Viruses in pen drive

q+a I bought a pen drive recently and, I am afraid, have been unwittingly spreading viruses to my friends’ computers. Please tell me how to get rid of the viruses.

— Sujol Nandy

MntDrCore.exe, Ravon.exe and Ravmon.exe are the most common pen drive viruses. Along with these you will find Autorun.inf and autorun.ini in your pen drive. Autorun.inf and autorun.ini direct the pen drive to the virus, wreaking havoc on your system. Some viruses like Ravmon and Heap41a worm cannot even be detected by some anti virus software and spread rapidly through pen drives from one computer to another. You can protect your PC by following some simple steps.

Connect your pen drive or USB drive to your computer. A dialog box will pop up asking you to choose what you want Windows to do. Just click on Cancel.

Go to Start—Run and type cmd to open Command Prompt. Check the drive letter of your pen drive (for example, Transcend H:). In the Command Prompt, type h: and press Enter. Now type dir/w//a/p and hit Enter again. You will get a list of files. See if any of these files are there: Autorun.inf, New Folder.exe, Bha.vbs, Iexplore.vbs, Info.exe, New_Folder.exe, Ravmon.exe, Ravon.exe, MntDrCore.exe, RVHost.exe or any other file with a .exe extension.

If you find any of the files above, Run the command attrib -h -r -s -a *.* at the Command Prompt and press Enter. Delete each file one by one using del filename (for example, del autorun.inf). Finally, to be sure you are free of the viruses, scan your pen drive with a good anti virus like AVG or Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite’s anti virus.

Currently, the Heap41a virus is spreading fast. Check your drives to see if there is a folder with this name.

Error messages

q+a I am using Microsoft XP SP2 with Nero 7. When I copy data or DVD video files, I get the message “Burn process started”. Then the following appear: Power calibration error G: SONY DVD RW RA –G170A; writing short lead out; Command sequence error G: SONY DVD RW RA –G170A; could not perform End of Disc at once; burn process failed at 16x (22,160KB/s). Please help.

— Wakil Anwar

There are several things you have to do. For the power calibration error do this: Go to Start—Control Panel—Administrative tools—Services. Browse to IMAPI CD BURNING COM SERVICE; right click and then select Properties; for Startup Type choose Disabled. Click on Apply.

If this doesn’t work, you will have to try with another brand of DVD-/+R or DVD-/+RW discs. Update the firmware of your DVD writer. Check the manufacturer’s website for the latest version. Have your DVD burner serviced or cleaned with the available cleaning kits. Sometimes just a gentle spray of canned air can remove the dust blocking the laser.

Bengali in XP

q+a Ever since the installation of my BSNL broadband service, my Fax Talk Communicator and dial-up Internet connection from VSNL have stopped working. I have two operating systems: Windows 98 and Windows XP. I need both since my Bengali software is incompatible with XP. Windows 98 houses my dial-up connection with my VSNL email ID and Fax Talk Communicator. I got the broadband installed in Windows XP.

— Manasij Majumder

You did the right thing by installing the broadband on your Windows XP partition. The fact is you need neither your Windows 98 nor the dial-up connection. The broadband can take care of your faxing needs and Windows XP natively supports Bengali. All you have to do is activate it. To activate Bengali, you first need to enable support for South Asian languages on your computer running Windows XP. Here, Windows XP SP2 is a must. Now follow these steps.

Go to Start—Settings—Control Panel—Regional and Language Options

Click on the Languages tab on the top

Under “Supplemental language support”, put a check mark against “Install files for complex script and right to left languages (including Thai)” and click OK. Windows might ask you to insert the installation CD to complete the process

Restart your computer. Do not forget to do this.

Next, set up your Indian language keyboard.

Go to Start—Settings—Control Panel—Regional and Language Options

Click on the Languages tab on the top once more

Click on Details under “Text services and input languages”

Under Installed Services menu, click on Add.

Next, under Input Language, select Bengali (India)

Under Keyboard Layout/IME, select Bengali (Inscript)

Another small step will make it easy for you to switch between English and the Indian language you have chosen. In the Installed Services menu that you got to in Step 4 above, you will find Preferences. Click on Language bar. Here, put a check mark against “Show the Language bar on the desktop”. Also, put a check mark against “Show additional Language bar icons in the taskbar”. Click OK till you exit the dialogue boxes.

To find the keyboard layout go to Start—Programs—Accessories—Accessibility and open On-Screen Keyboard keeping your word processor open.

Send in your computer- related problems to askdoss@abpmail.com. The solutions will appear soon.

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