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    Ghost and hidden partitions

    When I bought my Dell laptop 4.5 years ago, I bought it with the smallest HD available, figuring I could always upgrade it in the future. I was thinking of finally doing that now (since I don't have room to install Diablo III). I long ago upgraded the RAM, and kept the original sticks just in...
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    Hit by rogue anti-virus trojan - help needed

    So today I suddenly started getting pop-ups on my laptop in Firefox, despite having pop-up blocking, AdBlockPlus, AVG, etc. (I suspect they were coming either from engadget.com, would surprise the hell out of me that they'd be the source, but the ad pop-ups did stop after closing their page -...
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    Sad when your laptop is more powerful

    My current (built in 2003, I think) rig consists of: P4C (coppermine) 2.4 Ghz Abit IC7-G mobo (replaced NB fan countless times, eventually went passive when they discontinued the part) 2GB RAM (never could get it to run right with 4GB, but that may have been a mobo issue) XP Pro ATI...
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    Antec Performance II SX1040BII

    So here's the rig I intend to build soon. Core 2 Duo E7400 CPU Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L mobo MSI 4850 OC 512MB graphics (already purchased) G.Skill HK 2x2GB DDR2 PC 800 RAM Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU cooler Corsair CMPSU-520HX modular 80-Plus PSU (picking up at Fry's today, $20 less...
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    Dead ASUS mobo

    My GF's Core2 Duo PC is dead. The system gets power, but there is no POST whatsoever. Drives start up but do not process anything, screen is blank, fans spin, etc. At first, I thought the CPU was burned out (based on previous experience with these symptoms, it was my first assumption), but...
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    Downgrade from 0ffice 2007 trial

    My GF's laptop came with probably the worst piece of bloatware ever - Microsoft Office 2007 Trial edition. The trial ended, of course, so she pulled out her full version of 2003 and tried to install it on her laptop. Even after uninstalling 2007, running the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility...
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    Restoral images

    So, I've had to replace yet another HD and reinstall Windows. I'm tired of the installation process, even when using slipstreamed WinXP CD. My Dell laptop and my GF's Gateway laptop have built-in restoral partitions for reimaging the main partition when Windows gets corrupted. Even my...
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    DD-WRT and OpenVPN

    Here's my situation: My employer has an unsecured wi-fi network which is used by guests who visit the company for training. It is generally used by employees, as well, who bring their laptops to work. I've been warned that there is a good probability that at least one person in the...
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    Uninstalling Nvidia drivers killed PC

    My girlfriend wanted to upgrade her Nvidia 8800GTS video driver. After downloading the update, she went into Add/Remove Programs to uninstall the original driver. The options in Add/Remove Programs included "Nvidia Drivers" and "Nvidia Forceware." She selected "Nvidia Drivers." She had...
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    Asus P5N32-SLI Premium/WiFi-AP Edition

    My GF built a new rig (well, actually, I built it, she just picked the parts she wanted), and we found that the SoundBlaster Audigy SE card she got does not have the proper connector on it for the front panel mic and headphone jacks. The riser card for this mobo's on-board sound (which is...
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    EVGA 8800GTS 640MB Superclocked

    According to Newegg's specifications for the EVGA 8800GTS 640MB Superclocked videocard, it needs a "minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 26 Amps". I can't even find a PSU that has such a power output on any of its rails. The most I've seen are +12V at 18 Amps...
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    Core 2 Duo on XP

    Super stupid question: XP Pro is required for multi-CPU support (and remote access, but that's not important), and XP Home only supports one CPU. So, does that mean a Core 2 Duo requires XP Pro, because the OS might construe it as being multi-CPU? Or does the fact that the two cores are on...
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    Quiet water cooling?

