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Hi there,

Whenever I play a DVD, either a local file or from a DVD, they play at 1/4 the normal size in Windows Media Player, and don't even display in Power DVD. It does play correcly in VLC however. I've used the newest and older versions of Power DVD and WMP, and UPDATES my drivers ETC, and have installed plenty of codecs. Any ideas? Not keen on using VLC because it crashes part way through all the time....on windows media player you can right click the video and select the viewing size i believeor just double click on the video for full screenMy bad, I just read my post. What I really mean is the entire media player is displayed, but the DVD is displayed only in the top left corner ( 1/4 ). If I resize it, the QUARTER video just gets resized, it's always 1/4 of the media player. It also flashes a bit, kinda like it's got a strobe light over it....

I'm at work, but I'll try and ORGANISE a print screen when I GET home...

I'm not in the UK...at least not today.
I was only illustrating you were assuming..........
But GO ahead and hold mail.Quote from: patio on December 04, 2008, 05:01:03 PM

Quote

The Drive is a Maxtor 6V00E0 189Gb SATA HDD. The drive has just failed the SeaTools Long DST test [edit] & the short DST [edit]. Whatever that means.

I'd start backing up immediately...this means the drive is about to fail.
You may have a month you may have a day.

I have two computers. One I use as my main computer, and the second I use for backup purposes. My main computer's hard drive got corrupted (6.4 gigs of bad sectors, I have no idea how it went unnoticed for so long), so I went to check my backup.

To make a long story short, I ended up having to salvage the data from the corrupted filesystem of the main computer. The backup simply wouldn't boot.

I had a feeling that the problem is the memory, because UBCD boots in the memory and it wouldn't boot either. But it may not be. The problem is, it's not BSoDing, it's simply rebooting. This is strange to me, because in the past it had always BSoD'd whenever it had a problem (which was rare.)

Even stranger than that, is that I checked the BIOS log, and it was throwing a Keyboard Error on each boot. Now, this computer has quite alot of problems with Keyboard Errors, I have switched out the keyboard several times. I have no idea why, but it just does. But I disconnected the keyboard from the computer, and it continued to throw Keyboard Errors with no keyboard connected. That was really strange. So, since the keyboard was USB, I thought it might be another USB device interfering, since I had to put an extra USB card in because of all the USB devices.

SO I unhooked all the USB devices, still another Keyboard Error. Then, I tried plugging a PS/2 keyboard in to see if that would make a difference, no change. I took the USB card out, no change. It has two memory sticks, I tried swapping them out, no change. I took the hard drive out, it didn't show a hard drive error, just a reboot still. But it still showed yet another Keyboard Error. I have no idea what it could be.

If it helps any, the computer has had a second strange defect since the day I got it. It will play every single type of movie EXCEPT for .MIX files. It will get partway through .MIX files then the player will crash, any player, not just one. I switched out the Video Card, trying to fix it, but the same problem happened. I even reinstalled XP Pro to a fresh copy to see if that would fix it, it didn't. This struck me as odd, because you would think switching out the video card would solve the problem, but it didn't. In another computer with the same video card, .MIX files wouldn't crash.

The OS is XP Pro, it has two P4 processors (I think, because it shows 2 Processors even though it isn't dual core.) It is a Dell Dimension 8400, with a few hardware modifications. I also got a new Radeon Card for it about a year ago, although I'm happy with the card, it's noisy as . It also has a LCD flat screen instead of the CRT that came with it.

Trust me, I won't be buying anymore dell computers. The dell company is probably going bankrupt because they forgot to make their hardware fail AFTER the warranty expired. The reason I'm asking here though, is because the technician who was sent out couldn't figure out the problem. He couldn't open the computer case either, so I figure he wasn't all that competent though.Dell? WELL known for BAD customer support, BAD power supplies and BAD motherboards.
Witness all the problems, well documented on the internet, with the Dell XPS 400.
My personal favorite, is the number of systems that they put out with XP and only 256megs of ram.
In my book that should be a hanging offense.

Sorry, I can't offer you any Quick fixes.

Shadow

PS: Oh, by the way, most of those tech's that are sent out to service a Dell, are from a local shop and work for peanuts.
Once upon a time, I was the one called by the extended warranty companies to go out and fix their customer's computers. They would only pay me $40 for a service call and then getting parts was another really big hassle.
I finally had to tell them where to shove it. the keyboard error will occur on every boot since there is no PS/2 keyboard.


Which programs did you use to play MIX files... or more precisely, what players did you install to try it?


it only has one processor- likely a P4 with hyper-threading, thus the display of two

LOL @ not opening the case.


Basically, dell is no worse then any of the other manufacturers... Aside that they have been in the PC clone business since... since they called them IBM clones, I suppose. Of course- that is no assurance of anything.


I have never had a computer spontaneously fail in multiple portions- the fact that you didn't even notice 6.4GB of bad sectors leads me to believe you simply weren't observant until it was too late (No offense, of course) that is- you didn't start looking for problems until you had one (the HD) and how you've found several that were pre-existing from before the HD corruption.


basically- try this:

remove All unnecessary expansion cards. If your motherboard has integrated video, see if that works- if not just have the video card inside.

Swap out the ram with known good RAM

use as little memory as possible- a single stick, for example. (ideally >128MB, so that XP will at least boot if it gets that far)

If the PS/2 keyboard still doesn't work- try to borrow another PS/2 keyboard... just to make SURE it's not a bad keyboard.)

Does the keyboards lights flash after booting?

If I read correctly- every attempt to boot an OS results in a reboot? including the UBCD?

As you say yourself- sounds like it could be a RAM issue...


Well, if the PS/2 Keyboard Error shows because there's no keyboard, why did it show another Keyboard Error when there was a PS/2 keyboard plugged in? That's the thing I wonder about. (I had a second from my mother's computer, and I did try that one.)

Secondly, I'm talking about the .MIX files in Red Alert 2, they also played in a second player, but I can't bring the name to memory. Was it... Media Player Classic? I don't know, all I know is I don't have that player right now.

Thanks for clearing that up about the processor. I'm a software person, not hardware.

No, it didn't spontaneously fail. The bad sectors were probably there for a long time. I, in fact, knew they were because windows wouldn't format past 20% - the first section of damaged hard drive. I guess I just ignored it, which was a bad idea. I take no offense, that was simply stupidity on my part, because I even had HDTune installed on the computer.

To clarify what I mean by "boot up," I mean that it gets to the loading screen on XP for about 10 seconds then reboots.

And, I just posted this to answer what you said, but I haven't gotten a chance to test the tests you suggested. I just wanted to make sure you knew I wasn't dead.

P.S. The Dell Laptop with the failed Hard Drive also has had 3 motherboard replacements, 2 RAM replacements, 5 Power Adapter Replacements, 2 BATTERY Replacements, 1 Keyboard replacement, and now... 1 Hard Drive Replacement. All under warranty.

I should probably just get a new computer, but I'd rather keep getting new stuff under warranty just to spite them. Their hardware is so bad that they don't deserve the money I paid for it. However, the backup computer was labeled such because it has never failed before. But that's because it's several years old, so, they probably didn't make them as junky back then. I wonder if Dell flipped a "get a new computer" switch on my backup computer?

Or simply borrow a PCI-e card to test as xavier suggested.
Try it in one slot at a time...Sure there are several stores around, but I don't want to waste the money when I'll just have to buy a board anyway.

Plus they will probably recommend another replacement board - since I'm not able to find that board online except through ebay. Of course then I'll have to reinstall the software and that's a nightmare I'd rather not have.

But it's premature to assume it is the board...which is why we suggested borrowing a card to test it.No board to borrow. So the question is, buy a board or go to a repair shop?

