Replies

Hi Bob,

I agree whole heartedly with Ted. Most drive-by downloads are caused by people clicking on unknown items on a website. Nowadays on soooo many websites you will see an advertisement for a free scan of your computer to check for malware or virus. After my first experience doing just that (about 6 years ago) and getting an infection on my system I learned to never again click on these advertisements. I have not experienced a drive-by download on my computer since then. Most people I think are always watching out for possibly getting a new malware/virus protection program which might be an improvement over what they are currently using, so these advertisements are very tempting. THERE IS NO PROGRAM AVAILABLE THAT WILL STOP PEOPLE FROM NOT USING COMMON SENSE!

73s
Murray

thanks again. That did the trick. I have a Dell 19″ wide screen flat panel monitor. The previous setting was at 1367 X 760 but changed it to 1280 X 720 and as you can see by the new screenshot, I can now see everything. But WOW everything is soooo large….LOL.. But the main point is that I can now see ALL “programs” on the list now.

Again, Thanks for your attention and help here.

If the size really bothers you there is another setting you can change which will reduce the pixel size of the words on the screen. You might want to take a look at it and play around with the setting a little bit.

Right click on your desktop background.

Left click on “Properties”

In the new window left click at the top on “Settings”

In the new window left click on the bottom on “Advanced”

In the new window in the upper half expand the menu under “DPI Setting”

In the expanded menu left click on “Custom setting”

Put the cursor on the ruler and while holding the left mouse button down move it either right or left to adjust the pixel size of words on your screen. Experiment with this until you find a percentage that looks comfortable to you. With each change you will have to go through the procedure again to make another change.

Good Luck –
Murray

I was thinking more of the years of the 50s (1950-1959) which were my teen years. That puts me about 20 years your senior. Anyway, the ole brain just kicked in again and I have a new solution for your problem.

If you slightly reduce the resolution of your screen it will reduce the size of the screen. Then you can adjust the screen by dragging the outside edges to fit the new boundaries. With any kind of luck, depending on the quality of your monitor, it won’t make a noticeable difference on your screen background picture. At the same time you should leave the “Keep the taskbar on top of other windows” check marked.

Some times there is more than one way to kill a cat, but the other way is messier.

Murray

Thank You Murray. The screenshot I sent previously shows that how it is. But I did try your solution…. and the taskbar is still under the “programs” list. :huh:

 This setting is a very basic procedure in WinXP SP3. I don’t know why it doesn’t work for you. Looking at your expanded menu I feel I can safely say that you are not a “newbie”. The first thing that comes to mind is that possibly you did not put a check mark in the little box to the left of “Keep the taskbar on top of other windows”. Just to be sure go back and double check that it has a check mark where it should be (the little box). Don’t be insulted but if your handle indicates anything (“50s”) then you are an elderly old fart just like me. Part of being elderly is always having to double check yourself when things don’t go the way they are supposed to.

In the 1st column of the More Programs menu it looks like something on the bottom is missing as I do not see the menu border. In the 2nd column it looks complete with “Open Office” appearing as the last item. In the 3rd column I see the icon for a “Help” file appearing AFTER “Catalyst Control Center” This makes me wonder what you are referring to in your original thread when you say you cannot see it. It’s there, it can be seen and there is no sub-menu indicated for it.

There is one more thing you can try and that is to delete the the item in the 1st column “Windows Update”.  This is obsolete and was replaced a couple years ago by “Microsoft Update” which I see also in the 1st column. This will open up one spot in the menu and if anything is being hidden by the taskbar it will appear after you make that deletion.

I lied! There is one more thing you can try but you may not want to keep it permanent. In the taskbar popup window insert a check mark in the little box to the left of “Auto-hide the taskbar” and then look to see if this solves your problem.

Murray

Hi goodguy50s,

Here is how you set the setting to eliminate your problem.

Right click on any unused portion of the taskbar.

In the popup window left click on “Properties”.

In the next popup window put a check mark in the box for “Keep the taskbar on top of other windows”.

Left click on the “OK” button at the bottom of the popup window.

That’s it !

Now ALL windows & menus will re-adjust themselves so that the taskbar does not cover anything.

It probably would also help to repeat the process except this time put a check mark in “Lock the taskbar”.

This will eliminate the possibility of the setting being changed without you unlocking the taskbar.

Have a great day –

Murray

Hi guys,

Thanks for your thoughts. I will try some version of them re the PSU if and when I need to. Since I started posting about this, the pc has been booting perfectly, no other problems either.

It seems to me what you’re saying is that the power supply needs to stabilize in order to boot the system properly (time should do that right?) So all I’ve been doing by accessing the BIOS is supplying time? So if that’s the case, if I pause the start up process for a bit before it gets to Windows, the system should boot, right? I thought I might try that to test your theory (when/if the problem reoccurs).

Murray, My power supply is a 19 volt 6.3 amp supply similar to a laptop’s, only beefier (higher amperage rating). As I mentioned earlier, my voltages, once the pc is going, are all rock steady . . . . . .

