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Just installed a replacement (new) motherboard on son's computer. On power up, fan starts, then stops: audible "click" from the rear of the mother board (close to ports) and fan starts, then stops.
Fairly rapid cycle no longer than 2 secs for each start/stop. Motherboard is ASRock from Ebuyers nothing fancy; Intel Celeron D socket 478.
Reason for change: son incorrectly inserted RAM chip in old one causing it to lose 3 of the soldered pin connectors which became stuck to inside of socket (heat?)
Yes, I am using a new stick of RAM!
any ideas, please?
Tim{P}
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That's interesting. Wondered whether it was a stuck reset switch. Disconnected all connections from front panel: power switch, reset switch, led indicator lights.
Turning power on at the main switch (rear of the computer) produces same symptoms.
"Click" is coming from onboard speaker.
? ? ? ?
Tim{P}
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Blown up power supply? Due to previous short.
Comes on, over-loades, over heats, switches off, cools down, comes on again. --- just a guess.
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hmmmm: connection to front USB sockets. Unplugged; problem solved.
so, making progress. reactivated windows, with some nice man in a call centre. I'm now looking for the driver for the Belkin wireless card to reinstall that.
I had it before christmas...
at worst, I'll have to download a copy....
next time he can fix his own... mutter mumble
Tim{P}
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once upon a time it was bikes that dads fixed :-)
JH
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CPU fan not plugged in or heatsink sitting uneven causing chip to warm up rapidally and the anti-cpu burnout circuit to kick in.
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OK
I am using Outlook 2000 on my Workstation, have used it for years, it does (nearly) all I want and I get on with it better than Outlook XP on the old laptop.
However I want to use Outlook to access webmail and Outlook 2000 cannot not do that (I said nearly), well not without a piece of string and a sticking plaster. Also I am about to get a new laptop on which I could run Outlook XP however I might be better to start using Outlook Express 6 (there is no 7 yet), I would have commonality on both machines and the ability to access web mail.
Any thoughts?
Thanks.
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Outlook is way way overkill for a home users and designed for 1 email identity.
Express is much more configurable.
Stand by for the "its the spawn of the devil you must use thunderbird or the planet will burn up" brigade.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Outlook is way way overkill for a home users
Tis business use.
>>and designed for 1 email identity.
>>
I have eight accounts in Outlook 2000, three of mine, one of my wife's and four dial-up back up incase of BB probs, all works a treat - but for webmail issue - great back up by exporting a .pst file etc etc etc.
Express is much more configurable.
In what way?
Stand by for the "its the spawn of the devil you must use thunderbird or the planet will burn up" brigade.
He he
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My understanding of Outlook is that it is a business oriented e-mail program.
For that very reason it will handle, as far as I would figure, any number of e-mail accounts.
Outlook Express is the "home" version equivalent.
Regarding cheddar's comment, Thunderbird does have a first class junk filter, which can be "trained" to divert unwanted e-mails to a Junk folder somewhat more easily that in Outlook Express.
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Hi SjB,
Quick question:
According to UVCview.exe on my system the five rear ports are connected to a "USB Universal Host Controller". The two front ports and the internal port for the 13 way card reader are connected to a "USB2 Enhanced Host Controller".
After your tweak does UVCview.exe show all ports connected to an "Enhanced" controller?
(Also what version of Imagemixer are you using?)
Many thanks.
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Hi Cheddar. Sorry for the delayed reply; I missed this post until your nudge in the new V70 thread as you had guessed.
Running UVCview.exe gives an interesting result since my registry tweak; I use two USB1.1 devices (a KVM switch and the eHome IR remote control receiver for Media Center). These are both plugged in to the back panel, and both come under the entry for USB Universal Host Controller (ie 1.1). Also plugged in to the back panel gang of four USB sockets is the USB 2.0 digital tv tuner. This shows separately under the USB2 Enhanced Host Controller entry. In other words, devices are now correctly classified according to USB standard, not physical connection location. As a test to prove this, if I move the eHome receiver from back panel to top panel, it remains displayed as 1 1.1 device under the entry for USB Universal Host Controller.
Regarding ImageMixer (for Sony CDR-SR100E HDD camcorder of course, as there are different types) I currently use version 2006.03.08 that came bundled with the camera. As it happens though, last night I visited www.pixela.co.jp/oem/sony/e/index.html and downloaded version 2006.03.08 to install when I get a mo. (Note: I don't have any problems with the current version but will none the less try the upgrade)
HTH.
