alt.comp.hardware - Week 11, 2005

Floppy Drive Cable????

a - 12 Mar 2005 10:34 PM - 7 messages

I have an old machine with two floppy drives. The twist in a floppy cable is between the two floppy drive connectors. If the twist is necessary, why is it not necessary for the first-in-line floppy drive? Thanks ...

Question on ATX Power Switch Pins and Case Switch?

one - 12 Mar 2005 9:21 PM - 8 messages

I'd like to better understand. On an ATX MOBO you have two power switch pins to which the case on/off switch is connected. It must be connected and the on/off switch toggled in order for the PSU to run. ...

What is 32X4 and 64X4 memory?

geezer - 12 Mar 2005 9:04 PM - 5 messages

Can someone explain to me what these two terms really mean? Maybe in laymen's terms? For example - if 32X4, what does the 32 represent and what does the 4 represent? Thanks ...

pen drive failure

Smudge - 12 Mar 2005 8:52 PM - 2 messages

Hi, My pen drive is suddenly given up the ghost. The light comes on but the computer does not recognize it. Can anybody give me any ideas as to how I can recover my data on this drive? I use windows xp and there are no ...

SATA on Win98se

punkee - 12 Mar 2005 7:58 PM - 5 messages

Anyone know if it's possible to install win98se on SATA disk??? ...

PCI EXPRESS?

joehandy1 - 12 Mar 2005 4:21 PM - 6 messages

i've been wondering this for a while now so i decided to ask here because you guys seem to know your stuff pretty well...so, here goes... how is a pci express graphics card different than a regular pci card? will a ...

Trying to upgrade HDD

bwesley8 - 12 Mar 2005 4:11 PM - 9 messages

I've got an aging PIII 800 MHz Windows XP Home SP2 system that isn't recognizing the new HDD I'm trying to install... The new drive is a 120 Gb WD, intended to replace a 6-Gb Maxtor as Secondary-Master (slave is a ...

Harddrive repair

philo - 12 Mar 2005 2:39 PM - 3 messages

last night i replaced the main drive on a friend's machine and preformed a clean install of XP. to be on the safe side i disconnected the auxiliary drives and hooked them back up after the installtion was complete... ...

Watch out for COMPUSA!

geezer - 12 Mar 2005 10:36 AM - 7 messages

They just had a 'bundle' offer of an EPSON R320 Photoprinter with an external hard drive. The sale in the paper and on their web site said the sale was good thru 3/12 (today), Abruptly, on 3/10, they issued a new ad both ...

BIOS upgrade problem?

Grumps - 12 Mar 2005 10:18 AM - 3 messages

Hi All System: Gigabyte GA8IPE1000 Rev 2 1Gig DDR WinXp-Pro SP1 2x120Gig IDE 1x200Gig SATA nVidia 5700Ultra Enermax 480W PSU The mobo had the first release BIOS, so I decided to upgrade it due to small problems with the SATA drive. I don't think any upgrades mentioned SATA in ...

Ready to trash this mobo.....

Joe - 12 Mar 2005 2:35 AM - 10 messages

I have a barebones system that I put together. At first it was working fine, but at one point the PS2 mouse stopped working. I've tried different mice that I know are working in other systems. The pointer ...

APC-Anyone else been ripped off?

Jimmy - 11 Mar 2005 7:30 PM - 35 messages

APC BACK-UPS XS 1000 purchased at Staples. 2002 model. I am also wondering about the quality of products like this sold by this and other companies mentioned by APC tech support like Fry's. Now that this unit has failed and I have become aware that there is ...

Added Extra Hard Drive Any Help Appreciated

+q - 11 Mar 2005 12:59 PM - 5 messages

Hi I have a PIII , running W2000 with the following set up , Primary IDE channel has 20GB Seagate as master and 40GB Seagate as slave Secondary IDE channel has DVD as master and 80GB Samsung as slave IDE controller card has Western Digital as master . ...