The second seems more expensive, especially if the board is at fault. But even so, it is obviously a hardware problem and so will cost anyway.

There's no one you know who you can borrow a PCI-e vid card from just to test ? ?
A shop is certainly going to want some cabbage...even just to diagnose it.I know...and that's my problem. The ONLY A8N-SLI board I've been able to find (and I've been searching the web for hours) is a Deluxe model (not as good as the Premium) for $200.

This is the only mb out there that is new. You guys warned against buying a used one, so it seems new is the only way to go.

I figure it this way...the beeps said that the video adapter was at fault. Well, I guess not because removing/replacing the card(s) didn't make any difference. So if the new card creates the same problem, I've got to believe that it isn't the video hardware causing the problem. Meanwhile I have mb to keep in case this one goes nuts again - especially if I hand it down to my wife, which is what I did with the unit I'm using now.

But first, I'm going to call ASUS tech support and see what they TELL me. The unit is no longer produced, I hope there will be some support.Quote from: bullwinkle on December 12, 2008, 08:35:27 AM

I figure it this way...the beeps said that the video adapter was at fault. Well, I guess not because removing/replacing the card(s) didn't make any difference.

I slaved my harddrive to TRY and retrieve the files the H PARTITION IS FINE (RECOVERY PARTITION) but the f drive says files are corrupt and unreadable any way i can fix thisWhat was wrong with that drive in the first place?it crashed and couldnt be restoredTry these tools: http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2008/01/24/top-10-free-data-recovery-software/Thanks i did download (recover my files) seems to be working But cost me 60 BUCKS,Im HOPING it will also fix the bad partitionAll programs listed in my link are free. What did you download?I downloaded a program called recover my files, I wish I read your answer first I would have saved 70.00 dollars. But too late I was so NERVOUS and this program was the first one I SAW. I did work by the way i recovered my pictures,Thanks so much for your help.Well, I'm sorry for being late, but sometimes pictures are worth more, than $70, especially those priceless ones

The keyboard on my children's computer will no longer work. If you press down a key there is a clicking sound, but nothing appears on the screen. If you HOLD down the key for a couple of seconds it will work, however this is very slow going. I tried a new PS/2 keyboard and it did the same thing. Today I got a new USB keyboard thinking that the port must be bad, but it does exactly the same thing.

Any ideas on what to do next?

RestingI have no answer for you, don't know a whole lot on these particular issues but, check this out till someone smart comes along*

http://www.acmehowto.com/howto/pc/hardware/keyboard/diagnose.php

good luckThanks, Honvetops.

I have check the CHARACTER repeat/delay and USB is enable in BIOS. Hopefully, someone has BTDT and knows what weird thing is going on here. I have 4 boys (11, 10, 8, & 6) and there's no telling what they might have done.

Additionally, when I was in BIOS the keyboard seemed to work fine (at least the arrow, escape and enter keys).

Restingthese type of issues usually are little things gone wrong !!!

lets keep our fingers crossed ! I'd suggest you tried the keyboard on another computer. That way you can find out whether the keyboard is faulty or not.I've tried three different KEYBOARDS on this computer. Two of them were PS/2 and this last one USB. It's got to be something within the computer...maybe some setting got changed somehow.

Restingjust for the heck of it*

did you go into your device manager and click on the input devices ie.... keyboard and make sure it at least says its working correctly ?Yes, I did try that as well. It indicates that it's working. I am hoping that it's a silly little thing like that, though.

RestingSorry about that, I see now that I didn't read your first post thoroughly enough.

At the MOMENT I can only think of two things that might cause this behavior.
1) Some kind of vendor specific keyboard control panel that overrides the windows settings. Usually you should be able to access it from your notification area.
2.) Malware, i.e. virus, trojan, spyware etc. There are several people on this forum who are very skilled in helping you identifying and getting rid of any infestation.Deerpark,

Thank you for your imput. I'll check into suggestion #1. As for #2, that computer isn't connected to the Internet. Does that mean it couldn't have a virus? (I'm really that computer illiterate!)

RestingNot being connected to internet makes a virus a little less likely, but there are still plenty of ways the computer could get one.
But like I said there are people on this forum who are much better than me at guiding you though the process of discovering whether or not your computer have a virus. We just have to wait for them to show up.

But there could be other reasons for the strange behavior of the keyboard and actually I've just thought of one more.

Go to the 'Control Panel'
select 'Accessibility Options'
Make sure 'Keyboard' is selected
Uncheck any checked boxes in this window.hi, did you fix your problem i have the same problem also my monitor and drives wont work?If you monitor and drives aren't working too, I think you should start your own thread because that sounds like a different issue than what resting is experiencing. thanks deerpark i'll try thatI know this is an old thread but it shows up at the top of a google search. For anyone that found their way here only to not get the answer to this (like me), here's the SOLUTION:

Turn off filter keys. Hold the shift key down for 8 seconds and it should restore normal keyboard functioning. You might then want to disable the shift key shortcut using the keyboard accessibility gui (control panel/accessibility options/accessibility options). Here's a link to an explanation and detailed instructions.

http://techpaul.wordpress.com/2007/10/24/keyboard-troubleshooting-is-sticky-keys-on/

i started up my computer today and everything started fine i tried too start EVE Online it started normal then before i could enter password the computer crashed to blue screen. i restarted comp GOT too log in page and it crashed again. So i restarted comp and had it start in safe mode did a role back of 2 weeks and tried starting it up. it would not start in normal mode and this time there where columns of red dashes running up and down my screen.

i powered it down and left it alone for 30 min came back tried to start it up and the dashes appeared again and the BIOS words where not displaying right. cunks of the letters where well below there proper spot. Again i tried safe mode but vista will not even start up. i tried resetting everything too defaults since i had over clocked cpu a bit and upped the fans speeds but all i get is a black screen with the red dashes that are now there from the moment i start comp. What are the specs on this comp? 750w thermaltake
intel core 2 duo e6600 2.4
NFORCE 650i
4gb ddr2 supertalent 800mhz
250gb western digital
dual 8800 gtsSounds like the graphics card died. Does your motherboard come with an on-board graphics card or do you have another spare to test with?Remove one of the vid cards and turn off SLI/Crossfire in the BIOS and re-boot.
If no joy-joy swap the other card out...i have removed the bad vid card and everything looks good

but now the system powers down before vista can even start i have tried normal start and booting from cd but the system just powers down. if i unplug it for a bit it stays on longer and vista starts booting but then the whole thing shuts down. what did i mess up?You may have dislodged a RAM stick or a power connectioin such as the 4 pin ATX power connector...
Re-seat and re-check everything and make sure the heatsink is not LOOSE...they are funky on that chip.the cpu fan had poped out of place got that fixed and did system repair it WORKS now thanks for the helpExcellent.
How old and what manuf. was the dead card ? ?
It may still be under warranty...

I have a DELL optiplex gx270. The unit has four slot to put ram in. Two of the slots have 512 MB ram chips and two are empty. for some reason the unit only recognizes 256MB of the 1024 installed. I initially THOUGHT that MAYBE the chips were bad, so I replaced them with one from a different machine (a single 1GB chip). The computer still only recognized 256MB of the 1024MB installed. Any input would be appreciated.
I just realized someone else started the same topic right before I did. The set that are in the unit are 512MB DDR 400MHz cl3 that came originally in the machine.
Does this help ...or this?

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=OptiPlex%20GX270%20Series%20(Desktop%20and%20Mini-Tower)&pl=Dell&cat=RAM

You may have to flash the BIOS in order for the system to see all the RAM...After taking a closer look, I noticed when I booted the computer it said operating system install mode (I just put window XP on this machine). The system limits the amount of ram to 256MB when the the OS install mode is ACTIVATED. I turned it off and it recognized both 512MB ram chips again.

