Archived CalgaryPuck Computer Help Thread

[KevanGuy]

Since we have so many comp help request threads I thought it would be a good idea to pin an Official one. Before you post your question check this thread to see if your question has already been asked and answered. Enjoy.

[CaramonLS]

BUY A NEW COMPUTER.

[Buff]

I would love to, but stupid car broke down and had to get that fixed, then my stupid friend invited me to go to Hawaii, then my wife's stupid car broke down. Now we're having a baby... will I ever get a new computer?

I'm embarrased. I'm in IT and I've got a measely P2 333 with a 6GB HDD at home. All my other friends in IT have at least 2 computers and the worst one is twice as good as mine.

[AC]

I've recently burned a DVD-RW from my DVD recorder on my tv, now I want to upload these hockey videos/highlights onto my computer...

can anybody help me figure out what I need to do for this?

[Picquic]

My computer wont start up on the boot all I get is a black screen is that meaning my mobo is fried?

[Ironhorse]

Originally posted by Picquic@Mar 22 2005, 09:11 PM
My computer wont start up on the boot all I get is a black screen is that meaning my mobo is fried?
Are you getting any beeps?

[Buff]

Originally posted by Picquic@Mar 22 2005, 10:11 PM
My computer wont start up on the boot all I get is a black screen is that meaning my mobo is fried?
While it may appear so with some of the following questions, I'm not trying to insult your intelligence, I am merely covering all grounds.

1. Is your monitor plugged into the power and turned on?
2. Is your monitor plugged into the computer?
3. Do you have an onboard graphics adatper plus a video card that has been installed? It is possible that the onboard adapter has been disabled and that is where the monitor has been plugged into. Make sure that your monitor is plugged into the correct port.
4. Read Ironhorse's question.
5. Turn off the computer. Look at the back of the computer at the power supply. Do you have the option to change the voltage? Perhaps your voltage has been accidentally been switched (or deviously). It should be at 115V.

[VANFLAMESFAN]

sorry guys.....I am really dumb when it comes to this stuff.......I just finished downlaoding a .rar file and was wondering how to make it play



sorry again if this is a really dumb question,

[Neeper]

Originally posted by VANFLAMESFAN@Mar 24 2005, 08:47 PM
sorry guys.....I am really dumb when it comes to this stuff.......I just finished downlaoding a .rar file and was wondering how to make it play



sorry again if this is a really dumb question,
you need winrar to uncompress it. Google winrar.

[browna]

Paint Shop Pro help please.

I have an older version of it...basically, I have a color picture...I want to modify the picture so that a single person is color, bu the rest of the picture is black and white.

I tried cutting the person out with the freehand tool, then pasting it into a b/w copy of the original picture...but won't let me paste. Also tried saving the cut out person as an image then pasting it in...no dice.

Using effects such as a paint brush to fog the rest of the picture isn't what I want...I want the picture to be clear...but one person colored.

I am sure its a mask or a layer command, but can't seem to get it down.

.jpg files.

TIA

EDIT: I got it to copy and paste ok between pics...problem is, when I paste the color cutout to the bw picture, the program seems to convert the pasted image also to greyscale. (and it looks different then the exisitng grey scale in the bw pic).

So I guess my help needed now is, how do I cut and paste a color pic into the bw image?

[Buff]

Originally posted by browna@Mar 27 2005, 10:35 PM
Paint Shop Pro help please.

I have an older version of it...basically, I have a color picture...I want to modify the picture so that a single person is color, bu the rest of the picture is black and white.

I tried cutting the person out with the freehand tool, then pasting it into a b/w copy of the original picture...but won't let me paste. Also tried saving the cut out person as an image then pasting it in...no dice.

Using effects such as a paint brush to fog the rest of the picture isn't what I want...I want the picture to be clear...but one person colored.

I am sure its a mask or a layer command, but can't seem to get it down.

.jpg files.

TIA

EDIT: I got it to copy and paste ok between pics...problem is, when I paste the color cutout to the bw picture, the program seems to convert the pasted image also to greyscale. (and it looks different then the exisitng grey scale in the bw pic).

So I guess my help needed now is, how do I cut and paste a color pic into the bw image?
I'm not 100% sure with Paint Shop Pro, I prefer Adobe over Paint Shop Pro. However have you tried using layers? The b&w portion of the picture should be one one layer, and the color portion of the picture should be on another layer. At least this is how it is down with Adobe.

[Cube Inmate]

Question spurred by another trip to stupid Sportsnet.ca...

I'm using Mozilla 1.6; Works great except for this one problem every time I go to a Sportsnet page: If I close the browser window when I'm still at Sportsnet.ca, my Mozilla freezes and must be killed. If, on the other hand, I go to some other page and then close it, I'm fine.

Any clues why this happens? Not exactly critical, but p*ssing me off. Haven't tried upgrading the browser...no problems other than this one minor pain in the arse.

[Buff]

I think I had a problem similar to this, but I don't remember what I did to solve it. Either I upgraded to the latest version of Mozilla or I switched to Firefox... or I found another solution but I simply can't remember.

Edit: If you like Mozilla you'll like Firefox, and if you have to use Mozilla version 1.7 has been released. Just a thought, perhaps this error occured after you upgraded to 1.6 from a previous version? If so, I recommend backing up all of your settings and compeltely uninstalling and reinstalling the latest version.

[Pagal4321]

Alright guys, seems like I will have a use for this thread after all.
Being home sick I figuered might as well do a bunch of random tests on my computer so just defragmented my C:, ran Spyboy S&D and then ran Ad-Aware.
Now Ad-Aware esspentially froze up, left it running for at least an hour and never finished. MSN Messenger was also giving me errors about not being able to story message history. I then tried to update my Firfox, and that installation also froze. I then decided to turn off the computer safely, so it shut down no problems.

Now when I go to turn it back on it gives me a screen saying Windows can not start up properly. So gives me the choice to start it in safe mod, safe mode with networking, safe mode with command prompt, last known good settings, or start it normally. If I do last known good settings or normally, it goes to the WINDOWS XP screen with the little bar on the bottom, then reboots. If I try any of the safe mode options, it starts loading files, then reboots.
I'm running Windows XP w/ SP2, AMD Athlon 64 2800, 512 MB DDR Ram, Gigabyte Mother board.....
Anyone know of what's wrong with my computer or even any solutions?

[red '00]

Originally posted by Pagal4321@Mar 30 2005, 03:48 PM
Alright guys, seems like I will have a use for this thread after all.
Being home sick I figuered might as well do a bunch of random tests on my computer so just defragmented my C:, ran Spyboy S&D and then ran Ad-Aware.
Now Ad-Aware esspentially froze up, left it running for at least an hour and never finished. MSN Messenger was also giving me errors about not being able to story message history. I then tried to update my Firfox, and that installation also froze. I then decided to turn off the computer safely, so it shut down no problems.

Now when I go to turn it back on it gives me a screen saying Windows can not start up properly. So gives me the choice to start it in safe mod, safe mode with networking, safe mode with command prompt, last known good settings, or start it normally. If I do last known good settings or normally, it goes to the WINDOWS XP screen with the little bar on the bottom, then reboots. If I try any of the safe mode options, it starts loading files, then reboots.
I'm running Windows XP w/ SP2, AMD Athlon 64 2800, 512 MB DDR Ram, Gigabyte Mother board.....
Anyone know of what's wrong with my computer or even any solutions?
Try getting rid of some programs, might just be a lack of space on your hardrive.

Use this Clicky, clicky (http://housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/start_frame.asp). Generally speaking, there are a lot of viruses out there that Norton's and such can not detect. Try this online one and see what it picks up.

Those are my ideas... You are taking up too much hardrive or you have some nasty viruses. You might want to try going into safe mode and running things like spybot and Ad-Aware.

I'm heading out for a little while, let me know the results.

[Pagal4321]

I'm thinking it's a nasty virus out of your two suggestions. Have about 30 GBs free on my HDs.
Can't get into Windows so can't do any of these scans. SpyBot only found a few random cookies, so got rid of those. I'm thinking it's a virus...just wanted to see if there's anything I can do to try and fix it before I decide to reformat it. Parent's are gonna kill me if I have to do that though, plenty of family photo's stored on there.

[Buff]

Pagal4321, if you can get into safe mode then run adaware and virus scanners etc like red'00 said.

However, I think I know what is going on, and I know that you will not like my response. I have seen this before, and rather than spend several hours (which I really cannot bill a customer at $85/hr for 3 or more hrs of work... they may as well buy a good cheap dell)

Do you still have the Windows XP disc? You need to do a repair install. It will start up and you'll have the option of repairing (never works) installing, or something else (I can't recall if there is the 3rd option or not). You want to install Windows. You will eventually get to a screen that tells you that some version of Windows is already installed. You can either do a fresh install or a repair the current Windows installation, this is a repair install and this is what you need to do.

If you don't have the Windows XP disc, but have System Recovery discs that came with your computer the recovery discs will get your computer running again, but most likely you've lost everything.

By chance, do you use Norton Antivirus 2004 or newer? I think this is what causes the problem, but I'm not sure, it is most likely something to do with LiveUpdate for Norton. It has always been on every system I've seen this happen to.

For your sake, I hope your problem isn't what I've seen before. If you aren't all that tech savy, you may want to take it to a shop or find a friend who actually knows what they are doing.

[Pagal4321]

Thanks Buff,I actually don't have Norton installed on there, I have McAfee. I do have a Windows XP disc, and put it in, is there a way to repair it without loosing all the data?

[Buff]

Yes, if you do the repair install (again, not the repair console) then all you are doing is reinstalling a good windows inplace of a bad windows. Your programs should work, some may not but it is rare for them not to, but all of your data will still be around.

It is only the system recovery discs that wipe out everything. Just make sure that you repair install Windows XP, if you are asked to format the drive then you have chosen the wrong option.

[Pagal4321]

Hey Buff.....This what you are telling me to do?

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp....isting%20Setup: (http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm#How%20to%20Repair%20Windows%20XP%20b y%20Installing%20Over%20top%20of%20Existing%20Setu p:)

Click on how to removes SP2...gives me diractions, that's what you want me to do right?

[Buff]

Yeah, thats the place you need to be.

1. Press 'ENTER' to setup Windows XP.
2. Agree to the license agreement\
3. Press 'R' to repair the selected Windows XP installation.'

Note the caution:
***CAUTION*** if you do not see the option to repair the selected Windows XP installation DO NOT choose the option to continue installing a fresh copy without repairing as that will overwrite your data and cause unrecoverable data loss.

I would have taken the time to find a link similar to this if I wasn't at work, but you seemed to have done well for yourself.

Note: While it could very well mean that it was due to SP2, I don't know that for sure.

Make sure that you perform Windows Update as all the updates that you have previously done are now gone! Unfortunately you have to get all the updates before you grab SP2, if you have problems getting SP2 you may want to backup all the data from the computer and completely reinstall windows, this time performing a full format (NTFS).

[Incinerator]

Originally posted by AnthonyCook@Mar 23 2005, 01:15 AM
I've recently burned a DVD-RW from my DVD recorder on my tv, now I want to upload these hockey videos/highlights onto my computer...

can anybody help me figure out what I need to do for this?
Try this:

DVD Ripper (http://www.softforall.com/Multimedia/Video/AoA_DVD_Ripper07070170.htm)

Another one (http://www.shareup.com/super-dvd-ripper.html)

Both are free trial versions

[Incinerator]

Originally posted by Pagal4321@Mar 30 2005, 10:48 PM
Alright guys, seems like I will have a use for this thread after all.
Being home sick I figuered might as well do a bunch of random tests on my computer so just defragmented my C:, ran Spyboy S&D and then ran Ad-Aware.
Now Ad-Aware esspentially froze up, left it running for at least an hour and never finished. MSN Messenger was also giving me errors about not being able to story message history. I then tried to update my Firfox, and that installation also froze. I then decided to turn off the computer safely, so it shut down no problems.

Now when I go to turn it back on it gives me a screen saying Windows can not start up properly. So gives me the choice to start it in safe mod, safe mode with networking, safe mode with command prompt, last known good settings, or start it normally. If I do last known good settings or normally, it goes to the WINDOWS XP screen with the little bar on the bottom, then reboots. If I try any of the safe mode options, it starts loading files, then reboots.
I'm running Windows XP w/ SP2, AMD Athlon 64 2800, 512 MB DDR Ram, Gigabyte Mother board.....
Anyone know of what's wrong with my computer or even any solutions?
Certain spywares corrupts Adaware and Spybot S&D, try MS (Giant) Anti-Spyware if your computer is still functional (I assume it is since you can still post here). But Do the Trent Micro HouseCall (http://housecall.trendmicro.com) before you download MS Anti-Spyware if you can. If you managed to get rid of everything smoothly get yourself a copy of NOD32 Anti-Virus. Norton is the biggest piece of crap ever. McAfee is decent but not as good as NOD32. AVG Free is ok for what it is but I wouldn't entrust my PC's security to it.

[Buff]

Unforutnately he can't even start up windows, he is using another computer to post here. Things aren't looking good for him.

[Pagal4321]

Yup looks like the HD is toast. Need to slave it, plug it into another computer, burn what files I can then re-format. using my dad's business computer/university computers to post. It's getting fataing annoying all these computer problems.

[Buff]

Originally posted by fotze@Mar 31 2005, 04:35 PM
I use mozilla firefox and every once in a while all my bookmarks disapear and I have to start from scratch, it's getting damn annoying.

Are they stored somewhere possibly and I can import them? What would the file extension be so I can search for them?
bookmarks.html and bookmarks.bak (I'm not sure what you can do with the 2nd file as I've never had to try anything with it)

These files are usually located on C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\default.oam\

the folder after profiles depends on how you've setup Firefox. default.oam is likely the name of the folder if you haven't setup other profiles, if you have then there should be other folders to poke around in, but the bookmarks files will be under one of the folders that you see in the Profiles folder.

hth

[JayP]

Starting just this morning my computer has started minimizing programs that take up the whole window on it's own. It consistently happens every 5 minutes or so. Like I said, this only happens to programs that take up the whole window (I've loaded up several games just to test it and it's done it to every program I tried). There's no way it's a certain button or something I'm pressing because it minimizes the window even if I just let the program sit idly.

Anyone have any idea what's going on?

[Buff]

Only full screen windows? Hmm that is a bit weird. I've never seen a virus or malware do this, but it can't hurt to scan for them.

