What have you just done to your computer!

[mercury_in_flames]

Well after changing some icons in windows, i somehow got the 'open folder' icon to have a new action there, i didnt add it, it just got there lol, called 'find', and then i couldnt get any folders open, every time i double clicked, the windows search tool would come up, so i tried loading the old icons again, but nothing, still same crap. Then i tried to do a system restore, but because i was monitoring both my externall hdd and internal i think that caused problems because it isnt always connected, so i couldnt do that. So I was stuffed either way and thought i'll try a windows xp restore from booting with the xp cd, well you'd think it would work but next thing i know its telling me it cant find a file and cant continue setup. So guess what happened next? I had to reformat my entire hdd. luckily ive got all my games etc backed up and stuff, but still. Well anyway, thats what ive been shizzing off with since yesterday 11pm. went to bed at two, finished fixing the whole thing at 10;30.

Sooooo, what have you done to your computer recently, good or bad, upgrade, or whatever do share

[atrain]

cleaned out about 30 icons from my desktop & installed the software for my new phone on my laptop.

i've barely touched my desktop for the last week, the world cup has me camped out in front of the 42" plasma in the living room so it's all on my [rather hot] lap.

[tartan]

get rid of it out of the bedroom and put it in a spare room

hopefully that would discourage staying up very late at night, and that trick works on some nights

just got the computer sound back after one year without sound at the same time too after bothering to open up the computer only to find the sound card wasn't in properly

and now comes the monstrous job of clearing the pile of 30 something discs of recorded stuffing that piled up during the year without computer sound

Edited June 23, 2006 by tartan

[mercury_in_flames]

lol classic. Lucky me, im going to have to reimport all my music into sonic stage all 1000 songs worth.

[Skradgee]

Last weekend I repartitioned the 60GB hard drive in my laptop. It now has three operating systems: Fedora (a version of linux, of course), Windows XP, and the Beta 2 version of Windows Vista. There are 30GB for the XP installation, and and 15 for the other two. I started with 10 gigs for Vista thinking, "Oh, that will be big enough to mess around with for a test installation." Well after the installation finished, there was less than 15MB of free space left! So, I increased it to 15GB and that left just enough room for Fedora. Overall it's quite nice, but I wish there was more room for a regular FAT partition for sharing files between the Windows and Linux installations.

[mercury_in_flames]

how it it working with vista? I heard it wasnt wise to have vista running on a partition like another OS. I've seen them before, but how about some screen shots>? How is the performance? Is aero working? What are the specs of your laptop?

[The Low Volta]

I've cooked the battery on my HP Pavillion laptop

I got Half-life2 from a friend and played it a couple of hours. As the pavillion only barely meets minimum requirements it had to work really hard (even on lower quality settings) and I guess the fans couldn't cope...

at first I noticed the battery was failing (if I unplugged the ac-cord, the PC went dead instead of running of the battery) but the indicators (charging/% charged etc) were still 'active'... then all of a sudden it refused to start as long as the battery is present (saying I've installed a wrong kind of battery)

I'm going for a reformat/full re-install of windows next (just to make sure it's hardware) but I can't right now, as I haven't really got the time

darn!

[danielbb90]

Well after changing some icons in windows, i somehow got the 'open folder' icon to have a new action there, i didnt add it, it just got there lol, called 'find', and then i couldnt get any folders open, every time i double clicked, the windows search tool would come up, so i tried loading the old icons again, but nothing, still same crap. Then i tried to do a system restore, but because i was monitoring both my externall hdd and internal i think that caused problems because it isnt always connected, so i couldnt do that. So I was stuffed either way and thought i'll try a windows xp restore from booting with the xp cd, well you'd think it would work but next thing i know its telling me it cant find a file and cant continue setup. So guess what happened next? I had to reformat my entire hdd. luckily ive got all my games etc backed up and stuff, but still. Well anyway, thats what ive been shizzing off with since yesterday 11pm. went to bed at two, finished fixing the whole thing at 10;30.

