Hardware Forum

Hello, thanks in advance for any help! Recently got a new HD, Seagate Barracuda SATA300 320GB. My machine is a Dell Dimension 5100 I put the drive in, connected power and SATA cord cables. Then run device manager or the seagate tool that came with it, they both tell me …

Hello...first post here. I should preface this by admitting I am just a regular layperson who really knows very little about computers. Also I did post this in the "Trouble Shooting Dead Machines" but haven't had a response yet. Last night I was using my laptop and it suddenly went …

Hi, i dont know that much about computers, but it seems like the people on this forum do. So i was wondering if you could help. this is my first post! So hi everyone! When i play games like Warxraft 3 frozen throne, Starcraft brood war and others, ( I …

Is it alright to upgrade the hdd speed in a notebook that's 2 years old? I need a new hdd, but I want it faster. Would this be likely to cause problems? Its original speed was 4200 rpm, I want more. I leave it plugged in for the most part, …

First let me explain that I have little technical skill. I have used by laptop for 2 or 3 years fine. A week ago it started to intermittently NOT START. I mean nothing. No response to start button -- even battery charge led won't come on. After fussing around with …

Hi,got a problem with the monitor on the thinkpad ,its gone totally dark ,you can see the display if you look rally close in bright lit room . I can get it to display when plugged into my computer monitor ,but only when in safe mode.when i boot up with …

I was trying to fix a computer for somebody and he said his hard drive was corrupt, which may be the case, but I'm not sure if I have to reinstall windows. The error message I get when windows is about to start is "Unmountable boot device" and I get …

I do enjoy the challenge of pc repairs, however I am not a tech, looking for online resources (wiring diagrams, part specs etc) general assistance.

I recently moved to Hawaii and packed up my computer in a box protected as well as it could be and then after unpacking it, the face to the case was smashed up pretty bad. I plugged it in and the it acts like it's powering up and then shuts …

Last year I purchased the parts for a new computer and had my friend stick it all together. In the past few months the computer has showed slowing, the loading of Windows takes more time and so on. Today I rebooted my computer and was greeted with a BSOD. It …

I have a compaq presario 2100 laptop in front of me. It starts up and everything sounds on and then it just stops at the start up screen. It says f2 to enter set up and f12 to boot from LAN. I have tried to press both of these buttons …

i'm tired of everyone asking should they go to quad core. Here is my answer NO! Quad core is a waist of money right now, we don't have any need for it. quad core was developed for server use. it was designed to be able to run a massive ammount …

I've done all the usual stuff like checking BIOS with an older pci card and tried different voltage, frequency on PCI-E, reset BIOS by taking the battery out, reset with jumper for 10 seconds and vice versa. I am not able to get this card working with the mobo. What …

I have a Compaq Presario 2140US got it in 04 stopped working by 06. I have had it just laying around now i have a use for it, so i need a lil trouble shooting help!!! Problem is the Lap Top will not boot up. It goes to the Compaq …

I am looking at upgrading the RAM in a Dell Dimension 8200. The product specs on this rig state that it comes with PC800 RDRAM (256MB) as standard. Ideally I would like to beef it up considerably but a quick web search shows that this kind of RAM is not …

I had 256MB RAM DDR PC2700 in my PC and I installed a 1GB stick. I had run a memory needs check from Crucial.com and it told me what I needed and I also checked the actual label stuck on the RAM in the PC. The connections on the RAM …

Greetings all. I'm currently having issues with a Mac Pre-Intel G5 Tower. Been working on it most of the day, but it seems to have lost the OS on the hard drive overnight when I shut it down. Well, if I could just use the super drive to boot from, …

Hi, this is my first post on this board! I have a Compaq Presario M2305NR laptop. I bought it to write papers and research for school. I have had it for about 2 years. The computer works fine unless I turn it off. If I leave it on and just …

My friend's Alienware laptop mysteriously leaked a bunch of water out a couple mornings ago, to our knowledge nothing was spilled on it and no liquid was underneath it when it was set down. i've found threads on other forums about this happening with the macs, something about the batteries …

I just bought a Gigabyte GA-73VM-S2 motherboard along with a Pentium E2200 processor. I checked the website and the E2200 is not on the CPU support list. The last CPU supported in this line of CPU's is the E2180. Is there any chance I can get the E2200 to work?

I have an older dell inspiron 1130. need to replace the motherboard ram and hdd. what are your suggestion? I know the MB will probably have to come from dell.

I'm not quite sure how it happened. But I was just sitting at my computer reading stuff when a message came up saying that new hardware has been inserted and it was prompting me to finish the setup and installation. I was just sitting there, not doing much, definately not …

Hi all! Having a bit of trouble with a Compaq Presario 700 Laptop. It's been working fine the whole time I've had it until tonight - I installed Flight Simulator 2004, launched it, found it ran badly, updated the graphics drivers, found flight sim played a lot better, played it …

Well i have a Mobile Intel 945 Express Chipset family graphics card. All works and fine and ive downloaded the latest drivers but, When i tried to play joint task force the game said i didnt have pixel shader and vertex shader. But intels website says that my graphics card …

please can someone help me to get nvdia mx440 se for xp need urgent

I have a Sandisk MP3 player model: m250 and whenever I try to sync my music by plugging it into the USB drive of my computer, my computer (or any other computer) won't identify my MP3 player as one, it will only identify it as some sort of disk drive, …

Hi All, First off - cool forum. Definately need this, this time! OK. I've got a Toshiba Satellite A20 (PSA20C-0CH4DP) that normally runs great. However my 18 month old son had something that didn't agree with him, so he decided to throw up on the machine. Yuck. So it's been …

i need a specific configuration for my lcd monitor, the color is ugly and there's a big difference between my display and the output of my print. just a configuration of brightness, contras, hue gamma, etc. can help. thanks in advance.

