My computer is a Pentium II 366 MHz with a 4GB hard drive (500 MB free), running Windows 98. My main problem is the speed at which the system operates. The computer boots and switches between programs very slowly, even though I regularly run the Maintenance Wizard, with Scandisk and Disk Defragmenter. I read in one of your earlier articles something about spyware, and the process for eliminating this - could this be part of the problem? (more…)

My computer is only a few months old, but about a month ago the computer started to turn itself on. This happens sometimes straight after turning it off, or sometimes hours later. So, I have been turning the computer off at the wall. The computer is a Pentium 4 running Windows XP Professional. (more…)

Recently I upgraded the CPU in my machine from a Celeron 667 MHz to a Celeron 1 GHz. However, when the computer performs the power-on self test the computer seems to think the old 667 MHz chip is still in the machine, and returns the message: ‘CPU changed or inoperable’. The message refers me to the BIOS setup to select the type of processor. However, I cannot change the name of the processor, but only modify settings for the old CPU. In other words, there is nowhere I can select the 1 GHz processor. (more…)

My computer is plagued with problems!
‘¢ When the computer starts the following message always appears: ‘Error Starting Program: A required.DLL file EZBWORDS.DLL was not found’. After clicking OK another message appears: ‘Error starting Program: C:WINDOWSSYSTEMSTCLOADER.EXE’.
‘¢ When attempting to open Internet Explorer by clicking the little blue ‘e’, the computer appears to be loading the program, but the IE Window does not appear.
‘¢ Constantly I must restart the computer as it always freezes. Loading is extremely slow and takes almost 5 - 10 minutes to start.
‘¢ The CD-ROM drive appears not to recognise disks.
‘¢ Sometimes the following message appears: ‘Kernel32. KERNEL32 caused a general protection fault in module USER.EXE at 0003:00003987′.
‘¢ When attempting to print the following message appears: ‘Internet Explorer Script Error: An Error has occurred in the script on this page. Line: 1174, Char: 1, Error: Unspecified Error, Code: 0, URL: res://c:WINDOWSSYSTEMSHDOCLC.DLL/preview.dlg. Do you want to continue running scripts on this page? Yes/No’.
‘¢ After typing the first couple of letters of a web address into the address bar, a long list of web pages comes up. How can they be deleted?
‘¢ What do Cc: and Bcc: in the address section of email mean?
‘¢ Finally, another message that often appears is ‘Mscnt: This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. If the problem persists, contact the program vendor.’
A friend of my son has a disk that they claim will wipe and reinstall the system. Does this sound right, or is there more to it? The computer is IBM brand.
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Our 10 year old 486 PC is officially dead. Do I buy a new system, or should I repair and upgrade the existing machine? Two years ago I had a bad experience with a local repairer who installed a CD drive and was supposed to make the PC work faster, instead he took parts from the PC; this shook my confidence in ‘reputable’ computer repair companies. I would like to upgrade to at least a Pentium 4 with 512 MB RAM with a large monitor (LCD is not important), a CD-R/RW DVD-R combo drive, and excellent graphics. Also, what other ‘latest’ features should I be looking for? (more…)