FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  596 (22/01/08)

Q. I have been following your recent series of articles on Puppy Linux and I have successfully created a boot CD and even managed to configure Puppy and connect to the Internet. However, as you point out in your last article, to be really useful it would be more convenient to boot from a flash drive. I followed your procedure, and that seems to have gone OK with the files appearing on the drive. The problem is, my laptop (which is under a year old and running XP) flatly refuses to boot from the drive. I have changed the boot sequence in the BIOS and put the flash drive right at the top, but all to no avail. Any ideas?

Paul Zimmermann, via email

A. If the files are on the drive then it should work, but I have also had problems booting Puppy from some flash drives. I can see no rhyme or reason to it and I’ve even had drives from the same manufacturer, where one works and the other doesn’t. All I can suggest is try another drive, and for what it is worth I have found that the BIOS’s on some XP PCs and laptops seem to be more tolerant towards cheaper or unbranded drives.

Q. I have a new Vista laptop and Windows Mail replaces Outlook Express but 'identities' has gone leaving multiple email identities to be selected on the 'From' bar, rather like Outlook. Signatures is proving to be problematic, however. All the logic seems to be there, you can create multiple signatures and have a default signature but in practice it doesn't work! Where am I going wrong?

Steve Jarrett

A. It’s not very intuitive but it does work. Go to Tools > Options > Signature and create as many signatures as you require then uncheck ‘Add signatures to all outgoing messages’. Now, when you create a new message click into the message body, go to Insert > Signature, and select the signature you want to use

Q. I have a 3-year old Dell Dimension PC and it's running a bit slowly. I've tried all the usual spyware checks and optimiser programs, and recently upgraded the RAM to 2Gb, but I haven't noticed much improvement. A year or so ago this happened and I did a complete re-format of the hard-drive, re-installed Windows (and all the other applications I use) and things started smoothly again.

Before I do that again, and as I have recently added an external hard drive, I wondered what was the best way to proceed? Is there some way I can transfer all my applications to the external drive - to save me having to re-download and install them and re-enter all the licence codes etc - or is that not possible?

Also, I have been thinking for some time about changing to the Bantu Linux operating system instead of re-installing Windows. I assume that there are some drawbacks (otherwise why is it free?) but I'm not sure what they are and if this operating system is suitable for home use by a family who know next to nothing about computers. I wondered what your thoughts were on Linux, and if there is any way to try it out without massive upheaval to our whole system?

Phil M., via email

A. A well-used XP PC will get quite sluggish after a year or two but there’s a lot you can do to speed it up – see Boot Camp 355.

If you do go for a new installation there’s no alternative to reloading all of your programs since most applications need to copy files into Windows System folders and make changes to the Registry. You can streamline the process by copying the installation files and downloads for all of the small programs and utilities that you use into one folder and copy that to a DVD. You should also have a look at Boot Camps 485 to 489 ‘Moving to a new PC’, which deals with this very topic. 

As for Linux, Ubuntu is one of the distributions I would recommend to anyone accustomed to Windows. There’s certainly nothing wrong with it, in fact it has many advantages over Windows, not least a near immunity to viruses and it is very stable. The only downside is that a particular application or program, which you rely upon, may not be available in a Linux version, though there is generally a very decent (and usually free) alternative. Some things in Linux also take a bit of getting used to and are not always as straightforward as Windows, installing programs for example, but you’ll soon get the hang of it. The other advantage of Linux is that it makes it easy to dual boot Windows, so you can run both operating systems side by side on one PC. See Boot Camp 446 for a simple to follow guide.

Q. Having recently replaced my computer I gave my old system to my son and loaded a new copy Windows XP Home onto it. All went well except that it doesn't appear to recognise the sound card and will not play any sound at all. I have looked at various troubleshooting websites and cannot find this particular problem answered. I wonder if I should just get the sound card replaced or is there any easier fix?

Alan Reed, via email

A. My guess is the sound card or adaptor is fine and you haven’t installed the driver software that Windows needs to communicate with it. If the sound adaptor is built into the PC’s motherboard the driver should be on the utilities disc that came with the computer. If it is a plug-in card, and you haven’t got a disc for it, you’ll have to download the driver from the Internet. Open Device Manager (Winkey + Break > Hardware > Device Manager) check the Sound, Video and Game Controllers item, which will probably be flagged by a yellow exclamation mark. Right click on the sound card or adaptor entry, make a note of the make and model number then pop along to the manufacturer’s website and download and install the latest XP driver.

If you have a computer problem write to: fff@telegraph.co.uk

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