Explore topic-wise InterviewSolutions in .

My mother has an old computer with no USB ports and she wants to use a USB modem she was given. Is there some kind of adapter that we can buy?If it's really old i would just buy i newer one, or upgrade to a little better computer, if you are intending on using it for the internet. Otherwise your probaly gonna experience more head aches and frustration fiddling around with older comps and modems. Especially online

Now a days it's almost mandatory that you use at least a 56k modem (most people can't even stand dial up anymore) and at least a 600mghz processor or higher at least. &LT;<You can buy expansion PCI CARDS that have USB ports. Quote

My mother has an old computer with no USB ports and she wants to use a USB modem she was given. Is there some kind of adapter that we can buy?

i have a 2 month old hard drive and now when i turn the computer on it says media test FAILURE "check cable" and cannot find OPERATING system.  it is not the hard drive because i got another ONE from dell and it did the same thing when i re-installed Windows.  help me out please...Check cables? See if any of them requires replacement?yep, he's a genious^  

They may be loose, not neccassarily DAMAGED, especially if it was shipped, could have become loosend in the process.

glInspiron 1100 is a notebook computer.  It uses a fexible mylar cable, which is NEARLY impossible to break.

I built a new COMPUTER over July 4 weekend.  I put a new hard disk as the master and my OLD hard drive in the slave position.  I installed Windows 2000.  When it was all settled, I realized that the master hard drive, with the new OS, was called e:\, and the old hard drive, in the slave slot, was called c:\.  It was too MUCH of a hassle to rejigger, and everything seemed to work OK.  

Then a couple weeks ago, the old hard drive started clunking, then quit functioning altogether.  So I took it out.  Now there was no c:\ drive on the machine, but everything seemed to function ok.  

Now I’m installing Norton anti-virus and its balking at not seeing a c:\ drive.  What can I do to make the system call it c:\?  Install starts out, then hits Error 1327.Invalid Drive: c:\

Do I need to reinstall everything?
HTTP://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=309000

hi, i have a compaq all in one a900 and i keep getting clear system error messages, everytime i try to print. It's ENDLESS, their are no errors i can pinpoint and no paper jams. What can this be? It's getting really frustrating, the printers were out in like 98, however this one was practically brand new when i got it secondhand. Please someone help me with this thank you.HelpMePlease...well lets see ......what operating system are you USING. And has this printer ever worked while connected to the computer you are using now ? how is the printer connected to the pc .....ie USB , serial or parallel ?
Do you have the operating manual for this printer.....if you dont here it is ....
http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/bpu80011.pdf



let us know

dl65   Quote

HelpMePlease...well lets see ......what operating system are you using. And has this printer ever worked while connected to the computer you are using now ? how is the printer connected to the pc .....ie usb , serial or parallel ?
Do you have the operating manual for this printer.....if you dont here it is ....
http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/bpu80011.pdf


Hi, sorry for not giving a little more info in the first place, besides it just hurts me :-/. Well i'm not %100 sure if it worked before but i never had the software i had to download it, before that i never got system error messages now it keeps on doing it and i can't get it to print, it contacts pc just fine, but as soon as it looks like it's gonna print i get the error message "clear system error then press clear" error.

To answer a few of your question it is connected to my printer, which i believe is my parrallel? I'm running windows 98 which is COMPATIBLE for this printer i'm probaly the only one but until i upgrade to a new computer it's windows 98 till then. I checked out that link and it started to open with acrobat reader and then froze up, but i'll try it again. If you can SUGGEST solve or help, in anyway much appreciated thanks.


I wish i was a printer repairer cause it's gotta be something with the printer, but i'll keep my hopes up thanks, jay

why my PC SHOW me only 96 MB RAM when I install 196 MB RAM?see if this HELPS you find your diskspace>http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/dskinv.html

:'(My daughter has an emachine T1842 ,Intel Celeron Processor,40GB HD loaded w/xp home. It was running slow (too much junk on it) so we wiped out using the restore disc. Now when you boot system it show the emachine logo and then goes blank. No keys work. We ENTERED setup and saved original defaults. CPU Fan stops running (all else is fine) replaced CPU and still get same results.You should not attempt to turn on  the PC without a properly FUNCTIONING CPU fan.

Did you check to see if the CPU fan is connected properly? If the CPU fan connector on the mainboard no longer works, see if the cable is long enough to connect it to the additional fan connectors to provide it with power.

When you replaced the CPU, did you install a new CPU fan as well?The CPU fan is connected properly. It starts running correctly and when the computer starts windows the fan stops. This happened also when I replaced the CPU and fan for a second time.Connect the CPU fan to another fan connector on the mainboard to see if the problem persists.

maybe the hard drive...what make is it...and any beeping on booting...When I PLUG the fan into another connector nothing happens. Is it the motherboard?See if disconnecting periphals or perhaps PCI cards or other fans will cause your CPU fan to function? If yes, you should consider replacing your Power Supply Unit..When everything is disconnected it does the same. Will replace power supply and keep you posted. Thanks!Donot bother replacing your Power Supply Unit, then.

If you disconnect the Hard drive, does the CPU fan still refuse to function?  When I disconnect the HD the cpu fan stays running.I would replace the hard drive if I were. You will risk damaging your CPU if you keep testing and experimenting.

What company manufactured your hard drive? If you explain them your problem you may be told how to fix your hard drive. If it is fixable.I will notifiy Seagate today. Thanks.try this and  it should tell you if the hard drive has had it>http://www.seagate.com/support/seatoolssays file structure failed  with critical errors-if its under a year old ....contact seagate...its under warrenty...if not...you will need a new one...from maybe www.ebuyer.com or do you have another pc in which you can connect it to as a slave...and run scandisk on it..to check for bad block it may springs back to life...if not you can try and drag the files of it..or use this>http://www.ntfs.com/products.htm   or this crazy tip if you try it use extreme caution....take the hard drive out and stick it in the freezer for five-ten MINUTES...this contracts the platters of the hard drive...and take out of the freezer and place it in a warm place...then place it back in your pc....i heard it somewhere and its suppose to work..never had the MISFORTUNE to try it out...yet....

I am working on a GATEWAY E-3400 P3-1000 SYTEM. It has a CD-ROM and a CD-RW. Both drives are detected in the BIOS, both drives are detected and show up in the device manager under "DVD/CD-ROM Drives". However, in "My Computer" only the CD-RW is ASSIGNED a drive letter.
I am trying to install Roxio 6.1.1.8 to copy CDs with course material on them, but Roxio doesn't detect the drives.
Has anyone had similar problems or know a fix?
Thanks,
John Hooveryou may need the cdgone reg PATCH have a LOOK this is for winxp>http://aumha.org/search.htm

My floppy drive is asking me to format the disk and won't open it. It was working last night and just started this morning. I gotta print out the document on it for my gf and her computer is doing the same thing. Please Helptrekkie28001......Tell us.... was your G/F s pc working ok before trying that floppy disk ? Now you tried it and your floppy doesnt WORK........That sounds a bit odd ......where did the disk in question come from......I'll bet you it contains a virus ........I WOULD run virus scans on both your pc and your G/F s ASAP .........TAKE the disk in question into your local library and TRY and print it there .......
let us know
dl65  I believe Merlin ANSWERED this kind of question a day or so ago. I suggest you search for that post.

Hello. I am having a boot-up problem with our family 600mhz Pentium III.
This is a problem I have being trying to solve for over 4 months so any help anything would be so very much appreciated. Well here goes!

The configuration is:
Windows 98 SE
Intel Pentium III 600mhz .25micron processor on a 100mhz bus.
128mb of Micron PC100 Memory.
ASUS P3BF 100MHZ Front side bus Motherboard
Western Digital ATA 66 28gigabyte Hard drive on a
Promise ATA 66 Hard drive card
Floppy Drive
3Dfx voodoo 3 16MB PCI video card
Hollywood Sigma II PCI card
Vortex 2 PCI Sound Card
Hollywood HiVAL 16x DVD drive.
In a 400watt Antec SOHO file server case with rear fans and fan pulling air up and out of power supply
1400VA APC Backup Battery Power Unit(In case the power goes out)

It is a home build computer. One day I went to start it up and the screen just flickered.
I heard the fans whizzing. So I knew they were working and it was booting somewhat.
I just could not reach POST. I thought it was the video card or DVD card. At this time our Monitor was connected or passed through our DVD card and a cable ran from our DVD card to our video card. The DVD card is a Hollywood Sigma II PCI card and the video card is a 3dFx Voodoo 3 16mb PCI card.

So I ran the monitor cable to the video card directly. Still I got the flickering black screen at boot up like the monitor or video card were bad. So I took the voodoo 3 card out and tried it in my other computer. The other computer booted up on it with no problem. So I knew the video card worked. I pulled out the dvd card thinking maybe it was hanging the system. I put the video card back in and the 600mhz system booted. So I thought it was all fine. Bad dvd card. But it wasn't. Couple days later, I get this message on boot up: WINDOWS FILE ERROR. INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND RESTART.

I thought 3 things: The hard drive had a virus, the hard drive image was bad or Windows 98 was corrupt. I was still able to boot in safe mode at this time and get into the BIOS. Also at this time I had a 300watt power supply. So I was able to get into safe mode and do a virus scan and found nothing.

