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My external HDD seems very slow to me.
Attached is a screenshot from a HD-Tune benchmark of the internal and external drives - is this normal?
The 100Gb DRIVE is internal, the 25Gb is external.
Also, why does the transfer of the internal drive vary so much, and go down as the test goes on, whilst the external drive stays relatively the same?
The internal drive is ATA, external is USB2.0.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me ANSWER these questions.
If more info is needed then say so.
Edit: attachment was missing, added now.
Thanks for the heads-up WillyW.Bump? Quote

     eSATA       SATA 300       PATA 133       FireWire 800       FireWire 400       USB 2.0       Ultra-320 SCSI
Speed (Mbit/s)       2400       2400       133       786       400       480       2560
Max. cable length (m)       2       1       0.46       4.5 (16 cables can be
daisy chained up to 72 m)       4.5 (16 cables can be
daisy chained up to 72 m)       5 (USB hubs can be
daisy chained up to 25 m)       12
Power cable required       Yes       Yes       Yes       No       No       Yes/No USB 2.0 supplies +5 VOLTS and will power 2.5" external disks (using two ports, unless the port offers more than the required current) or 1.8" disks (with a single port); other disks requiring more power will not function       Yes
Devices per Channel       1 (5 with multiplier)       1 per line       2       63       63       127       16

most of the motherboard problem occurred recently is CAPACITOR leaking. can any of you explained the reason to me. one more thing is PSU also FACING the same problem for the same board. 10 q.if you are an experienced technician, you can replace the BURNT out capacitors with new ones, assuming there was no further damage done to the board.

the blown capacitor on the board could have been CAUSED by the blown capacitor on the PSU. the blown capacitor on the PSU could have become a short and allowed "unpure" DC into your motherboard. seeing as how capacitors are polarity sensitive, the unpure DC could have caused extra stress on the capacitor(s)   and therefore damaged them. the PSU capacitor could have been blown due to a power surge or an internal short across either the capacitor or the transformer.

i would suggest a new motherboard and power supply. hopefully no other hardware got damaged.

Hi,

Just a quick question.
I just purchased a new Radeon R7 360 as an upgrade to my Radeon HD 6670 and placed it in the same PCIe slot on my board and it doesn't seem to work. The fans come on, windows boots (hear logon sound) but there is no display. When I switch my old GFX card in it works fine. Any ideas as to why this might be happening would be helpful.

Many thanks.My Mobo is a Gigabyte GA-F2A85X-UP4 and PSU is a Corsair CX600 by the way.

My old card had HDMI, VGA, and DVI ports, I always used the HDMI port. The new card has dual DVI, HDMI, and Display Port. I've only been able to try it through the HDMI as that's the only cable I have available at the moment.

I TRIED disabling integrated graphics in BIOS and also tried resetting BIOS to no avail.

Really not sure what is going on.I have seen vid cards DOA...although it's rare...

Try it in another PC to test...

How old is the PSU ?Another question.
Did you follow the procedure inn the documentation?
Do not assume the new card is a simple, easy upgrade. The new card might be incompatible with the old drivers.  If so, the old drivers have to be fully removed.
See the documentation.
If you did, PARDON me. Your post MADE it seem s like you did nothing.
Thanks for your response. The Psu is about 3 years old. It is supposed to be a 600w supply though, but GFX seems like it's behaving how it might if there wasn't enough juice to power it. I tried REMOVING the display drivers with driver sweeper, but the problem isn't drivers anyway I don't THINK, I don't even have display signal from the card at all, i.e. I can't even view BIOS when the new card is in.
I can buy a new PSU. Just didn't expect it to have crapped out on me so early. Come to think of it, it did give me a few power issues at one point that seemed to fix themselves. It was like a component was loose, except I tried rehousing everything and didn't work. Half the time the machine would not power anything other than the fans, other half of the time it would boot normally. That problem just went away on its own some time ago however.

Sorry for the pointless background story.

Guess I'll get a new PSU. It can't hurt anyway.

Thanks for the advice guys.So... You guys fancy a laugh?

The card is fine. I didn't plug in the power from the PSU direct to the cards on-board power supply. (There is a 6-pin power port on the GFX card).

I realise that this is probably the standard now, but I had never come across it before. But in my defence, I'm a noob and totally out of the loop.

I'm a complete dork.. 

Hoorah! Total Warhammer out in 2-days, just in time ^_^

Thanks again for your help!

what do I do??? Windows 10 64 bitDid it do this after you UPGRADED to 10? When I upgraded my computer to 8.1 it wouldn't let me INSTALL my printer. I had to buy a new one.The quality of RESPONSES is directly related to the amount of info provided on the issue...

So far ...we have nothing to go on other than the printer is no longer recognised.

Just SAYIN.

I have a power supply on another MACHINE that is faulty. Could I simply unplug the cables from the PSU
replace the old one with the NEW one and then plug the cables back into the new PSU?

Will I be ok with using the old cables from the old PSU with the new one? The cable management in the machine
was very hard to perfect and I would like to not have to go through replacing on the power cables and playing around
with them.I assume we're talking fully modular PSUS here?
If the PSU is the exact same MAKE and model, and you're sure the cables themselves are OK, then yes.
If they're different, it's unlikely, if the PSUs are the same OEM and series then it's sometimes possible though.  You'll need to provide more info to say for sure.

Please note: do NOT do this until/unless you're positive it will work.  Even though the cables may look the same, the pinouts may be different.  You don't want to give your motherboard 12V where it's expecting ground, for example - you'll kill something, possibly several somethings.

Hey everyone!

semi new build(upgraded mobo), after installing everything, the pc will not post, I am not getting any power to the keyboard/mouse and the psu fan as well as other fans seem to be running kind of sluggish. Previously I had an issue where the hdd light would stay constant however that was solved with reseating the cpu a few times and resetting the cmos.

specs are found here: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/ccjfsY

Also, previous motherboard fried after plugging in earphones to front header. Could the psu have gone as well? Tested the new mobo today with KNOWN working ram and graphics card to no avail, so I have ruled those out.Nickdangelo6, This is not a direct answer to your problem with you new build. Instead, I am going to talk about how to approach your vendor and ask for help with doing return on an item the did not work ever.

Just tell the vendor that you have worked with personal computers parts before and you have friends that ADVICE you. Tell them you were very careful when PUTTING things together and used only compatible things.

Do not mention anything that might even suggest you did anything wrong. Because you did not do anything wrong.

Be polite and talk in a manner that shows you are confident and want the vendor to arrange for a way to replace the bad board.

I do hope that will help you. 
I completely agree with Geek-9pm about making sure you don't eat the cost of a motherboard because of a misconstrued sentence on an RMA. As far as your power supply, in most cases they are all or nothing. However, the easiest way to check is to use a paperclip on the ATX power connector and try to power something. I typically use an old IDE hard drive I don't care about or a LED light strip. You can get fancy with a meter to test output but not everyone has one laying around. The other thing that stands out is a motherboard shorting out from plugging something into the front I/O. Those boards typically have a small ground wire running to the frame of the case - some actually ran a ground wire all the way to the motherboard front I/O headers but I haven't seen that method in years. Give everything a good look over and make sure the motherboard is seated on the standoff's properly and everything is completely plugged in securely. I had a front I/O USB 3.0 PORT that was not grounded properly in the past / case wasn't properly grounding and the entire frame held an electrical current. I left it that way - best intrusion system ever.

Here's a good image of the paperclip trick.
This (old) picture shows an old 20 pin, newer are 24 pins. ( Just stating so that they dont count over the wrong way and cross 2 wrong pins.)

http://www.motherboards.org/images/articles/guides/24-pin.jpgI know this is LATE, but I am going to return the mobo tomorrow, hopefully it will clear up some issues, I need my pc back!!

Hey Guys,
Unfortunately I think this is one of those problems where really you have to be here to witness it before you suggest what do. However, I don't really have anywhere else to turn. SO here it goes:

My Desktop which I rebuilt in Oct 2014, and then Watercooled just the CPU JUL 2015 (coolest thing I've ever built). Recently though the its been shutting down very quickly and then start back up as if nothing happened. I'll post the Speccy report, and hope to hear from someone. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

http://speccy.piriform.com/results/Hsdqu0J8jRBKmRVK0fXkxQU
 Are you saying that the computer is booting up quicker than it normally would from off? Are you sure that the computer is restarting or is it just entering a standby mode? Does it power down or just restart?More detail needed.
There is a condition whee the monitor can turn itself off and then back on align within a few seconds. Monitor r shutdown and restart does not disturb the system, just annoys  the operator.
The whole computer just tuns off as if the plug was pulled out. And then turns back on again. I'm sorry if it's vague, It something I've never witnessed before and there are no error messages that I know of which makes it hard to diagnose. Where do you live? What is the power live voltage in your area?
There are some rare things that can do that, often something to do with over voltage or spikes on the power mains.
When this happens, does the number lock led on the keyboard go off?  I
f the mouse has a light, does it go off?
Does he is condition last for more than two seconds?

