PCI Expansions Cards Can Make Your Computer More Efficient

An expansion card is an expansion board which is used in computing, it is a printed circuit board that is inserted in the expansion slot that is provided in the motherboard, so that it can add up extra functions to the computer system. The size of the expansion card is made to fit exactly to the slot that has been provided. The Peripheral component interconnect is the computer bus which can attach the peripheral devices to the computer mother board.

The two forms that the devices can take are the integrated circuit and the expansion card. The connectors that are provided in the bracket allow all the external connections to the card. Around one to seven PCI expansion cards can be added to the computer depending on the form factors of the case and type mother board.

There are also other factors which are responsible for the PCI expansion card. Some cards are of high profile and some are of low profile, which means that they occupy less physical space. Some of the common PCI card that are used to the external connectivity are network, modem card, they are also known as the input and output card. The other PCI expansion cards are the graphic card, sound card, TV tuner card, POST cards, video processing expansion card, etc.

The installation procedure of the PCI expansion card is very simple. If your personal computer does not have built- in sound, then you will most probably want to install a PCI sound card, or if you do not have a networking in-built, then you may want to install PCI network card so that you can connect your computers together. According to your requirements you will find number of PCI expansion card, so that you can add various functionality to your personal computer.

If you are about to install any of these PCI expansion card then you can check out the various sites where you can come across the procedure about how to install the card and also the various upgrades that are available. In many sectors all the experiments are controlled by computer, the computer controls the various optics or the other mechanical devices that may be require for the experiment. Such controls are usually done through the PCI card. You can even control the home security system through your personal computer.

All the PCI expansion card are installed in the same manner, first of all plan the slot on which you will be installing the card, as you will not be able to use that slot later once you have installed in it. It will be better if you decide previously about how many PCI expansion card you are going to install. Even if you have room to add up another card later, try to skip a slot between them, so that the cards do not generate extra heat and the air keeps circulating.

If you do not have the proper knowledge regarding all the installation procedure, it will be better for you to take the help of the technical support professionals who will guide you through the installation procedure.

Fix RUNDLL32 Error For Windows XP/Vista

Computers are one of the hardware devices which need a high priority of maintenance and fix time to time. There are always a constant checkup and routine practice needed to maintain its performance. Computer checkups and hardware updates are some of numerous routines that will ensure that your computer is able to maintain its performance despite being 3, 5 or even 10 years old!

If you are not in constant fix and update practice for your computer system over time, you will realize that your PC has got leggier and eventually you will experience the consequences of a turtle crawling PC and errors such as RUNDLL error. RUNDLL32 Errors are serious problems with Microsoft Windows.

Check out these simple steps for respective Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista, on how to clean up your computer the easy way and fix RUNNDLL32 error

For Windows XP:

1. Go to Start, and then click on Run.
2. In Run key in “regedit”, then click on OK.
3. Now it opens the Registry Editor.
4. You can easily navigate through the subkey if you know what you are looking for. Or, you can press “Ctrl + F” to locate the subkey that contains the value you want to edit. (F3 to Find Next)

For Windows Vista:

fix rundll32.exe

1. From Start, then type “regedit”.
2. Click on “regedit” on the search result to open the registry editor in Windows Vista.
3. Step 3 & 4 are the same as Windows XP (see above).

What and How to Fix System32 Error

Yesterday my brother in law came to me with his laptop complaining that his computer is not booting because the “system” file is missing. He was totally weird with the situation as a presentation for one of his project is due by next Monday and it matters everything to him right now as he have devoted last 7 months trying to grab that.

Finally after a half an hour tooling with his system the problem got fixed and he was the happy fellow. But then I thought why not blog something regarding System32 error right here on my blog today.

What is a System32?

The “system” file is one of many that is stored in windows/system32/config folder and it tells Windows XP how to start your computer and who to log in at startup. If this file is missing, your computer will not boot and you will see an error on a black screen stating: “Windows/System32/Config/System file missing or corrupt.”

There are two scenarios where this can happen. In the first scenario, the system file is simply corrupt or missing and needs to be replaced with Windows XP’s backup copy.

Recovering System32?

The first step in recovering from this problem is to boot into the Recovery Console and replace the missing or damaged system file with a backup copy. To do this, you will need an original Windows XP CD, or a recovery CD from your computer’s manufacturer, or a set of 6 Windows XP boot disks.

