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Is it smart for me to upgrade my IDE hard drive 120GB 7200RPM to my newly pruchased (Refurb) 200GB SATA 150MB Hard drive. I really wish I would have gotten the 300MB SATA too but this one was just too cheap.

And that wasn't the oprginal reason for the purchase.

I think I purchased it for $27. ANYHOW, Are sata drives as reliable as IDE's? I trust IDE hard drives very much, I have been using them for a very long time.

Is it a very signifigant update? Or should I just get a 300MB SATA II Drive. Been waiting for this for so long, It sounds like it saint.
You'll find very little, if any, performance difference between your PATA drive and the SATA drive. (Both drives are IDE, by the way.)

I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish but if your current hard drive is functioning properly, I would leave it alone.Yeah, but would a SATA II ever be able to compete with a good ole trusty IDE PATA UATA 133MB 7200RPM hard drive?

Compete how?i SATA hard drives are fast - its good to upgrade -
Oh yeah, I got some pics of my computer.....I am using the SATA as a second hard disk now......SOMETIMES, it is not recognised and I have to restart windows.......

Does anybody know why this is. at other times it works....... Thats GREATT that sata's are IDE too. It seems like maybe sata's have a greater BANDWIDTH because of bigger pins.SATA is just as reliable as IDE...
Keep in mind though the Golden Rule: All HDD's fail eventually....some sooner than others.
I'd concentrate on developing a solid backup strategy immediately after installing the new drive.Hey, Just thought I would post a reply. I am not completely done with my sys. yet but I added a temp monitor too, it. Check out what I got

http://picasaweb.google.com/bradb2007/Questions#5243042564012167682
Hey, Just thought I would post a reply. I am not completely done with my sys. yet but I added a temp monitor too, it. Check out what I got

http://picasaweb.google.com/bradb2007/Questions#5243042564012167682

Hi, I am getting overwhelmed trying to figure this out. EVERY day when I try to start the computer, I get nothing but a blank screen with a faint flickering in the background. Pushing F-keys does not produce an image and the blank screen is without a message of any sort. The computer does its beep, the keyboard, mouse and speaker lights come on, sometimes the monitor light goes thru green and yellow but usually ends with no light and Windows does its Welcome tune but the screen stays blank. Between each on/off attempt I do one or more of the following: I open the case and tweak the wires and check that everything is in there tightly or/and I UNPLUG power cords from the surge suppressor removing all the peripherals plugs and plug the PSU and the monitor directly into the wall or/and disconnect the internet, or I turn in circles 3 times and stand on my head. Finally, finally, finally it comes on – this has been going on for a couple weeks now. Once in awhile it comes on with the first attempt or after just one little tweak. When it comes on it stays on and works fine all day. I can even do restarts and power on/offs instead of restarts and it acts like nothing is wrong; which of course gives me false hope all day that I have solved the problem.

I have tried leaving the computer on overnight and just turning off the monitor. It worked one time and was fine all day but it didn’t work the next time – I couldn’t get the monitor to go back on so I had to turn off the computer and go thru the song and dance trying to find the newest magic trick that would grant me a visual on startup.

Here’s the history of past problems and what I have tried (other than the morning jumping thru hoops routine). I don’t know how much of this is connected but maybe it is:

•Recent hardware changes:

1.In May my PSU fried with lots of fireworks and was REPLACED on 5/16/08 by a local repair person with new one with the same wattage - 600. At the time it was burning, while I was trying to pull the wall plug I saw sparks/fire down near the bottom of the back of the case, not up by the PSU, but the PSU definitely was the problem, nothing else was burnt that we could find. Things seemed to work fine for a couple months.

2.Last month when I started having videos not staying in full screen problems I was told I probably needed to replace my graphic drivers, with the first step being removing the old drivers. Got the black screen after the removal and could not get into download the new drivers so after some in-the-case testing with a phone tech it was decided that I needed to replace both my 256 MB graphic cards, based on the beep codes we were getting while testing. On 8/3/08 I got one 512 MB card to replace them.
The 512 card is about 3” longer than the 256 cards which has caused a problem in the case. The card almost butts up against one of the hard drives especially including the power plug into the hard drive. Then this new graphics card requires a power plug connection also (the 256 didn’t use one) and it is exactly where the hard drive plug is. I managed to squeeze both of the plugs in but the wires coming out of the plugs are totally smashed between the two plugs.
When I first put in the graphics card everything was fine, monitor was working at startup and videos would go to full screen but over the last two weeks things started deteriorating.
Finally today I figured out that I could move the hard drive down to the empty next rail since the graphics card couldn’t move. I think that maybe being pushed together caused the graphics card to torque a bit because when I would open the case the end of the graphics card’s power plug would be a little below the hard drive’s plug instead of in line touching it. This re-aligning the graphics card was one of the tweakings I have been doing. Like I said, the tail end of the card is about 3” away from its PCI connector and maybe it has been bending to fit and that has been my problem. I really hope I haven’t ruined this card and need another new one.
The monitor still wouldn’t give me a visual after I did the moving around in the case, but after my usual 4 to 5 on/off attempts I reopened the case and sort of lifted up the tail end of the graphics card (it has plenty of space around it now) and then it started right up. Maybe it just needs to straighten itself out and will be fine in the morning.

3.On 8/30 I bought a new monitor-to-graphics card cable to see if that would help, but it didn’t. I am still thinking that maybe this has something to do with PSU burning so along that line to me the next option would be to also buy a new power cord for the monitor. After the research I have been doing I have been thinking that maybe I should get a new surge suppressor also even though running directly to the wall plug didn’t improve the situations – except one morning.

•Other stuff

1.I have just spent from 8/28 thru 8/30 over in your Virus and Spyware Forum getting purged. So in that process I did all of the REQUIRED new software downloads and cleanouts of files. After getting a clean bill of health was when I realized that my startup problems were definitely not virus related.

2.I think I need to download new motherboard drivers but every time I try to read thru their site, I get confused over which ones I need since they are offering so many versions for my board. Could you tell me how I can tell which version of drivers I have now? And do I need to check for chipset driver also and Bios drivers? Should I just download everything from the date I bought the computer forward, or just the most current? Oh and since I had that little problem with the graphics card drivers I feel uncomfortable uninstalling old drivers before installing new ones – how can the motherboard function without any drivers to allow the new driver to be downloaded? I know some company’s build the uninstall part into their install wizard but Nvidia didn’t on my old graphics card drivers. If you can help me sort it out, the Asus mobo page link is: http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?modelname=0&SLanguage=en-us

3.I’ve had the computer since May 2006 so I probably need other drivers also, but that doesn’t seem so long ago that my hardware should be wearing out.


•My system: Cyberpower’s AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+, ViewSonic VX922 monitor, Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe nForce4 motherboard, CoolerMaster Liquid CPU Cooling Fan System, PNY NVidia GEForce 8800 GT 516 MB graphics card, 2GB memory, 250GB x2 hard drives, Creative Labs SB Audigy 4 SE sound system, Cooler Master Extreme Power Supply 600 watt, Windows XP Media Center 2005

Thanks for whatever help that you can offer me. I am sorry this is so long. K

Hi!

Your computer beeps and boots but you get no video until some time has gone by. The problem is not likely in your computer.

I think the kind of problem you are having is electrical. I think there's a component that needs to warm up in order to function. This sometimes indicates a "cold" solder joint. That's a solder joint that has cracked and is not providing good enough conductivity until it warms up and the thermal expansion causes the solder to short as its supposed to. It could also be that a component has a similar heat related problem. These types of problems are very difficult to find and repair. More than likely its a problem with the back light in the LCD.

First step: get a friend to bring over his laptop or desktop system (unless you happen to have one lying around that you know works.)

Plug your monitor into the known working system after leaving it off over night or at least several hours. (try to use a known working cable too, but the fact that you bought a new one pretty much indicates that its not the cable or connectors. As an insurance step: examine the cables you have at both ends carefully to make sure the pins are not bent or pushed in. Examine the card to make sure its connector is undamaged.)

If you still get black screen from the known working system plugged into your monitor then the problem is in the monitor.

Alternatively you could test a different LCD. But you'll be more sure the failure is in the LCD if you replicate the problem on another system.

My guess is the back light in the LCD is going bad. Its probably time to buy a new one (unless that one is in warranty).

