FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  569 (12/06/07)

Q. Do you know of way to reboot a PC showing an ‘lsass.exe error’ message, other than formatting the disk and reinstalling Windows XP?

Joe Marshall, via email

A. That’s a nasty one and nine times out of ten it means your PC has been infected by a ‘worm’ that attacks a vulnerability in the Local System Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS), which handles things like user logons.

Windows won’t boot, which means you can’t fix or disinfect the machine by normal means, but there are a couple of solutions. If you have an XP installation disc you can boot in to Recovery Mode, which opens a DOS like window. From there open the file c:\windows\sytem32\config\ and rename the file ‘security’ to ‘security.bak’. Now open c:\windows\repair and copy the ‘security’ file to c:\windows\sytem32\config\.

If you haven’t got a Windows installation CD then you can create a Rescue disc, I suggest Bart’s PE Builder, which we looked at in Boot Camp 404 or the ‘Ultimate Boot Disc for Windows’ which you can download from: http://www.ubcd4win.com/

Q. We have reformatted the hard drive of a one year old laptop running Windows XP and the computer display is now much bigger and more indistinct and we cannot get it to revert to it's original clarity and size. We have tried changing all the display settings but to no effect!

Gary Forex, via email

A. You haven’t installed he correct video drivers, which should have been supplied on the utility or installation disc that came with your machine. If not you can download the correct one from the manufacturer’s website. Normally the program is self-installing if not you will have to open Device Manager (Winkey +N Break > hardware > Device Manager), double click on the Display Adaptor entry, right click the adaptor, select Properties then Driver and the Update button and when asked browse to the location of your downloaded driver.

Q. We have an Epson CX3650 printer. This is only needed for black printing but the three colour cartridges also get used up, presumably for cleaning. Is there any way to avoid the wastage?

Gordon Hopewell, via email

A. Unfortunately not and regular cleaning is essential to prevent the print head from clogging or drying out.  I think you are just going to have to live with it but you can reduce the cost by using good quality ‘compatible’ cartridges, which are often a fraction of the price of the manufacturer’s originals.

Otherwise you can trick the printer into thinking that the cartridges are permanently full but this is a very risky business and sooner or later they will dry out and you won’t be able to print in colour again. If you want to give it a try download the SSC Service Utility for Epson printers.

This is actually a very handy thing to have as it has a number of extra options not available on the standard Epson printer utility, including separate colour and black cleaning programs, a ‘Powerful’ cleaning mode and it can reset many types of ‘chipped’ cartridge, freeze ink counters and so on.

Q. How can I get rid of old programs from my computer and would it run any faster?

Sheila Butler

A. Removing programs that you no longer use is good practice as it frees up hard disc space but it probably won’t make much difference to your PC’s performance. Most programs can be removed from Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel on the Start menu. Simply select on the application you want to get rid of and click the Remove button. You should only remove one or two items at a time, after which reboot to make sure everything is still working properly. If you remove a lot of programs this can result in your disc filing system becoming disorganised so afterwards ‘defrag’ your hard drive (right-click on the drive icon in My Computer of Windows Explorer and select the Tools tab and click the Defragmentation button). 

However, the reasons Windows slows down are many and varied but it is mostly caused by the gradual increase in the number of programs and ‘services’ that load automatically at boot up. Getting rid of these can be a tedious business but you can get some dramatic improvements. There’s a simple to follow guide in Boot Camps 355 – 357, which you will find in the Archive

Q. Some years ago as an electronics design engineer I used a program called Freelance for designing circuit diagram and printed circuit board layout drawing. This ran under DOS and Win 3.1. Do you know of any comparable program? I have tried the new Freelance but this is a presentation program somewhat akin to PowerPoint and I am now back to squared paper, a draftsman’s pen and drawing templates.

Francis Slane, via email

A. I’m not sure what happened to the old Freelance program but if you still have a copy it’s worth checking to see if it will run on a XP computer. Otherwise there are a number of modern programs that should fit the bill. ExpressPCB is free and includes linked circuit diagram drawing and PCB layout programs for designing 1, 2 and 4 layer boards. Also have a look at another freeware program, called FreePCB, which is a more advanced circuit board design application and can handle up to 8 layers.

Q. I recently built the DT Mk2 Vista PC using the recommended components. I installed Vista Home Premium from the start and it seems to run OK but every now and then the screen goes black leaving just the mouse arrow in view and then recovers. It seems to happen a couple of times a day.  Is this a known Vista problem or something more serious?

John Weight, via email

A. I'm pleased to hear the PC is (mostly) working okay and it sounds to me like you have a video driver problem. The original drivers supplied with the ASRock motherboard were designed to work with the beta release of Vista but there have been several updates since then. The most recent one was in April this year, which is almost certainly newer than the one you have.

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© R. Maybury 2007 0507