Archived CalgaryPuck Computer Help Thread

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by cSpooge

Be wary of adopting wireless N right now. It hasn't been standardized yet so the devices you buy now may not work once the standard is finalized.

Most of the makers who have already released 'N' equipment fought to keep compatability and succeeded, although it won't be as fast as the new equipment that sticks to the spec. link

[MickMcGeough]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

I just notice when I download applications every now and then, they offer both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, such as Daemon tools so I wasn't sure which one to get.

I tried the 64 bit edition of Windows XP about 6 months ago and it really wasn't fun. As Bobblehead mentioned driver support isn't great and 6 months ago the benefits of running a 64 bit OS were negligible. There are almost no real-world performance gains for most apps by going 64 bit.

[MoneyGuy]

In booting up my dell laptop, I got an error message that it found no hard drive. I hit F2 and it also shows no hard drive there. I turned it off and tried again but same result. After about three tries, it booted fine and now I'm using it to type this post.

What's up? Might this indicate a possible poor connection or maybe an impending HD failure? Any ideas?

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

In booting up my dell laptop, I got an error message that it found no hard drive. I hit F2 and it also shows no hard drive there. I turned it off and tried again but same result. After about three tries, it booted fine and now I'm using it to type this post.

What's up? Might this indicate a possible poor connection or maybe an impending HD failure? Any ideas?

It could be those things you mentioned, or even motherboard issues.

Before you turn off you machine again back up everything!

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

It could be those things you mentioned, or even motherboard issues.

Before you turn off you machine again back up everything!

Always good advice.

This just happened. I got a blue screen with a lot of info, but essentially it says this: Windows was shut down to prevent damage to my computer. It says kernal_data_inpage_error. It says to restart my computer which I have done and tells me what to do it it happens again (I wrote it all down) plus gives me a bunch of numbers and letters in sequence. Is this related to my previous problem? It's too coincidental.

Also, if I have to shut down the computer but control-alt-delete doesn't work and the button doesn't work, what other way is there without removing my battery and unplugging it, which is probably not a good idea except as a last resort. What option is there?

[Bobblehead]

Looks to me like your hard drive is dead.

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

Looks to me like your hard drive is dead.

My feeling as well. Except that I'm using the computer right now. Maybe it's just teasing me. There is very little on this laptop that I need that has not been backed up, so it would not be a crisis. The bigger problem is my main office computer is likely dying a slow death also and I have far more on that computer that I do require. My son looked at it yesterday and could not get my data onto CD for me. I'll have him speed up that process. He said something about "do I have software to write to CD," but that's not necessary, is it. I'll have him try again as that computer is far more important to me than my laptop, for which I just bought a replacement anyway.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

My feeling as well. Except that I'm using the computer right now. Maybe it's just teasing me. There is very little on this laptop that I need that has not been backed up, so it would not be a crisis. The bigger problem is my main office computer is likely dying a slow death also and I have far more on that computer that I do require. My son looked at it yesterday and could not get my data onto CD for me. I'll have him speed up that process. He said something about "do I have software to write to CD," but that's not necessary, is it. I'll have him try again as that computer is far more important to me than my laptop, for which I just bought a replacement anyway.

When harddrives start to to go they tend to go very quickly.
XP has pretty generic burning capabilities built in.

If you have a lot of data on a computer CDs can be a painful way to go. A CD holds 650-700 MB while even laptop harddrives normall store 100x that much. A better way is a portable hard drive. Even that isn't the "best" way, but it is really the only reasonable way for the average person to handle large data stores.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

Also, if I have to shut down the computer but control-alt-delete doesn't work and the button doesn't work, what other way is there without removing my battery and unplugging it, which is probably not a good idea except as a last resort. What option is there?

You turn off the computer by holding down the power button for 5-10 seconds.

[ricosuave]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

My feeling as well. Except that I'm using the computer right now. Maybe it's just teasing me. There is very little on this laptop that I need that has not been backed up, so it would not be a crisis. The bigger problem is my main office computer is likely dying a slow death also and I have far more on that computer that I do require. My son looked at it yesterday and could not get my data onto CD for me. I'll have him speed up that process. He said something about "do I have software to write to CD," but that's not necessary, is it. I'll have him try again as that computer is far more important to me than my laptop, for which I just bought a replacement anyway.

try checkin gthe connection on the hard drive

its likely that it may have come a little loose, ive seen that before.

