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i have intel pentium 4 2.0GHz PC with 512MB RAM Mercury intel 845 chipset Motherboard. I have windows XP installed.

1. my PC often gets shutdown or restart when i play games or open heavy APPLICATION like photoshop. when it gets shutdown i can not START it by pressing CPU CABINETS turn ON button. i have to turn of UPS then only i be able to start it again.

2 .other PROBLEM is nowdays while booting my XP everytime checks 1 drive for errors.

PLZ help me thx in advance
If your computer isn't shutting down properly, it's not unusual for Windows to want to scan drives.

Need to know the exact model of the motherboard, not the chipset model. The 845 chipset was used in many boards.

Is this with any games or just specific ones?

Sounds to me like your system is overheating or you've got a problem with the power supply and/or UPS.no I mean it scans 1 drive for every boot. as i know it does't come every time.

not ne particular game but for all games which i have played earlier without ne problems.
i also think this is SMPS problem. tell me plz if there is any way to test it??
thx for replyin....Quote from: quaxo on January 27, 2008, 05:44:58 AM

If your computer isn't shutting down properly, it's not unusual for Windows to want to scan drives.

Need to know the exact model of the motherboard, not the chipset model. The 845 chipset was used in many boards.

Sounds to me like your system is overheating or you've got a problem with the power supply and/or UPS.

i want to replace my 512MB DDR 333 to 512MB DDR2 533. i want to know more info because my COMPUTER makes me depressed when i am making my works.

thanks guys for any helpGoogled for DDR vs DDR2 and GOT lots of info, Here's one and here's another.

you will need to purchase a new motherboard if you wish to use DDR2 memory unless you have a DDR/DDR2 combo motherboard.DDR/DDR2 combo motherboard? is this available? but even THOUGH i have this motherboard. is it possible that i can use DDR and DDR2 at the same time?QUOTE from: jhay_e03 on January 27, 2008, 03:04:36 AM

DDR/DDR2 combo motherboard? is this available? but even though i have this motherboard. is it possible that i can use DDR and DDR2 at the same time?

i have here built-in video card in my Motherboard. i want to KNOW if what is the limitation of this video card in my desktop. thanksif you wish to play GAMES with any sort of 3D effects, you will need to purchase an independent video card.i see... mmhh another QUESTION is... what is specs of a built-in video card? we will need to know the make/model of your motherboard to DETERMINE that.

So, the old computer went pop and I have taken the old HARDRIVE out and gottin rid of the old one. I now have a new Notebook and want to transfer what I have on the old Hardrive to the new one and an EXTERNAL. How doi do that Guys n GalsWelcome to the CH forums.

You will need an external enclosure to suit WHATEVER kind of drive your 'old' one is or you will need a usb adapter (see pic below) capable of connecting your 'old' drive to a usb port . Then you can copy files to the new PC. After that you can copy the info to your external.

Yep, it's a bit vague, but you didn't give any details of what type of drive you are posting about.

[file CLEANUP - saving space - attachment deleted by admin]Hi Dusty

All a bit new to me this and apologize. When you say what kind, what do you meanIt came out of an E-machines 920, its name Western Digital WD1200
MDL WD1200AB-00DBA3
40 pin conector and i have covered two pins to make it a slave drive so farQuote from: rands-Pacific

When you say what kind, what do you mean

Having problems with no sound.I have a yamaha ds xg sound card which i
have download its driver.It has no YELLOW marks in device manager all mute
has been turn off and it dose have power.The SPEAKERS a 2.1 with rca to 3.5mm socket to sound card.Can ANYBODY help.
Using WINDOWS 98SE

I recently purchased a HP laptop can it came with this graphics card:

Display adapter type NVIDIA MCP67M
Total available graphics memory 799 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 64 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 735 MB
Display adapter driver version 7.15.11.5613
Primary monitor resolution 1280x800
DirectX version DirectX 9.0 or better

But my Graphics option is only a 3.1 rating on vista and my 3-D Gaming is only a 3.0

Why is that score so low and how do I possibly upgrade my computer so that I can play games like Unreal 3 and other games that take good graphics?
to say it quite simply, your score is low because that graphics card is not very good. i strongly believe that you will not even be able to play unreal 3 on low settings.

here are the minimum SPECS for UT3

Code: [Select]Minimum Requirements

CPU: 2.8Ghz
RAM: 512MB
Graphics: GEFORCE 6 series

someone else will have to COME by to comment on upgrading the video card for i have very limited knowledge when it comes to laptop upgrading.Right now my CPU is a Dual-Core 1.90GHz and I have 2GBs of Ram, Upgradeable to 4GBs. Also the graphics card is a NVidia GeForce 7 series with upgradable memory. I think it gives me the option of upgrading the video memory, is that a wise choice? If not then what can I do to get use of applications with better graphics?Ok, more specifically my graphics card configuration looks like this:

Discrete Video Memory No
Expandable Video Memory Yes - Up To 1024MB
Graphics Chipset NVIDIA GeForce Go 7150M (UMA)
Integrated Video Memory Yes
Native Screen Resolution 1280x800
Upgradable Video System No
Video Memory 559MBTechnically, the memory of your video card can't be upgraded. In laptops, the system memory shares a portion of itself with the video card. On some laptops, the portion that the video card gets can be adjusted.

The graphics card itself is not usually removable and cannot be upgraded. I'm not sure how do to it on your laptop, since I don't know the model number. If you share the model number, I'll sure help you find out though. The Model Number is DV2622ca, if you can help then that would be awesome! thanks a bunch!

I purchased it from here:
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10093666&catid=25314The most SPECIFIC information I've found so far (which isn't so specific) says that the shared video memory can be adjusted from the BIOS... although it doesn't specify how.would upgrading expandable memory help?In my EXPERIENCE increasing the shared RAM available to the graphics card is only going to lead to a negligible performance increase. Graphics cards that doesn't have dedicated video RAM just isn't meant for gaming.You cannot upgrade a laptop video card, except on a very few specific high end models. Even then there is a very limited choice of (expensive) upgrades.
If you wanted a gaming laptop, you should have bought one with dedicated graphics.
Integrated graphics will not cut it with modern games, no matter what you do.
Allocating more RAM to the chip will not help performance significantly.You should have bought something like a laptop with NVidia Geforce 7600M or something like that.

Integrated graphics are for people who are not even a casual gamer.

If you wanted a budget DX10 card, then a geforce 8500 might do well enough but you have a laptop so you're kinda out of luck I suppose.

I have a Lexmark x8350 and while it's great for printing, copying, I have not been able to GET the scanner to work.

I have talked to Lexmark, and this is what happens:
* If I install the all-in-one center, then the computer won't TALK to the printer and
I can't even print.
* If I install the older drivers so that I can print and copy, I don't get the
all-in-one center and can't scan.

I was told that possibly I don't have any TWAIN drivers on this pc (which is a Dell Precision 420); however, when I go to the dell website for this MACHINE, there are no TWAIN drivers available for download.

Any suggestions from anyone?

I've been LOOKING to upgrade the CPU on my girlfriend's computer. It has a foxconn motherboard. I've contacted Foxconn and gotten their 'official' list of compatible processors. It indicates the best options are the Northwood pentium 4 478 pin 533Mhz 3.06G CPU, or Prescott 2.8Ghz. I've looked it up, and those are the best/fastest 478 pin 533Mhz Intel made at the time the MOBO was being made. UNFORTUNATELY, since those processors aren't being made anymore, they are outrageously expensive, if you can even find one.
My question is about the Pentium M (mobile) processor line. It appears that the M line uses the same 478 pin slot that is on our MOBO. Does anybody know if the Pentium M 478 pin 533Mhz 3.06G will work in our older PC? The only real difference I can find between the discontinued Northwood CPU and the Mobile one, besides being MUCH cheaper, is that the Mobile has a 1M L2 cache, while the Northwood was only 512.I've never TRIED it myself, but the Wikipedia article on the Pentium M suggests that it won't fit straight on to the board. However, ASUS makes an adapter of sorts to fit a Pentium M onto an ASUS Pentium 4 board (like you're trying to do).

