I log on to my PC I get the following messages ‘The following file is missing or corrupted C:CDPROVIDE-CPD.SYS There is an error on CONFIG.SYS file on line 1-20″. Could you tell me what these messages mean and what I need to do? After they appear the computer lets me press any key to continue logging on. The only effect the error seems to have is that the time on the PC is always wrong - it loses time.

The reason this message is appearing is because a line in your CONFIG.SYS file (which loads device drivers, etc… on boot up) is referring to a file which does not exist or is corrupt. In your case, the file that the error message is referring to are DOS drivers for your CD-ROM. This can be fixed by going to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Run’ and typing ’sysedit’ (without the quotes) followed by the ‘Ok’ button. The ‘System Configuration Editor’ should appear with windows within it named ‘Autoexec.bat’, ‘Config.sys’, ‘Win.ini’, etc… Click the window which has the title ‘C:CONFIG.SYS’. In this window you should see a line something like ‘DEVICE=C:CDPROVIDE-CDD.SYS /D:MSCD001″. Delete this line and ONLY this line. Quit the System Configuration Editor and when you are prompted to save changes, click ‘Yes’. Regarding your second query, if you find my column from the 10/4/00, a similar question to yours about the clock using time was answered. I have emailed you a copy of the article.