Is there any kind associations with some programs?
Is this more frequent in the morning? Night?

What hardware have you added recently?
What new software?


Sorry for the delay.
I live downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado. IN very old house that DOES have electrical problems, so that could be very suspect. However I have lived here for almost 2 YEARS now and have only recently had this problem. I haven't noticed the light on my mouse going off, I'll pay more attention the next time it happens.

No, the computer isn't off for more then a couple of seconds before turning back on.

it happens more frequently when I have game running, and when its been on for an extend period of time.

As for new hardware, the most recent hardware that I've added was the watercooling loop that I built ~a year ago.
No new software except for updates and stuff.

Hope you guys are having a good weekend.

My first suspect would be the Power Supply. (presuming, of course, we can't blame the grid in some way ).

Power Supply may be faulty and as a result dropping or running the PWR_GOOD signal to the motherboard outside of the appropriate tolerance while the system is running. This signal is intended to tell the system "Yep, the power I'm giving you tastes great". A computer waits until the power supply gives a positive review before it INDULGES and boots up; additionally, if the line drops, the system will turn up it's nose and go into a reset loop until it gets back into tolerance.

It's also possible it is actually not providing sufficient power or dropping the power to the point where the system reboots, as well.

Is it possible for a power supply to overheat? I am almost certain( I can look up the numbers.) that my 850 watt PSU (Corsair 850 Hxi series) can handle the load that its CURRENTLY under. alternatively could the PSU be faulty to the point its loses power? If so, how can I test for something like that?
Any PSU must shut down if there is thermal OVERLOAD. All good PSI designs require a thermal sensor. If the fan goes off, it will have to shut down in a matter of time.
To test, try to estimate the air going to  PSU. Or better, use a temperature probe to measure the internal temp of the PSU.

Also, put a desk fan near the PSU and sees if that helps.

A good temperature probe is not as expensive as a new PSU, but it is not cheap either.
 After some brief research I've discovered that Corsair PSU's do have a problem over heating. Which seams to be the most likely case, since majority of the shut-downs occurred after gaming for a number of hours. Is my only option to buy a different PSU?

Unrelated, Since I think we are nearing the end of the this thread. I was wondering how I could become a more active participant in this community. Building Desktops has been something I've been really passionate for awhile now and I think it would beneficial to for me and maybe even the community.

I have the Logitech MK320 wireless keyboard & Mouse that I am using with Windows 10 Home.  I've downloaded SetPoint as that is what I had to download on WIN 7 in order to program the Mouse wheel to DELETE.  Can't find ANYTHING on the Mouse options in Control Panel to do this.  I've tried to check on line with Logitech and am GETTING nowhere.  Can't connect with their Support.  Tried their Community Board and it won't let you type more than 100 letters before it says "Continue" and then bounces you RIGHT to their Q&A PAGE.  Has anyone else tried to program their Mouse wheel to other tasks in Windows 10?

For some reason my audio isn't working at all.

Let me start off by saying I've never installed any hardware onto my computer (such as a soundcard). I've never altered the original hardware in any way or form. And this problem arose almost out of nowhere.

When I try to play any music file on windows media, I get an error message saying "Windows Media Player cannot play the file because there is a problem with your sound DEVICE. There might not be a sound device installed on your computer, it might be in use by another program, or it might not be functioning properly."

When I try to start up a game, I either get an error message or no message at all.

Normally one would assume my speakers or soundc ard are BUSTED. I don't think that's the case. This is where things get freaky.

As soon as I start up my computer, about 1 or two minutes into using the computer, I can play music files normally. If I close the file then open it (or a different file ) again 5 minutes later, I get an error message (see above). However, I can leave the music file open for as long as I want and it will continue playing finely. If I tried to open another file, or the same one again, then I would get the error message. (Basically, I would an error message if I was trying to play a music file while another was open and playing perfectly fine!)

So I guess, my sound works for like 1 or 2 minutes into startup, then complete breaks up and dies about 3 or 5 minutes later.

More freaky stuff:

Even when the sound is dead, I can still hear system sounds, such as the click you get from selecting an icon. But my music files, or games, still don't work.

Yeah. I've tried troubleshooting and so on. Everything seems to be installed. The devices seem to be working finely. So what's up?

Help would be greatly appreciated!

Ps.

This doesn't really affect me, but my taskbar is acting odd as well. It's fine at the startup, looks like the taskbar I've been using SINCE I got this computer 4 years ago. Then about 10 minutes into usage, it changes into this WIERD, odd looking, windows 95 like taskbar with an ugly text.

Any ideas? can you post more detail about your system, what OS you are using? what sound card you are using? . i'm not sure what cos this happen but spend some time doing a full system scan for virus to make sure your system is virus free may be helpful.
I don't think that will help. But ok.

sony speakers
spdif -digital audio output
sony mpeg real time encoder board
soundmax intergrated digital audio

ANyways I just did full spyware, adware, and virus scans. Still no sound.

Any more ideas? Quote

This doesn't really affect me, but my taskbar is acting odd as well. It's fine at the startup, looks like the taskbar I've been using since I got this computer 4 years ago. Then about 10 minutes into usage, it changes into this wierd, odd looking, windows 95 like taskbar with an ugly text.  

Hello Everyone!,
Im running a asus x540la laptop with AMI bios and i want to make my laptop boot in the morning but i have BO powermanagement option in bios What should i do ?I haven't SEEN the option to power on a machine at a certain time on any sort of modern machine.  Is it really that slow to boot that you need it to turn on automatically?  If so you should probably address that ISSUE.  Also, a machine that new will use next to no power when it's in standby so that may also be an option if you need to get it up and running quickly.The main purpose of the boot would be using my laptop as an alarm clock,i used to program the boot in the morning and put a song in the autostart folder.If it could be done in a different way then how?
Thanks for the fast reply!You can supposedly tell Windows to wake the machine from SLEEP at a certain time although I have no idea how well this will work: http://www.howtogeek.com/119028/how-to-make-your-pc-wake-from-sleep-automatically/.  I'd be inclined to just find another device to use as an alarm clock, a laptop isn't exactly practical.Here...

I made a big mistake FORCE DELETING 3 items.It was an Android icon
and 2 others I didn't mark down.I think thats the reason I can't download
from the playstore from my w-10 hp desktop to my android tablet kitkat 4.2.
I just went from my w-7 to w-10 on the desktop.My wifi seems to be working ok.
I restored the tablet but that didn't get the original icons back.If I could get them
icons back I think it would solve my problems.I shouldn't have SCREWED around with
force deleting them. Hope someone can HELP me.

This is for my HP 2000-299WM laptop.
I ordered two 4Gb modules from Crucial according to what they recommend but my machine will not boot. I've also tried each module installed individually in both slots. The power light illuminates and the machine sounds like it is trying to access the OPTICAL drive momentarily - then no activity. Power light stays illuminated but there is no activity. Is there any setting in the BIOS or somewhere else that I am missing in order to get this RAM to run?
My old memory is PC3-10600 and the new Crucial upgrade is PC3L-12800 (as specified by Crucial). Is this my problem?

My machine specs are here:
http://support.hp.com/us-en/product/HP-2000-200-Notebook-PC-series/5091493/model/5158885/product-info

The new memory is here:
http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/hp-2000-299wm/CT3303839

I've talked to Crucial tech support and they decided that I may have received 2 bad modules, RMA'ed my order, and shipped replacements via overnight. That package will arrive tomorrow but I've got my DOUBTS that 2 bad modules is the culprit. Is there anything else I can try before I pack these modules back up for return shipment?

As always, thanks for any help.

If they offered i would ship the chips immediately...Done. I put the return package in the UPS box before today's pick-up time.
The replacements are already in route to me now under a DIFFERENT order # as a new charge to me including overnight shipping.
When Crucial receives the return package they will refund the original order purchase / shipping charge to my account.
I don't mean to be pessimistic but I expect I may have an issue other than 2 bad brand new modules. If this turns out to be the case tomorrow when I install the replacement modules then what should my next move be?
PC3L usually just means low voltage - not required for your machine, but it shouldn't cause any issues.  Having said that it's possible your laptop just doesn't like the RAM, Crucial's advisor tool isn't an absolute guarantee of compatibility unfortunately.
If you've already tried the sticks individually, there's not a huge amount more to try, but have you tried one new stick and one old/working stick together?  I doubt it'll work but it may be worth trying just to see what happens.
It's also worth checking if there are any BIOS updates (current version looks to be F.39) and if so, updating the BIOS, then trying again.  Specifically the F18 BIOS update NOTES say "- Fixes an issue where a system with 4GB memory unexpectedly stops responding." which may be relevant.  Looks like they've released a heck of a lot of updates, too, most say something along the lines of "added support for new models" but it's possible there are compatibility updates in some revisions so it's worth a try.