Thank you for your reply though.

I need help with Connecting Cass ries to the Motherboard.

The Tower has so many Connectors with two Wires in them. And I know ever Connector is for the Power Button or Hard Drive LED.

But every Connector just has two Wires and I need help with the Color Code.

If I have a Connector with a Black and Red Wire the Black is NEGITIVE right???
But if I have a Connector that has a Black and Brown or any other Color that meens the Black is POSITIVE right???

These are just the Connectors that go from the Tower to the Motherboard.the black is GND in ALL cases.So if Black is Ground all the time then Red is onlt Negitive if it is with the Black is that it??

I know there was some kind of RUL to remember but I FORGOT it.Quote from: nymph4 on February 08, 2009, 11:04:28 AM

I know there was some kind of RUL to remember but I forgot it.

I have a motherboard in an old P3 that will take a maximum of PC133 512MB SDRAM. I now have (1) 128MB stick and (1)256MB. It has 3 slots. When I went to the Crucial.com scan they advised that I get (2) new 256MB sticks and use the existing 256MB stick as well.

If the maximum amount of RAM I can use is 512 MB, Why WOULD they suggest (3) sticks of 256MB instead of just (2) ? Check your MBoard manual for RAM capacity...Crucial although extremely good are not always 100% correct as they do the spec compilations in house...
You may be able to use more but the manuf. is the definitive source...Some Pentium 3 Boards will go to 2GB, but it would be a Server Motherboard with 4 to 6 slots. You can also install all 3 sticks and see if it will address them all correctly and run memtest86 to be sure that they get along with each others ADDRESSING and latency times. BUT Generally Most Pentium 3 motherboards do cap at 512MB in maximum memory addressing.i RECENTLY set one up for a friend..it was a dell w933mhz p3 the specs MFR was max 512mb 2 slots pc133. I put a 256/128 and upped that with a cheap video card, but honestly that was a lean machine considering its age. ran full motion vids and everything. i was impressedPatio you were absolutely right.
Crucial suggested PC133 SDRAM however the manual said PC100. It also has 3 slots for RAM however Slot one and slot TWO take two sided sticks Slot 3 takes a one sided stick only and can only be done if slot two also has a single sided stick. It is all mute now due to an accident I had when installing a stick into the number two slot. The lighting was not very good. I pulled all of the wires out of the way to put the stick in. I missed a black wire from the fan. I put the stick in cutting the wire in half and messing up the number two slot. The most I can put in the number one slot is 256 SDRAM. That is not enough for Windows XP and Quickbooks which is what I need.
Is there anything I can do now aside from buying a new computer?
P.S.
Thank you to all who responded and especially to Patio for your excellent insight.Good News that you're sorted and stop by anytime...

Hello, I am having a little trouble with partitioning my hard drive. I have ALREADY typed this out on another forum, so please excus me for copying and pasting.

Quote

I was able to sucsessfully partition my hard drive into two primary partitions, and installed Windows 7 on the new Primary partition while leaving Windows XP on the other.

As an afterthought, however, I decided to resize the partitions, to make space for a 3rd primary partition I will be using as storage.

So, I resized each primary partition, and now I have 2 logical drives aswell as the two primary partitions. These logical partitions are the unallocated space I freed up when I resized the two primary partitions.

How can I combine these two logical partition? I would like to create 1 primary partition out of them, but the only option I see is creating two seperate primary partitions.

P.S. I USED EASEUS so far, but I have Gparted ready on a LiveCD if needed.

This is weird. Crucial memory scanner thinks my board has 4 dimm slots. I have 3. I wonder if I flashed the wrong bios model.How many slots do you see ? ?
Crucial is not always 100% correct considering there are 1000's of MBoards out there.Quote from: patio on December 12, 2008, 09:52:28 PM

How many slots do you see ? ?
Crucial is not always 100% correct considering there are 1000's of MBoards out there.

How many slots do you see ? ?

Quote

How many slots do you see ? ?

Then that's how many you have.
Are you trying to find out how much RAM you can have in there and what type ? ?
There are other methods besides Crucial's site...such as the MBoard manuf. site...

BIOS agent is a rogue co. that just wants your money...normally 97% of machines are fine with the BIOS they are shipped with.
You still haven't explained what the dilemna here is....
An incorrect BIOS flash has created many expensive boat anchors.

I am doing some academic research on the interoperability of heat sinks of laptops and desktops.

Are the heat sinks of laptops and desktops same? I would IMAGINE that there could be some DIFFERENCES due to the space restrictions of the laptop. But I am not SURE.

Thanks,
SaurabhQuote from: saurabansal on February 09, 2009, 12:34:58 PM

I would imagine that there could be some differences due to the space restrictions of the laptop.

Hello. Currently i Have in my PC:

Q6600 2.4 ghz
8800gts 312 DDR3
2gb of ram
500gb WD sata HDD
Sound Blaster Audigy
500watt PSU

Alright so my computer has up and decided that it hates me. For about three months it worked without any major issues. I noticed some absurd artifacting with my GPU but decided i'd just replace it eventually. My problem is that recently my computer has gone nutty. Whenever I decide to do anything (open photoshop, install programs, ect) it starts to give me laggy sound. Windows itself takes about 5 minutes to get past that initial loading screen and then 1 or 2 minutes to actually load my user. Under a normal circumstance I would just guess CPU but it's stranger. Once photoshop OPENS it gives a GPU error, whatever, I get it, it's broken. Yet it works fine, no lag, nothing. I render videos, and nothing. I open fallout 3 and it lags until it gets to the menu and the sound is fine for the rest of the game. It seems to only lag on loading screens. About an hour ago I started hearing loud grinding noises from INSIDE my case. All of this leads me to believe it may be my HDD. It seems that the sound skips any time the HDD is accessed but I'm not sure. So I wanted to get a second opinion.
I ran a CPU stress test and it never got above 60C at 100% for 3 hours. I ran a ram test for 20 minutes with 0 errors. My GPU gets up to 72C with artifacting almost nonstop In games there are specific models that seem to make the oddest thing ever occur. Giant triangles of the models texture stretch into the air to the edge of the screen..... It only happens with specific models and such though. In fallout 3 there are certain places that massive grey triangles cover the screen but if I don't face the model it's fine. In another game a large triangle COMES out of the neck of one of the female character models. It's ODD.. In any case, what do you think could be the windows Lag and sound skipping issue?Two problems at the same time:

1) Hard drive is going BAD. If the grinding noise is coming from the hard drive, that's means it's about to crap out on you. Back up your data as soon as you can 'cause you may not get another chance...

2) Video card. 99% of the time artifacts on the screen mean a video card problem. The other 1% of the time it's drivers.

So...you have your marching orders. Replace both the hard drive AND the video card.

Here are my specs:

MSI P7N Diamond LGA 775 Motherboard
NVIDIA GeForce 9800GTX 512MB

Rosewill RX850-D-B 850W PSU
Intel Core 2 DUO Quad Q6600 CPU
Platinum 4GB 240-pin DD2 1066mhz memory
Seagate 250GB hard drive 3Gb/s

I just built this computer a few days ago and I am running into the problem where 10-45min into a game, any game from World of Warcraft to Supreme Commander, the computer will either restart or I get a bsod. I have installed a new CPU heat sink, tested the temperature of the system(44-46C), CPU(26-32C), and GPU (57-59C) during gameplay and all have not SHOWN any over heating. I have removed my sound card and uninstalled the drivers, uninstalled the video card drivers and reinstalled from a freshly downloaded DRIVER. I have underclocked my computer. I have removed all electronics on the circuit that my tower is plugged into leaving just the tower and the monitor had a cable running across the room to the jack on the other electrical circuit. I have taken the memory out trying different slots, used just 1 stick at a time (I have 2 2GB sticks) swapping them in and out. I recently ran a memtest 86 and it came back all green. I am REALLY at a loss, nobody I know knows what is going on it is defying all reason. Any suggestions as to what it could possibly be? This is a brand new computer with all new parts so I do not have parts I could swap components out with.