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

-=EDIT=-
That adapter apparently only works on ASUS boards.The pentium M is an entirel different CPU to the P4-M.
Are you looking at the mobile P4 or the P4-M?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_4#Mobile_Pentium_4Sorry for the confusion. Advertisers can be a little vague. Looking at the list of Pentium 4 CPUs the 478 pin 533MHz fsb isn't a 4-M. I made the mistake of thinking the M line was all of the 'mobile' processors. Sorry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Pentium_4_microprocessors

If you look at Intel Pentium CPUs with 478 pin, 3.06G and 533MHz, you'll find 3 I believe. One listed under standard P4 CPUs and two listed as Mobile. I've looked in many places online and written many people and get completely opposite answers depending on where I look, or get no answers at all. Some websites indicate that the 478 pin P4 and the 478 pin Mobile CPUs use the same socket (mPGA478B), and that all 478 pin CPUs will fit even if they won't all work. Other websites indicate that an adaptor is needed, if even available, because the 478 pin for PCs is different than for Mobile 478 pin CPUs.
I've written both Foxconn and Intel several times, and both say that there is no GUARANTEE that a new CPU will work on an older MOBO, always avoiding the question of whether or not the mobile 478 will even fit in the same socket.
If a 'mobile' 478 pin P4 CPU will fit in the older 478 pin P4 socket, the next question will be whether or not it will work. It seems to me that if the speed, fsb, etc. all MATCH original specs, that it should work, but I don't know. I've considered just buying one to try it, but I hate to waste money. I suppose I wrote this question to see if anybody else had tried it.
Foxconn definitely says that the Northwood P4 478 pin, 533MHz, 3.06 CPU will work. The question is whether or not the mobile P4 with the same specs will work or not.
Sorry again for the earlier confusionIs the voltage the same? Laptop processors run at lower voltages (to save power). Sticking that into a regular system board could fry it if the voltage is too high.Take a look at this.
Hope this helps.

hi folk any one hav idea of my perplexin question
i am try to reinstall my xp in my hard disk its saying
DAT there is no hard disk found but my disk is still new
or can it be dat my disk is bad?

plz help guy.Slot car racing can be fun for awhile if you're bored with hard drives...Alot of times if it can not be found it is bad. I have BOUGHT 6 hard drives at the same time and had 50% of them bad out of the packageQuote from: patio on January 25, 2008, 12:24:14 PM

Slot car racing can be fun for awhile if you're bored with hard drives...

Okay, I've seen topics like this, but none of them seemed to feature the same symptoms that my computer seems to produce.

A while back, I tried to turn on my computer and the LED that shows whether or not it's on or not STARTED to flash redish orange. It sounded like the fan inside was spinning, but it would do NOTHING besides that.

The FIRST thing we did was try a different, new power supply. Of course, it didn't work.

Things got COMPLICATED after that. Long story short, the BIOs wasn't holding information, so we replaced the battery and made sure it was connected nice and tight. We could get into the BIOs after that, but for some reason it couldn't FIND the OS off of it.

Then, after that, we couldn't boot the OS from the primary drive. We figured it might gone bad, but we could use it in the external case on the other computers and we even made a clone of it. So the hard drive still works fine and all the information is there.

We figured that it might have been a bad motherboard, so we switched it out for a new one, and even then it didn't work. We've tried replacing the cable from the electrical plug to the power supply, and we've tried pretty much everything, to tell you the truth. It's almost a new computer, except for the drives in the case.

So now I'm at the point where it's gotten back to the point that it won't turn on at all, and all it seems to do is spin the fan on the motherboard a little before returning to it's frustratingly unusable state. It won't even spin the fan unless you unplug the cord for the power supply and plug it back in again before turning it on.

So... any ideas?how much RAM do you have? how many sticks of RAM do you have? are you sure that when you replaced all these components, you hooked everything up correctly? it is not very good for troubleshooting if you could have possibly solved the problem by replacing a component and, in turn, caused another problem by hooking the new component up wrong.

are you sure that the components you replaced were compatible with the existing components?

what's the max hard drive can a p4 w/2.0ghz & 512 RAM take ?

caompaq evo DESKTOP D510 with intel 845g chipsetdepends on the OPERATING system. if its windows XP or Vista, then there is no max harddrive size, however, the largest harddrives that are manufactured are 1000Gbs, or 1Tb.

i'm typing this on the computer i'm having problems with so i'm not in too bad of shape yet...

it takes a few times to GET my computer to actually start...a problem i started having about a week ago. It an hp laptop dv2000...i'll close it so it will sleep then hibernate...and open it up and WINDOWS would restart but now it shuts down almost right away...i'll open it and it will be lit up on the buttons but the screen will be completely black and won't do anything. I will TURN it completely off and back on and do the same thing. I try this a few times...i UNPLUG it and plug it back in and then start it and then it will work...but then a new black screen with white letters shows up and says that it starts checking a file that might be corrupted or theres an error or something but still ends up getting to my log in screen and desktop...i have no idea what's GOING on and it just started doing this. My virus scan isn't showing anything...other than that it's pretty normal...thanks...

I have just purchased a desktop mic. This is the first time i have tried to use a mic with this computer. When i speak I hear my own voice through my head set? I use a creative x-fi XtremeGamer sound card rest of my system spec below:

Windows: Vista Home premium
Motherboard: Ausus crosshair
Cpu: Amd64 3.2 ghz
Graphics card: Geforce 8800GT
Ram: 2 gig
control panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > under the "volume" tab, under the "device volume" header select "advanced" this will open up "play control". in play control select "options" > "properties" > under the "adjust volume for" header make sure playback is selected. > under the "SHOW the following volume controls" header, make sure "microphone" is checked > push "OK" > you will now be back in the "play control" program. you will now see a new header, if it wasnt there already, labeled "microphone", make sure the "mute" box is checked. Quote from: homer on January 24, 2008, 05:16:32 PM

control panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > under the "volume" tab, under the "device volume" header select "advanced" this will open up "play control". in play control select "options" > "properties" > under the "adjust volume for" header make sure playback is selected. > under the "show the following volume controls" header, make sure "microphone" is checked > push "OK" > you will now be back in the "play control" program. you will now see a new header, if it wasnt there already, labeled "microphone", make sure the "mute" box is checked.

Open Volume Control, and mute your mic.

Quote from: Broni on January 25, 2008, 03:25:41 PM

Open Volume Control, and mute your mic.

Well that would be fine if i didn't what to use my mic, but i do want to use it, so can you suggest something else to try. I would like to know what is causing this so i can fix it.

Quote from: Crafty on January 25, 2008, 06:02:11 PM

Quote from: Broni on January 25, 2008, 03:25:41 PM

Open Volume Control, and mute your mic.

Well that would be fine if i didn't what to use my mic, but i do want to use it, so can you suggest something else to try. I would like to know what is causing this so i can fix it.

you are looking to mute your mic in "playback" not in "recording". muting it in playback will stop you from hearing your own voice, whereas muting it in recording will actually mute the mic.

Hello,

Before I go and buy a solid state drive, I figured I'd check with everyone else here. I am building up a system that is to have very fast read/write data access and what I want to do is run a Solid State HD paired up with an actual new Physical Standard Hard Drive with spinning PLATTERS.

