Explore topic-wise InterviewSolutions in .

Is there any way to upgrade a Pentium 1 into a Pentium 2 or 3 or do I have to go out and buy a new COMP.?A new mainboard would be more adviceable. However, since your other components may become a BOTTLENECK for your newer CPU you may just be better off buying a new computer.

I suggest you do some research before you buy a new computer or upgrade components.info>http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,9347,00.asp

When I install a program or a game that features music during the installation, it is often very sluggish and the music stops and plays. The installation process is as fast as it should be, but somehow, my CD-ROM seems to be affecting audio.

EVEN when I LOAD a CD-ROM and, for example, let Windows search for missing .DLL files it will also cause any music playing in the background to stop and play.

What could be causing this?

1024mb DDR RAM (333 Bus)
52X Max CD-ROM
CD-Reader/Writer 48x12x48x
80 Gigabyte Maxtor harddisk (Master)
30 Gigabyte Seagate (SLAVE)
Trust 514DX 5.1 Sound Surround (+ 5.1 Sound set speakers)
what directx have  you got on your pc..nice system  but its  a shame  you have a maxtor?run sisoft or aida32 diagnostics..i suppose it happens in the other drive as well?It never used to happen on the Seagate. Which is an older harddisk and without an 8MB cache.

Direct X 9.0B was installed. However, if the problem occurs once I have formatted and reinstalled I will report back.

I would have bought another Seagate, but it was not avaible. Why would it be a shame? I have heard that Maxtor fabricates decent harddrives.  What do you recommend if I were to BUY a new harddrive?http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd3N1YmNhdGVnb3J5X3NlYXJjaA==&cat_uid=4   seagate  i reckon....have load of failures with maxtor?I was ASSURED that Maxtor was a very decent brand. And I have yet to see any type of issue.

What you showed in the link was a Western Digital. Is that a better brand than Seagate?scroll down the list you can also see the reviews on hard drives...of i think that hardrives will so be a things of the past...like floppy drives the way to is RAM sticks memory cards....Even after formatting, my CD-ROM player still causes music to 'crack' and my computer to act very sluggish.  The installation, however, proceeds at normal speed but it slows down everything else.Apparently, installing Chipset drivers has solved the issue. I thought I had properly installed them but only unpacked the necessary files to run the setup.

I have had to format my kids computer once again, only this time when I went to reinstall windows98 my screen shows "Type the command interpreter e.g. C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM" followed by C>

I'm lost in KNOWING what command it is asking for.  

If I hit F8 on start up, it will give me the window options of what I would like to start e.g normal or safe MODE etc., but no matter what I hit the computer tells me it is bypassing my startup files, and then again askes me for the command interpreter.

Can anyone help me?DaShumps......So you have wiped C drive clean by formatting.....and then you ran your Win98 boot disk to install the necessary DRIVERS ...then changed A: to D drive ( thats your cd drive) put in win98 and it wont load .........Do I have that correct?

let us know

dl65  Yes, you had it correct.  I woke up this morning and created a new boot disk (thinking the other was corrupt) and INSTALLATION worked great!!

Thank you, I don't think I would have thought about it had you not laid out what I had done.....put it down to little sleep and trying to fix things when I was to tired to think.

Thank you dl65   DaShumps....Your welcome......It is amazing what a GOOD nights sleep will do particulary when dealing with computers.

dl65  

i got a virus that's been screwing up my computer, tried EVERYTHING to get rid of it. Couldn't. So i've decided to format my hard drive. I think i'm SUPPOSED to do it from DOS and that i need a BOOT disk, but i have no idea how to start up in DOS and i recently had a new hard drive installed and now my A: drive isn't showing up so i can't create a boot disk. My OS is Windows XP. Please help...your my only hopeYou can download a boot disk here:

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm:

Here are some other links that you may like to read FIRST before formating:

http://www.webtechgeek.com/How-to-Format-a-Hard-Drive.htm
http://www.newlogic.co.uk/kbase/fdisk/page1.htmIf you want to boot from a floppydisk, you will have to set your floppydrive as the first boot device. This can be done in the BIOS.did you try this command A:\>sys              ENTER

Help PLEASE run, codemaster music 2000 FINE on M.E. but won't run on XP tried compatibility MODE no joy, appears to load o,k, but USER interface is unusable.See if any updates are avaible for the program.either dual BOOT winme/winxp...or try this for now>http://www.vmware.com/download/workstation.html

My CD-ROM drive (artec 54x max) is the best, is's really fast, never jams and never even so much hints at scratching a CD.

However...

Every time I put in a CD it comes up with:

(drive letter)is not acessable- Prameter incorrect

which is a slight bummer.
I want My drive back!!!!
can ANYONE help me?what  software does this happen on?what operating system is used?Open the PC case and make sure the power or data cables for your CDROM and HD are all still properly plugged in.

Try a commercial CD (like your Windows system CD) and a drive lens cleaner CD in the drive.

Try another CDROM borrowed from another PC to make sure you don't have a bum drive.

If you have a drive that's given up the ghost:

Best is Plextor.

Good is AOpen, Sony, NEC, Mitsubishi, Mitsumi, Chinon, LG, LiteOn, most drives based on these.

Avoid HP CDROMs, they have trouble with other than 74-minute CDs.thanks for the replys, but nought is happening.



I'm on Windows NT4 (i know, flowers can be sent to my home address)

I've checked the innards of my machine, even changed the IDE for a hyper IDE, like used  on HDDs

the drive is an  Elonex 54x CD-ROM, the firmware is good, and the drivers are good to my knowledge.

The only thing i can see wrong with the setup is when I attempt to reinstall the drivers, The setup program won't run because it cannot find MSCDEX in the autoexec main path, but the Drive works fine in DOS so the CD Extention is active.

i'm currently testing the drive speed with a nice little app i got from Ahead sotware, and it's doing fine. so why can't it read CD's?

I'm also a firm supporter of fixing things, and don't intend to buy a NEW Drive, when I know this one works.










Just another quick thing, does anyone know how to get USB support on Windows NT? http://www.usbnews.net/news/more_and_more_usb_devices_suppor.htm   and have you tried this>http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;135174Smashing! haha, all I needed to do was get all my downloaded MP3s ONTO my I.pod. sorted, Cheers!

(not that i enjoy stealing bandwidth for personal reasons on a work PC )

Hello all,
This might be a no brainer for some, but here goes:

I had a SCSI HD installed, it got infected and I could no longer logon to windows(xp) it would hang up just after entering my password. Task Manager had winlogon using 100% of my processors so I could'nt get anything else running. (Except TM in safe mode.) After a while it would just blue screen me and restart. So I went out and bought a new HD (IDE). The IDE is my main drive but for some reason I cannot see the SCSI HD anymore. It has quite a few IMPORTANT files that I have to recover.

Any help would be greatly appreciated... It's a Dell Precision 410

Thankshttp://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314063&Product=winxpThanks but that article read more like XP wasn't installing...

I have installed it on the IDE drive and then after getting running, I re-installed the physical SCSI drive as well...

I wanted to access it, remove the files I need, then reformat it to USE as additional space... But my machine is not showing the drive...is  listed in the boot ini file?>http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314081&Product=winxp or does this help>http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;309000&sd=techActually, after I atarted looking for references to IDE Ports and adapters, somewhere in the MS help centerwas a reference to a program called "Rescan1."

"The Rescan sample program, which is provided through this article, can be used to enumerate all available SCSI adapters on the system and initiate bus rescan. This will find new devices that have been added to the bus since the previous bus scan."

