***** This thread is now closed, please CLICK HERE to go to Volume 128 *****
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I have recently had some serious maladies with XP Pro (Rule 1 - keep kids off the comuter - no chance!) Anyway it was hanging, crashing, locking and Updates refusing to load. Have spent some time and reinstalled XP (didnt do a full system clear and rebuild but ran the disc back through and a fresh download of IE7 .
Anyway everything seems to be running ok. However when I go to shutdown and press 'Switch Off' I am told that it is now safe to switch off manually which I have to do; where as previously the switch off would be automatic. Have had a look under Power management etc but cant find anything. Also have noticed that some of the graphics eg 'Find' are different - Cant remember that pooch being there before????. Is this all to do with SP2? I thought I had it installed already?
--
Fullchat
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CANCEL MY LAST! Issue now resolved with the help of the dog. The Advanced Power Management feature under Power Options had to be reinstalled.
--
Fullchat
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You can check whether SP2 is still installed from My Computer (Desktop icon)>right click>Properties>General tab.
If necessary you can bring XP right up to date again if necessary by going to:
www.autopatcher.com
and installing the latest version (brings Windows Updates etc up to last month; next WindowsUpdates due this second Tuesday).
Easiest way to find out if your Windows Updates, HotFixes etc are OK is to download Belarc Advisor from:
www.belarc.com/free_download.html
This is because the US government decreed a couple of years ago that all security issues must be up to date and Belarc Advisor indicates any that are missing.
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Hi Stuart,
I've not seen autopatcher before - does it provide functionality above that of Microsoft update?
/Lee
-- Biggedy biggedy bong
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See:
www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showforum=89
for information about Autopatcher.
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I've not seen autopatcher before - does it provide functionality above that of Microsoft update?
see thier www.autopatcher.com/whatsautopatcher/
and faq www.autopatcher.com/faq/
Q: Is AutoPatcher legal?
A: Yes, nw_raptor once spoke to a Microsoft employee and apparently they know about us but dont care what we do!
(my underlining above).
up to you to make of that what you wish.
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Autopatcher has been going for as long as I can remember - there is another similar offering but it's in 7-Zip form:
www.majorgeeks.com/RyanVMs_Windows_XP_Post-SP2_Upd...l
Various flavours of Autopatcher:
www.majorgeeks.com/search.php
or scroll down:
www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?id=1
Most recent examples at Autopatcher website.
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Thanks for your reply. You must have been typing as I posted my cancel message!
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Fullchat
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FC - if you have to let the kids loose on the PC, make sure they can't run with adminstrator permissions.
Create them an account they can use without admin rights and make sure you don't let them have the password for your account or any others with admin privileges. It's not a 100% fix, but it should limit the damage they can do to your machine in future!
-- Biggedy biggedy bong
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Thanks. Have now done as suggested. Now that I have done that I have noticed that if I access Control Panel in my account there are all the individual icons in a normal window. In the new account the Control Panel consists of the different reosorces grouped together under one icon eg 'appearences and themes' with a blue background. Ive checked all he settings but cannot see why they should be different for different users?????????
--
Fullchat
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Sorted! 'Switch to catagory view' in the side bar. Should have tried that before posting!
--
Fullchat
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I've just purchased a new Acer laptop. It was advertised as 512 RAM, and I payed for an extra 512 RAM to take it up to 1Gb.
On a program called "Acer eSettings Management" it tells me that there is 1 GB of RAM.
However, when I go to control panel > System properties, it tells me that there is 768 MB of RAM, and I get the same sort of figure from Windows Task Manager.
This confuses me. What am I to make of it?
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Sounds like you may have some of that memory set aside for video?
-- Biggedy biggedy bong
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Thanks, Lee.
How would I check to see if that is the case?
And is it normal? With my Toshiba, none of it is set aside for video.
FWIW, the Acer was advertised as coming with NVidia GeForce Go6100 supporting 128MB Shared Memory. See tinyurl.com/24axrh
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Hi tyro,
Sorry can't think off the top of my head and all my computers have video cards!
