PC doctor

: I have two problems and would be grateful if you could help mes Zip drive, then formulates a cunning plan to deflect unwelcome e-mail. with them.

The first appears when my computer starts up: a message is displayed indicating that something called 'EMM386' is not installed. Then it asks me to press a key, and it says 'EMM386 successfully installed', followed by a few other seemingly contradictory statements - all of which serve to confuse.

The other problem has only appeared once. Something - I don't know what - apparently caused an 'illegal operation', resulting in my PC throwing a wobbly. How do I find out what prompted it?

Mr L D Stevenson, Nottingham

A: From the printout you sent us, we can tell you not to worry too much about the various messages your computer throws up after you switch it on - EMM386 is a throwback to the dark days of DOS and, while the statements would appear to contradict themselves, focus on the last one which tells you it is active.

If the fact that you have to press a key to keep things moving along is really bothering you, there is a way around this problem. Click on the Start button in Windows, select Run and type 'sysedit' into the entry box. If it's not already at the front, click on the window headed 'AUTOEXEC.BAT' so that you can edit its contents. Look for a line that reads simply: 'PAUSE'. Highlight this with your mouse, and hit the delete key. Choose Exit from the File menu, and answer Yes when asked if you'd like to save changes.

As for the illegal operation message, it's almost impossible to say what caused it. Sadly, Windows is not the most stable operating system in the world and from time to time you will encounter problems like this. If it happens repeatedly then it might be worth investigating but, as it would appear to be a one-off, treat it as such - in other words, forget about it.

Q: I bought a Windows 98 PC recently, which was delivered and set up for me by an engineer. He showed me how to connect up to the Internet, and set up something that I think he called an 'activated desktop'. This allowed me to view Internet 'channels' like the BBC's news site by just clicking on the appropriate picture on my screen. I also have a window that I could use like a Web browser; I found this very handy. However, my five-year-old son has been up to his meddlesome best and has somehow managed to deactivate whatever the nice man activated - now all my channels have gone. Help!

Alan Hollis, Sheffield

A: If only all the problems we received were as simple to solve as this one! To reactive your channel icons, and everything else that's associated with the Active Desktop feature, all you need do is right-click anywhere on the Windows desktop and select the Active Desktop option from the pop-up menu. Choose View As Web Page.

Q: I have been contemplating fitting an internal Zip drive to my PC. When I opened it up recently to see how to fit it, I noticed there was only one spare power connector. This will do nicely for the Zip drive, but what do I do when I wish to fit another internal device?

Mr M Edlington, South Yorkshire

A: The simplest answer is to invest in a power connector splitter - this will effectively turn one power connector into two. However, you should be wary of overloading your power supply unit. Most are only rated to around 220W, so if you try connecting too many power-sapping devices, it might start to creak. Check the label on your power supply and those affixed to the various attached devices - if the total power drawn adds up to the same, or more than the power supply's rating then you should avoid hooking up any more devices.

The good news, though, is that in the majority of cases, a PC power supply can comfortably cope with the power demands of several devices - floppy and hard disk drives, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, and so on.

Q: When I bought my PC early last year it came preinstalled with Microsoft Word 97, which I use regularly. However, our office computers at work all have an older version - Word 6.0. I regularly work on documents at home and subsequently take them into the office for modifications, so I have to use Word 97's Save As command to save them in the older file format. While this isn't exactly taxing, it's so annoying that I can't set up Word 97 to automatically save in Word 6.0. Is there a way?

Christine Maine, Ipswich, Suffolk

A: Indeed there is. Select Options from the Tools menu and, in the dialog box that pops up, click the tab headed 'Save'. Click the down-pointing arrow next to the words 'Save Word file as': and scroll down until you reach for format you want - in this case, 'Word 6.0/95 (*.doc)'.

Q: Every week I receive a so-called newsletter from a commercial Web site based in the States. In fact, it's little more than page after page of 'special offers' for various items in which I have little or no interest. I've got no idea how I got onto their list, but I really want to get off it. Up until now I've simply been deleting the messages as soon as they turn up in Outlook Express's Inbox. Do you know of a better solution?

Dave Madden, Manchester

A: There's a couple of ways around this problem. If you're very lucky, simply letting the sender of the newsletter know that you have no further interest in receiving it will do the trick. The likely way to do this is to send a brief, polite message to that effect to postmaster@domain.com, where 'domain.com' is the bit after the '@' symbol that appears in the sender's e-mail address. However, as each and every company operates its system in a different way, this may not work.

Another, more reliable solution is to simply block the receipt of the messages. In Outlook Express this is quite straightforward. From the Tools menu, select Message Rules and then Blocked Senders List. Click on Add, tap in the sender's e-mail address (or even just the domain name, to block all messages from that domain) and then click OK. Now you can wave goodbye to that unwanted newsletter for good because blocked messages are moved straight into your Deleted folder.

Q: I've signed up with Freeserve and am very impressed by the service it provides. One downside I've discovered is that when I go travelling the only way to check my e-mail is by dialling internationally - and this obviously costs me a fortune. It'd be nice just to pop into an Internet cafe, or something like that, and check my mail online, but again, I can't do this with Freeserve. Any ideas?

Daljit Chol, Southall, London

A: To the best of our knowledge, all of the free Internet Service Providers operate similar systems, so changing provider won't help you. However, there is a simple way to work around this - and get yourself another free e-mail account into the bargain. Microsoft's Hotmail service gives you an e-mail account that can be serviced from any Web browser, anywhere in the world. And the plus side of using Hotmail in this way is that you can also set it up to check a POP3 e-mail account - in other words, to read messages sent to your Freeserve account while you're away from home.

To do this, first get yourself set up with a Hotmail account: just point your browser at www.hotmail.com and then follow the on-screen instructions. Once signed up, you need to tell Hotmail about your Freeserve account. Click on Options on the left-hand side of the window and, when the new page appears, POP Mail. Here you can configure Hotmail to retrieve e-mail from up to four POP3 mail accounts. Fill in the necessary details - Freeserve's POP Server Name is pop.freeserve.net; the rest is up to you - and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click OK.

Now, when you log on to Hotmail - wherever you might be - you can simply click on the POP Mail link at the top of the page to read mail sent to your Freeserve account.

The PC doctor regrets that he cannot provide readers with individual replies or answer queries over the telephone, but if you have a question or problem you want to share with other readers, write to: PC doctor, What PC? Editorial, VNU House, 32-34 Broadwick Street, London W1A 2HG, or email pcdoctor@whatpc.co.uk.

The writer of EVERY letter published will receive a FREE Microsoft IntelliMouse and a choice of Microsoft Bookshelf, Publisher 97 or Money 97. Please state which you would prefer.

Like this story? Spread the news by clicking below:

 del.icio.us     Digg this     reddit!