I downloaded it and ran it and nothing happened. But I had to restart to check something elso out and there it was... just sitting there waiting for me...

I got what I needed off of it and am currently formatting it. It was in pretty bad shape, stuff I've never heard of nor downloaded was everywhere...

Thanks, because of your response, I had to dig a little on my own and found a solution... the BEST kind of help...I had the same situation, SCSI drive was recognized by WIN2K, but not by WinXP on my triple boot system.  Both Device managers showed properly operating SCSI card (Adaptec w/bootable BIOS).  Never figured it out and finally removed SCSI.  It didn't matter whether SCSI was bootable or not.

Hi,

I had 2 entries for "usb root hub" in my system CONTROL panel (win98se - patched up to date) and i removed on by accident. now when pc restarts it detects a "pci universal serial bus" although the usb ports are motherboard-borne. i have the aopen mx34 mboard cd and also win98se cd and i cannot find drivers for this or usb root hub on either cd (usb 1.1 im sure). does anyone know where i should be looking? im thinking of getting a pci usb card just to get some ports back - at LEAST this will have its own drivers ETC which should not fail. i still have one usb root hub entry in device manager,

thoughts welcomed.   Y.Reinstall the mainboard drivers. They may contain USB drivers.

I suggest you search the CD that came with your motherboard.  My cousin said "i cannot find drivers for this or usb root hub on either cd", thererfore the question still BEGS - where would root usb hub drivers be - on a motherboard CD or on your operating system CD? Could anyone with Win98SE even post here what their interrupt/DMA settings are for USB root hub. Help, attention most welcome.

Dost Vedtdanya. FM.  USB drivers are on the MB CD-rom, but not LISTED as USB drivers. That is part of the chip set drivers. Check your manual to see what chip set the MB has and load the drivers for it. In the absense of proper drivers, windows loads a generic driver for USB, which sometimes does not work. After you load the correct drivers, go to Device Manager and remove the generic driver.you may try going into the bios del/ctrl key on boot and chose setup-default options save and exit...give it a wirl..it may work..

Is it possible to connect your vcr to your computer?
If so, how?  

[glb][/glb] Unfortunately the simple ANSWER is no. I'd suggest you install a DVD DRIVE instead.

RB™Er the simple answer is YES!  Of course, that depends on what you want to do.  If you want to record to your computer your OLD vcr tapes then you will need a HARDWARE component which will convert the data from the vcr to a format the computer can understand.  Check out the link for ideas.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=1428

You can also go from computer to tape but it's a bit trickier.sure it is possible with Graphic card like ATI Radeon series.To record a video signal (TV input or VCR tape) to a PC HARD drive, you will need a 'frame grabber', 'genlock', or similar video input conversion card. To play an NTSC composite or chroma/luma/audio set, you need a suitable video card capable of outputting an NTSC signal and an audio card with the right adaptor to play into the modulator or TV video/SVideo and audio inputs.

You may also need a signal processor or filter device to strip out any corruption introduced by pervo's like Macrovision.belkin video bus can handle it........nice..

Lately my computer has been acting up and I'm having problems with the CD drive. Now, I can play music CD's as well as DVD's and games which I installed earlier that run off the CD rom also work. The problem is that when I try to install new programs off a CD it doesn't work. I've tried several DIFFERENT programs from several different companies and none work.
At first the Set up program WOULD open up and then suddenly close a few minutes later for no reason. Now however, I can't get the set up program to open at all.
Finally, I -can- install some programs but only if they're downloaded off the internet (games updates etc.). So I know that it has something to do with the CD drive.... somehow. I really have no clue what's happening  

If anyone has any insights or could help, it would really be appreciated!Have you installed another CD-ROM drive yet to see if the problem persists? It could be that your CD-ROM lense needs to be cleansed.

You should also check to see if all the cables are properly connected.

You said 'some' programs from the Internet and not 'all', does this mean you also have difficulty installing programs in general?I havent' tried to install a new drive.. I'd have to buy one and at this point I'd rather not spend the money if I can avoid it.

Everything seems to be hooked up correctly. I haven't been tampering with that aspect of it.

As for other programs what I really mean is anything that I DOWNLOAD installs properly. It's only when the program is on a CD that I can't get it to work.Have you contacted technical support?

I suggest you CONTACT the manufacturer of the CD-ROM drive.You may be able to find someone with an old CD in their closet.  I personally have a box of old CD drives, SIX or severn of them.  They've all been replaced with CD-RW drives, so they're just closet dust catchers.  I'm sure I'm not the only person so blessed. quite a few here as well as ram cpu psu cases etc..have you tried firmware?or right clicking on the d icon explore anything?..why your explorer may have a problem and not the drive?what operating system have you got...

I went to re-INSTALL XP professional and I end up in an endless LOOP of it installing, I never get to the welcome screen, I just KEEP getting the initial install screens.  How do I fix this?Do you use a RECOVERY disk or an ORIGINAL XP Pro cd? If you were using recovery disk, it could be happen that you end up with some problems; because when my computer crashed, I tried several times to use my recovery disk to restore my computer but it didn't work, after I use my original XP cd then it did work. So why don't you try to install your XP Pro with the original XP Pro, and then install all drivers you need from your recovery disk. BUT, if you had already used the original XP cd, I have no idea what's wrong with your computer, it might be a hardware problem.http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Did a bad thing. Tried to add a new HD. Put the cables in wrong. Initially had DOS window asking about BIOS or CMOS STUFF. Now nothing. Put it back to original hardware configuration. Nothing. Took out the CMOS battery for a minute. Nothing...

Are both HD toast? If not, is the original one recoverable? If so, please HELP...

ThanksCheck the cables to see if there are any pins missing or bended. Or other types of damages.

I suggest you replace the cables you suspect of being damaged.Thanks for reply rapture:

What I MEAN when I say put cables in wrong is that, I put the master on the slave and the slave onto master. Pins are in good shape.

When I power on, I don't get beeps and nothing on the screen. Is it toast?


You should test the harddisks individually. And remove any computer component not necessary to boot the computer in order to determine if another periphal is not causing problems.

disconnect your drives and boot pc ..hit the del/ctrl key for bios do you get anything....I will try to boot with out the drives. Are you saying just booting with just a mother board? What about the floppy drive. Do I remove that too?

I'll LET you know what happens...

Thanks.disconnect all the ide cables ---for you all of the  drives  this is to demine whether you have an ide controller issue...do you get the bios--post--screen...just wondering if your bios can handle a new drive how old is it and what operating system have you got..Have not tried to boot with just the mother board yet. As of right now, I do not get anything on the screen. I will try to boot with out the drives except the floppy in 10 minutes.



you pc will not boot properly--windows without the hard drive?..but without all  the drives it  should boot in the bios screen..does it...via the del/ctrl key..Well, I've tried booting it without the ide drives.
With and without the floppy.
With and without holding down the cntl/del keys

Still nothing on the monitor. Blank. No DOS prompts or anything. No beeps.

Is my ma board toast?
Can I retrieve the HD data?
Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance...
I am bumping this up in the hopes of any additional tips...Connect your harddrives to another computer to see if you can save your data.

Raptor...

Thank you for that confirmation. That was what I was going to do. I've been told that the Drive should be OK.

Do you think ma board is cooked?
If you are very desperate to find out, you can try installing your mainboard in a computer case with only a Power Supply Unit and perhaps, but only if you wish to see the results of your ACTIONS, RAM,  a videocard and a harddrive with Windows installed to see if it is able to boot.