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>>downloaded version 2006.03.08
Oops.
2006.11.02.
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>2006.11.02
Although named by the date it was released on the website, when you come to install it you find it is actually release 3.01.002, versus 3.00.002 delivered with the camcorder.
HTH
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>>In other words, devices are now correctly classified according to USB standard, not physical connection location.>>
Intersting - thanks - I will move around USB plugs when i have time and see if it makes a difference.
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Whilst spring cleaning (I know its early - that's climate change for you) I've discovered some old games on 3.5" disks that still have some entertainment value - mahjongg for one keeps SWMBO quiet for hours on end.
The exe for mahjongg is dated 1991, so i'd guess it was a DOS or windows 3.1 program. It still runs on windows XP Home, but if I just click the exe, ir runs in 'dos mode' -ie full screen - is there anything I can do do get it to run in a window ?
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Go on, get out of the car...
www.mikes-walks.co.uk
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Start up a dos window ( start / run / command) and then invoke the .exe from there by simply typing its name. You will need to check which directory its in,
Whether or not you can do all that automatically I don't know, but that should work.
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still runs in full screen dos mode when i do that, Mark.
Still, I think I can live with it
thanks all the same
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Go on, get out of the car...
www.mikes-walks.co.uk
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probably because of the resolution of the game,
Being an old dos game its probably running at 640 x 480. Your windows desktop is runinng 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768 minimum. As your screen hardware physically canot mix resolutions on the same screen its being defaulted to run in full screen mode.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Have you tried XP's Program Compatibility Wizard?
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Thanks for the link, but I must be one of those luddites TVM has been referring to recently - I actually like the old interface on this 1991 version !
--
Go on, get out of the car...
www.mikes-walks.co.uk
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Decided to buy myself an external hard drive to put Itunes on and the associated MP3 files, and a wireless router. Feeling all pleased with myself after fitting the wireless router and doing (for me anyway) some quite techy stuff to get it to work, me thinks fitting this hard drive should be a piece of cake.
Question is how do i get the PC to run Itunes off this hard drive, I remember reading some time ago on this forum that there was a simple way of doing it - however my search has led me nowhere.
Any help gratefully received, cheers
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Hold down the Shift key while iTunes is loading. This gets you a dialogue box that asks which library you want to use and gives you to chance to create a new one wherever you like.
On a Mac this is done by holding down the Option key For other Mac users this also applies to iPhoto.
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I have just tried to download a 15 day trial version of a programme and got a message saying "Your current security settings do not allow the download of this file" I have never seen this before on my computer. I switched off Zone Alarm - no help and I went into control panel ,internet setting sand put Security to its lowest selectable level and that didn't help either. Any ideas please? Thanks.
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Yesterday my PC refused to boot with a "HARD DISK ERROR" message presented early on in the boot sequence. Checking the BIOS shows that neither hard disk and only one optical disk were seen. I used the OS restore DVD to reinstall Windows XP. It went okay overwriting the existing Windows installation (I did not want to reformat the disk) but the boot failed. When I re-installed then selected the repair console option, I was able to see the folder and directories on the disk. (This is a console window with basic commands.) So I swapped the hard disks around, making sure I changed the power cables too. (I also adjusted the jumper on the second disk to make it the primary. Anyway, this time the OS reinstall failed early on as it was unable to copy files to the disk.
Does anyone know for sure what is wrong?
My assumption is that the disks are okay, as I have problems with both of them. I suspect the problem is the motherboard, which basically means a new PC since the OS is tied to the motherboard. I presume the power supply is okay as it drives the motherboard and CPU fan, and the DVD drive fine.
The PC is a Fujitso Siemens Scaleo P with a Pentium 3.4GHZ and 2GB PC3200 memory.
Thanks.
Leif
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My assumption is that the disks are okay, as I have problems with both of them. I suspect the problem is the motherboard, which basically means a new PC since the OS is tied to the motherboard.
If you're chucking it give it to me. I'm sure I'll find something to run on it. But really even a full price version of Windows Vista Pro Home Ultimate Welcome to the Social Security Office Edition will cost less than a similar PC. Or there's always the free option:
www.ubuntu.com/
Which will run even while your harddrive is U/S and should fly along on 2GB of RAM.
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Its the disks, it does not sound like a motherboard fault, (tho it could be a below par power supply.)
