Posts by chrisbliss18

You can use the Ultimate Boot CD to overwrite the administrator password with one of your choosing. I've used this before, and it works very well. It's also free and fast. You'll want to use the Offline NT pw & reg-editor program on the disk to do the job.

You can put a shortcut to the file in your Startup folder of your Start Menu. That will result in having the file run each time you log in. Putting the same thing in the Registry isn't hard, but it doesn't sound like it's necessary since you can easily put a shortcut in the Startup folder.

Note that my solution is worth looking at because "del *.*" just deletes files and not folders. There is a problem of not being able to remove the folder that you are interested in however, so my solution has a major flaw as well.

As stated before, if you want a robust solution, find a programming language that you feel comfortable using in order to parse through the folder and remove any subdirectories and files from it.

Your problem is one of two things. Either you are using an 802.11b adapter or you are plugging in a USB wireless adapter into a USB1.1 port on your computer.

The 802.11b standard is limited to 11Mbps throughput. In order to increase throughput, you will have to get a 802.11g wireless adapter.

The USB1.1 spec allows for a maximum throughput of about 12Mbps. I have a laptop that only has USB1.1 ports, and the wireless adapter on it always reports 11Mbps. If you have an 802.11g wireless adapter, you can get full throughput by connecting it to a USB2 port. If you don't know if you have any USB2 ports or if you don't know which ones are, tell me the manufacturer name and model number of your computer.

Open a command prompt window by running "cmd" from the run dialog. After you get that loaded, type in "ipconfig /renew" and press enter. Copy and paste the results here.

Prying open the drive is never a good idea. If you must force a drive open, you should push a pin or very small rod through the hole on the drive to have the drive force the tray open. I imagine that you have damaged the tray through repeatedly forcing it open. You should replace the drive.

You could create a batch file that has the following commands in it:

rmdir /q /s c:\temp
mkdir c:\temp

This code will remove the entire folder and then recreate it. If this folder has any type of lock on it, this code will be unable to remove the files.

This is by no means a robust solution, but it's simple and can work for you depending on what you're doing. If you want a more robust solution, I suggest you pick a programming language that you'd like to use and go to the appropriate location in the Software Dev forum.

You can safely leave the DNS Client service off. This service creates problems with cached DNS issues and slows down more than it speeds up IMO.

You should be able to turn off the DHCP service if you manually configure all your network connections and you connect to the internet through a gateway that supplies your IP address (such as a router).

I'm not buying that either. If the USB ports are functioning and you can run other peripherals on them, there's little chance that they are not supplying enough power.

It sounds like you either have damaged or sticky keys. You can try cleaning the keyboard (very hard to do with laptops). It may be that the keyboard is actually damaged. There's very little you can do to repair such damage other than replacing the keyboard itself.

No. Your understanding of how drives store data is horribly flawed. The notion that you could just upgrade the firmware and suddenly the internals understand how to fit more data is rediculous.

Not every drive has multiple platters. Most laptop drives have just one. Most desktop drives have one, two, or three platters. Understand that on most drives, both sides of the platter are used.

You keep focusing on the idea of clusters and such, but in order to fully understand why there are space limitations, we must inspect how an individual bit gets stored. While computers are digital machines (data is represented as ones and zeros), there isn't any real way to represent a true zero or one in most mediums. This results in defining a certain range of values to represent zero and another range to represent one. When the harddrive writes a zero to a specific position, the write head applies a negative charge (think of it as a -1 charge). When the harddrive writes a one to a specific position, the write head applies a positive charge (this of this as a +1 charge). This method of storing zeros and ones on the harddrive platter is where the space limitations come in. When this charge is applied, it doesn't get applied to an infinately small point of singularity; rather, it has a radiating effect, so the write head modifies a certain radius of the area that it is writing to (Think about dropping a …

There's really too little info to go off of, so any recommendations would just be shots in the dark.

Have you tried using different software to burn the CD to see if it's the software that has the issue?

If you don't have a specific level of performance in mind (you don't require 85+ FPS in BF2), just find the best that you can afford.

If you are thinking about building a machine, you might want to consider whether you are knowledgable enough to do so. I built my last machine two years ago and went to work on building a new machine recently. I found that almost all of my knowledge from just two years ago was worthless. In order to get a machine that will run well, you either need to do all your homework or buy from someone that has.

