Computer Geeks

sobs can anyone help?

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:29:45 GMT

ok .. so i just got a fairly new HP Pavallion desktop & when i got home, like an idiot.. i didnt want any of the files/programs on there so i decided to use my Windows XP Home Edition CD to reinstall windows. (& yes the computer currectly had Home Edition, not Professional or anything)when it asked if i wanted to remove the current partition & start a new one, i did & it started the install. after it got to 100%, it said

"Setup cannot set the required Windows XP configuration information. This indicates an internal Setup error.

Contact your system administrator."

so of course it deleted the previous system i had.. can i recover it? do i need a recovery disk or something?

wtf. does anyone know what the problem might be & what i could try to fix this? is there any way around spending more money? i just spent my whole paycheck on the damned computer (TODAY.. mind you..)

.ELF Format

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:39:55 GMT

My Dad has a camera that he connects to a tree that takes pictures of the wildlife that is up in our woods. I need to download some new software for it, but it is in .ELF format. When I downloaded the new update, it was just the usual white box when there is nothing associated with it to open it. What program do you use to open an .ELF? I am going to do some searching myself, just wanted to get some help ASAP, if needed.

Intel cuts CPU prices

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:35:54 GMT

I've never posted price drops before, because normally they aren't that significant in comparison. This time seems a bit different:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/cpu-memory/news/2008/07/23/Intel-Cuts-Quad---Dual-Core-CPU-Prices/p1

reseller prices:
Top of the line Core 2 Duo E8500 drops 30% to $183
Core 2 Duo E7200 drops 15% to $113
Entry quad core Core 2 Quad Q6600 drops 14% to $193

Looks like Newegg is already onto the new prices:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115036

This means all dual core Intel chips are under 200, and so is the entry quad core Q6600, which undersells the roughly equal performing, highest Black Edition Phenom X4 9850.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/14424/4

Ouch. But Intel had already planned the drop in May so it isn't some off-the-cuff punching deal. If you search Google you'd see April/May price drops from Intel dating all the way back to 1992. No conspiracy involved.

AMD can not react to this because they can't put their entire line under $200.

PHPBB

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:12:16 GMT

Any PHPBB admins out there? I've just found an actual, workable bridge between Joomla and PHPBB3, so I'm now exploring what's available for PHPBB. Any clues into what the best themes are and especially the best extensions would be very helpful!

Anyone?

Network vs non-network plus media stuff

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:59:45 GMT

I normally consider a network something where lots of computers connect to each other via a server and interact with each other. When reading info on devices about what I’m going to ask, I’m not sure I can figure this out easily without help.

My ISP comes on cable, it goes through the cable modem, into a router. I have a few computers that are connected to the router but don’t go through any thing like a server. They all just SHARE the internet connect but don’t interact between each other.

I want to put on a NAS or Wired/wireless media player which I seen a video and should be able to hook that up in general. It would be hooked into the router via cat 5/6 or wireless. Can all the computers that are connected to the router interact with the NAS or media player via the router, even though it’s not a true network with a server?

I’m using win95 on my main hardwired computer, but the others all use 95 or vista.

Best desktop at a decent price?

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:02:01 GMT

If i had the $7000 + i would go with either the alienware area 51 ALX or the HP Blackbird 002.

I am about to be buying my first desktop in about 5 years. I currently have a macbook pro and a dell xps m1210. The dell is about to be given away and i want to replace it with a desktop. What do you all recommend.

Here are my must haves:

GREAT graphics cardS
Gaming capable
Fast
Wireless internet ready
Id like the extreme cores
Lots of memory
Good tech support
Can keep up with my multi-tasking!

So.......i will spend up to $2000, maybe a little more for the right machine, but i wont pay a crazy $7000. I like to play games, store photo's and movies, as well as music. I dislike HP laptops but know their desktops are built better and Dell, well i HATE their tech support and the XPS was my second dell and its had nothing but trouble, it cant even handle The Sims 2! I dont want a mac because i just paid $4000 for my current macbook.