Sooooo, what have you done to your computer recently, good or bad, upgrade, or whatever do share

Lost my music icon... tried to change the desktop.ini file, no suscsess...

Did a system resorte..

Messed up all my drivers...

Did a format earlyer today...

Edited June 24, 2006 by danielbb90

[mercury_in_flames]

ha classic.

[mercury_in_flames]

I just got paid and am wondering whether to get a second 7900gt for SLI or an X2 4400 cpu. I know that mid july X2 processor prices will go down, but at the moment i dont have any games that need the extra graphics power, I wont be able to see any extra quality in Far Cry anyway as all the settings for quality are already set to highest. The only problem is that I fear the gainward 7900gt might become discontinued soon. What do you think ppl??

[Skradgee]

Vista is alright. I haven't used a Mac in a while, but some of the changes to the user interface make me think of MacOS...mostly because of the visual transitions that happen. For example, some windows will shrink and fade away when closed, or double-clicking on an icon will make an image of it get bigger. It looks nice, but I wonder how much it ties up the video card, memory, etc. A lot of computers that are several years old and still in use today will not be able to run it because of the minimum specifications. Stuge mentioned that in a thread here:

http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=15663

There are still some stability issues. Blue screen errors have happened a few times (usually caused the video controller), but that is to be expected from a beta release of a product that isn't completed yet. The Beta 2 release is apparently much more stable than the Beta 1 release was. Oh, and I haven't tried SonicStage with it yet. That might be a true test of stability! I'm not quite sure what else to say about it since I still haven't used it very much, but here are the laptop specs and some screenshots...

[attachmentid=1803]

The System Performance Rating seems like it could be useful. It looks at your hardware and basically gives each part of it a grade. The laptop got a 3 overall.

[attachmentid=1804]

Note that in the Start menu, I had to customize it to add the listings for Printers and Run They were hidden by default after the installation. The Printers folder I don't care too much about...it can be found in the Control Panel when needed, but 'Run' I use way too much to go without. Sometimes it's just easier to just type instead of going through several clicks to get to something.

[attachmentid=1805]

Desktop (resized 50%)

[mercury_in_flames]

Well I wanted my computer to be as futureproof as possible, and being able to run vista super smoothly when it comes out would be nice. A 256mb 7900gt should handle it quite easily. I heard from someone that dual core will processors will also get more use in vista. First time i see a laptop with 2gb ramn, how much did it originally come with before you upgraded?

[Stuge]

Similar thread to the previous one you opened GregTheRotter .

ok ,Right now i just reinstalled Wengo software .

[Skradgee]

Actually, 2GB is how much it came with when I got it. It really seems to help move things along when doing intensive things like encoding or compressing files. That came at a higher price, but it was worth it.

You do have a great video card. That shoud work quite nicely. I have an old desktop that should probably be retired soon. It's a 1.2Ghz Celeron with 256 MB of RAM. It still runs alright, but that's pretty weak by today's standards. It's time to upgrade, and maybe get a nice dual processor machine.

[mercury_in_flames]

i'll post my thoughts on my X2 4400 in here when ive installed it when it arrives next week tuesday. Our old computer downstairs is a pentium 3 and i cant stand using that for anything more then surfing the internet if i have to use it.but what to do when my 4400 arrives and my 3500 doesnt have a home . I might just save my money and get a cheap mobo, 30gb hdd, cheap graphics card, and 512mb ram, and just give the computer to my mom for her birthday. LOL thats a really good idea, im surprised i only thought of it now, down to my bad memory and me thinking of what i can do for me, rather than anyone else, bah. oh well got the idea now Just busy installing MS Office 2007 Beta 2.

[Fat Tires]

My Geforce4 died recently, so I replaced it with an AGP Geforce 6800. This'll last me until I build a new rig with PCI-E and a dual core CPU.

