Pc Tech Support

[anzo]

I've emailed an IT consultant we used to use here, hes specialises in such issues. I'll let you know

[monkeyseemonkeydo]

I've emailed an IT consultant we used to use here, hes specialises in such issues. I'll let you know

Cool, cheers fella .

[anzo]

He recommended Data Clinic, apparently the UKs leading company in Data Recovery - they'll send out a quote before doing the work too which is good.

Although however much it costs, I doubt it will be cheap. Data Recovery like this is done in controlled environments (dust, moisture and static free) which is never a 'cheap' experience.

[monkeyseemonkeydo]

Thanks for that Anzo. Have passed the info on and leave it with him. As you say I doubt it'll be cheap but he may be able to get uni to pay for it which won't be as bad.

[Luke Rainbird]

ULTRABUMP, hooooooooo!

Uber wireless issues, thought I'd stick it here and see if anyone might be able to point me in the right direction...

Windows 7 Ultimate

Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Device

Installed the Beta and then the RTM of Windows 7 when they were each first released, no problems, brilliant.

Around December 2009, wireless very occasionally dropped, but no real issue.

Installed OEM version when the RTM ran out and have been having problems with Wireless Network Connection ever since which leads me to believe it's something to do with the OS (see end of post)

Constantly drops connection, sometimes fine for hours, other times lasts less than 10 seconds before dropping again.

Sometimes "Troubleshoot this device" works and restores connection by resetting the device, often not.

If not, go to "Network and Sharing Centre > Change adaptor settings" and Disable/Enable the device which occasionally works.

Sometimes this hangs and have to reboot.

Occasionally a reboot fixes dropped connection, usually not.

Total uninstall/remove drivers and devices and any associated software followed by reboot occasionally sorts it, more often than not it has no effect.

All drivers are up to date, checked with Dell site and against Windows Update, no permanent fix.

I conclude that the computer has AIDS.

The ONLY thing I can think that I might be able to point it at is that the OS isn't strictly paid for and so hasn't got a serial, just gets around activation through RemoveWAT.

Any ideas at all would be much appreciated - does my head in!

[anzo]

Have you checked the router for any firmware updates?

Have you reset the router/restored to factory settings?

Have you got anything else hooked up to the router, does that have any problems?

If not I'd try uninstalling the device completely and then reinstalling before you start looking towards a settings problem - although if its connecting up in the first place, it sort of rules out a setting problem, more related to a hardware/driver issue.

Edit: Ignore that bit, seems you've already done it

Edit 2: Ah! I noticed the 'and related software' bit. Does this mean you're using some other network management software other than the windows platform. Whist there is the option to pick between the two within Windows (Windows or 3rd party option), its a bit of a pet hate of mine when people use a third party software, particularly Belkin software.

Whilst they can function side by side, I don't trust it - occasionally they can both connect and it can cause all sorts of DHCP errors with IP confusion from the same system.

[Luke Rainbird]

Thanks for the quick reply dude, hero!

Have you checked the router for any firmware updates?

Have you reset the router/restored to factory settings?

Shall check shortly

Edit; All up to date

Have you got anything else hooked up to the router, does that have any problems?

Flatmates Mac/Girlfriend's Laptop (also running Win7) have no issues at all, so I'm assuming it's just something on mine since the Mac has been on the same router since September with no issues

If not I'd try uninstalling the device completely and then reinstalling before you start looking towards a settings problem - although if its connecting up in the first place, it sort of rules out a setting problem, more related to a hardware/driver issue.

Edit: Ignore that bit, seems you've already done it

Edit 2: Ah! I noticed the 'and related software' bit. Does this mean you're using some other network management software other than the windows platform. Whist there is the option to pick between the two within Windows (Windows or 3rd party option), its a bit of a pet hate of mine when people use a third party software, particularly Belkin software.

Whilst they can function side by side, I don't trust it - occasionally they can both connect and it can cause all sorts of DHCP errors with IP confusion from the same system.

Since it's Intel they offer their own software - I tend to not install it but have tried using their disc to install the drivers (and when it went pants actually tried their software briefly but it still had the same issues)

I always go with the Windows software since I've never had any issues with it, like you I can't stand 3rd party options on that front!

Edit; I think as a student can get Win7 for around £30 (if I can remember where that was from it'd help, though I assume it's just through the uni so I shall look into it) so that may be the only way to go I guess

[anzo]

Check the settings within the router too - particuarly the DHCP settings. If it allows you to set an IP lease, try increasing it. It could be that the lease is too low and is renewing the IP address each time and kicking you off.

Although if you restore factory settings, I'm hopeful it'll solve it - its usually easier and quicker than trying to identify a single problem in the settings.

[Luke Rainbird]

Tried restoring the router settings once more, let's see how long it sticks around this time

Edit; about half an hour...

Thanks again dude - if this doesn't sort it I'll head to uni and see what I can get hold of

[Rich J]

Home desktop running vista:

Everytime you try and open something the "open with" box appears. Nothing will function til the correct thing has been selected. Anyway to stop this happening as some games/ programmes etc have become impossible to open.

[anzo]

It's an error in your registry files - have you uninstalled something recently?

Anyway, I found the file attached (PC Support Forum), open it and double click, run it and it'll merge with your current registery. Restart your computer and all will be sorted.

Note: I haven't tested this file but it is from a very reliable source. You may want to do a reg back up first (Start > type 'regedit' and then when it opens go to File > Export and ideally save to a USB stick.

