24217 + Interview Questions in Hardware in Hardware Page 130 InterviewSolution

6451.	Solve : choosing between specs?
Answer» so I am choosing between specs. two laptops same brand and model, DIFFERENT submodel and specs Been wanting one of these SINCE they were new but the price did not justify me buying one... They came out at last year of vista before 7 (I believe) and have been upgraded to 7 (the quad core one cost $4,200 when it was brand new) One has an Intel Core 2 Duo T7350 (2GHz) Processor with 6 Gb of ram (max for all submodels) with Nvidia GeForce 9700M GTS dedicated graphics and windows 7 ultimate The other has an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300 (2.53GHz) quad-core processor with 4 Gb of ram with Nvidia GeForce 9400M dedicated graphics and windows 7 ultimate will be using for normal tasks (internet, word, email Ect.) and light to medium-light gaming (GTA SA, GTA 4 Ect.) plus watching videos/movies thoughts, suggestions?Do you have links to these machines? What is the actual model? How much can you afford for this new machine? Both of them are pretty old, the second has a much better CPU but the GPU in the first is better, you would need to look at benchmarks to see how the games you are looking at perform on both the 9400M and the 9700M. Now, as far as the Windows 7 upgrades, and I am purely speculating based on past experience. Windows 7 Ultimate is an extremely expensive version (At least $200) and provides almost no real benefit over Home Premium or Professional. Every time I see Ultimate on a SYSTEM it is a pirated copy - I have NEVER yet seen a genuine copy of Ultimate on someone's PC. For that reason I would be very suspicious of this upgrade as a lot of the time with second hand systems, the previous owner will throw on a pirated copy of Windows 7 assuming that the person who buys it will not notice. At least ask for the original Windows 7 media and COA with the machine, if the SELLER cannot provide this, walk away or be prepared to either use Vista/pay for a new copy of Windows.

Discussion

6452.	Solve : How can I make printer do Red or Blue in place of Black??
Answer» Is there a simple way to get my old HP lDeskjet 848 substitute a color for black? I am running out of black ink, but still have color. I need some documents that I can take with me in printed form. No for business, just personal reading. Red and blue use black... You can try it...set the print coler in print preview however...i predict a waste of other ink... Quote from: patio on December 30, 2014, 05:59:00 PM Red and blue use black... You can try it...set the print coler in print preview however...i predict a waste of other ink... I hardly ever use the color. Most of what I read is black and white.If the documents are EDITABLE (for example Microsoft Word) you could just globally change the font colour (edit menu - Select all, then select red or blue or whatever in the font dialog). However a problem with inkjet printers is that they use up ALL your ink even when you don't use all the colours. When you turn them on, and periodically after so many pages, they run a "cleaning cycle" to make sure the print head nozzles are not clogged. They do this by firing ink through all the nozzles. This MEANS that even if you print everything in (say) red, the other colours will still run out, and if black is getting LOW it will soon empty and most likely the printer will then refuse to print anything, even though only one colour is empty. The business model inkjet makers use is mostly "sell the printers cheap and make money on the ink". When my girlfriend was doing her college course we kept running out of ink so I bought a CANON personal laser printer (black only) for the equivalent of 75 US dollars; we are still on the same toner cartridge 6 years later. I have seen that some inkjet companies (Epson, for one) have recently brought in printers with huge ink tanks advertised to "last for years", for example the Epson EcoTank range has 4,000 claimed page capacity which they say will last "2 years". Of course everybody's usage is different. My Canon has a 3,000 page toner cartridge. After the college course finished we didn't use it so much, which is probably why that cartridge has lasted so long. We take digital photos to a shop to print out if we need to. Thanks for your remarks. I am going to try and refill some of my carts. I have an old HP 848C that will print with a dry cart. It is a 'dumb' printer, so I am going to fool it with home filled cart. Lire you said, the new printers will complain when the cart is 'almost' empty. N ow that gasoline prices are going down, it is time to reduce the cost of printer ink! If you only need black and white and want low cost pages - Get a laser printer. WAY cheaper to run and they tend to be much more reliable (albeit more expensive to buy in the first place). Quote from: camerongray on December 31, 2014, 10:43:09 PM If you only need black and white and want low cost pages - Get a laser printer. WAY cheaper to run and they tend to be much more reliable (albeit more expensive to buy in the first place). I know you are right. In fact, I had a laser printer at one time. But it wore out and I no longer do not have a way to make that kind of capital investment. I live on my Social Security and it is very hard to save up enough money for a major investment. But I already had the old desk jet on hand, so I stated using it . And it has been drinking ink.

6452.

Solve : How can I make printer do Red or Blue in place of Black??

Answer»

Is there a simple way to get my old HP lDeskjet 848 substitute a color for black?
I am running out of black ink, but still have color. I need some documents that I can take with me in printed form. No for business, just personal reading.

Red and blue use black...

You can try it...set the print coler in print preview however...i predict a waste of other ink... Quote from: patio on December 30, 2014, 05:59:00 PM

Red and blue use black...

You can try it...set the print coler in print preview however...i predict a waste of other ink...

I hardly ever use the color. Most of what I read is black and white.If the documents are EDITABLE (for example Microsoft Word) you could just globally change the font colour (edit menu - Select all, then select red or blue or whatever in the font dialog). However a problem with inkjet printers is that they use up ALL your ink even when you don't use all the colours. When you turn them on, and periodically after so many pages, they run a "cleaning cycle" to make sure the print head nozzles are not clogged. They do this by firing ink through all the nozzles. This MEANS that even if you print everything in (say) red, the other colours will still run out, and if black is getting LOW it will soon empty and most likely the printer will then refuse to print anything, even though only one colour is empty. The business model inkjet makers use is mostly "sell the printers cheap and make money on the ink". When my girlfriend was doing her college course we kept running out of ink so I bought a CANON personal laser printer (black only) for the equivalent of 75 US dollars; we are still on the same toner cartridge 6 years later.

I have seen that some inkjet companies (Epson, for one) have recently brought in printers with huge ink tanks advertised to "last for years", for example the Epson EcoTank range has 4,000 claimed page capacity which they say will last "2 years". Of course everybody's usage is different. My Canon has a 3,000 page toner cartridge. After the college course finished we didn't use it so much, which is probably why that cartridge has lasted so long. We take digital photos to a shop to print out if we need to.

Thanks for your remarks.
I am going to try and refill some of my carts. I have an old HP 848C that will print with a dry cart. It is a 'dumb' printer, so I am going to fool it with home filled cart.
Lire you said, the new printers will complain when the cart is 'almost' empty.

N ow that gasoline prices are going down, it is time to reduce the cost of printer ink!

If you only need black and white and want low cost pages - Get a laser printer. WAY cheaper to run and they tend to be much more reliable (albeit more expensive to buy in the first place). Quote from: camerongray on December 31, 2014, 10:43:09 PM

If you only need black and white and want low cost pages - Get a laser printer. WAY cheaper to run and they tend to be much more reliable (albeit more expensive to buy in the first place).

I know you are right. In fact, I had a laser printer at one time. But it wore out and I no longer do not have a way to make that kind of capital investment. I live on my Social Security and it is very hard to save up enough money for a major investment. But I already had the old desk jet on hand, so I stated using it . And it has been drinking ink.

Discussion

6453.	Solve : photos from mobile phone?
Answer» Am having difficulty transferring photos from my mobile phone (NOKIA model 113) to my laptop computer. The phone is connected to bluetooth, and the bluetooth icon appears both on my computer and on the phone itself. So all is in order here so far. I enter the small plastic CARD into the appropriate slot in the computer. I then open the COMPUTER icon on my desktop (I use Windows 8.1) and then I open the bluetooth icon. Usually this enables me to transfer the photos from my mobile to the laptop computer. However, all of a sudden I ma getting a warning reading "FTP LOST CONNECTION." What's this? I never got this warning before. A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ANYBODY READING THIS AND SOLVING MY PROBLEM.A fried of mine had a similar issue with a different model and he was able to get the images off the phone by using a USB tether. The same port used for recharging the phone also has the ability to communicate via USB, and so with a USB cable between the phone and his laptop he was able to get his photos off of it. Happy New Year and hopefully this info helps Quote from: Guzeppi on January 01, 2015, 10:54:10 AM ... I enter the small plastic card into the appropriate slot in the computer. I then open the COMPUTER icon on my desktop ... This sounds to me as if you are removing the microSD card from the phone and plugging it into a card reader on the computer. If that's what you're doing then Bluetooth isn't involved at all. If I am misunderstanding what you are saying can you please explain more about " the small plastic card into the appropriate slot". What small plastic card are you referring to? Personally, I use DropBox with my phone and computer. The pictures I take on my phone are then synched to my computer automatically.Thks for your prompt reply. My NOKIA 113 is equipped with a tiny black device installed inside the phone itself for transfer of photos from it to my laptop. (I don't know what this device is called! It measures approximately a square half-inch). Besides that, I was given by the dealer a small plastic chip (is it called a memory card?) which I was told to insert in the FRONT of the keyboard where there is a slot meant precisely to take this chip. This is what I called "a black plastic card in the appropriate slot" in my original question. Usually this works well and it is as easy as abc to send the photos from the mobile to tte computer without using any cable (or is it called a USB, the cable, I mean?). No anymore! Now, when I click on the blue tooth icon in MY COMPUTER (or, rather, COMPUTER without the "MY" as it is called in Windows 8.1) I get that annoying warning which reads "FTP LOST CONNECTION". Not being at all technically-minded, I have no idea what this FTP LOST CONNECTION means. How do I solve the problem plse? Thanks for your patience in HELPING me out. JoeDoes the "small plastic card" look like any of these pictures? [attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]Yes, it is like the first one of your three pictures and it is marked "SAMSUNG Lock MicroS Adapter" I have now installed FTP but still cannot get a connection. Thks again for courtesy and patience. JoeOK. We have now determined that the "small plastic card" is a microSD adapter. The dealer that sold it to you may have explained that you need to remove the memory card from your phone (it will look like the 3rd picture). There is a slot on the adapter where you can insert the memory card you removed from your phone. Once the memory card has been inserted into the adapter, then you can insert the adapter into the proper slot on your computer. Once everything is properly inserted, the memory card from your phone will appear as another drive in Windows Explorer on your computer and you will be able to copy your photos from it to a folder on your computer's hard drive. This process does not involve Bluetooth at all. Once you have copied the photos from the card you then remove the adapter from the computer, remove the memory card from the adapter and put the memory card back in your phone. You can also use Bluetooth to transfer your photos but you first need to "pair" your phone with your computer. Pairing is not difficult but you need to tell your computer to search for nearby Bluetooth devices and then SET your phone's Bluetooth so that it is "discoverable". Once the 2 devices find each other, you may be prompted to enter a code or confirm that the same code is displayed on each device. You only need to pair the devices once. After that you will need to set your computer to receive a file then send the file from the phone. It is kind of a pain since it can only send 1 file at a time which is the main reason I don't recommend moving your pictures using Bluetooth. If you use Bluetooth to transfer your photos then you do not need to insert "the small plastic card" since it serves no function during Bluetooth file transfers. From your post, it seems that this was working previously but has now stopped working. If I were you I would un-pair and then re-pair the phone with the computer to see if that solves the issue. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I use DropBox to sync my photos from my phone to my computer. It works great and after INITIAL setup the files are synched to the computer from the phone automatically. Check out DropBox here: https://www.dropbox.com/tour Quote from: strollin on January 02, 2015, 09:42:52 PM OK. We have now determined that the "small plastic card" is a microSD adapter. The dealer that sold it to you may have explained that you need to remove the memory card from your phone (it will look like the 3rd picture). There is a slot on the adapter where you can insert the memory card you removed from your phone. Like in the left hand of this picture Thks again. Have decided to take up DROPBOX since you speak so highly of it. From what you tell me, the other two options you mention are too complicated for a slow learner that I am! I have successfully installed DROPBOX and I have gone to GETTING STARTED IN DROPBOX, but what is the next step? The window (image) I got when I opened GETTING STARTED which consists of a few messages on rectangular figures makes no sense to me. Have been trying to send you a screenshot of the said window but cannot manage it. Perhaps you can tell me what to do to send you the image which I have saved in MY PICTURES folder. JoeYou need to first create a DropBox account (it's free), then install the DropBox Windows client https://www.dropbox.com/install on your computer and the DropBox app https://www.dropbox.com/android on your phone. During setup you will be walked thru setting things up. Have you done those 3 things? You can attach an image to your post by using the "Attachments and other options" link that appears beneath the text input box when typing in a reply. You will then be able to browse to the MY PICTURES folder and select the image you wish to attach. If you have a place to upload your image to on the internet, you can insert an image directly into your post via a link to it using the "Insert image" icon (looks like a little picture) that appears above the text input box.Renewed thanks, but sorry to disappoint. Have received a notice on my taskbar saying dropbox has been successfully installed. The next thing I know is I am taken to another window where I am told that dropbox is being downloaded ! I click here and there, I wait, nothing happens.The mind boggles. Unless I get step-by-step easy to follow instructions, I am afraid I'll never make it. Of course, this is not your fault. You are being extremely kind and patient with me, but I feel like an idiot when tackling some new program on my computer. Perhaps it would be easier to go back to bluetooth? I have got the bluetooth icon both in my control panel and on the screen of my mobile phone. I have also downloaded PDF but I still keep getting that alarming warning "PDF LOST CONNECTION". Is there a way to reactivate this connection? When bluetooth was working well I never had to remove the memory card from the mobile to insert it in the adapter card. Why not now? Could it be that I am not connected to WIFI but to a wired connection on my laptop? If so, how to go back to WIFI connection? Do please rest assured of my gratitude for your unstinted help. Joe JoeSorry you can't seem to get DropBox working. I think the message you are seeing is telling you that DropBox is syncing your files since you say it is already installed. Do you see a DropBox icon on your Taskbar or in the System Tray? You can also check the location "C:\users\[your userid]\DropBox" to see if there are any files there. That is the default folder location for DropBox. Bluetooth is separate from wifi. Wifi is not needed to do Bluetooth transfers. The only thing I can think of to fix your Bluetooth issue is to un-pair and re-pair the computer and phone. Here is a link to explain how to pair a device with your Win 8 computer: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-add-a-bluetooth-gadget-to-a-windows-8-pc.html. Before that you need to remove your phone as a paired Bluetooth device. Open the Charms on the right-side of your screen, select "Settings->Change PC settings" which will take you to the "PC settings" screen. There select "PC and devices" then Bluetooth on the next screen. In the list of Bluetooth devices find your phone and click on it. A button should appear saying "Remove device". Click on that button to remove or un-pair your phone, then follow the instructions in the link above to pair the phone again. See my attaced screenshot. [attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]

6453.

Solve : photos from mobile phone?

Answer»

Am having difficulty transferring photos from my mobile phone (NOKIA model 113) to my laptop computer.

The phone is connected to bluetooth, and the bluetooth icon appears both on my computer and on the phone itself. So all is in
order here so far.

I enter the small plastic CARD into the appropriate slot in the computer. I then open the COMPUTER icon on my desktop (I use Windows 8.1) and then I open the bluetooth icon.

Usually this enables me to transfer the photos from my mobile to the laptop computer. However, all of a sudden I ma getting a warning reading "FTP LOST CONNECTION." What's this? I never got this warning before.

A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ANYBODY READING THIS AND SOLVING MY PROBLEM.A fried of mine had a similar issue with a different model and he was able to get the images off the phone by using a USB tether. The same port used for recharging the phone also has the ability to communicate via USB, and so with a USB cable between the phone and his laptop he was able to get his photos off of it.

Happy New Year and hopefully this info helps Quote from: Guzeppi on January 01, 2015, 10:54:10 AM

... I enter the small plastic card into the appropriate slot in the computer. I then open the COMPUTER icon on my desktop ...

This sounds to me as if you are removing the microSD card from the phone and plugging it into a card reader on the computer. If that's what you're doing then Bluetooth isn't involved at all.

If I am misunderstanding what you are saying can you please explain more about " the small plastic card into the appropriate slot". What small plastic card are you referring to?

Personally, I use DropBox with my phone and computer. The pictures I take on my phone are then synched to my computer automatically.Thks for your prompt reply.

My NOKIA 113 is equipped with a tiny black device installed inside the phone itself for transfer of photos from it to my laptop.
(I don't know what this device is called! It measures approximately a square half-inch).

Besides that, I was given by the dealer a small plastic chip (is it called a memory card?) which I was told to insert in the FRONT of the keyboard where there is a slot meant precisely to take this chip. This is what I called "a black plastic card in the appropriate slot" in my original question.

Usually this works well and it is as easy as abc to send the photos from the mobile to tte computer without using any cable
(or is it called a USB, the cable, I mean?).

No anymore! Now, when I click on the blue tooth icon in MY COMPUTER (or, rather, COMPUTER without the "MY" as it is called in Windows 8.1) I get that annoying warning which reads "FTP LOST CONNECTION".

Not being at all technically-minded, I have no idea what this FTP LOST CONNECTION means. How do I solve the problem plse?

Thanks for your patience in HELPING me out.

JoeDoes the "small plastic card" look like any of these pictures?

[attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]Yes, it is like the first one of your three pictures and it is marked "SAMSUNG Lock MicroS Adapter"

I have now installed FTP but still cannot get a connection.

Thks again for courtesy and patience.

JoeOK. We have now determined that the "small plastic card" is a microSD adapter. The dealer that sold it to you may have explained that you need to remove the memory card from your phone (it will look like the 3rd picture). There is a slot on the adapter where you can insert the memory card you removed from your phone. Once the memory card has been inserted into the adapter, then you can insert the adapter into the proper slot on your computer. Once everything is properly inserted, the memory card from your phone will appear as another drive in Windows Explorer on your computer and you will be able to copy your photos from it to a folder on your computer's hard drive. This process does not involve Bluetooth at all. Once you have copied the photos from the card you then remove the adapter from the computer, remove the memory card from the adapter and put the memory card back in your phone.

You can also use Bluetooth to transfer your photos but you first need to "pair" your phone with your computer. Pairing is not difficult but you need to tell your computer to search for nearby Bluetooth devices and then SET your phone's Bluetooth so that it is "discoverable". Once the 2 devices find each other, you may be prompted to enter a code or confirm that the same code is displayed on each device. You only need to pair the devices once. After that you will need to set your computer to receive a file then send the file from the phone. It is kind of a pain since it can only send 1 file at a time which is the main reason I don't recommend moving your pictures using Bluetooth. If you use Bluetooth to transfer your photos then you do not need to insert "the small plastic card" since it serves no function during Bluetooth file transfers.

From your post, it seems that this was working previously but has now stopped working. If I were you I would un-pair and then re-pair the phone with the computer to see if that solves the issue.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I use DropBox to sync my photos from my phone to my computer. It works great and after INITIAL setup the files are synched to the computer from the phone automatically. Check out DropBox here: https://www.dropbox.com/tour

Quote from: strollin on January 02, 2015, 09:42:52 PM

OK. We have now determined that the "small plastic card" is a microSD adapter. The dealer that sold it to you may have explained that you need to remove the memory card from your phone (it will look like the 3rd picture). There is a slot on the adapter where you can insert the memory card you removed from your phone.

Like in the left hand of this picture

Thks again.

Have decided to take up DROPBOX since you speak so highly of it.

From what you tell me, the other two options you mention are too complicated for a slow learner that I am!

I have successfully installed DROPBOX and I have gone to GETTING STARTED IN DROPBOX, but what is the next step? The window (image) I got when I opened GETTING STARTED which consists of a few messages on rectangular figures makes no sense to me.

Have been trying to send you a screenshot of the said window but cannot manage it. Perhaps you can tell me what to do to send you the image which I have saved in MY PICTURES folder.

JoeYou need to first create a DropBox account (it's free), then install the DropBox Windows client https://www.dropbox.com/install on your computer and the DropBox app https://www.dropbox.com/android on your phone. During setup you will be walked thru setting things up. Have you done those 3 things?

You can attach an image to your post by using the "Attachments and other options" link that appears beneath the text input box when typing in a reply. You will then be able to browse to the MY PICTURES folder and select the image you wish to attach. If you have a place to upload your image to on the internet, you can insert an image directly into your post via a link to it using the "Insert image" icon (looks like a little picture) that appears above the text input box.Renewed thanks, but sorry to disappoint.

Have received a notice on my taskbar saying dropbox has been successfully installed. The next thing I know is I am taken to another window where I am told that dropbox is being downloaded ! I click here and there, I wait, nothing happens.The mind boggles.

Unless I get step-by-step easy to follow instructions, I am afraid I'll never make it. Of course, this is not your fault. You are being extremely kind and patient with me, but I feel like an idiot when tackling some new program on my computer.

Perhaps it would be easier to go back to bluetooth? I have got the bluetooth icon both in my control panel and on the screen of my mobile phone. I have also downloaded PDF but I still keep getting that alarming warning "PDF LOST CONNECTION".
Is there a way to reactivate this connection?

When bluetooth was working well I never had to remove the memory card from the mobile to insert it in the adapter card.
Why not now? Could it be that I am not connected to WIFI but to a wired connection on my laptop? If so, how to go back to WIFI connection?

Do please rest assured of my gratitude for your unstinted help.

Joe

JoeSorry you can't seem to get DropBox working. I think the message you are seeing is telling you that DropBox is syncing your files since you say it is already installed. Do you see a DropBox icon on your Taskbar or in the System Tray? You can also check the location "C:\users\[your userid]\DropBox" to see if there are any files there. That is the default folder location for DropBox.

Bluetooth is separate from wifi. Wifi is not needed to do Bluetooth transfers.

The only thing I can think of to fix your Bluetooth issue is to un-pair and re-pair the computer and phone. Here is a link to explain how to pair a device with your Win 8 computer: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-add-a-bluetooth-gadget-to-a-windows-8-pc.html. Before that you need to remove your phone as a paired Bluetooth device. Open the Charms on the right-side of your screen, select "Settings->Change PC settings" which will take you to the "PC settings" screen. There select "PC and devices" then Bluetooth on the next screen. In the list of Bluetooth devices find your phone and click on it. A button should appear saying "Remove device". Click on that button to remove or un-pair your phone, then follow the instructions in the link above to pair the phone again. See my attaced screenshot.

[attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]

Discussion

6454.	Solve : blu-ray and laptop?
Answer» I recently bought a blu-ray player. My laptop has an HDMI port, but when I attach the blu-ray player using HDMI cable, nothing HAPPENS. My computer does not seem to know it is even there. Is the HDMI port broken? Or is there a secret to getting the computer to recognize it? Thanks for any insight/help. I'm usiing Windows 8.1, my laptop is a Toshiba Satellite C55D-A, and my blu-ray player is a Samsung BD-HM51. I ALSO downloaded and installed a driver/update from Samsung. The HDMI port on a laptop is only for output, you cannot CONNECT a Blu-Ray player to it. Quote from: asterose on January 03, 2015, 04:14:13 PM I recently bought a blu-ray player. The blu-ray player has an HDMI output port. You can use this to connect it to a suitable display device (a TV or monitor) with an HDMI input port. Not a laptop or other computer.

6454.

Solve : blu-ray and laptop?

Answer»

I recently bought a blu-ray player. My laptop has an HDMI port, but when I attach the blu-ray player using HDMI cable, nothing HAPPENS. My computer does not seem to know it is even there. Is the HDMI port broken? Or is there a secret to getting the computer to recognize it? Thanks for any insight/help. I'm usiing Windows 8.1, my laptop is a Toshiba Satellite C55D-A, and my blu-ray player is a Samsung BD-HM51. I ALSO downloaded and installed a driver/update from Samsung.

The HDMI port on a laptop is only for output, you cannot CONNECT a Blu-Ray player to it. Quote from: asterose on January 03, 2015, 04:14:13 PM

I recently bought a blu-ray player.

The blu-ray player has an HDMI output port. You can use this to connect it to a suitable display device (a TV or monitor) with an HDMI input port. Not a laptop or other computer.

Discussion

6455.	Solve : Second opion needed. is it the Hard drive??
Answer» So today (just now) i was given a FAIRLY new toshiba laptop to diagnose. The thing fires up and shows me the "toshiba-Leading innovation" bios screen but will not enter into bios or boot menu unless the hard drive is removed. Ive removed the hard drive and it works. But does that mean the drive is bad? or dying? I plugged the drive into a dock and my SECONDARY windows machine sees the drive and its contents. What do you think? i wanted to run a checkdisk but the computer wont do anything with the drive in it. CAN I run a check disk using another machine on it? Crystaldiskinfo might give you some info on that drive. The other issue is if UEFI was enabled on a corrupt build it could hang at the post and not go further as well as hot keys to bios non functional until the system default boots without a HDD or SSD in it. http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.htmlSorry i didnt mention this. It does not have a UEFI bios. It it a windows 7 home laptop from at least a few years back. Intel i3 (first or second gen) 4gb ram 750gb hard drive which im running a checkdisk in windows on my tower right now, ok.... the crystaldiskinfo utility can read the drives s.m.a.r.t data and give you further insight on how healthy or unhealthy the drive may be. I use this tool all the time to check on drives and it has POINTED out drives that have many reallocated sectors that otherwise checkdisk and other tools dont point out. I was then able to copy the important data to a healthy drive and 8 days later the drive died for good in the middle of a video encoding process taking a raw FRAPS game footage video and making a smaller AVI out of it with Virtual Dub which causes the HDD to run for about 45 minutes to 2 hours of constant read/writes.Alright. Ill begin copying everything off the drive immediately and then run the tool to see WHATS up. I use the 2.7MB "Standard Edition" - "Portable" ( Without Ads ) version of it btw which does not require installation and can run stand alone. http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.htmlWell i used the first link i was given and its annoying when software is bundled with "PC optimizer" but anyways, i decided to use "unstoppable copier" first to copy everything off the drive. But during this process the drive has churned and clicked more then a handful of times. i dont think i need software ANYMORE to know this drive is failing. hahaHopefully you were able to get the data you needed off of the drive. If you need more data sometimes if you let the drive cool or chill the drive in the fridge and then use it right away you can get more off of it before it goes out to lunch. It all depends on if its platter damage, data corruption, or a drive controller or motor going out to lunch.

Discussion

6456.	Solve : Power cuts, can't finish CHKDSK, sound issues - and more! :D?
Answer» (I hope this is the right sub-group! Apologies, if it's not) I am running a Dell INSPIRION N5010, Win 7 Ultimate, RAM 4GB, 64bit; Intel(R) Core (™) i3 CPU, M350 2,27GHz 2.26GHZ I’ve been experiencing a wide range of issues with it over the past year and have lost all hope to IT-services I’ve turned to so I’m hoping to somehow prolongue its life myself until I can afford a new laptop. The lead-up to my CURRENT problems: First, I started getting quite slow and had graphic glitches and soon after blue screen errors and beeping instead of turning on (this happened straight after I had it checked just in case before my WARRANTY ends at the warranty place) Eventually, I took it back to the warranty (that was still valid) and they said it was a hard drive problem and said they’ll change it. They ordered the drive while I was still under warranty, but the fixing itself happened after While being fixed, I got a call saying that my motherboard had crashed (which I figure was the initial problem anyway), but as ‘they broke it’, they’ll replace it for free (I am worried I got a faulty motherboard maybe?) Had a friend’s IT guy install a new OS (to my knowledge its genuine) and everything was working fine for about 2 months ‘til problems started again What is happening with it now: It’s still quite slow and freezes/doesn’t respond often Cuts power without a warning and takes half an hour to agree to turn on again. The cuts appear to be random - sometimes it handles hours of Photoshop, other times it cuts in the middle of only using Word; with and without being plugged in) When it does, it always offers a CHKDSK which I can’t complete as it always cuts power after a few minutes. The only way to get the laptop to turn on is to cancel it and after it gets to the Windows 7 screen, it will stay turned on Recently, the sound has started to randomly turn robotic and the cut altogether. Around the same time, I also stopped being able to ‘check for updates’ on Windows Update. When the battery drains, instead of resuming windows, I have to start it up again. What have I done: I am not too good with computers so this bit is fairly limited. Tried to complete CHKDSK, but NEVER get past 5% I downloaded HWMonitor, but not sure what the right levels are supposed to be. I imagine the power cuts are to do with overheating, though the laptop, though warm, doesn’t, actually get hot. The fans do make quite a lot of noise though. I have tried to check the drivers etc and they seem to fine/not in need to be updated. I did a disk clean up, but disk defragmenter doesn’t start. I know the best option here is probably to buy a new laptop, which I currently can’t afford. I currently have no familiar IT-guys in my disposal and I’d rather not pay £50 for diagnostics somewhere else, as it’s already like 20% of the price of a low-rate new laptop. Thanks for any suggestions what to try! I have no IDEA what to look out for. I currently only had one window open, normally the temperatures are slightly higher. Do these problems happen while the laptop is plugged into wall power or just when on battery power? Dell has a support site that has diagnostics that might help if it is able to run long enough to run them without shutting down: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/inspiron-15-intel-n5010/diagnose Sounds like the power brick or battery to me...or both...