I restarted the system the system and I got the flickering black screen like my video card
Or monitor was bad. So I killed the power. Switched the monitor because the video card had been tested before. Still I got the same thing. So I shut off the system and waited a day. Next day I booted into windows 98 like nothing happened. Virus checked it all. Nothing. So I backed up all my data on cds and did a virus check on the cds on my other computer and the cds came up with nothing.

So I thought my 300 watt power supply was bad. The case I had was outdated so I bought a new ANTEC BX1400 SOHO File server case with 400 watt power supply.

At this point I thought I should seek some outside help so I called my cousin who has built several home computers and is much more knowledgeable in this sort of thing than I am. He felt it was a corrupt Windows 98 image and to wipe out the hard drive and that is why I got the WINDOWS FILE ERROR. INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND RESTART.
Error.

So I wiped out the hard drive took all the computer components and installed them in the new ANTEC 400 watt case. At this point I thought I best only install the bare bones of what I need to boot the sucker. So I had just:
motherboard in the new case,
cpu,
memory,
hard drive connected not to the Promise ATA 66 card but the motherboard itself,
and video card.
(Side note: the max hard drive transfer rate of the MB is 33mbs). I even took out the floppy drive because at this time the floppy on my other computer decided to die on us. (Just our rotten luck).
I even didn't connect the DVD drive.
I wrote zeros to the hard drive using our other computer. Oddly when I connected the hard drive to my other computer I was able to view all our files like there was no problem.
Still I formatted the hard drive so it would be like it was when it came from the factory.

I tried to boot it again and got the black flickering screen.
The system is able to turn on. I hear the fans turning. I see them turning.
The fans on my heatsink attached to the cpu are moving. These fans are connected to the motherboard so I can monitor their speed. Also I have a green light on my motherboard and it lights up. So I believe the motherboard is functioning fine.

At this point I thought maybe the CMOS battery was dead. So I replaced that.
I also switched out my memory with my other computer.
I tried to boot the computer. It does not post. I cannot get into the bios.
All I see is my monitor screen blinking black, I see & hear all the fans moving.
The cpu heatsink feels HOT to the touch. I hear no warning beeps or anything.
I am baffled. Any help from anyone would be very much appreciated.
Thanks.


try another ram stick...or maybe the motherboard needs a bios flash...

I need help trying to insert/ match up my cdrw/dvd burner drive with my dell laptop. I have the drive, I just dont know how to match them up and put them together. My manual doesn't cover it.
Thnx.
-VVanyelle.......Do you already have a cd rom installed on your laptop? Is your laptop designed to take another one internaly or is it setup for an external one ......?
Why dont you contact Dell ........they should be able to tell you all about it .

Hope this helps

dl65  yeah, it has one built in, its just the burner that I can't figure out how to put in. We've already tried to get a hold of dell, but they have their little service charge thing, so I THOUGHT Id try to FIND help online before I took it to them.
Thanks.
-VVanyelle....Is there an available dock in your laptop thats designed to take another cd drive or burner ?
I am not all that knowgeable when it comes to laptops.
What about your local computer shop.......surely they can give you some assistance.
Perhaps another one of our MEMBERS can shed more light on your situation.

cheers
dl65  http://www.bobjohnson.com/dell_latitude_used_laptops/Dell_latitude_Laptops_Drive_Swap.htmMerlin_2 and dl65-
thank you guys so much! all the advice helped, and the website was exactly what I NEEDED.
Thanks again!!
-V

I have a 60gb HD, with Windows ME, we have recently bought a 120gb HD and want to put XP in it.

My problem is I have soo much stuff that I want on the old hard drive, and cant think of a way of transfering it over, other than copying all the stuuf on to CD's etc.

I was told that I can do 1 of 2 things, either get a lead to connect to both HD's and copy across, or put both HD's in the pc as there should be a spare slot and then copy across that way.

Can ANYONE help me PLEASE !!!!!!   Why not use both harddrives?

Install them both, connect them to the IDE cables and set one to Master, one to slave. Either by using the Jumper and selecting Master/Slave or by using Cable Select and using the BIOS.

Instructions should be printed on a sticker on top of the manual.

Thanks Raptor.

But we think the old HD is on its way out, it takes 9 attempts to start the pc, then it will crash periodically, or hang or fresh, yet out of the 60 GB we only use 9GB, also it is affecting a lot of my packages, I cant copy data on to a cd if the start up hasnt been smooth, or my zip drive wont work, omg there are LOADS of problems, which I have been told maybe due to Windows ME, but also the HD too.Once you have the new HDD mounted and set to master, you can safely copy files from the older HDD. I think this stresses it less than ACTUALLY having both an operating system on it and burning data to CD's.   Thanks very much Raptor, I'll try it tomorrow

i am running win98se on a 400mhz pII with a nvidia vanta card 800x600 res-my screen size is larger than the 13" display and some info gets lost at the top-i tried the size controls but that just distorts the image
any ideas?
thanks
batmanndid you try the resizing controls in windows and on your monitor?i tried the sizing controls on the monitor but that just distorts the image-are there windows controls also?
yeah....right CLICK on your DESKTOP
click on properties

then GO to settings and resize..

already tried that-800x600 is correcthmmm

try to CHANGE the size... you never know...

i like to have my screen size slightly smaller cause it looks nicer...

i like a border too-tried resizing to 640x480 and it works but going BACK to 800x600 and i get the same problem
thanks for your help
batmannI think 800x600 is too large for your 13" inch monitor. Perhaps if you install newer videocard drivers, you are given the option to choose a resolution in between.ive been checking on newer video driver
thanks
batmann

My system has been freezing (or hanging) every 10 to 30 minutes.
It's been doing this for a while now. It doesn't really
matter what I'm doing, but when I have everquest running it does seem to get worse.
What happens is the entire computer freezes for about 5 to 30 seconds- I can't move
the mouse or use the keyboard- the screen is frozen, and the button on my box stops
blinking- Sometimes I stare at the button and wait until it starts blinking again
and I know the computer has "woken up" again.

I'm going to try to list info about my computer:

- HP pavilion xt878
- 256 RAM
- AMD Athlon Processor AuthenticAMD ~1298 Mhz
- Hard Drive- 111GB, free space: 29.5GB
- DSL (the problem was still there when I used dialup)
- Sound card - Crystal WDM Audio Codec
- Video card - nvidia riva tnt2 pro (hp)

-System Model: 15396400001125
-System type: X86 based PC
-BIOS version: EPP revision 9.00
-Total Physical Memory: 255.45 MB
-Available Physical Memory: 280.00 KB
-Total Virtual Memory: 2.00 GB
-Available Virtual Memory: 627.71 MB
-Page File Space: 1.75 GB

Programs Running:
Control Panel
Explorer
PowerStrip
Winmgmt
Mpftray
Wusb11cfg
Mpfagent
Mcvsescn
Mcagent
Systray
Mcvsrte
Eqwgfix
-------------------------
If there is any more info that would be helpful that I could post please let me know.
Any HELP would be appreciated, this problem has been driving me crazy lately. Thanks-Post in only one section next time.sorry about the multi-post.  what is sp2?  I am about to investigate whether or not it is a heating problem by checking the fans and seeing if it works better with the case off.info on sp2>http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=842242&product=windowsxpsp2;Clean the case thoroughly.

Computer Cleaning Information

and scan for viruses, spyware and trojans. Also defragment your harddrive, clean the registry and remove redundant files. Uninstall programs you no longer use as well.

If this problem has started from the moment you turned on the PC the first day you had it, bring it back to the store and explain them your problem.

If not, you may have to maintain your PC better. Unless you upgraded certain components that generate heat (HARDDRIVES, videocard, processor, power supply unit) it is most likely not a heat problem. Not a persistant one, at least. Most likely dust buildup. Or perhaps your thermal paste or thermal pad REQUIRES replacement. (the pad or paste between the heatsink of your cooler and CPU to better guide heat to the heatsink)

Hello.

I have a PROBLEM with a modem that I have. The drivers are there and working, I have a query for the modem and windows sees the modem. The modem works in other computer towers, but not mine. It does not recognize a dial tone even though I have a good dial tone. I did everything to get this working modem to work in my computer...but nothing. I even bought a new modem and installed it in my computer and the same problem...it does not work. Do you know why?
Thanks
John Savino......First of all , what operating system are you using. If you PHYSICALLY remove the modem and any drivers. Then shut down and reboot . then shut down and plug the modem into a differant slot if possible and restart.....Does window say that it has detected new hardware and then install it.......Is it PCI or ISA ?
LET US know

dl65

???Tried 2 different CD ROMS in same computer detects but wont read any media.Both CD Roms are working when tested on another PC.Tried changing IDE Cable-no luck...Changed from IDE1 to IDE2-NO LUCK.....Able to read HD on same IDE but not CD Rom.Never experienced this problem before I NEED HELP!Have a look at these articles:

CD-ROM receiving POWER but does not work

CD-ROM not working in Windows 9x

Perhaps updating mainboard drivers will allow you to read CD's. Some mainboards (Such as my Gigabyte 7N400 Pro) seem to have issues with reading certain CD's DUE to their type of security.must be a windows problem what operating system..guess winxp have you tried removing them in the device manager....and re-boot..more info here>HTTP://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q311455   and are these pre-recorded disks? or burnt ones?

