After installing Microsoft Office on Windows XP, you might see a language icon in the task bar. One of our readers sent us a email asking how to remove this language bar from the Windows Taskbar.

This language bar help is because of the Windows Language settings. In this article I will share you how to remove this help bar from Windows task bar.

Fix:

To remove the language bar help from the Windows Taskbar, follow the below steps :

1. Open Control Panel and open the Regional and Language Options

2. Click the Language Tab and click Details. This will open the detailed window called Text Services and Input Languages

3. Click the Advanced Tab on Text Services and Input Languages

4. On Advanced Tab, under system configuration, click the checkbox saying “Turn off advanced text services”, and press OK.

5. That is it, after this you see that the language bar option disappears from the task bar.

Hope you find this fix easy to follow.

This content is just a summary, read the full article at ©2009 TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles. All Rights Reserved.

Trouble 1 :

My pen drive / memory stick gets detected by my pc but does not open. It shows the message "Please insert a disk into drive f". Device status indicates that its functioning properly. Properties on the other hand now show ‘0 bytes’. – Prashanth

Fix:

This kind of problem occurs due to three reasons:

1. Faulty pen drive -  Try use the drive on some other computer to ensure that the drive is not faulty.
2. Drive letter not assigned properly – See this tutorial – How to fix “Please insert a disk onto drive error”

3. Registry Problems – See this tutorial – My Computer Does Not Detect Pen Drives

Trouble 2 :

While playing game on PC, suddenly blue screen of death appear and PC have to be shutdown. – Sahil

Fix:

This looks like a graphics driver or DirectX problem. See this article for details – Flickering Graphics While Playing Games on PC

 Trouble 3 :

I can’t make safely remove pen drive work. If i make safely remove then it shows, the program is in use or use by another program. There are three options given : 1.Cancel  2.Try again 3.Continue. If i give continue then it make safely remove. Pleas give me solution this problem – Sathishkumar

Fix:

Close all the files and programs that are opened from the pen drive and then remove it, it will get removed easily this way. The other thing you can do is to try the un-locker tool suggest in out tutorial – Generic Volume Can Not Be Stopped Right Now

 Trouble 4 :

I have a problem that when I view any videos online, it plays and gets stuck. Same thing happens when i play games. I have installed flash player, directx etc…I even formatted my computer,even formatting didn’t solve it. – Nandu

Fix:

The problem of online videos getting stuck is because of the Slow Internet connection in most of the cases. It can also be because of high CPU usage. As you mentioned that the games also get stuck, so I would advice you to check the CPU usage with task manager and see if some process is taking too much CPU. Follow the below steps :

1. Check and clean some startup tasks, see this tutorial – Computer is too slow at start-up

2. Install latest version of graphics drivers, see this tutorial – Graphics Problem While Watching Movies and Playing Games

3. If there CPU usage it too high, see this tutorial to fix it – CPU usage is 100 % 

If all this does not solve your problem, test your internet speed and upgrade your computer’s RAM

Trouble 5 :

I have performance problems in my laptop. My laptop is very slow, it takes a long time opening applications. – Venkatesh

Fix:

Laptop gets slow when lots of applications are running in background. Check for the Startup processes that run when you start the laptop. See this tutorial – Computer is too slow at start-up

You can submit your problems to us at Our Submit Problem Page.

This content is just a summary, read the full article at ©2009 TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles. All Rights Reserved.

Trouble 1 :

I have a LG DVD ROM. It only reads a CD but is not able to read a DVD. – Sandesh

Fix:

Looks like the lens of the DVD ROM had gone bad. You can try cleaning the lens of your DVD writer using lens cleaning kit or Lens cleaning disk. See this article for details : Not Able To Play Scratched CD / DVD

Trouble 2 :

I have a assembled PC with GigaByte mother board, inlet dual core processor running on a 1GB RAM. My computer is getting restarted or sometimes it gets hanged. When I run multiple applications the problem can be seen seriously. – Vijay

Fix:

Your Computer seems to be having some heating problems. Check the processor fan and the casing fan. See this article for details : Fix Computer Hang Frequently

Trouble 3 :

I have downloaded file from one site. It plays with VLC Player, but file type is unknown, it is not like avi, mpg. To play in DVD players format is not recognizable- Thakur

Fix:

We have written about determining the file type in this tutorial – Determine the file type of downloaded audio or video file. After you know the file type, you can rename it to that type, and make a video DVD using some DVD burning softwares like WinxDVD or CD Burn XP or Nero etc.

