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xp suddenly SHUTS down.wont restart.monitor light(orange) stays on .computer light(green)stays on.this NORMALLY happens within a couple of minutes.after rebooting it can keep running with no problems till whenever.sometimes on reboot "CMOS checksum error-defaults loaded" appears.computer then runs as normal.done all usual scans.any ideas,please?thanx.You may need to replace your CMOS battery or update your BIOS.

Computer CMOS information

CMOS checksum errorhello again raptor!went to bios and set defaults.i'll see how it goes .it's stayed on this time.is the battery recharchable?                                                                              On a completely different subject,how do you direct someone to a suggested website etc(like you did)just by clicking it?If that makes sense!thanx.Majic!

The CMOS battery is not rechargable. My mainboard manufacturer (Gigabyte) sent me a NEW one when I asked them for a replacement. Free of charge. (However, my mainboard is still under warranty,  I believe)

As for the links;

type [ url = link ] text [ /url ]. (Without SPACES) If you donot understand, quote one of my messages and you will see how.how old is this system? more info on motherboard ram etc..i have that same problem with my new motherboard. dual BIOs. although my problem started whenever i tried to save changes to BIOS. now i cant start up my computer in the same manner as gollam's. i take it by gollam's lack of presence that hanging the battery worked, or did you have to upgrade your BIOs?gollam.....Another way you can post a clickable link is to open that page ...then go up to the address bar and click on the url....it will turn blue then right click on it and select copy.....now go back to where you wish to post it and with the cursor blinking where you want the link to be ............right click and select "paste" or just press Ctrl/v    and presto its there and clickable

Hope this helps
dl65  BIOS corruption from faded batteries usually is a symptom of a 3 year old or more PC. Modern ones use 3v alkaline coin cells. Many older PCs used a NiCd battery for CMOS, you can see the battery back near the keyboard connector.

If you leave your PC 'soft-shutoff' with the standby power on, it will usually not drain the battery much if at all. If you habitually shut the power strip off when shutting down, the battery keeps the clock and CMOS RAM up until the power is restored, and will exhaust sooner. As for links on a page:

Code: [Select][url=http://www.kidon.com/media-link]Kidon Media Link[/url]
Kidon Media Link

This is just a sample. More fun with BBCode can be investigated in a Post Message page or with a search tool.lassa exe can also cause winxp to shutdown after 60 seconds...have you scanned for trojans etc...and use another firewall like sygate..Merlin, there is an edit button you know..

I have a Sony Vaio with Windows XP Home Edition.  I have a Visioneer OneTouch 6600 USB scanner.  It was working great, then got disconnected and wouldn't work when I reconnected it.  I reconnected it but it wouldn't work.  I tried reinstalling the software but that didn't work.  I checked Visioneer's web site, which said the driver must be uninstalledbefrore reinstalling.  I tried everything it said - go to Add/Remove programs & uninstall.  OK, it's not there.  Remove from Scanner & Cameras.  Nothing there.  Clean the Twain_32 folder & remove PaprPort & Vizscan.  They're not there.  I removed all software that came with the scanner.  I've tried to reinstall both from the original CD and from the driver I downloaded from Visioneer.  It almost completes the install, then I get an error message "This Installer is designed to work on the Visioneer ONE Touch 6600 Scanner Only".  The only option is to click OK, which closes the install.  I'm trying to install the 6600 but it won't let me because the installer is only for the 6600??   btw, I have tried with the scanner unplugged & plugged, with no luck.  I even tried running an uninstall program from the Visioneer site to remove Paperport.  No help.  I could sure use some advice.Have you tried a different USB port?i had one of those scanners....ok go into the device manager and remove the scanner..unplug it and re-boot...now PLUG it back in to the port...windows should say found new hardware blah blah..load the software disk..and thats it..Tried every usb port available.  same results.  scanner not listed in device mgr.  i can get to the "new hardware found" message, but when i try to install the software i get the message shown above, saying that the installer is only for the 6600 scanner, which is what i'm trying to install.  clicking ok stops the install.  Obtain updated drivers from the the manufacturers website?Tried installing from original disk & from latest driver on Visioneer site.  Still get message "This Installer is designed to work on the Visioneer One Touch 6600 Scanner Only".  That's what I'm trying to install!!  This is making me crazy!!Contact Visioneer TECHNICAL Support. $2/minute?  to talk to some guy in india?  cheaper to buy a new scannermike prior....I just had a look at your issue. You say it was ok before it got disconnected .....what exactly do you mean ...... I havent researched to see if that scanner is designed to work with win xp..... Scanners can sometimes be a pain to get working......unless you follow the installation instructions to the letter. For example sometimes the instructions will tell you to have the scanner on or off as the case may be ( and if you didnt) it just wont work . I am not suggesting thats what the directions say, but rather that was just an example. What type of cable are you using ? If your scanner wasnt built for XP...look for some other drivers that will work for xp or visit the scanners website  
http://www.visioneer-europe.com/support/6600.htm

let us know
dl65   Quote

$2/minute?  to talk to some guy in india?  cheaper to buy a new scanner

(I'm not sure whether I'm in the right CATEGORY on this Forum for this question.)  I need to retrieve the data on a hard disk drive which I have removed from my daughter's MOBO-fried (and old) computer.  I do not have an available computer to put it in as a slave since none of my computers has an extra 3.5" bay.  I just found something called a USB 2.0 External Enclosure for sale on-line -- two brands, one a Bytecc and one a Plumax.  These are in my price range (under $30) but the information is skimpy about these products.  Can anyone on this forum confirm for me that I can PLACE the HDD with the data on it in this enclosure, connect it via USB cable to my computer, and that my computer will recognize it as as an additional storage drive (and I'll see the files in Windows Explorer)?  What CONFUSES me is that one website selling the Plumax says something about formatting  the hard drive (first?).  If that is so, then, of course, I WOULD be defeating my purpose as I want to ACCESS the data on the HDD.  Any insights most appreciated.And why can you not free up a 3.5" bay for a short while?You can use the drive as you describe without having to format it, & then you just have a spare external drive you can use for backing up purposes in the future.

I have an older P2 COMPUTER with an Intel® SE440BX motherboard! I'm looking at replacing the present motherboard with a P4 motherboard? My QUESTION is what type of motherboard should I be looking for? ATX or what?Paul Hines....ah the 440 bx board .....a good ONE .....
So are you planning on using the same case .....if so ATX is the form factor you want.......would you like to USE anything from your existing system on the one you are planning on building . Depending on what you wish to reuse........that MAY determine what new board to get .
let us know

dl65

Hello, I have recently bought a laptop and was wondering what size my graphics card was. Ill list all the info that i think might help.

In device manager through the control panel the thing that is under display adapters is "Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME graphics controller". It DOESNT specify whether it is 32mb or 64mb or whatever. If anyone can help, or tell me where to go on the system to find it i would be very grateful. or if you need more information, and could tell me where i can get it from that would also help. thanks.

EdGoogle is a good place to get started. I think the first search result HIT the bulls eye. Enjoy.

Intel® 82852/82855 Graphics Controller FamilyTry this out

Right-click on the desktop and select Properties.
Click the Settings tab.
Click the Advanced button.
Click the Intel® Graphics Technology or Intel® Extreme Graphics tab.


If it doesn't help...... go here http://support.intel.com/support/graphics/intel852gm/

It's Intel's page for itthanks. So i have gone into this adapter section. it states all these things LIKE chip type and MEMORY. If it says 64 mb, this means i have a 64mb grpahics card which is enough to play doom 3?