However, you may damage these components, if there is still warranty on the mainboard I suggest you either see if you can get a new motherboard or have them test it for you.i was asking you to do that because i suspect the mobo has had it ...the mobo are any of the   capacitors leaning over or do they have a BLOWN out look is there any scorch marks on the board.... tracking lines....you would have to hold it up a light source to see this use gloves to do this and be careful..does your fans spins maybe worth a check also...

I am TRYING to upgrade my etower 400 ix.  The problem is that when I went to pny my MODEL was missing from the configuration chart!  I've called the company from where I purchased it and they can no longer hep me!  How do I find out what kind of MEMORY I need for an upgrade?  Where do I get it- right now I have only 64MG! Try the eMachines site... Only thing I've ever seen the PNY trademark on are CD blanks.

If that eTower is a P3 machine, it probably has 168-pin PC100 SDRAM. If it's a P4, it probably USES PC2100 DDRAM. These are just educated guesses...http://parts.emachines.com/emachines/sys_lookup.asp  i have got one of those emachine....emonster710...1000mhz...p3

Is a Centrino P4 system the same as a Mobile P4?By the same, I mean in terms of does it mean the same thingNot quite the same, Centrino is a different flavour of P4 than Mobile. Check the INTEL website for SPECS on both.If i was not WRONG, you can call a computer has a centrino technology if it has Intel Chipset, Pentium M, and Intel PRO wireless card on it.

i have just installed a seconed hard drive on my COMPUTER for video capturing and the program i use is saying that it is not fast enough even though it is. ive figured out part of the problem is that it is running through my main hard drive and that is slowing it down can someone tell me plz how i can make it so it doesnt run through my main by either connecting it some how past the main or by going into the system and fixing it.

PLZ helpHow about some information.  Speed and memory configuration of the machine, O/S in use, how the SECOND drive was installed, etc.  For 2K or XP, you can check Device Manager and see if the IDE channel in question is running in UDMA mode.  If not, that's the basic problem, we'll need to address that.
im running an Windows Xp it was installed as a secondary not to be used as primaryHave you checked Device Manager under ATAPI CONTROLLERS to see if the drive is running in DMA mode?If the drive is on the secondary controller, it will run at the slower speed of your CDROM drive. Set your hard drives as primary master with slave, and primary slave, and you should get maximum speed out of both drives on a 80-line 40-pin UDMA cable set. Also make sure they are both set to DMA mode in Device Manager.Actually, with any reasonably modern ATAPI CD, that's not true.  The only issue is during the actual transfer of DATA from a specific device.  I have a machine with an ATAPI CD-RW drive that runs UDMA-2 and a MAXTOR hard disk that runs UDMA-6 on the same channel.

I have a Thinkpad 380D with a 2 gig hard drive.  I bought a 10 gig drive to upgrade it with.  I had heard somewhere that a 380D cannot handle a drive bigger than 5 gig.  So I PARTITIONED it into to 5 gig drives, but it still did not work.  Any ideas on the problem?  My guess is that since '5 gig' depends on WHETHER you are talking 1000 x 1000 x 1000 bytes or 1024 x 1024 x 1024 bytes, that maybe I need to make it 3 partions.  That was what I was considering TRYING, but it is a lot of work so I was hoping someone might know if that WOULD do it.  Thanks.I don't know this particular model, but if there is indeed a limitation, it may be a physical drive size limitation, not the size of any partition.  What O/S is the machine running?

Here's IBM's page on your machine, you may want to consider the BIOS upgrade, I suspect that will help with any disk CAPACITY issues:  http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/DSHY-3XWNVG.html?qse.380dIt is running Windows 98.  I checked the page you sent and the Bios upgrade would allow it to use a 5gig drive.  Maybe it was never upgraded, so I will try that.  Thanks.

Dave

I have an old 80386 DX 25/33 (also referred to as the dinosaur).  It has been sitting in a corner for a long time. Recentlly, I decided to use it for some of my old programs that will not work on my newer, faster, computers.  It had MS-DOS and WIN 3.1 installed and contained a word processor and only a couple of programs and very little unused or free space.  

I decided to try to upgrade the HDD and add a soundcard. I was sure that I could use a disk manager to get by the 528 MB HDD limit.  I took off the case and looked inside.  The HDD was a monster--Huge.  Three inches tall, five & three quarters wide, and eight inches long.  I removed the retaining screws and slid it out of its slot. and installed a one gig IDE HDD and powered up.  

On boot up, it told me about a Control Concepts Inc. SCSI Host Adapter, Bios 16 Ver 3.07   ID:7 and that it was seaching for SCSI Drives.  

Also, for this computer, the CMOS setup limits the harddrives to 74 different capacities from 10 MB to 502 MB--each capacity linked to specific numbers for cylinder, heads, etc.

My question is -- Is it possible to replace a SCSI drive with an IDE driver by adding an IDE controller card?

Wow.  You're talking about some MAJORLY old stuff here.  But why would you want to ruin a perfectly good door stop?

Things _may_ work, but I'd imagine you are going to have problems installing modern computer equipment into this machine.  It most certainly won't have PCI slots - I imagine it has ISA slots for expansion cards - you may be able to pick up an old SB or other card from 'back in the day' at a swap meet, or on ebay or something.  This will probably be the least of your problems.  Drivers may add to the difficulty however - but you can probably find something on driverguide.com or similar.

Now, for the HDD - if you can find an add-in card that will fit the slots on your motherboard with the right drivers for it, you may be able to add in a second hard drive.  I wouldn't be throwing the old one out however - most old motherboards didn't support booting from an add-in card - they want something on the end of that motherboard controller instead.

If you can get more specific with the exact model of motherboard and HDD and any other useful information, perhaps I can help more.The date printed on this computer is July 1992.  Most machines of that era had proprietary parts.  The MB has no identifying labels except for a "D-01" which is near the top and not associated with any pin, chip, slot, or switch.  You are right about the PCI slots. there aren't any.  I don't think they existed then.  I hope that I will not need one.  My intent is to replace the HDD, add a sound card and a CD Rom.  

There are 7 ISA slots:
1 -  with card that has 15 pin female port
1 -  video card with port for monitor
1 - controller called "CONTROL CONCEPTS" which
     contains a chip labeled "CONTROL CONCEPTS"
     Version 3.07
  - Various chips, switches, fuses, jumpers and pins,
     i.e., J3 40 pin IDE
            J2 50 pin SCSI
            J9 34 pin Floppy Port A
            J10 34 pin Floppy Port B
  - pins for jumpers
            J6 - FLPY - DIS
            J5 - IDE - DIS (has a jumper on it)

The other ISA lots are empty.

The SCSI HDD is by Magnetic Peripherals, Inc., Oklahoma City, OK.  This HDD alone weigh about 10 pounds or close to it.  I am not looking for another one like it.  I really want to replace it with an IDE HDD.

From the above, this computer did operate from an add-in card.  

I usually buy parts for my old computers from MarketPro Computer shows.  The next one for my area is July 17-18.  I can usually find what I am looking for there or at the Terps Trade-in on Maryland U campus.

I guess the next thing to try is the removal of the jumper from J5 to see if the IDE HDD will be recognized.

What do you think?    I didn't get to the computer show this weekend at New Carrollton to look for the parts that I need. [Yesterday, I drove over 600 miles roundtrip through the mountains of West Virginia. On the way to the computer show today, the transmission gave out.]