Discussion

6457.	Solve : HELP!- External HD corrupted files, any way to recover them?!?!?
Answer» I bought a new external HD and was in the process of TRANSFERRING my photos (all 220gb of them) that were all in one folder sorted by date. It was going to take around 4 hours to complete. When it was a little over half way done, my computer shut off for some reason. After restarting, I went to CHECK the new HD and everything that had been transferred to that point was OK, but of course it wasn't all there. I then went to the old HD and noticed some of the folders looked like the pic I ATTACHED... Also, if I try to delete any of these files I get an error message and am unable to. Please tell me there's a way to recover these!!! [attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]You NEED to try and copy/move them in smaller INCREMENTS...220G is waay too large a file copy transfer...Well yeah, I figured that was the problem now (hindsight being 20/20), but is there anything I can do about the files that appear like those in the pic I attached?Would a system restore to a point prior to the transfer fix them even though they're on an external HD?No...System Restore only deals with system files... Recuva may work.I was able to recover some of the corrupted files using a program called ' EaseUS Data Recovery'. I'm not sure yet if it recovered everything but it definitely recovered a lot.Good news...Yeah, the only bad thing is it it seemed to recover all files of a type (pdf for ex.), placed them in the same folder and renamed them (file 01, file 02, etc) so I'm having to go through each one to figure out what they are. Still, better than losing everything.Time to develop a solid backup strategy...That was the whole point of this. I had one external HD that was getting full and had bought a new one and was going to be scheduling regular backups, lol...

Discussion

6458.	Solve : Is this computer good with gaming??
Answer» Excuse my lack of knowledge again, but I've done lots of research and found this computer. Will it be able to run games fluently like Five nights at Freddy's, Garry's Mod, and Minecraft? Here are the specs. AMD Quad-Core A8-6410 Accelerated Processor with AMD Radeon R5 graphics 15.6" WLED-backlit high-definition display 4GB DDR3L SDRAM / 750GB hard drive DVD±RW/CD-RW drive / HP TrueVision high-definition webcam Windows 8.1 64-bit / 802.11b/g/n WLAN HP 15.6" Laptop PC - AMD Quad-Core A8 / 750GB HD Windows 8.1 64-bit (Black) Thanks for your time! Bump I'd love an answer!Edit: This computer has Radeon R5 M230 graphics, & 2.00GHz ( turbo boost up to 2.4GHz )Are you asking about one PC or two? Do you want to do internet on-line gaming, or just local gaming in the same room with friends? Most games will work fine on the desktop you have. What games do you want to play? Minecraft, Garry's Mod, FNaF, animating SOFTWARES, and yeah. Im asking about 1, i edited it to add more info about it, Online. Bump This is a laptop and not really a gaming laptop. It would be able to run Minecraft and 5 nights at freddies, not sure of performance with the garrys mod. Minecraft will run ok on it but 5 nights at freddies you might have occasional freeze framing. http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2357954/intel-core-4000m-amd-6410.html For a gaming system, I suggest a desktop computer unless a desktop doesnt make sense for your needs. To have a good gaming laptop your going to be forking out a good amount of money. Desktop gaming systems are the CHEAPER way to go because even with an average CPU, you can add a decent video card and still come out with more money left in your pocket than a laptop that matches in performance. Additionally a desktop computer allows a path of upgrade without having to replace the entire computer when it no longer can play modern titles or titles that have been patched with updates to textures etc that become more demanding. An example of a game that becomes more modern that increases in resource needs would be a game like World of Warcraft that when it initially came out could run on a Pentium III 800Mhz CPU with a decent 64MB video card, but of which now in 2014 ( 10 years later ) the minimum specs is a dual-core CPU and video card with at least 512MB video RAM, and 5 years ago the minimum was a Pentium 4 or Pentium D and a video card at 256MB video RAM. If this laptop was bought, it might play the games now, but because its not a gaming laptop a future game update or new game title of interest might not run well on it. I own both portable and desktop computers and use my portable computers rarely for gaming and desktops purely for gaming. The laptop or netbook I use for everything else but serious gaming. They might run Facebook games and Minecraft ok, but they are not really gaming systems.OK, this? HP 350 Notebook Intel Core i7 4510U (2.00GHz) 8GB Memory 500GB HDD Intel HD Graphics 4400 15.6" Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit Details: Speedy Intel Core i7-4510U (4M Cache, 2.00GHz base frequency, up to 3.10 GHz turbo speed): Latest generation Intel i7 processor gives you the power to handle most power-hungry applications. 8GB DDR3L System Memory: Great for MULTITASKING and multimedia work DVD Super Multi Drive: Watch movies and read and write CDs and DVDs in multiple formats Comes with Windows 7 Professional 64 bit out of the box with a 64-Bit with a Windows 8.1 Pro license in case you want to try Windows 8 later 500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive: Don't let the 5200RPM Hard Drive many similar models comes with slow you down.Ok, i7 processors are generally a good way to go although they are more expensive than the AMD counterparts. What he meant earlier by a video card is an actual dedicated graphics card in a PCI interface. The laptops generally only have integrated graphics that run off of CPU and RAM power. That being said, you would likely need a more powerful CPU to run games well I have a 2.5GHz quad core, 8gb RAM but no GPU. I can play games but not with good graphics/no buffering. For a Laptop you will likely want 2.0GHz and up CPU, at least 4Gb RAM, and a dedicated graphics card (not integrated). Anyone please correct me if I misspoke Thanks everyone This? Features This Certified Refurbished product is manufacturer refurbished, shows limited or no wear, and includes all original accessories plus a 90-day warranty. 2.1GHz up to 2.9GHz AMD Quad-Core A10-5745M APU 6GB DDR3, 750GB 5400RPM hard drive with HP ProtectSmar 17.3-inch diagonal HD+ BrightView WLED-backlit display (1600 x 900) AMD Radeon HD 8610G graphics with up to 3200MB total graphics memoryThat computer would play these games, but there is no upgrade path for the GPU being a laptop. How many years of gaming are you planning on getting out of it before having to replace this? Are there any games of greater graphics complexity that you may want to play or just these titles already listed?I'm thinking of using this laptop for 3 years ( along that time ) until I get more money to afford a better computer. I'll probably install a couple old games like Skate 3, maybe GTA IV, and that's it until I get a newer laptop. So yeah, thanks for the advice Those games will run on normal settings with that latest laptop linked. Your not going to get ULTRA graphics out of it and your frame rate will be 20-30 fps on normal settings. If there is a lot going on the frame rate might dive into the high teens for frame rate and then quickly rebound back to the 20s and 30s. This is judging it based on similar GPU benchmark to a system I have with also running GTA4 One thing to consider with running games like GTA4 on this laptop is that it will pump out some heat while running it. Also the battery life without it plugged in would DRINK the juice from battery pretty quickly. So you will want it plugged in while gaming to avoid low battery alarm in middle of games.Thanks man. So your final answer.. a simple yes, no, or an " it will run decently ".Titles you have listed it will run on normal graphics settings. Anything less complex for video demands will run better than anything more complex. I have run Minecraft and GTA4 on lesser GPU processing power so you should be all set. So i say yes it should get you 3 years or so until you could afford better. If you continue to run these games without anything more complex you can get more than 3 years out of it.

Discussion

6459.	Solve : Does anyone use a room air purifier to get rid of PC dust???
Answer» My computer is accumulating a lot of dust though I use a very good casing .I feel it has slowed down a lot . I am thinking of getting air filters after doing online research but I think since air filters and room air purifiers are the same maybe I can use my room air purifier (http://go-clair.com/) and place it next to the casing . Do you think it is a good idea ? I don't know how to clean using compressed air etc . I use a hair dryer ,vacuum cleaner to blow out the dust and give it to the computer cleaning technician once a year . I've never used a room air purifier so I can't comment whether that will help with dust in general. Hair dryers and vacuum cleaners shouldn't be used to clean computers due to the potential for causing problems. To clean with compressed air, turn the machine off, remove the side of the case, then give it a good spray inside to blow the dust out. Main areas to pay attention to are any fans (which can also be gently wiped with e.g. kitchen towel), the CPU heatsink, and any fan filters or intakes which are generally at the front of the case. I live in a very dusty flat as it has really high ceilings, I tend to wipe down the front of my PC every few days to remove dust building up there, remove the fan filters for cleaning every few weeks, and give the inside a good clean out with compressed air and kitchen towel every month or two.I have installed computers in clean air cabinets before, but its kind of overkill for a home computer. Situations where clean air cabinets were used were in industrial and automotive garages where the main risk is OIL particles and metal dust that can cause havoc. The oil collects on the blades of fans and makes a STICKY adhesive to gather dust particles that travel into the path of the fan blades. The problems with metal particulates is pretty obvious, a build up of metal dust can cause short circuits between component legs. A air purification cabinet generally has an air tight seal so that the only air passing through it pass through the filter at one side of the cabinet and then the warmer exhausted air passes out the other side. Depending on how many microns the filter catches, the hardware inside the cabinet stays very clean for a long time. You then end up having to clean the filter for the cabinet on an interval basis to make sure that it doesnt get plugged up and stop all airflow causing risk of overheat to hardware in cabinet. One of my friends once built this system that had 7 fans in it and LED glow bling. 2 at the front panel, 2 at the back panel 2 on top, and 1 large fan on the removable side panel. It was one of those ultra gamer PC cases for use with hardware that pumps out lots of heat and requires lots of airflow. His hardware in this case was a simple common Pentium 4 2.8Ghz HT build, not overclocked and a single GeForce 7600GT video card. he came to me complaining the one DAY that his system keeps filling up with dust inside and he has never had a system get so dirty so quickly. I took a look at what he had built and pretty much told him that your system is acting like a large vacuum cleaner and the inside of the case is acting like the bag. I suggested to him to disable some of the overkill of fans and it might not get filthy as quickly, so he went with my suggestion of only having one of the front panel fans on and 1 of the back panel fans on to make some airflow in and out but not turn the inside of the case into a violent vortex of air. Sure enough his system stayed plenty cool and instead of getting dirty within 30 days it now no longer had to be cleaned until every 6 months. So if you have overkill for computer case cooling fans you could disable some of them as long as the computer is able to stay cool with them disabled and not have it get dirty as quickly. As far as using air filtration systems to get rid of dust in the air, I havent tried them to comment whether they work well or are just a waste of electricity. Also location placement of the computer can affect how much dust it collects such as if it was moved on top of a desk vs resting on the floor where there is less dust to suck up on the desktop. Lastly, I have been servicing other peoples computers for about 25 years and causes for lots of dust and computer failures have been caused by: Pets that lay on or near the computer... Dogs that sleep on the floor near the computer that is also on the floor as well as cats that love to sleep on top of the computer tower where the warmth of the power supply warms the case and they love the warm surface to rest on. The hair and dander from the animals gets sucked into the systems. One persons system had a golden BEARD inside the front panel from shedded golden lab hair. Smokers ... who smoke around their computers. The tar in the air coats the fan blades making them sticky and more prone to collecting dust and hair etc. As well as the cigarette ash gets sucked in as well. One customer had a computer that was only 9 months old that was literally an ash tray inside of it. It also didnt help that they rested their ash trays on top of the computer case and so it didnt have far for the ash to go to get sucked inside of the case which lead to an ash blanket of dust inside and an overheat of the chipset killing the motherboard.Yes, air filters help. An help reduce overall maintenance of any indoor area. The principal benefit is for people who are sensitive to dust mites and pollen. But as noted, such filters also remove smoke and dust particles and help keep things cleaner. As mentioned, tobacco smoke is is bad for electronic devices. I have a redhead Maid... Quote I have a redhead Maid... You are a very fortunate man my friend! Thanks for all the suggestions. I figured out a lot has to do with the fact that I'm keeping the CPU on the floor. I smoke a lot inside my apartment maybe that also adds to the dust ..not sure . I'm planning on getting magnetic air filters . My friend told me they are pretty good and then I'll place my room air purifier next to it . Hopefully it should work . This is how it looks like at the moment (picture attached) [attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]Smoking near the PC is probably the worst thing you can do regarding dust buildup. It makes the dust incredibly hard to remove as it makes it very sticky, and over time it hardens up. I've repaired a ton of smokers' PCs and some we actually warranty voided due to dust buildup as the sticky dust had gummed up the fans to the POINT that components had failed. Make sure you keep on top of cleaning the PC with compressed air and wiping the front down regularly and it won't be quite so bad, but unless I'm mistaken or the lighting is odd I can see your front filter's badly clogged with smoky dust already. You can remove the filters and clean them with warm soapy water as long as you let them thoroughly dry before placing them back in your PC, this will remove built up dust as well.Thanks a lot for the input . Yes the filters are a wee bit dusty .I have heard a lot about cleaning with compressed air but I'm not sure how to do it . I also read online that if it isn't done properly it can do more damage than good .

6459.

Solve : Does anyone use a room air purifier to get rid of PC dust???

Answer»

My computer is accumulating a lot of dust though I use a very good casing .I feel it has slowed down a lot . I am thinking of getting air filters after doing online research but I think since air filters and room air purifiers are the same maybe I can use my room air purifier (http://go-clair.com/) and place it next to the casing .

Do you think it is a good idea ? I don't know how to clean using compressed air etc . I use a hair dryer ,vacuum cleaner to blow out the dust and give it to the computer cleaning technician once a year . I've never used a room air purifier so I can't comment whether that will help with dust in general.
Hair dryers and vacuum cleaners shouldn't be used to clean computers due to the potential for causing problems. To clean with compressed air, turn the machine off, remove the side of the case, then give it a good spray inside to blow the dust out. Main areas to pay attention to are any fans (which can also be gently wiped with e.g. kitchen towel), the CPU heatsink, and any fan filters or intakes which are generally at the front of the case. I live in a very dusty flat as it has really high ceilings, I tend to wipe down the front of my PC every few days to remove dust building up there, remove the fan filters for cleaning every few weeks, and give the inside a good clean out with compressed air and kitchen towel every month or two.I have installed computers in clean air cabinets before, but its kind of overkill for a home computer. Situations where clean air cabinets were used were in industrial and automotive garages where the main risk is OIL particles and metal dust that can cause havoc. The oil collects on the blades of fans and makes a STICKY adhesive to gather dust particles that travel into the path of the fan blades. The problems with metal particulates is pretty obvious, a build up of metal dust can cause short circuits between component legs.

A air purification cabinet generally has an air tight seal so that the only air passing through it pass through the filter at one side of the cabinet and then the warmer exhausted air passes out the other side. Depending on how many microns the filter catches, the hardware inside the cabinet stays very clean for a long time. You then end up having to clean the filter for the cabinet on an interval basis to make sure that it doesnt get plugged up and stop all airflow causing risk of overheat to hardware in cabinet.

One of my friends once built this system that had 7 fans in it and LED glow bling. 2 at the front panel, 2 at the back panel 2 on top, and 1 large fan on the removable side panel. It was one of those ultra gamer PC cases for use with hardware that pumps out lots of heat and requires lots of airflow. His hardware in this case was a simple common Pentium 4 2.8Ghz HT build, not overclocked and a single GeForce 7600GT video card. he came to me complaining the one DAY that his system keeps filling up with dust inside and he has never had a system get so dirty so quickly. I took a look at what he had built and pretty much told him that your system is acting like a large vacuum cleaner and the inside of the case is acting like the bag. I suggested to him to disable some of the overkill of fans and it might not get filthy as quickly, so he went with my suggestion of only having one of the front panel fans on and 1 of the back panel fans on to make some airflow in and out but not turn the inside of the case into a violent vortex of air. Sure enough his system stayed plenty cool and instead of getting dirty within 30 days it now no longer had to be cleaned until every 6 months. So if you have overkill for computer case cooling fans you could disable some of them as long as the computer is able to stay cool with them disabled and not have it get dirty as quickly.

As far as using air filtration systems to get rid of dust in the air, I havent tried them to comment whether they work well or are just a waste of electricity.

Also location placement of the computer can affect how much dust it collects such as if it was moved on top of a desk vs resting on the floor where there is less dust to suck up on the desktop.

Lastly, I have been servicing other peoples computers for about 25 years and causes for lots of dust and computer failures have been caused by:

Pets that lay on or near the computer... Dogs that sleep on the floor near the computer that is also on the floor as well as cats that love to sleep on top of the computer tower where the warmth of the power supply warms the case and they love the warm surface to rest on. The hair and dander from the animals gets sucked into the systems. One persons system had a golden BEARD inside the front panel from shedded golden lab hair.

Smokers ... who smoke around their computers. The tar in the air coats the fan blades making them sticky and more prone to collecting dust and hair etc. As well as the cigarette ash gets sucked in as well. One customer had a computer that was only 9 months old that was literally an ash tray inside of it. It also didnt help that they rested their ash trays on top of the computer case and so it didnt have far for the ash to go to get sucked inside of the case which lead to an ash blanket of dust inside and an overheat of the chipset killing the motherboard.Yes, air filters help. An help reduce overall maintenance of any indoor area. The principal benefit is for people who are sensitive to dust mites and pollen. But as noted, such filters also remove smoke and dust particles and help keep things cleaner. As mentioned, tobacco smoke is is bad for electronic devices.
I have a redhead Maid... Quote

I have a redhead Maid...

You are a very fortunate man my friend! Thanks for all the suggestions. I figured out a lot has to do with the fact that I'm keeping the CPU on the floor. I smoke a lot inside my apartment maybe that also adds to the dust ..not sure . I'm planning on getting magnetic air filters . My friend told me they are pretty good and then I'll place my room air purifier next to it . Hopefully it should work .

This is how it looks like at the moment (picture attached)

[attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]Smoking near the PC is probably the worst thing you can do regarding dust buildup. It makes the dust incredibly hard to remove as it makes it very sticky, and over time it hardens up. I've repaired a ton of smokers' PCs and some we actually warranty voided due to dust buildup as the sticky dust had gummed up the fans to the POINT that components had failed. Make sure you keep on top of cleaning the PC with compressed air and wiping the front down regularly and it won't be quite so bad, but unless I'm mistaken or the lighting is odd I can see your front filter's badly clogged with smoky dust already. You can remove the filters and clean them with warm soapy water as long as you let them thoroughly dry before placing them back in your PC, this will remove built up dust as well.Thanks a lot for the input . Yes the filters are a wee bit dusty .I have heard a lot about cleaning with compressed air but I'm not sure how to do it . I also read online that if it isn't done properly it can do more damage than good .

Discussion

6460.	Solve : Front Panel loose?
Answer» My computer front PANEL headphone jack and mic jack is loose, when I plug in the EARPHONE into that jack no sound COMES out but when i shake the plug, I get a sound in my left earphone and then it goes off... What to do? Should i have to REPLACE the front panel or what? Quote from: IPDO on January 05, 2015, 10:49:52 PM What to do? Should i have to replace the front panel or what? I would do, yes. Depending what case you have, SPARES may be available quite cheaply, or even free if the case is still under warranty. Contact your case manufacturer or your retailer if it's a shop-bought PC, and see what they say.

6460.

Solve : Front Panel loose?

Answer»

My computer front PANEL headphone jack and mic jack is loose, when I plug in the EARPHONE into that jack no sound COMES out but when i shake the plug, I get a sound in my left earphone and then it goes off... What to do? Should i have to REPLACE the front panel or what? Quote from: IPDO on January 05, 2015, 10:49:52 PM

What to do? Should i have to replace the front panel or what?

I would do, yes. Depending what case you have, SPARES may be available quite cheaply, or even free if the case is still under warranty. Contact your case manufacturer or your retailer if it's a shop-bought PC, and see what they say.

Discussion

6461.	Solve : Reboot and select proper boot device.?
Answer» So i am getting this error every time i try to boot up my PC, i use to be able to just go into my bios menu and boot it from there to bypass this error now when i try to do that i get stuck at the "Starting Windows" screen either freezing there or looping back to my ASRock menu. I am a pretty big noob when it comes to PC so was wondering if anyone could help me PLEASE?From you post you have a problem with a history. -Right? Your hard drive may be failing. You may need to get a new drive and restore your system from your backup. Are you in a room with very low temperatures? If so, you PC might work when it comes back to normal temperature. Some PLACES in the USA are really very cold now. If this does not apply to you, just ignore this. Do you have the CD or DVD used to install the system? WITHOUT more information , the only advice I can think of is to unplug all your usb devices including mouse/keyboard and try starting your computer . Good luck .What is new or different since the LAST time everything worked properly (ie, new hw, new sw, virus, error, etc)? Also, I suggest you replace the battery on your motherboard, then reset the bios to DEFAULT settings.

Discussion

6462.	Solve : Epson help with LX-300 configuration FONT?
Answer» HI, I was wondering if someone could help me? So i have a Epson LX-300 installed on windows 7 with the port lx driver. PRINTS with no problem at all. But for example I want to PRINT DRAFT condensed which on the manual says no lights but as soon as i print it turns on the 2 green lights and prints roman font. I went to advance settings before printing and tried changing size of paper, or disable optimization which then turns on light off and prints font draft. Im attaching a pic how it prints with roman font but NEED draft condensed and not sure what i need to change in the config of windows to print. the pic of the configuration is in Spanish unfortunately but if anything please feel free to ask which i can translate Thank you again http://postimg.org/image/ppnds1gff/

Discussion

6463.	Solve : who here has the best rig :p?
Answer» Post your specs and compare just for fun Ill start CPU: Intel core I7 4930k 3.40ghz RAM: 12gb corsair vengence Video: GeForce GTX 780Ti motherboard: X79-UP4 Best in what way? What is the criteria to determine which is best?Most powerful gaming rig My Best "Phoenix" Project ---- New Build that rises from the ashes of the dead $492.92 USD is what it cost me. Gigabyte 78-LMT-USB3 SOCKET AM3+ 125watt rated Motherboard ( New ) AMD FX-8350 8-core 125 watt 4.0 Ghz with 4.2Ghz Turbo 16MB Cache ( New ) 8GB Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3 1600Mhz ( New ) EVGA GeForce GTX 260 896MB DDR3 OC edition ( re-Used ) Corsair 40GB SSD SATA II ( re-Used ) Seagate 120GB HDD ATA100 ( re-Used ) DVD-ROM 16x ATA100 ( re-Used ) Corsair CX600 600 Watt PSU ( New ) * I had a 460watt PSU that might have worked, but due to CPU and Video card power demands a new 600 watt was the better choice. Mid Tower ( re-Used ) - * Had to cut out section of 3.5" HDD bay metal for video card to fit. Windows 7 64-Bit Home Premium ( New ) Its not the most powerful out there, and its a mix of new and OLD parts, but its way faster than the prior fastest system I had which was just an Athlon II x4 620 2600Mhz. And when gaming this 8-core CPU is just about idle with like 13% in use with games that would place the Athlon II x4 620 at 80-90% CPU usage. The SSD for the Windows OS makes it very fast boot and responsive. Games and Data are stored on slower HDD, and even though only a 7200RPM ATA 100 drive load times arent bad. I am hoping this 8-core system will be good for the next 6-10 years. Quote from: juicebox on January 05, 2015, 04:37:30 AM Post your specs and compare just for fun Ill start CPU: Intel core I7 4930k 3.40ghz RAM: 12gb corsair vengence Video: GeForce GTX 780Ti motherboard: X79-UP4 12GB of RAM is a slightly odd choice for an X79 board, I'm assuming that's 2x4GB and 2x2GB? Just curious as to why you're not using 4 identical modules for quad channel RAM, not that it makes much difference in most scenarios. Also, overclock that CPU, you bought that high-end unlocked CPU for a reason right? Also out of curiosity do you use the machine mainly for gaming, or is it more of a workstation setup?For me I have the following, it is used mostly as a workstation for software development but has the power to run games if I so desire: Intel Core i7 3770k Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H EVGA GeForce 770 Superclocked 16gb 1600MHz G.Skill Ripjaws X 256gb MX100 SSD Corsair Obsidian 650D Corsair HX650W PSU Then for the rest of the setup: Pair of Hazro HZ27WB monitors (each 2560x1440) Keyboard (Currently, I change around a lot): Topre Realforce 105UB I'm not currently planning any major changes to it although I will probably wait until the first non-enthusiast platform to support DDR4 before moving to that.It's mostly documented in the thread I made to get build advice for it, but I'll put it here: Intel Core i7 4770K 3.5Ghz (I'm not overclocking so Calum will yell at me won't he ) Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H Motherboard 32GB Corsair XMS3 (48GB) 480GB Seagate SSD, 4TB WD Red, 3TB Seagate Barracuda ASUS 2GB Geforce GTX 770 D-Link PCI-E Wireless-N Card Thermaltake G42 Commander. I accidentally got the one with the Window which is redundant since I can't see it anyway. Not the best case and it has real-estate issues in particular dealing with SATA connections is a nightmare, as the motherboard is far too close to the drive cage, making it very awkward. While plugging in the drives originally I couldn't get a plug all the way in, then it wouldn't come out so I could replug it so I gave up and used another cord and plug, and it is still sitting there. also using a QNIX 2560x1440 display, and a Unicomp Model M. Interestingly, I don't use it for gaming very often, even though that was the plan- or rather, I don't use it for anything demanding. The RAM comes in handy since I often have lots of programs open, as well as Virtual Machines, though there is no denying that 32GB is overkill. I got a K model CPU for no reason other than I could afford to do so, and I suppose in the future I could make use of it to extend the lifespan. I wouldn't do it now since I'm not a fan of aftermarket coolers which are typically a necessity for such things. Motherboard was selected because of USB3 and wireless gigabit which I ended up not using, though both of those are pretty much standard. Also supports SLI, so same story as the K CPU I suppose. Also my previous build used a Gigabyte Motherboard and it served(Serves?) me well. SSD for speed. 4TB for data. 3TB because the 4TB was lonely, and for backups. Also have a front-panel with Card slots and an extra USB3 hub. Quote from: DaveLembke on January 05, 2015, 05:37:53 AM Gigabyte 78-LMT-USB3 Socket AM3+ 125watt rated Motherboard ( New ) AMD FX-8350 8-core 125 watt 4.0 Ghz with 4.2Ghz Turbo 16MB Cache ( New ) 8GB Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3 1600Mhz ( New ) EVGA GeForce GTX 260 896MB DDR3 OC edition ( re-Used ) Corsair 40GB SSD SATA II ( re-Used ) Seagate 120GB HDD ATA100 ( re-Used ) DVD-ROM 16x ATA100 ( re-Used ) Corsair CX600 600 Watt PSU ( New ) I had a 460watt PSU that might have worked, but due to CPU and Video card power demands a new 600 watt was the better choice. Mid Tower ( re-Used ) - * Had to cut out section of 3.5" HDD bay metal for video card to fit. Windows 7 64-Bit Home Premium ( New ) I am hoping this 8-core system will be good for the next 6-10 years. I also have a old rig with a gtx 260 thats just relaxing in the corner haha is the card still concidered good these days? Quote from: Calum on January 05, 2015, 06:52:23 AM 12GB of RAM is a slightly odd choice for an X79 board, I'm assuming that's 2x4GB and 2x2GB? Just curious as to why you're not using 4 identical modules for quad channel RAM, not that it makes much difference in most scenarios. Also, overclock that CPU, you bought that high-end unlocked CPU for a reason right? Also out of curiosity do you use the machine mainly for gaming, or is it more of a workstation setup? Its 2x8gb my bad haha. The whole setup set me back 3600 if i remember right. I use it as a gaming rig and it loves it played crysis 3 on highest setting and it ran like a champ. Also powering it is a 1200w atx psu. Plus cant remeber what model but a corsair liquid cpu cooler Quote I also have a old rig with a gtx 260 thats just relaxing in the corner haha is the card still concidered good these days? It was a card I bought used from my younger brother for $40 and was way better than the ATI Radeon HD5450 I had prior. Also the card doesnt have many hours on it and so the cooling fan is still good etc. He originally had 2 x GTX 260's in SLI and then he SPLIT them up for 2 builds and this card was in the build that he didnt use much, and when looking to sell some older hardware to offset the cost of new hardware, I couldnt pass up the deal for $40. The nice thing is that i can run Ultra Graphics settings on World of Warcraft and get a good 30 fps frame rate, whereas my older gaming system that has the ATI Radeon HD5450 I had to back off the graphics setting to FAIR from GOOD on World of Warcraft to up my frame rate since the WoD expansion made changes to textures and character models etc, so its more demanding than MoP and prior EXPANSIONS were. I also forgot to add that the 8-core CPU I have the AMD FX-8350 is overkill for all the games I play. The only way I see 100% usage of cores is when running CPU benchmarks. Other than that the CPU is very restful at like 13% while playing wow and playing music at same time and browser open with multiple tabs open etc. World of Warcraft with this 8-core seems to grab 2 of the 8 cores and places them at about 25-50% usage while the 6 other cores are at rest. Not sure why it doesnt balance the load more among all cores or if its due to how the game is coded/designed that it wants to only really grab 2 cores. Quote from: BC_Programmer on January 05, 2015, 12:41:19 PM Intel Core i7 4770K 3.5Ghz (I'm not overclocking so Calum will yell at me won't he ) I got a K model CPU for no reason other than I could afford to do so, and I suppose in the future I could make use of it to extend the lifespan. I wouldn't do it now since I'm not a fan of aftermarket coolers which are typically a necessity for such things. I'm not saying it's a requirement to overclock K series CPUs, just that I'm surprised how many buy them without doing so. I suppose there's usually very little or no price difference between K and non-K models, and as you say you do at least have the option down the line of overclocking the CPU, but it still just seems odd to me, maybe I just went too long without seeing a stock system :p Quote from: juicebox on January 05, 2015, 03:11:35 PM I also have a old rig with a gtx 260 thats just relaxing in the corner haha is the card still concidered good these days? Its 2x8gb my bad haha. The whole setup set me back 3600 if i remember right. I use it as a gaming rig and it loves it played crysis 3 on highest setting and it ran like a champ. Also powering it is a 1200w atx psu. Plus cant remeber what model but a corsair liquid cpu cooler 2x8GB makes more sense heh. I was just curious re the use of the system as I don't often see X79 setups purely for gaming because they're less cost effective and even in CPU-limited games the 4770K is competitive with even the 4960X. Obviously for games utilising more than 4 cores/8 threads or for rendering and other CPU-intensive tasks the IB-E 4930K will best the Haswell 4770K, but mostly it'll be a wash. Glad to hear it's performing well for you, though

6463.

