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As some of the CH forum members know i have a penchant for buying used computers at garage sales(most often inoperative). I enjoy the challenge of trying to get them functional. My most RECENT acquisition is a DELL MODEL whl -xps (with more bells and whistles than Christmas tree).Given the incredible amount of dust in it's interior i never expected it to work.Got rid of all the dust and plugged it in.Works like a charm no problems what so ever. (what a SURPRISE). Now the "public service" even though there are 2 administrator accounts (no passwords were needed to gain access). Every kind of personal information imaginable is still on it including email addresses,1000's of i-Tunes songs, personal pictures and documents.Has a 200GB HD so plenty of room for tons of data,etc. If you are getting rid of a computer and particularly if you DO NOT know where it may end up --either remove the HD or at least use a very good HD data removal software to scrub it. With the prevalence of identity theft out there why tempt fate?truenorthA good reminder for everyone! Thank you!Quote from: truenorth on May 14, 2008, 05:47:19 PM

As some of the CH forum members know i have a penchant for buying used computers at garage sales(most often inoperative). I enjoy the challenge of trying to get them functional...

hi...not sure if this is the right forum but i am having problems with my laptop monitor. there is an almost CONSTANT line running HORIZONTALLY all along the screen about 2 inches from the TOP...am PRETTY dumb when it comes to the TECHNICAL stuff so dont know what to do! pls help!

i am about to buy and build my first PC
i want to overclock it to get max performance.
the specs are:

Q6600 2.66Ghz quad core
4GB DDR2 800 PC2 6400
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3650 512MB (GDDR3)
Gigabyte S775 Intel P35 ATX Audio Lan DDRII FSB1333
Thermaltake Armor with 25cm side fan, 120mm in front and back and 1 on top so plenty of cooling
Akasa INTEL LGA775 3U HEATPIPE CU BASE LO-NOISE PWM FAN for my CPU

i know quite a bit about computers but not enough to overclock.
how would i go about learning to do it and what are the risks invloved?
also, i have seen a review of the Q6600 saying they overclocked it to 3.2Ghz. is this possible?

thanks for any help you can offer
booIf you're brand new at this I would recommend researching it.
Overclocking is not for the happy-go-lucky "oh, I think I'll overclock my system" types as it can destroy components.
Basically, just keep researching and read a lot, and then some. That's the best advice I can give you.
Quote

also, i have seen a review of the Q6600 saying they overclocked it to 3.2Ghz. is this possible?

I have a Toshiba Tecra Laptop with a 1.5 Ghz Pentium M CPU and it POSTS correctly and starts windows and about 5 minutes into operation the system will lock up but not completely. You can hit CTRL + ALT + DELETE and get into the task manager and check out everything, but STRANGELY the CPU utilization is at 0% across the board for all running processes ( even when sorted ). Makes no sense that the system can be at 0% and the mouse pointer was still active. But the windows OS is pretty much worthless at this point, you cant open or close anything, but task manager is able to open.

I am guessing that the 0% is a false indication of actual CPU for the fact that the CPUs fan is roaring hot with heat out the side where the cpu vent is. This vent by the way is not obstructed and blades on the heatsink are clear of lint etc.

I initially thought it was a Windows corruption issue, so I popped in a Knoppix Live Linux bootable CD and started with that and it loaded Knoppix FINE and about 5 minutes later Knoppix was locking up and the CPU was roaring hot with fan at full speed.

Nothing changed with this laptop, just one day it started doing this and I am not sure as to why. How could a CPU overheat with the fan full speed roaring out heat??? If the CPU was shot, shouldnt it fail to run earlier on than to cook even with the fan full speed and air rushing out of the side of the computer as hot as a hair dryer???

Thanks!Laptops are good at breaking fans, and PC's are great hovers. They pick up lots of dust and block their airways. Have you tried cleaning out the fans and heat sinks (particulaly the CPU related fan and heat SINK).

My Epson 4490 Photo scanner seems to have given up the ghost or at least GONE into a coma. When I try and use it I get an error message "Epson Scan cannot be started." The green 'power on' light is NOT illuminated, although the UNIT is correctly connected up and I have checked with a meter that there is 24V DC going into it. The local Epson repair agent more or less suggested the best thing to do was to throw it away and buy another one. Can ANYONE think of a less expensive alternative?Check all your connections, install it on another machine to make sure its not a software confliction. Nothing really to say.Just buy a new one. These things are so cheap now they almost give them away....I saw a FLATBED scanner for $49.00 at walmart.



Try what was suggested first. As to RULE out its not the cause.

I was 20% into the windows xp isntallation (just got a new computer) and I accidently hit the POWER cord

now when i restart it says "error loading operating system"

PLEASE how do I get this to work - there has to be some way to erase what was installed on the hard drive and start over

PLEASE help!

Thank you so much


also - is there a way i can force it to load from teh cd rom so i can restart the installation/partition?It doesn't boot from CD?
Did you check BIOS boot order?Most new computers come with the operating system already installed. If you are a tech savvy buyer then you can get one with a "clean" hard drive and install the O.S. of your choice. Do you know how to boot to a CD? If you don't, it's no big deal, just POST back and tell US what you need help with.Go into your BIOS an check the boot settings, Usually I have mine setup to go to the floppy,CD an then HD. You can use the windows disc to format the drive then reinstall it but you cant CONTINUE from that point.

Hi people, I have been using my disk for quite a long time but the other day I HEARD the drive making some NOISE and had to restart the SYSTEM again. But when I did that the disk would not boot and I fear that the data might be deleted or lost. So, if you people have any know about the ways to get this done right or if you can at least SUGGEST me the ways to handle this …it will be a great help.

Do you have a 3.5 floppy drive on your computer?spam. mods please put this outside with the rest of the garbage.

I now that but an incorrection COULD or even worse there is still not ENOUGH voltage to do any serious damage to a person in the EVENT of a short. even if you SHORTED the wrong wires, there might be a SPARK, but you will not get shocked.

I have a Dell Inspiron 9100 that worked fine until I went on a trip and used my car adapter (PowerLine mobile AC outlet purchased from Wal-Mart). It wouldn't charge the battery when the laptop was on, but it would if we HIBERNATED it.

After getting to our desitination, we plugged it into a wall outlet and got an error message saying there was an "Unauthorized Power Source". After following the instructions to go to the setup menu, I didn't know what to do next. I didn't change anything and just went on with the boot up. That happened a COUPLE times.

On our way home, we plugged it back into the car adapter and had the same result as before, but it wouldn't charge at all. I think it did actually pull power from the adapter, though, and displayed the "On AC power" icon in the tray.

Then I put the laptop on Stand By. This seems to have really messed things up. Now when I press the power button (while plugged into a regular wall outlet), the screen flashes once, the keyboard LEDs flash once, the power LED comes on, and I can hear the hard drive spinning (normal sound, nothing unusual about it.) The battery LED used to flash intermitantly, but now it does nothing. When I press the power button again, everything turns off.