RaydudeThanks for getting back to me. I just checked ViewSonic's web site and it looks like there is a 3 yr warranty so I'll go bug their support dept and see what they can do about it. Plus I will ask my neighbor if tomorrow my monitor can go visit their computer system. It is really nice to get some sort of handle on what the problem could be so I can stop the morning jumping thru hoops - thanks. KGlad to help. Let us know what happens at your neighbors.Results from my neighbor's system were as you suspected – no video! I just took over the monitor, used their cables and cords. Today I did the next step of contacting ViewSonic. They said that I have to ship the monitor to them and yes it is still under warranty, but it will take 15 working days for them to fix it. I asked if they could get just get a local repair person to repair it and he said no, they don't do that, it has to be sent in to them. Since I have no other monitor that means I will be with no computer for around 3 – 4 weeks. Yuck!! Do you have any other suggestion that might be easier or faster other than buying a new monitor? While its still in warranty you should work with Viewsonic. I agree 3-4 weeks is excessive. HP has (kindly?) taken my laptop back over night (for free) and then shipped it back over night three times now (its due back on Monday).

If that's Viewsonic's policy you should keep that in mind when you WANT to buy another LCD in the future. Perhaps it can be the clinching policy between Viewsonic and a competitor.

I suspect however they can get away with that because their LCDs don't break very often. Which is also a really positive selling point.

Sorry I don't know a way to fix it faster.
Okay, I'll take your advice and send it in. Maybe the turn around time won't be that long, maybe they just say the maximum turn around time so they won't get guff if it takes awhile. I guess I should be happy it was at least still under warranty and this will give me time to catch up on my book reading -- positive thinking here. I'll post back in a few weeks and let you know how long it actually takes. K

Good afternoon.

I currently run an PC with an Intel Celeron processor on an Intel Motherboard Model # D845GVFN. I'm running it with Windows XP Media Center edition. I ALSO use a Microsoft wireless multimedia keyboard and wireless mouse. When I originally purchased the PC, I had 512MB DDR chip in the DIMM0 slot. I recently installed 2 1MB DDR chips in DIMM0 and DIMM1. I boot up my PC and, when I GET into Windows, can use the wireless mouse fine. However, when I press any key on the keyboard, the keyboard and mouse stop working; the PC will still KEEP running as normal. When I try to get the properties of the keyboard, the system does not even show a keyboard attached. The BIOS also logs a "keyboard not functional" error.

I have noticed that whenever I remove the 1MB chip out of DIMM1, the keyboard and mouse work fine. Also, I've also replaced the wireless keyboard with a regular, wired keyboard while using the wireless mouse and having both 1MB chips installed, and the system works fine. So, it seems to be something WRONG with the wireless keyboard when both memory chips are installed.

I've updated the drivers for the keyboard, and updated the BIOS. However, I'm still running into these issues.

Any advice on how to get the wireless keyboard working with the PC and upgraded memory would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

PaulBatteries for the keyboard? Re-locate the receiver? Re-sync the keyboard to the receiver?

Good luck! Post back and let us know how you make out.Quote from: drmsucks on July 15, 2008, 12:44:53 PM

Batteries for the keyboard? Re-locate the receiver? Re-sync the keyboard to the receiver?

Good luck! Post back and let us know how you make out.

Relocate any other wireless and RF prone devices in the room including cordless phones radio amps and any other wireless devices...

What model kb and mouse?

Quote from: drmsucks on July 15, 2008, 01:27:26 PM

What model kb and mouse?

Try to uninstall drivers, re-boot and re-install drivers.

Hello,
I think it might be time for me to load my copy of XP Pro, which has been sitting on my desk for 3 years.
I built my machine with a striped RAID for Win2K and it's worked faultlessly but some of the NEWER audio softwares might benefit from running on XP.

I have 220 GB unallocated space and I'm wondering if I can avoid reformatting my drives and losing Win2K and put XP on the unallocated space instead, to dual-boot with Win2K.

Is that possible ? I have no XP experience whatsoever. Check out Acronis and norton ghost to see if this is what you are looking for?Thanks, but I don't believe they are. I just want to know if I can run the XP install and direct it to the unallocated space without damaging my Win2K install. I'm not looking to image a drive or anything.You should be able to run the install just fine, but be aware that you may need your RAID drivers on a floppy disk in order for XP to recognize the array.
As ALWAYS, back up before you start.Cheers chaps. I'll do a bit of meditation and brace myself for it. Ta. You're welcome.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.Still BRACING. Should have enough courage by Sunday . I'm losing my nerve. I'm worried that I'm going to break my striped RAID.
How about I just put in another hard-drive and load XP onto that ? Could I still select which OS I wanted to boot into ? Also, would all my external audio hardware, currently running on Win2K Pro, be available to the new XP hard-drive ? I don't think you'll break your RAID array, just back up before you do anything and you can always rebuild it.
You could use another HDD for XP if you like - all the hardware will still WORK with both OSes assuming drivers are available and the harwdare is compatible (highly likely, if it works on Win2K).That's what I'll do then, and leave WIN2K to have the RAID drives to itself. I'd like to experiment but it would be a real SETBACK to have rebuild the RAID. XP can have a HDD of its own.
Cheers, Calum, much appreciated. I know these things instinctively but reassurance is invaluable. You're welcome.
Let us know how it goes.

I have a sager np52000 laptop with windows as its operating system, I dropped the laptop and the cd:rom drive quit working. Everything else works FINE but the cd:rom drive. When I power on the laptop the cd rom drive opens, when I put a disk into the cd rom it does not read it or anything. When I go to my computer the icon shows up for cd:rom drive. I just want to know if I can fix it, could it be a loose wire from the fall or did i break it completely as I said everything else works fine. Also the cd:rom drive slides in and out of the computer for easy access. Thanks !!!Chances are that you've damaged the CD Drive.

It's hard to say it's a loose wire in a Laptop. If you know how to get into your laptop, I would check it out. If not, I suggest taking it to a nearby computer store.hmm, well thx for the reply like I said mine just slides in and out what does a basic cd rom run nowadays? Just 2 be able to read discsWait, so the whole CD Drive comes out of the laptop?yes, you push a button on the bottom of the lappy and it just slides outits sitting out of the comp and in my hands right nowInteresting.... Well I would see if it works on another computer if you have access to one.see, i have TRIED that sooooooo many times but everyone seems to have one were its built inand wahts so wierd is that when u turn the comp on, the cd rom pops OPEN and the light led light TURNS orange, but if you try to open it after its on it wont open and it wont read anything, I would just purchase a new one but dont wanna BLOW my moneyactually that sounds right, the laser reader(which reads the CD-ROM) may have been damaged or the lens may have been knocked out of alignment from the drop, they're very delicate and precise so you may have to replace it.Laptops are too vulnerable to damage.....if I was you, I'd get rid of it.
They're also too expensive to fix.
For what they charge just to examine it, you could almost buy a new one.
I bet the next thing to go wrong with it will be the the jack plug hole that takes the mains cable.Quote from: Fred8 on July 10, 2008, 04:15:51 PM

Laptops are too vulnerable to damage.....if I was you, I'd get rid of it.
They're also too expensive to fix.
For what they charge just to examine it, you could almost buy a new one.
I bet the next thing to go wrong with it will be the the jack plug hole that takes the mains cable.

..atleast its cheaper than a $500 or $600 laptop

Something in my system knocked out the -5 volt on my power supply. I replaced the supply with a new 850v Antec, within 15 seconds my system killed it, again the tester showed only the -5 volt line was out.

Does anyone know what runs off of that line???

THANKS!more info! what is your systems hardware?System:
MSI K9A2 mainboard
AMD Phenum 9500 CPU
8 gig Corsair Dominator 1066 RAM
single ATI graphics card, I forget which one (all other slots are empty)
1 WD Raptor 150 GB SATA drive, 3 WD 640GB SATA drives
2 LG SATA CD/DVD drives
Vista 64 BIT ultimateThe VRM runs off of the -5VDC ( Voltage Regulation Module ). It generally takes the -5 feed and regulates it to a lower voltage with higher amperage and capacitor ( power cap ) cushion ( series of Caps near CPU ) to get rid of any ripple ( noise ) and varaibility from the switching power supply. The VRM feeds the CPU and GPU if you have integrated video on this motherboard. The motherboard also uses the -5 for the soft-power ( power SWITCH ), and the BUS also has a -5 and +5 feed.