Dont swop the disks round, use one at a time, - A duff disk can bring down the eide bus.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Its the disks, it does not sound like a motherboard fault, (tho it could be a below par power supply.) Dont swop the disks round, use one at a time, - A duff disk can bring down the eide bus.
That is exactly what I did. I assumed that one duff disk might cause mayhem. So I tried each disk on its own, with the other unplugged (both IDE and power cables). The fact that neither disk works properly suggest it is not the disks.
What I find strange is that I was able to reinstall the OS in the \Windows\ folder on the original master disk, check that the files were there, and then reboot and get the same error.
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I suspect the problem is the motherboard, which basically means a new PC since the OS is tied to the motherboard.
As long as you haven't changed any hardware within 30 (?) days, XP should happily accept the change when you reinstall.
Power supplies might affect one and not the other, as different outputs are used for different things. Best to check with a voltmeter to see if everything is to spec. Also clean the ATA/SATA cable contacts with contact cleaner or isopropanol.
--------------
Mike Farrow
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Might also be worth checking in the Bios that disk recognition is still set at Automatic.
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Agree with TVM, try one disc at a time, could also try a boot with no CD / Floppy drives connected.
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Might also be worth checking in the Bios that disk recognition is still set at Automatic.
It is. It sees no hard disk even when I only have one plugged in (as the master).
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Thanks for the comments. A colleague and an IT support person suggested that a corrupt boot sector on the master disk could cause the problems seen originally, and the second disk might be AWOL. So as many say, the disk might be the issue. So I will try a CHKDSK after running the OS re-install DVD. Also I am told that the hard disk manufacturer should provide a suitable boot program for the disk in question. Leif
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Your IT support person is right.
It is possible, at certain stages of the windows build process, to screw the MBR (master boot record) of the disk.
With no MBR the BIOS does not recognise the disk, and in turn leads you down the garden path of wrong fault diagnosis.
Boot the windows recovery console from CD, and run FDISK or run a bootable MBR repair tool
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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TVM is right, there is nothing wrong with the disks except they won't boot. If Leif can re-install windows, the discs are there. With the Windows CD in it will be booting from that. So as above the MBR is screwed.
The Windows CD has a utility called fixmbr IIRC. You run it, it probably asks which disk (if you have more than one) then tries to rewrite the MBR. ISTR having trouble getting it to do this properly but they wouldn't put it there just for show.
I didn't realise (in fact I doubt) that a screwed MBR would cause the disks to not appear in the BIOS. I thought that was read from the disk firmware not the disk itself...
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TVM is right, there is nothing wrong with the disks except they won't boot. If Leif can re-install windows, the discs are there. With the Windows CD in it will be booting from that. So as above the MBR is screwed.
Thanks Smokie. So if it is failing to read the firmware of both disks, that suggests a problem with the HD controller on the motherboard?
Last night I ran chkdsk using the supplied recovery console application, and it fixed some errors, but did not cure the problem.
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If you are able to run CHKDSK and reload Windows then the disks are all present and correct, just your boot record has been corrupted - i.e. no hardware issue with disks, controller, motherboard etc.
If I have misunderstood please shout!
There are two utilities on the Windows XP CD - fixboot and fix mbr. Detaile here support.microsoft.com/kb/314058/en-us. You'd probably do best to leave the second disk out while you recover the c drive. Selective qyutoes from teh knowledgebase article:
Use the Windows CD-ROM to start your computer. At the "Welcome to Setup" screen, press F10 or press 'R" to repair
FIXBOOT
fixboot drive name:
Use this command to write the new Windows boot sector code on the system partition. In the command syntax, drive name is the drive letter where the boot sector will be written. This command fixes damage in the Windows boot sector. This command overrides the default setting, which writes to the system boot partition. The fixboot command is supported only on x86-based computers.
FIXMBR
fixmbr device name
Use this command to repair the MBR of the boot partition. In the command syntax, device name is an optional device name that specifies the device that requires a new MBR. Use this command if a virus has damaged the MBR and Windows cannot start.
I am going away for a few days but I'm sure someone else can help you through this if you still have problems.
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Thanks to everyone for your help. I ran fixmbr from the console window, with no joy. So I bought a new hard disk, the BIOS recognised it, I installed Win XP, re-installed files from the backup disk, and my PC is back to normal. It looks like the hard disk developed a fault after a mere 2.5 years of use. That's pretty poor going. It's a Western Digital which I have heard bad things about.