    My girlfriend has unfortunately got it stuck in her head that she must have a water cooling setup in the rig she wants me to put together for her. She has always hated the noise of her current rig. (In fact, adding extra fans never seemed to do much for her case temps, it just increased the...
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    Yet more NB cooler help needed

    I recently replaced (for the third time) the NB cooler on my IC7-G mobo. When mounting the new cooler (Thermaltake Extreme Spirit II), one of the mounting loops broke off the board. (Poorly designed mounting method for this cooler makes it way too easy to overtighten the hooks.) Fortunately, the...
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    Shutdown slow and/or locks up

    My GF's PC never shuts down properly. I seem to recall that this is usually a problem with the page file in XP. Any recommendations?
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    North bridge fan died

    The North Bridge fan on my ABit IC7-G mobo has died (again, this is like the fourth one to die on me), and ABit's website says the replacement fan is no longer available. I would like to go with a water-cooling setup at this point (to get away from replacing fans every 6-12 months), but I can't...
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    USB trouble

    For some reason, I have the hardest time using USB devices when connecting them via a USB hub. They work fine when connected directly to my PC's USB ports, but communication fails fairly consistently when I use a hub, particularly for USB thumb drives. At first, I thought it was the hub I was...
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    POST lockups

    My GF's PC died a few months back. At first I thought her CPU had burned out, but it turned out to be her mobo. So, I cannibalized a mobo from another system, and all has been well until now. Lately, the system occasionally freezes during POST. We often get nothing more than the Award (I...
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    Asus A7N8X problem

    Here are the specs on my girlfriend's PC: Asus A7N8X mobo Athlon XP 2800+ 2GB Corsair TwinX2048-3200PT RAM (upgraded recently) After upgrading her memory from 1GB, we noticed her PC was still running very slowly. I ran MemTest86 to check the new memory, and it tested fine, but the test...
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    Blank msconfig Startup tab entry

    I've been unhappy with how my PC has been running lately, so I'm disabling a lot of startup programs that serve no real purpose (like qttask, etc.). In my msconfig Startup tab, there is an entry checked with no name, no file path, and only a vague Registry reference. Anyone know how to figure...
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    Anyone at E3??

    If anyone at E3 knows the answer to this, or can ask it of Sony, I want to know what the backward's compatibility of the PS3 will mean if the game requires a special controllers (such as DDR or Guitar Hero). Will they have a means for plugging in controllers that use the legacy interface instead...
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    Calculating Network Latency

    Here's the theoretical scenario: Given: A 10 Mbps shared Ethernet network currently has an average network utilization of 30% and a latency of about .001 sec. Given: Adding a multimedia server will increase traffic by 4 Mbps, and there would be an average of 10% collisions. According to...
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    Thermal Venting Hood

    Thermal Venting Hood I found this interesting. I can't see myself using it, but I'm curious to know who else has seen it or used it.
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    Printer cost-of-ownership

    It seems like our printers go through more ink in a day than I can drink out of a 7-11 Big Gulp, so I'm considering switching back to laser. Monochrome laser printers are cheap, and of course the cost-per-page is the best on them, but even color laser printers are coming way down in price and...
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    Odd files on HD

    So, I turned off my PC the other night (usually leave it running all the time, but it had been sluggish and due for a reboot at the very least), and the next morning I hear this horrible noise while booting up. That noise has usually been attributed to fans, which I've had to replace on many...
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    ATi Radeon x850 owners

    A friend of mine is having issues that she thinks is related to her videocard overheating. She gets freezes, lines across the screen, and other problems. She says the fan on the card is running fine, and it's a practically new Dell system (ugh). She is running the latest drivers. Anyone out...
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    USB vs. 3.5mm headsets

    Some friends of mine game online and use a program called Ventrilo to chat. Ventrilo mentions that many issues experienced with various sound cards can be solved by using a USB headset. Various threads on the board seem to indicate that USB headsets seem to evoke a love/hate reaction from...
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    Abit IC7-G NB fan dying AGAIN!