IIRC, the belarc advisor above will tell you how much video RAM is available - if it's reported as 256Mb then that's the culprit!
It's a normal thing to happen - often the computer will decide how much RAM to assign to video, but there'll be a setting somewhere to tell it to use something else (perhaps in the BIOS settings?) but again, I'm a bit lost with the detail of your machine.
I'm sure someone will be along shortly with a more useful answer, but give belarc a whirl first!
-- Biggedy biggedy bong
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Lee
Thanks for the pointer to Belarc advisor, which was new to me. I've installed it and run it now, and very interesting it is.
On the Acer, it tells me that I have 768 mb of installed memory, and 512 mb in each of the two slots.
(On my Toshiba, it tells me that I have 1016 mb of installed memory and 512 mb in each of the two slots)
I cannot see anything on Belarc advisor about video RAM availability - but perhaps I've missed it.
It does say
>>Memory slot contents may not add up to Installed Memory if some memory is not recognized by Windows.
>>Memory slot contents is reported by the motherboard BIOS. Contact system vendor if slot contents are wrong.
but that doesn't really explain things to my untechnical mind, either.
In short, I still as confused as I was to start with.
And another question that occurs to me is "If I hadn't ordered the extra 512 mb, does that mean installed useable memory would be 254 mb? That seems ridiculously low for a computer in this day and age.
So - please keep the answers coming!
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At a guess, you have 128Mb dedicated video memory on the GeForce Go graphics chip plus it can borrow up to another 128Mb from your 1024Mb system RAM.
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maybe it ram off?
with a sheep :-(
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Victorbox
I'm know very little about this, but my maths suggests to me that if it had borrowed (stolen more like!) 128 mb of the 1024 mb system RAM, that would leave 896 mb of system RAM rather than 768.
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>>(stolen more like!) >>
A Time £1,300 (sale price!) 100MHz Pentium computer system I bought in 1996 had 16MB of RAM; one MB was used for video and, if you wished to enjoy even better resolution and performance, you opted to use 2MB...:-)
The 64-bit integrated graphics card is described in the manual, which I still have, as "a very high performance card".
Certainly worked well with a 14in Hitachi monitor set at 600x800 using just 1MB....
Incidentally the manual was both comprehensive and well written, covering a wide range of computer set up, configuration and usage details.
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Thanks all. I think I've about figured this out. Seems to me that the NVidia GeForce 6100 is an integrated graphics processor, and hence has no memory of its own.
By going from Control Panel > Display > Settings > advanced > adapter it seems that Video (Graphics) Memory is 256 MB. By subtraction from 1024, that gives the 768 which remains as system RAM.
Two questions remain in my mind.
1) Why did the advert say "supporting 128MB Shared Memory" - because it seems that it has borrowed twice that?
2) How much would have been borrowed if there was not an extra 512 MB installed?
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Two questions remain in my mind. 1) Why did the advert say "supporting 128MB Shared Memory" - because it seems that it has borrowed twice that? 2) How much would have been borrowed if there was not an extra 512 MB installed? >>
Not sure about this particular graphics processor though perhaps you can set how much memory it is allowed to "share".
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Hi
Recently my computer has stopped downloading files properly. I have a laptop that I connect via a cable or wirelessly to my ADSL Modem/Router. I'm running IE6 having downgraded from IE7 which didn't work so well. I have ZoneAlarm security suite, Spybot S&D and AdAware running. When I try to download the latest update of ZoneAlarm or Adobe Reader I only get a few kb and then it stops.
Any ideas?
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Martin - the fist test is your browser. Download Firefox, and try again. The results may help isolate the problem. If Firefox works, then use it when needed.
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...but I can't download firefox due to the download problem :-(
I can get stuff onto the pc by downloading onto a memory stick and plugging it in but I won't be able to do this until Tuesday when I can use work pc.
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It would appear you need to check your Security and/or Privacy configuration from IE's Tools>Internet Options - it might be necessary to add the websites from which you wish to download to the Allowed list.
In Security, click on the Local Internet icon>Advanced button>Sites button to add wanted websites.