Are you wanting to find out what AMD chip is similar in performance to a certain Intel chip? If so, which Intel chip's performance do you want to match?

Furthermore, what type of use will the chip mainly be used for? Gaming? Productivity? Graphics?

The reason I ask these questions is that you can't directly compare chips. AMD started designing their own CPU internals a number of years ago. Since then, AMD and Intel have taken very different routes with processor design. The differences are so great that some AMD chips can run at 70% the clock rate of Intel chips made around the same time but still perform similar to the Intel chip.

Even performance measurements are different. A certain AMD chip might outperform a certain Intel chip in terms of productivity performance, but the Intel chip would outperform the AMD chip at gaming.

There are sites all over the web the benchmark the chips and show what level of performance can be expected out of a certain chip in comparison to other chips. Tom's Hardware Guide is a good place to look for performance comparisons.

albatrosss, try doing as goldeagle suggested. Use a very skinny flat blade screwdriver to try to slowly pry the cap off.

geezir, please start your own thread for your problem. Piggybacking on topics is useful only if everything about your setup and situation is exactly the same as the person who started the topic.

How much RAM do you have on the system?

What were you doing on the machine when the error occured? In other words, what programs were you using?

Did you try running the Internet Connection Wizard on that machine?

Is this when you unplug the cable from the computer or from your router?

Ouch... Sorry to hear about your monitor.

As for whether the plug can be easily fixed or not depends on the monitor. Some monitors have a cable plug on each end and can be removed from the monitor in order to replace it with a new one. Check the back of the monitor to see if there is a plug at the back of the monitor or if the cable goes into the monitor itself. Check to make sure there isn't a panel or cover over part of the back of the monitor that would hide the plug. Sometimes you can just snap that cover off in order to remove the plug.

If the cable runs inside the monitor, you can not replace it easily. There are plug replacements that I have seen used, but they require soldering skills and very careful attention to pinning arragements. If the plug must be replaced, take it to a repair shop to get an estimate. If the price is too high, you'll have to bite the bullet and purchase a new monitor.

Aspect ratio is the relationship between the width and height of an image. With computers, you can think about aspect ratio as the relationship between the horizontal pixels and vertical pixels. Most screens are designed to display signals with an aspect ratio of 4:3, thus you see computers commonly supporting display resolutions of 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x960, and 1600x1200 (divide the width by the height and you find that all these resolutions have a ratio of 4:3). If you set your resolution to a ratio other than what your screen is designed to display, you will see that the image appears to be squished or pulled in one direction or another.

For example, my screen is set to a resolution of 1600x1200, therefore my monitor is set to an aspect ratio of 4:3 (1600 / 1200 = 4 / 3). If I set my resolution to 1600x900 (a 16:9 aspect ratio), my on-screen image will appear to be squished horizontally.

In summary, most screens are designed to handle images with an aspect ratio of 4:3, but some new screens use an aspect ratio of 16:9 which is called Widescreen format.

Sounds like the drive is damaged. Look inside the port on the device. There should be four metal "pins" along one side. See if any of them look bent. Without applying very much pressure, see if the plug has any play (wiggle). If it does, the internals might be damaged.

A possible solution that I found on SanDisk's FAQs was to open Device Manager and check to see if the drive is listed with a yellow exclamation mark. If it is, right-click the device, select uninstall, unplug the device, and plug the device back in.

Another option would be to use the Add Hardware Wizard and see if it finds your drive.

The CD's IDE cable should plug into the blue IDE connector. Make sure that you have the jumpers on the drive set properly. My recommendation would be to set the drive to CS (cable select) and attaching the last plug on the cable to attach the CD drive. Make sure that the blue plug on the cable plugs into the blue connector on the motherboard. The grey and black connectors are to connect drives.

The temperature probe is to be mounted where it touches the side of the chip but is not between the chip's top surface and the heatsink. With the heatsink removed, put the temperature probe where it should go and us a small amount of tape to secure it there. Do not put the tape over any part of the chip surface. After you have installed the probe, put a new layer of thermal paste on the chip and reapply the heatsink. You can see an example of a proper temperature probe installation here.