EDIT: Also computer just restarted twice with no programs running other than trying to get to this website.What message do the BSODs say? It could be a driver problem...Also, what Operating System are you running?

When did this problem start?XP 32 bit and the problem has been going on since I first put this computer together. The errors range from LSO greater than or LESS than, to t3 .sys (I have a space in between t3 and .sys because I didnt catch the letters in the middle), to Bad Pool Header. Ah...multiple BSOD messages...that's not good. It would be nice if we knew the missing blanks in t3____.sys.

If the BSOD refers to a .sys file, 80% of the time the problem is that particular file. It's a driver file. Updating that can solve the problem. The other 20% of the time, it's an OS problem. Since it happens during gameplay, that t3_____.sys could be referring to a video driver of some kind.

As for the other BSODs, we could be dealing with bad hardware (like bad RAM).

Download and install Memtest 86:

http://www.memtest86.com/memtest86-3.4a.iso.zip

Use whatever CD burning program you have to create a CD from the ISO image.

Restart your computer with the CD in the CD-ROM drive. Memtest 86 should automatically start if your computer is set to boot from the CD-ROM first. If not, you'll have to go in the BIOS and change the boot order.

Let Memtest 86 run for a while. If any red appears on the bottom of the screen, you probably have bad (or incompatible, or misconfigured) RAM.Video card drivers are up to date, even uninstalled and installed fresh from the NVIDIA site. Already ran memtest and it came back all ok, no errors.Do this:

Start -> Control Panel -> System -> Advanced tab -> Settings under "Startup and Recovery" -> uncheck "Automatically restart."

Now this time, the BSODs should stay up long enough for you to see them. Did that and tried to force the problem to occur, took about an hour but system restarted but no bsod. Haven't been able to recreate the bsod all day.

when i INSERT my floppy disc into drive it does not detect the disc and when i DOUBLE click on the disc icon it shows an ERROR MESSAGE that"A IS NOT ACCESSIBLE.NO ID ADDRESS MARK WAS FOUND ON THE FLOPPY DISC".wat can i do? please reply ...............Does that floppy disc have FILES on it that you want or is it blank? If blank, try formatting it.could be bad drive.

I do not know if anyone can HELP or wether I have a dead lost.
I have been given a Tower computer without a name and have connected a working monitor to it.
It is running Windows XP Professional.
When switched on it comes up with a perfect Windows screan with the normal XP logo and the 'self check' array. Then every thing goes wrong.
The Desktop shows FOUR verticle screans of the same array, BUT in different languages. I get 4 pointers and can get into several of the programmes including Control Panel. Please remember, each screen is a multitude of colour and in 4 languages. I have tried various adjustments to the monitor but cannot get it down to one picture. Apart from dumping it, anyone with any practical advice please. I imaging the previous owner (?) 'cleaned' out his own programmes etc but cannot get round the 4 displays. These are dim as if the power to the monitor is being SHARED four ways. When it first starts, as above, it is bright and a perfect picture.Try booting into safemode by tapping F8 rapidly at power up...
Once in there go to Control Panel and look for any yellow !'s...
You may need to re-install the video drivers for the machine.

Whenever i am given a machine from someone else the first thing i do is a clean format and install...Thanks for reply. I have managed to get a bit further by peering through the multi layers I managed to ALTER the 'Screen Resolution' of the monitor in the 'Display' within the Control area. The display is now ok, but on the 14" monitor, there is about a 2" boarder all round. It will not let me adjust the Resolution above 800 x 600 pixels. It's either that or it goes straight up to 1024 x 768. Nothing in between. At the higher setting, I get the multi coloured multi language garbage again, so I will have to live with the PART SIZED viewing area. The original monitor was a 17" flat screen job. The computer originally had Windows 3.1 !!!
Thanks for your reply. I have cleaned a lot out of it and defraged it so at least its in a clean state now. Quite and interesting day.

I just BOUGHT a Technosonic wireless transmitter and speakers. They came with no directions. I plugged all 3 pieces in but I dont have a clue what to do now. Thanks for any help.Try this site. http://safemanuals.com/c200.php
They have various manuals on all types of equipment.Thank you for the link. They dont have it either. I am thinking about returning the stuff.w/o instructions it's trial and ERROR. How much is your time worth? I dont even know where to start. I bought them from JC Penny's you would think they would come with instructions. I even when to the manufactures site and they dont have anything. what model transmitter and speakers are these? Did they come as a set or did you buy the transmitter and speakers SEPARATE? Have you filled out the form on the contact us link from the technosonic website to see if they could send you a manual?

http://technosonic.com/contact_us.phphttp://technosonic.com/product_info.php?cPath=2_19&products_id=101

http://technosonic.com/product_info.php?cPath=2_19&products_id=108

These are the products that I bought.

I did send the company an email but have heard nothing back. Maybe today.

Thanks CariI traced those items all the way back to the manufacturer but wasn't able to find a user manual to down load so I emailed the MFG to see if they could send me one. if they do i will try to get it to you.
Thank you so much for the help. I will also post if I figure out anything or get an email from them. Not telling you what to do but if i bought something and found there was no User Manual i'd be returning it yesterday...I live about 2 hours from the nearest jc penny's so if I dont have something figured out by this weekend I will be taking them back when I am in town. ThanksOkay I have made progress even though I have no idea what I did. I am able to use 1 speaker for everything but netflix instant play movies. Are there any settings that I would need to change for that?

Thanks for any ideasCari,

I have now GOTTEN the manual from the MFG. I have uploaded it on the below site for you. Please let me know if that doesn't work.


http://www.fileupyours.com/view/232056/sonido.pdfThank you so much. I finally GOT them to work. I will have to check my email to see if they ever sent me anything.

Hello,
thinking of installing a new GPU, and im not sure what im looking at it better or worse then what i have now.

Installed in my pc now is a, nVidia 7600 GT 256mb

What i want is a, Palit GEFORCE 9600GT, 1GB DDR2, which can be found here,
http://www.mwave.com.au/newAU/mwaveAU/[emailprotected]XHV4F2E47OH&sku=42022191

Or as a cheaper resort, Inno3D GeForce 9500GT, 512MB DDR2,
http://www.mwave.com.au/newAU/mwaveAU/[emailprotected]XHV4F2E47OH&sku=42022239
Which one is better?

Now seeing as i know nothing about GPU's i need someones help to tell me if this is a decent GPU.
And if anyone knows anything about GPU instalation, that would be great.


THANKS FOR THE HELP IN ADVANCEDBoth of those are better than a 7600GT.
To better answer your question we'll need some additional information:
What's your PSU?
What kind of games do you p[lay?
What's your budget?

Also, you might find a quick look in the FAQ section helpful.and do you play games? what else do you do? do you care about the bestest graphics?Lol,
yes i care about graphics, thats why im upgrading my graphics card.
I dont play anything in particular, other than css.
But i might upgrade my gaming needs, and buy higher quality games.

I think this thread is useless now, by the time i got a reply i found all this stuff out myself.Quote

I think this thread is useless now, by the time i got a reply i found all this stuff out myself.

Quote

I think this thread is useless now, by the time i got a reply i found all this stuff out myself.

Uhhhh let's see...Calum replied the same day and all he requested was more info.

