Daily Answers

My Practical Peripherals Pro Class 288 PC Card modem is driving me crazy. The modem seems to be in working order, but Windows NT always gives me a Port is Busy error message. What's going on?

Ridiculous as this solution might sound, you need to boot into NT 4.0 while the Easy-Jack connector is still in the modem. After you've booted NT, simply pull out the jack and connect your phone line.

The Port is Busy message is deceiving. If, during setup, I set my ISDN line speed to a value that is too high, I get the same message. Obviously, the port isn't busy; NT simply isn't returning the proper error message.

My company recently purchased an Iomega Jaz drive. No matter what I try, I find that the tool drive is password-protected. I can't even format it. What do I do?

Despite Iomega's claims to the contrary, I believe the drive is indeed password-protected. Either that or the partition and file information is proprietary. Reboot the system, and run a low-level SCSI format command on the drive. Use Disk Administrator to set the partition, then format the drive. Note that Disk Administrator can't assign an extended partition to removable media.

I've inherited a set of strangely formatted tapes that I can't erase using NT Backup. Do you have any suggestions?

To solve your problem, you can add the /nopoll switch to NT Backup. Nopoll means exactly what you'd think: Don't poll the tape's contents. Use the /nopoll switch only to erase tapes.

I'm trying to install Microsoft Access 97 on a Windows NT machine that previously ran Access 2000. The installation completes successfully, but when I try to run Access 97, I get the error Microsoft Access can't start because there is no license for it on this machine. How can I fix this problem?

You're experiencing a common problem among users attempting to downgrade from Access 2000. Fortunately, a fairly simple solution exists for this mysterious problem, which involves a TrueType font file.

First, find the hatten.ttf file in the \%systemroot%\winnt\fonts directory (i.e., the default location). Second, rename the hatten.ttf file to, for example, hatten.sav. (You can use any unused extension.) Third, reregister Access 97: Rerun Access's Setup and use the /y switch (i.e., setup/y).

When I attempt to install Microsoft Office 2000, I get an error message that states Installer terminated prematurely. How do I fix this problem?

First, try installing Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 5.0 or later before you perform the regular Office setup. You'll find IE on the Office 2000 CD-ROM, or you can download it from Microsoft's Web site.

If that fix doesn't work, try renaming the odbccp32.dll, odbcint.dll, and msdasql.dll files. I tend to use the .old or .sav naming convention, but almost any unused extension will work. After you rename these files, run Setup again. If neither option solves your setup problem, try downloading the latest Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) from Microsoft's Web site.