Q. I’ve tried suggestions from every tech person I could find, but nothing has solved the problem. I use Windows 95 and AOL. After I spend any appreciable time on the Internet, my “system resources” abruptly drop to zero. Unless I reboot, the system freezes. Why does this keep happening? How can I stop it?
Steven L. Stern, Millburn, N.J.
A. You can blame your problem on America Online, whose bosses have somewhat arrogantly decided to continually upgrade whatever AOL software is running on any computer that logs on to the service. Virtually all AOL users are familiar with this process, where after they sign off from AOL a window pops up announcing that it is updating the software.
As the upgrades get more complex, many older machines can’t handle them as well as they once could. Since you are running a now-antique Windows 95 machine, you probably started out with the AOL 3.0 software, and over the years the software onboard your machine has been continually upgraded until it incorporates much of the current AOL 6.0.
Since AOL 6.0 is designed for optimum use on today’s Pentium III-level machines, it clearly is more than your PC’s resources can accommodate. Only two solutions come to mind, and one of them is to drop your AOL subscription and try a less resource-hungry Internet service provider. You may be able to get by, however, by making sure that the only software running when you go online is America Online itself.
If that doesn’t work, and if you just got to have your AOL, the only solution is to cave in to the computer industry’s planned obsolescence and purchase a new computer.
Q. My computer will not let me complete the disk defragmenting that Microsoft says will efficiently rearrange the data on the hard drive so that it can be accessed as quickly as possible. I set my computer up through Scheduled Tasks so that it would run the disk defragmenter once a week. When it runs, it only defragments about 3 percent and then starts over with 0 percent but never gets past the 3 percent. What is the problem?
David Weis, Tampa
A. Welcome to the club of millions of frustrated Windows users who experience the same glitch, Mr. W. That’s because almost every user of Windows is running some kind of program that frequently activates the drives, and any time any program causes the hard drive to spin it disrupts the process of defragmentation. When that happens, and it happens to nearly everybody, the defrag module included in Windows is forced to start over again.
This is because defragmentation amounts to having the computer rearrange all the data on the hard drive so that each executable program’s code is placed neatly where the hard drive gets read first, and information such as text files, pictures and such get stacked further away. To do this the computer copies information from one part of the drive into memory, then erases the cleared up space and moves the code that needs to be read first to the newly freed space where the drive’s reading mechanism will find it quickest.
With that in mind, I’m sure you can see why any attempt by other software to move the hard drive confuses the defragmentation process and forces it to stop and start over again. The best way to get past this is to restart your computer in what is called Safe Mode, where no added software can run in the background, and then run the defragmentation from there. Most computers will go into Safe Mode if you hold down the left control key during a reboot. Some machines require you to press the F8 key. If neither of those work, check your manual.
Q. My computer refuses to shut down properly. It is an HP 350 mHz Pentium II running Windows 98. Whenever you select Shut Down from the Start menu, it will just go into Restart automatically instead of giving you the option of shutting down. The only way to shut it down is to turn it off with the power switch. Of course, when you turn it back on it goes through ScanDisk for 10 minutes as it thinks it crashed. Please help!
John Nelson, Peoria
A. First of all, Mr. P., you need to know that it is perfectly permissible to stop your computer from running ScanDisk every time you are forced to use the off switch because the Windows shutdown module isn’t working.
You have discovered the most annoying single aspect of the Windows operating system: The nagging about improperly shutting down the machine and the running of the software to check the hard drive for physical problems such as nicks in the surface.
Although it is a good idea to run ScanDisk every week or so, in cases like yours it also is all right to simply hit the Esc key and the X to bomb out of ScanDisk.
You also can disable the ScanDisk nagging. To do that, click on the Start button and select Run and type in the command “mconfig.” In the menu that pops up, click on the Advanced tab and you will find a check box to disable the automatic ScanDisk nagging.
Meanwhile, I broke out the books and called my best consultants, and as near as I can tell your Windows 98 installation has corrupted, and the only way you can fix it will be to reinstall the operating system. If you don’t want to mess with that, you can always follow my advice on disabling ScanDisk and muddle through.
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Q. I recently downloaded Netscape 6, and it changed all my JPEG files to something that can only be opened with Netscape 6. I tried uninstalling Netscape 6 but then I couldn’t open the JPEG files at “a;;”. What happened and how do I undo it?
John Van Steenhuyse @juno.com
A. Both Netscape and the Microsoft Internet Explorer try to register themselves as the default software for displaying JPEG files. So I am going to assume that you were using Internet Explorer to display those pictures before you tried Netscape. So now you need to re-establish an association between JPEG-type picture files and Internet Explorer.
These file associations are controlled by clicking the My Computer icon on the desktop and then choosing View and Folder Options. In the box that comes up, select the File Types choice.
In the next display will be a window showing all of the file types on your computer. Scroll down that list until you find the one for JPEG. Highlight that JPEG icon and then choose the Edit option. Also choose Edit in the display that comes up.
The next display is where you choose the application that you want to run whenever you click on a JPEG icon. To find the Microsoft Internet Explorer software, click on the Browse selection that you will find on the right side of the menu. Use that feature to move through the folders on your hard drive. First open Program Files, then open the Internet Explorer folder under the Program Files. Now look in the pane that comes up on the right hand side of your display for a file called iexplore.exe. Click on that and your computer will associate JPEGs with the Internet Explorer and open them using that software in the future, instead of looking for that Netscape 6.0 that you unloaded.
If this sounds horribly complicated, it is. You might find an easier solution by simply reinstalling Windows 98, which will restore the association with JPEG’s and the Microsoft Web browser. The CD containing Windows 98 and instructions for restoring the operating system are in the manuals that came with your PC.
Q. My objective is to be able to view 35 mm slides via some sort of CD/DVD player through a television. I have several hundred 35 mm slides that I want to preserve as they are starting to fade. I know I can scan them and then write them to a CD as JPEG files. Does the technology exist that would allow me to then play them back to a standard television set without using a computer? I want it to be as easy as possible for my family to view them; ideally by just putting them into some type of CD/DVD player and then watching them.
John A. Flynn @ual.com
A. Mr. F., you have described a product that is said to be on the drawing boards at several high-tech companies, where the next big gadget is expected to be an affordable DVD burner that will allow ordinary consumers to record movies–and, of course, still photos–on disks that can be played along with DVD movies on television sets.
Until then, the best way for distributing home photography for viewing by friends and relatives on their television sets is by making analog videotapes that can be shown in ordinary VCRs. The best way to create these videotapes is by using any one of a wide variety of converters that output computer monitor display as NTSC video, the analog data used by those VHS tapes we all know and love so well.
Take a look at the slick Dazzle USB Digital Video Creator, a $200 device that includes the ability to create slide shows of still photography and output them to a VCR for creation of custom tapes. The Dazzle also permits editing of videotapes from camcorders or VCRs. With features such as transitions and title-making, you would find Dazzle is a superb way to share those 35 mm masterpieces while we all await the arrival of affordable consumer DVD burners.
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Contact Jim Coates via e-mail at [email protected] or via snail mail at the baiduhai, Room 400, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611. Questions can be answered only through the column. Add your point of view at chicagotribune.com/go/askjim