I am running a 486 DX66 with 20mb ram with Windows 95. When I restart my computer every day I now notice that my clock time (in the system tray) has lost ground. It can be anything from two to eight hours out. The strange thing is that if I have the computer off, for example, for six hours, the clock is not always six hours behind. (When the computer is on, the time is accurate). Does this mean that my computer battery is failing? Or could some program be interfering with the clock? (I won’t list them all but I did notice the problem seemed to occur after I installed WordPerfect 8 and Windows Messaging - but that could be a coincidence). If it does mean my computer battery is failing, are they expensive to replace and can I do it myself? I am fairly computer-literate. (more…)

I have had a problem with my ISP. I got a letter from my ISP stating that my 300mb unlimited account has been breached by approx. 2700mb! I would have assumed before this happens that I would get a letter from my ISP saying that my download quota has been exceeded. I have been connected to the internet for 6 months and my average usage per month is between 250 and 350mb. I have not used my net service any more than usual during this month and I have now been told that my account has been logged onto at odd hours (eg. when I was at work and while I have been sleeping!). Help! I think I’ve been hacked. (more…)

I am having difficulty getting my ‘Calendar.exe’ and ‘Calendar.hlp’ files to open. I was in Calendar and put some dates and times in OK. Now however I get the message ‘Stop. This application has violated system integrity due to execution of an invalid instruction and will be terminated. Quit applications, quit windows and then restart Windows and your computer’ I cannot open a lot of files including all help files. Can you please help? I am running Windows 3.1. (more…)

My 14in colour monitor displays a split screen with the same information on both sides. It does this on all the computers I connect it to. It didn’t used to. How do I fix it? (more…)

I have just been told that my computer is probably infected with the Happy99 virus. My advice is that it’s a worm/trojan type virus, whereby it plants itself on my hard drive and sits there until it corrupts it. The awful part is that it can attach itself to my outgoing email without my knowledge. My anti-virus software, which has been updated recently, did not even pick up this worm virus. What can I do to eradicate it? (more…)