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Thanks for your suggestion but I can get to sites and download part of files - it's not as though the sites are barred. I tried your idea but it didn't help. Thanks anyway.
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...but I can get to sites and download part of files ..
if you haven't tired this, see if it makes any difference:
clear your browser history/cookies/cache. (i use crapcleaner from www.ccleaner.com for this )
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I recently purchased a 2nd hand copy of Microsoft Office 2000 from ebay. I now realise that the version I wanted to purchase was Office XP. How different are the two versions? That is - what are the differences - and would a document created in one look exactly the same if opened in the other?
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Read www.itworld.com/App/888/OfficeXPlaunchwillla979/
"The few features [in Office XP] that are worth the upgrade target only a limited audience, Le Tocq said.
"When you look at the new version, it adds interesting features for people who work in a highly collaborative environment," he said. "Overall, if collaboration is not the focus of how you work, the features are fairly incremental."
Are you using this at home? If so, then you won't notice the difference. Others reading this might like to download OpenOffice for free (and not just a trial version, totally free) from www.openoffice.org
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I use Office 2000 and Office 2002 (XP) on two different machines, they are totally compatible, I cant say I notice much difference in use, seemlessly switching from one to the other, Powerpoint 2002 functionality is a little different and I prefer 2000 though perhaps only because I am more used to it. Outlook 2002 allows integration with webmail (I.e downloading of Hotmail into Outlook) which Outlook 2000 doesnt though otherwise they are similar. I am using XP Professional SP2 on both machines and Office 2002 integrates graphically slightly better though that is a minor point.
Lastly IIRC 2002 and 2000 can both run on Vista though 97 cant.
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Meant to say, I have tried Openoffice though it is difficult to get to know if you are familiar with Office, I use the "Export to PDF feature" though I usually create the document in Office 2000 then open it in Openoffice before exporting to PDF.
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Meant to say I have tried Openoffice though it is difficult to get to know if you are familiar with Office
Of course this issue goes away when faced with the choice of upgrading to Office 2007, but it's wonderful that there is now real choice. Office XP was the last Office I used for serious heavyweight work, though I occasionally have to use a more recent version at a client's office. I used Word (for DOS!) as far back as 1991 (Word 5?) and Office XP seems the slickest and least obtrusive of the Offices to me. It was the one thing I missed in my switch to Linux, though not for long. For easy free collaboration on small, simple documents and spreadsheets Google Documents is coming up fast on the rails.
I'm not quite sure why anyone would spend their own money on Office now, even on eBay.
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Thanks gentlemen. My question has been well answered.
Baskerville is right. With OpenOffice, few rational people would go for MS Office. But some people don't want to learn a new program. And few of us are entirely rational.
And 'someone' has said that it doesn't matter how similar Office 2000 is, it MUST be Office XP. :-(
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Re: PhilW's question.
uk.aldi.com/special_buys/productnl_192.html
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Judging by the size / shape of the (useless ) supplied antenna, and the layout of the remote, that appears to be yet another version of the same product I bought as the 'Freecom' USB stick. Fed from a reasonable outside antenna I've had no reception problems, even n a marginal area - the software is likely to be pants though, it always seems to be with these devices.
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The software is pants even with devices that cost three time this. At 20 quid I could be tempted as a toy and not too disapointed if its pants.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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TVM I bought one of Aldi's Medion Laptops the other day and it is fine. The supplied TV plug in receiver is useless, even when connected to my terrestrial loft aerial so I too might be tempted by the £20 job. I will buy one Thursday and report back after the weekend.
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the software is likely to be pants though it always seems to be with these devices.
I had a play with an Elgato EyeTV a few months back and thought the software was really good. As good as our Humax PVR at any rate and that is terrific. It worked really well and if I could think of a reason for dropping up to £100 for one I would, but I can't.
www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/09/25/review_elgato_eye.../
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Yes the Elgato does seem to be in a different league, but the price is pretty close to a resonable stand-alone dual tuner HDD PVR! I keep meaning to find time to get one of the better 3rd party 'media centre' SW applications, probably MediaPortal, going with my Freecom, but haven't got around to it yet.