If I take the battery out and press the power button while the laptop is plugged in, it does the same thing.

On the battery is a picture of a battery with five small LEDs next to it. I'm assuming this is a meter to show how much power is left in the battery? When I press it, all five LEDs light up. If I press and hold it, all five light up and turn off, then four come on.

I called Dell to get some help, but of course my warranty just ran out. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.Wow... um... hard to say where to start with this.

If there's nothing important on the computer, I'd try the recovery CDs. You will most likely lose all information on the system when you do this.Remove the battery and unplug it from the wall for an hour.
Plug back into the wall and let it set for awhile...1/2 hour or so.
LEAVE the battery out.
Then see if it powers up properly.
If not unplug it and hit the power button a few times unplugged and then plug it back in and try again.

If it still doesn't work at this point replace the battery and leave it plugged in overnight and try booting in the morning.

If none of this works i'm afraid you will need Dell's assistance as the car adapter was either the wrong voltage and or polarity and it needs a shop...Quote from: patio on April 21, 2008, 08:35:35 PM

If none of this works i'm afraid you will need Dell's assistance as the car adapter was either the wrong voltage and or polarity and it needs a shop...

I'm going to try to plug it back into the car and see if that does anything.

Quote

I'm going to try to plug it back into the car and see if that does anything.

This would be the LAST thing i would try as it's what caused the issues...

A "THERMAL event" disabled the motherboard of my 5-year-old Dell Optiplex ///gx270T. Hard drive is OK, and my life is on it. I've ordered a Dell Inspiron 530 to replace the CPU--both the Optiplex and the Inspiron run WINDOWS XP PROFESSIONAL.

How can I salvage the hard drive from the Optiplex? Can it be installed as a secondary in the Inspiron? Repackaged as an external HD?

thanks

ljcb I forgot to mention: the HD in the Optiplex is a 120 GB SATA, 7200 RPM drive. HD in new Inspiron is also SATA.You can use it either way since it's an SATA drive. either as a secondary internal drive or by buying a drive enclosure (usually starting around $30.00 retail).

I've done both and neither is rocket science.

I am going to buy a ups but didnt know what to look for.

i have a 1000w psu and am only running a monitor and tower from my POWER point.

the other peripherals are NETWORKS but powered in another room so are not needed to be plugged into the ups.

it is a chimei lcd monitor (22")

psu: antec 1000whow much runtime do you want? a APC smartups 1500 ($600) or 2200 ($900) would probably give you 1/2 an hour to an hour of runtime. if you need more runtime, you can buy an additional battery.Hello!

I GUESS your location's power conditions (guess Im right..) should also be considered...oh ya, I was assuming 15amp 120v outlet..... is that what you have? If you have a 30amp plug the ups recharge time decreases significantly, fyi.i live in Australia.

We have 240v outlets.

not sure of the AMPS???Hello!

Try to visit UPS manuf. I TRIED www.apc.com a while ago and the site lets me describe my system specs for them to give suggestions and recommendations.

Good luck!

Quote from: DIAS de verano on May 16, 2008, 11:29:59 AM

Quote from: squall_01 on May 16, 2008, 11:12:21 AM

a side from making cookies???

Something that is not to do with COMPUTERS, I think he meant.

i THINK my mothrboard has died, as there no bias beeps on boot up and the monitor does come on, tryed my graphic's card , but my main question is, can i put my HD straight in with a new board, will it work ok, or do i need to clear my hd, and lose everything on it. im extremely new to this, so please KEEP it very simple, and all help will me most welcome.

Thanks in advance

windows xp
custom built
1gig DDR ram
80 gig hd MAXTOR ( i think )
amd duel core processer

Clik Here For Help...

My laptop encountered electrical problems, but I was able to remove the hard drive before it crashed. I can now access the hard drive from another laptop through an adaptor. However, I can't access the email that is on it. Is there a way to do this?

Many thanks
Heres a few things you can try, transfer your info over. Remove the drive inside the pc. Your post is unclear on which drive you are trying to access as you mention both a laptop and an external drive...
Please clarify and provide more details on how you are "connecting" it.I am trying to access the email INFORMATION on the external hard drive. I can access most of the files by using a USB adaptor with another laptop (not mine to remove the drive from unfortunately!). However, when I try to access Outlook Express it prompts for information to create a new account and doesn't SEEM to have any of my PAST email stuff there. Is there a way to get that info? I thought PERHAPS there was a way to boot up the external drive.

You need to locate the WAB (Windows Address Book) file to recover your contacts, it's default location is:
C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book\USERNAME.wab

A tool for extracting e-mails and attachments from the DBX files can be found here:
http://macallan.club.fr/index.htm

Default location of the files is:
C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{GUID}\Microsoft\Outlook Express

Your information will not appear in Outlook Express on the other computer until it is properly imported into it.quaxo

Your posting has been a great help.
Many thanks

Well, I'll start at the beginning so this makes sense.

SUNDAY afternoon starting at around 2:00pm, my monitor would give me the error as if the video cable was unplugged whenever I logged into this particular video game. I checked the cables, and all were plugged in nicely, yet the problem persisted.

Since Sunday, I have updated my drivers and such, and ADDED a second monitor to my stup, and my monitors keep crashing--both of them. I have been thinking to myself, "What are the odds that both video ports and/or monitors are broken?" I am guessing that there is a problem with the device the ports are connected to, no?

Since Sunday, my monitors have went from crashing while in this particular game (once every several hours), to crashing every five to ten minutes. Again, when the screens go black, they give me the error that the video cable is unplugged even though everything is plugged in and screwed in nicely. I have had this computer for 51 WEEKS at this point, and have never had any problems prior to this. If worse comes to worse, I'll just send it back to the manufacturer as part of my warrenty, but that is a last resort.

Any help will be great,
JeremyWhat are your system specs? If you have a wimpy PSU you may be running out of available power. -2.4 GHz duo core processor
-nVidia Geforce 7300 GT
-1GB ram

I am using WINDOWS xp service pack 2 as well.

I believe I am using a 500 watt power SUPPLY, as well.Lack of power is probably not the cause, but just to be sure . . . .
What is the make/model of your motherboard? CD/DVD readers/writers? Hard disk drive sizes, speeds, and connection type? -500 GB hard drive
-Sony DVD drive (16xspeed)
-P965 Neo series motherboard (MS-7235)
The speed of the drive is more important than the size, but if you only have one hard drive it's not a big deal. (10,000 RPM drive only requires about 20 watts more than a 5400 RPM drive.) I don't see that you're anywhere near maxing out on power. Try to simplify your setup as much as possible. Remove one of the monitors and unplug all the other hardware you don't absolutely need. Plug hardware in until something fails again. It's possible that someother device is about to fail and is causing power fluctuations.

