2006/2007 RCC FAQs for Windows
    Please refer to the RCC World webpage for additional troubleshooting instructions.

    1. How do I start a computer in safe mode?
    2. How do I check the IP or hardware address of a computer?
    3. How do I take a screen shot?
    4. How do I turn off voice recognition? (ghost writer problem)
    5. How do I check the startup items?

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    How do I start a computer in safe mode?

     To start a computer running Windows 95/98/Me/XP in Safe mode, shut down the computer and turn it back on, or simply restart the computer. Hit the F8 key - you may need to hit the F8 key every other second or so to make sure you hit at the "right" time. If the Windows screen appears before you are given a text screen with the option to choose to boot into safe mode, you will need to restart the computer and try again to boot it into safe mode.

    How do I check the IP or hardware address of a computer?

    All valid IP addresses at Saint Mary's begin with 147.53. If the IP address begins with 147.53.199, the computer has a temporary Saint Mary's IP address and the computer needs to be registered on ResNet to access the Internet.

    Windows 95, 98, or ME

    Go to the Start menu and select Run. Type winipcfg and click OK. A window should open up giving your IP address. You might have to change the connection device listed at the top from modem to Ethernet. If the IP address isn't correct, click Release All and then Renew All. If you need the hardware address, it will be listed directly under the connection device next to Adapter Address.

    If the IP address starts with 169, try installing ipac_off (if on Windows 98 or Me) and releasing and renewing the IP address.

    Windows 2000 or Windows XP Professional

    Go to the Start menu and select Run. Type command and click OK to bring up a DOS command prompt window. Then type ipconfig and click OK. This will tell you the computer's IP address. If you need the hardware address, type ipconfig /all and click OK. The hardware address will be listed next to Physical Address. Here are a few of the other commands for ipconfig:

      ipconfig /all will show the hardware address
      ipconfig /release /all will release the IP address
      ipconfig /renew /all will renew the IP address

    There is usually a problem with the IP address when:

    • The computer does not get a login screen on startup.
    • The user cannot log in to the network - she will probably get an error message indicating that there was "no domain name server available to validate the password."
    • The user cannot check webpages.
    • The user mentions that he/she used her computer on another network (or another part of the SMC network such as the library) and hasn't been able to login since.

    How do I take a screen shot?

    If you want to take a shot of the entire screen, press the Print Scrn button on the keyboard. You can then paste the picture into a graphics program such as Microsoft Paint, Adobe Photoshop, etc.

    If you want to take a shot of a specific window, click on the window to make it active. Then press Alt and Print Scrn. You can then paste the picture into a graphics program such as Microsoft Paint, Adobe Photoshop, etc.

    How do I turn off voice recognition? (ghost writer problem)

    The "ghost writer" problem is caused by a voice recognition program (sapisvr.exe). To solve this problem, you must turn off the voice recognition software:

  • Go Start -> Control Panel -> Regional Language Options
  • Look under the Languages tab , click on the button labeled Details under text services and input languages.
  • Under Installed Services, select Speech Recognition and click the Remove button.
  • Click OK to apply the changes.


    • The computer may have to be restarted at this point.

    How do I check the startup items?

    Windows 98 or ME

    If there are too many programs opening at computer startup, go to the Start menu, select Run, type msconfig and click OK. Click on the Startup tab after the window appears. Uncheck any programs that don't need to automatically start when the computer boots up (VirusScan needs to automatically start when the computer boots up). When you uncheck any programs, this changes the setting on the General Tab to Selective Startup. Also, the next time the computer boots up, a message may appear to indicate that the computer is running in selective startup mode. Just click the checkbox at the bottom so message isn't displayed again.

    Windows XP

    Go to the Start menu, select Run, type services.msc, and click OK. A window will then appear listing all of the startup items/services. To stop, restart, or start a service, highlight the appropriate program. A list of choices will appear on the left side of the windows. Click on the appropriate link (ie to stop, restart, or start the service).

    If you have any questions you would like to answered on this web page, please e-mail Kathy Hausmann at kathy@saintmarys.edu.

    Created by Cathy Purtell, edited by Kathy Hausmann
    Last modified September 15, 2009