Ask the Doctor
56 MA XIMUMPC OCTOBER 2005
how 2 IMPROVING YOUR PC EXPERIENCE, ONE STEP AT A TIME
Continued from page 5 5FELINE FETISH
I have a problem. Ginny, one of my four cats, is
constantly licking my CDs. She seems to prefer CD-
Rs and DVD-Rs to pressed media. This was cute at
first, but it’s becoming a problem as some of my
CDs are getting stained with cat saliva. Is cat saliva
bad for the discs? More importantly, is licking the
discs bad for the cat? And what is it about the discs
that would make a cat want to lick them?
—Matt PutzelThe best way to curb this behavior is to catch
Ginny in the act of licking your CDs and tell
her firmly “Bad cat!” Next, take all your blank
media and put them in jewel cases. Problem
solved. As for whether or not the CDs are
harmful to Ginny’s health, our contact at
Verbatim tells us there’s nothing in the outer
layer of the disc that would harm a cat. As for
why she licks the CDs, it’s probably because
she either likes the taste or the way it feels
on her tongue. In fact, one of the Doctor’s cats
loves to lick the window blinds—probably for
the same reason.
There’s not much you can do to dissuade
Ginny from licking your CDs, aside from spray-
ing her with a water bottle when you catch her
in the act; but that would also get your pre-
cious media wet.PENTIUM III VS. SEMPRON: FIGHT!
My daughter’s PC is a hand-me-down box that I builtfrom spare parts.
It has an 866MHz
Pentium III, 512MB of
RAM, and a GeForce
FX 5700 card. She
can’t play Unreal
Tournament 2004
or Half-Life 2 at
1024x768 without
turning the graphics
way, way down.
Because the FX
5700 was fine at
those games in my
PC (a 2.4GHz P4),
I’m convinced she
needs a new CPU.
Would upgrading her
system to a Sempron
enable her to play
modern games at
1024x768 with her
current videocard?
—Christian SmythIf you’re really happy with the frame rates
you can get from an FX 5700 and a 2.4GHz P4,
a Sempron should be very impressive. Just
make sure you upgrade her to a Socket 754
Sempron, and not a Socket A Sempron. The
Socket 754 Sempron is a K8-based CPU and
should provide quite an uptick in performance
over a Pentium III.
AMD will introduce a new and very afford-
able 64-bit Sempron series just in time for
your upgrade. In bulk, the 64-bit AMD Sempron
processors 2600+, 2800+, 3000+, 3100+, and
3300+ will be priced at U.S. $74, $83, $98,
$113, and $140, respectively. Remember, you’ll
also need to upgrade your motherboard and
memory. In fact, you just might want to hand
down your old P4 and build yourself a new
Sempron system, instead. If you decide to buy
a new 64-bit capable Sempron, make sure your
vendor knows the difference between it and
the old 32-bit version.ROTTEN ROUTER
I have a 512Kb/s DSL
connection and a Linksys
Etherfast Cable/DSL
router. Each time I reboot
my PC, I find that I have
to reset the router in
order to access the In-ternet. I’ve already double-checked all my cable
connections, but I’m constantly losing my Internet
connection. What do you think is going on?
—Eric ClyneAny time you have a router problem, the first
thing you should do is update the router’s
firmware. You’ll find the latest firmware for
your router at http://www.linksys.com/support. If that
doesn’t solve your problem, try bypassing the
router and connecting your computer directly
to your DSL or cable modem. If you continue
to have problems when your router is out of
the loop, the router isn’t the source of your
problem—you just have a flakey connec-
tion. If your Internet access is via DSL, make
sure that filters are installed on every device
that’s plugged into your phone jacks; other-
wise, inbound and outbound calls can inter-
rupt your DSL connection. If none of these
troubleshooting tips solves your problem,
you’ll need to get your ISP’s customer-service
department involved.ROUND PEGS, SQUARE HOLES
I purchased an ATI 9800 Pro videocard, and then
discovered that I can’t install it in my Dell Dimension
4600C thin-client PC. So I’ve decided to buy a mid-
tower case and put the Dell motherboard in it. Now
my only problem is that I can’t find a case that will
accommodate the motherboard. Help!
—James ZengOne of the Doc’s biggest complaints about
Dell is that the company insists on using pro-
prietary motherboards and power supplies,
which makes them very difficult to transplant
into new cases. In fact, you typically can’t
even upgrade the PSU. The 4600C is designed
to consume as little space as possible; as a
consequence, its interior is so cramped that it
will only accommodate half-height expansion
cards—and there’s no such configuration for
the 9800 Pro.
Your best bet is to donate that old PC to
your mom—or to some other non-gaming rela-
tive or friend—and start from scratch.Ginny is a very bad kitty.Is your Dream Machine turning into a nightmare? Are you waking up in a
cold sweat because your PC can’t cope with today’s hardware? Look to the
west, my sons and daughters, for the Doctor is here to save you. E-mail all
your PC problems to [email protected].