I need to UPGRADE my computer and I need some suggestions.  I have a Pentium MMX with Windows 98 Second Edition.  I needat least  800MHz processor I need to have a ACCESS to AGP or PCI Express slot.  I also need to have a connection for S-ATA connector for my DVD/CD drive.

Any suggestions without spending a lot of money?  www.ebuyer.com    motherboard etc...or intel may help you&GT;http://www.intel.com/cd/ids/developer/asmo-na/eng/catalog/codeoptimization/mmx/index.htmAny other suggestions?  I tried to get into EBuyer but couldn't  get the right area code to register.  Everytime I put in my area code it said it was invalid area code. (darn Canadians)  lol.  Anyway I would like any other suggestions.
where are you based?....the intel link was given to have you looked at the site?what make is your pc some manufactors have a site for UPGRADING pcs?sonson.........CAREFUL.........I'm a ......"darn Canadian"....lol .......   Why dont you try E bay......there's lots of motherboards and processors there.....
http://www.ebay.com/


HOPE this helps

dl65  Ooh, a mounty!

I just bought a Xerox flatscreen monitor.  When I try to use the reccomended (and bext looking) resolution at 1280X1024 the screen SOMETIMES does this thing where 'lines' appear running down the screen.  Rioght now, the text has this sort of 'wavyness' to it, though it is very subtle.  I messed around with the REFRESH rate, but that doesn't change anything.  It seems to work alright in 1280X960, but it doesn't look as good.  Might still be LACKING some sharpness even in this resolution, but I don't see any of that annoying motion.  Any ideas?  I have a ATI RADEON (sp?) video card, I think.did it come with a drivers disk?and does it show up in the display settings/advanced /monitor....click change monitor...what are your settings high COLOUR 16 bit?

I have an old computer and recently put in a NEW HD.  There is some DATA that I would like to put on my new HD, but is there a way to put it on while the old one is out.  Or is there some way to piggy-back the old with the new to use it as a back up?

:-/Also, could you do the same with a laptop HD(transfer data from a laptop HD to a desktop HD)?gifd76.....why dont you INSTALL the new hd as a slave to the one thats in there now and then transfer the FILES to that one and then just use the EXISTING one to house your operating system and programs . then once you have them on the new one .....delete them off the original drive and you will have recovered a lot of space .

dl65  

My computer has a removable disk drive that is a FLOPPY disk drive and dvdrom drive. I want to reinstall WINDOWS98SE after having already cleaned out my original hard drive and setting up a new partition and FORMATTING it. My problem is I am ABLE to boot the system with a floppy disk but when I put the dvdrom drive in to do a windows setup my computer won't recognize it. I was able to download the driver for the dvdrom and install it but this doesn't correct the problem.i find the workaround is to take the h/d from the laptop and with an ide adapter format/installl the system using a pc desktop/tower system...laptop h/d as a slave?done..is easier to do ...

Hello everyone ive looked eveywhere but i cant seem to get a answer to this question so I thought i should get on a forum.

Ok i am currently using a 2month old comp that didnt come with a floppy drive, but i need a floppy drive for school so i took a drive off of my old packard bell.

when i try to READ a disk in my COMPUTER i get the error message

A:/ is not accessible
no id address mask found on the floppy disk

so is this a physical problem so something i can do in the control panel?Demon_kazuya....When you installed the floppy drive didnt your operating system see it and install it ?
Is it not showing up in My Computer ? Go into your bios and see if it shows up in there...Do you have the ribbon cable between the floppy drive and the mobo the right way around...?

let us know
dl65  thank you for helping me

im pretty SURE the ribbon is connected the right way because when i first installed it the led light was always on until i flipped it and put it BACK on

it is showing up in my computer

and im sorry i dont know what bios isComputer BIOS information and helpok now i am no longer getting those messages about id masks

now my problem is that my drive cannot format disks

ok ill try my best to explain this since i dont know much about computing

i go to my comp with a disk in my floppy drive
and i double click the a: drive

it then tells me I have to format my disk and then opens up a format window

I cant change any settings and I cant quickformat
I cant make a dos startup disk because of a I/0 Error
And I cant format  no matter how many time I try

I tryed formatting in dos and using alkonost maxformat program

So I guess my prob is i cant read because I cant format
Ps i am using a floppy drive that came with a win95 computer but I am currently using WinXp home edition, is that the problem?Demon_kazuya........So if I understand you ........now you are able to see drive A in  My Computer .....ok and if you put a floppy in the drive with data on it .....you can see the data ok .........So exactly what is it your trying to do ? If your trying to get a boot disk......go to Bootdisk .COM and d/l a win98 boot disk and save it to your floppy in drive A..........
Here's a though .....I believe win XP only supports ......NTFS or Fat 32 if you are using a disk that was created using win95 it may be fat16......just a thought.

let us know

dl65  what is happening here is when you place a floppy disk in the disk drive  winxp its expects to read a winxp disk or fat 32  which has already been stated ...can the floppy data be download for winxp to read it.
? is this a special disk that needs to read >the floppy drive is not in question here as its can be used anyway since the dawn of pcs> ...its the disks? can you tell us what format they are written for ?what are you trying to do here...more info..on your  project..amigados had a cross platform dos program which could read anything..but thats lost at this moment Thank you for all your help but after everything ive done It must be easier to replace

I belive it is to old to use ntfs thus I think i wasted a couple of days....

Ah well im goin to best buy tommarow to buy a new one

I didnt realise how cheap they are now

And thanks again

Hi,

When I turn the POWER on, it logs in to a grey screen,
(doesnt load up to the desktop) and "Add a device" POPS up
saying it has found a device, but doesnt say what device
it is. I am thinking it might be the graphics card or
motherboard?? (Coz it goes grey and goes into 640x480
mode). I try to put the cds in for the comp. to find the
drivers, but windows refuses to search the CD drive, the
CD drive doesnt even show on the file source list, only
the hard-drives the A:\ drive and a couple of others.


I also dont have the Windows ME disk, as a copy of it is
meant to be on the hard-disk. As for the emergency restore
floppy disk, it no longer WORKS as I have upgraded my
computer, and the last TIME I used it it made things 10x
worse! (the disk didnt really recognise any of the new
HARDWARE so gave up i guess!)

It must have happened when I moved alot of files from C:\
to another folder and also C:\WINDOWS to another folder
(as I was trying to clear my computer out abit and would
have thought all important files would belong to a
folder!) However I managed to get into DOS and put
everything back to their respective folders.

Safe mode etc doesnt work, gets to the grey screen and
nothing.

I do have the cd's for the graphics card, motherboard etc,
but because it doesnt say what device its found, and the
reason why device manger wont attempt to read anything but
the A:\ drive, there doesnt seem that there is alot I can
do in this device found screen! I can press CTRL+Alt+Del
to show what progs are running, but nothing is displayed.

Please help!

Thanks in advance,

Steve

Can you not move C: Windows back to see if that solves your problem?

Never remove or move Windows or system files!re-boot pc place the wime boot floppy in the drive...a:\> scanreg/fix or scanreg/restore        commands you can try..Well the fact is I was trying to clear out my hard-drive as its almost full although i cant really see why, but there are all these loose stand alone files in the C:\ and C:\windows folders.

Surely they should be put into an actual folder?

Anyways some plank on here told me if I didnt know what a file did, I should move it into another folder and re-boot, if you dont get any probs then the file is just a waste of space. so thats what i did.

I did manage to get into DOS and moved back the files into the C: folder and C:\windows folder respectively, which in theory would make things work again, you would have thought! the only files i cant move back are 2 files which have a filesize of 0KB. DOS doesnt want to copy them across, presumeably because it thinks it cant copy 0KB.

Dont have a bootup disk. Is there any way of making one through DOS? Quote

Anyways some plank on here told me if I didnt know what a file did, I should move it into another folder and re-boot, if you dont get any probs then the file is just a waste of space. so thats what i did.

I'm considering buying a new computer and I'm noticing that computers with AMD processors are cheaper than the ones with Pentium processors.  How do they compare?  I use an AutoCad program, so math and graphics performance are critical.  Thanks.
I'd go for Pentium. AMD runs far too HOT for my liking.i would say the same ......that maybe the reason why american mirco devices are cheap...heat or some say they are overclocked as WELL...intel is best...It's completely incorrect to write off AMD processors as 'hotter' than Intel ones, or as 'overclocked' at the factory.

Both Intel and AMD produce many different types of processor - some of these run hotter than others, due to the speed they run at, the manufacturing process, and sheer luck.  It also helps to have an appropriate cooling solution strapped to your processor.

Regarding the 'overclocking' of processors - a processor is given a speed rating at the factory (eg, 2.4GHz is a speed rating for an Intel processor, 2400+ is the roughly equivalent speed rating for an AMD processor) and the processor is locked at the factory to run at that speed.

Overclocking literally means running something at a speed faster than which it has been manufactured for, which in the case of processors can only be done in a built system - the speed a processor runs at is controlled by the motherboard it is sitting in (although the processor MAY limit this speed - factory locking of processors is almost universal).

