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While at work a colleagues old compaq laptop decided to barf up the above stop error code one morning, good ol’ XP. He had shut it down properly and everything but whenever he attempted to start it again the stop error code would pop up and then the computer would do the automatic reboot. To fix this problem I simply booted up from the Windows install disc, entered the Recovery Console ( by pressing “r” when the install screen came up) and then proceeded to run

chkdsk /r 

And that alone fixed the problem file. If I had to guess what had happened from what I’ve read elsewhere it’s possible that the ntoskrnl.exe file became corrupted somewhere along the way and chkdsk was able to repair it.

Greetings,

Today’s tutorial will take us through the basic steps of installing a new CD or DVD drive. Please note that this can be applied to all manners of burners as is also the same basic process for hard drives as long as they are using an IDE interface, not to be confused with a SATA interface. An IDE interface is a 40 pin rectangular connector located on the back of the drive next to the device priority (Master, slave, cable select) jumper. This tutorial will only cover the basics in a Windows based environment.

1.  Shut down the computer and unplug all cords from the back of the system.
2. Place the case on it’s side.
3. Remove screws to access the inside of the case through the side.
4. Depending on your model of computer it may be neccessary to also remove the front bezel at this point. you can determine this by looking at where the CD drive is currently installed and seeing if you can easily access the screws which are holding the drive in.
5. Remove the power and IDE connectors from your CD drive.
6. If the drive was held in place with screws remove them from all sides unless you had to remove the front bezel in which case your drive should slide out of the front of the case.
7. Note the location of the device priority jumper on your drive, it will be located next to the power connector and should be labeled either on the drive’s electronics or on top of the drive with a diagram. It should be either Master, slave, or cable select.
8. Set the new drive to the same priority and reinstall it into the case, being sure to connect both the power and IDE connector to the drive as well as the optional CD audio input if it was installed previously. The CD audio input will be a long slim cable with 3 or 4 holes and connects to the onboard audio or a dedicated sound card, depending how your system is configured.
9. Reinstall any pieces that you removed from the case to install the drive, reconnect all the cords to their corresponding locations on the back of the computer.
10. Power up the computer, if running Windows XP or newer you shouldn’t have any problem with drivers but in case you do be sure to goto the manufactuerer’s website to download them. Also you’ll probably want to install the CD/DVD burning software that came bundled with your drive if applicable.

That’s it, all done nice and neat. Another thing you might want to do while you’re inside your case is clean it out with a can of compressed air and a vacumn and check the status of your fans on your CPU and case.

Hello, today’s post will be about setting up TightVNC . For those of you who don’t know TightVNC is a software similar to Remote Desktop that is already bundled with Windows XP Pro. One of the major advantages of TightVNC vs. Remote Desktop is that TightVNC comes with the ability to allow remote connections through a Java applet so no client software is necessary. Below are the steps to install TightVNC in Windows

1. Goto TightVNC’s Homepage
2. Download & install the TightVNC Server
3. As you go through the install be sure that the run TightVNC checkbox is checked, also you have the option of installing TightVNC as a service, this step is optional, but benefical as it allows for updates that require restarts.
4. Assuming that TightVNC is running, you should have a small icon with a V in down down in your task bar by the clock, go ahead and right click on that icon and then go up to properties.
5. Be sure to type in a password in this main screen. Also I personally set the ports to something besides the default 5800 (main) and 5801 (HTTP) as it’s a security risk to do that especially if the server is going to be accessible via a web server.
6. In order to test your connection hop onto another computer on the same local network and then type in “http://(your ip address):(your port)” and you should get access to the HTTP Daemon with the Java applet login.

Now you can connect reasonably securely to manage remote systems, saving a commute when mom’s computer gets fussy.

If anyone has any ideas for future posts please let me know, keep in mind we’re trying to stay in the general field of computer tutorials.