My reason for running these side by side in a mirror is that I dont like the lack of fault tolerance of a solid state drive being that if the drive is shot all data is GONE. At least on a physical drive there are a NUMBER of ways to get your databack as long as the platters spin.

So can I still get the fast read/write speed in a Mirror RAID setup with a Hybrid style Solid State Drive Paired up with a normal physical HD or will the new but slower I/O spinning drive degrade the performance from the Solid State drives I/O potential?

If the physical spinning drive BRINGS the performance of the I/O down to its speed for the channel, then its pointless to mirror a Solid State Drive and Physical Spinning drive.

Thanks for your input on this... Havent FOUND anything in google SEARCHES yet.

I have a 3 yr old Toshiba Satellite M35X laptop. I am running XP. It has a Celeron processor and a 40GB HD. 512RAM.
Today I was surfing the web and left for a half hour coffee break. When I returned I was confronted with a black screen and the following: "Intel UNDI, PXE-2.0 blah balh. Then:
"For Realtek RTL8139(X)/8130/810XPCI
Fast Ethernet Controller N2.13 (020326)
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: exiting PX ROM
Invalid partition table"

I couldn't do anything. I turned off the computer with the power button, waited five minutes, turned the computer back on and got:
The Toshiba screen, which led to a black screen with a cursor in the extreme upper left hand corner.
Then this message appeared:
"A disk read error occurred. Press ctrl+alt+del to restart" which I did.

This resulted in the Toshiba log on screen and followed by the Realtek screen again, but this time it repeated itself for ever.

What is causing this, and can it be easily remedied, or do I have a defective hard drive? (!)

Thank you, in advance, for your prompt responses, good or dire!
Well, invalid partition table means that it's not able to read the partition information.... could be a corrupted hard drive.

Have you had any ISSUES lately with the laptop? Has it been slowing down considerably, causing issues when copying DATA, etc? Also, have you had issues with it rebooting, or have you been HOLDING down the power button to shut it off?Is there anything else that comes up? I would go to a tech store and see if they can pull off any important data an they TELL you if the drive is BAD. Does sound like your HD has been corrupted try repairing it with the xp disk if you can get into it and know how.

Just started getting illegal SHUTDOWN message every so often.The main COURSE of the problem is KERNEL 32.
How do i FIX this annoying problem.I am using windows 98se.Please, POST EXACT error message.

I have a HP Pavilion ZV5000 with 512 MB ram (256 on 2-dimms). The problem is that windows only sees 384 MB of ram. Not SURE if there is a way to check exactly what is going on or if there is a way to calibrate the ram. If anyone has SUGGESTIONS, I would be willing to hear.

Many thanks

JustinDo you have on-board video or a seperate video card? How much memory does the BIOS see?

On-board video will use a portion of your memory, causing Windows to see RAM as being less than what it is.512-384=128I as well thought that only 384 (512-384=128) was on the computer, but when I checked under "help and support" and details about the computer to see how much RAM it is capable of holding I saw that, which made me wonder why it says I have two dimms of 256, but only showing 384 in the My Computer properties. I am just wondering if this is a normal thing or if there is a way to figure out what the problem may be.

I have YET to check the bios, and can do that tomorrow as this is a computer for a friend I am working on. I will let you all know tomorrow.

Thanks

JustinI just looked up the specs your system. It's a laptop, meaning it's going to have shared memory for the video. There is no problem. Your integrated video is using 128 MB, so Windows is going to report the system memory as 384, the amount left over after the video has taken its share.I guess, my crystal ball was working:
Quote

512-384=128

I guess, my crystal ball was working:

I have a Nvidea 6200 LE video card, and when i PUT my computer into standby mode for between 4-6 hours i have problems with the card "hanging"...the error messages i get talks about a loop the card is in or something like that...what it means is if i push a key to come out of standby the computer hangs,screen goes black and then i must restart the computer...after the reboot i get a message saying the computer has recovered from a serious error......the problem does not happen all the time...i try to bring the computer out of standby and run a small non 3d program and then things seem ok....i have deleted and re-installed the card...also have the latest DRIVERS for it...Nvidea has been LESS than helpful...any suggestions? Thanks Need to know the EXACT error message.Try a different PCI-E slot if you havn't already. Could be something going on with that CONTROLLER. Otherwise it just sounds like a faulty card.Will post the exact error message when it happens again..........thanks........

Hello there. Can anyone help please. I have just bought a computer system and installed WIN 2003 on it. For some reason there is no net WORK device recognised in the device list. Am I right in thinking I need to download the mother board drivers to get this to show up? If so I DOWNLOADED from here http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/BIOS/Gigabyte/Gigabyte-GA-K8NS.shtml and I must be installing them incorrectly as I still cant get them to work....Am I doing the right thing please?

cheers for your helpThe file you downloaded from Softpedia appears to be a BIOS firmware upgrade. This is not something you should install without GREAT care, because flashing the BIOS with incorrect firmware could render your computer unbootable. (In essence creating a very large paper weight.)
In general I don't recommend downloading drivers from some random place. You should if at all possible download them directly from the motherboard manufacturer, in this case Gigabyte.
I SUGGEST you go to their driver download page and get the correct network device drivers.
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/Driver_List.aspxWhat happened to the MBoard driver disc that shipped with the machine ? ?
The network driver should be included...

Hi,
i have dell720 winxp laptop..
when i hit the power i m not GETTING anything on the screen...
but when i PLUG s VIDEO cable to lcd screen..i get picture on the TV. so probebly that screen is broke..
have any idea how i can fix that laptop screen ?Check the Video settings in Control Panel...most laptops can use only one at a time but you need to SWITCH them manually...your screen may be fine.

DELL Dimension 4100, XP with SP2, Pentium III, 933 MHz, 256 RAM
Recently my Start Up process hangs at the Dell BIOS screen, which says to click on DEL to resume. However, doing so does not take me to the BIOS setup screen, but INSTEAD takes me right along to the Windows XP (Home) welcome screen (my objective of course.) This issue is that the start up process used to go straight to the Windows XP screen without hanging up at the BIOS screen and requiring me to click on DEL. Don't think I even used to see the BIOS screen in the normal start up process.
I can only get into the BIOS setup by holding DEL even earlier in the start process -- while the screen is still momentarily black before BIOS appears. All the BIOS settings are as various tutorials say they should be. I tried resetting to default also. Made no difference.
I ran my Norton Cleanup Utility recently. Not sure if that deleted something that caused this. Also, seems like some time ago maybe this symptom occurred and "healed itself."
Before pushing DEL, check everything on the screen and make sure there are no error messages.quaxo-
The screen never showed any error messages. Just BIOS type of information and the DELL Computer logo in blue.
I said that some time ago this same problem just "healed itself." At boot up this morning it does not hang up and goes right straight to Windows XP Welcome and then the desktop. I have no idea why the problem went away, since my several successful attempts to modify the BIOS data appeared to make no difference upon later boot ups. I had not changed anything for the past several boot ups, and suddenly it is working fine again. Strange, but wonderful.
Thanks for your reply. If you have a theory, I'd still like to know what you think it was.
bill33707According to Dell, the back of your SYSTEM has 4 status lights. The next time this happens, before pushing delete, check the back of your system and see what color the four lights are then check the link below to see what might be wrong.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dzuul/codemess.htm

As to what the ACTUAL problem might be, with the lack of information (this not being your fault since the system isn't telling you MUCH) it's hard to say. A few things can cause different errors during the POST (Power On Self Test). A low CMOS battery, a loose video card, a memory problem, a bad processor... a great many things.

Since it's working again, I guess that's GOOD for now. Next time it happens, check those lights on the back and check that chart, then come back and post here and we'll see if we can't track down what the system thinks is wrong with it.