Where can i buy a used X800 PCIe

Olav Rekve - 11 Mar 2005 11:14 AM - 11 messages

Where can i buy a used X800 series PCI-E series card? Dont bother to sauggest ebay since im mighty tired of ebay ...

bluescreen while formatting during WinXp installation

horseface - 11 Mar 2005 9:21 AM - 10 messages

Hi everybody. This problem is driving me nuts. Please help me if you can. Recently I had loads of problems with my comp freezing up all the time. Finally I decided to format and reinstall. Anyway, during a full NTFS format, at about 38% the computer crashes and I ...

For video editing....

Zotin Khuma - 11 Mar 2005 8:42 AM - 5 messages

A friend has asked me to assemble an economy system for video editing. Budget is around US$1000 (all-inclusive except capture card), but not strictly limited. I'll appreciate answers to some questions - 1. How noticeable would be the difference between RAM ...

How to re-enable VGA adapter

ABC - 11 Mar 2005 2:42 AM - 3 messages

I blew it. I repair installed XP and it had a little disagreement with my ATI 9550 driver----so the machine remained at the default VGA mode and refused to accept the 9550 driver. Error message was something about conflict with the VGA driver. ...

Leadtek nforce2 MB with built in Geforce4 MX graphics - bad caps

John@Smith.com - 11 Mar 2005 2:33 AM - 4 messages

Built it for neighbor last year and it wouldnt boot up yesterday. Took it apart and stuff was leaking and many of the caps have swollen tops. Looked around and some posts claim Leadtek does have problems with bad caps. If you have one Id take a look at it. ...

PSu sufficent or not?

Olav Rekve - 11 Mar 2005 1:45 AM - 16 messages

is 300 W PSU sufficent when i have this: and want to replace the 900 crap card with X700 or X800XL? Crappy 915 chipset I have a P4 3.4 ghz prescott 2 x 250 GB SATA with 8 MB Ram from WD ...

Figure this one?

ABC - 11 Mar 2005 1:10 AM - 5 messages

2themax (Epox in the US) 8KTA3 with 512m SDRAM, AMD TB at 933mhz. Suddenly one day the boot up of XP took about 2 minutes ( before was 20 secs) and there was a general slow down of everything--even the ...

Maxtor 3100 USB Hard Drive not recognized in XP Pro

jjo - 11 Mar 2005 12:18 AM - 2 messages

No driver disks. Even on the Maxtor website, there's only drivers for Windows 98. -- jjo ------------------------------------------------------------------------ jjo's Profile: [link] View this thread: [link] ...

Will 300 W PSU be anough for grahic card

Olav Rekve - 10 Mar 2005 11:36 PM - 5 messages

Hey is a PSu on 300 W enough for a X700 or X800XL?? Thanks in advance ...

processor question

Bacchus - 10 Mar 2005 11:35 PM - 8 messages

Hi, If I take the processor off my mobo will it still start up and will I see something on the monitor? Reason I ask is, I just changed my buddies mobo and I am still getting the same thing. Nothing is coming up on the monitor. I bought a new PCI video ...

Network Scanner.

Rick - 10 Mar 2005 8:35 PM - 2 messages

Is there any network scanners out there that do not cost a fortune? Thanks for any input!!! ...

A question about dual monitors

Andy in NJ - 10 Mar 2005 8:03 PM - 4 messages

I recently got a DVI to VGA adapter so I can run dual monitors on my ATI Radeon card. The purpose was so I could play Medal of Honor (which runs in full screen) and have the server monitor program that I use so I can easily ...

Maxtor 3100 USB Hard Drive not recognized in XP Pro

jjo - 10 Mar 2005 7:39 PM - 2 messages

I'm not sure what drivers I'm searching for. As I mentioned before, the machine it works on never prompted for a driver install when the Maxtor 3100 drive was first plugged-in. It just worked. On the other XP Pro system, however, when I plug the Maxtor 3100 drive in to the USB 2.0 port, Windows immediately reports that the device is not recognized. -- jjo ------------------------------------------------------------------------ jjo's Profile: [link] View this thread: [link] ...

