Q: I just reformatted my home computer using the included recovery disc. I ran it, rebooted, and it re-installed everything. I was having a lot of errors and blue screens before. Now after the re-install I am still getting a lot of errors. What did I do wrong?
A: My diagnosis in this case does not spell good news for your computer. Blue screens and General Protection Faults can stem from hardware or software errata. By running the recovery disc you have essentially eliminated the chance of software-generated errors. After a successful software recovery, the OS should be stable. If it isn't, chances are some piece of hardware is passing bad data. I would recommend that you take the computer to a reputable shop for a full diagnostic.
Q: I have a Gateway 2000 that I inherited from my son. I was wondering if there's any way I can record off a musical CD onto a cassette tape? I have a Creative Sound Blaster PCI in my Windows Media Player/Recorder. I'm running Windows Millennium for my operating system.
A: I will fight the urge to make jokes about cassette tapes; to each his own. It is quite easy to record to a cassette player or any other external recordable medium. All you need to do is go get yourself a miniplug-to-RCA cable, available at your local electronics store. The miniplug end will go into the audio/line-out jack on your sound card (your computer speakers might have a similar jack); the RCA end will plug into the inputs on your cassette recorder. Then play your CDs on your computer and it will output to the recorder. Make sure you adjust your line-out volume to avoid distortion.
Q: I operate with Windows 98. Sometimes my computer will refuse to shut down, and I end up doing it manually. I have heard that there is a patch that solves this problem. If so, where or how do I find it?
A: I can't tell you how many times
I have run across this problem. Fortunately, Microsoft was kind of enough to cure this shutdown plague with a wonderful patch that addresses this very issue. The lockup affects systems with certain hardware/software configurations. Translation: Lots and lots of systems have this problem. The easiest way to get the patch is to go through Windows Update, but I have found that this page doesn't always list it as available. Instead of printing the link's massive URL here, I'll have you go to the Microsoft Network http://www.msn.com and search for "Windows 98 shutdown patch." It should be the first link. In the event that this patch doesn't work, you may have other issues, in which case you know my e-mail address.
Q: A computer shop owner told me that an AMD processor is equal to or better than an Intel processor of the same speed, and that Pentium is better known only because Intel spends more money on advertising. Is that true?
A: Let's see, do I feel like getting flame e-mails this week? People seem to take this argument very personally, so I will try to stay very objective. Simply put, yes. AMD and Intel at similar clock speeds perform comparably. However, this was not true until the AMD Athlon was released last year. As an aside, I think that the current crop of AMD Duron and Thunderbird processors are incredible and are extremely affordable.
Special Agent Tyler Shaw beats the streets for troubled users everywhere. Write to him care of the Geek Squad tech@geeksquad.com.
