TROUBLE SHOOTING TIPS

Click the name/number of a Lecture to view its audio-video movie.

After clicking on PDF documents like ‘PROBLEMS’, wait for about 10 – 40 seconds for their download to be complete. Then, the password needed to open them is: pleaseopen

‘Initial Loading’ generally takes 5 – 10 seconds on a 256 kbps broadband connection, after which the lecture will start playing. However, the entire loading process (which keeps running in the background while the lecture plays) may take maximum about 5 minutes in a Pentium 4 desktop with moderate configurations, and maximum about 10 minutes in a Laptop. These times can be more in smaller towns, where the internet service providers give a lower bandwidth. When the black line at the bottom of the lecture window is completely filled indicating that loading is complete, you may disconnect from internet and continue to watch the lecture. Please use forward/rewind buttons only after the loading is complete. Note that the lecture may not run well if you have not performed disc cleanup since many days, or if your pc is cluttered with too many programs running in the background. You can disable all such background programs from: start menu → run → msconfig → startup → disable all, or select the ones that are unwanted and disable them.

In case the movie does not load and some error message comes, make sure that:

ü In the internet explorer, the security in the menu ‘internet options’ is set to medium.

ü You have the latest version of Macromedia Flash Player, which is available as a free download at http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer

ü The recommended minimum version of Internet Explorer is 5.5, while that of Macromedia Flash player is 7.

We have checked that these lectures play well with Internet Explorer versions 5.5 and higher, and adobe macromedia Flash Player versions 7.0 and higher, without any problem. In case you experience any problems, follow these steps:

1. Go to any ‘decent’ cyber café and play these demo lectures.

2. After you are satisfied with the play/loading performance, ask the operator/owner of the café about the versions of internet explorer, flash player, etc. installed on his computer, and also their configuration settings (default settings should be ok).

3. Upgrade your pc to these same settings.

4. Your internet connection should be ‘good’ and its download speed above 100 – 120 kbps (we recommend broadband). You should try that the phone line comes directly to your PC instead of winding through the PVC pipes inside the walls/roof of your house. Also, the electrical contacts in all connections between terminals and wires should be good.

More Tips

§ To view a lecture offline (only possible with IE 6 or lower), Start internet explorer and click on - work offline in 'tools' menu. Your computer need not be connected to the internet for this. Then, go to history, and click the day you viewed a particular lecture (which should have loaded fully on the day you viewed it, then only will it be there in your pc). If you want to delete it, right click and choose 'delete'. Leave those lectures which you want to retain. However, retaining too many lectures and not doing a complete disc cleanup regularly may slow down your computer (unless your hard drive space is huge). In that case, you may start getting some error messages related to slow running of computer or an overloaded CPU.

§ Poor performance can be due to too many cluttered internet files, or you may not have cleaned temporary internet files since many days. To clean up, go to: My computer à Drive of operating system like windows, usually c:drive à Properties à Disc Cleanup.

§ Your pc may be cluttered with too many programs running in the background. You can disable all such background programs from: start menu → run → msconfig → startup → disable all, or select the ones that are unwanted and disable them. These programs load automatically when you start you pc and burden your CPU.

§ Some adware, spyware or another malicious program/virus running in the background can create trouble. Run antivirus full system scan from time to time.

§ Some virus may have corrupted the files, especially if you do not have an antivirus or its virus definitions are not updated regularly. Files of windows can get corrupted even otherwise, due to several factors. In that case, you may have to reinstall windows, flash, internet explorer, etc.

§ You computer’s performance may be poor because its RAM may be too less - generally, 256 MB or more is recommended, but it all depends on other factors too.

§ You may have too many games/music files installed on your pc, which take up up too much of disc space, thus decreasing the virtual RAM and causing the computer to run slowly. An overloaded CPU or a slow computer will inevitably create trouble while viewing large MB video files like our physics lectures.