This new fortnightly column is an experiment that may not last a week. What's more, its success or failure will owe a lot to you, and your problems. Ideally they will be general enough to interest other readers, and simple enough for answers to be short.
The reality, alas, may well be different. Many computer problems boil down to interactions of hardware and software that are so obscure that they've sometimes been blamed on the phases of the moon.
The number of possible combinations of hardware and software is so vast that they're bound to throw up problems that have never been seen before... and may never be seen again.
Since it would take forever to eliminate all possibilities, we often take what we hope will be the easy way out: reinstall the application that's causing us grief, reinstall the software drivers for the malfunctioning hardware, reinstall Microsoft Windows. It doesn't always work, but it doesn't take very long, so it's usually worth a go.
I'll try to offer more help than that here, but I don't have a hope if you don't provide basic information about your system. With Windows applications, the name and version number usually found in the Help| About box is a good start.
Unreadable attachment
I have Word 7 for Windows 95. Much of the time email attachments come through in a straightforward manner, but sometimes the message I get when I try either to view or save an attachment is "Word cannot start the converter Doswrd32.cnv". Can you give me any advice? Naomi Connelly
naomi.connelly@virgin.net
Jack: Microsoft Word probably can't start the converter - that is, run Doswrd32.cnv - because it isn't there. (Try looking for it using Start | Find Files or Folders.) That particular file is used to load files created with Microsoft Word for DOS versions 3.x to 6.0, so you could ask the person using that to send you plain text or use a different file format instead: Rich Text Format (.rtf) would be a good choice. Alternatively you could install the converter yourself, either from the Microsoft Office Converter Pack (run Setup.exe from the \PFiles\ORKTools\ToolBox\Tools\OCP\ folder on the Office 2000 Resource Kit CD-rom) or by downloading it from the Microsoft website at www.microsoft.com/office/ork/2000/appndx/toolbox.htm
Although Microsoft is widely criticised because not all its programs will load all types of file, it does offer a great collection of converters at www.microsoft.com/downloads
Line trouble
We have just up-graded our computer to a Hewlett-Packard Pavilion 8650. The PC we had before had a 33Kbps modem and connected at 31Kbps. However, despite having an 56Kbps modem, the new machine only connects at 26400 to 28800Kbps. We also have two phone lines at home, one for voice mail and the other for fax/internet use. Before, we had one line for both purposes, with no problems. Could you tell me what I should be doing to try and "up" the modem speed of the new machine? Peter Robinson
Robinson@bosinternet.com
Jack: It sounds as though BT has provided two lines by splitting the one you already had, using a Digital to Analogue Conversion System (DACS). This works fine for voice calls but, having only half the capacity, will give only half the data throughput. Beg BT on bended knee and you might get a real extra line, but I wouldn't bet on it.
Your options are to get a second line from another supplier if possible, such as a cable company, or pay BT a lot more money for its ISDN voice and data service, Home Highway.
Wake up call
About once a week of heavy usage this PC won't wake up from stand-by. I have to use reset to boot it. Any thoughts on how this might be corrected short of reinstalling Windows 98? Denis Postle
denis@postle.net
Jack: I had a similar problem with Advanced Power Management and "solved" it by using Start | Settings | Control Panel | Power Management to disable the feature altogether. You could try removing your screen saver, if any, and also see if there are more recent drivers for your graphics card and monitor, before re-installing Windows. However, you may be interested to hear that you can restart Windows 98 correctly even if there's no image on the screen. Simply press Ctrl + Esc to pop up the Start menu, press U to Shut Down Windows, press R for Restart and hit Enter. Do it fast enough and everyone will think you're a geek.