 Trouble 4 :

Whenever I start my Internet Explorer, after few min. "generic host error from win 32"
will appear at screen. When i press "don’t send" after that no pages will open. – Dev

Fix:

See our tutorial – Generic Host Error Removal Tool By Troublefixers

Trouble 5 :

I have mini laptop, so it have no CD or DVD ROM. How can I format the laptop with USB
flash drive and Install windows on it. – Deep

Fix:

Here is our tutorial to Install Windows From a USB Pen Drive

You can submit your problems to us at Our Submit Problem Page.

This content is just a summary, read the full article at ©2009 TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles. All Rights Reserved.

This problem has been faced by a one of our reader who just upgraded to Windows 7 from Windows Vista, and from day one he started noticing a program called WinSAT.exe which keeps running in the background from time to time automatically. There is no easy way to disable this Experience/Assessment Index Tool in windows 7 as it is not associated with any service, rather it is integrated as scheduled task which runs automatically from task scheduler.

What is WinSAT.exe ?

WinSAT.exe (System Assessment Tool) integrated in windows  runs a series of tests and then rates your computer on a scale ranging from 1 through 5. WinSAT.exe actually rates several subsets of your computer system, including processor, memory, primary hard disk, graphics, and gaming graphics.

Lets find out how to stop WinSAT.exe and prevent it from running automatically in future.

Fix:

Follow the procedure below to disable this process from running.

1. Open Control Panel >> Administrative Tools

2. Double click Task Scheduler

3. Browse to Microsoft\Windows\Maintenance, and Disable the task named "WinSAT"

[ as shown in the image below ]

4. Right click and select disable for WinSAT task in task scheduler.

If the above procedure does not solve the purpose, let us know through comments.

This content is just a summary, read the full article at ©2009 TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles. All Rights Reserved.

Since last few days I had been facing some problem with my Internet connectivity. My WiFi or wireless router will stop working and I was getting disconnected from it. Recently I observed that the disconnection happens every time I use my new Cordless phone by beetle (an India telephone instruments brand). Then I read the user manual and the instructions on the sticker which tells that the phone operates in 2.4 GHZ frequency spectrum.

2.4 GHZ is the same spectrum on which our usual Wireless routers or Wifi routers operate. Then I studies some more and found out that some phones work on frequency hopping which means they use multiple frequencies in 2.4 GHZ frequency spectrum. In this article I will share you how I fixed the problem.

Fix:

There are 13 frequency channels in 2.4 GHZ spectrum, see IEEE 802.11 for reference. There is an option to change the channel of the cordless phone on most of the phones, but that did not help me in my case.

On reading through several forums and user feedback, I came to know that if I set my Wireless router or wifi router to channel 11, the interference with phone will stop. [thanks to anet forums].

This is how I fixed my problem:

1. Log Into your wifi router, for my router, the adress is 10.0.0.1, for some routers its typically 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 etc. The username and password also vary, for netgear, the default username and password is admin and password respectively.

2. Go to Wireless Settings and change the channel to channel number 11.

3. Just apply the settings and now try using the cordless phone. Tada !!! My phone and WiFi router work perfectly fine together now without interference.

Please leave your comments and suggestions if you have any better or easier solution.

This content is just a summary, read the full article at ©2009 TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles. All Rights Reserved.

Today I observed that my HP DV4 1131 TX laptop was making too much noise. The noise increased too much when I connected my laptop to AC power adaptor for charging the laptop battery. This noise becomes too high when I am using the laptop for a couple of hours.

On observing closely I realized that the fan was running too fast and making too much noise. The temperature of the laptop was high, but not very high, so the fans looked like running at speeds higher than needed. In this article I will share the solution how I fixed this fan noise.

Fix:

There are few things you must do to fix the fan noise :

Upgrade Laptop BIOS

One of the most common reasons for high Noise is fans running too fast. This fan speed is usually controlled by BIOS Software. For HP laptop, you can download your BIOS upgrade for HP4 Laptops from HP Support page.

After you download and run the BIOS update, it will check your present BIOS version and the latest version. It will upgrade the BIOS and restart the laptop with the latest BIOS version.

Check Temperature Of CPU And Graphics Card

HW Monitor is an excellent software utility to test the temperature levels of the various hardware components of laptop. You can download and install HWmonitor here.

Install and run the utility to check the hardware temperature.

If the temperature is too high, turn off the laptop and clean the air-vents of the laptop with a blower of the vacuum cleaner. Also see if there is any dust or something blocking the cooling of laptop. Use the laptop in such a way that the vents of air are not blocked while laptop is running.