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This is a new Hauppauge USB Freeview stick which has twin tuners to improve reception:
www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?quicklinx=4C3C&fb=21...1
There's a review at The Register under the Hardware section.
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It depends on the card but there is excellent "free" software out there called GB-PVR. It can work with digital TV USB devices if you have the right drivers installed. I liked it a lot before I got the V+ service from Virgin Media (can record 2 channels, watch a third etc.).
www.gbpvr.com/
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yes thats what I use, i find it a little resource hungry tho
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Thanks for the link DD and thanks for advice form others. Might pop down to Aldi for a look on Thurs.
--
Phil
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Not sure if you are interested in a USB device - but I've got a Leadtek WinFast DTV USB dongle. I find it excellent from the house aerial and the bundled software is good too. It has PiP etc and timeshift and it also has a scheduled recording facility too.
i think they are still available from ebuyer for 20 - 25 quid.
Rgds
P
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Dear all.
I receive invoices from a national Builders Merchant via e-mail. Last week I received one which made my eyes pop out. They had invoiced me for a large item that I had previously been invoiced for and it had a different delivery note number and also a different invoice number and it was on another account of ours!! Now this has happened before and sometimes the additional appears on the statement and sometimes not. I gather to go through maybe three years of invoices may be impractical, but I must make an attempt to say maybe check all of those over say £200.00. Is there a way other than copying and pasting them into a word doc that I can search them?
TIA....................MD.
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Martin,
If your looking to search through lots of e-mails, I find Google DESKTOP search is a good choice. Download and install it. It then proceeds to catalog e-mails, documents etc on your PC (can take a while...). Once it's done you can use the Google Desktop search in you browser to find most thinks you may be looking for.
Regards,
John R @ Home
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Martin
John's right but I'd suggest Copernic desk top search instead. I've tried both and, from memory, Google needs some clumsy plug ins to search email attachments whereas Copernic just gets on and does it. Once the initial build is over search results are almost instant.
JH
www.copernic.com/en/products/desktop-search/
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JH. Thanks for that, but if I do install copernic will it search them as they are or will it re-arrange things. I have them set safely in monthly folders and it suits me just fine. Also when you say search will it be like ctrl F and then type in text? I am literally going to have to search three years as the 'duplicates' can be a month or two apart and they could be costing me thousands. Bit concerned really.
Very best regards........Martin.
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Hello again JH. I have the copernic thing running and yes it is absolutely brilliant, but how do I stop the thing??
Also I only want to search my two Merchants invoice folders and not the whole kaboosh and being a computer simpleton I cannot sort it. HELP.
VBR.......MD
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Martin
glad it did what you need. To stop it, click on the icon in the system tray. You can stop it temporarily or permanently. You've got quite a lot of control over when it runs. On a laptop it will even not run when it knows you're on batttery power.
JH
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Martin,
sorry, missed the second bit. To search a specific folder just tell it first to look in emails not documents, see top left of pane. The search criteria underneath then become email specific rather than folder specific. Point at the email folder you want to look in and off you go, otherwise it will look in all of them.
To reduce the number of hits use double quotes ("") round the search words e.g. "abc def" will search for just "abc def" whereas abc def will search for an occurence of abc or def and you'll get a lot more hits. Spend a bit of time setting it up and it's invaluable. I find it's often faster than going down a folder tree to a document even when you know what folder a doc is in, provided you can give enough information to reduce the number of hits.
JH
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even when you know what folder a doc is in provided you can give enough information to reduce the number of hits.JH
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Cheers again JH, but it still looks in all e-mail folders, but I'm probably doing something wrong!! It's obviously a great bit of kit, but I have to teach it! Ijust want it to search 2 folders max.
VBR......M.
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Is it possible to download photographic images from CF cards to my laptop via an SD port ? assuming an adaptor is available.
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Use a multi card reader.
www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=77...5
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Cheers for that TVM, only £3.99 wow. Just one more question do you think it will be ok for the Vista operating system as I have had a few compatibility problems so far. Vista has been a right pain so far!!.