New Dell LAPTOP doesn't have a PARALLEL port to connect my 6mp HP laserjet printer. The printer is connected to a MAC through a jack, can I use this to connect to the laptop through the network connector? Any other ideas? THANKS.
TashaIf the printer is connected to the Mac via an Applesquawk port, it's Mac only. Get an Airport-compatible network CARD for the laptop and whatever the Mac needs to contact Airport and you can share the printer over a wireless LAN.

If the printer connects to the Mac via USB or Firewire, you can connect the laptop via USB or a PCMCIA card Firewire port to the printer. Just download the appropriate driver from HP and you're in business.

Apple did far better DEVELOPING USB (Apple Desktop Bus) and Firewire than they did with obsolete Appletalk...

HELP ME PLEASE!!!!!!!!


I have a Computer that's 3 months old. It's been fine up to reciently when suddenly it's started taking ages and ages to get to the log on screen. 5 or 8 mins each time! for a new computer with a fast processors this isn;t right.

Also. Occasionally this error message comes up before it EVEN reaches the boot screen saying "hard drive error. Backup and replace. PRESS f4 to continue".

why is this? any help me please

thanks daveSounds like your HD is taking a dump. First, try remounting the drive upside down and see if the trouble goes away for a while; if so, order a new drive before the bearings go COMPLETELY on the old ONE. Run Scandisk or Error check on the drive to lock out any bad clusters. Listen for nasty noises...

The new self-monitoring firmware in modern hard drives gives reports like that before the drive dies. Replace the drive while you can still COPY your files off it.

Here's the short story:
I have 2 hard drives:
C: 20 Gig Western Digital
My C drive has Windows loaded on it.

D: 160 Gig Maxtor Drive
My D drive has all my games, music, pictures, data, etc

I reformated my C drive and reinstalled Windows XP Pro.
Now i cant see some of my files on my D Drive but i can see others. I tried viewing hidden files. The biggest problem is that i cant see my Music and Video's directory. Anyone with any ideas how to fix this please help me out. Thanks before hand.Are the hard drives PROPERLY configured?Yes the hard drives are properly configered. The wierdest thing is that when VIEWED in "properties" the D drive claims to have 60 gigs taken up, but when i highlight all the foldiers and files in D drive and check the size it only amounts to 8 gigs. Quote

Yes the hard drives are properly configered...

Hello All. Great to find some free computer help.  On my computer I currently have a small 3 GB HD on it I have bought a 30 GB HD and I would like to run these in tandem, if its possible.  If not  what do I need to do to get the 30GB working. I have set it to SLAVE and nothing happens.  Do I need to format add partitions, what? and also how  do I do this. I did it once about 6 yrs. ago and cant remember how to again.  Thank You all in advance.

Dylan Does your motherboard support the new HDD?

Did you set your other HDD to MASTER?

Is the HDD detected in the BIOS?

Many HDs use a different JUMPER layout for Master with Slave than for single master. Many drives ship with an 80-line Cable Select high speed cable, and you have to set your drive jumpers appropriately.

Once you figure out the jumper MANIA, set up the 30GB drive as your slave drive, boot the 3GB, and set up the 30 as either 2 (16GB and 12GB) partitions or 1 28GB primary partition, and copy the entire content of the 3GB drive over. Then swap the drives once you are sure the 30GB will boot. Don't forget to make the first (primary) partition on the 30GB drive 'active'. Once you're satisfied with the drive layout, you can wipe the 3GB drive and use it for a download bin...

If the 3GB drive is not a UDMA capable drive (BIOS shows it as PIO only, not DMA 2 or better), move it to the secondary cable as master with the CDROM as slave. The 30GB will run significantly faster at UDMA speeds...

hi,
I own a A2L laptop from ASUS for about 2 months now. Everything has been running fine until about 3 days ago, when I was able to still hear sound from the speaker nicely at home and could only hear fuzzy sound from the LEFT speaker where the right speaker has constant popping noises.

I tried updating the drivers, no use.
I tried EXTERNAL speakers. same.
I tried microphone. same.
I tried reformatting the computer. (bad idea). no good.
I mailed ASUS. but even when i put in bold letters "I tried upating the DRIVER, it didn't work", they still mailed me back with a reply "Please update the driver"

What could be the problem and what should I do?woops.. I meant Headphones.. not Microphones.Perhaps your speakers or soundcard require replacing? I suggest you have it looked at by Asus if it still under warranty.Insure you have the latest drivers available on the hard drive, and go into DEVICE Manager and remove the sound device from the list.

Reboot and let the machine auto-detect 'audio device'. When it asks for the driver location, point it to the latest drivers directory. Go through and try the appropriate driver versions to see if any of them sound decent.

If it still fails, disable it again to remove access to the hardware and get a USB sound device like the Telex 841. The sound hardware output amplifier is fried...

I am trying to repair a Compaq Presario 5030; its hard drive holds all my daughter's and her teenage daughter's files so it's really a biggie to get this one working and no one can AFFORD the $50-$100 hr for a tech.  The screen went dark on her and she used the I/O switch on the power supply to shut it down.  What I get when turning on the system via the I/O switch is LEDs that light up (including on the CD drive) and a PS fan that turns, but nothing on the monitor screen. I attached a monitor that I personally know works, and still nothing.  Motherboard has onboard video. Thinking this might be the problem, I installed a PCI video card and plugged the working monitor into it. Still evidence that power is on but still no evidence of signal to monitor.  Where do I go from here when I can't even get anything on-screen? Is the BIOS LOADING anyway? I know that the hard drive can be installed on a different working computer and the data retrieved but, for me, that is the last desperate move that I would make.  Number 1 is to save this computer.  Pentium II 233 or 266 Mhz, 256Mb RAM, Windows 98, video and sound integrated on MOBO.  This is getting out of hand and starting to get way beyond my level of expertise.  Your insight would be so appreciated.Do you get any beep messages?  You might have to go into the BIOS and disable the onboard video.  When you boot the system up, does the HDD light flicker like it should when booting properly?  If you don't have any HDD flicker then you might have other issues but I suspect it's just the video card.I too suspect that it's just the video card but how do I go into the BIOS if I can't see its settings on a monitor screen? Right now, the HDD light stays on at all times BUT it wasn't doing that until I started messing around with the HDD (removing cable/reinserting cable).  Daughter had actually taken the PS out of the box and even had taken the cover off of it!  Plus, the HDD has been installed (by a previous amateur techie the last time her computer crashed) minus its bracket assembly and had it literally sitting on top of the CD drive.  I placed the HDD in an extra 3.5 internal bay and may have not lined up the cable pins correctly.  So that is the story on perhaps why the HDD light is now staying on. To anwswer your question re the POST beep, yes, the first time around, while I had the PS connected outside of the box and had not yet touched the HDD, I did hear ONE beep which, as I understand it, would be the correct number of beeps to want to hear.  So I'm back to how to go into the BIOS (and disable the onboard video) if I cannot see the BIOS settings on a screen.I want to add this info to the mix in a search for the answer to my problem:  Back, before I added the PCI video card, one of the things I had done was to CLEAR the CMOS on the MOBO by resetting the JUMPER and then putting it back where it had been.  Since that seemed to have to effect at the time, I haven't revisited that issue. Perhaps I should clear the CMOS again now that I have installed the video card?When you cleared the CMOS you probably wiped out some pertinent info required for the MACHINE to boot properly. Try booting from a PODD (plain old dos disk) and see if anything comes up. And double check your monitor connections to make certain that they are properly secured.TO 2kdummy:  Monitor connections are tight at both ends.  I created a DOS 6.22 boot disk off of www.bootdisk.com and tried it with three different Floppy Disk Drives that I had on hand. Nada.  Could it be a ruined motherboard?