As a particular processor design has been manufactured for longer, we tend to see the speed of processors produced increase as the company (AMD or Intel) refines and tweaks the manufacturing process.  In cases where there isn't the demand for as many high speed processors, we can actually find that the manufacturer will take a processor that can run at say 2.8GHz and lock it at a lower speed and sell it as a 2.4GHz processor.  This can, with particular model processors, give the consumer an excellent chance to overclock their processor and obtain a better processor for the same price.

I'd be buying the processor which gives me better value for my money - and this will depend on how much you're willing to spend, and what you're going to do with it.its seems you answered  my question on amd...i rest my case...to sell anything in the world marketing is best to say is the best...amd are the cheapo version  of intel and still will be  to compete with intel....there are only two so far..you must be using amd pcu to state these facts..?but who has the edge...and how is best...before you judge get the facts...in other words you would overclock the cpu..which just proves my point...speed why its an issue in EVERYTHING....trying to beat the clock of time...forget it >>>>>>>>its a lost cause in history whaty does anybody gain by saving TIME  nothing !!!Merlin,

What on Earth is that supposed to mean?

For God's sake, learn to use some punctuation and state arguments with just a wee bit of clarity - I cannot even tell what the *censored* you are on about.

You seem to be SAYING that I presented a lay down misere argument that AMD were inferior processors - I'd really like to know what part of my post in any way even inferred that, let alone argued for it.

In short, post something that isn't incoherent babble, so at least someone has the opportunity to respond.so what you are saying is that when i talk to people i say whoops i forgot to say there should have been a full stop comma...off topic what is the difference..between typing and text....moblie phone script suit you better like lol...I was trying to point out that your post was a direct response to mine, claiming somehow that what I had said supported your wild assertions.  

I was trying to say that I'd like to know how, but have been completely unable to decipher your post due to its complete lack of structure, argument and direction.  It rambles and seems to go nowhere, but draws wild conclusions along the way.

Would you care to elaborate?  I've read it a good twenty times, and still can't work out how you reach your conclusions.

I'm not a mind reader, Merlin.  Unless you communicate effectively, what you are trying to say will remain a mystery...how dare you sir  m_2.......I'm not a mind reader, Merlin.  Unless you communicate effectively, what you are trying to say will remain a mystery....chade
no an enigma....m_2
-----------------------------------------------------------------------So what have you got  to prove that amd cpu are better than intel  show me the benchmarks of  amd /intel and why amd are so good..you  must have got one of them to reply to this post...i also have amd in  some my pcs...
typed as thought!!! and it all depends on other variations like mobo-ram etc...
------------------------------------------------------------------------typed in english of course. Quote

how dare you sir

what have you got  to prove that amd cpu are better than intel  show me the benchmarks of  amd /intel and why amd are so good

you  must have got one of them to reply to this post

i also have amd in  some my pcs

typed as thought!!!

EVERYTIME I TRY TO DEFRAG MY SYSTEM IT TELLS ME THAT THERE ARE STRUCTURAL ERRORS ON MY DISK, AND THAT I MUST RUN DISKFIXER TO FIX THESE ERRORS. WHEN I RUN DISKFIXER IT TELLS ME.."DISK FIXER FOUND PROBLEMS WITH THE FILE SYSTEM".
RUN "CHKDSK" WITH THE /F(FIX) OPTION TO CORRECT THESE.
I DID THIS AS WELL, AND IT TELLS ME THAT THERE ARE NO PROBLEMS.
PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!more info before sorting this problem like updates on winxp...?and downloads  and when did this start happening?when you installed winxp from win9x?your pc reg may have been corupt..did you scan for crap  scripts i mean* viruses/*worms/*trojans or there is oprions like re-boot f8 ket keeps hitting it.and chose LAST good config..or this>http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm  shame the m$oft never kept the scanreg command thats progress...or so the say..win9x was better some say it was not time will tell...help LONGHORN is NEXT...i am sorry mr bg but i wanted to download this program???

I would like some advice about how to transfer programs such as my jukeboxes and music to a new external hard drive and then uninstall or delete them from my internal drive.you could do the following drag and drop the files on to your har drive  burn them to cd/rw disks or clone your hardrive..more info if needed>http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q306187   and wipe your hard drive with a win98/se boot disk using format c:...There might be a way around it that I'm not aware of - but it's a BAD idea to move *programs* to an external hard drive.  Programs usually register their location with the Windows registry - I'm really not sure how this will WORK with an external drive - my immediate thought is that it's not a very good idea.

Your music however, mp3/wav/ogg or otherwise can just be drag and dropped to the new hard disk - you'll just need to point your jukebox program at the new location, and any library setup you may have for your music may be disrupted by this move and may need to be rebuilt.  An inconvenience, but one you'll get over I'm sure.

Give that your music is likely to take up several hundred, if not thousand times more space than your music program, this should solve your space problem on your internal drive.I don't think installing applications on an external drive is a very good plan, I sure don't recommend it.  Putting data on the drive is fine...  Of course, you are planning on having backups of the data, RIGHT?  PERHAPS you should just USE the external drive for backup...

Hi,

Sorta long story so grab a cuppa joe or something...

So I have this ancient Kenwood drive that's too fast for it's own good.  I was recently installing UT2004 (6 CDs!) and the thing was reading so hard that the vibrations kept corrupting the install.  I ended up having to rewire the cables and reset the jumpers for the cd-drive and hard-drives so that they would be outside the case during the install, and thus, not subject to proximate vibration...  While that worked, it's gonna be a major pain if I have to open up my case and screw around every time I install a piece of software.

In other news, a friend of mine happened to have this old HP cd BURNER that he couldn't sell, so he gave it to me as a free replacement.  I went home, plugged the thing in and Windows XP detected the device on bootup, FOUND DRIVERS, installed them, and now it shows the drive and CORRECT model number in device manager.  However, the thing refuses to autoplay (even though Windows is properly configured to allow it), and even though the drive is showing in Windows explorer, clicking on the associated drive letter shows absolutely nothing on any CDs.  (after an excruciatingly long floppy-driveish wait)  I CAN alternate click the drive and command it to eject, I CAN PLAY audio cds through music programs (no distortion so I don't suspect a read head malfunction), I AM showing proper power to the drive, and I DO hear and feel the drive spinning.  I've temporarily reinstalled my old drive to verify the integrity of the IDE cable, and I have the darn thing on the proper jumper setting.  One more bit of wierdness...  When I stick a data CD into the drive, it acts like it's going to read it for a minute or two and then remains silent for another 3 minutes or so at which time it decides to eject the CD with absolutely no prompting on the screen.  I am absolutely paranoid when it comes to trojans/viruses/spyware so I don't suspect a "joke PROGRAM" (yes I read your archived posts).  My computer isn't even connected to the internet (I'm absolutely broke so I can't afford a new drive, let alone a simple dial-up connection).  I've also tried browsing for driver and firmware updates from HP to no avail.  I don't even care about the burning functions of the drive right now.  I just want it to work!

The owner of a local computer store doesn't have a clue what's going on, and my limited experience isn't helping either.  Right now I just want a drive that works and I was hoping maybe one of you would have some sort of godsend answer for me!?  I don't know what you need but here's my system info if it helps:

20gig 7200rpm wd hard-drive with win xp pro
*40gig 5400prm wd hard-drive with programs and data
*(same IDE cable as problem CD-Drive)
athlon xp 1900+ (palomino core)
512mb ocz pc3200 (ddr400) memory
a7v8x motherboard (kt400 chipset)
radeon 9700 pro (128mb vram)
350w enermax psu
system NOT overclocked and everything running cool

What I know tells me it's a dead drive, but anything anyone might be able to do would help!  I'll have internet access again on Wednesday so I'll just have to chew on my nails until then

Thanks for your time and patience,
AlexAlex,

Wow.  That's long enough to be one of my posts

Anyway, you're right in that the problem is not straight forward.  There are a number of solutions I can suggest:

Using the old drive

There are programs available to limit the speed your CD drive can operate at.  I don't really have the time to Google for it and answer this post - I believe I have a copy of one at work - I'll post the name when I get to work (and remember to do so).  This should solve your vibration problems.

Using the 'new' drive

It's hard to tell straight out what the problem is with the drive.  Clearly, it's not working correctly on some level.  If it plays musics CDs OK, then the hardware is also working correctly in some other ways.  If you're using an audio cable (from the back of your CD-ROM to your soundcard, or motherboard in the case of onboard sound) I'd be suspecting some kind of issue with the IDE interface on the CD-ROM drive itself, or perhaps the way Windows is interpreting the signal from the drive.  If you have some kind of bootable CD-ROM (whether it be your WinXP disc, or even better - Knoppix Linux distro), insert that and reboot (of course you may need to adjust the boot order in your BIOS - I'm assuming from your technically proficient post you know how to do that).  If that works - then you've pretty much narrowed it down to a Windows-related problem.  If it is Windows related - your next steps would be to access the Device Manager (Control Panels > System > Hardware Tab > Device Manager Button) and see if Windows reports a properly functional device.

Can't think of anything else at the moment to get started on the problem...so go get started!CD-ROM Speed Limiting program is called CD-ROM Tool (FUNNILY enough) and is available at:
http://cdromtool.hopto.orgThanks a boatload!