Once you have booted from your Windows XP CD or floppy disks, press the letter “R” at the first screen asking you for input. The computer will now ask you “Which Windows installation would you like to log onto.” Each profile is represented with a number. Press the number associated with your profile (usually the number 1) and presses enter. Now you will be prompted to ‘Type in the Administrator Password.” Enter your password and press enter.

After you enter your password you should be at a prompt that reads “C:/windows”. Type the commands below to navigate to your Windows/System32/Config directory and replace the appropriate file:

1. cd system32
2. cd config
3. ren system system.old
4. cd ..
5. cd ..
6. cd repair
7. copy system c:\windows\system32\config

You should now see a message stating that the file was copied successfully. Reboot your computer and you are done with your System32 Fix.

How to Change your BIOS settings

Although most computer users understand that there is a way to access and modify the information displayed in that enigmatic display which flashes for barely a second or two at bootup, they would never dare to venture into its uncharted depths. That BIOS control doesn’t need to be feared, and can actually be used to significantly improve your computer experience as well as quickly ameliorate problems that your local technician would charge a couple of hundred bucks to fix.

The BIOS Settings, also known as the Setup Utility, is configuration software that sets the options held in the PC’s CMOS to instruct all of the computer’s subsystems to play nice together. In order to access this software, you need to press either the F1 or Delete key on most computers. Check the swift-passing BIOS screen and it will likely tell you which key to use at the bottom left.

Once you’re in there, you will see instructions about how to navigate around the screen, usually by using Page Up, Page Down and some of those other “legacy” keys that you’ve often wondered why the heck they exist at all. Now you have access to all sorts of functions. Some can be experimented with to see if you like what they do. Some will screw up your PC bigtime and put a big wad of your hard earned money in the wallet of the local geek squadder. Here is a short guide to the major functions: the ones to play with and the ones to leave alone. If you start messing around with BIOS options you don’t understand please remember that you’ve been warned!

Boot Sequence: This is the order that the computer will use its peripherals to boot itself up. You can save some boot seconds in both XP and Vista by setting your C: drive (where your Operating System resides) as your first choice. This function is very handy if you’d like to temporarily set a USB key or external HD, or even your CD-DVD drive as the source of the boot. This way you could have a dozen keys on your desk, each one loaded with a different flavor of Linux and Windows and boot into whatever OS you felt like at the time. If that’s what turns your crank!

Date & Time: Changes the Date and Time. Whoopee. You can do the same thing by right clicking on the time on your Windows taskbar.

Diskette Drives: Most PCs no longer have floppies so forget this.

Hard Disk Priority: The Primary or Channel 1 Master should be your C: drive with your Operating System. However, for various reasons, you may have different operating systems on different hard drives or partitions. This is where you set the priority of what drives the computer should look at after C:.

Hard Drive Settings: Although you can modify all sorts of functions here, most of them will just scramble the data on your hard drives.

Hardware Monitor: There are various sensors on your motherboard which provide information on operating temperature, voltage supply and other operational data. Keep in mind that BIOS temperature sensors are famously inaccurate, and the only real way to measure if your CPU is overheating is by using an accurate temperature probe while the PC is under load. Either that or by waiting for the big puff of smoke to billow from the case. If you’re really a freak about what temp your processor is running at and want a constant readout on your Windows taskbar, download SpeedFan written by my old friend Alfredo. We I-ties stick together.

Memory Settings: You can change the latency settings here but that is primarily of interest to Overclockers who are on the way to frying their systems anyway, so avoid this.

NumLock Status: What a pain. This is one of those pointless legacy features that made sense in 1973 but not since. Of course you want your numeric keypad to work.

How to perform a repair installation of Windows XP if Internet Explorer 7 is installed

Before you perform a repair installation of Microsoft Windows XP, you must uninstall Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 from the Windows XP-based computer. If you perform a repair installation of Windows XP when Internet Explorer 7 is still installed, Internet Explorer will not work after the repair is completed.

To resolve this issue, uninstall Internet Explorer 7 from the computer, and then install Internet Explorer 6. After Windows XP is repaired, you can reinstall Internet Explorer 7.

INTRODUCTION

Before you perform a repair installation of Windows XP, you must uninstall Internet Explorer 7. If you do not uninstall Internet Explorer 7 in this situation, Internet Explorer will no longer work after the repair installation is completed. Specifically, the repair installation does not restore earlier versions of the files in the Program Files\Internet Explorer folder. Therefore, the Internet Explorer 7 files will be incompatible with the Internet Explorer 6 files that are installed in the Windows\System32 folder.

