For some time now a blue screen of death appears on a random basis with the following message: “DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. STOP CODE: 0×100000d1 (0×0000006a, 0×00000005, 0×00000000, 0xf867e875 atapi.sys address F867E875 base at F86790000, DATESTAMP 41107b4d”. How can I stop these errors from occurring? The computer is running Windows XP SP2. (more…)

In a recent tip of the week we discussed file synchronisation between a portable drive and a computer which can be quite useful for situations such as synchronising data between a home and work computer. A free tool we discussed in the past was SyncToy. Recently, Microsoft released a new version of SyncToy which has several improvements and also a version which natively supports 64-bit (useful for those who are using Windows Vista 64-bit). The latest version of SyncToy (version 2.0 final) can be downloaded from: www.microsoft.com/downloads .

My Windows XP connects the internet through a wireless network connection, but this does not work reliably. When I open Firefox or Internet Explorer to use the internet the browser often times-out with a message that the server is taking too long to respond. Likewise, when checking my email with Thunderbird the same issue occurs and I cannot download new email. I suspected this problem may be related to the firewall so I disabled the Windows Firewall. Now Thunderbird works 90% of the time, but Firefox and Internet Explorer only work around 50% of the time. Interestingly enough, when Thunderbird and/or the web browsers are not working I can still download updates for Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware, so although the internet connectivity is working this is not the case for web or email access. Another computer shares the wireless internet connection and works without problem. (more…)

Recently I switched computers and needed to transfer my iTunes Library (consisting of music imported from CDs and also purchased from the iTunes store) between the two computers. Fortunately, iTunes 8 has an inbuilt backup and restore facility allowing the easy transfer of the iTunes Library between computers. For instructions on using this feature, visit the following Apple Support article: support.apple.com/kb/HT1382 .

Adobe Reader will not properly install on my computer. After installing the program the icons for several programs (such as Word, Paint, Excel, etc) all change to the Adobe Reader icon and these programs will no longer open, instead producing an error message such as “Adobe Reader could not open mspaint.exe because it is either not a supported file type or because the file has been damaged”. The computer is running Windows Vista Home Premium. (more…)