Le_Murphant

Actually, I waited 5 more minutes while "setup was getting ready" and I just decided to reboot and change a mysterious option in my bios about native ide drives, I switched it off and restarted the install, and now it's considerably faster. It's presently expanding windows files, I'll post when it's done. Note that I am installing it on my ssd and there needs to be a transfer of old windows files, so it might take more time than usual. I don't expect to run into more problem from here, but I'm afraid that the only wood I could knock on right now is polished. Edit: 10 minutes later, I'm surfing on IE8. It's an ok program but Firefox is first on my download list.

Okay, so I downloaded another windows DVD, the original RTM home premium x64 that passes the hashcheck and tried to install it but it stops at the same point my other DVD did and... Holy Cow! as I am typing, this, the W7 screen just appeared after over 3 minutes of waiting, I'm going to configure it now I could have deleted this post but I find it funnier like this

Actually RTM is out, so if I were you I'd pirate RTM and pay for the license when it becomes available. Otherwise you might have to reinstall when you buy it.

Don't really have a choice if I want W7 do I? Rest assured I will buy it (at student price) when it becomes available. The CD was Ubuntu, and I don't believe I can define an Ubuntu CD that could be called pirated. I bought vista (retail, 300$ CAD) and it's sitting on a shelf, so I don't feel bad pirating XP.

Actually I believe I just had two corrupt cds, since I was able to install an old pirated version of win xp, and then I tried putting in my old hard drive and after quite a few driver installs and reboots, it works ok, Not my ideal solution but now I can burn a dvd again. I checked my W7 cd against the .iso file and it matches, so I guess the file I had was bad. I'm downloading a new one atm that's just a ripped W7 DVD, nothing added or taken away.

Yeah, I'll test those hypothesies, but I'm not sure I could know if a wire got crammed somewhere other than by finding one that is severed somewhere. And thanks mudmanc4 for being my personal debugger tonight. Even when your advice isn't what fixes the problem, explaining the problem often helps solving it

I tried installing W7 and it goes past the "starting windows" screen but it freezes in the next one, before the dialog pops up (see for how the install is supposed to go). The mouse is accessible and can be moved, but I waited a few minutes without a result. Note that I am still using my HDD and not my SSD. I am presently running another pass of memtest in the only stick of ram that is plugged in atm. I have retried running ubuntu live cd and I realized that the many errors I described above fitted a pattern if you think of the computer being unable to read the disk since the same error was repeated a few times and then the last number was iterated often by more than 1. These logical blocks are probably parts of the cd that can't be read, I'l be checking the connections after memtest is done and I might try the old cd drive again. I have reset all my bios settings to "safe" btw.

Don't worry about it mudmanc4, I was way off too and I'm surprised that the unseated memory caused a problem in the installations since it wasen't recognized by the bios. I would have thought it simply would have been ignored, but the fact that I can now boot ubuntu tells me otherwise. It was checking for the items you suggested that I realized that only 2G were detected. I'l probably try unplugging everything and trying ubuntu again at some point tonight, and I'l keep you posted. I also have a barely started and due tuesday homework tugging at my sleeve, so I won't be able to dedicate my entire evening to figuring the problem out.

Hey, I found out that one of my ram stick was badly inserted and so was only partially recognized. I removed it and retried the latest version of ubuntu with all the new hardware. I get farther than I used to, but I get a bunch (over 50) of error such as "Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 6247" but I am able to boot into the live CD anyways after a while. I might be able to install W7 now but I would not like it to be full of errors like the linux install seemed to be. How should I interpret those errors and fix them?

You might have read the problems I'm having with my newer box (http://www.testmy.net/t-27116), but I'm also having trouble with the box I put my old pieces in. I changed most of the parts from my P180 to an old case + PS a friend had given to me. He gave them to me with his old mobo since there was something that was not working and he couldn't figure out what it was. I put all the pieces in and booted it with my original screen, installed the graphics drivers to my new ati card, and I could go on the net, everything was fine. I then turned it off, unplugged everything and moved the box in my tv room where it was supposed to become an htpc. Before moving it, I screwed the sides back on, that's about it. When I plugged everything back in in my TV room, and put the hdmi out in the card, I pressed the power button and nothing happened. No fans, no hard drive, no video card, nothing. The power light on the mobo was on but even then I tried flicking the switch on the PS, still no go. Checked all the connections, removed the mobo battery, tried flicking the power button by short-circuiting the power pins on the mobo, still no reaction. My diagnosis would now be that the PS is dead, but how could it have died by simply being moved (and I was gentle)? I'l try to borrow a friend's PS in the next few days to see if I am correct, but I want to have your opinions before that. If it matters, my specs are as in my signature plus -Sparkle power 360W PSU (old) -New ATI HD 4850 -Old cheapo case