Edit: didn't see your post above, apologies!  Most is still relevant, though I installed the replacement memory and still have this 'no boot' issue. Right now, after re-installing the original memory, I'm trying to install the 3 BIOS updates available from Dell but when I try to install the 1st one (F.24) it shows "publisher has been blocked from running software on your machine". Then when I click "view certificate" it shows "this certificate has been revoked by it's certification authority. (see attachment) F.16 and F.39 installed fine as well as the "HP BIOS Update UEFI 2.2.0.0 Rev. A"

 After installing these BIOS updates, then installing the replacement modules, I still have the same no boot issue.




[attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]Update:
 I talked with tech support at Crucial again and he is sending me different module part #'s. According to Crucial the only difference will be that this is low density as compared to the modules they sent before being high density. He said that when he researched my computer model, HP2000-299wm, he found that there have been multiple RMA's, but limited feedback on which module part # actually solved this problem.

Part #'s for the first and second modules that failed to boot is: CT51264BF160BJ.M8FP
Part # for the modules they are shipping to me now is: CT51264BF160B.C16FPR2Success! I installed the CT51264BF160B.C16FPR2 modules this morning and it booted right up with no problem. Passmark rating improved from 623 to 754, and memory mark from 376.8 to 384.6. I notified Ryan at Crucial to let him know this worked for future reference. I must give Crucial support credit for excellent service helping me solve this issue. Hopefully I'll be able to afford a SSD for this machine next month and I'll be purchasing that from, you guessed it, Crucial.
Good on you to send forward Kudo's...i'd notify his staff via e-mail.
Not the 1st time i've heard them go above and beyond...i had 3 instances in the past years with the same positive results.

My computer lately has been not working when i turn it on there is usually a beep as soon as i start it then the computer screen turns on but now there is about a 30 second delay then the beep goes but nothing displays on the screen i dont know what i did for this to start happening but i would like to fix it.
Do you ever see the splash screen with information from BIOS ETC before the beep? I have seen POWER supplies cause a delayed boot before, but too early to say to replace it however if you have a spare power supply you can try swapping it out and see if that fixes it.Hi Abmhos! I'm having some computer troubles too as the MOMENT and I know how it feels to have your computer break on you so I'll do my best to help out!

What kind of computer do you have?  Can you list the specs or a model NUMBER if the system is prebuilt?

Also, when your computer is trying to boot, and you hear the beep, do you ever hear any other beeps and/or does the beep go for a longer period of time than normal?  Commonly, PC systems use beepers to signal different types of problems with your system.  Your MANUAL might say something about different codes signaled by that beeper.

Good luck, hope I helped...maybe a little
Best regards!
- BHogervorstIs thins a Desktop?
Do fans come on? Any lights?
Beeps?
Smoke?

Hi guys,
I recently just built a new pc.

Specs:
- gtx 970 g1
- i5 6500
- 650 WATT gold evga PSW
- 8g ddr4 ram

However, I am receiving frequent blue screens thanks to the ntoskrnl driver. Initially I received memory_management blue screens, but the new geforce graphics drivers rectified that PARTICULAR ISSUE. I am STILL RECEIVING IQRL NOT LESS OR EQUAL blue screens on a frequent basis though.

I have already:
- reset ram (just in case bad ram)
- updated/verified all drivers
- reformatted
- sfc/scannow

Any HELP would be appreciated
Attached is the BSOD INFO. 

[attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]

Not really news, but it will have some impact on DIY people who would want Windows instead of Linux.
The way Microsoft is pushing Windows 10, it might become hard to find Windows  7 at a fair price.  Windows 10 is almost free, but soon it will force you to upgrade your HARDWARE to the new Windows 10 standard.
At least that is what Extreme Tech reports in a recent article.

New Windows 10 update will change hardware requirements for the first time since 2009
Quote

Ever since Windows Vista launched in 2007, the minimum hardware requirements for Windows have remained mostly unchanged (Windows 7 slightly increased the required storage footprint from 15GB of HDD space to 16GB). Now, Windows 10’s Anniversary Update, which drops in roughly two months, will make three significant change for the first time in seven years.

As of July 28, 2016, all new device models, lines or series must implement and be in compliance with the International Standard ISO/IEC 11889:2015 or the Trusted Computing Group TPM 2.0 Library and a component which implements the TPM 2.0 must be present and enabled by default from this effective date.

Specifications
Trusted Computing Group announced that its TPM 2.0 (Trusted Platform Module) Library Specification was approved as a formal international standard under ISO/IEC (the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission). TCG has 90+ specifications and guidance documents to help build a trusted computing environment.

I need to replace the battery on my mb.  I am concerned about losing the CMOS settings in doing so.  I was told that if I kept the power active on the board when making the change, that there would be no ramifications.

Is this true?The CMOS Settings don't store anything particularly valuable, Except perhaps the time.I was under the impression that replacing the battery without the power on would reset certain systems on the mb.  So are you saying that it really makes no difference if the mb is powered on or off when changing the battery?It takes the BIOS back to it's fail-safe settings....which 97% of the time are the correct ones anyways...

And you should do it with all power removed...never with power to the board.Removing the CMOS battery may or may not cause stored settings to be lost. The battery provides the power to run the real time clock. On older systems it also provided the small amount of charge needed to maintain the non-volatile BIOS memory, which remembered BIOS settings between reboots. On modern systems this information is typically stored in flash memory and does not require a charge to be maintained. As we do not know the age of the motherboard, it is impossible to say whether settings would be lost in this case.

Personally I would never do anything on the motherboard at all including changing the battery while the power was on. I would power down the machine and remove the power cord from the PSU.
THANK you.  The guy who told me to keep the power on fixes computers for a living, so I figured he knew what he was talking about.  This is an old mb so the BIOS memory will probably be erased if all power was gone, which is probably why he told me to keep the power on while replacing the battery.

If the BIOS memory is erased, how difficult would it be to reestablish it with an old system?  I have an ASUS A8N-SLI board.

Also - I cannot find beep codes for this board.   I googled it but cannot find a listing.  I'm getting 4 short beeps on bootup - with a CPU Fan statement.  Pushing F1 continues the boot without a problem.

As Patio says, the BIOS settings would revert back to fail-safe settings. They would not go "blank".

I guess it's your choice whether you leave the power on. I THINK you would be crazy. Never mind what your friend says. If I had a dollar or a euro for everybody I have heard of who killed their system because a "friend" said something was OK, I'd probably have enough to buy a motherboard. You only have to drop a battery or accidentally short something or dislodge a RAM module to kill the motherboard. Since you would be gaining nothing by leaving the power on, why do it?




You have to go into the settings for the bios. Look for the chipset settings. In that menu you will find a setting that lets you disable the failure on boot of the fan. This will let you by pass the error you are getting.

That board has a chipset with a small fan on top of it. The fan has failed and it is letting you know that your MB has a chance of over heating the chipset below the fan.

This is a old board and when you replace the battery it will default back to the warning about the fan. Don't worry about it. Just change the battery. When it comes backup you will still get the error. Just hit F1 and boot up. Than set your clock. After do a reboot and go into the bios and disable the chipset fan warning.If he advised that and he fixes PC's for a living perhaps he is considering job security...just sayin. Quote from: patio on June 09, 2016, 01:53:08 PM

If he advised that and he fixes PC's for a living perhaps he is considering job security...just sayin.

UPDATE:  I looked up the BIOS on my system, Phoenix Award and was able to google the beep codes - although none of them match what I'm getting (4 short beeps with no pause).

I upgraded my build to this: Quote

CORE i5-6600 Skylake
MSI B150M MORTAR
2x Kingston 8GB DDR4 2133MHz Value RAM
KINGSTON HYPERX SAVAGE 240GB SATA3 SSD (Windows 10 here)
4x SATA HDD - MAINTAINED FROM PREVIOUS!
ATI Radeon™ HD 5770 - MAINTAINED FROM PREVIOUS!
Cooler Master Extreme Power Plus 500W - MAINTAINED FROM PREVIOUS!

First thing is to not use the machine until you find the problem, hopefully you unplugged the machine as soon as you saw the smoke. Running the machine in its current state risks causing more damage/having something catch fire.

What you need to do now is find what part caused the smoke, best thing to do is smell around and see if you can locate it that way.  Then check for any obviously burned components, and power supply cables/connectors.  If you saw where the smoke was coming from, focus on that area.

Are you using any sort of power adapters such as SATA splitters or molex to SATA cables to connect all those drives up?  I presume you must be as that PSU only has 4 SATA connectors. It's not unknown for cheap power adapters to short out and melt.

