I've just had a chat with fellow Moderaotor coconut monkey about your problem and he's of the suspicion that perhaps one of your systems is faulty and is 'frying' the hard drives which are fitted in it. Perhaps the system you first had problems with.
It's be a wise move to have the system tested by a technician, in case such a problem exists.
I'm suspecting that this may be an older computer, for which there is a limit to the size of hard drive that BIOS can accurately detect. You may need to use drive installation software from Seagate to be able to use the drive with the system.
Does the computer have a manufacturer and model desiganation? The Asus info you provided turns out to be a chipset ID, not a motherboard ID.
Have you tried resetting CMOS (either by hardware jumper method or by removing the CMOS battery for several minutes) and then rebooting to see if the drive is detected?
Is BIOS setup configured to autodetect drives?
Are the drives appropriately jumpered as Master and Slave accordingly, with Master drives attached to the end cable connector and Slave drives attached to the middle cable connector?
Hi, I've merged your two topics as they relate to the identical problem.
You'll need to provide us with some details in order that we can work out what is going on. Please let us know the make and model of your motherboard and of the hard drives you are using. Are they IDE drives or SATA drives?
I suspect the problem lies in your system's BIOS setup configuration, but we need to know just what hardware you have there.
huh? Those rabid marsupials, I'll hazard a guess, must reside in the wilds of North and South America. We keep our Australian brethren free from that vile disease!
Planning to send him to the wilds of the Brazilian rainforests, perhaps?
For starters, running those monitors at 160Hz is too high, and I'm surprised they never generated an "Out of range" error.
Take the monitor(s) to a technician. A TV repair shop would be quite OK. Whilst most CRT monitors have adjustment for focus (blur) it is an internal adjustment, and unless you are quite familiar with working inside such appliances it is NOT a job to try yourself. The focus needs to be adjusted with the monitor working, and for the inexperienced a slight slip-up can potentially be a 'get dead' scenario!
Yet another lengthy diatribe designed to denigrate others, blow your own trumpet, and offer no practical advice whatsoever to people wishing to improve security on their PCs.
Hiya Anti-Smiley and welcome. You'll not need to ever understand 'all those links' I'm sure. Just worry about the forum sections of interest to you, read the announcements and stickied topics in them, and you'll be fine :D
No, you miss the point I believe. The purpose of firewall and antivirus/antispyware software is to protect you from malicious intruders. It allows itself to update so that the task may be adequately done, and because it is aware that the components of the software itself are 'trusted' applications.
You can't expect to put such software to work and then prohibit it from doing its job. I'm sorry, but I think your complaint is quite silly.
It's simply a full installation of SP2. If you 'download' the Service Pack via Windows Update, only the portions of it not yet installed are downloaded. Previously installed security updates are omitted.
The full Service Pack is about 270Mb in size, the download via Windows Update can be much smaller at times.
Goodness, I have my own security software set to check for updates on a 6 hourly basis. When updated scanning definitions become available I wan them immediately, not in a few days time when I remember that I hadn't updated them!
Perhaps you could check the video options for the games and check that they are not setting display resolution and screen refresh rate which is beyond the native settings for your laptop's display screen.
Then a budget level 3D card would be suitable for you to use. You need to determine if your computer motherboard has an AGP slot in it, and I'm afraid I'd have to recommend that you get the technician at your local PC store to look at it for you, as some older motherboards are not suitable to use modern AGP 8X cards in.
If you need an older card eBay might be the appropriate place to get one.
You could open up the case and see if there are any identifying markings on the motherboard which would help us work out what make and model it is.
If that system accomodates an Athlon64 3200+ processor, it is most definitely NOT limited to AGP 4X. It will run AGP 8X cards at full bandwidth also, and should be adjustable for that in BIOS setup.
There are no motherboards suitable for AMD64 processors which are only AGP 4X
Dude, you just asked for a software solution to an obvious hardware problem. Unless there is a bIOS update available for that specific problem on your specific motherboard there isn't such a thing!
It sounds like a hardware problem for sure. No need for the rude rolleyes ;)
Maniaco, if you can't get a 6600GT or perhaps even an X700 Pro for under $200 I'd suggest you wait longer and save more. The cards you listed are really inadequate for the latest games.
I just typed out a lengthy post, with a wonderful story done with emoticons, and got a stupid error message because this forum has a bloody limit set on how many emoticons can be used in a post!!!!
Sounds like that SiS graphics is onboard video, and that 128Mb of system memory is being allocated for use of the display circuitry.
It's a very substandard setup for 3D gaming, and you REALLY need to get a dedicated display card and change BIOS setup to re-allocate all RAM to system memory.
A refresh install will leave programs and data files in place. Ensure that you precisely follow the instructions in the linked Knowledge base article. You WILL need to reinstall some Windows updates afterwards, unfortunately.
I'd open up the case, remove your display card, clean the comnnectors and the slot, and replace the card in its slot ensuring that it is firmly seated. All that wiggling up and down might have worked it loose in the slot.
Then again, all that wiggling up and down (with power going to the card slot) might have damaged the card or motherboard. My suggestion, if cleaning and reseating doesn't help, would be to wipe the hard drive and reinstall Windows fresh. If problems persist with a clean install of Windows then you've definitely got a hardware problem.
Agreed. Some ATi Radeon cards do not handle running at AGP 8X very well in some motherboards. Stick to AGP 4X
Performance difference? A few percentage points at best ;) For a 'full HL2 experience' you would need to replace the card with a considerably more capable one!
I don't believe that either of you have a hardware problem. Error messages which indicate a device driver issue are usually the result of corruption in your Windows installation, and that is a software problem.
Also, the presence of an antivirus program doesn't guarantee you protection against all intruders, nor does the fact that a download site is considered 'safe' give you such a guarantee.
I'd suggest you both post your problems in out 'Viruses and Nasties' section to get your systems thoroughly checked out for nasty intruders, and if that doesn't correct your problems I'd suggest a fresh install of Windows is perhaps the best way forward. Your Windows installations sound to be in rather a mess!
Please post back here AFTER you've done those things, if you are still experiencing problems.
I'd suggest that, rather than simply fit a new hard drive, you get a technician to check the power supply unit and the various power leads and power connectors on it. You may have a problem there which is causing the drives to fail.
The problem is obviously in your PC system case. When you've changed the power supply unit you've obviously not connected everything up correctly, or perhaps knocked some connection(s) loose and now the PC is not able to start. You'll need to recheck all internal connections.
Tell us what tasks you wish to use the PC for, and what budget you have available for it, and we should be able to advise what processor would be best to use.
I mean by shorting the appropriate motherboard jumper or by removing and then replacing the CMOS battery. (With the power cord disconnected of course).
An FX5700LE is not really all that powerful in terms of the needs of modern games. More RAM will certainly assist with BF2, which is about the first game for which more than 1Gb of RAM is recommended. Most users feel that 2Gb is really required for decent performance.
I'd be considering adding a 1Gb module of PC2700 or PC3200 to the rig, but you need to be mindful that your 5700LE really only performs at about the capability of an FX5200. The 'LE' means that it is a cut-down model. I'm sorry to tell you so, but I'm afraid that cutting corners with the cost of display cards really doesn't pay!
I've moved this to our Viruses and Nasties section, where you will get the appropriate help. I'd suggest you read some of the stickied topics in this section and try the spyware removal tools suggested in them.