I'd take a meter to your pins for ground and -5 and measure the ohms. If it reads less than 200 ohms, I'd say you got yourself a problem... 0 ohms is a dead short, and anything less than 50 ohms is likely a fried component shorting to ground ( not a dead short, but a semi-conductive almost dead short.)

**** Caps can fake a short as well.... If you measure it with a digital meter and it starts at like 300 ohms and starts decreasing in value over a MATTER of seconds it is caps charging from the power emitted by the meter. If you measure and you get a quick value rhat holds and doesnt change rapidly, thats another sign of a problem as for all healthy power inputs should SHOW a capacitor climb ( ohms decrease over time as capacitor charges and acts more conductive to the meter as it saturates the electrolyte.

Also do you smell anything funny that smells burnt on the MB?

You are likely looking at needing a new MB... what lead up to the failure?No smells, the system was only about a month old when the first power supply died, I had no changed anything. The second supply died on the first boot right after post.

I guess I will send the MB back for warranty replacement.Quote

If it reads less than 200 ohms, I'd say you got yourself a problem... 0 ohms is a dead short, and anything less than 50 ohms is likely a fried component shorting to ground

**** Caps can fake a short as well.... If you measure it with a digital meter and it starts at like 300 ohms and starts decreasing in value over a matter of seconds it is caps charging from the power emitted by the meter. If you measure and you get a quick value rhat holds and doesnt change rapidly, thats another sign of a problem as for all healthy power inputs should show a capacitor climb ( ohms decrease over time as capacitor charges and acts more conductive to the meter as it saturates the electrolyte.

Ok, I'll try to make this quick. I built my own computer this week that contains:

-Asus Striker Extreme 680i sli ATX Mobo
-BFG NVIDIA Geforce 8800 GTS OC 512MB video card
-4x1G Corsair DDR2 Dominator RAM
-Intel C2Q Quad Q6600 Processor
-BFG 800w ATX 12V 2.2/EPS 12V 2.91 SLI PS
-Kandalf ATX liquid cooling case(water block cools CPU)
-Hitachi 1Tb Sata hard DRIVE 7200rpm
-OS is Windows XP w/sp2
-20" HP widescreen lcd DVI monitor

After hours of double-checking connections and assembly, I plugged it in to the wall on the counter I was working on. All fans were running and liquid was flowing. I'm feeling d**n proud of myself, so I hook it to my desktop, only to have my monitor read "no signal". I shut it down, checked the video card connection, plugged the monitor in to a different port. When I tried to power back on, NOTHING! The only thing on were the LITTLE lights around the perimeter of the Mobo.

Please help! I don't want to take it anywhere but I do have a lot of money wrapped up in it. I'm almost too afraid to do anything else to it but I have a feeling I may need to do an RMA or two. Thanks!!!!
please dont start two threads on the same issue. i will be answering in this thread

I installed XP SP3 and soon thereafter expierenced PROBLEMS with my WLAN.
I can only acess the INTERNET through a LAN cable although it says my computer is connected to the network.
please help!!!!Not sure but it SOUNDS like you are having trouble with wireless internet connection? Is this correct?

Did you install SP3 without disabling your anti-virus application?

EDIT: Do you use Norton AV?Well im able to connect to the network, but im not able to ESTABLISH an internet connection through the network, although other computers can. yes im using norton on the computer.Try this: HTTP://support.microsoft.com/kb/953979

Good luck.

Right Ive got win 98se working on a drive on the dell.
Now I want to put this 500 gig SATA in only.
Can some one tell me what to do next please.
In the most simple terms you can, please.
Other than the obvious, like turn off the computer.
My IDEA would be to remove IDE drive, install Sata, connect cables swith on computer.
Ok?
Quote

... remove IDE drive, install Sata, connect cables ...

you need to partition the SATA drive.

The tech partitioned it today for me.

doesnt see the cd player yet

Hi, I'm new here. I have an old computer that I'd like to get operational to get my kids off of my PC. It is a Pentium 2 and it will boot up but when I get to windows, it won't respond to either keystrokes or the mouse. I'm guessing I need to REFORMAT the drive and reload windows. The drive is a Quantam. I do not have a boot disk. I have an old Windows 98 disk and my windows ME upgrade. How can I clear this drive and make this computer operational to get my computer back
thanks,
LindaAssuming you have driver software for all the devices in the computer, you can boot from the Win98 disk. The installation PROCEDURE should see the existing partition on the hard drive. You can reformat by simply deleting the partition, and starting over by creating a new partition.Quote from: Linsay on March 08, 2008, 04:01:11 PM

It is a Pentium 2 and it will boot up but when I get to windows, it won't respond to either keystrokes or the mouse.

ok, lets see if there are any budding Bill Gates clones out there !! Here is a problem and a half for you guys ....

PROBLEM:-

SAVING to a floppy drive is leading to data theft from a business, the saved FILE format is always (filename).sst where the filename can be overwritten time and time again to conceal how many times a theft has occured. The floppy drive is required, removing is not an option.

REQUIRED:-

A method of automatically making a copy to hard drive everytime a file is saved to A: drive, re-naming that file as a (time-stamp).sst so as to preserve all files and not overwrite any existing file. (the time-stamp).sst only for hard drive, no change to original filename upon saving to A: drive ! This process must be done instantaneously as the floppy is removed as soon as the file is saved, hence no time to save and THEN read disk to copy the file, somehow the process must be FULLY automatic and OCCUR instantaneously !!!!

Only Bill Gates clones will crack this one! Do you have what it takes ?

Hi
Am TRYING to fix my friends PC. Briefly it is a P4. I opened it up and found 3 hard drives attached. When you turn it on it starts to load up XP but then the monitor goes black with the little flashing curser in top left corner.
This is what i have done so far:
- removed and reseated ram(cleaned slots)
- removed all hard drives except for master
- removed and reseated video card
- checked bios
- tried an old H/D with Win 98 and it worked perfectly!
- tried 2nd hard drive and tried a new install of XP
(It installs to a certain point and shuts down as previously)
- On the 2nd H/D I tried fixboot and fixmbr and then tried to install XP again with the same problem at exactly the same spot as previous)
- tried changing the H/D cables
- tried XP R install with original XP Home cd.
etc....
At this point I am puzzled as to where to GO next?
any suggestions would be great
gregAre you formating the drive?I would test each HDD with the diagnostics from each HDD manuf. AVAILABLE free at their websites.
The next thing to test would be the RAM...DLoad and run MemTest...let it run a few hours.
If all these pass and look good borrow a known good PSU of the same or greater WATTAGE and swap it in there.

Good Luck and let us know.Are you formating the drive?

It had 3 hard drives. I removed the main drive which has all of my friends IMPORTANT files(she has been writing short stories). I have been using the 2nd hard drive for diagnosting what is the problem with the computer.
I tried to run a clean install of windows on this hard drive. I run XP and format the drive and it will load XP up until the 35 minute to finish mark and every time it shuts down at this exact point.
When I tried to boot up with the original(1st) hard drive it starts to load XP but then the screen freezes and it goes black. I'm using my monitor so I know this is'nt the problem.
I suspect maybe ram, or psu at this point. I think the h/d's are not the problem. It did work fine when I used an old h/d with 98 on it!!!
I'll remove the cpu and ram again and give them a clean and try again.
thanks
greg
Quote

Good Luck and let us know

Each time it will make some noise, liight up and then nothing. I'll OPEN and close a few times, same thing and then eventually, the hourglass comes up and it reads it. I've looked under device manager, it says it's working properly and the driver does not need updating. All connections seemed tight. It is a Lite-on writer and I run XP. ThanksHow old is the drive ? ?
Is this in an industrial/dusty setting ?Only a year or 2 old, enclosed in an oak desk, so a little dust but not much.There are lens cleaners out there that you may try...
Unfortunately the only way to find out if the drive is the problem is to go THRU swapping it into another machine to SEE if it does the same thing...Frankly speaking, lens cleaner never worked for me.No, i agree....but PEOPLE like to try them thoughHave you ever tried that mechanical CD cleaner?
Like this one:
Been having the same problems with a lite-on lightscribe CD/RW. Finally replaced it. No more probs!

