igarek77

Hi All, Just wanted to get your opinions here on these 2 video cards. Please help me make a decision..LOL First card: ATI Radeon X700 Pro Second Card: XFX GeForce 6800 XTREME 256MB Thanks for the replies!!!!

1GB for me and looking to add another 1GB. XMS memory!!!!!!

Hey Voltageman, I think that the key that you have will not work with another XP disk. I wouldn't try to get an illegal copy of XP because it might have other crap that's added to it from whoever compiled the ISO. In addition to that any security updates that are going to come out you're not going to be able to get because the Windows Genuine verification installs into the machine before any update can get into your PC. Unless you're going to get the crack for that WGA verification, you're always going to have trouble with the updates. There are a lot of places where all the updates can be downloaded illegaly, but again why bother when with a legit CD of XP, they download ligally..lol Why can't you just reinstall the OEM copy that you have? Doesn't it have it's own key?

He actually had both! So Yeah I think they are both bad, altough some crap that AOL installs, I'd consider the software itself....spyware.

Hi All, Thanks for giving me advice on the issue. I fixed the problem, and thought I'd post the solution to what was happening. So basically, after playing around with the commands, and different options, I ran chkdisk, and all the other ones, to no help. Then he told me he tried to un-install Norton Antivirus, and all the other norton crap, and that's when the computer went crazy, so I believe that Norton uninstall process somehow messed up his primary partition. Then my friend called me and said that he found a repair CD that came with the laptop, so I was able to repair the partition without no data loss, and he's happy now. Thanks For all the help!

LOL, Sorry, yeah I meant scandisk. That doesn't work. If I type c:scandisk.exe It doesn't work. I don't believe it's a command that will work in command prompt.

Thanks Cholla, I'm pretty sure that it skandisk is not an internal command, so I don't think it would work from the command prompt. I'll give it a try anyways. Thanks!

Thanks Cholla, I don't know why I didn't think about doing that earlier, I'll try it and see how that goes. Altough, I do remember trying to access the CD-ROM through the command prompt, but whenever I input cd d: it would go back to c:Windows So I'm not sure. I'll try it again though. I don't think I'm able to use scandisk in WinXP, since XP does not have DOS. Under normal computer working conditions, I can access it from the properties tab on the local hard drive, but since I can't access anything at all, I don't think it can be executed through the command prompt. Thanks for the suggestion though.

I actually already did all the things you mentioned, I was able to access Task Manager through control-alt-del, and ran msconfig, I de-selected all of the programs that are in the starup list. And changed the startup option to diagnostic startup where only basic drivers are loading. I am able to look at the processess in the task manager, and I don't see anything out of the ordinary, regular windows processes are running, that's all. Except one thing that I did notice that was running in the processes was drwtsn32.exe, thought that was kind of odd. Since it's not a regular running process on systems, and it's not selected to run at startup either. Tried rebooting the system into safe mode, same exact issue as in regular mode. Also, the weird thing is, I tried opening the System Resote from msconfig, and I get the window to come up, but it all stays white and I can't do anything with it, just sits there. Yeah I think that's what I'll end up doing now, since nothing else seems to work. Sometimes I know laptops can act weird because a memory stick could be knocked out of place, which is not the case here, so it seems like a fresh install is what I'll do. Too bad he didn't back up whatever he had on it. FiberOptic, thanks for the link, good info to brush up on. Thanks a lot for all your responses!

Hi Guys Ran into a little problem. Basically, what's is happening, friend brought a laptop for me to fix, said he might of got a virus or something. I go and try to check what's going on and, this is what's happening to the PC: When the PC is started, it logs on to windows, but the cursor stays on the hourglass for a long time, and I can't click any icons on the desktop, and the tasbar is grayed out. Once the cursos goes back to normal, I get an error message, stating that explorer.exe has encountered an error and will be shut down. The computer will stay on, and after a while the same message pops up, I'm thinking because the explorer.exe is trying to constantly restart. When I go into task manager through control+alt+del, and try to restart explorer through File-->New Task(Run) I get the above mentioned error message right away.All this while I can't click any icons on the desktop or launch anything through the start menu, the taskbar is grayed out. So I'm thinking that there's something that's preventing explorer.exe to launch normally, so I've tried to log in through safe mode. Same thing is happening. I have the original CD that came with the laptop, and tried to launch a repair option from the CD, I can't get into System Recovery, it only provides me with a command promt (like DOS environment). So i try to enter chkdsk /r, so at least it would detect and repair whatever's wrong with the OS, it starts the process, and everytime gets stuck @ 59%. You guys think I should just do a fresh reinstall? Because basically, the laptop is not usable at the moment. The reason why I was wanting to try a repair option first because he has some stuff on the hard drive that he would want to keep. Any suggestions? Thanks!!! (Intel Celeron M-----512MB Memory-------60GB hard drive)<----laptop specs

Yup, that's what I'll do. Thanks Guys!