A system that smokes and boots( still functions ), its likely a capacitor that blew its top and smoked off the electrolyte. Look for capacitor tops on main board as well as with power supply unplugged from power, 9 times out of 10 its a power supply capacitor, and if your careful you can open the power supply ( with powercord disconnected ) and inspect capacitor tops. Most have an X on to the top of them where when pressure builds they pop open at the X or bulge up and vent and smoke.

I'm leaning towards the Power adapters, myself. It is the only reasonable explanation that I can think of where the drives in question would be missing but everything else otherwise fine.

From what I'm aware, the most common place to short is at the drive connection itself. Most of the images I've seen of this happening have destroyed the drive but in this case since it wasn't obviously it might be less mangled and simply preventing the drive(s) from receiving power.

Lesser probable would be capacitor on video card. But given white smoke Im betting on the power supply losing one of its capacitors. The danger with running it with a bad capacitor is that the ripple could be severe enough to damage main board components.

I upgraded my build to this:What happened after power on: White smoke -> When enter Windows 10, only the SSD was able to be read.

What should I do?

That would be a wire that has overheated due to very high current level. Fix the problem and it will stop. because polyvinyl chloride does not burn by itself.
But if it is the core in the PSU, you will have to replace the PSU. Once the core begins to smoke, the damage is permanent and it will give you trouble. The PSU shooed shut down whenever there is an overload. even after the
If grease had been split on the motherboard,you will have to clean it off with alcohol and water. Rubbing Alcohol will do nice job
Also, a fusible device will give of smoke, but just for a beef second.

With upgraded (and not cheap) new components i probably wouldn't use power connector adapters...
Make a list of all connections needed and buy a decent Modular PSU for it...

HDD is dead.  Motor locked up & burned out.  Remove it & sniff it.

HDD is dead.  Motor locked up & burned out. 

Would it be possible for me to use a (very) old tv as a second monitor? I've got it sitting a few feet next to my computer, it would be nice to watch netflix on it. Is there a relatively cheap solution to convert a DVI output from my video card to component (yellow, red, white) or coaxal? I'm not really concerned about the resolution, it's more for the novelty. EXACTLY how old is TV?

Does it have S-Video or RCA Audio Video Jacks or is it even older.

Quality will be poor unless you spend good money on video conversion equipment. Its sort of a waste of money really. It can be done and if it has S-Video or RCA Audio Video Jacks you can probably make it happen for under $100, but the quality is going to be not the greatest. Picture quality is usually blurry as well as I have seen videos not play at all or if they play they lag through the converters as its slow to convert the video on the fly.

If you have a TV with S-Video, you could add a older video card possibly to use the S-Video jack on that card to the TV. *However most S-Video enabled video cards are about 10 years old so, the integrated video that came with computer in a desktop computer is likely better so performance would be lesser.

DaveLembke has give the best answer.
Here is what I SHALL add. Used flat screen TVs are very low priced in the used market, aka eBay. About $35 for a working 15 inch flat TV set. Some have RCA jacks for an external source.

Adapters vary. A powered adapter is more versatile at about  $15 and a PASSIVE adapter is under $5 and both also on eBay.

As DaveLembke said, quality is at the bottom. Good fro very old movies that have lots of scratches anyway. 

[attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]For the sake of clarity, the Yellow/Red/White connections are a RCA Composite cable. A Component cable is only for video and uses Red,Blue, and Green connectors. It's an important distinction as the two are not directly compatible. (Though some Flat screens accept composite INPUTS in their component plugs to save space on their rear panel).

DVI uses the same signal as HDMI; it's effectively just wired up different (and HDMI has audio). I can't find any adapters which accept a DVI connection, however, something like this one accepts HDMI. You can get a DVI->HDMI adapter for relatively cheap, something like this would be ideal in this case, (I'm sure that can be found elsewhere of course, that's just an example) I think.

Since the PC won't know the capabilities of the display, you'll want to reduce the resolution to 640x480 for the secondary display.

The trouble with a passive adapter is that the graphics card will have to explicitly support it. For the most part newer graphics cards don't sent the required analog signals that are passively converted to Composite, so an active converter is a more reliable option.






What connectors does the TV have?  Unless it has a proper input for a monitor such as VGA, DVI, HDMI.etc then I doubt it's worth even considering using it.  The other connections (composite, s-video.etc) are designed for relatively low resolution video so will be unusable as a computer monitor - text will likely be unreadable.  The only use would really be for watching video where being super sharp isn't as important.

Old LCD monitors are extremely cheap nowadays, you could likely pick a somewhat decent one up for under $20.

I have a Toshiba Satellite C875D-S7120 to fix. It has Windows 8. The touchpad and mouse buttons do not respond at all. They quit accepting input without warning. Device Manager and msinfo32 show no errors and Device Manager says the device is working properly. I have tried the Fn + F5 to turn off, then back on, and that has no effect. I tried 2 older drivers. Both installed correctly but did not fix the problem. I have 3 spare scrap Toshiba Satellite laptops, a C655-S5225, a Pro L550-EZ1702, and a C855D-S5305. All 3 have the same Synaptics touchpad, the part numbers match. I swapped in each of them and tested. That still did not SOLVE the problem. Is it MAYBE a problem with the touchpad connector on the motherboard? The system is otherwise fine and works properly and a USB mouse works. If none of the touchpads work then I would SAY it is the connector on the motherboard
Hi

Perhaps it is the DRIVER you are using, you can use a generic windows ms mouse driver to test if it is drivers. If that still doesn't make the mouse pad work then it is a hardware problem.
 
Thanks, Lisa. I tried different drivers as well. It seems the connector on the motherboard is bad. Since the laptop works fine otherwise, the owner opted to use a USB wireless mouse for it. Quote from: DartMan 68 on June 06, 2016, 09:24:32 PM

Thanks, Lisa. I tried different drivers as well. It seems the connector on the motherboard is bad. Since the laptop works fine otherwise, the owner opted to use a USB wireless mouse for it.

Hi does any one know if nivida will be relesein a new titan cards or is it just the gtx 1080 and gtx 1080 ThaksNvidia probably KNOWS if they'll release a 1080 titan, but they've not SHARED that information with the rest of the world.

It SEEMS incredibly LIKELY. People always seem to line up to throw their money at overpriced hardware, and Nvidia isn't likely to throw away that oppurtunity, especially when their 1070 and 1080 are at a relatively lower price point than previous generation cards.

So I was talking to my father today and he wants to know how much power is used in a 1600 power supply unit in a high end gameing pc USES is it a lot of power like as much as an Xbox or more again or less thanks The power consumed depends more on the hardware you are using rather than the power supply.  It will only pull what is needed, 1600w is essentially the maximum that the power supply can provide.  If you have a  1600w PSU but the machine only needs 200w then you'll pull just above 200w from the wall.  That said, a 1600w PSU is excessive in almost all cases.  What sort of hardware does this PC have?Many good PSU designs conform to the 80 percent rule. The will convert household electrical power into the 12, 5 and 3 volt feeds needed by the motherboard and the drives. Here is an example:
If the motherboard and the drives together need 320 watts then the power supply has to get 400 watts from the household electric system.
Or, if the system  needs 560  watts, the power supply will use 700 watts.

Now about the Xbox. Often the power use is less than 150 watts.

The Big Power Hog in hour entertainment room is the TV set. It is over 1000 watts if it is a big screen.

Does this answer the question?

Quote from: Geek-9pm on June 08, 2016, 11:03:16 AM

The Big Power Hog in hour entertainment room is the TV set. It is over 1000 watts if it is a big screen.

Since 2011 the FTC has required that every TV display a yellow and black Energy Guide LABEL estimating how much it costs to run for a year. The label assumes a price for electricity (11 cents/kWh) and a baseline usage (5 hours per day).

TV sets made in recent years have much lower power use. Some older TV entertainment systems had power consumption that are an order of magnitude higher.

Amplifiers are valued in part by their power output capacity. And in the interest of being able to advertise a higher power output number, manufacturers in the US (and elsewhere) began to take advantage of the highly variable nature of most audio signals (especially musical sources) and to cite the peak output (quite brief and rarely sustainable for long) as the amplifier power. There being no standards, imaginative approaches came to be so common that the US Federal Trade Commission intervened in the market and required all amplifier manufacturers to use an engineering based measure (root-mean square) in addition to any other value they might cite.

I'm unfamiliar with PCIe SSDs but i'm aware they are much faster in read/write.
The motherboard i'm thinking about buying is CALLED Gigabyte GA-X99-UD4P, Socket-2011-3 and the PCIe SSD i'd like is called Samsung 950 PRO 256GB M.2 PCIe SSD.
The motherboard says it supports M.2, but i've read up that booting from this SSD could be problematic. Will it be able to do this without buying extra parts? If yes/no, how can you tell? How will i know to check for this in the future. What will i have to do once i've assembled my computer to install and boot windows on this SSD?

Thank you so much for reading.

