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This Intel - Celeron motherboard is history, but I have 3 brand new Pentium D CPU's so I need a motherboard to run one of these CPU's in this machine. Case is ATX full tower. I have 650w PSU, IDE optical drives, IDE or Sata hardrives ect. And I need to do this at MINIMAL cost.
What mboard do you guys recommend?

What about this one?

As always, thanks for any help!
MikeIt would DEPEND on which Pentium's they are...Pentium D 805

The etched characters on the CPU itself are:

Intel 04
Pentium
805 SL8ZH Malay
2.66 GHZ/2m/533/05A
L621A751

Wait a minute patio - I just realized I have a good BTX motherboard that runs this Pentium D 805 CPU which came out of a DELL E510 that I recently replaced in error (the problem ended up being a PSU issue).
 Is there any way I can run a BTX mboard in this ATX full tower case?

I have 2 OLDER steel cases that have where I could move the brass standoffs and set it up for BTX or ATX etc, but with the failure of the BTX finding a case that supports both may be a needle in haystack. Below is all the info on ways to get BTX to work with ATX cases etc, but they are pretty ugly if performed. Probably the best solution would be to make a stencil of the BTX mounting holes with pen and paper and then drill and tap an ATX case and install brass stand offs at the BTX locations if your going to use a modern case that is ATX.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BTX_%28form_factor%29 Quote from: lectrocrew on March 09, 2013, 08:30:10 PM

This Intel - Celeron motherboard is history, but I have 3 brand new Pentium D CPU's so I need a motherboard to run one of these CPU's in this machine. Case is ATX full tower. I have 650w PSU, IDE optical drives, IDE or Sata hardrives ect. And I need to do this at minimal cost.
What mboard do you guys recommend?

What about this one?...

I am certain that there must be any number of devices which may be used to navigate or operate a COMPUTER via a STANDARD remote control device.  But, if that's correct, it seems very difficult to locate such devices thru Google or other search engines.  If the word "remote" is used, ALMOST all queries result in return of info relative to LogMeIn; TeamViewer; GoToMeeting; etc.
Basically what I'm looking for is a device or system with which I can operate my video editing PC (located in my office); while viewing its display on the big screen TV in my living room (about 20 feet away); using perhaps a standard remote control unit, such as a TV remote, or A/V Receiver remote device, to send signals to the PC, RECEIVED by a USB connected piece of hardware, which then transmits mouse clicks or navigational info to the computer.  In short, what I'm looking for is a means of operating the computer's keyboard and mouse while seated in another room of the house.

If anyone is aware of items which would fill this requirement, I would very much appreciate relevant info.A wireless keyboard and mouse combo...
How you gonna see things from the other room ? ?The purpose of this endeavor is to operate the computer while its output is displayed on my big screen TV.  The computer's audio and video are output from my graphics card's HDMI port to a cable which connects to my A/V receiver on the other end, and then sends the signal to the TV in the living room.  I'm not aware of a wireless keyboard and mouse that would work at a distance of 20 feet from the computer.  If there are such animals, that would be very nice, and I'd love to hear about them.   Maybe there are also devices which serve to extend the range of wireless devices for computer, but I'm not aware of them.

Thanks.

After searching on "long range wireless keyboard & mouse," I found that indeed there are such things - with ranges up to 30 feet.  Looks as though that should do the trick for me.  Once again Patio, you have been of assistance.  Thanks very much.Anytime...hope it works well for you.

I keep having this problem where i will turn PC on and start up normally and without warning the PC turns off and a blue screen COMES up with the warning.
so i attach zipped file of  .dmp files as a zip
so plz chk it & help me if u can thx

[recovering disk space - old attachment deleted by admin]Download BlueScreenView:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html
unzip downloaded file and double click on BlueScreenView.exe to run the program.
when scanning is done, go to EDIT - Select All
Go to FILE - SAVE Selected Items, and save the report as BSOD.txt
Open BSOD.txt in Notepad, copy all of the content, and paste it into your next reply==================================================
Dump File         : 070911-17784-01.dmp
Crash Time        : 09-07-2011 PM 12:52:45
Bug Check String  : DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Bug Check CODE    : 0x000000d1
Parameter 1       : 00000000`00000028
Parameter 2       : 00000000`00000002
Parameter 3       : 00000000`00000000
Parameter 4       : fffff880`01611b2d
Caused By Driver  : NETIO.SYS
Caused By Address : NETIO.SYS+11b2d
File Description  :
Product Name      :
Company           :
File Version      :
Processor         : x64
Crash Address     : ntoskrnl.exe+7fd00
Stack Address 1   :
Stack Address 2   :
Stack Address 3   :
Computer Name     :
Full Path         : C:\Windows\Minidump\070911-17784-01.dmp
Processors Count  : 8
Major Version     : 15
Minor Version     : 7601
Dump File SIZE    : 262,144
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File         : 070711-17394-01.dmp
Crash Time        : 07-07-2011 PM 11:15:45
Bug Check String  : DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Bug Check Code    : 0x000000d1
Parameter 1       : 00000000`00000028
Parameter 2       : 00000000`00000002
Parameter 3       : 00000000`00000000
Parameter 4       : fffff880`01757b2d
Caused By Driver  : NETIO.SYS
Caused By Address : NETIO.SYS+11b2d
File Description  :
Product Name      :
Company           :
File Version      :
Processor         : x64
Crash Address     : ntoskrnl.exe+7fd00
Stack Address 1   :
Stack Address 2   :
Stack Address 3   :
Computer Name     :
Full Path         : C:\Windows\Minidump\070711-17394-01.dmp
Processors Count  : 8
Major Version     : 15
Minor Version     : 7601
Dump File Size    : 262,144
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File         : 070711-24039-01.dmp
Crash Time        : 07-07-2011 PM 04:46:02
Bug Check String  : DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Bug Check Code    : 0x000000d1
Parameter 1       : 00000000`00000028
Parameter 2       : 00000000`00000002
Parameter 3       : 00000000`00000000
Parameter 4       : fffff880`01707b2d
Caused By Driver  : NETIO.SYS
Caused By Address : NETIO.SYS+11b2d
File Description  :
Product Name      :
Company           :
File Version      :
Processor         : x64
Crash Address     : ntoskrnl.exe+7fd00
Stack Address 1   :
Stack Address 2   :
Stack Address 3   :
Computer Name     :
Full Path         : C:\Windows\Minidump\070711-24039-01.dmp
Processors Count  : 8
Major Version     : 15
Minor Version     : 7601
Dump File Size    : 262,144
==================================================
Are you using Zone Alarm?
You might want to look here: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/bsods-from-netiosys/c35935ae-f6d2-455f-8304-9dfcd6422528

or here: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/281450-bsod-netio-sys-ndis-sys-fix.htmlno i don't ....Okay. WELL take a look at those two links and see if anything helps.ok & i am using windows 7hey do u think dat "Uniblue registry BOOSTER"will work?what?Stay away from Registry Tools...uhmmm patio y stay away from dat tools?can i have any rezone dat i can understand? Quote from: ngabani on July 10, 2011, 12:07:41 AM

can i have any rezone

==================================================
Dump File         : 070911-17784-01.dmp
Crash Time        : 09-07-2011 PM 12:52:45
Bug Check String  : DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Bug Check Code    : 0x000000d1
Parameter 1       : 00000000`00000028
Parameter 2       : 00000000`00000002
Parameter 3       : 00000000`00000000
Parameter 4       : fffff880`01611b2d
Caused By Driver  : NETIO.SYS
Caused By Address : NETIO.SYS+11b2d
File Description  :
Product Name      :
Company           :
File Version      :
Processor         : x64
Crash Address     : ntoskrnl.exe+7fd00
Stack Address 1   :
Stack Address 2   :
Stack Address 3   :
Computer Name     :
Full Path         : C:\Windows\Minidump\070911-17784-01.dmp
Processors Count  : 8
Major Version     : 15
Minor Version     : 7601
Dump File Size    : 262,144
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File         : 070711-17394-01.dmp
Crash Time        : 07-07-2011 PM 11:15:45
Bug Check String  : DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Bug Check Code    : 0x000000d1
Parameter 1       : 00000000`00000028
Parameter 2       : 00000000`00000002
Parameter 3       : 00000000`00000000
Parameter 4       : fffff880`01757b2d
Caused By Driver  : NETIO.SYS
Caused By Address : NETIO.SYS+11b2d
File Description  :
Product Name      :
Company           :
File Version      :
Processor         : x64
Crash Address     : ntoskrnl.exe+7fd00
Stack Address 1   :
Stack Address 2   :
Stack Address 3   :
Computer Name     :
Full Path         : C:\Windows\Minidump\070711-17394-01.dmp
Processors Count  : 8
Major Version     : 15
Minor Version     : 7601
Dump File Size    : 262,144
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File         : 070711-24039-01.dmp
Crash Time        : 07-07-2011 PM 04:46:02
Bug Check String  : DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Bug Check Code    : 0x000000d1
Parameter 1       : 00000000`00000028
Parameter 2       : 00000000`00000002
Parameter 3       : 00000000`00000000
Parameter 4       : fffff880`01707b2d
Caused By Driver  : NETIO.SYS
Caused By Address : NETIO.SYS+11b2d
File Description  :
Product Name      :
Company           :
File Version      :
Processor         : x64
Crash Address     : ntoskrnl.exe+7fd00
Stack Address 1   :
Stack Address 2   :
Stack Address 3   :
Computer Name     :
Full Path         : C:\Windows\Minidump\070711-24039-01.dmp
Processors Count  : 8
Major Version     : 15
Minor Version     : 7601
Dump File Size    : 262,144
==================================================

I have a new asus laptop (K55VD) and whenever I reboot my computer the numlock is on again. This annoys me to no end.
Is there no way to permanently unlock it so I can lock it whenever I want?
I did MAKE a search and I found an answer but it says it's for up to XP only and I have windows 7.
ANYONE?In some laptops it's a setting in the BIOS...
Instructions on entering Setup are on the bottom of the screen immediately on startup and before the Win splash screen...
NOTE: Don't make any changes in there you are not familiar with ...you can render the laptop unbootable with the wrong settings.Thanks for that. Does anyone know what I have to do then?FIND the bios hot key. It may be any one of these keys since different manufacturers like to be different than others ... Delete, ESC, F10, F12, F2, INSERT.