Scan for viruses using your virus scanner, if it isn't up to date with the latest virus definitions, then go to Housecall (http://housecall.trendmicro.com) on Trend Micro's site for a free online virus scan.

I am wondering though if somehow a setting got changed in your display settings. On my crappy ol' computer I can't run Unreal with a full screen because I don't have a decent graphics card. Perhaps your settings got changed to a lower screen resolution and the program's or games you are trying need better graphics display.

Let me know if either one of these helps you out or gives a different result.

[Mike__]

I've got a problem with my internet connection. I have shaw cable at the moment and got 2 computers connected using a Linksys DSL/Cable Router. Anyways, a couple days ago I accidently uplugged a wire from the router and put it back. At first, the internet connection for one computer would work but not the other but now it has switched the other computer would work but not the first one.

Has this happened to anyone else?

[photon]

Sounds like you plugged the wire into the wrong port.. the cable coming from your cable modem should go into the special port on the Linksys for the internet connection, not in one of the ports that's labeled with a #.

If you plug it into the wrong port, your router acts as a simple switch. So the first computer to boot grabs the IP address from Shaw and works fine (though not protected at all), the second boots and can't get an IP because Shaw only gives one.

Plug the network cable coming from the cable modem into the correct port on the linksys and all should be fine.

[Buff]

Just an addition to Photon's comments.

The wire coming from the Cable modem should plug into the "WAN" or "Internet" port on your router. If your router is a couple of years old, you may have an "Uplink" port. You don't want to use this one.

If, once you get the wire into the correct port, this error still occurs, simply unplug the power supply from the back of your router, count to 14 (but not too fast) then plug it back in. This should reset the router without losing any settings that you may have changed.

[Mike__]

Yah I tried plugging it into the WAN port and no luck. Both computers had no connection. Right now it's in the Uplink port so I can get here and get some advice but it only works for one computer.

Could it be with my connection settings?

[Buff]

Originally posted by fotze@Apr 10 2005, 10:44 AM
Here's a stu[id quetion, how can you tell what type of computer you have. I got this thing 3 years ago and can't remember what speed it is. I have Win2000
Start->All Programs->Accessories->System Tools->System Information

or

Right-Click on My Computer.

or

turn your computer off, when you first turn your computer on there should be a message telling you to push a particular button to enter setup. (Usually [del] or [F2]) Hopefully your BIOS is friendly enough to tell you.

[Buff]

Originally posted by Mike__@Apr 10 2005, 10:04 AM
Yah I tried plugging it into the WAN port and no luck. Both computers had no connection. Right now it's in the Uplink port so I can get here and get some advice but it only works for one computer.

Could it be with my connection settings?
Well you can do one of two things. You can login to the router and clear your DHCP table. Actually do that first. I'm going to assume you know how to do that. Probably your router is set to give you addresses for a certain amount of time and that time hasn't expired. I've seen this happen. If you cannot logon to your router, or clearing the DHCP table doesn't help, then you should probably have a reset button on the back of the router. With the router on, press this button and hold it down for about 6 seconds (you'll need something pointy like a pen). This will reset all settings and connections.

[ricosuave]

Originally posted by fotze@Apr 10 2005, 11:44 AM
Here's a stu[id quetion, how can you tell what type of computer you have. I got this thing 3 years ago and can't remember what speed it is. I have Win2000
google a program called everest home edition by lavasys

it'll list more about your system than you care to know...

rico

[Buff]

Originally posted by ricosuave+Apr 11 2005, 09:03 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (ricosuave @ Apr 11 2005, 09:03 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-fotze@Apr 10 2005, 11:44 AM
Here's a stu[id quetion, how can you tell what type of computer you have. I got this thing 3 years ago and can't remember what speed it is. I have Win2000
google a program called everest home edition by lavasys

it'll list more about your system than you care to know...

rico [/b][/quote]
I had forgotten about that program, and Belarc Advisor too!

Thanks for the reminder

[Mike__]

Originally posted by Buff+Apr 11 2005, 08:38 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Buff @ Apr 11 2005, 08:38 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Mike__@Apr 10 2005, 10:04 AM
Yah I tried plugging it into the WAN port and no luck. Both computers had no connection. Right now it's in the Uplink port so I can get here and get some advice but it only works for one computer.

Could it be with my connection settings?
Well you can do one of two things. You can login to the router and clear your DHCP table. Actually do that first. I'm going to assume you know how to do that. Probably your router is set to give you addresses for a certain amount of time and that time hasn't expired. I've seen this happen. If you cannot logon to your router, or clearing the DHCP table doesn't help, then you should probably have a reset button on the back of the router. With the router on, press this button and hold it down for about 6 seconds (you'll need something pointy like a pen). This will reset all settings and connections. [/b][/quote]
I'll give it a shot but I have a feeling it has something to do with the connection to my other computer. There are 3 LED lights for each port. Link/Act, Full/Col and 100. For the cable that connects my other computer to my router only Link/Act lights up. Is that normal or what? I tried pinging my computer IP on the other one and it says Timed Out.

Also checked ip config and everything seems to be in order. So I'm guessing either the cable is faulty or the settings are messed up for the other computer. BTW I did try switching ports and no luck so the ports are fine.

[Buff]

Edit:
Before you read the following, I just reread the problems, and correct me if I'm wrong but the cable connecting from the modem to the router is connected to the uplink port on the router? This will not allow you to have both computers access the internet unless you are paying for 2 or more IP addresses from your ISP. Uplink is kinda like a pass-through, or rather by using the uplink instead of the WAN you are using your router as a hub/switch instead of a router. The reason why one and not two computers can connect is because you probably only have one IP address from your ISP and one computer gets the IP while, obviously, the other doesn't. Your router may be configured to give out addresses but it probably won't with this configuration.

You need to have the cable connecting the router to the modem to be in the WAN port. This allows you to have some firewall protection and have two computers connect to the internet without only one IP address from your ISP. The cables connecting to the other computers can be in ports 1,2,3 or 4 (or more if you have a larger router) Your router should be configured to give out addresses and the computers should receive them with this setup. Try reseting the router with the reset button if this isn't working like I say it is. If this is the way you have it setup and you are still having problems then read the following:


Ok, I'm just going to ramble out a few questions here.

Only one computer can get an address and get on the internet? Is it always the same computer or does that change?

Assuming it is only one computer, was the computer that can't connect on the other end of the cable that got disconnected from the router? Is the NIC an on-board NIC or installed (PCI NIC)? Is it possible that when you accidentaly disconnected the calbe that the cable gave a good tug on the NIC? If so then the NIC could possibly have been slightly pulled out of its PCI slot. I have seen this happen once before.

What is the IP address of the computer that can connect? (Don't give me the address that Shaw gives you, for your safety.) Is the address something like 70.xxx.xxx.xxx? or is it something like 192.168.xxx.xxx? If it is similar to the first number (it may start with 24 or 64 instead of 70) then your router isn't properly handing out addresses? If it is the second then your router is properly giving out the addresses and either the cable or the computer that isn't working is the problem.

This is probably something simple but it is hard to solve the problem without actually being able to physically play around and see the setup for myself, sorry if I'm not asking the right questions, but hopefully we'll get this solved soon!

[Mike__]

Originally posted by Buff@Apr 11 2005, 08:27 PM
Edit:
Before you read the following, I just reread the problems, and correct me if I'm wrong but the cable connecting from the modem to the router is connected to the uplink port on the router? This will not allow you to have both computers access the internet unless you are paying for 2 or more IP addresses from your ISP. Uplink is kinda like a pass-through, or rather by using the uplink instead of the WAN you are using your router as a hub/switch instead of a router. The reason why one and not two computers can connect is because you probably only have one IP address from your ISP and one computer gets the IP while, obviously, the other doesn't. Your router may be configured to give out addresses but it probably won't with this configuration.

You need to have the cable connecting the router to the modem to be in the WAN port. This allows you to have some firewall protection and have two computers connect to the internet without only one IP address from your ISP. The cables connecting to the other computers can be in ports 1,2,3 or 4 (or more if you have a larger router) Your router should be configured to give out addresses and the computers should receive them with this setup. Try reseting the router with the reset button if this isn't working like I say it is. If this is the way you have it setup and you are still having problems then read the following:


Ok, I'm just going to ramble out a few questions here.

Only one computer can get an address and get on the internet? Is it always the same computer or does that change?

Assuming it is only one computer, was the computer that can't connect on the other end of the cable that got disconnected from the router? Is the NIC an on-board NIC or installed (PCI NIC)? Is it possible that when you accidentaly disconnected the calbe that the cable gave a good tug on the NIC? If so then the NIC could possibly have been slightly pulled out of its PCI slot. I have seen this happen once before.

What is the IP address of the computer that can connect? (Don't give me the address that Shaw gives you, for your safety.) Is the address something like 70.xxx.xxx.xxx? or is it something like 192.168.xxx.xxx? If it is similar to the first number (it may start with 24 or 64 instead of 70) then your router isn't properly handing out addresses? If it is the second then your router is properly giving out the addresses and either the cable or the computer that isn't working is the problem.

This is probably something simple but it is hard to solve the problem without actually being able to physically play around and see the setup for myself, sorry if I'm not asking the right questions, but hopefully we'll get this solved soon!
Ok well the cable from the modem was connected to the uplink port only so that I can connect to the internet to get some help. I did try the WAN port and the same things happens, only one computer gets the connection.

Yes the computers cables are connected to the numbered ports. 2 and 3 to be exact. Still no connection.

Only one computer can get an address and get on the internet? Is it always the same computer or does that change?

Same computer everytime, i checked ip config for the other computer and it has an ip address as well.

Assuming it is only one computer, was the computer that can't connect on the other end of the cable that got disconnected from the router? Is the NIC an on-board NIC or installed (PCI NIC)? Is it possible that when you accidentaly disconnected the calbe that the cable gave a good tug on the NIC? If so then the NIC could possibly have been slightly pulled out of its PCI slot. I have seen this happen once before.

Not to sure what an NIC is but that could be the cause as the wire was somewhat pulled out. I would check but not sure what it was.

What is the IP address of the computer that can connect? (Don't give me the address that Shaw gives you, for your safety.) Is the address something like 70.xxx.xxx.xxx? or is it something like 192.168.xxx.xxx? If it is similar to the first number (it may start with 24 or 64 instead of 70) then your router isn't properly handing out addresses? If it is the second then your router is properly giving out the addresses and either the cable or the computer that isn't working is the problem.

I'm not at my house at the moment but I'm pretty sure the I.P address is similar to the second one. I'll check once I get home but from what i remember it is similar to the second one.



Thanks alot for the help Buff, I understand I'm taking out alot of time out of your day, it is much appreciated.

[Buff]

Have you restarted the computer that can't connect?


Oh, and a NIC is a Network Interface Card, it is where you plug the network cable into on the back of your computer.

When you check the address on the computer that can't connect and it starts with 169.xxx.xxx.xxx.... well this sucks to get rid of sometimes. If restarting your computer doesn't get rid of this address and get you an address from your router, try turning the cable around... a dumb trick that shouldn't make a difference but it works. (by turning the cable around I mean plug the end that is in the computer into the router and vice versa for the end that was in the router)

[Mike__]

Ahhh...finally got it. After the hundredth time messing around with the cables I finally got it. I have no idea why it never worked before but now it works and thats all that matters. Thanks for all the help Buff, sorry for wasting your time lol.

[JohnnyO]

Can anyone recommend a video editing software that will rotate a digital video. The wife used our digital camera to recorded a video clip and was holding the camera the wrong way. I have Pinnacle Studio 9 but I dont think I can do that in there?

Thanks

[photon]

http://www.virtualdub.org/ is a good free program that I've used to reencode videos before, I believe there's a rotate filter under Video / Filters / Add Filter.

[JohnnyO]

Originally posted by photon@Apr 18 2005, 02:12 PM
http://www.virtualdub.org/ is a good free program that I've used to reencode videos before, I believe there's a rotate filter under Video / Filters / Add Filter.
Hey thanks I will give it a try. I tried a few and they couldn't do it.

Success!! Thanks It took a few trys with the filter but I got it to work. Calgary Puck Saves the day Woooohooo!!

[I-Hate-Hulse]

I found this free utility to wipe hard disks before you return a computer or sell it to someone.

http://killdisk.com/

Far better than the usual FORMAT C: routine, for paranoid privacy freaks like myself. :ph34r:

[Buff]

Looks like it does a low-level format. Another alternative is to find the maker of the HDD, go to their site and download the drive diagnostics/utilities tools. I've never used kill drive before, but I'll take a look at it for the next time I need to do a low level format. Thanks

[Ro]

Hi all, another question.

I finally installed Sygate Personal Firewall the other day, and every once in a while the system tray icon flashes red. When I open up the window, a security log pops up, and there's a message that reads:

"somebody is scanning your TCP ports, 23.564.2223.44, blah blah."

It says that the threat is "minor," but I usually right click on the log entry and select "block all active responses" just to be safe. Even though I have no idea what it means.

Can someone enlighten me as to what's going on here? Do I need to be worried?

[photon]

Nothing really to be worried about, it's just letting you know that your computer is being scanned. Sometimes it can be your own ISP scanning your computer to make sure you aren't running a server of some sort (though this happens a lot less these days), but more likely it is someone scanning your computer to see if there is any way they can get into it. People scan random computers on the net all day long, so it's not a big deal.

You should be able to disable that notification and have it automatically not respond to the port scan; there's no reason to need to know every single time someone scans your computer.

[Incinerator]

Originally posted by Ro@Apr 21 2005, 02:43 AM
Hi all, another question.

I finally installed Sygate Personal Firewall the other day, and every once in a while the system tray icon flashes red. When I open up the window, a security log pops up, and there's a message that reads:

"somebody is scanning your TCP ports, 23.564.2223.44, blah blah."

It says that the threat is "minor," but I usually right click on the log entry and select "block all active responses" just to be safe. Even though I have no idea what it means.

Can someone enlighten me as to what's going on here? Do I need to be worried?
Like photon said there are millions of kids scanning random machines everyday to find the vulnerable ones, if you're running the most basic of firewalls you should be fine against these negligible threats. Some firewalls allows you to set the option so that it will only protect you silently in the background and not alert you of these annoying things. I've never used Sygate so I can't comment on that though.