-Even from NorwayFor a desktop build, I would just got with a standard SATA type SSD. As far as PCIE SSD's my experience with them has been in some laptops where you can add one to have 2 drives whereas it only has a single SATA drive bay. You might run into troubles with the PCIE SSD, whereas the SATA SSD is an easy install. If your getting your parts from a good store you could RETURN them if you run into problems. To me a SATA SSD is fast enough, the slight performance gain in the PCIE SSD card to me isnt worth paying the extra premium for it. Good points by DaveLembke.
Also, doing a boot from SSD is fast, but only gives slight performance boost.
For better load times for programs, they must be on the SSD also.
Here is a link:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/284233-32-worth-boot-drive
Thee is some confusion as to what the SSD can do for your speed.
Here are some this it can NOT do.
 - Speed up the Internet
 - Speed  up the Hard Drive
 - Speed up the RAN
 - Speed up he CPU.

Why do I say this? Some users report HAT the SSD
 - speeds up everything.  Which is not true.
Of course, you can  decide for yourself. Or not.
You could experiment for the best performance. Or not.

With SSD, old proverb is true:
Beater to have than not have. 

 Thanks for the answers, I've just ordered both parts and more for my build after reading a lot up on both items and -how-to- instal PCIe SSD M.2, if i'm not terribly wrong in my research there won't be a compatibility issue, and i'll be able to use the hardware to its potential. There shouldn't be any compatibility issues, at most you'll need a BIOS update if your BIOS is quite out of date.
If you're planning on using Windows 7, there's some additional work required - with Windows 8/8.1/10, it's plug and play.  Let me know if you're planning to use Windows 7 and I'll provide more detail.

Source: Almost identical board and PCI-E SSD.  Oh, one thing to be aware of is that your board's M.2 slot is not "full speed" - you won't notice the difference in day-to-day use, but if it bothers you, consider buying an M.2 - PCI-E adapter, Lycom make a pretty cheap one.  This just basically lets you plug the M." drive into a spare PCI-E slot to get full speed.  Hope this makes sense, a little short on time right now but I can expand on this later if you'd like more info

When ever i play games like tf2 or csgo after a few minutes and sometimes an hour or longer my computer freezes everything stops moving sound just cuts off and i can't seem to figure out why. http://puu.sh/paEHZ/fc1bf9ad12.png
that's my specs
I did apply new thermal paste to my cpu and it did not seem to helpI'd run memtest86 and see if you have an issue with RAM. RAM issues can be MINOR and take time to show up or can happen faster. Additionally a hard drive or SSD that has issues can use swap space and run into troubles and read back info to system and cause INSTABILITY, freeze ups etc. Crystaldiskinfo is what I use to check hard drive health. Additionally look in the event VIEWER of windows and see if there are any errors or warnings that give you any insight as to the problem your having. Additionally these 2 games are probably played through the steam client. I have both of them for steam and you might have to uninstall and reinstall steam clean. Lastly video drivers can cause issues, so make sure you have latest graphics DRIVER. Lastly voltages you will want to make sure are all within spec as for a low voltage output power supply could drop out the system during gaming when video card and game ( heavy system activity = HEAVIER load ) loads it down heaviest.

Hey,

A week ago, someone woke me up at the bad timing, hence I got my rage out on my pc. I hit the keyboard several times until the screen took a pink with stitches.

Since that day, all problems came to that pc. It worked at first, but I couldn't reset it or else.
It took me a week to partly fix it. I installed another computer's system image in mine. It was the same pc ( a double).

But it is slow and crushing, and I can't reset it. And it gives a HARD drive error.

Is it because of the hit? Should I change my hard drive?

Thanks in advance. Is this a laptop or a desktop?  If you struck the keyboard of a laptop with your fist then yes, you could have damaged the hard drive as the impact of the hit would be transferred to the hard drive within the laptop's case.  If you struck the keyboard of a desktop, then it would most likely only damage the keyboard itself.Hard drives can certainly be damaged by shocks and blows, especially if they are powered up and spinning at the time. If you hit the PC hard enough to affect the display, then quite possibly the hard drive is damaged, probably by what is called a 'head crash'. This is permanent and cannot be fixed. As you probably now realise, taking out your anger by hitting a PC can be an expensive way to make yourself feel better. I suppose you may have knocked some connector loose, so it might be an idea to check all connections (with the PC turned off and the power cord removed) and seating of RAM chips etc but you are probably right about the cause of your problem.


Quote

A week ago, someone woke me up at the bad timing, hence I got my rage out on my pc.

And it gives a hard drive error.

The freezing is said to be a way of relaxing the bearings of the drive.

Hi, i live in Australia and bought a phone from eBay and it came from over seas, and the battery just drains even while nothing is open and is sleeping i heard that buying phones from over seas is bad for the battery because of the carrier e.g. im on telstra, and the phone might be designed for some other foreign carrier, and they say that this will drain the battery, because of compatibility or something. does anybody know if this is true? its a Samsung galaxy NOTE 4 it is relatively new so maybe it just hasn't been worn in yet i don't know, No...the carrier has absolutely nothing to do with battery life.do batteries need "wearing in"? is it normal for them to go flat really quickly when they are new? if they do then that's good, Some  things you hear about batteries are Urban Legends.

Tips and Myths About Extending Smartphone Battery Life
Quote

Many consumers can relate. Despite the leaps forward in mobile phone technology with crisp, clear screens and faster CHIPS, batteries have made only sluggish progress. That has propelled a desire for longer battery life to the top of the list of factors considered by consumers when they purchase smartphones, according to a 2014 survey by the research firm IDC.

Sorry to be such a numpty but can someone please help me. I have just purchased & connected via SUPPLIED cable, a 19'' MONITOR to my old Toshiba laptop. I have used thef5 key to disable laptop picture, but I cannot transfer the speaker sound to the monitors built in ONES. I have been trying for ages to FIND the answer. HELP!!An audio cable, but the power driving them is probably not enough to power the TV speakers. Radio Shack is your friend.

I have a HP Pavilion a1240n.  Initially, I had problems with it not powering on, but the green light I the back was blinking.  I was told to blow a hair dryer into the power SUPPLY fan until the light was steady then I could power it on.  This worked for a while then the light in the back was no longer lit.  I was told to change power supply.  I did that, however, it was not much of a RESULT.  When plugged in the light very QUICKLY lights up, then goes right out.  If I unplug the 2x2 pin from the motherboard, the light comes on on one of the CD drivers in front and the light in the rear of the computer comes on and the power supply fan and processor fan both will come on.  I still do not have the blue led power button light, the second CD driver light, nor will the CD drivers open. In neither situation can I power the computer on.  Do I have a faulty power supply or is my motherboard BAD, or something else entirely?  Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Hello, I have a question about starting a raid 1.  I have a PC that is working fine on a 2TB SSHD HOWEVER I would like to add another 2TB SSHD spare drive I have and create a raid 1.  My fear is in doing so it may erase the original drive if it changes from a basic disks to DYNAMIC disks. 

Is there a way to safely configure a raid 1 on that PC?

What is my minimum system power supply?
I can't seem to figure it out, should I just add the wattage of all the rails or is there any other process?
PSU sticker -
HTTP://imgur.com/6xoUwN7
I don't really know anything much about these PSUs. I wanted to know if it will atleast support a graphic card which requires 19W power supply and minimum system power supply requirement is listed as 300W.Without knowing the rest of the parts in your computer this is hard to come up with a minimum power supply. The one you have is a Dell 250w power supply. If you are GOING to just replace it because of the video card you can go with a 300w.

I normal would go with you can afford keeping in MIND that you always use it again on another machine.

If i were spending money on a vid card i wouldn't trust that PSU for even 1 day...As Spoiler SAYS, we really need to know your system specs, and what video card you want in order to advise whether you require a new PSU and if so, what to go for.
To figure out your PSU's wattage capabilities, don't just add the rails up - look on the label where you have "Continuous total DC power output..." - essentially you have a 250W PSU, with 204W on the 12V rail which is where most of your power draw will be.Sorry for the late post, this is actually an old pc of mine.
Specs are -
Intel Pentium Dual Core E5400 2.7ghz
4gigs of ram (2x2), inbuilt intel (R)  g45/g43 express
1 fan, 300gb HDD chipset. Basic hardware, Webcam, keyboard, mouse.
Basic desktop motherboard, anything else I need to note down? I think my usage will be around 150-200w  I am not sure tho. The graphic card is a low-end classic called Geforce GT 720.
(Thanks for the reply, this is by far the fastest respond I could have got)See Here...http://outervision.com/b/FrrkdM
That's my current usage right now.
So, will that pose any THREAT to this card or should I just dump the machine back to where it was?You'll be just fine with those specs and the GT 720 on that PSU Thanks people.