After having said all that, I suspect your video card is the culprit. Do you have another video card you can test with? It hasn't crashed since 10:00am this morning, and I think you are right, it is the video card. When thinking back on when the monitors crash, it is at the end of loading as something is about to materialize (loading into a game, into an instanced portion while in the game,, as the screensaver starts, during boot up as it is about to show the windows logo and load bar....)

I do not have another video card at the moment, but I'll see what I can do >_>I would check the video options, sometimes it will happen if your tring to display something larger then what you have set it too.Not sure if that is the issue, video options are still set to default. Though, while keeping iTunes on, I noticed that it continues to play for another minute after the monitors crash, and then the sound becomes distorted. Gonna try a system restore and see if that helps. If worse comes to worse, I can drive the error to the manufacturer.


Crashes about 2 minutes after boot now.

Yes, thank you general
Quote from: squall_01 on MAY 20, 2008, 04:28:01 PM

Yes, thank you general

I've already checked to SEE if the line-in was muted by default under the Speakers Properties > Levels,
but it doesn't even have the line in level

I'm on Vista Ultimate 32bit, using a High Definition Audio Device


here's how it should look (picture i got from microsoft's website)

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m276/RFL89/GetOpenContent.png


here's how MINE looks

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m276/RFL89/speakerlevel.jpg




any suggestions?
much thanksmake sure line in is SELECTED in your recording controls window. double click the speaker icon in your task bar, then GO to options, and properties. Select recording and click ok.


These instructions are for windows xp, and I'm not sure if they would be the same for vista, but it's one idea. anyone else know how it's done in vista?I'm using vista, it's totally different. Mine looks like yours, but I don't have anything plugged in. In previous window, under "Recording" tab, does it say, that Line-in is plugged in?yea it works, i have no problem with it, it's just that i can only hear the line-in after i recorded something



Did you try to reinstall driver, after downloading the newest one?i just checked and my driver is up to date,
how would i reinstall it?

it only gives me the uninstall optionAfter a format the first thing you need to do is make sure all all of the drivers are loaded. Go into device manager and look for a yellow or red ? or !. if you see one of these you need a driver. The second thing is to go to microsoft update and dowload and install all of the updates for your machine.

Your computer may have come with a drivers disk. If it didnt you should check your computer MANUFACTURERS website for driver downloads.everything is up to date, i installed service pack 1 last week, and i've installed every update since today

is there some kind of software that manages the settings of a soundcard?i fixed it!


i went to my computer manufacture's website and found the driver,
it's working beautifully now








Thanks a lot guys, youre the best


Glad to hear it Good job

hi guys I have a compaq PRESARIO computer CASE. I have a rear fan psu fan and cpu fan also I put in a fan on the case side all fans are blowing out but since I put the side fan in especially today my temps have gone up cpu 120 gpu 150 and I haven't PLAYED any games. What I am WONDERING if by putting that side fan in made things worse.is the side fan blowing air in or pulling air out?it's blowing out its supposed to be blowing cool air in.okay I will change it thanks homer.no problem.

Today my computer (running win 98) just shut itself down, as if I had gone through shutting windows down. Then it wouldn't RESTART - like there's no power. So I thought it might be the power supply, and replaced it with another power supply from a similar computer. I could get it started except now the monitor says "please CHECK connection". I try another monitor, but it says the same thing. Swapped out the video card too, no help. (We didn't install the graphics card, as we couldn't see ANYTHING on the screen.)

Any ideas?What Graphics are these and what Psu did you buy?As I said, I couldn't install the driver for the graphics card, since I couldn't see anything on the screen.

The psu was from another computer we had, not new.Click on the link below and follow the steps. Let us know if it works!!

http://www.playtool.com/pages/safemode/safemode.htmlThank you for your quick response. I'm GOING to keep that information, but my friend who also repairs our computers, just came by with a computer we can install our hard drive into. This is a work computer that holds all of our jobs and we needed to get up and running asap. It may be a few different things that went on it at the same. Fortunately, it wasn't the hard drive....this time. Unfortunately, the software we use needs win 98. If we upgrade our computers, we need to buy new software and we can't afford to that at this time.

I'm glad I came upon this site, and will certainly bookmark it for future reference.

There's a good chance that Win98 program will run fine in compatibility mode on a newer machine all the way up to Vista...
Ask your friend who does repairs if he's familiar with this and if so have him test the program on a new machine...
If he doesn't know about it post back and we'll give you the details.

Let me first say that I've NEVER really had a good computer. My dad worked with computers for years, so we always have old parts sitting around, but none of them were in working condition, and since he had a nice computer at work, he didn't need a god one at home. Finally I decided I want a really, really good computer. After years of using computers at least a generation behind everyone else, and a short stint with macs, I'm looking to build an awesome computer.

Unfortunately to someone who's more software savvy than hardware, this seems like quite the daunting TASK. So, I decided to start from the CPU:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Dual Core Processor LGA775 3.0GHZ Wolfdale 1333FSB 6MB Retail

Decided to go with Intels 'newer' 45nm Core 2 duo, since I didn't foresee the need to go, say, quad core, because I wouldn't need it in the time I get this computer and when I get a newer one (whenever that may be). Most processor intensive processes I intend on running are games, and the most I plan on having open at the same time are a couple of programs.

As for the motherboard, I'm thinking of going with this:

ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP ATX LGA775 P35 DDR2 1333FSB 2PCI-E16 3PCI 2PCI-E1 SATA2 Sound WLAN Motherboard

Supports 1333 FSB and up to 1066 ddr2 (apparently, OC'd I suppose). Now, I wanted to go with ddr2, cause I don't think DDR3 is worth the money atm, and of course, want to get as much out of my RAM as possible, so I'd like some 1066s. It supports of to 8 gigs of DIMM RAM, so I hope to go with XP 64bit and plunk in 4, 2 gig sticks if possible (Overkill, yeah, I'll probably tone it down a bit, especially once I punch in the prices, but for theorycrafting, it's nice to know I could).

Where I'm stuck at right now is as to what kind of video card I want to check out. Go crazy and get one of the X2 or GX2 cards, go less crazy and put dual 8800s or something. I hope to use all the capabilities of these high end cards, but I just don't know how much of an upgrade the X2s are from their single card counterparts, and if they'd be worth the extra money.

And of course, I'm not sure exactly what kinda of cooling I'd want to keep these things running as long as they're still viable for gaming/etc.

Sorry if this is a bit too vague or broad of a topic, but I'd appreciate any feedback on this venture of mine.

Cheers.

hey man. heres a list for you...

Motherboard: EVGA 780i
CPU: Intel E8400
CPU Heatsink: Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme
CPU Heatsink Fan:Scythe Slip Stream Kaze Jyuni 1900RPM*
Graphics card: EVGA 9800gtx
RAM: OCZ SLI-Ready DDR2 1066 4x1gb sticks
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 500gb SATA **
Optical drive: X2 LG G-H20L-S10 DVD/CD burner with lightscribe***
Case: Antec 900 gaming case****
Power Supply: Corsair TX750W

Total: $1233.88 excluding taxes.