I just recently bought and put together a brand new computer for myself. Just today I finished installing the hardware into the case and planned on installing Windows XP(Home Edition).

Anyways, I powered on the computer and everything seemed fine. There were no errors noises coming from the computer and I was able to go to the Boot Menu by pressing F12. Once there I booted up the Windows XP install CD in my DVD Burner(specifics on parts will be posted at the end) and followed the onscreen instructions. I chose a partition, which was the only HDD I had hooked up and continued. I then formatted the HDD. After this, it said that Window files were being copied onto the hard drive. Once the copying was over, the setup program automatically restarted the computer. This is where everything comes to a halt.

After restarting, the computer would boot up normally, showing the POST screen and then going through the device log screen, but immediately following that screen, the computer would suddenly restart again. Now the computer does this every time I turn it on and just keeps on repeating these restarts until I hit the power button and turn the computer off.

I have reformatted and reinstalled the Windows files by using the F12 button to launch the Boot Menu while the POST screen is showing, but it does no good. I have also checked every single hardware connection inside the computer and all appears to be well-connected.

If anyone can provide me with help, I would deeply appreciate it. I have spent the entire day trying to get this computer running and I am completely frustrated and out of ideas.

Here are the parts in the computer:

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Intel Pentium E2180 Allendale 2.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core PROCESSOR w/ heatsink and fan

Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2B

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)

Sunbeam Transformer IC-TR-B Blue Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case w/ four fans

PHILIPS 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe 2-Tone SATA

Rosewill RP550-2 ATX12V v2.01 550W Power Supply

EVGA 7900 GT KO CO PCI-E x16 w/ heatsink and fanI can't believe I forgot to mention it, but there is one more thing.

The very first time after formating the hard drive and installing windows, it always loads to the device log screen then says "Disk read error: Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete". After I press the buttons and restart, the computer then starts restarting on its own.hmmm. i can think of 2 possible reasons.

1. faulty RAM
2. faulty harddrive

now these reasons are based on the assumption that everything in the computer is hooked up correctly and securely.

to troubleshoot the RAM, only use one of the two sticks. if your machine boots successfully then the stick of RAM that you removed is faulty. if the machine does not boot, then swap the sticks of RAM and try again. if it still does not boot, we can safetly assume that SOMETHING else is at fault, unless you can test the RAM further by using them in another known-working computer. if the RAM is not at fault, then we can move onto the harddrive.

to troubleshoot the harddrive there are 2 methods:
1. you will need to place it in another known-working computer. from there you will need to format it and install windows. if the format/install goes by smoothly and the comp boots up successfully, then your harddrive is not to blame.

2. you will need another harddrive (either new or a known-working one). hook it up to your comp and format/install. if it installs correctly and boots up successfully with that harddrive, then your other harddrive is faulty. if your comp does not boot up successfully, then something else in the computer is awry.Thanks for the help man. I took out one of the two sticks of ram, reformatted and reinstalled Windows and everything is running fine. I am actually POSTING this message with my new computer.

I am wondering, do you think that this stick of ram is bad? Or should I try putting it back in?

I just ask because I think I will have to RMA both sticks back to Newegg in order to replace the one bad one, if it is bad, and then my computer will down for another week, after it took two weeks to get it running.Quote

I just ask because I think I will have to RMA both sticks back to Newegg in order to replace the one bad one

I have a RATHER strange issue tonight:

I've been working on getting an older P4 up and running for my 14 year old son. Re-formatted everything, reinstalled XP set up anti-virus and live MESSENGER and everything was working fine .... except the onboard SOUND. Windows insisted there was no sound card installed and when I checked the BIOS the AC97 (I think it said) audio was set to auto.

Anyway, I decided to pick up an inexpensive sound card and some speakers so he could play music and herein began my ordeal! I purchased a C-Media CMI8738 5.1 channel PCI card and was instructed by the salesman to "disable" the onboard sound prior to installing, which I did (changing from auto to disable). I then installed the new sound card and XP failed to recognize it and now is flashing a message that "a network cable is unplugged". I called the store where I purchased the card and the fellow there suggested I shut down the computer and move the card to another slot. I did this and now XP has recognized the card and installed the software without any further issues regarding the sound ... I hooked up the speakers and presto!! Music abounds!

However, we now cannot access the internet or live messenger with this computer as it seems quite convinced that it's network cable is unplugged. I've tried another cable that I know is working (from his X-Box) and the message still won't CLEAR. I've gone back into the BIOS and changed the setting back to "auto" (as suggested by the computer store guy after another call) and still no luck. I'm at a loss at this point. The jack for the network cable on this computer is also on the motherboard and I'm beginning to think I may have to install a new network card to bypass this issue.

Talk about solving one problem and creating another!

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a bunch!

LeahHave you checked to see if there is an IRQ conflict?Actually, after I posted I disconnected everything and pulled the battery for about 10 minutes. This seems to have solved the problem. The error message is gone and the computer seems happy enough with the onboard sound set at "auto". It seems to want to automatically decide to use the sound card rather than being told to.

Thanks for posting back

I have an old case that is not tall enough so I NEED an adaptor card that plugs into pci slot and then plug my pci cards in it horizonally, but can not FIND one anywhere.
Anyone out there that can HELP a wannabe technowinnie?
Thanks45 seconds on Google:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=pci+riser+horizontal&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
http://images.google.co.uk/images?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=pci+riser+horizontal&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
http://store.luluusa.com/u2039.html
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5943215.html
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.adexelec.com/pcitx87a.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.adexelec.com/pci64.htm&h=161&w=270&sz=38&hl=en&start=16&um=1&tbnid=e5C9dnn2n9UhxM:&tbnh=67&tbnw=113&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpci%2Briser%2Bhorizontal%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.adsysgroup.com/rack/html/images/1u1pci32r-z.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.adsysgroup.com/rack/html/1u_accessories.htm&h=273&w=500&sz=16&hl=en&start=20&um=1&tbnid=vxna_JI5gNN2DM:&tbnh=71&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpci%2Briser%2Bhorizontal%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN
http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=10311

Any help?Yes it did Thanks!!
I used the info I found in the links and got one on ebay for 5 bucks

TF

Hello,

I hooked up a Kworld ATSC 115 (PCI) card to my XP Home (SP2) machine. I got this card because it has QAM (HD) capability, and I WANTED to simply plug in my Comcast digital cable coax into the thing and watch the clear QAM channels that they provide, and record shows. I know from others' experiences that Comcast does have a decent handful of unencypted QAM channels.

The problem is, I'll have the Arcsoft software scan for channels. It picks up a TON (300 or so). 90%+ are encrypted and locked though, which is what I expected. The problem is, of those that aren't locked, only SEVEN show video when I tune to the channel. The other 20 or so just have the SOUND of the tv show, and no video! It shows a little "radio" icon or symbol, telling me it things it's an radio station, so it doesn't even show a black screen or pixelation. The signal strength bar is FULL!