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All i can say is it "should" be ok for vista, it uses a standard USB removeable disk driver.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Well for £3.99 inc. won't lose any sleep over it if Vista rejects it, cheers.........Vista is a pain.........
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Well for £3.99 inc. ...
i think it is excluding p&p. which is £3.95 extra for standard delviery.
to get p&p includive deals, have a look at
tinyurl.com/yw9f9q
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>>i think it is excluding p&p. which is £3.95 extra for standard delviery.>>
But you could add other items that may be required to the order to make the most of the delivery charge.
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I have a Dell dimension 4600.
Every time on start up the monitor shuts down. I have to press the off button for a second then back on. This might go on for up to 10 times when the pc starts up and sometime carry on through internet connection.
Always the same. Monitor goes black. Press off button, press it again to turn on. It works for a few seconds then off again. Once this little game is played and the pc is loaded all is ok for the rest of the day.
Anyone got any idea what might be wrong?
Thanks for any help.
(I swear they biuld these thing to go wrong just outside the warranty period ;-)
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When you it goes off I assume you mean the PC not the monitor? When it goes off does the monitor light turn from green to (usually) orange indicating no signal from the graphics card?
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When you it goes off I assume you mean the PC not the monitor?
The monitor turns off (the screen goes black). The pc is running all the time.
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When you it goes off I assume you mean the PC not the monitor?
The monitor turns off (the screen goes black). The pc is running all the time.
The on/off button on the monitor stays green the whole time. Thats the button I'm pressing on and off to get the screen to come back.
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May be stating the obvious, but have you checked that the monitor lead is firmly connected at both ends and (if you have one) that the graphics card is securely fitted in the PCI slot?
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Stuartli
Thanks for the suggestion but already done that. All help is much appreciated.
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I'd suggest getting a known working monitor from a friend or www.freecycle.org and testing how that behaves.
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Just to be clear....has the monitor always done this, or is it a recent occurence? My daughter's Dell 4400 always blanks the screen a few times during bootup, that's normal, I think.
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Just to be clear....has the monitor always done this or is it a recent occurence? My daughter's Dell 4400 always blanks the screen a few times during bootup that's normal I think.
Its only been doing it for 5 days or so. The monitor starts to load then just shuts off. Thats when I have to play the on/off game with it.
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The only thing I can think of - and it is pretty much a guess I admit, is that maybe the monitor has been accidentally set at some weird resolution that it can't really handle, and is getting confused on bootup?
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To follow up SpamCan61 {P}'s point, if you right click on an empty area of the Desktop>Properties>Settings tab>Advanced button>Adapter tab>click on List All Modes, you can check the settings for colour/resolution/refresh rates that your graphics card or integrated graphics can handle.
You can also alter the settings by highlighting your chosen selection(s) and clicking on the line. Ensure that Windows shouldn't require a reboot after any change(s).
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Morning all (lordy lordy it is very early for me!),
A neighbour asked yesterday if I could help with his PC problem - I couldn't, so I thought I'd ask here. His daughter has set and then forgotten the password for the PC, which is about 5 years old and running XP. Switch on the machine and it loads XP in the usual way, then displays her username (no list of users, just that one) and a space to type a password. Any attempts to go further or input an alternative cause the appearance of a little message box saying "Have you forgotten your password?", which I'm sure has tempted him to take a hammer to the thing by now. ;)
He is a self-employed joiner and uses the machine for headed invoices and the like, so this is bothering him quite a bit! Any suggestions for how to change/recover the existing password or otherwise regain access to the machine?
--
andymc
Vroom, vroom - mmm, doughnuts ...
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Is there a question mark which can be clicked on to get a password hint?
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Is there a question mark which can be clicked on to get a password hint?
...sorry, I mean on the 'have you forgotten your password' box.
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Any suggestions for how to change/recover the existing password
see www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm#...0
i use the 2nd one on his list (petter nordhal method), but the 1st (windows login recovery) which i had not seen before may be better for a novice.