I have sony vaio pcg k45 with 512mb Ram, I am planing to upgrade my ram to 1gb, ( after I increase the ram will it effect my note book speed? and one more question I have DDR ram, with one slot, and I saw one ram DDR2 with one …

Hey folks. I am looking to get a new motherboard that can run all my current specs but is a board i can buy new parts for in 4-6 months. Currently: P5NSLI 2 gig G.Skill PC6400 Dual Core Duo 2 E6400 PCI-E BFG Nvidia 8800 GTC OC 312mb I would …

Running a Gigabyte GA-7Vm400M motherboard with AMD 2500 CPU, 80GB HD and win98.2K,Xp\P multi boot. Worked well for several years although had several blue screens of death when doing program updates with driver s that did not like Win 2k. Have 256 mg ddr memory. Trouble started after I tried …

Please HELP!!! I have an R51 running XP SP2. Cell is also old LGVX8100... Data cable is new. I plugged it in and at first it didnt even see my phone. So i unplugged my phone, then repeated plugging it back in ....Now i have absolutely NO POWER!! ANY suggestions???

I dont know if this is the right place to start this thread. My desktop PC config is : Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8 GHz, 1.5( 1 + 512 MB) GB DDR1 RAM, Samsung 80 GB hard disk, Samsung Writemaster DVD-RW, Nvidia Geforce 128 MB graphic card I have a …

I have a Dell latitude cpx laptop. This just started. I push the on button it lights up like it is going to boot but then shuts down. Sometimes when I leave it for two or three days and try it it will boot up, and not give me problems …

Hi, firstly, I'm a doughnut:) my vaio FR415B was working fine apart from a noisy fan so I decided to clean the heat sink vents.. on taking the machine apart I found them to be completely blocked with fluff.. great, found the problem. Have cleaning and refitting everything, I now …

i am currently using a ATI Radeon X300 graphics card my friend (jbennet) is offering me an X800 at £20 while another friend of mine is offering me a radeon X1600 for £60 What should i do?! they both have 256Meg of ram on em so which is better?! or …

i have a dell dimension 8300 with xp how would i overclock it. The processor is a pentium 4 ht 3ghz (and something about 2 cpu's it said in dxdiag but i do not have 2 processors).

Thanks to all the gentle people who kindly offer advice to those who are ignorant as I am. I am interested in hearing from anyone who has any other ideas besides the "take out the battery and completely discharge the CMOS by holding the power switch for 50 seconds, then …

if anyone knows Fist kindly reply

"STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive(file): \systemroot\system32\config\SOFTWARE or its log or alternate It is corrupt, absent, or not writable" That's the error I get. I get it when the Windows loading bar fills up. Any idea what the problem is or how to fix it? …

So I'm an idiot. I'll get that out there right away. I was trying to back up all my MP3s from my G4 onto an external HD. Well I had that same day managed to get my wireless network all up and running with a PC, Mac, Internet, External HD …

i have 80GB hard-disk sata port when i boot my os(windowsXP) i am getting message[B] disk read error[/B]and press clt+alt+del to restart when i got this msg first time i reinstall os sucessfully but after some time ,i got the same msg again now i can not reinstall os again,becase …

I'm working on a friends W2646 computer..just checking it out since it was S-L-O-W! 2.6 cpu 256 ram. I was wondering if or what CPU upgrades will work? I know it's a intel 845GV board but I'm not sure if it will take a 478 533 P4 hyperthreading CPU? Also …

If I am installing a newly setup old PC, using hardware from a dead mobo, as an actual example...where's the easiest/quickest way to find a driver to mate the drive and hardware? I've found this is still a bit of a hassle when XP is not using it's builtin online …

So, yesterday i recieved my new 2407WFP-HC Monitor, amazing btw, and kicked my resolution up to 1900x1200(i dont know the exact number). Those are the only changes ive made to my computer, new screen with a higher resolution. Now i can sit there and play WoW for a decent time …

Greetings everyone My cd rom seems to be posessed. It automatically opens every time i turn my pc on, it works normally though all throughout the time i use it. Another thing happens when I attach my CDRW the pc can't seem to detect my CDROM. When I start my …

I have an Envision 19" LCD monitor that I got about two months ago and a GeForce 7900 video card, and lately some videos have been completely tinted pink. Most videos haven't, but in the last two or three days I'll be watching a video online and it will be …

hey guys im new to this site so bare with , let me try to explain my problem... ok my computer wont start, last time i tried to turn it on it said a vga file was missing, then after, it completely stop saying anything, now all it says is …

Hey guys I got a huge problem. Yesterday I had to shut off my computer because before it was on stand by but when i turned it on i had to enter a password for my user which i dont have, it does that which is weird but all i …

I have had a thinkpad R51 for abotu 4 and half years now..Recently its been dying on me. The computer reboots if the screen moves a tiny bit..or the power cord shakes loose. Clearly there is a loose contact near the power input..but even with a charged battery the computer …