Of course, when I contact Kworld, they blame Arcsoft, and Arcsoft blames Kworld! Any help would be greatly appreciated. I wish this where simple...just plug in the cable and work! I cannot give you much info on Comcast QAM except to tell you that they are starting to utilize the MPEG4 h.264 video compression format in certain areas. It allows them squeeze HD channels utilizing limited bandwidth. Most video cards that are not capable of decoding the MPEG4 format will show these as radio stations. Higher end processors and different decoding software is usually required to view these. The digital QAM HD channels that you are viewing are more than likely in the MPEG2 formatWow, that is really interesting info. Sounds like it could be true. Just to clarify on your post, so is it my graphics video card, or the tv tuner card that could be at fault? And are you saying that it might be corrected with different 3rd party software, other than the Arcsoft TotalMedia? I really hate that program ANYWAY, but I CAN NOT FIND another third party software that will work with digitcal cable/HD/QAM with the KWorld tuner card!!!
I am not familiar with terrestrial and cable tuner cards. I use satellite tuner cards. To process h.264 MPEG4 video with my sat card I just had to locate the proper codec. Quote from: barret on January 23, 2008, 01:54:37 PM

I am not familiar with terrestrial and cable tuner cards. I use satellite tuner cards. To process h.264 MPEG4 video with my sat card I just had to locate the proper codec.

this laptop has no power, the power pack has a no load voltage 0f 19.5 volts, i do
get a continunity reading from the back of the power PLUG, however when i install the
power pack, the voltage drops to aroud .5 volts, is this plug a common PROBLEM with these, or has the power pack been a problem, I dont see any bad SPOTS on the motherboard, though it is very hard to trace with only .5 volts present. the points are so very small. where can i get a plug, and how MUCH is it. thanks if you can help.By 'power pack', do you mean the battery or the AC adapter?

I used to have an Epox 8rda+ motherboard and i used my Terratec EWX 24/96 soundcard forever with it.

Then the Epox's bios chip died or something, so i got an Asus A7N8X that i found by chance.

I popped in the Terratec, installed the DRIVERS for WinXP Pro as well as the SOFTWARE for it and off i went.

For some reason, its not being recognized..or so it seems.

When you open the sound properties, youll get this first:



See where at the top it says the company name/maker of the soundcard? Well, on my system it says "No Audio Device".

But yet, when you click on this tab:



From the drop down boxes, its totally selectable!!!

And yet, even in Device Manager, it says its "working properly".

Its confusing the *censored* out of me why its doing this!!!!

So, as it stands right now, im stuck using the onboard soundcard on the Asus, which is HORRIBLE!!

Can someone help me out??

-SinIf you know your speakers are fine and volume is not low/mute. Then check your CMOS settings. I see your board has the onboard sound chip (Realtek ALC650). This should be turned off in CMOS. Make sure your sound card is seated properly and do not charge with ESD. Reload drivers, remember to reboot after making HARDWARE/software changes.

If your Device Manager still shows everything okay afterward (and there is still a PROBLEM). I would look more in the hardware area, making sure all the neccessary drivers were loaded into your "sound, video and game controllers" and then move onto card, speakers, connection switch slots, test all seperatly from each other and/or computer when possible...etc.

Onboard Audio Sound Chip:
Realtek¨ ALC650 6CH w/built in HP amplifier
Integrated APU (Audio Processor Unit, Deluxe Model)
SoundStormú / Dolby¨ DIGITAL (AC-3) Encoder (Deluxe Model)

Not a bad sound chip at all. Depending on your needs tho.

With the info you provided, thats about all I can suggest at the momment.
Good Luck,
-Jayi have indeed tried disabling the Realtek in the bios screen, but to no avail.

*SPAM*...so annoying!!

-Sin

ASUS V3-M2A690G AMD Socket AM2 AMD Athlon X2 / Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64 AMD 690G Barebone - Retail
1 PCI-E x16
1 PCI-E x1
2 PCI slots
4 SATA
1 IDE/ATA


Sony NEC Optiarc 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model AD-7190S - OEM

SAPPHIRE 100218L Radeon HD 2600XT 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit DESKTOP Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ - Retail

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Brisbane 2.1GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core PROCESSOR Model ADO4000DDBOX - Retail

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail

The missing pieces I already have and are pretty standard like HDDs and my pci Sound Card. I just want a final, yeah your not an idiot, and I can click the order button.Quote

and as a note I can use two ATA drives through one PORT right?

G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB)

I just want a final, yeah your not an idiot, and I can click the order button.

So my 4gb will equate to how much on a non-64bit OS?

Oh and as for overclocking, thats a bit out of my range atm. Perhaps down the road, but as of now I don't feel comfortable enough to risk it.

OK. So its a home made comp by myself. Its mostly a gaming rig and has run just fine thus far. Its running Windows XP SP2.

I had the Powersupply replaced about 3 months AGO, but other then that its solid.

I had it running and was in another room, came back in and the No Input Signal was up on the monitor. The LED lights on the case were off and it was powered down. I turned it back on and it powers up the case and MB, fans/ethernet/etc, but does not boot. I figured maybe my little girl or the dog gave it a shock and it needed to take a break so I powered it down and gave it a break. Went to turn it back on and still no boot sequence. There have been no beep codes to note either.

Any ideas are good ones so hit me up please.

Thanks.Do you have another power supply you could try in it? I'd hate to say it, but your power supply may have died again.

Do you see anything when you boot? Even a BIOS screen?

Disconnect all power cables inside, then reconnect them. Something may have come loose.I don't have another power supply no. As for what I see nothing. Normally during boot up you see the lights on the CD drives blink and the activity light in front blinking. This is accompanied by the tic tic tic of the harddrive and whatnot. None of this occurs. The fan spins on the CPU and the graphics card. The ethernet lights start to ACT up and the thing just kind of idles with no boot sequence. No feed to the monitor at all during all of this.

I am suspecting the system took a shock from either the dog or my little girl. I have seen this in the past and with time it restarted, but this time it is being a pain and not coming back. Whether or not the system will boot, when you turn it on with a working power supply, the CD drive and hard drive should start up too. If they're not working, they're not getting power, which makes me think your power supply has definitely gone out (or is on it's way out).

Do you feel you know enough about your computer to remove the power supply and replace it with a new one?Well like I said I just replaced this one like 3-4 months ago. So yeah I can replace them easily enough. If it's jacked I am gonna be slightly upset. Is the shock off of static to the case enough to fry a fairly new Power Supply? I live in dry high-altitude and my dog is like a freaking battery so anything I might do to keep this from happening again would be GREAT!What brand and wattage is this PSU ? ?As it turns out the Power Supply was fine. It was the CPU. As the MB/CPU were socket A and those are scarce to find in this area at this point I am building a new system.

Thanks for all the good advice though If you don't mind me asking, how'd you come to that conclusion? Just curious.Likewise...Went to a local comp repair place here and had them test the Power Supply. Even had them put a different Power Supply on the system and still no boot. We did the pulling of chips and boards trying to narrom it all down and even tried the ones that could be in other machines. EVERYTHING ran fine down to the CPU/MB arena, and like I said Socket A is INCREDIBLY hard to find so with no visual problems on the MB I BLAME the CPU. Could be the MB, but either way My only course is to build a new system.

Since then I have logged onto my favorite part site and built out a new system starting with a barebone. Honestly it was time. Its a pain having to mess with every new game to get it to work on my old pc.

Did I miss anything?Quote from: Jblamp on JANUARY 17, 2008, 01:57:44 AM

...I have logged onto my favorite part site and built out a new system starting with a barebone. ...

Hi guys hope someone can help i posted before on a problem with gfx card but it turned out i was using the WRONG card! now my NEW problem i installed the card in HEADING and received the message not enough power to run card at max. i have a power dongle i got with the card but unsure how to FIT it .it has a black 6pin end and 2white molex connectors? do i attach black end to gfx card and 1 white to a spare white plug eg from my floppy drive or is there another way to do it
hope u can help MAKE an old guy happy cheersYou connect the black 6 pin connector to the matching plug on the graphics card. Then you connect either of other two white connectors to a plug coming from your power supply. It doesn't matter which of the two you connect.

