COMPUTERS

Many of my other interests and hobbies require me to use a personal computer. Over time one comes across issues and problems, which hopefully get solved. The purpose of this page is to details a few problems and solutions I have encountered.

Problem 1

My work PC is an LG E500 laptop. It is running Windows Vista. I quickly found that my wireless internet connection was dropping out several times a day. This manifested itself with a little yellow triangle appearing over the internet connection icon on the bottom right of my screen. If I didn't notice it, it could mean I was late seeing important incoming emails. After a lot of research where I found some people had returned their computers to LG to have new wireless cards fitted. I also found one suggestion on a message board, which required a flash to the bios. I could not find the flashing software and instructions on the LG site suggested. I eventually found another site which had it, by searching Google for "WLAN connectivity improvement by BIOS flash". I tried it and the problem went away. I was a bit nervous about flashing the bios, but there was no problem. Make sure you use the right version of the software which matches your operating system and version number of you computer (underneath the computer should be a label with a serial number and a model number. Mine said M/N:E500-S.XXXX, so my version number was S).

I found the flash software and instructions at http://www.notebook-driver.com/lg/xpvistalg-e500-wlan-connectivity-improvement-by-bios-flash/ if that site should disappear at some point, try searching Google as I did.

Problem 2

Shortly after buying a new desktop computer, I found that people could not hear me when I tried to use a microphone to speak to them using MSN Messenger, Skype, Yahoo Messenger etc. The onboard sound seemed to be provided by Realtek, based on the mixer which popped up when I clicked the little speaker icon in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

Strangely (to me anyway) the input microphone control was greyed out. I eventually found that by scrolling to the right (see the control the red arrow is pointing at on the picture above) on the output volume controls, there was another microphone control (Mic Volume as an output - weird!), but it controlled the volume of the Mic and people could hear me again. Notice also the two little dots .. next to the Mic mute button. Clicking this opens an advanced settings panel which has a Mic Boost check box.

Problem 3

Sometimes I use a program called DVD Decrypter to burn ISO files onto DVD. Usually I found that the DVDs burnt would play on my stand alone DVD player attached to my TV, but sometimes they would not.

After burning, a message pops up saying "Operation Successfully Completed!" and a little jingle plays. If I don't then press the OK button on the completion message and wait a few seconds before removing the DVD, it will not work as a standalone DVD. I notice that after pressing the OK button, there is further write activity on the DVD burner. My version of DVD Decrypter is 3.5.4.0. If I do press the OK button and wait a few seconds until the burner light stops flashing, then the DVD works perfectly.

Problem 4

I noticed that after months of operating perfectly under Windows XP, it suddenly started running CHKDSK on one of my hard drives every time I booted my computer up. Each time CHKDSK would not find any errors on the drive in question, but sure enough it would run again the next time I booted up. This of course was no disaster, but it did waste a lot of time. I did try running CHKDSK from inside Windows Explorer, but it reported that the drive was in use and CHKDSK would be run on restart (which is exactly what I had been hoping to stop).

After some research I found the following advice (which worked):-

[Start] [Run] [Type in: cmd] [OK]

In the command panel type in [chkntfs c:] (substitute c: with another drive letter if C is not the drive with the problem).

[Enter]

I then got the message [C: is dirty]

Still in the command panel type [chkdsk /f /r c:]

[Enter] Now wait a while as CHKDSK performs its tests. Assuming everything is OK CHKDSK will unset the "dirty" switch.

I then ran [chkntfs c:] again

This time I got the message [C: is not dirty]

Now CHKDSK has stopped running each time I boot up, which is exactly what I wanted.

MORE PROBLEMS

Use the index at the top left of this screen to access more problems I have encountered and their solutions.