Maxtor 3100 USB Hard Drive not recognized in XP Pro

jjo - 9 Mar 2005 11:52 PM - 2 messages

It came with drivers? I don't recall. The first machine I plugged it into worked perfectly. It was only at a later time when I tried to use it on another XP Pro system that it gave me problems. It still works on the first PC I tried it on, as well as another one I tested. There's just the one XP Pro system it doesn't like. -- jjo ------------------------------------------------------------------------ jjo's Profile: [link] View this thread: [link] ...

Master Boot Record???/

Mel - 9 Mar 2005 11:51 PM - 7 messages

Hardware HP Pavillion Ze4560US laptop 40 gig hd If the machine is totally powered off it only boots to a black screen and operating system not found. If I reboot and go to CMOS settings, everything is recognized. System shows boot from CD and then Hard Drive. If I save and exit from the ...

Which DVI-D cable?

John Richards - 9 Mar 2005 10:44 PM - 2 messages

Just bought an LCD monitor with a DVI-D connector (also have a DVI-D connector on my video card). I know I need a cable with male DVI-D connectors on both ends and after a little research I assume a dual link ...

aaa question for anyone who uses a Comaq Presario 1725S monitor

AA - 9 Mar 2005 9:16 PM - 4 messages

aaa Question for anyone who uses a Compaq Presario 1725S monitor: I got a Compaq Presario 1725S from somewhere with no manual. It seems to have a built-in microphone and speaker. I don't know how these two built in items work. Do I need special software ...

Maxtor 3100 USB Hard Drive not recognized in XP Pro

jjo - 9 Mar 2005 7:13 PM - 2 messages

I recently bought Maxtor 3100 portable HD, with USB connectivity and is supposed to be compatible with both USB 1.1 and 2.0 . It should not need any driver when connected to XP computer. I have 2 computers one notebook and one desktop, both running XP pro. I have no problem using my HD on the notebook which easily recognized my HD when I plug it into one of the 1.1 USB ports. When I plug the HD to the USB port of the desktop (2.0), I get the message " One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned and windows does not recognize it". When I take a look at the USB ports in the device manager, an "unknown device" is listed. Other hardware runs fine when connected to these same USB ports. What can I do? -- jjo ------------------------------------------------------------------------ jjo's Profile: [link] View this thread: [link] ...

No Boot

The Baba - 9 Mar 2005 7:13 PM - 5 messages

My buddy gave me his computer to look at, cause it's not booting...Plus, it beeps like an English cop car, even after it gets turned off...I took out the CPU to see if it was fried, but it looks fine... ...

* * * * * * * All Bloggers Go Here * * * * * * *

Ron400053 - 9 Mar 2005 5:42 PM - 3 messages

[link] <- - - all bloggers go here ...

Processor upgrade question

Newfdog - 9 Mar 2005 4:11 PM - 3 messages

Hi all...... thinking about upgrading my processor from P4 1.7G to P4 2.4G in an Aopen MX46 motherboard. According to the literature the board will accept this processor but the maximum system bus speed is 400Mhz. All the 2.4G chips I've looked at are 533Mhz. Will one of these chips ...

Camera Memory Cards

geezer - 9 Mar 2005 2:18 PM - 3 messages

I have two camera - one uses a PCMCIA so-called ATA memory card. The other uses an SD card. Neither will fit into slots on my HP950 MF printer. I plan to buy the Epson R320 photo printer, but I think it only accepts the SD, not the ...

failed bios update help needed

Alexander Linkenbach - 9 Mar 2005 1:23 PM - 10 messages

Hi, I've just done something terribly stupid: Doing a bios update on an Imperial G motherboard I actually selected the wrong bios, the HP-Version rather than the Imperial one. Now the computer halts at boot with "A disk error occured". How can I get the old or even ...

What kind tv tuner should i pick?>

Olav Rekve - 9 Mar 2005 6:02 AM - 10 messages

What kind tv tuner should i pick> Below 100 CDN thanks ...

Purchasing New System- Need Advice

Chris - 9 Mar 2005 3:52 AM - 6 messages

Hello, I am looking into purchasing a new computer system, and was just looking for some feedback. The system I am looking for would have a Pentium 4 processor (3.0 GHZ or more), an 80GB hard drive or more, ...