TO Joleen:  OR, assuming the MOBO is functioning, then I still would like to know how you set  BIOS when you can't see its wording on a monitor screen.

Thank you, both for caring to help.  I've almost had it with this thing.  You can also reset your BIOS by taking out your CMOS battery for 10 seconds and then placing it back.

Computer CMOS information

Quote

I am trying to repair a Compaq Presario 5030....

Does anyone KNOW where i can buy a PCI sound card with FM Synthesis MIDI by any chance? i have an fm synth card in my OLD computer, but it uses an ISA slot instead of PCI, and i would like to use that old, "tinny' sound for a project i am WORKING onCheck the USED bin on www.pricewatch.com for a SoundBlaster/Ensoniq ES1370 PCI 512 card or SB16 PCI P&P...

Hi!

Is there any difference if I use a cat-5 or cat-5e network cable to connect my NOTEBOOK to the Cable/DSL Broadband Router which have 4-port 10/100Mbps switch. Is it ok to use cat-5e because currently I'm using the cat-5e network cable.

Thanks!Cat 5e is ok to connect with.

cat5e is cat5"enhanced"  is a slightly improved version of cat5 and can replace any cat5 cable. It will give you the better performance on a large network. On your SMALL "network" you WOULD be unlikely to notice any difference.It has more to do with distance than anything else. Up to 50ft, cat5 os OK. More than 50ft, use cat5e.Cat 6 is preferred if you're working near the long limit of the cable, it's Shielded Twisted Pair cable certified for GIGABIT networks. Cat 5e is category 5 Unshielded Twisted Pair with tighter twist and a little better signal quality, good for 30 to 100 METER runs on 100BaseTX networks. Cat 5 is fine for short (25 meters or less) 100BaseTX runs and patch cords, and a little cheaper than Cat 5e. Cat 3 cable is adequate for between the router and the broadband appliance; the fastest private broadband is 5 or 6 Mb/sec and Cat 3 is certified for 10BaseT...

This is very strange.  I recently PURCHASED a RADEON 9600 Atlantis video card to upgrade.  My old card was an nVidia GeForce4 MX440.   I unplugged the old card and installed the Radeon.  The computer booted up with the usual screwy graphics, and after I tweaked it (as directed) and installed the Radeon drivers, it worked just fine.

Sort of.

It worked GREAT, so I shut the computer down so I could put it back together.  When I tried to restart, however, the monitor never got a feed from the computer.  I killed the POWER, opened up the box, took out the Radeon, and re-inserted the nVidia.  It came on properly with no problems.  I then shut down, removed the nVidia, and replaced it with the Radeon.  When I powered up, the monitor properly got a feed and the card worked like a charm.

But I was suspicious.  I shut down, the tried to restart.  Same problem as before - no feed to monitor.  So, powered down, took out Radeon, put in nVidia, booted again.  It worked.  Shut down, removed nVidia, put in Radeon, powered up.  It worked!!  But, of course, upon shutting down and restarting, it did not work.

*censored*??  How come it works the FIRST time I power up with it, but not on subsequent powerups?  It's like the computer doesn't recognize the card after it has worked once before, but it will recognize it after another card has been properly booted up.  Aaarrrghghghghghg!!!

I have a Compaq (go easy on me) Presario 7110US
Athlon 1.3Mhz
512 RAM

Help!! Please!!  The Video Card Hokey Pokey is driving me crazy!!!

ShropshireBlueHave you checked if the cards are properly inserted and that no cables require replacing?

I suggest you CHECK your BIOS to see if something needs to be set differently.Sounds like a driver problem, go here http://www.driverheaven.net/cleaner/ use that to rid your system of unwanted nvidia and radeon drivers, then reinstall the radeon drivers. All of which is done in safe mode to ensure proper cleaning.

I'm having abunch of problems with my computer that all stemmed from one problem and me trying to fix it. While playing a game about a week ago, my screen formed these distorted color lines about five big ones vertically, and much smaller, but many more horizontal ones. I restarted my computer and LET it SLIDE then, but finally it got to a point where it would happen every time i power up. I tried reloading my video drives, but that didnt help. I took my card out of my tower, then put it BACK in to make sure it was in tight, and that fixed it for a while. Now i think its starting to show up again, kind of slowly. Maybe my video card is loose, or maybe its something ELSE. Any help would be appreciated.

Specs:
Radeon 9700 All-In-Wonder 128MB (with newest ATI drivers)Sounds like a failing video card - it's hard to be sure whether it's due to RAM, other physical failure, or overheating.

Since overheating is fixable - TRY and find out if it's that first.  Leave your case open when you boot up, and point a decent desk fan straight at the card. See if that fixes things on a temprary basis - you could replace the heat sinks/fans on the graphics card for a premanant fix if this is the case.
Are you overclocking? If you think the card is loose, why not have a look?

Did you properly uninstall videocard drivers? As in uninstalling first, cleaning registry and then installing updated ones.

Did you check to see if your monitor is capable of achieving the refresh rate you have it set to?

I have Easy Cd Creator 5, and had no trouble making cd's. Then one day it gave me an illegal op. So I uninstalled it and reinstalled it. As luck would have it I got a virus and had to redo most things on my comp. Now nothing will work(in terms of trying to make a cd). I've tried MANY versions of Easy CD, a couple from Nero, and nothing. Nero ran a speed test and told me it wouldn't work. Easy Cd EVERYTIME I try to record TELLS me "no CD Recorders available". I can STILL look at info from a cd, so it works to that extent.

Any suggestions or help on this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.Uninstall the CD-RW from the device manager. Then reset Windows and ALLOW it to redetect.



Quote

As luck would have it I got a virus

Hi
I  have a bjc2100 and when I PUT the cartidage in keeps telling me loaded wrong and there is only one way to load them tried reinstaling the PRINTER and still get the same message any ideas other then smashing it into a 100 piece which I can not do because it is not mine thanks running window 98 se   ???If it isn't yours, why not have the owner TAKE a look at it? PERHAPS he knows what is wrong..Because we r trying to fix it for her and never had or seenthis problem before.she can not afford tohave a TEC checkit out :-/Canon Printer Help and Technical Information

Hello, i have these new CD ROM games, so i installed them. Recently my BROTHER played another CD ROM rom game,and the computer ket on turning off 20 minutes through the game. Nowthis is happening to me. why, and how could i help prevent it??What games? What OS (OPERATING system)? PC, video card, sound card, etc. I'm not a gamer but anyone who can help you will need to KNOW these data.  You will have to provide us with more information.

Do these things on a REGULAR basis:

• Scan for viruses, TROJANS and spyware
  
• Defragment Hard Disk Drives/Partitions
  
• Remove redundant files
  
• Uninstall Programs no longer required
  
• Download latest security patches
  
• Clean registry
  
• Clean computer case.
  

I have re CONNECTED my Compaq En 866 Desk Pro    PIII 866, 512 RAM and I only have a choice in control panel display of 2 or 16 colors.  I have had this problem before and there is a simple ANSWER but I cannot REMEMBER what it is.  The PC has displayed at more colors before and so has the monitor, a fairly new 15" CRT.  Any help would be much appreciated.  You can reply offline to [email protected] or [email protected]RELOAD video drivers.

Set the COMPATABILITY MODE on the setup file (setup.exe or WHATEVER) before trying to install.I found an answer to my QUESTION.

