MaximumPC 2004 09

PUSHING ALL THE RIGHT

BUTTONS

I have a Windows XP Pro-based

machine with an AMD Athlon

XP 1800+ processor, a GeForce 3

Ti 200 videocard, a Soyo Dragon

Plus motherboard, and a 120GB

Western Digital hard drive. For

some reason, the power button

doesn’t work properly anymore.

After shutting down, I have to

turn off the surge protector for 30

minutes and then turn it back on

for the power button to respond.

If I don’t do this, the power

button doesn’t respond at all.

What is the problem? Do I have

to replace the power supply or is

it an issue with the case?

—DUY NGUYEN

The Doctor has seen this on a few

occasions and it’s usually related to a

conflict between a motherboard and

the power supply. Sometimes simply

swapping the power supply clears up

the issue. While the Doc hasn’t nailed

down the cause, it may have some-

thing to do with the power supply’s

“power good” signal. Because ATX

motherboards are equipped with their

own power switch for operation, a

nominal bit of juice flows to the board

even when the PC is technically off.

When the PC is turned on, the power

supply waits from 100ms to 500ms

for the voltage to stabilize and then

sends a power good signal to the

motherboard and the system boots. If

the power good signal is not sent or

is somehow interrupted, the system

may not boot. Resetting the power

supply by cutting the power and then

turning it on somehow fixes this. So

you likely have a bum power supply

or one that is failing, or a motherboard

that is failing. Swapping PSUs with

your buddy may be the easiest and

cheapest way to find out.

TRIPPING OVER STREETS

AND TRIPS

I have tried to fully load the

complete MS Works Suite 2004

Streets and Trips program from the

DVD I own but it only loads the

operating portion of the program,

meaning I must have the DVD

in the drive when I access it. The

Encarta program on the same

DVD gave me a choice during

installation so I could load the

complete program but Streets and

Trips gave me no option. How can

I get the whole program loaded

so I don’t have to carry the DVD

with me when I travel?

—RICK GOLDTHWAITE

Yet more proof that some guys will do

anything to keep from having to ask

for directions. Luckily, what you want

is easy to accomplish. First, you’ll

need a CD burning application that

will allow you to make disc images,

which are virtual copies of your CDs

and DVDs that exist on your hard

drive. Almost all commercial burning

applications allow this through “Copy

Disc” or “Make Disc Image” selec-

tions. In essence, you’ll be copying

the contents of the disc not to another

disc, but to a single file instead.

First, you’ll have to uninstall the

software that requires the DVD (you’ll

see why later). Insert the DVD into

your laptop’s optical drive. In Nero 6 ,

go to Recorder > Make Image file.

In Easy CD Creator 6 , select Copy

DVD from the main menu. The Roxio

Disc Copier will pop up. Click the

Advanced button to get the options

you’ll need. Select your optical drive

as the Source. Under Destination,

click the Disc Image radio button.

Then click Save As and indicate

where you want the disc image to be

saved. Save the file as an ISO image

with a descriptive name (and make

sure you’ve got enough space on

your hard drive to accommodate the

disc’s contents). Click OK, and a disc

image will be created; depending on

the speed of your hard drive and the

size of the DVD, this could take a long

time. When the process is finished,

you’ll have a large file with the ISO

extension.

Now go to http://www.daemon-tools.com

and download the latest version of the

free Daemon Tools utility. If the serv-

er’s down, just do a Google search

and you’ll find many sites hosting this

wonderful little app. Install Daemon

Tools and restart your PC. In your

system tray you’ll see an icon with a

red lightning bolt—that’s the Daemon

Tools virtual drive utility. Right-click

it, select Virtual CD/DVD-ROM, click

the drive letter that represents your

optical drive, select Mount Image,

and point Daemon Tools to your

newly-created ISO file.

Daemon Tools creates a virtual

optical drive on your PC that’s essen-

tially indistinguishable from a normal

one. So you’ll have to reinstall your

application from this new virtual

drive. Once you do, you’ll have a por-

table copy of your software for travel.

There’s an unpleasant side

effect, however. Daemon Tools is

often employed by software pirates,

so many recent games will refuse

to launch if you have this util-

ity installed—even if it’s not in use.

There’s no work-around for this, so

you’ll have to uninstall and reinstall

the utility if your games don’t want to

make nice.

THE RELUCTANT BURNER

I have a Hi-Val 32/10/40 CD-

Several months ago the Autoplay

feature for my CD and DVD drives

stopped working. I can still access

the drives by opening them from My

Computer but I miss the Autoplay

feature. The strange thing is that I

have Autoplay set for each drive’s

default settings but it still won’t work.

I’ve tried uninstalling and reinstalling

the drives, doing several “System

Restores” and visiting Microsoft’s

Knowledge Base with no results.

Do you have any ideas about what I should

try next? Also, have I overlooked anything you

can thank of? Thanks, Doc!

—MIKE POESCHL

The Doctor has to hand it to you—you’ve done

your due diligence. But as great a resource as the

Knowledge Base is, the suggested “fix” for this

problem isn’t always effective, as you’ve discovered.

Here’s another solution. From the Start menu, select

Run and enter GPEDIT.MSC in the dialog box. Click

OK, and the Group Policy window will open. On the

menu tree, expand Computer Configuration by click-

ing the plus sign, then do the same for Administrative

Templates, and then System. Click on System, and

then look in the right-hand pane. You’ll see a selec-

tion called Turn Off Autoplay. Double-click it, and

click the Enabled radio button. Close the window,

restart your PC, and all should be well again.

If the normal ways to re-enable Autoplay

don’t work, you should check the setting

in Group Policy Editor.

AUTOPLAY ‘N’ PRAY

Ask the Doctor Symptom Diagnosis Cure

 MA XIMUMPC SEPTEMBER 2004 4