[mercury_in_flames]

are you waiting for amd AM2??

[mercury_in_flames]

Well i decided to cancel my order of the 4400.I tried running a norton system scan, while running O&O defrag, and playing far cry, with my 3500 and didnt see any lags in performance. Probably because of my 7900gt. The only time i want a faster cpu is when im encoding a dvd which is only maybe once a month. I'll wait till more programs support multi thread processing, till vista comes out. Well thats 300 pounds back in my pocket. Now to try and hang onto it.

[smkranz]

While many computer problems stem from software issues, sometimes the installation of new hardware is the only way to go...

...

[attachmentid=1807]

[raintheory]

Finally got my Toshiba Satellite laptop (WinXP), My old OPTIPLEX desktop (Win2000), and our G5 (MacOSX Tiger) all happily networked with file-sharing and ICS.

Still can't get printer sharing to work though...

[Levanel]

I finally filled up all the PCI slots on my motherboard with upgrades, most recently a mini-PCI to PCI card fitted with two mini-PCI dualband wireless cards (so I can connect to four different wifi networks simultaneously) and a standard firewire S400 card. I've also upgraded my video card from a Geforce2 to Geforce 6200 and added a second mouse (logitech laser trackball). Yes, you can use however many pointy devices as long as you have empty USB ports.

Edited June 26, 2006 by Levanel

[mercury_in_flames]

LOL dude wat u need two mice and that many wifi connections for? Personally i like to keep my slots on my mobo free.

[yamagatacamille]

While many computer problems stem from software issues, sometimes the installation of new hardware is the only way to go...

...

[attachmentid=1807]

nice so, what's on tap?

[Levanel]

LOL dude wat u need two mice and that many wifi connections for? Personally i like to keep my slots on my mobo free.

My neighborhood is one giant hotspot, with a mix "open" misconfigured networks. Some tricks involving network bonding and bridging and I've got myself one kickass network I'm too el cheapo to pay up. Plus, the anonymity ..

Nah seriously, I just like multitasking.

[smkranz]

nice so, what's on tap?

I wish I could claim the computer beer tap rig as my own, but someone else sent me that pic so I just posted it 'cuz of the topic. Here at the home, I have a lowly beer 'fridge with taps sticking out the door. Currently I'm serving a Blonde Ale, a pepper beer, and a Pale Ale brewed with honey.

Closer to the topic, though, my Linksys router is giving me fits and (so the cable company says) causing the internet connection to glitch out repeatedly. I've swapped cables several times and each time it seems to temporarily fix the problem. Most aggravating. Today's outage does seem to be more related to the crappy weather than the cables.

In line on my "list", after banks and insurance companies, are cable companies.

[raintheory]

Closer to the topic, though, my Linksys router is giving me fits and (so the cable company says) causing the internet connection to glitch out repeatedly. I've swapped cables several times and each time it seems to temporarily fix the problem. Most aggravating. Today's outage does seem to be more related to the crappy weather than the cables.

In line on my "list", after banks and insurance companies, are cable companies.

Ahh, yes I'm just north of you in PA. Quite a few storms these past few days here as well.

[streaml1ne]

I'll wait till more programs support multi thread processing, till vista comes out. Well thats 300 pounds back in my pocket. Now to try and hang onto it.

x264 supports multithreading You could encode your videos in AVC and use both cores. Better quality than divx/xvid to boot. Also, why not just overclock the 3500?

[danielbb90]

Vista is alright. I haven't used a Mac in a while, but some of the changes to the user interface make me think of MacOS...mostly because of the visual transitions that happen. For example, some windows will shrink and fade away when closed, or double-clicking on an icon will make an image of it get bigger. It looks nice, but I wonder how much it ties up the video card, memory, etc. A lot of computers that are several years old and still in use today will not be able to run it because of the minimum specifications. Stuge mentioned that in a thread here:

http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=15663

There are still some stability issues. Blue screen errors have happened a few times (usually caused the video controller), but that is to be expected from a beta release of a product that isn't completed yet. The Beta 2 release is apparently much more stable than the Beta 1 release was. Oh, and I haven't tried SonicStage with it yet. That might be a true test of stability! I'm not quite sure what else to say about it since I still haven't used it very much, but here are the laptop specs and some screenshots...

