Yeah..i think we should have a thread for this. even though i have NO knowledge about computers, i think this thread is where people can come and state their problems, and someone will come along and solve them.
My problem: Several of my music files have dissapeared. and not just random songs. BANDS! songs from certain bands have dissapeared. and some have been renamed and i KNOW i didn't do it. What could have cause this?
Sounds like a system bug my sister's computer got last year, she went to BestBuy and her whole hardrive had to be wiped and the system reinstalled ...
you could read this http://www.ehow.com/how_11818_rid-computer-virus.html Not a solutiuon.
replay how about my problem
when ever I try to veiw the folder I keep my downloaded art in I get an error message and it closes the folder. It was never a problem till recently.
I can still veiw the images if I look at them threw my home publishing software but thts a pain
TGH, that could likely be a malware created issue unless it's a filesystem problem. There's only way to truly find out.
Start > Run > cmd (or command for older versions) if you're on a Windows machine and by using the word folder instead of directory, I gather that you are.
That'll open up a command shell. What you need to do now is to navigate to the directory in question. First make sure you're on the right drive. If your art directory is on a different drive to the one shown, you'll have to change it. If it's on, say, drive D, you'll have to type D: and press enter.
Then you'll need to change the directory.
Let's say that to get to it, you have to go into Documents and Settings from the main drive, then your account name, then My Documents, then Art to get to it (just as an example), you'd have to type the following:
CD "\Documents and Settings\TheGayHare\My Documents\Art"
That's just an example, change things as appropriate.
When there, type dir and press enter to see if the structure still exists. It might be all kinds of messed up if the file system is kablooyed. You might even get a constantly recursive folder, where you can go into Art\Art\Art\Art ... that'd be bad.
If it does seem to be intact, the next thing you should do is press tab until one of the images that's associated with windows viewer comes up, JPeGs usually are, so search for a JPG by tabbing away. When you get a JPG file, press enter.
If the folder is okay, that file should open. Try browsing about in the Windows image viewer to see whether any of the files are inaccessible.
If everything seems okay then it's likely just some kind of malware that's screwing with you. I recommend a thourough scan with AdAware, Spybot S&D and a worthy virus scanner, such as Nod32.
If everything isn't okay and it errors out at some point throughout these instructions then you might have a more serious problem there. Not something we can't fix but still.
I'm probably not the person you wanted help from TGH but I figured that since nobody else had answered ...
Nyeh. Dakata needs help with his/her scanner. >>
(I just used one of my Mangas for the pictures. XP Shuddap.)
This is what my scanned stuff looks like when I scan it as a grayscale pic. (http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/3581/kmkmgreyscalelf0.gif) (I circled the crap that's NOT suppose to be there.)
This is what my scanned stuff looks like when I scan it as a colored pic. (http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/6879/kmkmcolortb8.gif) (...Yah, nothing's circled. Because obviously the blue and red's not suppose to be there. :P)
I don't know how to friggin' fix it. I uninstalled my scanner stuff, reinstalled it.
I screwed around with the settings a little, and that didn't do crap.
...It's weird. When I first had my scanner, it worked fine and didn't add the gray stuff (to grayscale pics) or blue and red (to colored pics)...but then it just suddenly started doing this. For no reason. AT ALL. *Hisssssss*
Scanner I use: EPSON Perfection 3170 Photo :P
OS I use: Windows XP Professional
~~~~~~~~~
...Also, Windows Media Player hates me. :3 In an awesome way. It always likes to screw up when I'm listening to songs that would scare my neighbours' kids. It'll just keep repeating. Over and over again. :3 It's fun watching the neighbour kids freak out a little. :3 "Get ready to diiiiiie-Get ready to diiiiiiie-Get ready to diiiiiie-" *Bwahahahah*
But the computer'll temperarily freeze so I can't turn it down or anything. Any way to fix that? :P It gets kind of annoying after a while. (I might use Winamp or something else...if I'm not too lazy.)
Why wouldn't I want you to help out Rowne?
I doubt it's a malware
I keep my protection files up todate and it's a legitimate windows error
Plus I ran adaware, virus scan, registry fixer, and cleaner after I found the problem and non of that worked
The directories seem to be in order, the error seems to be with windows explorer.
It'll pop up no matter how I veiw the folder, thimbnails, icons or just file names
Blast! Until you'd said the final thing there, I was going to bet money on it being a codec thing. I've seen windows barf at showing thumbnails of media types because of that.
Hm ... you've provided good information and covered a lot of bases TGH, good for you. The files can actually be accessed from the command prompt? No I/O errors or anything?
Might I ask what the error is or could you take a shot of the error as it comes up? That might be helpful.
---
Ooh! Here's an interesting one to try ...
Create a new directory with a random name. Use the command prompt to copy the contents out to the new directory. Rename your old dir to something else, then rename the new dir to what the old dir was.
You'll need to do all this via the command prompt. Do any errors pop up in this process? And which of the directories (both?) are inaccessible after you've done this?
Quote from: GabrielsThoughts on July 22, 2006, 09:30:23 PM
Sounds like a system bug my sister's computer got last year, she went to BestBuy and her whole hardrive had to be wiped and the system reinstalled ...
you could read this http://www.ehow.com/how_11818_rid-computer-virus.html Not a solutiuon.
oh shit...i can't!! I have too much valuable stuf on my hardrive!!
Xze, I have something particularly wild for you to try. Would you be up for trying it? You'd need to try a program I'm thinking of and you'd need some patience but it's a good way to track down rare or unknown viruses/malware.
----
The reason I'm thinking about this is because the program I'm thinking of is good at snagging processes that try to hide themselves. When we have a list of all the processes it can gather, we can try to research these processes and find out whether any of them are 'naughty'.
The thing is, the Windows Task Manager won't show all processes if they're trying to hide themselves.
Quote from: Rowne on July 22, 2006, 11:10:22 PM
Xze, I have something particularly wild for you to try. Would you be up for trying it? You'd need to try a program I'm thinking of and you'd need some patience but it's a good way to track down rare or unknown viruses/malware.
----
The reason I'm thinking about this is because the program I'm thinking of is good at snagging processes that try to hide themselves. When we have a list of all the processes it can gather, we can try to research these processes and find out whether any of them are 'naughty'.
The thing is, the Windows Task Manager won't show all processes if they're trying to hide themselves.
Tell me what you have in mind and i'll consult my daddy about it.
Quote from: Xze-Xze on July 22, 2006, 11:08:23 PMoh s***...i can't!! I have too much valuable stuf on my hardrive!!
Xze, if you have valuable stuff you don't wanna lose, then put it on a CD or a floppy.
...Or you could put all of your important stuff in a zip file and upload it to one of the many file-holding sites like RapidShare (http://www.rapidshare.de/) or something. :P I dunno. I usually use my 5 AngelFire account-things to store my crap.
Quote from: Dakata on July 22, 2006, 11:19:25 PM
Quote from: Xze-Xze on July 22, 2006, 11:08:23 PMoh s***...i can't!! I have too much valuable stuf on my hardrive!!
Xze, if you have valuable stuff you don't wanna lose, then put it on a CD or a floppy.
...Or you could put all of your important stuff in a zip file and upload it to one of the many file-holding sites like RapidShare (http://www.rapidshare.de/) or something. :P I dunno. I usually use my 5 AngelFire account-things to store my crap.
or i could send everything i have to you XD
Xze: Okay, what I truly recommend is ProcessGuard (http://www.diamondcs.com.au/processguard/). I'd recommend the full version the most because it has anti-hooking stuffs that provide an even better detection system against bad processes but I can't and won't expect ya to buy anything so the free version will do in a pinch. I just hope that whatever you have there isn't hiding itself in that particular way.
First of all, install it and reboot. Then turn of its learning mode and put it on manual. Reboot then let it run for about half hour, do usual things and set up the processes how you think they should work. If you see anything suspicious, report back immediately. If not, after the half hour is up, write down all the processes it's seen and report back here with the list and I'll do some research.
----
Xze, another option is to buy a DVD writer. Backup everything you have to DVD twice (might take 30 or 40 DVDs but you can get them cheap) and then do your format. If you want, I can supply you with good, Free burning software that you won't have to pay for. So if you really did want to format and keep your stuff, that's one way around it. Just be careful what you put back on your computer after having done the backup and wipe.
the command prompt seemed to load everything I tried to okay. but that might be cause after the error started popping up I had most image types open in picture it publishing
Hmm
here is the error
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y45/boybnny2/error.jpg
Warning the thumbnails you can see are not sutable for public consumption
Hmm I've tried copying it before, even to a compleatly differnt drive but not from the comand prompt I'll try that
Wow, TGH. Got enough nawty bunny pics? ;)
Nah. I couldn't hold your crap for you, Xze. I freak out when I think I have too much crap on my computer...and I have like 10 GB on it. :P I haven't even used half of it...yet....And I'd probably accidently delete the stuff anyway. >>;
TGH, the GDIPlus thing is a big hint! I'm looking into a few ideas and I'll get back to you. Basically though, the GDI is the rendering system for Windows, it sounds as though something has made that rendering act a little screwy. In this case, when you try to open certain graphical applications (even like a Windows folders) that tie into GDI in a very specific way, if the version of GDI doesn't have the instructions that that which is tying into it tries to use, what's tying into it will crash.
I strongly suspect that your GDI file or files have been replaced with older versions but sit tight, I'll find out what I can.
----
... should I be worried that I looked at the error without actually bothering to glance at the images?
Oh furry naughtiness, have I forsaken thee?
Quote from: thegayhare on July 22, 2006, 11:22:56 PM
the command prompt seemed to load everything I tried to okay. but that might be cause after the error started popping up I had most image types open in picture it publishing
Hmm
here is the error
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y45/boybnny2/error.jpg
Warning the thumbnails you can see are not sutable for public consumption
Hmm I've tried copying it before, even to a compleatly differnt drive but not from the comand prompt I'll try that
that does the same to me when i open my Yaoi folder 0o and my Final fantasy folder 0o AND MY DRAWINGS FOLDER!!! WTF!!??
TGH, We have a problem...
Quote from: Dakata on July 22, 2006, 11:25:21 PM
Wow, TGH. Got enough nawty bunny pics? ;)
You can never have anough naughty bunny pics
Ohh My sis thought it might be a folder overload issu since I had over 10,000 images in on directory but chopping them up didn't seem to work thats from one of the smaller dir, with only 900 images
Edit Ohh Rowne that might make sense since it was after I re installed windows (after a nasty malware killed my sound drivers, and my modem and networking connections) this started happening...
TGH and Xze, regarding your error, I'm 90 per cent sure that it's just that some program has replaced files on your system with older versions that XP's most recently updated rendering system isn't happy with. Problems like these occur all the time.
Could both of you try installing this (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6A63AB9C-DF12-4D41-933C-BE590FEAA05A&displaylang=en)?
Basically, it's a package that contains the latest GDI+ files, which should help.
i shall try all that is possible >w<
Hmmm I don't think that will work I down;oaded it and unziped it but the included file says it won't work for xp do to xp's file protection
I'll reboot and see though
Hm, okay.
I'll keep looking for other alternatives. I figured the best would be to simply replace the faulty GDIPlus file. If we can't do that too easily, I'll have to keep looking.
----
Considering that I've just remembered that GDIPlus also has a vulnerability for code injection, what we might be seeing here is a naughty image or images which might be trying to inject code badly, failing and thusly causing a crash. Iono, it's a theory.
If the GDI+ download from Microsoft doesn't work, I think our next best solution is to replace the file manually and yeah, I know how to get around the file-protection of XP to do that, it's not all that hard.
Quote from: Dakata on July 22, 2006, 10:58:14 PMNyeh. Dakata needs help with his/her scanner. >>
(I just used one of my Mangas for the pictures. XP Shuddap.)
This is what my scanned stuff looks like when I scan it as a grayscale pic. (http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/3581/kmkmgreyscalelf0.gif) (I circled the crap that's NOT suppose to be there.)
This is what my scanned stuff looks like when I scan it as a colored pic. (http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/6879/kmkmcolortb8.gif) (...Yah, nothing's circled. Because obviously the blue and red's not suppose to be there. :P)
I don't know how to friggin' fix it. I uninstalled my scanner stuff, reinstalled it.
I screwed around with the settings a little, and that didn't do crap.
...It's weird. When I first had my scanner, it worked fine and didn't add the gray stuff (to grayscale pics) or blue and red (to colored pics)...but then it just suddenly started doing this. For no reason. AT ALL. *Hisssssss*
Scanner I use: EPSON Perfection 3170 Photo :P
OS I use: Windows XP Professional
i've played around the colored piece and here's what I dug up
this is the red channel:
(http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/5505/red3lr4.th.gif) (http://img80.imageshack.us/my.php?image=red3lr4.gif)
this is the blue channel:
(http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/5303/blue3ye9.th.gif) (http://img205.imageshack.us/my.php?image=blue3ye9.gif)
this is the green channel:
(http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/5313/green3ls0.th.gif) (http://img82.imageshack.us/my.php?image=green3ls0.gif)
and considering that changing settings or reinstalling the drivers didn't work my conclusion is
:zombiekun2 the red channel of the scanner is fried :zombiekun2
scanners are odd tho... sometimes they show up problems and sometimes they don't. I think it depends on the heat in the sensors. you could try powering up the scanner right before scanning to see what happens. I highly doubt fixing the sensor is something you can have done on repair shops, unfortunately...
I have some scanner problems of my own. I have a scanner that my computer's won't recognize. it won't show up in the system profiler.
It's an HP Scanjet 5200C
Quote from: Jack McSlay on July 22, 2006, 11:58:03 PM:zombiekun2 the red channel of the scanner is fried :zombiekun2
So how could it get fried? :P
And what do you mean by powering it up, Jackie? :P *Is uber-sleepy and cannot use his/her brain*
well the install program made me choose a location so I went out and just copied it to the location. I backed up the old gdi and coppied the new one in and rebooted.
And well it works now... That'll teach me to read the instruction Jeez
*giggles*
thanks Rowne
No problem, TGH, glad to be of service. I honestly figured it was something like that. Windows rarely errors out these days and if it isn't malware (and you were convinced it wasn't so I believed ya) then it's usually down to something more simple and the answer almost always lies in the error and half the time it's due to incompatible files.
You should see some of the GTK hell I've gone through because of all the different GTK applications I use in Windows and many of them expect many different versions of GTK. That's fine of course unless a GTK file finds its way into \Windows\System\ which overrides all the others. Pain the arse, I tells ya. Still worth it though. The way of the computer, I s'pose!
----
Oh, footnote!
It might revert to the way it was when you reboot next, this is because Windows keeps a backup of old files, in some cases, broken old files.
The way around this is to also replace the gdiplus.dll that's in \dllcache within the \system32 directory. That way, even after a reboot it'll keep the good file. Just figured I'd give ya a heads up in case it mysteriously reverts.
Okay, my computer has decided recently that deselecting windows would be fun. (You know, they go inactive and then you have to click on them in order to scroll, etc.)
I've run Microsoft Spyware (no result), and I've dumped my cookies and cache (both Firefox and IE). Is there something else I should be doing. I haven't changed any major settings recently, and this has started happening in the last 36 hours.
Quote from: Damaris on July 23, 2006, 01:39:59 AM
Okay, my computer has decided recently that deselecting windows would be fun. (You know, they go inactive and then you have to click on them in order to scroll, etc.)
I've run Microsoft Spyware (no result), and I've dumped my cookies and cache (both Firefox and IE). Is there something else I should be doing. I haven't changed any major settings recently, and this has started happening in the last 36 hours.
is your windows up to date? (SP2 and the rest of the security updates?)
whatever tools aways handy for window$
http://www.xp-antispy.org/
A-Squared free (http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/download/)
might as well also try ad-aware and spybot
Quote from: Damaris on July 23, 2006, 01:39:59 AM
Okay, my computer has decided recently that deselecting windows would be fun. (You know, they go inactive and then you have to click on them in order to scroll, etc.)
I've run Microsoft Spyware (no result), and I've dumped my cookies and cache (both Firefox and IE). Is there something else I should be doing. I haven't changed any major settings recently, and this has started happening in the last 36 hours.
Microsoft Antispyware is old. If you're gonna be using that kind of program, at least download Windows Defender. I never even looked at it so I still can't guarantee it. I find other programs like counterspy and other such brands work better at getting rid of spyware.
But none of that matters, because if your problem is what it seems like, you need some virus protection. try AVG or if you're so inclined, Kaspersky Anti-Virus or BitDefender.
I'm not sure if it could be that other windows are stealing focus though, but there's a setting hidden somewhere in windows to fix that, too. Can't remember where.
Hope anything I said helps... if it doesn't, then I suck.
I'll just add a bit to this. I'd never rely on just one anti-malware program personally. For spyware and the likes, what's suggested is good, I'd also run AdAware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/) aswell.
I strongly suggest using the utilities found at this site (http://www.diamondcs.com.au/) to help with the ongoing fight against unknown malware.
I would also strongly suggest a good software firewall, Kerio Personal Firewall (http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio.cfm) is always a good choice.
Finally, as for virus scanners, I read the Virus Bulletin magazine which basically, every month, fills a number of PCs up with viruses and then throws scanners at those PCs to see which scanners fall over and which scanners prevail. Here you can find their latest summary (https://www.virusbtn.com/Session-19a0e04e67e5ba4208f780123a2bdbb2/vb100/archive/results?display=summary&) (just use bugmenot for the username and bugmenot for the password to login if you don't feel like creating an account), the virus scanners that seem to do the best according to that are Nod32 and Kaspersky Antivirus. I was a big fan of KAV even before I knew of VirusBtn but Nod32 just pips KAV when it comes to an overall success/fail ratio. Click the antivirus' name for the success/fail ratio history.
Once you have all of that, I'd also say that you should get a hardware firewall too and once you have that, check this services list (http://www.ss64.com/ntsyntax/services.html) to see whether you have any services running in XP which are unknown by that list and if you do, Google them to see if they're bad. If you only have those lists, set them to the defaults defined by that list. If any of them look non-essential, shut them down.
Then and only then will you be just as about as secure as Windows can be, which isn't all that much but it's better than the 'piss in the wind' security that Windows runs with by default.
I'm sorry, I do have the Window's Defender. I just can never remember it's name.
We do use a router, so that helps some with the firewall, and I very rarely, if ever, download anything myself.
Thank you, guys, I'll give all that a try.
ok, we found the virus..and the name escaped me...it started with a ..K i think...
Dad thinks it's a Trojan virus...
a trojan is not a virus, a spy ware is not a virus, a virus is none of those two etc...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malware
note: anti viruses don't (mostly) check for spywares and trojan horses/worms, anti-spyware doesn't check for viruses or worms/trojan horses (also mostly), if someone told you that AdAware checks for anything else than spyware, sorry, no.
And if you're running on windows: keep it up to date! I can't repeat that enought, and yet people still complain about random malwares that use a 1 year old bug that's been fixed for the past 9 months in a security update....
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com
A trojan can be a virus, if it replicates itself. That's what makes a program a virus.
A trojan is considered a virus most of the times because it evades the anti-virus protection while causing malicious intent to the computer.
My recommendation is to run the virus protection once normally, then run it again in safe mode. This way, it cannot escape using any internet programs, and it can't get out of your computer.
Nortin Systemworks is notorious for deleting many spyware, trojans, and virus's using this method, but you have to put the computer in safe mode yourself, otherwise it won't work. I had the same problem on my computer, and this is what I used to rid myself of it.
What virus protection are you running? I haven't used anything else besides Nortin Systemworks, because it rids everything for me: internet clutter, temporary files, viruses, and when you update it keeps you nice and clean.
I still stand by my advice. <.< Simply a virus scanner won't cut it these days, it's just not enough protection. Then again, most people might not be as absurdly paranoid as I am.
The FBI is out to get me, that overweight old lady over there spraying her lawn is really a G-Man in an overweight old lady suit!
Still, I'm guilty of not having setup my new hardware router/firewall yet. I need to do that, I'm feeling all naked without it.
Anyway, these days I find that malware can be very multipurpose. That something can have aspects of being both a trojan and a virus that makes it neither explicitly a trojan or a virus in a mutually exclusive way. However, there is an umbrella term that refers to "All software that's designed to do bad things." That term is 'malware' and that's the one I use these days, whether I'm speaking about spyware, trojans, viruses, worms, keypress recorders or whatever else.
---- Edit
Xze, get me the name of the virus if you can and I'll do my best to find some removal instructions for you. If you can't get the name though, I recommend installing one of the industry leaders in virus-handling, everyone will have their suggestions on that count.
There's one thing I must say though, never, ever rely on free virus scanners such as Grisoft's AVG, they're about as ineffective as not having a scanner in the first place.
Still, if you can get me the name of it, I can do my best to save you from having to buy anything.
I wish they invent something someday...something mentioned in a certain CAPCOM game series (the series being MegaMan Battle Network, aka MMBN)...that way if a virus or other malicious program threatens our computers, we can fight back with Navis...
i wish they would invent Persocoms -_-;
I think the term is PET (Personal Electronic Terminal, or Personal Terminal)...
The problem with that though is that reality gets in the way. Either it would be that viruses still wouldn't be sentient and that the Navis would get bored with rewriting arbitrarily dull an uninteresting malignant code that they find in order to preserve the sanctity of the computer or the virus would be sentient, in which case ...
Could you imagine what a truly sapient virus would do to your machine? It would taunt and tease you in the worst ways possible and if it died, it'd likely set things up so it'd take your entire hard drive with it -- and implant some time release virus on your backups so they'd go poof too.
Artificial Intelligence viruses make me shiver with fear. I hope that if AI ever does happen to come about, it's more like Johnny 5 than that.
Anyone have any idea what causes a computer to make random beeps similar to (but not always the same as) this one through the pc speaker during operation?
http://www.angelfire.com/weird2/aridas/beepy.wav
Speaking blindly, without knowledge of your PC (Mainboard and graphics card in particular) and without being an active PC Expert, this might be one of your components complaining. An example would be the graphics card getting too hot while you game (friend of mine once had that problem).
I'm no specialist there, but I think people could help you better when you post mainboard model and graphics card type here. Also try to narrow down the time when this happens? Does the compy run for a certain while first? Are you running games when it happens? Stuff like that.
No, it's nothing to do with a graphics card or anything. It happens when it's going through POST, and with a couple minutes in between each. It doesn't seem to have any pattern with the beeps, but they do sound like those, just long or short, one or two, a combination of both, nothing meaningful.
Also, it was a brand name. an eMachines emonster 600. That should at least help you find the model of its guts.
I can't access the beepy.wav file, otherwise I'd have a listen. I can't find specifically what motherboard the eMonster uses but for some POST codes, the code is pretty much the same across a variety of BIOS types. It's only in certain instances do they vary and I should still be able to pin it.
From what you've described though, I'd say it's either a video-adaptor error that occurs at bootup or a keyboard error. Is your keyboard USB? Does your computer have troubles recognizing the keyboard at boot? Have you tried unplugging your keyboard and plugging in a new, older keyboard-port style keyboard to see whether it stops beeping?
If it's the keyboard and the keyboard works in Windows, I'd say it's nothing to worry about. It's just a weird keyboard in that case.
Well, it's not a POST beep It's a grinding kind of beep, and it's never consistent. You can't really predict "how" it will beep next. It also just happens at anytime. even when the POST is long gone and I'm messing around in Windows. I can't tell you much about the motherboard, since it's not really marked.
EDIT: Took a bit of a thinking session and uncluttered my messy thoughts. Separated two different things and came up with "Napoli 2"... which is nothing alike -.-;;; Anyway, did some extra thinking and searching under cables and things and found a label with NAPO-2A. i'll leave all the other numbers here just in case.
Mat. no: 110871 1991001
S/N: (4) 304038-5038986
Rev. E
If there are any specifics you need, i'll give em up.
Waitaminute, with the beep you've described, is it like ...
Beep [0.5 seconds] beep [0.5 seconds] beep [0.5 seconds] beep [0.5 seconds] beep [... long pause ...] beep [0.5 seconds]? Is it like that? Where the spaces between the beeps are uniform but when the beeps happen and how many actually occur isn't? And it does this when the machine is actively running after Windows has booted?
I'm just trying to pin down what kind of beeping it is.
If it's the kind I've described then I know exactly what's wrong.
no no no, nothing like that... but there's usually only one or two beeps, sometimes one of the beeps can be really short, sometimes both are long. (always less than a second in length each though) and it sounds kinda like... I dunno, grinding. I'd send you the example but you don't seem to have any contact.
Oh, sorry about that. I'm not antisocial or anything, I just fear the spambots.
wuffxiii ATSIGN gmail PERIOD com
Send it there.
I need to hear this though because logic tells me it's likely to be the CPU overheating but the beeps sound wrong for that. Once I've heard them, I can pin it.
I just received the file.
That is the damned strangest beep I've ever heard. That's definitely not an error beep. That's more like a "Hey, I'm malware and I'm screwing with you!" beep. That or some archaic error code I've never heard of. I've got a friend who's more knowledgeable than me in this area, I'm going to pass the file along to him.
So sit tight and wait for updates, they will occur.
Yeah. I got spyware. My stupid brother HAD to look at pron. I even caught him looking at it. His excuse was "Im trying to fix the computer." Riiiight.... By fixing do you mean look at the ladies without cloths on? I don't think so. Now he downloaded alot of crap that whant me to pay so i can get scans and get rid of the spywares and viruses HE gave me. Dammit! Why couldn't he have gotten limewire or something and done it? Say you look at pron you idiot. Your a guy! Its natural, geeze! Man he is stupider then a mans idiot.
So dose annyone know and good/reliable/trustworthy software I can get that will get off all this crap? If you do, then please help. If your going to tell me a story about a monopoly of microsoft and other people creating these viruses to make you buy software or another pc, then your too late you boring person.
There ya go Boy'o... :)
Ehh malware ho ever thought of this crap sould have ther toes flattend one at a time with a sledge hammer then there legs should be broken ar one inch intervals , then I'd start on there fingers...
*keyboard shorts out from the foam fleck rages of the bunny*
Rowne:
Question for you. How does Avast and Windows Live OneCare fare in that bulletin? I do a lot of tech help for friends, and they have random assortments of such programs. Those two are becoming more common.
Sketchy: Ad-aware and Windows Defender are good ones. Might try Avast (anti-virus software), too.
Quote from: Aridas Soulfire on July 23, 2006, 08:31:11 PM
no no no, nothing like that... but there's usually only one or two beeps, sometimes one of the beeps can be really short, sometimes both are long. (always less than a second in length each though) and it sounds kinda like... I dunno, grinding. I'd send you the example but you don't seem to have any contact.
Just hopping back in because I had the weirdest thought. Is it maybe possible that you hooked up the PC Speaker to the HDD Activity Light? Grinding beeps at odd times including boot-up sounds a bit like the rhythm at which the activity light flickers. Yes, it's possibly the freakiest theory this thread is ever going to see, but it just struck me. In the worst case, you guys got something to laugh about ^^;
Unfortunately, I can't think of a good way to test it right now (unless you got the motherboard manual handy or got a program that is supposed to access the PC Speaker to play a melody or so). [EDIT]Oh, duh. Of course there's an easy test for at least one aspect. Does the HDD Activity Light work?[/EDIT]
Just tossing it in because it also doesn't sound like a regular error beep to me (The download works, but you have to copy and paste the URL since it's hotlink-protected). Maybe Rowne comes back with a better guess (I sure hope so, considering that my guess is about as absurd as it gets ;)). Let's hope and see o.o
as for anti-virus, whatever you peeps do, stay very away from AVG!!! that piece of crap updates once an eternity, the resident shield hardly works and often it detects virus and is unable to remove it.
Quote from: Dakata on July 23, 2006, 12:05:27 AM
Quote from: Jack McSlay on July 22, 2006, 11:58:03 PM:zombiekun2 the red channel of the scanner is fried :zombiekun2
So how could it get fried? :P
And what do you mean by powering it up, Jackie? :P *Is uber-sleepy and cannot use his/her brain*
just remove the power plug and put it back right before scanning. it sometimes help because the scanner is not as hot.
and scanner stuff often fry, because they simply wear out. Scanners aren't quite the most durable pieces of hardware around.