Solve : who here has the best rig :p?

Answer»

Post your specs and compare just for fun

Ill start

CPU: Intel core I7 4930k 3.40ghz
RAM: 12gb corsair vengence
Video: GeForce GTX 780Ti
motherboard: X79-UP4
Best in what way? What is the criteria to determine which is best?Most powerful gaming rig My Best "Phoenix" Project ---- New Build that rises from the ashes of the dead $492.92 USD is what it cost me.

Gigabyte 78-LMT-USB3 SOCKET AM3+ 125watt rated Motherboard ( New )
AMD FX-8350 8-core 125 watt 4.0 Ghz with 4.2Ghz Turbo 16MB Cache ( New )
8GB Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3 1600Mhz ( New )
EVGA GeForce GTX 260 896MB DDR3 OC edition ( re-Used )
Corsair 40GB SSD SATA II ( re-Used )
Seagate 120GB HDD ATA100 ( re-Used )
DVD-ROM 16x ATA100 ( re-Used )
Corsair CX600 600 Watt PSU ( New ) * I had a 460watt PSU that might have worked, but due to CPU and Video card power demands a new 600 watt was the better choice.
Mid Tower ( re-Used ) - * Had to cut out section of 3.5" HDD bay metal for video card to fit.
Windows 7 64-Bit Home Premium ( New )

Its not the most powerful out there, and its a mix of new and OLD parts, but its way faster than the prior fastest system I had which was just an Athlon II x4 620 2600Mhz. And when gaming this 8-core CPU is just about idle with like 13% in use with games that would place the Athlon II x4 620 at 80-90% CPU usage. The SSD for the Windows OS makes it very fast boot and responsive. Games and Data are stored on slower HDD, and even though only a 7200RPM ATA 100 drive load times arent bad.

I am hoping this 8-core system will be good for the next 6-10 years. Quote from: juicebox on January 05, 2015, 04:37:30 AM

Post your specs and compare just for fun

Ill start

CPU: Intel core I7 4930k 3.40ghz
RAM: 12gb corsair vengence
Video: GeForce GTX 780Ti
motherboard: X79-UP4

12GB of RAM is a slightly odd choice for an X79 board, I'm assuming that's 2x4GB and 2x2GB? Just curious as to why you're not using 4 identical modules for quad channel RAM, not that it makes much difference in most scenarios. Also, overclock that CPU, you bought that high-end unlocked CPU for a reason right?

Also out of curiosity do you use the machine mainly for gaming, or is it more of a workstation setup?For me I have the following, it is used mostly as a workstation for software development but has the power to run games if I so desire:

Intel Core i7 3770k
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H
EVGA GeForce 770 Superclocked
16gb 1600MHz G.Skill Ripjaws X
256gb MX100 SSD
Corsair Obsidian 650D
Corsair HX650W PSU

Then for the rest of the setup:

Pair of Hazro HZ27WB monitors (each 2560x1440)
Keyboard (Currently, I change around a lot): Topre Realforce 105UB

I'm not currently planning any major changes to it although I will probably wait until the first non-enthusiast platform to support DDR4 before moving to that.It's mostly documented in the thread I made to get build advice for it, but I'll put it here:

Intel Core i7 4770K 3.5Ghz (I'm not overclocking so Calum will yell at me won't he )
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H Motherboard
32GB Corsair XMS3 (4*8GB)
480GB Seagate SSD, 4TB WD Red, 3TB Seagate Barracuda
ASUS 2GB Geforce GTX 770
D-Link PCI-E Wireless-N Card
Thermaltake G42 Commander. I accidentally got the one with the Window which is redundant since I can't see it anyway. Not the best case and it has real-estate issues in particular dealing with SATA connections is a nightmare, as the motherboard is far too close to the drive cage, making it very awkward. While plugging in the drives originally I couldn't get a plug all the way in, then it wouldn't come out so I could replug it so I gave up and used another cord and plug, and it is still sitting there.

also using a QNIX 2560x1440 display, and a Unicomp Model M.

Interestingly, I don't use it for gaming very often, even though that was the plan- or rather, I don't use it for anything demanding. The RAM comes in handy since I often have lots of programs open, as well as Virtual Machines, though there is no denying that 32GB is overkill.

I got a K model CPU for no reason other than I could afford to do so, and I suppose in the future I could make use of it to extend the lifespan. I wouldn't do it now since I'm not a fan of aftermarket coolers which are typically a necessity for such things.

Motherboard was selected because of USB3 and wireless gigabit which I ended up not using, though both of those are pretty much standard. Also supports SLI, so same story as the K CPU I suppose. Also my previous build used a Gigabyte Motherboard and it served(Serves?) me well.

SSD for speed. 4TB for data. 3TB because the 4TB was lonely, and for backups.

Also have a front-panel with Card slots and an extra USB3 hub.

Quote from: DaveLembke on January 05, 2015, 05:37:53 AM

Gigabyte 78-LMT-USB3 Socket AM3+ 125watt rated Motherboard ( New )
AMD FX-8350 8-core 125 watt 4.0 Ghz with 4.2Ghz Turbo 16MB Cache ( New )
8GB Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3 1600Mhz ( New )
EVGA GeForce GTX 260 896MB DDR3 OC edition ( re-Used )
Corsair 40GB SSD SATA II ( re-Used )
Seagate 120GB HDD ATA100 ( re-Used )
DVD-ROM 16x ATA100 ( re-Used )
Corsair CX600 600 Watt PSU ( New ) * I had a 460watt PSU that might have worked, but due to CPU and Video card power demands a new 600 watt was the better choice.
Mid Tower ( re-Used ) - * Had to cut out section of 3.5" HDD bay metal for video card to fit.
Windows 7 64-Bit Home Premium ( New )

I am hoping this 8-core system will be good for the next 6-10 years.

I also have a old rig with a gtx 260 thats just relaxing in the corner haha is the card still concidered good these days?

Quote from: Calum on January 05, 2015, 06:52:23 AM

12GB of RAM is a slightly odd choice for an X79 board, I'm assuming that's 2x4GB and 2x2GB? Just curious as to why you're not using 4 identical modules for quad channel RAM, not that it makes much difference in most scenarios. Also, overclock that CPU, you bought that high-end unlocked CPU for a reason right?

Also out of curiosity do you use the machine mainly for gaming, or is it more of a workstation setup?

Its 2x8gb my bad haha. The whole setup set me back 3600 if i remember right.

I use it as a gaming rig and it loves it played crysis 3 on highest setting and it ran like a champ.
Also powering it is a 1200w atx psu. Plus cant remeber what model but a corsair liquid cpu cooler
Quote

I also have a old rig with a gtx 260 thats just relaxing in the corner haha is the card still concidered good these days?

It was a card I bought used from my younger brother for $40 and was way better than the ATI Radeon HD5450 I had prior. Also the card doesnt have many hours on it and so the cooling fan is still good etc. He originally had 2 x GTX 260's in SLI and then he SPLIT them up for 2 builds and this card was in the build that he didnt use much, and when looking to sell some older hardware to offset the cost of new hardware, I couldnt pass up the deal for $40.

The nice thing is that i can run Ultra Graphics settings on World of Warcraft and get a good 30 fps frame rate, whereas my older gaming system that has the ATI Radeon HD5450 I had to back off the graphics setting to FAIR from GOOD on World of Warcraft to up my frame rate since the WoD expansion made changes to textures and character models etc, so its more demanding than MoP and prior EXPANSIONS were.

I also forgot to add that the 8-core CPU I have the AMD FX-8350 is overkill for all the games I play. The only way I see 100% usage of cores is when running CPU benchmarks. Other than that the CPU is very restful at like 13% while playing wow and playing music at same time and browser open with multiple tabs open etc. World of Warcraft with this 8-core seems to grab 2 of the 8 cores and places them at about 25-50% usage while the 6 other cores are at rest. Not sure why it doesnt balance the load more among all cores or if its due to how the game is coded/designed that it wants to only really grab 2 cores. Quote from: BC_Programmer on January 05, 2015, 12:41:19 PM

Intel Core i7 4770K 3.5Ghz (I'm not overclocking so Calum will yell at me won't he )

I got a K model CPU for no reason other than I could afford to do so, and I suppose in the future I could make use of it to extend the lifespan. I wouldn't do it now since I'm not a fan of aftermarket coolers which are typically a necessity for such things.

I'm not saying it's a requirement to overclock K series CPUs, just that I'm surprised how many buy them without doing so. I suppose there's usually very little or no price difference between K and non-K models, and as you say you do at least have the option down the line of overclocking the CPU, but it still just seems odd to me, maybe I just went too long without seeing a stock system :p

Quote from: juicebox on January 05, 2015, 03:11:35 PM

I also have a old rig with a gtx 260 thats just relaxing in the corner haha is the card still concidered good these days?

Its 2x8gb my bad haha. The whole setup set me back 3600 if i remember right.

I use it as a gaming rig and it loves it played crysis 3 on highest setting and it ran like a champ.
Also powering it is a 1200w atx psu. Plus cant remeber what model but a corsair liquid cpu cooler

2x8GB makes more sense heh. I was just curious re the use of the system as I don't often see X79 setups purely for gaming because they're less cost effective and even in CPU-limited games the 4770K is competitive with even the 4960X. Obviously for games utilising more than 4 cores/8 threads or for rendering and other CPU-intensive tasks the IB-E 4930K will best the Haswell 4770K, but mostly it'll be a wash. Glad to hear it's performing well for you, though

Discussion

6464.	Solve : Aver capture card is making me tear my hair out?
Answer» Hi all Recently i went a bought an Aver live gamer pro HD capture card (c985) for recording and streaming. After a bit of mucking around installing it as its the model that sits in a pci slot i hooked it up and began to test record. The set i have is a gaming pc to a capture pc with the card suppost to be doing the heavy lifting so all i have to do is hit the button and not suffer performance issues I cant tell you when i first heard it but with no other music or sounds playing out of the headphones i could hear a high pitched whine/hum when the recording software is up. this is also being picked up in the windows volume control as it shows that there is sound coming from the AVer rec center software after doing the usual stuff like checking for drivers/firmare/reinstalling the card in a different slot/reinstalling the software from the ground up i decided to disconect the capture pc from the gaming pc and put it aside to test it. with the only cables in the capture pc were power/graphic keyboard/mouse i started up the capture software and EVEN with no video/audio input it still was producing the same whine/hum can be seen in the volume mixer controls and heard though the headphones when connected. And before i get asked i contacted Aver media to which while quick and helpfull ended up telling me to send it back for a refund but as i bought the card though a group buy with a couple of friends getting him to send it back is proving difficult. ok time for the nuts and bolts: in no particular order Cpu: intel core 2 duo e6420 MB: Gigabyte-945p-s3 Ram:ddr2-4 gig duel ch Graphics:gtx 9800+ Capture card: aver media live gamer pro HD (c985) hopefully i covered everything Is this computer a custom built model or an off the shelf model? Reason why I am asking is that I have seen issues arise with computers used for audio editing/mixing etc that experience issues like this if they are not properly built with all ground planes tied to chassis ground. Also if the power supply in the computer is on its way out or low quality it can be giving proper power to the computer to function, but if you looked at the 5 or 12VDC power with an oscilloscope you would see a ripple that shouldnt be present. This could be caused by a failed "filter" capacitor which is suppose to flatten the power output and smooth out the AC/DC conversion. So if you tried everything and the problem isnt going away if you have a spare power supply, I'd swap the power supply and see if the noise problem goes away. My wife has a set of USB powered speakers that makes all sorts of neat digital noise when nothing is playing through the speakers and the computer is busy PROCESSING stuff because the speakers are picking up on the noise on the USB power port which powers them. If these speakers were better quality and powered off of the USB port they would have filtration to clean up the power before the amplifier circuit to provide clean sound. If the frequency of the noise is a 60Hz hum or 50 Hz hum depending on which part of the world you live, then I'd see if shutting off florescent lights in the AREA stop the noise problem. If the frequency is greater than 60Hz then its likely caused by a power supply or audio cables too CLOSE to a source that is creating emf's in which the audio cable acts as a secondary. I had a 60Hz hum on my Roland amp that I diagnosed to a Florescent light in the home 15 feet away when JAMMING on my Ibanez. Lastly, could it be the card itself has an issue with its audio circuit in which the card should be returned under warranty? If you had a 2nd computer to test this on, you could diagnose if the problem goes away on a different computer or remains. As far as capturing games, I have had better luck using FRAPS instead of using capture cards. Yes FRAPS does use resources and floods the HDD or SSD with continuous writes of raw video data which quickly turn into say 30GB video files, but with virtual dub you can process the videos and make them 30x smaller in the end if needed. If you have a computer that has plenty of processing power to start with FRAPS and the Games will work side by side with no lag or noticeable performance loss. If you are recording console gaming using your computer then your stuck with having to use a capture card though with RCA cables etc.Yup have do the local moves. IMO the best you can do now is send it back and negotiate with them about the refund or replacement. It just might be a production defect and a new card will be alright. Even with very tight QC (quality control) , some new devices can fail after shipment. It happens. Here is a very general article about the problem manufacturers have with quality control. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_curve

Discussion

6465.	Solve : Computer Shuts off Without warning? PSU or Motherboard??
Answer» I recently built a new computer. Here is my specs AMD FX 8320 8 Core MSI r7 260x OC Edition PNY 4GB 1333 RAM 1TB HARD DRIVE THERMALTAKE TR2 600W PSU ASrock 980DE3/U3S3 I was working on my computer trying to put the motherboard on the case. I was thinking why is the motherboard uneven and not fitting in the case. So I just screw some of the motherboard holes, and force screw by pushing the motherboard to the case. But the next day I realized that I didn't put the standoff, which is why it was uneven and wouldn't fit on the case. I don't know if I destroyed the back of the motherboard. There are some bent pins, but I think it was already there when I got the motherboard. The pins are not touching anything. I also checked that some of the pins are scratched, I will post a picture on the bottom. But when I boot everything up, it turns on, tried to install windows 7 it works until it tells me to restart, and when It was doing something on the registry after it restarted, the computer shuts itself down, and I have to reset the installation, and then same thing happens. So I tried another hard drive with pre-installed windows 7, and works, but when I go to chrome, my computer shuts down, when I go to catalyst center, my computer shuts down, when I went to play gta sa, on the psu I hear sort of an electrical sound, and then it shuts down. When I played slender the arrival on ultra, it shuts down 5 minutes after playing, not instantly. It is not the cpu or gpu's fault since I stress test them 10 minutes each on 100% load, and computer never shuts down. But whenever the computer shuts down, I always here some sort of electrical sound inside the psu... I'm not sure if my motherboard is failing or my psu is bad. I'm planning to buy Corsair CX500, it has 38a on its +12v rails. But thermaltake tr2 only has 23a on its +12v rails. What do you thing is the problem? IDK if that was already there or I scratched it from the case. http://imageshack.com/a/img913/2152/bNYsX6.jpg http://imageshack.com/a/img904/3017/NebSVr.jpg http://imageshack.com/a/img673/5977/YGeodP.jpg The damage you could have done could be very serious. I am questioning how with no standoffs used does the motherboard match up with the rear panel when it would be about 1/4" too low if screwed directly to the backplate. To patch up with the rear panel and mounted to the backplate the board would have been bent/warped when tightening the screws down. Also the video card installed wouldnt match up to the board that is too low for the PCIE connection and so I am questioning how that even was connected in this situation unless that was also forced to plug in. The only time standoffs are not used is when its like a case that has raised domes that are DRILLED out in which the domes that are in the punched tin/steel backplate act as the standoff. 99% of the cases out there require standoffs though so I feel your in a bad situation with this new build. If the motherboard is still covered by warranty, I'd consider returning it as a troubled board, not telling the company that the board was installed wrong and get a replacement, and then with the new replacement board be sure to use stand offs and install your CPU and RAM and video card etc to that other board which had not been stressed/damaged by improper assembly. Quote from: DaveLembke on January 11, 2015, 04:11:22 PM If the motherboard is still covered by warranty, I'd consider returning it as a troubled board, not telling the company that the board was installed wrong and get a replacement, and then with the new replacement board be sure to use stand offs and install your CPU and RAM and video card etc to that other board which had not been stressed/damaged by improper assembly. You'll most LIKELY be charged for this if you return it to any kind of competent retailer who inspects their RETURNS, and the manufacturer will quite rightly void the warranty and return the board to you at your cost due to improper installation. You've damaged your board and need to replace it. You could also have other issues (I would never recommend an MSI graphics card and Asrock board for example) but you need to address this before you can troubleshoot anything else as it's physically damaged. Some of the Thermaltake TR2 series are also poor quality PSUs, what exact model is it that you have?

6465.

Solve : Computer Shuts off Without warning? PSU or Motherboard??

Answer»

I recently built a new computer. Here is my specs

AMD FX 8320 8 Core
MSI r7 260x OC Edition
PNY 4GB 1333 RAM
1TB HARD DRIVE
THERMALTAKE TR2 600W PSU
ASrock 980DE3/U3S3

I was working on my computer trying to put the motherboard on the case. I was thinking why is the motherboard uneven and not fitting in the case. So I just screw some of the motherboard holes, and force screw by pushing the motherboard to the case. But the next day I realized that I didn't put the standoff, which is why it was uneven and wouldn't fit on the case. I don't know if I destroyed the back of the motherboard. There are some bent pins, but I think it was already there when I got the motherboard. The pins are not touching anything. I also checked that some of the pins are scratched, I will post a picture on the bottom. But when I boot everything up, it turns on, tried to install windows 7 it works until it tells me to restart, and when It was doing something on the registry after it restarted, the computer shuts itself down, and I have to reset the installation, and then same thing happens. So I tried another hard drive with pre-installed windows 7, and works, but when I go to chrome, my computer shuts down, when I go to catalyst center, my computer shuts down, when I went to play gta sa, on the psu I hear sort of an electrical sound, and then it shuts down. When I played slender the arrival on ultra, it shuts down 5 minutes after playing, not instantly. It is not the cpu or gpu's fault since I stress test them 10 minutes each on 100% load, and computer never shuts down. But whenever the computer shuts down, I always here some sort of electrical sound inside the psu... I'm not sure if my motherboard is failing or my psu is bad. I'm planning to buy Corsair CX500, it has 38a on its +12v rails. But thermaltake tr2 only has 23a on its +12v rails. What do you thing is the problem?

IDK if that was already there or I scratched it from the case.

http://imageshack.com/a/img913/2152/bNYsX6.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img904/3017/NebSVr.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img673/5977/YGeodP.jpg
The damage you could have done could be very serious. I am questioning how with no standoffs used does the motherboard match up with the rear panel when it would be about 1/4" too low if screwed directly to the backplate. To patch up with the rear panel and mounted to the backplate the board would have been bent/warped when tightening the screws down. Also the video card installed wouldnt match up to the board that is too low for the PCIE connection and so I am questioning how that even was connected in this situation unless that was also forced to plug in.

The only time standoffs are not used is when its like a case that has raised domes that are DRILLED out in which the domes that are in the punched tin/steel backplate act as the standoff. 99% of the cases out there require standoffs though so I feel your in a bad situation with this new build.

If the motherboard is still covered by warranty, I'd consider returning it as a troubled board, not telling the company that the board was installed wrong and get a replacement, and then with the new replacement board be sure to use stand offs and install your CPU and RAM and video card etc to that other board which had not been stressed/damaged by improper assembly. Quote from: DaveLembke on January 11, 2015, 04:11:22 PM

If the motherboard is still covered by warranty, I'd consider returning it as a troubled board, not telling the company that the board was installed wrong and get a replacement, and then with the new replacement board be sure to use stand offs and install your CPU and RAM and video card etc to that other board which had not been stressed/damaged by improper assembly.

You'll most LIKELY be charged for this if you return it to any kind of competent retailer who inspects their RETURNS, and the manufacturer will quite rightly void the warranty and return the board to you at your cost due to improper installation.

You've damaged your board and need to replace it. You could also have other issues (I would never recommend an MSI graphics card and Asrock board for example) but you need to address this before you can troubleshoot anything else as it's physically damaged. Some of the Thermaltake TR2 series are also poor quality PSUs, what exact model is it that you have?

Discussion

6466.	Solve : my laptop keyboard is malfunctioning?
Answer» my laptop KEYBOARD BEHAVES as if the Fn key is ALWAYS on. I need to press and hold the Fn key to get normal keystrokes. How to revert this ? i am using HCL ME laptop.

Discussion

6467.	Solve : Can my computer handle this??
Answer» Hello, my name's Alex, i am new to the website and i have a simple question. Yet simple for some not me I would like to buy an ZOTAC GeForce GT 740 2GB GDDR3 PCI-E Video Card. The problems is, can my computer handle it? Here's some of the specs: Windows 7 ultimate 64-bit system manufacturer: Hewlett-ppackard System Model HP xw4400 Workstation Processor Intel(R) Core (TM) 2 CPU 6700 .2.66GHz ~2.7GHz Graphic card: AMD Radeon HD 5570 Approx. Total Memory 6GB Note i can run the latest World Of Warcraft expention at low without lag.(Nothing to be proud of )According to silk screen on the motherboard it claims to not exceed 75 watts for PCI Express 16x slot for video cards that lack the 12 volt molex connection. If you added a card that is less than or equal to 75 watts you might be ok if the power supply can handle it. Chances are you would have to upgrade power supply. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hp-Workstation-XW4400-Tower-Motherboard-Socket-775-DDR2-SP-442031-001-W-Tray-/151538228249?pt=Motherboards&hash=item234861dc19 For the GT 740 you would need to upgrade to like a bronze 80 450 watt power supply. If you use a video card that has the molex power connection to it, you can exceed the 75 watt limit of the PCIE 16x slot because instead of the PCIE slot having to power the card thru the mother board, the card would be powered directly from the power supply.i basically would need a more powerful power suply? if i buy the new card, could i unplug or disable things that uses a lot of energy and it would be ok? By the way i really appreciate you taking your time to answer me. Quote i basically would need a more powerful power supply? If you havent already replaced the power supply, then yes you would need to GET a better power supply. However if this is the desktop small form factor version of this computer and not the tower version of this computer a power supply upgrade would be hard to find. Quote if i buy the new card, could i unplug or disable things that uses a lot of energy and it would be ok? There are generally no good easy power saving techniques to desktop computers to try to lessen power draw for the power to be applied to a video card. Its best to upgrade the power supply to meet the added power demands. Quote By the way i really appreciate you taking your time to answer me. No problem thats what we are here for Quote Note i can run the latest World Of Warcraft expention at low without lag.(Nothing to be proud of ) I also play WoW and with my latest build, i now realize that its specs are overkill in comparison to the demands of the game. I have an 8-core 4Ghz CPU, 8GB RAM, and a GeForce GTX 260 with a 600 watt power supply and I have the game set to Ultra settings for graphics and am getting 40-60 fps, and World of Warcraft is only using 2 of the 8 cores at any one time, so the game doesnt make full use of the 8-cores. For the fact that you have a Dual-Core a video card upgrade should be all you need. Prior to this latest build I was gaming with a 2.53Ghz ATHLON X2 4450B with 1MB Cache CPU and ASUS Radeon HD5450 with 512MB Video and after latest WoD expansion I had to lower my graphics settings to Fair to get 20-30 fps. So the HD5450 doesnt really cut it anymore. Prior to WoD expansion I was able to run at Normal SETTING for graphics and get close to 60 fps and around 20-30 fps on High setting.I understand now. so my 400 watts wouldn't do it, it'll be better to get 450 right? Since my financial situation limit me, would there be any good graphic cards with more than the one i have i could add to my pc?Since you have a 400 watt power supply you might be able to barely squeek by. I thought you only had a 300 or 350 watt PSU. I see recommendations for 450 watts with that video card, but Newegg states 400 watts MINIMUM on the spec info as seen here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500335&cm_re=zotac_gt_740-_-14-500-335-_-Product At 400 watts it might work fine or you may find out that the systems stability destabilizes with crashes when power demand exceeds what the PSU can handle. *Also this video card is slightly overkill in comparison to the CPU you have. The only issue with this is that the CPU bottlenecks the video card performance. But given my experience with Core 2 Duo systems and World of Warcraft, you should be fine for at least the remaining period of time that WoD runs for. Not sure about future expansions which might update the game engine that is seriously aged etc which would pose an additional resource requirement. The good thing is if you need to upgrade to a better system, this video card can move to the newer build. My wifes computer a Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4Ghz with Geforce 9800GT still plays WoW with WoD expansion just fine at Normal settings at 20-30 fps Alright, i'll keep the post up to date, tomorow i'll try the new graphic card and see if it's ok. If it doesn't work i'll just get a refund and save up for a new computer. Thanks a lot for your time it really means something to me. By the way i just looked up the graphic card you proposed me and it says this: Power Supply Requirements 500 W My powersuply is 400, it won't work?hmm... interesting. Newegg shows 400 watts. Info on google search such as a toms hardware hit shows 450 watts. Which site are you looking at that states 500 watts? [attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]here is the link, it's at the bottom: http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/zotac-zotac-geforce-gt-740-zt-71001-10l-zt-71001-10l/10304489.aspx?path=17edb0cca5eb00c05d5ee878ab783a0den02 Surprisingly enough, on their website "Zotac's website" it says 400. And plus, they don't deliver this one in Quebec which is where i live because of a law restricting any English product not being translated in french here. -facepalm- STUPID laws like those really bothers me.Interesting... Quote And plus, they don't deliver this one in Quebec which is where i live because of a law restricting any English product not being translated in french here. -facepalm- Stupid laws like those really bothers me. If they have a return policy for full refund you could give it a try still. Someone is wrong with their info. A 500 watt trusted brand power supply would be plenty for this card. Just be sure to get one that is bronze 80 if you do buy a power supply and buy a brand such as Corsair or XFX etc. If you have any questions about power supplies you can share them here and we can assist with pointing out a good one etc. I've been to Quebec many times since I live in New Hampshire. I wasnt aware of this law. I have a friend in Barrie, Ontario that I have shipped computer parts to. Hopefully i wasnt breaking any laws sending computer parts that may only have english documentation From conversations I have had with him I guess Ontario and Quebec have their differences even though its the same country of Canada. My biggest issue when visiting Quebec is that I dont know French and so when i speak english people right then and there know that i am an outsider and sometimes they will switch from french to english to communicate with me, or they will be difficult and not switch to english and I am like great The good thing is that my wife took french in high school and so she can speak some french and get by, but it might also be that outsider females are respected more than males idk ha ha. One thing that did catch my eye though was a Mc Donalds in Montreal that had poisson on their menu ... in which my eye read it initially as poison and not poisson for Fish Fillet Sandwich. Only other languages that I know are some German, Spanish, and Russian which wont help me in Canada Ahah yes, indeed french laws here can be surprising sometime & yes i will give ZOTAC GeForce GT 740 2GB GDDR3 PCI-E Video Card a try and try to downclock my prossesor from 2.6GHZ to maybe 2.4GHz or even 2.2GHz if it can help in the hope it doesn't crash in my face after 30min of gameplay. For the info, they do have a full refund policy which is great.I wouldnt bother downclocking, however if your motherboard supports a green mode to enable speed stepping where the system will idle at say 25% clock and only go to 100% clock when processing power is needed you can shave off some watts when idle. My wifes Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4 Ghz when Idle with speed stepping runs at like 600Mhz, then when processing power is needed it will increase the clock to 1200Mhz, 1800Mhz, or 2400Mhz as CPU demand increases or decreases to speed up or slow down the CPU. But this doesnt lag the performance because if running World of Warcraft the CPU is pretty much running 2400Mhz full speed due to the demands of the game. More info on EIST here: http://www.intel.com/cd/channel/reseller/asmo-na/eng/203838.htmalright so i managed to find a power supply Retail Plus WT4100B ATX465 but i can't find the watts on it, any recommandation?If on a really tight budget and able to buy through newegg, this refurb power supply here is a way to get a good quality power supply and not pay $50+ . They offer a 3 year warranty on this PSU too which is pretty good when most companies will only give like 1 year on refurbs etc. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139107 The biggest problems with power supplies are that many of the no name/ unknown brand quality ones that are manufactured state that they are say 500 watts when they are lucky to hold up well at a 350 watt continuous draw. The PSU you linked appears to be a 465 watt and I cant suggest buying it because I only suggest products that i trust, companies that have a good track record for good products etc.

6467.

Solve : Can my computer handle this??

Answer»

Hello, my name's Alex, i am new to the website and i have a simple question. Yet simple for some not me

I would like to buy an ZOTAC GeForce GT 740 2GB GDDR3 PCI-E Video Card.

The problems is, can my computer handle it?