Leif
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>>It's a Western Digital which I have heard bad things about.>>
Wouldn't buy any other brand - been far, far more reliable than others in the past...:-)
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To conclude my "Reluctant Boot" thread in CRC vol 117 - www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=48497&...e
Four more days have now passed since I broke up the almighty mass of tightly bundled wires in to smaller "function specific" runs together with breaking and remaking every connector join I could find and ensuring each was lightly strain relieved.
The outcome? Not a single reluctant boot, and an occasional uncommanded instant black screen and restart has ceased too; almost certainly the power connection to the mobo wasn't sound.
Many thanks again.
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Windows Media Center records live TV perfectly and saves it in the expected DVR-MS format.
Lip sync is perfect.
Likewise a nifty utility that I found (I think via www.thegreenbutton.com) allows me to convert DVR-MS to MPEG2 (.mpg) format.
Again, lip sync is perfect.
If however I then use Cyberlink to author a DVD containing such .mpg files, lip synch is appalling; from the outset it's about a tenth of a second out and by the time five minutes of footage has played audio is a good second in front of video, at which level it then stays. The same software used to author a DVD from .mpg files recorded on our Sony HDD camcorder results in no such problem, no matter how long the clip; lip sync is perfect.
The internet is full of why lip sync can be a problem (digital audio and video being held as seprate tracks, in simple terms), but I can't find a solution to solving the problem with .mpg files converted from DVR-MS as my copy of Cyberlink (free, bundled with PC) doesn't have such edit options.
Can any BRer please:
a) recommend any tips or tricks to solve the problem, noting that breaking .mpg files up in to many smaller .mpg files and then joining back together (a known "solution") is a non starter in my book.
b) if (a) is not possible, recommend some reasonably priced DVD authoring software that gives me control over what goes on.
Many thanks as always.
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Snap again!
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=47768&...e
Still not solved, any advise also welcome by me.
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Snap again! www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=47768&...e Still not solved, any advise also welcome by me.
Sorry I missed your post; I searched on "lip sync", not "video sync"!
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I've had similar lip sync problems to the ones you describe. I up specced my PC but had the same problem. In my case it was the software I was using. I now use ConvertXtoDVD (do a google search). Download it as a trial and see if works any better. You can then purchase it for $40. Its has no bells and whistles, just a basic bit of software, but it works for me.
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A courtesy post to say "Problem solved", thanks.
As detailed in another post in this thread, by download from the Pixela website I have just upgraded the version of ImageMixer used by our Sony HDD camcorder to 3.01.002. Having done this, I just noticed some new desktop icons not previously there. One was for DVD authoring, so I tried the following:
1) Convert Media Center recorded TV from DVR-MS to .MPG format using AutoDVRconvert
2) Although badged "ImageMixer3 for HDD camcorder", remove adverts using this software instead of Cyberlink
3) Author DVD using "ImageMixer3 DVD Authoring".
Result?
Admittedly done using a high spec PC purchased for multimedia use, but a top quality DVD with excellent audio and video, and no lip sync problems. Fast too, both to author (thanks to the PC) and to burn (thanks to Pixela allowing the Sony (ah, is that a clue?) DVD burner to run its full 18x whereas Cyberlink only allows 4x.
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a friend has phoned asking for help in getting his mesh pc to start in safe mode.
he tells me that the symptoms are: on start-up, he gets 3 choices - press
f1 to go in to bios; or f8 to select boot disk; or f10 to enter mesh recovery-console.
if he goes via f8, he gets a choice to boot from one of the two 160 gig disks on board. (only one actually has the system files).
if he goes via f10, he gets the mesh console asking him to choose how/what he wants to repair on his xp system.
the problem is that he does not get the option to start xp via the via the "safe mode".
any ideas on how he can get xp to start in safe mode? thanks.
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Do you not press f8 to boot from a disk and then f8 immediately after having done so to select mode ?
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The screen you are reporting sounds like a BIOS screen. When it's past that, and entering Windows start up, keep tapping F8, that will bring up the Windows startup choices, including Safe Mode.
EDIT: Just realised that NoFM2R has already said this in a different way...never mind eh? :-)
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smokie and no_fm2r:
thanks. will ask him to give it a try tomorrow.
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I've just installed IE 7 and at the moment I find it more unwieldy than IE 6. If I can't get used to IE 7 how (assuming it's possible) do I revert to IE 6?
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L\'escargot.
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IE7 displays as a "program" in "Add or remove programs".
Simply uninstall it and reboot.
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IE7 displays as a "program" in "Add or remove programs". Simply uninstall it and reboot.
