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Hey,

I bought an external hard drive on the 28/12/2005 (dd/mm/year)
I dont know wht thehardrives called or anything so ill just write down what was put on the recept, it says
"ENVIZAGE 300GB SATA USB2 EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE"
(purchased from http://www.enizage.com/ but couldnt find that ONE)

My hard drive is on all the time while my computers on
(i use it as my computer where i can put all my downloaded files becuase i was taking up to much space on the c: drive).
I'd have my hard drive on all the time becuase it was always in use.

But . . . about a month ago my computer was going real slow and was gettingvery hot so we turned the whole computer off including the external hard drive for the day.
When we turned the computer and my external harddrive BACK on my computer was no longer detecting my external hard drive and i really dont know why.
And i dont know how to get my computer to detect it again.

Has anyone else on this site had the same problem or knows how to fix the problem.

Any help would be really appreciated

Thanks in advance

-Josh


Quote

But . . . about a month ago my computer was going real slow and was gettingvery hot so we turned the whole computer off including the external hard drive for the day.

When we turned the computer and [highlight]my external harddrive back on my computer was no longer detecting my external hard drive [/highlight]and i really dont know why.

Right clik Control Panel and select Manage...

[smiley=vrolijk_1.gif] I've been given an Apple Pro keyboard and optical mouse and have them working with XP Home in a non-Mac ENVIRONMENT. The mouse doesn't have buttons as such and no means of right clicking but have resolved that problem by downloading a utility which allows the use of Ctrl+mouse as R.click. Anyone know how to get the mouse to scroll :-?

[smiley=dankk2.gif]Im familier with the Apple mouse on Windows XP right-click method, but im not familier with Apple mice.

The only way to scroll is to have a scroll wheel or ball.For less than $20.00 BUCKS you can get a decent mouse and keyboard combo...

patio. 8-)Quote

For less than $20.00 bucks you can get a decent mouse and keyboard combo...

patio. 8-)

Just wondering if anyone might know if I might be seeing a sign of a failing power supply.
More often than not, when I turn on my computer, the first page of the BIOS comes up (showing the processor speed and memory), but it does not progress beyond that. However, when I simply turn off the computer and start it again, the first page comes back on the screen and it proceeds on normally (you can hear the floppy drive being found, etc.) and WINDOWS XP starts just fine and the computer runs just fine. Sometimes, it will start up normally, so I'm wondering if it's just not getting enough juice to crank it up. I have an old 250 watt power supply, so thought about putting a 350 in it. I have already RESET optimized BIOS settings and that doesn't make any difference......Thanksyep...new PSU would be good. Go for 450W minimum and don't buy a cheap one.

PATIO. 8-)What computer/motherboard make and model and what make of power supply does it have?Quote

yep...new PSU would be good. Go for 450W minimum and don't buy a cheap one.

patio. 8-)

What computer/motherboard make and model and what make of power supply does it have?

Call me crazy but I'd change it's battery.

A battery that's failing can put you in a postion where turning off for a short time will have no effect on the clock or bios but turning off for a longer time will screw the clock and bios settings reverting the bios back to the default settings.

Everyone rips my poor ole nVidia Gforce 7300 GS Staples 99.00
ok, I am no gamer but i bought the *censored* thing cause the box said <<< ha ha that my video watching and basically the quality of my visuals would be a lot better than the installed ATI 200 chip. This CRAPPY card has 256 megs of ram and it DOES have a fan on it*. If I knew how to show u with my scanner I would try to post small pic but I am not literate on it yet. Honestly, I think my quality has improved with that card "somewhat" but it does get a little hot when my gforce media or movies are playing ? I have been able to get nice quality playing my oblivion game set on above average settings but take that from someone still in the sewers! I had no idea this Celeron D 346 was dual core ? Are you sure of that ? I have been monitoring temps and highest I have SEEN is almost 50c.... I will stay with that CPU if need be. I just thought i might upgrade myself and save the old one^ to include on a puter for my daughter next spring I might try to build?Quote

Everyone rips my poor ole nVidia Gforce 7300 GS Staples 99.00
ok, I am no gamer but i bought the *censored* thing cause the box said <<< ha ha that my video watching and basically the quality of my visuals would be a lot better than the installed ATI 200 chip. This crappy card has 256 megs of ram and it DOES have a fan on it*. If I knew how to show u with my scanner I would try to post small pic but I am not literate on it yet. Honestly, I think my quality has improved with that card "somewhat" but it does get a little hot when my gforce media or movies are playing ? I have been able to get nice quality playing my oblivion game set on above average settings but take that from someone still in the sewers! I had no idea this Celeron D 346 was dual core ? Are you sure of that ? I have been monitoring temps and highest I have seen is almost 50c.... I will stay with that CPU if need be. I just thought i might upgrade myself and save the old one^ to include on a puter for my daughter next spring I might try to build?

im a retard, thanks for the education...
why ur here... I could take out the 7300 and send it to my kids..
what would you recommend along the pci-e line? Im all ears?

well, under 300.00, crap I only paid 224.00 for my whole puter
from my readings I think I should stick with the PCI-E configuration don't u ?? ( I mean eventually I might get out of the sewers!)
thanks- Track

Quote

Everyone rips my poor ole nVidia Gforce 7300 GS Staples 99.00
ok, I am no gamer but i bought the *censored* thing cause the box said <<< ha ha that my video watching and basically the quality of my visuals would be a lot better than the installed ATI 200 chip. This crappy card has 256 megs of ram and it DOES have a fan on it*. If I knew how to show u with my scanner I would try to post small pic but I am not literate on it yet. Honestly, I think my quality has improved with that card "somewhat" but it does get a little hot when my gforce media or movies are playing ? I have been able to get nice quality playing my oblivion game set on above average settings but take that from someone still in the sewers! I had no idea this Celeron D 346 was dual core ? Are you sure of that ? I have been monitoring temps and highest I have seen is almost 50c.... I will stay with that CPU if need be. I just thought i might upgrade myself and save the old one^ to include on a puter for my daughter next spring I might try to build?

The 7300 GS is not a good card.
Yes, it is better then having NO card, but u could have gotten a MUCH MUCH better card for only a little more money. 256Mb means NOTHING if u have a bad card.

Celeron D stands for Celeron Dual.. as in Dual-core.

I installed a brand new Sony floppy 1.44 in my computer and it wil not recognize it. I received a "Not accessible. ID Address not found on floppy". Have no clue what the problem is. All cables are connected correctly and the floppy drive is not broken. Also, the floppy diskette itself is fine because I TESTED it on another PC. I believe it is a software issue. Looking for suggestions. Thank you.

My system is HOME built.

Mobo- Gigabyte 945PL

CPU- PENTIUM D 3.2GHZ

RAM- DDR2 667 1 GB

:-/Make sure you enabled floppy drive support in the BIOS.

Is this an external floppy drive connected to a USB port? If so, make sure you installed the drivers.

Check Windows Device Manager to see if it recognized the floppy drive and if it reports any problems.

Also double-check your CABLING....google has a bunch of hits with pictures.

patio. 8-)Quote

Also double-check your cabling....google has a bunch of hits with pictures.

patio. 8-)

I'm about to upgrade my motherboard and want to know if my OLDER (three WD Raptor 36Gig 1.5Gb/s) drives are compatible with the newer SATA 3Gb/s boards?

I would assume they are but can't find anything definite.

Cheers!just called tech support here >

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1048&p_created=1060098616&p_sid=s2o_42hi&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD04NzEmcF9wcm9kcz0mcF9jYXRzPSZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3BhZ2U9MQ**&p_li=&p_topview=1

they "will" WORK on the 3 GIG sata, have fun and keep them old birds (COOL)
Thank you honvetops! A definite ANSWER! I can hardly believe it!!

your LUCKY* thats my 1st correct answer since I have been here !! lol
thanks God for phones~

Yesterday my laptop (Gateway 4530GZ) started shutting off when I MOVE it, say from my lap to a table top. It doesn't shut down... the screen just goes blank as if the power plug had been suddently pulled. When I hit the power button it turns back on and restarts.

On other ocassions the screen will just freeze. I can't move the cursor and ctrl alt del does nothing. In that case I have to turn off the power by holding the power button for about 15 seconds. It then reboots normally.

The BATTERY SEEMS to be holding a charge just fine. I normally keep the power plug in and that seems SECURE. I'm concerned that something internal is loose or broken. Anybody have any ideas about what I might look at before taking it to a repair shop?

ThanksCheck for loose connection or power jack problem.