(I know this isn't a repair, but I needed something for a FIRST post.)

good luck

Allen

I have an LG lcd monitor, and I just noticed that my video card (as well as the monitor) has a dvi CONNECTION. Will I notice a big improvement in picture quality if I use the dvi connection instead of the standard one? Will using the dvi connection improve the quality of DVD playback also?Some say, not really, but I was using VGA cable for a week, or so, before I switched to DVI, and I'd say, yes.OK, SOUNDS good. Next question, what dvi cable to I get? I've seen some listed as 18 pin, some as 23. I counted the holes on my connection and it's 24, plus one. By the way, my monitor model is LG L226WTQ-BF, in case that helps.That's the one, 24+1
They're expensive ~$50Not on eBay they aren't... theres a reason why its cheaper on ebay...


[recovering space - attachment deleted by admin]Yeah, I know it's cool to bash the quality of some things sold on ebay, but I've never had any problems with any of the past cables I've purchased from various sellers (including COMPONENT cables, cat5 network cable, and dvi to hdmi cables etc). Maybe I've just been lucky...Where can i get one of those Homer ? ?its a concept im working on. ill wire one up for you. NO REFUNDS.Quote

NO REFUNDS

my computer
ASUS Crosshair MOBO
BFG 8400 GS videocard
1 40GB Pata HDD 1 80GB Sata HDD
1GB corsair memory (2X 512)
AMD 6000+ 64 X2
PC P&C 750watt PSU
Creative sound Max audio card.
Thermal take Armor SERIES case.

for the past 5 days my south bridge has been running hot 150F (60C) normally runs 120F i dont know what happened to make it run hot all my voltages are "normal" no failure has happened to my knowledge, no change in AIRFLOW in the case, or change in the room. the sb HS (which has no fins whatsoever) is heat piped to the nb hs which is heat piped to heat sinks around the CPU heat sink. the nb is not running hot (around 120F) it is a NEWER build, (it is my first build) has been running for close to 6 months. i can only guess that the heat sink is not seated on the chip properly for some reason. i do not know how to remedy this situation, besides installing a new heat sink. Frozen CPU

All cooling solutions including Southbridge....you may want to take some MEASUREMENTS.

I installed a second HD as a slave (jumper and cable) into my computer.
The drive has nothing on it. Now when i turn the computer on just after the bios POST it seems to hang for about a minute before loading the windows logo screen. Any ideas?

Its not a major problem as it still boots into windows, can be just a bit annoying.

System Spec:
ASUS M2V-MX SE MoBo
AMD64 Sempron 3400+
1Gb DDR2 Memory
Gigabyte Geforce 7200 GS
Primary HD: Maxtor 40gb IDE with Windows
Slave: Maxtor 80gb IDEAre you sure it's set as a slave?

Can you check out the boot menu in the BIOS and make sure it's last on the list (if it's there)Yep already checked it.
Their listed correctly in there.maybe it just does that because you attached a new hard disk so the desktop still as to search it. Just to make sure it's not a problem with your computer, remove the Slave Hard Drive and see if the problem remains.OK i REMOVED the slave hd and started up. Loaded fine, didnt hang at all.

So i plugged the hd back in and started up again. Now loads fine.

I dont know what happened but unplugging it and plugging it back in seemed to do the trick maybe it wasnt plugged in properly.

Thanks anyway!Hehe, Good JOB.

I've been told the Device Manager is firmware, so I HOPE the Hardware forum is the right place for this post.

The HP Printer Diagnostic tool says my Device Manager is corrupted. I'm getting erratic behavior from the printer. My computer doesn't see that the printer is there (if I want to service the printer, for example), YET it will print.

I recently bought a memory card and used it a time or two before noticing the Remove Hardware icon in the tray. That may be root of my problem.

Is it possible to UNTANGLE issues in the Device Manager?The device manager is where all the list of DEVICES that is installed on the notebook. its all where you can check if the device (ex. like the printer) is properly installed on the computer.

Ok I've had this USB Memory stick for ages and over the years it seems to have lost 2/3rds of its TOTAL capacity.

The original size of the thing was 1Gb but now you can't RIGHT over 333Mb to it (ODD number (Used to be 666Mb) ). If I try I get the messsage: "Error copying file when accessing a new tape of a multivolume partition, the current block size is incorect."

Anway way is there anyway to recover this?

Here's some stuff about the Drive itself:

Drive Name: G:\
Filesystem: FAT32
Volume Label: N/A
Serial Number: 6C2E-6.02
Total Sectors: 2031616
BYTES Per Cluster: 4096
Total Size 992.0Mb (1040187392 bytes)

Device ID USBSTOR\DISKVEN_BUFFALOPROD_CLIPDRIVEREV_1.00\A42005100400010510
Status 0x0180200a Started
Problem 0x00000000 (0)Have you tried formatting it?

If you have, you may simply have worn it out.
After all you say you've had it for ages and flash memory have a finite amount of write operations it can perform before being worn out. Flash memory is divided into blocks and you may have worn some blocks out. Manufacturers typically promise 100.000+ write operations per block. Whether all blocks ACTUALLY can do a 100.000 write operations is another story though.
The good news is that flash drives are pretty cheap nowadays so maybe it's just time to retire the old fella.Didn't think I could repair it, actually it was retired last year. Just wondering if there was a point in keeping it.

posted in virus section earlier today, but this seems to be hardware issue. I was told that a virus had gotten in and needed cleaning out; however machine will only boot to gateway logo screen and displays boot menu f10 aand bios settings f2...........will not do anything else. I went over to my friend's place and got his copy of the OS (Gateway-XP Media center Edition 2005) It took a few tries to get it to recognize it, but finally it did and performed a reinstalled the recovery partition and then asked to restart. Once I did, it went back to the original problem, and here I am..............any ideas? maybe dead hard driveRun HD diagnostic: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287I would try that, but the black screen with gateway logo comes up when the computer starts; on the lower r/s of screen is boot menu f10 and bios f2..............it will not do anything else.

I just got back home, went out for dinner. The machine was shut down for about 3 hours and when I sat back down, I powered it up and started pounding the f2 key and it went to bios (for the first TIME) I f10'd and saved it, then the computer sttarted up XP installed and saved everything............then when it was finished, it went right back to the black screen............Screen went blank? Can you try ANOTHER monitor or try the monitor on another computer?..not blank,.............. black background w/ gateway logo and boot menu f10 and bios settings f2 displayed in the lower right cornerOh, is that where it freezes?

Can you get to the Boot Menu or BIOS?can you reformat it? QUOTE from: esther on September 05, 2008, 06:14:51 AM

can you reformat it?

With laptops you should always use the laptop manuf. DRIVERS...not the Video manufacturers....
Why not just re-install the native drivers from the laptops driver CD instead of rebuilding everything all over ? ?I thought the same, but wouldn't they have gone in on the factory reformat? (I am flying blind here, so I am sorry if I seem illogical)Yes. They should have...but re-installing them will do no worse than it is...
And that was indeed a logical conclusion.
However the ones on the driver CD may in fact be newer than the ones on the RESTORE CD if the manuf. had ISSUES when the machine shipped.This last running through of the reformat put up a message when I booted up that INSTALLATION wasn't complete, which was a bit confusing. But I think that after completely scrubbing the hard drive and my friend setting my c-drive up, he didn't SET up my d-drive. I have two hard drives installed. I don't know how to do that, so might have to wait for his input when I can corner him next.

Hard work! But interesting.

Hi All,

Recently my desktop computer quit running, while I was online checking email. At first I THOUGHT it was a power problem, as I could not turn the computer on at all afterwards ( I still can't). After a thorough check I REALIZED the power supply was OK as was the small 3v. battery in the board itself. ( The green light on the board is lit). So, I am thinking the board itself is bad and I want to try and replace it. I have an e-machines T-2742, I have all the specs for this model. I use it mostly to surf online and I do not download a lot of things or game with it. It is mostly a surf and seek info computer. My problem is this>> when I am looking at motherboards and CPUS online at various sites, they do not have the exact model number that my board specs say. ( because they are not the same maker), and I wanted to know what would be the easiest way to find a board that would match or closely match ( and work) the board and cpu in my computer now. THe tech specs for my current board are Intel Celeron 2.7 GHZ. 478P 128k F400. Any ideas to what is available?You can check any systemboard and what support your celeron So any motherboard/cpu that SUPPORTS Celeron will work and I dont need to stay with the current GHZ ratings and etc.?Yes! as long as the specs of the systemboard says it supports celeron it will workOK thanks MR. Skipper!