I've tried to install a wireless mouse and keyborad without any success. It's a Microsoft laser mouse 6000 and keyboard is 6000v2 (or I could have gotten those two switched). I have a wireless antenna connected by ethernet directly to my COMPUTER (Dell 4700) for internet connection (it's a wirless company where we were assigned our own network). Could the wireless antenna be interfering with the wireless device driving the wireless mouse and keyboard? I've pressed the button on the device to switch channels, but nothing happens. The device is situated about 2 feet from the wireless antenna, but it's plugged into a usb port that's CLOSE to the wireless antenna's ethernet plug. I've tried switching the wireless device to the usb port on the front of the computer also with no RESULTS. Any ideas? Solutions?
Thanks.I don't think the wireless network adapter will be effecting the keyboard and mouse, you could try disabling it in Network Connections to be sure.

Does your wireless keyboard and mouse have a device which plus into your USB port? I presume it does. Try unplugging this, then PLUGGING it back in - does your PC tell you it has found a new piece of hardware? Also, wireless keyboards and mice usually CONTAIN batteries, do yours? and do they need to be replaced?

Hi,

I have a hard disk which I think may be dead beyond repair - just thought I'd check if anyone has any other TIPS that may work in my ATTEMPTS to REVIVE it.

It came out of a USB enclosure, and is a 2.5". I connected it to a desktop PC as a slave, and at first it was recognised and I could view the FILES. Then I lost the connection to the drive, and it disappeared from My Computer.

Now the desktop machine won't boot with the FAULTY drive connected, it doesn't get any further than the manufacturers display screen. I tried reconnecting it via the USB enclosure, but I get an error message "An error occured with your hardware..."

Any ideas?

hello: I've brought this discussion over here to hardware, from the software section.
I have an HP Pavillion 4000 and it used to be that the fan rarely turned on. In recent months it is turning on more and more and making more and more noise. In the last month or so, the computer has begun to shut down without any type of warning, whether I am ONLINE or not. But when it does shutdown, I'm usually running a lot of programs, such as a few Firefox tabs, outlook express, and Word. The more things I run, the louder the fan gets into the computer SHUTS down.

Mr. Socrates in the software section said that MAYBE the computer needs cleaning or the fan needs replacing. I just wanted to check that out with you hardware people here. My question is: If the fan is running more, does that mean it needs replacing, or that something else is happening to make it run more? Should I cut down on the background programs, or clean up the programs and free memory? Is there anything I can do to make the burden lighter, or is this definitely a fan replacement, computer clean up issue. I can say that I see crumbs and lint between some of the laptop keys. On my old DESKTOP, I would just dislodge the keys and clean it out myself, but I don't know what goes inside a laptop and am afraid to touch it!

Suggestions and advice.....? The simplest, and easiest, of course!

Dr. D.Once again, you can (and should) cleanup the programs that are running and causing the computer to use more processing power, heat up, and use the fan more... however, if that is really all you want to do...

You're running the risk of DAMAGING the hardware permanently because by the sounds of it, the computer's been overheating.

Also... crumbs and lint... not good.

If you really decide to go the route of just cleaning up software, you're going to permanently damage your laptop.either your fans dying or the heatsink is clogged with dust and your fan is trying to cope with it. if you are comfortable with disassembling your laptop, i recommend cleaning your heatsink. if you are not comfortable with disassembling it, then i recommend sending it to a PC repair place.Quote from: homer on January 23, 2008, 04:19:28 PM

either your fans dying or the heatsink is clogged with dust and your fan is trying to cope with it. if you are comfortable with disassembling your laptop, i recommend cleaning your heatsink. if you are not comfortable with disassembling it, then i recommend sending it to a PC repair place.

I am having PROBLEMS with illegal shutdown with main reason kernel32 how can i fix this annoying PROBLEM.
Using windows 98se.Read this first.As you can see, at the end of this link there are so many diff reason that a problem like this would OCCUR, that it would be impossible to even begin to help you BASED on what little INFO you provided.

Link Edit

I'm wanting to get a better computer but IDK if it would just be cheaper to upgrade the one i already have.

Here are my specs:

2 x 128 mb DDR PC2700 ram
Geforce4 MX 440 with AGP8X
only a 39gb hard drive
Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.40 Hz
to know what you can update to, tell us your motherboard model.Chipset Model82865G/PE/P, 82848P DRAM CONTROLLER / Host-Hub Interface
new computer. with those specs you will be needing to upgrade about everything.Depends on what you wanna use it for and what problems you're having now with performance.

If you like to play games and plan to purchase new games in the future, I'd just BUY a whole new system. Your processor barely meets the minimum requirements of most new 3D games, and that video card probably won't allow you much detail either.

If you just want the computer for productivity and internet, but are short on hard drive space, a hard drive upgrade wouldn't be a bad idea (either changing out the current one or adding a second drive to hold music, movies, etc.). The rest of the system is good enough for that.

If you do decide to keep the current system and upgrade the hard drive, upgrade the memory as well, at least to 512MB if you're running XP, but I suggest going for 1GB.

my computer wont boot
lately i notice after i turn on my computer "runtime error" message appairs
i just forgot about those number
cause i didn't mind because after i PRESS"SEC" and the message DIS appairs
so think that's MAYBE the reason for now why my computer wont boot
can you give some idea how t fix it

WELCOME to the CH forums.

We need to know what kind of body we're trying to carry out an autopsy on.

Please read this

hey .... at a store, customer service should be top priority especially at a store like Fry's!

MY computer system I'm using now, I bought it from office depot on sale, and they said they'd ship it to me within the month I ordered it. It never came and I found out it got sent to wrong place.

They didn't seem to care and going to the store again did no GOOD as they said they couldn't do anything about a "misdelivered" mail.

But I EMAILED them and the mail apparently got sent to the manager of the store since he personally sent me an email to tell me that he'd already taken care of my problem to MAKE me happy and within the week, the store called me up to tell me they have something in stock which they're just gonna give me for free (after having refunded all that money I paid for getting nothing) and good thing they gave me something better than what I originally got just for all the troubles.

So if you are certain the store's giving you crap and you know what's going on with the crap, just scream your HEAD off at them and they'll make you happy and make sure you scream at the higher guys and not those dudes that don't give you your dues Guys you are all right and thanks for sharing such vital information. Customer first and if i get wrong packegas that were not ment for me, i'll pray thanks.

Alright, I just bought a new computer case (APEVIA X-Navigator ATXA8NW-SS) and also a new motherboard (GIGABYTE GA-X38-DQ6 LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX)

I've installed just about everything but as I installed the motherboard, lights, fans etc, I noticed that there were no screw holes for the CPU Fan, just holes in the motherboard but it leads to plain metal under the motherboard.

How do I go about installing it now? Can I use PLASTIC cuffs TEMPORARILY until I get equipment for a permanent fix? What other temporary solutions are recommended?Heatsinks are usually not held in place with screws. What was included with the heatsink when you bought it?
Quote from: Cryptic on January 23, 2008, 11:46:34 AM

just holes in the motherboard but it leads to plain metal under the motherboard.

Heatsinks are usually not held in place with screws. What was included with the heatsink when you bought it?
Quote from: Cryptic on January 23, 2008, 11:46:34 AM

just holes in the motherboard but it leads to plain metal under the motherboard.

As far as I can see from images of the board there are four holes around the CPU socket you're supposed to use for holding the heatsink in place. (as seen in the 3rd picture here.)
Why can't you use those?

the one I have now is better, it came out of my current PC that I bought about a year ago.

Nono I did install it correctly, it is raised. I just mean if you look through the holes, you see the case metal. Is that plate meant to come with the motherboard? I didn't get it with any of my new hardware..

and applied new driver

my backspace key on my keyboard is sticky whenever i press it takes a while to come back up or sometimes stays down.
how shall FIX this?
shall i just spray some wd-4o lubricant on it or shall i open up the keyboard and clean it?
thanks for any helpFirst of all I'd just try a can of air to see if it's something simple like a packed-in clump of dust or hair.