I downloaded the winxp version of CD-ROM Tool and will try it out tonight!

If that fails I guess I could always subject myself to a MONTH long top ramen diet so I could afford a shiney new plextor drive YAY!

Just thought you might want to know that the old drive works reliably now.

Thanks again for the link!No worries Alex.

Glad to help.

ABOUT A MONTH AGO MY FATHER IN LAW USED HIS WIFES COMP. IT HAD WINDOWS 98. HE TRIED PUTTING AOL 9.0 IN IT. THE VERY NEXT TIME THE COMP WAS TURNED ON , IT WOULDN'T GO PASS THE DOS PROMPT. NOW THE COMP WONT DO ANYTHING. THE CPU WILL COME ON BUT NOTHING SHOWS UP ON THE MONITOR. AND NONE OF THE DRIVES WORK EITHER. THE MONITOR LIGHT SHOWS YELLOW LIKE IT IS NOT ACTIVE. IF YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS I WOULD APPRECIATE IT VERY MUCH. THANK YOU   carol_atencio......Well I'm not surprised......ANYTIME one gets involved with AOL ......they're asking for trouble....
My best advice to your Father in law would be to format the computer....reinstall win 98 ....and reinstall the programs ........Is it possible to START the computer up in "Safe Mode " .....if so he may be able to SAVE his data to a cd and then do the format.....The problem with AOL is ...unless its been redesigned is that it replaces everything with its own versions of things. I know many people , who when hearing the name AOL go into fits of cursing and swearing......( I wonder why )

hope this is some help .
DL65

Its FAIRLY simple I think and yet I can't find a way to solve it maybe someone else is BRIGHER than me or has has the same problem.

I hooked up a microphone to my computer and in all the recording programs I tried including the setup wizzard the only sound thats get PUT through to my microphone are whatever is playing on my computer. Basicly the receiving party gets to hear my MP3s, movies, game sounds, windows pop ups and so on. And I can't seem to find where I can correct this. Hope to get some help with this as its starting to annoy me.in the control panel/sounds and media icon click..voice. tab .did you test you mic for sound?and is the mic in the correct jack plug?Narrowed down the problem a bit.

-Yes its in the right socket
-No its not detected
-Both my playback and recording device are set to realtek AC 97 audi.

When I unplug the mic the recording input of the mic is still the sound that goes to my speakers.pug the mic in and then go back to the sounds/medis icon click the device tab...inline devices..does it pick it up?what software are you USING trillian..i take that you wish to talk to people via the net..In order for players to use voice, the host and the players must turn on voice. You can only talk to players who have enabled voice chat.

HI All, new here. I have just received a new PC and all is just great except that the PS2 optical mouse hangs every now and then for up to 30 seconds. The mouse wheel and even the click works when it does this, but the position freezes.  Seems to happen more on the desktop (Windows XP) than elsewhere.

A colleague at work has the same problem - except worse (longer hangs). I guess I could swap mouses but I suspect its a settng or a conflict or somehng else that I don't KNOW (I very much doubt its a VIRUS - started before I even connected for the first time).
Please mail me. Thanks Neville.Did you configure the mouse and install drivers that MAY have come with it?Hi
Yes I did, I installed, re-installed and then eventually went back and got a replacement mouse (another species) installed it from disk, got drivers from the web and installed those and it still does it. With my old ball-mouse - np. Its just with optical mouses.

HELP?you may or may not  have to you the refresh BUTTON on the top taskbar for this web-page?>http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;321122Scan for viruses, spyware and trojans.

Are you certain it is the mouse and not the computer?Thanks for advice all - no its not a virus. I swapped back to my old ball mouse and no prblems. Its just with the optical PS/2 mouse. Even tried a new one - same thing.
Seems to be some incomaptibitity or some conflict. So, problem stoll not resolved.did the mouse come with a driver disk? and thanks for the feedback..some dont BOTHER?

My computer is telling me that I have no cd-rom DRIVE or burner drive installed. When I go to the ADD hardware wizard, it says that the status is that the drivers are successfully installed but that the drives are not present. I'd appreciate any help to aid me in remedying this SITUATION. By the way, the drives, prior to this, have been fully functional for nearly a year.
Thanks,
nssn4x4MS-KB article Q3320553 describes a couple of possible fixes. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320553&Product=winxpWorked LIKE a charm...Thank you very much!

Hello all,

Computer: HP 8765C
OS:  Windows ME

I have a 42 GB hard drive that was approximately half full.  A few days ago, I suddenly lost the remaining 20 GB of drive space.  I ran Virus Scan and a few trojans popped up and were CLEANED and deleted or quarantined.  But I don't think these were the cause of such a drastic loss of memory.  Around the same time this problem began, I installed the updated version of McAfee's Personal Firewall product. . . not sure if that has anything to do with it either.

Anyway, after uninstalling of the Firewall product and removing some older programs, I cleared 2 GB of drive space only to have that disappear after a day or two.  I deleted more old software. . . 2 GB free again and it seems to be slowly DISAPPEARING, too.  I can not do a system restore because all my restore points have magically disappeared after a failed ATTEMPT to restore with insufficient hard drive space (!?).  I've done a disk cleanup, defrag, tried to find some enormous files/folders on the disk -- but NOTHING looks out of the ordinary.  I know there's 20 GB free on that disk. . . and there's only so much software I can delete.  Any ideas on what is going on here -- all suggestions are welcome.

Thanks so much!med703......Have you tried deleting your cookies and all temp internet files? It's possible for some self replicating viruses to attach themselves to cookies and eat away at your hard drive ......what kind of anti virus are you using.......Perhap you should try an on line virus scan .
What scanning utilities are you using .....Because if this just started it may well be a nasty pest or even worse.

let us know
dl65  Thanks for the suggestions. . .

I deleted all my cookies and temporary internet files but nothing changed except about 10MB space gained from deleting those files.  

I am using McAfee VirusScan which is updated almost daily and is "always on" -- scanning all incoming and outgoing mail, etc..  I ran the most comprehensive scan last night and nothing came up.  As far as scanning utilities go, I am afraid I'm not quite sure what you mean. . .

Can anyone descibe the symptoms of a hard drive that is dying?  Does this fit within the possible parameters or am I most likely dealing with a virus?disable system restore...hogger?download advanced system optimizer...this should clean out old reg files etc..Merlin_2. . .

I dowloaded Advanced System Optimizer and ran all the pertinent utilities, but nothing has changed as far as solving my missing 20 GB of disc space.  I did discover something interesting, though:  When I go into MyComputer/Properties/Performance/FileSystem to disable System Restore -- it was already disabled.  It is possible that I did this myself a long time ago and did not turn it back on.  What is interesting is that every time I try to turn System Restore back on, it is turned off when I go back to look at the 'tick box'.  Bizarre. . .

What is hogger?A hogger is a program that uses a lot of resources.

Can you not format and start with a fresh lane?Hi,

  Have a look at this program, it may show you where your free space has gone.

http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

Regards.Bingo!  Thanks EasyRider66!  What a fantastic program Sequoia View is. . . very ingenious!  I have an enormous block of files that look like this:

C:\_RESTORE\TEMP\A0017211.CPY

Can anyone tell me how to get rid of them?  Is it simply a matter of deleting them?  And how do I prevent this from happening again?Hi Med703,

  Glad the program helped, but I'm afraid I will have to leave the diagnostic/cure to someone more experienced than myself.

Regards. C:\_RESTORE\TEMP\A0017211.CPY   there is no such file on my winme?maybe you should scan for trojans>http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/   and you may scan for viruses but unless you disable system restore the viruses/worms/trojans will reappear due to system restore?Merlin_2,

I couldn't find the files either using the standard ME search function -- Windows keeps them in a hidden folder.  Maybe you don't have any of these files but when I used SequioaView, it instantly showed me a huge chunk of hard disk space that was populated with almost 9,000 (!) files that followed the C:\_RESTORE\TEMP\A0017211.CPY format.  After reading in another forum about other people who experienced the same exact problem, I simply deleted all those files and reclaimed all the missing hard drive space.  

The strange thing is that my System Restore was turned off a long time ago when I was cleaning out a virus and I just forgot to turn it back on.  So I'm not exactly sure how these files piled up so quickly.  Maybe it didn't happen overnight, but was a steady pileup over some months.  It certainly seemed like overnight, though.  But judging from what I've been reading, all signs point to System Restore being the culprit and not a virus.  

Anyway,  thanks for all the suggestions and interest.  Problem solved -- for now, at least!

Recently I erased the hard drive of one of my computers and reinstalled Windows 98 to it. Prior to doing so, my resolution was always set to 1024x768 and my colour 24 bit. Now it's stuck on 640x480 and 16 colours. The device manager tells me there are no ISSUES with the DISPLAY adapter. What's wrong?Sounds like you don't have the actul drivers for "your card" INSTALLED but rather the default windows drivers?Keegan......The last post by Vaxure is RIGHT on .......that is probably the problem ....get the latest updates for your vid card and all will be well again

Cheers

dl65

i just got a hp d220 mt and need to know if there is a on board video card when i try to play a game evreything works but my screen stays black i can still see my mouse pointer but with a black screen or can i add a video cardif you type dxdiag in the run BOX it should tell you?You are saying that after ADDING a "HP D220" your games no longer function?How it going Randy,

I looked into it a little furture for ya, and according the the HP WEBSITE,http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11709_na/11709_na.HTML it looks as though you only video card upgrade option would have to use PCI technology.  Before spending any monies, you should check to make certain you can switch the video signal from 'onboard' to pci in you SYSTEMS BIOS.  Then, if your going to be playing ALOT of video games, have a look at this link http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000098PUF/qid%3D1094417502/sr%3Dka-1/zopindustries-20 .  But whatever you choose you'll need to use PCI in your system.

