May 03, 2008

                                                  Umair Mohsin responds to your queries...

Dual booting WinXP and Win98

Q I am using WindowsXP Service Pack 2 on my Compaq 815 motherboard, with 1GB processor and 128MB Ram. I have two physical hard drives, one with WindowsXP SP2 and the other with Windows98. The problem is that when I connect the hard drives to my system, only WinXP loads and executes. What should I do?

A First, I suggest that you read through http://www.petri.co. il/install_windows_98_after_windows_xp.htm and see how much you understand it. In all likelihood, you will be unable to follow the instructions unless you have an above average knowledge of your OS and hardware.

In this case, I suggest that you use a Boot Manager Tool instead. One of the best tools is GAG which is a Boot Manager programme. It is loaded when the computer is turned on and allows you to choose the operating system that you want to use. You can download it from http://www.majorgeeks.com /download2588.html, and yes, it is freeware.

Another software you can use is Partition Magic 8.0 (easily available from all the major CD vendors), or you can download it from http://www.symantec.com /norton/products/overview.jsp? pcid=sp&pvid=pm80. It has a utility called BootMagic which makes it easy to switch between operating systems. You can go through the ReadMe file for more on how to use the features.

Registry editing disabled

Q I have a Celeron with 1.7GHz processor which runs on WinXP. The problem is that my system was attacked by a virus and the task manager got disabled. It also does not detect sound device anymore. I followed your advice and removed the virus, but when I tried to regain the Task Manager, the system said, "registry editing has been disabled by the administrator”. In gpedit.msc, I disabled ‘remove task manager option’. Now, the Task Manager is available, but registry editing is still disabled. What should I do?

A  Have you tried to merge a .REG file? You can copy one from

http://www.askmehelpdesk.com /attachments/spyware-viruses-etc/2944d1173913897-how-remove-rvhost-exe-malware-anetgames-pkg_0023349.zip.

Just double-click, and it will revert most of the entries to default and release the Registry.

Also, please run PrevxCSI (www.prevx.com) and AVG Anti-Spyware (http://free.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-spyware/) or www.ewido.net/en/download/  on your system, to ensure that it is truly free from all malwares.

Graphics cards

Q 1. What is the difference between 3D accelerator card and a video card?

2. If a game needs a 64MB 3D accelerator card, can it run on a computer with 64MB of built-in graphics memory?

A A video card is a generic name for any of the display technologies that a computer can utilise. It can refer to a graphics accelerator card, a display adapter, a graphics card, and numerous other terms. Any card whose function is to generate and output images to your display is a video card. Mostly, however, the term is used to refer to a separate, dedicated card that is plugged into a slot on the computer’s motherboard, as opposed to a graphics controller integrated into the motherboard. An integrated graphics controller may be referred to as an ‘integrated graphics processor’ (IGP).

There are four different forms of GPUs:

Dedicated graphics cards are usually called accelerators or 3D cards. These have onboard Ram that is dedicated to the card’s use, which is independent of the system.

Integrated graphics solutions or shared graphics solutions, are graphics processors that utilise a portion of a computer’s system Ram rather than dedicated graphics memory. Usually, these are inbuilt into the motherboard.

Hybrid solutions also share memory with the system memory, but have a smaller amount of memory on-board than discrete graphics cards do, to make up for the high latency of the system Ram.

Stream processing is the latest technology to hit the market. This concept turns the massive floating-point computational power of a modern graphics accelerator’s shader pipeline into general-purpose computing power, as opposed to being dedicated solely to graphical operations. Read up about Intel’s Larrabee on Google to understand this technology better.

2 When a game asks for a 64MB dedicated card, it means that an IGP will not be enough to power it. This is because integrated graphics solutions, or shared graphics solutions are graphics processors that utilise a portion of a computer’s system Ram rather than dedicated graphics memory.

Usually, these are inbuilt in the motherboard. Even though you can have, say, a 128MB video Ram, it still remains an integrated graphics solutions, meaning that the graphics processors is utilising a portion of a computer’s system Ram rather than acting as a dedicated graphics memory. Also, the CPU is being used for the first stage of 3D processing (geometry operations), while the integrated graphics device handles the rest of the 3D processing. This is why your system will start lagging during gameplay when you run a heavy 3D application.

So no matter how much of shared video memory you build onto the board, it cannot be compared to a proper GPU, and neither will you get the same sort of performance even if you do use the shared memory to run that game.

Psychology websites

Q Please suggest some websites on psychology and the importance of psychology in engineering sector.

A  I suggest that you to search by topic in Google or read up on some magazines like Psychology Today. For more effective search, for example, instead of googling keywords like ‘psychology in industry,’ you can pick up certain topics like, ‘workplace motivation in oil industry’ or ‘change management.’ This will give you much better results relevant to your query.

Pokemon games

Q  From where can I download Pokemon games for free?

A  There are currently no sites that we personally know of that offer these games for free.