Quote from: Sid on July 24, 2006, 09:46:13 AM
Quote from: Aridas Soulfire on July 23, 2006, 08:31:11 PM
no no no, nothing like that... but there's usually only one or two beeps, sometimes one of the beeps can be really short, sometimes both are long. (always less than a second in length each though) and it sounds kinda like... I dunno, grinding. I'd send you the example but you don't seem to have any contact.
Just hopping back in because I had the weirdest thought. Is it maybe possible that you hooked up the PC Speaker to the HDD Activity Light? Grinding beeps at odd times including boot-up sounds a bit like the rhythm at which the activity light flickers. Yes, it's possibly the freakiest theory this thread is ever going to see, but it just struck me. In the worst case, you guys got something to laugh about ^^;
Unfortunately, I can't think of a good way to test it right now (unless you got the motherboard manual handy or got a program that is supposed to access the PC Speaker to play a melody or so). [EDIT]Oh, duh. Of course there's an easy test for at least one aspect. Does the HDD Activity Light work?[/EDIT]
Just tossing it in because it also doesn't sound like a regular error beep to me (The download works, but you have to copy and paste the URL since it's hotlink-protected). Maybe Rowne comes back with a better guess (I sure hope so, considering that my guess is about as absurd as it gets ;)). Let's hope and see o.o
I'll accept that if you have an explanation for the PC speaker cable to magically jump out of its connector, change shape, and share the HDD light, and actually make beeps. As I said, it comes on at only semi-predictable times. Not HD activity. The plug itself is one big plug, so it only fits one way (rather than everything being separated. Keeps morons from plugging in the wrong things in the wrong way and place despite all the labels.)
Also, it only just happened all of a sudden. I had left the computer at school (as I've done plenty of times when being a filthy software pirate) and had it on, since... well... Every single computer in the school is always left on anyway. So, when I came back in the next day, the kids and teachers told me it had been beeping like that. It doesn't LOOK like anything's changed, and everything's working as it should, so I don't know.
TGH: As an ardent defender of machines, I'd have to agree with you. Although in most cases, these people simply need their computers taken from them and they need to be placed in rehab. It often stems from them being so socially inept, they hate the World at large and they'd do anything to hurt it. The malware writer is the poor man's Mad Scientist, where they don't have the balls, brains or motivation to do any better in their plans for conquest.
In the end, I feel pity for them more than I feel anything else because if this is what their life accomplishments account to, it's really very sad. I can't hate them because they probably live shitty enough lives as it is.
Then there are the big corporations of course that write spyware and rootkits, folks like Sony and those behind StarForce. When it comes to those guys, I think they should be stripped of their job and moneys and made homeless for a while, that'll set them straight. I think they're a bigger problem than the virus writers personally because they do their best to keep their viruses away from the antivirus scanners and if you ask me, stuff like StarForce is as bad a form of malware as malware that's designed to be malware.
Sorry, didn't mean to go off on a tangent there, just airing some thoughts.
Cvstos: I can't check exactly because their archive seems to be temporarily offline but I know Avast fairs badly. I remember it had something like (not exact numbers) 23 fails, 3 successes and 8 no submits. This is why I worry when people use these free scanners, sure they're free but people would have as much success placing a wet sponge atop their computer cases and claiming that that was their anti-malware defense mechanism.
I'm not sure about OneCare but if it's free I can't imagine it fairs much better if it's another free one. The thing is, if they're not bringing in a cashflow in order to hire a large staff to keep plugging away at these viruses, they're not likely to have very up to date virus signatures, they're only likely to steal them from other scanners which've recently updated. That means that they'll always be behind the pack.
Like I said though, I can't say anything conclusively about OneCare until I can check, so I'll let you know when the archive's back up.
As for Windows Defender, I've learned to like that program. It considers StarForce to be spyware and asks before installing it. This is a very, very, very good thing. I recently proved to their company that I can force their software to bluescreen even when nothing is tampering with or even directly interacting with their drivers or games, even outside of the game itself when StarForce shouldn't be doing anything and I proved conclusively it was their drivers doing too. I still haven't had a response off them yet, they like ignoring people who've found genuine evidence to support the claims against their software.
I recommend that everyone should have Windows Defender installed if only as an easy front-line defense against StarForce.
Beeps: I'm going to pass those onto a knowledgeable friend of mine as soon as I can get hold of him. I'm with Sid though, not on the HDD stuff, not so sure about that but about the beeps being the strangest bloody thing ever. I've never heard a PC beep like that in my life and I've had/worked with many, many PCs.
Aridas, I know it's not what you want to hear but I'm still 90 per cent convinced that it's unknown (and thus not easily detectable) malware, possibly even something that a friend or someone you know has written up to screw with you. It just sounds too ... alien to be normal. If my friend doesn't recognize it, I'm going to have to recommend we go through your system, active processes, services and so on to see if we can find anything that shouldn't be there.
Quote from: Aridas Soulfire on July 24, 2006, 11:35:30 AM
Quote from: Sid on July 24, 2006, 09:46:13 AM
Just hopping back in because I had the weirdest thought. Is it maybe possible that you hooked up the PC Speaker to the HDD Activity Light? Grinding beeps at odd times including boot-up sounds a bit like the rhythm at which the activity light flickers. Yes, it's possibly the freakiest theory this thread is ever going to see, but it just struck me. In the worst case, you guys got something to laugh about ^^;
I'll accept that if you have an explanation for the PC speaker cable to magically jump out of its connector, change shape, and share the HDD light, and actually make beeps. As I said, it comes on at only semi-predictable times. Not HD activity. The plug itself is one big plug, so it only fits one way (rather than everything being separated. Keeps morons from plugging in the wrong things in the wrong way and place despite all the labels.)
Darn, I need one of those all-in-one plugs. I always have to fiddle with a flashlight and squint at all the labels while also keeping the manual nearby. Okay, since you so thoroughly managed to rule out this absurd option, I'm pretty much back in the "No Idea" land.
Maybe a "friend" installed some gag program on your comp and included it in one of the startup files (Startup Folder, Registry, or maybe even the Autoexec.bat (if that actually stays in effect when Windows is up and running))? The "I left it unguarded" bit brings up all my alarm bells somehow.
Only thing somehow speaking against it would be that this also happens during POST. Very, VERY odd indeed. O_o
EDIT: Darn, Modify-Ninja'd by Rowne. Excuse the potential redundancy :P
MORE EDIT: *curses* Memo to self: Write a quick fix to avoid having crippled quotes. *fixes quote manually*
[SARCASM]
Rowne, you should know that everybody speaking against StarForce is a member of an organized Pirate Ring. StarForce is the best software protection that never produces errors on computers. Ever. So your "proof" is of course absurd and flawed by design. I bet it's so silly that it doesn't even deserve an answer from them. Oh, and only those filthy mafia pirates spread lies about StarForce producing errors in the vain hope that producers abandon it.
[/SARCASM]
:3
Jokes and propaganda talk aside, I occasionally go to the SF Forums and read a few heated debates with the Admins there when I need a good laugh. :D
Quote from: Sid on July 24, 2006, 11:59:09 AM[SARCASM]
Rowne, you should know that everybody speaking against StarForce is a member of an organized Pirate Ring. StarForce is the best software protection that never produces errors on computers. Ever. So your "proof" is of course absurd and flawed by design. I bet it's so silly that it doesn't even deserve an answer from them. Oh, and only those filthy mafia pirates spread lies about StarForce producing errors in the vain hope that producers abandon it.
[/SARCASM]
Ai keell ju-- oh, right, sarcasm. You were only making fun of that kind of person. *Cough.* Okay. Sorry, I find that my anti-apologist defenses act up and with all my exposure to those kinds of people, I'm even having trouble distinguishing between humourous and genuine statements. I could weep openly, weep I tell you, weep!
I agree with you though, the forums are an awful place but the admins aren't the worst of them, the worst are the actual users who're clueless even in the face of real evidence. These people are called apologists.
Some people think the lowest form of life is the telemarketer, I disagree, it's the apologist!
Quote from: Rowne on July 24, 2006, 12:06:47 PM
Quote from: Sid on July 24, 2006, 11:59:09 AM[SARCASM]
Rowne, you should know that everybody speaking against StarForce is a member of an organized Pirate Ring. StarForce is the best software protection that never produces errors on computers. Ever. So your "proof" is of course absurd and flawed by design. I bet it's so silly that it doesn't even deserve an answer from them. Oh, and only those filthy mafia pirates spread lies about StarForce producing errors in the vain hope that producers abandon it.
[/SARCASM]
Ai keell ju-- oh, right, sarcasm. You were only making fun of that kind of person. *Cough.* Okay. Sorry, I find that my anti-apologist defenses act up and with all my exposure to those kinds of people, I'm even having trouble distinguishing between humourous and genuine statements. I could weep openly, weep I tell you, weep!
Sorry about that ^^;
I would've tried to go obviously over the top to avoid silly Sarcasm-Tags, but I came up empty. With some of the official SF Statements out there, it's hard to come up with a weirder parody. ^^;;;
And yes, apologists suck. They think that The Corporation is right and good because The Goverment would never ever never allow them to do Bad Stuff. >_>;;;
Combined with the degree of "WTF?" the StarForce problem reports induce, it's actually somewhat hard to believe that this isn't some sort of bizarre campaign to hurt the "poor, poor SF dudes". I remember I didn't believe the first report about it I happened to read. But then the reports came in from everywhere... even from my friends... D:
So I guess that StarForce has a fair share of apologists. =/
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4768254
Is this a good product? i found adaware.
I'm going to try and run it without anything plugged in, so that it basically goes nowhere. Just have the motherboard powered with minimal required hardware and see if it continues to beep. Only thing is, I don't remember much of what can't be in a computer and still have it "run". I'd go by experience and say I need the processor...
EDIT + PROBLEM FOUND: For some reason, as long as the hard drive is powered, AKA, plugged into the power supply, the computer will beep like that. The floppy and DVD-ROM drives work just fine, even if I switch the cables they're using (AKA unplugging the floppy or plugging the power cable that was on the hard drive into the CD drive).
It's not the hard drive itself, as I've replaced it before on account of having misplaced the old one when I gutted it. So, the problem remains, what makes the thing decide to beep? During my steady unplugging of each bit of hardware, I did notice the beeps vary a little. One time, it was a simple quick "beepbeep", though still "vibrating" like that. The regular beeps that are supposed to happen sound normal, of course.
Sid: It wasn't too bad at first, granted. I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt so I kept my trap shut and didn't say anything either way. Then reports came in that provided evidence that StarForce did cause problems, that numerous people were seeing the same problems and further, that some folks (including myself) could prove without shadow of a doubt that the software was highly unstable and responsible for a good deal of inexplicable blue screens.
It only became bad after all this evidence became available because flying in the face of direct evidence and more proof than anyone should sanely need, the company and the apologists still ignored the fact that StarForce is very, very badly coded. Not only that but generally speaking, it's not that hard to crack if you know where to look. So it's a completely ineffectual system.
You know what I find funny? That companies that don't bother to protect their software (Stardock) and companies that use more benign and obvious protection systems (Valve) have greater commercial success than those that do. In fact, Ubi was so inclined to see the wisdom of this that some 30-odd of their upcoming games they were going to use StarForce on, they pulled and decided not to. They've broken their contract with Protection Technology (the StarForce developers) even due to this realization.
I just wish companies would get used to the idea that protection is utterly pointless and the more arcane, system-controlling and 'Trusted Computing (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/can-you-trust.html)'-like they make their protection systems, the more they're going to alienate people.
Even companies that open source their products but keep their media licensed (a la Deadly Rooms of Death by Caravel) enjoy a nice slice of corporate success simply because two sets of people will buy the game, those that enjoy the game and those that support their stance. I bought their latest game because I happen to fall into both of those camps.
Spiderweb Software even enjoy a deal of commercial success because the only lockout they use on their software is a serial and they provide huge, shareware-like demos of their works. Personally I also own just about every Spiderweb Software game too.
I wish all companies like that, if all companies were, systems like StarForce wouldn't exist.
Rant over ... and I'm actually more airing my thoughts than directly replying here. <.<
Sketchy: You don't need to buy it, a perfectly workable (and legal) free version can be found at this location (http://www.download.com/3405-8022-5153545.html?part=dl-ad-aware&subj=dl&tag=top5=).
Aridas: Ooooh, helpful!
And I have a hunch! Ohhyes.
Could you list your computer components and the wattage of your power supply? Like, are you running a 250W or somesuch?
I'm not sure it matters what components I had, since I pretty much stripped the thing down to isolate the problem, leaving only the drive, 600 MHz P3, and 128MB of RAM in it.
The PSU says 120W output, but I've NEVER had a problem with it before. The PSU is designed a certain way (the psu's case is thinner and the fan is on the inside, outside of the PSU, there are only 3 screws and they're put in a non-standard position) so changing it is not an option.
I'll still check with said friend but I have this nagging feeling that aside from it being malware (which seems less likely now), it could also be down to a failing power supply. Now the thing is, that wouldn't stop your computer from working but in some cases, if certain components aren't getting a steady voltage, the computer will complain, functional or not. It might be that every now and then, the PSU is becoming faulty and cutting out, not enough to cause the PC to shut down but enough to cause the voltages to vary enough to make the machine complain.
It's just a theory, anyway and those are the best I have to work with until I've gotten a more professional opinion on the matter (which I will soon).
another HUGE problem...
My printer will NOT print!! ANYTHING!! it's all hooked up, full of ink, but it won't print! it says it's printing, but it isn't!! nothing's coming out!!
Our Printer/Scanner is an EPSON stylus CX5400 if that'll help any..
Actually OneCare is from Microsoft, and isn't free (though it is cheaper than most, but if anyone can pull off cheaper for that it's Redmond itself). It's also very new. Thank you for this information!
I was having trouble with the website recently, too, so I'm not that surprised you're having difficulty. I was hoping you'd fare better than me on that front, but I guess it's not just my weak wireless signal here.
Cvstos: Yeah, the thing is, with Microsoft their software is very hit and miss (unlike their hardware, which they frequently do a good job of, their original professional natural keyboards were the best I used and the X-Box 360 has a great joypad). Sometimes they'll make something good [such as Defender] and sometimes they'll make something that's so bad you might aswell not run it in the first place because it'll likely be more of a hinderance than a genuine protection tool [such as Windows Firewall].
That's why you can't really trust or dismiss Microsoft out of hand, I find that everything with them has to be taken on a case to case basis. I'll check OneCare for you as soon as their archives are back up and good or bad, I'll report back to you, I'll pull down the test history in fact and that of the scanners I use most so you can see for comparison.
Xze: Unfortunately, I know next to nothing about printers. One thing you can do though is to check your Services (Start > Run > services.msc) and make sure that all the printer related services found in this list (http://www.ss64.com/ntsyntax/services.html) are set to what the list says they should be. If stuff like the print spooler and so on are disabled, then that's your problem.
Aside from that, can you find the latest drivers for your model of printer and have you tried upgrading to the latest drivers? If you can't find those drivers, I'll try and help out, see if I can.
---- Results!
Okay, VirusBulletin's archives are back up and I'm in, okay ... looking over their archives, here are the current standings for a lot of the scanners mentioned.
Microsoft OneCare
1 Success
0 Failiure
45 No Entry
Eset Nod32
38 Success
3 Failiure
5 No Entry
Grisoft AVG
13 Success
21 Failiure
12 No Entry
Kaspersky Anti-Virus
33 Success
13 Failiure
0 No Entry
Symantec AntiVirus
33 Success
6 Failiure
7 No Entry
Alwil avast!
18 Success
19 Failiure
9 No Entry
McAfee VirusScan
26 Success
18 Failiure
2 No Entry
Make of those scores what you will. If anyone wants me to pull any more of them from the site, let me know.
Here's the source site for those that want to see it (https://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archive/results?display=summary) (Login: bugmenot bugmenot).
Rowne: You're 100% right about Microsoft on that aspect (hardware and security tools). Looks like OneCare did ok it's first time in. We'll need to wait and see for it's track record (new product).
Xze-Xze: Make sure everything is absolutely plugged in. Power Outlet, Cable to the computer, everything.
If that isn't the case, then my recommendation is unplug everything, shut down the computer, replug, then turn back on. By that time, it should recognize the printer, and print whatever you need.
Quote from: Xze-Xze on July 24, 2006, 11:23:29 PM
another HUGE problem...
My printer will NOT print!! ANYTHING!! it's all hooked up, full of ink, but it won't print! it says it's printing, but it isn't!! nothing's coming out!!
Our Printer/Scanner is an EPSON stylus CX5400 if that'll help any..
Quote from: Nex on July 25, 2006, 11:38:44 AM
Xze-Xze: Make sure everything is absolutely plugged in. Power Outlet, Cable to the computer, everything.
If that isn't the case, then my recommendation is unplug everything, shut down the computer, replug, then turn back on. By that time, it should recognize the printer, and print whatever you need.
Let's hope for Xze-Xze's sake your right Nex.
Because I had a similar problem back at the first of the year with my Epson stylus CX4600 (except for the scanner problem only the printing issue).
In my situation I had it happen to me twice, the first time I had my printer off and my portable hard drive plugged into a spare USB port and working on something. I then turn my printer on and get ready to print, but when I look at the printed page it was all in magenta nothing else only magenta.
I did the trouble shooting (yeah big help it was :rolleyes) did the print head cleaning and alignment, even uninstalled the printer and it still printed in magenta. It ended up about three days later clearing up and printing right.
The second time it did this was again when I was working with my portable hard drive. I was about to hit the printers power on when I caught myself and disconnected my portable hard drive. Once it was disconnected I turned the printer on and guess what... No not magenta, Cyan. So I went through the same steps of print head cleaning, aligning, and uninstalling , even changed the ink twice and the only change was it went from cyan to nothing. It would go through the actions of printing but wouldn't print. I even e-mailed Epson about the problem and all they could say was "Buy more ink", even after I told them "Did it, done it, didn't work." :compbash
In the end I ended up having to buy another printer.
Also when it happened the second time it was a week before I had to move out of my house for a while and the printer was unplugged for a day during the move.
I've just got a question.
I thought about getting more RAM for my computer. Where can I look up how much RAM it can handle?
Also: Will I have to change any settings or just plug it in?
RAM is a beautiful thing! You can tweak the system settings to get the most out of speed and certain settings, but for the most part all you REALLY need to do is find the right kind of RAM and plug it right in.
http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/
Crucial makes RAM. They have that scanner there, it looks at your system and motherboard for you and tells you how many slots you have (and which are empty and being used) and then advises you a type of RAM to buy. DDR2, DDR, SDRAM (older computers), RDRAM (hopefully not), etc etc.
EDIT: It also tells you what kind of video card you have... Don't worry, that has nothing to do with RAM. Didn't want you to get confused.
I had to crack out the laptop because my main system (low end five year old e-machines 5500 windows XP) kicks me to this other clockwork mansion from a little over a month ago(jul. 7th) everytime I try and reach the current clockwork mansion. I've tried deleting the cookies on the other computer along with temporary internet files. The problem started at around 5:00 PST when I was attempting to comment on shadrock's art thread. Any suggestions would be helpful. :B
Hm, on this occasion, Netami and I think alike. I would've recommended Crucial's system identifier thingydoofer and their actual RAM too, I've been a fan of Crucial for years, just like I've been a fan of Seagate drives (with the latter I'd say that's because I have two Seagate drives that are seven years old and as healthy as the day I bought 'em). I suppose when one has something that works and the price is reasonable, it's logical to stick with it.
GT: What browser are you using? I'm not going to push propoganda on you, it's just that about two years back, a friend of mine had exactly the same problem, I'm trying to pin whether the source is the same or not.
Quote from: Rowne on July 26, 2006, 10:19:43 PM
GT: What browser are you using? I'm not going to push propoganda on you, it's just that about two years back, a friend of mine had exactly the same problem, I'm trying to pin whether the source is the same or not.
I use Internet Explorer, I have firefox, but I rarely use it unless I'm doing webpages.
Yeah, I figured. He used Internet Explorer too. The thing is, it's actually hard to get the cache cleaned when that happens, it's a bug. Chances are you'll either have to delete the contents of 'Temporary Internet Files' (there's actually a directory named that which contains the cache files) from DOS or another OS (Windows is IE, as soon as XP boots, IE is in memory, so that's a problem) or you'll have to snag a third-party program which boasts being able to definitely clear out the cache.
If you're using IE though because you find Firefox to be too big for what you want a browser to do, have you tried K-Meleon? K-M is a very speedy loader (faster than Fx) and it's lighter on resources than Fx too. I use Fx myself because ... yanno, extensions but if light-weight is what you're after, try K-Meleon.
If you don't want another browser (and that's your choice), simply try what I've mentioned above.
(Edited to add a bit more info.)
The great thing about Microsoft is that it's software can fail in such wonderful ways. For some odd reason, Helpsvc.exe likes to take up 100% CPU and about a gig of RAM when it sometimes pops up. Ahh, Microsoft.
Heh, agreed Bill. I just don't like forcing propoganda on people, it's their choice what they use. If a person prefers IE for whatever reason then so be it. Just as you said though, it can fail in truly absurd ways, such as the cache being locked out and unclearable.
That's why said friend made the jump from IE to Fx actually, he'd had enough of the fatal bugs. *Shrug.*
For some people though, Fx is just too big to serve as a browsing application, that's why I wish K-Meleon was more known.
I use Firefox for the tabs, and the large user base. When IE7 comes out of beta, I likely will switch over.
Yeah, I doubt I'll switch to IE7, I'm too much of an advocate of Free software, ActiveX scares the hell out of me and with Slogger, I can log the internet (and I continue to do so). I am, however, happy that Microsoft is finally putting out a decent browser product, it's about bloody time and I can certainly understand the desire to switch over to it.
GT: If you need help booting into DOS and clearing out that directory, let me know, I can point you at a site that has boot disk images and if we work together (so I can get some info off you), I can write you up a batch file to wipe the contents of that folder out. I won't need anything personal for it, though.
Thanks. :mowsmile
Oddly enough, I would have pointed out crucial as well.
Only not the system scanner, since it never works on linux, and hence I haven't used it. Usually I supply the make and model of the motherboard or the system, and it runs from there. Usually, however, I can tell you how much ram is in, and how many slots are used, and often the max ram that will work... just not which type, precisely, you have to buy. :-)
Crucial's definitely been a good make to use over the years, I've tried a number of RAM manufacturers over the years and I've never had a dead or bad stick from crucial, nor have I had a stick go bad in a short amount of time, despite the fact that my computer is passively cooled. I suppose this is why I like them.
There are some companies whose RAM can't stand more than a week or two in my machine, so I always have to find hardware built of sterner stuff.
As for the identification thingydoofer, whilst it isn't really all that helpful to the more hardcore hardware builders out there, it can be helpful to the neophytes who're just starting out and need that kind of information and that's exactly the kind of service it provides, a person can go there, follow the instructions and buy their RAM with confidence.
If only all hardware manufacturers had stuff like that on their websites.
I've never had issues with any RAM I've ever purchased, so I dont have a favorite besides the fastest for the cheapest. I love the idea of a green little rectangle fitting into your computer and making it go faster. Brilliant.
Oh, I have. Kingston RAM for example has been notoriously bad when it comes to farting out in a less temperate environment. Like I said though, most people don't put their hardware through burn like I do, I really find out what temps hardware can take. Usually, it's funny what temperatures most hardware can take if it's built well. Heat is the ultimate decider between good/bad hardware.
RAM is grand though, not so long ago I upgraded from 512MeB to 3GiB and my reaction was something along the lines of "Buh?". Primarily because half hour loading times in Unreal Tournament 2006, City of Heroes, Everquest II and so on became 30 seconds and less. Grand.
I use 1 GB of RAM, and it works well enough for me. My only problem is internet speed. Wireless broadband sucks, don't ever get it.
Rowne:
I upgraded form 1GB to 2GB and saw similar results. My score in the HL2: Lost Coast demo went from 5fps to 50fps (full HDR), and I can now play Generals with Hard 7 AIs in skirmish with full resolution and detail without worry too much about slowdown. It still does slow down somewhat, but not to .3fps like before.
And you're right about about Kingston and Crucial. The only two brands of RAM I'll use in my PC are Crucial and Corsair. I've heard good things about Patriot, but... can't say from personal experience. Are you using entirely passive cooling in the whole system?
I've been meaning to say for a while that I really quite like the avatar you have there. Harper's always been the best of the televised Sci-fi engineers (and that includes Firefly), primarily because he's an amusing little ferrety-guy who never runs out of bad jokes or the wrong thing to say at the wrong time.
They did a great job with Harper's character in Andromeda. Then again, I liked that show full stop. I had good expectations even when I first heard of it and spotted Captain Haircut (Kevin Sorbo, going from Hercules to Dylan Hunt).
That aside, not entirely, no. I do have two fans sitting around in there that actively do something but it's mostly passively cooled. I learned early on and through much research what kinds and types of hardware are butch enough to take a certain level of burn.
In fact, I think I'll offer up a general rundown of my PC's innards.
To mention them again, Seagate drives amaze me. I've had two Seagate drives now for six/seven years and I have them in quietdrive enclosures too, which silences their noise whilst increasing their base operating temps and they haven't failed on me. Not a single bad sector.
I've also learned that AMD processors tend to stand burn better than Intel ones do (from research and personal experience), AMD procs can run at hotter temps and better voltages usually and they handle it well, that's why I've stuck with them.
Graphics cards? I've always relied on Sapphire, truth be told, at least for as long as I've known about them. They make a good ATi card and their cards are designed to work in a passively cooled environment.
As for my motherboard, it's an ASUS, I can't say much about their PR or customer relation skills (lots of horror stories there) but their hardware's good.
Finally, possibly the most important thing is my case, I use one of these efficient little buggers: Antec P180 Series (http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/cases/p180).
My PC is quieter than my Playstation 2 as is and that's a wonderful, wonderful thing. I find that the need to supercool hardware is usually just an excuse to deal with poorly built hardware.
Andromeda is easily one of my favorite shows. It's the only long-running series that I have on DVD in it's entirety (all 5 seasons, every episode).
I found this avatar and other Andromeda avatars while surfing the 'net - I can't take creation credit. I found them over at Andromeda web. This one's definitely my favorite, and Harper is definitely my favorite character in the show (followed by Andromeda herself). And you have to love lines like these:
Harper: Oh great, in lieu of a parachute, here's a hanky!
Abel: You must be the engineer.
Harper: Why? Because I'm the short guy with the sense of humour, the wry wit? Huh? Because I'm so freakin' amiable with the careless demeanor? Is that it?
Abel: Well, that – and the tools.
Harper: Yeah, well, I don't feel very lucky. In fact, I feel like a big old can of unluck that's just about to open up on someone.
Tyr: Believe me, boy, Elssbett holds you in utter contempt.
Harper: I know. She's hot, and she's a good judge of character. So what if she holds me in utter contempt? At least she's thinking of me.
Harper: The Andromeda, like any other ship, runs on hydrogen and anti-protons, or AP. The hydrogen combines with the AP in controlled reactions to create anti-matter/matter reactions, or matter/anti-matter reactions, either way, it makes no matter, but what it does make is power, for the ship, a few hundred megawatts. Most of the power is used to power the GFG, which reduces the effective mass to just under a kilogram. A smaller chunk of power is used to accelerate more hydrogen in a dozen magnetoplasma dynamic drives, which give it thrust. A thrust of a half million Newtons or so. So, when you're pushing a kilogram with a half-million Newtons of thrust, it's a good idea to keep one hand on your valuables, 'cause you never know when you just might run straight into some two-faced lying jerk.
Harper: "I'm sorry Captain Hunt has stepped away from his desk. Please leave a message after the tone from the funny little guy...beep"
Anyway, I'm impressed you got away with as much passive cooling as you have. Personally I don't care quite as much how much noise my system makes, so long as it fades into the background when something else, like my music, starts up. It would be intolerable for it to be super-loud, but it takes a lot to get me irritated from it. I care more about the system being cool and stable than I do about quiet. I've had too many systems that encountered problems from heat. I do hope to get a full tower case soon, as the mid-tower I have now is too crowded for good airflow. But it's still doing much better than my previous systems.