You have to press these keys 1 at a time to find the hot key during POST before the Windows loading screen logo appears. Once you are into the BIOS you have to carefully navigate using the controls of arrow keys etc and +/- or Page Up / Page Down and Enter key to make changes etc. All bios's are different in layout and user controls. You should find an option to set Num Lock = Off etc and then select to save your changes before you exit the bios config. Once changed and saved state, then you should be all set w/o num lock on at BOOT.Ok, I went into bios but there was no option there at all to disable the numlock...
Now thats really annoying.
any other option? I just read up on it and what I want is numlock ON after boot. its always off.Only fix for this may be to run a routine as part of the startup folder that runs to enable your Num Lock. I can create a quick macro that can compile as an EXE if you want this quick and free solution. The fix is placing the exe in the start up folder of windows so every time that windows boots it launches this macro to enable Num Lock and then the macro ends. Send me a personal message here with your e-mail address if this is something you would like to do. I can have this to you in less than 24HRS for free.

A internet SEARCH reveals that I am having a common problem, but all the common fixes aren't fixing this.

I am running Vista on my laptop. For the past few weeks, every time I insert a disk into my DVD Rom drive it tells me to insert a disk into drive. Doesnt matter if its a burned CD, an Audio CD or a DVD happens all the time.

I REINSTALLED the driver and even did the regedit fix. Still doing it. Not sure what else to do.

I have a Gateway T series running 32 bit Vista if that helps. Does it have any problems reading these disc's or just prompts you? You might be looking at having to replace the optical drive.+1 to DaveLembke's answer.

However, you can check if the drive functions by using a boot CD such as a windows setup disk, an UBUNTU live disk or even the recovery disks for your laptop.
If the disk boots and runs the software on the disk - great, turn the laptop off and back on, REMOVE the disk and then we can explore options from there.

If not, even after CHANGING the BIOS to boot from CD first, then the drive has failed and needs to be replaced

I just BUILT a new PC. My first one to be exact. I'm having an issue TRYING to play games on it. I updated the graphics card first of all. Well the problem is that it reboots or goes black and locks up.
I have tried re INSTALLING the drivers for the graphics card but not luck. Appreciate any help. Ty. PC- Specs
ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0
16gb of RAM
Powercolor HD7950
AMD FX 8350 (STOCK fan)

Hello everybody.

I have a HP Compaq 8510p laptop, which was running great up until last night.
It all of sudden shut down and wouldn't startup again - Not even the power supply bulb had a light in it, even though the PSU was still in. So far i have tried numerous things, but nothing seems to do the trick and i would be really sad losing all the data STORED on its hdd.

Here's what i have done:

1. Left it for a couple of hours with the PSU in it.
2. Tried replacing the PSU.
3. Tried replacing the battery.
4. Tested both PSU and battery in another laptop (Same model).
5. "Took out the battery, removed main supply, held power button down for 30 secs, put only power supply in.
Turned laptop on
Put the battery in."

Like i stated, none of the above worked and i am, honestly, starting to get a little desperate.

Thanks in advance :-)You stated:
Quote

3. Tried replacing the battery.
4. Tested both PSU and battery in another laptop (Same model).

Please assist my my background is showing blue and yellow no other COLOURS appear.Your probably looking at a bad display or a bad video cable.

If this is a desktop computer and you have another computer around to swap displays, does the problem also happen with the other display?

If problem goes away then you know its not the computer.

If problem goes away with different monitor then swap video cables between them, VGA, DVI or HDMI etc. If the problem comes back using the cable from the troubled display or goes away using the cable from the good display on the monitor that was acting up, then you just need to replace the cable. If the problem remains on the troubled display no matter of cable swap then your likely looking at buying a new monitor to replace this one.

*If this is a laptop computer, your most likely looking at having to replace the display, however a good TEST would be to plug a monitor to the VGA out or HDMI out port on laptop and test to make sure its not the GPU that is causing this. If the problem is not observed on another display plugged into video output of laptop then its just the internel display is bad or ribbon cable between the laptop display and the main board has a break in it. Some ribbons can be replaced while others are soldered to the display and come as one assembly. The ribbon cable on the laptop flexes every time the laptop is opened and shut so this can lead to cable failure. Sometimes the break is a FRACTURE and the display can be closed part way or opened further to get all the colors back etc to show that there is a connection issue with the cable.As USUAL, DaveLembke's advice is spot on. Just one thing to add - if it isn't the display or cable, you should also consider the display adapter.

Willy:
This is Windows 8 which has the new Metro Interface.  Don't expect to see the desktop you're used to.  Your Acer is not a touch screen, so good luck with that.
You should see this:

One of my options to save energy is to turn off my harddrive after a specified time or to never turn it off. Is there any downside to turning off my harddrive? To be honest, I do not know what turning off the harddrive really means.   

I am not concerned about saving electricity. I want the best settings to minimize wear/tear on my hardware. thanks.I have always set all of my systems to power down the hd and display after 20 minutes of inactivity.Thanks Allan. Do you let your PC hibernate after a certain time?In addition to letting the hard drive power down, why not set your computer to go into Sleep mode after a certain elapsed time?  I would generally use Sleep mode during the day.  I occasionally, indeed, somewhat rarely, use hibernate at the end of a day if I want to preserve the activity I was engaged in and resume from there the NEXT day. Quote from: artbuc on March 14, 2013, 10:16:07 AM

Thanks Allan. Do you let your PC hibernate after a certain time?

I never use sleep or hibernation.

If you occasionally have long periods - say, an hour on longer - times of inactivity during the day, why not use sleep mode?

I'll be happy to answer your question, but prefer not to start a discussion about it in someone else's thread.

1) Neither Hibernation nor Sleep were 100% perfected by Microsoft. By that I mean that neither is universally compatible with all hardware and software configurations (nor, realistically, can they be). Hence the relatively common and varied issues posted on support forums about problems with both features.

Is stand-by the same as sleep?

I found an Officejet 7310 at a garage sale for $10. It was printing white streaks. I printed a test page and made a color copy before I bought it. Then it sat on a shelf for a year and all the black NOZZLES plugged. I soaked the black cartridge in a puddle of ammonia overnight to dislove the dried ink which got it printing black again. Soon after it started printing wide dark grey bands, horizontally across the page occasionally.  You can read the UNDERLYING text.  Sometimes they begin with a narrow block of cyan and end with a narrow block of magenta.  These bands are the same width as the printhead nozzles, dark grey, and about half usually include blocks or bars of pure magenta/cyan/yellow mixed in. This has progessively gotten worse. Now it does this on every page.  The 'HP Print and Scan Doctor' says everything is OK.

Suspecting the ammonia might have damaged the electronics, I tried a new black cartridge/printhead from OD, and the problem persisted. OD graciously accepted them back (it was a buy 2 special) and refunded my $50.  Do I want to roll the dice on a ($43) tri-color cartridge?

I am wondering if anyone has seen this problem before.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!Looks like the prior owner was trying to sell a troubled printer possibly, why else would he or she sell it so cheap. I never buy modern inkjets at garage sales, and will only pick up Dot Matrix ones for older computers needing them etc as well as there is still a demand for them for businesses with carbon copy forms on tractor feed stock, so I have cleaned them up ADDED an inexpensive ribbon and listed them on ebay and made $50 to $100 each on them in working condition.

The one benefit to this printer picking it up for just $10 though is that HP for EXAMPLE has a trade in policy at Staples and some other stores where they will give you $50 off the price of a new printer of a specific price range. So you could use it for $40 off getting your $10 back. My brother used this policy to get $50 off of a new HP printer and the printer he used was being thrown away on the corner..LOL

Unfortunately this model printer was never designed to be serviceable like the business laser printers etc. They were designed to be cheap to make the sale and then get you on the ink to make the profit. I doubt that changing color cartridge will fix this as for you already swapped out the black and that didnt help and the color observed is grey.


Thanks for your thoughtful response.  I may go for that trade-in deal, or buy another cheap printer (just for such a deal) if I get this one working.  At worst I have a really good $10 scanner.  I will see if Cartridge World will LET me try a color cartridge.  They are more concerned about the ink than the seal on the package.  Not gonna stick my neck out again on this printer!

She (the seller) seemed to have a good talking point.  She was using it for her small business (right there) and needed to replace it fast.  People can't hardly give these things away!  I have already passed up a few free ones because I didn't have the storage space.  Her sister was married to the manager at Office Max, so she could get new printers at cost.  I also bought a $6 non-working Officejet 7130 from her because my 7130 has a burned out carriage parking motor.  She priced it at what OM would give her for the empty cartridges.

I have been burned before on electronics, so now I only consider things that are priced at or below salvage value, or working while I'm there.  If not I make an insanely low offer.  For example, I recently bought a 2GHz HP dual-trace oscilloscope with all the probes for $10.  Just the probes are worth over $100 used, if you can find them.  I got him to put it through the paces while I was there.  In the last hour of the third sale day people are ready to deal when you give them their very first offer.Nice score on the oscilloscope. I only have a dinosour 10mhz tektronix single channel and that was $100 a year ago..LOL... but it was way better than the Heath Kit Oscilloscope I had before that which was really old as seen here.http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/heath_oscilloscope_io_21io2.html
I gave this Heath Kit to a friend who was going into college for electronics. It was better than nothing for experimenting, but pretty useless for my needs. The 10Mhz I have now is very limited but at least even if I cant lock on to a signal sync I can see its present or not if greater than 10Mhz..lolWow!  I have almost the identical same one.  I designed and built a second input channel (hybrid tube and solid state) bolted onto the side when I had lots of free time.  Worked great for about three months, then just stopped working.  Don't mix tubes and transisters unless you build in lots of overload protection, I guess.

If you already have the probes, you can usually find lots of slightly outdated scopes on the cheap at any ham radio convention.  The probes get sold after the owner passes on.

I was using a Pc with Windows 7 when it shut down. Nothing happened when I pressed the front button to reboot. The power supply to the PCM is ok so it is some internal problem. I retried some hours later WITHOUT success. Temperature has been MILD so would not be causing overheating.Easiest thing to check is borrow a known good PSU of the same or greater wattage and swap it in there...
You'll know right away if that's the issue...
Were there storms in the AREA recently ?There were no storms. I gather the top would have to be taken off the computer to check out the PSU (power supply unit).Laptop or desktop ?
I forgot to ask...
If a laptop power down...unplug and remove the battery,,,wait 4 MINUTES and see if it powers up with just the A/C...It is a desk top with 240 v AC power inThen try the other method...swap in a known good one of the same or greater wattage...you can borrow one from a friend so that this test costs nothing.

I have two computers, one has a more powerful CPU and slower DDR2 800 Mhz Ram, and the other has a lesser powerful CPU and faster DDR3 1333Mhz Ram.

