Recent content by JChrisCarroll

My PC has suddenly started to run chkdsk on drive C: every time I boot. It runs through all three stages - verify files - verify indexes - verify security descriptors - without appearing to find any problems, but right at the end it comes up with the message "Unable to read the security...

Yes thanks that's very helpful. Having looked again at some aspects of my firewall, I decided that part of the problem was that I had not put it into "learning" mode for a period when installing and running Photoshop CS initially. I have now put it into "learning" mode and...

Thanks for your interest. The remote IP address is shown as 0.0.0.0. The firewall gives four warnings before clearing. The first relates to ~df394b.tmp; the second to ~debe26.tmp; the third is a repeat of the first and the fourth is a repeat of the second. What I also forgot to mention in my...

I have just installed Photoshop CS. Every time I start the program I get a warning from my firewall that some file is trying to access the internet. It does this several times quite independently of whether I confirm or deny access. Clicking on details brings up several temp files as the...

If you open "Add/Remove Programs" in the control panel you should find it among the hot fixes towards the foot of the list of programs

Thanks Strator - that really makes a difference. I followed the link you gave and concluded that I had no need for the particular hotfix. Deleting it reduced the shut down time from about a minute and a quarter to 10 seconds. The desktop machine now beats the laptop hands down. Thanks again...

I too find the "hidden devices" list a mystery. Several of my devices have visible entries in the devices list and then multiple additional entries in the "hidden" list. For example my USB mouse has a couple of entries there. The record number of multiple entries is for a...

Thanks pbxman. Then why does the laptop take longer to boot than does the desktop? You mention it being a matter of tweaking - can I go back to my original question? How does one examine what is happening during shut-down? Presumably this should be the precursor to any attempt at optimisation...

Thanks for responding WindowWizard. I am afraid I have not kept up with what you said. Could you explain further? Why is the laptop interfacing differently than the desk machine. Are they not both using the same operating system and the same basic hardware. In fact the desktop machine has far...

With anti-virus etc disabled, shut-down took 1 second longer. I think within the limits of experimental accuracy we would have to call that "no difference". Chris

Thanks. I will try it, but bearing in mind that I have exactly the same defensive systems on both machines, it is not obvious why it should make a difference. Chris

I run Win2K on both my laptop and my desktop machines. There are differences in the configuration and in the program setups, but in spite of that I am intrigued by the differences that I get in the boot up and shut-down times on the two machines. The desktop machine cold-boots marginally...

Thanks. I will have a look. And while I am at it, thanks to all of those of you who took so much interest and were so helpful. Chris

This p.m. I got the chance to try another option. To install a USB PCI card. It installed without difficulty. I disabled the on-chip USB function and lo & behold all my USB stuff (including the scanners) performs faultlessly. Am I entitled to conclude that the VIA on-chip USB implementation is...

While I have been pursuing this issue, I have become aware of a volume of material critical of motherboards with VIA chipsets and listing a range of compatibility problems. The article from PC Buyers Guide at the URL below is typical. They tend to convince me that I am right to go back to the...