Here's some of the specs:
Windows 7 ultimate 64-bit
system manufacturer: Hewlett-ppackard
System Model HP xw4400 Workstation
Processor Intel(R) Core (TM) 2 CPU 6700 .2.66GHz ~2.7GHz
Graphic card: AMD Radeon HD 5570
Approx. Total Memory 6GB

Note i can run the latest World Of Warcraft expention at low without lag.(Nothing to be proud of )According to silk screen on the motherboard it claims to not exceed 75 watts for PCI Express 16x slot for video cards that lack the 12 volt molex connection. If you added a card that is less than or equal to 75 watts you might be ok if the power supply can handle it. Chances are you would have to upgrade power supply.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hp-Workstation-XW4400-Tower-Motherboard-Socket-775-DDR2-SP-442031-001-W-Tray-/151538228249?pt=Motherboards&hash=item234861dc19

For the GT 740 you would need to upgrade to like a bronze 80 450 watt power supply.

If you use a video card that has the molex power connection to it, you can exceed the 75 watt limit of the PCIE 16x slot because instead of the PCIE slot having to power the card thru the mother board, the card would be powered directly from the power supply.i basically would need a more powerful power suply? if i buy the new card, could i unplug or disable things that uses a lot of energy and it would be ok? By the way i really appreciate you taking your time to answer me. Quote

i basically would need a more powerful power supply?

If you havent already replaced the power supply, then yes you would need to GET a better power supply. However if this is the desktop small form factor version of this computer and not the tower version of this computer a power supply upgrade would be hard to find.

Quote

if i buy the new card, could i unplug or disable things that uses a lot of energy and it would be ok?

There are generally no good easy power saving techniques to desktop computers to try to lessen power draw for the power to be applied to a video card. Its best to upgrade the power supply to meet the added power demands.

Quote

By the way i really appreciate you taking your time to answer me.

No problem thats what we are here for

Quote

Note i can run the latest World Of Warcraft expention at low without lag.(Nothing to be proud of )

I also play WoW and with my latest build, i now realize that its specs are overkill in comparison to the demands of the game. I have an 8-core 4Ghz CPU, 8GB RAM, and a GeForce GTX 260 with a 600 watt power supply and I have the game set to Ultra settings for graphics and am getting 40-60 fps, and World of Warcraft is only using 2 of the 8 cores at any one time, so the game doesnt make full use of the 8-cores. For the fact that you have a Dual-Core a video card upgrade should be all you need. Prior to this latest build I was gaming with a 2.53Ghz ATHLON X2 4450B with 1MB Cache CPU and ASUS Radeon HD5450 with 512MB Video and after latest WoD expansion I had to lower my graphics settings to Fair to get 20-30 fps. So the HD5450 doesnt really cut it anymore. Prior to WoD expansion I was able to run at Normal SETTING for graphics and get close to 60 fps and around 20-30 fps on High setting.I understand now. so my 400 watts wouldn't do it, it'll be better to get 450 right? Since my financial situation limit me, would there be any good graphic cards with more than the one i have i could add to my pc?Since you have a 400 watt power supply you might be able to barely squeek by. I thought you only had a 300 or 350 watt PSU. I see recommendations for 450 watts with that video card, but Newegg states 400 watts MINIMUM on the spec info as seen here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500335&cm_re=zotac_gt_740-_-14-500-335-_-Product

At 400 watts it might work fine or you may find out that the systems stability destabilizes with crashes when power demand exceeds what the PSU can handle.

*Also this video card is slightly overkill in comparison to the CPU you have. The only issue with this is that the CPU bottlenecks the video card performance. But given my experience with Core 2 Duo systems and World of Warcraft, you should be fine for at least the remaining period of time that WoD runs for. Not sure about future expansions which might update the game engine that is seriously aged etc which would pose an additional resource requirement. The good thing is if you need to upgrade to a better system, this video card can move to the newer build. My wifes computer a Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4Ghz with Geforce 9800GT still plays WoW with WoD expansion just fine at Normal settings at 20-30 fps

Alright, i'll keep the post up to date, tomorow i'll try the new graphic card and see if it's ok. If it doesn't work i'll just get a refund and save up for a new computer. Thanks a lot for your time it really means something to me. By the way i just looked up the graphic card you proposed me and it says this: Power Supply Requirements 500 W
My powersuply is 400, it won't work?hmm... interesting. Newegg shows 400 watts. Info on google search such as a toms hardware hit shows 450 watts. Which site are you looking at that states 500 watts?

[attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]here is the link, it's at the bottom: http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/zotac-zotac-geforce-gt-740-zt-71001-10l-zt-71001-10l/10304489.aspx?path=17edb0cca5eb00c05d5ee878ab783a0den02

Surprisingly enough, on their website "Zotac's website" it says 400.

And plus, they don't deliver this one in Quebec which is where i live because of a law restricting any English product not being translated in french here. -facepalm- STUPID laws like those really bothers me.Interesting...

Quote

And plus, they don't deliver this one in Quebec which is where i live because of a law restricting any English product not being translated in french here. -facepalm- Stupid laws like those really bothers me.

If they have a return policy for full refund you could give it a try still. Someone is wrong with their info. A 500 watt trusted brand power supply would be plenty for this card. Just be sure to get one that is bronze 80 if you do buy a power supply and buy a brand such as Corsair or XFX etc. If you have any questions about power supplies you can share them here and we can assist with pointing out a good one etc.

I've been to Quebec many times since I live in New Hampshire. I wasnt aware of this law. I have a friend in Barrie, Ontario that I have shipped computer parts to. Hopefully i wasnt breaking any laws sending computer parts that may only have english documentation From conversations I have had with him I guess Ontario and Quebec have their differences even though its the same country of Canada.

My biggest issue when visiting Quebec is that I dont know French and so when i speak english people right then and there know that i am an outsider and sometimes they will switch from french to english to communicate with me, or they will be difficult and not switch to english and I am like great The good thing is that my wife took french in high school and so she can speak some french and get by, but it might also be that outsider females are respected more than males idk ha ha. One thing that did catch my eye though was a Mc Donalds in Montreal that had poisson on their menu ... in which my eye read it initially as poison and not poisson for Fish Fillet Sandwich. Only other languages that I know are some German, Spanish, and Russian which wont help me in Canada Ahah yes, indeed french laws here can be surprising sometime & yes i will give ZOTAC GeForce GT 740 2GB GDDR3 PCI-E Video Card a try and try to downclock my prossesor from 2.6GHZ to maybe 2.4GHz or even 2.2GHz if it can help in the hope it doesn't crash in my face after 30min of gameplay.

For the info, they do have a full refund policy which is great.I wouldnt bother downclocking, however if your motherboard supports a green mode to enable speed stepping where the system will idle at say 25% clock and only go to 100% clock when processing power is needed you can shave off some watts when idle. My wifes Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4 Ghz when Idle with speed stepping runs at like 600Mhz, then when processing power is needed it will increase the clock to 1200Mhz, 1800Mhz, or 2400Mhz as CPU demand increases or decreases to speed up or slow down the CPU. But this doesnt lag the performance because if running World of Warcraft the CPU is pretty much running 2400Mhz full speed due to the demands of the game.

More info on EIST here: http://www.intel.com/cd/channel/reseller/asmo-na/eng/203838.htmalright so i managed to find a power supply Retail Plus WT4100B ATX465 but i can't find the watts on it, any recommandation?If on a really tight budget and able to buy through newegg, this refurb power supply here is a way to get a good quality power supply and not pay $50+ . They offer a 3 year warranty on this PSU too which is pretty good when most companies will only give like 1 year on refurbs etc.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139107

The biggest problems with power supplies are that many of the no name/ unknown brand quality ones that are manufactured state that they are say 500 watts when they are lucky to hold up well at a 350 watt continuous draw. The PSU you linked appears to be a 465 watt and I cant suggest buying it because I only suggest products that i trust, companies that have a good track record for good products etc.

Discussion

6468.	Solve : Cheap USB cables wont charge my Galaxy S3 phone anymore??
Answer» It worked fine for a while, but now they wont read my phone. I tried 3 different cables. My original phone cable works fine. I tried changing the charger itself, but still no luck. Any help will be appreciated. I have had some issues as well with cheap cables and its primarily because you need a better quality cable. When using the cheap cables PROBLEMS I have had were that any devices that require power or CHARGING through them have issues. I decided to look further into this issue and cut open the outer insulation of the cable between the cheap problem cable and another cable that I had that worked until the END broke and what I found was that the wire thickness of the 4 wires + shield was thicker on the better cable than it was on the cheap cable. So the devices that require power to function ( external 2.5" HDD's ) or phones / kindles etc do not like the cheap cables because these cables are unable to SATISFY the current draw through the light smaller gauge wires. Symptoms for a HDD is that the DRIVE tries to spin up and when not enough current it drops out and then tries to power up again when after dropping out the current load changes to make the drive think that there is power again and so the drive will power and unpower and power and unpower over and over again. Symptoms with a phone or kindle or other device that your attempting to change using a computer USB port is that the device or computer will not register that the device is connected, will show connection but will not charge, or will attempt to charge and then draw too much over the small wires and drop out and then try to charge again after dropping out and voltage rises with lesser current draw and you may hear a connected and unconnected sound through computer speakers over and over again as it is attempting to charge and then the connection is stopped by the device and then restarted over and over again. Simple solution is to get a better quality cable that can handle the current draw. Some cables even come with 2 USB connections at one end and micro USB at the other etc, in which the 2 USB connections are connected to a PC to pull more current per USB port to pass over the cable to the device. Here is a pic of a cable that draws more current per port commonly used for external HDD's, Camera, and other devices, that require power over USB port. https://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=A0LEVvJTDrBU_AEATzgPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTBsa3ZzMnBvBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkAw--?p=external+hdd+usb+cable&back=https%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fyhs%2Fsearch%3Fp%3Dexternal%2Bhdd%2Busb%2Bcable%26hsimp%3Dyhs-001%26hspart%3Dmozilla%26ei%3DUTF-8&w=800&h=800&imgurl=%2Fwww.takabis.com%2Fmedia%2Fcatalog%2Fproduct%2Fcache%2F1%2Fimage%2F800x800%2F9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95%2Fu%2Fs%2Fusb-y-cable-for-external-hard-drive.png&size=401KB&name=usb-y-cable-for-external-hard-drive.png&rcurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.takabis.com%2Fusb-y-cable-for-external-hard-drive.html&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.takabis.com%2Fusb-y-cable-for-external-hard-drive.html&type=&no=1&tt=120&oid=f0ec1f2ed7f5c444a4df6e09fe3a8342&tit=USB+Y+Cable+for+External+Hard+Drive&sigr=1203b411m&sigi=149j5drql&sign=117pdal1b&sigt=103vg5ole&sigb=1327tldts&fr=yhs-mozilla-001&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001 This has to be the most spot on and thorough reply I received on any computer forum! My phone was connecting for a while. Then the on and off charging started. I tried a brand new ihome brand cable. It didn't read at all. Thanks. No problem... I hope a better cable fixes this issue for you as it has for my electronics and others I have helped with same issue. I cleaned the usb port with a toothpick yesterday. I plugged in 6 different chargers and 5 of them worked. But at times I have to moved the cord up a little for it to stay on charge. It's manageable, but I'm afraid that it might get worse during time. Do you think its the port? If so, do you know what they charge to replace one? As I'm typing, the charger just bleeped off and on without moving the cable..Where is the Port ? ?...if it's a front one it can be replaced...if it's a rear port it's on the MBoard...not worth replacing for a faulty USB port IMHO...Its at the bottom of the phone. The phone is only 10 months old...The phone ? ? I thought it was the PC's USB connectors...my bad. The phone even if only 10 months old is likely the issue...phones are fragile.Yeah. It's been charging at 98% for over an hour. That's with the cheap cable. My original cable gives me no problems so far. But it seems like it's charging a bit slower with it also. Then why the heck aren't you using the cable that does work ? ? Just curious...

Discussion

6469.	Solve : Computer gets to bootscreen but restarts?
Answer» This problem started OCCURRING yesterday. When I boot up my computer it keeps restarting on the boot screen. I can get into the BIOS just FINE, but besides that it just keeps restarting1) What is new or different since the last time everything worked properly (ie, new HW, new sw, virus, error, etc)? 2) Can you boot to safe mode? Just a THOUGHT , my computer was doing the same thing and it turned out to be the usb connectors on the case , unplugged the case usb and everything worked fine , must have been a short .

Discussion

6470.	Solve : I need a better CPU?
Answer» I own a laptop with a ppga478 socket, the current cpu is a Celeron 2.16 Ghz . I am looking to upgrade the cpu so it will work a little better. Here is the laptop if you need specs http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L49X8E6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1by chance will upgrading to this work? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Pentium-4-P4-3-4-GHz-1M-800-Processor-SL7E6-SL7PP-Socket-478-Upgrade-CPU/281548465891?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131003132420%26meid%3Db27a60113fc948bba333a026781b5a5e%26pid%3D100005%26prg%3D20131003132420%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D151037607023&rt=ncThe CPU in your machine is soldered to the motherboard so it cannot be upgraded. Even if you could, that CPU you linked is not only a desktop chip, it's 10 years old. Short of replacing the laptop, the best upgrade you could possibly make to it would be to get a SSD (Solid State Drive) HOWEVER if you need CPU power your best option would be to sell the machine and buy a new one. Quote Short of replacing the laptop, the best upgrade you could possibly make to it would be to get a SSD (Solid State Drive) however if you need CPU power your best option would be to sell the machine and buy a new one. That laptop likely has an ATA100 controller and not SATA and so an SSD is probably not available for it. That laptop probably came with Windows Me or Windows XP Home on a 5400 RPM 40GB HDD Also I was GOING to upgrade a Celeron M 1.6Ghz laptop to a Pentium M and before buying the CPU I looked into benchmark results and realized that its going to be a waste of time and money. Would the Pentium M run better, yes as long as it can stay cool, however the performance gain which doesnt compete to even the lowest processing power of modern laptops, it made more sense to just leave the laptop alone and use a newer laptop. One way to gain speed with an old Celeron laptop would be if its not to be used for gaming and mainly just web surfing and e-mail would be to do away with Windows XP etc and install say Linux Mint to it. It would be more secure with latest version of Linux Mint, and web surfing will all work for flash games, videos on youtube etc, and you can still use it for e-mail and office apps through Libre Office. If you have less than 1GB of RAM though I would go with a Light Weight Linux like Xfce which is intended for lesser processing power systems and lesser RAM. http://www.linuxmint.com/ Another way to boost performance if this system is not to be used for banking and buying stuff over the web would be to rebuild it clean. I have seen computers speed up as much as 50% by cleaning out the clutter and malware that may have been picked up over the years that waste processing power. Lastly if wanting to stick with Windows and wanting it to run faster, i have observed where Win XP SP2 runs better than Win XP SP3 fully patched. SP2 uses less system RAM than SP3, and so if you have a system that is starving for memory and becomes laggy, keeping it at SP2 instead of going with SP3 can boost the performance. I had to do this with a Dell Pentium III 600Mhz with 384MB RAM. SP2 the system had about 160MB of free RAM, but with SP3 the free memory was only like 40MB and Windows would lag since the patches caused the OS to process more work of the CPU. Quote from: DaveLembke on JANUARY 08, 2015, 11:02:34 AM That laptop likely has an ATA100 controller and not SATA and so an SSD is probably not available for it. That laptop probably came with Windows Me or Windows XP Home on a 5400 RPM 40GB HDD Check the link they posted, it's a modern Windows 8 machine... Quote from: DaveLembke on January 08, 2015, 11:02:34 AM That laptop likely has an ATA100 controller and not SATA and so an SSD is probably not available for it. That laptop probably came with Windows Me or Windows XP Home on a 5400 RPM 40GB HDD No need to speak in terms of what is likely or probable- given they provided a link to the system... Though addressing it in terms of hardware is one thing, another thought is that if your system is slow or not performing well it may be an issue of software. A system not dutifully maintained can suffer from excessive background applications and most problematic uninstalled add-ons can leave behind remnants that confuse the system. (eg a program that registers a shell extension to add items to the context menu might not unregister itself and thus Windows Explorer is trying to find it every single time you right click). All that is true...what's also true is he cannot upgrade the CPU on that PC... Which was the original query... Quote from: patio on January 08, 2015, 04:21:09 PM All that is true...what's also true is he cannot upgrade the CPU on that PC... Which was the original query... I tend to disagree that the aim is to simply answer questions, especially when they make clear what their purpose is. In the original post they said they wanted to upgrade toe CPU so it will work better. Yes. The CPU is non-upgradable. Does that mean that we just say "no you cannot upgrade that CPU" and move on? Is suggesting additional ways to improve performance that doesn't involve replacing the CPU somehow off-topic?I never stated that at all...in fact i stated everything you said was true... Relax.Thank you for the reply's everyone. I am just using this laptop as I build my own desktop. It stinks I cant upgrade the cpu to something better but whatever, I will have a way better desktop in a few months. Can I at least upgrade the ram or add a SSD? Quote No need to speak in terms of what is likely or probable- given they provided a link to the system... I have been known to follow information stated without following links. Based on the statement of the Quote I own a laptop with a ppga478 socket, the current cpu is a Celeron 2.16 Ghz I assumed we were talking about a 10+ year old laptop. I didnt know that Intel continued use of this ppga478 for this CPU here: http://ark.intel.com/products/36681/Intel-Celeron-Processor-585-1M-Cache-2_16-GHz-667-MHz-FSB Lesson learned to follow links provided In this case a SSD upgrade is possible, but it may be pretty involved trying to swap out the HDD with a SSD if there is no panel to get easy access to the drive compartment. Many of the newer laptops lack this easy access panel and so its usually a matter of carefully disassembling the laptop and taking note as to which screws go where etc. With these laptops there is a greater risk of complications since it quickly can turn into brain surgery for some people who never opened a laptop up with ability to put it back together again without problems. Not finding any info for this laptop stating maximum memory supported. Many of these low cost laptops are sold in which the maximum memory is 4GB. I bought an ASUS for $249.99 that I knew before purchase was only going to take a maximum of 4GB of RAM, and I am fine with it. I ended up downgrading it to Windows 7 64-bit because of complications with 8. It runs fine for what it is, but its not a gaming laptop by far. Here is the ASUS that I have, also a Celeron, but a good cheap laptop: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231360 Quote from: DaveLembke on January 09, 2015, 07:08:07 AM In this case a SSD upgrade is possible, but it may be pretty involved trying to swap out the HDD with a SSD if there is no panel to get easy access to the drive compartment. Many of the newer laptops lack this easy access panel and so its usually a matter of carefully disassembling the laptop and taking note as to which screws go where etc. With these laptops there is a greater risk of complications since it quickly can turn into brain surgery for some people who never opened a laptop up with ability to put it back together again without problems. Very true. I don't have a newer laptop myself but I've heard that some models have pretty RIDICULOUS ways to access the hard drive. As a tangent, I used to think my ancient Toshiba 440CDX had the most difficult to access hard drive. I owned the system for 10 years before I found the HDD compartment. It had a covering that matched up wit hthe front bezel that I didn't even know was removable until it managed to fall off. (I subsequently replaced the CD-ROM and HDD of that machine, installed Windows and Drivers, and put it back in a closet, because apparently that is how I roll.) Quote Not finding any info for this laptop stating maximum memory supported. Many of these low cost laptops are sold in which the maximum memory is 4GB. I bought an ASUS for $249.99 that I knew before purchase was only going to take a maximum of 4GB of RAM, and I am fine with it. I ended up downgrading it to Windows 7 64-bit because of complications with 8. It runs fine for what it is, but its not a gaming laptop by far. It's pretty amazing how cheap a reasonably powerful system is. It might not work well for an enthusiast or hobbyist, but it will be enough for facebook and most tasks like word processing your average person might want to try. I'm still convinced that the slowness the OP is experiencing that would lead to the QUESTION of replacing the CPU is likely something that can be resolved with software (or rather, removing software), because looking at the specs of the System in Question, it's very similar to my own laptop purchased in 2008 (2Ghz Dual Core, 4GB RAM, Intel Graphics) Which I can run reasonably well with Windows 8.1. I do have performance issues with Visual Studio and Resharper, but both of those are extremely heavy and I'm using the latest versions- otherwise, it's workable and it's great for browsing and youtube. Main difference would be the Celeron, but I'd expect it is a later generation than my T3200. Thinking about it further, however, I recall my laptop being unusably slow with the factory image, since it came with so much preinstalled garbage. And at such a low price point I'm apt to suspect they subsidize the cost with even more software contracts, so it may be reasonable to use Add/Remove Programs to try to cut out pre-installed software that isn't needed. Here is the cpu http://ark.intel.com/products/81071/Intel-Celeron-Processor-N2830-1M-Cache-up-to-2_41-GHz?q=n2830 which is a socket 1170 not 478 and it is soldered on. Here is the laptop http://www.asus.com/ca-en/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/X553MA/overview/ Hope the info helps you decide how to upgrade .

6470.

Solve : I need a better CPU?

Answer»

I own a laptop with a ppga478 socket, the current cpu is a Celeron 2.16 Ghz . I am looking to upgrade the cpu so it will work a little better.

Here is the laptop if you need specs http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L49X8E6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1by chance will upgrading to this work?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Pentium-4-P4-3-4-GHz-1M-800-Processor-SL7E6-SL7PP-Socket-478-Upgrade-CPU/281548465891?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131003132420%26meid%3Db27a60113fc948bba333a026781b5a5e%26pid%3D100005%26prg%3D20131003132420%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D151037607023&rt=ncThe CPU in your machine is soldered to the motherboard so it cannot be upgraded. Even if you could, that CPU you linked is not only a desktop chip, it's 10 years old.

Short of replacing the laptop, the best upgrade you could possibly make to it would be to get a SSD (Solid State Drive) HOWEVER if you need CPU power your best option would be to sell the machine and buy a new one. Quote

Short of replacing the laptop, the best upgrade you could possibly make to it would be to get a SSD (Solid State Drive) however if you need CPU power your best option would be to sell the machine and buy a new one.

That laptop likely has an ATA100 controller and not SATA and so an SSD is probably not available for it. That laptop probably came with Windows Me or Windows XP Home on a 5400 RPM 40GB HDD

Also I was GOING to upgrade a Celeron M 1.6Ghz laptop to a Pentium M and before buying the CPU I looked into benchmark results and realized that its going to be a waste of time and money. Would the Pentium M run better, yes as long as it can stay cool, however the performance gain which doesnt compete to even the lowest processing power of modern laptops, it made more sense to just leave the laptop alone and use a newer laptop.

One way to gain speed with an old Celeron laptop would be if its not to be used for gaming and mainly just web surfing and e-mail would be to do away with Windows XP etc and install say Linux Mint to it. It would be more secure with latest version of Linux Mint, and web surfing will all work for flash games, videos on youtube etc, and you can still use it for e-mail and office apps through Libre Office.

If you have less than 1GB of RAM though I would go with a Light Weight Linux like Xfce which is intended for lesser processing power systems and lesser RAM. http://www.linuxmint.com/

Another way to boost performance if this system is not to be used for banking and buying stuff over the web would be to rebuild it clean. I have seen computers speed up as much as 50% by cleaning out the clutter and malware that may have been picked up over the years that waste processing power.

Lastly if wanting to stick with Windows and wanting it to run faster, i have observed where Win XP SP2 runs better than Win XP SP3 fully patched. SP2 uses less system RAM than SP3, and so if you have a system that is starving for memory and becomes laggy, keeping it at SP2 instead of going with SP3 can boost the performance. I had to do this with a Dell Pentium III 600Mhz with 384MB RAM. SP2 the system had about 160MB of free RAM, but with SP3 the free memory was only like 40MB and Windows would lag since the patches caused the OS to process more work of the CPU. Quote from: DaveLembke on JANUARY 08, 2015, 11:02:34 AM

That laptop likely has an ATA100 controller and not SATA and so an SSD is probably not available for it. That laptop probably came with Windows Me or Windows XP Home on a 5400 RPM 40GB HDD

Check the link they posted, it's a modern Windows 8 machine... Quote from: DaveLembke on January 08, 2015, 11:02:34 AM

That laptop likely has an ATA100 controller and not SATA and so an SSD is probably not available for it. That laptop probably came with Windows Me or Windows XP Home on a 5400 RPM 40GB HDD

No need to speak in terms of what is likely or probable- given they provided a link to the system...

Though addressing it in terms of hardware is one thing, another thought is that if your system is slow or not performing well it may be an issue of software. A system not dutifully maintained can suffer from excessive background applications and most problematic uninstalled add-ons can leave behind remnants that confuse the system. (eg a program that registers a shell extension to add items to the context menu might not unregister itself and thus Windows Explorer is trying to find it every single time you right click).

All that is true...what's also true is he cannot upgrade the CPU on that PC...
Which was the original query... Quote from: patio on January 08, 2015, 04:21:09 PM

All that is true...what's also true is he cannot upgrade the CPU on that PC...
Which was the original query...

I tend to disagree that the aim is to simply answer questions, especially when they make clear what their purpose is. In the original post they said they wanted to upgrade toe CPU so it will work better.

Yes. The CPU is non-upgradable.

Does that mean that we just say "no you cannot upgrade that CPU" and move on? Is suggesting additional ways to improve performance that doesn't involve replacing the CPU somehow off-topic?I never stated that at all...in fact i stated everything you said was true...

Relax.Thank you for the reply's everyone. I am just using this laptop as I build my own desktop.

It stinks I cant upgrade the cpu to something better but whatever, I will have a way better desktop in a few months.

Can I at least upgrade the ram or add a SSD?
Quote

No need to speak in terms of what is likely or probable- given they provided a link to the system...

I have been known to follow information stated without following links. Based on the statement of the

Quote

I own a laptop with a ppga478 socket, the current cpu is a Celeron 2.16 Ghz

I assumed we were talking about a 10+ year old laptop. I didnt know that Intel continued use of this ppga478 for this CPU here:

http://ark.intel.com/products/36681/Intel-Celeron-Processor-585-1M-Cache-2_16-GHz-667-MHz-FSB

Lesson learned to follow links provided

In this case a SSD upgrade is possible, but it may be pretty involved trying to swap out the HDD with a SSD if there is no panel to get easy access to the drive compartment. Many of the newer laptops lack this easy access panel and so its usually a matter of carefully disassembling the laptop and taking note as to which screws go where etc. With these laptops there is a greater risk of complications since it quickly can turn into brain surgery for some people who never opened a laptop up with ability to put it back together again without problems.

Not finding any info for this laptop stating maximum memory supported. Many of these low cost laptops are sold in which the maximum memory is 4GB. I bought an ASUS for $249.99 that I knew before purchase was only going to take a maximum of 4GB of RAM, and I am fine with it. I ended up downgrading it to Windows 7 64-bit because of complications with 8. It runs fine for what it is, but its not a gaming laptop by far.

Here is the ASUS that I have, also a Celeron, but a good cheap laptop: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231360 Quote from: DaveLembke on January 09, 2015, 07:08:07 AM

In this case a SSD upgrade is possible, but it may be pretty involved trying to swap out the HDD with a SSD if there is no panel to get easy access to the drive compartment. Many of the newer laptops lack this easy access panel and so its usually a matter of carefully disassembling the laptop and taking note as to which screws go where etc. With these laptops there is a greater risk of complications since it quickly can turn into brain surgery for some people who never opened a laptop up with ability to put it back together again without problems.

Very true. I don't have a newer laptop myself but I've heard that some models have pretty RIDICULOUS ways to access the hard drive.

As a tangent, I used to think my ancient Toshiba 440CDX had the most difficult to access hard drive. I owned the system for 10 years before I found the HDD compartment. It had a covering that matched up wit hthe front bezel that I didn't even know was removable until it managed to fall off. (I subsequently replaced the CD-ROM and HDD of that machine, installed Windows and Drivers, and put it back in a closet, because apparently that is how I roll.)

Quote

Not finding any info for this laptop stating maximum memory supported. Many of these low cost laptops are sold in which the maximum memory is 4GB. I bought an ASUS for $249.99 that I knew before purchase was only going to take a maximum of 4GB of RAM, and I am fine with it. I ended up downgrading it to Windows 7 64-bit because of complications with 8. It runs fine for what it is, but its not a gaming laptop by far.

It's pretty amazing how cheap a reasonably powerful system is. It might not work well for an enthusiast or hobbyist, but it will be enough for facebook and most tasks like word processing your average person might want to try.

I'm still convinced that the slowness the OP is experiencing that would lead to the QUESTION of replacing the CPU is likely something that can be resolved with software (or rather, removing software), because looking at the specs of the System in Question, it's very similar to my own laptop purchased in 2008 (2Ghz Dual Core, 4GB RAM, Intel Graphics) Which I can run reasonably well with Windows 8.1. I do have performance issues with Visual Studio and Resharper, but both of those are extremely heavy and I'm using the latest versions- otherwise, it's workable and it's great for browsing and youtube. Main difference would be the Celeron, but I'd expect it is a later generation than my T3200.

Thinking about it further, however, I recall my laptop being unusably slow with the factory image, since it came with so much preinstalled garbage. And at such a low price point I'm apt to suspect they subsidize the cost with even more software contracts, so it may be reasonable to use Add/Remove Programs to try to cut out pre-installed software that isn't needed. Here is the cpu http://ark.intel.com/products/81071/Intel-Celeron-Processor-N2830-1M-Cache-up-to-2_41-GHz?q=n2830
which is a socket 1170 not 478 and it is soldered on.
Here is the laptop http://www.asus.com/ca-en/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/X553MA/overview/
Hope the info helps you decide how to upgrade .