I have an older dell laptop with windows XP and when I LEAVE the mouse/arrow alone for a few seconds it selects or clicks whatever the arrow is on. ie a program or a different cell if in excel. How do I turn this feature off??? Are you running an external mouse or is this caused by the touchpad ? ?

patio. 8-)It is caused by the touch padTry re-installing the touchpad drivers.Is this separate software? I purchased this computer used and am unsure how to re-install the touchpad driver. If it is separate software, I do not have it so what is the next step?So, you just recently got this computer? Do you have previous experience with laptops? When this undesired BEHAVIOR happens, are you resting your finger on the touchpad? BASED on my limited experience with laptops, using a touchpad takes awhile to get used to. I suspect the difficulty you're experiencing may simply be due to lack of experience with touchpads. However, I believe you may find some settings in the Control Panel where you can adjust the sensitivity of the touchpad.

If you can get a mouse to connect to your laptop, you may find that a much easier way to use a laptop. I dont think that is the problem either as I will be running a program where I am not even using the mouse and it will do this. I have reasonable experience running a laptop and have not experienced this in the past.As I recall, laptops USUALLY have a specific control panel accessible from Windows Control Panel. Am I right? Have you looked there to see what settings are available and whether there's an adjustment that would affect this behavior?I have looked in a lot of places but I didnt see a special "laptop control panel" within the windows control pannel. I was hoping this was a simple click to shut off this feature but it doesnt sound like it. Any other suggestions???Quote

Is this separate software? I purchased this computer used and am unsure how to re-install the touchpad driver. If it is separate software, I do not have it so what is the next step?

Anyone KNOW what the difference between the Omega drivers and the ATI drivers are. The ATI drivers give me massive HEADACHES and BOOTS to DESKTOP but the Omega drivers WORK fine.This seems to explain it: http://www.omegadrivers.net/about.php

I have a PENTIUM III 600EB processor running windows XP pro on a desktop.
I have suddenly noticed a slowdown and have found that the CPU is now running at 300 mhz.
Even at the boot up it now shows as 300mhz , does anyone KNOW what caused this and how I can correct.
ThanksImmpossible, to underclock u need a very special program and possibly a hardmod.
What do u mean 600EB?Quote

Immpossible, to underclock u need a very special program and possibly a hardmod.
What do u mean 600EB?

Immpossible, to underclock u need a very special program and possibly a hardmod.
What do u mean 600EB?

Hello GUYS,

It looks like I'm going to be shopping from Newegg soon, even though I don't want to. :-/

It seems my computer has decided to start dying on me all at once. I originaly built the system a little over 4 years ago and it's seen heavy use, so I can't say I'm shocked.....but I am surprised at the problems I've had recently. I posted here a little over a week ago getting help with some of the issues, and it was helpfull.

Over the last two weeks, I've replaced the mouse, the keyboard, the ethernet card, the sound card, installed a PCI card to give me USB plugs, and some of the cables for my modem/router. The video card and power supply are less then six months old themselves, as well as the monitor. The hard drives are about 3 (for one) and 4 (for the other) years old and the DVD drive is only about a year old. Finally, the speakers are about two years old. The oldest parts of the PC now, besides the case, the motherboard, and the CPU, is the memory.

I strongly suspect the motherboard is going. I noticed the voltage for it on my BIOS screen was lower then it should be about six months ago. It did'nt seem to have any ill effects at first, but then I noticed that some USB devices were 'timing out' like they were'nt reciving enough power. A new power supply/surge protector took care of that problem, but when these parts started dying a couple weeks ago (starting with the sound card just going for no reason) the computer also started to randomly lock up on me (I use Win XP).

Actually, it's not TOTALLY random....it seems to happen when the computer tries to do a 'major' load from one of the two hard drives (as in a game, making a WINDOWS Restore point, loading Windows, etc.) It happens with stuff on both HD's so I know it's not them. And it does'nt happen with 'soft' loads (small things that happens here and there). It's getting rather annoying and I'm not sure how to fix it. While I have enough tech knowledge to diganose and fix basic to moderate computer problems (I DID build this system, after all) I'm not sure what is causing these lockups, or how to track down or fix the voltage problem that the motherboard is having. I really don't want to pay the money to take it into a PC shop to have them look at it, plus I need the computer for work, so I really can't be without it.

Anyway....the point of this thread. I thought I would use this as a excuse to go ahead and replace the motherboard/CPU, since they are over four years old by now. But I don't have much money to spend right now on it....the timing kinda sucks and I allready spent quite a bit. Figure I can go about $400, maybe a little higher. And since I have'nt done this in over 4 years, I could use some advice on the following points:

1) Can you suggest a good motherboard/CPU in my price range? Don't care if its Intel or AMD, I'd like a motherboard that I can upgrade easily with faster CPU's in the future and last another 4 years, and I'd prefer to bump the PC up to at LEAST 3 Gig in speed.
2) Will everything in my computer be compatiable with said new motherboard/CP? I'll list the stuff I currently have at the end of my post
3) How do you suggest I go about the processing of 'moving' everything over? I HATE having to reinstall Windows XP, cause of the pain in the *censored* that it is and that I have to remake my desktop, my bookmarks, etc.
4) Can some fans be suggested also? I'm not really happy with the two case and the one CPU fan I have, they are rather noisy and don't seem to work that well.

Thanks in advance for the help.

The motherboard is a EPoX EP-8RDA+ Socket A (Socket 462) NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 ATX AMD Motherboard.
And the CPU is a AMD Athlon XP 2600+ Thoroughbred 333MHz FSB Socket A Processor Model AXDA2600DKV3D.

Current PC parts that I want to carry over:
Case: CHEF|AX-01SLD SPX2 U2F SL 450W
Memory: Crucial Technology 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 266 (PC 2100) System Memory Model CT6464Z265 - OEM (I have 3 of these)
1 Hard Drives: HD 60GB|SEAGATE ST360021A 7200%
2 Hard Drives: HITACHI Deskstar 180GXP IC35L180AVV207 - 07N9216 180 GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive
Video Card: ATI 100-435508 Radeon X800XL 256MB GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X
DVD Drive: NEC DVD Burner Beige IDE/ATAPI Model ND-3520A BG
Power Supply: Antec TruePower 2.0 TP2-550 EPS12V ATX12V 550W
Ethernet Card: Linksys Gigabit Network Adapter Model EG1032
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE

I can list the fans I have to if anyone asks. Right now I have one in the front of the case, two at the back, and the CPU fan.

There's other stuff also -- the monitor, modem, router, mouse, keyboard, the USB card....but none of that should matter.Holding in the hope that someone here can give me some great advice like last time. Have you CONSIDERED just replacing the motherboard? With that processor and the amount of memory you have, you would still have a sytem that's quite capable of doing many tasks.

If you got the same model motherboard, you would avoid the need to format your hard drive and reinstall Windows, since the same device drivers would work. And, you would spend the least amount of money. ebay is one option: EPoX EP-8RDA. Or, you could get a new Socket A motherboard of a different brand; in this case, you should expect to format and reinstall for best results. I'd suggest you try to verify whether your current memory will work before making a selection.And should you decide to keep the CPU and replace just the MBoard there is a way to bypass re-installing XP and losing all your data...we can walk you thru it if this is the route you choose.

patio. 8-)Although with a new motherboard I would personally ALWAYS reinstall Windows without a second thought. Too many "gotchas". Surprisingly it can be quicker as well than trying to remedy all of the annoying things that will come up.Thanks for the responses, guys.

Yes, I do have my heart set on upgrading the CPU as well. Right now it runs at 2.1 Ghz. Some games I want to play suggest faster then that, and if I'm going to go through the hassle and EXPENSE of ripping everything out of my current case and rebuilding it, I want the new CPU. Speed is the one bottleneck my system has, and I want to improve that.

So, any suggestions?Well, if you replace your motherboard, processor, and probably the memory also, you should be able to use everything else you already have except perhaps the video card. Quite likely, a new motherboard will not have AGP, so you'll either have to buy a PCI Express video card or use onboard video if the motherboard has it; onboard video is not a good choice for a gaming machine. That would unfortunate, since your current video card is not very old. So, you may want to see whether you can get a motherboard with an AGP slot.Yeah, considering I spent $300 on this video card just six months ago, I'm not eager to lose it's services.

Okay, look for a motherboard with a AGP slot. Check. Would like to find one with PCI Express support if possible, although not sure if such a beast exists. Have'nt had time due to work this week to check online yet.

How could I tell if this memory would work? Again, I spent quite a bit of money on it and it would be pricey to need to replace all of it as well.Actually, some motherboards have both AGP and PCI Express. So, that's probably what you'll want to get. For example: ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 Socket 939 ULi M1695 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail. As far as memory, perhaps you could email the motherboard manufacturer and ask whether your memory would work in a board that's rated for, say, PC3200. I'm not sure but I believe this will work in some cases; the memory speed will, of course, be limited to the slower memory you're using. You might also visit crucial.com and use their memory selector to see what they show for a particular motherboard; I know they will sometimes show more than one speed of memory as being compatible with a motherboard. I would first try to get the info from the motherboard maker.

