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. 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:

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