How to fix Code 39 error with DVD/CD-ROM drives in Windows XP or Vista

Almost all computer users come across system errors at one point or another. They may occur at any time-while you are working on an application, trying to access a peripheral device, or have just switched on your PC. System errors occur due to a wide variety of reasons, out of which, registry problems and malware, such as viruses and spyware are one of the main causes. Whenever a system error occurs on your Windows system, an error message is displayed on the screen to inform you about the error. These messages, although quite technical and not very clear, can indicate how you should go about fixing a particular type of error. Let’s now see what causes code 39 system error when you try to access your CD-drive, and how to fix the error on your Windows XP or Vista computer. We will also discuss some preventive measures to ensure that such system errors do not occur on your PC.

Fixing Code 39 Error

If your CD-ROM drive is not visible in My Computer, you may see the following error message displayed with the CD or DVD drive item in your Device Manager. (Steps to open Device Manager are discussed later in the article.)

"Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)"

Using Device Manager

To fix this error, first try to update the driver from the Device Manager. To open Device Manager, right-click My Computer on your Desktop, and then on the Hardware tab, select the Device Manager button.

In the Device Manager window, identify the CD or DVD drive item (with Yellow exclamation mark), right-click on it and select Update Driver. Follow the screen instructions to update the device driver and restart your PC.

Using Registry Editor

If updating the driver does not resolve the problem, it indicates that there is a problem in the registry. To fix this problem, you may have to remove a few keys from the registry.

Note: Be careful while working with the registry editor because changes done to the registry using the Registry Editor are irreversible and mistakes can leave you with more problems than when you started. Therefore, it is recommended that you make a backup of the registry before proceeding with the changes.

After you have removed the registry keys listed below, you will have to reinstall all applications that you use for CD or DVD recording to make them work properly.

To fix the error by editing the registry, perform the following steps:

1. Exit and close all applications currently running on your PC.
2. On Start > Run type Regedit and press the Enter key.
3. Next, navigate to the following registry key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\ Control\Class\ {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
4. Delete any of the following registry entries if they exist under this key:
   • LowerFilters
   • LowerFilters.bak
   • UpperFilters
   • UpperFilters.bak
5. Restart your PC and open My Computer to ensure that the CD-ROM drive is visible.
6. Also, open the Device Manager again to ensure that the yellow exclamation mark and the error code is now gone.
7. Restart your PC and open My Computer to ensure that the CD-ROM drive is visible.
8. Also, open the Device Manager again to ensure that the yellow exclamation mark and the error code is now gone.

Preventing System Errors

To prevent frequent system errors on your system, you must take care of the following:

• Be a vigilant and aware user by being careful about the websites you visit and the email attachments you open.
• Do not visit dubious websites and do not open attachments that come with unsolicited mails.
• Implement antivirus and antispyware programs on your system, keep them updated, and run them regularly to prevent any malware infestation on your PC.
• Keep your operating system, device drivers, and installed applications updated with the latest patches and security updates released by their manufacturers.
• Use system utilities included with your Windows system to perform regular system maintenance.
• Use a good registry cleaner such as RegGenie to regularly scan and fix registry problems.

What is MSCONFIG?

Built into Windows is a special tool called the "Microsoft System Configuration Utility" or simply "MSCONFIG." Designed to help you troubleshoot problems with your computer, MSCONFIG can also be used to ensure that your computer boots faster and crashes less.

Most people know that the more programs you have running on your computer at once, the more likely it is that your computer will either run slowly or even crash. What most people don't know is that every time you boot your computer a whole mess of "hidden" programs load in the background. Some of these hidden programs are essential, but most aren't. Turning off some of these hidden programs can significantly increase your computer's performance and reliability.

How to use MSCONFIG?

1. In Windows XP, go to Start > Run

2. Type MSCONFIG in the "Open:" box and then either press enter on your keyboard or click on the OK button.

3. This launches Microsoft's System Configuration Utility. Click on the Startup tab (the tab at the far right).

4. This takes you to a page with a list of "startup items." Startup items are programs that are automatically loaded every time you turn on your computer. Some startup programs are absolutely necessary, others are simply a waste of RAM.