Quote

Windows XP does NOT support anymore
a color resolution of 256 colors, you have to
use 16-bit or higher color resolutions.
Screen-dumps with the sliding colors in the
windows title look nice, but cause also large
graphic-files and therefore long download time

Hello, everyone.

I have a "vanilla" PC that I have rebuilt myself three times. I have an MSI 845 Ultra motherboard (with RAID support), three ATA hard drives, a CD-RW drive, a DVD-RW drive, and a standard 1.4-MB floppy drive. The system has a 2.0-GHz Pentium 4 and 1.0 GB of RAM. I have a Linksys NIC for accessing the Internet via a cable modem.

I use the RAID controller solely for the purpose of connecting a 30-GB hard drive to IDE-3, for making backups.

I am using Partition Magic/BootMagic to run Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP Professional on IDE-1 (45 GB) as the master, and a 60-GB drive as the slave on IDE-1, for SuSE Linux 8.2 Professional.

The CD-RW and DVD-RW are on IDE-2 (to keep the slower devices on their own port).

The system worked fine yesterday. When I turned it on today, after POST checked and loaded the Promise MBFastTrak133 RAID controller, I received the following error:

> BOOT FAILURE
> Insert BOOT diskette in A:
> Press any key when ready.

I booted from my Partition Magic 8 emergency boot diskettes, as well as from my Norton SystemWorks emergency diskettes (and the CD-ROMS for each) - so, I can boot from CD-ROM and/or floppy.

The Promise controller can "see" only the 30-GB drive on IDE-3, which makes sense. Partition Magic and Norton SystemWorks, however, give me an error that there is no bootable hard drive.

Just now, I went into CMOS, and the settings for the hard drives were BLANK, although the optical drives on IDE-2 were detected. I set them to AUTO, rebooted, and after MBFastTrack133 (Version 2.00.0.20) ran its check, I got the BootMagic screen to select an operating system.

I started thinking about recent delays in the system finding the RAID controller (a warning sign, to be sure) and I am wondering if there is a persistent problem, such as a failing battery on the motherboard, although the motherboard and battery are less than two years old.

I will await any further suggestions. In the meantime, I will leave the PC on, back up my Windows XP settings (because I need to reinstall XP Pro anyway, at Microsoft's suggestion).

I will also run another backup of Windows 2000 Pro with Drive Image, which will involve rebooting, and another possible BOOT FAILURE. I cannot use Drive Image to back up Linux, because it backs up the whole drive (despite the fact that Linux does not occupy even half of the drive). I need to use a Linux backup utility. (I also plan to upgrade SuSE Linux, but I have better luck with the #.2 releases and SuSE is at 9.1 right now.)

I have never had this problem before and I would appreciate suggestions as to possible causes. My first THOUGHT was a failed hard drive, but two drives are involved. I have had motherboard batteries LAST much longer than this one. (I realize that multi-booting is risky; if I had the money, I would get a separate PC for Linux and do without the applications I use with Windows 2000 Professional.)

Please let me know if you need additional information. I realize that I have been less thorough than I should, but the thought of losing everything has me shaken up. (I had backups of Windows 2000 and XP Pro, but I was getting tight on disk space, after backing up Linux, and I know that I need space to back up XP's settings, as well as to back up any files that I do not want to lose.)

Losing Windows 2000 Professional would be worse than losing XP Pro, in a way, because I have Partition Magic, Boot Magic, and Drive Image installed under that OS.

I have managed to get the system up, but I dare not shut it down, at least until I get the needed information from XP Pro. Then, ideally, I will back up 2000 Pro onto the drive connected to IDE-3. In addition, my emergency disk for BootMagic has "disappeared" so I need to make another copy; I will have to set XP's partition active before I can reinstall it, then set 2000 Pro's partition active so that I can access the other two operating systems (besides XP Pro) or use Partition Magic, BootMagic, and Drive Image.

I thank you, very much, in advance!

Cordially,

David

P.S. -- For everyone's information, Symantec has ACQUIRED PowerQuest. I have the "PowerQuest versions" of Partition Magic/BootMagic and Drive Image.

Drive Image is not the latest version, but PM is still at Version 8; I need to contact Symantec about both products in order to get support.

Needless to say, there is no PowerQuest.com domain anymore. (I received no notice about this changover, much to my chagrin.)There seems to be a Dutch http://www.powerquest.nl website.

I hope you paid attention in German class and have a knack for other languages.

Quote

Symantec (vroeger PowerQuest)-producten:
Symantec (Earlier on Powerquest) products:

    DeployCenter Library
    DriveCopy
    DriveImage
    EasyRestore
    PartitionMagic
    ServerMagic for NetWare
    V2i Protector Enterprise Desktop
    V2i Protector Enterprise Server
    V2i Protector Management Console
    V2i Protector Small Business Edition
    VolumeManager

David,

I had a very similar problem with my old Gigabyte GA-7VAXP motherboard with the same onboard RAID controller after my power supply blew.  I would, intermittantly, get the boot disk error message you refer to in your post.

I can tell you what the problem is - or at least what it was for me.  After a LOT of testing, checking, part replacement, etc, it was discovered the problem was the motherboard itself - either one of the IDE channels, or the RAID controller chip itself, was flaky and dying.  In the end I was able to back up my data before ditching the motherboard and rebuilding with a new board.

Sorry to say that it sounds like you may be in a similar position.

Good luck.

There seems to be a Dutch http://www.powerquest.nl website.

I hope you paid attention in German class and have a knack for other languages.

http://www.spc.org.nc/it/TechHead/unattended_install_of_third_part.htm

Does this help you>http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=830&page=5

ok first lemme start with what happened a few months ago.

In late May, my computer froze up one night and when i woke up that morning my harddrive was making odd noises.  after that , the computer wouldn't boot so i took it to a shop and they were able to take everything off the drive and ghost it to a new one, the drive was dead.  After installing the new one, a similar problem happened.  My harddrive started makinjg the same noise and the computer froze.  The drive was connected to a onboard ata133 conrtoller along with 2 others.  So i  took everything off the ata133 controller and put the system disk back on the primary ide controller and everything has been fine since.  

Yesterday night my computer started to run really slow and would hang every now and then and just be really sluggish.  so i RESTARTED, but it wouldn't boot.  it would get to right be fore the XP loading screen and then just sit there.  Not to mention just going through the normal bootup process was really slow.

So i unplugged all drives except for my dvd-rw and system drive and it booted up just fine, no probs.  Then i connected them all again and it booted up just fine, but  the system is still sluggish.  So i decided to see how it would run with only 2 harddrives instead of all 3.  and it run a little faster but it's still sluggish, even more so when i'm copying or moving files.  

So this comes to where i need the HELP.  *censored* is going on?  i think my motherboard is dieing.  


-Scottwhat sort of system do you have?  it sort of sounds like there's not enough oomph to run all three drives - memory upgrade maybe? Quote

there's not enough oomph to run all three drives

Hello again. My internet EXPLORER pages have SET itself to large icons for viewing and everything, so when i open a page for example lets just say this start topic the words are all up in my face and it's annoying. It's not really necessary, for me. It's not the tool options either nothing is checked in accessability option. I can't figure it out, think it has something to do in the desktop properties with the font sizes, can't figure that out either, if you COULD HELP would appreciate it.   Quote

...My internet explorer pages have set itself to large icons...it has something to do in the desktop properties with the font sizes...

Ok, so I got this new notebook (HP Pavilion SERIES, came with a Broadcom 54g MaxPerformance 802.11g wireless card installed and apparently ready-to-use via the antenna macro button...)

