As some may know, my pc went completely goofball a few weeks back, so i ended up having it completely restored at pc world (and the kind bloke bunged in a new hard drive with double the capacity too).

So I have a few problems that i'd like some really simple advice on how to fix them,

Firstly, I have re-installed 'medal of honour' but am getting a message about openGL not working. I've read a bit about it but although i understand some of what it says about my graphics card and something to do with a 'glide', it's all a bit too technical for me. I remember that it did it when i first got the game too, but dont remember how i fixed it then. Hopefully theres some kind of auto-extracting patch or something that you can send me?

Secondly, how can i make my outlook express remember my email address - i dont seem to have an identity at the moment!

Thirdly, why doesnt windows media player stream the bbc video content anymore?

Fourthly, I am on virgin broadband, and when it was previously NTL, the broadband installation came with 'zone alarm' and 'broadband medic', which of course are wiped now, does anyone know of any good (preferably free) firewall and pc health checking programs that wont f**k my pc up cos its quite an old one, with not a lot of memory (like me)

Lastly, is there an easy way to save a list of all the websites i visit, somewhere online, so that if the pc goes wrong again i can easily recall all my favourites?

Any simple help for a simple bloke is well appreciated, thanks

(system is about 7 years old, advent 3104 with amd athlon 1ghz, using windows ME, and nvidea RIVA TNT2 model64 graphics card, and I have been to the windows update website and updated all the items for windows ME....please remember i dont do technical so it'll be pointless telling me to go and write some code in some system file somewhere, i wont have a clue )

I think you should have a look for a cd that belongs to your graphics card...then install the drivers - or have a look on the website of the manufacturer for new drivers.

If that fails, just install Suse Linux on your PC - it is better then Windows and usually everything is installed without the need of any additional software...

http://www.suse.com

You should also check out Firefox and use that instead of Internet Explorer:

http://www.firefox.com

I had issues with Medal of Honor after driver updates for my card. Same issues you had. The game would fail to initialize and prompted the same error. You can always just uninstall the game and delete the registry keys for it then re-install it.

Have you applied patches for the game itself?

Did this all of a sudden start or is this after a video card driver update?

The German that the soldier use in this game is real and it is funny as hell to listen to. I was born in Germany. The PS1 Game had a similar dialog and i always laughed my ass off listening to them speak about how they are going to throw that ammie in the river and cut this ammie head off.

The thing with going back to old graphics drivers is that alot of the new stuff you have may not work correctly or if at all. You wont be able to access all the new features that modern day drivers have.

I am using an old Nvidia Geforce FX 5200 and i am just about to get a new one as this is showing up in the bottom bracket alot as far as hardware requirements are concerned.

If you want to install another operating system then be prepared to play almost no commercial games at all.

I do use firefox as well and i would pass on that recommendation as well.

If i remember correctly the game will work in either d3d or glide. Have you tried either?

For outlook its tools>accounts>mail>add>mail>name>next>Your Email address you want to use>next>Incoming server - mine is mail.btinternet.com but add yours>outgoing server is usually the same as incoming>your account name with your provider and your password

Some want secure password authentication and some dont

But this is much easier to deal with

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie6/using/howto/oe/setup.mspx#E6D

When you open up IE, i shall use IE in this example, go to

FILE>Import Export>Next

Decide what you want to import or export and where to store it. You will be given choices down the menu a few steps. Choose save as file and slap it on your desktop so you know where it is. Then use a floppy if it is small enough.

And who says floppys are dead?

There. That will give you some things to do

I had to learn all this stuff over the years as computers, especially the old ones, are a major pain in the ass.

Cheers for the info

Errrr....dunno how to delete the registry keys

Errrr...dunno how to do that either....and i'm getting the feeling that they both involve 'knowing what i'm doing'

Get CCleaner. Leave it on its default settings and clean away. This will clean the registry but since it came from the shop not so long ago that means that the regisrty is pletty clean to begin with. This only really matters when you have never cleaned the registry and have owned teh machine for awhile.