Change Power And Graphics Settings

Open the control panel and change the power options to use low power. Also open the graphics settings and turn the settings to medium quality so that the graphics card does not create too much heat and the fan speed remains slow.

This content is just a summary, read the full article at ©2009 TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles. All Rights Reserved.

One of our readers Jamie wrote to us :

As a free user, how should I proceed if RapidShare claims that I am already downloading a file when in fact I am not and have not done so for sometime before the attempt?

This is quite a common problem especially when you use a network where many users are sharing a common LAN or wireless network in places like colleges and offices.

This kind of problem is faced by free users of Rapidshare or Megaupload. This usually happens because the file sharing websites like Rapidshare or Megaupload will monitor the IP address of the computers downloading the content. When you are in a shared network environment, then the external IP address can be same for multiple computers because of NAT etc.

Fix:

Solution for ADSL Users With Dynamic IP Address

If you use a router from service providers which assigns you a dynamic IP address every time you connect your device to the Internet, then you can solve this problem in most simple way. In India, MTNL , AIRTEL, TATA , VSNL and BSNL are the main service providers who provide such service. In that case, simply power off the ADSL router and Power it on back again. This will disconnect you from Internet for a while and then will connect you back using the ADSL but will assign a new IP address and you can now download the content from Rapidshare and Megaupload or other such websites. You might also have to close your Internet Explorer or Firefox along with it to clear the scripts or cookies maintained by such websites to maintain a session.

Note: Some service providers provide a static IP, this technique will not work on such cases.

Rapidshare Addon For Mozilla Firefox

Rapidshare @ Office

There is a popular Add-On for Mozilla Firefox called rapidshare @ office which will allow users to automate the process of rapidshare download. You can Intsall this firefox add-on from rapidshare @ office page.

FoxyProxy

There is another add-on for Mozilla Firefox which will change your IP using proxies. FoxyProxy is one such popular add on for firefox proxy settings. You can use this add on to set your external IP to another IP using proxy servers. You can download and install FoxyProxy here.

Solution for Shared LAN or Wifi Users

If you use office / college or any other shared network, then you can follow the below steps to get a new IP address.

1. Go to Start > Run

2. Type command and press enter, this will open a command prompt. On this prompt, type the following commands one by one in the order mentioned below and press enter after each line.

ipconfig /flushdns

ipconfig /release

ipconfig /renew

Note : This method may not work when NAT (network address translation) is hiding the IP of your computer from the websites and rapidshare may still give an “already downloading” error.

This content is just a summary, read the full article at ©2009 TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles. All Rights Reserved.

These days spammers and hackers have started troubling people by sending malicious links which redirect the users to a potential harmful site which might spread some virus or you could be redirect to a malware sites. This has happened with some of our readers when they clicked some suspicious links through messenger offline messages, twitter public timeline etc.

Short URL services which are spreading these days actually started becoming a free tool for these spammers to hide the potential harmful link by converting into a short URL. However there are various methods which can used to check before whether these links are potentially safe to click, lets discuss them one by one.

Fix:

Following are some methods discussed.

Method 1: Scan Suspicious Links With AVG Link Scanner

AVG Link Scanner is free utility from same company which distribute popular free antivirus AVG Antivirus FREE Edition. This program lets you scan any link and will tell you whether that link is safe to be clicked.

[ Click The Image Above To Enlarge ]

It will also install a firefox addon which keeps a watch over all the links you click and link shown in the google search results and will display a green colored arrow if the link is safe to be clicked.

[ Click The Image Above To Enlarge ]

Method 2: Decode The Actual Link Hidden In Short URL

Another way to avoid clicking dangerous links is to decode the actual link hidden in short URLs, for this you can use free services like Untiny.com and trueurl.net. Using these services you can see the link encoded in short link before opening the link in browser.

This content is just a summary, read the full article at ©2009 TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles. All Rights Reserved.

How to log on to your Windows computer if you forget your password or if your password expires?

 

If you forget your Windows password or if your password expires, you must reset your password before you can log on to your computer. This article contains two methods that you can try to reset your password so that you can log on to your computer again.

This article is intended for a beginning to intermediate computer user.
You may find it easier to follow the steps if you print this article first.