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If they set up a user account in their name then there is also still the account named "administrator". By default this is not displayed.
If you press CTRL ALT DELETE all together you will get the alternative logon prompt. If they can remember what they used for the administrator password (it could even be blank) then type the username as "administrator" and enter the password. You cannot lock out this account so plenty of guessing allowed.
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>>.. user account in their name then there is also still the account named "administrator" ..
to add to rtj70's note, different options are availbale depending on whether you have xp-home or xp-pro. more at
www.broomeman.com/password/
www3.telus.net/dandemar/lostpass.htm
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Can anyone advise on the latest version of IE that can be used with Windows 2000? I believe IE7 is a no-go, but how about IE6? If it's IE5.5, does anyone have the link on the Microsoft website - I've tried and failed!
Thanks in anticipation!
JS
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Why does Google Earth ask to be connected to t'internet when I'm already connected?
--
L\'escargot.
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Hello,
Last night a tried to e-mail a legitimate contact that I have e-mailed an a few occasion before, I got a bounce back:
"This message has been blocked because it is from a FortiShield black IP address.(connection black ip xxx.xxx.xx.xxx)"
Why should this company seemingly blacklist my IP in this way?
Anyone else had this?
Regards.
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|Why should this company seemingly blacklist my IP in this way?|
If some sites get too much spam via an ISP they have been known to just block the ISP for a few weeks.
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Hello,
I have had to quickly specify a high end workstation for graphic design, a little photo editing, a liitle video editing, some Powerpoint and general business admin.
The following is spec from a Dell system upgraded as required:
Dimension 9200
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66ghz / 1066Mhz FSB / 4MB cache.
XP Pro (or possible Vista Ultimate for about £90 more)
4096Mb 667mhz DDR2 memory
256Mb GeForce 7900GS graphics card
500Gb serial ATA RAID 0 stripe (2x250Gb 7200rpm with databurst cache)
13-1 media card reader
Data - fax modem
16x DVD=/-RW
16x DVD-ROM
Creative X-Fi sound card
Analogue/digital TV tuner + remote
Dell A525 2.1 speaker system
Belkin 6-socket surgemaster
3 year on site warranty
18 months McAfee security centre
Microsoft Office 2007 - Small Business Edition
Dell 20" Ultrasharp wide screen digital monitor
£1345.76 + vat
Any thoughts on VFM, seems good to me based on stonking processor, loads of memory, striped RAID, decent gfx, great soundcard (I have one already) and £200 worth of software.
Regards.
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Having owned a number of Dells for many years now I don't think you will be needing the 3 year on site warranty 1 year is ample. I would also go for Vista from the word go. OK a lot of folks don't get on with it but so long as you have the drivers for any periferals it runs just fine for us especially with 4 megs of RAM. Given your requirements for graphic design/video editing you, may like to look at a higher spec graphics card. Rendering is very memory hungry couple. Personal view is to dump McAfee and go for AVAST or AVG. Also 4megs of RAM sounds a lot but Vista is very lardy and there will be loads of other rubbish running from boot up. Run "msconfig" to see just what runs from start up--you will be suprised.
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Thanks Geoff,
I have never paid for extended warranty / onsite support though IIRC 3 years is only £90 + vat so seemed good value.
I have two PCs on XP Pro currently (one a Dell) so another would be very much "turn key" for me, also I know I have a couple of peripherals with Vista driver issues.
Re gfx, I think Dell can supply the GeForce 8600 on the E520 though that comes with a E6600 as the fastest CPU, I will have to see what the difference is between the two cards.
As per the support 18 months internet security for around £20 is good value, otherwise I would go for F-Secure.
Does it sound good value?
Regards.
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It is good value as long as you are willing to accept that it will be cheaper/faster next week. Trouble with PCs is that if you can buy it then it is out of date.
Check that it has got network connectivity either hard wired or wireless so that you can connect up to your other equipment. Other than that go for it
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Not sure I'd go with stripped disks like that. For performance you might want to stripe the operating system disks but I would not want my data an a striped set - the probability of losing data is greater because you are relying on two devices instead of one.