You're refund check is in the mail.

what refund

what refund

I've had ALOT of problems in the past few days with my dell dimension 4100. I was using it and it was working fine, but then it froze and I tried restarting it,but I would hear beeps and nothing would show up on screen.All I could see on the back was two orange lights and two green lights. I learned that it was because of memory problems, so I switched out the memory and tried turning it on.
But now, the computer SEEMS to be dead. I TURN it on and I can hear the FANS starting but they're unusually silent, and there's no lights on. I looked inside and there's only one light(it's on the motherboard) that's lit up and it's alot dimmer than it was before.I've taken out everything except the fans and the power SUPPLY(obviously) and I still get this problem. I even tried using a different power supply but it's the same result. I know for a fact that both the power supplies WORK because I used them on a different computer and it worked fine, so I'm kind of guessing that the motherboard crapped out on me, but I'm not sure. Any solutions you can think of?Have you tried putting the old RAM back in / disconnected the mouse & keyboard / if so then the mb is probably toast

Alan <><

I have seen a lot of DVD/CD ROMS that give there Seek Time Speed

When looking to get one should you look for a fast seek time or what do you look at?I look at mainly price. I know that CD and DVD ROM drives are much slower than hard drives, and therefore I do not worry about the performance. They are all very similar anyway.

My priorities would be:

1. Price
2. Speed (24x, 48X etc)
3. Transfer rate (SEQUENTIAL access)
4. Last of all, seek time.

The seek time represents the (usually ideal, i.e. not real-world) time taken for the drive to start reading a certain section on a disk.
A faster seek time is better, because it generally means the drive will be faster.
Whether you'll notice the speed difference, I don't know.
Hope this helps.

I SEE Dias posted before me - good advice there, and more or less what I was thinking.I would just add that I have not bought a CD or DVD ROM drive since about 1999 approx. If I need an optical drive I will generally buy a writer, and since these are generally slower than read-only drives, the performance issue shrinks even more.

Regarding "seek time", I would note that manufacturers love to quote figures and the seek time of optical drives is therefore often mentioned by them. CD & DVD drives have much worse seek time performance than hard disks. They use a much less efficient head actuator mechanism.

CD-ROM drives are based on technology originally developed for playing audio CDs, where random seek performance is very unimportant. CDs do not have cylinders like a hard disk platter, but rather a long continuous spiral of bits, which makes finding specific pieces of data much more difficult.

Even though access time is important in some ways, its importance is generally vastly overstated by the people that sell CD-ROM drives.


Sorry I ment I am looking at DVD / Burners
And they all give me seek times

My gess is this is how fast it can find Data on a DVD to play it. How long should it beQuote from: nymph4 on February 08, 2009, 12:44:21 PM

My gess is this is how fast it can find Data on a DVD to play it. How long should it be

So what you are telling me is that Seek Time is just for Audio CDs and DVD Players don't go by Seek Time.

Ok My computer was working FINE until today when on login screen i pressed some buttons on my keyboard. SINCE then my mouse stop working especially left click after EVERY 30-40 minutes. I have to alt tab and RIGHT click numerous TIME to get out of it. I am thinking it has something to do with scroll lock or pause/break being on after a while. It doesnt respond to left click, say i go to task bar and right click mozilla and press close it doesnt work but start working after i spam right click and alt tab.
Im using XP by the way and wireless mouse / keyboard

Any help will be appreciatedBatteries ? ?
Any new wireless devices near the computer including phones ? ?
Tried another mouse ?

I just installed 2 gigs of RAM in my computer and it is only recognizing 942 rams. I have heard that I might have to update my bios but. I ran a couple of programs and no bios update available. I have e-mailed the manufacture and have not heard back from them yet. any help would be appreciated.
Computer is a Seanix SA133 Windows XP pkg3. INTEL Celeron R 2.8ghWhere are you getting the RAM reports from ? ?
Is it the correct RAM ? ?
To find out visit Crucial's website and run the ONLINE scanner...

Recently when loading the new version of Maya onto my Dell XPS m1730 laptop (running windows vista home premium) an error occurred. Now, when I boot the system it says a volume in a RAID 0 is FAILING. The system is WORKING great, at normal speeds, and without crashing. Do I need to be concerned or can I KEEP clicking the "ignore this for now" button? Thank you for the help. I would DLoad and run the diagnostics from the drive manuf. site and run them IMMEDIATELY...
Also start backing up your important data.

I'm installing WINDOWS SP-1 onto a newly built computer. This Mobo features a PCI-E x16 Slot. When im installing Windows from the disk, I get a BSOD (blue screen of Death). all of my parts are brand new, i went to TIGER DIRECT 3 hours ago and bought EVERYTHING (im broke now)Sorry for the double posting (here and in software), i wasnt sure if it was a hardware issue or a software issue, just playing it safeHow far do you get into the install before you get the error?

Are you USING a "real" XP CD or a copy?

My external hard disk got infected with a virus. After CLEANING or removing the virus THRU avast anti-virus, now, all my files/folders have their hidden attributes grayed out. I have to select the "show hidden files and folders" just to see them, is there any way around this? Can somebody please help me how to return back these folders to normal status? Thank you very much for any advice...
Solved your problem yet Agacult?

Its called google.To Mr. Google
I am not "agacult", however, agacult and I have the same problem. I TRIED your suggestion for the command prompt, C:\Documents and Settings\ Bernard Gibani\, I type G :\ and press enter (G is my external hard drive) but it did not go to G:\, INSTEAD it came back as C:\Documents and Settings\Bernard Gibani\. So how can I go to G:\? I am not familiar with dos command but I followed your instruction. Please help thanksOk haha sorry about that. WELL , if G is the location of your external hard drive then it should go to it when you type it in. Are you sure thats the correct drive?

Hello, guys! Got a problem:
I have a computer (Dell XPS 400):
2.8Ghz Pentium D (Dual-core P4)
1GB RAM
128MB ATI Video card (broken) PCI-E
160GB HDD

Anyways, my graphics card went BAD and I know it's the graphics card, because I can log in blindly. Strangely enough, installing a PCI graphics card (64MB) to see if it WORKED, it doesn't... For some reason (driver problem?). Anyways, need a new graphics card...

And the problem is the power supply! It's ONLY 150W!!!! WTH? Anyways, wht is the BEST graphics card I can use with a 150W power supply?
Thanks!! (Preferably Nvidia 256MB, or better if possible)

P.S., I cannot get a new power supply because Dell weaves power cables through everything, and I don't want to try to replace it. Too big a risk. I also cannot get a guy to do it, as I have no money ATM.Dell put a 150W PSU in a P4 machine ? ?
They should be ashamed of themselves...
I'd still look at getting a new PSU as well ...do you know anyone who does computer work and can walk you thru it ? ?Quote from: patio on December 14, 2008, 08:10:47 PM

Dell put a 150W PSU in a P4 machine ? ?
They should be ashamed of themselves...
I'd still look at getting a new PSU as well ...do you know anyone who does computer work and can walk you thru it ? ?

I'm basically looking for a DECENT gaming machine with a price tag of about $800. Now, this isn't including a keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers or CD/DVD drive (assuming mine would work) and the price is flexible.

If you want to include a monitor I'd like it to be less than $300 and be able to hook up to my PS3. I was leaning towards this one personally: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009154

Also, I can probably get someone to build it for me, I have no brand preference, and as far as cases go I wouldn't care if its ugly as long as it does it's job.

I think I have all my bases covered. Thanks in advance.Only one more question - do you NEED an operating system? I would assume yes, but want to make sure.If it won't affect the hardware then I can work that DETAIL out later. Otherwise, I'd like to stick with Windows XP.