You can see our related article at : Reset Windows Administrator Password

Fix:

Reset forgotten or expired password

If you forget your password or if your password expires, there are three methods that you can use to log on to create a new password. One method is to use a password reset disk, if you have created one. By using the password reset disk, you can recover your user account and your personalized computer settings. Another method is to log on using the administrator account to delete the forgotten password and then to create a new password, The third method is to use windows password recovery tool. You only need to reset the password to “Blank” without reformatting or reinstalling your system
The instructions guide you through each step and help you verify that the problem is resolved.

Method 1: Use a password reset disk

To log on to the computer by using a password reset disk, follow these steps. If your computer is or was a member of a domain, go to the "Windows XP Professional in a domain" section and follow those steps.

Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional

1. Restart the computer. On the Windows XP logon screen, click the user name that you want to use, and then press ENTER.
   Note You receive the following error message:

Did you forget your password? You can click the "?" button to see your password hint. Or you can use your password reset disk. Please type your password again. Be sure to use the correct uppercase and lowercase letters.

1. Click Use your password reset disk. The Password Reset Wizard starts. The Password Reset Wizard enables you to create a new password for your user account.
2. In the Password Reset Wizard dialog box, click Next.
3. Insert the password reset disc into the CD drive, and then click Next.
4. Type a new password in the Type a new password box, and then type the password again in the Type the password again to confirm box.
5. In the Type a new password hint box, type a hint for the password, and then click Next.
6. Click Finish, and then try to log on to Windows XP again.

If you were able to reset your password and are now able to log on successfully, you have resolved the issue, and you are finished. If you are still unable to log on, try method 2.

Windows XP Professional in a domain

To log on to a computer by using a password reset disk, when that computer is a member of a domain, or was disconnected from a domain, follow these steps:

1. Restart the computer.
2. In the Welcome to Windows dialog box, press CTRL+ALT+DELETE.
3. In the Log On to Windows dialog box, type an incorrect password in the Password box, and then click OK.
4. In the Logon Failed dialog box, click Reset. The Password Reset Wizard starts. You can use the Password Reset Wizard to create a new password for your local account.
5. On the Welcome to the Password Reset Wizard page, click Next.
6. Insert the password reset disc into the CD drive, and then click Next.
7. Type a new password in the Type a new password box, and then type the password again in the Type the password again to confirm box.
8. In the Type a new password hint box, type a hint for the password, and then click Next.
9. Click Finish, and then try to log on to Windows XP again.

If you were able to reset your password and are now able to log on successfully, you have resolved the issue, and you are finished. If you are still unable to log on, try method 2.

Method 2: Log on as an administrator to reset the password

If you did not create a password reset disk, you may be able to log on as an administrator to reset a forgotten or expired password. The steps to do this differ if the computer is a stand-alone computer or a member of a workgroup of two or more, or a member of a domain. Select the appropriate set of steps from the following to try to log on as the administrator to reset the password.

Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional

To log on to a computer as the administrator to reset a password, try the following steps.

1. Log on as an administrator.
   1. Restart the computer.
   2. Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE two times, and then type the name of the administrator user account.
   3. In the Password box, type the administrator password, and then click OK.
      Note If the administrator password is set to a blank password, do not type a password before you click OK.

1. Reset the password.
   1. Click Start, and then click Run.
   2. Type control userpasswords2, and then click OK.
   3. On the Users tab, click the name of the user account that you want to reset the password for, and then click Reset Password.
   4. Type a new password in the New password box, and then type the password again in the Confirm new password box, and then click OK.
   5. Restart the computer, and then try to log on to Windows XP again.

If you can log on as an administrator to reset your password and you can now log on successfully, you have resolved the issue, and you are finished. If you are still unable to log on, go to the "Next Steps" section.

Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional in a workgroup

To log on to a computer as the administrator to reset a password, when that computer is in a workgroup of more than one member, follow these steps:

1. Log on as an administrator.
   1. Restart the computer, and then press the F8 key during startup until the Windows Advanced Options menu appears.
   2. On the Windows Advanced Options menu, use the arrow keys to select Safe Mode, and then press ENTER.
   3. Select Microsoft Windows XP edition, and then press ENTER.
      Note In this step, edition represents the correct Windows edition.
   4. On the To begin, click your user name screen, click Administrator, and then type the administrator password.
   5. Press ENTER, and then click Yes.

1. Reset the password.
   1. Click Start and then click Run.
   2. Type control userpasswords2, and then click OK.
   3. Click the name of the user account that you want to reset the password for.
   4. Click Change the Password, and then type a new password.
      Note If you do not want to use a password, click Remove password, and then continue to step "e."
   5. Click Change Password.
   6. Restart the computer, and then try to log on to Windows XP again.

