Burning CD’s

CD burning is a black art. You can have ten identical computers and each one will have it’s own quirks with burning CDs. Generally we recommend burning at the lowest speed for the best reliability.

John called with exactly this problem. He was finding copies of audio CDs wouldn’t run on his stereo. We find this problem is usually solved by burning at single speed (150kb). Some CD burners will not burn this low so choose the lowest possible.

We also find that different brands of blank CDs work better than others. Again this varies with every machine. We recommend always steering clear of CD-RW disks and the very cheap blank CDs from Office suppliers and computer superstores.

Teddy bear virus

The Teddy Bear hoax claimed Alison and she deleted the jdbgmgr.exe file. For most Internet Explorer users this will not be a problem. If you do want it back, Microsoft have instructions on how to restore it.

Modem Crackling

Mick has had problems with a new computer disconnecting. From the description, it sounds like his phone line has problems. We’ve posted Internet troubleshooting tips here.

Hard Drive Problems

Having one hard drive fail is a nuisance, or a disaster if you haven’t a backup. But losing five is a major problem. Peter was concerned that Apple had shipped a bad batch of hard drives with his Imac.

We haven’t heard of hard drive problems specific to imacs but IBM have had terrible trouble with certain drives. Some Macs were shipped with these and it is possible one was Peter's. In this sort of situation you have to be firm with the supplier and insist that the drive is replaced with a different model.

Free Software

A number of callers inquired about free anti-virus and firewall software. The anti-virus we like is AVG and the free firewall we recommend is Zonealarm. We recommend you buy these products to help support the developers.

As usual, our apologies to the callers who couldn’t get through. We expect the next Nightlife computer spot will be May 9. If you’d like to be kept up-to-date with our schedule then subscribe to our newsletter.