Ideas? reviews? Suggestions?

CAPCOM is a racist game software company

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:59:44 GMT

Your Black Writers featured an article that addresses the "tragedy" that is Resident Evil 5:

The trailer featured a Caucasian male mutilating African villages, along with Africans. With the not-so ancient history of colonialism and neo-colonialism in Africa, the issue of racial insensitivity and indifference must be brought to the centerfold. This patent-reality must be interrogated excruciatingly to expose the silliness of those who claim the 21st century marked the dawn of a post-racial world.

Oh Dear. CAPCOM has been exposed yet again for what it is, a racist game software company. But the good thing is that it has finally gathered enough good sense to back down:

http://www.gamegrep.com/news/11078-capcom_will_add_more_white_characters_to_resident_evil_5/

Despite Capcom claiming that Resident Evil 5 was not redesigned after Racism claims, it seems they have now bowed under pressure and decided to add more white characters to the game. It is especially noticeable that the racism claims got to them, as the game is set in an area of Africa where it wouldn't be likely to see white villagers.

What? Bullocks. CAPCOM was obviously sending racial slurs using RE5, like it was doing in RE, RE2, RE3, and RE4 before it. Just look at all the white and Spanish zombies in those earlier titles. Totally inappropriate.

Don't believe the title of this post? Well, remember a little game called Street Fighter? It had such outrageously racist caricatures such as Dhalsim and Sagat.

"YOGA!" "YOGA FIRE!"
"TIGER! "TIGER UPPERCUT!"

I'm amazed that more kids haven't been inspired by that game to become lawyers just to sue the pants off of CAPCOM.

...and don't even get me started about Chung Li. What's with the upskirt spinning kick!? Completely distasteful and sexist.

CAPCOM- Racist, Sexist, PIGS. BOYCOTT!!!

[/sarcasm]

Rawr, what is in my computer!

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:05:50 GMT

I went to open a file that I DLed from a torrent site, and got a message. I have used the site many times in the last few days, but between last night and this morning, something happened.

It reads:
Attention Kasi -----, some dangerous viruses detected in your system. Microsoft windows xp files corrupted. This may lead to destruction of important files in c:/windows/ download protective software now.

--------------------------
Then says click ok to DL the antispyware. I hit no and was sent to a web page, where a scan appeared to run.

--------------------------
Because this has been happening all day, I hit OK just to see what would happen, and I was prompted to DL something.

--------------------------

What the hell is going on? I am running Avast! and it turned up nothing. ZoneAlarm doesn't show it, and neither does Ad-Aware.

I read up about this on some websites, and followed some instructions, none of which worked. As one of my last resorts, I uninstalled Firefox, alot of the sites suggest the pop up is saved to it. Still happened. When I went to reinstall Firefox, I used internet explorer and the Pop up showed for every link, and it took me 10 mins just to get the file downloaded because I kept getting sidetracked by being routed to the installation pages.

Please respond with help, or ask for system information.

Help with Google Apps / DNS Settings?

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:45:15 GMT

Ok this is how my current DNS is set up:

It’s the default settings for google apps, now I want to be to use my hosting and be able to use the google apps side of things for mail. Is this possible?

My domain support told me this:
“Now you will need to add the “A” records that are provided by your
web host provider. Two “A” records are needed, the first will
correspond to ”*.yourdomain.com” and it will point to the IP address
provided by your web host provider. The second will correspond to ”
.yourdomain.com” and will point to the same IP address as the previous
“A” record.”

But that doesn’t really make sense to me, my nameservers are NS11.ETHII.COM and NS12.ETHII.COM

Any help?

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:56:59 GMT

My first 4.77MHz IBM PC was only $3000, but I think it was used...

Mod Post: Now Hiring

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:55:06 GMT

For a while now, I haven't had nearly enough time to be a good mod here.

