Microsoft has issued some critical out of cycle updates to address certain security issues. Make sure you have your automatic updates turned on, or visit the Microsoft update site to get these updates.
They are critical and you are considered at risk if you don’t have these latest updates installed. This affects Windows XP, Vista and some server variants.
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Readyboost is the feature in Vista that allows you to add extra RAM with flash/USB drives. This is a useful feature if you have have maxed out your RAM already but still need some more. This usually works well with laptops that have more limited RAM capacities than desktop computers.
This is pretty easy, just do the following:
There you go, Windows Vista should now be faster.
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When your system boots up it will run a self test and beep. Normally 1 short beep means that everything is ok.
However, when something is wrong with your system, the beeping you hear at bootup actually means something. So listen to the beep sequence, because from that you can determine the type of problem.
The beep codes do vary between BIOS manufacturers, so once you establish the beep code, you can just do a quick search on your type of BIOS to find the error.
Here are the Phoenix BIOS beep codes and their meaning:
| Beep Sequence |
Error Message |
Description |
| 1-1-2 | CPU test failure | The CPU is faulty. Replace the CPU |
| Low 1-1-2 | System board select failure | The motherboard is having an undetermined fault. Replace the motherboard |
| 1-1-3 | CMOS read/write error | The real time clock/CMOS is faulty. Replace the CMOS if possible |
| Low 1-1-3 | Extended CMOS RAM failure | The extended portion of the CMOS RAM has failed. Replace the CMOS if possible |
| 1-1-4 | BIOS ROM checksum error | The BIOS ROM has failed. Replace the BIOS or upgrade if possible |
| 1-2-1 | PIT failure | The programmable interrupt timer has failed. Replace if possible |
| 1-2-2 | DMA failure | The DMA controller has failed. Replace the IC if possible |
| 1-2-3 | DMA read/write failure | The DMA controller has failed. Replace the IC if possible |
| 1-3-1 | RAM refresh failure | The RAM refresh controller has failed |
| 1-3-2 | 64KB RAM failure | The test of the first 64KB RAM has failed to start |
| 1-3-3 | First 64KB RAM failure | The first RAM IC has failed. Replace the IC if possible |
| 1-3-4 | First 64KB logic failure | The first RAM control logic has failed |
| 1-4-1 | Address line failure | The address line to the first 64KB RAM has failed |
| 1-4-2 | Parity RAM failure | The first RAM IC has failed. Replace if possible |
| 1-4-3 | EISA fail-safe timer test | Replace the motherboard |
| 1-4-4 | EISA NMI port 462 test | Replace the motherboard |
| 2-1-1 | 64KB RAM failure | Bit 0; This data bit on the first RAM IC has failed. Replace the IC if possible |
| 2-1-2 | 64KB RAM failure | Bit 1; This data bit on the first RAM IC has failed. Replace the IC if possible |
| 2-1-3 | 64KB RAM failure | Bit 2; This data bit on the first RAM IC has failed. Replace the IC if possible |
| 2-1-4 | 64KB RAM failure | Bit 3; This data bit on the first RAM IC has failed. Replace the IC if possible |
| 2-2-1 | 64KB RAM failure | Bit 4; This data bit on the first RAM IC has failed. Replace the IC if possible |
| 2-2-2 | 64KB RAM failure | Bit 5; This data bit on the first RAM IC has failed. Replace the IC if possible |
| 2-2-3 | 64KB RAM failure | Bit 6; This data bit on the first RAM IC has failed. Replace the IC if possible |
| 2-2-4 | 64KB RAM failure | Bit 7; This data bit on the first RAM IC has failed. Replace the IC if possible |
| 2-3-1 | 64KB RAM failure | Bit 8; This data bit on the first RAM IC has failed. Replace the IC if possible |
| 2-3-2 | 64KB RAM failure | Bit 9; This data bit on the first RAM IC has failed. Replace the IC if possible |
| 2-3-3 | 64KB RAM failure | Bit 10; This data bit on the first RAM IC has failed. Replace the IC if possible |
| 2-3-4 | 64KB RAM failure | Bit 11; This data bit on the first RAM IC has failed. Replace the IC if possible |
| 2-4-1 | 64KB RAM failure | Bit 12; This data bit on the first RAM IC has failed. Replace the IC if possible |
| 2-4-2 | 64KB RAM failure | Bit 13; This data bit on the first RAM IC has failed. Replace the IC if possible |
| 2-4-3 | 64KB RAM failure | Bit 14; This data bit on the first RAM IC has failed. Replace the IC if possible |
| 2-4-4 | 64KB RAM failure | Bit 15; This data bit on the first RAM IC has failed. Replace the IC if possible |