Notes:
* this is a high performance fan however it is plain black and does not have any LED's in it.

** i do not know how big of a harddrive you need so i threw in a 500gb. you may want a larger or smaller one, whatever your decision, i still suggest sticking with the seagate brand. also if you would like to setup a RAID 0 array you could buy 2 of the same size. (RAID 0 increases reading/writing speed by about 30-40% but if one drive fails all your data is lost.)

*** i suggest buying 2 of these, its always good to buy at least 2 optical drives, especially when they are only ~$30 a piece.

**** the case is totally up to you. this case is merely the one i would choose because of the good ventilation and cool blue look.

*EDIT*

Added Note: the $1200 total is alot less then your $1500-2000 budget, so if you like you could purchase another 9800gtx and a 1000W corsair PSU found here.Sweeeet, put through the order today, adding in a nice 22" monitor, second HD and other peripherals, which brought it around an even $2000, probably pick it all up tuesday, yay long weekend.

I have an evga 680i sli mb mobo and id like to get some memory coz i only have 1 gig. what KINDA memory should i be looking for? I was looking at Ballistix SERIES from crucial.
http://crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=2C09E8ABA5CA7304
take a look and see what u think..is it GOOD memory?Crucial sells nothing but top-notch memory...you would be making a good choice choosing them.ty very much for ur input *off to crucial i go*

How do I know if my Windows Server 2003 has RAID setup?
Is it possible to change the RAID without having to reinstall the OS?You can check the drive management to see if a RAID is setup.

Software RAID is good, but not as good as Hardware RAID where a physical device manages the RAID vs the OS in Software RAID.

Software RAIDs are generally cheaper to set up because you dont need to spend extra money for the Hardware RAID Controller, and generally the Hardware RAID Controller unless an older controller or lower end MFR, will out perform a software RAID which has to rely on system resources while a Hardware RAID is a self contained Resource so it does not usually detract from system performance unless its a lower end controller or old.

Also if the Hardware is a Server, generally the motherboards come with Hardware RAID READY to roll out, tucked into the BIOS.

If you need further assistance, post back and I will point you further in the direction you want to go with your RAID needs to find out more info about it etc.

As far as your question regarding if the OS has to be reinstalled, the answer is generally not. Generally you can add drives to build which ever flavor of RAID you want, however I have seen in some occasions with some older controllers where they do not allow for drives to be added after the fact to build a RAID after data is already present. These drives generally will build the RAID, then FORMAT and Sync themselves, then will be RAW ready for an OS install.

I would backup your server first just to be sure you have a parachute to fall back on in case you run into a problem. I generally GHOST my systems with Ghost 2003, then test the duplicated drive to make sure it behaves the same as the original drive, then pull the original drive out and set it off to the side as a fail safe, then go forward with adding drives if the system is not a HOT Swapable RAID Controller, or a RAID controller I have never worked with before that I dont know what the outcome would be.

You can also do research into the controller, once you figure out the make and model if hardware RAID and see if there are any problems with adding drives or creating a RAID set on a drive with data already present.

Generally Software RAIDs are always forgiving as long as you do not format the drives. You should be able to make a RAID 0 or 1 easily with the OS Software RAID. This will give you the same redundancy and/or spanning that a Hardware RAID will give you, but the performance will be less than a hardware RAID, also Hardware RAIDs are generally better at reporting drive issues vs a Software RAID. Software RAIDs will spill errors into the event log, but if you dont check the event log you will miss that you have lost say one of the drives that make up your mirror and your mirror is broken. The show goes on, but you are flying in dangerous territory since you now have no fault tolerance. This happened to me with my 18 GB software RAID mirror. Fortunately I caught it before the 2nd drive died, so I did not have a total loss!!! Hardware RAIDs generally will have an audio ALARM like a Piezo buzzer that will beep loudly when a drive has malfunctioned to alert you to a problem without having to keep and eye in to the event logs for trouble.

Hope this helps and is not overwhelming...

BTW, my computer acts exactly like in the above quote.

Right now, besides some other PROGRAMS, I'm running video conversion PROGRAM, and as EXPECTED CPU USAGE runs around 90%, room temps are around 30C, and my CPU temp is 50C.

I want to RECORD songs in my own voice on my computer, how do I do that?

Thanks in advance.You mean like a voice-over or what?I just want to record my own voice with the help of my computer(mike N HEADPHONE), and send it to my friend.You might want to have a LOOK at Audacity.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/Thats really kool, I'll DOWNLOAD it and I'll let you know.

Hello,

I was playing a game when all of a sudden my sound went ''poof''. After trying to FIND what caused it it appears to be my mouse wheel. Since a few hours I apparently am able to control the volume with it, or turn off the sound completely. This happened while I was playing the game. I did not download anything, I did not do anything, I was just doing what I normally do. Now I can't scroll down or up anymore, I use my scroller alot and now the only thing I can do with it is ADJUST the volume. How can I put it back to normal?

thanksInfo please. Operating system, MAKE and model of the mouse. Oh sorry,

It's a MI-7750R Wireless laser mouse

( http://img.pconline.com.cn/images/product/2025/202584/MOUSE_Trust_MI-7750R_sn.jpg )

I am running Windows XP Home edition.
I don't really know much of hardware, so if theres anything else you specifically need to know please tell me.

That is by the way the only mouse I have that problem with. When I use another mouse it just works normally.I can't follow the link you incldued above, but I'm guessing your mouse should look something like this:

The buttons should function like this:

I'm guessing that you pressed Button E too long and SWITCHED your mouse to Media Control Mode. Hold it down for 5 seconds and it should switch back to Normail Mode. I would check the software that came with the mouse and see if you can disable the Media Control Mode, at least while you are playing games. Good one, Eg0death!

I hate those wireless mice personally.
I CONSIDER that to be a very strange bit of functionality. I can imagine myself turning that mouse into a projectile when it switched over to Media Control Mode in the middle of a game, thus ending any and all functionality of said mouse.

I am running win xp rpo and my USB Ports don't see anything pluged into them any more.

They ware working and then one day I pluged a Digital Camara into it and it did not see it. Then I tryed my USB Hard drive and nothing.

And like I said they ware working is it something in my MSCONFIG startup list I have to put a Check mark in??I did findout all of my USB Ports front and back don't work. USB Controlers are LISTED in Device Menager should I uninstall them and re boot I don't like that.

What can be doing this?A damaged USB Controller could be doing this...or XP is playing games. Uninstalling and reinstalling drivers seems a good place to start

1. OPERATING System. What operating system and service pack level are you using? For example, Windows XP PROFESSIONAL SP2.

2. USB Root Hubs. Are there any USB Root Hub(s) listed in Device MANAGER?

3. Error Message.
Quote from: nymph4 on May 16, 2008, 09:51:47 PM

USB Ports don't see anything pluged into them any more.

USB Controlers are listed in Device Menager should I uninstall them and re boot I don't like that.