Larger case, new power supply, probably a Core 2 Duo and some kind of crazy GeForce8-series (or whatever it'll be called) graphics card. I want to do the build late this year or early next to prepare for C&C 3. (Yep. C&C addict here.)
If I do build a Core 2 Duo system, it'll be strange. I've built AMD systems exclusively since the K-6 2. But the Core 2 is winning in benchmark after benchmark, and if nForce 5 boards come out for it the CPU will be very tempting.
There's no doubt really that that show had great writers. Then again, I have to consider just about any show that can actually raise a chuckle out of me worthy of that merit but there're actually surprisingly few that can. That's mostly because I still operate on British wit and a lot of American humourisms just don't click with me but bold-faced sarcasm can usually cross the divide. And Harper's good at that.
As for my passive cooling, well ... let's just say that I've seen a number of components die in my time, it took me a while before I found a set of products that really work well in heat. That's the problem, really. Many hardware manufacturers design their hardware under the assumption that the buyer will have a jet engine sitting inside their case (quite literally). For this reason, more and more companies are overclocking their cards and hardware by default. That's bad and something that one really needs to be wary of.
It hasn't been an easy road to obtaining the ultimate passively cooled PC but I have hearing issues, my ears are way too sensitive and when loud noise upsets them, I get tinitus and when I get tinitus, I get all sorts of fun stuff happening. So I don't much care for that. It was either really find a PC that could stand up to the heat or lose my sanity. I prefer the former!
It is a hard thing to do though, yeah and costly. Very costly.
Your plans sound good to me anyway. The most important part with a case isd airflow, that cannot be stressed. A PC might seem to need four fans in some cases where it simply needs two, purely because the exhaust fan is the wrong way around (I've seen a few machines like that). If you have a case though that's designed to provide good airflow, then you could likely get away with a four-fan system with just about any hardware, even the crotchety stuff.
Then there's always water-cooling but water-cooling still scares me.
As for the Core/GeForce8 lineup, I can't say I wouldn't be jealous, I would. The primary reason I dismiss Intel for my own building purposes is that the chips don't like heat as much as AMD chips do, they generally have lower die temps. That and AMD chips have the whole 'cool and quiet' system going for them. I think that's why I've stuck with AMD all these years. If Intel ever manage to match AMD's average heat tolerance though, I'll be one of the first to jump on the Core boat because those processors are downright tasty.
Isn't the new core 2 duo thing going to run cooler and with less power or something? I would've guessed something like that was already a boost in the way of whatever you plan to do since the regular temperature is lower to begin with...
In all honesty, I haven't done much research into their newest line. I simply assumed that Intel would be following old traditions. I'll look into it, thanks for the heads up.
Rowne:
The Core 2 Duos use a lot less power than the AM2/939 AMD processors. Other than the top-of-the-line Core 2, they're all 65W CPUs. Tom's Hardware (http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/07/14/core2_duo_knocks_out_athlon_64/page3.html)
And water cooling scares me, too. Too complicated, too risky.
Alright, let me toss in a thoroughly complex series of issues for you guys to mull over.
The core issue is that due to a virus removal gone horribly wrong, my computer is permanently stuck in Safe Mode, and I have to Activate windows in order to log in and change it out of Safe Mode, but you can't Activate while in Safe Mode, so I'm in a catch 22.
The solution I've been given to this is to use my lovely, $200 Windows disk to overwrite the MBR, thus removing the Safe Mode boot command from the BOOT.INI file. While I don't know what other effects this will have, if any, it's my only real choice, so that's fine. However...
Secondary issue one is that my CD-ROM will not read the disk. Every other computer in this apartment reads it fine, but this one cannot read any disks. It shows up on the boot list, but it may as well be empty. The fact that I know this is pure fluke, because...
Secondary issue two. My graphics card will not display anything on the screen. It's a PCI-E Verto GeForce 6800 GS. It's worked for four months, and now it will not work. Except for if I unplug the PCI-E power plug. But I don't think that's a good idea, so I'm not doing that. So, to do list: Get graphics card back up in working order, get CD-ROM back in working order, rewrite boot commands so I can log on in normal mode and activate Windows, thus reclaiming my delicious computational goodness.
I'm inclined to say that the boot.ini issues may be triggering the other issues - Safe Mode disables a lot of things.
However, boot.ini is fairly easy to edit using any handy notepad. The only problem comes wiht saving it, and, IIRC (I don't run windows much) later revisions of windows allow you to overwrite things without needing anything more than a click on an approval dialog. Earlier ones you had to open up a command prompt (probably hidden in XP) and run attrib on the file - attrib file will show you the current settings, probably Read only, System, so "attrib -r -s boot.ini" will remove the settings so you can edit it. "attrib +r +s boot.ini" will put them back again once you're done.
Make sense?
It makes sense, but you may be missing the problem - I cannot get into anything. I can't even log in. It boots in safe mode, and if I try to log in, it says I have to activate, and logs me out. I don't have another computer I can toss the drive into to browse the files and edit the INI on.
The Bootdisk page (http://www.bootdisk.com/) will likely help you find a solution that will allow you to boot into a clean environment. If you have a FAT-based file system, I strongly recommend that you use one of the DOS bootdisks and lock the disk to read-only, that way you have a selection of files that whatever viruses remain on your system cannot touch.
If you can use one of those boot-disks then perhaps I can write you up a batch file to include on it that would perform the nessescary attrib changes before opening the file in an ASCII editor, I believe even Windows Recovery Mode comes with one of those (Edit hopefully, I'd have to do some research).
That's the best I can think of. Once you're back into Windows, I strongly recommend you get a top of the line, industrial strength virus scanner to run through your system, check out the rest of this thread for suggestions but usually Nod32 and Kaspersky Anti-Virus are the best.
Other than that, I'm not sure what advice I can give.
---- Edit
Admittedly, the boot-disk solution assumes that you have another PC at hand but since you've likely got a family member or a friend who'd help you make a bootdisk from that site, I don't see that that would be too much of a problem.
Yeah, I've come to the realization that while it's got fancy little things, AVG doesn't do much - I knew about the virus in the first place because it started squealing at me, along with Teatimer, but because it was executing itself, nothing short of rebooting in safe mode would halt it. I'll try to snag one of those two.
As for the boot disks; The website seems more geared towards CD-ROM boot disks, of which I already have one (The Windows boot disk). The problem is, without a working CD-ROM or, more importantly, any sort of output from my computer to know what it's doing, I can't implement any sort of boot CD, or make any decisions on a floppy-booted program.
...And wheeling this in a totally different direction for but a moment, would you happen to be the Rowne that worked on WoW addons for a while? >>
Ah, the problem is really that you need a clean environment to work from, something that whatever malware you still have can't write to and therefore destroy. Perhaps you could pick up a cheapie drive that the BIOS recognizes and that way we could use your Windows CD? We could use the Recovery Mode of that to change the Boot.ini.
Further, if you can find out what kind of malware you have, if it's more trojan/worm-like, it'll be very vulnerable in that environment and it's doubtful it'll be able to do anything to protect itself. So you could delete all its files and then boot into Windows with confidence, knowing that you're not still infected.
I'd honestly recommend that when you do have your system up and running again, you look through the thread and grab not only a top of the range scanner (which is the bare essentials) but all the other things that've been talked about too. It's all good stuff and great to protect you from the ravages of the internet. That and you should never use Internet Explorer unless you have a choice, ActiveX is an evil thing. Firefox with NoScript or K-Meleon is the way to go.
As for being the same Rowne, yes, it's me. My attitude is different here though because I'm surrounded by more intelligent people. Back there, I was very cynical, the Counterstrike level of perspicacity that Warcraft suffers from had left me very depressed and bitter, I was frequently facetious and silly even and it was unbelievable how many people took me seriously. Truly unbelievable.
If you want my advice; if you're irritated by a community and you're hanging around for whatever reason, don't ever parody the writ word of another Addon coder, people won't be smart enough to recognize it.
Anyway, that's one of the reasons I had to get out of Warcraft. Counterstrike the MMO just isn't for me, I had to look elsewhere.
I miss my FF IX days to be honest. FF IX had such a bloody great community and playerbase, admittedly the game and the content sucked particularly badly which is why I eventually got bored and left but you'd never find nicer people. On the forums or in the game with random pickup groups.
Well, wherever I go, it'll never be back to Warcraft. So don't worry about my attitude being particularly cynical here, it's never going to be.
I think my roommate has a working CD-ROM left from when the shipping company used a sledgehammer to dismantle his computer. I'll try messing with that, see if I get a reaction from it. I think the Recovery Mode is what my friend was talking about when he said I could change the MBR like I'd mentioned earlier.
To my knowledge, I've removed the malware; The entire reason I got into Safe Mode was to run Trend Micro's free virus scanner, Ad Aware, Spybot, AVG, Registry Mechanic, and a couple others. And since I'd rapidly tracked down the files for the particular virus that my computer was squealing about, I deleted those before running the scan.
Since the prevention angle of AVG and Spybot is obviously not enough to stop anything, I'll definitely be trying to find the orbital laser of antivirus programs. I've not used IE for several years; First Opera, then over to Firefox when I found out about it.
As for WoW; Well, yeah, if you're not happy playing the game, don't play it. I'm beginning to get to that point, and with my PC out for a month with no means to play, I may end up not going back.
I'm not sure I'd recommend tampering with the Master Boot Record though, there should be no need for that when a simple INI change could solve the problem. A wrong step in tinkering with stuff like the MBR can leave a drive unbootable, I'd always consider that an action near to a last resort, not as bad as formatting but almost.
Sounds like you've been thourough, glad to hear it. Your PC is likely clean now then but I would suggest you be wary, look out for anything odd. Once you've got Windows healthy again, it shouldn't crash, not ever. If anything weird does happen with it, assume the worst and keep checking it over.
As for World of Cou... Warcraft, to be frank, I stayed there because a friend of mine was enjoying the solo content and we hung out there. Hanging out was fun, exploration through hoofing it (wall-walking to everyone else) around the place was a blast but aside from that, eh. I found it a genuinely torturous experience from the get-go. One day I'll realize that this unbreakable sense of loyalty I have is a curse.
Rowne: Just an update about the Core 2 thingamabob, I've just recieved my latest issue of the magazine I regularly read, and They're raving about the Core 2 Extreme X6800. To quote a few things, they said that the C2E posted a 32 to 70 percent performance increase on cpu-bound tests, as compared to the AM2 they had tested. Also, they claimed that the processor, running at its stock speed, wasn't getting too hot, even under full load. Apparently with the stock cooler, it's 44 C on dile and 58 C on 100% load. (34 and 45 respectively with a swiftech apex ultra) We'll get to see how much truth is in that soon enough.
(edited for temp. benchmarks)
I have a somewhat interesting problem. after something rather weird happened to my computer (was probably a virus) I got the reload discs out (which turned out to have a norton ghost image on them), and let them restore windows. well, right now I'm at the bit where you're setting up windows, and it seems to hang (you can still move the mouse, and if you put a cd in it will respond) at the part where you enter a name for the computer, or to be specific, right after you click next (which, if I remember correctly, is when one would normally set up any network stuff).
it's an emachines t-series, running windows xp. I think a t 2825 or something like that. don't know anything else about it really.
My laptop hates me. D:
It'll turn off every once in a while. For no friggin' reason. And when I restart it, it'll either shut off again after I click something, screw up my Firefox stuff (It'll mess with the settings) or just lag (and shut off again later).
I scanned it with Ad-Aware, and it didn't find anything. I scanned it with Avast, and it didn't find anything. And when I try to scan it with Spybot S&D it'll shut off when it's like 1/4 done.
It's an...Acer Aspire 3003WLMI (I think XP). With Windows XP.
Edit: Oh, and it'll randomly kick me off the internet too. The internet'll work for my brother's computer and my dad's computers when the internet dies on me so I doubt it's -not- the laptop's fault. D:
Edit #2: And when it shuts off, it just shuts off. It doesn't say "Windows is shutting down" or anything.
a few things for you to check, dakata:
first of all, If you haven't already, do a virus scan. if you don't have antivirus, I think avg antivirus is free for personal use. also, if, after it crashes and restarts, it displays a message saying the computer has recovored from a serious error, hit send error report and, once it finnishes, it should bring up a page saying what might have caused the problem.
also, run windows update
as far as the network problem... I'd need more info on the network to offer any specific advice, but check the drivers for the wireless card on your computer. if it's built into the laptop, windows update should catch that. and given the troubles, I'd suggest using a wired connection to the internet when you run windows update.
Ah, I can guess what Dakata's problem is. The thing is, when certain components get too hot, they either get a little fritzy or they shut down. If it's the graphics card or somesuch, that'll usually cause a bluescreen or with more recent hardware, a reset of the hardware that won't upset the system.
When it comes to important items though like the motherboard and the CPU, things that are vital to keeping the system running, if they get so hot that they can no longer be stable, they shut down. That's called a die temp, basically once their internal heat sensors tell them they're past XXc temp, poof! Off the go. Laptops, as I've seen, are especially vulnerable to this because it seems like a great many models are undercooled or have poor fans.
The one thing I suggest is to take it to a computer store and have the innards de-dusted, to make sure there's no dust clogging up the vents, the fan motors or anything else. Have them check the fan speeds too and if any fans are running under-speed, have them replace the fans.
That'll solve your problem, Dakata.
KA, if you haven't yet, you might have to do a low-level format, I mean completely wipe the drives clean. Not the DOS type of format either, scrape all the data off them. Particularly resilient forms of malware can hide in the works and reperpetuate themselves and if it's that bad, sometimes that's the only option.
It might just be a bug in Norton Ghost Image though, it seems that sadly that software has a lot of issues with hanging (http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=norton-ghost-image+hangs&btnG=Search&hl=en).
I wish I could be of more help to you, KA, I really do.
okay, so how I do this "low level format"?
You actually have to get a tool from your hard drive's manufacturer. Here's a page that links to a lot of manufacturer util pages (http://www.ariolic.com/activesmart/low-level-format.html) but if you don't see your HDD manufacturer there, tell me what it is and I'll see what I can find out.
Even if you do though, don't immediately run off and do the format. You're going to need a boot disk or a way to sort the hard disk out once you're done. If you have a Windows startup disc, that'll do it.
Anyway ...
If you don't know your manufacturer or it turns out they don't have the type of utility you'll need, there is another option but I don't like it as an option, there are unknown variables involved.
You can blast the master boot record and then do a format of the drive from the software on your CD or any clean disc (to avoid getting the virus back on your system).
What you have to do is get into the command-line part of the Windows startup disc, I think it's the Recovery Console or somesuch and type "fdisk /mbr". If it doesn't have fdisk (I think it would), let me know and we'll figure something out.
I haven't had to do a low-level in a while so I'm a bit rusty on the details but I'll find them out as we go along.
Alternatively, you can try booting off almost any linux boot cd (I like the debian netinst ones, but you can use whatever) and getting to a console - with debian, that's waiting for it to finish booting, and hitting alt-f2.
Once there, running dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=1024 count=1 will write zeros all over the master boot record.
If you skip the count option, it'll start writing zeros and stop when it runs out of drive...
*cough* I'm a geek, though, so I hardly ever trust microsoft products to do what they say they are... :-)
Looks like it's time for a revival of this thread.
Recently I've been getting this problem at random... Sometimes I go a really long time without it, sometimes it happens not long after booting back into it. Here's the error
svchost.exe - Application Error
The exception unknown software exception (0xc0000409) occurred in the application at location 0x5b86a3c0
I have no idea why it does this, but I know that pressing OK or Cancel only hurts things. I get the exact same error yet again, and after finally clicking whatever however many times before it stops coming up, I lose the use of things like internet and network. I can't even disconnect from dialup when it's like that. Leaving the error up though, things work. Any idea what's messed up?
edit: Oh, and on the taskbar, it shows up with an IE icon, the one that's used for internet shortcut files and such
Eh. I was having problems with my computer yesterday...might as well get some help...
Alright, after my computer just randomly died on me, I restarted the durn thing. Then I did the disk check thing and it said 2 of my MP3s had invalid links (What the frig does that mean?) and it said it replaced some bad clusters in another MP3. After it was done with the dumb disk check, I deleted the MP3s just 'cuz I didn't listen to them anymore.
Then it died on me. Again. (Before I could empty my recycle bin) When I tried to open Firefox. And then I just skipped the disk check thing and it kept screwing up on me. It'd show me a blue screen but then it'd just die before I could read it. All I can read was something about dumping the physical memory. (Or something like that.) And I restarted it again and again (and I kept skipping the disk check thing) and it kept doing the same durn thing.
....Then I finally let it do disk check (and I used my brother's computer and whined because it LAGS.) and it took like an hour and a half and it started working again. And it stopped dying on me too.
...Were the MP3s evil? :P
(BTW, how can I make my brother's computer (and mine I guess.) go faster? He uses Windows 2000 I think. (I use Windows XP.))
okee this has happened to me many a times and by the sounds of it you were lucky,
basically theres a address system for all your files, windows reads this to see where things are stored on the hard drive much like a map. However this sometimes gets distorted or things get moved on the hard drive accidentally or are corrupted. So no the mp3's are not evil my guess is that the random system failure caused your hard drive to lose track of what it was doing.
My suggestions : do a defragmentation more often / back up more / perhaps you hard dirve is geting old, in the future possibly back up to a newer hard drive / do a bit of "house keeping"
Ok now for increasing the speed, check your motherboard specs and see what type of RAM your motherboard takes, my suggestion is if you have the money upgrade your RAM, if you have a large hard drive do you split it into mini hard drives commonly known as partitioning, this always helps (makes the map smaller). If you did get a new hard drive the increase in rpm may make opening of files quicker. Have a clear out of stuff on your hard drive perhaps move a load of stuff to secondary storage. Have you got uneccessary programs running in the back ground, have you got a hijacked memory virus (use hijack this program pm me), going to extremes there is of course a update for the cpu if you find out the socket type you may be able to increase your cpu clock speed by buying a new cpu, or indeed if you feel up to it you can overclock the cpu (only if you have correct venting and cooling) there are many more....
Dakata has no money for RAM upgrades. Dakata spent his/her money on candy. D:
Alright, now I have another problem.
Whenever I go to my music folder and open an MP3 file, it'll freeze up the folder-thing. And I can't close it unless I use Task Manager. And then it screws up Task Manager (When I open it, a little icon appears near the clock. And I have to use the icon to close it.) by making the stupid little icon disappear. Then I have to either deal with Task Manager being open, or restart (And I'm too darn lazy to do that.)
And I dunno why, but nothing'll screw up when I just open Winamp and THEN open the MP3. (But sometimes I'm too darn lazy to do that too. :P)
interesting, how big is the music folder, maybe consider making another folder. Have you run a disk defragmentation recently (start --> run --> dfrg.msc). Its strange how winamp can open the file where as you can't, maybe winamp has a updated link to the location of the file and windows doesn't.
It's like 340 MB. Only because of a movie file that's in there.
(I'm too lazy to move it. And I dunno if I can make it smaller. It's a .FLV file that I "stole" from Google Video with a Firefox Extention-thingie.)
Aridas: The file svchost.exe is used to launch and house services. If that file is crashing then it's most likely because it's actually a bad service that's responsible for the deed.
Press the Windows key and R and in the resulting Run dialog, enter in services.msc and you'll bring up the Services dialog. Find the services list I posted on an earlier page and note down any services that you have running that aren't in that list.
You can either come back to me with that list or Google them to ensure that none of them are essential. The ones that aren't essential or are unknown should be turned off. They should be stopped and set to Manual. If they require a reboot to stop them, then do so (just be sure to Manual them first).
Dakata: Mini-lion has already covered a bunch of stuff. I'm curious about a couple of things though: such as, is it only those few MP3s that don't work now and will other players not play then or is it only WinAMP that locks up? Try another player, any other player, something like Foobar, VLC, whatever takes your fancy. I'm just curious.
Well, it's not screwing up now*. I moved my mp3s. (And I deleted a few more Mp3s that I don't listen to anymore....and some other files that are useless to me.)
* - I finally did something. D: I'm so lazy.
Now it's just lagging. And lagging and lagging and lagging. And Winamp is randomly freezing.
BTW, if I defrag my comp, will it mess up any of my files?
No. It's likely to clean them up instead.
What a defrag does is, well, when windows stores files, it can store them either all in one lump, in one place on the drive, or it can store them in two or more places. Obviously, if it's in more than one place, the drive has to move the read heads to find the next bit.
Sometimes windows can store a file in ~50 places. That makes it -real- slow to find all the bits and reassemble them in memory so you can play it.
Defragging is taking all those fragments and putting each file into one place, so when you read them, the machine can read them all in one go, much faster.
You're not going to mess up any files, in the same way that sorting your bookshelf isn't going to shuffle the contents of any of the books.
Well... unless you have a -really- strange way of sorting... :-)
Oh, okay.
Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on August 25, 2006, 09:57:07 PMWell... unless you have a -really- strange way of sorting... :-)
What do you mean, box? :P
I don't need to go through the list again... This is about something that broke recently, not before. I need to know exactly what it is, and knowing what the hell is always at "location 0x5b86a3c0" would be nice to know...
edit: would this be the proper thread for discussing something programming related or should I start a new one?
Aridas: It could be, Aridas. A game, a program, a driver, anything can install a service and anything can be a bad service. You can have a fine list of services one day, install something and have a smoking pile of digital embers the next, such is the hardship of computer owning and why we must be ever vigilant and trust no program at face value.
So I'd say that checking the services is still worth it but if you're adamant it's not that then it could be anything, it could be a program interfering with a service, it could be a service setup with bad options or anything. Is it only svchost that ever crashes (GPF, for the original term) on you or are there other programs? Does that point of memory it specifies ever vary? All of this is helpful information.
The most important question is: what have you changed on your system recently? Backtracking what you've done to the point where the error started is usually a good way of solving it if it isn't purposefully malicious. I end up doing that every now and then and I find it extremely helpful.
Other than that, not sure what else I can suggest.
llearch: So true, heh. Much like security, Microsoft just can't write a clean file system. They're incapable of it.
(depends on if you include winfs with that statement, because i'm sure you haven't used it)
Since I don't know what could be causing this, but it just happened recently when I went to come here with IE I got the error, so it must at least be something IE uses.
and could you answer my question?
Aridas: there's no way to tell what's at location 0x5b86a3c0, since the memory structure varies by machine, in detail.
ie, what's at that point on -my- machine is different to what's at that point on -your- machine. Without, say, a memory dump, we really can't tell (and even with one, I doubt I could tell) what's at that area, other than generally - ie, it's at 0x5000000, so it's above the usual memory area, and into the service area.
but you knew that anyway, so that's not helpful. :-/
There -is- a possibility of it being a memory issue, but it's more likely to be a code problem. Still, running memtest86 (memtest86.org, I think) over it wouldn't hurt - leave it churning overnight, and see what it comes back with in the morning.
Other than that, well, I think Rowne has covered it all.
I was thinking that too llearch but wouldn't the possibility exist that something else could cross into that area of memory at some time and he'd get an error in at least one other application?
Oh and no Aridas, I don't use WinFS. WinFS scares the living hell out of me.
I don't think anyone does. Last I heard, it's been pulled.
And llearch: I remember trying to look this up, and someone had a similar scvhost problem, but it was in 0x0000a3c0 instead, I believe... Is this just freaky coincidence, or is there possibly something purposely doing this?
I still say it's a bad service ... ActiveX can install those if you happen to use Microsoft Internet Explorer a lot. At least, it used to be able to anyway as far as I can recall, possibly through an exploit.
... but nobody ever listens to me (http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=svchost.exe+crash+bad+service&btnG=Search&meta=). <.< Now I know how Tim the Enchanter feels.
----
Oh and yes, this is just in jest and I realize that I'm probably even wrong about the problem. If it helps, groovy. Just noting that I'm not actually offended, irked, annoyed, mildly irritated or anything of the sort! I'm feeling quite peppy, in fact.
...
Xze's Scanner isn't scanning greens or browns...
I wish I could help you, Xze ... but I know next to nothing about scanners, since I don't have one, per se. Well, I do but it's over four years old and it was used twice before being put into storage. So there's nothing I can really add.
Just noting that I'm not ignoring your plea, I did take a look around the 'net but I didn't turn up anything.
What do you think Rowne corrupt driver? maybe look for a updated one on there site or it could actually be a physical fault which would be bad, unless you've screwed with something in the scan settings.
the only thing i've done is change the DPI from 2400 to 300 and change the quality from photo to illustration. (sized my pics down quite a bit ^^;)
I don't know why it's choosing now to fail, but I swear I never did anything. It never happened before a couple days ago, and I didn't actually do anything at that time. anyway, I'll ask this again since I didn't get an answer before: Could I post a programming-related question here? it possibly needs someone to do some hands-on work to help me achieve my goal, though...
edit: Messing with some windows services and turning off the ones I didn't need just out of obsession for all these tiny performance boosts, I found that error reporting had been turned off, and in between all the usual messages that i got after my comp crashed, one of the reports sent gave me the solution for one of those crashes that my RAM/board/CPU/PSU might need replacing. I'm already going to replace them anyway, so... if it's that, it's that.
mini-lion: That's a good call, actually. I'm surprised drivers didn't occur to me because I've had drivers go collectively tits-up from fiddling around with options and changing things myself and the only way to remedy that was to reinstall the drivers. Drivers are rarely the most stable or sane piece of software on any machine.
This reminds me of my old Hauppage TV in board, which I eventually had to rip out of my PC and get rid of. The drivers were depressingly bad for that and frequently caused me to get bluescreens, in XP, when trying to capture video. I knew I should've gone for a better brand.
But yeah, anything can cause drivers to go off-kilter and it's a good default suggestion to try and reinstall existing or new drivers.
Aridas: I wouldn't see why programming questions wouldn't be welcome here. If it were my choice I'd say; knock yourself out.
Oh and that error ... heh, it looks like Llearch was right. I would've suspected that some other application would've occupied that area of memory at sometime (possibly at boot) but it looks like I'm wrong and it really is the RAM. If you haven't, grab Memtest like he wisely suggested.
Memtest isn't something you can just scan with and be done with though, for an accurate reading you need to leave it going for at least 24 hours. If you don't get errors after the first hour, you might be okay RAM wise, after the first six hours, you can probably start feeling relieved and after the 24 hour mark, if you still haven't found any, you should be feeling very relieved. At least, that's my experience with Memtest anyway.
Aridas: svchost is a service wrapper - there's usually three to five of them running, so "svchost died" tells you nothing but that something died.
So picking up two different ones in two different areas is like, well.. yeah. Do I really need to provide an analogy? :-)
Rowne: depends on the speed of your memory. I'd say at least one full complete test through, though, which, IME, has taken 6 hours or so on a 2Gb server. But then, that was a dual-pro, 3Gb, hyperthreading server, so YMMV. :-)
Longer though if you want to detect CPU cache issues.
At least, if I remember my hardware stuffs correctly ... or is that knowledge outdated? Might well be.
*kills her scanner*
PIECE OF &^$%
If it weren't for shipping costs, Xze, I'd buy you a new scanner. I'm like that. 'Sides, you give the forums plenty of art, you'd deserve it.
i'm only worried that when i complete that Drawing for my Onii-chan it won't get the colors right ;; his draggy is Green T~T
Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on August 26, 2006, 08:36:11 PM
Aridas: svchost is a service wrapper - there's usually three to five of them running, so "svchost died" tells you nothing but that something died.
Yeah, but lots of specific things die when I let it die. That's the important part. And it's always this exact address that's very similar to the error I found on the internet, which was at 0x0000a3c0 instead. Do you think the fact they both happen at 0x----a3c0 means something?
