Computer Help Thread

Post by **YaelDjiel** » 10 Mar 2007, 01:01

8-12?

ok.... that is totally unnecessary

2GB should do, or go with 1.5-3 if you think 2 isnt enough

as for the slow downs... dunno

weedman173 · Post by **weedman173** » 10 Mar 2007, 01:10

Well why not set that much for the virtual memory, I have the space to spare, so why not use it? My next question is, do I have to get the exact same RAM that I have now, or would another brand with identical specifications work? This is what I have now, it's only running at DDR2 667 instead of the DDR2 800 it should be at, but it has done it's job for what I needed done when I first bought it. But now I need at least one or two gigabytes more of RAM.

xHaZxMaTx · Post by **xHaZxMaTx** » 10 Mar 2007, 02:54

weedman173 wrote:Well why not set that much for the virtual memory, I have the space to spare, so why not use it?

Because its not being used. It's just sitting there not doing anything. I can't think of any situation where you would ever use that much virtual memory.

weedman173 · Post by **weedman173** » 11 Mar 2007, 22:38

Reinstalled Firefox, and it seems that fixed the slowdown. After I realized that internet explorer loaded the same pages faster, I knew it was something wrong with firefox.

arabnight · Post by **arabnight** » 12 Mar 2007, 04:39

just upgraded my pc

Cpu: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ , AM2
GPU: EVGA Nvidia 8800gts
Ram: 2x 1g DDR2 800
HD: 320g, 7200rps, SATA 3g
MOBO: ASUSA nForce 570 Ultra
PSU: Thermaltake 700w

donaldgladden · Post by **donaldgladden** » 12 Mar 2007, 13:50

I firetruckin hate my computer. now my piece of $hit gets a blue screen when the windows loading screen finishes.

NOTE: im using safe mode, and didnt do a thing before this started to happen. this crap literally happened overnight while i was asleep. the only thing i've been able to cath on the BSOD was LESS_OR_EQUAL.

race_invader · Post by **race_invader** » 14 Mar 2007, 07:54

Well this may be a dumb question....

but Without opening my computer is there a way to check if my computer has a SATA HDD

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 14 Mar 2007, 18:43

@donaldgladden
Does the BSOD say IRQL not Less or Equal? If so, then it's either bad RAM, or a software driver conflict. If you can get into Safe Mode, go to the Event Log and see if you can find a log of the BSOD. Without it, I can't tell you what's wrong.

@race_invader
Right-click My Computer -> Management
Device Manager in left pane
Click the "+" sign by Disk Drives in right pane
Right-click a drive -> Properties
Details tab -> Enumeration

Not 100% sure, but I think this'll work for SATA drives that use faux IDE.

race_invader · Post by **race_invader** » 15 Mar 2007, 08:47

prince1142003 wrote: Right-click My Computer -> Management
Device Manager in left pane
Click the "+" sign by Disk Drives in right pane
Right-click a drive -> Properties
Details tab -> Enumeration

Not 100% sure, but I think this'll work for SATA drives that use faux IDE.

Ah okay thanks mate! ill try that out

EDIT: So what would it give me if i don't have a SATA HDD

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 15 Mar 2007, 08:58

IDE. I can't think of any other way off the top of my head to check if you have SATA without opening the case. You could look at the model name and number in device manager and google it to see if you can find anything.

I think it'd be easier to just unscrew the case.

race_invader · Post by **race_invader** » 15 Mar 2007, 09:08

prince1142003 wrote:IDE. I can't think of any other way off the top of my head to check if you have SATA without opening the case. You could look at the model name and number in device manager and google it to see if you can find anything.

I think it'd be easier to just unscrew the case.

I think your right coz when i check it says IDE nothing like "faux IDE" but yeah i guess i have a normal HDD..... Anyways Thanks for ya help prince1142003

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 15 Mar 2007, 19:45

It wouldn't say faux IDE. Some SATA motherboards can fool the OS into thinking the SATA drive is an IDE drive. In that case, I don't know if the Enumeration will show IDE or SATA.