I built a new box yesterday using some old parts and some new ones. I was able to build it ok, I pressed power and it posted properly, I inserted a W7 RTM cd (no crack) in there and it got stuck at the "starting windows" screen which is the second screen you get once the computer starts to read the CD (after loading windows components or something). I thought there might be a problem with my new SSD so I swaped for my also new seagates HDD, no change. I kept the HDD and tried the latest release of Ubuntu, I try to install or run live cd, and both don't work and get stalled at a black screen pretty quick. I tried changing to my old ide CD reader which I know works and popped in an older version of ubuntu (6.01) and tried the same. This version seems more thourough with the error messages, since when I try to install it says "starting linux kernel", the bar gets to 100%, it hangs there for a while and then a pop-up appears saying: I/O error: Error reading boot CD" and has a reboot button which is activated when I press enter. I tried messing with a few parameters in the BIOS, I did reset it to safe settings, I tried "optimized settings" but nothing works. Is there a faulty component, and which is it? If it helps, here is the setup: GA-P55-UD3R (new) i750 (new) 2x2G Gskill (memchecked it already, it's fine) (new) Seagates 7000.12 1G or 128 G patriot ssd (new) 8800 GT (old) Antec P180 (old) Both new and old dvd players, one ide and one sata 650W seasonic PS (old)

I'm not sure about the services, but maybe you can try reinstalling the feeds program or using system restore to revert to a time before you tweaked the services. I'm not absolutely sure that the services are stored in the registery though, but I would think so.

Hmm, you seem not to have taken the right host, either that or they upgraded their service drastically recently. It's hard to tell if it's good or not without knowing the rates you are supposed to have, can you send a link to your isp's advertised speeds page?

lol, I never knew they were from a call center

Software-wise, there isn't any miracle program that can make your pc go faster other than by cleaning stuff and maybe optimising your internet connection. For the overclocking, you should read a dedicated guide at http://www.overclockersclub.com/ or something and it will help you understand how to do it and what are the risks, but it requires a bit of technical knowledge and not being scared of situations like you just had. The simplest way to get better performance is just getting a gaming pre-overclocked pc, but those don't go cheap.

I remember about a year ago when some spammer sent my "erotic" stories translated from indian with really long "oooooooh"s and "aaaaaah"s that would span many lines, it was quite an amusing read. Ofc, a mod was advised and that user was swiftly banned.

You also might want to check this page which I like and gets updated monthly for a comparaison of the best GPUs for the money http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2387.html I have a 8800GT and I can game with high settings on most games at 1680x1050. If you have a higher resolution monitor, it might be worth considering going for something higher end, but in that case overclocking the cpu is a must.

I did end up buying that Gateway computer, and after a few hours of fiddling with it I am quite happy. It definitively is quieter and cooler than my dual core turion laptop, and the processing power is sufficient to run vista home premium. I have yet to try it on Linux, I will probably do that in the next few days.

I've found quite an intereresting option, although it is a bit more expensive: http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0665000FS10128773&logon=&langid=EN Although I'm less sure about linux compatibility, it is quite a bit more powerful (hello 720p video) and the extra screen space at no extra weight is welcome. It's pretty much a rebadged acer 1410, but I'm not going to complain about the 3G of ram. Any opinions?

I believe that every disc of vista has every version of the OS on it, so you should be able to recover with the ultimate disc as much as with a basic disc. Also, the fact that there is a lot of hot air comming out does not mean that the thermal paste is bad, the amount will be the same if the paste is good since anyways the cpu produces a fixed amount of heat and it all comes out by the same hole.

I've got my answer for the SSD: They are using Jmicron controllers and are therefore slow in certain usages, so I think I'l go HDD and wait a year or two when prices have gone down and get a good Indilix (or whatever is good then) controller based SSD for cheap. Or then again, I'm going to buy a high end SSD soon (I'm eyeing the patriot torqx 128G atm) so I might just put that one in in a few years. Am I right in assuming that since some 1000 generation eee pcs ship with linux, all of the netbooks from that generation should have hardware that offers good compatibility? Here's asus's chart of hardware http://event.asus.com/eeepc/comparison/eeepc_comparison.htm

If it's new, I think 600$ would be a more appropriate price. I'd be surprised if that 7950 GT was new though, it's a pretty old model for a high end.

I also think that you'd better stay away from the initial system at the price it was at. The newegg system seems more interesting but I find the real fun is also building your own.

Are SSDs on netbooks as fast as say the ones with barefoot controller or are they still the older slower generation? If they are of the older generation, I don't really see the point of getting an ssd, I don't care about noise and 5 hours of battery is already fine with me. The one that I would consider right now is this one http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=40581&vpn=1005HA-VU1X-BK&manufacture=ASUS

I'm on the market to swap my notebook for a netbook. I'm looking for a 10 inch screen with most regular functions and good battery life, but on that respect pretty much all netbooks are alike. One thing I want however is to install linux on it, so I want the components to have linux drivers avaliable. My initial choice would be an eee PC, probably the cheapest 1000H, since I'm a fan of ASUS mobos and they seem to have once shipped with linux, but I wanted to have other people's thoughts. I am also out for recommendations on what distro I should install. The option I am looking at right now would be ubuntu-eee (apparently now called easy peasy), but once again I am open to suggestions. Edit: I don't care about a webcam or bluetooth, but I want a nice trackpad and a relatively large and comfortable keyboard, and a good resolution is a plus. If you see a good deal fitting my needs that ships in Canada, please advise me.