PHP, Funny you mentioned that, cause that's one of the first books I told him to try to look for..lol I agree with all you guys that trial and error are the best teachers, I've learned so much more than I already knew. MY friend is already too old for me to take him for "bring kids to work day"..lol I guess he'd have to dig on the net, set up couple of PC's at home, and start troubleshooting....

Hi All, Just had a quick question, my friend asked me what book he should buy to learn more about networking, how to configure/set up/maintain a network. I suggested a couple of books for him to read, what books would you guys recommend? I can't really take him to work with me to show how everything's done lol , so if you guys can, please post book names in here, whichever ones you think are the best. Thanks ALOT!!

Yeah that's why we buy Dell too, or is it because the government has a contract with them and we get good deals? lol Don't know. But we most of our PC's at work are Dell.

Hi Guys, Have a little update. Basically, contacted Dell, and talked with a rep, didn't have a problem at all, they didn't care who owns the PC, as long as it was covered with the warranty, and since there was another 2 years left on the warranty, I got the replacement MOBO for free. So thanks for all the help guys. Really appreciate the help!!!!!

Hi guys thanks for the replies. Well, this is a slim line model, my friend got it for free from a hospital where his wife works, I guess they are replacing their computers (makes u wonder why) lol I have checked the fan on the PSU and it seems to be working fine, same goes for the CPU fan, I'll try another fan on the CPU and see if it makes a difference. I did a little more searching and found out the same information that ghostmaster posted, and couple of capacitors do look swollen on the MOBO. So i think the MOBO is bad. I also checked the warranty on dells web site, and it says it's still under warranty untill march '07, should I try to contact them and try to get a new mobo from them? Cause the PC was initially bought under that hospitals contract with them. Any suggestions. BTW, guys, thanks a lot for the replies.

Hi Guys OK, well here's my dillema. My friend brought his PC asking me to fix it if I can. I checked everywhere and cannot seem to find the solution. The problem is that when I turn the computer on, the first thing I get is 2 POST beeps and then it says "Computer was previously shut down due to thermal event". After that, I can access the PC's BIOS info, that's about it, I cannot load windows in any mode. tried them all, the computer would start to load and then shut off, and the above message comes up after I try to turn it back on again. here's what I have tried so far: 1. Search Dell knowledge base, and couldn't locate any useful info. 2. Re-seat the CPU and clean the old thermal grease, and applied brand new one. 3. Cleaned out the power supply with canned air (and also the whole PC) 4. Checked all the connectors on the MOBO, they all seem OK. That's where I'm at right now. So if anyone would be able to suggest anything to try, please let me know. Haven't had this type of issue before and I believe I've tried everything logical. Thanks in advance for your help, you guys have been a great crowd to ask a question to and get great answers. Thanks!

Although, Pentium M is a good processor, better than AMD any day

Thanks guys for the help, I was thinking about crossover cables, it's all coming back to me from the college days,. lol. Just had to make sure with all you people first! Thanks a lot again !!!!!

What you mean a crossover cable? I was more thinking of just plugging it in NIC to NIC, wouldn't that work?

Hi All, Just have a quick question, is there a way I can connect 2 computers together to transfer files, without using a router? Just a straight connection through the NIC? I think I already know the answer, but your input would be appreciated

I actually figured out what's causing the holdup, I'm using Webroot SpySweeper, and the latest version 5.0, it started hanging. So I think I'll be e mailing the support to resolve the issue, thanks for all the help.

Hi Guys, Have a quick question: When I shut down my computer, it goes through it's normal cycle of shutting down, but then it would just get stuck on a screen saying computer is shutting down and won't actually turn off. I have to hold the power button for a while and then it shuts off. When I power the PC on after that, I get no errors, like the PC was shut down normally. How would I fix that so the PC would actually shut down by itself? Thanks for any help.

I think that's a Linksys router, looks like a default IP for them. If you never entered a password, it should be admin

Italy should of left the game when they came toplay in Berlin. France, was and is a better team and a stronger team, and whatever Zidane did to Materazzi, well the Italian deserved it. There are only a few things that you can't say on the field, and he probably said one of them. Zidane,by far the better player and more skilled. One of the newsources said that Materazzi said something about seeing Zidane's mom after the world cup, that right there would make me do the same thing as Zidane did. Materazzi...macaroni grilling bastard