I know how to uninstall IE 7, but how do I get IE 6 back?
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L\'escargot.
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www.techenclave.com/forums/uninstall-ie7-beta-from...l
explains it better than
www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie...x
The Microsoft instruction only tells you how to uninstall IE 7. It doesn't tell you that the process automatically restores IE 6. Us computer duffers need chapter and verse!
--
L\'escargot.
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at the moment I find it more unwieldy than IE 6. If I can't get used to IE 7 ....
You will soon get used to it. At first I hated IE7, but apart from the stupid place MS have put the refresh and stop buttons, I now quite like it. I just wish our IT dept at work would move with the times and give us IE7 as well. Having to swap between the two browsers is my biggest bugbear.
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Same here - the tabs on IE7 are so useful. The day IE7 came out we were all sent a 'put this on your machine and risk getting your P45' e-mail. We then realised why. Our wonderful new SAP system doesn't work on an IE7 interface, it barely works on IE6 for that matter! Needless to say the person (an accountant not an IT expert) who made the momentus decision to stitch us up to SAP has long since gone.
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Same here - the tabs on IE7 are so useful.
Finally. Apparently it even does RSS feeds as well. Users of Firefox, Opera, and every other browser welcome you to their world.
The day IE7 came out we were all sent a 'put this on your machine and risk getting your P45' e-mail. We then realised why. Our wonderful new SAP system doesn't work on an IE7 interface, it barely works on IE6 for that matter!
It's likely that the SAP system was designed to work with IE6's [ahem] special features. Many web designers cursed IE6 for the idiosyncratic way it does things. IE7 is closer to the agreed standards and even seems to handle CSS reasonably well, but it's still a way off. Stitch-up is right, but it's Microsoft that did the stitching.
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>>Stitch-up is right, but it's Microsoft thatdid the stitching.
>>
I have worked with SAP, IIRC before IE6 we were using IE5.5 for a long time with no problems, however SAP is supposed to run within the MS environment, if it does not it is not MS's problem.
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My gripe is not with MS it's with whoever decided SAP was the best solution to modernising our finance and ordering systems. It is the most cumbersome, icomplicated and llogical piece of software I've ever come across. It can't even cope with handling an invoice for photocopying. We are charged less than 1p for each copy - something like 0.0981p. Our version of SAP can't handle this as it must be given whole pence in unit costs. As a result we are having to divide the number of copies to increase the unit cost per copy to £9.81!
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I have worked with SAP, IIRC before IE6 we were using IE5.5 for a long time with no problems, however SAP is supposed to run within the MS environment, if it does not it is not MS's problem.
The irony of a system designed to aid with standards compliance being dependent on a non-standards compliant computer system is really beautiful. Thank you for pointing it out.
I don't care what server environment this thing runs on, but why should a system using a browser as its front end depend on a particular web browser from a particular vendor? Isn't that just a little bit silly? And no, it's not MS's problem--far from it--they got rich on the back of the silliness.
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I bet you're glued to the version of Java it demands too!
JH
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<< Our wonderful new SAP system doesn'twork on an IE7 interface ........
Join the ranks of the retired and you can consign SAP to Room 101 ~ that's what I did.
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L\'escargot.
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You will soon get used to it. At first I hated IE7, but apart from the stupid place MS have put the refresh and stop buttons,
I'm used to it already, although I 'd prefer the toolbar icons to be all in one row.
--
L\'escargot.
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In early January I asked advice about fitting a new fan in laptop computer because the computer was overheating and switching itself off after 10 minutes or so. The usually reliable chap in the repair shop seemed disinterested and gave all sorts of excuses not to do the job.
Well, I plucked up courage (now armed with advice and all the diagrams and photos) and I decided to take a look at the existing fan before actually getting a new one. I took it out and found more dirt and dust in it than Mount Vesuvius causes on a bad day ! Vacuumed it all out and spun the fan around - all seemed OK.
I reassembled the machine, switched it on and SATISFACTION - it's been running for 90 minutes so far and all is well. Cost of repair - nil.
Thanks backroomers.
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yes laptop cooling fans have very very low torque, does nto take much to stop them starting,
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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The usually reliable chap inthe repair shop seemed disinterested and gave all sorts of excuses not to do the job.
Depending on the make/model the difficulties you can encounter taking a laptop apart are many and varied - some are like a "jack-in-the box" with all manner of connectors jumping out and this can make it very difficult to re-assemble.