I'm way enthusiastic about taking advantage of the free wifi hotspots at coffeehouses and stuff around my town, but unfortuntely the baristas know less about gettng connected than I do!

I'm running WinXP SP2 CONNECTION wizard, and when I try to connect to the coffeehouse (no, not a starbucks, this place offers free access to any customer,) or at least attempt to, everything seems to be working like clockwork, except that Iexplorer sends me to this "https://www.localhost.com" every time I try to do anything. I don't have the verbatim for my error message on hand, but basically the localhost.com thing is a blank page that requests username and password, which I don't have and noone at the coffeehouse seems to have one for me to use...

Guest doesn't work, and I'm stumped.

So, what vital (yet probably simple) piece of the puzzle am I missing? Do I need some login from the coffeehouse to get through? Do I need a special subscription (ie t-mobile or something like I do at starbucks) to access any free wifi hotspot? Did I just put in the wrong setting somewhere and don't know where to look?

Please tell me what I need to do, or what references to check out, before I change some IMPORTANT setting and REALLY screw up my new notebook LOL!  

Thanks in advance,
"Treat Me Like Your Grandmother"Local Host sounds like your system is trying to connect to its own IIS server.  Will your connection work at home or any other location?

Now for the Grandmother explaination.. IIS is a web hosting service Microsoft puts on many computers (XP, Win2K, NT).  It allows you to make a website then store it on your own computer and allow others to view it.  This is a service you can turn on and off.

You mentioned using SP2.  Have you turned off the 'special' new features such as firewall?  You should also verify that their 'net service is indeed operational by checking for hotspots (wireless connectivity).Okay, I got to the heart of the problem today... Whatever kid I asked about it was just even less informed than I was!

The person I asked today whipped out a login and PW for me ASAP with my pot of tea, so I'm connecting right now from a wifi link.

Now, anyone know how I can temporarily disable the "work offline" prompt that keeps popping up every time I open an IExplorer window? It keeps trying to connect via my regular dialup connection, even though I'm connected via wireless currently..?

Here's to CLUELESS kids at the coffee shop.. *cheers*

Hello, I ACCIDENTALLY left a 3.5 inch floppy DISK in the COMPUTER and when i TRIED to restart it, it WOULD not boot up. Can someone help me please!!!!!Take out the 3.5" Inch Floppy..

i just installed my new MSI k8t800 motherboard, with my new athlon 3200+ 64bit cpu. unfortunantly i have no internet access. i've never installed a motherboard before WITHOUT starting from scratch (this time i already had all my software and hardware installed before hand). i had problems installing drivers earlier so i reinstalled windows 98. now that everything seemed to be running alright, i attempted to access the internet. nothing. but there are a few weird "symptoms" which i've noticed.

i clicked start>run... then entered "winipcfg" this is were things began  to baffle me. when ever i would renew/release all, my computer would find the IP of my modem. and when i try to connect view a webpage (with IE or mozilla) there would be no delay for the "could not conect" mesage, just instanlty says page could not ve found.You allready installed drivers before you installed the motherboard? I donot see in how you could have done that, I will assume you took the HDD to another computer and installed drivers from there.

I suggest you format the HDD if that is the case and reinstall your drivers with all the components in place.i'm sorry. i must have worded this poorly. i'll explain in more detail.

i did not INSTALL the drivers for the new motherboard until after l put the motherboard in. after putting in the motherboard windows didn't think i had a cd-rom, however the bios did. so i reinstalled windows which allowed windows to notice there was a cd-rom there which allowed me to install the drivers. now everything WORKS fine except for the internet.Are you using an On-board LAN/Ethernet card? You may require to install (updated) motherboard drivers in order to use the On-board card(s).

If you have done so, and it still does not work, you can try quite a few things.

• Run NETWORK Wizard
  
• Run Internet Wizard
  
• Reset Modem (Cable Modem)
  
• Check if Network card is enabled in BIOS
  
• Uninstall Network card from Device Manager (If present)
  

__________ REFERS to the process by which teh computer rewrites data to RAM?

can ANYONE HELP?http://www.howstuffworks.com/ram.htm

i've partition my 30gb hdd with win xp pro disc using both NTFS and FAT (unsure if it means 16/32) and both result with 1.9GB ~ let say the FAT is 16bit which might be the reason which causes to have small disk SPACE, but then NTFS should work fine ~ futhermore, i've checked the Computer Management Administrative Tools ... to see if there's unpartition disk space but NOOOooo ~  

soo ... wat's up with my hdd ? plz email me possible solutions ... thx guys ~ oh btw, i DO have an OLD intel motherboard ... old BIOS ... but im SURE tat it WORKED before with my lost 40GB hdd (this is not a NEWLY bought computer, worked fine before i switched some hardwares)  Use the Windows XP CD-ROM to create partitions.

[glb]i did[/glb]I think your BIOS is limiting size.  You MAY need the "drive overlay" (Disk Manager or EZ-Drive) from the hard disk manufacturer.

Does this help?  http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/bioslim.htm
http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/dskinv.html

I connect my laptop to the family desktop using a corssover cable. I TRY to KEEP my laptop free of internet fiflth, so i cannot connect to the internet, but now i want to.

how can i SET up my laptop to connect to the internet through this family desktop, or would it just be easier to download the stuff i need then TRANSFER them?I assume your crossover cable is ethernet (not USB).  My advice:  purchase a router.then i guess it would be cheaper to just dl on this one and transfer to the laptop

I purchased a n4ce external unit which you can plug a hard disc into. The unit CONNECTS to my laptop via a usb 2 port.

The PROBLEM is that the drive is not showing up on the directory.

I'm running xp. The box that the unit CAME with says that the drive will work with xp. I have a disc with drivers on it but the instructions on this do not mention xp, although it does say that no drivers are NEEDED for windows 2000http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/learnmore/jones_02august05.mspxThat's a 3.5" notebook drive?  Try asking here:  http://www.everythingusb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?forumid=110Commando. That site was just what i needed..... and i thought i could just plug it in and it would work.   Doh.
Quote

...and i thought i could just plug it in and it would work...

My pc will come on but it will not boot. The power supply and cpc fan is working and all the lights are on. It dosn't beep and and the floppy dosn't come on. The light on the cd-rom comes on but thats all it will do. I know the processer works. I just took it out and PUT it in another computer and its working fine. Its a pentium 200mhz windows 98.My Pc is not booting,After reforamtting and Instllations
partition's are missing on every restart.
Kindly advice & pass me a correct answer
Either its Motherboard problem or HDD problem.

Thanking U Sir.Were these computers custom built?

You will have to provide us with more detailed information.Its not custom built. It was working fine then one day I decided to upgrade the processer from 166 to 200 and it didn't come on so I thought I fried the processer but I didn't. I upgraded the ram too but if that was it , it would make 3 beeps. I took a flathead to get the heatsink clip off and I scraped the BOARD a couple times but I LOOKED and didn't see any damage. When I TURN it on I get nothing. Just a blank screen.Is the processor compatible with your mainboard? Was this the first time you installed a processor?I installed one a couple months ago. I thought it was a 233 but it was a 166. I knew this was a 200 so I tried to install this one. I have 3 socket 7 processers and it don't work. 2 166, 1 200.  So you are certain you did not damage the processor?

Did you refer to your manual to see if your mainboard is compatible with the processor?

