Computer Help Thread

boganbusman · Post by **boganbusman** » 03 Nov 2005, 16:03

Pabl0z wrote:What do you mean "can only afford 512mb in total" ?
You just bought 512 more so now you have 768mb, right?
I don't really get it...

FFS.

Ok, I already have 256mb. There are only two slots on the mainboard for RAM. The best deal I found for the 'new' RAM was to buy two 256mb sticks, but I can't afford to keep them both.

Therefore, one of the sticks will get sold, while the other two fill up the space in my computer. I could have done the same thing by getting a 512mb and then selling my current module, but it doesn't really matter.

That's why I want to find out which ones I should be keeping, because I don't know.

Felixkissa · Post by **Felixkissa** » 03 Nov 2005, 17:42

if you're not going to overclock just pick two that work together. obviously the pair you bought should work together without a problem and if you use those, you can sell the one better quolity stick you already have for more money

boganbusman · Post by **boganbusman** » 04 Nov 2005, 04:12

Felixkissa wrote:if you're not going to overclock just pick two that work together. obviously the pair you bought should work together without a problem and if you use those, you can sell the one better quolity stick you already have for more money

Cool, thanks

weedman173 · Post by **weedman173** » 13 Nov 2005, 17:12

Hey I'm thinking about buying a computer from alienware and I'd like to know whats better the Area 51 7500 or Aurora 7500.And if theres a better alienware computer with monthly payments lower than a hundred bucks point it out to me please.

Area-51 7500
http://www.alienware.com/product_detail ... KU-DEFAULT

Aurora 7500
http://www.alienware.com/product_detail ... KU-DEFAULT

2furio · Post by **2furio** » 13 Nov 2005, 17:31

I posted this in the MW demo thread:

Ok, I just bought a new BFG GeForce 6600 GT OC and I am having major trouble with Most Wanted. When I get in the game, during the race, I get like little green shape flashes and they become more and more as I play longer.

OK, I've tried the video card on two separate computers, with standard drivers and latest drivers and I'm getting the same problem. This doesn't happen on all the games, I've played UT04, worked fine, MW Demo, problems, re-installed NFS UG2, same problem.

The video card is overclocked but that's how it came BFG cards come over-clocked and you can't change it.

My first impression was that because my power supply is so loud when the second fan kicks, I thought the video card was sensible to vibrations, etc. So I tried the video card on my dad's computer which is a server computer and while it doesn't happen immediately, I still get the green flashing rectangles.

But yesterday, another problem popped up. I was thinking maybe it's the old monitors, so I hooked up the computer with the 6600 GT to my LCD TV through VGA and after you see the Windows XP loading screen, the display becomes black and never gets in Windows. You might say there is a problem with the TV, well I quickly switched to a previous video card (Quadro FX600) and no problems.

So, anyone know what's up with this?

Sir Ibi · Post by **Sir Ibi** » 13 Nov 2005, 21:14

ouch, this doesn't good, have you tried contacting the company?

2furio · Post by **2furio** » 13 Nov 2005, 21:39

Yeah, they advised to return the video card, which I did and got a full refund for it.

boganbusman · Post by **boganbusman** » 15 Nov 2005, 16:35

As a final upgrade for my PC, I want to get a new processor. Only problem is, good processors cost a lot of money.

I managed to find a cheap 2.6GHz Celeron, but I'm not sure if it would be much better than my current 1.7GHz P4

Any ideas?

boganbusman · Post by **boganbusman** » 22 Nov 2005, 16:45

nvm^^

I have another question.
Today I got a new 20gb hard drive to use a slave drive. It's formatted in FAT32, and I want to format the master into NTFS.

Will my system still work porperly if I do that?

(please someone help me with this!)

vellu · Post by **vellu** » 22 Nov 2005, 17:08

boganbusman wrote:Today I got a new 20gb hard drive to use a slave drive. It's formatted in FAT32, and I want to format the master into NTFS.

Will my system still work porperly if I do that?

(please someone help me with this!)

The system itself will work fine, propably even more stable since NTFS is much more error resiliant then FAT32. As to having both types NTFS and FAT drives in the same system ,no problem, they work just fine together.

BUT, if you have old (really old DOS) apps or games, they might not work on NTFS drives. Also if you have multiple users profiles (depending on OS, this pretty much only applies to XP Pro) you need to make sure they have proper access rights to the drive.

Then again I too have some vintage stuff (old sierra games for example, Larry's and the like) and have no problems what so ever with them.

BTW, to change from FAT32 to NTFS you don't have to re-format the drive. Just type in command prompt: C:\convert x: /fs:ntfs (x: being the drive you want to convert). For 20GB this shouldn't take long at all (under a minute most likely, even less if the drive is empty). You cannot convert back though, from ntfs to fat format is the only way.

Ps. Where on earth did you find a drive that small these days?

Second hand?