THe only small problem I am seeing is that most of the boards are DDR2 and the one currently in my computer is DDR. I suppose I might have to buy new memory as well I didnt take that into consideration originally. If the systemboard supports DDR2 "yes" you need a new memory. but check the full specs of the systemboard.

OK, I have searched all over the internet to try and figgure out how to wipe Windows XP off of my hard drive. And so far I have come up emty, since I was able to find the solution to my other computer problem here I am hoping that I can get this one too.

I have TWO hard drives on my computer, only one is active at a time as I have to manualy switch out the power cord. One is a 160 GB and the other is a 320 GB, and what I want to do is wipe Windows XP off of the 160 so that I can installed Windows 98, as several games I have work on 98 and not XP.

From what I have read, and remeber from having wiped my hard drive before, all I need to do is insert the Win98 CD, load up to the Boot Device Menu and then tell it to load from the CD. Well when I have tired that it does not work, here is what I see when I try.

Boot Device Menu
*Onboard SATA Hard Drive
*USB Device
*Onboard or USB CD-Rom Drive

*System Setup
*Hard Drive Diagnostics
*Boot to Utility Partition

When I selcet Onboard or USB CD-Rom Drive I get this message "Selected Boot Device not avaliable", and since I have a CD drive and a DVD drive I tried both, and got the same message. Does ANYONE have any ideas as to what I can to to wipe WinXP off the 160 drive and install Win98?You seem to have a SATA hard drive based on the boot OPTIONS you have posted.
Windows 98 doesn't support SATA hard drives so I think this will be an exercise in futility.

Oh thats just GREAT, anyone know how to get Star Trek Deep Space Nine Dominion Wars to work correctly with XP.Have you tried setting the compatibility mode to Windows 98?
RIGHT click the shortcut for the game, select compatibility and activate compatibility mode.

I sure hope someone can help me! ONE night I was listening to music and I went to click on another song to listen to and it looked like it was playing, but I had no sound. I also have no volume icon in my tray for some reason. One sight told me to TROUBLESHOOT by going to Start, Accessories, ENTERTAINMENT, and that folder was empty. I don't know what to do or what to check to find out what is wrong...can anyone help me?Did you restart your computer since?
Any errors in Device Manager?Try System Restore.
Click Start then All Programs and move your MOUSE over Accessories and another box will APPEAR. Move down to System Tools and another box will appear move down to System Restore. Now restore your computer to a time before this happened.

Do you have any virus protection?yes..go to device manager.. there any yellow symbol ? can you see?

Hello there. It's me, Ryan. A few years ago, I had posted a topic about my old HP Pavilion 7285 (D3903A) 200mhz computer that has WINDOWS 95. Back in late 2005, I had posted about replacing the CD-ROM drive (I had found an identical drive that was a slightly LATER firmware), and in 2006 I had the CMOS battery replaced. All has been well with the computer.

Now, a few days ago, I suddenly wanted to install something into a PCI slot on the computer, and this was a graphics card that was removed from the computer SOMETIME around 2000 or 2001. (I don't remember.) The card is the Rio Diamond Monster 3D. After talking with a computer expert at my summer job, I decided to try re-installing the Monster 3D, and while taking anti-static precautions, properly inserted it into the PCI slot and after closing up the computer, used the VGA CABLE to patch from the video adapter to the Monster 3D, and then from the output on the graphics card to the monitor. (The Diamond Monster 3D doesn't do any 2D graphics, and needs a host 2D video adapter to work.) Now, I must say that on my first attempt, I ran into a problem when I tried to run Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II with hardware acceleration enabled. I had thought that the card may have gone bad, but it appeared that I hadn't installed the drivers correctly, even though the Monster 3D appeared on the display options in the control panel. I had installed the drivers directly from the CD, and noticed that the Monster 3D wasn't detected properly under the device manager.

Well, after uninstalling the drivers, I went ahead and installed them again. Instead of going directly to the CD, I followed the directions on the instructions we still had. Since it got installed through Add New Hardware, I noticed it was detected in the device manager. That time, when testing Jedi Knight, I noticed that the screen went black except for the crosshairs and HUD, and the graphics wouldn't appear until I fired a shot or activated the lightsaber. (I found that frustrating.)

I was set to leave it be, until I went online on our library computer (HP Pavilion a1440n), and downloaded an updated driver for the Diamond Monster 3D. After upgrading the driver and restarting the computer, I did another test on Jedi Knight. I was happy, as the graphics worked properly. After seeing that the card was working well, I went and installed Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith, glQuake, and Quake II. Even they worked good on that old computer. However, as with all of these GAMES, under this card I cannot set the resolution to 800x600, and have to stick with 640x480. (The 800x600 resolution on the Diamond Monster 3D lacks a Z-buffer.)

What's your take on what I had decided to do?

Hi wonder if anyone can help for some reason my [pioneer dvd-rewriter dvr 105 will not copy to disk] it play disks that have been written before the strange thing is it goes through the burn process but when i go to view disk it is empty no DATA and have TRIED to Burn photos et, the same result nothing on Disk

I have tried Nero my original software, and windows and Burnaware free edition , it was working fine but now when it burns the Data SHOWS as if it is going to disk but nothing on disks tried several Disks but no good

any help

Thanks [ Running Windows XP pro]I recall my mate had a similar problem when data (mp3) would not suddenly transfer to CD blank discs; He was doing hundreds of mp3 transfers (i.e. burning) as backup to blank discs. We found it was due to DMA reverting to PIO mode (Took a lot of Google searches). You check this setting in device manager under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, then expand to secondary IDE controller (assuming your DVD is situated there).

Then click on advanced settings, then make sure Device 1 transfer mode is DMA if available. If not then select DMA, then reboot, then check again. If it does not reset to DMA mode, then you have to reset the associated registry setting (I can't recall the site where we found a good tutorial to do this). But evaluate this site: http://winhlp.com/node/10...

Hope this helps. Best of luck...Quote from: pcsourcepoint on February 18, 2008, 03:59:41 AM

If it does not reset to DMA mode, then you have to reset the associated registry setting (I can't recall the site where we found a good tutorial to do this).

OK so im building a gaming PC and I'm wonder what you all think of the specs and what I should change or keep, ALSO I have a OS Disk so I don't need that and im not going to buy a sound card. Here gos:

SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black PATA Model SH-S202N
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16827151155

Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16822136075

BIOSTAR GeForce 9600GT V9603GT52 Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16814141073

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ 2.8GHz SOCKET AM2 65W Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16819103242

ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813131013

G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820231122

APEVIA (ASPIRE) X-CRUISER-BK Black Computer Case With Side Panel
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16811144151

Rosewill RFX-120BL 120mm 2 Ball Bearing Blue LED Case Fan with Fan Controller Set
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16835200028

APEVIA ATX-CW500WP4 500W POWER Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16817148027

Grand Total:$682.91Its a good specs.... Agreed. Looks just fine!i would suggest a better quality power supply, like an ocz or a corsair.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341012

as for your fans, ball bearing fans, although they have a longer life, are known to be noisier then sleeve bearing fans.

as for your video card, i suggest you spend a little more and get an 8800gt. the 9600gt, although newer, cannot out perform the 8800 gt.

one last added note, if your going to be gaming, i suggest an intel CPU and a socket 775 mobo. you are not going to find any AMD mobos that go past 590i SLI.Quote

one last added note, if your going to be gaming, i suggest an intel CPU and a socket 775 mobo. you are not going to find any AMD mobos that go past 590i SLI.

Quote

one last added note, if your going to be gaming, i suggest an intel CPU and a socket 775 mobo. you are not going to find any AMD mobos that go past 590i SLI.

Not disputing you at all, but might you explain this a little more, please?

I went out and got Crysis finally and I can only play it for about 15-20 minutes before it crashes to my desktop. When it "crashes", it really just minimizes the window that was fullscreen to a smaller window. I've DOWNLOADED and installed the latest patch for Crysis, and I also have all the latest DRIVERS for my hardware. A couple of things I noticed was that when it would minimize, I would have to re-check the "fullscreen" option. And my screensaver ACTUALLY came on during a game, causing it to minimize. I'm using a X-Box controller rather than the keyboard and MOUSE if that helps. Thanks.Did you try turning off the screen saver?Yea, but that the screensaver shouldn't come on in the first place.As strong as your setup is i've heard Crysis will even struggle on a system such as yours...

