Hey, me again! :)
Since last time, thank you so much to nuclearninja, I have updated my drivers! Unfortunately, it did not fix my Sims problem, so according to the Sims community, the next step is either to invest in more RAM [because 1GB isn't enough to run the base game and all EPs] or to update my graphics card.

Now, i'm thinking investing in more RAM would be a good idea, but how do I find out what RAM is right for my computer and where to buy it from? My fiance tried buying me some a few months back, but it wasn't right for the computer. I only really want an extra gig.

My computer is Windows XP, but i'm not sure what other information would be useful in determining the right RAM to buy.

Also, is there a good guide on how to clean the internals of your computer? Like the fans and such? It's just they're clogged up with dust and it's overheating my computer so I need to fix that problem too.

Thank you so much in advance, I really appreciate the help of this community :)

If you reinstall windows xp pro does that mean everything else on your hard drive is deleted?

Question/Problem: If I put a CD-R into my dvd-r drive, it reads the CD as having 700mb free/used (space) and allows me to burn using either whatever it is that comes with Windows, or Nero.

Now, if I try making a DVD-R, my drive reads an empty disk as having 0mb free/used and will not let me copy/burn files onto it. If I use Nero, it says 'burn process failed'.

I don't know whats wrong or how to fix it. My drive plays DVD's just fine, so I'm sure it's not broken in anyway. I don't know what to do to fix it, or where to even start. :| I have 20gigs of files I need to burn off and I'd rather not use a friend's external and have her burn it since its mostly my writing and video projects I've made, and I'm rather secretive about things like that until I decide to post publicly.

Operating System, Version and Service Pack: Windows XP sp 3 (version 2002, if that matters)

Web Browser and Version: Firefox 3.5

Your level of experience (we simplify or explain instructions based on how you answer): Intermediate, but when it comes to cd-r/dvd-r drives, I'm kind of clueless as I've never worked with them before.

When did the problem start? Has it been going on constantly since then? I noticed burning processes failing with Nero two months ago, but that was only if I had it "verify" the files or whatever. I disabled that and since then, it doesn't even get as far as writing things to the disc.

Any steps you've taken to troubleshoot? I've tried other brands of discs, to no avail.

If you are receiving an error message, please include the entire text of the message. (If you have an error log, please post it under a LJ-Cut): Nero didn't generate a log when it said it failed, just froze up and I had to hard-crash the program.

hey - if i want to add music to a picture type presentation (75 pictures from a vacation) what would be the best application to use?  i saw this really cool slide show of pictures with different songs and stuff and i wanted to try to do it.  is it pretty simple to do?  thanks in advance.

Question/Problem: Every time I go to login on to America Online 9.0 I get an error. The error I keep receiving says "snmaster.idx file is missing." I thought reinstalling would work but I still get the error. How do I find the "snmaster.idx" file and get AOL to run? I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop. It runs Windows Vista and was purchased in September. 2008.



Operating System, Version and Service Pack: Windows Vista Home Premium Service Pack One

Your level of experience : Beginner

When did the problem start? It started a week ago. Has it been going on constantly since then? It's happened every time I attempt to login

Any steps you've taken to troubleshoot? I've tried searching for the file on my laptop and completely reinstalling AOL.

X-posted to computer_help 

Question/Problem: My family computer cannot start up because it is missing a Windows file.

Operating System, Version and Service Pack: Windows XP Media Edition... I believe it is SP2. I have a AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor.

Web Browser and Version: Mozilla Firefox 3.0.11

Your level of experience: Intermediate

When did the problem start? Has it been going on constantly since then?: It just started today.

Any steps you've taken to troubleshoot?: I rain simple dianostic tests through the PC Recovery program installed on the computer. Everything is in perfect working order. I am also currently searching on help forums. I've also looked through here.

If you are receiving an error message, please include the entire text of the message. (If you have an error log, please post it under a LJ-Cut): ( Under here! )

I was wondering if I should do a complete system recovery on the computer, or is there a way to download the file without recovering it? I have so many things on this computer and I haven't done a back up in two months(I know, VERY wrong of me). Thanks for the help!

I'm sorry, it's me again, but I want a full walkthrough of updating my drivers because I don't want to mess anything up because I can't afford to get it fixed if I do.

This is my computer's driver information: 


Now, a few questions!

01. How do I know that my drivers aren't already up to date?
02. What if I "update" them but they're still the same model?
03. Can you give me a walkthrough of exactly what to do [from uninstalling to reinstalling the new ones] please, if I need to do it?
04. I know this is the driver site I need to update from, and I use XP, but since it lists three drivers above, how am I supposed to know which one to download?
05. Also, when uninstalling my old drivers, how do I do that and find where they are/what they're called?