If that doesn't work, try (carefully) removing the problem key and cleaning beneath it (this largely depends on what type of keyboard you have, though... so this may not be doable).

WHATEVER you do, I wouldn't recommend the WD-40. Any type of liquid + electronic components = not good.Replace the keyboard...Quote from: PATIO on January 23, 2008, 01:50:45 PM

Replace the keyboard...

Quote from: homer on January 14, 2008, 11:06:57 PM

Quote

Looks like suspended, not strapped down.

it is suspended, it doesnt need to be strapped down as long as all four corners are secured.

they also make ADAPTER screws that are used to place harddrives in 5.25" bays.

And! 'lo and behold.... after all this.... the ^&*%$#@ drive I wanted to install seemed to have problems!

So is the rest of the story...
They just made my preferred list of vendors.
Thanx !

My mom has a cheapo Emachines computer she bought a few years ago from Bestbuy. It's got a 3.2ghz processor and runs XP sp2, however it only came with 256mb of RAM. I pulled out the ram CHIP to make sure I was getting the right kind (it was ddr), and bought a 1gb stick. My problem is now that I installed it, the pc won't boot up. It powers on but it goes no farther than that, so for the time being I put the 256 back in. I looked up the model number of her pc (which I don't REMEMBER at the moment) and it said it could take a max of 2gb of ram, so I know I'm not going over the limit. What else could be the problem?

I'll try to get more info (model #, info on ram, ETC)Check at www.crucial.com, if you bought correct RAM.What is the specs of your ram? Speed? Brand?

You can use CPU-Z to double check the specs on the working ram to be sure you have right specs.

Then be sure to buy yourself new ram with those specs. Faster speed should be ok, but anything slower than what the working 256 stick is is not good.

Maybe you get a defective 1gb ram, so you might TEST your 1gb ram on another computer, if not ok, then either return or exchange ram.

I would buy brand name rams like Crucial, Kingston, Edge, etc. to be sure you get quality ram sticks. And maybe try buying it from Amazon or Newegg if you're ok with buying stuff online.The Crucial website might be the answer I'm LOOKING for. I'll check it next time I'm at her house. Thanks!OK, she has an Emachine T3990, and after running the scan on crucial.com. it looks like I have the right memory. The scan calls for DDR 3200, which is what I ordered, although I noticed the label on the ram says "DDR 12BX4 PC400 1G AUM0208". Does it matter that it says pc400 instead of pc3200? Could the ram itself just be bad, because I'm on the verge of returning it.PC3200 and DDR-400 is the same thing. PC3200 is module name, DDR-400 is standard name

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR_SDRAM



IF you do have PC3200 DDR ram, then I would test the ram stick on another computer that accepts PC3200 ram to be sure it's not working and be careful. Ram sticks are very sensitive and you might have damaged it simply by giving it a little static charge (some people use antistatic wrist straps when handling electronics or put electronics in antistatic bags)

But anyway, if it ain't working, then return it to the store you got it from or exchange it. But like I said earlier, getting a name brand product is more assuring of its quality than a no-name brand (but still it's not guaranteeing it's fuctionality as you might have still gotten a DOA product or just a bad batch)

Greetings everyone,
recently my sister dropped her laptop and did some internal damage. We went to Bestbuy because we have a warranty and asked them to see what was wrong. They told us that it was a hard drive failure and that They would send it out for $150. I was assuming that if I decided to actually open up the Laptop and check out everything it would void the warranty and I'm not comfortable with opening up a laptop. To make a long story short they checked everything out and let us know that it was a "Data Recovery Level 2" process. Should I call back and ask specific questions that would help me find out of I could do this on my own with a software tool? SOMETHING such as a boot CD?Is the goal here to recover files from that failed hard drive? If not, then you're simply looking at replacement of the hard drive and installation of Windows.

Quote

They would send it out for $150.

All you need is one of these...

My Gateway with XP froze up the other night. I had to unplug it to shut it down. After restart it shuts off every 25-30 seconds and automatically restarts. The cycle continued for a while then a screen popped up saying Windows is shutting down so that damage to the computer will not occur. How can I make it stay on? I want to see what happened. Can I send external power to the HDD to make it keep going?

Thank YouTo get to the following option press F8 repeatedly during startup (it'll catch it sometime between the POST and Windows loading.

1. Try booting into safe mode.

If that succeeds, let us know. If you continue to have problems:

2. If you have a Windows CD, try using the recovery console by booting from the CD and pushing R when prompted to.

Giving the hard drive external power would accomplish nothing since the hard drive won't keep the rest of the computer on. The system would still get restarted by Windows.

What exactly were you doing when the computer froze? Anything in particular? Was there anything strange? Any error messages? How long was it frozen before you unplugged it? What are your full system specs? Provide as much information as possible, makes this easier.sounds to me like its overheating. open up the case and make sure all of the fans are spinning. look for fans on the case, the CPU fan, and the GPU *GRAPHICS Processing Unit* fan (if applicable).Thank you for your reply. The Gateway is a desktop 2.4 with 80G HDD. Nothing special, about 4 years old. When the screen froze there were about 8 WEB sites open. After the screen froze in position, it took me about 2 minutes before unplugging it. The activity light on the DSL was blinking very fast so I THOUGHT I better get things stopped. There were no warnings or anything, the screen just froze in position and the computer completely locked up to the point that nothing worked.

I tried safe mode the next MORNING and the computer cycles off to on in about the same amount of time as out of safe mode. It shuts off before the opening screen comes on.

The computer was unplugged for two days. After plugging it in and pushing the on button it cycled off and on in the same amount of time.

I will try to borrow a recovery disk and try that. What do you think happened?

Thank you for TAKING the time to give me help.

RonWhat about Homer's questions ? ?


Quote from: homer on January 22, 2008, 11:28:54 PM

sounds to me like its overheating. open up the case and make sure all of the fans are spinning. look for fans on the case, the CPU fan, and the GPU *Graphics Processing Unit* fan (if applicable).

I don't know why but this past week I have gotten 6 Blue Screens of Deaths and 3 Crashes while Playing World of Warcraft.

Here is the error message I have been getting

http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/5256/asdkt6.jpg


Specs
Acer Aspire E380 (ASE380-UD440A)
WINDOWS Vista Home Premium
2 GB RAM
4400+ AMD Athlon 64 X2 Processor

Anyone know what I can do or what should I do?

Thanks.How old is this computer? Came with Vista?
You may NEED to take advantage of your warranty.Quote from: Broni on January 20, 2008, 09:56:42 PM

How old is this computer? Came with Vista?
You may need to take advantage of your warranty.

Does it happen ONLY while playing that particular game?

Quote from: Broni on January 21, 2008, 09:23:06 AM

Does it happen ONLY while playing that particular game?

It usually only happens if I play ANY Video game for a long period of time.

For the warranty, I bought it at Bestbuy are they able to send the PC to the manufacturer for me since I made the purchase there? Also, would the warranty be void if I installed an extra internal DVD Drive?

Quote from: xxXplicitP on January 22, 2008, 01:01:47 AM

Quote from: Broni on January 21, 2008, 09:23:06 AM

Does it happen ONLY while playing that particular game?

It usually only happens if I play ANY Video game for a long period of time.

For the warranty, I bought it at Bestbuy are they able to send the PC to the manufacturer for me since I made the purchase there? Also, would the warranty be void if I installed an extra internal DVD Drive?

If you would install the extra dvd drive yourself than yes.

I can't seem to locate the CMOS battery on my Avertec 7100 laptop. I took most of the BOTTOM off and did not see anything LIKE I think it is supposed to look like. I also do not know how to take the keyboard off, so if it is on that SIDE of the motherboard, I would appreciate help on removing the keyboard. THANKS in advance to anyone that is kind enough to LEND a hand. Click Here...