Discussion

6471.	Solve : SATA 3 cord differnce.?
Answer» Hi, i was wondering if there is a way you can tell if you have a 3Gbs or a 6Gbs SATA3 cord. Thanks incase your wondering my mother board has 2 6Gbs and 2 3Gbs ports and the PC came with 2 SATA3 cords and i have no IDEA how many Gbs they can do.Cable shouldnt MATTER. You should get 6Gb/s as long as the motherboard is SATA III to match up to the SATA III DRIVE. If you have an addon card for the SATA III controller you might only see around 5Gb/s due to a BUS limitation. Only concern with the cable would be if they are snug and not sloppy. I have seen some SATA CABLES that are able to easily rock to the sides under the slightest touch vs lock in place solid. If you find that the connection is sloppy get a better quality SATA cable to reduce the risk of an connectivity issue as data is being read or more importantly written to the drive.The only difference between the cables is that a SATA III cable has to meet higher standards in testing than a SATA II one, you can almost always use a SATA II cable on a SATA III system with no issues whatsoever.Thanks for the replies they have HELPED me out alot

Discussion

6472.	Solve : Turning a Thin Client into a real Dos box?
Answer» I found an old thin client that is very small { 4.5 in x 4.5 x 1.5 } at a 2nd hand store for $3 and it worked . I installed dos 6.22 on it as it just had a boot version with a batch file on it . My question is should I switch to a hard drive instead of a dom { disk on module } . I read that the kind of flash for this machine is only good for 10000 writes before it degrades significantly , which seems rather small and would not last long when used in this fashion{ as a pc } By sheer luck I have a good hdd that will fit into it but I have no ribbon cable { 1 inch 44 pin ide } but it is 80gb and dos will only see the first 512mb { which is good as it will give max speed } How long would dos/win3.11 TAKE to MAKE 10000 writes? Quote How long would dos/win3.11 take to make 10000 writes? DOS is usually Read-Only, so as long as nothing changes no data is added or removed it would last quite a while. If you had something in your autoexec.bat or config.sys that required data to be written to drive, then you would have to worry about this I suppose if its frequently rebooted or you have some sort of program you will be running that instead of running PRIMARILY in RAM, it uses HDD as a swap or Cache etc. Windows is when Microsoft started writing to disk from the OS on every boot as well as during operation. If you go with Freedos instead of actual MSDOS, you could even possibly make this Thin Client boot off of a thumb drive and run everything from that. Even though thumb drives are generally slow for communications in comparison to HDD's and especially SSD's, the data quantity in a DOS like environment is very small and so everything should still run as quick as the thin client can process it. Such as a thumb drive can access and load a 48k file very quickly because the size of the file is lesser than the data bandwidth of say a 4GB thumb drive and so it would be almost instantaneous in a DOS or FreeDOS environment. Yeah , I want to use this just like a real pc { within its limitations } and my plan is to buy more thin clients off ebay and use all my old OSes { dos6.22/win3.11 , win98, win98se, ubuntu, etc } and network them . I don't like VM , so I will go with the real McCoy . While flash is fast I think I will look for hdd capable thin clients for endurance . Maybe I'll try freedos like you suggest but I will be PLAYING games and playing with batch files and changing the config.sys , etc. , etc. so there will be a lot of writes when I use it/them . Thanks for your answer .

6472.

Solve : Turning a Thin Client into a real Dos box?

Answer»

I found an old thin client that is very small { 4.5 in x 4.5 x 1.5 } at a 2nd hand store for $3 and it worked . I installed dos 6.22 on it as it just had a boot version with a batch file on it . My question is should I switch to a hard drive instead of a dom { disk on module } . I read that the kind of flash for this machine is only good for 10000 writes before it degrades significantly , which seems rather small and would not last long when used in this fashion{ as a pc } By sheer luck I have a good hdd that will fit into it but I have no ribbon cable { 1 inch 44 pin ide } but it is 80gb and dos will only see the first 512mb { which is good as it will give max speed } How long would dos/win3.11 TAKE to MAKE 10000 writes? Quote

How long would dos/win3.11 take to make 10000 writes?

DOS is usually Read-Only, so as long as nothing changes no data is added or removed it would last quite a while. If you had something in your autoexec.bat or config.sys that required data to be written to drive, then you would have to worry about this I suppose if its frequently rebooted or you have some sort of program you will be running that instead of running PRIMARILY in RAM, it uses HDD as a swap or Cache etc.

Windows is when Microsoft started writing to disk from the OS on every boot as well as during operation.

If you go with Freedos instead of actual MSDOS, you could even possibly make this Thin Client boot off of a thumb drive and run everything from that. Even though thumb drives are generally slow for communications in comparison to HDD's and especially SSD's, the data quantity in a DOS like environment is very small and so everything should still run as quick as the thin client can process it. Such as a thumb drive can access and load a 48k file very quickly because the size of the file is lesser than the data bandwidth of say a 4GB thumb drive and so it would be almost instantaneous in a DOS or FreeDOS environment.
Yeah , I want to use this just like a real pc { within its limitations } and my plan is to buy more thin clients off ebay and use all my old OSes { dos6.22/win3.11 , win98, win98se, ubuntu, etc } and network them . I don't like VM , so I will go with the real McCoy . While flash is fast I think I will look for hdd capable thin clients for endurance . Maybe I'll try freedos like you suggest but I will be PLAYING games and playing with batch files and changing the config.sys , etc. , etc. so there will be a lot of writes when I use it/them . Thanks for your answer .

Discussion

6473.	Solve : canon mp160 reads e5 error even after reset?
Answer» I changed my ink cartridges on my canon mp160 PRINTER and it READ error code e5 which means the printer is not recognizing the new ink. I have been all over the internet for hours and still haven't figured anything out!! someone please help!! Did you have a prior error in which ink for it was an attempt to fix this or? Are these ink cartridges official Canon Ink or a Generic Cheap ink? There are gold pins that make contact with the ink cartridge ribbon to electronically read and DRIVE the piezo to the cartridge, are any of these damaged or covered in ink ETC? As WELL as the gold ribbon contacts on the new cartridge are they clean and same as the old cartridge in placement?

Discussion

6474.	Solve : Can't output sound on tv from my Dell Dimension 4700?
Answer» If i put SPEAKERS in the green jack of my computer it will work, but when i try to put in on my hd tv no sound comes out, the drivers are SoundMAX integrated DIGITAL audio, and the video output is dvi with a HDMI converter.Look at your TV's HDMI port, it should be MARKED "Video #". Now look for audio port marked "Video #". The numbers should be identical. Furthermore, does your TV have only mono sound? Try changing the audio BALANCE from one speaker to the other.

Discussion

6475.	Solve : Resurrecting a Pentium 1 machine?
Answer» Greetings! Its rather been a while since i've posted here but since Exams have been finished im looking to do a few projects. What I have is an Old Pentium 1 machine. So old the CMOS BATTERY is one saldered onboard. My issue is everytime the machine boots i get forced into Bios it gives mes a CMOS battery low error. But once in the bios i set the time and date as WELL as the drives (in the photo below) to be Auto detect and yet after Saving and exit they reset to what you see below. I got this machine to bypass this error once before a few years back but have no clue how to do it now. SO i cant get passed the bios and even if i do it only sees the floppy drive. nothing else. Any suggestions? Pentium 1 166mhz 40mb RAm 3gb seagate hard drive [ATTACHMENT deleted by admin to conserve space]See Here...i know this topic is from a month ago but where would find still find one of these Socketed RTC chips? My system has the removable one. And thanks for the link i now know at least what im looking for.

Discussion

6476.	Solve : How to get all my speakers working?
Answer» With my old sound system on my PC, I had a 5.1 setup, but never got 5.1 RESPONSE. Two speakers never worked, two always did, and there was only 1 green plug that connected to my sound card. I decided to look for a new speaker system, and on a suggestion here, I picked up a Logitech Z506 package for Xmas. They have three plugs, green, pink, black to connect to the audio card. However it turns out that only one port on my audio card will work with sending out sound. The green plug makes the front two speakers work, the pink one the back two speakers and the black one works for the double speaker. How to get all of the speakers working? Well, the obvious solution is a splitter so that all plugs can connect to the one port on the audio card. But I think that will attenuate the signal and therefore the sound. Is this true? I'd like to know before going out and buying two splitters. Or perhaps a new sound card would provide the ports I NEED without sacrificing sound. What say you? I have an Audigy 2 Platinimum sound card with an XP system. Thank you. Have you tried playing a 5.1 audio source such as a movie that you know has 5.1 audio? If you are only playing stereo sound (such as music, system sounds or Youtube videos) then only the front speakers will work, this is by design.No, I know nothing about 5.1 sound and when or where it's available. I just assumed that if a system gives you 4 speakers and a WOOFER, that all four speakers will work all the time. Why not? I have never played a movie on my PC. I'll ask my son if he has one. Hopefully I have the software to run it and then I'll see. So you're saying that I'm doomed to 2 speakers - EVEN if I get a splitter?You could get a splitter and connect them all to the same jack but that defeats the point. A 5.1 system is designed for surround sound, theres little point to it if all you play are stereo sources.But with a splitter I'm hoping for more sound than would come from two speakers. With all four I'm hoping to get more volume, more "fullness" to the music. However if the signal is attenuated, that might not happen. Do you know if the signal will be denigrated by using a splitter?Get a new sound card...Any suggestions that would work with an XP system?Your sound card drivers may gve an option to output through all speakers but this varies between cards. A splitter would be the eassiest option. While running all speakers will be louder, it's not going to make the sound quality better, all the speakers will have the same frequency response. If its sound quality you need, buy a pair of really good speakers rather than a surround set.Thanks for your help. I think I'll return the Logitech speakers anyway. The cracking and popping is intolerable and you're right - the sound quality just isn't there. Plus while fooling around with the plugs, suddenly everything went silent - even when I put my old speaker system back in. So I probably blew the audio card. Well, Patio said I should get a new card anyway, so right now I'm trying to figure out what card is better than my old Audigy Platinum and still works on XP. But I know nothing about audio cards. Anyway, thanks again for your kind help.I really don't see why you need a new sound card. Just get a really good pair of stereo speakers for your machine, get the best you can afford for your budget. I can't see why a new sound card would make any difference.I tend to disagree...any 1/2 way decent SoundBlaster 5.1 card that supports XP will cost you 30 = 40 Bucks...dont return the speakers just yet...I'm really not that happy with these speakers. My old speakers have everything these do - except for the double speaker set. And the cracking and popping is terrible in both systems. If I'm GETTING no sound I think it has to be the card. I listen to music on MUZIKMAN, an old but very good mp3 software player which is no longer active. After rebooting it gave me this message: Audio system has changed, Old: Auidgy 6400 New: Realtek AC97 Proceed? When I said "NO", the system crashed and I got The Blue Screen Of Death. I don't know what Realtek is, or why I have two audio systems...or even worse,what to do about it.Ended up returning the Logitech speakers and picked up a Diamond xtreme 5.1 sound card for $20. Fell in love with the Bose Companion 20 speakers and so will pick them up tomorrow. Now I'm wondering if the sound card can do justice to those speakers. Does it really matter? And if so, what kind of sound card should I be looking for with an XP system?Nowadays, if you're not doing high end audio production or using a top end set of speakers/headphones to listen to extremely high quality uncompressed audio, you will likely never notice the difference between sound cards, I can't think of anything wrong with the creative card you have currently, I'd actually argue that it's probably better than the new Diamond one that looks like a pretty generic card.Except that that card wasn't working. I put in the Diamond card today and my old speakers are now working fine. I'm getting the Bose today, so I'm excited! Thank you again for your assistance. It is appreciated.

Discussion

6477.	Solve : Dvd will not play.?
Answer» Hi, I cannot GET my dvd player to play videos, no sound or video. its a new cyberpower desktop. it SHOWS the audio and video files when I click on my computer, but dvd will not play. I have Windows 8.1 OS.Have you tried using Windows Media Player to play the movie? I use VLC Player myself instead of the Windows Media Player because of some codec ISSUES with various videos I have that Windows Media Player doesnt like. VLC Player is free. http://www.videolan.org/vlc/Also is this DVD a pre-recorded DVD store bought...or one that you made ? ? If so what did you use making it ? ?It will not play any kind of dvd, one I made or store bought . I think its set on windows media player, but I will try VLC. I know the dvds work cause they play on my play station.The drive could be dead...they don't make them like they USED to...I downloaded VLC player now my dvds play.Good News indeed...

Discussion

6478.	Solve : Repeating and getting more frequent Kernel Error?
Answer» Ok so this has been happening for a while. Today I had my computer resart on me three times withing a couple hours for what seems no reason. I looked in event viewer and it says it's a critical kernel-error. I'm doing some trouble shooting now, such as unplugging my laptop and running on battery only. General specs: Windows 7 home premium 64x (orginally windows 8 ) Acer Aspire V3-771G-9456 CPU: Intel Core i7-3632QM 2.20ghz Ram: 12gbs Graphics: nvidia GEFORCE 640m gt Ask for anything else. Nevermind! The cord is way too high of a WATTAGE for the computer. It's a 120wat when it needs 65wat. Quote Nevermind! The cord is way too high of a wattage for the computer. It's a 120wat when it needs 65wat. That makes no sense! Why did you drop Windows 8? You could upgrade to 8.1 free! Have you run diagnostics on the hard drive? Windows does not always report hard drive errors. Some of the hard drive errors may be REPORTED as software errors when, in fact, the error was caused by hardware. And yes, there are other possibilities. Third party software may have modified the OS Kernel and caused the error. Or even malware. May i suggest a hard drive test? Both WESTERN Digital and Seagate offer testing tools for hard drives. Here is a list: Free Hard Drive Testing Programs Hope that helps. It was 8.1. My mate and I hate 8 & 8.1 it had so many problems with games and steam and it's just... UGH Ya it just did it again without cord. I will do a hard drive test, at least we have a back up... I just ran rkill combofix adwcleaner JRT tdskiller.... it tends to crash when I'm on singularity viewer for secondlifeIt passed all the seatools tests except advanced I didn't do it due to warning of data loss.OK. Maybe it is not the drive. How about virus scans? Do you have a AV program active? I seemed to of found the problem... at least it stopped crashing. There was a lose ribbon cable from the touch pad touching the mobo

6478.

Solve : Repeating and getting more frequent Kernel Error?

Answer»

Ok so this has been happening for a while. Today I had my computer resart on me three times withing a couple hours for what seems no reason. I looked in event viewer and it says it's a critical kernel-error. I'm doing some trouble shooting now, such as unplugging my laptop and running on battery only.

General specs:
Windows 7 home premium 64x (orginally windows 8 )
Acer Aspire V3-771G-9456
CPU: Intel Core i7-3632QM 2.20ghz
Ram: 12gbs
Graphics: nvidia GEFORCE 640m gt

Ask for anything else.
Nevermind! The cord is way too high of a WATTAGE for the computer. It's a 120wat when it needs 65wat. Quote

Nevermind! The cord is way too high of a wattage for the computer. It's a 120wat when it needs 65wat.

That makes no sense!

Why did you drop Windows 8? You could upgrade to 8.1 free!
Have you run diagnostics on the hard drive?
Windows does not always report hard drive errors. Some of the hard drive errors may be REPORTED as software errors when, in fact, the error was caused by hardware.
And yes, there are other possibilities. Third party software may have modified the OS Kernel and caused the error. Or even malware.
May i suggest a hard drive test?
Both WESTERN Digital and Seagate offer testing tools for hard drives.
Here is a list:
Free Hard Drive Testing Programs
Hope that helps.

It was 8.1. My mate and I hate 8 & 8.1 it had so many problems with games and steam and it's just... UGH

Ya it just did it again without cord. I will do a hard drive test, at least we have a back up...

I just ran rkill combofix adwcleaner JRT tdskiller.... it tends to crash when I'm on singularity viewer for secondlifeIt passed all the seatools tests except advanced I didn't do it due to warning of data loss.OK. Maybe it is not the drive.
How about virus scans? Do you have a AV program active?

I seemed to of found the problem... at least it stopped crashing. There was a lose ribbon cable from the touch pad touching the mobo

Discussion

6479.	Solve : Computer freezing in strange ways!?
Answer» Hey there! I´ve been experiencing issues with my laptop recently, im getting tired of it freezing when I am doing something on it. It does this randomly, and Im not sure what it is. I´ve already checked the temperature that it isnt overheating, checked the RAM with memtest and windows diagnostics, the hard drive, Im just completely confused on whats wrong. By strange freezing, i mean that sometimes the system just stops responding and after 3-5 seconds the screen turns black. It forces me to shut it down through the power button. Other times when Im playing a game, everything suddenly stop responding. Sounds stops, input stops, but the ingame animations are still playing. I also have to turn it off through the power button. What could be the problem? This is my dxdiag : o ------------------ System Information ------------------ Time of this report: 1/13/2015, 23:32:13 Machine name: ZMSKY-PC Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.140303-2144) Language: English (Regional Setting: English) System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard System Model: Presario CQ62 Notebook PC BIOS: Default System BIOS Processor: AMD V120 Processor, ~2.2GHz Card name: AMD M880G with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 Memory: 3072MB RAM Available OS Memory: 2810MB RAM Page File: 1802MB used, 3817MB available Windows Dir: C:\Windows DirectX Version: DirectX 11 DX Setup PARAMETERS: Not found User DPI Setting: Using System DPI System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent) DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 32bit Unicode How long has this been happening? Was this happening only after upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate? Have you checked for malware etc? Have you checked the health of your hard drive? (* If a drive is having issues and the issues affect the page area it can cause issues like your having. ) I use Crystaldiskinfo for checking my hard drives and SSD's health. If using this utility be sure to use the portable zip version only as for the others come with bundled junk that you probably dont want. http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html Use Standard Edition W/O Ads version at this site. Powering down improperly will only MAKE it get progressively worse... Have you checked Device Manager for any Yellow !!'s ? ? Do you get any BSOD messages ? ?...if so post them here. Quote Was this happening only after upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate? No, Ive had windows 7 for a long time. I´ve already formatted around 2 or 3 times to install it. Just started happening one day out of the blue : o Quote Do you get any BSOD messages ? ?...if so post them here. No BSOD errors what so ever. The event viewer doesnt show any signs of errors ! The screen just turns black, and nothing else happens. Quote Have you checked the health of your hard drive? I dont believe its the hard drive, since I swapped it with another to test if it kept freezing. Which it did :C I was really hoping that the hard drive was the problem. However, I used the program and the health bar reads Caution on my main hard drive. Something wrong with it? Im pretty sure all the improper shut downs are starting to make it worse haha It's kinda the HDD... Quote I dont believe its the hard drive, since I swapped it with another to test if it kept freezing. Which it did Do you still have that other HDD to swap back into this system. If so, swap back and run this utility again on that drive to see if you also get caution or warnings. Or if you have a means to test the drive on this system as an external without having to reinstall OS to that drive. If your lucky you have 2 troubled drives and its a matter of getting a healthy drive to install into this system. If your unlucky you have 2 issues going on. Hard Drive which is already known to be ill according to crystaldiskinfo and worst case scenario a main board issue.The Reallocated Sector Count means that the found bad sectors were already placed to a reserved sector. Most likely it was due to abnormal shutdowns as already explained. It should matter in your case that when REPLACING a new or 2nd hand drive is to run a SMART or hard drive test first to check if the drive contains any value regarding bad or reallocated sectors already. You may want to run chkdsk /f/r in command prompt if you wish to troubleshoot/repair system files and pending sectors but would advice to use a backup plan before using the checkdisk procedure.To effectively CLEAN registery, you need to do the following steps. 1.Launch the Windows registry editor. Click on the "Start" button, then select "Run...". Type regedit inside of the text box. Press "Enter" or click on "Ok". 2.Backup your existing registry before making changes. This will offer a way to undo the changes you make if they negatively impact your operating system or installed software. (See related articles on how to backup your registry. A registry backup is really a critical step, and should be undertaken immediately before beginning any editing of you registry). Select "All" in the "Export range" panel. Choose a location for the backup and then enter a name. Click on "Save". 3.Familiarize yourself with the registry editor. It is broken into two window panes, with the left pane used to show the entire registry tree and the right pane used to show individual values. 4.Browse to remove old applications. Remove any application listings which have already been uninstalled. Expand the "HKEY_CURRENT_USER" key (looks like a folder) by clicking on the plus (+) sign next to it. Expand the "Software" key. Look for keys that contain either the application's name, or more commonly, the application's developer (company name). Highlight a key for the application. Press "Del" to delete it. 5.Search applications by their name, executable name, and/or folder name. Remove any application listings which have already been uninstalled. Press "Ctrl" and "f" to open a find dialog. Enter the text used to search for the application's listings. Click on "Ok" to search. The key or value should be highlighted when found. With the proper key or value highlighted, press "Del" to delete it. Press "F3" to find the next result and repeat. 6. Remove unwanted start-up items. Many of the more popular applications, such as Adobe Reader, Quicktime Player, and Real Player, will install a registry value to load an updater or similar process when Windows starts. To delete these: Expand keys (as done previously) to get to the following location: My Computer\ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows\ Current Version. Highlight the "Run" key. Look for values inside of the left pane. These will be shortcuts to executable files. Highlight a value to remove. Press "Del" to delete it. To select multiple entries to delete, hold down "Shift" or "Ctrl" while clicking. Repeat this process for the same key path inside of the HKEY_CURRENT_USER location as well. If an application installs for "all users", it will put these startup items inside of the the local machine folder. For current user or single user software installs, they will be put into the current user folder. 7.Close the registry editor when finished.I'd ignore the above Post if i were you...Tested the other drive, it turned out to be healthy. However, something new happened that I´ve never seen before, this time when the laptop froze the screen didnt turn black like usual. It showed something like the image below. Im pretty sure this means something is wrong with the video chip.. DEFINITELY the video chip is the culprit as freezing problems attributes mostly to either the hard drive, video chip, power supply or motherboard.Is there anything I can do to fix this? Or am I better off finding a new laptop haha xD Im just hoping I finally find what was causing my laptop to freeze.

6479.

Solve : Computer freezing in strange ways!?

Answer»

Hey there! I´ve been experiencing issues with my laptop recently, im getting tired of it freezing when I am doing something on it. It does this randomly, and Im not sure what it is. I´ve already checked the temperature that it isnt overheating, checked the RAM with memtest and windows diagnostics, the hard drive, Im just completely confused on whats wrong.

By strange freezing, i mean that sometimes the system just stops responding and after 3-5 seconds the screen turns black. It forces me to shut it down through the power button.
Other times when Im playing a game, everything suddenly stop responding. Sounds stops, input stops, but the ingame animations are still playing. I also have to turn it off through the power button.

What could be the problem?
This is my dxdiag : o

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 1/13/2015, 23:32:13
Machine name: ZMSKY-PC
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.140303-2144)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
System Model: Presario CQ62 Notebook PC
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: AMD V120 Processor, ~2.2GHz
Card name: AMD M880G with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250
Memory: 3072MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 2810MB RAM
Page File: 1802MB used, 3817MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup PARAMETERS: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 32bit Unicode
How long has this been happening?

Was this happening only after upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate?

Have you checked for malware etc?

Have you checked the health of your hard drive? (* If a drive is having issues and the issues affect the page area it can cause issues like your having. ) I use Crystaldiskinfo for checking my hard drives and SSD's health. If using this utility be sure to use the portable zip version only as for the others come with bundled junk that you probably dont want. http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html Use Standard Edition W/O Ads version at this site.

Powering down improperly will only MAKE it get progressively worse...

Have you checked Device Manager for any Yellow !!'s ? ?

Do you get any BSOD messages ? ?...if so post them here. Quote

Was this happening only after upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate?

No, Ive had windows 7 for a long time.
I´ve already formatted around 2 or 3 times to install it.
Just started happening one day out of the blue : o

Quote

Do you get any BSOD messages ? ?...if so post them here.

No BSOD errors what so ever.
The event viewer doesnt show any signs of errors !
The screen just turns black, and nothing else happens.

Quote

Have you checked the health of your hard drive?

I dont believe its the hard drive, since I swapped it with another to test
if it kept freezing. Which it did :C I was really hoping that the hard drive was the problem.

However, I used the program and the health bar reads Caution on my main hard drive.
Something wrong with it? Im pretty sure all the improper shut downs are starting to make it worse haha

It's kinda the HDD... Quote

I dont believe its the hard drive, since I swapped it with another to test
if it kept freezing. Which it did

Do you still have that other HDD to swap back into this system. If so, swap back and run this utility again on that drive to see if you also get caution or warnings. Or if you have a means to test the drive on this system as an external without having to reinstall OS to that drive. If your lucky you have 2 troubled drives and its a matter of getting a healthy drive to install into this system.

If your unlucky you have 2 issues going on. Hard Drive which is already known to be ill according to crystaldiskinfo and worst case scenario a main board issue.The Reallocated Sector Count means that the found bad sectors were already placed to a reserved sector. Most likely it was due to abnormal shutdowns as already explained. It should matter in your case that when REPLACING a new or 2nd hand drive is to run a SMART or hard drive test first to check if the drive contains any value regarding bad or reallocated sectors already. You may want to run chkdsk /f/r in command prompt if you wish to troubleshoot/repair system files and pending sectors but would advice to use a backup plan before using the checkdisk procedure.To effectively CLEAN registery, you need to do the following steps.
1.Launch the Windows registry editor.
Click on the "Start" button, then select "Run...".
Type regedit inside of the text box.
Press "Enter" or click on "Ok".
2.Backup your existing registry before making changes. This will offer a way to undo the changes you make if they negatively impact your operating system or installed software. (See related articles on how to backup your registry. A registry backup is really a critical step, and should be undertaken immediately before beginning any editing of you registry).
Select "All" in the "Export range" panel.
Choose a location for the backup and then enter a name.
Click on "Save".
3.Familiarize yourself with the registry editor. It is broken into two window panes, with the left pane used to show the entire registry tree and the right pane used to show individual values.
4.Browse to remove old applications. Remove any application listings which have already been uninstalled.
Expand the "HKEY_CURRENT_USER" key (looks like a folder) by clicking on the plus (+) sign next to it.
Expand the "Software" key.
Look for keys that contain either the application's name, or more commonly, the application's developer (company name).
Highlight a key for the application.
Press "Del" to delete it.
5.Search applications by their name, executable name, and/or folder name. Remove any application listings which have already been uninstalled.
Press "Ctrl" and "f" to open a find dialog. Enter the text used to search for the application's listings.
Click on "Ok" to search. The key or value should be highlighted when found. With the proper key or value highlighted, press "Del" to delete it. Press "F3" to find the next result and repeat.
6. Remove unwanted start-up items. Many of the more popular applications, such as Adobe Reader, Quicktime Player, and Real Player, will install a registry value to load an updater or similar process when Windows starts. To delete these:
Expand keys (as done previously) to get to the following location: My Computer\ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows\ Current Version.
Highlight the "Run" key.
Look for values inside of the left pane. These will be shortcuts to executable files.
Highlight a value to remove. Press "Del" to delete it. To select multiple entries to delete, hold down "Shift" or "Ctrl" while clicking.
Repeat this process for the same key path inside of the HKEY_CURRENT_USER location as well. If an application installs for "all users", it will put these startup items inside of the the local machine folder. For current user or single user software installs, they will be put into the current user folder.
7.Close the registry editor when finished.I'd ignore the above Post if i were you...Tested the other drive, it turned out to be healthy.
However, something new happened that I´ve never seen before, this time when the laptop froze the screen didnt turn black like usual.
It showed something like the image below. Im pretty sure this means something is wrong with the video chip..

DEFINITELY the video chip is the culprit as freezing problems attributes mostly to either the hard drive, video chip, power supply or motherboard.Is there anything I can do to fix this?
Or am I better off finding a new laptop haha xD
Im just hoping I finally find what was causing my laptop to freeze.

Discussion

6480.	Solve : the VGA to RCA and Vice Versa....?
Answer» Greetings CH! I recently moved into a new building and do not own a Television. I still had my Old Original XBOX which i know works perfectly fine because i was playing some good old Forza motorsport the other day when still at my parents. So i decided i should try and get this XBox working on a VGA monitor. So i bought this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-PC-VGA-to-AV-RCA-TV-Monitor-S-video-Signal-Adapter-Converter-Switch-Box-CR-/281418924395?ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123 Now i know it says VGA to RCA and when i connected my macbook to the Tv the colors where in back and white and color was horrible. But i cannot for the love of God get it to connect my XBox from RCA to my Computer monitor to VGA. ive seen videos on youtube with people acomplishing this. why cant i? Is this device defective or can it just not do RCA to VGA? i cant tell. ive contacted the seller last NIGHT but still no avail. Let me know thanksAs you said, it's "VGA to AV", what you need is an "AV to VGA" converter. These devices are usually one way only unless you explicitly buy one that supports both.Thats just it. Ive been looking at similar ones on Ebay and they dont really give that much info.. This one specifically shows to the tv. but it was just a terrible connection.. The device you have needs to be setup properly. When the colors are bad, you have the wrong setting. I tried playing with the settings and went from Black and white to color but the color was really pinkish. It was a joke. From eBay: Quote Introductions: This HD adapter converts a VGA signal into an S-Video or RCA signal to your TV. It is great for presentations, web-browsing, PC online games, PICTURES, movies, etc. Features: VGA to composite video/S-video converter: PC to TV converter. One-input of VGA signals, one output of VGA signals. One output of Video, one output of S Video. One ACPI of 5V Resolutions of VGA signals: 640480, 800 600, 1024768, 12801024 (up to 85Hz), 1920 * 1080; 16001200, 2560 1600 (cover the all VGA resolution less than WQXGA). At the same time, output the VGA Video S-Video signals. Show SIMULTANEOUSLY pictures on the monitor and TV. Support the systems below: The TV systems of NTSC (Taiwan and USA), NTSC-EIAJ (JAPAN), PAL (Euro, China), PAL-M (Brazil), and PAL-N (Uruguay Paraguay). Support the OVERSCAN and UNDERSCAN display mode. Convenient to carry because it is light, thin, short and small. A number of vendors sell these. I got one and it took me over week to understand it. But I am slow to learn. Whatever you do, do not select Chinese as the language. In the USA and other areas you must use NTSC. Most of Europe is PAL.