I have built my own custom gaming computer, which I have done before with success. Right now in my second year of ownership, it has started POWERING down seemingly randomly. I know enough to connect the parts but diagnosing problems is not my forte.

Problem:
Full power down of Computer

Common Themes:
During Gaming, but not consistently, various games too (Team Fortress 2, Counter Strike: Source, Rise of Nations)
I can play a game for 5 mins and it will die, or for several hours without any fault at all. This has been happening on and off for the past 3 months.

I has yet to fail during "normal" computing

Solutions already tried:
New Graphics card -- nVidia 8800 GTX
New PSU -- Rosewill 750W Extreme

Neither of these "obvious" hardware CAUSES are the culprit, so I was wondering if anyone had any other ideas of what could be causing this issue.


OS -- Windows XP SP 2
MOBO -- ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
RAM -- CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWINX2048-3200
CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Toledo 2.4GHz Socket 939 Dual-Core PROCESSOR Model ADA4800CDBOX - Retail
HD -- Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600YD 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 1.5Gb/s Hard Drive4 most common reasons for shutdowns while gaming in no particular order:
Heat
Bad RAM
HDD issues
Power.

Heat: Direct a small fan onto an open side of the case....if problems go away you have found the culprit.
Look into some additional cooling alternatives.

Bad RAM: DLoad and run MemTest. Let it run a few hours...any errors at all and you have a bad stick of RAM

HDD issues: DLoad and run the FREE diagnostics from the HDD manuf. website....run the extended test. If errors again you have found the culprit.

Power: Borrow a known good PSU of the same or greater wattage and swap it in there...if the issues go away replace the PSU.

Good Luck and Welcome Aboard !Yep RAM ftl .... during the memtest it actually restarts the system after about error 600 :p in Test 6, so it starts all over again.

I realized I should have ran the memtest before posting, thanks for the reply thoughThat Corsair RAM may still be under warranty...Really, purchase date was 8/30/06 ... is it a lifetime warranty?Depends on the model #...Corsair's site should be able to tell you.Just to resolve this issue in case anyone ever finds it.

Yes, Corsair did replace my memory ... though they did take their sweet time with it. On the bright side they are sending me a top of the line replacement. The new RAM has lower latency and lower timings (2-3-3-6) so all in all I give Corsair full marks for supporting their product above and beyond the call of duty. They have made me a Corsair customer for life with this kind of customer and product care.

Thanks Patio for all of your help.Excellent to hear....and since they bit the bullet and did the right THING i'd say Kudos to Corsair as well...

I think I am putting this in the right area, but since I am not entirely sure what the PROBLEM is I can only guess, so if this is in the wrong area could a Mod please put in the right one. First off a bit of information; Windows XP, I also have two HARD drives each with Windows XP on them, and my sound card is a Sound Blaster. Let me know if more info is needed.

Now for the problem; for some reason my Windows XP will not play sound. I have had this problem before, whenever I have had to reinstall Windows XP, but I had tech support to help and they eventually were able to fix the problem, but I never knew what it actually was. But I no longer have tech support, and I can’t seem to figure it out myself.

Now let me explain how I got to this point. I was trying to get an older game to work on XP, but I eventually decided to give up on that and instead attempt to wipe. So I was trying to figure out how to wipe one of the hard drives, and could not for the life of me figure it out. At one point while in support, which I go to when the computer first boots up, I found what I thought was what I wanted. I set the computer back to the way it was when it left the factory, which obviously did not do what I wanted and took away my sound once again.

I checked everything I could think off; I made sure my speakers were on, I even had the volume all the way up. I tired uninstalling and reinstalling the driver from the CD, after that did not work I tired to find a driver from online and again that did not work. The computer says the driver is installed and working, and I know the speakers work because they worked just a couple days ago. Also when I try to play a sound in the SOUNDS and audio devices properties it makes like it is working, but still no sound.

One of there thing to note, when the computer first boots up or shuts down, the speakers POP, not sure of any other way to describe it. I hope someone has an idea as to what is wrong and can help me, and if so I can move onto back to my old problem.
Click on Control Panel
- Sounds, speech and audio devices
- sounds and audio devices
- audio
check to make sure the boxes show your audio devices
then also check:
- hardware
and check to see if they are all working properly.
You could also check your windows media player
to make sure mute is'nt turned on.


Also do you have onboard sound(on mainboard)
or do you have a sound card installed?

greg

Well I seem to have fixed that problem, I uninstalled and then reinstalled Sound Blaster as well as the Driver from a Dell CD that came with my computer. When I checked the audio section it now has two options, Sound Blaster and Sigma TEL Audio, I tried the Sigma and it works now. Now I have one other problem to fix, but I think it needs its own topic.

Ok, I'll try to make this quick. I built my own computer this week that contains:

-Asus Striker Extreme 680i sli ATX Mobo
-BFG NVIDIA Geforce 8800 GTS OC 512MB video card
-4x1G Corsair DDR2 DOMINATOR RAM
-Intel C2Q Quad Q6600 Processor
-BFG 800w ATX 12v 2.2/EPS 12V 2.91 SLI PS
-Kandalf ATX liquid cooling case(water block cools CPU)
-Hitachi 1Tb Sata hard drive 7200rpm
-OS is Windows XP w/sp2
-20" HP widescreen lcd DVI monitor

After hours of double-checking connections and assembly, I plugged it in to the wall on the counter I was working on. All fans were running and liquid was flowing. I'm feeling *censored* proud of myself, so I hook it to my desktop, only to have my monitor read "no signal". I shut it down, checked the video card connection, plugged the monitor in to a different port. When I tried to power back on, NOTHING! The only thing on were the little lights around the perimeter of the Mobo.

Please help! I don't want to take it anywhere but I do have a lot of money wrapped up in it. I'm almost too afraid to do anything else to it but I have a feeling I may need to do an RMA or two. Thanks!!!! firstly, nice specs. it sucks when you put nice components together and go to turn it on for the first time and......nothing.

Quote

After hours of double-checking connections and assembly

i believe the 8800 has the power cable from the ps to the gpu.
(dont quote me)be sure it is plugged in.

when i turn on my AVR my system unit automatically turn on even i didn't push the power button of my system unit, sometimes i cant hear a beep and a display in my monitor but still the fans are still turning on. There's an instances that my PC work properly but after a few minutes all programs that i using will suddenly STOP specially when I'm listening music using windows media player.. and I'm trying to push the restart button but i can't hear a beep and has no display in the monitor.. I'm using a asrock mother board w/ 3.06 ghz and a 300 w power supply.. what should i do..? PLEASE help me.. ummm, whats an AVR?Not sure...but i'm also wondering what version of Windows is running the AVR...QUOTE from: homer on March 07, 2008, 11:18:37 AM

ummm, whats an AVR?

Actually, I am taking part in a quiz in which questions will be asked about the general construction and interlinking of the various components of a computer cabinet.

I'm working with an IBM ThinkPad A20m laptop. The internal battery is dead and it seems the power adapter is also nonfunctional. I checked the cable from the outlet to the converter box and got 120V AC. However, I got no DC reading from the converter to the barrel plug. I tried for a day wiggling the cable to see if all at issue was a minor short in the wire. Still no power.

I have another power adapter that originally shipped with an Hp laptop that fits the plug for the IBM. However, I thought I would check whether the two are compatible.

The original IBM power adapter is rated at OUTPUT (16V DC 4.5 amps)
The Hp power adapter is rated at output (19V DC 3.16 amps)

Both input cables have a yellow ring around the plug end that interfaces with the laptop. I was not sure if the color had any bearing on the ABILITY to SWAP them with different systems.

Thanks for your help!STOP. Don't do it.

You cannot use a 19v supply where 16v are EXPECTED, even if the connectors HAPPEN to be the same.

Here are some of the bigger reasons:

1) The polarity could be different between the supplies. If it is: zap, lappy deceased.
2) The 19V supply will cause the internal regulators to have to dump extra voltage, which is given off as heat. It will likely overhead the regulators soon and ultimately damage the laptop.
3) The current rating on the 19V supply is lower because it provides extra voltage. Unfortunately, that extra voltage is wasted on a 16v laptop so the power supply wouldn't have enough power to keep the laptop running.