Hi to all.... i built a pc... i needed it for my architectural WORK like autocad and 3ds max... or revvit..... i am a gamer also.. i play alot of games... config are as follows:-
1) intel core i7 6th gen 6700 processor
2) Asus B150M plus motherboard (ddr4 version)
3) kingston hyper x 16gb ram (8×2)
4) zotac nvidia gtx 960 graphic card 4gb
5) cooler master thunder 500w psu
6) cooler master elite 311 cabinet
7) toshiba 2tb hdd

I was using autocad and revit from last week...
Now yesterday i installed some heavy games(noth that much heavy like nfs mostwanted 2)....
Now the problem is this... that i play game for SOMETIME.... and after sometime.. black screen appears and everything like audio and keyboard freezez... nothing WORKS... i have to restart it... everytime it happens after the gameplay of 3-5min...
Tell me where is the problem? Is the psu is not enough or overheating (every fan is working fine) .... or any other issue? Please help...WEAK PSU...
Not the best case for cooling...
I'd look at upgrading both.I think cooling is not the problem.... because i also tried by opening the side panel and putting the cpu in front of ac ... but still same problem...  ..
And psu... the box of graphic card says psu of 400 ~450w works good... and i m using 500w... at max graphic card uses 275w (overclockin) ... and i7 6th gen is not that much power using Some details are needeed.
Why 16 GB of RAM? Are you using a 64 bit OS?
What game?
Does the game need that much RAM?
What about notoverclocking?
Does any other program crtash the syhstem?

Quote from: katochsajal0618 on June 14, 2016, 09:31:59 PM

I think cooling is not the problem.... because i also tried by opening the side panel and putting the cpu in front of ac ... but still same problem...  ..

OK I know a single GTX 1080 is more powerful than a titan x but what is more powerful 2 gtx 1080 or 3 titan x or are they the same or would I just use 3 gtx 1080 becuse nivida said it's not a good idea to use 3 gtx 1080 sorry I am confused I am trying to build the a very powerful video game pc thanksIf nvidia says its not a good idea then I'd take their advice. With more than 2, you might also cut into the maximum PCIE 16x bandwidth in which you get bottlenecked and the 3rd doesnt give an equal performance return as the 2nd did to the 1st video CARD.

 If it was my build, I'd GO with 2 video CARDS vs 3. Unless your going to be crunching data with the GPU's vs gaming like [email protected] etc, your going to find that you likely will have plenty of GPU power with 2 and anything greater wont be noticeable performance gain in games and will be a waste of money in both the 3rd card as well as greater electric bill to run the system.cool thanks

Hello,

I have a Maxtor 5000Le 80GB external unit. I am running Windows XP Pro. I've had this unit for years and it has been great. About a month ago my computer locked when booting and after checking out all my external hardware, I found out that this unit had caused the problem. It seemed that the usb port or the cable was the problem. When I unplugged the usb, plugged it into another port, and EVEN replugged it into the original port all of a sudden it STARTED working again. It has been working fine since then until today. . . Now the problem is: . . . . Windows boots just fine. . it just doesn't recognize this external hard drive at all. The hard drive is not making any NOISE at all, the green light on the unit is turned on showing that the unit is powered up. . .just no noise. I tried it with a new usb cord and still nothing. It's like an internal switch is out or maybe the internal usb connector on the unit is damaged or something. Please help. This unit has years and years of information in it and I really need to be able to get to it.

Thank you,
Can you install it in the computer and slave it long enough to get your information.

You should be able to take the hard drive out of the USB enclosure
long enough to give it a try.

Assuming this isn't a Laptop,then you would need to use another computer,
of course. Quote

Hello,

I have a Maxtor 5000Le 80GB external unit. I am running Windows XP Pro. I've had this unit for years and it has been great. About a month ago my computer locked when booting and after checking out all my external hardware, I found out that this unit had caused the problem. It seemed that the usb port or the cable was the problem. When I unplugged the usb, plugged it into another port, and even replugged it into the original port all of a sudden it started working again. It has been working fine since then until today. . . Now the problem is: . . . . Windows boots just fine. . it just doesn't recognize this external hard drive at all. The hard drive is not making any noise at all, the green light on the unit is turned on showing that the unit is powered up. . .just no noise. I tried it with a new usb cord and still nothing. It's like an internal switch is out or maybe the internal usb connector on the unit is damaged or something. Please help. [highlight]This unit has years and years of information in it and I really need to be able to get to it.[/highlight]
Thank you,

Hi!
My parents recently upgraded their old PC with a used Q9550 and 8GB of DDR2 (4x Corsair CM2X2048-6400C5 800MHz). The board is a Asus P5Q-E running WINDOWS 10 Pro x64, GPU is a Zotac GT440 Synergy Edition V2.

Here is the issue: the PC freezes with all the 4 sticks of RAM, but when using only 2 everything is fine. I ran several passes of memtest86+, which showed no error at all. I tried swapping the order of the RAM, mixing it with Kingston Hyper X RAM (the RAM before the upgrade). Any of this resolved the bug. I tried a different set of dual channel RAM and it was working great.

Interesting fact:
The Windows event viewer showed up an error 14 relating nvlddmkm at the same TIME the freezes happen, but the error is gone since I updated Nvidia Drivers today (error gone but problem is STILL here).

Any suggestion would be very appreciated. 

I'm currently trying the mix of Corsair-Kingston RAM with the new graphic drivers. It seems to be stable, I'll update the post if something happens. I might underclock to 667, it may improve stability?



P.-S.: I'm sincerely SORRY for my bad EnglishSOLVED 

The recommended voltage of 1.8 wasn't enough when using 4 sticks in dual channel. I raised it to 1.9 and the system is now stable.

I have one problem and if you help me , I am very aprreciated
My teacher GIVES my group a work , it is designing a CARD using for a laboratory , this card will PLUG into PCI slot of COMPUTER , now I am searching for document about PCI slot , it pins and the full function of them
I have found some like *Blocked Russian URL*/Slots/PCI_pinout.shtml but not enough ,  http://www.pcisig.com/membership/join_pci_sig but I cant be an member
 
Could you save a little time to search with me , I think with your experiences , you will have a better document
thanks !!!http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=pci+card+pinout&spell=1

I have a Dell Opti Plex GX1 desktop,and attempted to reinstall the Windows XP Home addition from my orginal CD,as the setup reached the section where it loaded the XP setup from CD,I hit enter and a screen came up  that no hard disk were installed on my comp,and to make sure that any hard disks drivers were powered on and properly connected and disk related hardware configuration is correct.Also said this may involve running a manufactures-supplied diagnostic or setup program and setup couldn't continue.I'm very dumb when it comes to computers.Please tell me what I will have to do in order to possibly get my computer back up and running.A GX1 - ALLRIGHT!   Please post the service tag so I can tell which model. It is on the side of the case or in the BIOS. Press F2 when you see the Dell logo and see what hard drives are LISTED as well as the service tag. After you see this, press ESCAPE to exit the setup. When the machine starts again, see on screen under the Dell logo for the BIOS revision.

I'll wait for the info.  Glad to see somebody will help.The service tag # of computer is 07YF5,and bios revision is A04.The bios reads as follows;
Diskette Drive A-3.5 inch,1.44MB
Diskette Drive b-Not installed
Drivers:
Primary Type CYLS  HDS  PRE    LZ    SEC  SIZE
Drive 0:   1      306    4     128   305   17     10
Drive 1: None
Secondary
Drive 0 : Auto                CD - Rom Device
Drive  1: none
Reserve Memory         None
CPU Speed                 400 MHZ
NUM Lock :                  on
Chassis intrusion          disabled
Dac  Snoop :               Off
ACPI :                        Off
That machine was manufactured 4/9/99 and came with a PII-400, 6.4 gig hard drive and 64 meg RAM. Hopefully some of that has been upgraded. How much RAM currently is there? How large is the current hard drive? Did you just install it?

The thing that jumps out at me is that hard drive needs to be set to auto rather than specific heads and cylinders. When you do that it should tell you the size of the drive as well.

BIOS A04 is also rather dated and you may need to update that to access the full size of a newer drive. The newest BIOS is A10 and can be found here.

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R31962&SystemID=PLX_PNT_PII_GX1&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=162&devlib=0&typecnt=1&vercnt=6&formatcnt=2&libid=1&fileid=34958

You just download the file and then double click on it with a blank floppy in the drive and after it is created then restart the machine wih the updated BIOS floppy in there (it will walk you through it). It takes about 30 seconds. Do not power off the machine during this. Other than that it is very safe. When the machine is restarted is will show BIOS revision A10.

So do that and let me know the size of the drive after you do all of this.  

Thanks for all your expert advise,but I finally gave up and sent this comp for repair.The repairman said my switch was missing on my hard drive,guess last tech stole it.I replaced it and can access with fast access internet,but can't access with DIAL up service.Repairman said I had a bad modem.It this a costly repair?Any suggestions on how to repair modem other than replace?Thanks for all your help,as this is a great site with techs that are very good and have nerves of steel.Thanks for any suggestions.A replacement modem can be had for $10-15 new and replacement involve removing one screw, removing the old and putting the new one in, replacing the screw, starting the machine and installing the drivers from the CD thant comes with a new modem. Total time less than 10 minutes.  