I have my audio from my computer connected to my stereo just through left and right rca plugs. Is there any way to hook it up and get true surround sound out of it? I have a receiver that has surround sound.Just a few 1st things for others to decipher*
What kinda sound card/ audio does your computer have?
How many speakers are on the stereo ? Is the computer 5.1 or 7.1 capable with your audio card ?
"I'm thinking that it won't work"
but others here will know for sure~
I just have a soundMAX digital audio card. It's what came in the computer. Don't think it's capable of surround sound. But even if I bought a different sound card (5.1 channel), how would I make it work with my stereo?I use my sound system for just that ...my music. It's far better quality than anything my computers will produce.

I use my computer for just that...computing. It's far better than my stereo for getting online and doing Excel worksheets etc.

But that's just me.

Short answer you need a sound card that has surround capabilities to do what you want.

patio. 8-)Well i understand I need a surround sound capable sound card. but how do you make it work through the stereo?Your key word there is "stereo". "How do I make it work with my stereo?" Stereo = 2 channels. Therefore you could only satisfactorily connect (front) left and right channels to your stereo. Most 4.1/5.1/etc. sound cards come with software that will enable you to switch them into stereo mode. So you could do that. But it sort of defeats the point of getting a surround sound card.

Why not go the other way? Get a card + surround sound speakers for your computer, and play your stereo through your PC? ok CHECK it out! lol. I have a jbl system for my computer. 4 speakers and a sub. BUT, that's not good enough for me! I have a Panasonic SA-XR25 reciever for my home theater system. I want to connect my computer audio to that and use it's surround sound features. Can someone please help me with this?In the "OLD" days I would have chucked the panasonic out to the trash man and reveled in my joy with the "JBL" system !!

times change ~ Well thx honvetops but that doesn't really help me. My computer JBL system is WAY different then my home audio system. My home audio is the panasonic receiver, 2 BIGASS JBL front channel speakers, an Infinity center, and Klipsch rear speakers. Now you guys understand why I want do this?HI there

I have s similar-ish setup at home.
I made my own cable using cat6 to connect the 2.5mm? headphone jacks on the sound card and connected it to un-used RCA-inputs on the back of the stereo amp, (I SAY stereo generically for most audio equipment, It's actually 6.1) in & out.

Anyhow get yourself a new 5.1 (or whatever makes you happy) sound card.
If you can't make the cables yourself, (it's easier than u think with a $5 soldering iron and a trip to Tandy) get someone to do it for you it will be heaps cheaper than buying what you need. Unless your pc is very close to your amp.
Mine is in another room.
Getting back for 5.1 you will need x4 stereo plugs that will fit your sound card.
x12 RCA plug get x6 black & x6 red it will make your life easier

I'll try to explain this but anyone who has played with audio cables will know what I'm talking about,

1. For your front L&R jack on sound card use x1 stereo jack plug remove back cover.

2. There will be three connector lugs one + (positive for each L&R speaker) and one ground that the speakers share.

3. Open two RCA’s they will have x2 connector lugs each. One +, (positive) and one -, (negative)

4. Both + lugs from the jack plug are connected separately to the + lugs in each of the RCA plugs.

5. The ground lug on the stereo jack is connected to TWO individual wires ,(or use multi core) the other two ends of those two wires connect to the grounds in each of the two RCA plugs.

The above will make one 2 channel cable eg it goes to two plugs/inputs.

You need to repeat the above to make another cable for the rear L&R inputs on the amp and connect it to the rear out socket on your soundcard.

The cables for your centre speaker and sub will be made in a similar way but will only connect one jack on one end and one RCA on the other so you don’t need to double up on the ground cable.

I hope this is as clear, I’m confused and I have to it before.
Things to note: thread the RCA & stereo jack plug covers ONTO the cable before you solder the ends on to make the cable.
The ground is usually the larger connector and is usually the outermost on both the jacks and the rca’s.
If you are not sure ASK where ever you buy them.
Don’t make a cable longer than you need it will increase distortion/interference.

Enjoy your tunes, it’s great being able to q-up loads of tracks during a party and not having to touch it again all night.


******* edit ******
Just thought if you amp has optic connector for audio spare maybe you can get a sound card with optic then it's just one cable for front & rear speakers. don't know if you can get cards with optic on though. I have never looked for one but have saw several mobo's with them

Quatroking...... here you go courtesy of Computer HOPE ........

Scroll lock key

Key found on a computer keyboard sometimes located close to the keyboard pause key. The scroll lock key is intended to temporarily stop the scrolling of text or halt the OPERATION of a program. Today, many programs commonly do not utilize or function properly with this key.
HOWEVER, an example of a program that this key MAY still commonly be used in is Microsoft Excel. Users can press the scroll lock key to move the window WITHOUT moving the selected cell or visa versa.

dl65

What about SysRq and Break? Or those empty keys one had on the Amiga.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SysRq

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Break_key

I have a 2 year old computer with windows xp, pentium 4, geforce 6600gt, a gigabyte motherboard, and so forth (more info if needed). While using the computer normally yesterday, it suddenly turned off. When I turned it back on, it displayed my bios in a corrupted way - the normal words and numbers have been replaced by blocky black and white corrupted characters. It then goes to the screen that lets you choose safe mode and stuff, but it's corrupted in the same way. After 30 seconds, it starts booting windows but the loading screen has a bunch of blue lines vertically along the screen. After about 20 seconds of this, it REBOOTS and begins this cycle again.

Incidentally, this happened during tropical storm ERNESTO last night, but I don't think that's the cause because nothing else in my house was harmed and I have a surge protector.

Thanks for helping!here's a video of it happening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cUYWkp3NMki put in a new card and it worked for a while. then it died too. whats wrong here?Looks like a bad video card. What are ALL of the components of this poor machine?gigabyte 915p motherboard with a pci-e slot and an agp slot
intel pentium 4 530 3ghz lga775
2x512 mb corsair ddr2 533 value ram
sparkle nvidia geforce 6600 gt
creative sound blaster audigy
80 gb hitachi sata hdd
100 gb maxtor sata hdd
cd-rw drive unknown brand
nec dvdrw drive
MGE 600w psu
dynapower usa case

i dont think i missed anything...

anyways, i tested the 6600gt on another computer and it's surely dead. i then tried an agp geforce 4 on my computer then it worked for awhile. it died and didnt DISPLAY anything on the screen (not even the corrupted crap that my 6600 showed). after it died, i tried the geforce 4 on another computer and it's ok. so, do i need a new motherboard? psu? a whole new system?I don't know what an MGE power supply is, but it sounds like some low end Chinese crappola that could have taken other components out along the way to it's demise.

The only way is to start swapping things out. Keep it simple and just have the MB, CPU/fan, 1 stick RAM and the simplest video card you can find/vborrow. (Maybe an old PCI card?) Swap in a known working PSU and go from there.after a bit of investigation i was surprised to find that mge actually looks like a respectable company from california. found at mge-usa.com. and i actually have a 450w psu - i read the wrong thing on the label. i'm GOING to try to borrow a psu from a friend, but from what i was told at another help forum, the problem is my motherboard. im not sure so i will do some testing by swtiching in and out some stuff. on one hand, im hoping that i will have a reason to get one of those nice core 2 duos ive been eyeing up in the last month, but i also dont know if im quite ready to spend all that money.

I've been confused about the nature of dual 12V rails. Are these two separate lines that both run into the 4-pin 12V CONNECTOR? Are they two physically separate lines that run on two different wires? I've heard that the second 12V rail is USED to power the CPU, and then (I assume) the first rail sends power to the mobo for the graphics card and other devices. Is this correct? Any info would be much APPRECIATED. Thanks.great question ! I'm waiting to see as well*You have to use your Google button:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=what+are+dual+12v+rails&spell=1

<-----------------enclave tech <<< artical; by a guy who's 22 from INDIA ! Now I know why Amerika is losing all our tech jobs overseas. That was way interesting, wish I just bought a dual 12V now, call me a dumbass !


PS.. why isn't there a "spell-check" up there ^

Which one more better? :-?Both work fine. There is no better.It's just a matter of which one you might like, I prefer AMD, back in the old days they were cheaper and faster, now I don't think there is a difference.It seems to be according to who you are talking to either.

Almost like Ford VS Chevy.




Chevy is better!!! Quote

Which one more better? :-?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/65_nanometer

I am afraid Track is right... he did not say AMD don't have duel-core processors, just none of 65nm yet.