I don't think you mean reboot. Rebooting is when you shut the machine down and start it back up.

It would make sense if you were talking about reinstalling your system's operating system and software using the system restore CDs that came with your system. Is this what you are trying to do?

What is the model number of your laptop?

Was your computer running Windows XP? If not, which operating system was it running?

Please answer each of the questions.

The cap that covers over the USB plug is stuck on?

Does it look like this?

Indeed.

USB mice work just as well, if not better, than PS/2 mice. Buy yourself a USB mouse that you like, plug it in, and get on with your life :).

You can always try a Repair Install.

Quick question... Did you put thermal paste or a thermal pad between the processor and heatsink?

It's hard to say what the problem is, but here are some things for you to try:

If you restart in Safe Mode, does the GUI load correctly?

Try running "sfc /scannow" and see if the problem is repaired.

Load up Task Manager, check the Processes tab, look for any instances of "explorer.exe", and right-click each explorer process and select "End Process". After those have been shut down, try to run "explorer". If that doesn't bring up your interface, you either have a very damaged system or a very infected one.

You've listed your FSB and multiplier settings in your post.

Multiplier - 15
FSB - 200

I'm an AMD guy, so I don't know much about Intel. I do believe; however, that Pentium 4 chips can't have their multiplier modified, so make sure that your FSB speed is set correctly.

What CPU do you have?

swatkat's idea is good, but you'll have a hard time getting there since your browser closes immediately. You can get to the Internet Options menu by going through Control Panel as well.

Your system is overheating, but not due to a lack of proper cooling. From the message from your BIOS, I can tell that you haven't configured the FSB and multiplier settings for your CPU correctly. Basically, your system is overheating because your CPU is running overclocked. Go into your BIOS and make sure that you don't have any overclocking settings turned on and make sure that your front-side bus and multiplier settings are correct.

Most likely, yes, the connector that you are plugging your mouse into is attached to the motherboard.

I'm guessing that your mouse uses the PS/2 connector. Have you tried a different mouse to make sure that it's not just the mouse and not the port?

If the port is indeed broken, just buy a new USB mouse and avoid the port entirely.

Don't use data retrieval services. That's definately too expensive and quite unneccessary considering that the drive works.

I've purchased two different enclosures off of NewEgg and have been very pleased with both of them. My recommendation would be to get an aluminum enclosure. The drive will get hot, so the metal will help disperse the heat.

Pavilions come in laptop and desktop setups. Which kind is your's?

In either case, the fastest and easiest solution is to remove the harddrive and put it in an external harddrive enclosure that you can hook up to another machine's USB or Firewire port. The cheapest solution (free?) would be to add the drive to another machine and copying the files directly from drive to drive.

You connected the IDE cable, but did you connect a power molex to the drive?

Umm... Your request doesn't make any sense. What are you needing?

I don't think the free sites give you enough access to be able to support such a site. You need to be able to host and use CGI scripts/programs in order to create such a site. I don't know of any free hosts that give you that.

What type of system will this reside on? Windows? Linux?

I've written many programs like this on Linux systems.

Use Character.getNumericValue(char) to get the numeric value of the character. There isn't a routine that converts a decimal number to a binary number, so I assume that's the part your professor wants you to work on. I'll give you a hint though.

+++++ Edit +++++
Never mind. jwenting knows a lot more than I do :).

Unless you have ISP issues, your connection won't be randomly disconnected. The switching function of routers is like a traffic cop in that it "switches" access to the internet connection to whichever connection needs it for that moment. This process occurs very fast (thousands of switches a second). Routers don't randomly drop packets because it's too busy. If for some reason, information does get lost, it will be resent.

Your description of the problem is a bit vague. I would understand having problems if you were trying to receive files but not receiving portions of standard conversations doesn't make any sense. Frankly, I've never seen that happen. The reason that there are issues with receiving files is because you are behind a firewall and most of the file sending protocols of messengers were written when people were not behind firewalls, so they don't handle the presence of a firewall very well.

Do you notice any pattern with the missing information? Does it happen only at certain specific times?

Have you tried any other messengers (AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, Trillian, etc) to see if you have the same issue with them?

