Solution 2: IntelliMouse Explorer depends on it's optical technology to trach the movement of your mouse, however, it doesnt works well on some surface, avoid any reflective materials, inclduing some mousepad that reflects a few amount of light, a well furnished wodd, glass surface, etc, my IntelliMouse Optical worls well on a leather like black color mouse pad, no unwanted movement of the cursor. Try to replace your mousepad or sufaces that holds your mouse, then it should work well.   Bill Wiriawan

Submitted By: Chris

Question: My problem happened after reinstalling Windows 95. I went to access my D: drive and received the following error message: D:\ is not accessible, the device is not ready. I went to the Device Manager and my cd-rom is listed. I checked in Properties and it was shown that the device is working properly, and in Settings the current drive letter was D:. I have a America Online cd-rom disk and a couple of enhanced music cd's that will start themselves automatically when placed in my cd-rom. But, if I put any other cd-rom disk or cd in and I have to manually access the D: drive to start it, I get the error message. I have made sure my cd's are clean and the cd-rom drawer is closed properly. How can I make the device ready? I would appreciate any advice anyone may have. Thank You

Solution 1: Try booting up in safe mode and removing all cd rom devices in the device manager. Re-start you computer and when it adds the new device ensure that the correct drivers are installed for your CD-Rom.  Marc Strickland

Submitted By: James Marks

Question: Hello! I have a problem, which I hope you can help me to solve. I use Microsoft Internet Explorer. When I want to visit www.dolnet.gr I can read the "main page" properly. But when I try to get deeper to the newspaper by clicking the link TA NEA for example, I cannot read the text anymore. The fonts are not readable for some reason. Only the words which are written in capital letters are understandable. Could you please help me? Best regards

Solution 1: It's not your problem.  The site is encoded in Greek (Windows), but the fonts required are Greek (ISO).  IE 5 automatically detected the site as Greek (Windows), but I didn't get Greek text until I automatically selected the Greek (ISO) language option.  Give this a try---it should work.  You might also want to contact the webmaster of the site and let him know the error of his ways.  Adam Sowalsky

Submitted By: Mervi Mäki-Aaltio

Question: Hello, I've just installed Windows 2000 server at my office with Office 2000 and IIS 5.0. I installed the latest patches as of last month and everything is working fine except for one thing. When running my Active Server Pages we can no longer get the Server Variable "LOGON_USER" to appear. It worked on NT server but now it comes up blank. The Microsoft site offered no insight at all and I am hoping you can help me.

Solution 1: Melanie, If you get a blank response from this script(plop it in an asp page):

      <%
      Response.Write("LOGON_USER: " & _
      Request.ServerVariables("LOGON_USER"))
      %>

That means that the current user is being authenticated as IUSR_machine. If this doesn't answer your question, I need more details as to what is happening. :) -Michael Hicks

Submitted By: Melanie

Question: Hi guys, I recently asked for help on what I thought was IE5.5 it was IE5 and I have now managed to fix it by getting an older version of flash and then a newer version.

Solution 1: Hmmmm.....I thought all new versions of Flash would work in IE 5.X   Marc Strickland

Submitted By:  David

Question: Hello, could u tell me how can I use windows NT back up program to store some Files on CD?
Best regards

Solution 1: NT's built-in backup program was developed before CD writers became as prevalent as they are today.  Therefore you can't use NT Backup to burn cd's.  However, there are a number of other pieces of software which will run under NT and allow you to burn cd's. 

Ahead's Nero Burning Rom - www.ahead.de

Goldenhawk's CDR Win - www.goldenhawk.com

You can download trials of this software which might help you out if you really need to do a backup.  However, neither is expensive and are good buys. -Brian Lyttle

Submitted By: Mahieddin

NOTE: Please note that ActiveWin nor the AskAW staff can take any responsibility for anything that may/may not occur when taking our advice. If you do anything that is included in our advice, you are doing so at your own risk.