I have a problem with ONE of my computers that I'm not sure how to fix. My son stuck a magnets on the side of the computer. its 4 month old gateway that i baught from best buy. its running win xp sp2. After the magnets were placed on the tower the computer has had a weard problem. It appears to run fine on start up but it will sudenly act like it lost power and then restart(no error messags). this hapens randomly. it will sometimes do this at start up or after a few minets of running it will crash. i have done a reformat. after a reformat this problem doesent happen for a day or 2. But it always starts to act STRANGE after not much time. I have done a disk scan to check if SOMETHING was wrong with the hard drive but it doesent come up with any errors. Since it runs fine most of the time i was hopeing that one of the hardwhare pieces has just suffered minor damige and could be a simple replacment. i have no idea though how to go about finding witch piece is damiged though. Or it could be something compleatly different. I still have a lot of things to learn when it come to computers =)

thanks for the help
-padanI don't think the magnets are to blame.
Turn off Aotomatic Reboot on System Failure.
That way you will get an error screen instead of a reboot which tells you nothing.
Check your Event Viewer for error warnings.
What realtime protection are you using, Firewall, Antivirus, Anti Spyware/Malware?
Are you confident of your electricity supply?
Save yourself getting hit with a lot of questions...
DOWNLOAD, unzip, install and run Everest Home Edition
http://www.comcen.com.au/~fed/everest.zip

Select Computer>Summary from the left hand screen.
Right CLICK in the right hand screen & select Copy All
Paste the details in here.

[highlight]Edit:[/highlight] You could also download a program to test your HDD, if it is a magnetic problem then your HDD is the thing that would be effected.

Ok so this is exactly what happens. I'll be right in the middle of something when my computer will reset itself without any preamble whatsoever. I get no error messages before it goes, and it IMMEDIATELY boots up like nothing happened. The only other thing I should mention is that it seems to be more likely to happen if I"m running a more complicated program (Like a grafics intensive game), but it doesn't only happen when I'm playing a game, and it doesn't always happen when I'm playing a game. The one thing that will make it happen everytime is running the windows xp "free up space on my hard disk" thing.

If anyone has any clues on something I can try I would be most appreciative.Turn off AUTOMATIC Reboot on System Failure.
Take note of the error screen that will appear the next time it has a fault.
Check your Event Viewer for warnings etc.
Test your RAM.
http://www.memtest86.comFirst of all thank you for responding. Now I turned off the reboot thing, and waited for it to do it again...This time my screen just went black and I had to manually turn off my pc. When I restarted it I got a message that my PC had "recovered from a serious error" so I took a look at that and got this:

C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\WERc807.dir00\Mini083006-01.dmp
C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\WERc807.dir00\sysdata.xml

I don't know if that'll tell you anything.

I tried to do that memory test, but it didn't seem to work...I'm going to try it again now.

Again thanks.You will need a floppy disk then then download the Pre-Compiled Windows package to your desktop, unzip it then double click on the install icon.
This will create a the floppy for you then just re-boot to that floppy & let memtest run for a couple of hours to test your RAM.

Did your windows message say anything else at all, numbers?
Did you check in your Event Viewer?check for dirt and dust blocking the heatsink of the CPU and the Powersupply. Overheating will cause the problems you are seeing. Another possible cause is a fan has failed most likely on the CPU. Other causes are bad memory simm, if you ADDED something like a cd the power supply cant KEEP the rail voltage up under strain, and line voltage sags from heave usage on the grid. My money is on the dust or the fan. Either will COST you about $8 (canned air or new fan) at the local computer store, MORE if you try your luck at RadioShuck. Let me know...

Randy

Hello everyone,
I recently ran a DIAGNOSTIC on my DELL OPTIPLEX GX150 WITH A PENTIUM 3 PROCESSOR AND WINDOWS XP SP2 OP.It said that my hd was operating above normal specs and the SMART DIAGNOSTICS on the hd said that it has detected eminate failure and back up my data.Also that my INTEL 81X GMCH AIMM MEMORY failed the diagnostic test to.I know to change out the hd or do I. WHAT I DON'T KNOW IS WHAT IS AIMM MEMORY AND WHAT DOES IT DO AND CAN I FIX IT. Is it the memory sticks or something else. So what i need is HELP, links,and suggestions on how to fix this problem. my comp is running fine everything else passed.Solet me know what i can do.

thank you,
bmacgurk Precisely what tool did you use for the diagnostic? Was it something you downloaded of the Internet?hi NEIL ,
i used a dell optiplex resource cd it was with the comp when i got


bmacgurkBack up that HDD ASAP if you value the data...
As to the memory errors the GX1_Man will be along shortly to sort that.
Have you checked at the Dell Forums for more info ? ?The below is for reference but,as said by patio "Let's wait on GX1_Man".

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8796281555&category=3762http://www.memtest86.com/#download0

You'll need a blank floppy. This will test your memory. It will take an hour or two to run... After it has done at least 1 pass (the more passes, the more accurate the test, but the longer it takes), look at the number of errors you have.thanks neil and patio,
i have memorytest 86 on a floppy but haven't used it yet.
thanks for the referance on ebay i'll look at it more closely.But it still don't tell me what it is and what it does.I'll wait for gx1 man to tell me what it is ,but in the mean time i still would like to know if defraging the hd might help?

thanks guys,
bmacgurk

ps sorry so long between posts 12hour shifts make a long day
sorry street1 i didn't mean to leave you out.

bmacgurk
I don't think defragging the harddrive would help. In the mean time, back up your important files (don't wait!) and try the memtest.I just don't see why you couldn't use an AGP graphics card in place of the
aimm card.

Maybe,instead of 4MB graphics You COULD have 16MB or more.hi street1 and neil
defraging i know is not much an option.and street1 i didn't even know that i had such a thing in there lol
i see what i can do about the card. Thanks everyone for the help.I learned something new which is nice.

thanks
bmacgurk

Northstar built their laptop with an external battery, and when the COMPUTER stop working, most people replace the battery. Before doing anything else, look in the end of the POWER suppy connector, a 4 pin DIN. The crimp on the cordset is not as tight as it sould be and the pin assy will slide back in the connector causing the PS not to make contact with the female battery connector, and while it is a pain to TAKE the plug apart and RESEAT the pin assy, it is a lot cheaper than replacing the PS.Quote

Northstar built their laptop with an external battery, and when the computer stop working, most people replace the battery. Before doing anything else, look in the end of the power suppy connector, a 4 pin DIN. The crimp on the cordset is not as tight as it sould be and the pin assy will slide back in the connector causing the PS not to make contact with the female battery connector, and while it is a pain to take the plug apart and reseat the pin assy, it is a lot cheaper than replacing the PS.

Quote

Provided you don't notice a slowdown on your computer, this is unlikely to be a real problem, especially if the jump is momentary.

What IS a problem however, is your lack of virus scanner.

Free scanners:

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

or

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

I want to install a new 300 gig HD. I was told by a TECH friend that you can install it and even though the mobo will only see 137 gig of it. You can view it and make it one LARGE drive afterwards in the computer management settings.

Any truth to this ? I was always under the impression that you have to install it as one complete drive in the begining of the install.

it is a Maxtor drive and Asus Mobo with Intel CPU.i think it depends on whether or not your bios supports 48 bit lbaIt depends which ASUS motherboard and you didn't give a model number. They make several.Quote

I want to install a new 300 gig HD. I was told by a tech friend that you can install it and even though the mobo will only see 137 gig of it. You can view it and make it one large drive afterwards in the computer managementsettings.
Any truth to this?

I was always under the impression that you have to install it as one complete drive in the begining of the install.

400 gigs for document storage? That's a lot of pages.

I read the other posting on this but wasnt seeing anything pertaining to my question.

I have a testing server a Dell Poweredge 2600 server, (tower type) already has two (2) SCSI hardrives (hot SWAPPABLE) installed and working, however, I recentley tried to install a third drive, when I went to the SCSI set up, none of the drives were recognized, period. The only thing that was recognized was the tape drive that does the back ups. I have had the pleasure of running into the setup of this server, having had someone else prior to me setup the majority of the INSTALLATION and additional software on the SMALLEST drive...this makes operation of the server, "FUN" at times. Once I get the new harddrive running, I have to ghost the image of the old one over to this new one...cant copy FILES, tried to do that with the other installed drive.....it breaks too many things at once, and takes about a day of uninstalling and re-installing.....dont like that fun stuff......
but any help or IDEAS or well, quite frankley, anything would be appreciated.

I installed a new sound card, disabled the onboard one in my BIOS, I've tried all adjustments and nothing works. :-? Can anyone help me to figure this out? I have sound, but it really low. Well with the lack of information you provided you should probably check in Control Panel/Sounds and Multimedia and look around. Also make sure your speakers are plugged into the correct port.

If you want to post more info we can proceed further if this does not get it. I have a Ernest Home Report on the system and the sound and I've check everything. Is there a utility for diagnostics to do a system check for integrated audio. :-?I've plugged several sets of speakers in ALL the ports and I get just a whisper; they all work on another computer though :-/Quote

I have a Ernest Home Report on the system and the sound and I've check everything. Is there a utility for diagnostics to do a system check for integrated audio. :-?

This site gives me drivers for the 8830, but I have the 8810 and can't find drivers for this. Do you think the 8830 will work for the 8810?