It's getting hard to think. I'm going to sleep and will check this in the "morning".If you don't already know how to build a computer, and I'd have to guess that you don't, by your opening post, then I'd suggest that you buy an "off the shelf" named brand PC like Acer, HP or Compaq or have someone with the experience to build it for you.

To avoid a whole shopping list of complaints, avoid Dell or Gateway.

Being an old, Professional, PC builder, I have my standards and my minimums.
Today, I can build an adequate PC, with no frills for Under $500.
And that DOES include a keyboard and mouse.

But, add a high end Video card, dual HD's and a top quality DVD burner and you've jumped up to about $700.
For $800, I can build you a PC that will tuck you in at night, and still respect you in the morning.


Good Luck,
Shadow
As to building a computer on your own, I agree with TheShadow. I have worked with and on computers for forty years. You can have some expensive mistakes through carelessness. There are some good deals to be found at some of the larger electronics stores. Stay away from super stores. They sell everything and are competing on price and not on quality. The best solution is to find someone, that you can trust, to build you a computer. Determine what type of system that you want, how much you want to spent, then do some research on the components that you would like to have in your system.

Good luck

Banker64 My experience with PC's has mainly been upgrading but I would have to disagree with both shadow and banker on building your own.

If you are willing to spend the money and willing to learn then by all means go ahead and build your own PC. If you don't TRY you will never learn.

Just keep in mind that you will need to take it slow and if anything doesn't look right then come here and ask for assistance. There are plenty of people here willing to help you out.My plan is to have a friend who runs a computer repair shop put it together for me. That would be my best bet. I'd plan this with him, but I live out of town now.

Maybe I would try to build it myself as a last resort. And if I did I would read a few guides and be very cautious.

The only place around here that sells whole computers is WalMart and maybe Staples or Shopko. Staples tends to be overpriced, but Shopko might have potential. For now, though, I'll check out those brands TheShadow recommended and look at some hardware on newegg.

Any hardware recommendations or comments on that monitor i picked out would be appreciated. Thanks for the replies thus far.

first I have do have power to the COMPUTER; the motherboard led power LIGHT is on.

When I press the "power on" button, NOTHING HAPPENS. I'm thinking that the switch is bad.

There have several occasions where the computer would go to "stand by" and it would not turn back on. I would have to unplug the computer and then turn it back on. EVERYTHING was working fine up though when it booted back up.

Is there a way to bypass the power switch to turn on the computer?For testing purposes yes, you just SHORT (connect) the two pins for the power switch together (temporarily). Best easy way is to use a metal flat headed screw driver and place it on the two pins for a second or two.

Ok so i use rivatuner to turn up my gpu fan up, and every TIME i alt tab out of game , it goes back to 44%.

It also does it randomly about 20 minutes after ive done it. Im not 100% sure if the alt and TABBING out of game has anything to do with it.

Anyone know why it could be doing it?

Ive recently formatted the computer , could it be driver RELATED?Could just be the video card reacting to the drop in activity. Depending on the temperatures of the card under LOAD conditions, it may be that it's not getting hot enough to warrent the cooling fan going full blast. E.g. the card is at 60C and the load drops to 10% then the temperature would still dissipate safely at a lower fan speed.

I am trying to upgrade the ram in a Gateway mx3225 notebook. It comes with 256 mb of ddr2 sodimm @533mMHz and is expandable to 1 gig. There is only one port. I BOUGHT a 1 gig chip that says it is compatible with pc2-4200 ddr2 [emailprotected] The laptop will not boot when I install the chip. After I bought the chip (duh) I looked at the OLD one and it say pc2 4200s. The chips I bought say compatible for pc2 4200 with no (s). Is that a problem. I THOUGHT the first chip I bought was dead so I got another one PNY that also said it was compatible. It was cheap so I figured to try again. Still the thing will not boot.
Can anyone please give me some suggestions. Even the gateway tech and their spec page for this model only states the ram at ddr2 sodimm 533MHz. They don't even mention pc2 4200 anything.
The os is XP
Thank youInsert the old check so that you can get the comp working again and then follow the below LINK and let the scan run to see what they say is compatible.

http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/

I know everyone has their opinion on what HARDWARE is best, so I'm interested in learning yours. As an avid World of warcraft player and also a graphic design artist and animator (using Perl, Maya, After Effects...), I am looking to build the best computer I can afford. In the past I have previously bought laptops - my last being the Dell xps m1730. But, I have been sadly disappointed and will never buy another Dell again. Anyone out there willing to share their specs on their own desktop build? I am hoping to SPEND less the $3k. Thanks in advance!

A good friend of mine has nearly 20 years in programming / design, curiously, she was designer using macs before programmer on pc's, but her pc's are powerhouses like what you are looking for falcon or something like that? anyway she swears by it. Her SON, mid-teens, following in her footsteps wanted an acer predator for xmas, she said it looked really stupid when she first saw it but was suprised at its specs / although couldnt find it anywhere.

I've built systems, but not in years, and never anything at that level.

i could say (my opinion) best video board, cooling system, etc, and there be 6 more posts arguing the points, i hate that.

I know hardware has fallen in price, but cutting edge hi-performance every piece, which your looking for, can't see how you could make inside that price limit, best chance is to buy from mfr or shop, especially with economy as it is, may be find NEGOTIATING possible in a tag price if you contacted them directly.

Will you be building this system, or buying it pre-built?
Do you need a monitor/keyboard/mouse etc, and what software do you need?If i was you i would definately consider building as is much cheaper but you can get much better quality and performance its not hard either. I sure appreciate all of you have helped me so far.

Calum, I plan on building a system unless there is a great prebuilt system out there that some KNOWS about, has used, and is thrilled with. I have a great mouse and monitor. I can use a new keyboard, but have never been too picky about that. I will likely need to buy Vista (yuck), but most of the other programs I will need (animation, graphics, and gaming software) can be loaded onto the new system from my current system. I use AVG and have another license left, so for protection on the system, I think I will be ok.

Vista really isn't that bad, honestly.

Do you have any brand preference between amd/nvidia or intel/ati and do you plan to overclock much?

Is there a specific time period for this build because if you had the mind to wait a while nvidia and ati will be releasing their new series, resulting in new high end cards. That is likely to be later in the year, probably q3/q4. I guess that isn't to much to go by considering they're always releasing new series, and nvidia is constantly rebranding and taking back the performance crown with pcb sandwhiches.

hi, can ANYONE of u guys know that how can i use my LCD to watch TV, my LCD only has the a plug to power, mean plug to a socket and the screen show up, and one is to join my CPU, if without using my CPU, my LCD cant watch TV such as channel 7, 9, TEN...
is there anyway that i can watch TV without a CPU but an ariel
thank youno, you can though, buy a tv tuner for your pc, so you can work on the pc, while watching tv, there only like 50$i know that , but i mean without that device (CPU), can i watch TV with an arial like the normal tv every one has at home
thank youyour talking about a monitor i assume
well if your monitor has hdmi you can connect it to your cable box if you have one. Or like a 360 or something like that oh, maybe u are correct, what is the different between LCD and monitor
what if i monitor dont have that round plug hdmi, what can i do?
thanksYou NEED an external TV tuner with a VGA cable, I think.

(Example)

FlyTV-BOX



wait so im still compfused is this "lcd" connected to your computerI think he means an LCD monitor. He wants to watch TV on it without using a computer. He does not understand that "lcd" is the name for a type of display.