    So, a few months back (April), I replaced my IC7-G NB fan with the recommended Abit replacement part. Most people here seemed to think it's the best thing for the NB on this board, even though there are other third-party coolers available (particularly Zalman passive, if I remember correctly)...
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    9800 Pro fan going out

    Bad enough I had to replace the NB fan on my mobo, now my video card fan is making noise and is likely to give out. I haven't even done any gaming in months, so it's not even as if the card is getting overworked. Any good recommendations on a replacement cooling solution for a 9800 Pro card...
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    Software RAID vs. Hardware RAID

    So, it seems the two onboard SATA RAID controllers on my mobo can't each take a separate drive for use in a RAID setup. Because of this, since most onboard RAID controllers (even SATA ones) are still tied into the IDE/PCI bus, and can only read/write to one drive at a time, you lose any speed...
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    SATA RAID using separate on-board controllers?

    My Abit IC7-G mobo has two SATA RAID controllers, one Silicon Image 3114 controller (I think) and one Intel controller built into the ICH5R South Bridge (4 SATA ports, two for each controller). My question is, if I want to do RAID 0 (yes, I know the risks), can I put the two drives on...
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    D:/ Partition corrupted??

    I'm not sure what caused the problem. It could have been a Wipe File that went bad, it could have been some extremely large and fragmented files that got messed up during a failed defrag, I don't know. My current situation: One hard drive with two partitions. C:/ with Windows XP Pro with a...
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    NEC ND-3500A vs ND-3520A?

    Finally having a good reason to buy a DVD burner (TiVoToGo being that reason), I looked up the recent DVD burner roundup on Anandtech, and found the NEC ND-3500A got the gold. I see that there is a ND-3520A now, however, and was wondering if anyone has experience with it who can tell me the...
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    Ultra X-Connect

    Just curious if anyone has used these PSU's. The power cables are not hard-wired to the PSU. Instead, the PSU itself has molex outlets on it, and you plug in only as many cables as you need (various rounded power cables are included) to go from the PSU to your components. No more leftover...
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    Which All-In-Wonder is MCE 2005 compatible??

    Ok, so my secondary PC has been upgraded and transplanted into an Antec Sonata case (the quietest case I've ever owned, and came highly recommended for multimedia PC's). Since there are 3 PC's in the house, I figured I'd turn this one into a multimedia PC, and use it as a PVR instead of buying a...
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    AOpen 5224 DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo Drive

    My girlfriend's DVD-ROM/CDRW combo drive is acting screwy. It plays CD-ROMs just fine, it plays some movie DVDs ok, but locks up on others, and won't read a data DVD-ROM at all (particularly the Sims 2 DVD Edition). Any attempt of Autorun of a data DVD (and some movies) causes the DVD drive...
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    Windows and CMOS disagree??

    So, I bought a shiny new Antec Sonata case (great price at local Fry's after rebate), an AMD 2500+ Barton, OCZ 512 EL 2x256 sticks, and an Abit AN7 (basically the alternate recommendations from Anandtech's entry-level system) to replace the old P3 733Mhz my GF uses when she's at my place. I'm...
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    Frame rates higher than screen refresh rate

    I'm sure this has been asked before, but I'm going to put it out there, anyway. As the owner of a DVI-connected LCD monitor, which means I'm stuck at the DVI standard of 60hz, is there a point to increasing my other components to give frame rates above 60fps? Granted, I'm sure it's good to...
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    Shuttle SB81P

    Anyone see this on the Shuttle website? The layout looks suspiciously like a BTX motherboard, even with the hood over the CPU and the card slots on the opposite side of the board (including 16x PCI-e video card slot). I find this interesting, particularly considering AT's review of the Hornet...
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    Stupid question - CMOS battery

    After building so many PCs, you'd think I'd know the answer to this. Perhaps I've just not had a single mobo long enough before upgrading to notice when the CMOS battery dies out. How long do the lithium button batteries generally last? Since removing the battery will clear the CMOS, and the...