A floopy Disk Controller (FDC) is used to INTERFACE a FDD to a microprocessor system. can any one
Explain the operation of the FDC CHIP with regard to control signals and data formats used in the microprocessor system and the disk surface.

you MAY find all there is to know here>http://computer.howstuffworks.com/floppy-disk-drive.htm

::)Does ANYBODY KNOW if you can recover data from a HARD DRIVE after formating?
http://www.active-undelete.com/

Hello everyone,

I just want to ask some questions about CD-RW
drive.

1) I have a Nero software installed.Can I play
MP3 files with Windows Media Player and then
save directly to a blank CD-R? Or do I have
to download Winamp first?

2) Do I need to buy compatible CD-Rs or just
buy any brand?

3) If I want to burn an AUDIO CD,can I save
one song at a time?Or do I need to burn all
the songs at once?Can I add new MP3
files later if the CD-R is not full?

Hope you guys can help me out.

Thank you.

Regards,
Amy

Quote

1) I have a Nero software installed.Can I play
MP3 files with Windows Media Player and then
save directly to a blank CD-R? Or do I have
to download Winamp first?

2) Do I need to buy compatible CD-Rs or just
buy any brand?

3) If I want to burn an audio CD,can I save
one song at a time?Or do I need to burn all
the songs at once?Can I add new MP3
files later if the CD-R is not full?

I added 256mb of memory to the 128mb that was already installed last night, the computer recognised it and was running much quicker....but....it wont CONNECT to the internet, but when i removed it again, the internet worked again, i am running Xp Pro....totally baffled...any SUGGESTIONS would be appreciatedwhat internet connection have you got?using ntl cable broadband via ethernet cardhow may spare banks ...for your ram have you got...and can your pc handle more ram?2 banks in total, it can handle 512mb of ram so ok thereSee if using two Identical RAM sticks works?does the event ERROR log in admin tools report anything. what HAPPENS if you remove your nic card and re-boot ..leaving the ram sticks in place....I havent tried that yet, but will reinstall it and see..THANKS

I have a panasonic cf-71 laptop at 600mzh. When I loaded xp on it now my cooling FAN doesn't work. I runs till the logon screen in windows, then nada.   How can I keep from FRYING my laptop? You better not run it at all until you have solved the fan ISSUE, the heatsink MAYBE provide some cooling but a too GREAT amount of heat will (or it may allready have) damage(d) your CPU.

I was prepared to purchase a Dell Ultrasharp 19 inch MONITOR for a system I am currently building when  someone suggested that I consider a Dell 17 inch LCD TV monitor instead (screen of TV a couple of inches shorter in height but a couple of inches wider). They said it would function the same, but would allow me to split screen documents (VIEW two pages at once) and be better for video viewing (movies, presentation videos, etc.).

I do biomedical research so my primary use for this new computer will be statistical analysis (medical and financial programming (SAS, SPSS, EXCEL), internet research, digital picture analysis (MRI, CAT, ultrasound images, etc.), digital video (presentations and analysis)...and non-work related DVD viewing and music recording, burning and listening.

I'd really appreciate help to know which monitor system would be best for these uses? Would there be any difference in refresh rates or letter clarity (documents)? Ultimately I guess I am wondering about the pros and cons of each.

Thank you *very much* once again for your help!

TV: 25ms RESPONSE time, 400:1 contrast, 450 NITS brightness, 1280 x 768 (WXGA) native resolution, display 21.4" x 11.4" x 3.5" http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/lcd_w1700?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~tab=specstab#tabtop

LCD Monitor: 25ms response time, 600:1 contrast, 250 nits (typical)brightness, 1280x1024 Pixels max resolution, Diagonal Size: 19"
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/ProductDetail.aspx?TabPage=techspecs&sku=320-0699&category_id=211&c=us&l=en&cs=19
but this can do this same >http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/q307/8/73.asp&NoWebContent=1   or the monitor buyers guide>http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/4520-7610_16-5084364-3.html

Being unable to find any information on my problem anywhere else, I have resorted to posting on this board.

I'm a second year Computer Programming student with some experience in Computer Repair.  My father bought a new hard drive and installed it as a slave in his system.  Being the brillant man that he is, he decided to install Windows XP on the new drive and leave Windows 98SE on the other drive.  Well, all was fine until he decided he wanted to make some ADDITIONAL partitions.  This is where it gets confusing.

I have no idea what he did but it got to the point where there were 2 versions of XP installed on the same Hard drive and it was impossible to reformat the drive that had 98 on it.  So, he came to me.  I managed to fdisk both drives but something was strange.  The original drive that was in the system was working just fine except the BIOS would only register it as a 2gig instead of a 30gig when it was the master.  The new drive, a 40gig, had a partition on it that I couldn't get rid of, leaving the primary partition with only 2gigs.

I got it all up and running but 2gig with Windows XP on it fills up fast.  So I installed Partition Magic 8.0 Pro to try and fix the problem because I have used it before to fix other partition size problems with a 0% failure rate.  I ran it and it changed the size of the drives perfectly but when it rebooted, Windows XP brought up a BLUE SCREEN that told me a drive size had changed.  I rebooted like it told me and the screen came up again.  So I tried a boot disk, that LOCKED up.  I tried Safe Mode, that locked up.  I tried the Windows XP installation disc and even that locked up.

Have any of you ever had a similiar experience?  Was it repairable?  Is there a way to erase a hard drive without being able to boot it up?

Please, bare in mind, that I've tried the hard drive in other computers and the same thing has happened.  When I loaded up another XP system with the hard drive in it as a primary slave, it took about 20 minutes for XP to load and then the slave was registering in XP.

Thanks for you time...  I hope someone manages to read through all that.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'I got a great idea for the new Windows!  Lets call it "Windows HT"  for Hostile Takeover!'
"Nah, the public will see right through that...  Lets go with... XP!"
'Why XP?  eXPerience?'
"Hellz no!  Cause it looks like someone sticking their tongue out at you!"Steven Laundrie.....Do you have a win98 boot disk with format and Fdisk on it......If you shut down and set the 1st boot from floppy in the bios.......load the boot disk go to fdisk and remove all partitions .....then using the format ..........format whatever drive you want ....

hope this helps
dl65  Thanks for the response.

I'm currently trying that, started trying it about 25 minutes ago.  I am using a 98 boot disc but it reads the disc and then hangs.  It doesn't even come up with 'Starting Windows 98...' like its supposed to.Steven Laundrie....I thought you were trying to format?
At the A : prompt with the win9x boot disk in ........ type dir and check to be sure there are theFdisk and format files as well as th cd driver files then  enter   FDISK and then look at option 4 ( displays the partitions) ......Remove all partitions and then format the drive or drives

let us know

dl65  Did you activate the remaining 28GB?

(Windows XP)

Right click on My Computer - Disk Management. There you cn manage your disks and activate and form partitions.

I'm sure both of those would work but my computer is being more difficult then normal...

I put in a working Windows 98SE boot disc with valid CD drivers and start up my system.  The BIOS runs its memory scan and checks the 2 HDDs and the 2 CD drives just fine.  It continues on to the boot screen where the boot disc would normally load up but this isn't the case.

Instead, the A: starts to ready the floppy and right where it should start loading the boot procedures, the entire system freezes up.

Alt-Ctrl-Del does work to reset it either, the only way out is to hit the reset or power buttons on the tower.

I can't get to a command prompt to use any of the files on the floppy and when I try to get into Windows, it gives me that blue screen everytime telling me HDD size has changed so I can't get into it either to change anything.Good news!

I got an idea that it might be the other versions of Windows conflicting with XP's boot files so I downloaded a DOS 5.0 Boot disc and it managed to bring up a DOS prompt.  Using Fdisk, I removed all the drives and continued on.

The drive that Windows was getting hung up on was an old partition that I hadn't been able to remove with Fdisk.  Somehow, it ended up being an active partition but was -26% of the total HDD space.  Yep, you read that right, negative percentage.

So, I got XP re-installed and everything is working perfectly, except now that D: is the default for everything but I can live with that.

Thanks for all your suggestions!  Had the situation been slightly different, I'm sure they would have worked.

And remember...  If ever your really stuck...  DOS 5.0.

I have a 1997 Micron Laptop which came with Windows 95, later updated to Windows 98SE.   I turned it off AROUND Thanksgiving of 2002 and did not try to use it again until about a year later.  When I tried to boot it up, it displayed a message type “BIOS password”.   Since I had purchased it as a refurbished unit, I had not put in a BIOS password.   I thought that maybe the clock battery had run down so I took it apart to replace the battery.  I could not find a clock battery and, after completely dismantling the thing,  I put it back together.   Then, when I tried to boot it up it just asked for “user password”.  (why the change?)  Again, I had never installed a “user password”.  A call to Micron resulted in telling me that I would have to return it to Micron to have the BIOS chip replaced for $285.00.  More than the machine is worth.  However it does have files that I would like to recover before I trash it.    Does anyone have any ideas     :-/I suggest you look for schematics on the Internet and reset the BIOS.