The next computer show near me will be the July 31 weekend at the Show Place Arena.   I will try to find the needed parts then.I WENT to the computer show on July 31, bought used replacement parts and cards to try to get this 80386 25/33 dinosaur up and running.  I changed out the scsi controller card, replaced it with an ide card, replaced the scsi hd with the ide hd. Powered up went into setup drivectrl to match cylinders, head, sector, etc. for hd recognition. Disabled ONBOARD hd controller. Saved, exited, rebooted. Okay, it seems the ide hd was accepted.  "Insert boot diskette in drive A".  After inserting a MS-DOS boot diskette first in the 3 1/2 then in the 5 1/4 drive, it was still asking, "insert boot diskette in drive A". On reboot, the floppy controller failed. I alternated the hook-up first to the mb then to the card, enabling and disabling the onboard floppy controller. I  took out the 3 1/2 floppy and the 5 1/4 floppy drives, replaced them with a combination drive.  Still floppy drives did not work.  I just decided that I had invested enough time and money in this project.  So I will put it aside.
I also bought a mb for $5. The cpu and simms were included, but I decided I did not want to invest the time to find the drivers necessary to make it work. I have already tried a lot of stuff I won't even try to describe.
Well, I gave it the college try... I think. For now I am calling it quits.I throw away better computers, it astounds me that someone would pay good money to attempt to get one running!  I bought the first computer for my kids in 1978 -- a Commodore Pet, 8k, when you had to do your own programming in 'basic' on an audio cassette. Then in 1980 I got the Atari 400 with 48k (a different version of 'basic'). The Pet and the Atari were still in working order when I gave them and all the software to the Goodwill in 1991... that's when I bought IBM 386 PS1. It had a 40MB HDD, 4MB memory and a modem. IBM and Sears owned Prodigy at the time and I got 3 months of use free. I still has and use this computer.  I think its 8-12MHz. Oh, I have other computers also 4 that are less than 3 yrs and 1 less than 1.  
I homeschool and I tutor the kids on my block.  I have accumulated a lot of educational software for my computers over the years... core curriculum software as opposed to edutainment software.  I hold on to the mediums to run these programs for as long as I can.  These programs were vintage for their day and is competitive with anything on the market today.  The cutting edge educational software was very expensive. When I needed a particular software I paid the price to accomplish an educational objective.  Today's computers are just too fast to allow the child to interact with those programs or the programs will not work at all.  
I try to keep the old computers working for as long as possible.  To achieve that goal, I will try until I am made to "cry 'uncle'". Uncle...  Uncle... Uncle...

Well, whatever floats your boat.

When I start my computer up with my USB printer attached it crashes with a blue screen.

This has started since plugging in a USB Zip drive. and SEEMS to have corrupted the USB DRIVERS or something.

I've uninstalled the USB devices and the printer yet it still HAPPENS. Start the computer without the printer plugged in and its fine, once started I can plug the printer in without any problems.

Can anyone ADVISE me on this one?what operating system have you got if its win98/se there maybe a bandwith ISSUE how many usb devices have you got connected..

Hello,

I would like to know how to use a computer microphone.

I bought one called CHATEAU Computer Microphone PS-800.

I installed it in the back of the computer that I know, but I don't knoww how to detect it or if it even working at all.

Please help if ANYONE knows.
I'll just copy what I said before:

Quote

What software do you intend to use your microphone with. And what problems have you encountered testing your microphone so far?  
 
Assuming you plugged in the microphone jacks correctly.

Hi,
Iv'E been meaning to upgrade ram for a year now because the type I need is rare, I have an ASUS P/1-P55T2P4 motherboard (kind of OLD) and it has 4 x ram stick slots, the ram it needs is 72 pin EDO ram I currently have 4x16mb sticks in it and I have now found 2x128mb sticks on eBay, now to my question:

Will my ram stick slots support 128mb sticks?

I'm pretty sure my motherboard can handle a total of 256mb. Here is a link to my motherboard manual

HTTP://www.asus.com/pub/asus/mb/sock7/430hx/p55t2p4/p55t2p4-311.pdf
Please help quick as there is only 1 day and 20 hours left!Refer to your manual in order to determine what RAM your mainboard supports.

If you donot have the manual, search for it on the mainboard manufacturer's website.Did you read the manual you SUPPLIED the reference to?  It clearly says that it supports from 4mb through 64mb 72 pin SIMMs.  Unless my 3rd grade reading abilities have failed me, the answer is no, it's not compatible with 128mb SIMMs.  Ok,
Sorry I must of missed that page out, thanks johnwill
MattYou allready knew all the computer jargon in 3rd grade, Johnwill?Actually, in second grade, but I didn't WANT to brag!

Hello Everyone, My gateway computer has an AMD Athlon 1001mhz w/ Performance Enhancing Cache Memory. I am not sure which Motherboard this prosessor is attached to. I would like to know if I might encounter any ISSUES with upgrading the video card to a Nvidia GeForce FX model. This is a large STEP up from what is installed at present. At what point does a new CPU or Motherboard come into play as I upgrade my components. Thank You Very Much! Gateway machines are proprietary and you will likely have more headache than the machine is worth. In all probability it is grossly under powered. You will likely not even GET a different manufacturers mother board to fit in the Gateway case. You will be money ahead to have a local builder to build one that meets your requirements.You can PROBABLY use the card, depending on the capabilities of the AGP slot on the existing machine.  You need to check the exact specifications against the new video you indend to install.
*shy* What is a gateway computer?   Quote

*shy* What is a gateway computer?  

I am trying to INSTALL an ATI Radeon 9200 PCI video card on my Acer Aspire 1845 and I am not having any SUCCESS! I BELIEVE I have read every other thread but have not found my exact problem  

Here's my senerio: I install the card and when I boot up all I have is a black screen. It also seems that it is hanging up on the Acer boot up screen, because my keyboard does not kick in however, I have lights on everything else (floppy drive, CD/Rom Drive). I can also hear the Hard Drive functioning and my fan is spinning.

My BIOS does not have an option to disable the onboard graphics but I have tried to disable through device manager and that does not change anything. I have also changed my current display adapter to the standard VGA PCI and same thing. I have deleted the display adapter , shut down, installed new card and still same thing! I do see jumper settings on my MOBO for it however according to my jumper layout they are not listed and therefore cannot be changed.

Heres my current info:
Windows '98
MOBO:V58XA (ACER or ALI)
160MB Ram
300MHz AMD-K6 Processor

I have searched and have not been ABLE to locate any BIOS updates at all. Acer seems to have pretty much dropped the older systems completely as far as any help goes.

I have been on the FTP sites on found just about everyother MOBO but absolutely no info for a V58XA. It's like it never existed!  

I am going nuts trying to think of any other options or maybe I am just missing the obvious! Help will be greatly appreciated!!

I see the jumper settings on my MOBO to disable however on my layout for the MOBO it is not SHOWN and it states "if a jumper setting is not listed you must not change it" I don't know if I should attempt it or if that would cause MORE problems!

HELP!!!   Do you have enough RAM to support your videocard? Have you tried different PCI slots?  

Have you perhaps exposed the card to magnetic forces?I have tried another PCI slot and this is the second card that has had the same problem so I don't believe it has been exposed to magnetic forces. As far as the memory I think I have enough. The card states that I should have 64MB and between my physical and swap space there is more than enough. Am I looking at this correctly?  Frankly, I haven't got an answer to your question. - Perhaps some of the more knowledge able members do.

However, one more thing could be noted; Do you have enough processing power to have the card function?