DVD ROM Problem

Johnny5 - 9 Mar 2005 12:56 AM - 4 messages

Hi, Tonight my DVD ROM and my DVD R/W stopped reading all types of disks, I have looked in device manager and they are both listed and it says that they are both working correctly. I updated the firmware of both drives and still ...

Everything seems ok in 20 sec - MSI K7T Pro 2

Lars Varheim - 8 Mar 2005 11:30 PM - 3 messages

Hello anyone! I have an old MSI K7T Pro2 mobo, 1200 AMD T-bird, and some RAM, Geforce2 AGP card. I know CPU, Graphiccard and RAM is working just fine. PSU is new. So this is what happens: Everythings seems ok, D-LED on the mobo is ...

DIY Bluetooth

Veritech - 8 Mar 2005 11:18 PM - 7 messages

I wanted to buy a USB bluetooth adapter, and hook it up inside my computer case(via the internal usb ports, using a pci bracket header), on the opposite side of the motherboard tray. I was just wondering if this may ...

Another way to connect a floppy drive?

Unknown User - 8 Mar 2005 10:00 PM - 10 messages

I have a computer which floppy drive works fine on other computers, but it doesn't work on this particular one. The problem comes from my computer, the floppy drive port has been damaged, and doesn't accept any floppy drive. ...

Hard drives living together....

James - 8 Mar 2005 7:44 PM - 5 messages

Having a problem with 2 hard drives cohabiting im my PC... The primary is a Maxtor and the secondary is a Nikimi... The PC does not boot when the second drive is connected. In the BIOS all looks fine, but windows will not start. ...

new mobo

rbowes - 8 Mar 2005 7:24 PM - 4 messages

I am planning to buy a new mobo, so that i can get a pci-e video card. I want to use the processor i already have. I'd like to know how hard is it to take out the processor and put it in a new mobo, and what do i ...

defragging RAID 0?

Nikko - 8 Mar 2005 7:15 PM - 3 messages

So I've had my computer running with RAID 0 for over a year now without ever defragging. I just installed a defrag program (O&O Defrag) and it's telling me that the drive(s) is 67% fragmented. I don't know if it's really that ...

screen problems?

lee - 8 Mar 2005 5:59 PM - 4 messages

Can anyone help me please? my tft monitor on my laptop has developed a red dot, this appears continuosly, anyone know why? and how to get rid? thanx lee ...

partition inactive (os/2 boot man

dendulk - 8 Mar 2005 5:03 PM - 2 messages

Dear Hardware experts, I struggle with the following problem. I can not access my windows XP anymore. But I can access it with the repair part which I start from the WindowsXP cd-rom instead of choosing to install windowsXP. So when I am in ...

stripes when capturing tv-movies w/ ati radeon 9800

Jens Kaupp - 8 Mar 2005 12:47 PM - 3 messages

Hi NG, i'am using winXP w/ ati radeon 9800 and an tv-card (pinnacle ProTV). When i capture movies i geht small stripes, looks like distortion, only in scences with fast motion. For example waving handes. I use DivX or Mpeg4 for compressing the movies on the fly. ...

Trying to get hold of a MCE 2005

Olav Rekve - 8 Mar 2005 11:32 AM - 3 messages

Hello just wondering where i can get a MCE 2005 Just want to try it out to see if its the right Operative system for me. I have tried all previous Win products and so far im not impressed. ...

Best web- camera?

Rontti - 8 Mar 2005 8:18 AM - 4 messages

I like to buy to home web- camera. There is so many kind of. How can i know whitch is good quality(pictures) so on. Tell to novice. Thanks! -Rontti- ...

HD copy utility?

Bobby - 8 Mar 2005 7:49 AM - 2 messages

I am trying to copy an old hard drive to a new one (PATA to SATA). I have tried the manufacturer's utility (MaxBlast) and commercial software (Norton Ghost). Neither work. The Maxblast software misses files and Norton refuses to run correctly (I am pursuing this). ...