In your case you have been extremely lucky.
Re vacuuming the dirt out - the professional engineer uses a can of compressed air to clean computers out (Maplins sell it)
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Falkirk, I'm inclined to disagree with you. Why be in business as a computer repair man and weasel your way out of a possibly difficult job - surely, it's your raison d'etre.
1. He told me he'd opened it, looked at it and "yeah, your fan's not working". He didn't open it.
2. He claimed fans for this Dell are very difficult to find and said "I've put out a few emails and I'm waiting for replies" For 2 months ! I'm still waiting to hear from him.
3. Ebay has them if you want them - I've looked and was going to buy one once I'd checked the old fan out.
4. I'm no technician (don't use the word 'engineer' he isn't), but asked advice here, found it was not a jack-the-box-job, looked at the manuals and did it.
5. I repectfuly suggest I haven't been extremely lucky but resourceful - IMHO on this occasion he was either lazy, incompetent or deceitful. Maybe all three.
Your defence of the repair man is unacceptable - so there!
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My fellow Backroomers,
I've just bought SWMBO a pink DS Lite as an advanced Valentine's Day present. She has been using one of her offsprings' DS Lites for that Brain Training game/thing since Christmas and would now like to put the progress she's made so far onto her DS.
Not knowing a great deal about DS Lites, is it possible to copy her game data onto her DS without having to start again? She's got her own copy of Brain Training coming soon and it would good to have it on there instead of the little tyke's. I was wondering about sticking the card into my PC to see if I could do something that way but haven't felt brave enough so far.
Thanks in advance,
CV
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A friend has sent me an amateur DVD.....I believe he has copied it from a hols video.
I have inserted it into my laptop but nothing happens....I have played other DVDs without difficulty (they self-start!).
It is no use me asking my friend for advice as he knows even less about PCs than I do.
Please can someone tell me how to get it to work?
TIA.
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Have you tried opening it in your file manager and seeing what's actually on the disk? It might not be a "playable" DVD as such, but a collection of media files (WMV, Quicktime, mpeg, avi, whatever). In that case clicking on them should play them or at least tell you what you need to play them. Scan it for viruses and malware first.
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Thanks for that. Sadly, I would not know how to find my File Manager (I let him have the day off :o) so will need to have a step by step reply if I am to sort this one out!
Am out for the next few hours but would appreciate any further suggestions.
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Assuming you are using Windows it's called Windows Explorer. The DVD should appear there when it's inserted. Double click on it to "explore" its contents. A Windows user will be along soon to help with my rapidly fading memory of how it does things.
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Which program do you play DVDs with ? It may well be Windows Media player. If you;re not sure, put in any old DVD which you know will self start and see what program starts. It should say what its called at the top. If it does not it willl def. if you select "Help" then "About" from the menu on the top of the screen.
Substitute the DVD currently in there fo rthe one you want to watch which does not self-start. If the application which you were watching the DVD through is still open then all well and good. If it is not then go down to Start and then start hunting through the items until you find it.
Having found it and opened it then do the following (which assumes Windows Media Player & XP but will be similar for most things..)
Select File
Select Open (or CTRL-O if you prefer)
Click on "My computer" from the left hand side of the "Open" window
This should reveal a list of choice, of which one will be your DVD drive
This should reveal a second set of choices (anything from 1 up) one of which will be the film you wish to watch. If you double-click the title you wish it will now play.
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If you do use WMP, you could also go to WMP's Play button>DVD, VCD or CD tab and select the drive which is used to play DVDs.
It could also be worth checking that all File Types, including DVD, are Enabled from WMP's Tools>Options>File Types, plus downloading the standard K-Lite Codecs Pack from:
www.free-codecs.com/download/K_Lite_Codec_Pack.htm
which includes virtually all audio and video codecs likely to be required.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Many thanks for those tips. I will print them off and try them out in the morning, dv.
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We've decided that we need the added security of an external hard drive - the intention is to back up straightforward typical domestic stuff and to be able to access it from both the desktop and SWMBO's laptop.
We've seen external HDs of around 300Gb capacity which should be ample but we aren't sure what other features we should be looking for - for example, is firewire necessary? Are there known issues/problems to watch out for (as in TDCI issues ;-) )? Both SWMBO and I use Windows XP but my son, who is also looking for an external HD, uses an Applemac laptop. Any views would be gratefully received. Many thanks Waino
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We've decided that we need the added security of an external hard drive
That's debatable. Small stuff "walks" more often than big stuff. If you have a home network you might be better off installing some sort of network based storage so the disk can be in the loft or under the floor. Encrypt anything sensitive.