[mots]

Microsoft Excel help needed. Basically i got a table like this (fairly simplified for this purpose):

1 12.2
1 15.6
2 14.5
2 34.5
3 34.7
4 1.9

And im trying to get a formula that will add up the sum of all the rows corresponding to 2 (14.5 + 34.5). If i use VLookup(2;A1:B6;2;FALSE), it just retrieves the value the first time it encounters 2, 14.5 in the above example. Is there a way to make all the values corresponding to 2 add up. I hope this makes sense.

[Eagle Eye]

Maybe I am thinking to simple but have you tried the sumif function?

Sumif(A1:A8,2,B1:B9)

[Buff]

Is anybody here an expert on cooling? I got a new computer and I'm having some heat issues and I want to bounce around some ideas. I think I know what I'm going to do, but I'd like to get some more opinions.

P4 3.4Ghz 800FSB
Asus P5GD1 Motherboard
Asus Radeon X300SE 128 MB Video
SATA HDD

the heat issues occur when I play Medal of Honor... I did have the video options cranked up to the max for the game, and I've only had heat issues that really worried me on one occasion, but the heat is something I may want to keep under control... the cooler your system the better it'll run!

Just doing stuff like posting hear at CP the heat is usually around the following:
MB: 30C CPU: 40C
Fans: 2600RPM
(I don't have a reading on the video card)

When I play medal of Honor I usually have the following readings (immediately after I end the game):
MB: 43C CPU 48C
Fans: 3200RPM

One I had these readings (after playing MOH)
MB: 46C CPU: 55C
Fans: 4500RPm

this last reading is what concerned me. I think it can be contributed to the high video settings I was using, but I would still like to get the heat and fan RPMS down as much as I can.

Any good ideas that will reinforce my plan, or make me come up with a better plan?

I know I'm better off going to a tech forum, but I'd rather give it a try here first instead of registering for a forum that I'll forget about in a month.

[Mike__]

Anybody have this problem with thier hard drive space. For some reason I keep losing space for no apparent reason. No, nothing is being downloaded and happens very frequently. Just last week I had 2 gb of free space and a day later only 46 mb. ???.

Just last night I cleared some space, 216 mb free space, this morning 156 mb. Computer was off and everything. Help would be much appreciated.

[Mango]

Does anyone happen to know if it is possible to make animated graphics with any Adobe products?

Thank you.

[Buff]

Originally posted by Mike__@May 3 2005, 08:15 AM
Anybody have this problem with thier hard drive space. For some reason I keep losing space for no apparent reason. No, nothing is being downloaded and happens very frequently. Just last week I had 2 gb of free space and a day later only 46 mb. ???.

Just last night I cleared some space, 216 mb free space, this morning 156 mb. Computer was off and everything. Help would be much appreciated.
You have a virus. It sucks up the space on your hard drive. Basically, on a low level, it is replacing the 0's with 1's. This is why you can't see where the space is being used. Make sure your virus scanner has the latest definition files and scan it. If you don't have an updated subscription, or a virus scanner, then go to housecall.trendmicro.com.

[Buff]

Originally posted by Mango@May 3 2005, 08:19 AM
Does anyone happen to know if it is possible to make animated graphics with any Adobe products?

Thank you.
I don't know, but I think I've heard of something. Try www.adobe.com.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

So in my main rig, I have my primary C: Drive with a number of other seperate IDE drives. Permissions have been set to restrict a HDD to a particular user (ie the 'everyone' group has been removed in the sharing tab).

My instance of XP of course dies, and I've re-installed windows on a new C: Drive. Problem is: I can't access the previously restricted drives anymore. I can't even right click on them to try and take control via the sharing tab. It just gives me an option to format them, and otherwise gives me a "drive not available" message. I've re-created the user account and given it the same password but no dice. Encryption was not used (I think).

Does anyone know how to access these previously secured drives? It's data from a previous business venture on it, that I'd rather not lose.

Thanks in advance!

[Buff]

Are these drives physical or virtual? Do you physically have more than one hard drive in your computer, or did you have one hard drive that was partitioned into seperate drives?

What file formats are each of the drives? Fat, Fat32 or NTFS?

Perhaps you need to go to Disk Management to 'reconnect' these drives, but be warned you can lose the data on them if you don't properly read the messages that popup. I don't have a computer with disconnected drives so I cannot properly point you in the right path, but I recently saw a computer like this. (unfortunately I didn't read the message, clicked yes and wiped out the data on the drive)

[photon]

What version of Windows are you running? I'm assuming XP Professional. I'm also assuming the drives show up normally under Disk Manager.

Can you see the drives in Explorer / My Computer? If you can right click on them and go into Properties do you see a Security tab?

If you can't see the Security tab then you can enable it: In Windows Explorer (or My Computer, whichever you prefer) go to Tools>Folder Options>View and uncheck "Use Simple File Sharing," click OK.

What is probably happening here is since the Everyone group is gone, no user on your current OS has any permissions to the drive or folders (a user with the same ID and password isn't the same, they have different unique ID's in Windows).

So give this a try, right click on the drive in Explorer, choose that Security tab, choose Advanced, and choose Owner. It should say the current owners is some bunch of letters and #'s and ??'s. Choose a new owner from the list (should show you the user you are logged in as and others depending on how it's setup), and check the "Relace owner on subcontainers and objects", then hit Apply.

That will go through the whole drive and change the ownership of the file to the new user, which means you should now be able to see them and change the permissions on them to be whatever you need it to be. If you removed CREATOR OWNER from them as well as Everyone, you may have to add it back and replace the permissions on all the children first to get access to the files.

If encryption was used, unless you backed up the proper key onto CD or floppy or something you are totally hooped.

[Eddie Bronze]

My CD-R/RW appears to have had the biscuit. I've had small problems with it for a long time, but now it won't even read a cd (says drive is empty when there is a cd in there) and play it, so I haven't even tried to burn anything with it. I made sure everything was hooked up properly and still nothing which leads me to think it's a laser problem.
So I'm thinking it's probably time for a new one.
Anyone have any suggestions on what I should get? I don't really know where to look but I checked Future Shop's website and they have a LG DVD-RW on sale for pretty much half price. I assume it will burn and play regular CD's as I'm not into the DVD thing (no TV so no point) but I thought I'd just ask and see if anyone else has one of these or if they'd recommend grabbing this while it's on sale.
Thanks for any advice.

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetai...ogon=&langid=EN (http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0665000FS10055584&logon=&langid=EN)

[photon]

That's a not bad unit at that price (would never get it at $150), but there are some better out there.

For less you can get the Benq 1620 Pro from Memory Express for $70:
http://www.memoryexpress.com/

Or from BCom for even less ($62):
http://www.bcom.ab.ca/

And I would say the Benq is an overall better drive, though you should avoid the really cheap media for best results.

It'll burn CD's though with blank DVD's pretty reasonably priced they're even better (fit more on one disc).

For media, any blank DVD+R that says Made in Japan is good:
http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.a...429&catid=20032 (http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10054429&catid=20032)

[Eddie Bronze]

Thanks for the links to some local places Photon, that's what I was looking for. These DVD's you burn music to (to get more on) will they play in a regular car audio cd player or will I need something special for that?

[photon]

If you want to play it on a regular car audio CD player then yeah you'll have to burn to regular blank CD's.

Some newer decks can actually read MP3's from burned CDs and DVDs so you could have 600MB or 4.7GB of MP3's rather than the standard 70 minutes of music, but unless your deck specifically supports that you'll have to burn regular CD's.

[hah]

Can someone help me out

My main hard disc drive is full. Any suggestions on what I should do?

The drive C: is 20 g.

I also have a D: drive that is 80 g and only 3/4 full.

Thanks in advance

:D

[Flames89]

1. Delete the crap you don't need. I find it hard to believe you have 80G's of "have-to-keep" data (unless it is all movies and music

2. Buy an External HD, they are relatively cheap $100-300.

[Cheese]

hah hah.....bite your tongue cheese...bite your tongue!

Find this virus...it might help you!


Quick! Tell Everyone You Know And Even People You Don't Know

* If you receive an email entitled "Bedtimes" delete it IMMEDIATELY. Do not open it. Apparently this one is pretty nasty. It will not only erase everything on your hard drive, but it will also delete anything on disks within 20 feet of your computer.

It demagnetizes the strips on ALL of your credit cards. It reprograms your ATM access code and screws up the tracking on your VCR and uses subspace field harmonics to scratch any CD's you attempt to play. It will program your phone auto dial to call only 900 numbers. This virus will mix antifreeze into your fish tank.

IT WILL CAUSE YOUR TOILET TO FLUSH WHILE YOU ARE SHOWERING.

It will drink ALL your beer. FOR GOD'S SAKE, ARE YOU LISTENING?? It will leave dirty underwear on the coffee table when you are expecting company! It will replace your shampoo with Nair and your Nair with Rogaine.

If the "Bedtimes" message is opened in a Windows 2000/XP environment, it will leave the toilet seat up and leave your hair dryer plugged in dangerously close to a full bathtub.

It will not only remove the forbidden tags from your mattresses and pillows, it will also refill your Skim milk with whole milk.

******* WARN AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN.

[Flames89]

Originally posted by Cheese@Jun 17 2005, 09:15 AM
hah hah.....bite your tongue cheese...bite your tongue!

Find this virus...it might help you!


Quick! Tell Everyone You Know And Even People You Don't Know

* If you receive an email entitled "Bedtimes" delete it IMMEDIATELY. Do not open it. Apparently this one is pretty nasty. It will not only erase everything on your hard drive, but it will also delete anything on disks within 20 feet of your computer.

It demagnetizes the strips on ALL of your credit cards. It reprograms your ATM access code and screws up the tracking on your VCR and uses subspace field harmonics to scratch any CD's you attempt to play. It will program your phone auto dial to call only 900 numbers. This virus will mix antifreeze into your fish tank.

IT WILL CAUSE YOUR TOILET TO FLUSH WHILE YOU ARE SHOWERING.

It will drink ALL your beer. FOR GOD'S SAKE, ARE YOU LISTENING?? It will leave dirty underwear on the coffee table when you are expecting company! It will replace your shampoo with Nair and your Nair with Rogaine.

If the "Bedtimes" message is opened in a Windows 95/98 environment, it will leave the toilet seat up and leave your hair dryer plugged in dangerously close to a full bathtub.

It will not only remove the forbidden tags from your mattresses and pillows, it will also refill your Skim milk with whole milk.

******* WARN AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN.
Well, that explains everything - and here I thought it was just my imagination...

[Cheese]

Virus Update, 1/22/00

Symantec Virus Alert Center

Hello Subscriber,

As part of our ongoing effort to keep Symantec clients up to date
on virus alerts, this e-mail is being sent to all Symantec subscribers.
A new, deadly type of virus has been detected in the wild. You should
not open any message entitled "LAUNCH NUCLEAR STRIKE NOW",
as this message has been programmed to access NORAD computers in Colorado
and launch a full-scale nuclear strike on Russia and the former Soviet
states. Apparently, a disgruntled ex-Communist hacker has designed a
pernicious VBScript that actually bypasses the U.S. arsenal's significant
security system and takes command of missiles and bombers directly. By
opening the e-mail, you may be causing Armageddon. Needless to say,
Armageddon will wipe out your hard drive and damage your computer.

Again, we warn you, PLEASE, DO NOT OPEN ANY E-MAIL ENTITLED
"LAUNCH NUCLEAR STRIKE NOW". YOU MAY CAUSE A FULL-SCALE
NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST.

As a precaution, all U.S. nuclear missiles have been set to
"Do Not Authorize Launch Via E-Mail" to prevent an accidental
armageddon. However, due to a Y2K bug, the possibility still exists
that you may end life as we know it on this planet by opening the
aforementioned e-mail.

VIRUS NAME: ArmaGeddyLee, HappyOrMaybeNot00, OopsWrongButton00
TRANSMITTAL METHOD: VBScript attached to e-mail
HAZARD: Extremely Super High
AREA OF INFECTION: Detected in wild
CHARACTERISTICS: Destroys life on earth via nuclear armageddon

Please forward this warning to everyone you can. Thank you for your
attention to this matter,

Sincerely,

The Symantec Anti-Virus Team

[Buff]

Well for starters, do like Flames89 said; delete the crap you don't really need.

Which browser do you use? For starters you can delete your temporary internet files. Then you can redirect them to the D: instead of the C: Just let me know which internet browser you use and I'll tell you how to redirect the temproary internet files folder.

Run Disk Cleanup:
Start->All Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Disk Cleanup
Select all items that have anything in them (it'll show how much space is being used, so anything over 0kb can be deleted). Once you've selected everything to be deleted select OK, and wait for the process to finish.

Uninstall any programs that you do not use anymore.

If you have a lot of songs that you do not want to delete but don't listen to them directly from your computer, then burn them to a cd in their mp3 format. If you want to make a music cd at a later date then you can easily copy the songs you want back onto your computer.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Look into three things:

1) You may have installed programs onto your C: drive, not your other drive.
2) Your My Documents, My Pictures, My Music folder might contain several large items. It too stores itself on C:
3) Delete the My Pr0n directory.... ;)

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

A question for the techies:

I have 2 systems: a Dell box at the office and a Dell box at home.

The Office box is a P4 2.5 or so running XP pro with integrated sound and video.

The Home box is a p4 1.6 or so running XP home with seperate sound and video.

Other than the occasional game of NHL 2004 I pretty much use the two computers for the same stuff, and the office box is noticable faster.

I'm 'retiring' for a few months and want the best of both worlds. Can I do something with the hardware/software to make 1 better computer out of both?

[calculoso]

Look for a TEMP or TMP directory. This can usually be located by going to a DOS prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd) and typing "set"

Look for the "TEMP=" and "TMP=" lines, go to these directories (may be the same one) and look at the files there.

[Buff]

Originally posted by Bend it like Bourgeois@Jun 17 2005, 10:15 AM
A question for the techies:

I have 2 systems: a Dell box at the office and a Dell box at home.

The Office box is a P4 2.5 or so running XP pro with integrated sound and video.

The Home box is a p4 1.6 or so running XP home with seperate sound and video.

Other than the occasional game of NHL 2004 I pretty much use the two computers for the same stuff, and the office box is noticable faster.