INFORMATION

If you performed a repair installation of Windows XP but did not uninstall Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer will not run. To troubleshoot this issue, follow these steps.

Verify the version of Windows XP that is installed on the computer

1. Click Start, click Run, type Winver.exe in the Open box, and then click OK.

2. In the About Windows dialog box, verify the version of Windows XP that is installed on the computer.

If Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) is installed on the computer

If Windows XP SP2 is installed on the computer, uninstall Internet Explorer 7. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type appwiz.cpl in the Open box, and then click OK.

2. In the Currently installed programs list, click Internet Explorer 7, and then click Remove.

If Internet Explorer is not listed in the Currently installed programs list, follow these steps:

1.Restart the computer in the Recovery Console. For more information about how to use the Recovery Console, click the following article number to view the article in the Knowledge Base:

How to install and use the Recovery Console in Windows XP

2.Type the following commands.

Note Press ENTER after each command.

CD ie7\spuninst

batch Spuninst.txt

If Windows XP SP2 is not installed on the computer

If Windows XP SP2 is not installed on the computer, uninstall Internet Explorer 7. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type appwiz.cpl in the Open box, and then click OK.

2. In the Currently installed programs list, click Internet Explorer 7, and then click Remove.

If Internet Explorer is not listed in the Currently installed programs list, follow these steps:

1. Open a command prompt.

2. Type the following commands.

Note Press ENTER after each command.

cd \Windows\ie7\Spuninst

batch Spuninst.txt

Note ie7 is a hidden folder.

If Internet Explorer 7 cannot be uninstalled, but if the Windows\ie7\Spuninst folder exists, uninstall Internet Explorer 7 in the Recovery Console. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Restart the computer in the Recovery Console. For more information about how to use the Recovery Console, click the following article number to view the article in the Knowledge Base:

How to install and use the Recovery Console in Windows XP

2. Type the following commands.

Note Press ENTER after each command.

CD ie7\spuninst

batch Spuninst.txt

3. Insert the Windows XP installation CD into the computer’s CD drive, and then restart the computer.

4. Perform a Repair installation of Windows XP. After the Repair installation process is complete, start Internet Explorer 6, and then make sure that it works.

5. Install Windows XP SP2.

Reinstall Internet Explorer 7

When Windows XP has been repaired and is running correctly, reinstall Internet Explorer 7. To reinstall Internet Explorer 7, you must have the Internet Explorer 7 installation package. This installation package may still be on the computer from the first time that you installed Internet Explorer 7. Locate the installation package in the folder in which you saved the files.

Note This package may be located in the Temporary Internet Files folder.

If you cannot locate the Internet Explorer 7 installation package, visit the following Microsoft Web site to obtain this package:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/default.mspx

To connect to the Microsoft download site, you must have a functional Web browser. If Internet Explorer 6 does not work on the computer after you uninstall Internet Explorer 7, you cannot download the Internet Explorer 7 installation package. Therefore, you will have to use a computer that has a functional Web browser to download the Internet Explorer 7 installation package. Then, use a shared network drive to install the program from the downloaded installation package on this other computer onto the repaired computer. If you cannot use a shared network for this purpose, copy the Internet Explorer 7 installation package onto a CD on the second computer. Then, use this CD to install Internet Explorer 7 on the first computer.

How to make your laptop run faster

It is always a frustrating part for each and every proficient users than your computer gets locking up, freezing, or just being dumb, especially if the work ahead is on a priority with dead lines to meet. Laptops are extremely accessible to everyone, yet if only the knowledge to keep them optimized was that easy to come by.

These 10 tips are simple things you can do to make your laptop run faster.

1.. Start with a disk cleanup. There are several ways to access this, but one is to click on the Start Program>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Cleanup. This will allow you to delete temporary Internet Files, Offline Files, the recycling bin, and other types of unnecessary files.

2.. Through the Control Panel, go to Internet Tools and delete cookies and history. This can take several minutes if it hasn’t been done in awhile.

3.. Disk Defragment. You can access this the same way as a disk cleanup, but select disk defragmenter instead. Many programs allow you to schedule a time to do this application, as it can take several minutes or several hours depending on how much work is to be done.

4.. Malware or Spyware are big offenders of slowing down laptops. Installing and running an anti-malware or anti-virus program and running it regularly will often times make a tremendous difference.