Anyway, my other question... Part of the source for Open Cubic Player is an archive decoder for a VERY specific kind of file. The only one I know of for this filetype. If I might quote the player's source directly, ".BPA-files are from REMEDY's "DeathRally(TM)", and are crypted file-librarys." That's all well and good, but the player doesn't allow me to save the files so I can play them in something ELSE. OCP is DOS-ish and doesn't get along with Windows. The code itself is vague with its comments, and only someone with a good knowledge of.... whatever this is... can make sense of it. Would anyone like to help me figure out how to extract the things from the archive that the player will only... play, using the archive reader's code?
Aridas: My point was, if "svchost" dies, it's not all five that die, but just one. And "svchost" itself doesn't tell you what it was that actually fell over - although, since it always happens in the same place, chances are it's the same code.
And then you get everything else that depends on whatever it was dies as well. If it's a part of the network structure, as seems likely, that can include all sorts of stuff. :-/
What did you want to extract? Chances are, since it's already encrypted and then compressed (or possibly the other way around) that it's not put in a nice easy way to extract, say, the sound files.
Not that I'm the right person to help you anyway, but I could possibly provide some pointers...
Well, I haven't had any problems with it recently, after having disabled some services I didn't actually have use for. It was probably one of those but I'll complain again if it comes back.
As for the other thing, the stuff in the archive is a bunch of songs and stuff, s3m format I think. They seem to know that, and be able to play them, and give a file list, but... Since I have 0 programming knowledge, I not only can't understand the code that deals with making sense of the archive, but I wouldn't know what to do to make it into some sort of an extractor... I'm imagining since they have code that deals with "regular" archives like zip and rar, that it would be possible to actually do an extraction if I just knew how to do anything important...
'Nother problem. Whee. :B Computers are evil.
My little brother's computer is being stupid. Whenever he starts it up, it'll just say 'Operating system not 'found'. If I unplug all of the cords and plug 'em back in, he'll be able to use it until he shuts it down (then it'll do it again). Any of you dorky people know (or think you know) how to fix it?
sounds like the battery on the motherboard might be a bit suspect.
Those are usually, I say, usually, fairly easy to get hold of. If it hasn't been soldered in place, it's usually a CR-2032 button cell. Don't quote me on that. :-)
Quote from: Dakata on August 27, 2006, 07:46:51 PM
'Nother problem. Whee. :B Computers are evil.
My little brother's computer is being stupid. Whenever he starts it up, it'll just say 'Operating system not 'found'. If I unplug all of the cords and plug 'em back in, he'll be able to use it until he shuts it down (then it'll do it again). Any of you dorky people know (or think you know) how to fix it?
use a mallet.
Quote from: Dakata on August 27, 2006, 07:46:51 PM
'Nother problem. Whee. :B Computers are evil.
My little brother's computer is being stupid. Whenever he starts it up, it'll just say 'Operating system not 'found'. If I unplug all of the cords and plug 'em back in, he'll be able to use it until he shuts it down (then it'll do it again). Any of you dorky people know (or think you know) how to fix it?
Make sure all cd's and floppy disks are removed.
Check the BIOS to see if the boot-order includes the hard disk with the operating system (windows, linux, dos, amiga-os).
If al that fails, take the computer to a trusted computer geek. The hard disk may be damaged, and you may need to re-install everything it had.
Does the computer get any sudden inpacts (like your little brother kicking it when he loses at quake ;) )?
Quote from: Vidar on August 28, 2006, 07:47:52 AM
Make sure all cd's and floppy disks are removed.
They are.
Quote from: Vidar on August 28, 2006, 07:47:52 AM
Check the BIOS to see if the boot-order includes the hard disk with the operating system (windows, linux, dos, amiga-os).
And how do I do that? :P
Quote from: Vidar on August 28, 2006, 07:47:52 AM
Does the computer get any sudden inpacts (like your little brother kicking it when he loses at quake ;) )?
Yep. But he doesn't play Quake. He plays his little Pokemon ROMs and stuff. :P
Quote from: Dakata on August 28, 2006, 08:39:18 AM
Quote from: Vidar on August 28, 2006, 07:47:52 AM
Make sure all cd's and floppy disks are removed.
They are.
Good.
Quote from: Dakata on August 28, 2006, 08:39:18 AM
Quote from: Vidar on August 28, 2006, 07:47:52 AM
Check the BIOS to see if the boot-order includes the hard disk with the operating system (windows, linux, dos, amiga-os).
And how do I do that? :P
Oh dear. 'A'
Never mind, if you don't know where it is, then you probably haven't changed it.
Quote from: Dakata on August 28, 2006, 08:39:18 AM
Quote from: Vidar on August 28, 2006, 07:47:52 AM
Does the computer get any sudden inpacts (like your little brother kicking it when he loses at quake ;) )?
Yep. But he doesn't play Quake. He plays his little Pokemon ROMs and stuff. :P
That could be your problem. Hard disks don't like getting thumped about. You probably have a bad sector at an important piece on the HD. You might want to a) replace the hard disk, and b) smack your little brother about if he hits / kicks / touches / looks severely at the computer >3 .
Of course, you could just take advantage of the situation to beat your little brother up. After all, isn't that what big brothers are for? :-)
Quote from: Dakata on August 28, 2006, 08:39:18 AM
Quote from: Vidar on August 28, 2006, 07:47:52 AM
Check the BIOS to see if the boot-order includes the hard disk with the operating system (windows, linux, dos, amiga-os).
And how do I do that? :P
Just in case, here you go. I have had issues where boot orders got changed for appearantly no reason, so it wouldn't hurt to look, methinks:
I was making a detailed explanation, but I think this page covers it much better: http://www.cyberwalker.net/faqs/reinstall-reformat-winxp/enter-BIOS.html
Look through the options on your screen to find something such as Boot Order. You should see hard drives, cd drives, etc., you might have to access it by pressing Enter on it before it will show you. Look at the capacity, brand, etc of the drives it shows. Is the one with the correct operating system selected either first, or second with the CD drive first? If not, try using the first option. If the CD drive is first, try switching it to the drive containing the OS. After this, go back to the main BIOS menu and select Save & Exit. Your computer will reboot, and hopefully all will be well. :)
Quote from: Vidar on August 28, 2006, 11:14:31 AM
Quote from: Dakata on August 28, 2006, 08:39:18 AM
Quote from: Vidar on August 28, 2006, 07:47:52 AM
Does the computer get any sudden inpacts (like your little brother kicking it when he loses at quake ;) )?
Yep. But he doesn't play Quake. He plays his little Pokemon ROMs and stuff. :P
That could be your problem. Hard disks don't like getting thumped about. You probably have a bad sector at an important piece on the HD. You might want to a) replace the hard disk, and b) smack your little brother about if he hits / kicks / touches / looks severely at the computer >3 .
Oh, and about the hard drive possibly having bad sectors...you could try booting your computer with something like this: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/index.html
You'd have to pick the utility that matches your hard drive manufacturer for it to work the best. :) It could look at your disk for you and see if there is anything it can do to fix it. Be careful though, as some of these might ask to reformat your drive... :U
I think my video card is screwed.
Well, it's either that or a virus. I have all these lines on my screen, and I tried to install some new drivers, but that didn't do any good.
It's not the monitor, I know that much...
Um...HELP!
Lines? Vertical, horizontal, diagonal? I had a problem once where I couldn't right click anything and a little line appeared instead. It was caused by a virus, and I had to reinstall Windows. :(
Horizontal mostly.
I can operate the computer well enough. The video just seems shot.
What are your computer specs?
It sounds like (after having thought about it) your monitor may not plugged in entirely or correctly.
I actually didn't try the monitor, but I will now.
I can't be bothered with my computer's specs. 1GB of Ram. 3.2 GHz pentium processor. Video Card is an ATI RADEON 9800 Pro.
Well, it's a fairly new card, so I would say it's either a monitor/card connection problem, a card/motherboard connection problem, or a driver problem.
good call Haz, could be getting hot as well, sounds like its not been seated correctly , take it out and try again.
ZOMG! (http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/8523/zomgwtfbbqjz4.jpg)
Help is good, but not that much help! How do I solve this? (I killed the process, but it comes back daily)
All you really have to do is type in the program name in google and you'll see... really, is google so hard for some of these things?
Maybe this'll help, though: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=839017
Why does my ASUS A8N SLI Delux board not really support DDR600 Ram? The instability is staggering...
The A8N SLI Deluxe is a piece of crap in general. (trust me.)
Quote from: Aridas Soulfire on September 03, 2006, 04:54:22 AM
The A8N SLI Deluxe is a piece of crap in general. (trust me.)
I don't trust you. ASUS is okay in their board manufactoring, the ones you wish to avoid are FOXCONN, Biostar, Albatron, ECS and Gigabyte.
The A8N Deluxe receives about a 4 out of 5 in general review... the Northbridge fan seems to be a point of failure.
Quote from: Xze-Xze on August 26, 2006, 02:12:23 PM
...
Xze's Scanner isn't scanning greens or browns...
:tired i think my printer AND scanner is dead... :tired
Quote from: Azlan on September 03, 2006, 05:50:05 PM
Quote from: Aridas Soulfire on September 03, 2006, 04:54:22 AM
The A8N SLI Deluxe is a piece of crap in general. (trust me.)
I don't trust you. ASUS is okay in their board manufactoring, the ones you wish to avoid are FOXCONN, Biostar, Albatron, ECS and Gigabyte.
The A8N Deluxe receives about a 4 out of 5 in general review... the Northbridge fan seems to be a point of failure.
A8N SLI Deluxe has a few specific quirks which makes using the computer frustrating at best. I'm pretty sure it's board specific, because when I look up said problems, the people with those problems also have the same board.
My comp is really friggin slow. I was thinking of buying RAM or an external hardrive, which is a better deal?
It depends what the problem is, topher. if the problem is you don't ahve enough ram in there for what you do, then buying an external hard drive won't help much.
If the problem is the machine is full of music or something that you can put on the external drive, then extra RAM isn't going to do much.
More details, please?
its not even that, i have hardly anything on my comp., mostly programs and stuff, but even so its not that many, which is why i was going to buy RAm, i have to let the comp sit for like 10 min for it to start up properly cause its so friggin slow. i have a dsl connection, so my internet isnt able to perform at its best
Try running a virusscanner and an anti-spyware tool to get rid of those. Spyware and virii can destroy performance.
Also check what applications you are running, and what processes are consuming a lot of memory / cpu time in the taskmanager.
Also, we might be able to help you better if you post your comp specs (cpu, ram, video card, etc) and what kind of programs you are running.
One of the other things is what it actually starts up when it starts.
You may also find dma is something that you should check - run dmacheck (google for it, it's on MS's knowledgebase..)
You may wish to also flush and subsequently register DNS, as well as refresh the user and machine policies.
If you have two hard drives, move your paging file off to the drive that does not have windows installed on it or if you have sufficient RAM, kill the paging file altogether.
There are a host of services you can kill as well that aren't needed, but that requires a bit more knowledge of what you need.
The spyware scan is a good idea, periodic defrags and a full scandisk might be good.
That's all I can think of at this second... must run.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y162/fusheelantreeno/systemproperties.png)
if you guys need more info, just tell me what it is and perhaps how to get it
I don't recommend running WinXP on any less then 512mb of RAM. This will definitely be a performance point of contention.
your computer asplode... Yeah, I've had it going with 256, and it was painful.
Not to mention a losy Celeron... this thing kind of reminds me of a Dell...
it's a 2.2G, tho. Shouldn't be too bad, if you fix the memory issue.
I'd suggest going to www.crucial.com and seeing how much extra memory for it would cost. It's probably not too much...
That's likely to be your first problem :-)
Wow, I didn't think computers with less then 256 MB of RAM still existed. My graphics card has that much RAM.
If your computer has an onboard ( == integrated) graphics card, it will steal some memory from the 128 MB of RAM. I imagine running XP on this system is a painful experience, like being dragged naked across 2 miles of broken glass. D:
Buy new memory. Check your computer manual to see what kind of RAM is compatible with your system, and to see how many DIMM-slots you have left. Don't skimp on the RAM: more is better, and more reliable is better. As with most things in life the guideline "cheap stuff isn't any good, and good stuff isn't cheap" is applicable.
crucial manage good and relatively cheap.
I certainly haven't had any issues with the ECC stuff I've bought from them, but desktop stuff is, admittedly, another matter - I haven't bought any, so can't comment...
ECC, I've bought over 60 DIMMs, and have been running some of them for upwards of 2-3 years, so there's a reasonable range there.
As always, your mileage may vary. :-)
You could of course go for some virtual memory, convert some of your hard drive to memory. May help a little bit
If that was an alternative, people wouldn't need more RAM. virtual memory does NOT exist for performance...
no do you guys feel my pain?!
how much RAM should I get?
How much can your box take?
At least half a gig, more if you can get it.
Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on September 07, 2006, 06:50:04 PM
How much can your box take?
At least half a gig, more if you can get it.
Before you ask, that information should be in the manual of your mainboard, or computer (depends on whether you have a home-build pc, or a standard 3v1l storebought one).
... or, if you follow the link to crucial.com I provided earlier, they'll automatically figure it out for you.
Isn't teh intarnets wonderful?
My scanner isn't turning on. D: Unplugging cords, pressing random buttons and being mean to little boys who might've screwed it up aren't helping. Don't know what else to do....
(...Except for yell at mom because she messes with it too. But it's her BIRTHDAY today. >>)
...Free art for the dork who helps me make it work. :P
Quote from: Dakata on September 09, 2006, 08:50:32 AM
My scanner isn't turning on. D: Unplugging cords, pressing random buttons and being mean to little boys who might've screwed it up aren't helping. Don't know what else to do....
Firstly, what kind of scanner is it? A USB connector (usually small and square), parallel port or SCSI? More recent ones are USB, although my Dad's old SCSI HP5 is quite happily working away.
Is it externally powered (mains cable) or is it powered by the USB system?
For the USB one, try plugging it back into a different USB port, since windows is weird and treats the ports as being totally separate instead of abstracting them away from the system. See if it then detects the scanner.
USB, I think. And externally powered.
Edit: Pfft. Someone just messed with the on/off switch on the scanner. >> I feel stupid for not noticing it. Bah. Nevermind.
(Do I owe you art anyway, Tape? :P)
Quote from: Dakata on September 09, 2006, 09:08:58 AM
USB, I think. And externally powered.
Edit: Pfft. Someone just messed with the on/off switch on the scanner. >> I feel stupid for not noticing it. Bah. Nevermind.
(Do I owe you art anyway, Tape? :P)
Well, if you're offering, I am kind of collecting other people's drawings of Jakob Pettersohn.
I did that with the portable printer at work, by the way, although it was made less obvious because it was also battery powered. When it got unplugged, it lost the ability to communicate via bluetooth, although it would still do linefeeds and stuff. Much head-scratching ensued.
Okay.. I've been silent (or at least not so vocal) about this up until now, but I think I'm ready to ask if anyone can make sense of this:
// OpenCP Module Player
// copyright (c) '94-'98 Niklas Beisert <nbeisert@physik.tu-muenchen.de>
//
// BPA "archive" reader
//
// revision history: (please note changes here)
// -2.0a++e Felix Domke <tmbinc@gmx.net>
// -first release
// -kb980717 Tammo Hinrichs <kb@nwn.de>
// -changed some structures to fit this into the new version
// -added _dllinfo record
// -fd981206 Felix Domke <tmbinc@gmx.net>
// -edited for new binfile
// -ryg981216 Fabian Giesen <fabian@jdcs.su.nw.schule.de>
// -finally fixed this damn bug (at least it should; this modification
// helped at least the UMX reader)
//
// .BPA-files are from REMEDY's "DeathRally(TM)", and are crypted file-librarys.
// The file "MUSICS.BPA" contains the DeathRally-Songs (S3Ms) and the samples
// (XMs). DON'T PLAY THESE XMs BECAUSE THEY MIGHT CRASH THE PLAYER!
// All files have the extension .CMF (CryptedMusicFile?)
//
// The crypt-method is something with ROLs and SHIFTs. :)
// Look in the source, I can't remember exactly.. :)
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include "binfstd.h"
#include "pfilesel.h"
#include "psetting.h"
unsigned char Rol(unsigned char v, int c)
{
int a=v;
a<<=c;
int o;
o=a&0xFF00;
a&=0xFF;
a|=(o>>8);
return((char)a);
}
static int adbBPAScan(const char *path)
{
char ext[_MAX_EXT];
char name[_MAX_FNAME];
char arcname[12];
_splitpath(path, 0, 0, name, ext);
fsConvFileName12(arcname, name, ext);
sbinfile file;
if (file.open(path, sbinfile::openro))
return 1;
arcentry a;
memcpy(a.name, arcname, 12);
a.size=file.length();
a.flags=ADB_ARC;
if (!adbAdd(a))
{
file.close();
return 0;
}
unsigned short arcref=adbFind(arcname);
long entriesinbpa;
if (!file.eread(&entriesinbpa, 4))
{
file.close();
return 0;
}
if((entriesinbpa<=0)||(entriesinbpa>0x10000)) return(0); // <=0 files?!?!? >65535 files?!?!?
unsigned char pw;
while (1)
{
pw=0x8B;
unsigned long nextpos=file.tell();
char bname[14];
if(!file.eread(bname, 13)) { return(0); }
for(int i=0; i<13; i++)
{
if(bname[i]==0) break;
bname[i]+=pw;
pw+=3;
}
long size;
if(!file.eread(&size, 4)) { return(0); }
if(!size) break;
a.size=size;
a.parent=arcref;
a.flags=0;
_splitpath(bname, 0, 0, name, ext);
strupr(ext);
if (!strcmp(ext,".CMF"))
{
fsConvFileName12(a.name, name, ext);
if (!adbAdd(a))
{
file.close();
return 0;
}
}
}
file.close();
return 1;
}
static int adbBPACall(int act, const char *apath, const char *file, const char *dpath)
{
switch (act)
{
case adbCallGet:
{
char target[_MAX_PATH];
_makepath(target, 0, dpath, file, 0);
sbinfile afile;
if(afile.open(apath, sbinfile::openro)) return(0);
long entriesinbpa, ssize=0x10F3;
if (!afile.eread(&entriesinbpa, 4)) return 0;
if((entriesinbpa<=0)||(entriesinbpa>0x10000)) return(0); // <=0 files?!?!? >65535 files?!?!?
unsigned char pw;
long size;
while (1)
{
pw=0x8B;
char bname[14];
if(!afile.eread(bname, 13)) { return(0); }
for(int i=0; i<13; i++)
{
if(bname[i]==0) break;
bname[i]+=pw;
pw+=3;
}
if(!afile.eread(&size, 4)) { return(0); }
if(!size) return(0);
if(stricmp(bname, file)==0) break;
ssize+=size;
}
afile.seek(ssize);
char *data;
if((data=(char*)malloc(size))==NULL)
{
return(0);
}
sbinfile tfile;
if(tfile.open(target, sbinfile::opencr|sbinfile::openrw)) return(0);
afile.eread(data, size);
{
int co=0;
unsigned char g=0x93;
while(co<size)
{
data[co]=Rol(data[co], co%7)+g;
g-=0x11;
co++;
}
}
tfile.write(data, size);
free(data);
tfile.close();
afile.close();
return 1;
}
default:
{
break;
}
}
return 0;
}
extern "C"
{
adbregstruct adbBPAReg = {".BPA", adbBPAScan, adbBPACall};
char *dllinfo = "arcs _adbBPAReg";
};
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y162/fusheelantreeno/memory.png)
well it seems this might be the one i am getting, i am going to compare prices and then just go with whats best^^
My computer crapped out on me earlier today when I tried to see how many browser windows I could have open at one time (351), and when I restartded my computer, it was like I had just installed Windows. There were no drivers installed, but all my programs were left intact. I tried to do a system restore, but there were no restore points beside one made today. So now my wireless internet's acting up, and a number of other programs are acting weird, so I decided to zip up the My Documents folder and transfer to my dad's comp while I reformat. Though I havn't started yet, so if anyone has some advice, I would like to hear it.
I've got a new one, guys, and it's a doozy.
the basic story is that I just installed ubuntu (a version of linux) on a second hard drive. and now I can't boot windows. it will reach a certain point a few seconds after I select windows and it will flash a blue screen for >0.5 seconds (so I can't even read what it said). tried in safe mode and it still won't boot.
possible causes that I can think of:
ubuntu installed something for booting on the first hard drive (which is where windows is on)
norton goback stopped showing it's little screen it shows when you boot when I installed ubuntu, so having it on a computer running linux may be a problem.
ubuntu can still read from the first hard drive, but since it's ntfs, it's read only. so, wcs, I can back up stuff on cds, and use my recovery cds. but I'd prefer not to have to do that, so any suggestions would be appreciated.
Quote from: Aridas Soulfire on September 09, 2006, 10:21:05 PM
Okay.. I've been silent (or at least not so vocal) about this up until now, but I think I'm ready to ask if anyone can make sense of this:
[snip]
Looks like C or C++ code. Unfortunately, it looks like part of some code that is called by something else. What, exactly, were you expecting us to figure out about it?
Quote from: topher chee on September 09, 2006, 10:25:33 PM
well it seems this might be the one i am getting, i am going to compare prices and then just go with whats best^^
Go for the CL=2.5 stuff, it's slightly faster.
Quote from: ×HaZ×MaT× on September 09, 2006, 10:43:35 PM
Though I havn't started yet, so if anyone has some advice, I would like to hear it.
uh... don't do that again?
more seriously, no. Backup and reinstall is the windows mantra. Sorry about that :-/
Quote from: Kitsune Ascendant on September 10, 2006, 01:41:34 AM
I've got a new one, guys, and it's a doozy.
the basic story is that I just installed ubuntu (a version of linux) on a second hard drive. and now I can't boot windows. it will reach a certain point a few seconds after I select windows and it will flash a blue screen for >0.5 seconds (so I can't even read what it said). tried in safe mode and it still won't boot.
possible causes that I can think of:
ubuntu installed something for booting on the first hard drive (which is where windows is on)
norton goback stopped showing it's little screen it shows when you boot when I installed ubuntu, so having it on a computer running linux may be a problem.
ubuntu can still read from the first hard drive, but since it's ntfs, it's read only. so, wcs, I can back up stuff on cds, and use my recovery cds. but I'd prefer not to have to do that, so any suggestions would be appreciated.
Have you got a windows install cd? If so, you can boot off it and get it to re-write the boot sector. This will stop you accessing linux for the moment, but it will enable access to windows.
once you've got that, there is a series of tasks you can go through to get windows booting happily and co-existing. I believe there's a howto around somewhere, let me have a look...
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/MultiOS-HOWTO.html <-- that's not it, but might help.
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Multiboot-with-GRUB.html or http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Multiboot-with-LILO.html may be what you're after.
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Linux+WinNT.html may also help.
Hope that offers some help, there...
ok thanks, im about to go to best buy in a bit^^
Take note of the prices from crucial before you go.
Certainly over here in the yUK, there's very very few reputable places that supply good RAM at a better price point.
I have just acquired a second-hand laptop and am trying to set kUbuntu up on it. The stock kernel has a 250hz timer which is insufficient for running the Rosegarden sequencer.
There are two problems:
Firstly, when I tried to rebuild the kernel it failed to boot, with the error 'VFS: failed to mount root fs at /dev/hda7'. The other kernels in GRUB all have the root partition there too, and they work. I am confused.
Secondly, it takes about 2 hours to recompile the kernel. This is on a P3-933 with 512MB of memory, running off the mains so it should be at maximum CPU speed. It takes more like 5 minutes on my 1Ghz T-bird, and that was before I upgraded the memory from 256MB to 1GB (to match the clock speed :) )
Any ideas? I'm going to try a complete custom kernel now, although I would have preferred to keep the original kernel tree, as I don't know what weird things they've added to their version.
i would order it from crucial.com if its price wascheaper, but right now my mom is having a credit card crisis, someone stole her identity so we are laying low for a bit
Quote from: Tapewolf on September 10, 2006, 01:47:42 PM
There are two problems:
Firstly, when I tried to rebuild the kernel it failed to boot, with the error 'VFS: failed to mount root fs at /dev/hda7'. The other kernels in GRUB all have the root partition there too, and they work. I am confused.
Ooo! I can do this one!
You've not compiled in reiserfs, if you're using reiser as your root partition format. Or ext3, if you're using that. Instead, you've got it as a module, so.. it needs to read the module off the partition that it needs the module to read the module off the partition that it needs to...
Quote from: Tapewolf on September 10, 2006, 01:47:42 PM
Secondly, it takes about 2 hours to recompile the kernel. This is on a P3-933 with 512MB of memory, running off the mains so it should be at maximum CPU speed. It takes more like 5 minutes on my 1Ghz T-bird, and that was before I upgraded the memory from 256MB to 1GB (to match the clock speed :) )
"Should be" is not necessarily the case. If you don't have the laptop stuff loaded, the bios may be winding the CPU down -heaps- before you start. Try catting /proc/cpuinfo to see what it says.
Also, chances are the disk isn't running optimally, from what you've said.
Heck, talk to me via IM if you want. I run debian all the time, and I've been meaning to recompile my laptop kernel for a while...
Quote from: topher chee on September 10, 2006, 02:06:31 PM
i would order it from crucial.com if its price wascheaper, but right now my mom is having a credit card crisis, someone stole her identity so we are laying low for a bit
Yup. If it's not cheaper, then no worries. I just didn't want you going out, getting it, and then finding you could have got it for half the price off somewhere else :-)
that would definitely suck
Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on September 10, 2006, 02:44:33 PM
You've not compiled in reiserfs, if you're using reiser as your root partition format. Or ext3, if you're using that. Instead, you've got it as a module, so.. it needs to read the module off the partition that it needs the module to read the module off the partition that it needs to...
Got it in one. Why would anyone
ever want to do that? How did the kernel even work in the first place? I'm starting to wonder if the .config file i've got was actually correct. Maybe I should just take the configuration from the desktop and use that.
Quote
Quote from: Tapewolf on September 10, 2006, 01:47:42 PM
Secondly, it takes about 2 hours to recompile the kernel.
"Should be" is not necessarily the case. If you don't have the laptop stuff loaded, the bios may be winding the CPU down -heaps- before you start. Try catting /proc/cpuinfo to see what it says.
That was my first port of call. It says 929, although I wasn't sure if that was the value on first boot or the current value.
QuoteAlso, chances are the disk isn't running optimally, from what you've said.
Any ideas? It's got readahead and DMA enabled according to hdparm.
because of the way emachines did their support for this computer, I don't actually have a windows cd. instead, the three cds they included are all part of a norton ghost image of the hard drive. kinda sucks. any other options?
Quote from: Kitsune Ascendant on September 10, 2006, 11:02:51 PM
because of the way emachines did their support for this computer, I don't actually have a windows cd. instead, the three cds they included are all part of a norton ghost image of the hard drive. kinda sucks. any other options?
Besides blatantly pirate a copy of windows off of your favourite P2P network, I got nothing. A windows pc without a proper windows cd is madness.
Those "restore cd's" companies like HP, Dell and such like to ship with their computers reet the whole thing back to factory defaults, including everything you had on your hard disk before stuff hit the (cpu-)fan.
Quote from: Vidar on September 11, 2006, 05:15:04 AM
Besides blatantly pirate a copy of windows off of your favourite P2P network, I got nothing. A windows pc without a proper windows cd is madness.
Like my laptop. It was supposed to have XP Pro on it, but had XP home. No CD at all, and an OEM license - not the one on the bottom. I've just picked up a shrink-wrapped Windows 98 off ebay to install on that one.
(Linux is finally up and running on it, Llearch - thanks for the help. Still not sure which module went AWOL).
The question is the license, I guess. Microsoft seem to like saying that the license is tied to the motherboard, so if you have a 'borrowed' copy of the disk but use the licence key for that laptop, it should be okay. I'm sure they'd love to force you to buy a new license each reinstall, of course, so don't take it as gospel.
FWIW, unless you have a good reason to use 98, I personally would install 2k by preference. Simply because it's still supported.
I wouldn't install XP, but then, I dislike the default kindergarten interface, since you're supposed to learn something while using it, rather than playing with the system like big blocks and wondering why things break...
I'll admit I'm slightly biased, and somewhat of an elitest - my "elite" group consists of those who are willing to learn, a somewhat select group...
Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on September 11, 2006, 06:40:45 AM
FWIW, unless you have a good reason to use 98, I personally would install 2k by preference. Simply because it's still supported.
I've been thinking of using 2K on the desktop actually, since the activation business with XP is driving my round the bend. I can't find a supplier, though.
On the other hand, copies of '98 are fairly easy to come by, and it's a less complex system with less mysterious processes in the background. For the purpose of running SONAR it should be perfectly adequate.
Quote from: Tapewolf on September 11, 2006, 05:30:36 AMThe question is the license, I guess. Microsoft seem to like saying that the license is tied to the motherboard, so if you have a 'borrowed' copy of the disk but use the licence key for that laptop, it should be okay. I'm sure they'd love to force you to buy a new license each reinstall, of course, so don't take it as gospel.
They would like you to buy new copies for windows as much as possible: more profit. (if they could, MS would have you buy a new licence for every time you change the screen resolution, or turn on your PC, or save a file)
Tying the licence to the mainboard is a bit nutty: mainboards can break, and when they do, they should be replaceable without forking over another $x00,- to the nearest computer shop.
That's where Microsoft's "activation feature" comes in. When you replace a component in your PC, you should get a warning that you need to re-activate your copy of windows within a timelimit, or it will stop working (if you have a legal, unhacked version). If you replace stuff too often (according to MS), you get tagged as a software pirate, and you won't get a reactivation code, and your copy of windows stops working. In theory.
In practice, the computer-savvy hate the activation and the WGA crap, and hack it out with a (pirate) patch.
The activation scheme was put in, because MS thought businesses were using too many pirate copies of windows.
The irony here is that there is a enterprise version of windows XP for large corporations, that doesn't have the activation stuff in it, so it completely misses the boat, and the average Joe Sixpack is left with the inconvenient and incredibly in-effective anti-piracy measure. </rant>
Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on September 11, 2006, 06:40:45 AM
FWIW, unless you have a good reason to use 98, I personally would install 2k by preference. Simply because it's still supported.
Windows 2K can do almost anything Windows XP can. Except for using Nintendo's WiFi router for the DS. 'A'
Windows 98 is an outdated, instable DOS-based travesty. Kill it with fire. (more fire == better)
Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on September 11, 2006, 06:40:45 AM
I wouldn't install XP, but then, I dislike the default kindergarten interface, since you're supposed to learn something while using it, rather than playing with the system like big blocks and wondering why things break...
And it's ugly, plasticy, and bleh. Good thing you can turn it off.
Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on September 11, 2006, 06:40:45 AM
I'll admit I'm slightly biased, and somewhat of an elitest - my "elite" group consists of those who are willing to learn, a somewhat select group...
They're called 'geeks' or 'nerds', depending on who you ask.
Mind you, "elite" and "l33t" are not the same. Anyon who calls him/her self "l33t" should be labeled "lame".
Quote from: Vidar on September 11, 2006, 06:58:38 AM
Quote from: Tapewolf on September 11, 2006, 05:30:36 AMI'm sure they'd love to force you to buy a new license each reinstall, of course, so don't take it as gospel.
In practice, the computer-savvy hate the activation and the WGA crap, and hack it out with a (pirate) patch.
I know all this of course, and I tried to patch XP Home, but without success. All the patches I could find were for Pro, and besides most people simply steal the corporate edition. But I have this problem - I'm too honest for that. Sometimes I wish I wasn't.
QuoteQuote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on September 11, 2006, 06:40:45 AM
FWIW, unless you have a good reason to use 98, I personally would install 2k by preference. Simply because it's still supported.
Windows 2K can do almost anything Windows XP can. Except for using Nintendo's WiFi router for the DS. 'A'
I think 2K is already dead, but I could be wrong. XP Home is going to be not supported soon too from what I hear.
QuoteWindows 98 is an outdated, instable DOS-based travesty. Kill it with fire.
I liked DOS - that's why I went for Linux - it's the next best thing. That's also why I hate Microsoft, because I used to work on DRDOS and they killed it!
From a programming point of view, DOS is lovely. It steps aside and lets you have complete access to the system. I would not have been able to make the Mellotron software work in Linux or Windows, for instance - not without introducing latency issues. By contrast, the DOS system works in realtime by feeding the DAC directly by running the INT8 timer at audio-frequency (impossible in protected mode).
I'll say it again - the laptop has Windows on it for one purpose, and that purpose is to export SONAR files as MIDI files so that they can be performed under in Linux. Windows 98, buggy and unstable and DOS-based as it is, is perfectly adequate for the task. It is not going on the internet, in fact I'm going to rip out the TCPIP stack. It is going to run SONAR and that's that :P
Yes - I could just on stick the corporate edition of XP or pay half the laptop's value for a legitimate copy, but when Windows 98 can be had new for £23, there seems little point.
Now Windows ME, that simply needs to be put out of its misery..
i have a midi file that used to play normally now it doesn't anymore...not even wmp plays it...any program refuses to play it, even if the file is not corrpted, the program behave normally showing bar status and all...
wtf? :/
Quote from: Leafar on September 11, 2006, 09:16:17 AM
i have a midi file that used to play normally now it doesn't anymore...not even wmp plays it...any program refuses to play it, even if the file is not corrpted, the program behave normally showing bar status and all...
wtf? :/
Do you want to put it up somewhere so I can take a look at it?
Quote from: Tapewolf on September 11, 2006, 07:31:43 AM
I liked DOS - that's why I went for Linux - it's the next best thing. That's also why I hate Microsoft, because I used to work on DRDOS and they killed it!
From a programming point of view, DOS is lovely. It steps aside and lets you have complete access to the system. I would not have been able to make the Mellotron software work in Linux or Windows, for instance - not without introducing latency issues. By contrast, the DOS system works in realtime by feeding the DAC directly by running the INT8 timer at audio-frequency (impossible in protected mode).
Have you tried freedos? Not that I'm pressuring - use whatever works for you. Just... it's slightly better than win98, in that the guys who wrote it will a) give you the source code, and b) are still supporting it...
And if you're running dos only, as sounds likely, this will be a hell of a lot less crud to install...
Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on September 11, 2006, 10:44:43 AM
Have you tried freedos? Not that I'm pressuring - use whatever works for you. Just... it's slightly better than win98, in that the guys who wrote it will a) give you the source code, and b) are still supporting it...
And if you're running dos only, as sounds likely, this will be a hell of a lot less crud to install...
If all I needed was DOS, I'd put DRDOS on it since I know many arcane optimisation tricks for it. The Mellotron emulator is indeed booting DRDOS off a compactflash card.
Unfortunately SONAR needs a minimal Win32/DirectX installation in order to function, and that's exactly what it's going to get. I did try ReactOS 0.3, but it wouldn't boot.
Here is a question: I have managed to find what I hope is a NOS, full version of Windows 2000, which means I should finally be able to kick Windows XP in the nuts and get rid of the horrible thing.
Now - is there a way to permanently disable TCPIP support in Windows 2000?
**EDIT**
To clarify, the idea is that Windows should be physically incapable of getting on the 'net. With XP I've currently disabled the network adapter, but I'd like something more drastic, in case the hardware wizard decides to lose/find it, like is constantly happening with the USB audio devices.
You can remove it, if you like.
There's a whole string of other apps that will probably keep much of the tree available, but if you remove the entries from the card, and remove the device drivers for the tcpip stack, it should be fairly secure.
Quote from: Tapewolf on September 11, 2006, 09:32:23 AM
Quote from: Leafar on September 11, 2006, 09:16:17 AM
i have a midi file that used to play normally now it doesn't anymore...not even wmp plays it...any program refuses to play it, even if the file is not corrpted, the program behave normally showing bar status and all...
wtf? :/
Do you want to put it up somewhere so I can take a look at it?
yeah, thanks! ;)
http://rapidshare.de/files/32749990/E500_023.mid.html
Quote from: Leafar on September 11, 2006, 12:43:26 PM
i have a midi file that used to play normally now it doesn't anymore...not even wmp plays it...any program refuses to play it, even if the file is not corrpted, the program behave normally showing bar status and all...
wtf? :/
Timidity and Rosegarden have both played it fine, so it's probably the MIDI system in Windows which has gone weird - don't ask me how. Are you able to play other MIDI files?
yes, any other midi file...i collect them from games...
Quote from: Leafar on September 11, 2006, 02:36:38 PM
yes, any other midi file...i collect them from games...
I've saved it again from Rosegarden just in case there was something weird afoot. If that doesn't work I'll try it from Sonar.
http://www.jpmorris.force9.co.uk/music/test/E500_023a.mid
You might also want to test this as an experiment:
http://www.jpmorris.force9.co.uk/music/mab_pt1.mid
(This was written by SONAR)
your file plays ok...mine still doesn't!!!!!!!! :B wtf?????? :U
'ey everyone. got an update. I now have my computer running windows again. I'm pretty sure it had something to do with norton goback. basically, I found a linux program that can look at hard drives and fix them, and it basically "fixxed" the mbr, which I believe goback had done something to. great idea, except it gets completely hosed over when something like gub is put on that drive. I'd call case closed, but I've got a few files on the drive I put linux on... actually, nvm. I think I have a solution to get them off. anyways, unless someone here's got experience with getting windows w/ norton and linux to agree, I think I'll call linux a lost cause. I don't really want to lose my nerdvana high as quickly as I did with my last computer fiasco.
edit: are there any free programs out there that I could use to back up my hard drive to multiple cds and use those to restore? that would be very usefull
Kitsune, I'll say the same thing to you as I did to Tapewolf.
IM me. We'll chat, and see about an answer.
.. I thought I posted a series of links, at least one of which would let you get your linux booted? I coudl swear... yes, something about "set grub to install to the partition, and set boot.ini in windows to start that partition" in the winnt dual-boot doco I linked to.
That should let you get to both ok.
Quote from: Leafar on September 11, 2006, 07:25:44 PM
your file plays ok...mine still doesn't!!!!!!!! :B wtf?????? :U
I pulled it into SONAR just now - it blew up when I tried to remove the drum track, so there is something pretty weird about that file. I imported the Rosegarden-exported version instead.
Try these:
http://www.jpmorris.force9.co.uk/music/test/E500.zip
One is type 0, the other is type 1.
lol, t.wolf what you just did?????????? :O
IT IS PLAYING!!!!!!!! :rj wooo hooo!!!!!
charlie says thank you! ;)
(http://www.lostnationtheater.org/images/charlie.gif)
Quote from: Leafar on September 12, 2006, 06:24:00 AM
lol, t.wolf what you just did?????????? :O
IT IS PLAYING!!!!!!!! :rj wooo hooo!!!!!
I just loaded it into SONAR and re-exported it. There are two kinds of MIDI file, so I wrote out one of each. Type 0 has some nasty side-effects that it seems to write the files out per-channel, so if you have two channel 1s (e.g. for multiple soundcards) they get merged together. This was a problem with 'What Did Daniel Think He Was'. Type 1 just writes them all out and doesn't have that problem.
In particular I was hoping that type 0 would be enough to shake out whatever strange things were going on.
gotcha! ;)
thanks anyway! :)
How much is Photoshop? =-<
Lots. Depending. But most people are pirates.
Ooh, computer problem thread. How convenient!
But actually, I'm not really having problems with my computer. I'm having problems with my moniter. The screen will randomly go black; turning it off and then back on generally fixes it, but that gets rather annoying and sometimes it will just turn black again right away. V. annoying and makes it nearly impossible to play the few computer games I have. I don't know what to do to try and fix it; generally what I do when my computer has problems is restart, but that doesn't fix anything.
Quote from: Xze-Xze on September 23, 2006, 10:39:02 PM
How much is Photoshop? =-<
I've been told that Gimpshop (http://www.gimpshop.net) is very, VERY similar.
And Free!
Same goes for the GIMP itself.
got a quick question.
I have a large zip file that was somehow split into two parts, on two cds. one's got a .zip.001 extention, the other a .zip.002 extension. how do I get the contents from this?
good question, does it not save them as two seperate zip files?
if not, perhaps if you had a computer with two drives...
My questions:
1. My CD Drive isn't working. Luckily, I have a CD/DVD drive as well i can run thigns through, but still. It was useful having two. I was wondering if anyone knew any ways to poke at this. It sounds liek its spinning the cd and trying to load it, butthen nothing happens. I'm not entirely sure how CD Drives work, but whatever's readin gthe CD must be busted is my asumption. >>
2. How difficult would Linux be for osmeone with next to no programming/coding language to jump into? I'm debating getting a small computer to throw linux onto as a test, but i don't know if I want to spend that money if I wouldn't be able to figure it out.
nvm my last question. I figured out how to do it with 7zip. I think.
as far as linux, check out ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com).
you can either have them mail a free cd set to you, or download the cd images and burn them to a cd-r. but one of the cds is a "live cd" which allows you to run ubuntu on your pc without doing anything to your current pc setup. that way you get a taste for linux risk free. and in my experience (a bit limited, but I think it's enough) ubuntu is fairly easy to start using.
Quote from: Kitsune Ascendant on September 24, 2006, 01:53:34 AM
I have a large zip file that was somehow split into two parts, on two cds. one's got a .zip.001 extention, the other a .zip.002 extension. how do I get the contents from this?
Find a disk with enoughspace free that you can put both files, twice, in. Copy them off the cd, then run "cp file.zip.001+file.zip.002 file.zip" - that should give you a single zip file with both contents in it. You can then delete the .00[12] files, and extract as per normal.
Quote from: Kitsune Ascendant on September 24, 2006, 02:18:20 AM
nvm my last question. I figured out how to do it with 7zip. I think.
as far as linux, check out ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com).
you can either have them mail a free cd set to you, or download the cd images and burn them to a cd-r. but one of the cds is a "live cd" which allows you to run ubuntu on your pc without doing anything to your current pc setup. that way you get a taste for linux risk free. and in my experience (a bit limited, but I think it's enough) ubuntu is fairly easy to start using.
Thank you, I'll try that :D
Quote from: insanekaosx on September 24, 2006, 06:20:40 AM
Quote from: Kitsune Ascendant on September 24, 2006, 02:18:20 AM
nvm my last question. I figured out how to do it with 7zip. I think.
as far as linux, check out ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com).
you can either have them mail a free cd set to you, or download the cd images and burn them to a cd-r. but one of the cds is a "live cd" which allows you to run ubuntu on your pc without doing anything to your current pc setup. that way you get a taste for linux risk free. and in my experience (a bit limited, but I think it's enough) ubuntu is fairly easy to start using.
Thank you, I'll try that :D
If you want something a bit more Windowsy, there's also kubuntu, which can be had on the same site. It's the same basic system but with a different shell. And if you come unstuck there's a number of people here who would be quite happy to help you with it.
Quote from: Tapewolf on September 24, 2006, 06:50:27 AM
Quote from: insanekaosx on September 24, 2006, 06:20:40 AM
Quote from: Kitsune Ascendant on September 24, 2006, 02:18:20 AM
nvm my last question. I figured out how to do it with 7zip. I think.
as far as linux, check out ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com).
you can either have them mail a free cd set to you, or download the cd images and burn them to a cd-r. but one of the cds is a "live cd" which allows you to run ubuntu on your pc without doing anything to your current pc setup. that way you get a taste for linux risk free. and in my experience (a bit limited, but I think it's enough) ubuntu is fairly easy to start using.
Thank you, I'll try that :D
If you want something a bit more Windowsy, there's also kubuntu, which can be had on the same site. It's the same basic system but with a different shell. And if you come unstuck there's a number of people here who would be quite happy to help you with it.
:D I poked a look at Kubuntu as well, but that was only after starting to download Ubuntu, so I'll see how this works and then maybe try that as well. I''ll be sure to come crying to the forumites if I start breaking thigns :P
edit>Well, i'm not crying, and nothings broken. I hope.
Just tried it out, and it works interestingly, but.. i didn't get a good chance to mess around. First, the resolution was bugging me *was stuck on 640xwhatever*, then iaccidentally got into the command line terminal. Bad place for me, I didn't know how to get back, so I just botched around til I figured out the reboot command. I'm back in windows for now, and going to read up a bit more.
CTRL-ALT-F1 -> F6 will allow you to switch between six terminals. CTRL-ALT-F7 will take you back to the window system.
To increase the resolution, we'd need to know what kind of graphics card you've got.
excellent, now I won't get lost in terminals >> Thank you Tape :D
Off topic: The workspaces are handy when I have windows this big >>
Okay, well, the thing is, its not giving me the option to switch to anything other than 640x480. There is a section for SCreen Resolution under system -> preferences, and thats the only available option. I've tried changing themes to see if that would open up more, hasn't worked yet.
though, here is my card anyways: GeForce4 MX
It would be a better one if this premade eMachine didn't fail and have backwards pci slots >>
Quote from: insanekaosx on September 24, 2006, 09:42:37 AM
excellent, now I won't get lost in terminals >> Thank you Tape :D
Off topic: The workspaces are handy when I have windows this big >>
Okay, well, the thing is, its not giving me the option to switch to anything other than 640x480. There is a section for SCreen Resolution under system -> preferences, and thats the only available option. I've tried changing themes to see if that would open up more, hasn't worked yet.
though, here is my card anyways: GeForce4 MX
It would be a better one if this premade eMachine didn't fail and have backwards pci slots >>
Try re-insalling the drivers for your video-card. Get them from www.nvidia.com.
Also, if your computer doesn't even have a AGP of PCI-E slot, it's crap, no offence.
An nVidia card, eh? That's probably the reason then. They won't tell people how the card works, which makes things awkward. On the plus side, the drivers they provide themselves are pretty good. If only their Windows drivers worked too.
Truth be told, I'm tempted to let Llearch or someone else to do this - I'm using a rather customised system and had to do things somewhat differently.
*EDIT* : What Vidar is describing is what I did. The drawback to his suggestion is that it may fall apart the next time there's a security update for the window manager or kernel.
Anyway, I believe this is the 'proper' Ubuntu way. From the command line:
sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx nvidia-kernel-common
sudo nvidia-glx-config enable
It can proably be done point-and-click using the package manager, but I usually find the command line quicker and simpler for this.
A word about the package manager - it can look in a number of places or 'repositories' - the core packages, copyright-restricted packages, and all-kinds-of-stuff-you-probably-won't-need.
The nVidia drivers are going to be in the 'restricted' repository because they have nVidia's own weird license instead of one of the more normal ones. If the incantation to fetch the nVidia drivers didn't work, it probably means that the 'restricted' set isn't on the list.
Again, this can be done via the package manager. I'm not sure how that works if it's stock Ubuntu - with Kubuntu, it's K->System->Package Manager (Adept) - once you've entered the password you should be able to add new repositories to the search list.
Otherwise you can edit the config file which tells it where to look.
Assuming it found the packages and installed them, you'll probably need to restart the window system at that point, which can be done quickly and evilly easily with CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE.
Quote from: Rowne on July 27, 2006, 11:12:15 AM
Oh, I have. Kingston RAM for example has been notoriously bad when it comes to farting out in a less temperate environment. Like I said though, most people don't put their hardware through burn like I do, I really find out what temps hardware can take. Usually, it's funny what temperatures most hardware can take if it's built well. Heat is the ultimate decider between good/bad hardware.
RAM is grand though, not so long ago I upgraded from 512MeB to 3GiB and my reaction was something along the lines of "Buh?". Primarily because half hour loading times in Unreal Tournament 2006, City of Heroes, Everquest II and so on became 30 seconds and less. Grand.
uhm... I don't get what you mean... I live in Brazil and in my city it's normal to have a temperature of 27ºC and 38ºC
on the same day, 42ºC happens at times as well... Yet I see kingston ram everywhere
Quote from: Vidar on September 24, 2006, 10:19:30 AM
Also, if your computer doesn't even have a AGP of PCI-E slot, it's crap, no offence.
Oh, I know that, no offense taken at all. I opened it up for the first time when I got a shiny new video card...... and couldn't plug it in ;.;
I will get those drivers and such now.
Quote from: insanekaosx on September 24, 2006, 09:42:37 AM
excellent, now I won't get lost in terminals >> Thank you Tape :D
Off topic: The workspaces are handy when I have windows this big >>
Okay, well, the thing is, its not giving me the option to switch to anything other than 640x480. There is a section for SCreen Resolution under system -> preferences, and thats the only available option. I've tried changing themes to see if that would open up more, hasn't worked yet.
though, here is my card anyways: GeForce4 MX
It would be a better one if this premade eMachine didn't fail and have backwards pci slots >>
alright. here's the fix (as well as I can remember): go to the synaptic package manager (system->administration from the bar at the top) and do a search for geforce. it should turn up a package with some nvidia drivers, including one for the geforce series. there's also a terminal command to run. besure to write it down, as you may have to do the disable version if it screws stuff up. after that... with livecd, I don't know exactly what you'd have to do. probably stop gnome (the graphical interface a lot of different linux versions use) without atually rebooting. I don't know how to do that, so I'll leave that to someone who does know. hope this helps.
Quote from: Kitsune Ascendant on September 24, 2006, 04:29:29 PMafter that... with livecd, I don't know exactly what you'd have to do. probably stop gnome (the graphical interface a lot of different linux versions use) without actually rebooting. I don't know how to do that, so I'll leave that to someone who does know. hope this helps.
CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE
.. or you can skip over into console, log in as root, and run "/etc/init.d/gdm stop" and then start....
assuming you're running gnome, of course. if you're running KDE, it's kdm...
live cd's are all interesting, however, since if you update drivers, you may have to reboot, and any changes you've made since you last booted won't be saved, since you booted from cd....
I'm sure pretty much everyone here can see the logical problem. :-)
I don't run live cd's, however, having enough else to do with my time, so...
Quote from: Synonymous on September 23, 2006, 11:10:01 PM
Ooh, computer problem thread. How convenient!
But actually, I'm not really having problems with my computer. I'm having problems with my moniter. The screen will randomly go black; turning it off and then back on generally fixes it, but that gets rather annoying and sometimes it will just turn black again right away. V. annoying and makes it nearly impossible to play the few computer games I have. I don't know what to do to try and fix it; generally what I do when my computer has problems is restart, but that doesn't fix anything.
Hmm, this might not be much of an advice, but I had a similar problem with my TFT-screen. Luckily it happened in warranty-time so it got fetched and repaired.
How old/What kind is your screen?
I tried some of you're fixes and met vary states of error, then a rl friend of mine learned i had linux and we started chattting, he helped me out,and now I'm not stuck in 640x480 hell.
Thank you for tryign :)
I'll still turn back to you all with questions if i have them :D
Local help is much to be preferred. Being able to look over your shoulder makes -so- much difference...
actually, it was via IM, he gave me a few lines to throw in the terminal and got it ready.
HE also run Ubuntu, and has since pretty much when it was released, so he was like "Yeah, I had all the problems you'll probably have >>" Heh ^^;;
Which is better, 2x512MB DDR333 (PC2700) with Dual Channel enabled, or 2x512MB + 256MB DDR333 (PC2700) without Dual Channel enabled? I have an AMD Athlon 64-Bit 3700+, a wireless internet PCI card, a GeForce 6600GT AGP card, two optical drives, and one hard drive.
Quote from: ×HaZ×MaT× on September 26, 2006, 01:35:38 AM
Which is better, 2x512MB DDR333 (PC2700) with Dual Channel enabled, or 2x512MB + 256MB DDR333 (PC2700) without Dual Channel enabled? I have an AMD Athlon 64-Bit 3700+, a wireless internet PCI card, a GeForce 6600GT AGP card, two optical drives, and one hard drive.
Depends on what is more important to you. Dual channel enabled gives better performance, until you run out of memory, and windows starts using 'virtual memory' (a pagefile on your HD). Having more memory means windows will make less use of the virtual memory.
If you use applications that use a lot of memory, I would suggest that more memory == better.
I would suggest investing in 2 1GB modules for optimum performance, if you have the money.
For my 2p, I'd say drop the 256, as it's small enough to make little difference. Hold onto it for later, however, as if you get another one to match it, you could put it in and dual-channel the pair. Assuming your motherboard has space for 4 DIMMs.
And, as Vidar pointed out, much more is generally better, if you use a lot of memory. Try checking with task manager every so often - leaving it cycling in the background on slow updates, minimize it to system tray, and check back after half an hour or an hour of using your machine as you would normally, and see what the memory usageis like. If there's a chunk of pagefile in use, generally double that, add it to your memory, and that's at least how much you're likely to use.
Bear in mind that if you add more than you use, it should use the rest as cache for things, albeit not very well. linux has a much better cache algorithm, generally speaking, though you can tune the windows somewhat, I have yet to find really useful settings for it...
MY COMPUTER IS ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
640 MB Not much but better than 124
MY 'PUTER CRASHED!!
ok, so i'm sitting on the comp, talking to people and playing runescape when all of a sudden my screen freezes. after about a minute of waiting, the computer shuts down.
turnining it back on, i am greeted with the message that windows cannot start up normally. 15 minutes of this, and i call down my dad. he tries for 10 minutes.
he had to re-install windows.
we lost everything.
-4000 songs
-over 50000 pictures
-400 music videos
-etcetera, etcetera.
any idea as to what caused this?
you lost everything? recovery isn't even an option? did you have to format? o.o
no chance of recovery, and i wasn't watching what my dad was doing because he looked like he was gonna hit me.
I wonder if you can get ahold of some recovery thingie that searches all the empty space for the lost/erased files...
There's hardly any chance to recover anything after Windows has been reinstalled.
Quote from: topher chee on October 05, 2006, 09:19:31 PM
MY COMPUTER IS ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
640 MB Not much but better than 124
Not much? It's a lot more than what I have (256 MB).
Quote from: Aridas Soulfire on October 23, 2006, 01:10:35 PM
I wonder if you can get ahold of some recovery thingie that searches all the empty space for the lost/erased files...
gosh i hope so...i cringe, thinking of all my pictures being gone :<
Mc Afee used to have a good recovery program. And Scandisk might help find lost parts of files.
Something like that happened to me once, I never fully recovered from it.
You could try freeundelete.
http://officerecovery.com/freeundelete/
Quote from: Xze-Xze on October 23, 2006, 12:51:30 PM
any idea as to what caused this?
Sorry if that sounds harsh, but..
Lack of backup.
On a more sympathetic note:
I really hope you can recover some of your stuff.
Good luck. :3
Well, anything that can search the unused space for files, or even remnants of the old formatted parts, should probably help, though you'd have to save the files on something else unless you have a program that restores said files in the spot they are... which kinda sounds dangerous to me but.. I think it exists.
Quote from: Dakata on August 14, 2006, 01:21:02 PMMy laptop hates me. D:
It'll turn off every once in a while. For no friggin' reason. And when I restart it, it'll either shut off again after I click something, screw up my Firefox stuff (It'll mess with the settings) or just lag (and shut off again later).
I scanned it with Ad-Aware, and it didn't find anything. I scanned it with Avast, and it didn't find anything. And when I try to scan it with Spybot S&D it'll shut off when it's like 1/4 done.
It's an...Acer Aspire 3003WLMI (I think XP). With Windows XP.
Edit: Oh, and it'll randomly kick me off the internet too. The internet'll work for my brother's computer and my dad's computers when the internet dies on me so I doubt it's -not- the laptop's fault. D:
Edit #2: And when it shuts off, it just shuts off. It doesn't say "Windows is shutting down" or anything.
Alright, my laptop stopped doing that. Don't know why though. It could be 'cuz I unistalled some programs I never use (Can't remember what they were though.) or 'cuz I moved some stuff to my other drive (Is that what it's called?)....or both. *Shrug*
Any of you nerds think you know why it stopped dying on me?
I think your laptop may have finally gotten over your avatar.
Naaaaah. :3 I doubt it.
I've loved this durn thing for like...a year. I Haven't hit it at all. :B *Hugs his/her laptop* I LESS THAN THREE (<3) YOU, EVIL JR.
...*Cough*Ishouldchangemyavvie*Cough*
Quote from: Tiger_T on October 23, 2006, 02:51:39 PM
Quote from: Xze-Xze on October 23, 2006, 12:51:30 PM
any idea as to what caused this?
Sorry if that sounds harsh, but..
Lack of backup.