I'm 'retiring' for a few months and want the best of both worlds. Can I do something with the hardware/software to make 1 better computer out of both?
Assuming you have the expansion room in the business computer, you should be able to move the video card and sound card from the home computer over to the business computer.

If the RAM is the same type you could maybe add more ram if you have open slots or switching a stick or two(assuming it adds up to more RAM)

You could even increase your HDD space by putting in the HDD with XP Home and making it a slave drive, and the existing HDD with XP Pro the master drive. You won't have two operating systems to boot from... although you could have it set up to do so if you wished. (but if you got XP Pro why use XP Home?)

You can even add another optical drive from the home computer into the business computer (assuming there is room)

So in a nutshell, if there is room you should be able to strip your home computer of all its parts and put them in the business computer as additions and/or replacements.

[Buff]

Originally posted by calculoso@Jun 17 2005, 10:28 AM
Look for a TEMP or TMP directory. This can usually be located by going to a DOS prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd) and typing "set"

Look for the "TEMP=" and "TMP=" lines, go to these directories (may be the same one) and look at the files there.
or just let disk cleanup empty these for you. If it is in the temp folder you don't need it.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

just a quick question. When I'm listening to music using Windows Media Player I can't hear my e-mail notifications.

Wouldn't be a problem but as I sit and read at my desk, I have my headphones in and am facing the window, NOT my computer screen. So I don't see the visual notifiaction, and need to reply on the oral one.

So while I normally wouldn't like my music interrupted by "DO-DO" or something like that, I would like to know if I have e-mail when it comes.

Anyone know how to fix that? How can I make it so I hear my e-mail notification?

[Incinerator]

Originally posted by Maritime Q-Scout@Jun 21 2005, 12:12 PM
just a quick question. When I'm listening to music using Windows Media Player I can't hear my e-mail notifications.

Wouldn't be a problem but as I sit and read at my desk, I have my headphones in and am facing the window, NOT my computer screen. So I don't see the visual notifiaction, and need to reply on the oral one.

So while I normally wouldn't like my music interrupted by "DO-DO" or something like that, I would like to know if I have e-mail when it comes.

Anyone know how to fix that? How can I make it so I hear my e-mail notification?
Get an MP3 player?

[Buff]

Originally posted by Maritime Q-Scout@Jun 21 2005, 06:12 AM
just a quick question. When I'm listening to music using Windows Media Player I can't hear my e-mail notifications.

Wouldn't be a problem but as I sit and read at my desk, I have my headphones in and am facing the window, NOT my computer screen. So I don't see the visual notifiaction, and need to reply on the oral one.

So while I normally wouldn't like my music interrupted by "DO-DO" or something like that, I would like to know if I have e-mail when it comes.

Anyone know how to fix that? How can I make it so I hear my e-mail notification?
Try Winamp? I really can't remember but I think with Winamp playing music I've heard system noises. I'm not sure.

[dustygoon]

Is there a way to play music files from my computer to my stereo? I don’t want to use wires….I have a wireless network set up in my house (802.11g) but would consider other alternatives. I have an up-to-date stereo tuner. I don’t want to spend a fortune on a “media centre PC” which hooks up to your stereo. I have heard about something called an airporter but I find the whole thing a bit confusing.

[MolsonInBothHands]

Originally posted by dustygoon@Jun 29 2005, 12:25 PM
Is there a way to play music files from my computer to my stereo? I don’t want to use wires….I have a wireless network set up in my house (802.11g) but would consider other alternatives. I have an up-to-date stereo tuner. I don’t want to spend a fortune on a “media centre PC” which hooks up to your stereo. I have heard about something called an airporter but I find the whole thing a bit confusing.
Since you have a wireless network, you could go with something like this this (http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=243&subcategory=247&product=9192)

...

or if you have an XBOX hooked to your stereo and network you could run a media cente r application off of it.

[dustygoon]

Originally posted by MolsonInBothHands+Jun 29 2005, 07:00 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (MolsonInBothHands @ Jun 29 2005, 07:00 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-dustygoon@Jun 29 2005, 12:25 PM
Is there a way to play music files from my computer to my stereo? I don’t want to use wires….I have a wireless network set up in my house (802.11g) but would consider other alternatives. I have an up-to-date stereo tuner. I don’t want to spend a fortune on a “media centre PC” which hooks up to your stereo. I have heard about something called an airporter but I find the whole thing a bit confusing.
Since you have a wireless network, you could go with something like this this (http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=243&subcategory=247&product=9192)

...

or if you have an XBOX hooked to your stereo and network you could run a media cente r application off of it. [/b][/quote]
Thanks Molson! Exactly what i was looking for.

[arsenal]

Does anyone know of a good disk partitioning / resizing util that I can get for free (Open Source or freeware). I have a linux partition on my hd, and it seems to have crashed and burned on me. Just want to remove the entire thing, and resize my NTFS to take up the whole disk.

Don't feel like re-installing everything (right now anyway).

Thanks.

[BlackArcher101]

How about the built in disk management in XP?

[arsenal]

Don't have that installed.. that is something that is an optional install on the XP disk right?

[Tower]

Originally posted by Mike__@May 3 2005, 03:15 PM
Anybody have this problem with thier hard drive space. For some reason I keep losing space for no apparent reason. No, nothing is being downloaded and happens very frequently. Just last week I had 2 gb of free space and a day later only 46 mb. ???.

Just last night I cleared some space, 216 mb free space, this morning 156 mb. Computer was off and everything. Help would be much appreciated.
read this it will help a lot.

I am always right... remember that! (http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1494&page=2)

[Bingo]

At my Dad's place in BC ... his sound card isn't working

CMI8738/C3DX PCI Audio Device

The device is shown as working, driver fine, no warnings on the system list, and the connections appear to be fine.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

[KevanGuy]

Maybe one of the 10 volume settings comps seem to have these days. Check all the media players, then the voulme through the sounds option in the control panel.

[Bingo]

Originally posted by KevanGuy@Jul 26 2005, 12:02 PM
Maybe one of the 10 volume settings comps seem to have these days. Check all the media players, then the voulme through the sounds option in the control panel.
Tried that.

Even flagged on all the unused devices and took them off mute as well.

[photon]

Hm, maybe try downloading the latest drivers and installing them? A file may have gone corrupt or missing.

[Bingo]

do you know of a good free download site for drivers?

[photon]

http://www.cmedia.com.tw/download/OS-e-cmi8738_WDM_OS.htm

That should be the manufacturer's drivers I believe.

EDIT: Dang, too slow!

[4X4]

*************
NEW QUESTION
*************



The woman & I both have digital cameras taht came on our recent trip. I want to download both cards into the same folder, but have them come out chronologically. The only way I can think to do this is to download settings one at a time (in other words, download this day at this beach from my camera, then the same thing from her camera & so on).
Sounds easy, right? Well we've snapped over 500 pics between the two of us so this isn't as easy at it sounds. Very, very tedious.

I was hoping that one of you computer geniuses had a way that I could just download each card into separate folders, then right click & move into a new folder under a new name. I can't just do it because it retains it's old name. Is there a way to rename as you move & do it with large groups of folders?

I hope you know what the heck I'm talking about.

[photon]

I think I know what you are getting at, but the root of the problem is that you want to be able to browse and group your photos by different means right?

You're using folders and sorting to do this, but I would recommend a piece of software that can actually do that for you a lot better:

http://picasa.google.com/index.html

I gave up trying to keep my photos organized by folders.

[4X4]

What I'd like is to take pics from folders & add them to new folders & for them to take on new (numerical) names so that the sequence in which I add them is maintained and becomes a chronological order.

I've got alot of pics taken from two cameras simultaneously. I want to download each camera into different folders, then shift+down and gather thirty pics here, put them into a folder, gather thirty pics from the other camers, etc until the whole trip has both sets of pics integrated into one sequence (chronologically).


EDIT: and I can add the pics, but they retain their old name (folder A & folderB) and then get put alphabetically.
Renaming hundreds of pics sounds crappy & I'm resorting to downloading from each camera bits at a time into one folder.

[photon]

I can't think of anything that would do that off the top of my head, but there probably is some mass-renaming type software out there.

Something like this maybe?

http://www.download.com/A-F-5-Rename-your-...tml?tag=lst-0-3 (http://www.download.com/A-F-5-Rename-your-files/3000-2248_4-10135890.html?tag=lst-0-3)

[4X4]

Thanks photon, I'll give that a try.

This is another example of microsoft sucking. So many of their very expensive programs fall short in so many ways. You'd think it'd be in the tools menu.

[Bingo]

Thanks guys ... I'll give it a shot.

And Fotze ... no kidding, always a list when I arrive.

[Bingo]

Man this is frustrating ... he has a new problem.

When he activates a link to a downloadable file it just flashes the "File Download" box over and over again rapidly.

He says this has happened for a while.

Any thoughts?

Virus? Security switch turned on that should be turned off? He has Zone Alarm which I deactivated.

[photon]

Doesn't sound like a virus.. almost sounds like a download manager was installed but isn't working properly. Or some spyware gone bad.

Download Microsoft Antispyware and make sure that comes up clean. Go through the add-remove programs and see if there's anything there that looks like it shouldn't be there.

And if Zone Alarm is the only firewall they have don't leave it deactivated for too long.

EDIT: And install Firefox ;)

[Bingo]

What is Intel Security Driver? I wonder if that has something to do with it.

Other programs that I either don't recognise or know to be suspect ...

BroadJump Client Foundation

and a whole host of others that look somewhat strange but start with Microsoft but end with serial numbers like Outlook Express Q837009

[Bingo]

oh and I can't use the Microsoft anti-spyware ... he's on Windows 98

Use something else?

[photon]

BroadJump is software probably left over from when the Internet connection was setup, shouldn't be harmful.

The Intel Security Driver is software that helps the computer generate random numbers, usually used for cryptographic solutions (encrypting files, etc), doubt that would be causing any problems.

The stuff that ends with #'s are just updates from Microsoft, those should be ok.

If MS Antispyware won't install, you can download a trial of Webroot Spysweeper (http://www.webroot.com/products/spysweeper/). Adaware and Spybot are two free spyware utilities that also work fairly well though you usually need both to catch most stuff.

If he doesn't have any anti-virus software you can install AVG or avast!, or if you want to just to a scan you can go to Trend Micro's site and they have a free web tool to scan the computer for viruses.

[Bingo]

I'm installing Firefox now ... he has AVG, and I'll try that link you suggested.

[Bingo]

through installing Firefox and SpySweeper I have to wonder if that CMedia site is the problem. ... why could I get through the download (open or save as) and then execute on the the first two, but not the CMedia site?

any other good options to get the CMI8738/C3DX driver set?

[Bingo]

OK ...

I think I solved problem number 2, the failure to download files. Turns out he didn't have a Winzip or PKzip installed so the PC flipped out when he tried to access a downloadable zipped file.

The other issue ... sound card.

I went into his ROM BIOS and his sound card was disabled. I enabled it and went in ... still no sound. Went into the device manager and saw a new device called Crystal WDM Audio Codec that was in error. I enabled it, the warning went away and still no sound.

Any more thoughts?

[KevanGuy]

http://www.misstexastech.com/window%20gradg.png

[photon]

Heh yeah..

Hm, it sounds like the motherboard has built in sound and that there's a soundcard installed in a PCI slot as well. The one on the motherboard should be left disabled if there's a PCI soundcard installed.

Could it be something as simple as the speakers are connected into the motherboard's speaker jack instead of the PCI card's?

That would explain why everything says its configured properly but there's no sound.

[Bingo]

Last night he says ... "you know I think I had a new sound card installed this year", sure enough ... he had them plugged into the wrong card.

Thanks again guys.

[photon]

Lol, nice. Now you'll have something to bug him about for years.

[Bingo]

One final question ...

on reboot the PC is looking to add new hardware (the motherboard sound card of course). How can I stop that from happening? If it was a regular card I'd just remove it.

How do you deal with that as a in motherboard card?

[photon]

Set it back to disabled in the bios and that should go away.

[Bingo]

Originally posted by photon@Jul 29 2005, 11:28 AM
Set it back to disabled in the bios and that should go away.
It doesn't seem to differentiate between the two cards ... it just say something like sound card (I'd have to check)

[photon]

You won't be able to disable the PCI soundcard in BIOS, the one in the bios only referrs to the soundcard built into the motherboard.

[Pagal4321]

So Firefox just suddenly completley fataed up for me. Was using it fine, then it froze. So I clicked the close button and after a couple minutes it finally closed. Then ran S&D and what not. Cleared the regular spyware's off the computer then tried to open Firefox again. Said it was in use and that I had to choose another username to logon with. So I essentially just lost all my settings and bookmarks and such.
Anyone know why this happend?

[photon]

I've seen this where basically the Firefox process is hung but still running, so when you open Firefox again it prompts to create a new profile.

You can go into task manager and manually kill Firefox, or reboot your computer and you should go back in to the default profile ok.

[Pagal4321]

Originally posted by photon@Jul 29 2005, 03:07 PM
I've seen this where basically the Firefox process is hung but still running, so when you open Firefox again it prompts to create a new profile.

You can go into task manager and manually kill Firefox, or reboot your computer and you should go back in to the default profile ok.
Yup exactley what happend. I thought I checked Task Manager, guess not. Cuz I created a new profile, guess that blasted my bookmarks. So just re-insatled a newer version.

[Bingo]

Man Photon I somehow screwed it up again ...

I disabled the sound device in ROM BIOS and nuked the sound again. Tried to put it back and still can't make it work.

Odd ...

The Crystal device is there, which it should be, says it's working properly, but doesn't push sound to the speaker.

Frustrating ... and running out of time, leaving to come home again tomorrow morning after the draft.

[photon]

Try going into control panel and the sounds and audio devices, you're looking for a tab labeled Audio and you want to make sure the Sound playback and MIDI playback are set to the right device in the drop down.

Check the volumes again, sometimes they get reset.

Try reinstalling the driver again, maybe it got confused somehow.

[Bingo]

1. Volume levels are all good.

2. Driver ... wouldn't let me reintall the Crysal driver until I accpeted the new hardware (PCI Audio) which I did and it now shows up in Other Devices with a "!" over a "?" named PCI Multimedia device. The crystal reads as enabled and working properly but no sound.

3. Where do I find this exactly?

Try going into control panel and the sounds and audio devices, you're looking for a tab labeled Audio and you want to make sure the Sound playback and MIDI playback are set to the right device in the drop down.

