Simple IT Support

Are you receiving a “file not found” error when opening a file?

Posted by sporg

There are two possible reasons for this error.

First thing to do is to find the file you want to open in windows explore. From there use the address bar and count how may characters make up the full path. Then count the characters that make up the name of your file. Add them together and if you have more that 255 char you found your problem. Windows has a built in limit when opening a files that will not allow it to open files that have a full path larger than 255 characters.

The second possible reason is that the file system or the file itself is corrupted. How can this be fixed you may be asking. You need chkdsk. For more info come back and check out our next guide that will show you how to use chkdsk. Or sign up too our RSS feed so that you don’t miss a thing.

Technorati Tags: chkdsk, file, File not found, Opening

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Solutions for screen freezes while running 3d applications

Posted by sporg

If you are having problems with your 3d graphics card where it hangs or freezes while running a 3d application here are a few solutions you can try to get it working again. Have a read and try the solution that you think applies to your situation.

Warranty

Some of the solutions described in this article could void your warranty. Please make sure you are aware of what is allowed by you warranty agreement before proceeding. If you are having problems with a new purchase you may find it better to contact the people you bought the item from before proceeding with these solutions. Now as the warning is out the way we can continue with some solutions and a bit of fun.

Have you made any changes?

If you have recently installed a new video card the problem may be with drivers. Here is a list of drivers and software you may need to re-install or update.

1. Download and install the latest drivers for your motherboard.
2. Make sure you have uninstalled old video card drivers.
3. Download and install the latest drivers for your video card.
4. Download and re-install DirectX.

If you are still have the problem you also need to make sure that your computers power supply is big enough to supply power to your machine and the video card. Use a program like Motherboard Monitor and monitor the power voltages on your computer while testing the video card. If the voltages drop below the normal range then you will need to look into replacing the power supply for one that has a higher wattage output.

Problems after installing a program or driver

Try Microsoft’s System Restore. This is a tool in Windows XP and Vista that backs up all your s settings before new software or drivers are installed. To restore your settings to before an application or driver was installed do the following.

Through Help and Support:

1. Click Start, and then click Help and Support.
2. Under Pick a Task, click Undo changes to your computer with System Restore.
3. Follow the instructions on the wizard.

Through the All Programs menu:

1. Click Start.
2. Point to All Programs.
3. Point to Accessories.
4. Point to System Tools.
5. Click System Restore.
6. Follow the instructions on the wizard.

Problems with no apparent cause (Temperature)
One of the big causes for graphics cards freezing while running 3d applications is due to the GPU (Graphics processing unit) getting too hot.

If your video card has a temperature gauge built in you could run an application like Futuremark’s 3dmark software for a minute or two and then check the cards temperature. (Nvidea users can download ntune, ATI user can download ATITool) if it shows a high temperature then you need to open up the case to check why.

Most of the video cards you buy today have fans and heat sinks attached. First thing to do is to make sure the fan is working and that there is no dust trapped in the heat sinks stopping air flow. Also check that there are no other cards restricting flow to the fan.

Sound card

3d applications like games also use the sound card. What this means is that it could be the sound card and not the graphics card that is causing the problem. So if your application has sound try disabling the sound card.

Follow the next few steps to do this:

1. Click start then Control Panel.
2. In the control panel double click System.
3. Click on the Hardware tab.
4. Click Device Manager.
5. Click the + by Sound, video and game controllers section.
6. Right click on your sound card and click Disable.

With the sound card disabled try your application again and see if your computer still has a problem. If not you need to start troubleshooting you sound card (Will write up an article for this soon too).

Slow down you AGP, PCI Express or DirectX acceleration.

Most computers will have a setting in the BIOS for the speed of the AGP or PCI Express interface. If your BIOS setting is set to max speed try slowing down the interface then check if you still have the same problem. If not this is where it get a bit tricky. The problem could be either the motherboard or the video car. In some cases it’s a matter of motherboard and video card combination that has a problem. The only way to sort out the problem is trial and error.

Another method worth trying is to slow down the 3d acceleration in windows.

To do this

1. Click start then Control Panel.
2. Click Display.
3. Click on the Settings tab.
4. Click Advanced.
5. Click on the Troubleshooting tab.

There is a slide called hardware acceleration. Try moving it to the left a notch or too and see if that stops the screen freezes. Again there could be a problem with either the motherboard of the video card or they are just not compatible.

Check the computers memory

Use Microsoft’s Memory Diagnostic tool to make sure you do not have a problem with your computers memory.

I hope this information is of use to someone out there having problems. Would also like to hear from anyone that might have another solution to the problem

Technorati Tags: 3D Graphics, Solution

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Make available offline synchronisation issues

Posted by sporg

Had a problem over the last few days with Microsoft Windows “Make Available Offline” system. While sorting out this issue I learnt a few new things about Windows and thought I would share the experience here.

The problem that brought the user to our IT office was to do with some files appearing and vanishing on different days. Fortunately the share that the files where on was a personal drive that no one else had access too. The first thing that popped to mind was that there must be an issue with the synchronisation. First thing I tried was to force the offline folders to synchronise.

But during the sync there were errors with accessing some of the files. Now like my first thought you would possibly believe that this had something to do with security rights to the files. After looking at all security settings I found this not to be the case. But what was causing the problem is that these files were stored in directories that where several levels down from the route directory. Now what causes the problem is a base limit in the length of a path that Windows programs can use. So if a files full path (i.e. c:\mydocs\sams\file.txt) is made up of more than 255 characters the file is inaccessible.

To make sure that I did not lose any documents I had the user start copying files out of the network drive and onto his local laptop. When he found one of these long files he had to rename the directories above to something a bit smaller so that Windows could copy the file.

Once we had the files in a safe location it was time to tidy up. I logged into the server and deleted all files that where on the share. I went into the file options under Windows explorer tools menu. One of the tabs under folder options is Offline Files and a button there named delete all files. I then went to synchronise the offline folder believing all would be well. I found that the local pc had one of these long path files sitting in the local cache trying to update the server but would cause an error. All should have been fine as I deleted everything on both pc’s. At least that’s what I thought.

I spent some time over the next few days trying a few things out and not finding a solution until I came across this document and more importantly this section

“Deleting All the Offline Files and Folders in the Cache

You can delete all the offline files stored in the %systemroot%\CSC folder by using a process known as reinitializing the cache. This method deletes all offline files from the Offline Files Folder and resets the Offline Files database. If any files in the cache have changed and have not been synchronized with the network versions, the changes are lost when the cache is reinitialized. You must restart the computer after the cache is reinitialized.

To reinitialize the Offline Files cache

1.	Click a folder, and then on the Tools menu, click Folder Options .
2.	Click the Offline Files tab.
3.	Press CTRL+SHIFT, and then click Delete Files .
4.	Restart the computer.

”

I tried it and it reset everything and the user was able to start copying his files back. It’s my thoughts that it was the long path names that caused all the problems to begin with. But the solution above was just what I needed but why did Microsoft hide this feature? Hope this helps someone if they have a similar problem.

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