Hi, I have recently just purchased a new motherboard and I am wondering about RAM compatability. At the moment my motherboard accepts DDR PC2700 and DDR PC3200. I have a 512mb and a 256mb card. The new motherboard I am getting is the ASUS A8N motherboard with dual graphics slots and 4gb ram capacity. What I wanted to know is, if my RAM types DDR PC2700 and DDR PC3200 would be compatable with my new motherboard or if I would have to buy entirely new RAM :s .

I was hoping there might be a website out there somewhere that lists the RAM compatability with motherboard types, I tried looking on the ASUS website but there wasnt that kind of information about the product

thank youthere is GX1_man knows it rob might too.. they should reply sometime soonI have Asus A8N-E board and I have DDR400 and DDR333 working together. Not sure about their PC equivilence. BASICALLY there is only one way to find out. Pay particular ATTENTION to the manual about which slots to put the memory in.Crucial.com...i told you some one would give you a site.. i just couldnt remember itAll the info you need is right there...(your not seeing it*)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?N=2010200022+50001315+1070907495&Submit=ENE&Manufactory=1315&SubCategory=22

I just bought the A8N-VM (76.99) @ newegg with a AMD Athlon 3500+
(91.00)

It seems all their mobo's are DDR 400 rated with (PC3200) RAM **use the same type of ram on your mobo**

I'm sure there are like 4 OTHERS besides the 3200 u could use, but I wouldn't..
hope this helps 8-)yeh it does HELP thx. I baught the amd athlon 3700+ to go with it. I have another little question, when put the new processor on my motherboard do I have to use special thermal glue to seal it on? because im sure I have read this somewhereThe thermal paste (a small amount) goes between the CPU and the heat sink UNLESS it comes with a thermal pad. Do not use both.

Please research this carefully before you ruin a processor.

Ok, I know that my sound card actually is AND isnt' working.
When i do the sound test I get sound from my speakers, but for anything else i get nothing.
I don't think this is a very complicated problem (although obviously I don't know what to do), can anyone help me?When did this problem start? Did you make any hardware or software changes just before the problem started? Have you checked to see whether any sound sources are muted in your volume control panel?This problem started today (31st) I had added in a new sound card, i meant to MENTION that, and since my other sound card was jsut part of the motherboard i jsut tried to disable it and use the one i installed, i'm not sure how well i did that though. Nothing is muted though, i checked every sound control on my computerDid you disable the onboard sound in the BIOS?1. What sound card do you have?

2. What do you test the sound on other than Sound Test?

The second question is rather important, since obviously these speakers are wired correctly, their driver is installed (you did install drivers, right?), and you get sound from Sound Test. (I'm guessing you have something with Creative in the name, since that's the only brand I know that has a program called "Sound test".)Street- i believe i did disable it, but is there anything i need to enable for the sound card?

Dilbert- i have a diamond xtreme sound 5.1 sound card
i installed the drivers it's c-media pci audio i believe, i just go to audio configurations in it and it has a little speaker test in it.
Exactly how did you "disable" onboard sound?

Run dxdiag (Start, Run, dxdiag, and hit Enter) and do the sound tests. Were they successful? When it was STARTING up i entered my systems BIOS setup went to Integrated Periphials and DISABLED it.

I RAN dxdiag, sound 1 and sound 2 tests didn't work, then i went to music in dxdiag and specifically chose Xtreme sound PCI Audio Device and the test worked. I looked and the Xtreme sound PCI Audio Device is not the default port though, any idea how to make it so?OK thank you everyone, i managed to find out how to make it the default device, it's working quite nicely nowHow is that done?I went to control panel >sounds, speech, and audio devices>sounds and audio devices>Audio>sound playback default device
and i just changed it to the one i had installed

This is a strange and unusual question about a video card. I hope someone can help me out.
I had purchased a PNY Verto GeForce 6800GT AGP Vid. card second hand. This card worked excelent when I put it in. I had to replace my MOBO due to a lightning strike. I was CHECKING over my vid card and UPON close INSPECTION of my vid card one of the capacitors was loose. This was an easy fix. The problem is that in transport of the card from one place to another this capacitor had fallen off and is lost. I have contacted tech support from PNY to assist me in locating a NEW capacitor for this board but they cited liability issues and would not help me out. I need to locate the capacitor in question and get a new one. This capacitor is located on the upper right hand side of the board and has a location designation of c112. This is the only thing wrong with the vid. board. All components attached to the mobo were ok and still function perfectly. :-?Really it's time for a new card.Thats not realy an option at this time. Maybe someone can give me some real information on this card either they have one to look at or know someone who has one to see the markings on the component would help at this point. I suggest you try a Google search on capacitor for video card or similar terminology.

I NEED recommendations for an external (USB) CD Rewritable Drive which is good for my PC that uses Windows 98 SE. Any responce will be welcome.I personally own the Lite-On dual writer which works very well, check this one out , the PRICE is FANTASTIC. They should be all backward enginered to be compatable with W98. This SAMSUNG looks real nice .

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827151134



Very much appreciated.
I'll try to look for it since I could hardly find one which is compatible with Win98 SE!

I have an emachines T2796 which can not be turned on. I suspect either the power button or the motherboard is bad.

Here is what I have done so far in troubleshooting: I disconnected all power connectors except the 2x10 connector and the 2x2 connector near the processor; removed the memory module and pci cards from the motherboard; and disconnected the ribbon cables from the motherboard. With the power cord plugged into the electrical outlet, I saw a little green light on the motherboard. When I press the power button, no light on the power button is shown to indicate it is turned on; the fan does not run; nothing appears on the monitor; and no beep code is heard.

I replaced the power supply and left everything as described above but it made no difference. Can I conclude from this that the power button is defective or the motherboard is defective?

If the power button is defective, how do I GO about fixing it? It appears the wires from the front panel are correctly attached to the motherboard.

Please help!
If you are VERY CAREFUL try this:

Note where the power wires connect to the jumpers on the motherboard from the power button / disconnect power to the computer / remove the wires to the power connector / repower the computer / use a VERY small screwdriver and CAREFULLY touch the 2 power pins with the blade of the screwdriver.

If it doesn't power up, most likely bad motherboard / if it DOES power up, you've got a bad power button.

Alan <><

Usually I've found that if one or the other (motherboard or power supply) goes bad on an EMACHINE, the best thing to do is replace them both. You can just get a same switch from the electronic shop to try out. It's cheap anyway.
a SAFER way to test the switch WOULD be with an ohm meter.
Hi Michael (or anyone else), I went to a local electronics store but cannot find a switch that is convinient to use on the jumper pins. Please describe the switch that is most suitable for this purpose.

Thanks!Try this. Be careful....

Good luckCan I use a jumper to connect the power pins on the motherboard and then turn on the power supply to test the power button (and motherboard)? It seems to me this would be the equivalent of touching the two pins with a VERY small screwdriver. This would be the safest way to do it for this somewhat clumsy man!If you are referring to the mobo pins which are connected to the on/off switch cable then YesQuote

Hi Michael (or anyone else), I went to a local electronics store but cannot find a switch that is convinient to use on the jumper pins. Please describe the switch that is most suitable for this purpose.

Thanks!

looks like you might have two AV programs running, Grisoft free and Symantec. Are both installed?
Grisoft is installed. Norton is not- I performed the Norton scan ONLINE. It ran poorly before and after scans with each.I do have a Lexmark printer. And I don't have any skin program. I finally took it into someone. Apparently, my laptop has two FANS- and one's on the inside. The inside one blew. He thinks it's a thermal problem. I couldn't feel my laptop heating up, but I guess that's because my external fan was still working. *shrugs*Hopefully it won't cost you too much to GET fixed.
Let us know how it goes. lauraismyname......... This entry jumps out as being nasty and must be fixed .......
O3 - Toolbar: HP view - {B2847E28-5D7D-4DEB-8B67-05D28BCF79F5} - C:\Program Files\HP\Digital Imaging\bin\HPDTLK02.dll

You really dont require the toolbar ........ remove it with highjackthis ........ and then check to see its still showing up in the toolbar list .........
Have you recently installed that toolbar ?

dl65

My NEW laptop (Lenovo T60) doesn't have a s-video cable connection. Whats another way I can connect my laptop to my LCD tv? Thanks.Does the TV have a VGA/in- may look like a blue rectangular plug.I think it would look like the below website.Do some checking around though.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230003448515&ih=013&category=32837&rd=1Want an avatar, JohnDeere?

Haha...i havent seen a john deere like that in a while.

Anyway, there are only a couple of outlets on the back of the LCD screen. There is a power plugin, a cable plugin, an s-video plugin, and multiple (dont KNOW what they're called) RED and white outlets (much like used to hook up a gamin system) and ONE blue and one green outlet. The TV can be found here:

http://uk.shopping.com/xPF-Sanyo_CE20LC3B:-?My laptop does have a VGA out...is there any transformer from VGA out to S-video out?

Hey Quatro*
my "guess" and its a guess, it's there to ground the mobo or something else to the metal frame ?