LCD monitor



LCD TV



CRT monitor



CRT TV

i think Dias answered my qestion, thanks guys and the one u said external tv tuner is pretty expensive, is it?
thanksQuote from: johnha169 on December 14, 2008, 05:58:00 AM

the one u said external tv tuner is pretty expensive, is it?

what do you think of a " TARGA " 19" LCD MONITOR FOR £ 100.00 about $ 130.00

I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THEM , harryI've never heard of Targa, but for £100 you can TAKE your pick from Acer, Samsung, HannsG (not too well known, but great monitors, I have ONE) and some other brands, from 15.4-22" in size.
Check out www.dabs.com if you're OK with buying online.i'll have a LOOK , but i would never buy on line

but pc world GIVE you their on-line prices if you know themPC World will most likely overcharge you.
Saying that, I had a look and there was a decent LG and a Dell that looked OK.yes just out of pc world myself the lg looks good may go and have a look at it going into " currys " knowwhat is the difference between TFT and LCDNo need to worry about that, basically they both mean a FLAT screen monitor.

i have a PROBLEM with my computer. i have not STARTED up the computer in 3 months and when i did i noticed a problem that i have come across before. that problem was resolve by itself after a week of not turning on the computer.

the situation is that when i turned on the computer it seems to start up fine but then i get a "no signal input" on my monitor. after farther inspection i realize that my hdd is not booting up. ive put new idd cables for the hdd but nothing happened, i have also took out everything and put it back in and that did not solve the problem. i disconnected my main hdd but my secondary hdd in, but i get the same problem.

what could be causing this?You need to give more information. Did you every get the display that indicates the computer is starting? Does the computer make a beep? do the lights on the keyboard flash after you turn it on?
How did you know the HDD was not working?
Does this computer have a floppy drive? Did you try a floppy first?Are you using an onboard video card? If so you MIGHT try adding a video card to you computer and if so you would have to change the set up in the bios. If you have a video card what happens when you use the onboard? Also just like geek said, how do you know the hdd is not starting if your display is not working?Quote from: Geek-9pm on February 04, 2009, 04:02:33 PM

You need to give more information.

Did you every get the display that indicates the computer is starting?
no, i get no response that my computer is working
Does the computer make a beep?
no, hdd usually makes noise but does not
do the lights on the keyboard flash after you turn it on?
no
How did you know the HDD was not working?
it ussually makes noise
Does this computer have a floppy drive?
no
Did you try a floppy first?
no

Are you using an onboard video card?
no
If so you might try adding a video card to you computer and if so you would have to change the set up in the bios.

If you have a video card what happens when you use the onboard?
have not tried

Also just like geek said, how do you know the hdd is not starting if your display is not working?
no sound

Best guess is you have an issue with the plug or power cord or power button or power switch.
Unplug from the wall, wait a minute or two.
Plug in and notice the fan on the Power Supply.
Did it do a quick jerk? Try the front panel button.
In there a switch on the back of the power supply?
Flip it. Try the front panel button again.
Flip it again. Press again. Repeat.

The wire pair from the Front Panel Button may have worked loose, or it may have some oxide. (Very thin coast of rust, due to air pollution.) Just put it back where it belongs or jingle it a bit. Then do the on/off press routine again.

I planned on adding more RAM to my computer, but when I opened the casing, I saw that all three slots had cards in them. The smallest had a 128MB card. Can I safely TRANSFER all memory to the first two cards so I can remove the third and add one with more MB's?Go to cosair WEB site [google] do a memory SEARCH this will TELL you the right memory for your systemQuote

Can I safely transfer all memory to the first two cards

I have a dell inspiron 8600 laptop that the monitor won't stay on. It started with the red hue, so I replaced the lcd inverter and the backlight. It comes on BRIGHT and goes on and off a couple of times in the first 30 seconds then just goes blank. It works fine with an external monitor and I can live with that if I have too, but I just can't figure it out. I have put 2 lcd inverters thinking that I screwed the first one up but no DICE. Any suggestions what to try next would be great!


Randyi have been having a PROBLEM with a pink hue. Have you tried either checking the LCD cable or replacing it?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Latitude-D800-Inspiron-8500-8600-LCD-Cable-2C415_W0QQitemZ230314037770QQcmdZViewItem

that cable?Well I didn't think of the cable, but thats the only THING I didn't try. Maybe I will give it a try.

Thanks for the FRESH look at it.



Randy

I just got brand new parts for a new gaming computer. AMD Phenom, Asus MB, 9800 GT video card, the works. Everything seems to be plugged in to the right spots, everything is compatable, and it gets power to start up just fine........but my computer monitor isn't GETTING any kind of a signal from the video card.

The video card is getting power, cause the FAN is running and there is a light on it, and I TRIED my old 6800 GT on it as well and got the same problem. The only thing i can think of is that the PCI- EXPRESS 2.0 slots on the MB are not working. Can anyone help me out!? Does the motherboard have onboard video?Have you tried another monitor?Your graphics card should a have a built in 4 pin power connector. I don't know if you know about it being there but i had the same problem with that card because i didn't know about the power connector, so i don't know if thats the case for you but you might want to CHECK that out

Whenever I try to print a document or BURN a cd/dvd, the program attempting to do so will INSTANTLY freeze. I expect the two must be related because they happen in exactly the same fashion; as soon as I press the print button(in the case of burning it happens when I attempt to access the disk, but only if I access it with a burning program), the program freezes and stops responding, but windows continues to work as normal. For large documents, Acrobat will also suffer a similar problem, even if I don't try to print them.

This only began to happen yesterday, and I do not believe I installed anything between the last time I was able to print successfully and when the problem STARTED; if there was anything, it was either an update to windows, open office, or java. I also do not believe the problem to be a virus or such because I have both virus software and a firewall; the virus software--McAfee--failed to find anything with a complete scan. It is possible there is a problem with an INACTIVE windows service, but I find this UNLIKELY because any services I disabled were disabled several months ago. I have restarted but have not tried reinstalling drivers.

I have windows vista home premium 32 bit service pack 1, 3gb ram(I don't have company or speed on hand, I can find out if necessary), an intel q6700 processor, a geforce 5500 512mb video card, and a Seagate 750gb hard drive on which windows is installed. My printer is a lexmark z2490 and is hooked up over usb; my dvd/cd burner is internal Toshiba brand(I can get model number if needed) and is hooked up over SATA.

I'm sorry my question is so vague. Thank you.This just started yesterday right?
Have you tried System Restore?Ah, always forget about that.

It did the trick alright, thank you.

Hi,

I just GOT a NEW motherboard (MB ECS GOAL3+(1.1C) W/SEMPRON 3000+ 1
N82E16835150087 CPU COOLER ) and heatsink (CPU COOLER MASSCOOL|5F9001B1H3 R 80mm). It seems too big and wont fit. Should i have gotten a 70mm?

Thanks. Did you do any research at all, before selecting that mobo and CPU?

ECS is at the very bottom of the barrel of motherboards.
And a Sempron CPU is NOT a good performer.
You should have gotten an Athlon. They come with a stock
heatsink and fan combo that's more than sufficient for cooling
the processor they come with.

There's NEVER any need to go shopping for a cooler when you buy
an AMD processor!

I just UPGRADED my own system from an Athlon X2, 64, 3800+ to a
Athlon X2, 64 5200+ cpu and the cooler that came with it keeps the
heatsink at nearly room temperature, under all loads.

There's absolutely NO need to waste money on an Aftermarket Cooler.

Cheers!
Quote from: TheShadow on February 08, 2009, 09:33:27 AM

ECS is at the very bottom of the barrel of motherboards.
And a Sempron CPU is NOT a good performer.

There's NEVER any need to go shopping for a cooler when you buy
an AMD processor!

There's absolutely NO need to waste money on an Aftermarket Cooler.

My Emachines T2240 (Windows XP) is about 5 YEARS OLD now. I only turn it on once in awhile. It's mostly my router/back up computer. Today it would not power on at all. Checked the plug, tried another outlet. Still no power. No lights. No noise. Nothing. Opened it up, checked for loose wires. Still no power at all when plugged in.

