On our computer we have Windows XP (Home) and Office XP Professional and both are updated through auto update. About 1 in 3 starts of Outlook (or Word) returns the message ‘Installing Outlook feature’ or ‘Installing Word feature’ and then after some time, asks for the Office XP disk. There is activity in the CD drive once the Office XP CD has been inserted. This happens without connection to the internet and seems to be random, but if I cancel the process, then the program will not work. How can we stop this occurring? Our second query is that on both of our computers running Windows XP, the ‘Help’ function under the ‘Start’ menu will not work. After reinstalling XP, the help works for a while but then disappears from the menu again. Provided we find the help file in the Windows directory and place a shortcut to it on the desktop it works fine (but always as if it were the first time used). A third problem occurs after some time when playing games, as the graphics card locks up and can only be fixed with a reboot. We have a Diamond Viper V700 graphics card and have installed this on several computers including a PIII 450MHz, PII 233MHz, and an Athalon 1600. We downloaded the latest drivers and also went through your suggestions in ‘Card Trick’ but were unable to find any AGP setting in the BIOS. We recently replaced this card on our PIII 450MHz with a GeForce2 and it does the same thing. Any suggestions?

The problem of the ‘Install Word feature’ seems to be quite a rare occurrence as I wasn’t able to locate too many other similar problems. One user I came across with a similar problem, had noticed a message in the Windows event viewer warning that ‘The resource C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataMicrosoftOfficeDataDATA.BAK does not exist’. The problem occurred for the user after using a BAT file to clean up the hard drive, which was instructed to delete all files with the *.BAK extension. I am not sure if this will help you but it is certainly worthwhile to have a look in the ‘Event Viewer’ (which can be found in the ‘Control Panel’ > ‘Administrative Tools’ if you are using the ‘Classic View’).

Regarding your second problem where the ‘Help and Support’ option is disabled on your Start menu, let’s first ensure that the ‘Help and Support’ service is running. Go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Control Panel’. In the window that appears, click ‘Switch to Classic View’. Open the ‘Administrative Tools’ control panel. In the window that appears, double-click ‘Services’. The services window should now appear. Ensure that the ‘Help and Support’ service is running. If not, start the service. Should the service already be running, then it looks like this is not the problem. Close all of the windows. Then, go back to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Run’. Type ‘SFC /scannow’ (without the quotes) and click OK. This will let you know if any Windows files are missing or corrupted - in your case, we are particularly trying to find any corrupt help files. Another possibility arises if you have run an application called EasyCleaner (a registry cleaner). This application is known to delete registry keys in Windows Me causing the ‘Help’ function on the Start menu to cease working. I have seen reports claiming that this may also occur in Windows XP but I have not been able to confirm whether this is the case. If you have run EasyCleaner, have a look at support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q274264. Be aware that this article is for Windows Me. A Windows XP fix can be found at www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/fixwinxphelp.htm. You may wish to run this fix even if you have not used EasyCleaner, as it should fix any broken registry keys relating to the ‘Help and Support’ option. However, be aware that this fix involves downloading and running a VBS file. I strongly advise against running any unsolicited VBS files, as VBS is a common form which viruses adopt. As I have not been able to test this VBS file, you should use it at your own risk!

Concerning your final problem with your video card, I assume that you are using the AGP port on your computer for the card(s). If this is the case, the problem is more than likely related to the AGP port since the problem persists even after changing video cards. Start by looking at the excellent article at the nVidia site: www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=IO_20011119_6325. However, if you have worked through the article and everything checks out, the problem is probably to do with your AGP port, in particular, the AGP aperture size. Look in your BIOS again under the advanced options area. There should be a setting for the AGP aperture size. As a general rule, aim to make this about half of the size of your physical RAM.