Messages

1

Hardware / HDD temperature : how to control?

« on: August 12, 2005, 04:55:04 AM »

Hey there,
   The most important factor to realize here is the ambient tempurature inside the case - this is what I beleive to be the most critical factor of heat issus on HDDs. You need to get this down first, and then get some air flow running over the hard drives. Maybe use some zip locks and arrange cables, install a optical drive bay cooler, hard drive bay cooler w/fan, etc, they will help you out to bring that down.

-Sean

2

Hardware / Determining CPU Temp

« on: August 12, 2005, 04:47:11 AM »

Hey there,
  I agree with Spacesquad on the Everest Home Edition software, that is a solid program. As for idle temps and stuff, there is a gignatic range on what is acceptable - 47 celcius is not horrible with stock cooling/heatsinks, etc. Obviously more heat leads to wear and tear, but if the cpu is overheating, you will get random glicthes and freezes/ lockups, restarts. Whatever the case, a good bet to test your theory is to simply and CAREFULLY replace the thermal paste on the CPU. Be careful not to chip anything and get an EVEN layer - I use a credit card to smooth it out. As for other troubleshooting, what is the computer actively doing when it freezes? Is it idle? Under load?

-Sean

3

Hardware / Graphics Card Upgrade

« on: August 12, 2005, 02:08:55 AM »

Hey there,
  Please post your current specs! As for whoever said "Stick with AGP", there are a few disclaimers I have - AGP is on the way out, as PCI-E is taking over with 16X Bus Speed - AGP is still top of the line and cards that run that bus (All of them except 7800 GTX as of yet) perform well. If you plan to go SLI in the future, or anything crazy, consider having a PCI-E graphics card and compatible motherboard.

-Sean

4

Idle Chat / help with piece of mind

« on: August 11, 2005, 03:41:02 AM »

Hey there,
  Although HONESTY is ALWAYS the BEST POLICY in relationships - communication and openness is key here, especially in an engagement prior to marriage.....Key Stroke Loggers are what you should probably be looking for. I don't condone this in any way, shape or form, but there are a variety of ways to save/access passwords, chat logs, cookies, etc.

-Sean

5

Software / Blue Screen

« on: August 11, 2005, 03:21:05 AM »

Hey there,
   Do us a favor and when you get the blue screen again, copy what the violation is on a piece of paper, then write it on here so we know what type of system error it is!

-Sean

6

Software / DVD Burning

« on: August 11, 2005, 03:17:08 AM »

Hey there,
   First of all, what Nero do you have? If it's a retail copy up to date you can burn DVDs with it. If it's the 30-day trail you can still burn DVDs with it, I believe. If not, I'm sure you can find a free trial or something that burns the DVD.
As for the formats, I don't think Nero or anything burns the WMMF file directly to DVD readable format. You'll need to convert that file to MPEG-1 or MPEG-2, TMPGEnc DVD Author is a good program (30 day trial). This is create the .VOB and .IFO files the DVD player will read. Then you just burn those using DVD burn software!
Hope this helps!

-Sean

7

Tech Clinic / Desktop is all black

« on: August 11, 2005, 03:05:49 AM »

Hey there,
   I'm no expert at reading logs or anything (just starting actually  http://images.thetechguide.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\'\' /> ), yet I notice a glaring program that doesn't seem to belong - C:/WINSTALL.EXE I believe is some type of worm module virus. The fact that a funny named .exe file is just sitting in C: is suspicious. Get rid of that file with some type of removal utility. Other than that, I recommend a backup of essential files and a reformat. Hope this helps!

-Sean

8

Tech Clinic / I Challenge you to figure this one out--

« on: August 11, 2005, 02:57:32 AM »

Hey there,
   I'm still learning myself on reading log files and such, so I am unsure of whether or not deleting those double extention files are a good idea. I do know, however, that many nasty backdoors and viruses use double extentions as hiding places, and anything in C:/WINDOWS with a double extention that Trojan Hunter picks up is suspicious. The Microsoft .NET framework can be redownloaded no problem, yet the GAC assembly I'm not so sure what is. If you system and OS is compromised with random lockups and other things, the best method, although absolute in most cases is a complete reformat. If you have the ability to burn dvds or cds, you can back up some things (documents, etc) then reinstall Windows. I'm sure you know this anyways, just an idea!

-Sean

9

Tech Clinic / I Challenge you to figure this one out--

« on: August 09, 2005, 10:22:26 PM »

Hmmm,
    Ok first thing is first, have you tried using a different mouse and keyboard? Both PS2/USB ones? What happens with those? As for the display, may be a video card issue, do you have access to another computer at all for comparison?

-Sean

10

Hardware / slow game when online

« on: August 09, 2005, 10:14:21 PM »

[quote name=\'lplover2k\' date=\'Jul 30 2005, 08:26 AM\']what i mean is..when i am online and downloading something... and when i run a game(e.g. san andreas)...the game lags... even if the game doesn't need any internet connection...

and...another question.... can i leave my pc always on??? will it be damaged? is there a way so as to use min resources(e.g. electricity??).

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[/quote]

Um,
   I'm not sure what you mean at all either. That asdl connection isn't fast, but when you mean "lag" do you mean graphical/RAM or latency?
   Yes you can leave your PC always on - assuming you have a stable running system that's clean. Not sure about minimum resources, perhaps system standby when you leave? (Stops the hard disks), etc.
Hope that helps.

-Sean