Dragster · Post by **Dragster** » 18 Mar 2007, 15:30

What could be the reason for this:

http://img136.imagevenue.com/img.php?im ... _554lo.jpg

It happens when I open any directory, halts for a few seconds, then expands to its' full size.
The directory window opens, without any icons, halts, and then shows all icons it contains.

Also, I noticed that MSN tends to block for a bit longer period, about half a minute, a few times after logging in. It gets normal after some time...

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 18 Mar 2007, 20:22

Several things could be wrong. First thing I would do is get something to scan your startup programs. Spybot Search and Destroy is pretty good, and it also doubles as a malware scanner and system settings protector. Next I would run scandisc and then defragment your disks. A spyware/virus scan would not be a bad thing either.

Dragster · Post by **Dragster** » 18 Mar 2007, 20:53

Ok I've scanned the computer with updated Spybot, I had to remove some of the registry entries myself though.
Couldn't find Scandisc on my PC, but I found the following on google:

Start - Run - sfc /scannow, so it's scanning right now.

I'll defragment the disks afterwards...hope it helps.

Thanks for your reply, Prince!

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 18 Mar 2007, 21:01

For scandisk:

Start -> Run -> CMD
Then type in chkdsk /? and hit enter

XP did away with the old scandisk in system tools. Only way now is to run it from the command line. chkdsk by default only checks the disks, doesn't fix any errors it finds. You'll need to attach some switches to it. The /? command should give you a list of switches, so use your judgement as to what you need.

The sfc /scannow command causes Windows to run a check of system files. It'll run check them against some big directory somewhere and tell you if any of them are different. NOTE: the SFC can sometimes detect changes made by Windows Update as modifications of system files. It'll ask for the XP disc in cases such as this. Since you're having problems, it's best to go ahead and let the SFC restore all system files. Then you should run Windows Update again, just to make sure no updates were accidentally overwritten.

Carcrazy · Post by **Carcrazy** » 21 Mar 2007, 04:58

prince1142003 wrote:For scandisk:

Start -> Run -> CMD
Then type in chkdsk /? and hit enter

I would run a normal chkdsk before runing it with the /f perameters, if it has errors I would then run it with /f. Restarting the PC to run chkdsk would be pointless if there was nothing wrong with it.

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 21 Mar 2007, 05:06

Only if you don't want surface and sector scans. Surface and sector scans can only be done before the OS loads, and if you want Windows to attempt to recover data on corrupt sectors, you need the /r option (which of course implies /f).

xHaZxMaTx · Post by **xHaZxMaTx** » 25 Mar 2007, 04:27

Okay, so I'm listening to music via WMP 11 on my computer, and it's skipping. It's hardly noticeable, but damn annoying when you do notice it. I've gone through and ended all unnecessary processes and uninstalled all programs that were of no use and/or haven't been used in several months, but it doesn't seem to have worked.

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 25 Mar 2007, 04:40

Defragment your hard drive? I don't know what else to say, my WMP11 playback is flawless.

darknight788 · Post by **darknight788** » 25 Mar 2007, 04:41

is it just with certain songs or is it with every song ? try ripping the same song from the original cd/dvd and see if it skips then

xHaZxMaTx · Post by **xHaZxMaTx** » 25 Mar 2007, 04:47

It's with every song, and I don't have the CDs, it's mostly my brother's music.

I'll try defragging, Prince.

weedman173 · Post by **weedman173** » 25 Mar 2007, 04:58

Is it just with WMP, or do you get the skipping with other media players? Because if it does it with all media players then something may be wrong with the audio file or something on your computer could be causing it. I used to get video files skipping on my computer, when I would watch a video off my C drive, it would skip every 10 or 11 seconds but when the video was on my other hard drive it wouldn't skip. It stopped doing that, not sure why it did it or how it was fixed.

xHaZxMaTx · Post by **xHaZxMaTx** » 25 Mar 2007, 05:34

No, it's skipping in Creative Mediasource Player, too.

prince1142003 · Post by **prince1142003** » 25 Mar 2007, 05:37

If it's skipping with other media players too then there's one of 3 things that could be wrong (or any combination)

1. Files are severely defragmented and the hard drive is working uber hard to retrieve the pieces
2. Files are corrupt
3. Your hard disk is in bad condition

Of course, that's given you're not running a kajillion programs in the background while playing music.