Hardware info:

Computer #1
Athlon II x4 620 AM3 2.6Ghz stuffed into a AM2+ Motherboard (from 2008) running 800Mhz DDR2 Ram 4GB ( This motherboard supports up to Phenom II x4 945 )

Computer #2
Sempron x1 145 AM3 2.8Ghz stuffed into a AM3 Motherboard (from 2011) running 1333Mhz DDR3 Ram 4GB (This motherboard supports up to Phenom II x6 1075T )

Before swapping CPU's between these 2 systems, I decided to post here to see if its even worth performing. Will I notice a difference moving that quadcore CPU out of the potentially bottlenecked motherboard RUNING DDR2 stuffing the CPU into a newer motherboard that I have that is DDR3 or is the swap not worth wasting the time and thermal compound?

Both systems run fast, no lag with the quadcore in that AM2+ motherboard, but in the back of my mind I was thinking that maybe it will run even faster and I am not taking full advantage of its performance.

Has anyone performed maybe an upgrade keeping same CPU and upgrading to a newer motherboard with faster RAM to tell if it really makes a difference or not?

ThanksIn general, three things influence speed:
1. What  kind of CPU
2. Clock of CPU
3. Clock of RAM and amount of RAM.

Did you read this?
Re: How to overclock



Those 3 listed I was already aware of + I would like to add that #4 on that performance list should probably also be the chipset of the motherboard. Some have been known to be junk compared to others when it comes to performance.

Computer #1 the AM2+ motherboard has older chipset with GeForce 6150 and nForce 430

whereas...

Computer #2 the AM3 motherboard has the newer AMD 760G chipset.

*Havent found anything online yet to show measurable differences between them, but I can only assume that more modern AMD 760G chipset may come with performance advantages over the older nVidia chipset with keeping the existing quadcore CPU.

Fact is that the DDR2 800Mhz RAM is slower than the DDR3 1333Mhz RAM, (BUT) is the performance gain significant enough to be worth while to swap the CPU's between these boards I guess I am asking?

Is it going to be like night and day difference where I instantly see faster performance due to the fact that I was bottlenecking the full potential of the quadcore in the AM2+ motherboard that all of a sudden with the faster DDR3 RAM I am looking at a noticable difference or would I be for example making just a small advance in speed increase in which I am only shedding 1 second off of a load time for a videogame that otherwise runs with no problems on the slower memory.

This is a first time of thinking about migrating a CPU that was worth while to me to be migrated forward to more modern motherboard with faster RAM. But generally motherboards for the last 25+ years that I have been working on them were that the (CPU, Motherboard, RAM) were upgraded as a set usually because all 3 were at the end of their life cycle, or if not at the end of their life cycle, as better faster/more powerful data crunching components became available as they became affordable or acquired inexpensively, I'd end up installing more or faster RAM added of the same style such as SIMMs, DIMMs, RDRAM, SDRAM, DDR, DDR2, and DDR3 etc(whatever the memory slot and motherboard supported in relation to the CPU etc), or stuffing a faster CPU into the socket with more cache etc if the motherboards supported these performance increases. And then when the Motherboard, CPU, RAM combination hit its limit, I would buy a new Motherboard, CPU, and RAM and follow the same cycle as the prior computers used of stretching the life of the motherboard until its at its limits, and then upgrade all 3 hardware. This time though because of the cool AMD socket design of the AM2+, I started off with an AM2 x2 core CPU in 2008, and in 2010 installed an AM3 x4 core CPU. And in 2011 I needed to build up a cheap server, so I bought an AM3 motherboard, $40 Sempron 145 AM3 CPU, and 4GB of DDR3 and built it up and used it for its purpose. But the other day when I was adding an additional hard drive to this box I realized I could perform an upgrade for free with hardware I already have and the single-core Sempron Server would run plenty fast on DDR2 RAM.

But its not just going to involve swapping of the CPU's and applying new thermal compound, but I am also looking at potentially breaking the OS on both systems by drastic CPU changes. Usually sticking with the same processor family the system will boot and the Windows Activations will become broken, just requiring to activate with microsoft, but I have also run into situations where you have to perform a repair installation on a system when the CPU changed too drastically, and that is why I am running this past everyone here, is because it would be a shame to waste say 3 hrs time swapping CPU's and corrective actions for OS on both systems and not see any gain in performance because the gain is so small.

As far as overclocking, I avoid overclocking whenever possible, even if its safer today than in yester-years. I have done it before, but in the past it was to get an old dog to do new tricks back in the days when new computers were $1500 to 2000, and to run Quake 1 without lag, I ended up overclocking my 486DX2 66Mhz to 75Mhz using 25Mhz FSB x 3 instead of 33Mhz FSB x 2 and had a large peel and stick on aluminum heatsink without fan and I added a fan to blow across it. It worked for a few months and then the CPU melted down ( destabilized ). I then acquired a Pentium 75Mhz Dell tower for $25 at a computer show/swap meet (tower with no drives, just tower case and motherboard, cpu, and 32 MB EDO DIMM RAM) which ran the game way better back in the days of the Pentium II 233Mhz hitting the markets in 1997 ish. But then I was soon faced with Quake II coming out not to long later that required a Pentium 90Mhz minimum requirements and I was stuck once again in a situation of a computer that is too slow, and fortunately acquired a Pentium 133 that was being thrown away around 1998 to be able to run Quake II, although my friends who had rich parents bought them nice Pentium II 233 to 450Mhz systems with VooDoo Banshee cards etc that I wish i could have had myself for gaming. I myself had a Trident 8MB PCI videocard, while they had like 16MB of Video Ram and a GPU intended for games.

http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/ddr2-800-vs-ddr3-1333-does-speed-matter/

In my quest for info on this, I finally found a good match to what I was looking for at google with different keywords.

Fact is according to this, there is NO Advantage to making this CPU swap worth while...

YAY this will no longer bother me that I could have been holding my system back from its full potential. Its running at its full potential according to benchmark data that is similar to my hardware.

And regarding the older nVidia nForce 430 Chipset vs the newer AMD 760G Chipset... I could not find any data to suggest that one is more efficient than the other etc to affect performance.If your motherboard supports overclocking & you don't try getting too crazy about it, it's the cheapest way to get a small performance boost.  I now overclock my Pentium D925-3.0GHz to 3.6GHz.  Temp rise is no more than 10degC Quote from: Computer_Commando on March 16, 2013, 04:44:29 PM

If your motherboard supports overclocking & you don't try getting too crazy about it, it's the cheapest way to get a small performance boost.  I now overclock my Pentium D925-3.0GHz to 3.6GHz.  Temp rise is no more than 10degC

Are you having to liquid cool it or just a regular massive heatsink and fan?...

I saw a blog about the WD external HD having bad control boards and of course best BUY and their geek squad were unable to help. In this blog I found, it SHOWED that you could use a SATA cord and plug into your motherboard and retrieve data that way. I tried this and stole the power cord from my towered DVD-R and I did have a pop up notice that the driver for the ext. HD was installed. I did not, however, see the my book in computers (vista). So I tried to get into BIOS to make sure the SATA port 3 I plugged into was on but was unable to get to BIOS (see post in vista section, weird) so I stole the DVD-R's SATA cable and still nothing.

What should I try from here??

Thanks!Its more likely that this drive is dead, and the control board in the external enclosure for SATA/USB communications is fine.

If you removed the hard drive and connected it internally via SATA connection properly 1 plug for power and the other for communications ) and no drive is detected by the BIOS, then I'd say the drive itself is bad and likely not even spinning up. Only way to get data off this drive would be to send it out for costly data recovery.The known solutions will depend on if the MyBook software was used setting up this HDD INITIALLY or not...as there are 2 different METHODS...

I don't know if this the RIGHT place to post, because  I don't know if it is a hardware, software or WHATEVER problem...   I am pretty much computer illiterate.
My CPU started running at 100% continually a day or two ago, and My videos are choppy and as are my games and just scrolling down a page.  I have checked my plug-ins to make sure I had current plug-ins, but I have had to download so many video things lately, I don't know what is necessary and what is redundant.Please open task manager to the Processes tab and sort on the "cpu" column (with highest usage at the top). Which process is using the most cycles?Firefox, Flash Player, Explorer, csrss, task manager, plug-in containerIs one of those using most of the cpu? Please list the percentages each uses.

Also, does the cpu spike to 100% only when you use Firefox?I am going to try to give you a screen shot of my task manager.  Also, I have a thread over on the malware forum that hasn't been resolved, so I still have to log online thru task manager/explorer.  Firefox is the only server I use. The cpu isn't just spiking, it is at a continual 100%.



Uploaded with ImageShack.usWe're not going to do ANYTHING else until your malware issue is resolved. It is not unlikely the two problems are related. I'm going to lock this thread for now. Please PM me after you get an "all clear" from the malware section (assuming the problem isn't cleared up).You sent me a PM saying that your system was infected and problems still remain after the malware was removed. SuperDave suggested you format and REINSTALL, but you don't have an OS CD.

I'm sorry, but I have to agree with Dave. There are some infections that are so severe the system will never fully recover and the only foolproof method of recovery is a new install.

1) If the problems you are having occur only when Firefox is running, I suggest you try a different browser.
2) You can also update flash player.
3) If the problems persist I strongly recommend purchasing a new Windows OS, formatting, and reinstalling.OP should be able to restore the computer to the original shipped condition.  There is a factory image on D-parition.  Compaq is F10, F11, or F12 at splash screen to begin the recovery process.

BTW, since Vista, OEM'S no longer supply CD's or any documentation with a computer.

Info from the Malware Section thread:
FACTORY_IMAGE - D:
Drive Letter   D
Volume Name   FACTORY_IMAGE
Volume Serial NUMBER   9CA4-6A86
File System   NTFS
Volume Capacity   11.52 GB
Volume Free Space   1.59 GB
Volume Used Space   9.93 GB

Hello everyone.

I know this is my first post, but I would like to immediately identify that I have experience in computers.

Well, on to the topic.

I have a Dell Poweredge 2950 server, that I am sure is a GENERATION 1 of this model. It has 8 gigs installed in a 4x2 setup. I am looking to UPGRADE to 32 gigs of RAM, and through my searching of ebay, I have found that the ram for the generation 3 model of the server costs significantly less than the ram that is said to be for the generation 1.

Both seem to be the PC2-5300 667MHz FBD DIMM type of ram, and I can't find anything that suggests that the ram advertized for the 2950 III would not be compatible with the original 2950. The spec sheets from dell even SAY that they are the same sort of DIMM, with the same DIMM slots. This difference in price between every ram kit for the third generation being twice as much for ram kits for the original generation server leaves me speculating. Before I risk my money on buying a ram kit that might not work, I would like to confirm that they are compatible before I buy


Thank youI - 32GB max memory; Memory Type: DDR2 PC2-5300, DDR2 (ECC); Slots: 8
III - 64GB max memory; Memory Type: DDR2 PC2-5300, DDR2 (ECC); Slots: 8

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=PowerEdge%202950&Cat=RAM

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=PowerEdge%202950%20III&Cat=RAM

ECC memory is much more expensive than non-ECC & DDR2 is a lot more expensive than DDR3.

