Date: 04/20/05     Keywords: no keywords

So.

My laptop (Dell Latitude D600) wouldn't come out of standby, so I decided to check my system logs to see if anything wack had happened.

The only error I found was this:

"The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk1\D."

I clicked the "For more information..." link, and it told me I need to replace a cable. Seeing as this is a laptop, that's not quite as easy as it sounds. So, my question is this : how can I find out what Windows identifies as "Harddisk1"? I have one hard drive, as well as a USB thumb drive I pretty much use all the time, and a compact flash card in a PCMCIA adapter.

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/computergeeks/663403.html

Date: 04/18/05     Keywords: no keywords

pleeeeeeeease help. i wanna compress and seed tv shows to make them available for others as online torrents. so.....how do i set up cable access to a desktop computer and have it still run through my tv simultaneously?

i have a cable wall outlet that is connected to my DVD player by a coaxial (screw-in) cable

my DVD player is then connected to my TV with a VHF/UHF coaxial (plug-in) cable

(note: my tv has a free S-video IN port and a free set of the 2 audio and 1 composite video ports)
(note: my DVD player has a free S-video OUT port and a free set of the 2 audio and 1 composite video port)
(when i say 2 audio and 1 composite video port, i mean the red-white-yellow ports)

across the room from the entertainment center.....

i have a desktop computer with 3 different types of ports: a) S-video IN and OUT sockets, b) a VHF/UHF socket and c) the 2 audio and 1 composite video port (red-white-yellow)

my desktop computer (sony vaio rb38g) is made for this! it has all trhe outlets and everything! i bought it primarilly for the media center functions, yet all it came with was ONE extra long VHF/UHF coaxial (plug-in) cable and ONE tiny S-Video to Composite Video Adapter Cable that looks like this (ive never seen this shit before):

...what else do i need to buy? what the hell do i connect and where? mind you, i didnt even know the names of all these damn crazy wires, i looked up everything hoping that i could illustrate it as best as i could for the one person here who knew what i was talking about. pleeeeeeeeeease help. ♥

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/computergeeks/662627.html

Date: 04/17/05     Keywords: linux

i'ma be building a new server soon (sempron 2300+, 256mb, 120gb) and am kinda stuck on which os to run. i've always been a big slackware linux fan, but am thinking a change of os might be nice. i've also tried openbsd, and liked it. what do you guys recommend?

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/computergeeks/662176.html

Date: 04/16/05     Keywords: no keywords

Okay so I’m daft when it comes to computers and I don’t know what the hell is up with mine. We have four computers connected to a router at our house and mine is the only one that won’t connect to the internet for whatever reason. I tried changing out the cables, changing out the ports that I have my cable plugged into, doing a system restore, and uninstalling then reinstalling the Ethernet card drivers all of this to no avail. I’m about ready to throw the POS out the window or take a baseball bat to it because it’s just pissing me off so any help you can offer will spare the life of my computer and make me a happier person.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers

B

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/computergeeks/661650.html

Date: 04/16/05     Keywords: java

I am having trouble downloading the latest java applet.. When I try to install it, I get an error message stated that the application package could not be opened.. Any idea as to what to do?


Thanks so much

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/computergeeks/661409.html

Date: 04/14/05     Keywords: no keywords

I have always assumed that on a typical HOME (WIRED) network (2-4 or more computers) that the router's built-in firewall was enough protection and individual firewalls on each computer was overkill. I would imagine at work you may want to use a firewall on your PC (as you can't trust every user on the company network to be "honest" or careful about what they d/l).

Am I correct in these assumptions?

Why then do people have home networks where they dedicate whole PCs to firewall duty? My network is pretty "basic" (two WinXP PCs on a Linksys router/firewall) and yet we can swap/share files, never had an intruder and get all our mail, etc with no problems. Are the other, more complicated home setups simply done by people with Everest-syndrome ("Because it is there!")? Or maybe to learn how to do it for work? What advantages are there? Why does the caged bird sing? :)

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/computergeeks/660741.html

Date: 04/14/05     Keywords: no keywords

So I'm building a dell pc (as in, not buying one from dell, but buying parts online to build one for way less). It's a Dell Optiplex SX280. Anyways here's my situation, I'm wanting to buy a Celeron D (Lga775) processor but cannot install the cpu fan because ther is not enough room and dell uses an alternative cooling method for their CPUs (they use 2 big fans and just the heatsink on the CPU and a plastic vent over everything).  However retail stock CPUs have a fan/heatsink attached. Would I be able to just remove the fan and install the heatsink by itself? Or would I have to find a giant heatsink like what dell uses normally? Since I don't know how to use lj cuts, here are some linked pics to help you see what I'm talking about. They don't popup so just open in a new tab/window:

The main unit

Dell's stock heatsink

A good view of the cpu slot and cooling fans

An overhead view of all the internals

Thank you very much in advance. I would rather ask you then experiment with a new cpu.

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/computergeeks/660146.html

Date: 04/13/05     Keywords: no keywords

I had to restart my computer and then when I reconnected, I had lost a TON of bookmarks... I use Firefox. Is there anyway to get them back?