I'm sure I didn't damage it. I don't have a manual. I got another question. I bought a fujitsu 10 GB Hard drive and its reading 2 GB. I was looking at the manual from the website and it is a 10 GB but it has a special jumper setting to make it 2 GB?? I took the jumper out and switched it but it will only work on slave setting. Do I have to reformat when I switch the jumper? It says something when it comes on but I forgot. Anyway its not reading the HDD. I put it in a HP Pavilion and used the recovery disk. I didn't format.   This is a different computer. Not the one that won't come on. It was made in 96. I got it from my brothers GF who bought it new. I put 2 64 MB simm in Bank 0. It did have 16 or 32?Hold on - You should obtain the manual from your mainboard its manufacturers website.

As for your HDD question, I am not familiair with older HDD's, but can you not set the jumper to Master once you have removed it from the 2GB circuit?I got it beeping now and the processer is warm. Its a continous short beep. Still not booting.I don't know how but I got it running again. I need to figure out how to get it to read all of the ram. I have 2 64mb simms and it says memory test fail when it comes up. Its reading 65???k memory when it first comes up then it says that. I can press f1 and it starts windows or I can press del and try to fix it in the bios. I don't know how to fix that. I've been up all night working on it.take out one of your ram sticks does it now boot without beeping.. Quote

I got it beeping now and the processer is warm. Its a continous short beep. Still not booting.

i have a windows 2000 machine with an external cdrom drive - which is shared out.  the drive is RANDOMLY DISAPPEARING.  I have to reboot machine, to GET it to reappear.  Anyone FAMILIAR with this?Is external CDROM PARALLEL port or USB port?

So last NIGHT I discovered my power supply had gone bad after two or three years. Fair enough. I went out and bought a new 300W power supply (the same wattage as the old one). So now, the computer runs. Good times. Except.

When I start the computer, I get subtle distortion. The "VPR Matrix" logo that comes up when I start has a few bars where black has turned to white. Odd patterns show up in the background of the boot menu (I dual boot between SuSe and WinXP). When it asks me to boot in safe mode, often there are incorrect characters throughout - ascii diamonds running down the page and replacing whatever LETTER happens to be in that column, unless by some chance it's selected (then it's a P). When I try to load Windows, I get through the status bar for loading, and then I get all SORTS of garbage on a static image on the screen. SuSe will get through the status bar, and then freeze on whatever it does first on startup.

Any thoughts?Did you perhaps damage components when attempting to install the Power Supply Unit? I suggest you check all the cable connections and see if your videocard or any additional PCI cards have become loose.I too have a power supply problem. WHile using my 5 yr computer, it suddenly went "phumpht" twice and then the computer quit. I inspected the back and found some wires near the fan and power supply plug had melted on to the frame. Is this the power supply unit?

i hope to  salvage the hard disc data and transfer to new computer if replacing the pwoer supply is the likely problem.

Many thanks, nice site,
bobBlarkin, I donot quite understand what 'the back' is. Are you referring to the back of your case?

Melted wires is never a good sign, you should replace your Power Supply Unit.

If you wish to save any data, you can mount your current HDD as a slave in your new computer and copy data off it. Or continue using it.thanks for your reply. By back, I had meant the rear of the computer where the fan exhaust exits. If you think that power supply canjust  melt down, I'll look about for a replacement. Have you heard of such a problem before?

thanks,

BOB This ARTICLE may be of interest to you.

How Stuff Works - How PC Power Supplies Work

Power Supply Units can become very hot, a failing fan may be the result of damage to your SYSTEM.

hi! we have a project right now and we're supposed to configure hardware requirements for a fictitious company. i'm really not good at hardware so it would be really great if someone cud help!

i'm not sure if i'll be able to put ENOUGH information here so ANYONE could understand..just reply if there's any important information that i missed...

the "company" is supposed to be an international sports broadcasting company that would like to build a new library system for their stats and videos. we're supposed to work around the present hw and sw that they have and produce an efficient ( cheap but excellent ) specifications..

they already have:
-100-user license for a database server(Oracle 9i RDBMS)
-50 Pentium 3 pc's running at 933 MHz
-existing open-system architecture consisting of pc's connected THRU WAN via TCP/IP and SPX/IPX, UNix and Windows2003 boxes and Novell Netware file servers

the "company" prefer that the proposed hardware follow the following specifications...

SERVER:
RDBMS
- specifically supports Oracle RDBMS 9i
- supports othermajor RDBMS (i.e. Informix, SYBASE, etc) for future upgrade

OS
- supports Unix OR Windows2003 OR Novell Netware 4.11 higher

CLIENT:
OS
- supports WindowsXP OR any Linux flavor OR MAC OS higher

APPLICATIONS
- can accomodate Adobe Premiere and Photoshop, and Oracle Developer

MULTIMEDIA
- suports audio and video playback

NETWORK
- supports TCP/IP and SPX/IPX network protocol

thanks to anyone who could help. I like learning this stuff but i'm also out of time..please help me! :-/

Oh i forgot, here're the the technical req for the server and client hardware..

SERVER:
- supports 64-bit computing
- min 1GB RAM
- min of 200 GB hard DISK
- DVD writer
- DAT tape drive (for back ups)
- 17" SVGA color monitor or better

CLIENT:
- supports 64-bit
- min 256 GB RAM
- min 80 GB hard disk
- DVD writer
- 19" monitor
- video capture capability
- tv output
-surround sound capability

please tell me if i need better specifications or if i could work with smaller requirements (like if it's ok to have 128 instead of 256 RAM)...thanks so mch!

Does anyone KNOW what position to PUT the jumper in on a Quantum internal hard DRIVE to MAKE it a SLAVE?http://maxtor.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/maxtor.cfg/php/enduser/olh_adp.php?p_faqid=180

I think I MIGHT have deleted my sound device on accident. When I go and check, it doesn't show a sound device. I also lost my cd so I can't INSTALL it and I don't remember the NAME of my sound card since it has been uninstalled from my COMP. Is there a way I can reinstall it without using the cd? Thanks.Oh and my sound card came with my motherboard...Reinstall your mainboard drivers or downloaded updates ones and install those.how do i reinstall my mainboard drivers?i dont know what motherboard i have and i lost the cd that i need to install it.Open your case, examine the mainboard and look for a name printed on the plastic.

Everyone should create a back-up of their mainboard CD or at least write down it's details in case you have to download drivers.

I donot know if this goes for all mainboards, but here I can uninstall them from the Add/Remove software menu.

Once you have obtained new drivers for your mainboard by doing as I said you should carefully follow instructions.control panel  add new hardware ...either let windows find your sound card or chose the manual option...SCROLL down the list  to sound etc...

I have a major problem.  Yesterday my LCD monitor went out on me and I thought it had to do with the fact that I got it when LCD TECH was still new for PC's.  So I plug in my CRT monitor and it went out within one hour.  I think there is a short somewhere, but I have no clue as to where it is or how to fix it.  The graphics card is somewhat old as it is a Geforce 4 card, but the other computer in my house has a TNT 2 card and it never gave me any problems.

Any help will be helpfull as I need to get this computer online as fast as possible.Did you check to SEE if everything is CONNECTED properly?

If you are certain it is your videocard; uninstall it's drivers and take out the videocard, clean the CASE of your computer and insert the videocard again. Install updated drivers afterwards.

Did the monitors COMPLETELY stop working, even when you tested them on another PC?

I have a problem and NOTHING is covered in all the books and the website's that I have been to!
I have three hard drives (40gb, 60gb and 120gb) all with windows xp(home).
Everything was fine up untill a couple of days ago when i had a core dump for the first time. No worries (i thought), i ran recovery and chkdsk /r then fixboot then exit. and now my storage(SLAVE) HARDDRIVE is the only one that i can get to work. Not GOOD when you take into account that all my PROGRAMS where on the master.
i don't think its the IDE controller or the harddrive's.
this recovery thing..... it may have wiped your other drives?...did you check it? when you were doing a recovery options to see what it was doing?have a look in the disk management to see if your other drives are still there....