You could buy a newer & faster computer for what the memory costs for the Power Edge.  $1200 for 32GB (4GB X . 1-4GB module is $160/ea.

hi, a few mins ago my pc FROZE so i restarted it and after this POPPED up in probem reporting, i gather its something to do with the graphics card? not too good with computers, actually not sure i should be allowed to use one lol i can open the files but havent yet so if any more info is needed please just tell me how to get it and i will try
thank you :3
   Windows
Problem: Video hardware error
Files that help DESCRIBE the problem:
WD-20121207-1929.dmp
sysdata.xml
WERInternalMetadata.xml
 View a temporary copy of these files
Warning: If a virus or other security threat caused the problem, opening a copy of the files could harm your computer.

This on my Dell B110 desktop. I re-installed Windows XP from CD but in 'Device Manager" it shows Ethernet controller "Device Driver Not Installed".
How do I install this driver with no ethernet for an internet connection?
I tried downloading the installation software from Dell on another PC and burned that file to disc - then inserted the disc into this COMPUTER but I still can't get the ethernet driver to install.
What am I doing wrong?
As always, thanks for any help.
MikeTry using a flash drive instead and start with the Chipset driver then install the Network CARD. http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/Product/dimension-1100Got it done.
Thanks Jason2074! 
Mike

Computer works, but when i tilt screen in a certain DIRECTION, the screen MESS's up. By messing up I mean the computer FREEZE's and screen gets lines and messy.
Computer Is Laptop HP  PAVILION dv5000
Could there be a device loose or is LCD screen no good??My guess is a cable. It connects the display to the ma inboard.

You can buy a replacement cable from Amazon or other outlets.

It might also be a loose ribbon cable, try reseatting it properly.

I have:
-1 TB WD1001FAES 7200 RPM 64MB Cache Sata Desktop HDD currently installed with Windows 8 PROFESSIONAL as my main HDD
-1 TB WD1001FALS 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3GB/s Bare drive taken out of my external hard drive and installed internally as a secondary hard drive
-1 copy of Windows 8 OEM from Newegg (not used)
-1 copy of Windows 8 Professional OEM from Amazon (currently installed)

I am building my own COMPUTER, and was wondering whether or not using the secondary drive (7200 RPM, 32MB cache) in my new system would be noticeably slower than the 64MB cache one. If not, problem solved, and I'll install my new copy of Windows 8 on this one and use it.
If it is considerably slower, I was wondering what my options were to transfer this HDD to my new system while still being able to use both computers. A few people on this site say that if I simply move my main HDD to my new system, complications will arise, being incompatible with a brand new CHIPSET, processor, etc... In this case, would it be possible to
1) REFORMAT both drives
2) reinstall windows 8 Pro preferably or install Windows 8 on the WD1001FAES and use it in the new system
3) install whichever OS not used above in the WD1001FALS and use it in the old computer
Thanks in advance for your help, and feel free to suggest some nice HDD/SSD's that are worth the price.There will be no noticeable difference whatsoever...

I had an Epson Stylus NX510 and just loved it until the printing head died.  When I printed I always had a menu coming up showing me a preview of the first page but in the options in that same menu I could click on the arrow to see page 2 or 3 and if I did not want one of those pages I had the option of deleting it from the print. 

I bought another Epson but this time its a Workforce WF-2530 and I am not satisfied with the preview, I do not have ALL the same options and sometimes I don't even get the preview.

My question is this:  Is it possible to take an option from one printer and copy it in the new printer, I presume it must be a driver?

Why can't a company keep something good in all their products!Both of your Topics were POSTED in the FAQ section so i took the liberty of moving them to the proper place.When you INSTALLED the printer, did you download the full printer software package from Epson or did you just let Windows find a driver for it? I'm sure I did Epson's download with the CD they providedWhat type of file are  you trying to print?  Does the software used to create the file not provide a print preview?  That's where you'd normally see your print preview which shows all the pages.  For EXAMPLE, if I'm using Microsoft Word and want to see a preview of printing of a file, I would do that via Word's menu commands.  When I actually issue the print command, I won't see page previews  within my Brother printer software.  However, the printer PANEL will let me select which pages to print.

I HAVE THIS HARD DRIVE OF A MSI A6200 HOW CAN I TRANSFER WHATS ON IT ONTO ANOTHER LAPTOPExactly what do you want to transfer (just some files, entire drives, etc)?is there anyway i can get my pics my windows media music librarySure. The easiest WAY is to copy them to either a usb drive or a cd or dvd and then copy them to the new system. but i just have the harddrive by itself no usb port no nothingwould a usb external enclosure to the JOB?Yes...or an adapter...so i finally got the external case i tried using get started but i dont have my old computer its trashed, all i have is the hard drive how else can i transfer my files n folders using itPut it in the enclosure...boot up the working PC...then connect the enclosure...
It will show up in My Computer.its not showing up on my computer but disk MANAGEMENT recongzies itRight clik it and select Properties...report back with your findings...
Your data may be gone...thanx for the help man, ill be on cyber tech help to many pricks on here  What ? ?

Hello

I am hoping to install an i.LINK/FIREWIRE/IEEE 1394 card in my Win 7 PC tower. I have attempted to install a new card from another PC, but I can see that these cards are not interchangeable so I will need to buy a new one.

Would it be possible for anyone to tell me the make/model NUMBER of an IEEE 1394 card that is compatible with my Packard Bell desktop, please?

The Packard Bell is an imedia S1800.

Many thanks

High1
I can only assume your old computer is PCI & the Packard Bell is PCI-e.  I can find no info other than you are probably in the UK.Hello computer_commander

Yes, in the UK here but that doesn't matter from the point of view of buying a component.

I have even done an image search and can't find anything.

I have two PCs. An old one and a new one. The Firewire card (only recently bought) is in the old one and I thought it would be OK to REMOVE it and put it into the new PC (Packard Bell). However, the slot in the Packard Bell is incompatible with the moulding of the Firewire card.

I suppose I will just have to order it from Bell, who will probably charge the earth (warranty has expired recently!).

Thanks again.

High1PCI-e cards are available everywhere.  If you want to get it from PB, then that's your choice.
I'm not  saying you have a PCI-e card slot because you've given very little information about what you have other than "Packard Bell is an imedia S1800", which is no help since can find no relevant specs about it, i.e. available slots on the motherboard.Hello commando

This is what I can see inside the tower (please see attached screenshots).

Thank you.

High1

[recovering disk space, attachment DELETED by admin]I can't find a firewire card that would fit there....

Might want to consider getting something like this:
http://amzn.to/11ya4U4

It will replace your wifi antennas. I use a USB wifi adapter on my desktop. It works perfectly.
http://amzn.to/X470xvThat card will go in the 16x. Why not?

Well, if it's PCIE, of course.Do you mean the Rosewill RC-504 PCIE FireWire 1394a Card that Carbon Dudeoxide has posted, Hunter.

Carbon Dudeoxide, why would it replace the antennas? Wouldn't it just fit in the vacant slot (next to the wireless card)?

Thanks.

High1This X1 (or maybe X4) card will fit in your X16 slot.


Read up on PCI-e:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_ExpressHello Commando

That looks like this http://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-RC-504-FireWire-1394a-Ports/dp/B004F3DM6C/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1364102882&sr=8-7&keywords=firewire+card

mentioned by Carbon Dudeoxide a little earlier.

Thanks for the confirmation - that's great.

I'll go ahead and order it.

Thanks to you all for your great help.

High1Why does a Packard Bell computer have an Acer motherboard?
Found my answer here:  Packard Bell is currently a Dutch computer manufacturer and a subsidiary of Acer.We learn something every day! Hehehe.

Many thanks again.

Hi everyone,

I have been slowly building a new comp and was hoping for any advice or tips that I could get to help me create the best rig possible. Here is what I have so far:

Case: Cooler Master HAF 922
Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-V\GEN3
Ram: Cosair Vengeance 16gb DDR3
I have two 1.5 TB hard drives. One is a Samsung, the other is a Seagate Barracuda
the top and front each have a 140mm fan, the back has 120mm fan and the sides have 2 120mm fans
Processor: Intel CORE i5-2500k (this is my first question as I have been  told that I should be getting a much faster processor for the MOBO that I have)

The other places I am stuck on are how big of a power supply to get and how to pick the best graphics card.

I would ALSO welcome any additional advice or tips anyone could give.

Thank you in advance.The basic graphics card formula is to find, PLOTTED on a graph, the best performance to price ratio. You might have other desires too, like size, noise, or features. I read reviews to decide which card to get. My card ended up not supporting a very old CGA/EGA mode I wanted to use - and assumed would be present. No review is going to mention a thing like that, though. A good starting point for reviews is tomshardware.com.

I don't know what sort of power your existing choices pull, but IMO no more than 500W is necessary. If you really go bananas with the graphics cards or peripherals, you might make use of more, but this is uncommon.

Personally I would go for a solid state (fanless) 500W power supply. LOVELY.

As is well known, SATA is the new hard drive in interface that is on all new PCs and laptops.   
What about then variations of  SATA? Does it matter?
Here are some quotes for a Wikipedia article.
Quote

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA
Serial ATA (SATA) is a computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives and optical drives. Serial ATA replaces the older AT Attachment standard (ATA; later referred to as Parallel ATA or PATA), OFFERING several advantages over the older interface: reduced cable size and cost (seven conductors instead of 40), native hot swapping, faster data transfer through higher signalling rates, and more efficient transfer through an (optional) I/O queuing protocol.
...
Connectors and cables present the most visible differences between SATA and parallel ATA drives. Unlike PATA, the same connectors are used on 3.5-inch (89 mm) SATA hard disks for desktop or server computers and 2.5-inch (64 mm) disks for portable or small computers.

Standard SATA connectors for both data and power have a conductor pitch of 1.27 mm (0.050").