[attachmentid=1803]

The System Performance Rating seems like it could be useful. It looks at your hardware and basically gives each part of it a grade. The laptop got a 3 overall.

[attachmentid=1804]

Note that in the Start menu, I had to customize it to add the listings for Printers and Run They were hidden by default after the installation. The Printers folder I don't care too much about...it can be found in the Control Panel when needed, but 'Run' I use way too much to go without. Sometimes it's just easier to just type instead of going through several clicks to get to something.

[attachmentid=1805]

Desktop (resized 50%)

I know this question is kinda late, but do you have to pay for that Vista when it comes out of beta?

Sorry I know its a daft question, I just don't know the answer...

[mercury_in_flames]

My neighborhood is one giant hotspot, with a mix "open" misconfigured networks. Some tricks involving network bonding and bridging and I've got myself one kickass network I'm too el cheapo to pay up. Plus, the anonymity ..

Nah seriously, I just like multitasking.

'multi tasking'?? BULL!! hahahah. aaanyway. I've got wpa-psk 128bit encryption (28key password) and my SSID is hidden also. So as far as i know, nobody is leeching off my internet. Also my wireless internet router barely gets up the stairs, so someone would have to some amazing receiver of sort and a way of seeing my connection and hacking it.

x264 supports multithreading You could encode your videos in AVC and use both cores. Better quality than divx/xvid to boot. Also, why not just overclock the 3500?

You mean x64 bit XP? I wouldnt get x64bit just because of some of the compatibility issues with certain progs.

I won;t overclock because i dont know how lol. I've looked it up and seen that you need to spend ages tweaking the cpu to set it up so that it isnt on too high and sending ur comp crashing even more. Thats too much stress for me.I've tried my asus aiNos overclock feature but that just gets my computer crashing. I am pretty satisfied with my cpu. The only thing i ever do that needs cpu is playing computer games (far cry, half life 2 etc)and touching up/clone stamping etc photos in photoshop. As much as I like tinkering around, i like it even more when my computer is just working lol. I hate it when ive messed something up and i have to restart my computer around five times till i fix it. I finally managed to get system restore working so thats a plus recently. I had to disable it, restart computer, enable it, restart. I think something had just got messed up in the files it creates when it starts off.

[streaml1ne]

No, meant x264 the video codec, you'd mentioned something about ripping DVD's.

[mercury_in_flames]

oic. When I meant encoding i really just meant removing unwanted extras from the dvd's. I use clone dvd for that and it's really just the wait till it finishes that bugs me.

[mercury_in_flames]

just got my second gainward 7900gt and have SLI running. My cpu is running at 36 atm and the graphics at 49.C at idle. when gaming the gpu is about 56c.

[mercury_in_flames]

Anyone here got counter strike ; source?> Well with my two 7900gt's in sli, i get 150 fps in the video stress test lol. If anyone wants to add me as a friend in counter strike, pm me, maybe we can play some time.

-greg

[Damage]

I hate to say it, but my home computer is flying a kite.

[mercury_in_flames]

just updated the drivers for my 7900 gt's. Not really liking nvidia's new xp style control panel. Changed appearance to look like older one, then reset the colour profile back to the one that came with my sdm-hs75p monitor. Also opened up the case and tidied up some cables so that the side case fan can draw air onto the cpu fan without cables in the way.

[Stuge]

Transfered Sister`s wedding snaps from my Canon A540 to PC ..

[mercury_in_flames]

Anyone experienced bugs with the latest nvidia drivers??