5.. Check your power management by accessing the Control Panel. Select power management and then Maximum or Best Performance. If you use your battery pack rather than being plugged in it will drain quickly, but will give you optimal speed.

6.. From the Control Panel, go to Add or Remove programs. Remove programs that you know you are not using. This can be a daunting task, since some programs affect others, and therefore you may want to know what’s important before you remove it.

7.. Check the memory usage of your computer. You may need to add more random access memory (RAM) to store memory, rather than using disk space that is slower in all cases.

8.. Consider using registry software cleaner or repair program. There are many good ones out there such as ccleaner.com or registryfix.com. These will identify and repair problems within the registry.

9.. New computers that use Windows Vista can be slowed down by excess animation. It is possible to turn it off by going to the Control Panel>System and Maintenance>Performance Information and Tools>Advanced Tools. Then select Adjust the Appearance and Performance of Windows. The Performance Options box will prompt, and if you select Custom, then uncheck Animate Windows when Maximazing and Minimizing. You can consider other options as well, but this definitely pep it up.

10.. Use an external hard drive to store all music, photos and games. It can be unplugged and used with multiple computers, and will save valuable space.

Follow the above tips to get the maximum of your laptop experience these ten tips are proven ways to get that computer moving and prevent untimely frustration. By utilizing some or all, you will be optimizing your system and working efficiently.

How to Improve Windows Performance

Do you maintain your windows Vista regularly? If not, you will get very often some problems like blue screen of death. It's very annoying when you're working and haven't saved the project. Other problems that may happen are slow speeds, it takes forever to start up or shut down, freezing, or even suddenly restart automatically. On this article you can find out way to speed up Windows Vista. One of the best way to speed up windows Vista is by scanning errors with good registry cleaner software. And you may wonder how exactly it works. Good registry cleaner software speeds up windows Vista in the following ways:

The cleaner will remove junk files that caused by downloading and installing any software. Normally after installing software, the "temp" files are still in your computer. We don't need this type of files anymore and must be deleted, so your computer can run faster.
The good cleaner find errors in the computer's registry, which is the main problem of computer freezing and slowing down performance. If this problem is not taken seriously, it can crash your windows operating system.
The registry cleaner finds duplicate files and deletes that are not used anymore in your system. Your CPU will work double to scan the files, even thou you don't need those duplicated files. If you set the cleaning software in the automatic mode, it will perform very accurate. However, if the cleaner is set in the manual mode, you can repair these errors in the way you seem appropriate.
Among the other way to speed up Windows Vista through a cleaning software program is by allowing it to fix invalid shortcuts that are of no use. When you install and uninstall software and hardware, some of the files are still in your system. By cleaning up these shortcuts from the computer's registry, you make sure that your computer gives unmatched performance.
The scan and repair feature of a registry cleaner is one of the best way to speed up Windows Vista. Registry cleaner allows you scan the errors first for free and you can purchase it if you want to repair the problems. I know that you don't want to spend any fortune to choose the best cleaner software. Therefore you can check the review site that will give you free report and valuable information on the best registry cleaner at the bottom of the article.

Tired of slowing PC performance? Do you want to repair and speed up windows vista in cheap and fast way? You can scan the registry error in your computer for free and fix them with the best registry cleaner on the market. After scanning and fixing your PC, you will be surprise how fast your computer is.

How To Delete A Harmful Registry File

You can delete a harmful registry file two ways: manually or with a software program. Either way will work. Manually works only if you know what you are looking for. Most people do not, so using the software is by far the easiest and quickest method you can delete a harmful registry file.

The first way is manually. Here you will need to know what you are looking for. If you suspect you do, then you can do the following:

Go to the “start” button in the lower left hand corner of your computer, click it.
Go to the “run” button on the right side of the menu that pops up, click it.
Type in the box “regedit”, and click the “OK” button.
In the left window pane, you will see 5 folders.
At this point, you are on your own. I do not mess with my registry files, nor do I recommend for you to. If you are going to, ensure you have a backup of the registry somewhere. I personally do not know exactly what to look for, and spyware is hidden carefully, so it makes it hard to find the harmful registry files. I use a registry repair software.

This type of software will scan your computer, and look for messed up registry files. Once it finds them, it will them fix them for you. This will bring your computer back to its designed speed, and have all of your programs functioning correctly again. This is by far the easiest, fastest, and the best method to delete a harmful registry file.