A smaller mini-SATA or mSATA connector is used by smaller devices such as 1.8" SATA drives, some DVD and Blu-ray drives, and mini SSDs.[20]
...
eSATAp stands for powered eSATA. It is also known as Power over eSATA, Power eSATA, eSATA/USB Combo, or eSATA USB Hybrid Port (EUHP). An eSATAp port combines the 4 pins of the USB 2.0 (or earlier) port, the 7 pins of the eSATA port, and optionally two 12-volt power pins.[28] Both SATA traffic and device power are integrated in a single cable, as is the case with USB but not eSATA. Power at 5 volts is provided through two USB pins; power at 12 Volts may optionally be provided. Typically desktop, but not notebook, computers provide 12 volt power, so can power devices requiring this voltage, typically 3.5" disk and CD/DVD drives, in ADDITION to 5 volt devices such as 2.5" drives.
...
SATA and SCSI

Parallel SCSI uses a more complex bus than SATA, usually resulting in higher manufacturing costs. SCSI buses also allow connection of several drives on one shared channel, whereas SATA allows one drive per channel, unless using a port multiplier. Serial Attached SCSI uses the same physical interconnects as SATA, and most SAS HBAs also support SATA devices.
...

I am not sure what you're asking me for.  The system has 2 HDD, 2 Graphic cards, and an AMD CPU with 2GB memory.

Do you want me to be more specific?  e.g. brand name of each HDD, capacity of each HDD, etc.?

I only swapped an Acronis clone of the C drive when the problem first appeared.  I haven't done any further swapping.  That clone is still in the system.

Short of taking the PC to a repair shop, I will try to take out each stick of memory to see if that's the issue.  I could attempt to reinstall Windows on the original C drive, but I'd be shocked if that worked.

Any further suggestions on what to do are appreciated.Why hasn't anyone answered my questions? Quote from: BULLWINKLE on March 19, 2013, 09:44:50 PM

Why hasn't anyone answered my questions?

.....
What to do next aside from reformatting and starting from scratch - although something tells me that that error may still appear.

My friend lives in a remote rural location that only provides 'dial-up' internet service to his home.
 He has internet access on his AT&T cell phone which is faster than his home dial-up ISP connection.
 For increased speed, can he CONNECT his home desktop computer to his cell phone in order to use it as an ISP modem/router/access point?
 If so what hardware will we need?
As always, thanks for any help!
MikeHardware and software.Fretting Internet over the AT&T cell system is a bit pricey, but it sure beats dial-up. You can also check c with Verizon.

I assume you are in North America.  Other parts of the world have different arrangements.

An iPhone from AT&T does it with not EXTRA hardware, but you have no contact them and find d out how w to do it. You have to download an Application for then iPhone.

My brother lives in a rural l area and has some hardware from Verizon the connects to his PC. SORRY, I don't know the details.

Here is a EASY video about the iPhone. (IGNORE the commercial.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRa0UbIzGqc
Notice the details. This is only for USA
Hope this helps.

Hey, so I have an HP Monitor for my desktop, and i've had it awhile.

As of the past couple of days, I'll be using it and it'll shut off randomly. It wont turn back on, so I wiggle with the connections and if Im lucky, I can press the power button again and it'll come on. The rest of my PC doesn't have issues when this happens, just the monitor.

I try to make sure its tightly connected (as much as I can because the design of this thing sucks for connections)Have you confirmed that it is in fact an intermittent CONNECTION? That is have you tried just turning monitor back on without touching cables and does it come back on?

If it is an intermittent connection, I would add a strain relief to the power CABLE so that it doesnt creep out of the connection, as well as would perform cable management if the wires are in a place where they can get tugged by feet etc. I have seen all sorts of ways to add strain reliefs for power cords for monitors. Some people will duct tape the power cable to the desk surface behind the monitor etc while others wrap the power cord once around the base/stand of the monitor so that any tugs would be placed to the base/stand vs DIRECTLY to power jack.

If monitor is shutting itself off and its not intermittent connection, then its time for a new display.Im pretty sure its the cables. Next time it happens I'll re-check.

I never tug the cords for it, however, as thats in the far back of my desk and I dont REALLY use the desk because the keyboard holder is broken (I have a SMALL kind of TV dinner style stand infront of my dresser [at a 90 degree angle to the PC] that I keep my keyboard on, my feet dont touch the cables or anything).

Since I got this PC, I've always hated this monitor, and it's kind of a pain with its cables.

Its this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824176161

The cable has to be angled to plug in, it angles upwards (with not alot of room) and doesn't enter the port very well, it never has.

Hello and thanks for looking, maybe you could answer this for me?

IM working on an ACER COMPUTER tower. I have added a larger hard drive 120 Gig and Win XP installed, 500 meg of RAM and everything works fine.

Now, I want to instal a program but the CD/DVD/RW in it, wont read my dual layer CD(DVD) disk.
So I took the cd player out of my dell, (because I know that one can read this disk) set it up in the ACER and started it up.
But .. the computer didnt boot and told me the O/S had a corrupt or missing file.

I removed my cd drive and replaced the original one and all went back to normal. Works fine plays cd's, music, games etc.

Is it just that my pioneer out of the other tower is compatible with this ACER?
You need to get clear the difference between CD and DVD disks, and CD and DVD drives. We have been here before.

Most any drive should work fine, it doesn't need to be an ACER part.

After swapping the drive, make sure the drive you put in is empty and that the boot order in the BIOS is correct.I had an Acer many years ago, and the only issue with Optical Drive Replacement was that the Drive that Acer installed into this rounded faced tower was also rounded faced. If someone wanted it to look original, they would have had to buy the Acer oem replacement drive, but the off the shelf 52x CD/DVD combo drive I bought with standard flat face for $40 at Staples worked fine, just was not original looking which i didnt care about looks.

 This replaced their oem 24x CD-Rom that they wanted $65 for. Only trick to installing it for anyone who hadn't replaced this type was that there was a jumper for Master/Slave/Cable Select with the IDE drive which I just had to match the setting of the bad drive that I pulled out of it which was set to Slave with the Hard Drive as Master on a single primary IDE port. These days its even easier with SATA, no jumpers to mess with and QUICK swap.

*Your model might be one that was manufactured before SATA drives replaced IDE drives as the standard build and you may have to verify jumper position matches that of the Acer drive that you pulled out, and set the Pioneer drive to the correct jumper setting! The last bunch of Pioneer Optical drives I saw were IDE aka PATA, I havent seen any that are SATA yet. If you have a wide 40 pin ribbon cable then you have to verify proper jumper setting or you will have problems!

Back of drive near cable will have  M/S/CS or MA/SL/CS or labelled Master/Slave/Cable Select. *Optical drives usually need a jumper set for SLAVE setting while some hard drives call for no jumper at all for SLAVE setting. If you get confused and your hard drive is also connected via the same ribbon cable you set it as the opposite or what the hard drive is set to, OR if hard drive is set to (CS) Cable Select, then the drive you are putting in is also set to (CS) Cable Select.Oh, good catch Dave. My HEAD's just not here. I didn't even stop to consider if it was SATA or the old IDE.  Salmon Trout, thanks for the reply.

I think I'm on the way? I read the WIKI link you gave me.

My Dell tower, CD/DVD/DL multi combo, DVDRW, CDRW  by Pioneer, DVR-115D-DVD Burner as on this site is exactly my model from my Dell.

I can recognise a DVD against a CD, simply by the blueish purple coating on the data side, plus the fact that it says 4.7Gig against 700 mb on a cd.

Now, I thought that this Dell player/drive has already read the CD, and installed the data, therefore if I place it in the ACER, with all the jumpers in their correct position, data cable in tact and so on, it should read the dual layer disk.

However I was confronted with, on boot up after installing it, the ACER told me that there was a corrupt file and it wouldnt proceed. Black screen and just two lines of, nope not  gonna work. Try again.
Thats when I thought it might have needed to be an ACER product.

quaxo, thanks too, I am pretty sure the drive was empty, yes in fact it was, hang on and I'll physically check again...  Yep MT, no CD!
The boot order shouldnt have changed surely?
All the connections were the same and both players were masters in their respective equipment.
It should have been one out one in and working?


Thanks as well to DaveLembke for your input. These are both IDE not sata, although the Dell does have a SATA C: drive.

Quote from: DaveLembke on March 23, 2013, 01:31:27 PM

i didnt care about looks.

*Your model might be one that was manufactured before SATA drives replaced IDE drives as the standard build and you may have to verify jumper position matches that of the Acer drive that you pulled out, and set the Pioneer drive to the correct jumper setting!

If you have a wide 40 pin ribbon cable then you have to verify proper jumper setting or you will have problems![/b]

Back of drive near cable will have  M/S/CS or MA/SL/CS or labelled Master/Slave/Cable Select. *Optical drives usually need a jumper set for SLAVE setting while some hard drives call for no jumper at all for SLAVE setting. If you get confused and your hard drive is also connected via the same ribbon cable you set it as the opposite or what the hard drive is set to, OR if hard drive is set to (CS) Cable Select, then the drive you are putting in is also set to (CS) Cable Select.

Hello

I just bought a used "Pavilion dv3-2050ea" and I am trying to connect it to my wireless network. the problem is it has a red cross through on the task bar and says it is switched off. This maybe a simple fix but I have no idea how to switch the wireless back on. Can someone who knows how to do this make a very frustrated man happy? Thankyou!!

Windows 7

Product Identifiers
Brand   HP
Model   Pavilion dv3-2050ea
MPN   DV3-2050EA
Colour   White

Processor
Processor   Intel Core Duo (2 GHz)

Memory
Installed Memory   4 GB

Hard Drive
Hard Drive   320 GB 5400 RPM
Storage Controller   Serial ATA

Disk Drive
Optical Drive Type   DVD-RAM, DVD±RW DL, DUAL Layer DVD±RW/DVD-RAM

Display
Display Size   13.3"
Video Card   NVIDIA GeForce G105M
Video Card Memory   1790 MB

Connections
Ports   1 x eSATA, 3 x USB 2.0, RJ-45 (NIC), VGA out

Networking
Networking Type   Bluetooth, Integrated 10/100/1000 Network Card, Integrated Wireless LAN

Dimensions
Weight   2.24 kg (4.94 LB.)

Miscellaneous
PlatformHere...  is a link to all your Owners Manuals....
According to the manual there is a physical network switch probably on the front edge of the laptop.
It doesn't specify exactly as the Model # was incomplete...

Greetings. I've seen this problem addressed but haven't found a solution that pertains to my situation exactly. I have a friend with a Pavilion dv5-1017nr that is suddenly giving the 3F0 code on startup (Boot Device Not Found -  Please INSTALL an operating system on your hard disk). If I attempt to run the diag hard disk test, it says "Hard Disk Not Exist".

I swapped the drive with another SATA drive from another laptop (a Toshiba). The drive from the Toshiba laptop boots normally in the HP and the drive from the HP boots in the Toshiba. But switching them back produces the same results in the HP. Based on that, I don't believe the connector cable or motherboard is the issue. I've also tried restoring the BIOS defaults and clearing the power, but no difference.

Any ideas/suggestions? If any other information is needed, I'll be glad to provide. I thank you in advance for any assistance.

