Search results

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    Computer only boots up cold

    Hi all, I've found that my computer will only boot up from a cold boot, and only if it's been powered off for at least a few minutes. If I do a normal reboot, it gets stuck on the POST screen. What is odd is that when this occurs, the boot screen lists a duplicate of each of my three drives...
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    Storage sizes

    Question about advertised vs. actual storage sizes (SSDs, HDDs, flash drives, etc) I'm aware that size can be measured in either decimal or binary, and that you will get two different numbers. Same size just measured differently. For instance, a 300 GB hard drive will show as both 300 billion...
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    PSU for ATI 4890?

    Hi, I am trying to figure out the minimum power supply needed for an ATI 4890. Does the Corsair 520HX, which does 480W maximum across three 12V rails provide a combined amperage of 40 amps? I can't seem to get a straight answer about this. Typically I would divide the watts by volts to get...
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    Cycling between open programs at timed intervals?

    I'm looking for a utility that will cycle between the programs a user has open on their desktop at certain intervals, say every 45 seconds or so. The idea is at work we have a screen that will be viewed by multiple people to display information from 3 different programs, but only one program...
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    Acer x223w wide mode?

    I have the Acer x223w and in the manual it mentions that it has the ability to display in full screen, aspect ratio, or 1:1. However, this feature is missing from the on-screen menus where it should be (under the icon that looks like a VGA connector). So it's always stuck stretching out...
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    using an internal SATA drive as eSATA?

    I have an internal SATA drive that I want to keep outside the computer as a backup drive. My P35/ICH9R motherboard came with a bracket that does SATA to eSATA and Molex power to SATA power. The bracket looks like this. That's two eSATA ports on the sides and Molex in the middle. The cables...
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    Getting 4 channel sound to work in HL2

    I'm using the onboard realtek sound card on my computer and it does work properly in the realtek windows utility, but not in Half-Life 2. The problem there is that sounds come out of all 4 speakers at once instead of the way it should normally work. In the game the audio is set to 4 channel. I...
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    Best video card for playing videos

    I'm turning an old system into a media pc and need a cheap AGP video card. It won't be used for any 3d apps, just playing videos over the lan. It doesn't need to be a tuner card as it won't be used for recording. Do you all recommend nvidia or ati, as far as features go and ease of use with...
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    Video card dies in the middle of a game

    I've been trying to run F.E.A.R.: Perseus Mandate but after only a few minutes of playing, my screen will suddenly go blank, and the computer won't take any input from the keyboard or mouse. If I press the reset button on my computer, I get a long-short-short beep code. I checked and this means...
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    Recommended switch for streaming video?

    My setup is currently I have a Linksys WRT54G router with a wired connection going to another room. In that room there will be multiple PCs and I would like to be able to stream video from one to another. So I am thinking of putting a switch on this connection and putting all the other...
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    Checking memory voltages

    Hi all, I'm using 2x1GB Crucial Ballistix PC8500 on a Gigabyte P35-DS4 board. I've been having sporadic crashes and blue screens (like other people with this ram), and memtest shows a lot of errors. The BIOS indicates it as running at 2.224v. Crucial says it should be 2.2. Is this too high...
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    Thermaltake Armor - removing the floppy drive bay?

    Does anyone know how to remove the floppy drive bay (at the top, the one that also has the power button) on the Thermaltake Armor? All reviews I've read indicate that it can be removed and moved to another slot. There are no screws holding it in and I've made sure the clip on the side isn't in...
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    Raptor vs Caviar

    For a non-raid system, used for various things, is it faster to have a 10K RPM Raptor with the 1.5 Gbps interface, or a 7200RPM Caviar at 3.0 Gbps? (This is assuming I have a motherboard with the SATA 3.0 Gbps interface) Specifically I'm talking about OS load time, amount of time it takes to...
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    Thermalright HR-05 SLI on nforce3?

    I have an old nforce3 board (Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939) that I'm looking to replace the northbridge chipset fan on and was wondering if the Thermalright HR-05 SLI would work. One concern is I need to make sure the video card can clear it and with this one it seems like it would since it sticks off to...
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    Anyone have Sony's SXRD a2000 series?

    A few months ago I got the 55A2000, which is one of Sony's SXRD (LCoS) models. I'm wondering just how dark the blacks really should be. In a dark room, a picture with a lot of black looks more like a dark gray. It's dark, but not nearly as much as on a CRT, and some people have claimed that the...
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    Scratching sound from video card

    In this rig I've got a 2 year old BFG 6800GT card (agp). In some 3d games the card or some part of it emits a scratching/squeaking sound. It comes and goes as it depends on what's happening in the game at the moment. Doesn't happen anywhere outside of the game though. I know it's not from any of...
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    Which 20" monitor between these two?

    What you would suggest between these two as far as a monitor for gaming goes (but not for movies)? Things that are most important are vivid colors, deep black levels, and good response time. I'm also open to other options for monitors if anyone has suggestions.
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    New system..thoughts?

    Helping a friend build a new rig..here's the parts: Thermaltake SOPRANO VB1000BWS Black Steel/Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case MSI K9A Platinum Socket AM2 ATI CrossFire Radeon XPRESS 3200 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 4600+ Socket AM2 (65W) Retail...
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    Why does my system file become corrupt?

    Everyone once in a while, upon a reboot I get a BSOD saying: BAD SYSTEM CONFIG INFO. I have to go through the procedure at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307545 and restore the file c:\windows\system32\config\system from a restore point, which fixes the problem. My...
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    Recommend me a PSU for an AGP card

    Here's some of the main things in my rig: Gigabyte GA-K8NSNXP-939 with an Athlon 64 3500+ 2 sticks of 512 geforce 6800gt (agp) 2 sata drives I'm considering a new PSU as I need to RMA mine. Should I go with: 1. A PSU similar to what I have now (an antec truepower 480w) 2. A newer...
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    Is my card throttling itself down?