If you're ready, willing, and able to moderate intelligently, fairly, and with an iron fist, please reply to this post. Comments are screened.

Best web programming language?

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:24:24 GMT

I was wondering lately, with all the alternatives for web programming there is today (amongst others, ASP, PHP, Ruby On Rails, .NET, etc.), what might be the best one to develop a website, while taking in consideration its stability, popularity and most importantly, its efficiency.

So I'm asking all the experienced coders out there; what would you use to build a dynamic website, and why?

EDIT: Thank you everyone for your comments, they were very helpful! Peace on earth, dudes!~

Problems with USB ports

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:46:07 GMT

I'm not sure if anyone here can help, I am running Windows XP with the latest SP, 3 I think, and I own an Ideazon Zboard with a WoW: Burning Crusades Key set, a few months ago, the USB ports on the back of my tower stopped recognizing this keyboard, and I was forced to play from the front port. Just this last week, this USB port has stopped working for it as well. My USB ports work fine for everything else I plug into them, just not this keyboard. I am hoping one of you folks here have an idea of what might correct this. Any help is appreciated.

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:36:57 GMT

Hey all,

I'm a senior at Boston University and I am currently doing some research on B2C software.

I've created a short (10 questions) survey on the subject.

If you're involved in this sort of stuff, I would greatly appreciate your participation.

survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=lKO8iBzimyHg3s2wJDNM1A_3d_3d

Thanks guys/girls/etc.

WinXP WTF

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 04:51:35 GMT

WinXP help needed ._.

One of my local cybercafe's desktops doesn't list my USB drive among the usual C:-etc. letters anymore, from Windows Explorer (it should be F:, after the two CD-drive letters), but I can reach it okay from [Open File] in Firefox.

I can't right-click-and-Explore either - any attempt to reach my USB via Windows Explorer doesn't work at all.

It was fine this morning. How the hell did this happen?

The tables have completely turned on the graphics card race

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:37:04 GMT

Some Radeon HD 4850 cards cost only $150 after rebates, and outperform a 9800GTX.

Nvidia in a world of hurt over production problems.

I could hardly believe it.

What's going on?

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:21:31 GMT

Twice I have tried to star de-fragging my hard drive and twice I have come up with a BSOD? The first time, it happened almost immediately so I restarted my computer. The second time it happened about the 60% completion mark... I don't remember much of what the BSOD said, but the last line was something about dumping physical memory.

What is happening? Dare I try de-fragging in the middle of the night for fear it will happen again and something real bad happens?

If it matters, I have XP-Home

Compare cache efficiency and file access in browsers.

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 10:30:32 GMT

Hi All

Please anyone help me with comparing browsers'
cache efficiency.

We're working on a web product, which heavily uses cache subsystem
of a browser. I need to access the situation, and understand the impact
we may have on our application performance in different browsers.

Our application works a lot with HTML and CSS files, thus the efficiency and
the files operations mechanisms are critical - the better they work the better our
application will work.

Thanks a lot.

P.S Sorry for a little cross-posting.

Computer randomly plays music.

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:46:19 GMT

My computer has decided it's going to play random music/news broadcasts for me. Really, I am not too happy about this. I realize it's possible that my speakers are just picking up radio signals, but when I unplug the speakers from the computer, the music stops. Also, I'm not really convinced it's a radio signal I am picking up since it's the same songs that keep playing over and over (curse you Bowerbirds!). I close all my applications, the music continues. I've checked my processes for anything that could be playing this music...It's terribly annoying since I can't listen to my own music. What's going on?

Sony Vaio Laptop Won't Boot From Disc

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:27:25 GMT

So I've had this laptop for about two years now and never meant to keep windows on it for as long as I have. It was meant to be a short term replacement until I build a desktop computer for gaming and it was supposed to be turned into my everday linux machine. But there is one big problem, I can boot from a disc.