Regards,

--- GaryI should have PROVIDED more info. in the original post about the laptop in question, so here it is:

HP Pavilion dv5-1017nr Notebook
Windows Vista SP2 x64
Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26ghz
4gb RAM
BIOS: F.21

Once again, if any other info. is needed, I'll gladly provide it. Thank you.

--- Gary
Hi,

 

It certainly looks like another HDD failure.  The only things I can suggest trying before replacing the drive is:

 

1.  Shutdown the notebook, remove the AC Adapter and remove the battery.  Hold down the power button for 30 seconds, then re-insert the battery, plug in the AC Adapter and see if it will START.

 

2.  Shutdown the notebook, remove the AC Adapter and remove the battery.  Hold down the power button for 30 seconds.  Now physically remove the HDD and then reinstall it again to see if this helps.Hi,

I've already tried both of those steps and unfortunately they made no difference. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

I'm just curious about one thing. If the HD is in fact bad, then would it still boot in another laptop? If it weren't for that, I'd have just presumed the drive was no good. Am I missing something?

Thanks again.

Regards,

--- Gary"Non-System Disk Error" or "Disk Error" Appears on Black Screen (Windows 7 and Vista)Hi

Just a few things to TRY .

With the HP drive in the HP see if you can hear it spinning when you power the laptop on ?

It could be the laptop is posting faster than the drive can come up ready, perhaps after the error try a Ctrl alt delete instead of a power down this will restart the post but not power down the hard drive. If the error goes away, there MAYBE a bios setting to wait a few seconds for the  hard drive to come ready and setting this could fix it .

If you check the 2 hard drives they will have there current writen on the lable some are as low as 320ma and others need 650ma if the one that isn't working in the HP but does work in the toshiba uses a higher current then perhaps the HP can't supply that much current to start the drive.

Just some ideas 

Lisa_maree

My Dell laptop is sits in a dock on my desk.  Attached to the dock are two monitors, a keyboard, and a mouse.  A client will shortly be providing me with another laptop that I will NEED to use to help the client with a project.  My question is, can I attach the second laptop to the dock so that I can use the same monitors, keyboard, and mouse at the same time as the first laptop?  Would I need special software that would enable me to toggle back and forth between the computers?I don't know about using the docking station to accomplish this since I've never used one.  I'm just wondering whether a KVM switch might be an option for you.  A reference: http://www.ehow.com/how_7301460_use-kvm-switch-dual-monitors.html

Perhaps someone else can comment on the docking station. Thanks for the suggestion soybean. Perhaps I won't need the dock if I use this device.  I'll wait to see if anyone has a comment about the dock.We don't know what dock it is...
But a KVM switch would certainly do what you need as Soybean stated.It's a Dell E-Port Plus.I don't see where a 2nd laptop can be connected to it so chances are no...Ok, thanks for your help.  I'll look into the KVM switch option.Hello

What about attaching the second laptop to the network or use a CROSSOVER cable between your docking station and the clients laptop and RUN team viewer or remote DESKTOP. This will allow you to copy and paste files and text , run programs ETC. You could have your laptop on one screen and the clients on your other screen.

Lisa_maree

I friend gava me a laptop that has a broken monitor display.  The circuits went up in smoke and the screen is black.   However, it does have a rear VGA output connector so I CONNECTED it to a remote flat screen monitor and it worked just fine.   With one exception.   The display did not fit the monitor.   So, while I was fiddling around tying to adjust the display , I did something wrong    and now the monitor is working as a secondary display ( I know "STUPID"    ).  It has a nice background picture but I can not use it to work with the operating system.   (Windows XP)  Can anybody tell me how to get the monitor back to working as the primary display ? ?  Yes, you can get it back. Try to boot t in safe mode. It should work in sage mode. Then create a new user account. You will need this to help you get the feel of it. The new user should default to the duplication mode.
Also, does your laptop have a blue F key to SELECT external  monitor.? on mine it is the Fn+F8 ti turn on/off the external VGA.
Didi you read something like this?
Dual monitor setup  - Microsoft

Here is one of many You Tube videos  about dual monitors.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddrBGpRYlQ0

This also can help:
Code: [Select]Win+↑ Maximize the current window
Win+↓ If the current window is maximized, restore it; if the current window is restored, minimize it
Win+← Dock the current window to the left half of the screen
*If it is already docked left, it is moved to the right half of the screen
*If it is already docked right, it is restored to its original size
Win+→ Dock the current window to the right half of the screen
*If it is already docked right, it is moved to the left half of the screen
*If it is already docked left, it is restored to its original size
Win+Shift+← Move current window to the left monitor (with dual monitors)
Win+Shift+→ Move current window to the right monitor (with dual monitors)
Win+Home Minimize all but the current window
Win+Space Peek at the desktop
Win+[Plus sign] ZOOM in
Win+[Minus sign] Zoom out
Win+P Open the projection menu (GENERALLY used for laptops connected to projectors)
Alt+P In Explorer, show/hide the preview pane
Taskbar Modifiers (New in Windows 7)

Shift+Click Open a new instance of the program
Ctrl+Click Cycle between windows in a group
Middle Click Open a new instance of the program
Ctrl+Shift+Click Open a new instance of the program as Administrator
Shift+Right-Click Show window menusource: http://productivity.ben61a.com/windows/windows-7-shortcut-keys.php
Hope this helps.Thank you Geek:  I was able to boot up in the SAFE mode and selected "Enable VGA" and it came up properly for me to use the monitor as a primary one.    Thanks againWell I guess that I am still in trouble.   After I shut down the machine and reboot, I still cannot use the display unless I shut down again and try to boot in the safe mode each time.   And I am not always successful at that.  gets to be a pain.      I will keep looking for ways to get out of this situation.did you create a new user? The new user will default to duplicate.I think what you may have failed to do is when you make the change in the BIOS you need to select "Press F10 to save changes and exit"...
If you don't do this it WORKS for the current session only and when you re-boot the BIOS goes back to default settings...PATIO:  Thanks for the response, I was not able to bring up the BIOS. i pressed F2 while starting up and maybe the BIOS came up  on the prmary screen (which dooesn't work) but I couldn't see it.  I don't know how to do bringup the BIOS once operating system is running.
GEEK: (Thank you too) So I booted once more to SAFE mode, using "Enable VGA".  Then I created a new user and deleted the old user account, making myself the only manager.    Then I shut down using the START button (vs just holding the ON button for 5 seconds) but when I started up again, it came up with the external monitor as the secondary monitor.  So I am back to where I started.         I am in a quandary 

P.S. I don't get to work on this machine too often so please excuse my slow response to all  of your suggestions..

I need help about the low amount of free space on my computer. I have 9.99 GB total memory, but only 622 MB of free space at the moment, and it gets lower by the day. I have hardly anything to remove on my computer, no photos or documents at all. I only have installed various VERSIONS of Adobe Flashplayer, AVG Antivirus, Google Chrome, OpenOffice, etc, the programs I frequently use and have no intention of removing. Then I have programs which I'm not sure will harm my computer if I remove them, Microsoft.NET Framework up to version 4, a very long list of Windows XP security updates, a long list of Internet Explorer updates and Microsoft Visual C +++. And so I can't solve the problem by removing programs. I frequently use disc cleanup, and I don't have ENOUGH space to use Disc Defragmenter, which I was hoping to use. What can I do to get at least 15% of free space?A few questions.
You are using the the 64 bit Windows 7, - Right?
You are talking about your RAM memory? 10 GB of RAM is lots. My system has only 4 GB of RAM memory  and works fine.

There are two important things about the 64 bit version.
First, you must use only the 64 bit drivers for all devices.
Second, all programs must fit with either the 32 bit or 64 bit specs given by Microsoft.  Any program that tries to use the 16 bit mode will mess things up.

Also, you may have some kind of virus or worm hidden in the t system.The OP is obviously talking about disk space, not ram.

Alexandra - how large is the hard drive? Is C: a partition or the entire drive?I have another Hard Disk Drive called Video H with 62 GB free space but I don't know how to use it.No, I don't think I have the 64 bit Windows 7, it's not listed under "system". I have Windows XP Professional Version 2002 Service Pack 3 and 1.87 GB of RAM. The 9.99 GB is on hard drive C, which is the one with low space.Disregard the post by Geek - it has nothing to do with your problem / question.

1) Scan your system with BOTH your installed anti virus app AND with MalwareBytes. If your system is not infected, you can do any or all of the following:

2) Empty the recycle bin
3) Delete all files in your TEMP folder
3) Either reduce the space allotted to system restore or disable system restore (NOTE: all restore points will be deleted but you will immediately regain a great deal of space)
4) Reduce space allotted to the Temporary Internet Files Folder
5) Download and run treesize (free version) to see where the space is being used (http://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/)

If you don't know how to do any of the things I've suggested you can post back and ask for help or simply use Google and you'll get step by step instructions.OK, so I've scanned the computer with both AVG and Malwarebytes Antimalware which I've newly installed and it hasn't detected any threats. My Recycle Bin is empty ANYWAY. If you could tell me how to do both steps 3 and step 4, and I'll leave step 5 till last. ThanksWhat operating system are you running?Microsoft Windows XP You know what? The easiest way to delete all but the most recent restore point in System Restore is to use Disc Cleanup. Open Windows Explorer, Right-Click on C:driver, Choose Properties, then Disc Cleanup. Run Disc Cleanup. Then, in the Disc Cleanup window click on "More Options" then "System Restore". Run it. It will delete all but the most recent restore point.

If you choose to disable System Restore, go here: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/app_system_restore_hss_settings.mspx?mfr=true

If you disable System Restore you should then use a different backup option. I recommend disc imaging (to a removable hard drive).

To delete the files in your Temp folder, just go to your temp folder and delete the files.alexandraxerta

I too am running WinXP SP3
First of all, for C Drive, 10 GB is pretty less.
My system has 30 GB for C, out of which only 19.4 is free.

My Current C Drive usage is as follows :

Documents and Settings ~ 1 GB
Windows ~ 4 GB
Program Files ~ 0.5 GB (All installed program are in D:\\Installed folder).

Then there are 2 hidden system files :
pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys which take up ~ 2.5 and 3 GB respectively.

So taking up almost 10 GB and seems resonable!

So in your case :
If u've files in "My Documents" folder, move all of them to another drive (at least onto a pendrive)
Disable hibernation.
From now on, install all s/w onto another drive.

Ignore the above advice...Is it spam?Actually, making sure hibernation is disabled is a good IDEA. And moving the pagefile to the second hd would free up a lot of space (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307886)Anytime i've seen a system where apps and folders such as My Documents or other system folders are moved to another drive those systems have always had issues...