SATA boot rom?

Bobby - 7 Mar 2005 11:30 PM - 3 messages

My BIOS has two settings which I don't understand: 1. SATA Boot ROM 2. On-board Promise Controller. The manual is hopeless. Can anyone tell me what these settings mean and whether I should enable or disable them? Cheers. ...

Opinions on value machine componants

Bruin - 7 Mar 2005 11:01 PM - 10 messages

A buddy of mine wants me to help him assemble a new machine for him. He has a limited budget ($500.00 US), doesn't need a CD ROM or monitor. Below is my selection of some decent (cheap) components that I have ...

Monitor horizonal "jiggle band" problem... Any advice most welcome!

Chris J... - 7 Mar 2005 10:45 PM - 19 messages

I've got a Sylvania F96 19 inch CRT, about three (perhaps four) yours old. It's been a good monitor so far, and I work from home via computer so it gets a great deal of use. Recently though, it's developed a weird "jiggle" in the screen. The ...

is pc100 memory compatible with pc133 ??

code_wrong - 7 Mar 2005 10:07 PM - 8 messages

Hi, a friend has a Packard Bell Club 50 .... When I search for a memory upgrade at crucial.com The results in include both pc100 and pc133. This surprised me as i did not think the two would be compatible ... .... ...

iBook

Aigail - 7 Mar 2005 8:07 PM - 3 messages

If you like high-tech gadgets and things, then check out [link] . You can get a really great gift like mine, a iBook for just $40! Really. Just click the link ...

Use Pentium Classic 200MHz for Web Browsing?

jaykchan - 7 Mar 2005 8:04 PM - 15 messages

I have an old PC sitting around doing nothing. I would like to turn it into a machine for browsing internet. It is a Pentium Classic 200MHz with 64MHz. It has a good 3dfx video card in it. - I am running Win95 on it. It runs fine. But Microsoft doesn't ...

Cannot Set Boot.Ini Timeout to Zero

pooua - 7 Mar 2005 7:47 PM - 5 messages

Last year, I asked on this forum how to remove the duel boot menu startup from my computer, because I only have one OS on my hard drive. I was advised to set my boot.ini file timeout to zero, which I did. ...

bent cpu pins?

cronikl3 - 7 Mar 2005 7:15 PM - 11 messages

can u bend back cpu pins that had been bent? ...

Questions about hardware..

cronikl3 - 7 Mar 2005 5:15 PM - 5 messages

ok, now i have some questions... 1) can you put an ATX mobo in an AT case? and if so how would u do it. 2)how do you connect 2 computers to be on the web together? 3)ok thats all for now thank you for looking!! :roll: ...

SONY VAIO FS115z sound chipset

Gluon - 7 Mar 2005 2:55 PM - 3 messages

Heya there Anyone knows whcih sound chipset is inside Sony Vaio FS115z? thanks for your help ...

HD detection problems

King of Red Lions - 7 Mar 2005 1:23 PM - 4 messages

Hi, I have a western digital 40 gig HD that I just can't seem to get to work. I bought it from PCWorld, preformatted and the works. My problem comes when I connect to the motherboard and switch the computer on. I ...

Trouble connecting to DUN with old modem

Bill Jillians - 7 Mar 2005 10:33 AM - 9 messages

I have an old ISA 56K modem that I've been using for several years now. A few days ago it stopped calling my favourite ISP. I get a dial tone and then a message that the signal has disconnected (Error ...

Xeon L2 cache question ...

Giovanni Azua - 7 Mar 2005 12:09 AM - 3 messages

Hi all, I have already made the purchase a month ago and now I realized that I didn't pay attention or gave enough importance to the amount of L2 cache memory included in my Dual Xeon system. I just wanted to have as much Ghz as possible ... ...

PCChips M860 Socket-754

Christo - 6 Mar 2005 9:21 PM - 4 messages

saw this board and immediately thought cheap AMD 64 system thing is i knwo it has 2 SATA connectors but no mntion of RAID anywhere that i can fid anyone know ...