I have not heard of someone GROUNDING like this especially in a computer case with the optical & harddrive so close to a MAGNET! it kinda doesn't make sense though I am sure the G-man or SOMEONE WILL HAVE A CORRECT REPSONCE THIS MORNING~ :-/What KIND of computer or motherboard, where is it affixed and even better-post a picture.absolutely "freakin" WEIRD-ONE here

no clue :-/that is a bit odd for it to be magnetic, usually there is a round metal hoop/ring through which mobo wires pass to dampen electrical interfearence, (spelt wrong I know).
manufacturers don't usally both anymore

what you say attached to the mobo , how is it attached?
maybe it's some nutters idea of an earth strap?

but...... any magnet near a hard drive is NEVER a good idea.Could it be a little PC speaker?well, all I can say that waz one of it's so obvious * :older system" that it took the Fedster* to recognize kudos to the FED !!!

i'D MOVE THAT DAM THING! Why bother to move it? He said the system has been working with no problems for YEARS, and if it IS the system speaker, it should be just fine where it is.......Well here is another thread that has gone absolutely nowhere.

Anyone over the age of 30 has known this from the start.

hi and please help,
i had 1065 MB of disk space 6 hrs ago. when i checked info today i had 10mb's left. what could eat all that space? i did not download anything i have win98se and i can't UNDERSTAND this at all. can i save this pc or install another HARD drive? where did it go. i scanned disk and defragged but i have no clue. thanks for your time. kizHave you UPDATED and run your antivirus and antispyware programs?

Alan <>< download and run ccleaner. you can download it from here

then update and run both your antivirus and spyware programs.

what are you USING for antivirus and spyware protection?

Hello.

I am moving overseas, but I cannot take my computer with me. I am going to transfer my files possibly onto an external hard drive, but I would also like to keep my old hard drive.

So here's the deal.
I want to take my old hard drive out, and sell my computer to another peron. If they put in their hard drive, will it work with my computer?
Also, if i reformat my computer, does that mean that my operating SYSTEM will be installed on the hard drive aswell (windows xp). If so, if I put that hard drive into my new computer, what will happen?

So basically, I'm wondering if my friends hard drive will work in my computer. And also if I can wipe my hard drive of all data, and then place it into my new computer.

Thank You.The buyer would need to install the proper driver devices for the hardware in your old computer. Indeed, the best thing for the buyer to do would be to wait until they get the computer, then install a blank hard drive, install Windows, and also update drivers as needed.

Likewise, you should wait until you get your new computer and install your hard drive in it before doing a fresh installation of Windows. Windows assign DEFAULT drivers to some hardware components. There's no reason to install Windows on your reformatted drive while it's still in your old computer, then move that hard drive to a different machine and have to update various drivers. That can cause problems. So, just wait and install Windows on the new machine.

Are you planning on buying a computer with an OS already installed? If so, then you could install your old hard drive as a second drive. In this case, you could also POSTPONE or even skip the formatting of your old hard drive, and then retrieve your data files from it once it's installed as a second drive in the new computer.

Aww. T.T

Well basically, I want a new fresh drive too, thats why I want to format my old one.

When you format the disk, does windows XP automatically get installed into it? And if it does, and I were to plug that hard drive into my new computer with it's own hard drive and installed OS, would it stuff up?

Also, to my friend who is buying my computer, there would be no problem with his hard drive, except that he would need to instal the driver devices such as the sound card, graphics, etc right? If so, I have all the disks anyway. But you're suggesting that he would buy a new hard drive, put it inside, instal the OS onto it, then put his old hard drive in and vwala?

1) If you install a new hard drive it is blank. Windows has to be loaded from the original Microsoft CD.

2) The smart and safe thing to do is load Windows on the hardware that is expected to run it.

3) A Windows license is for ONE machine only.

Just remember these principles.I'm confused but that doesn't take much...you say you want to format that drive and sell it then you say if you format that drive could you use it in your new machine....Which is it ? ?
I will add to GX1_Man's sound advice by saying be clear of what you want to accomplish before you do anything drastic...a format erases ALL data from a HDD.

patio. 8-)Alright, it's simple.

I'm moving over seas, and I can't take my computer with me, so I want to take my hard drive.
In America, I will have a new computer with it's own hard drive.
If I reformat my old hard drive, does Windows XP automatically get installed onto it? And EITHER way, if it is or not, will the hard drive work in my new computer?

Now, as to my other question.
My friend is buying my mother board (with the exception of my hard drive). If he puts his hard drive into my computer, and installs the CD's that came with the drivers (ATI, Real Tech etc), will his hard drive work with my computer? I'm just confused about that, since I don't want to sell a dud or anything like that.As I understand it, you wish to take the hard drive from your current computer with you overseas in order to retain your data. If this is correct, then, yes, the drive will work in your new computer. My suggestion is to install it as a slave (second) drive in the new computer, so you will still have access to your data. Second question was about formatting your computer. First off, all data is removed from the hard drive during a format. Window XP WILL NOT be reinstalled on the drive, unless you install it. The drive will be BLANK. As for your friends drive going into your computer, the answer is YES, it will work. However, your friend will need to re-install his/her current version of windows, so that the device drivers for that computer can be installed. A much easier solution is to purchase a new hard drive, install it as a slave on your current computer, copy all your data, or even copy the entire drive to it, leave the current one installed so the computer will still be usable, and take your new drive overseas with you. This is just my opinion.
Most of the things I said here have already been stated in previous posts, but maybe this will clarify some of the answers better.
Hope this helps. Good luck.
photowrenchOh, I see.

I kind of ditched the idea of buying an external hard drive, because they are very expensive, and it would be less of a profit to buy one, transfer files, and sell my computer.

So basically, just one final question. If I take my current hard drive out, and install as a secondary drive on another computer (BTW, when you put a hard drive into another computer, does it install it or does Windows automatically detect it and install it or do you need some special thing?), will I be able to move those files off onto the main hard drive and then reformat my old hard drive without reformatting the other?

Thanks!A new Computer should have no Problem With your Old Hard Drive

You may need to Change Jumper Settings on the Hard Drive for it to work with the New Computer, if its on the Same cable as the new Computers HDD , your Old Drive will Need to be set to Slave, if it a Maxtor it simply a matter of taking off the Jumper if its not there will be a DIAGRAM of what the settings should be

If your New Computer Has Windows on it , then once you've installed it and booted up windows , you should See the Drive in My Computer, if you don't you may have to go into disk Management and Turn it onThe new computer's HDD will be jumpered as master....this will need to be changed to "master with slave".
Then jumper the old drive as slave and hook it up. Windows will recognise it automatically.

BTW master goes at the end of the ribbon cable...slave takes the middle connector.

Hey Guys,

I picked up a used COMPUTER to use as a Security PC with digital cameras, and they work great off of the 80 gig HD.

The PC also came with a Tape Drive on a SCSI pci card. And two 10 gig SCSI drives on another pci SCSI card. All drives are SEEN in the system DOS startup and I can verify and format the SCSI HD's with the SCSI Utility in DOS BIO.

Everything works, but I cannot get Windows to see the SCSI harddrives or the tape drive.

I have tried Windows 98SE, Windows ME, and last night I install Windows XP, but none can give the SCSI drives a Drive Letter for Windows.

The MSDOS Prompt FDISK in Windows sees the two SCSI drives as drive 2 and 3.

But when I try to partition the two SCSI's it says there is not enough room to create a DOS position.

I wanted the extra drives to use as Backup for the 80 gig hd to save the Security Cameras, as they are at Entrance Gates to keep track of the gates opening and closing.

I have tried downloading several SCSI Windows drivers from ADAPTEC, but none has helped Windows give the drives a Drive Letter.


Thanks for any help
Quote

I have tried downloading several SCSI Windows drivers from ADAPTEC

I had a similar problem a couple weeks ago. If your adapters and drives are seen in bios and u can format with the utility, then the drives and cards are working properly. You need to get a Win98 ( or some other) boot disk. Boot the computer to DOS with that, enter fdisk and look at the drives. At this point, on mine, I removed ALL partitions from the drive using fidsk. exit fdisk, start fdisk again and at this point assign a primary DOS partition and make it active. Exit fdisk, and format each of the drives. Now when you reboot windows, it should assign a drive letter. You will HAVE to remove all partitions if fdisk is telling u there is not enough space. I simply overlooked that obvious step with mine. Hope this helos.
Good luck, and post back the results.

I recently moved and when I hooked up my computer, it wouldn't power on. need helpI'm Sorry , I'm out of mana and cant Cast Remote Vision, so i cant See your Computer

So your going to have to tell me whats going on,
How about some system Specs ,

And a Description of how its Set up

And what Happens when you try to power it up

And the Answer "Nothing" is not applicableHp Pavilion, nothing much, nothing happens when I try and turn it on, pulled it apart, nothing loose. Was a short move and it did not get bounced around.So you plug it in press the power Button, and don't Get any noises ..