I was downloading a Linux ISO with my lower end workstation while I was using my more powerful system for gaming and noticed strange bahavior with the integrated NIC of this lower end less powerful workstation.

I first noticed a strange blink pattern of the port that this system was connected to of the router which was fast blinking for about 3 seconds followed by about 4 slow green blinks and then the port would black out, then it would repeat this pattern where the port would link blink fast for 3 seconds and then 4 slow blinks and then out.

I then switched my KVM back to the focus of this workstation and saw that the progress indicator of this download on the desktop would show progress of data transfer while the LED was blinking and then would pause when the port would go black ( no lit green LED for about 3 seconds ) and then pick up downloading further when the port would repeat the activity pattern.

During this time the workstation is not locked up. I can open and close applications etc, I also opened the network traffic graph through task manager for Windows XP Pro and it was graphing an activity/inactivity cycle that looked like an EKG heartbeat pattern.

The download completed successfully and so I figured that maybe the nVidia network driver that came with this motherboard's CD might have a bug and so I went to nVidia's website and downloaded and installed the driver all over again. I wrote down the driver version prior to reinstalling the driver and looked at it after installation and the driver version did not change, so the NIC driver must have never been updated by nVidia and the version that came with the motherboard on CD is the final version.

A few years ago one of my friends ran into issues with his nVidia integrated NIC, but I cant recall the specifics of it and he is no longer in contact to compare my issue with what he had. I think he resolved it by just stuffing a new NIC into a PCI slot and saying forget about using the integrated NIC.

To test the NIC after this reinstallation of the driver, and to compare against a different website, I went to www.adobe.com and downloaded the newest Acrobat Reader since I was still using 9 and could use an update. The NIC behaved exactly the same way as it did with the ISO download from the LinuxMINT website for Mint14. So the problem remained.

Last test before posting here was moving the Cat5e cable from port 4 to port 5 of the D-Link router. And perform a download and test. This time I downloaded 7zip and watched its download process. Once again the same pattern of what looks like a burst of activity ( fast flashes ) followed by slower activity ( slower / longer duration blinks ), followed by Activity Green LED blacked out for about 3 seconds.

Last observation before posting here, took side panel off of the computer so i could observe the integrated NIC which has an amber and lighter orange LED pair for Linked and Activity. Downloaded a flash update from www.adobe.com and the Linked LED of the NIC stayed solid = connected while the Activity LED on the NIC as well as  the router would both show the same activity and inactivity pattern.

Tested home networking and ISP with my gaming computer, downloaded a free game through steam client and watched the activity, the download was a constant fast blink, so the problem is pointing to a driver or hardware issue with this lower end workstation in relation to the NIC.


Hoping to resolve this without having to stuff a USB wifi NIC into it's USB 2.0 slot or a PCIe 1x NIC into it.

Here is the hardware/specs:

ZOTAC GF6100-E-E AM3 (up to 65 watt TDP) / AM2+ / AM2 NVIDIA nForce 430 MCP MINI ITX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500045

CPU = Sempron 140 (2.7Ghz) single-core AM3  (idles around 37C)
RAM = 1GB DDR2 800Mhz Corsair ( memtest86 passed x6 times )
OS   = Windows XP Pro SP3 32-bit ( all security updates performed )
HDD = 500GB SATA II Seagate ( drive is healthy when tested with seagate tool )

* NOTE: An option popped up during the nVidia nForce 430 chipset driver installation regarding the nVidia nForce NIC if I wanted to install Network Management Software. I declined this software installation since I dont need any extra bells and whistles.

My search through google did not show any others with this problem, so I figured I'd mention it here to see if anyone has any suggestions?

* I have not changed out the Network Cable Yet... maybe this is a start, but I had other hardware connected to this same cable before with no issues with the prior workstation I had there, and the Cat 5e cable is only 7ft long and there are no fluorescent lights of anything around to cause EMF noise.
Get a PCI NIC card...
Onboard has issues and is not worth trying to fix. Quote

Get a PCI NIC card...
Onboard has issues and is not worth trying to fix.

Good Morning i am having a problem with my printer  it prints about the same size as this. i USE Abiword, and i can put any size i want in,
,from 2 to 40  approx.it prints about number 8 even if i have it on 28.when i type it on the SCREEN  on say 20 it is huge,but it still prints small.
i have a Brother J315W.only had it 6 months  .it has printed correctly in the past i don't know why it isn't now. also when i try it on print preview.it so small i can't read it.have you any advice ,anything i can try.your help would be appreciated.ivanoe, please give more information about your Operating system. Is it Windows 7 64 BIT?  Did you recently install new programs?  Has there been any thing else odd or notable about your computer?
Is the printer still under warranty?

You say  Abiword is the program you normally use to write documents. Has it been recently updated?

(Note to OTHERS: Abiword is a world class program with good reviews, and it is free.)Thanks for the reply Geek-9pm.i am running windows 7 64bit. and i did install a program recently called (EXPAT SHIELD,some sort of SECURITY programme i was told.i don't know about Abiword being updated, it might have been.  and yes the printer is still under warranty.What happens if you do it from Print Preview ? ?
Does it retain the size settings ? ?EXPAT SHIELD is not something, IMHO, you really need. Also, not everybody has good things to say about it.
See if you can remove it and got back to an earlier point using nsystem restsore.

Please i have no idea which is better the 1st set is about 1900 and the second set is about 1450
PROCESSOR 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3820 (10M Cache, Overclocked up to 4.2 GHz) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64Bit, English edit
MEMORY 16GB (4 X 4GB) Quad Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz edit
VIDEO CARD Dual AMD Radeon™ HD 7870 2GB GDDR5 edit
HARD DRIVE 500GB SS Hybrid MAIN + 1TB 7200RPM Storage edit
MONITOR No Monitor edit
SOUND CARD Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Single Drive: 24X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability   for 1900

and

ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk, COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, Thermaltake Black Widow W0319RU 850W ATX 12V v2.3, EPS 12V v2.91 CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active ..., Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound AS5-3.5G - OEM, Patriot Intel Extreme Master, Limited Edition 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model ..., GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard, Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit, OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD), HIS H795QMC3G2M Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card, AMD Gift coupon: Crysis 3 + Bioshock Inf. Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 I'm going to clear up the specifications a bit.

1.
i7 3820 4.2 GHz
2 X Radeon 7870
16GB DDR3
Two hard drives (total of 1.5 TB)

2.
i7 3770k 3.5GHz
Radeon 7950
16GB DDR3
120GB SSD

This is a difficult choice.

The 3770k CPU is newer, but the two are similar in performance.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
The benchmarks are about 600 points off (not counting the overclocked 3820)
I'd say they offer the same amount of performance.

Both computers have the same amount of RAM.

Computer 1 has significantly more storage space than computer 2 (1500GB as opposed to 120GB).
For this, I would LEAN toward computer 1. However, an ADDITIONAL hard drive is not that expensive.

The graphics on the first computer is definitely better than the second one.
The Radeon 7870 clocks in at 4202 and the Radeon 7950 clocks in at 4540.
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html
However, keep in mind that computer 1 has TWO of these graphics cards. That would definitely be the better choice.

Just looking at these specifications, I would go for the first computer.

However, we should know more information.

What are the prices of these computers? How far apart are they?
What do you plan to do with these computers?please any advice is extremely neededthe first computer is $1900 and the second is $1450 mind you this is before taxI plan on using them completely for gamingBoth computers will offer extremely well gameplay. They will knock out any video game on maximum graphic settings.

In my opinion, both computers are equally as powerful.

Personally, I would go for the first computer. The dual graphics card and extra storage space is very useful.

If you don't want to spend all of $2000, the second computer is just as good. The only noticeable difference would be storage space.thank you very muchGood luck!

If you have anymore questions, feel free to post again.

I just saw a disturbing video that SHOWED office size, leased PRINTERS, have hard drives that store every single document that they've ever copied, and I was wondering if this is true of the smaller "home" printers that most of us have?  If it is true, then how can we erase that data before getting rid of the old printer?  You can view the video on youtube at:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZuvH89aklh8
          Thank you,Smaller "home" printers don't have hard drives in them. The kind that do are large ONES used on office networks. Also many large office photocopiers have them. We have one where I work and the lease contract states that the hard drive shall be removed and a witnessed and documented erase carried out before the machine is placed in another office or sold. Also the MANUAL shows how to erase the drive and we WOULD do this first anyway.

Thank you, Salmon Trout, for your quick reply.  I will feel better now about getting rid of some old printers. 
               02bin3

I bought a new WD 2TB HDD and during the format process there were two points where it made a buzzing noise for a few seconds (the rest of the process was completely silent as usual). Could it just be random or bad sectors? I really don't like a new drive that has bad sectors because it will probably deteriorate quickly.Noises like that are unusual. I'd run a hard drive test diagnostic on it. WD has tools available for testing drives http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?lang=en

The last drive I had that was new that made a strange noise crashed about a week later. It was a 300GB Hard Drive that occasionally would make a loud ping noise followed by drive chatter then it would get silent. The event LOG for this archive data file server showed many warnings in yellow that the hard disk is about to fail with delayed writes etc. This drive also was very hot to the touch which as abnormal for the fact that everything else in the tower was cool to the touch and adequate airflow. I sent this drive back RMA and got a replacement 300GB that ran warm, but not as hot as the prior drive that failed. This replacement refurb drive lasted over 2 years without issues.Return it for a replacement immediately...no good can come of this.Contact the vendor ASAP.
What brand is it?
Why would you formant it? Most HDDs now come reedy for Windows.

Unless you did not mount the drive property, the buzzing  noise would mean a hard re-write and retry retry happened. The drive head tried to write the same sector over again many times.
When drives leave the factory, any bad SPOTS are already mapped out and the drive never trues to write a area known to be defective. So one might conclude the drive is not really new.

IMHO, send it back.Many HDD's are shipped non-formatted...when's the last time you bought one ? ?I bought it on ebay. It was listed as new and I had to "initialize" and format it when I got it, so I don't think it was used. The whole format process probably took about three hours in total. I was sitting at my comp the whole time so I KNOW it only made the sound for a few seconds and happened only twice. I don't think it's worth the hassle of returning, but correct me if you think I should. I am running the WD diagnostic program now though, so we'll see about the results.The test completed and it passed. It doesn't list much info other than "PASS" so I don't know if that means it's 100% without bad sectors or are a few bad sectors still considered a "PASS"? Also what do you think, should I return it? I know I seem really picky about it being perfect, but I am using it for my file server that has really important data that I can't loose. I do have a backup and a half though, so it's not crucial.If it's a data critical HDD i'd return it immediately as i suggested.   Even if bought through ebay, as long as the person on ebay didnt register it as their property, WD wouldnt know any better if you bought it at ebay or off the shelf at a retail outlet.

