A thread for boring computer questions.

I just installed Win XP on my D: drive (I have 2 HDDs). Win 98 is still on C:

I figured my old settings from Win 98 would be xferred automatically to XP, or it'd ask me if I wanted them xferred, but that wasn't the case.

So how can I transfer all my old settings from Win 98 (which is still on my C: drive) to the new OS?

Thanks again!

Suddenly, and for no reason I can discern, my PC (Windows 98, IE6) has somehow grown itself a firewall preventing me from using MSN Messenger. I haven't downloaded anything for ages, although I do use slsk on a regular basis. Is there a possibility that I've inadvertently let something in?

All I want to do is lose the firewall, if indeed it exists, so I can use messenger again. I've tried the Help function but it doesn't even recognise the word "firewall", amazingly!

Anyone?

I have 64 RAM on a G3 Powerbook from '99. I believe I should add some more memory? How much should I add and how do I go about this? (There were specs originally when I bought the computer about how much how I could add, but this was a while ago and Apple seems to have severed all ties to this nostalgia item.)

Access it and Yahoo and whatever else through Trillian.

1) unlock the keyboard by twisting the screw between the F4 and F5 90 degrees, with a small flat bladed screwdriver.

2) Pull back the two catches between esc and F1 and F8 and F9 and fold back the keyboard over the track pad.

3) Remove the two cross head screws that are in the middle of the exposed areas and lift out the metal plate that they fixed in position.

4) Slot the memory module in, angling it at first then lowering it into position.

5) refit the metal plate and keyboard

done

Andy: I believe I got up to the point where I would type xmame [name of rom here], it would give me some gumph about CPU numbers and then exit. It's a bit of a bugger, you might say. I can't remember more precise details as this was a while ago on The Beast. I'm going to take it round to my broadband enabled pals, I reckon, and see if that helps at all. Hurrah for getting a free ethernet card with the laptop and people with dorky home networks! :) I believe I was pointed at a debian build but this was only after I'd spent, literally, hours, downloading and building from source so I might give that a go when I'm on faster connection.

I want to get into a particular chat room, and it uses javascript. Every time I try and get there, my computer freezes up and won't let me in. Do I need to download anything? or enable javascript or something? If so, any ideas how I do this?

Eternally grateful, and sorry to be so dumb etc etc :)

Also a link to the chat rooms would be helpful.

I don't actually know the link to the chat room, because it's accessed only via an icon on a message board which you click - it doesn't seem to show any properties when I right-click on it (it just says 'javascript'). You need to register with the message board (I've been a member there for about three years) and make sure you are logged on (which I am), but I still can't get into chat which is baffling.

Do you get a grey box where the chat window should be?

I don't even get as far as the chat window - sometimes a red sort-of "No Entry" sign flashes up briefly on the screen, as though it's some kind of restricted site (but I've listed the site as trusted and not restricted in my security settings), other times I don't get any warnings - I just can't connect to it, and sometimes the screen just freezes.

They used to have their MB chat room on MSN and I could get into that one just fine. They recently changed to this new one, but it obviously doesn't like me :(

You can get one from Suns java resource site.

http://www.java.com/en/index.jsp

Also I have a new question. How can you help your computer handle video files which have a lag problem between the audio and the video? It seems to depend on the source to an extent (i.e. all files from one site will have the problem, whatever the size of the files) but is there something I can do to minimise such problems? Like, what are the best free-ish programs for showing video? (Again, pretty old computer, Windows 98).

The problems I've had like this in the past do vary depending on what program I use to view. With these files, in Windows Media Player, the audio is consistently behind the video. In Winamp, they shift about, sometimes ahead, then behind, then nearly spot on. I was just wondering if there was a program that sacrifices a little bit of quality in exchange for more stability.

At what point should I throw in with all these upgrades and shell out for a new 'puter?

Will OSX hurt my computer? Perhaps I shouldn't go higher than 9?

Equipment: PowerbookG4 running OSX 10.2.6
Phone: Sony Erikson T68i
Bluetooth
Software: ISync 1.3

Scenario:
Open iSync
plug Bluetooth into USB port
Make phone "Discoverable"
point blue light at the infrared port on the pwerbook
The phone shows up as a Device in iSync
THEN
iSync tells me it can find no devices, therefore can't sync

ARRRGGGHHH.

The objective: To put the contacts from my address book and the iCal calendar INTO my phone.

please help me before i am a whimpering mass of un-tech supported frustration o pleeezee yes i have tried "help"! per-lease! purty pleeezeee!

they have to be paired to work

System Preferences->Bluetooth, use the setup thingummy

(NB rhetorical question)

What CPU do you have?

try Media Player Classic

or BSPlayer

now, I do not have any of the really VALUABLE data from the drive backed up, naturally. I took it to a laptops place in town and they took out the drive and were about to read it but asked me if I had a password on windows and I said I did and they said they could not, then, recover anything from it because of the way windows XP is. well, they said they couldn't recover anything from program folders or from the windows folder. he plugged it in, anyway, but said it wasn't even being recognised. then he told me to come back this week, when his boss would be back from holiday and should be able to access it w/ some linux-based software?

is any of this bullshit?

it should be recognisable w/ perseverence because my computer could tell it was a 30GB drive, even though it is corrupted?

a friend said it's possible [but not 100%ly so] to just format the drive and use some data retrieval progs?

:''' (

Even if there's is an XP password you can just put it as a slave disk in another PC with XP and take ownership of the files.

If the drive can be formatted you can get data off it, do not format the drive.

"but said it wasn't even being recognised" is the big problem, it might be this guy doesnt know how to install a HDD properly but this sounds bad to me.

Depending on the value of the data there is always these people

http://www.ontrack.com/

my friend that said it could be formatted and have data retrieved from also said that the password/windows XP should not be a prob and the files should be available if it was plugged in as a slave drive.

I will find out, tomorrow, when I take it back to the shop.

yeah, I am not bothered about simpsons episodes/mp3s/whatever but all of my photographs from SPECIAL times and a ton of drawings that I NEED. that I should have had back-ups of.

thanx all the same.

This might just be how the files were encoded.