This seems to be a problem with lots of vaio computers but mine doesn't have any special way to do it. Yes, I've checked in the bios, there is an optical disc option (which is what my cdr/dvdr bay is connected to) but even with all other options disabled it will not boot from a cd.

I haven't been able to find a specific key to press either during startup to boot directly from it without going through the bios. To my knowloedge there is no bios update for this either. Any ideas how I can go about this easily?

Dell Inspiron 1501 Audio Driver

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:20:31 GMT

Hey

I just reformatted Windows (went back to XP for the third time) and I always do this, I forget to keep a link for where I downloaded my Audio Driver for XP. Obviously I'm suppose to go to dell.ca and put in my service tag number but the version of Sigmatel Audio Driver that they have linked to download for my laptop DOESN'T WORK. The one they have posted shows up as R171789.exe and I've tried several times and it doesn't work. I tried calling Dell with this problem the last time but I don't have the patience for them because they never know what I'm talking about and I can't make out their thick accents, that sounds bad but I honestly can't make them out lol..

I know the last time I googled "Sigamtel Dell Audio Drivers" or something along those lines and kept trying different versions (which I have been doing for the last hour) but I can't seem to find it now..

Does anyone know what I should do or another driver I could download?

Open firmware

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:46:29 GMT

I've been looking for firmware which will replace the firmware on D-link's DL-524 ver. A2. I checked Openwrt and it said it wasn't compatible. Does anyone know if the firmware can be replaced?

Connecting more than one router to one phone line

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:02:22 GMT

I would like to have two routers connected to one phone line - one upstairs and one downstairs. The one downstairs is fine. Upstairs I set it all up exactly the same as it is downstairs (phone--filter--router in modem socket of filter). Neither the Mac or the PC would connect to the internet, though it does detect that it is plugged into a network. We have a selection of routers to choose from. The one I am talking about is the BT Voyager 10v (a really old one), and no one here is really sure what plugs in to where etc. So that might be the problem. Other than that I can only think it is to do with the configuration of both the computers - for example, drivers that need to be downloaded and such? I really don't know. A diagram would really help.
The other router doesn't work either. This one is a Netgear wireless router which malfunctioned about a year ago so I can't guarantee that it isn't the router which is broken. In any case, it's the same problem as above when it's connected via ethernet. When it's wireless, the computer detects the network, has full signal, but doesn't connect to the internet. What's going on?
Yet another thing is that when there's a router connected to the modem input of the filter, my router downstairs gets an orange flashing light and stops working. We use Sky broadband and have some problems with it whilst being on the phone and internet at the same time. Namely, it's not possible, the internet disconnects when the phone is in use.
Sorry if none of the above made any sense, it's a very complicated situation. The last resort would be to make my router downstairs wireless which would be possible, but is it possible for one computer to connect wireless and another to connect wired through ethernet to the same router?
If anyone has ANY suggestions at all, please reply!!
Thanks

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:53:28 GMT

Really dumb and embarrassing question. Do all computer towers come with both of the outlet/plug in things to use a headset/microphone? I am planning on giving y headset to my nephew and I just want to make sure they have everything needed.

can't delete files - adobe acrobat - problems

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:53:54 GMT

I have tried everything including Adobe's "complete" uninstall directions. I had the earlier verion of acrobat, i upgraded as per their suggestion. The install failed and now i can't get completely rid of it to try the install again. Installing currently gives me a pop up window wanting some cdrom for updates. When i try to delete some of the files it won't let me. I don't have rights. heck i built this computer. I have all the rights there are. I've tried logging in admin in safe mode, diagnostic startup. dos window attemps too. How do you get rid of files that won't go away? I can't even rename the dll files or the folder. I really don't want to wipe the drive and reinstall xp. I have foxit and it works but sometimes won't print the pdf's. Any suggestions?

files located :

c:\program files\common files\adobe\acrobat\activex

3 dll files.