OK, here's the speedfan reading I just did...

As for my system, I have an AMD ATHLON 64 X2 4600, 4gb ram, win XP pro, Nvidia 8400 GS graphics card, and a Gigabyte M57SLI-S4 AM2 NFORCE 570 mobo.

I have a good size case, so it's not like everything's crammed in with no room to breathe. My processor has a fan mounted on top of a heatsink on top of it, and I have three other case fans, one 4 1/2 inch and 2 3 inch, so I should have adequate cooling. The case itself is clean, no excess dust, etc., and none of the fans are blocked. The only thing I can think of is if the fan over the processor is gunked up with dustbunnies. I've had the computer a little less than a year, so I haven't taken things apart for any kind of thorough cleaning. It looks like the processor fan is only held in place by two clips though, so I'd imagine it wouldn't hurt anything to pop it off, right?

Also, I noticed it only lists one fan, which I'm assuming is the one mounted over the processor, and why does it show two different core temperatures?You have to configure it. Read the documentation on the website.
Maybe I'm just not knowledgeable enough to figure it out, but I looked on the website and didn't see any information for configuring it.If you SHARE more information about your hardware specifications it will make helping you much easier.

Do you perchance have a dual core CPU? Is anything overclocked? Is this a custom built PC or is it STOCK from a manufacturer?

If you clean out the fan and the heat sync over the CPU and it still runs hot (but is not overclocked) the thermal paste between the heat sync and the CPU may be an issue. If low quality/not enough paste was used it may need to be replaced.

I could add a bunch of potential issues but without more info they would be speculation. OK. See here

http://www.overclockers.com/articles1165/

Yeah, I do have a dual core cpu. Nothing is overclocked, as far as I know.
I put most of my system specs in the post with the speedfan results.

I guess my system would qualify as custom built, I bought it from cyberpowerpc.com.

Any other specs you need that I'm forgetting?

I just see a white box with a red X where your speedfan results are posted.

I strongly suspect that 2 core temps are displayed because the dual core CPU has 2 cores . . .

Is the system builder local to you or did you just find them online? If they are local that makes harassing contacting them much easier. You might ask if any other customers have complained about hot CPUs. The manufacturer may have gotten hold of a bad batch of thermal paste or it could have been assembled by a crummy employee. Well. if that DID turn out to be the problem, is it something that is fairly easy to fix? I have experience installing drives and graphics cards, etc, but have never done anything like installing a cpu.60-63 is by no means too hot for the 4600. As per AMD's website your 4600 temperature ranges are 55C - 70C although Cpuworld says max operating temperature 55 - 72. The cores will ALWAYS read different from each other. This is 100% normal. Core 1 usually hotter.Well that's good to hear. Thanks!

I've BOUGHT a new pc. Here are the DETAILS:
Intel C2D 3Ghz (E8400),
Transcend 2 Gb 800 MHz ram,
nvidia 630i /GeForce 7100i mother board,
western digital 160 gb sata 2 hdd,
frontech 500W psu,
and i currently have 5 fans running (3 on cabinet, 1 on psu, 1 on cpu). When i check the exhaust air coming out of the fans outside, its not so hot.

my pc completely hangs even without any heavy applications running and i have to restart with the reset switch.
what the problem could be?
hangs occur with no mouse movement, even capslock/numlock lights not going on/off!
Also there's an 8 pin ATX 12 v slot in my motherboard but my psu gives only a 4 pin connector. i was advised to put the connector to the right SIDE (the right half of the 8 pin slot) (the side closest to the processor). Is that CREATING any problem?
All my drivers are up to date and my system is virus free. I also clean my registry quite often.
I have internet through LAN and it's my observation that the hangs tend to occur if my internet connection is on.
I made the BIOS settings default but still it didn't help!
When i made the settings to "error-safe default", the system hanged while booting!
It's really frustrating! A problem with the hardware would be very very dissapointing especially since the pc in new!
Please help!I am not an expert but I notice you say this is a new PC but the PSU connector is not the same as the block on the mainboard. If you bought the complete system as new I would expect the PSU and the mobo to be totally compatible. If this is the case I would suggest you contact the supplier.I agree. Have that PSU swapped for the proper one.

Hey, does anyone know if a Motherboard can be forced to run DDR2 1066 RAM at 1066Mhz that it was not designed for? (That's a mother board that supports 1066 but does not support the brand of memory)no ddr that i know of comes 1066?
and do you mean changing the TIMINGS of the memory or the mobo?
both will be found in the biosQuote from: Accessless on May 15, 2008, 02:28:51 PM

Hey, does anyone know if a Motherboard can be forced to run DDR2 1066 RAM at 1066Mhz that it was not designed for? (That's a mother board that supports 1066 but does not support the brand of memory)

I strongly recommend you use only the RAM on your QVL (Qualified Venders List).

Hi All,

I have a sony VGN-NR160E laptop. I recently GOT a TV and want to hook the laptop to the TV so that I can watch videos on the TV instead of the laptop monitor.

The TV has svideo but my laptop does not have an output of the same. Is there SOMETHING I can BUY to make the laptop video display on the TV?

This is my first post in this forum. So be EASY on me!!!http://www.computercasesandcables.com/ccc/CV-25120.html May be what you are looking for.

I have an old Compaq Presario Model 7360. It started out with Windows 98 2nd edition upgraded to Windows XP. It worked fine 2 or 3 months ago.
When I turn it on I got nothing on the old monitor I had on it so I hooked up Acer AL1912 LCD Monitor. I got the message on the monitor "no signal". I jumped to the conclusion that it was the hard drive so I purchased a Western Digital WD800BB 80GB 7,200RPM Ultra ATA/100 and installed it. Still get no signal. Both monitors and cables work fine on my MAIN computer (a Compaq Z 5000 5Umv11)?
If age would make a difference when I got it Windows ME had just came out and My "computer guru" recommended I stay with the Windows 98 as they were still fixing problems with Windows ME.
Oh when I turn it on the little green light to the right of the POWER button comes on ALSO the light on the CD Drive.The PROBLEM is with your video card.

If you have on-board video (the monitor is plugged into your motherboard through the back of the computer) and a PCI or AGP video card attached to the system, the computer will default video output to the PCI or AGP card, so if this is the case, ensure that the monitor is hooked up to the video card.

If you have a video card, and the monitor is hooked up to the video card and you still get no signal, remove the video card and reseat it. (Preferably in a different PCI or AGP slot if possible).