[photon]

Not sure what verison of Windows you've got, but it should be under control panel, Sound and Audio Devices, and the Audio tab.

Are the Crystal and C-Media CMI8738 the same thing do you think? Or is the Crystal the onboard sound (because we know the CMI8738 is the PCI card).

Since it stopped working when you disabled it in BIOS, maybe the working sound was actually coming from the motherboard rather than the PCI card?

[Bingo]

Windows 98 ... under Control Panel I have Sound, and System but no Sound and Audio.

It's definetely plugged into the sound card, and not the mother board, and since I had it working I have to assume Crystal is the sound card, and the PCI is the onboard card with the mother board.

[photon]

Hm, I can't remember where this stuff is in 98. Basically there's a tab where you can select default playback audio device, and there will be a dropdown with the installed audio devices. Though I can't see why it would have changed.

PCI means add-in card and I thought the CMI8738 was the chip used on the addin card.

You could go in and basically remove everything with a ? or ! in the device manager and reboot. Make sure the BIOS soundcard is disabled, and see what comes up asking for drivers.

Other than that I dunno, I thought we had it but obviously not.

Word to the wise; if your parents ask you what computer to get, tell them to get a Mac! One they'll probably have fewer of these kinds of problems and two if they do have problems you'll have no idea how to fix it (unless you're a Mac expert I guess).

[Bingo]

Got it ...

ripped the new sound card out of the box, reinstalled it, rebuilt the driver set and I think we're done.

Man ...

enough!

Thanks for hanging in with me though.

[arsenal]

Good job Bingo! And with plenty of time to spare before the draft! :D

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

Originally posted by Buff+Jun 17 2005, 01:50 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Buff @ Jun 17 2005, 01:50 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Bend it like Bourgeois@Jun 17 2005, 10:15 AM
A question for the techies:

I have 2 systems: a Dell box at the office and a Dell box at home.

The Office box is a P4 2.5 or so running XP pro with integrated sound and video.

The Home box is a p4 1.6 or so running XP home with seperate sound and video.

Other than the occasional game of NHL 2004 I pretty much use the two computers for the same stuff, and the office box is noticable faster.

I'm 'retiring' for a few months and want the best of both worlds. Can I do something with the hardware/software to make 1 better computer out of both?
Assuming you have the expansion room in the business computer, you should be able to move the video card and sound card from the home computer over to the business computer.

If the RAM is the same type you could maybe add more ram if you have open slots or switching a stick or two(assuming it adds up to more RAM)

You could even increase your HDD space by putting in the HDD with XP Home and making it a slave drive, and the existing HDD with XP Pro the master drive. You won't have two operating systems to boot from... although you could have it set up to do so if you wished. (but if you got XP Pro why use XP Home?)

You can even add another optical drive from the home computer into the business computer (assuming there is room)

So in a nutshell, if there is room you should be able to strip your home computer of all its parts and put them in the business computer as additions and/or replacements. [/b][/quote]
So I finally got around to doing this - almost. I actually bought a new video card and DVD RW so I can one of the cool kids.

Unfortunately it seems the business computer does not have an AGP slot for the video card.

So now I just have more parts.

Can I simply swap hard-drives or will that cause a meltdown in Windows?

Would it be just as easy to buy a new system minus the hard drive, video card and dvd drive? I think I'd almost be a parts store at that point.

[arsenal]

Swapping HD's could cause a problem. Every time I have tried swapping HD's from seperate machines, it seems to cause an issue.

Actually, you are pretty much home. Probably the easiest thing to do would be to back up all the important stuff on the machine (using your fancy new DVD RW), and whipe the hard drive.

But before you do that, buy a motherboard that will accept the P4 2.5 processor, will fit in your case and has an AGP slot. Make sure the AGP slot on the motherboard, will accept your video card. AGP cards are either 2x, 4x, or 8x. So, just make sure the AGP slot is compatible with your vid card.

Steps would be:
1) Buy a new motherboard that works for you
2) Before installing the new motherboard, back up all your important stuff on to DVD using the current work pc.
3) Open case up, swap in the new mother board, that means putting in the CPU, Memory, DVDRW, hard drive you want to use, Vid card, sound card, etc.
4) Close everything back up, turn pc on, put in Win XP CD, boot from CD, and re-install windows.
5) Re-install everything else.

I know it sounds like a huge pain, but it will keep you from having headaches in the future.

At least thats what I would do.
Others might have a better idea.

But HTH anyway.

edited for clarity

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

Originally posted by arsenal@Jul 30 2005, 10:13 PM
Swapping HD's could cause a problem. Every time I have tried swapping HD's from seperate machines, it seems to cause an issue.

Actually, you are pretty much home. Probably the easiest thing to do would be to back up all the important stuff on the machine (using your fancy new DVD RW), and whipe the hard drive.

But before you do that, buy a motherboard that will accept the P4 2.5 processor, will fit in your case and has an AGP slot. Make sure the AGP slot on the motherboard, will accept your video card. AGP cards are either 2x, 4x, or 8x. So, just make sure the AGP slot is compatible with your vid card.

Steps would be:
1) Buy a new motherboard that works for you
2) Before installing the new motherboard, back up all your important stuff on to DVD using the current work pc.
3) Open case up, swap in the new mother board, that means putting in the CPU, Memory, DVDRW, hard drive you want to use, Vid card, sound card, etc.
4) Close everything back up, turn pc on, put in Win XP CD, boot from CD, and re-install windows.
5) Re-install everything else.

I know it sounds like a huge pain, but it will keep you from having headaches in the future.

At least thats what I would do.
Others might have a better idea.

But HTH anyway.

edited for clarity
That definitely helped. Well I kinda got halfway there.

It Turns out the motherboards were really similar. So I swapped the chips, added the DVD, the new video card (& some extra ram for good meaure).

Now I've other hard drive in as a slave drive. Quickest way to get the files back and forth I figured.

So now what? :blink:

[CMPunk]

I just downloaded FireFox and it's a definite improvement over IE, However alot of times when i click on a bookmark, it takes me to a Winfixer screen. I have to page back to get to the page I want and it's getting really annoying. Is this common or just me?

[Bean]

***New Question****

I've been ripping a lot of DVD's lately with my 16X LG DVD-RW. Starting a few days ago, the unit is unable to detect DVD discs, but can still read CD media. Does that mean that I somehow burnt out the laser for DVD use?

[HelloHockeyFans]

Okay, so I never had problems with this before, but I think it started yesterday or two days ago, and it only happens on CP.

Each time I navigate around the site, a pop up attempts to come through. the complete address of the site is:

http://isg16.casalemedia.com/V2/47291/56377/

I have a google pop-up blocker installed and most of the time it stops them, but the process of stopping the pop-ups slows down my surfing A LOT. Also, sometimes, the pop-up blocker doesn't catch the pop-up and it gets through. The pop-up has no information on it however. Just a blank window.

This only happens on CP. Anyone else have this?

Help!
:(

[photon]

Originally posted by HelloHockeyFans@Aug 11 2005, 10:29 PM
Okay, so I never had problems with this before, but I think it started yesterday or two days ago, and it only happens on CP.

Each time I navigate around the site, a pop up attempts to come through. the complete address of the site is:
You should check out this thread:

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/index.php?showtopic=14632

[photon]

Originally posted by Bean@Aug 11 2005, 09:10 PM
***New Question****

I've been ripping a lot of DVD's lately with my 16X LG DVD-RW. Starting a few days ago, the unit is unable to detect DVD discs, but can still read CD media. Does that mean that I somehow burnt out the laser for DVD use?
Almost sounds like it. I doubt you did anything to burn out the laser, but it is possible that it failed.

[InTheSlot]

I'd just like to point out that it would probably speed up the troubleshooting process for any tech support specialists here if the person experiencing the problem would do the following:

Start > Run > type "dxdiag" (without the quotes) > Click "Save All Information", and then upload the .txt file here so that the person helping you can have a better idea of the specs of your computer. :)

[Ro]

I have an easy Mozilla Firefox question.

Just switched over, things are pretty much all good. Easy conversion.

One quick thing- under the "Tools" option at the top, when I click the "read mail" tab it opens up a new window using Internet Explorer, not Firefox. I can't find the setting to change this so that it uses Firefox instead of IE.

Should I just completely uninstall IE? Can I even do that? Is there a way to fix this? THX...

[Resolute 14]

If you go to Tools --> options, is Firefox set as your default browser?

Do you mean you are opening an internet explorer window, or Outlook Express? When I go to check mail, it opens up my email client.

[Ro]

Yeah, Firefox is set as my default browser.

I use Hotmail, and use the "Read Mail" option. That's the one that brings up IE and automatically goes to my Hotmail account. The "New Message" option opens up Outlook, but I don't use that program.

???

[photon]

I think Windows has something in it to force Windows to use IE as the Hotmail client.

I have a similar thing with my IM messenger program Trillian, when I click the MSN notification to tell me I have new Hotmail mail it launches in IE every time even though Firefox is my default browser.

There's probably a way to change it, bit it'll be some deep setting with Windows; I don't think it's a Firefox thing.

[Ro]

Originally posted by photon@Aug 18 2005, 07:23 PM
There's probably a way to change it, bit it'll be some deep setting with Windows; I don't think it's a Firefox thing.
Yeah, thought maybe. The Hotmail, MSN, Microsoft connection.

Thanks for the help and replies. I can certainly live with using IE when I click that shortcut.

[Regulator75]

Calgary Puck Gear (http://www.calgarypuck.com/Calgarypuck_Gear.htm)

This link is not working.

[Shawnski]

OK, need some advise here folks. Any you have would be appreciated.

My harddrive is going to depart soon, I am sure. In many situations before at work, (or my prior work) I could have a machine "imaged". New machine, all files kept intact. Pretty much the same set up all around, just a new machine.

Can that be done readily with just a harddrive that is on its last legs? I am sure it isn't just a "Plug and Play" afterwards, but there have to be some realistic and simple options out there....

Any suggestions?

[photon]

Are you replacing just the hard disk drive itself, or a whole new computer?

If it's a whole new machine there's no really easy way. There's a Files and Settings transfer wizard which tries to do it for you, but it only looks in specific locations and stuff.

[photon]

That's weird.. are they running but on the other "screen"?

Try right clicking on them in Applications tab of the task manager and selecting Maximize or Restore.

Or try goin to the display settings and see if it's enabled to be displaying dual displays, and uncheck extend my desktop to this display if it's checked on the second one.

[photon]

Try getting Microsoft Antispyware and running that.

[Shawnski]

Originally posted by photon@Aug 22 2005, 03:34 PM
Are you replacing just the hard disk drive itself, or a whole new computer?

If it's a whole new machine there's no really easy way. There's a Files and Settings transfer wizard which tries to do it for you, but it only looks in specific locations and stuff.
hey photon,

Just looking to clone the harddrive as the rest of the machine is fine. Will investigate the files and settings option. Perhaps I can install a slave HD and use the F&S to get all vitals over (including registry, etc.) Then swap the two.

Hardware obviously isn't my strong suit!!

[Calgary Flames]

What would be a good virtual memory setting for 512mb of physical Ram? I think it was Double the physical memory or some kind of formula like that.

[Eddie Bronze]

I just picked up a new graphics card today. As I was installing it, upon reboot, it gave me this window. What am I supposed to do about this?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/brayden/PowerIndicatorScreen.jpg

[Calgary Flames]

You need a bigger power supply... Never seen that happen personally. You must have a loaded PC.

[Eddie Bronze]

never mind. Looks like I got it fixed.

[photon]

Yeah, you have to plug in that extra little power cable :)

[Eddie Bronze]

:lol: Gives you a pretty good idea of how old my last video card was, it didn't even need to be plugged in. Unfortuately, I bought this to upgrade and to try out the NHL06 demo and even after spending around $250 on a new card today, I still can't play. :(

[Eddie Bronze]

:/

[Tower]

I needs to log in every time - how is that fixed? Tried the search engine as it was posted before but no luck...

[HelloHockeyFans]

Originally posted by Tower@Sep 2 2005, 06:48 AM
I needs to log in every time - how is that fixed? Tried the search engine as it was posted before but no luck...
Log in, bookmark the page. And go to CP via the bookmarked page. That's what I do anyway.

[Pagal4321]

Alright, so the computer just did something very odd. Very odd indeed.
Couldn't sleep, so decided to turn on the computer after about 45-sih minutes of it being off. Turn it on, only to get.....how do i describe this.....a widerscreen version of my desktop. So the whole screen was not there, but I could scroll around by just moving my mouse to the extremes of the screen. A VERY odd thing, once I've never seen before. Tried to change the display settings but nothing worked, so decided to restart and hope for the best. Well that worked, but still leaves me a bit nervous about the state of my computer.

That's my first problem, my second would be that upon turning on my computer I can't access anything for about 5 minutes, while I can hear the harddrive reading. This has been going on for about 2 months now. For 5 minutes, if I click on anything it won't do anything, just let's me move the mouse around. But I hear the HD buzzz, nothing, buzzzz, nothing....in intervals of a few seconds. Then, like clockwork, 10 minutes after I can access things, Automatic Updates encounters a problem and needs to close.

SO GUYS, any type of suggestion or explaination for either of my problems?
Knowing my luck with computers, it's something gone wrong, because I just can't seem to keep my computer normal for more then 6 months.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

I have my own odd experience.

Turned my computer off before work a few days ago. Came home after work, pressed the button to power it on..........nothing. No power at all. I have it plugged into a power bar along with a few other things. Everything else was still working. So I unplugged my computer from the power bar and tried plugging it in alone into another outlet. Still nothing.

Fast forward to today. Before leaving for work, heard my computer making strange noises. Came into the computer room to see it was trying to power itself on every few seconds (I had left it plugged in all night just for the heck of it). It would make a noise for about a second, then nothing, then noise, etc.

Then tonight, a few minutes ago, it was doing the same thing, so I hit it ala Fonzie, pressed the power button, and now I'm back in business.

Weird stuff. Anyone know what happened???

[DJRice]

Ok, well I have gotten this on two occasions already, where the laptop will boot but it takes about 10mins. It hits the windows blue welcome screen, stays there for about 4 mins, then shows the desktop (nothing loading yet, not even icons), then takes about another 5mins to load up the desktop to the point where its functional.