I'm trying to find out if it's a power supply issue or a hard drive issue?

Do you THINK I would be better off replacing the hard drive or should I buy a new power supply?

I'm not so familiar with repairing computers that have died. This is my first computer to bite the dust.

But I'd like to be able to just repair it myself rather than go out and buy a whole new PC.

Thanks! New Update:

My Dad had a few other older emachines for parts laying around. So first we swapped the power supply and we got good power going on the machine but the processor light would not come on.

When we swapped the hard drive with the old power supply we would get a processor light but no power light.

Now I'm just confused. Do you think the motherboard could be the issue instead? I would consider thinking about a new machine unless you want to $$$$ yourself on a EMACHINEI've seen... I was LOOKING at the prices for new motherboards and they are close to $200. You can get a new machine for around $300 nowdays. I was just hoping it was cheap to repair.

For some reason, I can't RECORD anything in Cool edit pro & even the little sound RECORDER in Vista (64 bit).

I have cool edit pro v. 2 and when I try to hit record, I GET this message:


when I go to sound recorder I get this:



I uninstalled the device and restarted the computer but i still have the same issue.
According to my device manager I have "Realtek High Definition Audio" under sound, video & game controllers. According to my computer I also have all of my drivers updated.

I have never experienced this problem - not sure what to do about it.

i had viruses in my hp pavilion and then tried system restore then it went into RESTART mode and it never restarted. no i have no power at all, no fans no lights. would this ne the power supply?Check all your connections FIRST, from wall plug ect before replacing the power supply.thanks, i did, so would it be smart to go AHEAD and change the power supply? is that the likely problemI would borrow one first of the same or greater WATTAGE and swap it in there...
No sense buying one until it's been determined that it's the issue...Quote from: jimmie_large55 on December 14, 2008, 08:09:00 AM

i had viruses in my hp pavilion and then tried system restore

Hello, first of all I like to say my computer is not working....
I took it apart, cleaned out the dust bunnies, and here I am. I have replaced the hard drive.
I have checked the power supply and found that the output readings, both 5v, and +12, and -12 SEEM to be a-ok on my dc volt meter.
I have it hooked up to a monitor, and now it shows........
Insert boot MEDIA and press a key, yada, yada, yada.
I do that and nothing on the screen changes. At boot up screen I press f2, or f12, actually I tried all of the f'keys 1-12 and nothing happens. Its almost as if my cd drive is not reading the boot disk. I am unsure of what to do next, or what other checks I can do in order to find the trouble. Can someone give me a few tips on what else I can try. Anyones help would be greatly appreciated, Thanks, Nickdid it work before??? did you ground yourself there could be several issues that could cause this. if your USEING an ide or sata drive borrow one that uses a working os that may help sort it out. is there a motherboard soft power led? is it getting power? First of all I wanted to say thank you for your reply.
The front blue light on the power switch stays on steady when the button is depressed.
The green led on the power supply is on.
Inside the case, on the motherboard, I dont see a led lit up near the battery or anywhere else for that matter.
Yes I did ground myself before I cracked open the tower, I used the grounding strap at work in our shop.
The fans are running.....
Is there anyway to load an os onto my new hard drive, other than running a cd master for windows 98 on the cd drive. I tried that with my old hard drive and it kept saying disk i/o error, and thats why I bought a new hard drive.
Is there any way to test the cd drive, seems like its not reading the cd disk. Any ideas would be helpful.
By the way it didn't work before, My system crashed about 2 months ago, I have a laptop as my main computer now... I know its not gonna last long.....so I gotta get this tower going before the laptop takes a dump.Oh by the way the hard disk led comes on for 5 seconds, and flickers on twice after that, then goes out.Do you have a motherboard manual? Most boards know have this feature in them. Check your front connections it seems like that may be wrong tooo.... thats good, what you could try if you have a floppy drive is like a DOS boot disk or something like that.does the drive light TURN on at all during boot-up?
Quote from: winchester00dog on February 04, 2009, 04:46:44 PM

Oh by the way the hard disk led comes on for 5 seconds, and flickers on twice after that, then goes out.

I've been contemplating watercooling my system for a while now, especially with the arrival of a new video card (4870x2). I was wondering if many of you have DONE it here and what you think about it. Is it WORTH the hassle? Is it REALLY that much of a hassle? Any suggested retailers?
I've done a fair bit of google searching and I've found a good AMOUNT of guides but I'm always curious as to how people view it.

I guess I'm just asking what your take/experiences are with watercooling and any other information I might find useful.

Thanks in advance for any advice/recommendations

EDIT: As far as a budget I'd like to keep it ~$250 but if you all see it fit, I'd be more than happy to pay for HIGHER quality.

When i open my laptop the screen turns pink where the white should be an it flashes, when i CHANGE the tilt of the screen in certain positions it turns back to normal but when i move the screen more open or CLOSE it goes back to pink, its almost like changing your computer to 8 bit or something.

HP DV9500
ram 4 gigs
Vista professional
100 gig hdx2
17inch
Bad screen connection it looks like.

You don't mean of course when you exceed the viewing angle, and all colours go wacky?

Try hooking it up to an external VGA/DVI monitor and see if the colours are the sameQuote from: Kurtiskain on February 02, 2009, 09:04:32 PM

Bad screen connection it looks like.

You don't mean of course when you exceed the viewing angle, and all colours go wacky?

Try hooking it up to an external VGA/DVI monitor and see if the colours are the same

Hmm ok then it definitely still sounds like a bad connector, or the cable altogether, it may have breaks in the wiring.

I would wait for someone else to reply first too, though

I noticed it only seems to be when you open past a certain point, yes?

so it could still possibly be a damaged cable or something like that

Quote from: Kurtiskain on February 04, 2009, 09:13:37 PM

I noticed it only seems to be when you open past a certain point, yes?

so it could still possibly be a damaged cable or something like that

yeah your right i plan on taking it apart again an running it with the switch cover off an the front screen casing an poke around with a stick or something. Warrenty ran up a few months ago, sucks figures oh well.

any other ideas? how do the hinges work when you open the laptop how does it know to turn it on, is there a wire in there?

Quote from: Mikdugal1 on February 04, 2009, 09:52:42 PM

Quote from: Kurtiskain on February 04, 2009, 09:13:37 PM

I noticed it only seems to be when you open past a certain point, yes?

so it could still possibly be a damaged cable or something like that

yeah your right i plan on taking it apart again an running it with the switch cover off an the front screen casing an poke around with a stick or something. Warrenty ran up a few months ago, sucks figures oh well.

any other ideas? how do the hinges work when you open the laptop how does it know to turn it on, is there a wire in there?

Yeah warranties do that

And most use some type of switch/button, whether external or not, I do not know. There would be a small pin that would push a small button down when you close it if it was external, but internal I doubt you would be able to see it at all.

It seems very odd though that it only happens ant a certain point, not flickering pink/normal/other colours

So it would seem past a certain place, the cable gets bent in such a way that it causes pink strips?

Go to the Asus website and look for more information in there.

Hi,

I have GOT 4 GIG installed in my computer but when it starts it says 2.4g and when I look in the System panel it also says 2.4 gig.

I have tried swapping them around and its the same. I now my MOTHERBOARD can take up to 8 gig.

I INSTALL 1 it show 1gig
I install 2 it shows 2 gig
I install 3 it shows 2.4 gig
I install 4 it shows 2.4 gig.

Its the 1st time I have noticed this but I don't really understand it, do I have to do something else to get it to work.


Many Thanks


James
It's normal for 32-bit system: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000811.html