If after this process you get no signal, or you have only on-board video and get no signal, your video card is damaged, and you will need to purchase a new one.And you could probably get a better computer with a video card in it for about the same price. It would be of that same vintage or even newer, and more mainstream. Those Compaq models were VERY particular about the RAM they could use.

would anyone tell the REASON why system showing a shortened memory?

regards
sanPlease read here.sorry.!!!!
actually i thought that everything would be clear with question itself, as this issue is common for all hardware and software configuration.

well...i have windows xp sp2, DDR1 RAM with 256 memory, intel desktop board D101GGC, pentium-4 3.06GHZ


regards
sanYou're probably using an onboard video subsystem which has reserved 64 MB of system memory for its own use. 64=256-192.Quote from: dahlarbear on MAY 15, 2008, 03:23:03 AM

You're probably using an onboard video subsystem which has reserved 64 MB of system memory for its own use. 64=256-192.

And I am a SCRUPULOUS seller, but many times the buyer thinks that all RAM is the same and "if it fits it ought to work".

RAM from Crucial is a little more expensive but how can you argue with GUARANTEED compatibility, lifetime warranty and free shipping?I'm not blaming the seller. I sell on ebay myself, i just didn't know ENOUGH about RAM, and none of the sort of "guides" to BUYING RAM say anything about high and low density.

And that's the thing, as i say, i'm a very cheap guy. You can see from my POST i'm still even trying to implement my poorly bought RAM stick to save money.
And i've gotten one person saying they're not aware of any problems, and patio saying yes and maybe no... Anyway to know?

I wish to make cd/mp3 from tape recorder cassette, what software/hardware at low cost.I've used Polderbits before for this need of cassette to digital format...

http://www.polderbits.com/?ref=adword1

You can use just about any computer with a microphone jack on the sound card/integrated sound and a stereo phono jack between walkman and PC or stereo and PC.

Only thing that you will have to really set up is the volume level for the recorder. If the volume is too high, it will saturate the recording and sound crappy, but if you have the volume level just right, you wont see any CLIPPING at the MAXIMUM range of the recoding level and everying will turn out nice. You will want to set it as high as possible without clipping to remove a HISSS noise.

Good Luck


If you have a LOT of cassettes you might be interested in this:
http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/SearchDetail.asp?productID=10172

It FITS into an empty 5.25" drive bay.
I've never used one so I can't speak from experience.

The following is my super cheap method:

Cassette Player
audio cable with 3.5mm male connectors on both ends.
PLUG one end of the cable into the cassette player's line out or headphone jack and the other into the microphone or line in jack on the computer.
Record the audio with your PREFERRED free software.

This is a rather time consuming method because you will have to manually stop the recording between songs. I've copied a few individual songs this way but not an entire cassette tape collection.

my keyboard is screwed up when i type it adds STUFF l'ik/e that , 'l i k\k\l'l'l'l'l'k\k\k\k\k\l'l'l'l'k\k\k\k\k\k\0 and when it does that BACK\ space jsu tmak\es my computer beep i have ran mal'ware software but is it possibl'e that the program has missed something .] it doesn't do it all the time so that mak\es me think\ itl's not the keyboard but I don'lt know.] Please hel'p! Do you have another keyboard you can test with? Maybe get one from a FRIEND for an hour or so?

If the problem goes away with another keyboard you may need a new one.

I WOULD start with making sure the keyboard is plugged all the way in and isn't loose.

Is it USB or PS2?I'm with Spoiler - I would suspect the keyboard FIRST.

Ok got my nice new shiny computer bits, went throught a performance of TRYING to get the hard-drives to FORMAT at the correct size and now I've finaly got windows on the machine I've noticed a problem. My CPU USAGE fluctuates between 20% and 25% no matter how idle the machine is. Task manager says that no proccesses are taking up any notable CPU usage and that ony one core is busy (the forth). I've installed the latest drivers for it and thats not helped much.

Performaing a virus scan however I don't expect it to turn much up.

CPU: AMD Phenom 9500 Quad core
Motherboard: Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe
Bios: 12/26/07 Version 08.00.14
Memory: Geil Black Dragon PC2-8500 1066Mhz (which is only running at 800Mhz, better check the Bios in a mo)
Graphics: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3870 512MB GDDR4 (PCI-Express) (Don't see what this has to do with ANYTHING but i'll list it anyway)Oh yeah

Os: XP Service pack 3 (lol just installed it for the service pack 3 status) version 2002

Extra info about the virus scan! The CPU usage has remained the same but spread across all four cores. Does this mean that Task Manager is just telling me a load of rubbish?You may want to read through this thread.
I gather that the fourth core is at virtually full load, which sounds similar to the issue in the thread I linked to. No visible CPU usage would also indicate that the problems are similar.
Let us know if any of the suggestions in that thread help.And fixed! That was fast and all on my own as well. Apprently ASUS are really bad at making wireless devises and those on my motherboard are no different. the 20% CPU usage was caused by Hardware interupt (which I'm going to pretend to know about).

So anyone with an ASUS motherboard out there be-aware! Your wireless will suck and reduce system performance. Turn it off to restore full system functionality.Quote from: Calum on May 15, 2008, 12:56:55 PM

You may want to read through this thread.
I gather that the fourth core is at virtually full load, which sounds similar to the issue in the thread I linked to. No visible CPU usage would also indicate that the problems are similar.
Let us know if any of the suggestions in that thread help.

And many ASUS motherboards took a hit when SP3 was installed.

Don't know if I'm posting in the right area but I'm going to anyway,

I shut my computer down after being on for a week. I went to turn it on the next day but it will not show a loading screen or any boot up. The fan comes on but i don't hear any beeps from the hard drive. I cant remember if it beeped before, i think it did. But there is just a blank screen.
I tested with another MONITOR and no luck, also tried PULLING out the video card and no luck. Tried swapping hdd's, no luck.
My power supply recently blew, it was a 400w , so i got another one... 530w. Don't know if this will make a diff. but yeah.

Any SUGGESTIONS, thanks. MAYBE something other than the power supply itself CAUSED the power supply to blow... Maybe the new supply is blown as well ( partialy ) with a low 3.3V, 5V, or 12V etc.

I'd swap power supplies if you have a spare or buy a cheap POST Diagnostics card to point out the error further such as this card....


http://www.pcconnection.com/IPA/Shop/Product/Detail.htm?sku=195001

I have this card and it is perfect for pinpointing issues that dont point you in a direction as to the true problem, when there could be almost any problem that is not straight forward at this point. Some top end motherboards come with this integrated into them as a bonus feature such as my A-Bit Fatal1ty motherboard. You could be looking at a Motherboard shot ( it will likely point out the probelm on the motherboard with what is not initializing or in a hung state ), CPU shot, power supply ( low voltage conditon ), and on and on.... This would point out the issue further.

Hi there,

First details about my computer setup:
4 HDD's and 1 DVD R/W
Pri IDE:
Quantum Fireball lct 20 20 (problem drive) master
ST350015A Slave
Sec IDE:
HDS722540VLAT20 Master
Lite-on DVD R/W LH20A1P Slave
Promise Fastrack 376 on-board controller:
20 GB HDD - unsure of model as it only shows as stripe 0+1

Mobo: ASUS P4PE

768MB DR 266 RAM

CPU:Intel Celeron 2.5GHz 400MHz FSB 128KB L2 Cache (so CPU Power isnt a issue)

GFX card: Radeon 9700 PRO running latest Catalyst drivers

Anyhow, my problem is, when running programs or files off the Pri IDE Master drive, it is incredulously SLOW. I keep all my movies on that drive and copying them to that drive rather than one of the others is extremely slow, especially when using ConvertXtoDVD, it converts at 0.05x instead of about 1.3x which i used to get before...tried reverting to old settings, everything.