Now at first, I thought it was a H.W. issue, but I guess its not. Apparently when this happens, my WiFi is cutoff and unable to connect to the internet (and no its not modem/router issues). So what I have to do is, go back to my last restore point, and reset. Though I turn off my system restore, if I go back into it, it has a restore point from that same day just minutes ago - whats up with that? I go back to that restore point, and reboot....it still takes 9mins to boot. But right after I scan for Spyware, and remove it (may not be alot, only 3 or 4). I reboot for the final time, and everything loads up normally now...and in the 35 secs my laptop is known for.

So few Q's.

1. Is System restore recommended to run all the time? I heard it uses up alot of resources in the background with all these restore points.

2. Is it spyware that causes this?

3. How the heck was there a restore point I was able to go back to, when I dont even run system restore.

[Bill Bumface]

I would go to www.trend.com and run the free housecall. See if you have any viruses on there before you bother playing with it any further.

[photon]

Weird.. loose components?

[TheCommodoreAfro]

When loading pictures from a digital camera to my computer, the screen went black. Not sure what was happening, I walked away from the computer and came back a few minutes later. Still black.

So I unplugged the computer and when I hit start, the computer turned on, but it didn't even show the XP boot sequence. Anybody ever have this happen to them? What did you do to fix it?

(Couldn't find the computer help forum so if this topic needs to be moved go ahead and do so).

[Buff]

So the computer screen is still black? You can't do anything? Well first thing I suggest is to make sure that the monitor is properly plugged in to the power source, both on the outlet and the monitor. Check to make sure that the monitor is securely attached to the computer. Turn the monitor on.

Sorry if I am going through what seems to be painfully obvious steps, I once drove 1/2 hr to a clients to 'fix' their 'broken' computer and all I had to do was turn the monitor on!

If your monitor doesn't work after all of this, either the monitor has died, or the video card had died. Can you test the monitor on another computer? Can you test another monitor on the computer in question? If you can you'll get a better idea where the problem lies.

[Buff]

Originally posted by DJRice@Sep 9 2005, 05:34 AM
Ok, well I have gotten this on two occasions already, where the laptop will boot but it takes about 10mins. It hits the windows blue welcome screen, stays there for about 4 mins, then shows the desktop (nothing loading yet, not even icons), then takes about another 5mins to load up the desktop to the point where its functional.

Now at first, I thought it was a H.W. issue, but I guess its not. Apparently when this happens, my WiFi is cutoff and unable to connect to the internet (and no its not modem/router issues). So what I have to do is, go back to my last restore point, and reset. Though I turn off my system restore, if I go back into it, it has a restore point from that same day just minutes ago - whats up with that? I go back to that restore point, and reboot....it still takes 9mins to boot. But right after I scan for Spyware, and remove it (may not be alot, only 3 or 4). I reboot for the final time, and everything loads up normally now...and in the 35 secs my laptop is known for.

So few Q's.

1. Is System restore recommended to run all the time? I heard it uses up alot of resources in the background with all these restore points.

2. Is it spyware that causes this?

3. How the heck was there a restore point I was able to go back to, when I dont even run system restore.
I have seen this with a client. Their wireless connection was pass poor and it slowed everything down on their computer. Not to the extreme that you are experiencing, but it was painstakingly slow. I fixed it by getting rid of their wireless connection, and running a wire to her office so she could plug it in via wire instead of wireless. It solved her problems.

I also cannot remember if her Wireless NIC was wireless-B or Wireless G as this was some time ago, but I think an option may have been to try a wireless G NIC as Wireless G, while not perfect, is oodles and oodles better than wireless b

System restore is ok to run.

I don't think this is spyware.

You may have it set to auto create a restore point?

[Devils'Advocate]

I have a Linksys Wet11 wireless bridge and a Linksys BEFW11S4 wireless router.

With an ethernet cable plugged into the router, I'm getting 3.1 megabits per second.
Wireless, via the bridge, I'm getting 300 kilobites per second.

So I'm going 10 times faster with the cable.

I see that there are "high speed" routers on the market now using 802.11g, while my router and bridge are both using 802.11b. I presume that if I want to improve the wireless performance I'm going to have to purchase both a new high speed router and a new high speed bridge or network card?

I suck when it comes to this networking stuff, so any help would be appreciated.

[TheCommodoreAfro]

Originally posted by Buff@Sep 11 2005, 01:56 AM
So the computer screen is still black? You can't do anything? Well first thing I suggest is to make sure that the monitor is properly plugged in to the power source, both on the outlet and the monitor. Check to make sure that the monitor is securely attached to the computer. Turn the monitor on.

Sorry if I am going through what seems to be painfully obvious steps, I once drove 1/2 hr to a clients to 'fix' their 'broken' computer and all I had to do was turn the monitor on!

If your monitor doesn't work after all of this, either the monitor has died, or the video card had died. Can you test the monitor on another computer? Can you test another monitor on the computer in question? If you can you'll get a better idea where the problem lies.
I suppose that I should have mentioned that I have a laptop. There isn't much I can do unless I borrow a monitor but the power goes on, and nothing happens...

Sounds not nice so I'm just going to take it in for repairs. But if anybody has any suggestions let me know.

[Buff]

Originally posted by Devils'Advocate@Sep 10 2005, 11:52 AM
I have a Linksys Wet11 wireless bridge and a Linksys BEFW11S4 wireless router.

With an ethernet cable plugged into the router, I'm getting 3.1 megabits per second.
Wireless, via the bridge, I'm getting 300 kilobites per second.

So I'm going 10 times faster with the cable.

I see that there are "high speed" routers on the market now using 802.11g, while my router and bridge are both using 802.11b. I presume that if I want to improve the wireless performance I'm going to have to purchase both a new high speed router and a new high speed bridge or network card?

I suck when it comes to this networking stuff, so any help would be appreciated.
In a nutshell, yes. Wireless-G is substantially faster than Wireless-B. I don't remember the stats and am too lazy to look them up, but it is quite a big difference.

I am curious as to why you have the wireless bridge. Do you not receive a strong enough signal from the wireless router? The bridge... is it your network card? Which setup do you have:

a)Router->Computer w/ wireless bridge installed
b)Router->Bridge->Computer w/wireless nic installed

I ask because I've heard people call their wireless nic a bridge before.

Also, you don't need to throw away or sell your wireless-b nic. It can still connect to the a wireless-g router, although, it will work on wireless-b speeds. It could come in handy if you want a second connection.

[Devils'Advocate]

The reason I have a wireless bridge is because the network card is BUILT INTO MY MAC. It's a G4 tower and thus has expansion slots; if I really wanted a wireless network card I could put one in. But the bridge gave me more flexibility. For example, I can also use the wireless bridge for the PS2 or other gaming systems.

So Wireless Router-->Wireless Bridge-->Built-in regular network card. So the wireless bridge sits on top of the computer (or PS2) and has an ethernet cable running from it to the network card.

I did check it out and 802.11b maxes out at 11Mbps while 802.11g maxes out at 54Mbps. However, I'm not sure why I'm getting a signal from Rogers at 3Mbps and that is getting dropped to 300Kbps over the wireless equipment. If it can handle 11Mpbs why is it only sending 300Kbps?

[Buff]

Crap, now you're really going to make me think. Isn't the differnce bits and bytes? I'm not certain at the moment. I'll look it up later and hopefully remember to post the info here.

EDIT: Uh, what Photon says below... (phew now I can play around instead of doing homework tonite!)

[photon]

Usually people use little b to denote bits and big B to denote Bytes to help with this kind of communication.

A 3Mbps connection is a theoretical maximum connection of 375KBps. Taking into account overhead, downloading something at 300KBps is reasonable for a 3Mbit Internet connection.

With my 7Mbit Shaw link, I rarely download over 820KBps even though my theoretical maximum is 875KBps.

http://www.dslreports.com/stest

Good place to do a speed test.

[DJRice]

Could be just me, but I dont notice any difference going from 512 to 1gig ram.
Is it just me? Im able to multitask fine with email, many browsers, mp3, msn, Photoshop, couple folders and still have 200+MB memory left. Do I really need this extra ram? Cause if I dont need it, Ill refund it and I could always use the money in my wallet on something more useful.

thx

[Flames_Gimp]

dont need iti for what you're applications are. i have a gig of ram, because I do lots of video editing and stuff, besides ram is pretty cheap these days.

[4X4]

Originally posted by DJRice@Sep 12 2005, 05:46 PM
Cause if I dont need it, Ill refund it and I could always use the money in my wallet on something more useful.

Such as?

[DJRice]

Originally posted by Flames_Gimp@Sep 12 2005, 05:52 PM
besides ram is pretty cheap these days.
not laptop ram lol. if it was desktop sure i would keep it, being 1/3 the price.

[ken0042]

With it being a laptop; what is involved in downgrading?

For example, if it has to be intalled in pairs, and only has 2 slots, you will lose any abillity to upgrade without replacing the RAM down the road. (And then having 512 MB of ram to throw away.)

From the apps you mention; 512 is plenty. But what if you get into something else 6 months from now; will you be kicking yourself?

[photon]

Usually with laptops there's a single RAM expansion slot, so downgrading would probably involve removing the RAM that's there (there's probably 512MB on board and a 512MB expansion card).

Just keep it, you won't get what it's worth and for the extra few buck you'll save it helps keep the laptop running with bigger programs in the future.

[nfotiu]

I am trying to help my neighbours install their Ipod. They had only USB 1.1 ports, so I told them to get a PCMCIA USB card. The card itself seems to work fine, I can use their printer, etc. But, as soon as I put the Ipod in, the computer just freezes. I've uninstalled and re-installed everything Ipod related. Made sure all the USB drivers were the most updated, any ideas?

[Wolfwood]

Originally posted by nfotiu@Sep 19 2005, 10:08 AM
I am trying to help my neighbours install their Ipod. They had only USB 1.1 ports,
Does the Ipod show up okay if you plug it into a USB 1.1 port or does it still crash the system?

[nfotiu]

Originally posted by Wolfwood@Sep 19 2005, 10:17 AM
Does the Ipod show up okay if you plug it into a USB 1.1 port or does it still crash the system?
It gives an error about not being able to be used on USB 1.1, but doesn't crash the PC.

[Wolfwood]

Are you in ITunes when you connect the device and the computer crashes or do you have the IPod connected and then go into itunes?

Does it work alright on a different computer?

[VANFLAMESFAN]

I can no longer check my email, i cannot check my bank info, I cannot check anything that has personal info......when I try to log into MSN, it wont let me, so I troubleshoot it, and it says there is a problem with my norton intenet security, so I went to open it, and my subscription has expired, then I went to re-new it online and when I went to the checkout, it would not let me enter in my credit card info, it just said the page could not be found.............

Any help would be awesome, this is gettin really frustrating to me, Ive spent the last 2 hours trying to figure it out, Im makin no progress......

PLEASE HELP!!!!

[InTheSlot]

I'm relaying a message I get from my brother.

He said yesterday night when he was on his PC it was running fine. This morning he goes to turn it on, it loads up ok, but when he tries to start some programs like AIM and Internet Explorer, he gets an error message for both that says: "The application failed to initialize. 0xc0000022".

He also gets this message for programs like WeatherBug too. However, other programs like WinAmp and even playing Poker seem to work fine.


To my knowledge he hasn't installed anything lately. I also did a virus scan which removed a few viruses but that didn't fix it. I also ran HiJack this to remove any spyware that might be on his computer but still the problem persists.


Anyone have any ideas for solutions? Thanks in advance.

[ricosuave]

Originally posted by VANFLAMESFAN@Sep 23 2005, 02:51 AM
I can no longer check my email, i cannot check my bank info, I cannot check anything that has personal info......when I try to log into MSN, it wont let me, so I troubleshoot it, and it says there is a problem with my norton intenet security, so I went to open it, and my subscription has expired, then I went to re-new it online and when I went to the checkout, it would not let me enter in my credit card info, it just said the page could not be found.............

Any help would be awesome, this is gettin really frustrating to me, Ive spent the last 2 hours trying to figure it out, Im makin no progress......

PLEASE HELP!!!!
is the date and time correct?

maybe your motherboard battery is going

[Calgary Flames]

I got a new PC not too long ago, and have waited to ask this.. don't know why. It has a 200gb HD but it only shows up as 127gb in Bios and in Windows.

Here's what i've done.

-Installed new service packs
-Installed Maxtor's big drive enabler
-Installed newer bios

Anyone experience the same problem with a Maxtor 200gb drive?

[Buff]

Originally posted by Calgary Flames@Sep 27 2005, 09:36 PM
I got a new PC not too long ago, and have waited to ask this.. don't know why. It has a 200gb HD but it only shows up as 127gb in Bios and in Windows.

Here's what i've done.

-Installed new service packs
-Installed Maxtor's big drive enabler
-Installed newer bios

Anyone experience the same problem with a Maxtor 200gb drive?
There should be a windows update to handle this. When given the option to do express or custom updates, choose custom (if you haven't already done so). When you get to the screen that shows the updates you'll likely find the culprit under "Software, Optional" There is a chance that it is under the high priority updates and you don't have automatic updates enabled, and/or didn't finish checking for updates after installing SP2.

[Calgary Flames]

Originally posted by Buff@Sep 28 2005, 09:45 AM
There should be a windows update to handle this. When given the option to do express or custom updates, choose custom (if you haven't already done so). When you get to the screen that shows the updates you'll likely find the culprit under "Software, Optional" There is a chance that it is under the high priority updates and you don't have automatic updates enabled, and/or didn't finish checking for updates after installing SP2.
Nope, I think I figured it out though. I need to install a SATA driver from a floppy when installing Windows.

[stuckinchuck]

I tried downloading the new version of itunes on my computer, everything was running fine until it got to the quicktime installation. The bar on the program install wizard would finish and then just go back to the start, so i closed the program.

Now i can't access the start menu, or anything on the task bar. When I move the mouse over it it just has that hourglass waiting thing. I'm currently running Windows XP. I'd try a system restore, but don't know how to do it without getting to the start menu. Also, when I click into "my computer", it just has that searching flashlight thing.

when i use Ctl alt del, it says my CPU usage is at 100% even when i'm not running anything. Any ideas on how to fix this? Thanks.

[stuckinchuck]

And just to add, restarting the computer did nothing to fix this.

[stuckinchuck]

Never mind, figured it out.

