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FAQS! FACTS! FAX! 576 (31/07/07)
Q. I have AVG freeware anti-virus on my
Windows XP SP2 computer and recently I had to re-validate the licence. However
it won’t let me as it says "AVG installation date is more recent than the
current system date. Please check the current system date settings". I've
checked the time clock & date on the toolbar and they are synchronised to
the correct time and date. I cannot update my licence details and cannot find
any way to fix this.
A. Regan, via email
A.
AVG or a recent signature or update download could be corrupt. There may have
been a problem with your PC’s system time when it was installed but whatever
the cause this is the kind of fault that you can waste a great deal of time on
so I would take the easy way out. Uninstall AVG, remove all traces of the
program and start again. Use the uninstaller in Add/Remove Programs in Control
Panel then clear out any remnants by deleting the Grisoft folder in C:\Program
Files, and the AVG library file in C:\Documents and
Settings\<yourname>\Application Data. Afterwards I would run the free
Registry cleaner RegSeeker,
then you can then start over with a fresh installation and hopefully this time
everything should go smoothly.
Q. Please can you help with a query about
Internet radio? I am considering signing up for broadband and one of the low
cost packages would appear to suit my needs, however, can you tell me if the
download limits include listening to the BBC’s Listen Again service?
Geoffrey Hamilton, via email
A.
As far as your ISP is concerned all data downloaded onto your PC from the
Internet counts against your limit, whether it’s web pages, images or
multi-media files, and that includes streamed audio from the BBC. For example,
listening to the Archers online involves around 6kb/s (kilobits per second), or
around 3.5Mb of data per minute, so you can see it wouldn’t take many trips to
Ambridge to use up your monthly allocation. If you were going to make a habit
of listening to Internet radio then I would think seriously about paying extra
for an uncapped service.
Q. Is there any way of jazzing up the
‘signature’ in Outlook Express to make it look more interesting? I have tried
changing the typeface and style but all I get is plain text. Emails I receive
from others often include images and real signatures, how can I do that?
Alice Lockwood, via email
A.
If you take another look at the Outlook Express signature dialogue box (Tools
> Options > Signatures), you will see at the bottom there’s an item
marked ‘File’. This allows you use an image, maybe a copy of your own
signature, or a logo or a picture etc. stored on your PC. However, there is a
catch. The file in question has to be created using HTML (Hypertext Markup
Language), which is the code used to create web pages. Don’t worry, it’s not as
complicated as it sounds but there are a few steps involved but rather than
list them out here take a look at the step by step guide in Boot
Camps 372 and 373.
Q. After around 20 minutes the display on
my Windows XP PC changes. Text becomes thin and difficult to read and colours
look washed out. Nothing I do will get it back to normal and the only way to
restore it is to reboot.
Arnold Greyson, via email
A.
We can be fairly certain that it has something to do with your PC’s video
adaptor but you are going to have to do a little detective work, to find out if
it is a hardware or software fault. Hopefully it’s the latter and it might just
be a corrupt display driver. Open Device Manager (Winkey + Break > Hardware
> Device Manager) and scroll down the list to Display Adaptors, click to
expand the tree to display the make and model of your video card. You should
now have enough information to download the most recent driver for your card
from the manufacturer’s web site. The installation method varies from one make
or type to another but there should be a how to do it guide on the download
website.
If the fault persists
then I’m afraid that it’s likely to be a hardware fault, which could prove
expensive. Unfortunately but there’s no easy way to find out, other than by
installing a known good video card. It’s not difficult, but unless you have one
to hand, and know your way around the innards of a PC then this is the sort of
job that’s best left to a professional.
Q. My XP Pro laptop died, but not the hard
drive, which I have removed and put into an external HD box and can access it
when plugged into another computer; (operating on Vista home), via a USB port.
I can recover all of the lost files except
those that were stored under ‘My Documents’. These are not visible. Why is this
and what can I do to get them back? They are obviously there, just not readily
accessible. Unfortunately it is the ones between back-ups (i.e. the most
recent) that I need the most urgently
This is truly a concern and seems to be
lesson to be learned, in hindsight, about accepting in good faith the windows
prompt to save files in "My Documents".
William Brown, France
A.
Your ‘My Documents’ folder is on the drive but it is not a single discrete
folder as such. In Windows jargon it’s known as a User Profile component, in
other words it is container for storing the personal data for each person who
uses the computer and there may be several My Documents folders. Windows makes
it appear more accessible by displaying it on the Start menu and at the top of
the directory tree in Windows Explorer and My Computer but it’s actually
located inside your profile folder, which on an XP computer is normally
C:\Documents and settings\<yourname>\<yourname’s> Documents
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© R. Maybury 2007 1007
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