I have tested the drives in Sisoft Sandra and the difference in drives is staggering, the HDS722540VLAT20 averages around 50MB/s and the Quantum Fireball about 16MB/s

ConvertXtoDVD used to convert movies from this drive at full speed about 4 days ago...so why the change now?

the other wierd thing is, I have checked the Forums and FOUND most of peoples problems like this are because of the drive switching into "PIO" mode...I have checked this and it is at UDMA 5 as it always has been in fact all of them are apart from the DVD R/W which operates at UDMA 4

Any insight is appreciated
Kurtis

Edit: Just got told by a friend to run a disk defragment, was amazed to hear the files are 98% fragmented Will post results when its finished any other comments would be appreciated still
Hey guys...have defragged over 5 times now and they never seem to work :S

File fragmentation has only dropped to 96% and blue area hasnt moved much

will attatch screenshot of the disk defrag program...

Kurtis

[recovering space - ATTACHMENT deleted by admin]Check the jumpers on the problem drive. If they're set improperly, that's the problem. If your mobo can only do 1.5 gb/s then 3.0 is out of the question. Or if the mobo can do 3.0 gb/s and it's set to 1.5, there's your solution.

Some drives are set to 1.5 by default.It's time to give up the Ghost on that Quantum Fireball...heck i don't even think they are in the HDD business anymore.
It is the weakest link......Goodbye.
Hahaha thanks Patio ILL take that to mind

gosh is it that old?

Sad...

thanks heheQuantum has bee kaput for at least 7 years. I think they were bought by Maxtor, who were then bought by Seagate.....wow OK and yeah it is just that drive...swapped it out for yet another Fireball...works fine

but wanna get a new one now haha

After a thunderstom,the monitor was on.I switched it off,later to put it on noticing that the colour has turned pink,i need an urgent solution to fix this problem.I will appreciate any help and contribution! Was the monitor on during the storm? Are you using a surge protector? Have you tried another monitor to test your machine?

What is the make and model of your montior?

yes,the monitor was on during the thunderstorm,i dont have any thunder protector,the name is 15 inches Mercury monitor( 85watts) ,THOUGH i cannot remember the model.I have also tried other monitors on the computer and they are okay.Pls help!If it's a CRT (not flat panel) then one of the "guns" are blown. It's not worth repairing...replace it.

Alan <&GT;< i was THINKING it could be the RGB driver ic(LM2469 or LM1269) for the CRT that could be the problem,so replacing it cannot fix the problem.Suggestions please.! Open the OSD. Arrow to DEGAUSS. Press Degauss. Degauss= Demagnetise. I don't think degauss would work in this case, but you could try anyway.

Well, it seems to always just stop working. The lights and everything are still on. So the only way I can get it working again is to just pull the power cord out and in as a "restart". I don't want to have to do this day after day.

Windows XP

I think I'll keep router info to myself
-----
Back then, I had another user on the COMPUTER under the name "Dragon", and then I had to do a System Cleanup by pressing F10 or something on System Startip and stuff...yeah. So I did that, and now I'm just using the Owner. But the Dragon user account still exists. I want to get RID of it, since it seems to be wasting disk space.Quote from: Candora on May 17, 2008, 09:28:05 AM

I think I'll keep router info to myself

Back then, I had another user on the computer under the name "Dragon", and then I had to do a System Cleanup by pressing F10 or something on System Startip and stuff...yeah. So I did that, and now I'm just using the Owner. But the Dragon user account still exists. I want to get rid of it, since it seems to be wasting disk space.

Quote from: Candora on May 17, 2008, 09:28:05 AM

I think I'll keep router info to myself

Is it a WRT54G by chance?

Quote from: Candora on May 17, 2008, 09:28:05 AM

Back then, I had another user on the computer under the name "Dragon", and then I had to do a System Cleanup by pressing F10 or something on System Startip and stuff...yeah. So I did that, and now I'm just using the Owner. But the Dragon user account still exists. I want to get rid of it, since it seems to be wasting disk space.

Under Disk Management under Administrative Tools you will be able to add, change or delete users.

I currently have a Emachine T1842 with a 40GB hardrive and a SECOND hardrive 20GB's I have 512 of ram in it and currently my video card is installed on the motherboard. I wanna TRANSFER all my home movies to DVD I've heard bad reviews about Dazzel and other video converters I thought it best just to get a video card with an S video output and plug my VCR into that though a S video cable. Currently I'm looking at video cards at best buy and circut city I dont know witch one would be best I'm on a budget around 60 dollars I dont really wanna spend more than that. My other problem too is installing it I understand you can put them in AGP slots PCI and PCI-E. Then I read about how I'd have to take the old one out being that mine is on the motherboard couldnt I just uninstall it and leave it in their and put in my new one into whatever slot it goes into. Also does it work like a sound card you just pop it in and its plug and play ready to go I've seen pictures of Grapichs cards with cords on them being plugged into somthing maybe on the motherboard I suppose? I need better insight into this could somone answer some of my questions and explain to me what I would need to do if I did buy a grapichs card please and thank you.for a video card you would want to go with either agp or pci-E but it depends on what your motherboard supports.yes but is their one i can just stick in the slot install a disk and it will workI'd have someone you know who is knowledgeable about desktops over to take a look at what that board will take and maybe walk you thru the selection and installation process...
There would be no reason to leave the old card in there.Quote from: patio on May 18, 2008, 10:10:54 PM

I'd have someone you know who is knowledgeable about desktops over to take a look at what that board will take and maybe walk you thru the selection and installation process...
There would be no reason to leave the old card in there.

Except in his case, where it is integrated . Rather rockstar might need to disable the onboard video when installing a video card appropriate for his Motherboard.

yes, with Video cards rockstar, (ideally) you can generally just follow these steps:

1. Uninstall old video drivers.
2. Remove & replace old video card (if applicable, or just install new card)
3. reboot
4. run drivers from included CD. Afterward card should work with it's features. Could also run updated driver installer found on manufacturers web site.

I'd have someone you know who is knowledgeable about desktops over to take a look at what that board will take and maybe walk you thru the selection and installation process...

Trying to access INFO on an external hard DRIVE that is connected to another machine via a USB to IDE adaptor. I hear the tone when to connection is made through the USB connector, however I cannot see the external HD in "MY COMPUTER"
How can I resolve this matter?

Thanking you in advance, Hennessy.Check the network shares if you tring to see it over a network which I gusse your tring to?If you are trying to retrieve the data i would jumper it to slave and hook it updirectly to an IDE connector...1. Operating System. What operating system and service pack LEVEL are you running, e.g. Windows XP Professional SP2?