In short: buy a new supply made specifically for that laptop.

RaydudeThanks, RayDude,

I have ordered a power adapter suitable for the Thinkpad.

FYI, I checked the FAQs and did a search here for info on this problem, but didn't come up with anthing specific to this problem. So, I'm wondering if anyone has experienced the following?

I have a Dell P1110 21" CRT monitor. It was built in August, 2000, but I bought it in January of 2002. It has been in use most days since then. I have had a few problems with it in the past 2 years: horizontal lines (slightly DIAGONAL)-- varies anywhere from 5 to 10 on screen. Also, a year or so ago, the screen would get fuzzy once in a while (happened over a PERIOD of 3-4 months). I would turn off the monitor, then back on, and it would be fine.

PROBLEM: Here's what happened the other day: I was using my PC (everything was fine) and all of a sudden, the screen went blank. There were a few soft "pop" sounds and then about 20-30 seconds later, I smelled smoke coming from inside the monitor casing. I then turned off the monitor and shut down my PC (with the off button on my keyboard). I waited a couple minutes, then tried to start my PC. The monitor powered on and the PC seemed to be going through it's bootup routine normally, but nothing appeared on the screen. The monitor did not "click on" during the bootup like it normally would.

TROUBLESHOOTING: I disconnected the monitor and connected a different monitor (17" Amptron CS17 CRT) using the same power cord, but a different 15-pin VGA connector cord (fixed cord to the Amptron monitor). The PC operates just fine now and there are no horizontal lines on the screen (this tells me that it wasn't electrical interference nor an issue with the PC, but an issue with the Dell P1110 itself).

QUESTION: Has anyone experienced this problem? Is this Dell P1110 monitor dead or can it be fixed?

My THANKS in advance for any help!If you could even find someone who fixes these, it would probably cost you as much to get it repaired as it would to buy a new one. And keep in mind that a 19" flat screen has the same viewing area as a 21" CRT, and the price on those these days is very low, relatively speaking.

I don't know what the history is on the monitor itself, but for god's sake don't plug it in again. It's a goner at BEST, and a fire hazard at worst.

Quote

QUESTION: Has anyone experienced this problem? Is this Dell P1110 monitor dead or can it be fixed?

Im using 2 HDD.

Primary drive is a SATA HDD and i set it to primary master. This is where i install my windows.

Secondary drive is an IDE HDD and i set it so secondary master.

Recently my bios prom an error that it didnt detect my secondary HDD.

The funny part was, when i continue loading windows by ignoring that error msg, i can still SEE my secondary HDD in windows. But now i can't see it anymore.

i've check the cable, everything was in tact. I even try pluggin the HDD in another computer, n yah it is detectable. whats wrong here? Please help

here is my pc spec .

OS NameMicrosoft Windows XP Professional
Version5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
OS ManufacturerMicrosoft Corporation
System NameBERTBUDA-8C6C27
System ManufacturerDell Computer Corporation
System ModelDimension 4600i
System TypeX86-based PC
Processorx86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 9 GenuineIntel ~2660 Mhz
BIOS Version/DateDell Computer Corporation A07, 11/6/2003
SMBIOS Version2.3
Windows DirectoryC:\WINDOWS
System DirectoryC:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device\Device\HarddiskVolume1
LocaleUnited States
Hardware Abstraction LayerVersion = "5.1.2600.2562 (xpsp.040919-1030)"
User NameBERTBUDA-8C6C27\Aizat
Time ZoneMalay Peninsula Standard Time
Total Physical Memory1,024.00 MB
Available Physical Memory475.89 MB
Total Virtual Memory2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory1.96 GB
Page File Space1.84 GB
Page FileC:\pagefile.sys
some motherboards have IDE connectors that are specifically meant for HARD drives and another IDE connector that is specifically meant for optical drives. make sure you are connected to the correct one. What else is on that IDE cable ? ?
The HDD if jumpered master should be at the end of the ribbon connector...And did you just install that SATA drive? Did it ever work CORRECTLY as you had it set up? Does that model have onboard SATA or did you use an add-in card?yah i just installed the sata drive. The sata works just fine. Im using the onboard SATA.

rite now i connected my 2nd HDD into the 2ndary IDE as a slave. the bios detect it.

the issues come when i set it as the primary IDE.

probly it get confused with the primary SATA.


Well WELCOME Back and GLAD to hear you got it to work...

Welcome to the CH forums.

Have you installed Altiris Bootworks on either machine?

Do you have an operating system, like Windows, on that second drive?

i think the data inside it has been corrupted. you just have to reformat the hardisk

I would advise against formatting. You will loose all the data you are trying to recover.

What happens if you right click the drive and go to Properties? Anything out of place?

I have reformatted my computer and install new Windows XP Service Pack 3 Operating system with the Integration of the Office 2003. Many new problems arise. I have TRIED to install Office 2007 and I have proceeded to install it. The Installation wizard displays and follow the procedures however as the installation GOES on, wizard just disappear and never continue to install. One thing more is my computer hangs up every TIME I open PowerPoint file in the Floppy DRIVE... Could you please help me on this?

Thanks.
SP3 is still a BETA...was it fine before this ? ?
If so you should remove SP3

Hi all I have a dvd/cd drive that seems to operate properly by opening and closing and vista says it is working properly however I can not get it to READ the cd's.

Can anyone TELL me what to do?
Try one of these:
1. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060
or...
2. http://aumha.org/downloads/cdgone.zip
or...
3. Go to DEVICE Manager, click a "+" SIGN next to IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers.
You'll see two items:
- ATA Channel0 (or Primary Channel)
- ATA Channel1 (or Secondary Channel)
Right click on each of them, and click Uninstal. Confirm.
Restart Windows. They'll be automatically reinstalled.

Hi new here so first off all Hi to everyone here okay looking for a bit off advice on the following if anyone can help me out ??

recently fitted a DVR card to my pc so that I could monitor / record the two small cctv cameras that are around the house, the cameras had audio pick up facilites so I plugged the audio cable from one off the cmeras into the rear michrophone input jack on the pc itself, this was fine with the aid off my dvr card I could record video and sound which is exactly what I was looking for.

then decided I wanted the option off being able to monitor the incomming audio live ie without having to first record it and then play it back , I was not 100% sure how I would CONFIGURE things to be able to do this so I went into the sounds and audio devices in the control panel, there I see I have the following information :

volume tab - Realtek HD rear output - mute is unticked.

audio tab - line in / mic in - volume, the " advance " option is not availble ie. greyed out.

voice recording - line in / mic in volume - test hardware, again the advance option is not availble here.

so okay tried the test harware option above and I was advised that there was no michrophone connected and that to check connections etc, this to me was STRANGE as again I knew the audio was being picked up from the michrophone input -
socket with it being able to be recorded when used with my camera !!
I then checked the windows sound recorder programme WITHIN windows xp and again the michrophone audio was being detected and playing back okay ??!!!

so okay anyone any idea why the michrophone is not being recognised by the test hardware page within the voice recording tab ??

lastly back to my original request !! if indeed it is possible to listen to any incomming audio that is comming into the pc via a michrophone as opposed to having to record it first and then play it back just wonder how I would configure my pc to be able to ALLOW me to actually do this ??

if I knew that it would allow me then any ideas how I could get the live audio to the DVR card ?? thought about taking a link from one off the rear speaker outputs on the pc itself and connecting it to the audio input off the dvr card, likely to work this way or cacn anyone suggest any other ways that I could try ??

bit off a long one !! hopefully I have explained in enough detail sorry if not !! any advice would certianly be very much appreciatted.

kind regards,
john

Quote

The person that had this had a power surge at one point and two of them look like they might be damaged.

Need your Service Tag number to be sure. Go to Dell.com, support and enter your model number and service tag - look for product specs.Ok Ill go do that right now. Also, if win 95 doesnt work, will 98? I dont mind if i have to use 98 (rather would like 95, but 98 is cool too lol). Or do you think 2000 or ME is better? Like i said, just for fooling around on, no real purpose..... so like what was your fave of the ones I mentioned?ok so unfortunately I went to the site and tried to find specs, but they really dont have that option Tho every part for the comp hard drives all said SATA...What's your service tag #?Here is my pic I was gonna post before lol hope it helps

[recovering disk space -- attachment deleted by admin]Take a picture of the back (with connections) of the existing drive, if you can.