If you can log on as an administrator to reset your password and can now log on successfully, you have resolved the issue, and you are finished. If you are still unable to log on, go to the "Next Steps" section.

Windows XP Professional in a domain

To log on to a computer as the administrator to reset a password, when that computer is a member of a domain, follow these steps:

1. Log on as an administrator.
   1. In the Welcome to Windows dialog box, press CTRL+ALT+DELETE, and then type the name of the administrator user account.
   2. In the Password box, type the administrator password, and then click OK.
      Note If the administrator password is set to a blank password, do not type a password before you click OK.

1. Reset the password.
   1. Click Start and then click Run.
   2. Type compmgmt.msc , and then click OK.
   3. In the Computer Management (Local) dialog box, expand Local Users and Groups.
   4. Click the Users folder, and then right-click the user account that you want to reset the password for.
   5. Click Set Password, and then click Proceed.
   6. Type a new password in the New password box, type the password again in the Confirm password box, and then click OK two times.

Restart the computer, and then try to log on to Windows XP again.

Method 3: Use windows password recovery tool

If you are not a computer technician, or not familiar with computer system operations, you may feel the above methods are scary and still can’t figure out what I am saying. Then you may try to use the software programs which may suit you. I’ve found that Windows Password Recovery Tool is the most effective. The program can easily reset the password to “Blank” without reformatting or reinstalling your system. Follow these steps:

1. Download Windows Password Recovery Tool 3.0
2. Burn your Windows Password Recovery Tool 3.0 CD.
3. Insert newly created CD in your CD drive and reboot your computer.
4. Select Windows installation to be processed:

5. Select the account to reset the password for:

6. Reset your lost password.

7. The user’s password has been successfully reset

The third method can 100% reset any windows login password . It works perfectly to reset any local user account to a blank password.

This is a guest post by Mark from WindowsPasswordsRecovery.com. Thanks Mark for the guest article.

This content is just a summary, read the full article at ©2009 TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles. All Rights Reserved.

I have recently jailbroken an iPhone I got from AT&T USA and brought it to India. In India I inserted an AirTel SIM in my Apple iPhone but the GPRS was not working. The GPRS settings are generally found in “Settings > General > Network > Cellular Data Network” screen as seen below

But this option was missing on my iPhone 3GS. This was missing because the apple restricts the settings editing from user. In this article I will share three methods of changing the GPRS APN settings when the option is missing.

Fix:

There are three methods, one through browser, one through a cydia app and other through file editing. I will explain all three in this article.

First of all, find your manual GPRS settings from your service provider or carrier. You can also find Free GPRS settings for India here.

Change iPhone APN Settings Through Safari Browser [Quick and Easy Way]

1. Connect your iPhone to some wifi/wireless network which can give your iPhone Internet access.

2. From your iPhone Safari browser, open the website : unlockit.co.nz and click Continue

3. Click on Custom APN

4. Type the APN settings for your carrier, in my case, it was airtelgprs.comand click on create profile.

5. Save the profile and re-start your iPhone. Your phone should now be working with the GPRS settings.

Enable Cellular Data Network Settings On iPhone Using APN Editing App

For this you can download the app called “APN Editing”

This app should work on iPhone 2G/3G, not sure of 3GS, because it did not install on my 3GS. If this application installs on your phone, its good, else see the method below.

Enable Cellular Data Network Settings Though File Editing [Geek Method]

1. Download and Install OpenSSH app from Cedia

2. Download and Install WinSCP client for Windows. Run the client and connect to your iPhone using SFTP over the wifi network. The Host Name will be IP address visible in

“Settings > General > Wifi > <Network Name>”

username will be “root”

password will be “alpine” for iPhone 3Gs

3. Browse to the following location on the WinSCP client

“/System/Library/Carrier Bundles/<carrier name>” and copy the “carrier.plist” file from this folder. carrier name is the folder name that depends on which carrier you are using. For example, in my case, it was Airtel India, so the path is:

/System/Library/Carrier Bundles/BhartiAirtel_in.bundle

4. Download and run pledit software and open the file “carrier.plist” downloaded in above step with pledit editor

and paste the following code just after the “<dict>” tag in this file:

<key>AllowEDGEEditing</key>
<true/>

Save the file after making changes as seen below.

5. Copy the Saved file back to the same folder in the iPhone. Restart the iPhone and the settings will be enabled.

After all this research, I got my GPRS working, see the proof below

Hope you find this article useful.

This content is just a summary, read the full article at ©2009 TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles. All Rights Reserved.