Erm..i was referring to the crash ^^;
I know. >:3
...
Quote from: Dakata on October 23, 2006, 05:56:06 PM
[insertotherquotethingiehere]
Alright, my laptop stopped doing that. Don't know why though. It could be 'cuz I unistalled some programs I never use (Can't remember what they were though.) or 'cuz I moved some stuff to my other drive (Is that what it's called?)....or both. *Shrug*
Any of you nerds think you know why it stopped dying on me?
*Pokes the nerdy Tiger, nerdy box, nerdy Tape-wolf and nerdy [and moogle-y] moogle* :B
could be that this piece of software may have been running some back ground tasks for examples some pretty harmless updates, but this will take processing power and memory space so maybe getting rid of the program freed up some back ground thinking space. As for moving stuff over to another drive think of it this way you have a book with a hundred chapters, if you rip out 50 of them and remove them from the contents page then its going to take less effort to find and organise items, in this case it would be a good idea to update the contents page where as in computing terms doing a defrag does relatively the same thing.
Just a quick note here from me, my brothers hard drive recently failed to boot due to a sudden incompatibility with the m/b which is strange since he's been using this combination for the past year, turns out after running a few tests there were two problems the indexing process for the hard drive had got a bit nasty causing it to choose whether or not to read or write and also the boot process was a bit off. Any way boot process meant to change the BIOS and make sure it was booting from hard disk first (i normally like to try to boot from CD as it helps with windows being reformatted but now the boot sequence prefers hard disk) . Secondly i did a bit of computer cleaning if you have windows is to go to my computer right click on your main disk drive, properties, tools and do a error check with both options checked it should ask to run on reboot say yes and reboot if not done automatically.
Quote from: Dakata on October 24, 2006, 04:41:00 PM
Any of you nerds think you know why it stopped dying on me?
*Pokes the nerdy Tiger, nerdy box, nerdy Tape-wolf and nerdy [and moogle-y] moogle* :B
Nah, it's Windows. If it breaks, you're on your own :P
Stop blaming everything on Windows. :P (I'm happy with it, it does everything I want fine, and I never have any problems with it.)
Quote from: Tapewolf on October 24, 2006, 05:09:20 PMNah, it's Windows. If it breaks, you're on your own :P
Well, my dad was thinking about putting Linux on my laptop. :P
If he does, will that erase -all- of my stuff or just the Windows-only stuff? ...Or none of my stuff?
Quote from: ×HaZ×MaT× on October 24, 2006, 05:23:27 PM
Stop blaming everything on Windows. :P (I'm happy with it, it does everything I want fine, and I never have any problems with it.)
Be that as it may, XP has added so much internal complexity and undocumented daemons that it's no longer possible for me to troubleshoot it. In other words, if it breaks, you get to keep both pieces (No... Darkmoon has stolen the 'twisted' emoticon :( )
**EDIT**
Quote from: Dakata on October 24, 2006, 05:33:07 PM
Quote from: Tapewolf on October 24, 2006, 05:09:20 PMNah, it's Windows. If it breaks, you're on your own :P
Well, my dad was thinking about putting Linux on my laptop. :P
If he does, will that erase -all- of my stuff or just the Windows-only stuff? ...Or none of my stuff?
Depends how it's done, and how it was set up in the first place. With something like PartitionMagic you could shrink the windows partition and split it 50/50 Linux and Windows, without destroying anything if there's enough free space left to begin with.
The alternative is to copy everything off, reinstall Windows and copy all the stuff back on.
If it was set up with Linux as a possibility to begin with, it might have already been split so Windows has its own partition (like containment doors in case it eats itself) and the data lives in another one. I'd have to see the machine..
Quote from: Dakata on October 24, 2006, 04:41:00 PM
*Pokes the nerdy Tiger, nerdy box, nerdy Tape-wolf and nerdy [and moogle-y] moogle* :B
"Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing."
ie - I had nothing to add, so I didn't clutter the thread with adding it. After all, it's not like I don't post enough elsewhere.... :-)
Quote from: Tapewolf on October 24, 2006, 05:36:01 PM
Quote from: ×HaZ×MaT× on October 24, 2006, 05:23:27 PM
Stop blaming everything on Windows. :P (I'm happy with it, it does everything I want fine, and I never have any problems with it.)
Be that as it may, XP has added so much internal complexity and undocumented daemons that it's no longer possible for me to troubleshoot it. In other words, if it breaks, you get to keep both pieces (No... Darkmoon has stolen the 'twisted' emoticon :( )
That just shows you how much you DON'T know >_>
Quote from: Dakata on October 24, 2006, 04:41:00 PM
...
Quote from: Dakata on October 23, 2006, 05:56:06 PM
[insertotherquotethingiehere]
Alright, my laptop stopped doing that. Don't know why though. It could be 'cuz I unistalled some programs I never use (Can't remember what they were though.) or 'cuz I moved some stuff to my other drive (Is that what it's called?)....or both. *Shrug*
Any of you nerds think you know why it stopped dying on me?
*Pokes the nerdy Tiger, nerdy box, nerdy Tape-wolf and nerdy [and moogle-y] moogle* :B
Poorly written software / drivers can cause conflicts with other bits of (poorly written) software, which can cause all sorts of problems. Cleaning up said software can restore (some) functionality back to your computer.
Quote from: Aridas Soulfire on October 25, 2006, 01:09:11 AM
Quote from: Tapewolf on October 24, 2006, 05:36:01 PM
Be that as it may, XP has added so much internal complexity and undocumented daemons that it's no longer possible for me to troubleshoot it. In other words, if it breaks, you get to keep both pieces (No... Darkmoon has stolen the 'twisted' emoticon :( )
That just shows you how much you DON'T know >_>
You're damn right Aridas. I've been programming computers since before you were born, and if there's one thing that I've learned, it's that nothing ever does exactly what it's supposed to.
On the ZX spectrum, with 64k of addressable memory (16k ROM and 48k of RAM) it's more-or-less possible to account for everything if you're sufficiently skilled. I'd like to lie and say I was, but up until 13 I was still fiddling around with BASIC. Even that simple system had its flaws, there were bugs in the ROM and the microprocessor too, I think. Now you have got at least one subprocessor on every single component of the PC and most of those are far beyond what the Z80 is capable of. That gives you a vast chain of command on the assumption that each part is going to behave in exactly the right way in every situation, and they won't - most video BIOSes have their own unique bugs and deviations from the VESA spec, for example and variations in what they support.
I could go on and on about the software side too, but I'll try to cut this short. Remember, the more layers of complexity you add, the more points of failure you add. Windows 95 is more complex than DOS, and NT is more complex than Win95. XP is more complex than NT and Vista will be more complex than it is.
Now consider that not only do we have lots of extra software running in the background, some of which is deliberately undocumented, but it is written using the Windows APIs which behave slightly differently depending on the implementation, have documented bugs and are so opaque in their design that Microsoft engineers have been reported to consult the WINE source code to find out what they're supposed to do.
If the entire system was made by Microsoft there would be some hope that one or two people could have a holistic view but it isn't - every system will have third-party binary-only device drivers interfacing directly with the OS kernel at ring zero.
Think about this. Microsoft have a complete(?) understanding of the kernel, but no idea what is happening in the device drivers. The people who wrote the device drivers understand their bit but will only have a relatively simplistic view of the kernel. As soon as that happens you're relying on trust that each component will talk to the other in exactly the right way every time, regardless of the input it is given. And because we have a chain of command from subsystem to subsystem, any minor errors will tend to be amplified until they hit something big.
In short, and back to the topic at hand, if someone says that they completely understand a Windows installation, they are either lying or haven't yet realised how little they actually know.
...Yet I can deal with these things and HAVE dealt with these things without needing to make that complaint. You're making good points, and I've supported you silently this far, but I'm not sure why you said what you said in the 4th paragraph of your post here, considering THAT in particular isn't my problem, or some other end-user's problem. Believe it or not, finding an issue si easier than you make it out to be. Fixing it is probably another matter, but like I said... Not my problem. All I have to do is remove or (in some cases) modify the problematic... thingamajigger. I had more to say, but my brain's melting and I'm starting to forget words... If I try to say anymore, everything's going to be a "thing".. so I'll rest. o.o;
Quote
In short, and back to the topic at hand, if someone says that they completely understand a Windows installation, they are either lying or haven't yet realised how little they actually know.
as well as the hidden items such as recovery console, which to be honest is one of the most powerful components due to the scale of what you can do
QuoteWell, my dad was thinking about putting Linux on my laptop. tongue
i'm dual booting linux mandriva at the moment, it actually auto partitions during set-up but make sure that you have a monitor that is useable with linux mine just gives a load of weird heirogliphs so i can only look at stuff in console mode
Quote from: Aridas Soulfire on October 25, 2006, 11:59:16 AM
Believe it or not, finding an issue si easier than you make it out to be. Fixing it is probably another matter, but like I said... Not my problem.
Ah, well if you consider fixing the problem to be separate from diagnosis, then yes that's going to give you a different outlook.
I'll admit I'm rather out-of-the-loop in Windows diagnosis, but you have to admit, telling someone who's been a computer professional for about ten years that they know nothing about computers is not a good way to make friends.
Now, let's see if we can deal with some system conflicts rather than personality ones >:3
who said you didn't know anything about computers? *stab* >_>
Quote from: Aridas Soulfire on October 25, 2006, 02:18:27 PM
who said you didn't know anything about computers? *stab* >_>
Quote from: Aridas Soulfire on October 25, 2006, 01:09:11 AM
That just shows you how much you DON'T know >_>
..I am struggling to find an alternative way of interpreting that reply.
I DID quote your windows comment, especially peeved about the part where you seem to think by your wording that if something goes wrong in XP, it's doomed. Which it damn well isn't.
Hm. Well, I have almost no damn clue when it comes to fixing computers. I do know that when I'm done with one and it no longer works, you're lucky to get parts from it, if that much.
...Which is why when I got the Blue Screen of Death repeatedly this past week I bought a new one. Besides, it was time for an upgrade.
Is you've got the money to do so... :rolleyes
It maybe might be worth trying to salvage the RAM.
Provided that there's a slot left/a smaller one installed in the new computer.
But then again; I know only a small bit about hardware. :)
Anyone know much about nVidia 6x00 video cards? Are they supposed to, like, work and stuff? Foolishly I bought a GeForce 6200 last month. In Windows, OpenGL does not work and DirectX 7(? Whichever version Deus Ex uses) is kind of broken too and shuts down the 3D accelerator hardware after about 15 minutes. That's with the latest drivers.
Sunday I discovered that Thief and System Shock 2 wouldn't work at all. I've down-graded to some year-old drivers that almost work (except for OpenGL).
Getting it to work in Linux was almost as bad, although it's now happier than Windows.
Is this your usual driver quality from nVidia, or is the card sick? (Unfortunately I bought it out-of-town so returning it would be tricky.)
My advise to you is pretty self evident, once you think about it, and goes as such:
Firstly, get another card and return the old one. nVidia stuff isn't known for acting up more than Ati, but the modified products are more numerous and that sometimes contributes to creating confusion or error. You're always better off with a newer model, but you don't have to go for something flashy. A 6600 or a 6800 won't cost you that much nowadays either. Personally, I use more advanced stuff (7800 GTX), but as long as it has good cooling and 256 bit memory (and that's a big range of cards), it will almost never fail you.
Secondly, make sure to get whatever tidy and bundled software that comes together with cards or games you can. Direct x packages can be a bit more time-consuming to install manually than drivers, but they mostly come with whatever games you are playing, or they come nice and bundled and downloadable from pretty reliable sources.
Finally, if you are in need of verified and proper drivers, always refer to the homepage. If you can't find it there, mess me and I can send the stuff and instructions to you. :P
The company who made your 6200 could be at fault. I'm sure it's not the 6200, since other people use them. It might even be your computer, because like you've said before, sometimes computers just don't like certain pieces of hardware/software.
Quote from: Aridas Soulfire on October 31, 2006, 04:23:58 PM
The company who made your 6200 could be at fault. I'm sure it's not the 6200, since other people use them. It might even be your computer, because like you've said before, sometimes computers just don't like certain pieces of hardware/software.
Yes. It's a PNY card. I ask mainly because I've yet to have a pleasant experience with an nVidia card :<
I don't know who PNY is, but I wouldn't trust them. My favorite companies are BFG and XFX.
I always buy the original hard- and software, and tweak it myself if I find the need. It's so much easier that way.
Quote from: Stygian on October 31, 2006, 07:09:34 PM
I always buy the original hard- and software, and tweak it myself if I find the need. It's so much easier that way.
What was that in relation to? Building a PC vs buying a whole one, or did you mean that you purchase a graphics core from nVidia and etch your own AGP card? >:3
(I wanted to make my own soundcard once. You could get ISA prototyping boards from Maplins and also AD1848 cores that came with a reference design. I always thought it would have been pretty hardcore :P )
Mostly it's a matter of building a computer from scratch and putting what components where in what order. I won't say that I go as far as modifying actual components, but sometimes I use less than standard parts or configurations. My dad works with integrated systems structure and programming, meaning sometimes I'll be able to get my hands on pieces of more "industrial-type" hardware. My current computer isn't tweaked out that way though, but my father's is.
The computer from hell returns.
This is the same box I asked about back on page 4 - Apparently that problem turned out to be a registry corruption from the virus; I had to get the files backed up and get the hard drive wiped to get it functioning again.
The computer's worked normally for about a month. Then, last week, I came home, did some quick lookups on Okami info, then took off and hung out with friends. I came back around eight hours later to find the computer "off." The screen was black, the tower was off, but the keyboard's Num Lock key was lit, and the optical mouse lights were on. I couldn't get a response, so I hit the power button. Still nothing. I turned off the power supply to get a look inside, and at this point, all the lights turned off (Keyboard, mouse, motherboard) as normal. After looking through and finding nothing wrong and nothing smelling burnt, I turned it back on; The mouse and motherboard lit back up, but I got the same response as before. The tower cannot power up - If I press the power button, I get a brief (less than half a second) flicker of life, and then it shuts down again. I don't get any display on my monitor, though there isn't really time for it to even get to that point. The blip of light only occurs one time after I turn the PSU off and back on, though it seems to do it if I haven't attempt to do so in an extended period (Like a capacitor or something). A friend suggested that my heatsink had slipped off and the computer was attempting to save my processor; I considered this, but I installed the heatsink (A hulking mass of semi-sharp metal edges) myself, and I had to apply nearly my entire body weight to get it attached, so there's no chance of it just "slipping." The power button was brought up, and I had checked it; The button is a little odd in that it has two buttons, one on top and one on the bottom, but carefully triggering only button would still get the same result, so I don't think that was the issue. I've replaced the power cord, but that hasn't helped. As before, the computer uses an E-ATX power supply, and I don't have a spare one of those around to test to see if the power supply is the problem.
Quote from: THiA on November 02, 2006, 12:11:59 AM
, but I installed the heatsink (A hulking mass of semi-sharp metal edges) myself, and I had to apply nearly my entire body weight to get it attached, so there's no chance of it just "slipping."
:erk
Are you sure you installed it correctly? Normally a heatsink isn't that much trouble.
Also, it sounds like something is sucking an ungodly amount of power from your PSU.
Try stripping your computer to it's bare minumum (mainboard, processor, memory, video-card, hard disk) and then power it up. If it works, the offending component is in the mountain of un-attached stuff.
Re-attach one new component each time, and try booting up. If your pc won't boot up with a specific component attached, it is the source of your problems.
If it still won't power up, remove more components, and see if your pc will reach post / give error messages. If you remove your video-card you should get a series of warning beeps. Consult your mainboard manual for more information.
I had something similar about 7 years ago. The culprit was my keyboard.
The worst-case scenario is that the mainboard has fried, and has taken several other components with it. Good luck diagnosing your patient / computer.
Hmm. I installed a second harddrive and after rebooting I don't have sound anymore (the speakers just hum slightly)
They work though. I tried with another source.
Could the lack of sound be related to the new HD or is there another explanation? How can I solve this?
*wants his sound back :cry*
XP with SP2
If those are unpowered speakers, it's possible your PSU is slightly underpowered for the new hdd. ie, the hard drives, between them are drawing enough off one of the busses (+5?) that the PSU can't provide enough to run the speakers on top of that.
Either powered speakers, or a new PSU would solve th issue, I think.
You could also try unplugging your cdrom drive, temporarily, to see if that fixes it. If it does, then that probably is your problem.
Is there anything like hdparm in Windows 2003? I need to perform a bus reset on one of the ATAPI controllers without rebooting the server.
I don't think so. Misuse of HDPARM can mess up a hard disk quite thoroughly, if the user doesn't know what he / she is doing.
*nix assumes the user knows what he / she is doing.
The windows philosophy is as follows: the user is an asshat, and will mess up his / her PC whenever possible. As such, something as powerful / dangerous as HDPARM is unlikely to be developed for windows.
CHALLENGE: prove me wrong.
Quote from: Tapewolf on November 08, 2006, 04:29:02 AM
Is there anything like hdparm in Windows 2003? I need to perform a bus reset on one of the ATAPI controllers without rebooting the server.
hm... that depends on how many ways there are to do such a thing...
Basically, the backup drive has crashed out again as it is wont to do if a backup fails. The only drives on that bus are removable media (i.e. the tapestreamer and the DVD+RW unit), so it's not a problem of having to unmount the volumes.
Since everyone actually wants to use the server, I don't really want to have to reboot it if I can get away with a bus reset a'la Linux.
If this can't be done in Windows then I guess I'll have to stay late and do it the hard way.
I believe you're screwed. :-/
... I -am- ready to learn I'm wrong, though.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v451/xHaZxMaTx/OhNoes.png)
Bill says I'm dying of SARS. :cry
-EDIT-
Oh noes, it happened again! I've never seen this before and it's only happened while talking to Bill. He must be the one giving me SARS! :O
I don't know about SARS but as a followup to my problem, I did have to reboot the 2003 server to get the bastard to work again. Did I mention I don't like Windows?
Quote from: Tapewolf on November 09, 2006, 02:38:22 PM
Did I mention I don't like Windows?
You don't need to: everyone hates Windows.
Whenever I try to open a folder on my brother's computer (Windows 2000 Professional), it asks me what I want to open it with.
How do I make it stop? 'A' It's annoying!
Hmmm... You could try selecting 'Windows Explorer' then check the box that says 'Use this program everytime I open this type of file' or something similar to that. :P I don't know, Windows 2000 sucks.
Quote from: Vidar on November 09, 2006, 03:32:56 PM
Quote from: Tapewolf on November 09, 2006, 02:38:22 PM
Did I mention I don't like Windows?
You don't need to: everyone hates Windows.
Not true, Windows and I get along just fine. :) (Except 2000/ME, obviously.)
The 'Use this program everytime' checkbox thing doesn't work. :dface
(http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/1219/gjoitrjgortjgxf5.png)
(Ignore the game maker thing. My brother wanted it.)
Maybe because you don't have anything selected. :P And if you can't find 'Windows Explorer' try using Internet Explorer.
It doesn't work when I select something. :P
And IE's evil. D:
That's an easy one. The VERY MOST LIKELY reason you can't choose a permanent association is because there's no file type. By the looks of it, your file doesn't have an extension. what is it?
He's trying to open the My Music folder. =/
Oh, wasn't paying attention... That old thing huh? Any folder at all?
It does it for every folder 'cept "My Documents". :dface
Hmmm... how odd. Well, I'm stumped. :T
Well, I know that in most parts of windows, the My Documents button behaves differently than a regular folder... well, the desktop icon, at least. When did this start?
After I tried to open a program, and it didn't work.
When I tried to open it, the screen just turned black, then went back to normal. It might be corrupted or something. *Shrug*
could've been some kind of virus >.>
depending on what program...
But here, I cruised around and found a registry fix. Most likely, it somehow deleted the folder associations... so you ended up not being able to open them.
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/fileassoc/folder_reg.zip
I say reinstall Windows. It won't delete any of your stuff.
Quote from: Aridas Soulfire on November 10, 2006, 05:00:36 PM
could've been some kind of virus >.>
What do you mean? A virus screwed up the file, or the file -is- a virus? 'Cuz I doubt it's a virus. I used it a looong time ago...but on a different computer. (The other computer was a Windows 98 though.)
Quotehttp://www.dougknox.com/xp/fileassoc/folder_reg.zip
...What do I do with this?
Quote from: Haz to the Mat on November 10, 2006, 05:01:01 PMI say reinstall Windows. It won't delete any of your stuff.
I'm too lazy to do that. :P
just doubleclick the reg file that's inside the zip. it SHOULD put it back the way it was. If not, i'll do a little more searching.
as for the program, maybe it just doesn't like XP.. the bully.. >.>
Quote from: Dakata on November 10, 2006, 04:01:55 PM
Whenever I try to open a folder on my brother's computer (Windows 2000 Professional)...
I'm using Windows 2000 Professional, not XP. :P Silly Aridas.
Edit: And I tried clicking it. It asked if I wanted to add it to the registry, I said yes, it said it was successfully added to the registry, and it didn't do anything.
GAh! I'm not paying attention again... But still... I would've figured they'd have the same registry locations... considering how very similar they are. Let me look some more anyway.
edit: it does seem like those fixes are the only ones out there, and since I don't have W2K, I can't check the similarities myself. You might have to wait for someone with it to come along and provide an equivalent fix, if one is even needed.
Does anyone know anytihng about laptops?
Quote from: thegayhare on November 11, 2006, 07:54:05 AM
Does anyone know anything about laptops?
A bit. What's the question? If it's "which is the best current laptop" someone will may have to answer.
Well here is the problem I bought a old Gateway Solo 9100
the computer works fine except for one thing... It can't seem to run off the battery power. It can charge up, it can detect the battery (and level of charge), and I replaced it so it's not the battery itself, both batteries do work It just won't run on it
edit:
never mind aparently my sis busted the LCD...
Ohh well she had bought it off me and was going to give it back no charge anyway so no loss
anyone got an old laptop they don't want? All I'm looking for is sometihng I can type on when not at home, and maybe watch movies. nothing to fancey
Yes, but...
well, I'm nowhere near you, and I don't know anyone heading in that direction, and, well, it wasn't much chop anyway...
... and you can probably get a reasonable second-hand laptop for under 400 or so, if you're careful. You can certainly get new ones for close on that from dell, so... Look up ebay or something?
Oh well I can atleast sell the solo as a parts computer
and the spare battery is still good
I've beem checking a few laptops on ebay but mostly I can't aford the large lump sum I'd have to pay up front
A new Dell would be affordable on a monthly basis... but I'm going to wait until thanksgiving if I'm going to get a new laptop. Just incase. Last year walmart was selling new laptops for 200 a piece. not to impresive a machine but it'd be all I need
Alrighty then. Does anyone know what to do if one's PCI video card is completely fried, and the on-board video won't work? I'm normally quite adept at fixing these magic boxes, but that usually requires a visual interface.
Well I picked up a new laptop... well a used one anyway
A Compaq Armada M700
It'll do everything I want... though I am a little annoyed iy only has one usb port but Ehh It's got an eraser nub mouse rather then one of those annoying fingers pads so It all evens out.
Here is the real problem. It can't seem to run on the battery. I had the same problem with the gateway solo the main differance though was that the sollo deffinitly held a charge I don't think this battery does.
I've already ordered a brand new replacement for the battery, but just incase I was hoping you folks might have idea's on what I could check. (I'm a little gun shy since the solo failed so badly)
PS I'm planing on painting the computers cover, mostlikely my bunny pirate flag that shouldn't damage anything right?
Quote from: DigitalMan on November 25, 2006, 09:26:58 PM
Alrighty then. Does anyone know what to do if one's PCI video card is completely fried, and the on-board video won't work? I'm normally quite adept at fixing these magic boxes, but that usually requires a visual interface.
Merged into this topic.
I've had some problems starting both Norton Anti-virus and Zone Alarm. Zone Alarm won't start at all and Norton computer scans usually end with "windows is low on virtual memory..."
Quote from: DigitalMan on November 25, 2006, 09:26:58 PM
Alrighty then. Does anyone know what to do if one's PCI video card is completely fried, and the on-board video won't work? I'm normally quite adept at fixing these magic boxes, but that usually requires a visual interface.
Get another video card?
The only other thing I can think of is to take the hard disk(s) out and put it into another similar computer. With WinXP you will need a computer almost exactly the same.
Quote from: Warlike on November 25, 2006, 10:09:00 PM
I've had some problems starting both Norton Anti-virus and Zone Alarm. Zone Alarm won't start at all and Norton computer scans usually end with "windows is low on virtual memory..."
How much RAM do you have? You may have to make the pagefile larger.
How much RAM? How would I check that? I'd probably know crap like this if this were my computer...
Hmm... Well, I could use the 256MB card from this computer, and turn the Generally Omnipotent Device into the graphics workstation, but then I'd need a sound card with MIDI to turn this computer into the audio workstation. Not to mention longer cables... looks like it's eBay time.
Quote from: Warlike on November 25, 2006, 10:43:31 PM
How much RAM? How would I check that? I'd probably know crap like this if this were my computer...
Check System in Control Panel. You'll probably want Control Panel in "I know what I'm doing mode," AKA Classic View, instead of Category View.
Actually, I get lost on this computer because I'm a lesser user who isn't allowed into the upper files from my screen name. I haven't seen the big files in a few years.
128 MB
ack... I got that message again while I was typing. It says it's trying to fix the file size, but that obviously isn't changing anything.
i use windows 98...i used xp, 2000, linux....but 98 was the only that never gave up on me...the one that never freezed......NEVER!....the one that i can always count....and i don't even need windows update.....just a good avg anti-virus and a spywaredoctor....plus that to firefox, always using internet with mind! (don't go often to crack numbers sites)
WINDOWS 98 FTW!!!!!!!!!!!! :B
Well my Windows XP computer never gave up on me, either :B Until I switched which PCI slot the video card was in and then reformatted. I find it odd that it was fine until I reformatted, normally computers don't like it when you change the cards around :aack
Quote from: thegayhare on November 25, 2006, 09:38:41 PM
PS I'm planing on painting the computers cover, mostlikely my bunny pirate flag that shouldn't damage anything right?
As long as you keep the paint out of the works, it should be fine.
And yes, the battery is probably what doesn't work, and all you need to replace to get it working again. Find a laptop store and ask them about methods for keeping battery life working for longer, though.
My computer is tried to get me to commit suicide. Whenever I opened a new internet window, it suddenly closed ALL of my internet windows. I just got it fixed yesterday. And here's something I thought up for this thread:
Signs Your Computer Has Gained Sentience
1. It deletes its "uninstall" programs
2. It tries to edit your posts to improve humor
3. It goes into "sleep" mode at night
4. It organizes files by subject and tone
5. Your internet crashes right before you send an important e-mail
6. It recommends upgrades for itself
7. It tells you to get dressed
8. Suspicious charges on your credit card bill
9. It tells you it has a virus, then hides the antivirus program
10. You find sites in your Favorites folder that you've never heard of
11. The CD drive tries to shut on your hand
12. It corrects your spelling so people can actually understand you
13. The dial-up noise sounds like voices
14. When you check for viruses, you hear a sneeze
15. It calls you a pervert for surfing porn sites
16. It makes obscene sounds when you plug in a USB device
17. The "off" button stops working
18. The volume reaches painfully high levels by itself
19. Your mouse starts moving of its own accord
20. It sends insulting e-mails to your office
21. Your fax prints out death threats
22. The screensaver changes to look like two eyes
23. You get spam e-mail after you unplug it for a while
24. Unsettling text documents appear out of nowhere
25. It adopts a James Bond-style accent
26. The power cables untangle themselves
27. You constantly get tripped by wires
28. It tries to lock up when you look at this list
29. Your screen degausses while you're going to the restroom
30. The fax tries to close on your hand
31. Your graphing calculator acts like it's in love
32. The wireless mouse tries to run away
33. When you pull up the Word paperclip assistant, you find out it's dead
34. Your Windows and Linux icons move to opposite sides of the screen
35. It pulls up websites that recommend disproven, harmful medicines
36. Your robot vacuum tries to run over the cat
37. It tries to shut down whenever you use "l33t"
Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on November 26, 2006, 01:22:32 PM
Quote from: thegayhare on November 25, 2006, 09:38:41 PM
PS I'm planing on painting the computers cover, mostlikely my bunny pirate flag that shouldn't damage anything right?
