FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  607 (08/04/08)

Q, I'm running Windows XP and recently I have had problems getting my 2Gb USB memory stick to appear in My Computer. It works with another computer and always used to work fine with this one. The problem seems to have surfaced since I bought an external hard drive, which now takes up the E: Drive designation the memory stick used to open on. When I plug the memory stick in the PC chimes as if it has been recognised, but there's no drive listed for it on My Computer.

Steve Ladd, via email

A. Welcome to the strange, magical world of USB connectivity. Fortunately for most PC users, most of the time USB ports and devices behave themselves but every so often something throws a wobbly that defies logical explanation.

I have to hand a very long list of cures, fixes and workarounds and the first one, which is always worth trying when a PC won’t recognise a USB drive is to simply switch the PC off, unplug it from the mains, then either press and hold the On switch for 30 seconds or wait half an hour before rebooting. There are several quite technical theories as to why this should work but I like to think it has something to do with banishing malevolent pixies, but what they hey, give it a try, you’ve got nothing to lose.

Now we get to the more technical solutions. Open XP Disk Management (right-click My Computer and select Manage or type ‘diskmgmnt.msc’ in Run on the Start menu) and if the drive shows up, right-click on the entry and chose Explore. This should force Windows to recognise the drive, if that doesn’t work select ‘Change Drive Letter’ and see if you can manually assign it a drive letter.

Here’s something else to try. Unplug all USB devices connected to your PC then open Device Manager. Delete all entries listed under USB Controllers, reboot into Safe Mode (Press F8 at startup) and repeat the exercise, then reboot and plug in your USB device one at a time, starting with your memory stick and the drivers should be reinstalled.

Finally, if your have installed Tweak UI make sure you haven’t used the facility to hide drive letters, and if you have used the Daemon Tools Optical Media Emulator see here: http://tinyurl.com/2g7fbs

Q I have an iPod but my Windows Vista PC fails to recognise the device. I find the only way I can upload tracks to my iPod is to go through iTunes and download files and folders from the hard-drive. Is there a way I can get Vista to recognise my iPod so that I can just drag any tracks I want from the Windows Media Player?

David Melhuish, via email

A. It is possible on just about every other MP3 player on the market, but that would be much too easy on an iPod as it would loosen Apple’s vice like grip on its technology. Your best bet, if you want to break away from the tyranny of iTunes, is to use an iPod Manager utility. For a rundown of the many freeware and commercial products available take a look at this Wikipedia article: http://tinyurl.com/grgjc

Q. After I download a WinZip or Winrar file, precisely where and how do I extract the content?

Ian Dunningham, via email

A. Let’s begin with ‘zipped’ files, and Windows XP and Vista both have built in file decompression utilities. When you select a ‘zip’ file in My Computer or Windows Explorer you will be presented with the option to ‘Extract All Files’. If you follow this through it will start the Compressed Files Extraction Wizard, and the first dialogue box asks you where you want to extract the files to? I suggest that you ignore the default location (usually the desktop) and create a new folder, call it something like ‘zips08’ and all you have to do is change the default path to C:\zips08\<program name> (where <program name> is the name of the program you are unzipping). Click OK, the files are extracted and on the final dialogue box make sure ‘Show extracted files’ is checked and a new window opens showing the folder containing your unzipped files.

RAR (Roshal ARchive named it’s developer Eugene Roshal) is another file compression system, and this time you need to download a third-party decompression program. WInRAR is the most popular (http://www.rarlab.com/). It is trialware and starts asking for money after 40 days. It continues working but you will see ‘nag’ screens asking you to pay the licence fee, which is fair enough if you are going to keep using it. The procedure is broadly the same, double-click the compressed .rar file icon, WinRAR opens, asks you where you want to extract the file to and lets you change to an existing directory or a new folder of your choosing.

Q. How do I permanently stop Windows Messenger from starting up every time I boot up my Windows XP Pro computer? I have unchecked the box in the start up tab when you run msconfig, but every time I start messenger it automatically puts the tick back in the box. Its not that I don’t use it, I just want to permanently stop it from starting.

John Ashworth, via email

A. I presume you really do mean Windows Messenger, and not MSN or Live Messenger? If it was Windows Messenger, which is an internal network communication system, used by administrators to send messages, and widely abused by advertisers, then you were on the right track. It is a ‘Service’ but disabling it in msconfig will not get rid of it permanently. The way to do that is to go to Run on the Start menu and type ’services.msc’, scroll down the list and double-click on Messenger, under Service Status select Stop and in the Startup Type drop-down menu select Disabled, click OK and close the dialogue boxes.

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

---end---

© R. Maybury 2008 1803