I am planning on buying a new video card and I cannot decide on one, it’s driving me nuts, I have been looking for over a MONTH now. :-/ So I was wondering if anybody had any recommendations for some good MEDIUM priced video cards. I am not a hardcore gamer or anything but I do want a video card that will run some of the newer games (Sims 2, RCT3 for example)

Any help would be appreciated.
1.8 GHz AMD Athlon 2200+
512MB DDR RAM
480Watt PSU
Geforce4 MX 64MB DDR

I just feel that it is DEFIANTLY time that I upgrade my video card.If you have no trouble playing the Sims 2 and RCT3 then you donot really have to.

I myself own an Ati/Radeon 9800Pro and it runs games such as Doom 3 and Farcry very well on 1024x768 and most settings on medium/high
Well, I do have trouble playing some games such as Sim City 4.

The 9800 Pro is the one I have been wanting, just is too much for my BUDGET :-/I wouldn't go any lower than an Ati/Radeon 9600 myself.

I had an ATI/Radeon 9000Pro before this one which functioned quite well. The latest game I played with that was Colin Mcrae Rally 4. Occasionaly the game slowed down but it ran quite well.Yeah, I've heard that the 9600 pro won't run certain games, such as Battlefield 1942, which I play a lot, so I have been skeptical about getting it, though it is the only card that I found that look's to have the most "bang for the buck."I donot think the game will simply not run. No videocard will simply refuse to run a game unless they donot support the technology the game was made for or requires to run.

However, since my 9000Pro was able to handle BF1942 just fine (online up to 32 players) I am very certain that the 9600 will be even better at it..Not sure what prices are like for you locally - but the Nvidia based Geforce 5700 Ultra cards are a rough equivalent of the 9800pro cards, and locally for me here tend to be a little CHEAPER.  I've purchased one myself (Sparkle brand) and have been pleased with it so far.

But I'd second Raptor's call - the 9600pro is sufficient for running all current games (eg. I have a friend with a 9600pro who plays Doom3 on it without problems - not at highest detail levels or high resolution, but it runs.  Doom3 is the highest requirement game currently on the market to the best of my knowledge).

Purchasing a 9600Pro may not prove sufficient to play games in 1-2 years however, so it depends somewhat on the level of future-proofing you are requiring.

I suggest you attempt to obtain a (legal) or different copy of Windows, unless this copy has worked before?

Check your PM.Thanks for your help  

i just got done reformatting a compaq - what a LEARNING experience that was!  i started from the beginning - fdisked and took everything that was ever on there - so, no need for the rescue disk (someone gave me the computer and said it didn't work, i could use it for parts).  started with the boot disk i had for my other system, booted into A, started without cd support, reformat the drive, then on restart used cd support.  then picked the drive - i think it really was C: setup.

from there - this works great - and my friend is a BIT BUMMED out - all i really did was take out what the distributer put in and put my own stuff in there - now my kids have their own computer to mess up and i don't care!sounds like you gota good deal     Free can' t beat that.

I use XP Pro with SP2 and I just put in a U.S. Robotics 56K DFV AW PCI 99 50 PK.

The modem works fine and windows sees it, but whenever I either shutdown or restart the COMPUTER I get the following message.

USRprbdA.exe dll FAILED to initialize

Thanks in advance for the help

I suggest you scan for viruses, spyware and trojans.

If you are certain they belong to your modem, download updated drivers and/or reinstall the drivers.I scanned for both and found nothing. It seems that this is an older modem, no driver for XP. Do I uninstall and install the driver for 2000?MarvtheMan....I had a quick look and found this driver for US Robotics V90   56 K
http://members.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=86581

the file name is 5686e.inf

hope this helps

dl65

My CD drive will start to open and close all by itself. I am not pushing any buttons of anything. After awhile of ejecting the computer locks up and I CANT do anything.
Please help.Scan for viruses/trojans and spyware.Do %100 what raptor suggested, that's the most likely culprit. Tons of trojans out their to cause that problem, so don't worry about the ghost. BETTER worry about the virus instead .

I played a joke like this on my brother before, cause i had access to his computer, ahh man good times.How can I overcome my CD-ROM Open & close with press any key & when the CD put in drive after 30 sec. automatically eject the CD. Please give us solution.

My computer Is compaqHow can I overcome my CD-ROM Open & close without press any key & when the CD put in drive after 30 sec. automatically eject the CD. Please give us solution.

My computer Is compaq

Awaiting for your kind reply.

Thanks,


Mosharaf"Scan for viruses"     "scan for spyware"

go here for a free virus scanner http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php works good

go here and browse for virus scanners www.cnet.com or go here for a direct link to spybot search and destroy

http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10122137.html?part=104443&subj=dlpage&tag=button

go here for a trojan scan

http://computercops.biz/modules.php?name=Trojan_TCP_Scan

also check out hijack this possbly find other problem with your comp with this tool

http://www.tomcoyote.org/hjt/

Scan real good you probaly have a virus, does your cd-rom play any cd's at all?

GL, jay

I had a PC at home that stopped functioning. There was a problem with the hard drive. My friend gave me a new one. Ofcourse the old one was ancient and the new hard drive was like 10 times more powerfull. During the installation process I disconnected the power cord from the PC inorder to work on it. I also disconnected the power cord from the FLOPPY drive. I connected everything then NOTICED that the light from the floppy drive wouldn't turn on. So I TURNED off the pc, disconnected the power cord (to the PC) then I reconnected the cord to the floppy drive, put the power cord back on and tried to turn on the power. The PC wouldn't turn on. There was no power.

So I ended up buying a PC from my friend. This time I had the new hdd lying around and my friend said that I COULD install two hard drives on my PC. So he gave me the info. I disconnected everything, put the new drive in and turned on the PC. The floppy drive didn't turn on. So I opened it back up and found out that I disconnected the power cord from the floppy. I reconnected it, attempted to turn on the power but nothing happened. I turned everything off disconnected the power from the floppy, reconnected everything else and the power came back.

Could the new hard drive be the cause of the problem? What would cause the power of the PC to go out? Could installing the power to the floppy incorrectly cause the problem? I don't know what I did wrong but I had the same problem with two different PC's. Thanks.The Power Supply Unit may be inadequate to power your system.

If it were two different Power Supply Units the problem most LIKELY lies with you. Does power function properly when you disconnect the extra HDD?can you check the ide cable is on the hard drive correctly...the red stripe is opposite the power feed

I'm new to this site and green as grass as far as computers go. Last November I purchased a new unit for my son (for gaming) and I hoped it would do him. Lately he never turns it on. Says it is too slow. This is the stats
p4 3.2C-800/Asus P4P800/Kingston DDR400 hyperx 1GB/ Sata 160gb 7200 seagate/ pioneer 16x dvd/ Creative Audigy II/ ATI 9800 PRO XT 256mb/ Logitech Z-680 5.1 speakers. As well it has the Logitech mx700 mouse and keyboard and 19" monitor. Is this a decent unit or is my son telling the TRUTH? If he is, what can I do to make it more usable? Thanks for any input. :-/Sounds like an excellent system to me. If it is running slow it probably needs a garbage cleanup - virus/trojan scan, spyware scan, dump the temp files, defrag, etc.Thanks 2k-- I had thought of that already so I went and defrag'd, cleaned up some old files, and checked his hard drive space. He still has 118 gig free so??? He says halo and Midnight club run slow. Should I maybe take the unit back in to see if all settings are right on the video card and motherboard. I am willing to invest in another 3 gig of ram if it will help. Run the spyware and trojan scans. This kind of stuff can absolutely demolish system resources and bring the fastest computer to its knees.We will run those tonight. Thanks 2k. Oh just so you have more info, he ran a program called 3DMARK? last week. Why does it show his computer having 2 cpu's? Is there anything on this 6 page systeminfo Explorer I should look for to explain if something is wrong? I can email the papers to anyone that can understand them.The two CPU's are the result of hyperthreading. It can be turned off, and probably should be be for gaming. It is a virtual CPU. It fools the OS into thinking there are two when there is only one. It can be useful for multi tasking and handling background tasks but can slow things down for processor intensive tasks. The average home user would never notice the difference. Also, notice what is loading at startup. Any nonessential programs should be disabled. They can ALWAYS be started from the Start Menu or a shortcut and closed when not in use.He'll need to better maintain his PC..