Resetting the BIOS can be done either by shortcircuiting the BIOS jumper or taking out the battery for 10 seconds.

Raptor,  Thanks for the come back.  Where would I go to look for schematics??    I have heard some thing similar to that in the past,  but while i was in the machine i found  no jumpers.   I did find a two position DIP switch which i tried setting through all three other combinations of settings with no apparent results.    I will look fo the jumpers again.   By the way, the main battery has been out for months.  It will no longer last more thatn about 2 minutes when i try to use it so i have been leaving it out and using the AC adapter to power it.    :-/I am not familiair with laptops, however, I doubt the hardware can differ much from standard Desktops.

I suggest you open the Laptop and search for a name on the motherboard. Type that name in any search machine (Google for example) and see if you can obtain info related to your CMOS battery/motherboard lay out. Or perhaps even contact the manufacturer of your mainboard and see if they can tell you where the CMOS battery would be located.

Here are articles related to the CMOS/BIOS:

Computer CMOS information

CMOS

BIOS

Computer BIOS Information And Help

I suggest you take a good look at the first article and see if your CMOS battery (BIOS/clock battery) can be identified by the use of the 4 images displayed in the top right CORNER of the article.

The other articles MAY be useful for additional information.

It is possible there are no jumpers for your CMOS/BIOS. You may have to take out the battery or lift it up a few milimetres in case it is soldered.

It is pretty easy to recover the files from the laptop.  Pick up a 2.5" <-> 3.5" IDE adapter cable, about $5 or so, and temporarily install the laptop drive in a desktop SYSTEM.  It's just another disk drive at that point.  Here's one for an enormous $3.99.  http://shop.store.yahoo.com/insidecomputer/la2tode3hadr.htmlRaptor:  …   Thank you very much for the information.  I really appreciate it.   Sounds like a good plan.  I try to do that as soon as I get back to my laptop, which will be sometime this fall.  I am at present traveling around the N.W. and I have left it in Arizona where I live.   I didn’t know there were so many configurations of C-MOS batteries.   I have only SEEN two.


Johnwill:  ….   Thank you.  I didn’t know that about the IDE adapter.   I will have to check it out.  Will I be able to use the laptop hard drive as an external drive using that adapter, or only be able to read from it?
If you are able to disassemble a laptop without instructions...Congratulations!  I've worked on lots of them, and no two are the same.  Micron should have repair manuals available for download on their website (Dell does).  The repair manual will show how to reset the BIOS.

The IDE adapter allows a notebook drive to be installed into a desktop box.

Many laptops have the hard disk more accessable than other internal components.  Also, as you say, there are manuals available for many of them.

You are right, no two laptops are even close to the same when it comes to taking them apart!   another way to get rid of the bios password is with a cd I have seen advertised on ebay. Presumably it will get rid of the supervisor password in windows too.http://labmice.techtarget.com/articles/BIOS_hack.htm

I have recently been experiencing a lot of COMPUTER crashes im pretty sure it isnt caused by the software as it sometimes occours EVEN before windows has started to load or anything appears on the SCREEN but other times it works fine and dosnt crash at all. but it always takes about 10 crashes before i can get the computer to work properly. I have tested my memory with memtest86 and i think it is either the motherboard cpu or psu but am not certain is there anyway to test to find out which it is and also is there anything else which may cause it.Please Read This First - Viruses & Spyware

Download the recommended programs and SCAN for viruses, trojans and Spyware.

When your problem first START? Perhaps you need to better maintain your PC:

Computer Cleaning Informationim pretty sure it isnt software problems becasue im using norton 2003 and AVG as anti virus and im also using adaware to stop any spyware plus i use a firewallIf you feel it is hardware related, read the article I posted..

Dust may have become an obstacle for your fans. It could be that they are not cooling properly and need to be cleaned.  more info on system....it could be the hard drive  failing or bad blocks on it ...or anything...when it crashes what do you get on the screen..

I have a Q-tec 790RH 4 Port Broadband Router.

I recently reset my Router due to me messing up the DHCP pool.

However, after I reset the router I still cannot see the users connected to the Router by using the DHCP list . I was able to, until I installed Sygate. Even though I have set Sygate to Allow All (For testing purposes) it still does not show. Tabbing the refresh button does not work.

I am not too knowledgeable concerning DHCP, the Router is acting as a gateway and the DHCP pool reaches from 2 to 254 (If that means anything).

I contacted Q-tec technical support and they came with the brillliant question/inquiry 'You have a firewall installed?'

Well, yes, thanks for pointing that out Sherlock.. They did not yet respond to my question asking how I could properly configure Sygate Personal Firewall Pro and if this was indeed the problem.

I would greatly appreciate suggestions, because I donot know what port to DMZ now since it randomly picks one from the pool and doesn't show which one.

Note that I cannot see the other computer in the DHCP list as well. Even though that one has no Firewall installed.is your router passworded?does you router have an hardwall firewall on....no need for sygate?can you access the router...like MINE http://192.168.01.02    ?type what you have set your router^...in the run box...

info on networking>http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/learnmore/ics.mspxMy Router can be accessed by accessed using a browser, yes. The Router firewall is always on, I cannot seem to disable it unless I DMZ. And yes, my Router is passworded. But only to enter the configuration menu.

Quote

type what you have set your router^...in the run box...

Probably netbios is blocked (sharing of files and folders, port 138/139) But
for support on this I cannot help you more, sorry.

Check your set up and make sure you have DHCP server activated

Then set the router to act as a gateway.

. If you have ICS or other sharing software active on the machine, disable it.

I assume you mean from services.msc?

If you have ICS or other sharing software

Hi folks,

I'm finalizing the hardware for my next homebuilt, and for motherboard I'm considering the ABIT NF7-S or ASUS A7N8X-E DELUXE Rev.2.0, or possibly GIGABYTE GA-7N400 Pro2. Can you help me with the relative pros and cons of each?

For CPU I like the Barton XP2800, but I was TOLD also that XP2500 can be overclocked easily to FSB 400, and may be a better choice.

My highest priority is a stable and trouble free machine made up of tried and tested components (so I'm staying away from 64 bits, and any substantial overclocking). My next highest priority is speed, and the third priority a quiet SYSTEM. I'll be using the new machine mostly for CPU-intensive stuff such as audio editing and compression, but only occasionally for fast 3D video or games.

Thank you all very much!

Eric
Eric35.....Given what you plan on doing.....why not consider a P4 3.2 or 3.4 Ghz processor ...then select the board or if your partial to AMD go with the Barton and pick the board that suits ....
As FAR as sound and Vid is concerned your the one who will be using it .......If you ask 10 people , you will probably get 10 differant answers.
The other CONSIDERATION is the cost.
Hope this helps.

dl65  
Thanks, and YES, I am partial to AMD... the place I'm kind of stuck, is very much "picking the board that suits..." The  ABIT NF7-S or ASUS A7N8X-E DELUXE seem to be the closest, but I find it very hard to get a feel for them  just from from what I can read in web pages. I would like to be able to get input about the boards from those who are actually familiar with them.  Eric35.....Hi again , I just had a good look at the detailed specs on both boards. They both look very similar ......but I see that the ABIT only supports a max of 2gb of DDR 400  or a max of 3 gb of slower Ram . While the ASUS will take 3gb of  DDR 400. I havent checked the prices but I would go for the ASUS .....I have had 3 Asus boards and they have never let me down.....I guess you could say I'm partial to them .....
With either .....just pop in a vid card and away you go .

Good luck .

dl65  I have a GA 7N400-Pro. Must say that I am contempt with it, even though I had a few issue with it.

As for overclocking: Unless you have experience in doing so, AMD is allready running much hotter than Intel so you may as well buy a faster CPU rather than overclock. The CPU life cycle will be longer and you'll have the same results for a little bit more money.

Barton is replaced by the Sempron line.

I'm putting together a computer and would really appreciate help.

I have 1 GB of DDR2 SDRAM, and a 250 GB HD. My question relates to the processor...is there any noticeable performance difference between a Pentium4 (HT, 800FSB) 3.2GHz (540) and 3.4GHz (550) processor? The price difference is about $120. Which would you choose?

As an aside question...I have been reading about Intel's new "Core" (Prescott from Northwood)... this article suggests that the Pentium 5 is due out shortly and will rate great improvements. Does anyone have any sense of when it is due out? Is this new CPU close enough to release that I should maybe wait if not in any major rush? (Any chance the P5 would fit the P4 motherboard I bought "today"?).

http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20040201/prescott-30.html

Thank you *very much* for your help!Is there a performance difference?  Yes, there probably is.  Is it noticable?  Probably not even in the slightest except under EXTREME load, and even there the performance difference will be negligable.

I'd choose the cheaper option - top end processors do not provide value for money.  High end hardware is simply a cash cow for manufactureres - the hardware you pay top dollar for today you can buy for half the price in less than six months, as newer products push them down the performance scale (and thus make them less desirable to performance freaks).