I'm so sorry about all the questions but I really, literally, can't afford to get this wrong :(

this is more of a quick question than a problem or anything. after the comments i received on my past entry, i decided to just replace my computer. my current computer, the problem child, is still not turning on so i've come to the conclusion that it's a power supply problem and it's not worth paying to fix it since my computer is relatively old, so getting an entirely new computer would just be better use of money.

now the problem is, i didn't back-up my hard drive recently. (i know, stupid idea on my part.) the OTHER problem is i have some precious, irreplaceable data on that hard drive, i.e documents, pictures, etc, etc. you get the idea. my friend suggested taking out the hard drive, but even if i did that, what would be my next step? i need a way to get the data out of the old hard drive and into a new one without having to fix the power supply in the old computer.

one) my documents and pictures would be in the hard drive, right? excuse my ignorance/stupidity.
two) if i ripped out the old hard drive, what would be my next step to get THAT data in to a new hard drive?
three) is there any other way to solve this without replacing the power supply?

THANK YOU~

After this post [back on my computer now!]: http://community.livejournal.com/thesims2/6501990.html I think I should update my drivers as they said it will fix my problem.

Only thing is, do I need to update all drivers or just specific ones? And how do I update them?

I went to Properties -> Settings and found:
1. Plug & Play Monitor on ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series

Why three X###(#)'s? Ahh, help plese :)

Hi folks,

Is anyone aware of a free or subscription based service for teleconferencing?

I'm looking for some software that is relatively easy to install i.e. can be used by people who are fairly non-PC literate, along with allowing video conferencing between multiple parties (more than two), and collaboration (sharing of documents, presentations etc.). It needs to be something fairly tried and trusted.

We already have some software where I work, which is part of a Mitel phone system, but this would require further investment to make it public facing. As the gap is closing between things like Skype and bespoke teleconference software, I'm wondering if anyone has got there already?

TIA

Question/Problem: this problem has actually happened to me before, but it went away naturally it seems. it's now back after many many months of my computer acting totally chipper. :C

basically the main problem can be summed up as "freezing" or "intense lagging". minimizing windows makes the computer freeze or "lag" for a random period of time. sometimes it'll last for minutes, sometimes it'll be rather quick. i'm not sure how to describe it other than freezing or lagging, but to describe how it looks like: when i minimize something, it starts to minimize, but then just stops, and i can see the window paused in mid-minimization.

after doing some things i thought that might help, i tried turning off my computer since it failed. it literally took an hour to just shut down, and i guess it froze since i was forced to pull the plug.

Operating System, Version and Service Pack: windows XP

Web Browser and Version: Firefox, the latest version.

Your level of experience (we simplify or explain instructions based on how you answer): beginner nearing intermediate, i guess. i understand most computer vocabulary, etc.

When did the problem start? Has it been going on constantly since then? today, and yes.

Any steps you've taken to troubleshoot? doing a bit of cleaning up, like disc defragger, etc, etc.

If you are receiving an error message, please include the entire text of the message. (If you have an error log, please post it under a LJ-Cut): none.

I recently purchased a Toshiba 500GB portable hard drive and I'm wondering if I can partition the machine so that I can install/run Mac .dmg files on one side and Windows .exe files on the other?

I regularly switch between my own Vista laptop and the Mac OSX's at my college. A scenario I'm thinking, of is, I want to run, say, some computer game or the portable version of Firefox from my portable drive on the Mac. Can I set aside some space on my drive so I can do that and also return to any PC running any OS and be able to plug my drive in and save files to the non-Mac side with no hassles?

Thanks for any help.

I need some advice on laptops. I want to purchase one for casual use, maybe some light gaming. I have narrowed it down to these two eMachine and the Dell 15n. Both are within my price range but which is the better deal?

I live in my Uni's student hosing. We get a very week WIFI signal there. Is there anything I can do to make it stronger? The Uni controls the main system. I have a Linksys WIFI adapter kit for my computer. Also, I discontected my cable DLS with the cabe comp because of money issues.


Thanks!

Hello! :)
First off, as I read in the community profile, let me tell you I am a beginner when it comes to computer problems. I can use them fine when they are working, but as soon as there's a problem, zip, that's me stuck!

Anyway, this computer is my fiance's [although we kind of share the two] and a few months ago he uninstalled Vista off this computer and installed XP onto it.

Now, my Sims 2 game was crashing when I was saving it and someone suggested I update my drivers, so, I went and checked our graphics card [ATI Radeon X1200 Series] and went to the official site to download new ones only to find there was no X1200! There was X1050 and X1300 but not the one we needed.

So, I trawled the internet - zilch.

