FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  619 (01/07/08)

Q. I am on BT broadband and my PC is connected to a BT Home Hub via an Ethernet cable. I used to have a laptop linked to it by a wireless card but I no longer use that. Every so often I notice that the wireless and Internet lights on the hub flash. Does this mean that someone is connecting to my hub? Can I disconnect the wireless part of the hub to prevent anyone from using the wireless connection, and if so how?

B Wilson, Scotland.

A. I don’t think it’s a serious attempt to hack into your wireless connection. If it were I would expect the activity lights to be flashing continuously, moreover, unless you have disabled the WEP/WPA encryption there’s very little chance anyone could gain access to it.

I suspect the brief flashes are simply your neighbour’s wireless enabled PCs and laptops being switched on and off, or re-establishing their own wireless connections. The Wi-Fi utilities on PCs scan for networks and ‘interrogate’ them, to reveal their SSID (Server Side Identity or wireless network name), and whether or not they are encrypted. This is perfectly normal and not a security risk, and the flashing lights are simply your Home Hub responding.

If you want to disable the wireless facility you need to access the hub’s Configuration menu. There are several different versions of the BT Home Hub so consult your user manual for details. Normally it just involves typing an IP address into your web browser though on some models you’ll need the installation CD. Once you have logged on look for the Advanced or Wireless menus section and there should be a check box to enable or disable the ‘Interface’.  

Q. On checking my XP laptop’s C: drive Properties it shows that 50Gb of space has been used. But if I select C: and select ‘All Files’ - having got it to show all hidden and protected System files - they add up to a total of only 15 GB.  So where has the remaining 35Gb of disk space gone?

Alex Mazaraki, via email

A. Your hard drive is awash with files – some of them huge -- that won’t necessarily show up when you examine the drive’s contents in Windows Explorer. They include fairly innocuous things like the Hiberfile, which is used to save Windows and running programs when the computer goes into Hibernation mode, and System Restore backups. There are lots of other hidden and protected files as well, such as the notorious index.dat, which logs your web surfing activities from the day you switch on your PC, though in general these are relatively small and unlikely to account for much of the missing space.

Your drive may also have a hidden partition, used for Windows Installation and recovery files, and chunks of the drive may even be corrupt or unusable. Even so 35Gb is still a fair slice of storage space to go missing. You may be able to solve the mystery with a small freeware utility called SpaceMonger (http://tinyurl.com/3g8n2x). It displays the contents of the drive graphically and it also shows you if the drive has been partitioned.

Q. I am looking to upgrade my tower PC, which runs Windows XP. It has 1Gb of RAM and a 40Gb hard drive. I want to be able to run Microsoft Flight Simulator X. I would appreciate your advice.

Vince Stafford, via email

A. According to Microsoft the minimum system requirements for Flight Simulator X is an XP PC with a 1GHz processor, a minimum of 256Mb of RAM, 14Gb of free hard disc space and a 32Mb Direct X 9 compatible video card. I have to say I think MS are having a laugh with those specs. Whilst FSX can probably be configured to run on such a slow and underpowered PC, it’s going to be a thoroughly miserable experience, with slow, low resolution and stuttery graphics.

This is a demanding application and the general consensus in the gaming community is that it needs a PC with at least a 3GHz processor, a minimum of 2Gb of RAM and nothing less than a 512Mb video card. I suspect you could trim those figures a little and still enjoy the game but by the sound of it your PC is a few years old and upgrading it to anything like that sort of spec would be impractical or prohibitively expensive.

Q We are trying to update our XP SP2 PC with XP Service Pack 3 but are having problems installing it from the Windows Update site. Whenever we try we just get a message saying that it failed to install. When I click on the red cross, to get help as suggested it does not respond.  I have tried 5 times with no joy. It appears that Microsoft want £40, plus VAT to assist me, from the support website. Are we alone or are other people also having trouble with this very large update?

Ian Ainsworth, via email

A. The SP3 rollout has gone reasonably smoothly, considering the number of PCs involved, but needless to say there have been a fair few problems. One of the most common ones is frequent, unasked for reboots after installing the Service Pack. This happens on PCs with AMD processors running Norton software. MS and Symantec blame each other but there are fixes and workaround; see this Symantec web page for some possible answers: http://tinyurl.com/6kgle7.

However, you never got that far, but you are not alone. I suggest that you have a look at a Microsoft article called 'Steps to take before you install Windows XP Service Pack 3' (http://tinyurl.com/6bdaq6). Initially this dealt with preparing PCs for SP3, but it is now a clearing house for SP3 problems and includes a troubleshooting section with the most common error messages and codes plus links to relevant Microsoft Knowledgebase articles.

There’s another possible solution for a failed installation, which I couldn’t see listed in the MS website, and that’s to uninstall an earlier Windows update. Go to Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel and remove ‘Hotfix’ .Net Framework 1.0 KB886905 (don’t worry, you won’t miss it…).

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

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© R. Maybury 2008 0906