As long as you keep the paint out of the works, it should be fine.
And yes, the battery is probably what doesn't work, and all you need to replace to get it working again. Find a laptop store and ask them about methods for keeping battery life working for longer, though.
thanks learch I just ask cause with the solo I know the battery wasn't the problem since I'd replaced the main one and the Cmos battery and it still wouldn't run on it
it could detect it and even charge it
I ran the battery learning software and it told me the thing should run for two hours but it just wouldn't... part of the reason I got rid of it, that and my sister cracked the LCD... this new one is nice though much lighter then the gatway though the scarcity of usb ports annoys me still
oh well
one more question If I get a wireless networking card for it. since it's an older machine will I need an Older card or would a fairly new one work?
Uh. as long as it fits in a port, it should be ok with a newer one.
If you've only got one USB port, you may wish to enquire after either a PCMCIA USB card, or an external (powered) hub... but that depends on precisely what hardware you're planning on using it with, and with it...
Well, found out what was wrong with the video card. Apparently, the fan over the GPU is actually rusted to the point of being immobile - how that happened, I have no clue. But apparently it went as such: computer turns on, and runs for a while; DM tries to do something graphical; GPU overheats, screen blanks, video driver gives a STOP error (that I couldn't see, but Windows told me about); computer starts up again and process repeats. And finally at some point the GPU fried permanently.
So there goes my shiny rather-new card :cry Now I'm using an ancient 64MB card, from the time when slow low-power cards needed a fan, and it's sucking power and updating the screen at a whopping 10fps. So glad this isn't my 3D Studio computer...
In case anyone's curious, I managed to make my nVidia card behave itself and not disable the 3D core after playing Deus Ex or Thief for more than 15 minutes. There seems to be some kind of conflict within the AGP system that causes it to lock up after a random amount of time (race condition?). With the AGP multiplier turned down to 1x in the BIOS, it behaves itself although the frame-rates probably suck (I haven't really benchmarked it). I'll have to see if I can find some utility to let me force it to some other rate like 2x and see if that stops it halting...
Hello all
The bunny seems to have anouther problem
It seems every time a try and use the charactor tool one my model collection I get an error message
Here is the error
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y45/boybnny2/error2.jpg)
anyone have any Idea what I should do?
ntdll.dll?
What the heck is it doing messing with that?
... actually, find that dll, all versions of it, and have a look at the info on it. You may find there's a new verison of it that's been updated, and your charactertool.exe is expecting the old version. If you look around, there maybe a copy of the old one in the recovery folders in \windows\$foldername$\... somewhere.
I don't know what does the ntdll.dll govern?
Charactor tool is a program that lets you veiw 3D models as they would look in game (for this particular game)
mainly I uses it to test new skins
but I think you might be right I did a search and it seems the ntdll.dll file thats on my C: drive (basicly the older OS) is a few KB smaller then the one on my D: (the active OS) it must have happened when I installed service pack
Right. In that case, you can put the old ntdll.dll into the directory where the charactertool.exe file is, provided there isn't any other one there already.
the app will load from right next to it in preference to the one in the system folder. Usually.
That may well fix your problem.
ntdll.dll -sounds- like one that is part of the OS. Deep kernel foo. Don't mess with it, type stuff.
Nope that didn't work... sorry
Yeah it's me again
Sorry every bunny
Umm this time it's about my laptop again
Everything is running fine the new battery is great and it's all shiney... cept for one thing...
It seems that the DVD rom can't detect dvds I mean compleatly like they arn't even there
Anything else works fine it's just dvd's I'm not sure if it;s a codec problem or what but any help ould be apreciated
Do a seance on the laptop.
*whaps Azzie*
Critical question time, Bunnyboy - are you sure it -has- a DVD drive, and not just a CD drive? It's possible that it's supposed to ship with a DVD, but you've been done, depending on where you got it from, etc etc. Or it's not supposed to have a DVD drive at all...
Have you tested with a normal (either audio or data) cd?
Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on December 15, 2006, 10:10:28 PM
*whaps Azzie*
Critical question time, Bunnyboy - are you sure it -has- a DVD drive, and not just a CD drive? It's possible that it's supposed to ship with a DVD, but you've been done, depending on where you got it from, etc etc. Or it's not supposed to have a DVD drive at all...
Have you tested with a normal (either audio or data) cd?
Yeppers I have tested it Data and audio cd's work fine and It does have a dvd drive
The hardware profile lists it as a Compaq DVD-rom DRD-U424
welp while searching for a updated driver I came a cross some one with the same problem
Apearently, DVDs and CDs are read by differnt lazers
Apearently in this case what happened was that one of the lazers gave out and the other still works.
so it looks like I need to replace the dvd drive
same thing happened with my old PowerBook Hare. Optical drive cut out reading and writing DVDs. Replaced it three times in two months, on average the optical drive lasted maybe a week. In the end I think it was the I/O controller on my PowerBook that actually damaged the drives (since they all broke the same way and very quickly).
Not really sure where else to put this...
Anyone know where I could get a free program that will burn gapless CDs?
Have you tried Feurio?
http://www.feurio.com/
If you're using linux, there's lots of them.
However, since you're under windows, I'm unable to remember any - can't be bothered dealign with the crappy interface long enough to write anything of use, when I can make, check, and write a standard cd image in less time on linux using only the command line.
But that's just me... :-)
Quote from: HaZ×MaT on December 18, 2006, 03:34:19 AM
Not really sure where else to put this...
Anyone know where I could get a free program that will burn gapless CDs?
I use a free program called CD Burner XP Pro which can be found here: http://www.cdburnerxp.se/
I've personally never used it for gapless CDs but it specifically has an option for that (select burn-at-once, it's in the help files). The help file does however warn you that your CD burner has to support gapless burning, I don't know anything about that. The software is free though so you can give it a shot.
Vidar, that program isn't free, but thanks anyway.
Farinata, I'm downloading that program right now, thanks.
Quote from: HaZ×MaT on December 18, 2006, 05:30:21 PM
Farinata, I'm downloading that program right now, thanks.
Let me know if you have trouble with it!
I guess my CD writer doesn't have 'session-at-once' capabilities. :/ I found another program called CloneCD that will burn gapless CDs, I've already done it, but it's only a 21 day trial.
Hmmm Does anyone know of a good free dvd ripper? Something that'll convert drom a dvd to a format windows can read Avi or Mpeg
Quote from: thegayhare on December 18, 2006, 06:11:48 PM
Hmmm Does anyone know of a good free dvd ripper? Something that'll convert drom a dvd to a format windows can read Avi or Mpeg
If you are running Windows, this is a non-trivial problem (though it can certainly be done). I'm not aware of any free program that will do it all for you in one step (though I have been out of it for a while so somebody may be able to help you here). DVD Decrypter is the "canonical" free decrypting program, but it's just going to give you the basic files; you have to convert them into a readable format. I would suggest you look up "DVD Ripping" on Google and follow one of the many guides. They all take multiple steps and use several different pieces of free software. If you were running Linux....
Let me know if you get stuck, I
may be able to help.
Edit: As an example, here is a guide using free programs (which I have not used).
http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/Guides:Basic_Guide/Setup
This is not an atypical level of complexity.
Okay, another stupid question from me.
I recorded an MPEG file, but while recording the program screwed up (Ulead DVD MovieFactory 4 SE) and as a result, I have what I believe is a corrupt MPEG file
Now I can play it in Winamp an Windows Media Player fine, even though the clip is listed as only one second long. (It plays longer.) But copying and pasting this file into any editing program causes it to only recognize the first three seconds at best, or at worst causing the programs to freeze. Is there anything that can be done for this file, or is it a lost cause?
try using some sort of screen capture software. That might help.
Destina Faroda, could you burn the file to disc from inside window media player to see if its not just a cahed file that its playing, then copying it back onto your system with a different file name?
then you will see if you actually have the file still
Sorry to bump this but once again the bunny needs some help
Well Two problems have cropped up
One I've been told by my freinds on Aim that no they arn't ignoring me It's just that on there End It looks like my Aim is rappidly logging out and back in. I never see anything
I think that the problem might be with the connection to the new wireless router and the modem. since my laptop is also seeing the same troubles when using Aim.
I think it might also have something to do with the fact that I went from using USB to connect to the modem to using an ethernet. how ever the connection display says I've got a great connection
I think the same problem might also be the cause for my web lage, download lag and why my bit torrent is dragging ass.
Any Ideas or suggestions?
Question Two
My sis got me a new Dvd rom for my laptop so now my computer can actualy see DVD's in the drive. However I'm getting a new error when I try to watch movies.
It tells me that the DVD copy protectino is fighting with my video card and that I should try and download a new driver for it
How ever there doesn't seem to be a updated driver for me anywhere
the video card is an Ati Rage Mobility
So any sugestions? any one know where I can find a Rage mobility driver for xp?
One thing... USB is the WORSE of the two... Not sure what to do about your problem but for god's sake, if it's your ISP, tell them to grow some reliability.
If at all possible, use Ethernet. It's faster and more supported for networking.
As for the video card, look for drivers at ATi's website, http://www.ati.com . Or just go here: http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html and click on the legacy part. It could also be possible that you will need a DVD decoder card.
i have more of an internet problem then a hardware or software problem (well, my box is over ten years old, i cant afford anything, and my wife denies me the administrative privalages to install or delete anything....i cant even download programs- so i wont be haveing anything to ask about THAT) and ive completely exausted my pathetically limited ammount of computer savvy.
you see i used to have a bit of a forum empire going on, and that kinda fell and now i only have this forum and one other i appear in. one of the first places i went to in order to facilitate the rise of my empire was a nice looking forum that has some spambot filters.
apperantly the forum itself dosent like me- durring regestration it says to fill out the required fields and suggests leaving the personal info blank otherwise it will think im a spambot. i comply, it knows nothing other then my username, password, and email adress. at the end of the regestration it has four radial buttons, two of which say "yes im a human" and the other two that say "no, im a spambot". i can only select one of the four, but i think as long as its either of the yesses itll be okay.
after i do all the normal regestration stuff it says "Invalid Session. Please resubmit the form." and deletes what i put down for a password. okay, im confused. it does not anywhere state criteria for passwords such as length or if it needs numbers. i try again, with a longer password containing numbers. de-ja-vu. i try again, making sure to include both upper and lower case numbers. nada. i try a diffrent username under the vauge notion they may have heard of me and pre-emptively blocked me. again nothing. i try all of the above steps using the OTHER radial button that says yes. a whole lotta nothing.
what on earth could it be haveing a problem with?
QuoteWhen in worry, when in doubt. Run in circles, scream and shout!
It's a bad idea for me to answer, but I think it has more to do with the forum acting up than anything. It could be other things, but I doubt it's the filter.
Quote from: Brunhidden da Muse on January 21, 2007, 07:55:10 AM
i have more of an internet problem then a hardware or software problem (well, my box is over ten years old, i cant afford anything, and my wife denies me the administrative privalages to install or delete anything....i cant even download programs- so i wont be haveing anything to ask about THAT) and ive completely exausted my pathetically limited ammount of computer savvy.
you see i used to have a bit of a forum empire going on, and that kinda fell and now i only have this forum and one other i appear in. one of the first places i went to in order to facilitate the rise of my empire was a nice looking forum that has some spambot filters.
apperantly the forum itself dosent like me- durring regestration it says to fill out the required fields and suggests leaving the personal info blank otherwise it will think im a spambot. i comply, it knows nothing other then my username, password, and email adress. at the end of the regestration it has four radial buttons, two of which say "yes im a human" and the other two that say "no, im a spambot". i can only select one of the four, but i think as long as its either of the yesses itll be okay.
after i do all the normal regestration stuff it says "Invalid Session. Please resubmit the form." and deletes what i put down for a password. okay, im confused. it does not anywhere state criteria for passwords such as length or if it needs numbers. i try again, with a longer password containing numbers. de-ja-vu. i try again, making sure to include both upper and lower case numbers. nada. i try a diffrent username under the vauge notion they may have heard of me and pre-emptively blocked me. again nothing. i try all of the above steps using the OTHER radial button that says yes. a whole lotta nothing.
what on earth could it be haveing a problem with?
QuoteWhen in worry, when in doubt. Run in circles, scream and shout!
Do you have cookies turned on? Check your browser's help for details.
Well, since the thread's on page one, here's my problem:
The basic scenario:
I've got a Wii, I've got DSL, but nothing in my house has WLAN. The Wii LAN adapter comes out in more than a month, so that's not an option.
What I did:
I did some snooping around and eventually found a place that lists a WLAN USB stick that can also be set up as an Access Point and works with the Wii, so I went ahead and bought it. The good news is that it's compatible to my PC (Windows 2000) and my Mac Mini (10.3.9), and I installed the newest drivers (from the chipset site, which are more recent than the ones from the product site). The stick is recognized on both systems, and the installation happened without an error.
What I want to do:
My plan is (and this is supposed to work, according to the site) to share my existing Internet connection with the stick, so that the stick can act as an Access Point for the Wii.
What my problem is:
Both the PC and the Mac are hooked up to the Internet through a regular Router (which in turn is hooked up to the DSL Modem).
The Mac can share the Internet with the stick, but the stick's software doesn't offer the SoftAP option - I assume that only the Windows version offers it.
The PC has issues with the Internet Connection Sharing (ICS). When I want to share the connection, it tells me that it wants to assign the IP 192.168.0.1 to my LAN adapter. By default, that's the IP of the Router, but I set that to 192.168.0.10 to avoid conflicts. I also told the Router's DHCP setup to assign the .0.1 IP to the PC.
When I then tried to activate ICS, I got the error message:
Quote
An error occured while Internet Connection Sharing was being enabled.
Internet Connection Sharing cannot be enabled.
A LAN connection is already configured with the IP address
that is required for automatic IP addressing.
This error message has been haunting me. The LAN adapter already has the IP it is supposed to get, so what's this all about? I then went through a series of tests, but nothing seemed to work:
- Deactivate DHCP in the router, assign IP and Gateway manually
- Give the LAN adapter the IP .0.2 so that the .0.1 IP is not in use in the entire LAN
- Set things to 192.168.1.x so that the .0.1 IP is definitely free
The funny thing is that I can EASILY activate ICS the other way around (enabling sharing in the settings of the USB stick, even though it's not connected to the net), but I suppose that this is NOT the way it's supposed to work.
The additional problem is that the Windows software doesn't give me the "Enable SoftAP" menu item, either. But I assume/hope that it will pop up once I shared the connection. :erk
If anybody has good voodoo tips, please help me out?
what's the softAP option supposed to do, exactly?
I believe your problem is that you are trying to place the same network on either side of what is essentially a router(your computer)
now, without using the softAP software, windows does allow you to set up any wireless device as a member of an ad-hoc network. This should be sufficient to allow your Wii to conenct to your wireless network.
Open Network conenctions, and right click on your wireless connection, choose properties.
Select the Wireless Networks tab, and click the add button.
fill in the blanks as appropriate(network name, encryption, if any)
make sure the check box at the very bottom "this is a computer to computer(ad-hoc) network"
now OK out
Now, to get your wireless network connected to your wired network.
I assume that your LAN connection that's conencted to the internet is already functioning.
Click on one of your connections, hold down control and click on the other connection.
right click on either, and choose 'bridge connections'.
Sit back, and wait for the network bridge icon to appear.
your PC should now be acting as a network bridge between two segments of your LAN (the segment connecting your PC to your router, and the wireless 'segment')
make sure to assign an IP address to each interface, and you should be good to go :)
Quote from: Madd the Sane on January 21, 2007, 02:22:00 AM
If at all possible, use Ethernet. It's faster and more supported for networking.
As for the video card, look for drivers at ATi's website, http://www.ati.com . Or just go here: http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html and click on the legacy part. It could also be possible that you will need a DVD decoder card.
For all this talk of ether net being faster or better for networking I'm not seeing it... my computer is connecting slower then when I had dial up half the time, hell it can lag for five minutes loading a thread with no images. I'm constantly getting errors "connection reset by peer". My protection programs can no longer connect to the internet to download there updates (well 1 in about 20 tries works), there is the constant Aim spasms as well as other problems
I've been to Ati's site thats the first thing I did and there xp legacy section doesn't have drivers for rage mobility I downloaded what was there and 1 refused to install, one did nothing ansd the other sent the lap to into fits of reboots and spasms
Quote from: Reese Tora on January 21, 2007, 12:52:08 PM
what's the softAP option supposed to do, exactly?
SoftAP would just be an Access Point, set up via software (and the USB stick, of course).
Quote from: Reese Tora on January 21, 2007, 12:52:08 PM
Click on one of your connections, hold down control and click on the other connection.
right click on either, and choose 'bridge connections'.
Sit back, and wait for the network bridge icon to appear.
I believe that Network Bridging is a new feature in WinXP. So I'm kinda back on square one, I think. But I'll try it anyway... *tries* Well, if it works (Windows Help doesn't seem to know it, though), it doesn't work the way you described. :/
And I'm not really placing the same network on the either end of my "router".
DSL-Router --(LAN)--> PC --(ICS)--> USB-Stick --(WLAN)--> Wii
It's the ICS part that's preventing me from checking out the next step, I think.
While fiddling with the Ad-Hoc settings (even though I don't have such a fancy tab - but the program lets me do that at least), I occasionally found the stick with the Wii (even though I didn't seem to find it all the time, so I'll have to re-try the settings once ICS is up and running), at least.
Quote from: Sid on January 21, 2007, 01:24:26 PM
Quote from: Reese Tora on January 21, 2007, 12:52:08 PM
what's the softAP option supposed to do, exactly?
SoftAP would just be an Access Point, set up via software (and the USB stick, of course).
Quote from: Reese Tora on January 21, 2007, 12:52:08 PM
Click on one of your connections, hold down control and click on the other connection.
right click on either, and choose 'bridge connections'.
Sit back, and wait for the network bridge icon to appear.
I believe that Network Bridging is a new feature in WinXP. So I'm kinda back on square one, I think. But I'll try it anyway... *tries* Well, if it works (Windows Help doesn't seem to know it, though), it doesn't work the way you described. :/
And I'm not really placing the same network on the either end of my "router".
DSL-Router --(LAN)--> PC --(ICS)--> USB-Stick --(WLAN)--> Wii
It's the ICS part that's preventing me from checking out the next step, I think.
While fiddling with the Ad-Hoc settings (even though I don't have such a fancy tab - but the program lets me do that at least), I occasionally found the stick with the Wii (even though I didn't seem to find it all the time, so I'll have to re-try the settings once ICS is up and running), at least.
ICS sets up your PC as a router using NAT. It funcions in the same essential way as your router does(with less features, and less efficiently, but functionally the same). I figured that the computer was getting itself confused because you would have the 192.168.0.x network on both connections where windows expects to see different networks. My other suggesting would have been to setting up one side of ICS as 192.168.1.x or something similar.
--edit--
for spelling, grammer, also:
sorry about the confusion with commands, I missed that your system is running w2k
I suspect ICS is sufficiently silly that it's not going to let you use anything but 192.168.0.x
And, as Reese says, you've got multiple network cards assigned the same IP address range, which is going to confuse your poor windows machine. More than it already is, I mean.
The problem is this: IP addresses are not assigned to machines, they are assigned to network interfaces. So, if you have a machine with half a dozen network cards in it, you need half a dozen different IP addresses. If they're all on different networks, then you need half a dozen different networks, with IP addresses that match (trust me, I've done this many times :-)
There are exceptions to this rule, but they involve some rather more complex network mojo, so you can ignore them for the moment.
In summation:
You have the following networks:
(net A) -- Router
|
(net B) -- PC -- (net C) -- Wii
Now, Net A is the internet - listed here simply for clarity.
Net B is your internal, wired network - presently tagged as 192.168.0.x, presumably /24 - ie, netmask of 255.255.255.0
Net C is the WLAN network you want to set up.
Now, what you've said you've done is tell Router (192.168.0.1) to assign -that- IP to PC, on the network card, and assumed that that's the same IP that PC will assign to the USB stick.
The problem is, you're missing the detail that ICS won't work on an interface that has DHCP on it. So there's some problems there already.
Probably your easiest way around this is to set the USB stick to 192.168.0.1, and change Net B to, say, 192.168.1.x/24 - once you've done that, you should be home and hosed. Well, after you pick all the kit that's talking on that network and update the IP addresses...
In that situation, Router is assigning IP addresses on the wired network, and PC is assigning IP addresses on the wireless network.
Make sense?
Quote from: thegayhare on January 21, 2007, 01:08:22 PM
Quote from: Madd the Sane on January 21, 2007, 02:22:00 AM
If at all possible, use Ethernet. It's faster and more supported for networking.
As for the video card, look for drivers at ATi's website, http://www.ati.com . Or just go here: http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html and click on the legacy part. It could also be possible that you will need a DVD decoder card.
I've been to Ati's site thats the first thing I did and there xp legacy section doesn't have drivers for rage mobility I downloaded what was there and 1 refused to install, one did nothing ansd the other sent the lap to into fits of reboots and spasms
What brand is your comp? Maybe you can download drivers from the manufacturer's website. Otherwise, try the Rage PRO drivers from ATI's website.
Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on January 21, 2007, 02:11:16 PM
Probably your easiest way around this is to set the USB stick to 192.168.0.1, and change Net B to, say, 192.168.1.x/24 - once you've done that, you should be home and hosed. Well, after you pick all the kit that's talking on that network and update the IP addresses...
In that situation, Router is assigning IP addresses on the wired network, and PC is assigning IP addresses on the wireless network.
I've tried disabling DHCP before, and it didn't really help (however, it does help a bit because the lack of DHCP lets me switch IPs directly in Windows). Tried the tip I quoted, but I now get this error:
QuoteInternet Connection Sharing cannot be enabled. The LAN connection selected as the private network is either not present, or is disconnected from the network. Please ensure that the LAN adapter is connected before enabling Internet Connection Sharing
A quick Google for this message tells me to set the adapter that will do the sharing to .0.1, but I already did that with the stick... O_o;;;
I begin to suspect that the problem is deeper than I assumed... unless you have another good idea ^^;
You're selecting the network card (as distinct from the USB stick) to do ICS on.
.. someone with windows might be better able to help, methinks....
supposing your network is set up like this:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v33/Dragonne/Wii_network-1.gif)
which places can you set the IP address, and which places are you stuck with a specific one? (and, uh... don't tell me what 'a' is, but can you tell me what the specific addresses are for the ones you can't change?)
--edit--
OK, go ahead... each letter should have an IP address associated with it, a is your IP address from your ISP, 'b' and 'c' are the IP addresses on your wired network, and 'd' and 'e' are the addresses on your wireless network, and they should all be different
I think I can set all IPs except for (a). The Router (b) and the network card (c) should have the same x in 192.168.x.y (if I see this correctly), but that's pretty much the only restriction I'm facing.
right, and the x for d and e should be a different number from the x for b and c
so if x for b and c is 0, x for d and e should be any single number other than 0 (from 0 to 255, of course)
Nope to both cases (either x being 0).
When I (try to) enable ICS on the network card, the stick gets 192.168.0.1 automatically anyway. So I'd have to set the network card to a non-zero x, leading to the error I quoted five posts above.
I think I'll just go with the flow and eventually try another approach to this whole WLAN issue, unless some miracle happens. :/
Thanks to both of you, though! Your suggestions and explanations were a great help at understanding the underlying issue :)
...or I'll try it with the computer downstairs, even though I doubt that I'll manage to get a good signal up here, if it works... *ponders*
My CD Drives (AOpen DVDR/CDRW + Lite-On CDRW) seems to have trouble reading CD's. If the computer is booted up with nothing in the drives, then will show as empty in My Computer, and will read the first disc you put in, but if you replace the discs, it doesn't read the new one, and still says the old disc is still in the drive.
Quote from: HaZ×MaT on January 21, 2007, 07:02:02 PMMy CD Drives (AOpen DVDR/CDRW + Lite-On CDRW) seems to have trouble reading CD's. If the computer is booted up with nothing in the drives, then will show as empty in My Computer, and will read the first disc you put in, but if you replace the discs, it doesn't read the new one, and still says the old disc is still in the drive.
What models, and what OS? Very specifically, what's the interface for the drives? (EIDE, Firewire, SCSI)
This actually sounds like a firmware/software type problem, but it might help to know the drive models. (actually, if it be a firmware problem, you'll need the models to get new firmware anyway.)
IDE AOpen COM5232/AAH Pro
IDE Lite-On LTR-16102B
Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 w/ Vista Visual Theme
I assume that's the information you're looking for.
Quote from: HaZ×MaT on January 21, 2007, 08:06:43 PMIDE AOpen COM5232/AAH Pro
There was a firmware upgrade for this on 5/19/2005:
http://download.aopen.com.tw/userdownload_List.aspx?RecNo=9656&Model=COM5232/AAH%20PRO
(Hope that link works)
This might not fix your problem, but you should probably upgrade anyways (if you haven't already). Beyond that, I'm stumped.
Quote from: Sid on January 21, 2007, 07:01:12 PM
Nope to both cases (either x being 0).
When I (try to) enable ICS on the network card, the stick gets 192.168.0.1 automatically anyway. So I'd have to set the network card to a non-zero x, leading to the error I quoted five posts above.
Mmhmm. What I was saying was that b & c need to be changed from 192.168.0.x to 192.168.1.x, so that you can have 192.168.0.x on the WLAN, on d & e. Reason for this is ICS -requires- you to use .0.x, because it's pants.... :-)
Quote from: Sid on January 21, 2007, 07:01:12 PM
I think I'll just go with the flow and eventually try another approach to this whole WLAN issue, unless some miracle happens. :/
Thanks to both of you, though! Your suggestions and explanations were a great help at understanding the underlying issue :)
No problem.
Quick update:
In a horrible twist of irony, setting up ICS for the stick under Windows ME was no problem AT ALL, but the software still doesn't allow me to set it as an Access Point, so I'm kinda left with seeking another WLAN solution. :/
Ah well, no big loss, and thanks again for the quick help, guys :)
Is there a place where you can set the settings for the stick?
If so, look for "Ad-Hoc" or "master" (or something like that) since, depending on the card, you sometimes have to set it as master, and sometimes as an ad-hoc network in order to get it working...
Tried both (there is no actual "Master" setting, but the alternative to "ad hoc" is "hierarchy", so I tested that one), but no dice. :/
I think I may have royally screwed something up.
I have two hard drives in my computer, a 160GB and a 80GB, both Western Digital, both IDE. I was trying to reformat one of the two partitions on the 80GB hard drive, but I somehow ended up with three partitions on a single hard drive. But they all worked, so I didn't really tyhink anything of it. My primary hard drive is the 160GB, and when I tried booting from it after reformatting the 80GB, I got this message:
"NTLDR is missing...
Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart"
I then booted from one of the partitions on the 80GB hard drive and went to 'My Computer' to see if the 160GB was visible, which it wasn't. I thought it may have been something to do with the 80GB hard drive, so I took that out, set the jumpers on the 160GB to 'Single' and tried booting from it again, but I still got the same message.
Sounds like you may have deleted the primare partition on your 160 GB disk.
Boot from your 80 GB disk, and go to
Start-> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Storage -> Disk Management
and see if your missing disk shows up there. My Computer only shows formatted partitions, and not unformatted disk space.
How did you try to reformat the offending partition?
Murphy's Law problem here:
Late last year, I upgraded my computer, but it wasn't until now that I had the opportunity to try to use my new USB 2.0 ports. So I plugged a flash drive into it, and it didn't show up. I poked around a bit, but nothing. I tried plugging my scanner into the ports, and now it won't recognize the scanner.
Those of you who are quick on the uptake are probably cringing in horror right now.
When I looked at the connection on the motherboard, I discovered that I plugged the thing in the wrong way round. Instead of a 9-pin plug with one pin blocked out, there were two one-line connectors, and they had been tied together in such a way that it looked like the proper way to connect them was the wrong way. So pin 7 connected to slot 1, pin 2 connected to slot 10, and so on. As Murphy said, ``If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it.''