About your aside - Intel certainly has plans for a new 'socket' for their chips - this *may* be worth hanging out for.  I'm generally not a fan of hanging out for new tech - you'll be waiting forever.  First you'll want a mobo with the new socket, then you'll consider maybe you want to wait longer and get that mobo that supports PCI-Express, then you read about a new Northbridge chip that will improve performance further, etc etc.  The only exception to this for me is a truly 'ground breaking' technology - and they are usually expensive, and often a bit flaky in their first implementation (or at LEAST very much more impressive a few months further down the line).  Of course if you buy your new motherboard now you will cut yourself out of the new processors upgrade PATH - but expect to see P4s in their current pinned configuration (and at faster speeds) for a while yet.

Basically, unless you're cashed up, and a BIG fan of the bleeding edge, it's very rarely worth waiting, and rarely worth PAYING top dollar for.Chade...thank you very much for your reply...it was exactly what I needed to hear/know.

My current system helped me through grad school, but is now clearly dated and somewhat limiting. I'm not a big gamer so the "datedness" issue was slower to present...but still I am running into hardware and program compatability issues that the little fixes don't quite fix anymore.

The rather large cost of a new system is inevitable for sure, but the age old fear of immediate obsolesence (64 bit OSs, P5, etc.) MAKES it a little tougher to pull the trigger (oh to be rich ;o) ).

What you said about there always being something else "better/improved" around the corner is so true. I guess it is time to just jump in. (...and do so with the P4 3.2 GHz).

Thank you again!!

P.S. Where did this expression under my username come from? "I love YaBB 1G - SP1!" Quote

P.S. Where did this expression under my username come from? "I love YaBB 1G - SP1!"  

I have a celeron pentium II proccessor, don't laugh, it isn't funny! It's sad  I upgraded the ram to about 150 megs and installed sound blaster audigy. Now that I now a little more, I realized that my bus speed isn't fast enough for the card. The weird thing is that it works sometimes, ALTHOUGH that is becoming LESS and less frequent. Sometimes the sound comes out as being very fast and sounding like  a chipmunk that just did some meth and STUCK it's tail in an electrical outlet . Now I'm having trouble running anything. I uninstalled all the sound blaster programs in hope to reinstall them, but I'm having trouble getting the CD to run.

I'm thinking that I need a new proccesor. If there is another possibility, than I like to hear it! Otherwise, what should I look for in a MOTHER BOARD, where should I look and what should I expect to pay?I'd bet you are using WMP. Look in your sound blaster utilities for Creative Play Center. It disks play OK with that you can use it or install Winamp.

Hi all.  I have had cable internet service through Comcast for over a year now, but I have never been able to get "cable-like" speeds with it.  The only time I get decent speeds are when I'm ftp-ing, and I usually get about 350kb/s.  But when I'm downloading something normally, I always start out with a decent speed, but within a few seconds it drops down to less than 10 kb/s FOR A CABLE MODEM!  Any help would be appreciated.jaguar9400.....If you have cable , you should have D/l speeds of in excess of 350 kbps.....go here and do a speed test   http://bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/
Are you USING some type of download manager ? Perhaps its not set up correctly. Do a speed test and then you will know WHATS going on .

hope this helps
dl65  
If FTP works normally, but IE performance sucks, start looking for spyware/malware and/or virus infections.

AntiVirus Stuff
---------------
Stinger!
Trend House Call on-line Virus Scan

Spyware REMOVAL Tools
---------------------
Ad-Aware
SpyBot Search-N-Destroy

Spyware Protection
------------------
Spyware Blaster and Spyware Guard

Spyware/Malware Removal
-----------------------
HijackThis and CWShredder
Thanks dl65!  Yeah I know I should be getting higher speeds (I think Comcast's max is 3.5 megabits), but I just tested my desktop and it is only at 462 kb.  I've got a wireless router for my laptop, which i just tested at 2.1 megabits.  My desktop is old, so I don't know if that has anything to do with it, i.e. slow processor, etc.  My main concern though, is why it can't maintain those mediocre speeds when i'm downloading stuff.  I think even if the slow speeds are related to the rest of my HARDWARE being outdated,  that still wouldn't slow DLs down to 5 kb/s or sometimes even less.jaguar9400.......What kind of processor do you have ?

Have you run the software which johnwill SUGGESTED ?

let us know
dl65  What kind of speeds does your ISP offer? I suggest you contact them if you have not yet done so.

Perhaps you have a data limit and you need to reset the modem in order to activate your next month's allowance?

I really think you should contact your ISP... Quote

Hi all.  I have had cable internet service through Comcast for over a year now, but I have never been able to get "cable-like" speeds with it.  The only time I get decent speeds are when I'm ftp-ing, and I usually get about 350kb/s.  But when I'm downloading something normally, I always start out with a decent speed, but within a few seconds it drops down to less than 10 kb/s FOR A CABLE MODEM!  Any help would be appreciated.

Can anyone tell me how to mute the noises made by the speaker inside my tower every time I logg on to the net.  I have a fair aged Tiny PC operating win 98.  Would APPRECIATE any help to silence this INFERNAL screeching.that screeching maybe your modem...dialing up your isp? for a quieter life go broadband or cable..control panel/modems/properties
set speaker volumn control to offThanks folks,  I have TRIED the control panel, modems route and even THOUGH it indicates the sound is off the internal speaker still screeches.  Any other suggestions short of tapping it with a hammer? :-/ Disconnect the speaker from the MB!Are you certain it is the PC speaker and not a fan that needs REPLACING or perhaps a harddrive that attempts to read?

Hello!
Some time ago i picked my parents old Amstrad 1512 PC to evacuate my mothers writings from the HD.
I managed to put  up a connection with tera term and a null modem cable. Should there be a  protocoll (kermit or xmodem for example) in DOS 3.0? Cant receive if nobody sends...

Now i´ve been doodling around with Amstrad´s floppy drive in order to connect it to my Duron with winXp, so that i could copy Kermit on a floppy and then mount the whole gibberish back to Amstrad.

But, i just cant get that dang floppy drive to work with Duron.  Windows recognies it, but it says that there is no disk in that drive. Or in CMD, that device is not ready or it cannot be opened directly for use. Depending am i trying to format a: or just use the VOL command.

I use a floppy drive cable with two connectors for the big floppy, first one of them behind the "twist", and one connector nearest to motherboard for the small floppy. A three drive cable it is. Could the cable be the troublemaker? Plus those jumpers on the amstrads floppy drive... I just cant figure this thing out.
Does somebody know how to connect a oldschool floppy drive to a modern pc?  A museum piece. The Amstrad CAME with 360K floppies. If you haven't changed the jumpers, you might be able to access it by setting it in bios. It is likely formatted with DOS 3x.My new pc´s bios supports only 1.2meg floppies. I´ve got an older 133mhz MikroMikko PC which´s bios supports 360K floppies.
I bolted the drive to MikroMikko, and some progress is made.
When i view the content of any of those floppies i can SEE the content. But immediately when i try to format them or copy some DOC files from there, windows announces that the floppy is not formatted...
*censored*? I can see the floppys content but it is not formatted.
And, when i restart to MS dos mode, and give the FORMAT a:
i get this.  "invalid media or track 0 bad"  Are those floppies just wasted or what.  Now i got it working!   There was one floppy that could be formatted. One of the drives jumpers had to be moved.
So i did, (after trial and error ) and then copied mskermit to the working floppy. Finally jumper back where it was, and the the drive with the floppy back to Amstrad.
I connected null modem cable, and ran kermit on both computers, receive mode in the new pc, and send file from amstrad. It works!  btw the setting the serial port for communications with MODE  command in dos is not enough. Serial port has to be defined with kermit (baud rate, PARITY etc.) SET COM1 9600 for example.

Hi,

Is it possible / easy to take a deal from Dell e.g a Dimension 2400 etc PC with onboard video and buy my own GeForce or other good 128Mb Video card in order to run the latest games / 3D graphics? Is it easy to disable the onboard video and are there problems I should consider before doing this?

Thanks all.

Michelle.You can only have one card using the AGP slot. The secundairy card would be forced to use PCI.

AGP INCREASES performance, it is therefore advised to install the card you will use for gaming on the AGP slot.

Disabeling your onboard VIDEOCARD can be done in the BIOS.  Errors may occur whilst having the onboard videocard enabled. There is no need to have the onboard card enabled since they will not combine processing power and your system will only be prone to clahses between the two videocards.

Useful articles:

AGP
PCI
Computer Video Card Support and HelpIf you're going to use a Dell like this, get one of their server-grade machines, the bargain crackerboxes are unsuitable. The onboard video OFTEN fails to fully disable, and many of the machines don't even have the AGP port installed on the MB. Same for HP/Compaq and Packard-Bell bargain crackerbox machines.

Build your own with discreet parts from merchants like www.newegg.com or www.pricewatch.com, or from your locally-owned computer shops. Then you'll be able to get the power and expandability you want.Yes, you can install a NEW video card even in the pci slots. Make sure when playing a high performance game to disable the onboard card in settings. If you want you can hook another monitor to the old onboard display output, and when you have to swap screens all the time you won't have to, they'll  be side by side.