It has suddenly become obvious to me that I have overstepped my limit as I have no concept what & how a HTPC works. I have never thought about it much but have just assumed that a HTPC was a combination of a PC and HOME ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM working together by having a common connection. I now truly feel your frustration with some of the responses you’ve gotten on this thread.

Obviously you have found a way to circumvent the boot problem and prefer to “live with it” rather than fix it. There’s nothing wrong with that but if it were me I wouldn’t be satisfied until I found a solution. I must say that your solution sure is easier.

As far as having 2 PSU’s startup at the same time (without using an external power strip), it’s a procedure I used very successfully on a build for one of my daughters. She refused to put out the money for an expensive high amperage PSU so I installed 2 very old PSU’s in the case that were wired to start from a single on/off switch. That involves splicing only two wires from each PSU together, or using an adapter which is now available at several PC Parts stores online.

Anyway, I don’t want to beat a dead horse as it seems you have found a solution already. I just want to say that I have found this thread to be extremely educational and have thoroughly enjoyed reading many of the comments here.

Murray

To
scaisson & Chris,

I stated earlier that I had the exact same problem and solved it by replacing the PSU when I noticed in the bios that there was a drop in the 3.3 voltage reading to 2.6. One thing I did not mention is that there also was a drop in the 12 volt reading to 11.7 which I did not consider because it is a much smaller percentage drop than what was showing in the 3.3 volt output.

After reading scaisson’s reply it dawned on me that his description of what causes voltage drops sure sounded like it too was part of the problem, not just a malfunctioning PSU.

I replaced my PSU with a new but identical model as the one that was originally in my system that I purchased at the same time. At first I noticed that all volt readings were good in the new PSU but now after almost a month since I made the change I noticed that both the 3.3 & 12 volt readings are starting to show a very slight drop (no startup problems yet). There must be some degradation of function in the PSU going on and if and when I start having startup problems again I will do the following.

My system is a tinkerers dream: 11 fans, 8 HDD’s, numerous CCFL & LED lights inside and outside the box, 2 USB HDD docks for backup purposes, 5 temperature sensors monitoring 24/7 and my CPU is over-clocked to a constant and stable 4.5 GHz. My plan, if necessary, is to install a second PSU inside the case and separate the motherboard & primary HDD onto one and everything else on the 2nd PSU.

I too, like Chris, was very curious about the cause of this problem but didn’t dwell on it as I thought it was fixed. Chris; I would like to suggest that you replace whatever you are using as the “outside the case” power supply with possibly an in-expensive ATX PSU and connect it to start simultaneously as the case PSU. If you have no experience in ever having done this I can direct you to where you can purchase the $2.00 adapter to accomplish this. SCIASSON; thank you for a very simple explanation which I believe is the answer Chris has been waiting for. As they used to say in the very old days, “73s”.

Murray

Chris

So how did you get yours booted when it was having the problem. If I understand you right you powered it down and then powered it up again and it would start? Or did you have to do the BIOS thing I described? I’ve not had any disk problems (I’ve run CHKDISK).

Getting it to boot was just a hit or miss situation. Sometimes it would boot after the 2nd or 3rd try and sometimes it would take 10 tries. This scenario of course would fit in with the voltage fluctuating. If I caught it at just the right time, when the voltage was high enough, then it would complete the boot process. There never was a consistent pattern that always worked. As far as accessing the bios after a non-boot situation, I now remember that doing that did work a couple times but I don’t remember if there was any consistency to that scenario and at the time I never recognized it as a possible solution.

As far as having disk problems, I also was not aware of any. I ran the disk check only as a safe guard because the non-boot problem was continuing to get worse. It found and fixed a couple minor errors that I suspected may have been caused by the system hanging up during the boot attempts. Anyway it’s good insurance to do it if changing the PSU works for you.

If you do try another PSU, read the voltage ratings on the side of the unit and make sure the new one has a higher capacity then the old one for each of the 4 voltage ratings.

I sure hope I”m not sending you on a wild goose chase, but your situation sure sounds exactly what I just went through. I only solved my problem about 2 weeks ago so it’s still very fresh in my mind (what’s left of it).:wub:

Hi Chris,

About 7-8 months ago my computer start having problems completing the boot process. It would hang on the initial startup screen, and then sometimes it would start after a brief delay (1-2 minutes) and sometimes after 10 minutes delay. Usually I would end up pushing the on/off button after a short delay. It never started after hanging by pressing the reset button. It got worse as time progressed until one day I happened to notice in the bios setting that the 3.3 voltage reading was showing 2.6 volts. This reading would fluctuate between 3.2 and 2.6 while all the other voltage readings were A-OK. Just on a feeling I got from seeing this I replaced the PSU with a new spare I had. The old PSU was about 4 months old when I started having this problem.

VIOLA!!!!
No more problem! The reading on the new PSU now fluctuates from 3.2-3.3 and all the other voltages are within their expected range.

I also ran “CHKDISK :/ C” from the command prompt and found numerous disk errors which the program automatically fixed.

If you try this and it doesn’t help let me know as I have another suggestion that might do the trick. Hope this works for you.

Murray