Mozilla has unveiled Release Candidate 1 for Firefox 3, as the June release of the popular open-source browser creeps closer.

Mozilla claims the latest itineration contains around 14,000 updates, though the one most people are liable to notice is the page rendering, now handled by the Gecko 1.9 Engine which puts a significant spring in Firefox’s step when loading web pages.

Other notable features include improved JavaScript rendering, which Mozilla claims will double the speed of script-heavy pages such as Gmail.

Source: PC Pro

Its usually true that the more programs you have running on your computer, the more likely it is that your computer will either boot slowly, run slowly or even crash occasionally because of conflicts and badly designed software.

Every time you boot your PC a whole raft of ‘hidden’ programs load in the background. Some of these ‘hidden’ programs are essential for the smooth running of Windows and some for the ideal operation of a few programs like software firewalls, anti-virus etc. But there are many more entries that are not essential and do not need to load when your computer is turned on.

Turning off some of these ‘hidden’ programs can significantly increase your computer’s performance and reliability.

This latest PC help Guide looks at how to stop some of those non essential programs from loading when Windows starts up.

To view this new article please click here.

There are a lot of computer owners complaining that their windows/system32/config/system file is missing. And this is a problem that seems to be affecting many countries around the world.

For example, the other day I came across PC that would not boot past a screen that said the ‘Windows/system32/config/system file is missing or damaged.

The PC wouldn’t boot into safe mode and would not provide access to the BIOS. If that wasn’t bad enough, the CD drive couldn’t even read a Windows XP disc or a diagnostic disc.

A quick Google search showed just how much of a problem PC users are facing. It seems that on most of the affected computers the entire c:\windows\system32\config folder had gone missing all together.

Since the config folder stores important information about profiles, applications and registry settings, any computer with this problem will not normally boot and so you cannot use your Windows CD to log into the recovery console to attempt a repair (as the windows error message suggests).

One of the posts I read said “There is no known remedy for this problem, other than backing up your data, reinstalling Windows XP, and then copying your data back over and reinstalling your applications. Even after that, it is entirely possible that your computer will simply crash again later with the same problem”.

It does seem that some computer owners can get to a command prompt and if you can you should try the following:

Of course you will have to do this from a windows XP CD (so you need a working CD/DVD drive or floppy disc – you can get a set of Windows XP start up floppy discs from Microsoft to get your CD/DVD drives working).

Once you have got to the command prompt you need to run chkdsk /r. This process looks for bad sectors on your hard drive and tries to recover data from any bad sectors it finds. It will also automatically run chkdsk /p along with the chkdsk /r.

After chkdsk /r has finished its scan you should then run fixboot. When this is complete type exit and hit enter. Your computer should now reboot. As soon as it starts to reboot you’ll need to hit the F8 key to get into the windows start-up menu. Choose ‘last known good configuration’ and hit enter. Your computer should start up correctly.

If that doesn’t work you’ll need to fix your windows\system32 files by using a command prompt and your systems restore points. I found this page very useful if you want to try this for yourself – www.icompute.info/System_restore_from_xp_cd.htm

A checksum is used as an error-detecting code to protect a computers BIOS settings stored in the CMOS memory.

Each time a PC is booted this number is recalculated and checked against the stored value. If they do not match, an error message is generated to tell you that the BIOS settings may have been corrupted and as a result some of the BIOS settings may be wrong.

Each brand of BIOS tends to react differently when encountering a checksum error. Some will warn the user and then continue loading the operating system with whatever settings were in the CMOS memory (even if they’ve changed). Other BIOS brands will assume that the settings that were stored in CMOS memory are corrupted and will load default values stored in the BIOS chip “for safety reasons”. The error message resulting from the checksum error will indicate which option your system’s BIOS is running.

If you get a checksum error you should make sure that all the BIOS settings in the system are correct, by rebooting the system, going into BIOS setup and double-checking all the values (hopefully against a recent BIOS settings backup).

The most common cause of checksum errors is a CMOS battery that is losing power. To fix this, just buy a new CMOS battery and replace the failing battery with the new one.

If the BIOS settings have reverted to the default date and time you should fit a new CMOS battery before you change the values (Otherwise, when you next shut down and restart your PC all the BIOS settings will again revert to the default values). Save the changes you make to the BIOS and let the PC reboot. If the battery was the problem the checksum error will not appear and your PC will now boot normally.

Bear in mind that viruses can also affect CMOS settings and can cause a checksum error. Motherboard problems can also affect the values stored in CMOS memory. So its not always the CMOS Battery that causes a checksum error to appear. But battery failure is the most common reason.