| 3-1-1 | Slave DMA register failure | The DMA controller has failed. Replace the controller if possible |
| 3-1-2 | Master DMA register failure | The DMA controller had failed. Replace the controller if possible |
| 3-1-3 | Master interrupt mask register failure | The interrupt controller IC has failed |
| 3-1-4 | Slave interrupt mask register failure | The interrupt controller IC has failed |
| 3-2-2 | Interrupt vector error | The BIOS was unable to load the interrupt vectors into memory. Replace the motherboard |
| 3-2-3 | Reserved | |
| 3-2-4 | Keyboard controller failure | The keyboard controller has failed. Replace the IC if possible |
| 3-3-1 | CMOS RAM power bad | Replace the CMOS battery or CMOS RAM if possible |
| 3-3-2 | CMOS configuration error | The CMOS configuration has failed. Restore the configuration or replace the battery if possible |
| 3-3-3 | Reserved | |
| 3-3-4 | Video memory failure | There is a problem with the video memory. Replace the video adapter if possible |
| 3-4-1 | Video initialization failure | There is a problem with the video adapter. Reseat the adapter or replace the adapter if possible |
| 4-2-1 | Timer failure | The system’s timer IC has failed. Replace the IC if possible |
| 4-2-2 | Shutdown failure | The CMOS has failed. Replace the CMOS IC if possible |
| 4-2-3 | Gate A20 failure | The keyboard controller has failed. Replace the IC if possible |
| 4-2-4 | Unexpected interrupt in protected mode | This is a CPU problem. Replace the CPU and retest |
| 4-3-1 | RAM test failure | System RAM addressing circuitry is faulty. Replace the motherboard |
| 4-3-3 | Interval timer channel 2 failure | The system timer IC has failed. Replace the IC if possible |
| 4-3-4 | Time of day clock failure | The real time clock/CMOS has failed. Replace the CMOS if possible |
| 4-4-1 | Serial port failure | A error has occurred in the serial port circuitry |
| 4-4-2 | Parallel port failure | A error has occurred in the parallel port circuitry |
| 4-4-3 | Math coprocessor failure | The math coprocessor has failed. If possible, replace the MPU |
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If your desktop items are missing, don’t panic. It is most likely just a properties setting that is responsible. If you try this and find it is not the case, then you might be infected with adware/spyware/virus.
To recover your desktop items:
You can also try a few other desktop options from the same menu. To remove all desktop items, just follow the same process as above.
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All of your USB devices are allocated part of the Windows bandwidth. So to keep an eye on this and see how much your USB devices are using, try this:
- Go to “Control Panel” -> Click on “System”
- Click the “Hardware” tab
- Click “Device Manager”
- Expand the “Universal Serial Bus Controllers”
- Double click on the first controller
- Click the “Advanced” tab
There you have it, you can now view the USB usage. Also note, if your allocation does reach 100%, you will receive a nasty stop error.
All too often Outlook PST files can become damaged, corrupt, oversized or they can just go missing. Unfortunately, these PST files contain all of our email, calendars, contacts and much more, so losing them can be a real disaster.
It can be quite difficult (if not impossible) to repair an Outlook PST file. It certainly can’t be done manually. Oversized Outlook files can generally be recovered, but for everything else we recommend a third party Outlook repair tool - some of them really do a great job and saving your email can be priceless.
If you have any Outlook PST problems, try this free trial to fix your PST files.
Internet Explorer 7 has a few tweaks, and some of them are actually quite useful. Here is a little tweak that will enable you to zoom in on text. If you have bad vision (like me), then this will be really handy.
To zoom in on text, hold down “CTRL” and scroll the mouse button forwards or backwards. Obviously forwards zooms in and backwards zooms out.
You can also do the same thing with the keyboard. Just hold down “CTRL” and press the + or - button the keyboard.
Now you can finally read all of those annoying webpages with tiny text.
If you want to clear the Windows page file during shutdown then you will need to perform the following edit to the Windows Registry.
The key you need to edit is in the following location:
“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management”
Double-click on “ClearPageFileAtShutdown”. You then need to set the value to 1.
Alternatively if you don’t want to clear the page file during shutdown, then just ensure that this value is set to 0.