[arsenal]

I am in the dead hard drive camp. It happened to me a couple months ago. Got the blue screen once or twice and was still able to boot the computer. I tried it one more time after my machine froze up, and it never came back.

[LockedOut]

Originally Posted by arsenal

I am in the dead hard drive camp. It happened to me a couple months ago. Got the blue screen once or twice and was still able to boot the computer. I tried it one more time after my machine froze up, and it never came back.

Throw it in the freezer for a while and then try it again if you need any data off of it.

[Buff]

Originally Posted by LockedOut

Throw it in the freezer for a while and then try it again if you need any data off of it.

and slave it to another computer if you can't boot off of it. I"ve had to do this before and was able to recover some data.

[MoneyGuy]

Have bought a new computer that needs to be protected. I've looked at MacAfee Security Centre, which provides various things: McAfee VirusScan, McAfee Personal Firewall Plus, McAfee Privacy Service and McAfee SpamKiller. Is this a good product? Will it adequately protect me against all of these threats? I'd prefer a one-product solution rather than buying several different products individually. Comments please.

[cSpooge]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

Have bought a new computer that needs to be protected. I've looked at MacAfee Security Centre, which provides various things: McAfee VirusScan, McAfee Personal Firewall Plus, McAfee Privacy Service and McAfee SpamKiller. Is this a good product? Will it adequately protect me against all of these threats? I'd prefer a one-product solution rather than buying several different products individually. Comments please.

See there is your problem. There is no suite that works great.

For anti virus I use Nod32. It has a small memory footprint and it works great.

For a firewall if you have a router don't worry about a software firewall. If someone can break through a hardware firewall a software firewall will do nothing.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

Have bought a new computer that needs to be protected. I've looked at MacAfee Security Centre, which provides various things: McAfee VirusScan, McAfee Personal Firewall Plus, McAfee Privacy Service and McAfee SpamKiller. Is this a good product? Will it adequately protect me against all of these threats? I'd prefer a one-product solution rather than buying several different products individually. Comments please.

Originally Posted by cSpooge

See there is your problem. There is no suite that works great.

For anti virus I use Nod32. It has a small memory footprint and it works great.

For a firewall if you have a router don't worry about a software firewall. If someone can break through a hardware firewall a software firewall will do nothing.

I agree totally.

[4X4]

A couple of you guys gave me advice about a month ago about the HD that I dropped. Get this: all I had to do was open it up and plug the 4 wire pluggey thing back in.

I pretty much figured that it was going to cost me a grand or that my **** was lost forever so i didn't bother to try to fix it.

Today I decided that I really want that stuff so I might as well see if I notice anything obvious before imposing on any of my computer geek friends (or lean on the CP community too hard). I feel so stupid for waiting this long.

Anyway, thanks again for you guys' help earlier.

God damn... I mean, thank god.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by 4X4

A couple of you guys gave me advice about a month ago about the HD that I dropped. Get this: all I had to do was open it up and plug the 4 wire pluggey thing back in.

I pretty much figured that it was going to cost me a grand or that my **** was lost forever so i didn't bother to try to fix it.

Today I decided that I really want that stuff so I might as well see if I notice anything obvious before imposing on any of my computer geek friends (or lean on the CP community too hard). I feel so stupid for waiting this long.

Anyway, thanks again for you guys' help earlier.

God damn... I mean, thank god.

Now BACK IT UP!

[4X4]

I think you are right... I should invest in one of those 60 gig ipods. That'll store a good portion of the music and a bunch of the pics.

Fawk, after I turned it on, I checked the porperties of my multimedia file. 13,000 files in there. I estimate that 1,000 of the files are comedy soundbites/family guy/futurama/a few movies/funny videos (like that crazy dog that tries to bite his own leg)... The rest are mp3s. 12,000 of them.
My pictures folder has over 10,000 pics that I've (well, I have to give my ex g/f credit for most of them) accumulated since I went digital a few years back. I'd be willing to bet that over half of those pics have my dog in there somewhere.

I'm happy.

[Bingo]

Man still struggling with video cards ...

Took back that PCI 9600 and now I have the ATI HIS radeon X1300 AGP.

I did a full reinstall of XP which seems to have made the system more stable and it's running smooth but with the clear lack of functioning video card (refreshes in wave etc).

When I install the ATI Radeon software though the card fails and the whole system becomes unstable until I uninstall again.

I have the service pack 2 installed and the net framework 2.0 as well.

Any ideas?

And failing that ... anyone recommend a good shop to drop the thing off at with a quick turnaround?