[transplant99]

This may be a goofy question, but are there any internal controls on the PC that i can access that will allow me to brighten the video feeds i watch on my monitor.

More often than not, the vid's i d/l or access are so dark I can barely see whats on them. Not always mind you, just more than not. I have the monitors external settings cranked as bright as can be, and as i say, sometimes that works just fine.

Just curious if there is anything i can change inside the puter itself to brighten things up?

[KevanGuy]

right click on your desktop -> properties -> settings -> advanced.

Then, depending on your video card, there should be settings for brightness etc.

[transplant99]

Tried that...see nothing that allows for brightness etc.

im wondering if its the monitor itself though.

[Wolfwood]

What program are you using to view the videos?

I know in Windows Media Player there is a Video Settings Option that allows you to control brightness and the like by going to the View menu then Enhancements then Video Settings.

[transplant99]

OK>..that is the problem...thanks.

however, it still defaults back to way to dark if i close it and re-open it.

On top of that, if it is a clip like the one KG posted...

http://poststuff4.entensity.net/101705/med...a=deepwater.wmv (http://poststuff4.entensity.net/101705/media.php?media=deepwater.wmv)

where the window opens on its "own page" so to speak, its still almost all black. In that particular clip all i can really make out is the reporters name and some movement....cant see the water etc.

[Patek23]

PROBLEM_________________________



I was fudging around on msn, and somehow changed a sound setting, now my speakers echo out all the sound, I've checked and its not my speakers and I've unplugged the microphone so that it is not relaying the sound.


What's my problem?

[Ace]

nm...........................

[FireFly]

Alright, this is getting irritating. When I leave my computer for a while, and it goes to screensaver, and then powersave mode on the monitor, I sometimes get this:

WARNING - DISPLAY DRIVER STOPPED RESPONDING
The s3sav4 display driver has stopped working normally. Save your work and reboot the system to restore full display functionality.

It them goes on to talk about sending an error report.

WTF is that all about? Do I need a new graphics card or something?

Forgot to mention it doesn't do this all the time, but more and more lately....

[photon]

I'd try updating your graphics card driver first.

http://www.s3graphics.com/en/resources/drivers/legacy/software_archive.jsp#id_395drv

[Cowperson]

Photon,

By the way, I see that I AM using Microsoft XP for that UBS problem.

Can you re-print your instructions/suggestions.

I also have another UBS port on the front of the machine I never saw before a visiting kid showed it to me.

Cowperson

[photon]

Hehe..

So I take it there's no difference when using the USB Port on the front?

To download Service Pack 2:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=049c9dbe-3b8e-4f30-8245-9e368d3cdb5a&displaylang=en

[FireFly]

I'd try updating your graphics card driver first.

http://www.s3graphics.com/en/resources/drivers/legacy/software_archive.jsp#id_395drv

I don't get which one I need, or whether or not I did it right... Windows 2000, but I 'download file' and get nothing.

[photon]

You have to click on the "84002w2ks3agplogo.zip (http://www.s3graphics.com/en/download/drivers/legacy/Savage4_394-398/84002w2ks3agplogo.zip)" filename and then it should download the file. Depending on if you have IE or Firefox it'll ask you where to download it to (Firefox defaults to the desktop). Then you have to unzip the file.

Once unzipped, find the file called S3SAVG4.INF and right click on it and choose Install.

That should install the drivers, and you'll probably have to reboot and set your resolution after the reboot (sometimes it changes after updating the driver).

[FireFly]

You have to click on the "84002w2ks3agplogo.zip (http://www.s3graphics.com/en/download/drivers/legacy/Savage4_394-398/84002w2ks3agplogo.zip)" filename and then it should download the file. Depending on if you have IE or Firefox it'll ask you where to download it to (Firefox defaults to the desktop). Then you have to unzip the file.

Once unzipped, find the file called S3SAVG4.INF and right click on it and choose Install.

That should install the drivers, and you'll probably have to reboot and set your resolution after the reboot (sometimes it changes after updating the driver).

I do not have a file named such. The only one I can right click to install does nothing.

As an aside, I really appreciate your help here.

[photon]

what files do you have inside the unzipped file that you downloaded?

[FireFly]

what files do you have inside the unzipped file that you downloaded?

S3GAMCHS, S3GAMDAN, S3GAMENU, S3GAMFIN, S3GAMITA, S3GAMKOR, S3GAMMA.DLL, S3GAMNOR, S3GAMSVE, S3MICD.DLL, S3SAVG4, (that's the one I can right-click and install which doesn't seem to do anything,) S3SAVG4M, S3SW2CHT, S3SW2DEA, S3SW2ESP, S3SW2FIN, S3SW2ITA, S3SW2KOR, S3SW2NOR, S2SW2SVE, S3SWTCH2.CFG, S3UNINST, S3SWTCH2.DLL, S3SW2THA, S3SW2PTB, S3SW2NLD, S3SW2JPN, S3SW2FRA, S3SW2EXT.CFG, S3SW2ENU, S3SW2DAN, S3SW2CHS, S3SAVG4.DLL, S3SAVG4, S3GAMTHA, S3GAMPTB, S3GAMNLD, S3GAMMA.CFG, S3GAMJPN, S3GAMFRA, S3GAMESP, S3GAMDEU, S3GAMCHT.

I think that's all.

[photon]

Hm.. Well the other way to install the video drivers is to right click on my computer and choose manage, click the device manager on the left, find the display devices on the right and expand it and select the device. Right click on it and one of the options is upgrade driver (or double click on it and choose upgrade driver under the driver tab).

Once that starts, if it wants to go to windows update say no, and you want to eventually point it at the directory where you unzipped all the files (can't recall all the screens that pop up).

[FireFly]

Hm.. Well the other way to install the video drivers is to right click on my computer and choose manage, click the device manager on the left, find the display devices on the right and expand it and select the device. Right click on it and one of the options is upgrade driver (or double click on it and choose upgrade driver under the driver tab).

Once that starts, if it wants to go to windows update say no, and you want to eventually point it at the directory where you unzipped all the files (can't recall all the screens that pop up).

I think that did it.... we'll see what happens. Thanks for all your help!:kiss:

[Cowperson]

A question . . . . I'd like a recommendation for some design software, specifically one I can use to design a roughly 60 page daytimer illustrated with photo's/artwork, then be able to e-mail or burn a dvd of the whole thing. So far, I've been to lazy to go looking myself . . . .

Comments?

Cowperson

[photon]

The heavy hitters in the page layout software are Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress. Those of course are quite expensive.

Cheaper alternatives would be Microsoft Publisher or Serif PagePlus (http://www.serif.com/PagePlus/PagePlus11/index.asp).

All would allow you to burn the files to DVD, though the person on the other end would need the same software to open them. To get around that you could generate a PDF with the final document and then the other person would only need Acrobat Reader. To get them professionally printed, most print shops will accept a wide range of file formats.

I assume the person on the receiving end is supposed to print it out?

[red '00]

I've been having some problems downloading Windows Updates onto my computer as of late. This has been appearing everytime I go to shutdown for about the last two weeks now:

http://img312.imageshack.us/img312/4568/desktopscrne2hs.jpg

Normally, I can click shutdown and the updates will download automatically before the computer turns off. But I don't think that has been getting done as I can't get rid of the little Win Update icon you see there.

I also notice that there is always this updates icon shown here:

http://img307.imageshack.us/img307/6732/desktopscrne22pq.jpg

Any help? I tried to download the updates manually, it said it worked, but apparently it didn't. Then again, it also says it downloaded them everytime I shutdown...

[Ro]

Hi all, another computer issue for somebody to help me solve.

My computer has been overheating like crazy once again. Although this time, after recently replacing the heatsink, graphics card (fan was faulty), adding a second fan, and directing my oscillating floor fan directly at my computer box 24 HRS a day (whether or not the thing is on), it is overheating right when I power the thing on.

It usually happens in the first 3-5 minutes after Windows starts running. I can get away with opening Firefox and surfing, but if I open WMP or Winamp, any of my poker clients, and almost any other software, she gets really hot (Speedfan reading is 100+ Celsius) and shuts down. I then have to wait at least 30 minutes before starting it up again, or it won't even get past the black Windows XP "loading" screen during start-up.

So today I wait the 30 minutes, and hit ctrl-alt-del, and decide to try and shut down some of the programs running in the background that might heat things up. I closed down 3 or 4 random .exe ones that didn't seem to important to a knob like me (ha ha, a logitech one, something "tray," and a couple others) and instantly the temp. reading dropped down to the low 80's, which is unheard of lately.

So my question is, does anyone think the background programs that load during start-up could be the problem? And if so, is there a utility or FAQ or somewhere I can go to find out which ones I need, which ones I have the option of shutting down, and which ones are useless?

Thanks again.

[fredr123]

I started a thread in the Off Topic forum before CP was haxored by some script kiddie in which I asked about document management systems. A colleague suggested something called SUPERtext (an sql database thinger for organizing, indexing and searching documents). For the life of me, however, I've been unable to find out anything about the product. Google searches usually just return a bunch of links to text twister games and such. If someone could provide a link to the software's website or someplace that provides more information, that would be awesome.

[photon]

If its heating up that much that fast, then there's a physical problem not a software problem. No processor should be running that hot no matter what load.

You said you got a new heatsink. What kind of processor and what kind of heatsink? What kind of thermal material did you use?

For the windows update thing, try going to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com and try installing the updates through there.

[RougeUnderoos]

Not a problem but a question.

Cheap wireless speaker package. What's a good one? I'm not into "it has to sound like I'm at Carnegie Hall" I just want to play music from my computer in another room and I want to do it on the cheap.

Sorry if this isn't a computer problem but technically it is so no sass please.

[Eddie Bronze]

Someone was nice enough to send me an early Christmas present in the form of a virus on MSN tonight. It appears to have effected a few things, Norton Anti-Virus being one and system restore being the other. My question is, does anyone know a good place to take your computer for service/repair for this sort of thing here in Calgary? I haven't needed to have it serviced since I moved to Calgary, so I'm not sure where the most trustworthy place to take it would be. And also, one that doesn't charge an arm and a leg, if that exists. If anyone can help me out here, I would really appreciate it. Thanks.

[photon]

I'm pretty happy with Memory Express as far as service goes, though they can get very busy making turn around times a bit long.

[arsenal]

I started a thread in the Off Topic forum before CP was haxored by some script kiddie in which I asked about document management systems. A colleague suggested something called SUPERtext (an sql database thinger for organizing, indexing and searching documents). For the life of me, however, I've been unable to find out anything about the product. Google searches usually just return a bunch of links to text twister games and such. If someone could provide a link to the software's website or someplace that provides more information, that would be awesome.

Is this what you're looking for?
http://www.supergravity.com/html/products/sg_rsrch.htm

[Mango]

My cousin is having an issue with his computer. When he goes to reboot, he gets the following messages:

1) "windows cannot find 'C:\Windows\system32\zvjyoy\csrss.exe.' Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search for a file, click start, then search.
2) Could not load or run 'C:\Windows\system32\zvjyoy\csrss.exe.' specified in the regisrty. Make sure the file exists.

He is running Windows XP home w/ service pack #2.

Any suggestions?

[photon]

There are viruses that name themselves csrss.exe even though Windows has a file named that as well. The real one lives in the system32 directory, so this one was probably a virus that was deleted by a virus scan.

To stop windows from trying to run it try this:


Click Start > Run.
Type regedit

Then click OK.
Navigate to the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run
In the right pane, find the entry that matches the path of the errors:

"something" = "%System%\zvjyoy\csrss.exe"
Delete that individual entry

Keep in mind that editing the registry is dangerous and doing the wrong thing can cause the system to not work properly, so if they're not comfortable doing it and the system is running fine otherwise you might want to wait until someone who's done this before has a chance to look at it.

[Mango]

Thanks photon - it's appreciated!

[Burninator]

test

[HelloHockeyFans]

I'm going to be on a plane trip for 5 hours or so tomorrow and I'm planning on watching a movie or two during my trip on my laptop.

Is there a viewer I should use which will conserve my battery for the trip?

I've heard that Windows Media Player uses a ton of memory and I'm assuming that would eat up the battery faster.

Also, can I put my laptop in some sort of battery conserve mode so it will last longer?

Thanks in advance for the help!

[MickMcGeough]

I'm going to be on a plane trip for 5 hours or so tomorrow and I'm planning on watching a movie or two during my trip on my laptop.

Is there a viewer I should use which will conserve my battery for the trip?

I've heard that Windows Media Player uses a ton of memory and I'm assuming that would eat up the battery faster.

Also, can I put my laptop in some sort of battery conserve mode so it will last longer?

Thanks in advance for the help!
Depends on a lot of things. Most notebooks have automatic power-saving features that kick in by default when you have no power. They will turn down the speed on your CPU, disable some hardware, etc.

This will help, but probably not enough. There aren't a lot of laptops on the market that can play 5 straight hours of full screen video on a single battery, and there are a few reasons why:
- video is compressed, be it on DVD or a downloaded file. It takes a lot of CPU power to decompress this video and display it on your screen. This generates a lot of heat, and when the heat starts, the fans start.
- any moving parts take a lot of power. You'll save some battery power by copying the DVD to your hard disk before your flight, so your DVD drive doesn't have to run for hours. Fans will be running to keep things cool though, and there's really nothing you can do about that. Some laptops have very good heat dissipation without fans, but not many.
- LCD screens are also power hogs (any screen is). You can increase your battery life by turning down the brightness on your screen, but it still takes lots of juice to run a large (15"+) screen for 5 hours.

Anyway I doubt you'll get 5 hours, but you can do the following to get the most out of the battery
- disable EVERYTHING you aren't using. Disable your network cards, USB ports, ANYTHING you can get away with. Shut down any applications and system tray stuff that you don't need
- turn down LCD brightness
- don't run video from DVD/CD directly, copy it to hard disk

Not sure if using Media Player or not will make a lot of difference, but either way; you should be using VLC Media Player instead. It comes with its own codecs so it can do any type of video you can imagine, and it skips all the bells & whistles that make Windows Media Player such a hog. It's just better in pretty much every way.

Also, leave the laptop on the pull down table instead of your lap if possible, it will heat up quicker and be harder to cool down on your lap. You want the fans to be running as little as possible.

[HelloHockeyFans]

^^

Hey man, thanks for all that info!! Greatly appreciated!

[Reggie Dunlop]

nm

[transplant99]

Media player help.