Post by **Pabl0z** » 22 Nov 2005, 17:18

vellu wrote: BTW, to change from FAT32 to NTFS you don't have to re-format the drive. Just type in command prompt: C:\convert x: /fs:ntfs (x: being the drive you want to convert). For 20GB this shouldn't take long at all (under a minute most likely, even less if the drive is empty). You cannot convert back though, from ntfs to fat format is the only way.

It really works that way?
I had no idea.
I've been wanting to change one of my hd's to NTFS for a long time but i haven't been able to format it because i didn't want to lose the stuff that's on it.
Well if it really works so easily i'll just change it later today then

.

vellu · Post by **vellu** » 22 Nov 2005, 17:25

It is indeed that easy. Converting the system drive (where your OS is) will require a reboot, but other drives can be converted "on the run".

Post by **Pabl0z** » 22 Nov 2005, 17:26

Cool. Thanks for the tip

99k · Post by **99k** » 22 Nov 2005, 20:15

My pc is messed. It reboots about 3 times during boot up. The power supply fan dosnt spin itself and the monitor requires the switch at the back to be flicked for it to work. My dad ordered me a new case with new power supply fan. That will be the power supply issue don but my dad is also reinstalling my pc. do you think it will solve all my problems or are my components damaged?

Post by **Pabl0z** » 22 Nov 2005, 20:17

I think a new case isn't needed but the new power supply will probably solve the problem.
Sounds like your old one is the one to blame.

99k · Post by **99k** » 22 Nov 2005, 20:39

The new case has a power supply and i need one because my current one's a pain. My main question is will reinstalling my pc fix things?

vellu · Post by **vellu** » 22 Nov 2005, 21:08

It usually does. Re-installing everything every few years is a good idea even if nothing is malfunctioning. Windows in particular tends to "clutter" over time.

boganbusman · Post by **boganbusman** » 23 Nov 2005, 02:46

Awesome! Thanks vellu

I want to do a clean install of XP and format the drive into NTFS, rather than convert. It is easily possible now because I can shift all of my important stuff onto the 20b drive so I won't lose it.

I'm going to keep the 20gb drive as FAT32 because I read that FAT works better with drives under 32gb in capacity. And yeah it was second hand, but hardly used and best of all free

So hopefully it will end up like this:
40gb master: NTFS
20gb slave: FAT32

Thx again.

vellu · Post by **vellu** » 23 Nov 2005, 10:03

Glad to be of help. Refreshing to see someone who isn't always hording stuff and getting bigger storage capacity (I suppose I'm one of those people myself... 160/160/200 is my hdd capacity at the moment).

In case your interested in differences between the file formats check this out: http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm

boganbusman · Post by **boganbusman** » 24 Nov 2005, 11:39

Argh . . . I have a another problem with my PC.

Whenever I play a new-ish game like MW, the controls lag a lot and make the game unplayable. The framerate is fine, and the game can operate perfectly if there is no input from the keyboard or mouse.

But, the other day I started up Raven Shield and it worked without any lag at all! I didn't do anything differently, it just worked. Then I tried again the next day and it was back to how it was before.

So I know that my PC is capable of running lag-free, but it just won't!

Does anyone know how I can fix this?

Plz

Btw: Unreal Tournament and Hitman always work without any problems, if that helps at all

vellu · Post by **vellu** » 24 Nov 2005, 11:42

Hmm, a bit odd. Could be some driver issue, chipset drivers up to date? How about reinstalling directx, I would imagine most games use that for input control.

boganbusman · Post by **boganbusman** » 24 Nov 2005, 13:31

Re-installing DirectX didn't do anything, but I went to the Gigabyte website and got an update for the 'SiS IDE', whatever that is, and the game controls became about 50% more responsive. Still not as good as it was that one other time, but a good start.

Is there anything else I can do?

EuroRacer · Post by **EuroRacer** » 26 Nov 2005, 01:47

'SiS IDE' Driver looks like it are the drivers for the IDE controller on your mainboard. Now go back to the site and look for drivers for the chipset on ur mainboard, they should also be from SiS. Sometimes these drivers really make a difference.

Are your videocard drivers up-to-date? Although they're not dirrectly influencing controls, a conflict with DirectX could create some kind of lag...

Strange problem though...

boganbusman · Post by **boganbusman** » 26 Nov 2005, 05:49

Ya video drivers are up to date, but I don't really know what you mean by chipset drivers. On the Gigabyte website they only have a few drivers for my MB, and none of them say chipset

Thanks for helping out anyway

vellu · Post by **vellu** » 26 Nov 2005, 10:09

Try http://www.sis.com if that is the chipset on your motherboard. In download section choose CHIPSET which gives you three options; SATA&RAID (which you may not need) AGP (Gart) driver (which you definitely need) and IDE driver (which you already installed). Also other AGP & IDE but that's for older OS (Win98/NT).

There are also drivers for other integrated stuff like audio, video and lan, if your motherboard has those. You need to know the exact chips though, mobo manual should have that info.