6480.

Solve : the VGA to RCA and Vice Versa....?

Answer»

Greetings CH!

I recently moved into a new building and do not own a Television. I still had my Old Original XBOX which i know works perfectly fine because i was playing some good old Forza motorsport the other day when still at my parents. So i decided i should try and get this XBox working on a VGA monitor.

So i bought this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-PC-VGA-to-AV-RCA-TV-Monitor-S-video-Signal-Adapter-Converter-Switch-Box-CR-/281418924395?ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123

Now i know it says VGA to RCA and when i connected my macbook to the Tv the colors where in back and white and color was horrible. But i cannot for the love of God get it to connect my XBox from RCA to my Computer monitor to VGA. ive seen videos on youtube with people acomplishing this. why cant i?

Is this device defective or can it just not do RCA to VGA? i cant tell. ive contacted the seller last NIGHT but still no avail.

Let me know thanksAs you said, it's "VGA to AV", what you need is an "AV to VGA" converter. These devices are usually one way only unless you explicitly buy one that supports both.Thats just it. Ive been looking at similar ones on Ebay and they dont really give that much info.. This one specifically shows to the tv. but it was just a terrible connection..
The device you have needs to be setup properly. When the colors are bad, you have the wrong setting. I tried playing with the settings and went from Black and white to color but the color was really pinkish. It was a joke. From eBay:
Quote

Introductions:

This HD adapter converts a VGA signal into an S-Video or RCA signal to your TV. It is great for presentations, web-browsing, PC online games, PICTURES, movies, etc.

Features:
VGA to composite video/S-video converter: PC to TV converter.
One-input of VGA signals, one output of VGA signals.

One output of Video, one output of S Video.

One ACPI of 5V
Resolutions of VGA signals: 640*480, 800 * 600, 1024*768, 1280*1024 (up to 85Hz), 1920 * 1080; 1600*1200, 2560 * 1600 (cover the all VGA resolution less than WQXGA).

At the same time, output the VGA Video S-Video signals.

Show SIMULTANEOUSLY pictures on the monitor and TV.

Support the systems below: The TV systems of NTSC (Taiwan and USA), NTSC-EIAJ (JAPAN), PAL (Euro, China), PAL-M (Brazil), and PAL-N (Uruguay Paraguay).

Support the OVERSCAN and UNDERSCAN display mode.
Convenient to carry because it is light, thin, short and small.

A number of vendors sell these. I got one and it took me over week to understand it. But I am slow to learn. Whatever you do, do not select Chinese as the language.
In the USA and other areas you must use NTSC. Most of Europe is PAL.

Discussion

6481.	Solve : 8080 Computer?
Answer» When you use an 8080 computer what type of monitor do you use?Do you mean an 8088? If so there were a few monitor options, but it depends on the video card. Monochrome - Single color Orange, Green, or Black & White CGA - Color Display EGA - Color Display and better than CGA VGA - Color Display and better than EGA ( RARE to find a 8088 with VGA as for most were EGA or lesser as well as VGA didnt really BECOME popular until the 286 and 386 generation computers. ) Note: The video card would have to be an 8-bit video card. Many of the VGA cards were 16 bit cards and so you would have to find like a really old early VGA card. Most software and GAMES for the 8088 worked with Monochrome through EGA video/display requirements. I dont recall any special software of that time on an 8088 CPU requiring a VGA setup. The only thing that comes to mind for VGA requirement may have been graphic design or running newer software intended for 286 or newer RUN on a slow 8088 CPU instead for the fact that computers were thousands of dollars back then to replace and minimum WAGE was somewhere between $2 and $3 an hour. With that said, any software and games run on a 8088 with 8-bit VGA graphics was probably originally intended for a 286 or better CPU system, and some may not work on the 8088 as for resource requirements may not be met such as trying to run Wolfenstein 3D on a 8088 wont happen. * Most importantly the monitors had to be paired up to the video card type, so if you have a CGA video card you would need a CGA display. So each type listed needed its own special monitor type paired with the video card type.Depends on the video device. The 8080 has not way to directly create a raster. If there is no video device in the system, a teleprinter is used and connects to a serial port. Some few Z80 designs could directly produce a raster from the address lines.

Discussion

6482.	Solve : BIOS in Lenevo G40?
Answer» How can i ENTER into BIOS in Lenevo G40 laptop ?? PLEASE HELP me ASP https://www.google.com/search?q=+enter+into+BIOS+in+Lenevo+G40+&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Discussion

6483.	Solve : Tips or advice/suggestions on first gaming build??
Answer» So after literally almost 6 months of research on gaming computers, i've finally learned enough to attempt to build one. My budget is $1000 Canadian firm. I believe that this is the best gaming computer for the $1000 budget, but if you have any different parts or advice that I could take into consideration for this build, it would be most appreciated. This is my parts list: CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($158.98 DirectCanada) CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($59.99 Canada Computers) Motherboard: ASRock 970 Pro3 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($76.50 Vuugo) Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($81.79 DirectCanada) Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($56.95 Vuugo) Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 285 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($199.99 NCIX) Case: Thermaltake Versa H23 ATX Mid Tower Case ($45.99 NCIX) Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.99 NCIX) Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 DirectCanada) Total: $835.16 Note that this list includes the operating system, and case. This list includes mail-in rebates, but excludes all tax and shipping/handling costs. ========================== I would like to know a few things, first of all, the PSU listed is 750w, but on the XFX webpage, it states that the minimum requirement for wattage is 750w. Would this PSU still be adequate? or would I need to upgrade slightly? let me know. Last but not least, when the system is built and completed, I would like to overclock the processor from its stock clock of 3.5GHz, to preferably 4.0-4.5Ghz, would I be able to safely accomplish this with the liquid cooler that I have listed? Thank you to all who reply in advance, your help is noticed and GREATLY appreciated. I'd recommend something along this line. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/wPNsWZ The only other thing I would change would be an SSD for the OS and the apps you want to respond faster. Quote from: JTBOT65 on January 18, 2015, 12:12:20 AM I would like to know a few things, first of all, the PSU listed is 750w, but on the XFX webpage, it states that the minimum requirement for wattage is 750w. Would this PSU still be adequate? or would I need to upgrade slightly? let me know. Last but not least, when the system is built and completed, I would like to overclock the processor from its stock clock of 3.5GHz, to preferably 4.0-4.5Ghz, would I be able to safely accomplish this with the liquid cooler that I have listed? Thank you to all who reply in advance, your help is noticed and greatly appreciated. I'm on my way out so I can't review your build right this second, but I just wanted to answer your specific questions. Your PSU is more than adequate and leaves ample headroom, no problem there especially as the XFX is solid. I'm not confident the H60 would cool the FX8320 at 4-4.5GHz as they throw out a lot of heat and the H60 is at best a midrange cooler. I've never recommended closed loop liquid cooling and would recommend a good air cooler INSTEAD, especially if you want to overclock such a high wattage CPU.Wohooo, Calum to the rescue I'd definitely PICK that ram set, ultimately it is cheaper, but I went for the RipJaws because I was aiming for a low CAS, and at roughly $11 more dollars I figured i'd get the better set of the two, (G.skill - CAS;7) (Crucial - CAS;11) Quote I'd recommend something along this line. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/wPNsWZ The only other thing I would change would be an SSD for the OS and the apps you want to respond faster. And Calum what air cooler would you think is fit for the purpose? I was thinking of the classic 212 EVO but if there are any others for about 30-75$ id definately be interested.I busted your budget by just a little, or a little more if you exclude MIRs...I added an SSD though http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/nkbVHx I chose to go with an Intel i5 CPU, unlocked so you can still overclock. The Raijintek Ereboss is a great cooler, edges out the go-to 212 Evo in performance and price/performance. You could swap the case out for whatever you like REALLY, the Fractal is just a reasonably cheap, well built case but as it's a personal choice really it's more of a placeholder. I picked a cheaper EVGA PSU - still good quality but not modular. If you wanted to go with an AMD build instead, keep the 8320, and go for either the 970A-D3P Quantos suggested or the Asus M5A99X Evo R2 - http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-m5a99xevor20 - everything else can remain the same. That'll save you what, around $100, but I would still recommend the Intel build.Whats wrong with an AMD build? Im running a FX 8120 build i put together about 3 years ago and i love it. Quote from: comda on January 20, 2015, 09:16:17 AM Whats wrong with an AMD build? He didn't say there was anything wrong with an AMD build. He said he recommends an Intel build.I understand that very clearly. I didnt ask it to be rude to say "AMD DOESNT SUCK", i asked because i want to know what are per say that advantages to a Intek build rather then an AMD. The reason I recommended an Intel build over AMD is quite simply because it's faster. Not all Intel CPUs are faster or better than the AMD equivalents but in this case, for a fairly high-end gaming rig, I just couldn't recommend an AMD build. It doesn't help that there isn't a great range of good AMD boards these days either, at least not for the AM3+ socket, as it's a bit of a dead end. AMD are great for lower budget rigs, their APUs are excellent and I'd be happy to build around one of those if appropriate, but for most situations these days I'd go Intel. Quote from: Calum on January 20, 2015, 09:50:36 AM The reason I recommended an Intel build over AMD is quite simply because it's faster. Not all Intel CPUs are faster or better than the AMD equivalents but in this case, for a fairly high-end gaming rig, I just couldn't recommend an AMD build. It doesn't help that there isn't a great range of good AMD boards these days either, at least not for the AM3+ socket, as it's a bit of a dead end. AMD are great for lower budget rigs, their APUs are excellent and I'd be happy to build around one of those if appropriate, but for most situations these days I'd go Intel. Thank-you. See i built my AMD rig about 3 years ago. 8120 CPU, M5A97 board. Its a nice little system and my first build but there are times where i do wonder what i would have had with an intel. I do have a 2600 i7 and it seems a lot slower then my AMD. but i blame acer for using a green drive for that.. There are a lot of other considerations beside the CPU in regards to how fast your system feels. If the Intel based system has a slow green drive then I'd imagine it'll feel rather sluggish, yes. The i7-2600 is faster than the AMD 8120 for sure.

6483.

Solve : Tips or advice/suggestions on first gaming build??

Answer»

So after literally almost 6 months of research on gaming computers, i've finally learned enough to attempt to build one. My budget is $1000 Canadian firm.
I believe that this is the best gaming computer for the $1000 budget, but if you have any different parts or advice that I could take into consideration for this build, it would be most appreciated.
This is my parts list:

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($158.98 DirectCanada)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($59.99 Canada Computers)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Pro3 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($76.50 Vuugo)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($81.79 DirectCanada)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($56.95 Vuugo)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 285 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($199.99 NCIX)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H23 ATX Mid Tower Case ($45.99 NCIX)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.99 NCIX)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 DirectCanada)
Total: $835.16

Note that this list includes the operating system, and case. This list includes mail-in rebates, but excludes all tax and shipping/handling costs.
==========================

I would like to know a few things, first of all, the PSU listed is 750w, but on the XFX webpage, it states that the minimum requirement for wattage is 750w. Would this PSU still be adequate? or would I need to upgrade slightly? let me know. Last but not least, when the system is built and completed, I would like to overclock the processor from its stock clock of 3.5GHz, to preferably 4.0-4.5Ghz, would I be able to safely accomplish this with the liquid cooler that I have listed? Thank you to all who reply in advance, your help is noticed and GREATLY appreciated. I'd recommend something along this line.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/wPNsWZ

The only other thing I would change would be an SSD for the OS and the apps you want to respond faster. Quote from: JTBOT65 on January 18, 2015, 12:12:20 AM

I would like to know a few things, first of all, the PSU listed is 750w, but on the XFX webpage, it states that the minimum requirement for wattage is 750w. Would this PSU still be adequate? or would I need to upgrade slightly? let me know. Last but not least, when the system is built and completed, I would like to overclock the processor from its stock clock of 3.5GHz, to preferably 4.0-4.5Ghz, would I be able to safely accomplish this with the liquid cooler that I have listed? Thank you to all who reply in advance, your help is noticed and greatly appreciated.

I'm on my way out so I can't review your build right this second, but I just wanted to answer your specific questions. Your PSU is more than adequate and leaves ample headroom, no problem there especially as the XFX is solid. I'm not confident the H60 would cool the FX8320 at 4-4.5GHz as they throw out a lot of heat and the H60 is at best a midrange cooler. I've never recommended closed loop liquid cooling and would recommend a good air cooler INSTEAD, especially if you want to overclock such a high wattage CPU.Wohooo, Calum to the rescue I'd definitely PICK that ram set, ultimately it is cheaper, but I went for the RipJaws because I was aiming for a low CAS, and at roughly $11 more dollars I figured i'd get the better set of the two,
(G.skill - CAS;7)
(Crucial - CAS;11) Quote

I'd recommend something along this line.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/wPNsWZ

The only other thing I would change would be an SSD for the OS and the apps you want to respond faster.

And Calum what air cooler would you think is fit for the purpose? I was thinking of the classic 212 EVO but if there are any others for about 30-75$ id definately be interested.I busted your budget by just a little, or a little more if you exclude MIRs...I added an SSD though

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/nkbVHx

I chose to go with an Intel i5 CPU, unlocked so you can still overclock. The Raijintek Ereboss is a great cooler, edges out the go-to 212 Evo in performance and price/performance. You could swap the case out for whatever you like REALLY, the Fractal is just a reasonably cheap, well built case but as it's a personal choice really it's more of a placeholder. I picked a cheaper EVGA PSU - still good quality but not modular.

If you wanted to go with an AMD build instead, keep the 8320, and go for either the 970A-D3P Quantos suggested or the Asus M5A99X Evo R2 - http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-m5a99xevor20 - everything else can remain the same. That'll save you what, around $100, but I would still recommend the Intel build.Whats wrong with an AMD build? Im running a FX 8120 build i put together about 3 years ago and i love it. Quote from: comda on January 20, 2015, 09:16:17 AM

Whats wrong with an AMD build?

He didn't say there was anything wrong with an AMD build. He said he recommends an Intel build.I understand that very clearly. I didnt ask it to be rude to say "AMD DOESNT SUCK", i asked because i want to know what are per say that advantages to a Intek build rather then an AMD. The reason I recommended an Intel build over AMD is quite simply because it's faster. Not all Intel CPUs are faster or better than the AMD equivalents but in this case, for a fairly high-end gaming rig, I just couldn't recommend an AMD build. It doesn't help that there isn't a great range of good AMD boards these days either, at least not for the AM3+ socket, as it's a bit of a dead end. AMD are great for lower budget rigs, their APUs are excellent and I'd be happy to build around one of those if appropriate, but for most situations these days I'd go Intel. Quote from: Calum on January 20, 2015, 09:50:36 AM

The reason I recommended an Intel build over AMD is quite simply because it's faster. Not all Intel CPUs are faster or better than the AMD equivalents but in this case, for a fairly high-end gaming rig, I just couldn't recommend an AMD build. It doesn't help that there isn't a great range of good AMD boards these days either, at least not for the AM3+ socket, as it's a bit of a dead end. AMD are great for lower budget rigs, their APUs are excellent and I'd be happy to build around one of those if appropriate, but for most situations these days I'd go Intel.

Thank-you. See i built my AMD rig about 3 years ago. 8120 CPU, M5A97 board. Its a nice little system and my first build but there are times where i do wonder what i would have had with an intel. I do have a 2600 i7 and it seems a lot slower then my AMD. but i blame acer for using a green drive for that.. There are a lot of other considerations beside the CPU in regards to how fast your system feels. If the Intel based system has a slow green drive then I'd imagine it'll feel rather sluggish, yes. The i7-2600 is faster than the AMD 8120 for sure.

Discussion

6484.	Solve : PC black screen but still on?
Answer» For a while every now and then, my computer would have trouble, where the tower would turn on and the fans and such would spin up but no video would show on the monitor. I would just keep resetting the pc and messing with the components until it FINALLY showed audio. Iv'e never been able to pinpoint the problem. Now no matter what i do, the video won't come back. I've tried reseating everything, even the cmos battery. Tested the monitor and the gpu, i tried the onboard video instead of using my 660 but still no audio. iv'e done more TESTING but i can't seem to get it going. Any help would be appreciated. Things i didn't do. -replaced Cmos battery completely. -tried a different PSU -tried another motherboard. Theres probly some other things iv'e missed so any suggestions would be great. -H80i corsair water cooled -CPU 3570k -GPU gtx 660 2gb -1tb hdd -90gb ssd -mobo asus p8h77-v LE -PSU cx750mPlease list your full specifications so we can see what sort of hardware we're dealing with. Do you remember if anything changed or happened before this problem started, or has it been an issue ever since you've had the PC?I'm pretty sure it didn't start until about two months after i built it, which was only two years ago. and now i just can't get it to turn back on LIKE i usually can. it only happened maybe once or so per month. Usually only when i moved the tower from one place or the other, now it's just doing it.What make and model is your SSD? Ditto for RAM? If you've tried another board and PSU (what make/model PSU and motherboard did you try?) then I'd probably RULE those out at least tentatively. If this is happening only when you power the PC on, rather than happening while it's already on, you have what is known as a cold boot issue. This can be caused by a variety of things, but it's often down to the PSU, motherboard, RAM, or settings in the BIOS.The ssd is an 840evo samsung i think. 2x4 gb crucial ballistix sport. 2x4gbg. skill sniper Hang on...I may have missed an important part of your post, for some reason I thought you were troubleshooting the ongoing issue of your PC not powering on properly, but now I can see you've said it's powering on but with no video - I do apologise. Still, the information I've asked for which you've given has been relevant so not a waste of time. First things first, strip the system back as much as you can. You said you've tried without the GPU, which is a good start. Remove the GPU, all but one stick of RAM, all storage and optical drives, leaving you with just the motherboard, CPU, one stick of RAM, and obviously the cooler and PSU. Try the system with each stick of RAM individually in the slot closest to the CPU, or the slot second from the CPU if that doesn't work. If you still get no output, let us know, and we'll advise what to try next. If you get the system to POST and display video, start adding things back one at a time - add sticks of RAM first, then optical drive/SSD/HDD one at a time, then the GPU.aha alright. I got this cheap sound card a couple months back so i could switch between my headset and speakers easier. It's a diamond xtreme sound 5.1. I t looks like that was the problem somehow. my computer starts up like normal now without it. Thanks so much for the help! Good to hear you managed to solve the issue. It may be worth checking if that sound card does the same in another PC, just to check if it's an incompatibility issue with your system or that the sound card is just faulty.might just do that.

Discussion

6485.	Solve : OLD HD into new unit?
Answer» I have an old Hd I would like to load another OS onto can I connect it to my new unit and COPY the OS from my new unit? Part 2 My old HD carshed I don't have the win98 disk to re-install it ,but I do have a good xp os on my new unit .Can I install the old HD temporary to install xp on it?Seems to be two questions with different approaches... what do you want to do, put the HD into a new system and do a fresh install, or have your existing OS on the HD work for the new system? For the second option, my first instincts would be no due to the drivers for your mainboard/GFX etc... but I could be wrong... someone else may be able to help more...What exactly is it you want to accomplish here ? ? Even still i'll still give you some things to consider..... If it's an older drive and you clone your existing OS to it and use it as a bootable drive chances are that it will run ALOT slower than you are used to. HDD technology has ALMOST kept up with the times. Secondly what happens to your existing drive ? ? Are you planning on dual-booting 2 different OS's on one MACHINE ? ? This works well when SETUP properly but again we need to know what you are attempting here.

Discussion

6486.	Solve : floppy drive question?
Answer» I realize that no one USES floppy drives much anymore. But I have some info on a floppy that I'd LIKE to access but when I try to run the disks all I ever get is a message saying the floppy isn't formatted. I think the problem is the info on the disk was created when I had my old machine running win98 and now I'm running xp home on a new machine. Is there any way to access those old FLOPPIES?The fact that the file(s) on the floppy were created an a Win 98 machine would not prevent Win XP from recognizing the files. Do you still have your old 98 machine? If not, can you get permission to use someone else's computer to see whether you can access the files? Does your new machine read any floppy disks? XP hates floppy drives! kidding aside, my 98 was always more RELIABLE reading the A-Drive than my XP. I get the same problem but usually it just takes one or two times taking the disk out and reinserting it to get it working. Pete Quote XP hates floppy drives! Imagine trying to get it work on Windows Vista I have like 20 floppy drives. About 5 of them work on my XP. If I put another one in my computer, it says it needs to be formatted but half way through the format, my computer crashes...floppy disks are SO unreliable. They are like cassette tapes in one respect... magnetic fields can erase them. If you store them on (or near!) a loudspeaker, TV set, CRT monitor, etc they can become erased. Also high temperatures can do this. In tropical locations mold growth can make them useless! The operating system has nothing to do with it. Also drive compatibility is an issue. Disks written or formatted in one drive can be unreadable in a different drive. It may be worthwhile trying a different floppy drive & if successful transferring the data to a CDROM or USB pen drive. What I've found in the past...sometimes is the head alignment on the drive that the data was copied to is different than the drive that is trying to read it. One solution is to pull the fdd from the old machine and put it in the new. Another is to plug in a flash drive on the 98 box (you'll need drivers) then copy that to a flash drive / then to the XP box. Alan <>< If you save data on a floppy in a Mac using Mac format and then try to read them in a machine with MS operating system they won't be recognised. They will seem like they are unformatted.I don't have my old machine any more, so I guess I'm just screwed. I will keep on trying thoough. Thanks for all the advice. MwrCan you try it on another computer, any computer? Yes I have several friends that I can tryopening it up on. That is my NEXT plan of action.

6486.

Solve : floppy drive question?

Answer»

I realize that no one USES floppy drives much anymore. But I have some info on a floppy that I'd LIKE to access but when I try to run the disks all I ever get is a message saying the floppy isn't formatted.
I think the problem is the info on the disk was created when I had my old machine running win98 and now I'm running xp home on a new machine. Is there any way to access those old FLOPPIES?The fact that the file(s) on the floppy were created an a Win 98 machine would not prevent Win XP from recognizing the files. Do you still have your old 98 machine? If not, can you get permission to use someone else's computer to see whether you can access the files? Does your new machine read any floppy disks? XP hates floppy drives! kidding aside, my 98 was always more RELIABLE reading the A-Drive than my XP. I get the same problem but usually it just takes one or two times taking the disk out and reinserting it to get it working.

Pete

Quote

XP hates floppy drives!

Imagine trying to get it work on Windows Vista

I have like 20 floppy drives. About 5 of them work on my XP.
If I put another one in my computer, it says it needs to be formatted but half way through the format, my computer crashes...floppy disks are SO unreliable. They are like cassette tapes in one respect... magnetic fields can erase them. If you store them on (or near!) a loudspeaker, TV set, CRT monitor, etc they can become erased. Also high temperatures can do this. In tropical locations mold growth can make them useless! The operating system has nothing to do with it. Also drive compatibility is an issue. Disks written or formatted in one drive can be unreadable in a different drive. It may be worthwhile trying a different floppy drive & if successful transferring the data to a CDROM or USB pen drive.
What I've found in the past...sometimes is the head alignment on the drive that the data was copied to is different than the drive that is trying to read it. One solution is to pull the fdd from the old machine and put it in the new. Another is to plug in a flash drive on the 98 box (you'll need drivers) then copy that to a flash drive / then to the XP box.

Alan <>< If you save data on a floppy in a Mac using Mac format and then try to read them in a machine with MS operating system they won't be recognised. They will seem like they are unformatted.I don't have my old machine any more, so I guess I'm just screwed. I will keep on trying thoough. Thanks for all the advice.
MwrCan you try it on another computer, any computer? Yes I have several friends that I can tryopening it up on. That is my NEXT plan of action.

Discussion

6487.	Solve : disc stuck in disc drive of an old Compaq Presario 4814?
Answer» I have a disc stuck in the disc drive of an old COMPAQ Presario 4814. ANYONE have any ideas of how to get this disc out of my disc drive?? - Please!!! I can't find any holes where the disc COULD be pushed on and it can't be reached with NEEDLE nosed pliers.Is there a small hole in the front of the drive? If so a paper CLIP can be inseted to manually unlock the mechanism.Thank you for the reply but as I stated there are no holes.I wonder what kind of drive this is ..... I know it's old...and i know it's in a computer.

Discussion

6488.	Solve : WHERE'S MY HARDDRIVE?!??
Answer» I'm a car guy not a computer guy!! I have a Panasonic TOUGHBOOK CF-72 X laptop, 1.8 Ghz, 789 Mhz, 264 RAM. I bought a 40 gig hard drive (it only came w/20). On my old gateway laptop the HD just slides out the front. I don't WANT to take this thing apart and not be able to get it BACK together . Can anyone tell me where the HD is and how to get to it Check the manufacturer WEBSITE for a downloadable manual or use Google to find one.

Discussion

6489.	Solve : (SOLVED) Nevermind!! Can't find second hard drive!?!?!?
Answer» We have two hard drives on our computer...our second one (not having Windows on it) we used to store all of our pictures - from the last three or four years!! All of a sudden it's no longer available - what can I do??? This is really freaking me out! I BUILT the computer a few years ago, so I know a little bit - just have to refresh my memory - but the hard DRIVE is still plugged in! Thanks, ~AnnieAlright...well I feel like a dufus...I trusted my dear husband when he said it was connected...it wasn't. So it's working now! I think I'm gonna find some DVDs to back up those pictures...it was too scary to think they were GONE forever!Good that it HAPPENED this way and you still have your photo's...hard drives aren't the best place for valuable data. What backup software are you using/considering ? ?This thread reminds me of my situation so I thought I'd post it here. I had an older machine that suddenly quit working. I belive it was a main board problem because I got power to the machine but the only thing it did was run the fans. I couldn't get into bios and the o/s wouldn't load. So I borrowed an old machine from a friend which was running win 98 and stuck my hdd in it as a slave to try to salvage some files. My Old o/s was XP pro. Well it worked and I was able to access my hdd. However, to make matters intriguing Because I had originallly partitioned my hdd into 3 partitiions, I couldn't access some of the files on the c drive. Well to make a long story short, I picked up a used HP Pavillion with a hdd of it's own running XP home, stuck my old hdd into it as a slave and it still works but with the same problem. So my question is this; Is there anyway to access those files on my old c drive (now the D drive) that has the other o/s on it. Note: I cannot seem to get the machine to boot to that hdd. when I configure bios to do that and restart, tyhe thing just sits there with a blank screen. Also, I had the old o/s set up with me as the administrater and other users with their own desktops and files (like docs and pics) I can access those other files but not mine. What Up?Always better to start your own topic, but have a read here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

Discussion

6490.	Solve : How to add another hard drive??
Answer» Hi, I'm a SELF taught computer student. I'm thinking I can add an additional HD to my existing Dell Dimension, Pent. 4, 1.7 GHZ, Xp Pro. OS. Can I and How, and will the OS automatically SISTER up with my original HD?Here's a tutorial that may help you... http://www.helpwithpcs.com/upgrading/install-hard-drive.htm If you purchase a RETAIL boxed HD such as a Seagate, you will get a very helpful CD with utilities and a PICTORIAL how-to.shtmtlman ........ You already have a post in the hardware section about adding a second hard drive........ a second post simply confuses things.... I am locking this post ....... If you must have it unlocked, PM myself or another mod and it will be unlocked. dl65

Discussion

6491.	Solve : Company Laptop Purchase?
Answer» My company gave me a used laptop but it has all kinds of company program files and connects to the company servers. How do I: 1. ...know which program files I can delete to CLEAR space? 2. ...MAKE it CONNECT to my personal internet and email servers at home?If you have a Windows disk, how about reformatting it? If you don't, ask them for one. If they won't give you one, just uninstall ANYTHING you won't use or don't recognize, and do the same when clearing out files. As for the servers, GO into the programs you use and configure it to the same as another PC you use, or the settings recommended by your ISP and/or email provider.

Discussion

6492.	Solve : black screen after play?
Answer» Hello, I got a AMD 3800+ dual processor with 1G of Ram. video card Geforce 7500 256 mb. I bought it NEW like 4 months ago. I installed warcraft III frozen throne and i played it for 2 -3 months without any problems. Now like a month ago i cant get into desktop after i press "Quit game" it stays on black screen and i can only see my mouse and i can move the mouse. I cant Alt + Cntrl + Delete , nothing happens with ESC EITHER so what i did is i PRESSED the windows key and used the arrow keys to get the computer to stand by. I do all that in black screen, then i move my mouse to get it to the desktop and everything is fine and the game is Quit. and now whenever I put the computer to stand by it austomatically comes back on after -2 seconds. I still have the black screen problem. I did not install any software recently either. I only play warcraft and thats the only game i got and the computer still got 163 GB left out of 200 GB. I dont have much files in the computer as i bought it mostly for games. Still on warranty. It has a Lcdscreen and i increased the refresh rate from 60 to 70 and it came to desktop once after then it didnt. and when i changed it again it came to desktop once then it didn't. THANKS for your help Monitor = HP vs17e CPU = Compaq Presario Triple post, can a mod please lock?