You should try to locate and E-mail Technical Support and ask them for the appropriate BIOS update.Thanks Raptor! Again, I THINK I have enough processing power according to the card specs. I did email Acer unfortunetely they only sent me links to places I had already looked with no success. I am going crazy trying to figure this out. Any thoughts on me changing those jumper settings??  1. When it comes to video, only physical memory counts. Ignore the swap file.
2. Check your power supply. Most high end video cards have an extra power connector that draws current directly from the PSU 12v rail. A properly designed PSU will shut it down if it detects overload.
3. Even if you get it to work, it will probably not work "properly" in that machine.
4. Buy a new computer that is designed from the ground up to handle high end graphics and processing tasks.The ATI 9200 does not require an additional power source. It is powered by the AGP/PCI slot.

Dummy2k is correct, if you wish to use the videocard more efficiently, your system should be upgraded.

However, if you decide to upgrade and plan on buying a new motherboard I suggest you look into AGP.

Articles of interest:

PCI

AGP

Computer Video Card Support and Help

http://www.mrbios.com/biosupgrades/index.cfm

The mouse on my computer keeps locking up and the only way it will START to MOVE again is if I restart the computer. It has been doing this for a couple months now and has gotten really bad the last few days. It's gotten to the point where I have to restart the computer every 5 minutes or about 30 times a day. Please help me!  is it dirty?does it have a roller BALL? what mouse is this ps/2 or  usb or optical?and what operating system have you got...It is a ps/2 and I have cleaned the insie of it many times and it has not helped at all.What OS?Are you sure it is the mouse that LOCKS up and not your entire system?

I ASSUME you have done all the necessary scans? Viruses, spyware, trojans, etc?

I have 4 simm slots and need to which order they go in so my pc will start up. 2 sticks have 2 chips on them and the other 2 have 8. I think they are 72 pin cause the sticks with 2 chips have 1 and 72 on each end where the connectors are. The computer makes a repeative long single beep when I turn it on. It was working fine until I took the ram out to see if it would fit in another computer. It was the wrong kind so I put it back in and I haven't been able to get it working again. Please help me!!!  Did you record the positions the SIMM chips were in when you took them out? You may have ONE in backwards, or they may not have seated properly. Remove and re-install them as appropriate.I do not remember which order they were in. I was thinking about buying new ram maby they are messed up. Would it work if I put new ram in?

B.T.W. I took pics of my computer and the ram if it would help any.trekkie28001.....I think that EDO simm 72pin ram MUST be INSTALLED in pairs......so I would try PUTTING the two sticks with 8chips on each in slot 1 and 2 and the other pair in slots 3 and 4
In fact try just using the 2 with 8 chips and put them in slots 1 and 2 and if it boots up ok shut down and put the other two back in
I just went thru my drawer of misc .bits and pieces and I have a set of 4  - 32mg sticks ....and they will only go in one way.
That should get you working again....

let us know

dl65  It WORKED!!! Thanks!!!! I put the other 2 sticks in at it still did the same thing but then I took them out and left the 2 8 chips in there and it boots up. Now it says CMOS Checksum Error-Defaults Loaded. What does that mean?I fixed the checksum error. I had to adjust the date. It showing it has 16 MB Ram and need to put the other 2 in so I can install 98. It has 95 on it now.trekkie28001......Glad to hear your back up and running.....The other two sticks will make things work a little better........Remember they always must be installed in pairs.......Given what you want to do , I would check with your local computer shops ( repair) and you may be able to find Some 72 pin EDO simm ram at a good price ......( it's an old type ) ideally what you should look for is 4 sticks of 32mg ( I dont know if it was made in 64mg modules.) Your pc is fairly old , but with a ram upgrade it will serve you well.

Cheers,
dl65  CMOS checksum error (Click)I have put both pairs in slot 1 (bank 0) and it works fine but I have tried every COMBINATION of swapping to get Bank 1 to work but it starts up with that beep again. Both simms are 8 mb. Can there be a problem with the 2 slots in bank 1 or  the cmos or bios or something?

First off I really hope this GOES in this section. If not I'm very sorry.

Anyways here is my problem, I just bought I very nice and some what expensive computer because my old one crapped out on my. It has a DVD/CD Burner. I have been making backups of my DVD and CD's because I have had to rebuy multiple copys of the same thing because of scratches and stuff. Anyways that is not the problem. I just think that might be something that CAUSED the problem. Anyways The computer came with 7.0 or 7.1 surrond sound with and AMP. After only 5 days of owning the computer I have run into a problem.

At first I THOUGHT it was just the burnt copy of my DVD's but then I found out it is every movie I put in my computer to watch. Anyways, everytime I put a movie in my computer to watch it all I get it the sound effects/Music/and anything else that is in the background. I do not get any of the verbal sound that should be coming out of the mouths of the actors. So in other words I'm just watching a movie with no sound except the background noise.

My speakers still work fine because I can play music on them and stuff like that. But everytime I try to watch a movie the same problem accures. Does anyone know what has happend or how to fix it? I really dont want all of my hard earned money to go to waste.codecs is the key>http://www.free-codecs.com/Ok never mind I found out that it was not my computer that had the problem but in fact it was PowerDVD. I tryed one of my burned DVD's on my Windows Media Player and it worked fine. Then I tryed the same DVD with PowerDVD and there was no sound. So that is my problem.

If anyone knows how to fix that I would really appreciate it because I like using PowerDVD, you get a full screen using that.You can also set Windows Media Player to show a full screen. Obviously, you have not looked beyond PowerDVD. Windows Media Player offers many more options than PowerDVD.

I suggest you update PowerDVD or reconfigure it.Yeah I know I can do full screen with WMP but everytime I do it keeps the Play/Stop/Skip buttons SHOWING which is kinda annoying. There is probably a way to get ride of it but im not smart at all.By not placing your mouse on any of the panels in fullscreen (Center it on the middle of the screen) and not moving your mouse or touching your keyboard the panels should dissapear.

You donot have to be smart to do so, you only have to know how to do it. I suggest you look into Windows Media Player, there are some very useful extensions avaible.Hey Thanks alot. I'm so glad I found this forum its been such a big help to me.

Hi. I have a question. i have two cd drives, one cd-rw/dvd combo and the other just a NORMAL cd-r. How come when ever i use one drive to install somethin, like a game, and i try to use the disc on the other drive, it tells me to insert the disc and i can't PLAY it. i can only play the game by inserting the cd into the drive that i used to install the game with. is there a WAY for both drives to be used or is it like the drive that u use to install the game is the drive u use to play it. is there a way so that i can use the other drive to use the cd? bye.
:-/How are they installed one may conflict with the other combo does this> one cd-rw/dvd combo >and the other does this just a normal cd-r.> question why a COMO drive..to copy stuff drag it on to the hard drive? and copy it?more info on drives  and how are they set up salve /master what?and the o/s this is getting boring to ASK aiight, forget it then.  thanks anyway for takin ur time to type somethin...

This is the issue:

About 4 DAYS ago, I noticed that my downloading speed was acting whacky. I'm using cable and connecting through a router which worked perfectly up until I came to this point. What happens is that I begin downloading at regular speed of about 700kbs and after I download an undetermined amount of MB, the downloads go to 0kbs and I get disconnected from AIM and any other programs that were using the internet.  About..1 minute later, everything gets re-connected and does the same cycle. It has become apparent to me that when an X total of bandwidth is processed, I get disconnected.

I don't what's going on because all of the other computers in the house work perfectly fine and do not do this; they're all connected to the same router....

Steps I've taken to attempt to solve this:  

1. Called my ISP -- No help, they said everything is working perfectly.

2. Replaced my CAT5 cable -- Did nothing, still getting the problem

3. Updated my NIC card drivers -- Did nothing.

4. Tried different ports on the router and tried connecting directly into the cable MODEM -- Did nothing to help the SITUATION.
---------------

I hope someone can help me out...this is annoying the heck outta me, so any steps in the right direction would be great. Please just keep in MIND that this is not happening on any other computer in my house and that this only recently happened 4 days ago.