Do these things on a regular basis:

• Scan for viruses, trojans and spyware
  
• defragment harddrives/partitions
  
• Clean registry
  
• uninstall programs no longer used
  
• remove redundant files
  
• Remove dust inside case
  

This probably is a stupid question but here it goes, I am wanting to upgrade my video card from the 62mb one I have now to something more POWERFUL (128MB, probably) and I was wondering if it would be necessary to upgrade my power supply unit as well. I have a 250 watt one right now and I was told that I wouldn't have to get a new one but personally I think that I would have to but I want to make sure before I do anything.

Thank you.
(And sorry if this is the wrong forum, but this didn’t seem to fit anywhere else)Spuz1......I don't think you should have to install a higher capacity power supply.........Does your new vid card have a cooling fan on it ?
You can quite safely install the new card .

let us know how you make out.
dl65There should be no need to upgrade your power supply - If it POWERS your current video card it will be fine with the replacement.

The motherboard can supply power to everything slotted in it.

You would only need to upgrade the PSU if you are adding more PERIPHERALS such as more Hard Disks, CD's,CD-RW's.

That is not ENTIRELY correct, Mektek. Some videocards, such as the ATi/Radeon 9800Pro require additional power that is fed directly by the Power Supply Unit.

Everything installed in the computer requires power. Not just Multimedia periphals such as CD-ROMs.
Ok, thanks guys. I have another question, hope you don't mind :p It's about video cards. My motherboards bus speed is 200/266MHz and I was wondering if that LIMITS me on what video card I can get, for example would I not be able to buy a card with a bus speed of 500MHz because of my motherboards bus speed? Or does it not matter?

Thanks.Spuz1.....No question is stupid when the asker doesn't know the answer ....Thats how one learns. Usually the vid card will tell you what it requires as far as system requirements. Perhaps you could tell us why you wish to upgrade your vid card. It is possible that if you were to install some of the high end vid cards that you may have to upgrade you power supply, but again the info on the vid card should let you know what it requires as far as power is concerned ...so read the spec sheet on the card before buying it .....

hope this helps
dl65  Your videocards core and memory speed has nothing to do with your processor. However, if you buy a very good card and use it on an average computer, it will not directly affect eachother but you will not make full use of your videocards potentionalCool, thanks for the help

everthing seems to be working, but i have no sounds and i cant ADD no hardware to my laptop. when i click on the icon nothing happens.
all that really MATTER is that my sound dosen't WORK, it says it is not installed. i tried dxdiag, but that doesnt help
im thinking about formating my hard drive and reinstalling windows XP home
will it bring it back to its original version
all i want is my SOUND BACK

thanks what laptop is this .....did you upgrade it to winxp?....have a look in the  bottom task-bar to your LEFT the speaker icon click it and see if the mute box is unticked...

hi

the other day i reformated my hard drive and reinstalled xp and everyhitng

so i booted up and everything is fine

and then one day when i booted up, it did not recognise my cd drive or my 2nd hard drive (the main one is working)

In my computer/windows explorer/disk management it dosent show up and if i put a cd in nothing happens.

When I re installed xp i had to fiddle with the BIOS to set it to BOOT from the cd drive, so i may of FIDDLED with the setting somewhere but im not sure.

It cant be not plugged in or anything like that because it was working before

what can i do?

I have tried add new hardware wizard but i didnt get anywhere.... what options should i do in this?alexcooldude......How about repairing the font selection your using .....your pc probably doesn't like it .

dl65 whats that got to do with the drive?alexcooldude....It has nothing to do with your issues but that font is very hard on the eyes...
Now that you have changed your font colour to RED it's much easier to read. So moving on ......when you formatted ,what O/S were you using .......You said you have installed XP . Now , your second hard drive isn't being seen by XP......were you inside the CASE ? and something is loose ie...... 2nd hard drive IDE cable or the 4 pin power connection .....You SAY the cd rom isnt being seen either.....When you did the clean format .......what kind of a boot disk did you use to restart your p/c. Almost sounds like there are no cd drivers......but then if that were true how did you install XP . Then you said you had to fiddle with the bios.....explain.
When you are in bios.....do you see the hard drives as Primary master ...and Primary slave.....and your cd rom as Secondary master ?

Check these settings and let us know .

dl65  i had xp previousely and i wiped the disk and re installed xp

I havent done anything inside the case at all

when i booted i set it to boot from cd, and i inserted the windows xp disk into the drive and formatet it and all through thta

when i was fiddline with the bios ths was to get it to boot from cd

i was wondering about whats in the primary/secondary slave and all that - i dont know i didnt install them - is there anyway to tell?go back in the bios and chose setup defaults option...save and exit...windows should then detect you hardware...if you are going to fiddle with the bios write the settings down or print the bios screen?alexcooldude......The primary/Secondary thing.....
If you look on the motherboard.....you will see 2 ide sockets ( thats where the wide ribbon cables "IDE" plug in . and go up and connect to ...the hard drive(s) and the cd drive(s) . One of the sockets will be marked Primary and the other marked Secondary. The primary ide cable should be used for the hard drive(s) and the secondary used for cd-drive(s) There is usually a marker stripe (either red or black) on the ide ribbon to denote pin #1.......Note .....some ide cables are made without a feature on the plug to prevent it from being inserted backwards , hence the marker stripe. There are also three plugs on the ide cable ....one at each end and one in the middle.So if you have only one hard drive ...you would use the plug on the end to plug into the drive.....(and this drive should be set as the MASTER) and if you have a second hard drive installed......it should be plugged into the middle plug on the same ide cable as the 1st hard drive and set as SLAVE .   You follow the same procedure for the cd drives.
Now then go into the bios......and find the screen which shows the info on the installed  ( recognised ) drives.
What you should see is .....Primary master ........that drives name... ie ibm...... or western digital .....or whateverever
then Primary slave and the info on that drive .
Secondary Master .......cd drive info
Secondary Slave ........info on drive if installed.

If you believe you may have screwed up the settings when you were there before look down at the bottom and look for something like page defaults or set defaults and press that key ......follow the instructions and exit.....
The normal boot sequence should be ....Foppy drive, CD-rom and then hard drive .....of course you can change these to whatever you wish..
Review this and let us know.
dl65

I have an old Zenith Z-Note 425Ln notebook PC and for the life of me, I cannot remember the power-on/supervisor password.  Is there a way around this?  I want to sell this notebook PC that is in GREAT CONDITION on EBAY, but I want to know what's on the PC before doing so.  Please help. Thx.http://labmice.techtarget.com/articles/BIOS_hack.htm