PCTech Forums

hi everyone since i got my laptop about a year ago my old computer was sitting in the spare room gathering dust, we were having a clearout and i found the comp and asked my aunt, whos 50, if she would like it to mess around with and she said yeah so we took it to her house and set it up.

She took to it incredibly fast and now has the internet.
With a 3GB hd and 32mb of RAM it isnt fast but for her it is perfect, she had never had a comp before. ANyway she has told me about two problems which were on the computer when i had it but i ignored, however i want to fix them for her.

PROBLEM ONE
When my aunt tries to any programme wordpad should open, it comes up with ''please type the location of 602 text.exe'' this was obviously a programme i installed and uninstallled, how do i reconfigure wordpad files to open with wordpad? i tried folder options but i couldnt seem to get anywhere

PROBLEM TWO
This is hard to explain and is to do with sound. After i had the old comp about two years, the sound startied messing up. Basically at random times, when a sound is made the sound will freeze and constantly repeat the last sound, for example '' welcome to aol-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l'' and it doesnt stop. THis happens sometimes at the start of mps3s or in the middle, or if you resume from paused. But it 99% of the time happens during every computer session. I tried reinstalling the sound card but nothing worked.

PLEASE HELP THANKYOU SO MUCH IN ADVANCE

As for problem 2 with older sound cards there is quite often a skip if you try to open two programs with sound. There are times when I try to run two programs at the same time and get constant skips. Perhaps invest in a new, cheap sound card or a good cheap used one.

i dont THINK thats the problem. it happened yesterday when we opened aol, no other programme was running or had been run. so a new sound card would definitely erase the problem?

I wouldnt take my word for it. Wait a while and see what other suggestions come from other techies. Im can only suggest things. One thing I do know is when I see an old system that has been sitting around for a while I like to take the covers off it, blow it out with air to clean it well, perform a reformat and start fresh with no surprises. But once again thats just me. You could also probably get another 32 md ram card for next to nothing these days and help the memory. Daniel

PROBLEM ONE
Hold down the "Shift" Key while Right Clicking a WordPad File / Select "Open With" / Scroll and select WordPad and make sure to check the box: "Always use this Program..."

PROBLEM TWO
What Program is being used to play the sound files....other than Aollll??
Try updating that sortware or:
Try going to the Web site for you audio card and get the most recent drivers and update them.

brad

Im gonna agree with badpolarbear and say the sound problem could possibly be related to the memory.32 megs and aol isnt a good match.32 megs isnt really a good match with anything,if you update drivers or change the card with out the success your looking for,you may consider adding a little more memory.

If or when you do decide to put another ram card in remember you must put in another card of the same value as the one in there. In other words if you have a 32 mb card in the system dont try to put a 64mb or 128 mb card because it wont work. It is possible that the system could handle 2 64 mb cards but check with the specs for the machine.

brad, thanks for problem one solution, will try ASAP

and as for which programme, it could be anything and everything. Sometimes playing music, sometimes when you minimize a window, sometimes that little ''click'' internet explorer makes when you click a link.

as for updating drivers etc..the comp is 5 years old i have no clue whatsoever as to the makes etc

Go to START, RUN, type in regedit then click ok. Then follow these directions, HCKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion. Open Current Version and all the info about the system is there. Daniel

your problem with the soundcard could be a conflicting IRQ, DMA, or Memory address. Check the device manager for yellow exclamation points or red x's

I've found the best way to resolve those types of problems is not to do it with windows plug-n-play software (win 98 and before did a LOUSY job with plug-n-play hardware). Instead, shut down the computer and move the affected device.

I'd move the soundcard to another slot just to see what happens...

thanks for the advice , im going to get a professional because i have no clue about inside the comp or hpw to swap sound cards etc. thanks though!