It's actually not a bandwidth issue; rather, it's an IP issue. Most cable ISPs offered each cable connection four IPs. This meant that four systems could connect through a gateway and receive their own IP outside the local network. With the popularity boom of broadband, it simply wasn't possible to give every consumer four IPs, so the companies started pulling back to giving out just one IP per dynamic IP connection. In my opinion, this isn't an issue. Everyone that connects through broadband should do so through a router so that they have a hardware firewall protecting their machines.

In all reality, Comcast isn't being stingy, they are just being smarter with how they give out a limited resource.

I'm glad that you got it sorted out.

I just received this response from Hotmail tech. It's very similar to the response that djmace received.

Hello Chris,

Thank you for contacting MSN Hotmail Technical Support. I am Denny, and I will be assisting you today.

I sincerely apologize for the delay in responding to your e-mail. Every message that Hotmail receives is very important and we normally respond to our customers within 24 Hours. Unfortunately, we have received an extremely high volume of e-mail messages recently and are working to catch up. I appreciate your patience as we resume our normal response time.

I understand that you many of your clients have informed you that they are unable to access their Hotmail account as they receive the error message Page cannot be displayed. I also gather that some of your clients were able to sign in using a proxy. I realize how inconvenient it could be. I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused.

Chris, many of our customers had reported that they are facing the similar issues. We have taken steps to resolve the issue that you reported, which mean the accounts should now be functioning the way you expect it to. If after receiving this message you are still having issues please clear your browsers temporary Internet files .

If for some reason you are still encountering issues please reply to let us know you still need our assistance and provide any additional details you feel may further assist in our investigation.

You are a …

If you get an air can for electrical devices, while the machine is off, spray into each air intake and exhaust. amd_sucks is correct though that you may have to open up your machine if you can't clean it from the outside. I have a laptop that is about three years old that had very bad issues with overheating, so I opened her up, cleaned every single component (I literally cleaned everything and had every piece out of that casing), and put it back together. The thing ran like new. It's unfortunate, but laptops are not intented to run forever; they definately have a life expectency for the average user.

Before you do any disassembling of your laptop, make sure that you are working in an area that will not be disturbed. Keep track of every single screw (label them if you have to). Be very, very careful. You can permanently damage your system if you do not take it slow. Many times, disassembling a laptop is like a puzzle that you must solve.

I recommend that you don't pull a page from eBay every second. Once you've parsed the time remaining, only do periodic updates (every five minutes or so) to catch new bids. Polling the eBay server too much can result in an IP ban.

Keep in mind that just because you requested to bid at a millisecond before the bidding ends, doesn't mean your bid will be received. The eBay servers are busy and have a varying amount of delay on handling requests. If you don't start your bid request until 2 seconds before the end of the bidding, I'd wager that your bid will not be received.

Is this a laptop or a desktop system?
Who made the system and what is its model number?

Can you open and close the CD tray?
Does the drive show up in Explorer or My Computer?

Are you able to open the system up to remove and reinstall the cables on the drive to make sure they haven't worked loose?

Have you made any recent software updates (installed new Windows patches, installed new drivers, etc)?

You say that you can't play games now. Does this mean that only games don't work and some other CDs are able to be read, or does this mean that you only use your drive to play games?

Please answer all these questions and not just some of them.

Wow... You are in the completely wrong place. Try the Storage forum.

You have much better luck if you ask questions in places that support the topic of your questions.

When your computer can't get an IP address, either the computer can't properly communicate with the router or the router's configuration has the DHCP server (the part of routers that gives out IP addresses) turned off.

It doesn't sound like you've changed anything, so maybe your router just had a bit of a hicup. Turn off both of your machines, unplug the router, and turn off your broadband modem. Wait a couple of minutes. Turn the modem back on and let it fully initialize (takes about thirty seconds). Turn on the router and let it initialize (takes about thirty seconds again). Then turn on your machines and see if that cleared up the problem.

If that didn't fix your issue, we are going to have to figure out what went wrong with your configuration and what caused the change.

What kind (make and model) is your laptop?

If you took the capacitor off, your motherboard wouldn't work.

Is it the heatsink clip that is interfering? If so, I have seen some people do some fancy bending of the clip in order to "fix" the problem. This creates other problems though. It would be safer to buy a compatible heatsink rather than resort to modifying the heatsink.