I want to clone my XP system from IDE to SATA drive

Sooty - 6 Mar 2005 9:09 PM - 6 messages

Hi all I have an upgraded my system, having changed my M/board and re-installed XP. I has occurred to me since then, that my 100Gb IDE drive 'should' have been changed at the same time. Do I have to re-install XP all over again or can I ...

Which Mainboard?

Christa Lucas - 6 Mar 2005 7:53 PM - 5 messages

hi ng, which nforce 2 mainboard should i buy? i want to built an pc with an athlon xp 3200+ (fsb 400), nvidea 6600 gt (i dont now wich at the moment / maybe you can give me an advice) , 2x 512 MB ...

Jumper settings...

James - 6 Mar 2005 7:08 PM - 3 messages

Having real problems with a Nikimi hard drive living with a Maxtor one.. The Nikimi is the primary drive (XD800-A). The Nikimi website isn't working at the moment so I cant find out suitable jumper settings to try - have tried the standard one displayed on the casing ...

Diff between mobo versions.

Zotin Khuma - 6 Mar 2005 6:12 PM - 5 messages

I can usually understand the difference in specs about different versions of motherboards from the same manufacturer using the same basic chipset. For instance, I understand the difference between the Asus A7N8X, A7N8X-X, -VM, etc. But why do Asus imply on their ...

Odd CD drive problem

JT - 6 Mar 2005 5:58 PM - 3 messages

I recently had a new computer built including a Samsung 52x32x52 CD-R/RW drive and with Win 2000 Pro as the OS. I've noticed that on more than one occasion the drive will not mechanically open unless I reboot the system, seemingly as if some system resource pool ...

NTFS? Hard dirve limit?

bwesley8 - 6 Mar 2005 5:04 PM - 5 messages

We've got an aging PIII 800-Mhz system running WinXP Home, with 20-Gb and 6-Gb HDD's (FAT32); the system boots on the 20-Gb drive. Initially, I figured to simply replace the 6-Gb drive (it's older, ...

PSU for NEWLink 4Port USB

Tony - 6 Mar 2005 1:58 PM - 2 messages

Can someone help, I have mislaid the power supply unit for my NEWLink 4Port USB2 Hub model NET4006. Can some please tell me the current/voltage specification needed. Thanks, Tony. --------------= Posted using GrabIt =---------------- ------= Binary Usenet downloading made easy =--------- ...

PCI-ex & AGP

lugnut - 6 Mar 2005 1:35 PM - 4 messages

Has anyone tried connecting two monitors to a WindowsXP system using a PCI-express card and an AGP card? How about a PCI-express card and an old PCI graphics card? ...

PCI card?

RG - 6 Mar 2005 9:05 AM - 2 messages

Hello, Just bought a older machine for office applications and surfing the web. It's a Compaq deskpro PIII 866MHz. I wanted to equip it with a spare a WLAN card I've got lying around but I'm not sure ...

Motherboard

aNdY_05 - 6 Mar 2005 5:55 AM - 7 messages

Hello all, Just curious to know if keeping a computer on 24/7 will ruin a motherboard? My m/b just died on me (when switched the computer on it didn't do anything, just blank) and was wondering if it was related to me keeping my machine ...

Is it a HD? or a buzzsaw?

Kev - 6 Mar 2005 3:55 AM - 5 messages

Hi all Just a quick question. One of my internal drives (dont know which one yet since they are stacked) is almost sounding like a cordless drill. Is this a symptom of impending failure? Or failure, but a ways down the road? Both ...

Yay just bought new pc

Olav Rekve - 6 Mar 2005 3:02 AM - 8 messages

YAY Today i bought a new pc From futureshop of all places.. LOL Well anyhow its a 3.4 Ghz Processor(650) 500 GB HD ...

My computer shutdown itself !!!!

Victor Acuña - 6 Mar 2005 12:09 AM - 4 messages

Hi!, Guys: My computer itself do a shutdown without any warning notice since a some time (and it seems like each time does it faster). I opened its case and visually check everything and I have failed to see nothing rare. ...