In Windows XP, all of Windows' essential programs are loaded through something called "Windows Services." This means that most of the startup items you see in XP are completely optional and can be turned off. However, a good rule of thumb is to disable only those programs that you recognize and don't need to have running all the time. When in doubt, leave it on. Or, better still, check out Paul "PacMan" Collins' huge "Startup Applications" list at http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php. This list of over 13,000 startup items you may encounter in MSCONFIG tells you which items are absolutely necessary, which items are optional, and which items you should definitely uncheck.

Here's a good example. On my computer I have a mess of MP3s and I listen to those MP3s with a program called WinAmp. For some reason or other, WinAmp decided that it should always be running on my computer even when I am not using the program. That's silly. To prevent WinAmp from automatically starting every time I boot my computer, I ran MSCONFIG and unchecked "WinampAgent." That's it.

Remember, disable only those programs that you recognize and don't need to have running all the time. When in doubt, leave it on.

5. Click on the OK button.

6. A message will pop up telling you that you must restart your computer before these changes will take effect. Click on "Yes" and your computer will automatically reboot.

7. That's it! Your computer should now boot faster and crash less.

And if you ever want to turn on any of the startup items you disabled with MSCONFIG, just run MSCONFIG again.

doPDF - Convert your data to PDF Files

What is doPDF?

Overview

doPDF (click the link) is free for both personal and commercial use. Using doPDF, everyone from novice users to professionals, can create high-quality searchable PDF files, by simply selecting the "Print" command from virtually any application. With one click you can save your Microsoft Excel, Word or PowerPoint documents or perhaps your emails and favorite web sites, into easy to share PDF files.

System requirements

To install doPDF you need Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, 2003 Server or Windows Vista and approximately 5MB of free disk space. It doesn't require Adobe Acrobat or GhostScript to be installed to generate the pdf file.

Additional disk space is needed for the output directory where the generated PDF files will be placed. The amount of free space needed depends on the size of files to convert to PDF and the compression settings.

Installation

The installation process does not take much time. All you need to do is to follow the instructions of the “doPDF Setup Wizard”.

If you have already installed an older version of doPDF, you can install the new version on top of the older one, no need to uninstall it; your old settings will be preserved. You might need to close doPDF if it is running (or if the doPDF Properties window is opened in another application). After the installation process finishes, you might be asked to reboot your computer.

How to Convert my Files?

• Open the document you want to convert (.doc)
• In the File menu, select the PRINT option or CTRL+P

• In the PRINT window name, select the doPDF v5. Don't forget to click the OK button.
  

• You can change the filename of your data by clicking the BROWSE button. Don't forget to click the OK button.
  

Hoola, you're done. The easiest way of making a PDF file. Good luck to all of you.

Computer Maintenance

You can save your computer maintenance cost if you clean your computer on the regular basis. This will improve the cooling and performance of the computer components. Your computer components could damage, if you do not keep it clean on periodically basis, because dust is the main cause to heat up your system and heat link to hardware failure.

• Never place your computer on the ground, always use computer table or shelf for this purpose.
• To clean computer case first unplugs your system power from the electrical outlet. Remove all cables and connectors from the back side of your computer.
• Now blow the air around all the hardware components and keeping away your blower nozzle 4 to 5 inches away from main board components. You can use vacuum cleaner also for this purpose but compressed air is the better solution to clean a system.
• At the end using lightly dampened cloth or spray any cleaning fluids on the computer case and use paper towel to dry it.
• Never clean inside computer components or other circuit board with damp or wet cloth.
• Always be careful to eat or drink around the computer.

Introduction To The Linux Operating System

Introduction

With Microsoft's monopoly over the operating system market, most computer users have been exposed only to the Windows family of operating systems, which includes Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, XP and 2003.

After using one operating system for a long time it is difficult for users to switch to a different one because they have become used to performing tasks a certain way, so that even the slightest change in the graphical layout or the commands makes things frustrating.

It is this mental stumbling block that makes people believe that Linux is more difficult to use than Windows. In fact, in a recent survey, a group of people who were completely new to computers were asked to use both Windows and Linux. At the end of the experiment the results showed that these novice users actually found Linux easier to use and more intuitive than Windows for their daily computing tasks.

In this topic we'll try to cover the major areas of difficulties that are faced by people who are new to the Linux operating system. We'll show you how to do things in Linux that you do in Windows, show you some of the features of this ‘new' operating system and drop in a few tips and tricks that will make your life easier. We will assume that you have never used Linux but have used Windows and are familiar with basic concepts such as files and folders, starting programs, etc.