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16825104001

as an example.Thanks for your help,but unsure which modem I will require for the GX1,opti plex.Can you please tell me.
Thanks,Any dialup modem will work. A real harware controlled ISA modem would probably be fastest, but the cheaper WinModems will work satisfactorily wilth that processor, like the one I linked to. Check the details for the indiviual modem that it will work with a PII-400. THe requirements will be in the detailed specs in the listing or on the side of the box if you go to a store. A GX1...Excellent !

can i install two type of windows software on one particular HDD and making use of both... i mean can i install windows 10 and wiondows 7 on a paricular hard disk,, and when i CHANGED the users i will be able to manipulate themPlease stop naming threads "Hard disk, please read first". Aside from the fact it makes us think they are DUPLICATE threads, the subject title has nothing to do with your question. Please use a subject that relates to the question you are asking. I'm going to rename this thread now.Google saved the day ... http://www.howtogeek.com/197647/how-to-dual-boot-windows-10-with-windows-7-or-8/He cannot install even 1 Win version...not sure how he's gonna install 2.
I got the impression he is thinking of a way to switch between OS without restarting but I could be wrong.  If that is what he wants, then that calls for running one OS as a virtual machine. There are two ways of doing it.  I would let the OS configure it for you long as you install the OLDER copy first

i wiped my computer because of a continued slow problem, it would go in and out of service  like i had a bad internet connection every 30 seconds to two minutes, for 20 to 40 seconds, sometimes the screen would fade and say not respoinding. my connection was fine, after microsoft taking it over and reinstalling windows 10 the problem was still there. so i wiped everything with deriks wipe out i bought off ebay. now i cannot get anything to reinstall, id like to go back to windows 7, which my 2010  HEWLETT PACKARD touch smart 300 {1223}CAME WITH. IF thats not possible i have windows 10 on usb,if i dont have any disk in the computer it boots to the realtek screen and stays .it wont accept any commands at all F10. f11, f12. esc nothing, it says reboot and put disk in. if i put hp repair disk in i get the microsoft logo abd after a lkong time i get the language option if i repeatedly push f12 power up. then it gives me the option to fix computer or advanced troubhleshooting, if i pick fix, it says cannot fix hard drive c is locked. if i go to command prompt and follow unlock instructions it says c drive is raw. cannot fix, i have no  operating system, and cannot hook up to internet, so i cant get BITLOCKER to unlock it. does anybody have any ideas. thankyouUpdate.....when using command prompt. and using chkdsk this is the info i recieved. stage 1-o bad files
stage 2-0 unidexed files scanned, 0 unidex files recovered lost or found
stage 3 security descriptors 7 data files processed errors detected in the UPPER case file
aboved stage 1 check it says /f parameter not specified/ running chkdsk in read only mode read only chkdsk found errors with upper table

it finishes with windows has checked the file system and founf problems run chkdsk with the /F (fix) option to correct...how do i get chkdsk out of read only mode? Quote

it finishes with windows has checked the file system and founf problems run chkdsk with the /F (fix) option to correct...how do i get chkdsk out of read only mode?

Hi,

I have a Lenovo Z50-70 running Windows 8.1. The laptop is relatively new, BOUGHT in Jan. 2015.

Some time ago, the original battery suddenly started to have a problem where it would say 45% available, plugged in, not charging. No matter what fixes I tried (after looking through a lot of articles, posts, comments, etc.), nothing made the battery start charging again. It always stays at 45%. Also the battery light/indicator on the front of the laptop is always blinking white.

So I got a new battery, put it in hoping that it would work and charge up to 100%, but the new battery is having exactly the same problem as the original old one! It will only charge up to 45%, then it says plugged in not charging. The battery light is again always blinking white.

What do I do? How can this be fixed? What's going on?

Appreciate any help. Thank you very much.Sounds like it may be either the charger or the charging port at fault here.  However, I have a couple of questions...
1. Does the battery charge increase at all if you leave the machine turned off and plugged in, or does it still report 45%?
2. Does it power on when only on battery power?
3. Was the new battery a new, genuine Lenovo part?

There seem to be a lot of people reporting similar issues with this model unfortunately.Re# 1: Haven't tried that but I somehow doubt that that would work either...Will look into it...

Re#2: It works well when on  battery power but the battery shows only 1hr and a half left and the amount left starts going down and down...

Re#3: Yes, I believe so.Maybe its worth buying a new charger and trying it (I only have the one that came w/the laptop when it was bought), although somehow I doubt that would fix the problem since the current charger is giving enough power to run the laptop currently, even if the battery won't charge...Also the laptop runs when there's no battery inside, just connected to the charger. Quote from: AnonPerson on June 19, 2016, 02:21:26 PM

Maybe its worth buying a new charger and trying it (I only have the one that came w/the laptop when it was bought), although somehow I doubt that would fix the problem since the current charger is giving enough power to run the laptop currently, even if the battery won't charge...Also the laptop runs when there's no battery inside, just connected to the charger.

    Now there're laptops that use external power supplies rated at exactly 19 volts. That isn't a multiple of anything suitable. Puzzles me a lot.
...
This is not a design question as posed, but it has relevance to design of battery charging syste

I USE A HP PAVILION DV6, 8GB RAM, INTEL HD GRAPHICS 4OOO, 8 CORES, IDT HIGH DEFINITION AUDIO CODEC SOUND(DRIVERS)/ BEATS AUDIO, WINDOWS 10 PRO VERSION 1O.0.10240 BUILD10240,

MY SCREEN STARTED TO SHOW SYMPTOMS OF SPLITTING WHEN I HAD A BSOD WITH ERROR CODE: MEMORY_MANAGEMENT A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO AFTER SUBSEQUENT REBOOTING DUE TO THE BSOD.

(MEMORY_MANAGEMENT = FIXED)

I FIRST SAW IT WHEN SPLIT THE HP LOGO IN THE BOOTING SCREEN INTO TWO VERTICAL FULL SCREENS LEAVING A QUARTER PORTION OF THE SCREEN BLANK BUT AFTER 3 SECs IT RE-SHAPED WHILST IN THE BOOTING PROCESS IT CONTINIUN FOR CLOSE TO TWO WEEKS, BUT ON MONDAY I RESTARTED THE LAPTOP AND IT SPLIT, THINKING IT WAS GOING TO RESHAPE, BUT DID NOT.

I CHECK MY SETTINGS DID EVERYTHING I COULD BUT STILL REMAINED THE SAME.

I RE-INSTALLED THE WINDOWS AND UPDATED THE DRIERS AFTERWARDS.

I ALSO READ ONLINE THAT I SHOULD UNINSTALLED THE GRAPHIC CARD DRIVERS IN SAFE MODE WHICH I DID BUT TO NO AVAIL, I UNINSTALLED IT IN NORMAL WINDOWS AND STILL NOTHING HAPPENED.

BUT I CONNECTED IT TO AN EXTERNAL MONITOR AND IT WORK PERFECTLY. 

PLEASE I'M OUT OF OPTIONS NOW .........

in case needed:

OS Name   Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Version   10.0.10240 Build 10240
Other OS Description    Not Available
OS Manufacturer   Microsoft Corporation
System Name   DESKTOP-ACO8E6T
System Manufacturer   Hewlett-Packard
System Model   HP Pavilion dv6 Notebook PC
System Type   x64-based PC
System SKU   C2Y45AAR#ABA
Processor   Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3630QM CPU 2.40GHz, 2401 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date   Insyde F.26, 4/3/2013
SMBIOS Version   2.7
Embedded Controller Version   52.24
BIOS Mode   UEFI
BaseBoard Manufacturer   Hewlett-Packard
BaseBoard Model   Not Available
BaseBoard Name   Base Board
Platform Role   Mobile
Secure Boot State   On
PCR7 Configuration   Binding Not Possible
Windows DIRECTORY   C:\Windows
System Directory   C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device   \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale   United States
Hardware ABSTRACTION Layer   Version = "10.0.10240.16392"
User Name   DESKTOP-ACO8E6T\LIVINGSTON
Time Zone   Pacific Daylight Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM)   8.00 GB
Total Physical Memory   7.89 GB
Available Physical Memory   5.57 GB
Total Virtual Memory   9.77 GB
Available Virtual Memory   7.42 GB
Page File Space   1.88 GB
Page File   C:\pagefile.sys
Hyper-V - VM Monitor Mode Extensions   Yes
Hyper-V - Second Level Address Translation Extensions   Yes
Hyper-V - Virtualization Enabled in FIRMWARE   Yes
Hyper-V - Data Execution Protection yes



[attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]Why would you want to fix THAT...
That's beautiful Quote from: Luigi master on June 18, 2016, 09:47:42 AM

Why would you want to fix THAT...
That's beautiful

I just RECENTLY formatted my 30 gigabite hard drive when using WINDOWS Me system recovery, and now my 30 gigabite hard drive is only a bit over 2 gigabites in size. How do i return my 30 gigabite hard drive to its original 30 gigabite size if possible.Format it on an XP machine with SP2 installed...Your fdisk SETTING of partitions without large disk support gabe you the default 2 gig. size.