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/computergeeks/659922.html

Date: 04/13/05     Keywords: spyware, linux, google

I know how frsutrating it is when people post about issues and expect free support or have not googled the problem. Therefore I have exhausted both options to the best of my abilities.
Presently I possess a Sony Viao PCG-FXA53 with a 1.3ghz processor, 786mb of SDRAM, 40 gb (fat-32) HD, and Windows XP Pro. Everytime I play sound on my computer it sounds like a CD skipping and the sound is garbeled and distorted if anything besides the music player is running. Also whatever media player I use will uses at least 51% of my system Rescources. I have tried windows media player (9&10), Windows media classic, xmplay, winamp, and even real player. All of them do this. Therefore I thought it was an issue with something else on my computer. I have scanned for viriuses with (trend micro, avast, and AVG). All of them are current and found nothing, I have checked for spyware with Spybot Search and Destory and Ad-aware. In addition the only things in my startup are the necessary XP components and my A/V.  Naturally I used all of the latest updates of these computers. This problem has been existent for 3 years now and I have worked with Sony Continually on this issue. They said it was my HDD so they gave me a new one. This did not fix the issue. They stated I needed more RAM and this was not the issue. I have changed Windows Media Player and done a full FFR with the deletion of the MBR. After taking it to several tech places, doing reading online, and looking at the same model to see if it had the problem (it did not). I am now at my wits end. What is it? is it my on board sound card? or the driver?
if it is the driver what do I do?

The oddest thing is that: In my Linux partition of FC3, and Debian 3.3 I have no problems with the sound. Granted I have other issues but not the sound issue. In addition I have no trouble with it and Linux Live CD's.

Thank you so much for all of the wonderful help and support that you have supplied me with in the past. I appreciate your help in this manner.

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/computergeeks/659629.html

Date: 04/12/05     Keywords: linux

I've been looking at a few 64-bit chip reviews and though they have a lot of pretty charts and graphs, I'm not getting a whole lot of usable data. I was wondering if any of you folks have a 64-bit system and what do you think of it. I assume you must run Linux on it (as I'm pretty sure that Linux and Apple are the only platforms that use 64-bit architecture). Does 64-bit Linux have noticeably better performance in applications that use it? (I'm not sure I even know what types of applications would benefit; 3d modeling? Complex scientific rendering?)

I suppose I'm just trying to get some real world opinions, before I even consider upping my system. Thanks.

EDIT: For those that may have missed it.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/12/frozen_light/

Scientists "freeze light", optical computers now closer!

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/computergeeks/659041.html

Date: 04/12/05     Keywords: no keywords

Hey guys, it's me again...

My friend was nice enough to give me an old Dell Dimension 4300 for $50

long story short, after troubleshooting a percieved motherboard issue, I found out that the CPU was missing connector pin. The chip also had burn marks, and the same burn marks are shown in the ZIFF socket.

I manage to (ie, forced) the cpu back into the socket, and manage to boot the pc.

I'm missing.... 4ish pins, with some noticeable char marks. I'm not betting on stability on the long run, but I need a functioning machine.

My questions are as followed:

1.) Is it a good idea to run the machine with the said damage?
2.) Aside from the slight burn marks on the socket, the mobo seems to be in working condition. Should I keep it, or switch it out?

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/computergeeks/658344.html

Date: 04/10/05     Keywords: spyware, microsoft, google

I'm dealing with yet another machine for The Charity. This one has been *royally* pwnz0rzed by a variety of scumware, such that it becomes unusable if you connect to the Internet. It's quite possibly the worst machine of the lot, in terms of quantity of crap. 350 Spybot hits, and 950 Adaware hits, plus about 40 CounterSpy hits, and still it's almost saturating my 4.5Mbit connection and using 90%+ of CPU.

Is there somewhere I can download some kind of Windows Update monolith that I can burn to CD(s) and install that way? I'd spend the evening trudging around the various Microsoft sites, but frankly I've got better things to do, and there's more than a slim chance one of you guys has been in this boat. I do not trust Google results for Windows Update, any more than I'd trust them for Spyware Removal or Free Porn.

Thanks,

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/computergeeks/658091.html

Date: 04/10/05     Keywords: microsoft

Hi everyone.

Loopy Peach here! Back again because she’s useless with computers! I hope you can help me out.

When I was at home I saved a Microsoft Word document onto a floppy disc so I could take it to my friends house to work on. Now that I am at my friends house I cannot open the files on his computer!

It seems that we have different versions of Microsoft Word! The file extension on the document we are trying to open ends with .WPS and the Word files on his computer end with .DOC

So how can I open my .WPS file on his .DOC computer?

PLEASE help! I don’t really want to travel all the way back home because of this :(

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. If you have any further questions, let me know!

*hugs*

Peach xx

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/computergeeks/657669.html

Date: 04/08/05     Keywords: browser, html

I'm trying to come up with a reasonably canonical list of HTML equalities.

For example, and come to mind.

Also the similarity between div and span, making note that one is breaking and the other is not.

Furthermore, in dealing with actual layout, the fact that an extra full-width