Dr.Bobs Computer Problem Page

If you have a problem with your computer and have got the answer to it email me to put it on this page to help others who may be struggling with the same problem.

Disclaimer: Dr Bob does not accept any responsibility for the Tips etc which you may find at this site which may effect your hardware/software/computer by the using of such tips. Please read any instructions/warnings carefully and if in any doubt to proceed seek professional advice before trying.

Q Hello Bob,

I hope someone can help me. Each time I start the computer, my screen if filled with what looks like a scrambled version of the Desktop. It appears in a vertical sort of pattern, which changes to other vertical patterns. The only way I can get rid of it is by pressing "cntrl,. alt. del."

Any ideas?

A. Hi Margaret, I think your display is the problem .start the computer in Safe    Mode to do this press the F8 key repeatedly as it is booting up you should get a menu -choose Safe Mode
when windows starts it will have Safe Mode in each corner -right click on the    desktop -go to the settings tab - and check your display - colours it is probably on 2 or 16 colours or even 256 - change this to 16bit High colour and your screen resolution to 640 x 480 or 800 x 600 - depends on your monitor
if these are right or they won't change your Graphics drivers are missing or        not loaded - reinstall them from your computer disks or get someone who          knows what to do to do it for you - let me know if this solves the problem.      all the best Bob

Q. I have lost my display apart from a few funny lines at the top of the screen and cant see anything in windows - help

A. Start your computer in SAFE MODE ( use F8 key to get the menu ) and go to the control panel - then to DISPLAY - then select the SETTINGS TAB and alter the screen resolution if too large or the number of colours if too high. If that does not get your display right then you need to reinstall your display drivers from your disk or CD that you got with computer.

A1. If you can get hold of a Windows 98 Boot Disk this will do it for you - if your CD drive won't work then the driver support has not got your CD driver so you need to do the following:-

A2. open the Add/Remove Programs control panel and switch to the Startup Disk tab. Insert a blank, formatted disk into drive A and click on Create Disk. Follow the on-screen instructions to create your boot disk. Next insert your CD driver disk into your PC and copy the file with a .sys extension to your boot disk.

Open up Notepad and load in CONFIG.SYS from your boot disk. Add the following line: DEVICE=A:\DRIVER.SYS /D:MSCD001 /V, where DRIVER.SYS is the name of the .SYS file you copied above. Next, choose File, Save.

Now open AUTOEXEC.BAT from your boot disk and the following line: A:\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001. Click Save

Open up the C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ directory, locate MSCDEX.EXE, right-click on it and select Send To, 3.5 Floppy (A:). The file will be copied to your boot disk. Your boot disk is complete now. To test it, shut down your PC and switch it on with the boot disk inserted. Make sure you can access your CD drive to check it works.

Note: If your boot disk fails to recognise the CD drive, chances are your CD driver doesn't recognise the line 'DEVICE=A:\DRIVER>SYS /D:MSCD001/V'. If your driver disk has a manual, open it up in NotePad to find out what line should be placed in the CONFIG.SYS file and enter it, making sure that DEVICE= is set to DEVICE=A:\ , so it references your floppy drive.

A3. If you get an error message - not enough memory to load drivers then the drivers need to be loaded into high memory. So what I did was to copy 4 files to C:\ . These files are HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE from the Windows Directory, MSCDEX.EXE and CDDRIVER.SYS from your boot disk. Now EDIT your AUTOEXEC.BAT file and your CONFIG.SYS file on your FLOPPY DISK so they look like this:-

Autoexec.bat file

LH C:\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001 /V

mode con cp prepare=((850) ega.cpi)

mode con cp select=850

Keyb uk,, keyboard.sys

Config.sys file

DEVICE=C:\HIMEM.SYS /Testmem:off

DEVICE=C:\EMM386.EXE NOEMS

Dos=High,Umb

DEVICEHIGH=C:\CDDRIVER.SYS /D:MSCD001

Files=30

Buffers=30

now you can try it, It should install your CD driver and go to A:\>prompt from where you can install windows direct from cd if you wish by changing to CD drive letter then selecting Win95 directory then setup.exe and pressing enter it will go into windows setup

Q. My screen has gone blank while in windows and I cannot get any picture back. how do I shut down safely?

A. Press the windows key - then the cursor arrow right key - then press Enter (or Return) TWICE. Windows will shut down normally just give it a little time before switching off as it would be showing shutting down logo then safe to switch off logo.

Q. How do I disable items from the 'New' menu when you right click the mouse in win95/98 ?

A. Use Microsoft's TweakUI control panel. Open it and switch to the NEW tab, here you will see the list of all application templates registered on your system. Switching them off or on is a simple tick in the appropriate box.

Q. I once ran across a great tip which involved adding a parameter to the shortcut for the Creative Mixer and then putting it in the startup folder, so that it would start with windows, minimized to the System Tray (not the taskbar ); you could thereby replace the windows mixer with it. Do you know of such a parameter?

A. I posted the question on a BBS and got a reply - If you download the latest version of the mixer it will do this for you