If you USE fdisk and delete ALL partitions and then recreate one large one and format that you should get your full drive size OR the drive is damaged. You may want to run the FREE diagnostics from the appropriate drive maker's site.

Whenever I try to run ANYTHING from my DVD-RW drive it causes the computer to restart itself.
Also..when trying to use a microphone, I get a loud screeching sound.

Any help would be MUCH appreciated  So this is on your commodor 64 computer system I assume?
Its probably just windows 95 acting up.


OK, I was "taking the piss" on that last POST but seriously I have no idea what operating system your running or what your computer is.
This info MAKES the advice GIVEN much more accurate.

Hey guys I had the left over cpu cooler that COMES with the core 2 socket 775 processor.  Basically I used a beefier Zalman cooler.  I was in the process of building up my old machine for a friend of mine and wondering if it was possible to use the core 2's stock cooler on a pentium 4 mobo setup.  I mean I do have the cooler that is already on the processor for the pentium but the thing is it is a dell pc so it is built into the case.  I want to just POP out the mobo and whatever else and pop it into a new fancy case that he told me he wanted.  And use the core 2 cpu cooler on his new setup if it fits.

Thanks guysCPU cooler and fan setups are as different as the chips they are designed to PROTECT.

Unless you are comparing OEM to aftermarket...apples and oranges.Is the heatsink from the core 2 able to fit the socket configuration on the Pentium 4 mob?

If the pentium 4 mobo has a socket 775 processor the core 2 heatsink should fit, as for cooling capacity the core 2 heatsink should be able to handle anything the older p4 could throw at it.

If the p4 mobo is a 478 pin you are SOL unfortunately, some smaller computer stores will give you a partial trade which might be worth looking into if the 775 heatsink doesnt work.

Here is a PICTURE of a 478 heatsink retention module (its UPSIDEDOWN)
Yes the pentium 4 and the core 2 are both socket 775's so there shouldnt be a problem with this arrangment.   Quote

Yes the pentium 4 and the core 2 are both socket 775's so there shouldnt be a problem with this arrangment.  

Hey guys I want to upgrade the RAM in my laptop and have some QUESTIONS:

This is what my laptop uses:

TECH Specs
System TypeLaptop/Notebook

Logical Type 64x64
Speed PC2-5300 / 667 MHz
Description Standard SODIMM
Package Type DDR2 200-pin SODIMM


I went on dell and do not want to spend 97 bucks for a 512MB stick when I know I can get it cheaper. My question is:

Does all the tech specs need to READ this? I come across alot of PC2-3200 / 333 MHz. Will this work?

For those who want to know i have a
Dell Inspiron E1505
Intel Core 2 T5500 1.66 GHZ (2gb max ram)
981 MHz/512 RAM

Please help...
www.crucial.com, input all of the info requested and you will see exactly what you need. Speed or whether it fits is NOT the deciding factor.

If price is the only thing that matters you may well get a surprise.  
Just to be SURE travel to crucial.com and enter your specs....they will tell you what can be used.

If you do use slower RAM the faster RAM will slow down to match speeds i believe.

patio.  8-)

Hi
I can't seem to find the right cable anywhere to connect these. All the LEADS I find with the right camera connector seem to have a full size USB on the other end.

I'm not very technical so any help where I cud find one would be great.

This shows the cameras connector, FOURTH from right.

http://www.digitaltoyshop.co.uk/SONY_VMC-MD1_CABLE_ORIGINAL_Sony_DSC-H3_t1191_5816

Thanks :-)So it is USB on one end - right?
Google for:
all kinds of USB cables
..and find LINKS and images.
Start with this one:
http://www.cablestogo.com/learning/connector-guides/usb

It is the small end of the thing that is hard to find. I have at least three kinds in my stuff just for  for cell phones. I was ruining a GOOD cell phone trying to get the  WRONG cable into the thing.   

Contact the manuf. for a suppliers list.

i dont know why but when i press m,y shift key on my SISUN keyboard

holding shift - QWERUIOGHZXCVBNM
without - qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnm

as you can see some dont work please help i have TRIED ALMOST EVERTHINGReplace keyboard and see if problem is solved. The keyboard itself might be messed up internally. When you press keys it sends a signal to a chip that takes in digital logic. If the chip that HANDLES the digital logic is damaged for the path of upper CASE with combination of shift key = 1 and other alpha keys =1, then the output will be as if the shift key was held and no other key pressed to output the upper case.

Curious if you have caps lock key ON,  if you will get all upper case characters or if only shift + alpha key causes ISSUE of MISSING upper case characters?

Hello, few days ago I managed to get a new monitor for a network computer (we use xps), and in the same time I got an administrator account on the same computer. Sometimes after closing a PROGRAMME I find out that the size of the desktop is smaller (has black border AROUND), then I manually resize it. That's not such a big problem (although it's a bit annoying and I would welcome advice about what to do with it). The really weird thing is that the whole Start menu dissapears, and I can access only normal desktop icons. When I restart the computer it comes back but then again.. RESIZING the desktop etc. Anyone to help me? It will be greately appreciated.Right clik on an empty area of the desktop and select Properties/Settings...try a few DIFFERENT size resolutions til you find the one that suits you...You also COULD have your taskbar on autohide.  Go into settings and taskbar/start menu and see if that is ticked or not.

oke this is the problem,

i have a Philips BDL4221, i accidently locked the remote control and the onboard buttons, so i cant change the input or change anything on the tv, i tried to send some thing via 232analyzer but i have no idea what to do, the tv send me 2 messages back those are CTS turned on and DSR turned on, i found this in the user manual from the tv but i dont have any idea what to do with this:

3.  Serial Interface Communication Protocol
3.1 General specifications
3.1.1  Protocol definition 
Communication to the main monitor microprocessor is possible through the serial  port,
which  support a communication protocol dedicated to BDS only. The protocol is
specifically  designed to allow data communication in half duplex multi-point
environments,  but  it can also be used for half duplex point-to-point RS-232
communication.
3.1.2 Communication characteristics
A half duplex communication is implemented starting from the concept of a master-slave
structure, where the monitor is supposed to be the slave.
The first action is always taken by the master, which can be either a built-in PC-based
video controller in a MASTER monitor or any external device (acting a server) interfaced
to  the monitor. After sending a command or a request in the appropriate format (see
section 3.2), the master receives form the slave an acknowledgement, which tells the
transmitter whether the command is not valid (or not executable, anyway) or  it  is
accepted.
In  case  of  a  request, the requested information is sent back and it becomes the
acknowledgement by itself.
If  the  poll  sequence has been sent, the acknowledgement tells the transmitter the
monitor status, i.e. whether it is ready or busy and other information.
3.1.3  RS232 pin assignment
There is a 9-pin male connector on the set for  RS232  communication.  The  pin
assignment is as following table.
 
Pin No.  Function  Description
1  GND  SIGNAL Ground
2  RxD  Receive Data
3  TxD  Transmit Data
4  NC  Not Connected
5  GND  Signal Ground
6  NC  Not Connected
7  NC  Not Connected
8  NC  Not Connected
 
9  NC  Not Connected
 
3.1.4 RS232 settings
This section describes the parameters used during the whole communication process.
 
Baud rate  57600 bps
Data bits  8 bits
Parity  None
Stop bit  1
Flow Control  None
 
2838   100   05424
 
 
[ NAME ]
                      Philips
  07 14023
 
3.2 Data frame
3.2.1  Poll sequence: frame format
The poll sequence must be transmitted before sending any command, to check whether
the monitor is ready to accept a command or it is busy.
The poll message in enclosed in a frame that has the following format:
 

 
where:
 
  =  <$>, i.e. ASCII characters [1Bh] and [24h].
 
  =  3 ASCII characters each of which ranging from [30h] to [39h], which are
used as monitor address.
 
  =  the ASCII character [45h].
 
  =  <;>, i.e. the ASCII character [3Bh].
 Looks all good. But for one thing. How do you do 57600 bps with a typical serial port?

Quote

Baud rate  57600 bps

I am getting an ERROR that SAYS 7031 spool sv.exe has encountered an error and needs to restart. Anybody have any ideas what this is about?PROBLEM solved.  GOOD.  How did you solve it?The driver was damaged. We removed the printer and printer driver from the network. Had to go into the registry editor and delete a few things as well.Thanks for the feedback.