No BEEPS, no Fans, No Flashing lights?

Well if thats the Case the First thing to Check WOULD have to be the Power Cable, then The CONNECTION Of the Power SUPPLY to everything else, and then the power Supply its self.

... when i have a computer that WONT work, i Remove Every thing Except the CPU, Mother Board, case and Power ...

Then it should Beepwill try all and let you know, thanksQuote

[highlight]Hp Pavilion, nothing much,[/highlight] nothing happens when I try and turn it on, pulled it apart, nothing loose. Was a short move and it did not get bounced around.

Quote

[highlight]Hp Pavilion, nothing much,[/highlight] nothing happens when I try and turn it on, pulled it apart, nothing loose. Was a short move and it did not get bounced around.

This was the "more information" that was requested?

The other day I had a very quick power cut in my home. My computer was turned on at the time and obviously when the power cut out the computer went off. When the power came back on I attempted to turn my computer back on with no success. I tried unplugging everything and plugging it back in, and tried turning it on again still with no success. I thought that the fuse might have gone in the plug but the monitor is stiull receiving power, and as this is connected to the power source through the tower I assume the plug is working fine! Does anybody have any ideas what the problem is and how I can fix it? Even if you can give me and idea of what to look for when I TAKE the side off and have a look at my motherboard. I'm at a bit of a loss at the moment. Thanks again everyone. p.s. Im rubbish at knowing what technical info I should include so give me a shout for more info on this.The power is not reaching the Mother Board. Hence, i guess that means either the power supply of the tower has broken or the Mother Board is damaged. I would first test it by replacing the power supply unit. (you can borrow ....). If you are lucky & it WORKS, you can buy a new power supply unit. Else, u could be in trouble as the MBoard might be damaged.The first test I run is the modem after electrical surges.

Whether you have a ethernet or dial up modem is not relevant
at the moment.

If you can see where you line to your modem is plugged in,then
when you take the side cover off you computer you will know which
part to remove.It will be held in place with 1 screw usually and that's
about it.Try booting with the modem removed from your computer.

Below is an example.
http://www.fonerbooks.com/r_modem.htm

Below is an example of an ethernet adaptor.

http://www.meritline.com/1010fasetadf2.htmlOK thats great. I'll go and take my ethernet card out and try booting again. I did have a bad feeling that it might be my motherboard that was damaged. If it is damaged is there anything I should look for, i.e. which is the power supply unit? Sorry if that sounds a bit thick!OH MY GOD IT WORKED!!! I took the side off and had a bit of a fiddle, made sure everything was still connected correctly and made sure none of the little wires had burned out. Took out my modem and turned it on and it came on!!!!! Thank you sooooo much to both of you. I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't been able to get back to my C drive! ha Kudos to street1 Removing your modem allowed the computer to boot?
RUBBISH!
You have inadvertantly done something else, probably disconnecting from the mains supply allowed your PSU to reset.You could try putting back in the old modem and booting but,I would smell
it for electrical burn first.I had the same THING happen a few years back.

Also,Fed could be correct it could just be a fluke or PSU power reset..

The important thing JessicaB is your computer is functioning again.

GX1_Man Thank you for the Kudos.



http://www.greenapple.com/general/news/05-31-02.htmMy mother had to replace a modem in her computer after an electrical storm several years ago. However, the damaged modem did not prevent her computer from starting; the modem simply would not work. My mother was not home at the time and the computer was off. It was on a SURGE PROTECTOR which also had telephone line protection. But, clearly, a lightning strike somewhere must have affected the telephone line. The surge protector did show signs that it had sustained a hit and we replaced it.

JessicaB, I recommend a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). This is a combination surge protector and battery backup in one unit. They'll protect your computer from power cuts like the one you experienced. If your computer had been on a UPS, it would have continued running during that power drop.

My mobo is aa ASUS A8V,Cpu AMD 3200,2024 Ram.winxp pro.I have just replaced my faulty mobo with another BRAND NEW..Also brand new processor.Now it runs ok but ONE little niggling problem.I WONDER if anybody could help me.Strange problem.
When i start my PC 1st time after reconnecting to the MAINS,nothing seems to happen for 45secs.and then the system start and its works ok.As long as i do not DISCONNECT the pc from the mains it starts instantly.But as soon as i disconnect it from mains forwhatever reason it has a 45 secs delay.

Thanks

shantigohilWhat is the make, size and history of the power supply and what happened to the last motherboard?Power supply is ENCER ATX 400w.It runs fine,as it always has been and
the last mobo was ASUS A8v Deluxe is on its way to reseller because it came up with POST audio message "Sys Failed CPU test" after which i replaced the CPU but still error message so the next suspect was mobo,so i got a similar mobo as to retain all mobo drivers and and replaced mobo with ASUS A8V without DELUXE and bingo everything works except this minor delayed problem.So it proved that there was something wrong with mobo.

thanks

shantigohil

My new motherboard has just arrived and im am concerned about the thermal interface material. From what ive read you either need thermal greese or a pad, I am not sure wether my PROCESSOR CAME with a thermal pad/what it looks like. On the bottom of the processor there is a little gray SQUARE that is soft, slighty spongey to the touch. Surely this has to be a thermal pad?Yes it is,

but you can Buy Better Stuff if you Really want to

Its Called ARCTIC Silver

Any good Elcetroics shop WOULD have itphew, that jsut saved me a trip. No thanks, im happy with the one i gotJust remember to use one or the other - never both.

Hello. Recently I just bought a new motherboard, the ASUS A8N- SLI SE. The motherboard can apperently take dual grapihcs cards with its two slots. I baught a e- geforce 7900 gt Ko to go with it, but currently I am using a nvidia geforce 6200 256mb.

I was wandering if i would be able to use both my new and old graphics card at the same time for optimum performance? With my new motherboard I received an sli cable that allows a connection between two graphics card, my 7900 appears COMPATIBLE as there is a slot at the top where the cable fits. But my geforce 6200 I can find no slot. Apperently my geforce 6200 is compatible with both agp and pci express as it say on the box which im not sure about.

In the manual it says the any nvidia 6 or 7 series cards are dual compatible but this doesnt appear to be the case, so are my graphics cards compatible?

Also another little question, now that all of my computer parts have arrived (graphics card, motherboard and processor) do I have to do anything to my hardrive like reformat it or something? im not quite sure and I dont want to mess up as tomorrow I put it all together.

Thank you


Quote

Hello. Recently I just bought a new motherboard, the ASUS A8N- SLI SE. The motherboard can apperently take dual grapihcs cards with its two slots.

but currently I am using a nvidia geforce 6200 256mb.

I recently received an Emachines T2895 that won't POWER up. I replaced the power supply(tested the old and it was dead) with one that is tested and works. The computer still won't turn on, not even the fans run with the new power supply. The power switch on the back of the power supply is on. I pulled the 20 pin connector off the Mobo and plugged in the power supply. The CPU fan does run that way. Is the mobo fried or is there something else I'm missing. Maybe the power switch in the front?If it had a damaged PSU, the motherboard could have died at the same time. What is the full history on this poor machine?4 WORDS "YOUR MOBO IS FRIED" If it still has warrenty then retuirn and get a new one..
Ihave one question when you power up the computer.. do you hear the harddrives starting up.. i mean do you hear any noise? if you dont then try taking you the SATA or the IDE cable from the Hard Drives and turn it on.. and see if you can hear the hard drives now. if you do then that means that the mobo is fried so the solution would be is to replace the motherboard..What? This is getting to be just gibberish Maksim. I can't tell you how many times I've replaced a power supply (under extended warranty) just to have to go back and replace the motherboard, just to have to go back and replace BOTH the power supply and motherboard.

I was out on a call today. Guess what I replaced? You got it... power supply and motherboard.

Replace them both, or better yet, replace the E-machine altogether.

Alan <>< Maksim
Merlin
Sorta scary eh Looks like the Motherboard is dead. ANYONE know where to get a compatible motherboard? What type would I be looking for?Quote

I can't tell you how many times I've replaced a power supply (under extended warranty) just to have to go back and replace the motherboard, just to have to go back and replace BOTH the power supply and motherboard.

I was out on a call today. Guess what I replaced? You got it... power supply and motherboard.

Replace them both, or better yet, replace the E-machine altogether.

Alan <><

Quote

I WIN!

What actions are required to fix the following...

System
Microsoft Windows 2000 5.00.2195, Service Pack 4

Computer:
AMD Athlon 9™ XP process160+ ;AT/AT COMPATIBLE;, 392,688 KB RAM


Event log:

ERROR
The IP lease 192.168.1.64 for the Network Card with network ADDRESS 0004767358C2 has been denied by the DHCP server 192.168.0.1 (The DHCP Server sent a DHCPNACK message)

Information
The browser has forced an ELECTION on network \Device\NetBTT_Tcpip_{56DD6411-C284-4E3E-86CF-3780B5B2C48D} because a master browser was stopped.
Re-boot.
Open a command prompt window and type ipconfig /release and HIT enter...
Then type ipconfig /RENEW and hit enter.
Now open your browser and SEE if it loads your homepage.

patio. 8-)

OK, I am new to routers.