Thanks for reading this and hopefully someone knows how to help.I assume you scanned for viruses?

If you have a Firmware or Software Firewall installed, see to it that it is PROPERLY configured. Also, check the logs to see if any strange events have been occuring.

hi,
how can i know the amount of cash on my pc
e.g.fullcash..etc..is it the L2 or L1 that determines the
amount of my cash or both??and what is the maximum amount of cash??..

thanks in advance..Irisman.......Wow....L cant ever find cash in my pc ....however there is something CALLED "cache" ......you will have to find out what your motherboard is and then you can see what the cache is .......L1 cache , I believe is the memory built into the processor on the motherboard and I think is small  usually about 8 , 16 or 32 kb .......possibly even higher it DEPENDS on the processor......L2 cache is higher it may be 128 , 256 , 512 kb or higher again depending on the processor. For example ....the pc I'm using right now is a p3 500 and it has a L1 cache of 32 and a L2 cache of 512 ........This has NOTHING to do with the amount of Ram installed ....
There is a nice little program which you can download (for free)which will tell you how much cache you have as well as my other useful things about your p/c ie temp. , various VOLTAGES , SPEED of your fans etc.
Go to http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3846.html
download PC Wizard 2004 V 1.6 release 2
It will tell you how much ram you have installed , what kind , which sockets they are in etc.

hope this helps
dl65  
The cache you mean is always on the processor, not on the motherboard.I use Everest Home Edition: http://www.lavalys.com/products/overview.php?pid=1&lang=en for such status checks, naturally free.

Thanks for any help you might be able to provide.
I foolishly reformatted my HP computer, including fdisk.  I've TRIED to install Windows XP Professional, which shows as being on the hard drive (c:) now.  However, the computer will NOT boot off the hard drive, only off CD or floppy.  Is there a secret to doing this?It would help if you specified what error you get when booting from the hard disk.  Did you have any ERRORS during the installation?Did you forget to remove a floppy from floppy drive?

You can set the boot order in the BIOS. I suggest you see if setting your hard disk as the first boot device solves your problem.Thanks for your replies, but they don't help.  There are no error messages, and the hard disk is selected as the first boot device.  It simply will not try to boot from the hard drive.  If there is no floppy and no CD, it says Operating System Not Found.  I've done with this with countless other computers over the years, no name clones.  My feeling is that HP has done something to the BIOS to keep people from screwing around with the system.Rosenblatt N......Have you gone into the bios to see what the boot sequence is .......and are you able to change it?

let us know
dl65  No name clones don't use proprietary CRAP. What some "STAMPED" machines manufacturers do (notebooks are PARTICULARLY bad) is use a HD overlay when the machine is set up. The first sector (or first 4 - depending) is written by the overlay and the MBR is shifted out to follow the overlay. It acts as a translator and the OS never actually sees the MBR. Once you have changed this, you probably cannot use the OEM restore disk. Sometimes this can be overcome by using fdisk /mbr and sometimes not. If that doesn't work, the only solution that I am aware of is to use a debug routine to wipe the first 4 clusters, after which Fdisk should work fine.

ANYONE KNOW GET BACK TAO ME
Never heard of such a creature. Who manufactured the board you are looking for?OK. p000353340 is a part number for a PRINTED circuit board assembly for a  Toshiba Satelite. Enter the part number in a google SEARCH. Expensive that!

My wife has a back room office and my space is separated
from hers by a bathroom.  We both have XP's and I have
Moziilla as the browser with DSL service.

What are the absolute mininum components that we need
to set up a two-computer, wi-fi network?      I believe you would require two wireless network cards and one wireless router.

You could get by with two wireless cards using AdHoc mode, but I have to strongly SUGGEST the Wireless MODEM.  Since one computer would be NEXT to the router, you'd only need one additional wireless card for the remote machine, a wire will do the trick locally.
Thanks for your answer. Please explain,"a wire will do the trick locally."A wireless router has wired ports as well.  I'm assuming at least one of the computers is next to the DSL modem.  Of course, I'm also assuming that the DSL modem has an Ethernet connection, not USB.  Since you didn't GIVE any EQUIPMENT specifications, this is guesswork...

I am having trouble with internet explorer and windows crashing. Started with MACROMEDIA flash games causing ie to shut down, now windows xp is locking up when started. Have gotten such messages as "error caused by graphics DEVICE driver" and computer shutting shutting down due to a code -1073741819.
Could my video card (nvidia geforce2) be dying and causing these problems? Or is it something else?
Have tried uninstalling and reinstalling ie, macromedia flash.
Thanks for help
further info, it seems my kids have had other problems. when loading command and conquer the computer was locking up. also today it did this starting up quicke. All my FANS are working and did clean out the dust last night (did it about a month ago last)Please Read This First - Viruses & Spyware

I suggest you install the programs recommended by the administrator.

Your problem could be caused by numberous reasons. You say your children make use of the computer, perhaps they downloaded a file that was infected. Or perhaps it was due to inadequate security and a Trojan was downloaded.

• What type of security is installed?
  

• Have you downloaded all the necessary components?
  

I tried to load up my computer (emachines 390) and it keeps restarting when loading windows xp. It finally got onto windows main menu, so i saved some of my files to cd and decided to reboot windows by putting in the RESTORE cd's that came with it. When i try to load it now, the windows loading page thing comes up and then the TOWER makes a sound like it is shutting down and it restarts. Its not a sound from speaker, just can hear the computer FAN or something slowing right down. Do i have a hardware fault or something? please reply asap, i REALLY need my computer boot to safe mode hit the f8 repeatedly then go to  control panel/system/advanced/settings >STARTUP and RECOVERY>/system failure/uncheck-automatically restart. what ram have you got also any beeping on startup..

My brother's GATEWAY, just over a year OLD, RUNNING on XP, has a problem. When ever he CLICKS on a new link, the resolution changes so everything on the screen is huge. He has to go to control panel and change it so he can see everything on the page.do other people use this machine>http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;281565&Product=winxpno, he is the only ONE who uses it. the pc did the same thing for me, b4 i passed it on to him.

• Uninstall videocard drivers
  
• reset
  
• Install updated videocard drivers.
  

Hi. My computer keeps (to try and put in words) acting like something is create a suction that gives the hard drive a shock and causes my system to completely freeze.

I suspect the my power supply is short circuiting? I am not sure though. Its a real pain for me, and I have to keep resetting and rebooting the computer.

It starting happening on OCCASIONS. But now it happens most of the time.

It happens MOSTLY while my pc is idol.

Can you please help.Is your computer clean?

FREE online virus scan
http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/
Free online spyware scan
http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/spyxposer/com/spyxposer_principal.htm

If the first link doesn't work just use the second one.
Panda has had a major REVAMP of their site & I think they have COMBINED the 2 scanners into one. Quote

Hi. My computer keeps (to try and put in words) acting like something is create a suction that gives the hard drive a shock and causes my system to completely freeze.

I just bought a brand new WD caviar 120 gig hard drive. i went to install win2000 until i can get XP and the 2000 disk was bad. something about missing a bunch of images or summat. anyway so it took a crap about halfway through the installation. anyway so i rebooted the computer and now whenever it restarts it says "NTLDR not found"

i tried to use a dos boot disk and format the drive but dos cant locate the drive...oops sorry about posting 2 topics i THOUGHT i deleted one of them but i guess i cant considering im a guest...ok there made an account. anyways i made a dos boot disk and i typed fdisk and it says bad command. is there something wrong with my command.com?FIRST, use a CD cleaner on the Win2K CD and a CD drive cleaner disc in your CDROM or CDRW drive.

