Since we are now in that week between Christmas and New Year I hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas and would like to wish you a Happy New Year. I look forward to continuing to answer your computer questions into 2010 and beyond.

Windows XP computer will run perfectly fine for around 10 minutes after booting up and then freeze for 10 seconds. This cycle will repeat over and over again and I do not know what is the cause of the problem. Could you point me in the right direction? (more…)

When listening to music while burning a DVD the music sounds scratchy and distorted. It does not matter whether I am using iTunes or Windows Media Player to listen to music, both have the same result. The computer is running Windows XP. (more…)

After reading your recent advice on using the Windows Backup utility I decided to use the utility to create an Automated System Recovery set. All goes well until the wizard requires me to insert a floppy disk to create the recovery disk. The computer does not recognise the floppy in the drive and produces a message saying “Please insert a disk into drive A”. I have tried a number of other floppy disks and was always presented with the same message. Previously, the computer recognised floppy disks, so I do not know why this no longer works. Is there is a driver (or something) that needs to be installed for the drive? The computer is running Windows XP. (more…)

For those people who use Mozilla Thunderbird, the latest version of this email client Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0 was recently released. This boasts a changed user interface together with various other usability and functionality improvements. Additionally, those who have not yet tried Thunderbird may wish to take the leap to using this excellent multi-platform, open-source client. Thunderbird can be downloaded from www.mozilla.com/thunderbird .