My question is this: do I now have some very expensive paperweights, or can this sort of damage generally be repaired?
:headdesk
If you've powered everything off, unplugged it, plugged it back in correctly, and it's still not working, then you're probably the proud owner of a set of very pretty, obscure paperweights. :-/
Usually, though, they're robust enough to ignore wrong signals. Particularly at USB strength - no more than 500mA, or so I'm told. If your scanner is powered separately, it should be fine.
With luck, anyway...
Vidar, I believe that may be exactly what I've done. As for how it happened, I feel pretty stupid about it now. I should have unplugged the 160GB before attempting to do anything. That 'third partition' was actually the only partition on the 160GB. :sweatdrop
Which leads me to my next question - I heard information isn't deleted from your hard drive until it's written over, so is there a way to retrieve all, if not most of the information before I reformatted without spending an ass-load of money?
Quote from: HaZ×MaT on January 22, 2007, 10:12:13 PMWhich leads me to my next question - I heard information isn't deleted from your hard drive until it's written over, so is there a way to retrieve all, if not most of the information before I reformatted without spending an ass-load of money?
Not when you reformat it.
I actually have a similar problem. A few years back, I was upgrading Red Hat Linux, but Anaconda was broken for the upgrade option. Fine, I said. I've got a nice large spare drive. I'll just tell it to perform a standard install and I'll leave the home partition on the other drive...it started to install over the non-empty drive. I got to it right after it started, so it's only written over the superblock.
Yeah, only. The data're still there, it's just that I have no way to find them, short of grep "foo" /dev/hda .
If you've reformatted, it's gone, short of forensics.
Well, my day is just full of fail. :/
That depends on HOW you reformated it.
A quick format only destroys the file table, leaving the majority of the data intact, if inaccessable. Powerful programs (and costly data recovery companies, but this won't be cheap either way.) can easily retrieve anything that hasn't yet been overwritten. Parts of your data may still ahve ben destroyed depending no how much activity your disk has seen since it was formatted.
A full format goes over every bit and checks if they are unusable, which destroys any data in the process. In this case, you're out of luck.
Yeah, full reformat. :cry
Then why do apps exist that can recover data from a full format?
Because most of the time it only overwrites the File Allocation Table(FAT), telling the OS that there's nothing there. Same thing when you delete something. The OS writes to the FAT that the file is no longer there, making it so that you can overwrite anything there. Technically you can retrieve anything that's been deleted, but nothing that's been overwritten.
And all the files have been written over in a full format?
Quote from: HaZ×MaT on January 22, 2007, 11:54:39 PMAnd all the files have been written over in a full format?
Well, it was probably a Microsoft program, right? I'll give you even odds that the difference between a Microsoft quick format and full format is that one begins with a Q.
I can tell you how to check to make sure that you haven't done a full format if you're panicking. Try and remember a text string that you would have had on your drive. Now search the raw text of the drive for that string.
...I could tell you exactly how to do that on Linux, and that may be your best bet. Get a Linux Live CD(*) and boot from it. Then once you get to a command prompt, type, ``cat /proc/partitions''.
Look for the one that says something like ``hda 167772160''
Then run
grep -i "whateverthestringisthatyouremember" /dev/hdawhere whateverthestringisthatyouremember is the string that you remember being on your drive, and hda is the thing that you saw output above.
It will run for a while, but if you see any results other than another command prompt, you still have data on the disk.
It's probably time to go through its clothes and look for loose change, though.
(*)they're extremely easy to get--just go to any local college's CS department and ask around; you'll get one for free if they think that there's any chance you might use Linux. We're so predictable.
I have no clue what you're talking about, but I can tell you that there are two ways to format a hard drive using the Windows XP disc - quick and normal. I know for a fact that I didn't use quick.
Well, the full format does a few more things, like checking for errors and such.. probably makes sure things are done the right way... but I'm not sure if it kills the data too.
You could give this a shot to see what happens when you take a scan: http://www.majorgeeks.com/R-Studio_d1031.html
Hey techies, here is a question:
PC receives continuous power to all fans, moving parts and "lighted" parts (power LED, fancy blue lights on video card) but is functionally dead. No POST. Power must be unplugged or killed via switch, all moving parts spin back up if power is restored and cannot be shut off or reset to initiate boot.
I've actually had that problem before... with an old pentium pro computer... no video, I don't think there were any beeps either... can't say I know what caused it, but I at least know the problem...
Quote from: Azlan on January 24, 2007, 12:46:20 AM
Hey techies, here is a question:
PC receives continuous power to all fans, moving parts and "lighted" parts (power LED, fancy blue lights on video card) but is functionally dead. No POST. Power must be unplugged or killed via switch, all moving parts spin back up if power is restored and cannot be shut off or reset to initiate boot.
At first glance, it sounds like a problem with the motherboard(a short curcuit). My second thoughts say it might be the case switch being stuck. A third thought tells me it might be a fault in the power supply.
I'd test it by removing the leads to the power and reset pins on the board, and connecting them manually (with a key or screwdriver) to see if the switch really is the problem.
The next easiest thing to try is replace the powersupply. Most components that spin up or glow are connected directly to the power supply, and it there's a fault that prevents it from turning off the flow to those components, this could be what your problem is. a quick (and relatively cheap) thing you can do to check this is replace the power supply and see if this clears it up.
IF it turns out to be the motherboard, then it'll have to be replaced, as there's no cheap way to pinpoint what component is the problem or to repair or replace a damaged component. (and no way at all to repair it if there's an actual short circuit between traces in the substrates of the board)
now, it's possible that there's something that's fallen between components and created a short, which can be removed, but it's damage may already have been done at this point... you could check and see if there's anything metalic on the board that shouldn't be there, but I think anything that might have done that would have been loose and free to fall to the bottom of the case, where you might not notice it.
The problem I see with that solution is that things that are plugged into the motherboard are still recieving power and functioning normally... well, as normally as those things work, anyway. if there was a short, wouldn't that make everything not work?
Not necessarily. It depends entirely on what shorted out, and where.
Shorting out a main power flow, yeah. Shorting out something like a reset switch, though, no - all that will do is stop the switch from doing anything, since the circuitry depends on the -change- in power across the switch - it's an instant switch, usually, not a flick-on-and-off type thing.
And there's lots of -other- places that behave much the same, and can be shorted out much the same, with unpredictable results.
It depends on what shorts. Recently, I had a motherboard short (becasue of a bad power supply failing, don't get me started) where the board would boot immediately when the power supply(a new one) was turned on, and ONLY when the power supply was turned on.
Most of the time, a short in the board should lead to one integrated function(like a port) failing, massive errors, or complerte non-functionality, but occasionally you get something wierd out of randon chance
That's why I say check the powersupply and switch first, they're cheaper, and easier to diagnose (and replace... though the switch might require the entire case to be replaced, depending on your model)
There's really nothing else that should cause such a wierd effect without atleast generating a few beep codes
If you are tech-savvy, you could remove everything unnessecary from your computer (sound card, network card, keyboard, mouse, usb-devices), and then try to boot up, to see if you get post. If you don't, one of the remaining systems (main board, cpu, video card, memory, power supply) is knackered. If you do get post, chances are, it's one of the disconnected components.
If you have never rummaged around in the insides of your computer, get an expert opinion from a trusted and competent computer-geek.
I had that problem (or at least one that sounds the same) when I bought a new motherboard. Turned out I didn't connect that second power cable (the tiny square one) to the motherboard, thus resulting in a situation where everything started to move like normal, but the computer didn't start booting.
Thanks, the problem is on my old machine, now Neni's box. I won't be able to open the case and start poking around in it until the weekend, too busy trying to cope with the DoD's newest iteration of the smartcard. Have to replace firmware and middleware across the entire enterprise. Thank you Government Directed Actions.
My MS optical Intellimouse has recently taken to doing some kind of sample-and-hold thing. For instance, if you move the mouse upwards, the pointer will often carry on in that direction after the mouse itself has stopped.
Could this be some kind of driver issue or is the image recognition engine inside it failing somehow?
if it's a recent thing, and you didn't make any software changes, it should be a hardware problem.
Try cleaning the bottom parts of the mouse, it could just be dirty.
(this kitty still uses a ball mouse, how old fashioned... his last optical mouse didn't last a year)
Quote from: Tapewolf on January 27, 2007, 05:55:09 PMCould this be some kind of driver issue or is the image recognition engine inside it failing somehow?
Hm. Do you have gpm running under X? I knew someone who had a vaguely similar problem, and he had gpm and X running simultaneously.
Quote from: superluser on January 27, 2007, 06:40:47 PM
Hm. Do you have gpm running under X? I knew someone who had a vaguely similar problem, and he had gpm and X running simultaneously.
No. I used to do that, but I don't have GPM installed anymore. The optics are clean, and I don't recall any updates that might have affected that subsystem. I guess the real test is whether it does it in Windows as well, but it only happens a few times a day and I can't be bothered to stay in Windows long enough for it to manifest.
I'm tempted to say "have you checked that gpm hasn't crept back in" but that'd be too obvious... :-/
Hmm.
Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on January 28, 2007, 05:37:26 AM
I'm tempted to say "have you checked that gpm hasn't crept back in" but that'd be too obvious... :-/
I did as soon as he mentioned it. It isn't there.
This isn't a major problem, it's just that it hasn't been doing this until a couple of days ago. If it gets worse, it's probably the mouse, which is about five years old.
Huh. Someone's trying to put Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 onto Vista, but he says after he installs it, nothing happens when he tries to run it. This is all because he's trying to do something and apparently needs it to install XP because he doesn't know how to dual boot or something.
Sounds like fun.
Was there a question involved, or were you just commenting? :-)
(not that I mind either way, I'm just curious if you're waiting for an answer :-)
Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on January 28, 2007, 07:16:27 PMWas there a question involved, or were you just commenting? :-)
Well, it's called the Computer Problems Thread, not the Computer Questions thread.
I think the question that he's looking for is the following: ``Why isn't Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 doing anything on Vista?''
I'm inclined to think so, too. I just don't like thinking for other people, so I try to engender thought in the other party, through sarcasm.
It doesn't always work, but hey, -I- have fun. :-) (kidding, ok)
It's working NOW, but he's still going to end up needing to dual boot XP with his Vista.
well some how with out trying I managed to get my lap top to play dvds
*see a while back in this thread*
but my connectivity problems are still there I even called the tech support for the router... they were next to useless
*sighs*
any sugesstions at all? currently I'm trying to use trial and error with the routers settings but I have no Idea what I'm doing
Okay, my friend IMed me with this problem:
He has a SATA master hard drive which he boots from and an IDE slave hard drive and he can't access certain files on the IDE drive. Specifically files under 'E:/Documents and Settings/Owner/My Documents'.
QuoteHi 1m dRew (11:34:33 PM): ok, i've had this problem ever since i first put this computer together
Hi 1m dRew (11:34:40 PM): i have my master HD and slave HD
Hi 1m dRew (11:34:44 PM): and under my slave HD
Hi 1m dRew (11:34:48 PM): i have a folder called "owner"
Hi 1m dRew (11:34:52 PM): and i cant access it
Hi 1m dRew (11:35:03 PM): but thats where all my music/pictures/ everything i need are
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:35:07 PM): does the slave have an OS on it?
Hi 1m dRew (11:35:14 PM): i think so :-(
Hi 1m dRew (11:35:17 PM): i think thats the problem
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:35:17 PM): ...
Hi 1m dRew (11:35:21 PM): but idk what to remove
Hi 1m dRew (11:35:27 PM): do i need to remove the windows folder?
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:35:33 PM): nom don't do that
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:35:36 PM): no,*
Hi 1m dRew (11:35:49 PM): want me to screen shot what i have?
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:35:53 PM): ok, did you install Windows on it?
Hi 1m dRew (11:35:58 PM): well,
Hi 1m dRew (11:36:35 PM): windows WAS installed on it (its an IDE drive, and it used to be my primary HD before i got this computer a while ago) but then i installed windows on this current master HD
Hi 1m dRew (11:36:43 PM): so im assuming, windows is still on the old HD
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:36:48 PM): yeah, it is
Hi 1m dRew (11:36:49 PM): because i never took it off or anything
Hi 1m dRew (11:37:01 PM): but like, i can explore all the files
Hi 1m dRew (11:37:04 PM): i just cant access them
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:37:27 PM): ok, I think I may know what's wrong
Hi 1m dRew (11:37:33 PM): yay
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:37:40 PM): are both the drives sharing an IDE cable?
Hi 1m dRew (11:37:47 PM): uh
Hi 1m dRew (11:37:48 PM): lol
Hi 1m dRew (11:37:51 PM): i honestly have no idea
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:37:54 PM): >=/
Hi 1m dRew (11:37:59 PM): my new HD is a SATA
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:38:01 PM): then look in your case and look
Hi 1m dRew (11:38:03 PM): so i dont think they are
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:38:04 PM): oh
Hi 1m dRew (11:38:17 PM): i think i have the IDE connected to that HD and the CD drive
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:38:19 PM): I have no idea how SATAs work
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:39:23 PM): but you can still see if this works...
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:39:39 PM): set the jumper on the back of the IDE hard drive to 'Slave'
Hi 1m dRew (11:39:54 PM): it is already the slave drive
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:40:05 PM): yeah, but you have to set the jumpers
Hi 1m dRew (11:40:13 PM): isnt the jumper the little button thingys
Hi 1m dRew (11:40:18 PM): where the pins are
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:40:24 PM): buttons?
Hi 1m dRew (11:40:28 PM): well
Hi 1m dRew (11:40:29 PM): the pins
Hi 1m dRew (11:40:33 PM): on the back of the hd
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:40:36 PM): it's like a plug
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:40:39 PM): yeah
Hi 1m dRew (11:40:39 PM): yeah
Hi 1m dRew (11:41:04 PM): pretty sure thats set to slave already
Hi 1m dRew (11:41:14 PM): because i can transfer things just fine from the HD
Hi 1m dRew (11:41:19 PM): its just that one file
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:41:26 PM): ok, well, if it's the only hard drive on the cable, try setting it to 'Master without Slave'
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:41:36 PM): wait, what one file?
Hi 1m dRew (11:41:42 PM): the "owner" file
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:41:52 PM): Owner?
Hi 1m dRew (11:41:55 PM): yeah
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:42:00 PM): what's in it?
Hi 1m dRew (11:42:28 PM): here
Hi 1m dRew (11:42:31 PM): lemme take a screen shot
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:42:34 PM): good idea
Hi 1m dRew (11:42:36 PM): it'll help to explain
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:43:08 PM): btw, do you still come to school on Wednesdays?
Hi 1m dRew (11:43:14 PM): yes
Hi 1m dRew (11:43:25 PM): i just wasnt at lunch this past wednesday
Hi 1m dRew (11:43:29 PM): i was taking too many tests
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:43:35 PM): ah
Hi 1m dRew (11:45:41 PM): ok so here
Hi 1m dRew (11:45:44 PM): http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Slekcir/cvbfghdfgh.png
Hi 1m dRew (11:45:55 PM): in this one, im exploring the owners documents
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:47:01 PM): anyway, so it's 'Owner' instead of, say, 'Andrew'
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:47:06 PM): ok, that makes more sense
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:47:25 PM): you can't access files in that folder, but can you transfer them?
Hi 1m dRew (11:47:32 PM): correct
Hi 1m dRew (11:47:38 PM): hold on im sending more still
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:47:50 PM): that's weird
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:48:04 PM): what does it do when you try to open a file?
Hi 1m dRew (11:48:26 PM): so then look
Hi 1m dRew (11:48:29 PM): if i click certain files
Hi 1m dRew (11:48:31 PM): like my pictures
Hi 1m dRew (11:48:36 PM): http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Slekcir/vbcvcnfgn.png
Hi 1m dRew (11:48:42 PM): it access the file
Hi 1m dRew (11:48:45 PM): and i can get into it
Hi 1m dRew (11:48:49 PM): but then when i click other ones
Hi 1m dRew (11:48:54 PM): i get this error
Hi 1m dRew (11:48:55 PM): http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Slekcir/cvxbxcvbxcvb.png
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:49:28 PM): access is denied... =/
Hi 1m dRew (11:49:32 PM): yeah
Hi 1m dRew (11:49:32 PM): :-\
Hi 1m dRew (11:49:33 PM): its weird
Hi 1m dRew (11:49:36 PM): idk how to fix it
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:49:47 PM): how much stuff do you have in 'My Documents'?
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:49:53 PM): like, how many gigs?
Hi 1m dRew (11:49:53 PM): i dont even remember now
Hi 1m dRew (11:49:56 PM): um
Hi 1m dRew (11:50:09 PM): it says 0.99 :-P
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:50:14 PM): .99 gigs?
Hi 1m dRew (11:50:16 PM): yes
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:50:20 PM): ?
Hi 1m dRew (11:50:23 PM): yeah lol
Hi 1m dRew (11:50:24 PM): idk
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:50:39 PM): ok, here's what I'd do...
Hi 1m dRew (11:51:01 PM): http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Slekcir/cvxbxcvbxcvb2.png
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:51:05 PM): go to the boot menu when you first turn on your computer
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:51:13 PM): and select the IDE drive
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:51:20 PM): just see if you can still boot from it
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:51:26 PM): which you should be able to
Hi 1m dRew (11:51:29 PM): ok
Hi 1m dRew (11:51:36 PM): that'd be a good idea
Hi 1m dRew (11:51:50 PM): but,
Hi 1m dRew (11:52:02 PM): i'd have to run it in safe mode wouldnt i?
Hi 1m dRew (11:52:03 PM): or something
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:52:06 PM): no
Hi 1m dRew (11:52:13 PM): because i dont have ANY files on there except the windows folder and my docs
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:52:20 PM): you should be able to boot off of it like nothing's changed
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:52:29 PM): er...
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:52:41 PM): you didn't delte anything from your IDE drive, did you?
Hi 1m dRew (11:52:47 PM): well
Hi 1m dRew (11:52:53 PM): i deleted a lot of stuff from program files
Hi 1m dRew (11:53:01 PM): on that drive
Hi 1m dRew (11:53:04 PM): like intel drivers
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:53:07 PM): just right-click, delete?
Hi 1m dRew (11:53:09 PM): because im running AMD
Hi 1m dRew (11:53:18 PM): well, into recycle bin yes
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:53:22 PM): D=
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:55:11 PM): just see if you can boot from the IDE drive
Hi 1m dRew (11:55:21 PM): ok
Hi 1m dRew (11:55:23 PM): i doubt it
Hi 1m dRew (11:55:24 PM): but i can try
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:55:34 PM): if that doesn't work, just try transfering all the files you want from your IDE drive to the SATA drive, then reformat your IDE drive, and put them back
Hi 1m dRew (11:55:48 PM): but i want to see the files that i have on the IDE drive
Hi 1m dRew (11:55:51 PM): i dont want to remove them
Hi 1m dRew (11:55:52 PM): :-P
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:55:56 PM): only files from 'My Documents', though
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:56:01 PM): don't try transferring prgrams
Hi 1m dRew (11:56:10 PM): i dont need to transfer programs
Hi 1m dRew (11:56:17 PM): i just need to transfer pictures and music and videos
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:56:31 PM): ok, so put those on your SATA drive...
Hi 1m dRew (11:56:33 PM): i just need to gain access to the drive
Hi 1m dRew (11:56:35 PM): well
Hi 1m dRew (11:56:36 PM): i cant
Hi 1m dRew (11:56:40 PM): because i get access is denied
Hi 1m dRew (11:56:50 PM): thats the whole problem
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:56:54 PM): you said earlier that you could transfer files D=<
Hi 1m dRew (11:56:59 PM): SOME files
Hi 1m dRew (11:57:03 PM): from other accounts
Hi 1m dRew (11:57:05 PM): such as:
Hi 1m dRew (11:57:22 PM): Administrator, All Users, and Mom
Hi 1m dRew (11:57:26 PM): i can transfer from those
Hi 1m dRew (11:57:31 PM): but not the one entitled "owner"
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:57:51 PM): ok, just try booting from it
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:58:04 PM): I'll post this on some forums, see if anyone else can help
Hi 1m dRew (11:58:09 PM): ok
Hi 1m dRew (11:58:10 PM): goody
Hi 1m dRew (11:58:16 PM): do you think you'll get a response tonight?
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:58:24 PM): I really doubt it
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:58:30 PM): since I should be in bed already
Hi 1m dRew (11:58:33 PM): lol
Hi 1m dRew (11:58:35 PM): yeah
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:58:48 PM): because unlike you, I have to get up at 6:30 tomrrow morning at go to school
Hi 1m dRew (11:58:55 PM): :-P
Hi 1m dRew (11:58:56 PM): owned
Hi 1m dRew (11:59:04 PM): o btw,
Hi 1m dRew (11:59:06 PM): wait
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:59:14 PM): *waits*
Hi 1m dRew (11:59:29 PM): ok
Hi 1m dRew (11:59:38 PM): uh
Hi 1m dRew (11:59:39 PM): wait
Hi 1m dRew (11:59:42 PM): that wont matter i dont think
xXHaZxMaTXx (11:59:43 PM): ...
Hi 1m dRew (11:59:45 PM): well
Hi 1m dRew (11:59:51 PM): under the slave hard drive
Hi 1m dRew (11:59:54 PM): i have a drivers folder
Hi 1m dRew (12:00:01 AM): program files, and WINNT folder
Hi 1m dRew (12:05:21 AM): bottom line, all i really need to know is if anyone knows how to lift, or get rid of the whole access denied thing
Hi 1m dRew (12:05:50 AM): because when i click properties, all the files show up in the folder so i know the stuff is there. i just cant get to it
Hi 1m dRew (12:06:18 AM): its like trying to dig through solid cement with your finger nails knowing theres treasure below :-P
xXHaZxMaTXx (12:06:30 AM): lol
Hi 1m dRew (12:08:21 AM): im just thinking there has to be some way around it
Hi 1m dRew (12:08:32 AM): like you should be able to access the owners documents through a seperate folder
Hi 1m dRew (12:13:10 AM): also, idk if this matters but the slave HD that im trying to access this info from came from a gateway computer
xXHaZxMaTXx (12:14:31 AM): I don't think that would matter
Hi 1m dRew (12:15:02 AM): oh yeah
Hi 1m dRew (12:15:03 AM): also,
Hi 1m dRew (12:15:12 AM): sometimes i get an error besides just saying access is denied
xXHaZxMaTXx (12:15:18 AM): ?
Hi 1m dRew (12:15:41 AM): sometimes the error says: make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use
Hi 1m dRew (12:16:25 AM): so would changing the properties of the folder matter?
Hi 1m dRew (12:16:30 AM): like making it read-only or not
xXHaZxMaTXx (12:16:51 AM): I don't think so, but you could try
Hi 1m dRew (12:17:26 AM): yeah
Hi 1m dRew (12:17:28 AM): that didnt do anything
Hi 1m dRew (12:17:34 AM): and it went back and checked off read only
There's somethin' wrong with mah Firefox. :dface
It won't connect to the internet, I think. Like if I go to Google, the tab'll say "http://www.google.com" and the page'll be blank.
Help me fix it. D: I'll die if I keep using IE. (Yeah, I can do internet-stuff with IE, and not Firefox.)
I tried reinstalling it. I tried deleting add-ons and bookmarks and stuff -then- reinstalling. I tried just deleting bookmarks and add-ons...Nothing works! *Angsts*
Quote from: Dakata on February 05, 2007, 09:30:27 PMThere's somethin' wrong with mah Firefox.
OK. First off, which version, and what OS?
Latest version (2.0.0.1) and Windows XP.
Edit: Mmkay, now IE's being stupid. If I right click a link and open it in a new window, the page can't be displayed. And I still can't see anything if I try to go to a site. But if I open another IE window by clicking the icon on the desktop, it works fine.
:dface Maybe my computer's stupid.
Edit #2: It's working now.
Quote from: HaZ×MaT on February 05, 2007, 05:48:24 PM
Okay, my friend IMed me with this problem:
He has a SATA master hard drive which he boots from and an IDE slave hard drive and he can't access certain files on the IDE drive. Specifically files under 'E:/Documents and Settings/Owner/My Documents'.
refresh ate this once, hope it doesn't again.
you are having a problem because of NTFS, here's how you can fix this
(requires windows XP Professional, you can't do this in home edition!)
open any folder, go to tools>folder options
on the 'view' tab, go tot he bottom option in advanced options, and uncheck "use simple file sharing"
now go to the folder containing the 'owner' folder, and right click on 'owner'
choose properties, and go to the security tab (will not be visible is 'use simple file sharing' is turned on, simple file sharing cannot be turned off in home edition)
you will most likely see Administrators and Owner in the box under this tab
click 'add'
in the new window that pops up, click 'advanced' (it's at bottom left)
click 'find now'
search through the list that generates in the box at bottom, find YOUR user name, and select it. click OK, click OK, select your user name, which should now be in the box with owner and administrator
in the lower box, check 'full control'
now click apply and/or OK
congratulations, you now have full access (while logged in as your user name) to the owner folder and all its contents.
if you're using home edition... you could try creating a user named 'owner' and logging in as that to move the files elsewhere, but I cannot garantee that you'll achieve anything other than frustration.
QuoteHi 1m dRew: you see, i can not access the folders and see whats in the folders
Hi 1m dRew: but i cannot access the files in the folder
Hi 1m dRew: everything that the people are suggesting is working
Hi 1m dRew: its just giving me the error saying its still write-protected
xXHaZxMaTXx: hrmm...
Hi 1m dRew: and i cant preview any pictures
Hi 1m dRew: nor play any music
...
Hi 1m dRew: i can successfully open old word documents
Hi 1m dRew: but not music or video or picture
If he can move or copy the files to a floppy disk or CD (which don't use NTFS) it should also strip any old permissions off of the files. This may also work with a flash drive, but I'm not entierly familiar with the type of file system these drives use.
also, if he's the only suer on the computer, using the same directions as above, he can add 'everyone' to the list of users and give full control. (note, this should make the files accessable to ANY user that successfully logs on to his computer, so is a security risk if others use your computer.)
if what I suggested doesn't fix his problem, then there's something else that's blocking his computer from reading the files properly, but the first chat transcript you posted, including the image of the error message, are very clear symptoms of a permissions problem in NTFS (the file system used by windows by default)
I was going to type this in the earlier message, but refresh ate my post adn I had to start over.
Basically, NTFS stores a list of users allowed to access a file (or denied access :3 ) as part of the file information. this information is independant of the operating system, so carried over to the new system. Windows, by default, allows only the user who the 'my documents' is created for access the files (and administrator), and this is probably how the permissions are/were set up for that folder taht he can't access, becasue the folder is created for the user named 'owner'
These left over permissions are what cause the 'access denied' error, because your friend is 'not on the list' so windows denies access.
Another alternate he can use is to boot from a linux bootable CD (or floppy, or flash drive) and tell linux to move the files to a different folder. Linux isn't designed to use windows's NTFS permissions, so it stomps all over them like a mean bully in an old lady's flower bed. >:3
One problem with this is Microsoft is always making 'tweaks' to the NTFS system, so any changed file may appear corrupted to your windows instalation, even though the file is perfectly intact, if the version of linus isn't programed with the exact version of NTFS your computer uses.
okay I managed to track down a hard to find movie
unfortunatly it's in a obscure format which realy mucks up my computer
I can play it but it's frustrating
so I went looking for way to convert it
I found several files that will let me convert an MKV file to an AVI file but they all want 30 dollars
the free trials will only do 1-5 minutes or plaster huge banners all over the movie, If anyone knows of an MKV to AVI or MPG or some other common files
Matroska (MKV) is a free container format. The video stream could be anything.
In any case, VLC should be able to read it fine.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
edit: oh, and Virtualdubmod (http://virtualdubmod.sourceforge.net/) should be able to convert it if you want it to... well, providing you have the codecs for the video stream.
thanks for the links
Unortunatly I've never been able to get virtuadub to workfor anything.. It loads the file up and crashes if I try to do anything...