This article aims to point you in the right direction for learning Linux and focuses on helping you stand on your own two feet when using it rather than having to refer to a piece of paper every time you have a problem. At the end of the day, the best way to 'learn' how to use Linux, is to actually use it and experiment yourself rather than simply reading about it.

Play around with it, experiment, break it, fix it and everything will become clear very quickly.

Why Use Linux?

Introduction

The first question is - what are the benefits of using Linux instead of Windows? This is in fact a constant debate between the Windows and Linux communities and while we won't be taking either side, you'll discover that our points will favour the Linux operating system because they are valid :)

Of course, if you don't agree, our forums have a dedicated Linux section where we would happily discuss it with you!

And The Reasons for using Linux ....

While we could list a billion technical reasons, we will focus on those that we believe will affect you most:

• Linux is free. That's right - if you never knew it, the Linux operating system is free of charge. No user or server licenses are required*! If, however, you walk into an IT shop or bookstore, you will find various Linux distributions on the shelf available for purchase, that cost is purely to cover the packaging and possible support available for the distribution.

* We must note that the newer 'Advanced Linux Servers', now available from companies such as Redhat, actually charge a license fee because of the support and update services they provide for the operating system. In our opinion, these services are rightly charged since they are aimed at businesses that will use their operating system in critical environments where downtime and immediate support is non-negotiable.

• Linux is developed by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Because of this community development mode there are very fresh ideas going into the operating system and many more people to find glitches and bugs in the software than any commercial company could ever afford (yes, Microsoft included).

• Linux is rock solid and stable, unlike Windows, where just after you've typed a huge document it suddenly crashes, making you loose all your work!

Runtime errors and crashes are quite rare on the Linux operating system due to the way its kernel is designed and the way processes are allowed to access it. No one can guarantee that your Linux desktop or server will not crash at all, because that would be a bit extreme, however, we can say that it happens a lot less frequently in comparison with other operating systems such as Windows.

For the fanatics of the 'blue screen of death' - you'll be disappointed to find out there is no such thing in the world of Linux. However, not all is lost as there have been some really good 'blue screen of death' screen savers out for the Linux graphical X Windows system.

You could also say that evidence of the operating system's stability is the fact that it's the most widely used operating system for running important services in public or private sectors. Worldwide statistics show that the number of Linux web servers outweigh by far all other competitors:

Today, netcraft reports that for the month of June 2005, out of a total of 64,808,485 Web servers, 45,172,895 are powered by Apache while only 13,131,043 use Microsoft's IIS Web server!

• Linux is much more secure than Windows, there are almost no viruses for Linux and, because there are so many people working on Linux, whenever a bug is found, a fix is provided much more quickly than with Windows. Linux is much more difficult for hackers to break into as it has been designed from the ground up with security in mind.

• Linux uses less system resources than Windows. You don't need the latest, fastest computer to run Linux. In fact you can run a functional version of Linux from a floppy disk with a computer that is 5-6 years old! At this point, we can also mention that one of our lab firewalls still runs on a K6-266 -3DNow! processor with 512 MB Ram! Of course - no graphical interfaces are loaded as we only work on in CLI mode!

• Linux has been designed to put power into the hands of the user so that you have total control of the operating system and not the other way around. A person who knows how to use Linux has the computer far more 'by the horns' than any Windows user ever has.

• Linux is fully compatible with all other systems. Unlike Microsoft Windows, which is at its happiest when talking to other Microsoft products, Linux is not 'owned' by any company and thus it keeps its compatibility with all other systems. The simplest example of this is that a Windows computer cannot read files from a hard-disk with the Linux file system on it (ext2 & ext3), but Linux will happily read files from a hard-disk with the Windows file system (fat, fat32 or ntfs file system), or for that matter any other operating system.

Now that we've covered some of the benefits of using Linux, let's start actually focusing on the best way to ease your migration from the Microsoft world to the Linux world, or in case you already have a Linux server running - start unleashing its full potential!

The first thing we will go over is the way Linux deals with files and folders on the hard-disk as this is completely different to the way things are done in Windows and is usually one of the challenges faced by Linux newbies.

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