Discussion

6493.	Solve : Laptop floppy drive problem when inserting disk.?
Answer» I just bought a refurbished Dell Inspiron laptop computer on Ebay. Perfect screen and everything works great except for one thing, the floppy A-Drive seems to resist taking the disk about 3/4 of the way in. The disk can be pushed with some effort to go flush with the edge but I could not get it to click in; so, the eject button never popped out. I tried to read the disk but got the message I expected that the disk was not inserted. I was able to remove the disk by grabbing it with some needle-nose pliers and gently pulled it out. My question is this. Could this just be a stubborn drive and I really just need to push it a bit further to see if I can get it to click or would that just end up getting it stuck for good? By the way, the computer was very well packed and the shipping box showed no signs of damage. Unfortunately, the drive is not a swappable one; so, if I get it stuck, it would take a bit of work to take the laptop apart to get the drive out. The person who sold it to me stated he will fix or replace the drive if I can't get it working. I'm not so sure I would send a good working laptop back when I can use the DVD/CD-ROM or hook a flash drive up to the USB port. So, if anyone has had some similar experiences, I would appreciate hearing from you. Since I intend to give this to my wife for Mother's Day, I may wait and let her decide. The last thing I want to do is get an OS that won't boot because a disk is stuck in the A-Drive. Of course, I could change the Drive order in the BIOS to prevent that, if memory serves me correctly. Thanks, Pete You should never force things, especially when it COMES to computers. This can result in even more damage. There's a good chance that there's something in there blocking the disk. Opening up a latop can be a bit of a pain, but I think it might be a good idea to try opening it up and seeing if there's anything stuck in there. Perhaps the shutter of an old disk (I see this happen a lot). This is sometimes the trouble with purchasing from eBay; you don't always get what you expect. It's nice of the guy to offer to fix it, but I suggest doing whatever you can first. I'm not quick to trust eBay sellers.Hi MATT, That sounds like good advice. I think I will wait until I give it to my wife on Sunday before trying anything but maybe something is stuck in the drive. I've actually had pretty good luck buying on eBay, probably because I don't expect the item to be perfect. This one actually was better than expected for what I paid for it; so I'm happy, even if I can't get the drive working. Floppy drives are a thing of the past; so, I'll just smile and tell my wife it was upgraded. That reminds me, I better get myself out to the store tomorrow and get her a flash drive if I expect to pull that one off! Thanks for your advice, PeteWhether you get this issue resolved or not, a flashdrive is a good idea. It's always handy to have a floppy drive available, but they're not exactly the most reliable format. And flashdrives keep getting more and more affordable.I would get the seller to remedy this pronto and don't post any FEEDBACK until he does. It is not your responsibility to fix this (yet) so don't even try. Try this: open the floppy drive door and look in with a flashlight. Most likely someone popped out a diskette but left the little metal portion in and either 1)didn't notice it or 2) didn't care. With a little patience you can fish that out and you're good-to-go. Alan <>< I should have mentioned that I did look in it with a flashlight but I don't think there was anything stuck in it. I fished around a bit with a thin plastic knife and shook it a little. Nothing was loose and I couldn't detect any object that was left in there. If there is something, it is smaller than the metal slider that covers the top portion of a floppy disk. Thanks for posting that info though, as that is one of the most common problems, that and kids toys that get placed in there! It may do someone else some good if they read your reply. In regard to the seller, this guy seems pretty helpful. He is waiting for me to give him some idea of how I would like to handle the situation. He probably would ship me another drive if I asked him to. He is willing to have it shipped back, fix it, and mail it back, but I think it is a little risky to have it shipped twice more and taken apart. It is a shame, but there are a lot to take apart to change out a floppy drive. I do have a parallel port floppy drive I could attach in its place. I could probably use the device manager to set that up to work in place of the other one. I have USB flash drives, too. I will probably make a bootable CD for now. Thanks for all the replies. I wanted to ask about this problem because getting answers from others with experience helps takes the mystery out of things. Forums are great for this and this one is one of the best. Pete No reason to send the machine back for him to replace the floppy drive...see if he will ship a new floppy drive NC...this will tell you if he is a valid guy or not. Quote from: pete_2006 on May 13, 2007, 10:27:38 AM He probably would ship me another drive if I asked him to. Like patio, I would definitely pursue this.Thanks Patio and Chris, I think I will email him tomorrow and see if he can send me a replacement for the drive. I found a link to a how-to page at Dell that does a good JOB explaining all the steps needed to replace the drive. But before I do that, I would like to try and hook up a parallel Micron floppy drive I have to the laptop but I cannot get XP to recognize it. I let Device Manager scan for new hardware but it doesn't detect that I hooked it up to the parallel port. Maybe I should post this question someplace else or start a new thread but do either of you know how to get such a device detected and how I would go about installing the driver? BTW - My best guess as to the driver location would be to search my Windows folder of my old 95 laptop, which is where this device came with. POSSIBLY the device is too outdated to work, I'm not sure. BTW - GX1_Man, I haven't posted any feedback yet and I never do until I'm sure everything works out. I know a lot of people seem to post feedback as soon as the package hits the door or even if they just won the bid. Maybe they get overly excited, I don't know. Anyway, that is good advice. Just to mention, this seller has had over 2500 sales in just computer and computer accessories with a 100% positive feedback. PeteAs i said...give him the opportunity and then we'll see.Do you have the model number of that Micron? Your computer doesn't recognize at all that something is plugged in? Not even an "Unknown hardware detected"? Does it work on any other computer?

6493.

Solve : Laptop floppy drive problem when inserting disk.?

Answer»

I just bought a refurbished Dell Inspiron laptop computer on Ebay. Perfect screen and everything works great except for one thing, the floppy A-Drive seems to resist taking the disk about 3/4 of the way in. The disk can be pushed with some effort to go flush with the edge but I could not get it to click in; so, the eject button never popped out. I tried to read the disk but got the message I expected that the disk was not inserted. I was able to remove the disk by grabbing it with some needle-nose pliers and gently pulled it out.

My question is this. Could this just be a stubborn drive and I really just need to push it a bit further to see if I can get it to click or would that just end up getting it stuck for good? By the way, the computer was very well packed and the shipping box showed no signs of damage.

Unfortunately, the drive is not a swappable one; so, if I get it stuck, it would take a bit of work to take the laptop apart to get the drive out. The person who sold it to me stated he will fix or replace the drive if I can't get it working. I'm not so sure I would send a good working laptop back when I can use the DVD/CD-ROM or hook a flash drive up to the USB port.

So, if anyone has had some similar experiences, I would appreciate hearing from you. Since I intend to give this to my wife for Mother's Day, I may wait and let her decide. The last thing I want to do is get an OS that won't boot because a disk is stuck in the A-Drive. Of course, I could change the Drive order in the BIOS to prevent that, if memory serves me correctly.

Thanks,

Pete

You should never force things, especially when it COMES to computers. This can result in even more damage. There's a good chance that there's something in there blocking the disk.

Opening up a latop can be a bit of a pain, but I think it might be a good idea to try opening it up and seeing if there's anything stuck in there. Perhaps the shutter of an old disk (I see this happen a lot).

This is sometimes the trouble with purchasing from eBay; you don't always get what you expect. It's nice of the guy to offer to fix it, but I suggest doing whatever you can first. I'm not quick to trust eBay sellers.Hi MATT,

That sounds like good advice. I think I will wait until I give it to my wife on Sunday before trying anything but maybe something is stuck in the drive. I've actually had pretty good luck buying on eBay, probably because I don't expect the item to be perfect. This one actually was better than expected for what I paid for it; so I'm happy, even if I can't get the drive working. Floppy drives are a thing of the past; so, I'll just smile and tell my wife it was upgraded. That reminds me, I better get myself out to the store tomorrow and get her a flash drive if I expect to pull that one off!

Thanks for your advice,

PeteWhether you get this issue resolved or not, a flashdrive is a good idea. It's always handy to have a floppy drive available, but they're not exactly the most reliable format. And flashdrives keep getting more and more affordable.I would get the seller to remedy this pronto and don't post any FEEDBACK until he does. It is not your responsibility to fix this (yet) so don't even try. Try this: open the floppy drive door and look in with a flashlight. Most likely someone popped out a diskette but left the little metal portion in and either 1)didn't notice it or 2) didn't care. With a little patience you can fish that out and you're good-to-go.

Alan <>< I should have mentioned that I did look in it with a flashlight but I don't think there was anything stuck in it. I fished around a bit with a thin plastic knife and shook it a little. Nothing was loose and I couldn't detect any object that was left in there. If there is something, it is smaller than the metal slider that covers the top portion of a floppy disk.

Thanks for posting that info though, as that is one of the most common problems, that and kids toys that get placed in there! It may do someone else some good if they read your reply.

In regard to the seller, this guy seems pretty helpful. He is waiting for me to give him some idea of how I would like to handle the situation. He probably would ship me another drive if I asked him to. He is willing to have it shipped back, fix it, and mail it back, but I think it is a little risky to have it shipped twice more and taken apart. It is a shame, but there are a lot to take apart to change out a floppy drive.

I do have a parallel port floppy drive I could attach in its place. I could probably use the device manager to set that up to work in place of the other one. I have USB flash drives, too. I will probably make a bootable CD for now.

Thanks for all the replies. I wanted to ask about this problem because getting answers from others with experience helps takes the mystery out of things. Forums are great for this and this one is one of the best.

Pete

No reason to send the machine back for him to replace the floppy drive...see if he will ship a new floppy drive NC...this will tell you if he is a valid guy or not. Quote from: pete_2006 on May 13, 2007, 10:27:38 AM

He probably would ship me another drive if I asked him to.

Like patio, I would definitely pursue this.Thanks Patio and Chris,

I think I will email him tomorrow and see if he can send me a replacement for the drive. I found a link to a how-to page at Dell that does a good JOB explaining all the steps needed to replace the drive. But before I do that, I would like to try and hook up a parallel Micron floppy drive I have to the laptop but I cannot get XP to recognize it. I let Device Manager scan for new hardware but it doesn't detect that I hooked it up to the parallel port. Maybe I should post this question someplace else or start a new thread but do either of you know how to get such a device detected and how I would go about installing the driver? BTW - My best guess as to the driver location would be to search my Windows folder of my old 95 laptop, which is where this device came with. POSSIBLY the device is too outdated to work, I'm not sure.

BTW - GX1_Man, I haven't posted any feedback yet and I never do until I'm sure everything works out. I know a lot of people seem to post feedback as soon as the package hits the door or even if they just won the bid. Maybe they get overly excited, I don't know. Anyway, that is good advice. Just to mention, this seller has had over 2500 sales in just computer and computer accessories with a 100% positive feedback.

PeteAs i said...give him the opportunity and then we'll see.Do you have the model number of that Micron?
Your computer doesn't recognize at all that something is plugged in? Not even an "Unknown hardware detected"?
Does it work on any other computer?

Discussion

6494.	Solve : wavy picture on s-video?
Answer» i have an older computer with a radeon 9250 graphics card that i'm trying to run video from to my tv via s-video cable. i've ran s-video to this tv before but not on this computer. i can get a picture on my tv, but no matter what res i set it to i get a wavy and distorted picture. any idea what could be the PROBLEM? thanks.What did you use before to run video to the TV? Try updating your drivers. 1. Download new drivers, but do not install. 2. Remove old drivers. 3. Reboot. 4. Install new drivers. 5. Reboot.Could easily be a faulty or cheap S-Video cable. Or ONE that is much too long and is COILED up. ok i'll try the drivers. the s-video cable i'm using is the one that CAME with the card. its only like 3ft long. to run video before, i used just my desktop with an s-video cable out the back of my vid card, same as i'm trying now.my tv is slowly dieing i think, i put it on a different tv and it WORKS like a charm. thanks.Yup that's the other thing. Computer outputs can upset older TVs especially if they are sick already.

Discussion

6495.	Solve : (SOLVED) Huge problem, help needed.?
Answer» First, here are my computer specifications. Motherboard: ASUS P5N32-E SLI Nforce 680I SLI LGA775 Conroe ATX DDR2 2PCI-E16 PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 RAID Motherboard CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core Processor LGA775 Kentsfield 2.40GHZ 1066FSB 8MB Retail Box Graphics card: EVGA 8800 GTX Hard drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB SATA2 3GB/S 7200RPM 16MB Cache NCQ Hard Drive Power Supply: OCZ GameXStream 700W ATX12V 24PIN SLI Ready Active PFC ATX Power Supply 120MM Fan Black Memory: Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 2GB 2X1GB PC6400 DDR2-800 CL 4-4-4-12 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit OS: Windows Vista Home Premium The problem I'm having, is that whenever I try to run something that needs a bit of power, the computer just shuts down, without any warning. This happened in the following situations: Playing a videogame Doing a scan with SpyBot Running 3DMark05 Trying to get a rating for my computer with Vista's rate-your-computer-thing Another interesting thing I noticed, is that when it does shut down, and I start it up again right away, it will shut down again when loading Windows, while if I wait a bit (one minutes or so), it will be fine. Edit: I just tried to run Starcraft, and it WORKS, however the colors are messed up. Edit2: In-game is fine, its only the menus. Quote from: DivineRage002 on May 10, 2007, 07:32:29 PM First, here are my computer specifications. Motherboard: ASUS P5N32-E SLI Nforce 680I SLI LGA775 Conroe ATX DDR2 2PCI-E16 PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 RAID Motherboard CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core Processor LGA775 Kentsfield 2.40GHZ 1066FSB 8MB Retail Box Graphics card: EVGA 8800 GTX Hard drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB SATA2 3GB/S 7200RPM 16MB Cache NCQ Hard Drive Power Supply: OCZ GameXStream 700W ATX12V 24PIN SLI Ready Active PFC ATX Power Supply 120MM Fan Black Memory: Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 2GB 2X1GB PC6400 DDR2-800 CL 4-4-4-12 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit OS: Windows Vista Home Premium The problem I'm having, is that whenever I try to run something that needs a bit of power, the computer just shuts down, without any warning. This happened in the following situations: Playing a videogame Doing a scan with SpyBot Running 3DMark05 Trying to get a rating for my computer with Vista's rate-your-computer-thing Another interesting thing I noticed, is that when it does shut down, and I start it up again right away, it will shut down again when loading Windows, while if I wait a bit (one minutes or so), it will be fine. Edit: I just tried to run Starcraft, and it works, however the colors are messed up. Edit2: In-game is fine, its only the menus. Welcome to hope.com !! (first off) most impressive !! Nice ~ 1. Vista < probably/ might be having some hardware issues. 2. driver issue ? ( look for further comments here on this, I am not too knowledgeable on particulars.... 3. Are you over clocking this board ? there are some major problems occurring with the 680i .... the 680i board with the quad core chips are failing..mfg -problem..... I know EVG is giving free replacements not sure on Asus 4. Heat ? do you have more than the 1# 120 mm fan on the PSU, OK >how many other fans are in the case & do you have the stock heatsink/fan on the cpu or an upgrade ? that card's heat is intense , are you getting good air FLOW in your case, MONITORED the temps? Quote he problem I'm having, is that whenever I try to run something that needs a bit of power, the computer just shuts down, without any warning. This happened in the following situations: Playing a videogame Doing a scan with SpyBot Running 3DMark05 Trying to get a rating for my computer with Vista's rate-your-computer-thing Another interesting thing I noticed, is that when it does shut down, and I start it up again right away, it will shut down again when loading Windows, while if I wait a bit (one minutes or so), it will be fine. Sounds like a heat problem. Check your temperatures, as honvetops said. P.S. Nice computer.Alright, I unplugged the Zalman 9700 heatsink and re-plugged it in, seems to work fine now.Sometimes we are just that good. Sounds like it was just a loose connection, leading to a heat problem. Glad you got it sorted and thanks for posting back.

6495.

Solve : (SOLVED) Huge problem, help needed.?

Answer»

First, here are my computer specifications.

Motherboard: ASUS P5N32-E SLI Nforce 680I SLI LGA775 Conroe ATX DDR2 2PCI-E16 PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 RAID Motherboard

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core Processor LGA775 Kentsfield 2.40GHZ 1066FSB 8MB Retail Box

Graphics card: EVGA 8800 GTX

Hard drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB SATA2 3GB/S 7200RPM 16MB Cache NCQ Hard Drive

Power Supply: OCZ GameXStream 700W ATX12V 24PIN SLI Ready Active PFC ATX Power Supply 120MM Fan Black

Memory: Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 2GB 2X1GB PC6400 DDR2-800 CL 4-4-4-12 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit

OS: Windows Vista Home Premium

The problem I'm having, is that whenever I try to run something that needs a bit of power, the computer just shuts down, without any warning.

This happened in the following situations:

Playing a videogame
Doing a scan with SpyBot
Running 3DMark05
Trying to get a rating for my computer with Vista's rate-your-computer-thing

Another interesting thing I noticed, is that when it does shut down, and I start it up again right away, it will shut down again when loading Windows, while if I wait a bit (one minutes or so), it will be fine.

Edit: I just tried to run Starcraft, and it WORKS, however the colors are messed up.

Edit2: In-game is fine, its only the menus.

Quote from: DivineRage002 on May 10, 2007, 07:32:29 PM

First, here are my computer specifications.

Motherboard: ASUS P5N32-E SLI Nforce 680I SLI LGA775 Conroe ATX DDR2 2PCI-E16 PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 RAID Motherboard

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core Processor LGA775 Kentsfield 2.40GHZ 1066FSB 8MB Retail Box

Graphics card: EVGA 8800 GTX

Hard drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB SATA2 3GB/S 7200RPM 16MB Cache NCQ Hard Drive

Power Supply: OCZ GameXStream 700W ATX12V 24PIN SLI Ready Active PFC ATX Power Supply 120MM Fan Black

Memory: Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 2GB 2X1GB PC6400 DDR2-800 CL 4-4-4-12 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit

OS: Windows Vista Home Premium

The problem I'm having, is that whenever I try to run something that needs a bit of power, the computer just shuts down, without any warning.

This happened in the following situations:

Playing a videogame
Doing a scan with SpyBot
Running 3DMark05
Trying to get a rating for my computer with Vista's rate-your-computer-thing

Another interesting thing I noticed, is that when it does shut down, and I start it up again right away, it will shut down again when loading Windows, while if I wait a bit (one minutes or so), it will be fine.

Edit: I just tried to run Starcraft, and it works, however the colors are messed up.

Edit2: In-game is fine, its only the menus.

Welcome to hope.com !!
(first off) most impressive !! Nice ~

1. Vista < probably/ might be having some hardware issues.
2. driver issue ? ( look for further comments here on this, I am not too knowledgeable on particulars....
3. Are you over clocking this board ? there are some major problems occurring with the 680i .... the 680i board with the quad core chips are failing..mfg -problem.....
I know EVG is giving free replacements not sure on Asus
4. Heat ? do you have more than the 1# 120 mm fan on the PSU, OK >how many other fans are in the case & do you have the stock heatsink/fan on the cpu or an upgrade ? that card's heat is intense , are you getting good air FLOW in your case, MONITORED the temps?
Quote

he problem I'm having, is that whenever I try to run something that needs a bit of power, the computer just shuts down, without any warning.

This happened in the following situations:

Playing a videogame
Doing a scan with SpyBot
Running 3DMark05
Trying to get a rating for my computer with Vista's rate-your-computer-thing

Another interesting thing I noticed, is that when it does shut down, and I start it up again right away, it will shut down again when loading Windows, while if I wait a bit (one minutes or so), it will be fine.

Sounds like a heat problem.
Check your temperatures, as honvetops said.
P.S. Nice computer.Alright, I unplugged the Zalman 9700 heatsink and re-plugged it in, seems to work fine now.Sometimes we are just that good. Sounds like it was just a loose connection, leading to a heat problem.
Glad you got it sorted and thanks for posting back.

Discussion

6496.	Solve : (Resolved) Bios not detecting hdd?
Answer» This is on an "older" machine. Bios will auto detect smaller hdd's but am trying to install a new 80Gb. With bios set to Auto detect with LBA and the hdd jumpered as Master or Cable Select bios gets as far as "Detecting IDE Primary Master (Press F4 to skip)" then stops dead, F4 has no affect. With bios set to Auto Detect with LBA and the hdd jumpered as Slave bios detects the Master drive then displays "Detecting IDE Primary Slave (Press F4 to skip)" then locks up, again F4 has no affect. It appears that bios will not accept hdd settings greater than the max displayed. Am I correct in assuming that the bios is not detecting the drive because of its size?. The drive performs perfectly on a newer machine. Thanks.Some ACTUAL details on the machine would be helpful.Sorry GX - my inexperience shows through again. I have ATTACHED Report.txt showing specs. The disk I'm attempting to install is a Seagate 80Gb 7200rpm ATA100 Model ST380215A Thanks again. [old attachment deleted by admin]ATrend is no longer in business. Their motherboards are hard to find much info on. Hopes of a legitimate BIOS update which may SOLVE the problem are poor. Keep a smaller drive in there, as that APPARENTLY WORKS. Thankyou.You're welcome, and happy computing.Have you tried setting the drive up with Seagates SeaTools? If they were not included with the drive, they can be downloaded from the Seagate site. They will likely fit on a floppy and often will permit larger drives to be used with old bios.The hdd requires Ultra ATA interface (80 conductor UATA cable) where one pin-hole on the connector is blanked. The UATA interface will not fit into the hdd socket on the mobo as the socket has all pins mounted. The ATA 40-conductor interface appears to be not much use with this drive. Seems I should have done a bit more investigation before rushing to secure a "bargain" Thanks.

Discussion

6497.	Solve : Help! Black ink won't dry on photo paper! Why???
Answer» Hello, I have a Canon IPF5100 printer. My problem is that black ink won’t dry on any photo paper that I print! I have tried everything I can think of, bought a brand new set of inks, tried several different semi-gloss and glossy paper, tried MANY different settings for paper on the printer, and different paper profiles on the software provided (Photoshop plug in). EVEN after weeks, if I run my finger over the black areas of the print the ink RUBS off. All other ink colours set immediately after coming out of the printer.. If anyone has any ideas, please HELP!!!! You need the photo paper inks...Just as Patio stated... I ran into same issue with all inks in my old Epson C60 years ago and found out about this then. I was using some cheap cartridges through an online generic ink cartridge provider in which I was able to get ink cartridges for like $7 each vs paying $20 each, and I ENDED up having to just swap out my cheap ink with official epson ink which was rated for photo printing and would dry.Hi guys, thanks for your replies, I installed a whole set of brand new Canon photo ink cartridges a week or so ago, and the problem is persisting. I am wondering if some of the old ink might still be in the print heads? but I have run cleaning programmes several times already... Any thoughts?If they are only a week old i'd return them for replacement with an explanation of what's happening... Very well may be out of date stock...

Discussion

6498.	Solve : Very Picky old computer - And odd issue after video card upgrade?
Answer» Friend of mine has a Pentium 4 2.66Ghz ( socket 478 ) in an ASUS P4PE motherboard. he is running Windows XP Home SP3 with 1GB RAM in which this motherboard has 3 RAM slots and there are a pair of matching generic unknown brand 512MB DDR 333Mhz sticks placed into slots 1 and 3 with slot 2 empty. So here is how this motherboard is picky: 1.) I have a bunch of old DDR RAM laying around but only a few 266Mhz slicks and the rest are 400Mhz DDR sticks. I tried to add a 512MB DDR 400Mhz Kingston stick to this system after confirming online that this stick can run at 333Mhz underclocked. His system will not post with this 400Mhz stick placed in there. So I then tried other brand 400Mhz sticks that were 512MB and 256MB to see if I could give him a free memory upgrade to either 1.5GB or 1.25GB of RAM, but it still would not post with any of these in that 2nd slot. I then tested that 2nd slot by moving the stick from slot 3 to slot 2 and it booted with no issues so I know that memory slot is good. I then removed the 2 unknown brand 512MB sticks and placed a single 512MB 400Mhz stick into the board and tried to boot and still no post. I then dug out an old system I have that takes 266/333/400Mhz DDR to test the sticks and the sticks were fine with memtest86, so this motherboard is extremely picky and must require 266 or 333Mhz only. And I was hesitant in adding the 266Mhz stick into slot 2 with his other RAM because if it does work while it would give him more memory, it would decrease the system performance. So until I find him a 333Mhz stick such as on ebay I guess he is stuck with 1024MB RAM when max RAM supported is 2GB. 2.) Board CPU support suggests some 800Mhz FSB Prescott CPU support with FSB overclock, but the site is broken to give details on what info use to be there here at: http://support.asus.com/Cpusupport/List.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=P4PE&p=1&s=15 So I had a P4-3 GHz (800 FSB, L2 cache:512KB, HT, D1/M0) which is same as listed in supported under the overclock support and upon swapping out the CPU and booting there is a black screen and then siren like noise from internal speaker and then the Female Voice from the BIOS complaining about CPU failure. **** Now this motherboard has a very strange way of powering the CPU, it has an onboard male P-connector for 5V and 12V, and so I figured maybe the reason why its failing the CPU post diagnostic is because the no name power supply is not able to power the more watt DEMANDING 3Ghz HT CPU vs the prior 2.66Ghz single core, and so I swapped out the no name 300watt power supply with a known good spare 350 watt modern PSU and made sure the CPU P-connector was plugged in and booted it up and got the same result. Looked all over for any info on "HOW" people got the 3Ghz CPU to work in this board and one detail I noticed was that the BIOS version was 1002 and the CPU support for the 3Ghz required 1005 or newer. And so I swapped the 2.66ghz back into the motherboard and it booted up correctly, I then had to dig for some floppy disks in storage that I havent used a floppy in almost 8 years because the BIOS Flash utility only would run from a floppy disk ( or I suppose I could have made a bootable CD with the utility but I didnt want to spend any extra time on this than necessary ), so with 1.44MB floppy disk in hand I formatted it to be bootable with Windows XP Home, and then copied the aflash utility to it and the 1007 version of the BIOS flash to make it the most up to date it could possibly be for CPU support. Flashed with no problems and booted it back up with the original 2.66Ghz P4. Then SHUTDOWN and swap of the CPU to the 3Ghz and then right back where I started with the Female Voice at post that there is a CPU failure. So removed the 3Ghz CPU and placed this CPU into a 3.2Ghz socket 478 motherboard system I have to test the 3Ghz HT CPU and the CPU is perfectly fine. Place the 3.2Ghz CPU back into my old spare system and place the 2.66Ghz back into his system because unless I find anything new such as a jumper setting etc, this system obviously is not going to boot off of that 3Ghz CPU even though its in the support list and now the BIOS is version 1007. 3.) He had a Geforce 4 MX 440 AGB 8x video card with 128MB VRAM. I have 2 x XFX Brand Geforce 6200 8x AGP video cards with 256MB VRAM, so I figured I might as well give him a free upgrade to the 6 series GPU from the older 4 series GPU, and everything seemed ok at first. I then downloaded the 307.xxx version from nvidia for this card as for thats the last version for the 6200 for Windows XP 32-bit. Went to install that driver and it went through the install process and then failed. Rebooted system and it was running off of Windows generic video driver with 800x600 max res. I then tried again and 307.xxx failed again. I then downloaded version 306.xxx from nvidia and tried that, and that installed successfully. It then requested a reboot and so I rebooted and everything seemed well. Now he had res support beyond 1024x768 even though he runs at 1024x768 and the nvida icon was in the tray with utility etc. So then he decided to try out some facebook flash games with it and surprisingly the flash games are running much worse now with the Geforce 6200 video card than the Geforce 4 MX440. This makes absolutely no sense. So I then downloaded and ran Passmark on his system with the 6200 card installed and wrote down the scores for the CPU and the GPU since the 30-day trial doesnt allow of saving or printing info. I then shutdown the system and placed the Geforce 4 mx 440 card back in and it surprisingly ran without complaints with the newer 306.xxx driver. Ran passmark again and wrote down the CPU and GPU results. Results were that the CPU with the Geforce 6200 installed dropped 5 points from like 214 to 209 and the video card showed a score 30 points higher than the Geforce 4 mx440. Ran the test again between both cards to make sure the numbers wouldnt change and got same results. Swapped 6200 back into system and also noticed that the graphics refresh seems to lag some with the 6200 with taring of windows when moving windows around on the desktop. So for the fact that I have 2 of these video cards, i swapped that 6200 out with another and got no surprise ... the same results with screen taring of windows. Tried both of these cards in another older system I have with AGP slot and the cards run perfectly fine on the other computer so I know the video cards are fine and its pointing to an issue with friends system After 4 hours too many wasted on this system I offered my friend another system that I have that is a 2.8Ghz P4 for free, but he didnt want it. He wanted to stick with his 12 year old beast. Lastly I used a XP Home SP3 slipstream to reinstall Windows clean with his system key so there is no potential of malware etc and then reinstalled video driver 306.xxx and still same issue remains with the 6200. I swapped the Geforce 4 MX440 back into the system and it was back to behaving again although a lesser powerful GPU than the 6200. Anyone have any suggestions on what I may have missed? I cant imagine a Geforce 6200 being a wrong pairing to a Pentium 4 2.66Ghz with 333RAM as for I ran this video card on a Athlon XP 2800+ 2.08Ghz years ago and no problems with that and that was also 333FSB RAM. My thoughts are if I had some 333Mhz RAM to test this system with I'd try that next to see if the generic no name RAM has any relation to the video card issues just in case they are the cause, but the motherboard is one picky old board which is surprising of an ASUS board, although its an old oddball motherboard with P-connector CPU power and a Bios that talks to you at boot with POST successful and OS now booting in Female Voice. This computer he bought from a mail order gaming computer manufacturer in which he paid like $1300 back in 2003 or 2004 for this system, and hadnt upgraded anything until recent attempts with my free parts and time.. Digging online I found some info on the P4PE for 800Mhz FSB CPU and it was surprising to read that there is claim that in order to have this 800Mhz FSB CPU function you have to only install a single 400Mhz DDR RAM stick as for it wont work with any additional RAM installed.... WOW!!! http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/161610-29-p4pe-800mhz-upgrade Quote Asus claims that you can use an 800 MHz FSB CPU, if you have BIOS 1006 installed (1005 is listed as OK for some chips), with two limitations: 1) You may only use a single PC3200 (DDR400) DIMM, and 2) The CPU must be a Northwood (c suffix) rather than a Prescott (e suffix). I don't know about overclocking. The single DIMM requirement sounds like things may be close to the ragged edge as it stands. Its looking like he is going to be sticking with the 2.66Ghz Pentium 4 CPU I guess, since a single stick that i can provide would drop him to 512MB DDR400 RAM and 1GB of DDR333 with a CPU that isnt HT I guess is the way to go vs better CPU performance and less memory... Now to figure out the RAM capacity upgrade issue in which I guess I need to locate a 333Mhz FSB DDR stick and resolve the GeForce 6200 issue or just leave it be with the GeForce 4 MX440 Found some info that might help my friends computer get better performance without a memory or CPU upgrade. The ASUS P4PE supports overclocking and info online suggests that the Pentium 4 2.66Ghz can take up to a 3.2Ghz OC through FSB overclock with stock Intel cooler and no changes to voltages. It wont be the same performance as a Pentium 4 3.2Ghz because its the older core design and lacking HT, but maybe this will make the system more lively. I suppose if it roasts and dies through this process maybe I can convince him to buy a new computer or take a better computer for free from me than what he has with this setup *What will be a big factor here with this upgrade attempt will be if the unknown brand memory will act up when I start to push the FSB up. Going to try for 3Ghz first and check the CPU temp with stock cooler and if there is some room for extra heat creation and everything is running solid maybe I will try for 3.2Ghz out of it as this person shared worked for them. Although my guess is that they had better quality and performance memory which would take a FSB overclock better than unknown brand probably cheap memory sticks at the time that may act up with the slightest overclock of the FSB. The good thing is that the fan is cleaned out on the CPU and new arctic silver thermal compound was added, so it should be able to draw the heat away as good as new vs trying this on old dried out compound. The original thermal compound was all dried up and chalky grey after 12 years of daily use. Quote First impressions. Change the cpu, stock voltage (1.525V). 2.660Mhz just to test if it all is fine. Reboot and FSB 150 Mhz. Boot at 3.000 Mhz, stock voltage, everything works. Test Sandra and the values are the normal for a p4 3.06ghz. Reboot and FSB 160 Mhz Boot at 3200 Mhz, stock voltage. boot normally to windows. Reboot as I run the CPU test in Sandra. This was DONE with stock cooling. I didn't had time to test anymore. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=1076495Overclock successful, but not as overclocked as wanted to be. CPU has a locked multiplier of 20x. I started with 3200Mhz with 160Mhz FSB OC and no boot Dropped to 3160Mhz with 158Mhz FSB OC and successful BIOS Post, but OS would not boot Continued dropping all the way down to 3000Mhz with 150Mhz FSB OC and now the OS is booting, but windows is crashing randomly. Dropped to 2959Mhz with 148Mhz FSB OC and it seemed as though Windows was no longer crashing, but now Firefox is crashing such as at Facebook with Flash games. Dropped to 2940Mhz with 147Mhz FSB OC and OS is happy and Firefox is no longer crashing. Started to stress test the CPU and monitor temps. CPU holding steady at 51C. CPU showed errors early on with SuperPI calculating 16M Dropped to 2920Mhz with 146Mhz FSB OC and OS & Browser is happy. Ran stress test and CPU temp 50-51C holding steady and at the end of the stress test the CPU showed errors with SuperPI calculating 16M. Dropped to 2900Mhz with 145Mhz FSB OC and everything is now running without any signs of problems. CPU tops out at 50C in 70F room. Looks like with the unknown brand RAM, this is all he is going to get out of this Pentium 4. If I had better quality RAM to place into this, I feel that the stability issues might go away as for the Pentium 4 still has room to run warmer. I also could mess with increasing voltages to try to gain stability, but while a melt down would give him a good reason to get a better system, he really loves his old gaming system even though he doesnt play any modern games on it other than flash games and prefers playing older titles like Diablo II and starcraft etc which it is plenty for. Attached is the crash condition and the final stable overclock for the Pentium 4 2.66Ghz running at 2.9Ghz [attachment deleted by ADMIN to conserve space]