>>I use Windows XP but myson, who is also looking for an external HD, uses an Applemac laptop.
Not a problem. Macs can read, write and serve up Windows shares over a network and can read/write to FAT32 (not sure about NTFS--never tried it) on a USB/Firewire disk. Incidentally if you have a home network your son's Mac will also have FTP and HTTP (Web) servers built in. All you have to do is enable them by checking a box. Filesharing that way is a breeze even over the Internet.
Your son's Mac will probably have a Firewire connection so it might be worth him getting a Firewire rather than a USB disk. This will mean he can clone his OS X install (using Carbon Copy Cloner www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html) to the disk and boot from it in the case of internal harddisk failure. For encryption he will also be able to make encrypted disk images (from OS X's built in Disk Utility) which can be dragged and dropped to/from once they are mounted. If his external HD won't be used on the XP machines he'd be better off formatting at least part of it with Apples HFS+ filesystem. Disk Utility can partition and format it anyway.
For the actual daily backing up (note: not archiving) on the Mac I use LaCie's free Silverkeeper utility:
www.lacie.com/silverkeeper/
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Baskerville, many thanks for your reply. By 'security', I was meaning 'backup' in the event of a failure of the HD in the desktop, or the failure of the desktop unit so that I would be able to continue working using SWMBO's laptop. There isn't any really sensitive data on the computer, so I'm not too worried about malevolent individuals. I will take your points up with no 1 son when he returns home - he, like no 2 son, has an Applemac notebook. In the meantime I have just bought 2 Seagate 400Gb ext drives - one for no 2 son and one to be shared between SWMBO and I, we'll see how we get on.
I had initially ordered a couple of Maxtors via Amazon but the 3 month delivery delay has meant that I had to cancel the order. Speed is of the essence as the HD on the no 2 Applemac is full to bursting and we need to make some space.
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About to be subject to the wow factor on Monday when delivery promised for the new PC with Vista Home Premium loaded.
If any of you are already operating vista and have words of advise/pitfalls to watch out for for geek with only a modicum of computor savy or is my blood pressure going to hit the roof.
Obliged.
DVD (trembling)
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I am not reading that many great things about Vista currently so my soon to be ordered (perhaps even this PM) notebook will have XP Pro as per my workstation though comes with a free (well you pay P&P) upgrade to Vista Business that I can use later if I wish.
That being said the main issues will be the availability of drivers for any of your existing peripherals, for instance I use a scanner for which an XP driver was an after thought, run that on Vista - no chance.
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I am not reading that many great things about Vista currently so my soon to be ordered (perhaps even this PM) notebook...
Wait until the summer. Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard," will be out by then ;-)
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dvd -
stop trembling. as for any new product, some problems are bound to be found.
msmvps.com/blogs/donna/archive/2007/01/27/windows-...x
support.microsoft.com/kb/929427
windowsvistablog.com/
www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/09/vista_ups_pc_sale.../
a batch of drivers (available for download via the update feature) for use with vista was released on the day of its official launch, and should cover most driver issues that were known by then.
at £25, you may be interested in this :
www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/02/09/review_belkin_eas.../
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Did you not read my advice? Avoid Vista. you bad bad boy (wags finger) well may you quake.
------------------------------
TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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The old Maxim still applies
Do not install a new MS Operating System until at least SP1 has been released.
Applied 12 yrs ago with Win 95 and it is still the best plan
Most Banks and Ins Companies (who ahve lots of resources) will have the odd copy on their desks but the will not deploy it for at least 6-12 mths.
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Tom's benchmarks ....
www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html?modelx=33&model1=4...7
.... are great re desktop processors however I would like to know how a notebook Core Duo 1.66 Ghz T2300 compares to a notebook 1.66 Ghz Core 2 Duo T5500, and how the 2.16 Ghz Core 2 Duo T7400 mobile cpu compares to the desktop 2.13 Ghz E6400.
Any ideas?
Thanks.
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yes,
get the most expsnsive you can afford, and I wonjt tell you again
DUMP THAT T2 OFF YOUR LIST
------------------------------
TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Thanks TVM, I am just about to buy a T5500 though I am interested is relative performance aside from my own needs.