I think I'd also go for an Nvidia 8800GTS card of some sort. A lot faster than the 7900GS and also DirectX 10 so a little more future proof.
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Not sure I'd go with stripped disks like that. >>
I think I'd also go for an Nvidia 8800GTS card of some sort. A lot faster than the 7900GS and also DirectX 10 so a little more future proof.
I tend to agree re striped though could be good for streaming video data.
Might look E520 with higher end gfx and E6600 CPU and 2 x 320Gb h/ds non RAID.
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"higher end gfx "
The new AMD/ATI Radeon 2900XT is now out and a very good price... about £250. But surprisingly:
- it is only competing with the nVidia 8800GTS (and sometimes slower than that) and hence the price. The XTX version will be OEM only
- it runs very hot (easily upto 100 deg C!)
- takes lots of electricity - like 200+ watts just for itself and the power connectors (PCIe + 6pin + 8pin = 300 watts available!)
- can be noisy in 3d mode (i.e. games)
- not that fast considering it has 320 "stream processors" against the 8800GTX with 128. But they are actually very different "stream processors" and the ones in the nVidia cards run at much higher clock speeds..
There's lots of reviews out there already. The plus bits though:
- Fully HDMI compliant and HDCP and onboard sound - it can stream content to a suitable HDCP compliant screen with sound
- The Avivo HD technology is good when playing back HD video which can cripple even the best CPUs without hardware assist
But I think I'd stick with nVidia (you didn't say you weren't) unless you want to be able to dry your hair by sticking your head behind the PC.
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Trouble with PCs is that if you can buy it then it is out of date.
8-core Xeons are already on sale in the high-end workstation stuff...
I would not want to hand over to the operating system 2GB of the 4GB RAM I had bought for graphic design work. So I would go for XP if it had to be Windows.
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Check out Mesh. By starting with the Elite Power SLI, I managed to spec a similar system for very slightly less.
If you've got the time to check out what you can do with the various different starting specs, you might be able to do better still. I'm on my 3rd Mesh computer, and have been very pleased with all of them. They seem to use top quality components, and put them together well in roomy and well designed cases.
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Check out Mesh. >>
I have lloked at Mesh and recommended them because I know people who have had good experiences however I generally dont like the look of either their cases or most of the monitors te supply that are silver as opposed to black, not ruled ot Mesh though.
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If I had just under £1,000 to spend on a new box at the moment this is what I would go for www.meshcomputers.com/Default.aspx?PAGE=PRODUCTVIE...1 plus they do full systems with this spec inc monitor, speakers if you need them. Good to see a nice fat 550W PSU.
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re. mesh
fact: they were on watchdog earlier this month.
fact: if you search for the company name plus trading standards, a number of links will be found.
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no time for watchdog but i saw the programme
not good
why not build your own?
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>>no time for watchdog but i saw the programme
not good>>
Mesh sells around 50,000 systems a year - it would be surprising if a small percentage didn't go wrong sometime.
However, my own guess is that many of the complaints that people raise about computer systems they have bought - from whatever source - is due to lack of knowledge and screwing up a system themselves.
Of course they blame the supplier...:-)
I've only bought one Mesh system; it cost £750 three years ago and was acquired on behalf of an elderly friend who had absolutely no computer knowledge. It was delivered on the day promised, I set it up for her, provided a list of essential updates to maintain etc and she took to computing like a duck to water.
Now 85, she and the computer system are still going strong and the Mesh hasn't missed a beat during that time.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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I bought a Mesh after advice from this site - I think it was TVM, but he'll correct me I'm sure if I'm wrong - It has been in use daily for the last 8 months with no issues at all. The case is plug ugly and as predicted by the person who recommended it noisier than the average machine but hey it works. I have an LG 19" screen so I can't comment on the MESH OE. Never phoned their help-line so I can't comment on that. A very close friend who is an IT Teacher and an anorak to boot has bought one now and he's very happy with it. I've just had an upgraded Dell at work, one of those with the processor box behind the screen and it feels cheap and nasty in comparison but it is quieter.
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