Maybe this is because my drivers are up to date, I don't know, but I really want my Sims to play properly and if I need to install a graphics card update to help then that is what I will do.

Driver Information for ATI Radeon X1200 Series
Driver Provider: ATI Technologies Inc.
Driver Date: 25/02/2009
Driver Version: 8.591.0.0
Driver Signer: Microsoft Windows Hardware Corp.

Are my graphics drivers up to date? How do I check? If they are, that won't be causing the Sims problem, but I need to check if they are.

Hope i've given you enough information and thank you so much in advance if you can help me :)

No, seriously. I'm totally fine with you smarten-than-me-when-it-comes-to-computers folks pointing and laughing, elbowing each other in the ribs at my low-tech question. As long as you have a solution to offer, that is.

I just put together a computer desk for my elderly folks. And I did a marvelous job in SPITE of the fact that it had the worst directions in the history of the world, thank you very much.

Then I got all the computer hoop-de-do relocated to the new desk, set it all up, plugged it all in, matched all my colors... the whole nine yards. But. (you knew that "but" was coming, right?)

When I turned the power on, the computer got all sassy. It said Windows XP wasn't properly shut down, so figure out the reason why and pick the appropriate action from the four choices: Start windows normally, reboot, whatever, whatever the standard choices are on that black screen with white letters. I tried all possible choices MULTIPLE times, but it just kept recycling back to the same, "Sorry, windows wasn't shut down..." screen.

So then I tried the F10 command and ran all the PC recovery tests. It said everything passed, yay stupid hp computer. So THEN, when I told it to go ahead and recover it's own damn self, it said, "Well, ok... but if I do, I'm gonna erase all the data files that weren't in here when this baby was shipped from the factory..." and I freaked. Like all the word, excel, etc. documents, those would all be lost? I cancelled out of that in a hurry because I'm a scaredy cat.

I put a call in to my computer-guy extraordinaire, but he's out of the office for the day. Is there something basic I'm missing that y'all can think of for me to try?

I just bought a new toshiba notebook. I turned it on and it started installing. However it took like half an hour on the same screen with the little  vista mouse just rolling around in that circle. So I got really annoyed and turned it off. When I turned it on again and it went to windows, it said installation was interrupted and to restart the computer and restart the installation click ok. So I clicked ok but it just went back to that same screen and said the same message. What do I do!?!

Question/Problem: I do not have a wireless router, but do have a wireless card in my laptop and want to share internet from the computer to the iPod. I've tried setting up an ad hoc wireless connection, and the iPod detects it, I can connect to it if I use a WEP key to set it up. [For some reason, using a WPA key just makes it sit on the logging in/password form.] However, once connected to the ad hoc connection, it still won't let me browse or do anything that requires internet. It comes up with a 169.* IP address on the iPod, which I've been told is self-assigning and pretty useless. The subnet comes up with 255.255.0.0, and router and DNS fields are blank.

Operating System, Version and Service Pack: Windows Vista Home Basic, Service Pack 1

Web Browser and Version: (Examples: Internet Explorer 7, FireFox 3.0.1, Safari 3.1.2). Not relevant, I think.

Your level of experience (we simplify or explain instructions based on how you answer): Beginner - Intermediate

When did the problem start? Has it been going on constantly since then? I've never been able to get it to work on my computer, though it connects fine to my university wireless, and was able to connect to a friend's Mac via airport.

Any steps you've taken to troubleshoot? I've Googled high and low for solutions but haven't found one that worked. Called my ISP, who say they can't help me. Toshiba says this is an Apple problem, Apple says it's a PC problem. :/ Most people seem to find the ad hoc thing pretty straightforward, so I'm confused as to why I'm having problems. My IP is dynamic, if that is something that needs to be taken into consideration. I'd really like it to stay dynamic if possible though.

Help would be much appreciated! Thank you so much.

Recently I was given a mini laptop thingy (ASUS Eee PC 2G Surf), with no discs or anything. It has Windows XP on it now but everything is failing, no sound, no internet, 10 MB left on the harddrive, no antivirus etc etc. I'm losing my mind.

So, since I will only be using this thing for internet and word processing, I was thinking maybe switching to Linux would be a good option?? I've never used Linux before though so I need some help.

The harddrive is only 2G, and then it has an 8G memory card. Is that enough space for Linux?
Will it be difficult to find drivers and stuff to make the sound/keyboard/mouse etc work?
Will I be able to connect to wireless internet easily? I'm a traveler so this is really important.

Well I guess I'll just start with that. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!

(crossposted to linux)

Apologies for the seemingly basic question, but I didn't want to google around and download something bad.

Recommendations for any good pop-up blockers? I have the most updated version of Firefox, I believe, if that makes any difference.

Thanks alot!