I recently did a bunch of things to my computer, fiddled with virtual memory space, system restore, and a bunch of stuff in my bios. (I wasnt able to hibernate again). So next thing i know i cant even get past the windows logo at startup. I thought it might have been a virus as i had no internet security for the past few days (disabled with msconfig), so i restarted in safe mode, did a virus scan with the anti virus cd in the drive, no virus's. As ive got two 7900gt's i thought maybe there was a conflict or something, so i set the sli option to single, still no go. So, finally i realised that since what was happening was;

get to windows logo, the scrolling blue bar doesnt even go by twice before the lights on the keyboard flash, and the monitor is off, theres hdd activity for another ten seconds or so, and then just nothing. So i restarted in safe mode, uninstalled the cards and surprise surprise the computer starts up fine. I then installed the older drivers that came on my gainward cd, drivers 84.21 (as opposed to the troublesome 91.31), and rebooted, all is now fine and ive just been gradually switching things back on in the 'startup' tab in ms config. Keepin the clone cd startup process off as that might have been causing my problems i had with running F.E.A.R ('cant find original cd' message). It seems norton was not at fault as I thought.

Reason why i think its the graphics drivers at fault is because of the hdd activity and nothing happening on the monitor(the screen is brand new and hasnt show any problems). The last time i experienced the same problem, i uninstalled both cards, and reinstalled the 91.31 drivers, since the problem appeared again, ive put the older ones on.

Also ran Registry booster and fixed used it to fix any bugs in my registry, and did a 'registry defrag'. Also ran security task manager just to see whats cooking. Im now a happy bunny. for now that is. Will remember to do this in future; use a piece of paper and check things off as you go to find the problem. Managed to keep my sanity, unlike the usual

[mercury_in_flames]

Sorry all, but TODAY, I get the whinge award. Yet again, my computer has been incredibly 'unstable' if thats the right word. It has not wanted to restart. Same old, starting, then the little blue bar getting stuck at the windows logo. It seems that every time i think ive sussed out the problem, another one rears its head. I think should start calling my computer, 'The Hydra'. Chop one head off and out pops another one. I mean i do enjoy the feeling of getting it all working again, but i really would just like to be able to say i built a computer that works without any problems. Granted, it's my first build, but still. Listening to a bit of Enya to chill the nerves back down before bed. You can laugh but i dont care For some reason i think the song 'may it be' from the lord of the rings kind of echoes the tales of woe that are me and my computer lol.

On top of that, i had to reactivate my windows xp pro OEM again. I hadnt really changed anything of significance. In my efforts to restore my computer to working condition, i disabled one of the two graphics cards, and fiddled with the overclock settings in the BIOS of my mobo, resetting the overclock profile to 'auto', 'none' etc. Cant think of anything else that might've done it.

Also uninstalled Norton internet security 2006 once and for all. Have nod32 installed atm. Seems quite quick to start up which is cool. I am starting to wonder whether saving my money longer and getting a 7950 GX2 would have given me fewer issues as its only using one PCI instead of 2 with my two 7900gt's.

Anyway, its almost 1am. im so glad to have everything working again. Thing is I still only have 4 startup processes set to run at startup. I cant be bothered to go through a process of elimination right now at least.

[bobt]

I've had wierd startups recently, seems to be memory related, as well as connector related , ie: if I take my memry out, clean the contacts and reinstall it usually works, if it doesn;t, I unplug my HD commector, and the connector on the MB it starts, worth a try Greg.

Other thing, try a scandisk at startup, you could be havin a boot sector problem.

Good luck, and hope it works soon,

Bob

[mercury_in_flames]

Seems to be working again, for now. A while back my system restore function wasnt working, thought i;d give that ago. Lo and behold it worked and all seems to be ok at the moment. If.i mean next time it happens I'll get out the old air can and do what u did. I think somehow my boot files may be getting screwed up because i can often get a proper boot if i use msconfig to disable all unnessecary startup programs in safe mode then reboot. Thats the weird part, is that im always able to restart in safe mode.