Do you have your service tag number?Yea I do have it. Should I just message it to you? idk if its somethin i should post or not lolOK I found this from google, and it seems that the xps 400 has a SATA drive:

http://www.maximumpc.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=832033&sid=8dac2baa2961da6d17c67f26411c5a70

should I now move to the software board(or WINDOWS board) and get help on how to install windows 95 or 98?Quote from: iamtonsoffun247 on SEPTEMBER 04, 2008, 10:08:05 PM

OK I found this from google, and it seems that the xps 400 has a SATA drive:

http://www.maximumpc.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=832033&sid=8dac2baa2961da6d17c67f26411c5a70

should I now move to the software board(or windows board) and get help on how to install windows 95 or 98?

Not really sure if this is the right place

My Computer is Opliplex GX280 SD



I encountered 2 problems that I'm having a h... of a time finding my way through.

1. The serial port plugin on the back doesn't work. I have gone into bios and check everything and the only thing I can see that might pertain to it is that in auto mode it disables Com port 3. When I go into Windows system DEVICE MANAGER it also says that Com port 3 can't startup. Error 10. Checked resources and IRQ's and made adjustments to remove conflicts. Still Error 10 with no conflicts. Reinstalled drivers with no avail. I'm a little lost now. Anyone have any input that would be appreciated. Thanks



2. The front USB's are not working or recognizing anything plugged in. I have looked inside to make sure all connections are made and everything seems to be plugged in. Not sure if this is linked to the above problem or not. I would imagine so. Any feedback would be appreciated.



Like I stated before. The computer is an Optiplex GX280 CD



Thanks for your time
No actual answer but, am remembering from way back - the 9 PIN serial can also be ''seen'' as a COM 4 can it not?

Thus wondering if any chance it could be recognized as such. No idea right now on the USB aspect, sorry.

Have you tried uninstalling the USB in Device Manager and rebooting
to let Windows do a reinstall of USB?Quote

The front USB's are not working

Quote

and my final dilemma is what to do with the old pc? Sell the WHOLE system on ebay or auction off the hardware piece by piece?

Thanks for voteing!!!i voted custom, the only WAY to go.

P.S. you spelled voting wrong.I voted for UNISYS because it's the MERGER of Burroughs and Sperry-Rand.

All hail UNIVAC!!

All hail ENIAC!

I am trying to install my V3 wheel on XP. It came without a USB connection but I have bought an adaptor.

My system has no graphics card and uses the integrated graphics (Intel) capability.

I have seen on this Forum that the standard 6 button gamepad driver will work but I get a message stating "Your Gameport or Gameport drivers are not PROPERLY configured. Please consult the device manager." My old Interact joystick works well.

Anybody help?
Cheers!Is the GAME pad device showing in control panel? if so set the device to default an see what happensThanks so much for the instant reply!

I'm unsure where to LOOK. Under Game controllers the device is available but I can't install it...refers me to Device manager.Did the device come with a cd disc?It came with a floppy but my "new" machine has no A drive!I would go to the Manufacturers site and download and install the drivers.If you know the MFG. of the device go to their webb site.From there you should be able to download the correct driver. What is the name of the game pad?They don't have a driver for XP. I had given up the search until I saw in this Forum that the standard 6 button driver as listed in control panel/gaming devices would work. When I try to install it, I get the "Gameport not configured , refer to device manager" message. That's where I'm lost.who is the mfg of the device? What is the nameIt's the Interact V3 racing steering wheel. The person who indicated in this forum that he got his working said he used the generic 6 button gamepad driver included by MS in XP.Then I would try to find the device driver manually and look for the gamepad drivers on the COMPUTER. (unfortunately I cannot give you any screenshots)Do what carbon suggested,if you cannot find the driver and you want to use this device add a floppy drive to your PC.I'm afraid that I don't know how to find or identify the 6 button gamepad driver.Where is the link to the topic you mentioned you found?Under "Drivers" I BELIEVE. It was an old post and I can't find it again thru the search tool.

My main problem is that I don't know where to find the 6 button generic (or any other driver...perhaps in system32) but I'm unsure how to identify it or install it.

The wheel "works" but as a joystick. When I try to calibrate it I get the joystick routine.

Hey guys i ran Sandra on my PC and it CAME up with a interesting suggestion for increased performance...

"Tip T2532 - The MP system supports more CPUs than installed. Generally in order to use such a board to its full potential all CPUs should be installed.

Fix: Add more CPUs up to the maximum. You may need to upgrade the BIOS, the OS kernel, device drivers and various settings to take advantage of the new CPUs. Make sure they are all utilised by the system after installation."

And

"Warning W2540 - No APIC has been detected for this MP system. All modern MP systems should contain an APIC; some advanced single-CPU systems may also contain one.

Fix: Check BIOS settings and enable the APIC."


As i said, i'm using a M2NPV-VM witch only has one CPU slot...i am using a AMD duel core chip, on xp pro so im kind of worried i have it set up wrong now and at worst its IGNORING one core

Any help or tips? i see nothing in my bios about a APIC option
click start > run > type "devmgmt.msc" without the quotes > hit the + sign on the left hand side of "Processors". you should see two identical processors.
Yeah device manager can see them but whats i want to know is about the MP and APIC stuff

Windows can see my 4gig ram, doesn't mean its using it right >.
as for your 4gigs, windows will not see all 4 gigs of RAM unless you have a 64bit version of windows. you should expect to see 3gb-3.25gb's of RAM being recognized in a 32bit version of windows.Yeah thats what i was getting at

APIC is advanced programmable interrupt controller or something like that..after updating my bios and LOOKING in every nook and cranny it seems it is enabled...must just be Sandra bugging outACPI.

Sandra is known to mis-report certain setups...
STILL a fine utility but don't take everything as Gospel.
Belarc Advisor is guilty of this as well....yeah apparently

BTW it is APIC not APCI (Advanced Configuration Power Interface)

I knew some single core CPU's can support APIC but every multi core needs it as a way to send interrupts to multiple cores to simulate SIMULTANEOUS processing(hence why i was worried). ACPI is to do with power allocation etc

I have a WD3200 SATA HDD that I pulled from a cannibalized DISH NETWORK DVR. Nothing seems to recognize this DRIVE. In fact it won't even spin up when I install it in an enclosure or a PC. I know th drive is good, but only good inside of it's DVR home. What is preventing this drive from working in anything other than its DVR environment? And can it be converted?

Thanksthe most likely reason is that the harddrive is locked. manufactures do this so people cannot transfer the information onto a PC. the original xbox, for example, had a locked HD.

if it is locked, then there is no WAY to unlock it without the correct password.The drive is not locked in that manner. The transfer on of content is completely allowed. I don't CARE about anything on the drive... There has to be a way to reformat this drive and wipe it completely. The drive work s fine in a DVR, however, when I put in an enclosure, it won't even spin.

I don't give up as easy as that...A quick google search suggests they are locked down...

i am using a dual display set up, where my Dell Vostro 1500 is the main monitor and my super purdy HP w2207 monitor is the secondary display.

in almost every regard, the HP monitor is beautiful -- super bright and super sharp, no flicker, etc, etc.

however... it is noticeably "off" in a few little areas, and i simply do not know what to fix about it to correct the situation.

for example, on this site, the posts that are black text on white background color look fine. the posts that are black text on that light blue color look awful. its as if each of the letters has a thin, light stroke around them, making it very difficult to read.

this same affect is noticeable in the text "tabs" in my firefox browser -- just difficult to read.

also, sites that have intense colors, LIKE http://www.fyrebug.com/, that orange/yellow header looks like neon radiation on this monitor, whether its set as the primary or secondary display.

everything ELSE is just so darned pretty, its just these little details (which add up) that drive me nuts.

any suggestions?i can't even read my own post! hahah

any idea where i might be able to search for help, if you think this isn't the best SPOT?

thanksfound it

on the monitor, i hit the MENU button
went to "QUICK VIEW"
de-selected GAMING
selected TEXT

that fixed the text LEGIBILITY as well as the color tones on certain sites.

thanks! ...uh... me! glad to hear you solved it.