Alot of games are built with dedicated graphics cards in mind so onboard solutions dont always work well. Some do some don't. It depends on who made the chip.

Sometimes its an etherreal error as Mike Meyers calls it. Like a ghost in teh machine. I swear to you these things are real. The router is showing that you have an internet connection in the status screen of windows network connections for example. Yet you cant get online unless you click through the automatic IP Addressing button even though it is showing that your system is using automatic Ip addressing. But i was only able to get online today unless i clicked Ok to accept the already accepted chosen method of connection. Friggen ghosts in teh machine i am telling you. The have a mind of their own and need to told what to do.

If all fails you can always use the restore feature if you are using XP. Go back as far as you have saves and need to go back in order to fix it.
This is just another example of how MS stifles competition by buying out competitors. GoBack, i think used to be owned by norten, was bought by MS and now this feature which was a stand alone product is built into the MS OS's.

No I dont have XP.
My pc is about 6 or 7 years old and has windows ME.

Anyways, a quick update, I've got 'broadband medic' back, and I tried a link for a free copy of 'zone alarm' but when i went to download it i got an error message saying that i've got a kernel missing.

Still get the openGL error when trying to run MOH, downloaded a 'glide' file but I don't know how to incorporate the unzipped .dll file into my system (remember i am not 'techy', treat me like a pc idiot )

I have sorted my 'outlook express' - spent an afternoon going through loads of old paperwork etc and found the original details that I wrote down about the passwords I used and the 'pop' info etc.

Windows media player is still reluctant to stream content from the bbc site. I'm considering downloading 'realplayer' again, but i'll probably find that they want money for it these days (like most things that used to be free.....hrrrumph )

And, to avoid me losing track of my favourite websites if my pc dies again, i'm still looking for a way of automatically saving my browsing history somewhere online.

Now if I could start a relationship with a beatiful woman who knows all about computers, is fairly local, has a good job, nice car, and isn't mad, then hey - i could kill several birds with one stone!

You can save your favorites onto a floppy disk. I outlined how to do it.
Same with cookie's for log on's ect....

Now i am going to give you new advice. Chuck the thing in the recycling bin and get a new one. freecycle.org i am sure will have one better than yours. You get others people junk but its newer junk than what you have i am sure.

well thanks mate....thats great advice! hahahahaha

anyways, I like old stuff....old stuff works...usually!

and my floppy drive is u/s....but i have got a small usb flash memory thingy so i guess i could use that at a pinch...but both my usb slots are used....dang, there's always something standing in the way, lol

Have you tried running a custom windows update, you can choose to upgrage hardware if Microsoft haveupdates for them (they usually do for NVIDIA).

I would seriously consider having firefox even as a backup for IE. (Some web designers won't test on IE cause they hate microsoft) Apparently safari for the PC is very good too but not tested it yet.

Will check the rest of the post and see if I can think ofanything else. I would actually consider upgrading to XP as long as you've got 512MB on your PC it should cope quite well and MOH should play well on it. Windows 2000 is better than ME as well (actually pen and paper I found is better than ME but that's just my own opinion! )

Cheers
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Keep smiling, it makes people wonder what you're up to.

http://www.onlinefavourites.com/index.html you could try for online favourites, it loaded quickly but I haven't tested it.
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Keep smiling, it makes people wonder what you're up to.

http://www.virgin.net/helpme/security/pcguard/general_faqs.html

It doesn't say on this page but it does say elsewhere that pcguard will run on ME. And it's free on VirginMedia.


_________________
Keep smiling, it makes people wonder what you're up to.

cheers maggie

the custom windows update - i've done all the available updates. The update site for Nvidia doesn't even mention the graphics card i've got, it must be well old.
And I'm not too happy about changing things like IE, it works and thats good enough.
Can't upgrade to XP, not enough memory etc and I've got no money. And I find ME is ok.

I just tried that 'online favourites' - it took me a few minutes to sort out but it's exactly what i'm looking for. Fantastic. Well done you

And virginmedia pcguard is probably ok but when i tried to use it i got an error message saying my pc was not good enough