2. Power. Does external hard drive have its own power source or are you attempting to use USB BUS power?

3. Device Manager. What does Device Manager Utility show? Any yellow or red error indicators? Look under the categories "Disk", "Other", "Universal serial bus controller".

I was LOOKING into buying a wireless keyboard and mouse most of them are around 100 dollars is their one in the 40 to 60 dollar range that is good or would I have to spend alot of money to get a good one. I mean it wouldnt have to work 12 feet away or anything I'd just like one with LONG battery life and that doesnt SCREW up and give me problems. Any suggestions?I can't advise on price but the only one i would BUY would be Logitech...I got a wireless Logitech keyboard and mouse for one of my COMPUTERS at home. It seems pretty reliable.
I would think all of them would have exceptional battery life.

Okay, the hard drives fixed, the proccessors fixed, and the memory is as good as its going to get.

Now to address the issue with the power supply that i've been ignoring. Now my current PSU overheats if I leave the side pannel of the system case on, so I permanently just leave it off. Now that all the other 'forseen' isues have been fixed this is going to be a problem because I won't NEED to rumage around inside the pc all the time.

Anyway the problem is that the fan blows out of the PSU so it sucks air through the back of the PSU. However there is a slight draw back to this plan. The PSU has a mesh case design so that the air is not being forced through. My solution idea is to just turn the fan around in the PSU so that it blows air into the PSU (which seem morer sensible for a mesh case design to me). Anyone else have any thoughts or other ideas on how to solve the problem?

Does anyone remember when you COULD buy good quality pc parts that worked correctly at purchase and stayed that way for years?

The best Machine I have ever had is an Intel Pentium 2 266Mhz with 32Mbs or RAM and a 16Mb Voodoo 3 Graphics card (oh and its 3Gb HDD). Outdated it may be, Robust it deffinatly is. All components still work to this day (including the PSU).You most likely do not want to turn the fan around in the psu. It was set that way by the manufacturer because that is the best position/direction for it. let's take a LOOK at other options first.

what kind of case do you have? What kind of psu? how many fans are installed in your system? can you PROVIDE links and/or pictures of everything?
below is a pic of how a comp should be ventilated. take note that not all comp cases have that many fans or a side vent. the idea is to keep the air flowing in the same direction, with cold air coming from the front and hot air exhausting out the back. if any fans go against the air flow they are actually making the case hotter.



[recovering space - attachment deleted by admin]PSU: Hiper 630W HPU-4M630-PE 85% Efficiency.
Case : No idea some old cheap thing.
Fans: CPU, GPU & PSU. (why do we add unit on the end of everything?)

I'm trying to keep things quite and besides that my old case fan broke. Well sort of, it came of its bearings and made a horrible irritating noise. The actual truth is that I need to get a new case but i've been put off buying one from online. I had old dell xps, 950mhz with 512 mb of ram and it's running well still and nothing's broken. The xps was manufactured back in 1999.

---

I would be sure you have adequate ventilation for computer so that the your parts are nice and cool and there's less stress on the parts.

After installing 2 extra fans (one 120mm the other 80mm) and installing them in a fashion that streamlined airflow from the front of the case to the back, the PC overheated...

I now have the same fans in a none logical format of the large fan exausting at the rear of the case and the smaller fan blowing onto the PSU & CPU. It's not overheated yet but it does have an uncomfortable idle temperature of 44 degrees C and the CPU ~50 degrees C.

I know everyone says don't mod the PSU but this is ridiculous.Bump, any more suggestions?

(Is bumping allowed?)

I want to get a TV tuner card for my PC, but I don't know what to get. Any suggestions regarding brands, or specific model numbers? Also, what about those USB TV tuners? Are they any good?

Also, if I were to purchase a TV tuner by ATI, for example, would it conflict with my current graphics card, which is by Nvidia?check out the reviews on tv tuner cards on www.newegg.com
http://tinyurl.com/5doe4cOK, thanks for the link, but that doesn't answer my QUESTION about any possible CONFLICTS from using a graphics card and a TV card from two different manufacturers.Quote from: roccenstein on May 19, 2008, 05:32:36 PM

OK, thanks for the link, but that doesn't answer my question about any possible conflicts from using a graphics card and a TV card from two different manufacturers.

I have just scan one of my hard drives and FOUND that it has some bad sectors on it. I only use this hard drive to take images of my main windows drive (C: drive) using Norton Ghost. The drive has now been scanned and fixed! I did this using the windows tools. Now I’m worried that this may only be a temporary fix, so a couple of questions:

Do you think I should now start looking for a new hard drive to store these images to?

When a drive starts with these bad sectors, is it a sign your hard drive is on its way out.
A couple of thoughts on this.
A brand new HDD from the factory if run a full DIAGNOSTICS test will show up bad sectors...it's not neccessarily an indication of overall HDD health.
If the drive itself is operating properly and has no issues it could be fine for 3 years or could fail in a month. This is the nature of HDD's and their FINICKY status.

If you are using that drive only for Ghost images 2 things to consider:
1) Don't defrag and/or run diagnostics too often or you risk screwing up your IMAGE files as they HATE that procedure...
2) you really should be burning those images to CD/DVD after they've been verified as valid.I used another hard drive for these images because my windows drive has 232 GB used. Interesting point you make about “Defrag.” I’ll not be using defrag on these Image drives anymore.......Come to think of it. I may have defragged the drive a week before my problems began! One of the bad sectors was found in the ghost image I made. If this is the case, do you think this will be a problem in the future? I have since made a new ghost image using the same drive!!

I have Acronis on my other computer and am able to verify my images, on Norton ghost however I cannot find the verify image. Do you know if Norton includes this? Thanks!
Depends on what VER. of Ghost you are using...
I was a Ghost user for many years and dropped it as soon as i saw Acronis...suprised you didn't do the same.

Just recently as last week I been having a PROBLEM with the Screen on my G15 Keyboard.

It KEEPS changing at random times. I usually keep it at the LCD Clock, but later it might change to the Performance Monitor, or the Countdown Timer. I updated software and the latest DRIVERS and it still has this problem.

Anyone know whats up?ummm, did you read the manual?

double click the logitech LCD manager icon on the bottom right of your screen. i menu will pop up. select the "LCD settings" tab. under the switching algorithm header you can change it to manual or SET it to change at certain intervals.

i have a 2003 Gateway MEDIA CENTER XL with a Sound Blaster Audigy II Audio with IEEE 1394 sound card and Boston ACOUSTICS BA745 2.1 Analog speakers, for some REASON my speakers stopped working and if i check my audio devices in the control panel it SAYS that there are no audio devices connectedDid you TRY reinstalling the driver ya, didnt workDid you check the SETTINGS an connections an make sure there all right?Does that sound card show up in device manager and if so does it show up as working correctly?