Differences: The T2XXX dont have 64bit so cannot run XP Pro 64bit or Vista 64bit, the later is a consideration for the future. However they do have VVT where the T5XXX and T7XXX do not making them more suitable for the corporate managed server environment, thats not me though ;-).
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Just ordered an Acer notebook with a T5500 Core 2 Duo and 1024Mb RAM, XP Pro with Vista Business upgrade.
Will report how I get on.
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Have a look at the dual core base unit that Aldi have for sale; looks very good value
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Have a look at the dual core base unit that Aldi have for sale; looks very good value
I am after a laptop though this ...
www.comet.co.uk/cometbrowse/product.do?sku=355232
.... is better value than the Aldi unit, £100 less.
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We've just bought SWMBO an Evesham Technology Whatlaptop spec Voyager C530. I'd put you the link on, but I fear it may be too long.
Fearing potential teething problems with the newly introduced Vista, we stuck with XP. We weren't too impressed when the assistant in the shop attempted to give us a demo of Vista - and it crashed - having been installed on the machine the previous day.
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Ignoring the other partitions that exist, my PC has two hard disks so I keep "text" documents and "audio" files each in their own logical partition on one disk, and "visual" documents in their own partition on the second disk. So, in the context of this post, "My documents" is split across three partitions on two hard disks.
This setup works well and helps give excellent video editing and DVD authoring performance as well as making it easy to find things; I therefore have no intention of changing it, but it causes two niggling problems that I would like help to solve, please:
My documents
I have successfully moved the focus of "My documents" to the partition that contains my text files by using the normal technique (Start / My Documents / RMB Properties / Set Target Folder). I can't however find a way of informing XP that "My documents" is actually located in three separate folders that have no direct hierarchical correlation with each other. Is there such a way, please,? I doubt it, but useful tricks sometimes exist so ask the question.
"My Wretched" folders
How do I stop XP recreating "My XXX" folders every time I delete the damned things? I don't want them, period! I've tried every technique I can find on the web, from keeping them but renaming to something useful to me, to different ways of deleting them, but without success. The most promising sounding was to delete the "My XXX" folders when in Start Menu "Advanced" editing mode, but even this doesn't work; the next time I boot the PC, bang, the unwanted folders are back.
Many thanks.
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>> My documents
I didnt want "My Pictures" to be within "My Documents", I have also set up "Work Documents". So I have "My Documents", "Work Documents", "My Pictures" and "My Videos" in the same root folder. I have then set up short cuts in the Office tool bar for instance the shortcut to "Work Documents" is:
C : Documents and Settingsmy nameWork Documents
Etc.
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have "My Documents", "Work Documents", "My Pictures" and "My Videos" in the same root folder.
But that's the crux - mine are not in the same root folder, and I don't want them to be, but when I click "Save" in a document and "My Documents" displays as the default location, I want it to contain the high level folders "text files", "audio files", and "video files" even though these are in three partitions on two physically different disks.
I can get "My Documents" to display either ONE of these three folders by reassigning the target location of My Documents using the technique I described, but I can't get it to target all three.
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I can get "My Documents" to display either ONE of these three folders by reassigning the target location of My Documents using the technique I described, but I can't get it to target all three.
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Ah, when saving, I would set the default file location per application, i.e in Word Tools>Option>file Locations, most apps can have the file locations configured.
In my case I have the default file locations for most apps set to ...
C : Documents and Settings / my user name
... so I can see "My Documents", "Work Documents" etc and choose which to save to:
If saving across two drives have the default file location set to My Computer so you can see, for instance, both C: and D: and easily navigate to the required folder, whatever the drive.
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I've tried every technique I can find on the web, ...
including these?
www.computerperformance.co.uk/Registry/registry_ha...m
www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/61/
i have no idea whetehr they work or not.
i think you may enjoy reading this msdn blog:
blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2006/12/28/1374...x
"Stop the madness: Subdirectories of My Documents"
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Ta, Dalglish.
Will take a gander later when I've cooked the bacon & eggs.
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Hmm. It was late when I posted but I am sure I didn't call this thread "partioning".
Mods - if I forgot to give it a name, or even if I did give it a name but you have changed it, please will you set it to "My Documents" behaviour as this is more accurate. Ta. The subject is not partitioning.
{SjB, yes you forgot to give it a name, so I changed it based on seeing the word partition mentioned. I've now amended it to the header you have since suggested. DD}
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>>How do I stop XP recreating "My XXX" folders
A hidden, protected, read-only file with that name in the appropriate place will not be visible, but it will stop any new ones being created.
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