6498.

Solve : Very Picky old computer - And odd issue after video card upgrade?

Answer»

Friend of mine has a Pentium 4 2.66Ghz ( socket 478 ) in an ASUS P4PE motherboard. he is running Windows XP Home SP3 with 1GB RAM in which this motherboard has 3 RAM slots and there are a pair of matching generic unknown brand 512MB DDR 333Mhz sticks placed into slots 1 and 3 with slot 2 empty.

So here is how this motherboard is picky:

1.) I have a bunch of old DDR RAM laying around but only a few 266Mhz slicks and the rest are 400Mhz DDR sticks. I tried to add a 512MB DDR 400Mhz Kingston stick to this system after confirming online that this stick can run at 333Mhz underclocked. His system will not post with this 400Mhz stick placed in there. So I then tried other brand 400Mhz sticks that were 512MB and 256MB to see if I could give him a free memory upgrade to either 1.5GB or 1.25GB of RAM, but it still would not post with any of these in that 2nd slot. I then tested that 2nd slot by moving the stick from slot 3 to slot 2 and it booted with no issues so I know that memory slot is good. I then removed the 2 unknown brand 512MB sticks and placed a single 512MB 400Mhz stick into the board and tried to boot and still no post. I then dug out an old system I have that takes 266/333/400Mhz DDR to test the sticks and the sticks were fine with memtest86, so this motherboard is extremely picky and must require 266 or 333Mhz only. And I was hesitant in adding the 266Mhz stick into slot 2 with his other RAM because if it does work while it would give him more memory, it would decrease the system performance. So until I find him a 333Mhz stick such as on ebay I guess he is stuck with 1024MB RAM when max RAM supported is 2GB.

2.) Board CPU support suggests some 800Mhz FSB Prescott CPU support with FSB overclock, but the site is broken to give details on what info use to be there here at: http://support.asus.com/Cpusupport/List.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=P4PE&p=1&s=15

So I had a P4-3 GHz (800 FSB, L2 cache:512KB, HT, D1/M0) which is same as listed in supported under the overclock support and upon swapping out the CPU and booting there is a black screen and then siren like noise from internal speaker and then the Female Voice from the BIOS complaining about CPU failure.

**** Now this motherboard has a very strange way of powering the CPU, it has an onboard male P-connector for 5V and 12V, and so I figured maybe the reason why its failing the CPU post diagnostic is because the no name power supply is not able to power the more watt DEMANDING 3Ghz HT CPU vs the prior 2.66Ghz single core, and so I swapped out the no name 300watt power supply with a known good spare 350 watt modern PSU and made sure the CPU P-connector was plugged in and booted it up and got the same result. Looked all over for any info on "HOW" people got the 3Ghz CPU to work in this board and one detail I noticed was that the BIOS version was 1002 and the CPU support for the 3Ghz required 1005 or newer. And so I swapped the 2.66ghz back into the motherboard and it booted up correctly, I then had to dig for some floppy disks in storage that I havent used a floppy in almost 8 years because the BIOS Flash utility only would run from a floppy disk ( or I suppose I could have made a bootable CD with the utility but I didnt want to spend any extra time on this than necessary ), so with 1.44MB floppy disk in hand I formatted it to be bootable with Windows XP Home, and then copied the aflash utility to it and the 1007 version of the BIOS flash to make it the most up to date it could possibly be for CPU support. Flashed with no problems and booted it back up with the original 2.66Ghz P4. Then SHUTDOWN and swap of the CPU to the 3Ghz and then right back where I started with the Female Voice at post that there is a CPU failure. So removed the 3Ghz CPU and placed this CPU into a 3.2Ghz socket 478 motherboard system I have to test the 3Ghz HT CPU and the CPU is perfectly fine. Place the 3.2Ghz CPU back into my old spare system and place the 2.66Ghz back into his system because unless I find anything new such as a jumper setting etc, this system obviously is not going to boot off of that 3Ghz CPU even though its in the support list and now the BIOS is version 1007.

3.) He had a Geforce 4 MX 440 AGB 8x video card with 128MB VRAM. I have 2 x XFX Brand Geforce 6200 8x AGP video cards with 256MB VRAM, so I figured I might as well give him a free upgrade to the 6 series GPU from the older 4 series GPU, and everything seemed ok at first. I then downloaded the 307.xxx version from nvidia for this card as for thats the last version for the 6200 for Windows XP 32-bit. Went to install that driver and it went through the install process and then failed. Rebooted system and it was running off of Windows generic video driver with 800x600 max res. I then tried again and 307.xxx failed again. I then downloaded version 306.xxx from nvidia and tried that, and that installed successfully. It then requested a reboot and so I rebooted and everything seemed well. Now he had res support beyond 1024x768 even though he runs at 1024x768 and the nvida icon was in the tray with utility etc.

So then he decided to try out some facebook flash games with it and surprisingly the flash games are running much worse now with the Geforce 6200 video card than the Geforce 4 MX440. This makes absolutely no sense.

So I then downloaded and ran Passmark on his system with the 6200 card installed and wrote down the scores for the CPU and the GPU since the 30-day trial doesnt allow of saving or printing info. I then shutdown the system and placed the Geforce 4 mx 440 card back in and it surprisingly ran without complaints with the newer 306.xxx driver. Ran passmark again and wrote down the CPU and GPU results.

Results were that the CPU with the Geforce 6200 installed dropped 5 points from like 214 to 209 and the video card showed a score 30 points higher than the Geforce 4 mx440. Ran the test again between both cards to make sure the numbers wouldnt change and got same results.

Swapped 6200 back into system and also noticed that the graphics refresh seems to lag some with the 6200 with taring of windows when moving windows around on the desktop.

So for the fact that I have 2 of these video cards, i swapped that 6200 out with another and got no surprise ... the same results with screen taring of windows.

Tried both of these cards in another older system I have with AGP slot and the cards run perfectly fine on the other computer so I know the video cards are fine and its pointing to an issue with friends system

After 4 hours too many wasted on this system I offered my friend another system that I have that is a 2.8Ghz P4 for free, but he didnt want it. He wanted to stick with his 12 year old beast.

Lastly I used a XP Home SP3 slipstream to reinstall Windows clean with his system key so there is no potential of malware etc and then reinstalled video driver 306.xxx and still same issue remains with the 6200.

I swapped the Geforce 4 MX440 back into the system and it was back to behaving again although a lesser powerful GPU than the 6200.

Anyone have any suggestions on what I may have missed? I cant imagine a Geforce 6200 being a wrong pairing to a Pentium 4 2.66Ghz with 333RAM as for I ran this video card on a Athlon XP 2800+ 2.08Ghz years ago and no problems with that and that was also 333FSB RAM.

My thoughts are if I had some 333Mhz RAM to test this system with I'd try that next to see if the generic no name RAM has any relation to the video card issues just in case they are the cause, but the motherboard is one picky old board which is surprising of an ASUS board, although its an old oddball motherboard with P-connector CPU power and a Bios that talks to you at boot with POST successful and OS now booting in Female Voice. This computer he bought from a mail order gaming computer manufacturer in which he paid like $1300 back in 2003 or 2004 for this system, and hadnt upgraded anything until recent attempts with my free parts and time.. Digging online I found some info on the P4PE for 800Mhz FSB CPU and it was surprising to read that there is claim that in order to have this 800Mhz FSB CPU function you have to only install a single 400Mhz DDR RAM stick as for it wont work with any additional RAM installed.... WOW!!!

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/161610-29-p4pe-800mhz-upgrade

Quote

Asus claims that you can use an 800 MHz FSB CPU, if you have BIOS 1006
installed (1005 is listed as OK for some chips), with two limitations:

1) You may only use a single PC3200 (DDR400) DIMM, and

2) The CPU must be a Northwood (c suffix) rather than a Prescott (e suffix).

I don't know about overclocking. The single DIMM requirement sounds like
things may be close to the ragged edge as it stands.

Its looking like he is going to be sticking with the 2.66Ghz Pentium 4 CPU I guess, since a single stick that i can provide would drop him to 512MB DDR400 RAM and 1GB of DDR333 with a CPU that isnt HT I guess is the way to go vs better CPU performance and less memory...

Now to figure out the RAM capacity upgrade issue in which I guess I need to locate a 333Mhz FSB DDR stick and resolve the GeForce 6200 issue or just leave it be with the GeForce 4 MX440

Found some info that might help my friends computer get better performance without a memory or CPU upgrade. The ASUS P4PE supports overclocking and info online suggests that the Pentium 4 2.66Ghz can take up to a 3.2Ghz OC through FSB overclock with stock Intel cooler and no changes to voltages.

It wont be the same performance as a Pentium 4 3.2Ghz because its the older core design and lacking HT, but maybe this will make the system more lively.

I suppose if it roasts and dies through this process maybe I can convince him to buy a new computer or take a better computer for free from me than what he has with this setup

*What will be a big factor here with this upgrade attempt will be if the unknown brand memory will act up when I start to push the FSB up. Going to try for 3Ghz first and check the CPU temp with stock cooler and if there is some room for extra heat creation and everything is running solid maybe I will try for 3.2Ghz out of it as this person shared worked for them. Although my guess is that they had better quality and performance memory which would take a FSB overclock better than unknown brand probably cheap memory sticks at the time that may act up with the slightest overclock of the FSB. The good thing is that the fan is cleaned out on the CPU and new arctic silver thermal compound was added, so it should be able to draw the heat away as good as new vs trying this on old dried out compound. The original thermal compound was all dried up and chalky grey after 12 years of daily use.

Quote

First impressions.

Change the cpu, stock voltage (1.525V).
2.660Mhz just to test if it all is fine.

Reboot and FSB 150 Mhz.
Boot at 3.000 Mhz, stock voltage, everything works.
Test Sandra and the values are the normal for a p4 3.06ghz.

Reboot and FSB 160 Mhz
Boot at 3200 Mhz, stock voltage. boot normally to windows. Reboot as I run the CPU test in Sandra.
This was DONE with stock cooling.

I didn't had time to test anymore.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=1076495Overclock successful, but not as overclocked as wanted to be. CPU has a locked multiplier of 20x.

I started with 3200Mhz with 160Mhz FSB OC and no boot

Dropped to 3160Mhz with 158Mhz FSB OC and successful BIOS Post, but OS would not boot

Continued dropping all the way down to 3000Mhz with 150Mhz FSB OC and now the OS is booting, but windows is crashing randomly.

Dropped to 2959Mhz with 148Mhz FSB OC and it seemed as though Windows was no longer crashing, but now Firefox is crashing such as at Facebook with Flash games.

Dropped to 2940Mhz with 147Mhz FSB OC and OS is happy and Firefox is no longer crashing. Started to stress test the CPU and monitor temps. CPU holding steady at 51C. CPU showed errors early on with SuperPI calculating 16M

Dropped to 2920Mhz with 146Mhz FSB OC and OS & Browser is happy. Ran stress test and CPU temp 50-51C holding steady and at the end of the stress test the CPU showed errors with SuperPI calculating 16M.

Dropped to 2900Mhz with 145Mhz FSB OC and everything is now running without any signs of problems. CPU tops out at 50C in 70F room.

Looks like with the unknown brand RAM, this is all he is going to get out of this Pentium 4. If I had better quality RAM to place into this, I feel that the stability issues might go away as for the Pentium 4 still has room to run warmer. I also could mess with increasing voltages to try to gain stability, but while a melt down would give him a good reason to get a better system, he really loves his old gaming system even though he doesnt play any modern games on it other than flash games and prefers playing older titles like Diablo II and starcraft etc which it is plenty for.

Attached is the crash condition and the final stable overclock for the Pentium 4 2.66Ghz running at 2.9Ghz

[attachment deleted by ADMIN to conserve space]

Discussion

6499.	Solve : HDD vs SSDHD for laptop?
Answer» Help me choose! I have a 5 year old Dell laptop, Core 2 duo, 2 GB RAM, 80 GB hdd, that I picked up used a couple of years ago, and it had never been used much, but now I have been playing around with it, and I have set it up as a dual-boot machine, the OEM XP SP3, and OpenSuse 13.2, with the HDD split, 50% for Windows, 50% for Linux. Some more disk space would be nice, and a local store has a 500GB Toshiba SSHD (hybrid) for a good price, $55 equivalent, but I noticed for very little more, $70, I could get a 1 TB conventional HD. Which one would people choose? I am mainly using this machine to fool around with; it is on the home network and I have been trying out remote desktop and console software with it. It is by no means a mission-critical machine, and I am thinking I might value the slight speed increase of a hybrid drive over the larger amount of internal storage, in any case I have a huge NAS. Since storage is not an issue for you if it were me i'd go for the higher speeds of the Hybrid... BTW what would a full SSD 500G run you ? ?Just checked a few newegg...looks like they are still in the $150 to $225.00 range... Quote from: patio on January 11, 2015, 08:16:32 AM Since storage is not an issue for you if it were me i'd go for the higher speeds of the Hybrid... BTW what would a full SSD 500G run you ? ? A 480 GB SSD from the same store is $211. This takes the expenditure out of the "pocket money" level, and although I can afford it, I do not think it is justified for what is really just a toy. Understood... Although i seem to remember reading overall performance is better on full SSD's vs. Hybrids... Quote from: patio on January 11, 2015, 09:19:15 AM Understood... Although i seem to remember reading overall performance is better on full SSD's vs. Hybrids... Yes, I am running a full SSD on my main desktop machine, and I would never go back. Would you really need/require 500g for the laptop ? ?...you could move down to a 256 for "pocket money"... Just a thought. Quote from: patio on January 11, 2015, 09:19:15 AM Understood... Although i seem to remember reading overall performance is better on full SSD's vs. Hybrids... Much, much better - I wouldn't consider a hybrid drive myself and have never recommended one for that reason, they're essentially 8GB of SSD storage tacked onto a laptop HDD. The SSHD will be a little FASTER than the HDD, sure, but as the 8GB is basically just a cache, if you're botting between OSes etc then I would imagine it won't perform optimally - as in, the SSD-like speeds will only be apparent when loading from this 8GB cache, otherwise it's just hitting a 500GB laptop HDD. The SSHD will be faster than a typical 500GB HDD overall so I agree with patio, if you don't need the additional storage it makes sense to buy the SSHD vs the HDD - but if it was me I would either get a 500GB HDD for cheaper or get a real SSD, I really don't have a PLACE for SSHDs but that's just my opinion.I'd go with a pure SSD vs a Hybrid. A friend of mine got a Hybrid drive and what stinks is that it doesnt allow for you to self manage what data is on the SSD portion from that of what is on the HDD portion, so the SSD portion which is self managed actually just kind of acts as a large cache. With how cheap SSD's are these days, i have been converting many older systems over to SSD's and some with both SSD and a HDD such as in desktops were I want speed + storage capacity, but also dont want to spend crazy amounts of money that I need for other bills etc, so i have been picking up SSDs in the 40 to 240GB capacity for all under $120 USD with the 40GB SSD's being like $34.99 USD. So if you just want fast boot and fast windows performance you can place that on SSD and the data and programs that dont need to load fast onto a HDD for a desktop computer; but given you can only have a single drive you will want to go with probably a 90 to 240GB SSD, depending on what data you are storing on it or how large programs are etc. On my netbook i swapped out the 160GB SATA 5400rpm drive with a 60GB SSD, and for extra storage capacity for my data i made use of the internal SD Card Reader that it has and so i took a 32GB SD Card that I picked up for like $18 and placed that into the slot and am using that as a slower data storage drive that travels along with the netbook tucked into the front corner out of the way. If you have a SD Card Reader on this laptop and its otherwise not used and you want to have additional data storage you could always just pop a 32 or 64 or larger SD Card into that slot and have a data storage location off the main drive. I am actually using this as a Poor Mans RAID also in which I have data mirrored with a BATCH FILE that compares and updates between the SSD and SD Card on every start up. And if I have worked on anything important that I want to make sure is backed up, i just manually run this batch file to make the data the same at both C: SSD drive and D: SD Card of the netbook.I tried a Hybrid about 4 months ago...i wound up selling it for what i could get. Quote from: patio on January 11, 2015, 09:55:52 AM Would you really need/require 500g for the laptop ? ?...you could move down to a 256 for "pocket money"...Just a thought. I don't really need 500 GB; it's just that the smallest 2.5 inch hard drives I can find locally to buy in a store are 500 GB. I can get a 500 GB hybrid or plain hdd for the same price, 40 UK pounds, $55, but on Amazon UK I see a 250 GB 7200 rpm drive for £18.99 (about $28.72) so maybe I will go that way, 128 GB for Windows and 128 GB for OpenSuSe. But then you have to pay for delivery, whereas the electronics store is next door to my office. Then ask them what they want for a 256 G SSD... That should suit your needs nicely...I won't be buying an SSD for this machine. Not yet, anyhow. It would be a colossal waste of money. It is a 2009 Dell business laptop, a Latitude D-830 with a 2.2Ghz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB RAM, and (at present) an 80 GB hard drive. About 2 and a half years ago I bought a Chinese tablet via Amazon Marketplace; it failed after 3 weeks, the replacement was DOA, so I asked for and got a full refund, and bought the used Dell with the money. I thought my girlfriend might like top use it when I was using the main desktop machine, and well, maybe a spare computer would be handy. As it happens, my girlfriend hates laptops, and so do I. It has lain unused until I started playing with it a couple of weeks ago. I have connected it to our home network, and I am playing around with it using Remote Desktop. For storage it can access multiple terabytes on the NAS. For me, it is just a toy, like a Raspberry Pi would be. In fact I might just delete OpenSuse and restore the full 80 GB to Windows. Using that logic...why even buy a hybrid then ?> ? Quote from: patio on January 12, 2015, 05:09:32 PM Using that logic...why even buy a hybrid then ?> ? Exactly. This is what I have decided. Hybrids are a waste of time. In fact I will buy nothing. I will not waste money pimping up this second - line machine.

6499.

Solve : HDD vs SSDHD for laptop?

Answer»

Help me choose! I have a 5 year old Dell laptop, Core 2 duo, 2 GB RAM, 80 GB hdd, that I picked up used a couple of years ago, and it had never been used much, but now I have been playing around with it, and I have set it up as a dual-boot machine, the OEM XP SP3, and OpenSuse 13.2, with the HDD split, 50% for Windows, 50% for Linux. Some more disk space would be nice, and a local store has a 500GB Toshiba SSHD (hybrid) for a good price, $55 equivalent, but I noticed for very little more, $70, I could get a 1 TB conventional HD.

Which one would people choose?

I am mainly using this machine to fool around with; it is on the home network and I have been trying out remote desktop and console software with it. It is by no means a mission-critical machine, and I am thinking I might value the slight speed increase of a hybrid drive over the larger amount of internal storage, in any case I have a huge NAS.
Since storage is not an issue for you if it were me i'd go for the higher speeds of the Hybrid...

BTW what would a full SSD 500G run you ? ?Just checked a few newegg...looks like they are still in the $150 to $225.00 range... Quote from: patio on January 11, 2015, 08:16:32 AM

Since storage is not an issue for you if it were me i'd go for the higher speeds of the Hybrid...

BTW what would a full SSD 500G run you ? ?

A 480 GB SSD from the same store is $211. This takes the expenditure out of the "pocket money" level, and although I can afford it, I do not think it is justified for what is really just a toy.
Understood...
Although i seem to remember reading overall performance is better on full SSD's vs. Hybrids... Quote from: patio on January 11, 2015, 09:19:15 AM

Understood...
Although i seem to remember reading overall performance is better on full SSD's vs. Hybrids...

Yes, I am running a full SSD on my main desktop machine, and I would never go back.
Would you really need/require 500g for the laptop ? ?...you could move down to a 256 for "pocket money"...
Just a thought. Quote from: patio on January 11, 2015, 09:19:15 AM

Understood...
Although i seem to remember reading overall performance is better on full SSD's vs. Hybrids...

Much, much better - I wouldn't consider a hybrid drive myself and have never recommended one for that reason, they're essentially 8GB of SSD storage tacked onto a laptop HDD. The SSHD will be a little FASTER than the HDD, sure, but as the 8GB is basically just a cache, if you're botting between OSes etc then I would imagine it won't perform optimally - as in, the SSD-like speeds will only be apparent when loading from this 8GB cache, otherwise it's just hitting a 500GB laptop HDD. The SSHD will be faster than a typical 500GB HDD overall so I agree with patio, if you don't need the additional storage it makes sense to buy the SSHD vs the HDD - but if it was me I would either get a 500GB HDD for cheaper or get a real SSD, I really don't have a PLACE for SSHDs but that's just my opinion.I'd go with a pure SSD vs a Hybrid. A friend of mine got a Hybrid drive and what stinks is that it doesnt allow for you to self manage what data is on the SSD portion from that of what is on the HDD portion, so the SSD portion which is self managed actually just kind of acts as a large cache.

With how cheap SSD's are these days, i have been converting many older systems over to SSD's and some with both SSD and a HDD such as in desktops were I want speed + storage capacity, but also dont want to spend crazy amounts of money that I need for other bills etc, so i have been picking up SSDs in the 40 to 240GB capacity for all under $120 USD with the 40GB SSD's being like $34.99 USD. So if you just want fast boot and fast windows performance you can place that on SSD and the data and programs that dont need to load fast onto a HDD for a desktop computer; but given you can only have a single drive you will want to go with probably a 90 to 240GB SSD, depending on what data you are storing on it or how large programs are etc.

On my netbook i swapped out the 160GB SATA 5400rpm drive with a 60GB SSD, and for extra storage capacity for my data i made use of the internal SD Card Reader that it has and so i took a 32GB SD Card that I picked up for like $18 and placed that into the slot and am using that as a slower data storage drive that travels along with the netbook tucked into the front corner out of the way. If you have a SD Card Reader on this laptop and its otherwise not used and you want to have additional data storage you could always just pop a 32 or 64 or larger SD Card into that slot and have a data storage location off the main drive.

I am actually using this as a Poor Mans RAID also in which I have data mirrored with a BATCH FILE that compares and updates between the SSD and SD Card on every start up. And if I have worked on anything important that I want to make sure is backed up, i just manually run this batch file to make the data the same at both C: SSD drive and D: SD Card of the netbook.I tried a Hybrid about 4 months ago...i wound up selling it for what i could get. Quote from: patio on January 11, 2015, 09:55:52 AM

Would you really need/require 500g for the laptop ? ?...you could move down to a 256 for "pocket money"...Just a thought.

I don't really need 500 GB; it's just that the smallest 2.5 inch hard drives I can find locally to buy in a store are 500 GB. I can get a 500 GB hybrid or plain hdd for the same price, 40 UK pounds, $55, but on Amazon UK I see a 250 GB 7200 rpm drive for £18.99 (about $28.72) so maybe I will go that way, 128 GB for Windows and 128 GB for OpenSuSe. But then you have to pay for delivery, whereas the electronics store is next door to my office.

Then ask them what they want for a 256 G SSD...
That should suit your needs nicely...I won't be buying an SSD for this machine. Not yet, anyhow. It would be a colossal waste of money. It is a 2009 Dell business laptop, a Latitude D-830 with a 2.2Ghz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB RAM, and (at present) an 80 GB hard drive. About 2 and a half years ago I bought a Chinese tablet via Amazon Marketplace; it failed after 3 weeks, the replacement was DOA, so I asked for and got a full refund, and bought the used Dell with the money. I thought my girlfriend might like top use it when I was using the main desktop machine, and well, maybe a spare computer would be handy. As it happens, my girlfriend hates laptops, and so do I. It has lain unused until I started playing with it a couple of weeks ago. I have connected it to our home network, and I am playing around with it using Remote Desktop. For storage it can access multiple terabytes on the NAS. For me, it is just a toy, like a Raspberry Pi would be. In fact I might just delete OpenSuse and restore the full 80 GB to Windows.
Using that logic...why even buy a hybrid then ?> ?
Quote from: patio on January 12, 2015, 05:09:32 PM

Using that logic...why even buy a hybrid then ?> ?

Exactly. This is what I have decided. Hybrids are a waste of time. In fact I will buy nothing. I will not waste money pimping up this second - line machine.

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6500.	Solve : DVD/CD-RW IN windows 7 professional?
Answer» MY DVD/CD-RW Drive can't READ my Dvd-RW DISK.. PLS HELP me.If your drive reads other DISKS OK, and if your disk does not WORK in another drive, the disk may be faulty or damaged.

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