    I have this problem in world of warcraft where the frame rate will suddenly drop unexpectedly. I was running around one particular area to test this, where I was getting a pretty good 35-45fps. Then, the screen does this split-second 'blink', and then I'm getting 20-25fps in the same area of the...
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    How would I put the 6800gt stock HSF back on?

    I've got the BFG 6800gt with the stock cooler, the one that has the copper-colored plating with two blue fans. I'd like to remove it to clean out the heatsink. I think it attaches to the ram with thermal pads. Once I put the heatsink back on, would I need to scrape off the existing pads and...
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    Has anyone used this power supply tester?

    I'm borrowing one of these from work to test my PSU which I suspect may have a problem: http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=77003 If anyone has used this before, is the light supposed to remain on while testing? When I switch on my PSU, the light flashes on for a second, then...
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    Is my vid card temperature too high?

    I've got a geforce 6800GT (BFG) which generally idles around 62 C and under load is 84 C. In WoW I'm getting some graphical artifacting (bad or missing textures, etc). If these temps are too high, what would be normal, and can anyone suggest a decent replacement HSF for the card?
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    Inaccessible boot device after uninstalling chipset drivers

    Hey all, I'm trying to update my nforce chipset drivers. I uninstalled the old ones and rebooted, as was told to, but when booting up I get a BSOD with Inaccessible Boot Device. I'm using an SATA drive, which I'm almost certain is part of the problem. Is it possible when I uninstalled the...
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    What's the max length of a cat5e cable?

    I'm trying to use an ethernet cable that's around 50 feet long (stranded wire), that I had someone crimp for me, but I'm not having much luck. On my board there are two ethernet ports, one is the nforce 10/100, the other is Yukon gigabit. I'm trying to connect a linksys router. The nforce port...
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    Powerclear 9800 vs Sapphire 9600xt

    Powerclear 9800 for $178, or a Sapphire 9600XT for $152. I'm asking for someone else, I'm not too familiar with these myself. Thanks
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    Why does my microphone only work on Line In?

    I've got a mic plugged into the microphone port on my motherboard, but for some reason I have to go into the recording properties in windows and set it to be the line in port. This is the only way it works. If I choose the microphone port, which seems like what I'm supposed to do, it doesn't...
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    Memory configs on a socket 754 board?

    I'm building a lower end Athlon 64 system for someone with a socket 754 board, and he wants one gig of memory. Since it doesn't do dual-channel, do you all recommend I just get one stick of 1024, or 2 sticks of 512? Also, since there are three dimm slots, can I start with two 512 sticks and add...
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    How does cool 'n quiet work?

    As far as I can tell my cool 'n quiet isn't automatically changing my clockspeed to its maximum in cpu-intensive programs, it just stays at 1 ghz instead of 2.2 (according to CPUZ). I've got it set to automatic mode. At what point does cnq actually kick in?
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    This may be a silly question but

    It's nice and all, but is there a way to turn it off temporarily? Likewise, any way to do that for the BFG 6800 boards? I've searched all over and I don't think anyone's ever asked this.
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    Why do 3D programs keep freezing???

    So far I've only tried Warhammer: Dawn of War Beta and 3DMark03, and in both the programs will freeze at random times for a few seconds. Then they will go again, and later freeze, again for a few seconds. This keeps repeating. In Warhammer this is especially annoying as it makes the game...
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    Another weird hard drive issue

    So I installed Win2k SP4 to a 200GB SATA drive, only to see that it already is using the drive to the maximum capacity. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought win2k did not already have large LBA support enabled. I was sure win2k would have made me make a 137gb partition first during the setup...
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    Why is win2k taking so long to boot from an sata drive?

    Just installed Win2k sp4 on a WD 200GB SATA drive, and it takes over 5 minutes for windows to get to the login prompt. This is the only drive in the machine. It basically pauses on the screen where you have the blue progress bar..it stops half way, then finally continues. I had no problems...
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    Got an antec 480w

    In my case the only way to get the PSU to match the screw holes is to make the fan point up towards the top cover of the case, which doesn't seem to make much sense. Shouldn't it point towards the cpu/motherboard? I can twist the PSU around so the fan points that way, but as I said then I can't...
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    Can this drive be saved?

    Trying to fix a drive for a friend of mine, a western digital 120 GB IDE. Original problem was it wouldn't boot anymore, and recovery console would say 'an error occurred during directory enumeration' if you tried to use DIR on it. So, after some research, I found this could be fixed by fixmbr...
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    Does double-sided memory matter?

    Just recently purchased two pairs of this memory (crucial pc3200 cl=3 512MB) except that it is single-sided. My question is does double-sided make a difference for an Athlon 64 (socket 939)? I just remember it having something to do with 3.2GBps versus 6.4.
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    Buying a 6800 on ebay?

    Anyone think it's worth buying a card off ebay? Surprisingly enough the prices seems lower than retail stores (even for those auctions ending soon), and most of them say the cards are new. Just wondering if anyone's had any good or bad luck doing this. I'm almost considering this since this card...
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    What kind of ram to get?

    I'm looking for 1 gig of pc3200. Is Kingston ValueRAM any good? I've noticed the price of it is about half of their HyperX ram but the timings are higher. Any other recommended brands or types?
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    Capacitor placement on gigabyte K8NSNXP-939

    A while ago this page was posted which shows the heatsink bumping into a group of caps..later on someone mentioned you can just flip the heatsink socket lock to be on the other side. Has anyone else had this problem or gotten it to work ok? I'm considering this board but this is holding me back.