   If you dont feel comfortable with placing your data on this drive and putting it at risk of total loss, I'd check the serial number for warranty status, and if its covered by warranty open up a claim for an RMA replacement.

   *Be sure NOT to claim that you bought it on eBay and if they ask were you bought it just state that it was bought at a retail outlet, but you lost the receipt. I have doubts that they would cover warranty replacement status on 2nd ownership, when most warranties are written as such that the primary purchaser is covered for the warranty terms but the warranty is non transferrable!
Hi

The warrantee is a good idea but if WD diags doesn't report a problem Western Digital will PROBABLE decline the warrantee. or if they do REPLACE it, that drive will go back to be re sold as refurbished. Perhaps it was a refurbished drive you brought if it is, on the label it will say refurbished drive?
Another check to do is random seeks as well as the wd diags. Also if you have the drive in a windows pc booting to windows try running HDtunepro trial and check the smart table and temperature that program also has seek tests.

Lisamaree

I recently started to get a lot of screen flicker. Have it SET to highest REFRESH rate available (75). It's an Acer P191w. Any ideas out there?

                         JimMy monitor started flickering a few WEEKS ago.

I bought a new VGA cable. PROBLEM solved.

It could just be a bad cable.

I have a neygear N150 wireless usb adapter that is causing my COMPUTER to reboot.  with adapter connected computer reboots every 2 minutes. unplugged the adapter and computer ran for 3 hours no problem. reconnected adapter and computer started rebooting again. tried uninstalling and reinstalling but no help. do I NEED to get a new adapter? this one is only 2 months old.If you can, try INSTALLING it on another computer.
If the other computer keeps SHUTTING down too, then the adapter is defective.

If you can't try it on another computer, I'm sure you COULD exchange it from the place you bought it.

Last night when I shut my Lenovo, WINDOWS 7 Professional,  desktop down everything was running fine, however, this morning when I STARTED it up, there is a black band, about 1/2" wide at the top and bottom of my main monitor.  I run dual Acer monitors, an AL1906 & an AL1916.  The bands are on the AL1916.  I tried pushing the buttons at the bottom of the monitor to see if there was any way of adjusting the screen, however, if it is there, I couldn't figure it out.  The monitors are probably from 2006 & 2007 and are used nearly everyday for at least 12 hours a day.  I don't know if this is a problem that could be a sign of it getting just plain old & TIRED or if downloading a driver for it would put it back to normal.  The Video Card is a NVDIA GeForce GT 430 that I installed when I got the computer about 8 months AGO as it did not have dual monitor capabilities.  Thank You,It's possible that, under your graphic card settings, you have 'Keep Aspect Ratio' enabled.

It's also possible that the display resolution has been altered slightly. Thank you, Carbon Dudeoxide, for steering me in the right direction.  I found the NVDIA settings, and for whatever REASON, the 1916 monitor was set at 1280 x 800, while the 1906 monitor was set at 1280 x 1024.  I changed the settings on the 1916 to the higher setting, and the black bands disappeared.  Problem solved.Good job! Glad to help!

So we just got this computer about 2 weeks ago, it works FINE and was a custom built that we bought off of Ebay. The back of the tower has a DVI output and today my DVI to HDMI cord came to hook the TV up to the tower. I am having a few ISSUES now THOUGH. #1 - If the TV is on the HDMI source then the computer screen starts 'flashing' black every few seconds. #2 - I can not seem to figure out how to get the TV screen to show what is on the computer screen - it is one or the other. #3 - The TV screen shows the icons at the bottom but not the ones at the side and if I move the mouse to the right of the screen I can then and only then see the mouse arrow on the TV screen.

Any help or ideas on what is going on? I can give more info, just tell me what you need. I will prob have my dad look into it and see if he can figure out what it up Never mind! I figured it out. Well not why the screen was flashing to black, but it has stopped doing it now so I am good! Thanks for looking though!

Hi all,

 ACER AZ5600-U9002 will not post. No beeps and screen remains black. PSU is good and RAM is good. CPU fan spins for a few seconds then stops. I see it has no CMOS battery. My guess is that the BIOS is corrupted
I am wanting to know if there is any way to flash the BIOS with it being in this condition?

 Also, if the CPU is bad could it cause the same SITUATION as described above?Replace CMOS battery.  CR-2032, available everywhere.Where is the CMOS battery found on this machine?There must be one, because it says this in PAGE 113 of the manual, but I have looked at all the disassembly PHOTOS and can't see where it is

Quote

Random Loss of BIOS Settings
If the computer is experiencing intermittent loss of BIOS information, perform the following actions one at a
time to correct the problem.
1. If the computer is more than one year old, replace the CMOS battery.
2. Run a complete virus scan using up-to-date software to ensure the computer is virus free.
3. If the computer is experiencing HDD or ODD BIOS information loss, disconnect and reconnect the power
and data cables between devices.
If the BIOS settings are still lost, replace the cables.
4. If HDD information is missing from the BIOS, the drive may be defective and should be replaced.
5. Replace the Motherboard.
6. If the Issue is still not resolved, see “Online Support Information” on page 175.

why is it when connecting my hdmi CABLE from LAPTOP to my TV i don't GET any sound except from the laptop?Without any specific information, I can only conclude that your sound OUTPUT has not been changed to the TV.

In the start menu, type 'Sound' and click on the 'Sound' application.
Select your HDMI display for sound playback.

When I turn on my PSU, the orange light on the motherboard Power button turns on, once I press that button, the fans on the psu, gpu and cooler will twitch slightly and then everything stops, but the light on the mobo stays on. Also, if I press the power up button again, nothing happens, for the fans to twitch again, I'd have to turn off the psu then turn it back on and press the power button on the motherboard again.

This is my build


Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H
Intel i5 3570k
Cooler Master Hyper 212 plus
EVGA Geforce gtx 670 FTW 2gb
650W Supernova EVGA PSU
Corsair vengeance 2x8gb DDR-3 1600


I really don't know what to do and I'm worried I may have short circuited something. It's my first ever build and I'm positive I've done everything correctly but I hope for my sake that I haven't, because at least I could re-do everything instead of having a short-circuited system. I have The 24 pin MB cable connected, and the CPU1 cable to the ATX_12V_2X4 slot on the motherboard.

What I then did was I removed everything and only left the cable between the motherboard and the PSU, the 24 pin MB cable, I switched it on and the psu fan spun for a full 1.5 seconds. Much better than small twitch when everything else was connected.

Can anyone help?If there was a short or too much draw it should pulse and make a ticking sound, fans would pulse and possibly even an LED or two.

If you have a digital multimeter, I'd verify the 5V and 12V and report back with findings. You might find that one of these is weak.

The fact that the motherboard boots for 1.5 seconds just PSU + Motherboard ( populated with 1 stick ram and CPU with heatsink etc) with soft power switch connected and nothing else with full fan speed and stops is interesting, but could also be a PSU issue as for if the motherboard did not see the tach pulse from a fan, it should run longer before protecting itself by shutdown, around 5 seconds or so from boards I have worked with.

I'd take readings with multimeter bare minimum like you have and then add video card and take another reading if you can. And try to find what device may cause the 5 or 12V to test too low if it hasnt already tested too low on bare populated with minimum to function motherboard.

Also, boards can act very strange, then you reset the CMOS battery and it comes out of it, but usually systems that need a CMOS battery reset will BLACK screen with failed post, in which the settings set back to DEFAULT bring it back to life from its unknown state.

* Also found you on Toms Hardware when looking for others with similar issues    http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1650273/build-gigabyte-z77x-ud5h-start-test-boot.html No problems with posting with multiple resources for help assistance, we all do it! 
I don't have access to a digital multimeter right now but I know someone who has one, I can check later. The only thing I haven't tried is removing the CPU and putting it back on.

Also, I've taken a video and if you could wait for about 20 minutes, I can post it on here for you to see what's happening, it's currently being uploaded to youtube.

Thank you for the help btw.Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx3D20oy5VQ&feature=youtu.beSeems like its getting soft power an if thats the power switch.  I would look at the MB manual.  Check if you have a twenty four pin board an thats connected.  Reset the Memory and did you see if it will attempt to post or beep?It is a 24 pin board, what's weird is that I have 23 pins on my PSU cable



I can't see if it'll beep because I don't have a speaker and what exactly is Post? Quote from: GFroun on April 12, 2013, 03:22:23 PM

It is a 24 pin board, what's weird is that I have 23 pins on my PSU cable
...
I can't see if it'll beep because I don't have a speaker and what exactly is Post?

Looks like 24 to me.
POST=Power On Self Test
Case should have a speaker.
Did you connect keyboard, won't POST without one?
A lot of bad review on this one:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128545

I see what you ment.  But, did you connect both of them?  It may not have enough power if your only haveing the twenty connector connected

I did not connect a keyboard, and a lot of motherboards have bad reviews :/ I guess I just got one of the bad ones.

Most systems will not boot properly/and or beep madly without a keyboard hooked up...
Why not try it with one  ? ?

3 things to check...
All MBoard standoffs in place ? ?
Was Thermal paste applied properly ? ?
Have you tried it with only 1 stik of RAM ? ?

Windows 7 desk top computer stopped during use. It would not restart when button pressed. EXTERNAL power supply ok. Possible internal Power Supply Unit failure. Can the pc hard drive data be backed up to an external USB hard drive enclosure before testing to find the fault in these circumstances?Yes, most HDD is use on laptop and desktops units are pretty standard. The desktops use 3.5 inch internal drives and the laptops are mostlt 2.5 inch. The Sata interface is almost universal. SUITABLE enclosures are sold by major vendors. Be aware that the very lost cost kits are not real enclosure, just the power and interface components. Not recommended. To easy make a mistake.

You will need a working PC or laptop to read the data. And enough free drive space to store your data files. Recovering program files is not PIRATICAL, unless the programs were  portable programs. Which is not likely.
This video is basic and helpful. (Ignore the lead in advertisement.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLLQusrmzvI

As you will see in then video, you can buy an enclosure for  any starred hard drive. So just pick out a good enclosure and you can get you data back!

EDIT: On of the best tutorials I have seen lately.  He makes it PLAIN and simple and very useful information.  Geek-9pm recommends you watch. That guy is even better that me.I was not aware when I made the original post that the Windows 7 PC was still under warranty. It is now with repairers and they will back up the data to an external hard drive before commencing the repair. I have a Windows 98se PC that I tried to back up using a USB flash drive but could not find one that would work with 98SE. Can I use my WD external hard drive to do that back up? Thank you, Greek-9pm for your advice.