Next, boot the machine and enter BIOS. You want to set your Boot Order to accept the CDROM, then the HD. (Using a floppy drive for bootup with an NTFS system isn't much use.) Then you can boot from your Win2K CD and try re-installing Win2K with a complete reformatting of the hard drive.the disk was brand new, someone burned it for me (like i said, just until i get XP), so the actual windows was bad. im not really worried about that tho, im more worried that i cant access anything.http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q314057&ID=KB;EN-US;q314057Just because the hard drive was brand new doesn't mean it can't be bad.

That's WHY they have warranties on them!

I have a brand new 80 gig that will not boot up, that if you plug it into another computer in the slave position, you can NOT see it...and it's LESS than 2 months old. I am waiting for the RMA paperwork now to swap it out for a new one.

And because it failed, I lost several CRITICAL files that I can NOT replace that were too big for a cd, we don't HAVE a DVD burner, and my backup hard drive was full. Lizi have had the same maxtor and western digital...gone..seagate bara...is suppreme...but in the case it a software problem...not...harware.. last reply nice posting...brain comming back to life on 3mille amps..thanks for the link, but im not upgrading so i doubt it applies to me.

im almost POSITIVE there is nothing wrong with the drive.

1 i bought all the peices and put it together at a friends house
2. he gave me a win2k cd that he had just burned to take home and install on the computer
3. i came home and left it to install overnight.
4. i woke up to see an error screen. it said something about a missing image file. it said that i could resume or quit. i clicked resume. it did it again about 3% LATER. i kept clicking resume and it kecp popping up again.
5. i reboot the computer. it showes everything fine, it sees the drive, but when it checks the DMI pool DATA it says NTLDR NOT FOUND.
6. i made a dos boot disk and plugged it in. now i cant access the c drive, and fdisk, even when i say to format the a drive, it says its a bad command. i even made sure i typed it right by checking your site.

if i get an XP disk will it be able to save over the bad 2k files?alright problem solved.... sort of. i got my hands on a western digital boot disk and formatted the drive that way.

thanks for the ideas everyone.

hello, here is my problem

my computer restarts when transfering  files over network.
if i copy files FROM another computer its fine, but if i copy files from MY computer to another computer, it restarts. or if i am on another computer and try to browse the network and copy files from MY computer it also restarts.

I have tried windows 2k and Xp pro. i have FORMATED twice, tried different hard DRIVES, NIC cards. and memory.

I am running out of ideas. please help.

Thanks
MAZdo you mean rats.....what do u mean? rats?remote access transfer systemok... so do u KNOW how i can fix it?
please let me know.

thanks
MAZ

Any RECOMMENDATIONS (other than trial and error) for finding a CD-RW that will work in a CAR CD player (1999 Subaru).There is not a lot of CHANCE of any CD-RW working in an audio player, me thinks.

Of what brand is this CD-player?Try a CD-R They work OK in my Ford

I don't know how to install my case fan.  I'm installing it in the FRONT.  I don't know which WAY to PUT it because one way makes it blow and the other end sucks the air.  What do I do?Depends do you have other fans?. Quote

I don't know how to install my case fan.  I'm installing it in the front.  I don't know which way to put it because one way makes it blow and the other end sucks the air.  What do I do?

If it's a fan in the front of the case, do I want to blowing in the case or blowing air out of the case?

Hey I'm in need for some help.

I formatted my computer a couple days ago.  And now my CD-R doesn't show up.  When I open up My Computer, I see my regular drive (C) and my floppy disc drive.  My CD-R doesn't show up.  And I used my Cd burner program and it said it coudln't find that drive.  I replugged all the plugs to see if that was the problem but it never worked.  Any ideas?  Could it be my Cd-R drive is broken or something?

ThanksWhich OS?

If you have a SCSI or other non-ATAPI CDROM interface, you may need some added drivers to recognise the drive. If you can boot from a floppy that has drivers that let the CDROm show up, try copying those drivers to a directory on your HD and editting CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT to include lines like the ones referencing your CDROM drivers on the floppy.

Sometimes WIN98 and Win95 have trouble with recognising CDROMs on older BIOS... Running the DOS LEVEL drivers can be a usable work around. Try the following:

Copy OAKCDROM.SYS from an EBD floppy or C:\Windows\Command to a new directory C:\CDROM, and copy also the file MSCDEX.EXE to that directory from that location.

In CONFIG.SYS at the end of the file, add the line:
devicehigh=c:\cdrom\oakcdrom.sys /d:mscd001
Save and reboot, and see if the CDROM is back.

If not, add this line to AUTOEXEC.BAT:
lh c:\cdrom\mscdex.exe /d:mscd001 /m:12

The drive should now be visible.

If it still won't show, you may have a bad adaptor setting, adaptor, or CDROM drive or cable. Check to make sure your BIOS is set so both IDE adaptors are active and so the CDROm is detected (use AUTO or CDROM) on its connection.I'm having somewhat of the same problem as Hipepper.  I am using Win98..I have a Lite-on 52x32x52 internal CDRW...this RW worked fine in my old machine but once I installed it on my current machine Windows only recognizes it as a CD-Rom.  The BIOS lists 2 drives, both as ATAPI devices.  My burning software Nero5.5.10 is detecting that I have the drive installed but, when I try to burn a CD--I get an error message asking me to insert an empty medium....I do and nothing happens.  I do have a 2nd drive that is truly just a CD-Rom.  Also, when I go to Dev Mgr it lists the 2 drives by name.  I can't get the CD-rw to even play a CD.. the green light comes on then goes off.  Can you give me any ideas or should I follow the advice given by MalikTous?I'm running Win98.
My CD-R is Plextor CD-R PX-W1210A.

By the way what is an EBD floppy and how do I get it?


What can I do if I have a bad adaptor setting, adaptor, or CDrom drive or cable?

.When you install Win9x, you have the option to create an Emergency Boot Disk, a floppy with a minimal DOS bootup configuration on it. When you have internal problems with Windows, or if you want to re-install Windows, you can use this disk in the floppy to boot to DOS and repair or prepare the system as appropriate.

The Win95 EBD typically does NOT include the CDROM drivers, you can copy OAKCDROM.SYS and MSCDEX.EXE from the c:\Windows\Command directory to fix this and add the appropriate lines to Config.SYS and Autoexec.BAT on the floppy.

The Win98 EBD includes the CDROM drivers and a MENU select option set.

To manually build a boot floppy in Win9x, first place a blank floppy in the A drive and format it with the Full and Copy System Files options. Then copy the following files:

c:\windows\himem.sys
c:\windows\emm.386.exe
c:\windows\command\fdisk.*
c:\windows\command\sys.*
c:\windows\command\format.*
c:\windows\command\oakcdrom.sys
c:\windows\command\mscdex.exe
c:\windows\command\xco*.*
c:\windows\command\edit*.*

to the root of the floppy, and use a text edittor to create a CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT on the floppy to run the appropriate programs from the floppy vice the HD. If you have any added drive access interfaces (SCSI or a special-interface CDROM), copy those drivers as well and assign them in CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT.

Plextor includes a Plextor Drive Manager utility, but I have never seen one of their drives fail to perform well with STANDARD drivers, nor have I ever encountered a failure in a Plextor that wasn't due to things other than the drive. You may just have a bad 40-pin cable for it, or a bad MB adaptor connection...