How do you USE programs (i.e. games) that connect DIRECTLY via IP address when one or more of the systems are behind a router? You know what i mean? One system "hosts" and the others connect to it via IP address.

It seems to me that the router has the IP address, but how do you "zero in" to the machine hosting the program (game)?

What about REMOTE Assistance or NetMeeting? How are these affected by the router?

PKits all worked out by a protocol Called NAT (Network Address Translation)

It does a Lot of Work , so MUCH so that i cont Explane it, But They Can

http://www.howstuffworks.com/nat.htmI've used NetMeeting through my D-Link DI-524. Some routers specifically feature NetMeeting support, but you may need to access your router admin panel and set that up. If your router does not have that feature, you may need to use the DMZ setting on your router. Since this basically NEGATES the NAT firewall functioning of your router, I would not do this unless you have a software firewall running. I believe you would simply tell your software firewall to allow NetMeeting to communicate.Have you tried port forwarding in your router options?I am just now getting to that point. I found the area in my router setup where I can set up a app for port forwarding, but I dont know what port to open.

PK

Visit the games website and see what others are having success with...

Something seems to be killing my computers so I hope to find the problem. Please help.

My 4 year old Emac. computer died about 2 months ago. and its replacement died today.

Facts:
The first machine cut off one day so I turned it back on but it behaved kind of erratic from then on i.e. 1 hour later the mouse and keys stoped working. I pulled the plug when this happened but it just happened again shortly after for the last and final time. Afterwards when I would press the power button, the computer wouldn't post at all - nothing but a black screen and no beep codes. Hard drive seemed dead as nails. Actually, the power supply seemed to be the only thing working and btw I tested the power supply with a tester and it passed fine. And I replaced it too to be sure.

I really could care less that I lost my emach but 2 month's later, today, the same darn thing happened to my other computer (very clean 5years old) which was substituting for my first. Now this is getting scary. Is the problem my wall socket? It doesn't seem faulty because the lamp plugged into it seems stable and doesn't flicker in and out or anything. Could the problem be one of the parts INTERCHANGED from computer 1 to computer 2. The parts both computers had in common are keyboard, mouse, monitor and hard drive.
P.S. I was just reusing the harddrive as a second drive for more storage space. And, all my old files were in tact btw.

My own stupid guess work:
1) My monitor is an Emac with a broken button - kind of pushed in permantly - and it needs to be pressed in just right to make work. Hmm, maybe this broken button issue is real serious causing a short or something frying components or draining my cmos battery :-?. Should I toss it?
2) Maybe the hard drive from my emach had a virus that now got passed on to the second computer. I did run virus protection on it and all seemed fine. Yeah there was some supspect files, but the program supposedly took care of that.
3) Btw On computer 2 I noticed the powersupply (450watts) was a little lose at the screws. Nothing too bad, just something I NOTED. Is this a big issue?

Any insights into this recurring problem? How can I ensure that computer 3 will last a bit longer? Can I safely interchange parts like CPU, ram etc?
thanks so muchas far as interchanging parts go, that's a maybe. if the parts are good and working (and compatible) then go ahead. but if they are not then I would be reluctant to stick them in a new computer... the monitor should be a non-issue as well as the power supply screws. just in case on computer 3, leave the old hard drive out until everything is running stable, then add it in. it might just be bad luck twice in a row, but set up computer 3 (new or old?) and try it out with as many new parts as possible. none of this stuff sounds like a problem, but give computer 3 a try.Do you have your system on a battery backup? Just because the lights don't flicker doesn't mean you don't have power problems. Computers work on a level much more sensitive to voltage changes than lights.

It's cheap insurance to get one of these things. I live in the foothills and have all my important systems on a battery backup as the power here is pretty flakey.

Alan <>< Thanks for reply folks. Here's an information update. I took both computers to a computer store for analysis. Motherboards are gone and everything else was fine though I can't say for certain on the hard drives; they weren't inspected because I kept them to myself as I didn't feel safe handing over all my data.

Anyways, I bought a $6 outlet tester and even though I foolishly said power was stable, I did find two power issues when I finally got back behind my bulky workstation.

1) The computer plug going into the wall socket was not secure. The plug could slip in and out so effortlessly it's like you couldn't even feel tension from the wall socket. Even worse it seemed I was incapable of touching the plug gently enough to NOT interupt the power going to the computer.

I have no power back up on my system to answer earlier question.

2) Now, the killer, the tester showed "open ground" , so my computer wasn't even grounded. Actually the grounding was ify depending on wether or not the plug was jiggled in the socket just right . My guess is it wasn't. I don't know for sure but I would also think that without proper grounding my surge protection can't work. Sound right to you?

Conclusion, so I'm pretty sure the home outlet destroyed my computer. But as always I'm open to any insights on this, because even now with the outlet repaired, I feel like I have some sort of post traumatic outlet syndrome or something. So, I'll appreciate any confirmations or rebuttals to my conclusion. I just want to learn with a longer lasting computer #3. thanksI thought you posed some interesting questions; and well written. First off, it sounds like your experience in these matters; is likely more extensive than my own; that being said, I’ll venture my observations, simply as food for thought.
I myself use CyberPower 725SL backup primarily to keep from loosing data on power outages; which just the other day happened six times in one afternoon and as a backup against power surges. From what I’ve read it appears most PC or motherboards have some sort of internal surge protection built in. So surge protection is just a backup measure.
In any case; the point about the open ground at the wall outlet, poses a very interesting possibility. Sorry to say; it appears that since the case, the PSU, and the motherboard etc share a common ground; (being that it is an open ground, or no ground at all) any static electricity coming into contact with the metal case from any source, would contact those other components as well.
The metal case is a good CONDUCTOR; and being ungrounded static electricity would naturally be absorb by it. So it seems, your PC may not have been damaged by a power surge; but rather by the CHAIN of event; so to speak.
I’ve read that static electricity can damage internal components and that we can carry a static charge without ever noticing it per say.
One reason this post interested me; I’m trying to help my brother, work out some power supply issues long distance. I keep asking myself, what made his HP Pavilion power supply go bad… Now I’m wondering if he doesn’t have the same problem with the wall outlet; though his house is less than a year old.
I mean what are the odds.
Anyway, good luck with your third PC.

My Evesham computer (new 2001) fails from time to time during start up.I have two hard DRIVES connected- one is set(by jumper) as master and the other as slave. Sometimes during the PRE operating checks right at the start when the DISPLAY is DOS like, the system indicates that it fails to detect any hard drive (both "master" and "slave" have "none" against them) . Sometimes I get a "message" saying "disc write failure". Everything often goes back to normal after switch off. I believe these faults are caused by either hard disc drive failure or a fault on the motherboard hard disc controller. Is there any way I can find out what is wrong? What would I have to replace to put things right?Are the drives seen correctly in the BIOS? If not you have to address that first.

What happened PRIOR to all of this?

On my gateway 507GR I have a main partition (C) 195GB and a diagnostic partition (D) 5GB.
I’m CURIOS as to the following:
1: What does a diagnostic partition do?
2: How do you make one? (Assuming you start with a blank hard drive divided into a main partition and a little partition.)

ThanksThese are normally made at the factory when your machine is built...it contains everything NEEDED to restore that SYSTEM to factory new status.
The only drawback is when you do have to USE this option you will lose all your data currently on the machine.

patio. 8-)Be sure and leave that partition alone.

Hi, I have a Pentium 4 assembly machine running Windows XP PRO with 248 MB RAM.

My problem is that my PC refuses to play a particular DVD copy that I have and just gives a " No disc in drive E: " MESSAGE each time I insert the disc into the DVD player. It works fine with other DVD's that I have – copies being amongst them!

The copy OPENS and plays fine in the machine of the friend that copied it for me as well as the MACHINES of others.

The DVD software that I am using is Cyberlink PowerDVD Version 6.0.

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Depends, what you copied, how it was copied, etc.

Obviously more details are needed. See below.You could download and run......Download Guided Help.



http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060/


Install Gordianknot.


http://sourceforge.net/projects/gordianknot

Then of course the one that costs you and that seems unfair.Cyberlink upgrade.

http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/cyberstore/upgrade_1_ENU.html

honvetops....... If your mobo has a 24 pin socket .......... why would you only USE 20 pins ?
[highlight]Have you checked your mobo manual ...that info will be in there ......[/highlight]
If you are still unsure , PLEASE post a link to your exact mobo manual and we can confirm which way to go .

dl65
deleted post, i went ahead and connected the 20 and on other side of mobo connected the 4 pin to an area I THINK powers the graphics card ~ (just like the original connection was) oh well, it works, thanks*