Hi,

Two people at my workplace both USED Dell Optiplex 260 computers. I find it strange that their computers had PSU failures when they were connected to UPS's(APC 1000) that were in good condition. Could the PROBLEM be the power that FLOWS though our office wiring or are the Dell PSU's no good? Those DELLS are getting some age on them, right? Don't they date back to about 2002? So, unless you have some clear evidence that there may be a problem with the electric power in your building, it's most likely just failed PSU's in those computers.

Even if the office has some minor power fluctuations, the APC battery backups would provide a smooth power supply to the computers. So, again, it's looks LIKE failed PSU's.

Sorry if this has been dicussed before, I could'nt seem to find anything on a search.
Basically I am trying to recover some pics from an old COMPUTER that wont power up. The fan(I think) had been running loud on my 7 year old computer for awhile and it finally died a few nights ago. After unplugging it and replugging it back in it fired up again and I CONTINUED to USE it the rest of the night and a few hours the next morning. After doing some reading I decided to open it up to clean and lube the fans. After opening it up I fired it up to see which fan was the culprit. It fired up for a split second and died. I saw a little spark come from the mother board and now it is dead for good. Not wanting to spen $90 for a diag. from the computer store I thought I'd pay them $65 to install my old drive in my other newer computer, but I dont think I have to room to install it internaly. All I realy want to do is get some pics I have in "my pics". Can this be done and how? What are my options? Thanks for any help.Well, you could buy an external enclosure for a 3.5" hard drive (HD) and put your old hard drive in it. Thus, you would have an external hard drive that would connect to your new computer via USB port.

If the old HD is large enough in CAPACITY to be worth using for backup purposes, you'd have a good backup device. If the old HD is small, buying an external enclosure for it may not be worth the money.

ANOTHER way to just get some files off the old HD would be to simply connect it to the new computer in a temporary fashion; it does not need to fully installed, i.e. mounted, in the new computer just to retrieve some files from it. All that's needed is to connect the data cable and power cord to it in the new computer.

This is my first post so I apologize ahead of time if I am to lengthy with my info. My searches have not turned up anything. I have a few questions regarding the possible installation of a pci riser/extender. My computer specs are:
GATEWAY GM5474

Feature Specification
# Processor AMD Athlon™64 X2 6000+, 64-bit dual core processor

* Operates at 3.0 GHz
* 2 x 1024 KB L2 cache
* 2000 MHz system bus

Chipset NVIDIA® GeForce® 6150SE
# Memory Installed: 2048 MB DDR2, 667 MHz, (PC2-5300) dual channel memory (two 1024 MB DIMMs)
# Expandable to: 4 GB (4 DDR2 DIMM slots)
Hard Drive 500 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA II hard drive
Support for up to two hard drives
Optical Drive DVD ±RW, 16X super multi-format dual layer drive

* Write max: 16X DVD±R, 6X DVD-RW, 6X DVD-R DL, 8X DVD+RW, 8X DVD+R DL, 12X DVD-RAM, 48X CD-R, 32X CD-RW
* Read max: 12X DVD-ROM, 12X DVD-RAM, 48X CD-ROM

Media Card Reader

# Video NVIDIA GeForce™ 8500GT 256 MB

* DirectX® 10 and Blu-ray™ / HD DVD™ capable
* One DVI-I port with HDCP
* One HDMI port
* One S-Video port (includes DVI-VGA Dongle)

Audio Integrated 8-Channel (7.1) High Definition Audio
Network Support Integrated MARVELL 88E8056 10/100 Ethernet
Modem 56 K ITU V.92 ready fax/modem
# Add-in Card Slots One PCI Express ×16 (graphics interface)
# One PCI Express ×1
# Two PCI conventional
TV Tuner PCIe Analog/Digital TV tuner with 3-D combination

Ports:

* Analog TV
* ATSC Antenna
* S-Video
* Stereo Audio RCA
* S-Video to composit dongle

# External Connectors One PS/2 keyboard port
# One PS/2 mouse port
# One VGA monitor port
# One parallel port
# One serial port
# Six USB ports (four rear, two front)
# Two IEEE 1394a port (one rear, one front)
# One RJ-45 Ethernet LAN port
# Eight audio jacks (six rear, two front)
# Three front RCA jacks (one video, two audio)
Drive Bays Five total:

* Two external 5.25-inch
* One external 3.5-inch (with a docking bay for optional Gateway 2.5-inch removable USB hard drive)
* Two internal 3.5-inch (hard drive)

Operating System Vista 32bit version NA at time of post

Additional installation of a DVB S satellite card
in the only available pci slot.

I WOULD now like to add an additional satellite card and would like to know if this pci riser / extender is a viable option.

If so would this be considered a plug and play device that the computer will automatically pick up as new hardware?

Will the computer reconfigure and recognize the additional slot even though its two into one?

will I be creating conflicts in the devices?

Thank You
Chris






[file cleanup - saving space - attachment deleted by admin]I'm slightly confused...if you have a satellite card what is the 2nd one for ? ?
Also if using a satellite card is the modem necessary or is that onboard ? ?
Is the Ethernet card in use ? ?

I've used riser cards in the past but they are clunky and best not used unless absolutely neccessary...
Post Back with some more clarification.The second satellite card is for the new format DVB-S2 standard that the first card does not support. A lot of the sports back hauls etc. are beginning to use this standard. The second card will not support one of the programs I am using so I would like to keep the first card installed also.

The modem is necessary and utilizes the only other pci slot.
To my KNOWLEDGE there is no separate Ethernet card I believe it is integrated on the regular modem.

I had considered an external usb modem another option to free up the slot but the riser looked like a good solution.

What program is not supported by the new card ? ?
Also list again what PCI slots are being used and by what...
Reason i'm sounding stubborn here is that i've had bad experiences with riser cards in the past and if we can somehow prevent it that would be the best approach.The new card is not supported by TSReader.

Total slots
1 pci express x16 used by factory installed graphics card
1 pci express x1 mini used by factory installed TV card
2 conventional pci slots one used by factory installed v.92 56K modem and the other being used by my installed satellite dvb-s card



I don't consider you being stubborn as I know that the best way to approach a problem is through accurate info.
I am not a fan of experimenting with this riser either. I have a good working system right now that I mainly use for HD sat sport back hauls. It is just recently that the new DVB-S2 MPEG 4 and 8PSk formats are being adopted here in NORTH America. I want to add this new card without ruining what I already have so I appreciate your concern and help.I agree with Patio, risers are troublesome. If we can avoid going down that road, it would be best.

You have a couple options open to you if you really must keep both Sat cards. I'm not familiar with that program, so I can't give you solid advice on what to do about that particular issue. However:

1. I noticed you mentioned a serial port in you description. Is this working? It could be used for an external serial port modem.

2. A USB modem, like you mentioned, is another possibility.

By the way, thank you for making such a nice descriptive post on your specs. Much easier to see where things stand. Wish everyone would be so informative Thank you patio and quaxo

Going on feedback from both of you I can see that this riser/ extender is not such a hot idea. With my limited computer knowledge, when I tried to come up with options to gain and extra slot this seemed to be the best. You both have good reasons for not wanting to recommend this so even though I have the riser, now, as it was delivered yesterday, I will put it in my storage collection along with other items as such. Keeping a modem is necessary as my extreme rural location still only allows me access to dial up. Of the two, a serial port or usb external modem which one would be recommended ?
Also not that it matters now but to answer my original question in theory is the riser extender just supposed to plug in, add a couple of cards, reboot and presto your up and running? Or is it more complicated like reassigning irq's etc.

Thank You
Chris