There are websites (www.bootdisk.com?) where you can download bootable floppy images and make a boot floppy easily.u can use the add/remove hardware optionwith win98 look in the device manager and cdr drive icon?? is the dma ticked on your cdr drive?I have Windows ME and now my CD-R doesn't show up.  When I open up My Computer, the CD R show at the bottom of my tool bar with a circle and a red line thu it. I see my regular drive (C) and my floppy disc drive.  My CD-R doesn't show up.  And I used my Cd burner program and it said it coudln't find that drive.  I replugged all the plugs to see if that was the problem but it never worked.  Any ideas?  Could it be my Cd-R drive is broken or something?
Please see my post on 7/19----I still cannot make my CD-R work...windows 98 recognizes it as a CDrom.  Even my burn software sees it but, when I try and burn--nothing!  Any help pleassssse?Try another 40-line ATAPI/IDE cable. Try the drive on its own as master on that cable. Make sure your CDROM and CDR drives are not both set to Master or Slave. If your cable or adaptor is a Cable Select model, both drives have to be set to Cable Select.I have the same problem as teg1961 except I have Windows 98.  I also have a red line through my CD-R drive.  http://www.5starsupport.com/info/burner.htm

I'VE SEARCH ALL THE WEB SITES AND ACCORDING TO THEM, DIAMOND MM HAS BEEN SOLD TO S3. THEY CAN NOT HELP ME WITH THE INFO I NEED.                               I AM LOOKING FOR INFO ON JUMPERS JP1, JP2, AND JP3 WHAT THERE FUNCTIONS ARE?  THERE IS NO INFO LIKE USUALLY PRINTED ON THE CARD. I'D REALLY APPRECIATE HELP ON THIS, I COULDN'T EVEN FIND A MANUAL ON THIS CARD.  THE CARD IS : SPDSTR A90 AGP 16MB REV Bhttp://www.diamondsystems.com/search?query=jumper+settingstry contracting them>http://www.diamondsystems.com/request_info

The original hard drive on my labtop recently went bad so I bought a new one, I loaded the recovery disc into my computer and loaded the operating system (WINDOWS me) and it says everthing is fine, reboot your computer. I reboot and I get "General error, failed writing to drive C: ) When I try to reload my recovery discs a second time it says it cannot create partition, all disk space is currently in use. This is the second hard drive this has happened on in a row so Im pretty SURE its not the drive. I was thinking perhaps the IDE cable? But I really have no idea please help!!!Did you format before you attempted to write anything onto the hard disk?
I thought the recovery disc that came with the labtop would format it for me. So I guess no I havnt formatted. I dont have any floppys atm is there anyway to make a boot disc onto a CD-R?I am not aware wheter that is possible or not. Perhaps you should take a look on a website that provides people with bootdisks in order to determine if it can be done or not.Well I installed the book disc, and formatted my hard drive, but when it comes to 100% it says format complete, NEXT line is could not create boot, next line format aborted. Im about to trow the thing out the window.Download the diagnostic tools from the manufacturer of the hard drive you bought.Did you Fdisk before format?Yes I formatted, now can anyone give me some ideas on what it might be, insted of more questions?You did not answer my question. I didn't ask if you formatted, I asked if you ran Fdisk BEFORE you formatted.No I didnt, but now it wont let me erase the PARTITIONS or delete anything off the HD without an error.Boot the machine with a boot disk. At the A> prompt type fdisk and press enter. Choose to delete any existing partitions. Next choose to create a primary DOS partition and make it active. If you get prompted for large disk support, choose yes (y). Let Fdisk run without any interuption. When it completes, at the A> prompt type format c: /s and the disk will be reformated and the sytem files transferred to it. You should now be able to see the drive and change to it.the format C: /s command doesnt work with windows me, and I have tried that, I still get error writing boot.Try the command sys c: . But you really need to run Fdisk.Ok just so no one asks me anymore questions and perhaps I can get a few more answers, When I boot up my computer from the hard drive it says General error writing to drive C: . When I try to use my recovery disc and use the option restore operating system I get "image error" cannot create partition, all disk space is currently in use. When I try to run fdisk and delete the partitons and create new ones I get error writing fixed disk.Your recovery disks were made for your old drive which had an image on it?what laptop is this?

Hi, I am a novice computer builder and was wondering what other people ideas of proper AMOUNT of memory is. I bought a chaintech APOGEE silver spjl2 motherboard with a intel P4, 3.0 ghz cpu. This motherboard supports 4 gigs of memory, but with the prices of memory it would take almost $500 to max it out. The main purpose of this computer is for online gaming and internet entertainment (streaming video, music, and various entertainment like we all do). My question is, what would be a appropriate amount of memory to have a fast, efficent computer while keeping cost down? My second question is: what is better, single channel or duel channel memory? MB supports both but for SPEED would you go with the single or the double channel? One last thing and i will stop my RAMBLING: in your opinion, is there a signifigant difference in speed and ability between pc2100/2700 and 3200 DDR modules? I am sure there are differences but is it a difference you can actually see and experience? Thank you for your time and expertise. As i said, im trying to learn and I value the thoughts and experience of other users such as yourselves.Ok, Mikey, here's what you need to know.

Much depends on the OS you want to install. W9x has problems with memory above 512 megs. It can handle more but you will have to do some tweaking. 2K and XP handle large amounts of memory with ease but you will have problems with DOS based games. A dual boot system with W9x or DOS will solve that. If you intend to do any disk operations from DOS, use the FAT32 file system. More memory is always better,but for what you will be doing, nothing less than 1gig would be satisfactory. Use the fastest memory that your motherboard will support, subject to the following "gotcha". There is no such thing as dual channel memory (yet). It is a misnomer. What really happens is that the motherboad has a dual channel memory access controller. You MUST use perfectly matched pairs of memory modules in order for it work. If they are not matched pairs, no matter what you SET the motherboard to, it will default to single channel. Crucial, Kingston, Micron and others do sell memory in matched pairs. Don't get confused and think that DDR (double data rate) means dual channel. They are two different animals entirely.

after changing over LAN cards my pc no longer works, and all that I get when I turn it on is the very first display screen, and cant access any MENUS or run any disks, but all the lights & fans come on ok.  HELP is it in the the RIGHT slot? take it out is your pc ok?and more info on system always helps us..and thank you for posting...

Have a Dell Isperion 4000, about 3 years old. Running Windows ME. I have a problem with the hard drive making a clicking noise and FREEZING the mouse arrow.

The clicking noise will sometimes stop and then I can continue what I was doing.  The it may start again, and sometimes continue until I have to turn off the computer.
I spent 2 1/2 hours with a Dell tech from, you guessed it, India and  after running several tests said the hard drive was WORKING ok and further stated that the problem was with the hard drive (go figure). So I guess I need to buy another hard drive, unless sombody knows somthing else I can try.

Thanks...bobis this connected to the net? type dxdiag in the run BOX this will TEST your graphics..also run scandisk this will test your hard drive for bad clustersany chance of a ruby murray Yes it is connected by wireless network, will try your suggestion when I get home tonight. What is "ruby murray"?Do you know the MANUFACTURER of the hard drive?  If so, go to their website and download the test software for the hard drive.the reason for asking if it was on the net was ...maybe a virus scumware trojan maybe be causing your problem download spysweeper also is your wan encripted if not some scumbug maybe accessing your hard drive therefore the clicking of it?have you got a firewall sygate personal is good and free...a ruby murray is slang for curry as in india....