[Fish-Finger-er]

got an amd phenom quad core pc. with a crappy 8500gt, i want something in it, that will play games like bf:bc2 and others, at a decent fps on decent settings.

what do people recommend, ive been told to get a gtx 260, but is there something cheaper/better for the same price.

also my monitors only got vga input, will a dvi> vga adapter be cool, or will it look like sh*t?

[F-Stop Junkie]

[Muel]

got an amd phenom quad core pc. with a crappy 8500gt, i want something in it, that will play games like bf:bc2 and others, at a decent fps on decent settings.

what do people recommend, ive been told to get a gtx 260, but is there something cheaper/better for the same price.

also my monitors only got vga input, will a dvi> vga adapter be cool, or will it look like sh*t?

Any particular budget? I'd say wait until the new NVidia cards come out, then go ATI. They're going to have to drop the prices of pretty much every model in their range to compete with the GTX480. (In theory)

But really at the moment it's just a case of match your budget to the nearest ATI card, they're for better power/price right now.

[Mark W]

Bit of a random problem I've been having recently. I'm using Firefox, and for some reason when I have multiple tabs open, if I load a page up, look at it, click on another tab then go back to the original tab, the whole window's completely blank. Happens to all of them, f**king annoying! If I'm pre-loading a video and go look at another tab, the whole page with the video on will just disappear.

I've run AdAware and it's not really come up with anything - anyone got any suggestions?

[LukasMcNeal]

Try this seems to work for some who have the same problem. https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/forum/1/546180

[Revolver]

Hi,

I've got two hard drives in this computer - one of them's 320gb, the other's 1tb.

In my computer only the 320gb hard drive shows up.

However, in device manager you can see the 1tb one as well.

What's going on?! How do you get it to show as another hard drive?

I'm sure it'll be something small, lol.

Help please!

Edit: It might be worth mentioning, RAID isn't turned on, but if I turn it on windows won't load.

Edited April 22, 2010 by Revolver

[Muel]

Go to Start, Right Click on Computer, choose Manage. Select Disk Management from the list on the left. Choose the 1TB hard drive, there will be no partition on it, right click in the bar that says something like, blank disc or no partition, select create partition, and run through the wizard.

You probably just want one partition, so leave the size at the max, then the format should be NTFS, I'd uncheck the box that says "quick format" if I were you, I get better results with a full format.

[Revolver]

Go to Start, Right Click on Computer, choose Manage. Select Disk Management from the list on the left. Choose the 1TB hard drive, there will be no partition on it, right click in the bar that says something like, blank disc or no partition, select create partition, and run through the wizard.

You probably just want one partition, so leave the size at the max, then the format should be NTFS, I'd uncheck the box that says "quick format" if I were you, I get better results with a full format.

YES MATE!

Cheers

[Muel]

By the way, check your CPU temps and stress test it with Prime95, the max temp is about 62C on a Phenom 2, so ideally you want to be around 55C max. Any higher and it's likely you need to reseat the CPU cooler.

I'll catch you tonight about quietening it down.

[rocktrials]

So, me and my housemate share network -

I can gain access to his shared videos folder through network if he enters username and password - we hit save password, but everytime we shut my pc down, it doesn't hold the login/password and i gotta ask him to come enter it each night - any ideas?

He can always access my shared folder.

I'm vista, he is 7

[anzo]

So, me and my housemate share network -

I can gain access to his shared videos folder through network if he enters username and password - we hit save password, but everytime we shut my pc down, it doesn't hold the login/password and i gotta ask him to come enter it each night - any ideas?

He can always access my shared folder.

I'm vista, he is 7

Are you connecting via workspace or though an IP address (ie. \\hostcomputer or \\192.168.0.4)?

If you go to Control Panel > User Accounts > Manage Network Passwords you should have something that looks like the bit below (this is XP obviously, but should look similar in Vista)

Check to see if anything is in there during a sucessful connection and again after a reboot. If I were you I'd try adding the password manually through clicking 'Add' - you'll need the network path, username and password.

[JD™]

Anzo, while you're here... Might be able to help me out. I've got an 1tb external drive hooked up to my homehub in the USB port (didn't check before buying to get ethernet, d'oh!). Works fine in many ways, I can find it through OSX and stream movies and music and whatever perfectly fine. I can even get it to stream from the drive, through the homehub, through the macbook over to the xbox and that works absolutely fine. The only problem is I can't actually add anything to the drive through the network, I have to plug it into the macbook directly to add anything - annoying.

Checking on my permissions it says I have permissions to read and write to the drive, so it seems a bit odd that it doesn't most of the time. Sometimes it does let me add the odd file here and there, which confuses me even more. Any thoughts?

After typing all that out, I realise it's an OSX query and I dunno how your knowledge is on that, but I'll post it anyway just in case you know

[anzo]

Yeahh, don't know too much on OSX but there are plenty on here that do.

But does sound a bit odd - I'll write a better reply when I have more time, but double check the permissions.

Also check the Home Hub settings (I've never touched one) for anything regarding FTP permissions - I hear BT Firmware isn't the best in the world and you may have just stumbled upon a bug? In which case call BT and explain it to one of their morons

[JD™]

Yeahh, don't know too much on OSX but there are plenty on here that do.

But does sound a bit odd - I'll write a better reply when I have more time, but double check the permissions.

Also check the Home Hub settings (I've never touched one) for anything regarding FTP permissions - I hear BT Firmware isn't the best in the world and you may have just stumbled upon a bug? In which case call BT and explain it to one of their morons

I'm thinking about just replacing the router as it is to be honest. I just need something wireless, but with a USB connection for that drive. Any ideas?