I like to listen to a variety of stations throughout the day that have live streaming audio. Starting last night and continuing into today, the media players on each site will play for a couple minutes then they just shut down. The prompt to "start" or "ready" comes bak and when clicked, it just searches for about 3 seconds and comes back to the same prompt.

very odd, and its happening on every single station I attempt to connect to.

Any ideas from the gurus?

[transplant99]

Anybody?

[photon]

I got nuthin. Some sort of network problem? I take it then that you have to close the browser window and reopen it and relaunch the audio feed to get it to play for another 3 minutes? Does it act the same regardless of the browser (IE vs. Firefox)?

[transplant99]

I got nuthin. Some sort of network problem? I take it then that you have to close the browser window and reopen it and relaunch the audio feed to get it to play for another 3 minutes? Does it act the same regardless of the browser (IE vs. Firefox)?

yes on the close and re-open

No idea on firefox...hated that thing on my last cmop. so i never put it on the new one.

Thanks for answering tho dude!

[Shawnski]

I had that recently T99 on several radio stations (the Fan Calgary, and Toronto and another I can't remember). Every time I rebooted the player, it started at the same point, and stopped at the same point.

Seemed like a cache would be replayed but not new content. Time addressed it, as everything else I did had no effect.

[photon]

Cache.. yeah try emptying your cache on IE.

You also *could* install Firefox just to try it and see what happens.. if nothing else it would give a better idea if it's a IE problem or something else.

[Eddie Bronze]

I just finished formatting the hard drive of my computer and re-installing everyting, starting from scratch. Now I have an alterior problem, it's freezing at a rapid pace and it's never done this before. What could be the cause?

[MickMcGeough]

I just finished formatting the hard drive of my computer and re-installing everyting, starting from scratch. Now I have an alterior problem, it's freezing at a rapid pace and it's never done this before. What could be the cause?


Is it just the streaming media that's freezing or the whole system? Any errors? CTRL-ALT-DEL do anything? Any details would be helpful.

[Flash Walken]

I'd suggest trying to find the direct links to these stations (ones that you listen to continually) and open them in an external application like Windows Media Player Classic (http://www.divx-digest.com/software/media_player_classic.html).

[Eddie Bronze]

Is it just the streaming media that's freezing or the whole system? Any errors? CTRL-ALT-DEL do anything? Any details would be helpful.

The entire system. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to it. I can't do a restart either or it automatically freezes up as soon as it gets back to windows. I have to do a power down by holding in the power button in until it turns off then leave it for a couple minutes. Then I can turn it back on and it will run for a little while.

[Buff]

The entire system. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to it. I can't do a restart either or it automatically freezes up as soon as it gets back to windows. I have to do a power down by holding in the power button in until it turns off then leave it for a couple minutes. Then I can turn it back on and it will run for a little while.

Had you ran windows updates yet?

Is your computer behind a hardware based firewall? (router will do)

I've seen it happen before where I had to reinstall windows, but because the computer was not behind a router it got infected before I could run windows updates. I had to take the computer back to my office and re-install everything again.

[Eddie Bronze]

Windows updates are installed and it's still freezing.

The only firewalls I'm aware of are the one you get through Shaw's internet connection and also the one in windows security center (this one is now disabled).

oh, and just to add to that, the fan in the tower sounds like it's about to blow up. Christ.

[MickMcGeough]

Windows updates are installed and it's still freezing.

The only firewalls I'm aware of are the one you get through Shaw's internet connection and also the one in windows security center (this one is now disabled).

oh, and just to add to that, the fan in the tower sounds like it's about to blow up. Christ.
Complete lock ups like the one you described are rarely software related. Viruses, spyware, and buggy programs in general can cause all sorts of instabilities and behaviours but a complete lockup where hard-rebooting (cutting power, holding the power button) is necessary is almost always hardware related (or at least driver related).

Unfortunately it can be just about anything. The usual suspects are (in no order):
CPU Heat
Video Card Heat
Faulty motherboard components
Faulty power supply
Faulty memory (ram)

There are a LOT more things that can cause these types of lockups, but they're the most common.

Because you mentioned a noisy fan, I'm going to guess that the problem is heat related (probably power supply), so that's where you should start looking.

If you are comfortable opening up your computer case and checking out some stuff inside, here's a few things to try.

While the computer is running, try to identify where the noisy fan is. The most likely place will be the power supply's internal fan, which you should be able to see without opening up the computer, right near where the power cable plugs into your machine. If this is where the noise is coming from, it's very likely you need a new power supply. You should be able to get one for under $50 from memory express.

If it's coming from inside the machine somewhere, open up the case while the computer is on (try not to touch anything). Locate the CPU heatsink (should be a fairly large aluminum-looking block with a fan on it). Is that the noisy fan? Replace the fan; it will be cheap (under $20 from memory express).

There may also be a fan on your video card, check this for noise as well.

Another thing to try is to shut the machine down immediately after it locks up. It will take a few minutes for things to start cooling down. Hold on to the chassis of the case (or the power supply) with one hand while you touch anything in your computer. Touch the CPU heatsink with your finger. It should definitely be warm but it should not be too hot to touch. CPUs typically begin to fail/act weird at around 70 degrees or so, depending on the make. If you can't hold your finger on it without pain, there's a good chance this is your problem. Try this also with the video card heatsink and any other heatsinks on your motherboard (some have several heatsinks). There shouldn't be anything too hot to touch in there.

If you have your motherboard manual, it may have instructions on getting an actual temperature reading from your CPU using a built-in probe. This varies for each make of board, so I can't help you with this except to say that getting in the 70-80 degree range (celsius) is usually too hot for most CPUs.

Also take a look on your motherboard for defects. Look for darker and/or burned patches on the motherboard. Also check for expanding capacitors. Capacitors look a little like batteries standing up on your motherboard (there should be a bunch of them right close to the CPU). If they are bulging or appear discolored, this may be the problem. Hopefully not, since you need to replace the whole motherboard if this is the case.

Since you obviously are ok with reinstalling windows, you could try reformatting and reinstalling just to see if that helps the problem, but its more likely to be hardware related. If you reinstall, run the machine for awhile before installing anything extra and see if it runs without locking up. Install things one by one and try to determine which piece of software triggers the lockups.

I can give you more suggestions but these are the most likely culprits. Post back here if you have any other questions.

[Eddie Bronze]

Thanks a lot for the help so far. I actually took the side panel off the tower yesterday and the noise is coming from the fan that is inside the computer. I knew it wasn't the video card because that is brand new. I actually put my finger on the fan inside the computer and stopped it and the noise was gone. At the moment I type this, it's not making any unusual noise. After I took the side panel off yesterday and stopped the fan with my finger 4-5 times, it actually ran for quite a long time without interruption. So, I'm hoping that's the only problem. Thanks again.

[InSutterWeTrust]

I have a quick question for people for are good with pc's. Im thinking about doing some minor upgrades. Currently I have a AMD Athlon Xp 1800+(1.53ghz) 512 MB Ram, and a ATI Radeon 8500. Im just thinking about for now upgrading the video card and the ram.I wanna get another stick of 512 ram.If I uprade the video card, its a Sapphire Radeon X1300 512mb card that Im thinking about, will I really notice a differnce because Im still using a slow processor. Will I just be wasting my money until I buy a new processor? Any help is greatly apprceated thank you.

[Buff]

Thanks a lot for the help so far. I actually took the side panel off the tower yesterday and the noise is coming from the fan that is inside the computer. I knew it wasn't the video card because that is brand new. I actually put my finger on the fan inside the computer and stopped it and the noise was gone. At the moment I type this, it's not making any unusual noise. After I took the side panel off yesterday and stopped the fan with my finger 4-5 times, it actually ran for quite a long time without interruption. So, I'm hoping that's the only problem. Thanks again.

It wouldn't hurt to add another fan to improve the air flow in your computer. If you can. I was having a heat issue with my computer and did quite a bit to fix the problem. I added a fan at the front of the computer and it would push the air to the back of the computer. My computer came with a "scoop" that was directly above the CPU and was supposed to funnel the hot air from the cpu fan out of the computer, but it blocked air flow more than anything, so I removed that scoop. I also added this:

http://www.memoryexpress.com/index.php?PageTag=&page=file&memx_menu=EmbedProductDetail.php&DisplayProductID=546&SID=

and it helped take the heat from the graphics card and vent it out of the computer. I suspect I can remove the fan from the front of my computer... or maybe I did... at any rate I've solved me heat problem.

[Buff]

I have a quick question for people for are good with pc's. Im thinking about doing some minor upgrades. Currently I have a AMD Athlon Xp 1800+(1.53ghz) 512 MB Ram, and a ATI Radeon 8500. Im just thinking about for now upgrading the video card and the ram.I wanna get another stick of 512 ram.If I uprade the video card, its a Sapphire Radeon X1300 512mb card that Im thinking about, will I really notice a differnce because Im still using a slow processor. Will I just be wasting my money until I buy a new processor? Any help is greatly apprceated thank you.

Your current video card is AGP, correct? The Sapphire Radeon is PCI-E, at least the one I saw. Judging on your CPU I'll assume that your MB won't take PCI-E.

[InSutterWeTrust]

Your current video card is AGP, correct? The Sapphire Radeon is PCI-E, at least the one I saw. Judging on your CPU I'll assume that your MB won't take PCI-E.


I honestly had no idea that there was a difference until I started talking to a few differnt people about this. I think Im gonna have to do some more research on this. The main reason I wanna upgrade is that I wanna get a video card that I can transfer old camcorder videos on to my pc via composite cables.

[arsenal]

I honestly had no idea that there was a difference until I started talking to a few differnt people about this. I think Im gonna have to do some more research on this. The main reason I wanna upgrade is that I wanna get a video card that I can transfer old camcorder videos on to my pc via composite cables.

I don't even think the card you are looking will do what you want it either. You might want to look at the Ati All-In-Wonder cards. You should be able to pick get one that is AGP and will work with your MoBo.
The X1300 will be wonderful for games, but lacking in the video features. Plus, being PCI-E card, will not work with your current hardware

The all-in-wonder cards are alittle behind the "bleeding edge" ATI cards, but have more functionaily, and should work with your current hardware.

[Tikk]

Are there any Flahs experts here?

I got the Flash MX 2004 Bible and the official Actionscript book from Macromedia, each one came with a tutorial CD. If I read them, I will become an expert, right? I'm just too intimidated to start right now; the best thing I made on Flash so far is a 3D bouncy ball. What do you suggest?

[Buff]

I don't even think the card you are looking will do what you want it either. You might want to look at the Ati All-In-Wonder cards. You should be able to pick get one that is AGP and will work with your MoBo.
The X1300 will be wonderful for games, but lacking in the video features. Plus, being PCI-E card, will not work with your current hardware

The all-in-wonder cards are alittle behind the "bleeding edge" ATI cards, but have more functionaily, and should work with your current hardware.

Not sure if I 100% understand what you are saying here but they are making the All-In-Wonders for PCI-E.

[Buff]

Are there any Flahs experts here?

I got the Flash MX 2004 Bible and the official Actionscript book from Macromedia, each one came with a tutorial CD. If I read them, I will become an expert, right? I'm just too intimidated to start right now; the best thing I made on Flash so far is a 3D bouncy ball. What do you suggest?

Read the books, do the examples, practice what you learn. How could it hurt?

[arsenal]

Not sure if I 100% understand what you are saying here but they are making the All-In-Wonders for PCI-E.
I know. Just trying to say that he should look at the AGP all-in-wonder cards instead of the gaming cards, if he wants the extra functionality.
And to make my point more clear, just was trying to say that the All-In-Wonder cards usually come out a few months behind the gaming cards.

[Buff]

ok, gotcha

[MickMcGeough]

Thanks a lot for the help so far. I actually took the side panel off the tower yesterday and the noise is coming from the fan that is inside the computer. I knew it wasn't the video card because that is brand new. I actually put my finger on the fan inside the computer and stopped it and the noise was gone. At the moment I type this, it's not making any unusual noise. After I took the side panel off yesterday and stopped the fan with my finger 4-5 times, it actually ran for quite a long time without interruption. So, I'm hoping that's the only problem. Thanks again.
If that seems to fix the problem, then go for it, but I should mention that what you are doing might be a little like removing the radiator from a car that keeps overheating...
Turn the computer off quickly and disconnect the power when you smell the smoke.

[return to the red]

So I have a problem here and wonerding if anyone else has had this or knows what the problem is. I have a complete freeze up but it only occurs when i'm on CP!! not just lurking around but it usually occurs when I attempt to quote someone. OS is 98 (i Know ****ty) and it's a *cough* work computer. Regularly run spyware and virus scan tools and run windows updates. Any ideas?

[photon]

It could be the ads, some of them eat up a large amount of computer resources.

[FurnaceFace]

When Ralf's cheque arrives in the mailbox I'm looking at some new parts for an upgrade. Mrs. Furnace has been complaining about her P3 so I thought it time to hand her my P4 2.0 and get some new kit.

I'm looking for advice primarily on Motherboard and processor combos. I'll likely toss in a couple Gb of RAM and a couple 250Gb drives. I also plan on sticking with my AGP card so I'm not thinking PCI-E unless someone can convince me otherwise. Also I care little about audio cards so onboard audio is preferred, and onboard 100/gigabit would be a plus though not necessary.

Anyway, what's the recommendation? Dual Core? SATA? AMD vs Intel? And if AMD what chip? I've been an intel whore forever so I know nothing about AMD.

I'm likely buying from MemX so stick with what they've got if you would please.

Thanks.

[arsenal]

I guess it depends on what you want to do:
If you are a hardcore gamer, I would suggest the following:
AMD64 Dual Core (AMD is better for gaming)
2GB+ DDR 3200 Ram
A mother board that supports SLI (NVIDIA) or the ATI Version (can't remember the name). That way you can get 2 of the same video card, and they work together to process graphics information. Like the old (really old) Voodoo 2 PCI cards.
Hard drives: 2 x 200 GB plus hard drives ($115/each @ mem ex), or you can always go larger. SATA. I noticed SATA II HDs available, although I have no idea what that means.. SATA v2 maybe..and I would probably run them in a RAID 0 configuration.

Anything else (Sound card vs on board) I have no clue about. Although, I probably will end up picking up a sound card as well. The difference I hear is night and day between on-board sound vs an actual sound card.