Computer Help & Tech Support

[BigDumbWookiee]

lol The geek in me is laughing his ass off...

[Scott]

Google is my favorite site on the net (beside JD.com)...just read over at cnn that Google will soon be offering free email service (like Yahoo and Hotmail)

I can say for an almost guaranteed fact that I'll be getting rid of both of my accounts ASAP and switching to GMail

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/03/31/google.email.ap/index.html

1 GB of free storage!

The only thing that worries me is the Spam filter...Hotmail really has done wonders in the last 3-4 months.  Yahoo is garbage...absolute garbage in terms of Spam.  Hell though, with a Gig of storage I can tolerate a little spam!

[Morgbug]

Hmm, as long as I can have some sort of filtering (my hotmail is just set on high and I check regularly for incoming stuff), I may switch.  Hotmail seems to have been decreasing account size as time passes.  Might be my imagination, but I'm forever running around 70%.  

I would agree that the amount of spam through hotmail has decreased dramatically.  I'd almost abandoned my first hotmail account due to the 30-40 spam/porn emails a day that went into the junk mail.  

[Matt]

I'd almost abandoned my first hotmail account due to the 30-40 spam/porn emails a day that went into the junk mail.  

Funny, I almost abandoned my Hotmail account because all of my porn e-mails were getting filtered to junk mail. . .

 

[Morgbug]

Sorry, I know it's an inane question that could easily be answered by trial and error, but I have no desire to perform a $2.50 experiment to find out.  

Outside of what is on my computer already (basic Dell software for burning DVD/CD) do I need anything else to duplicate a DVD?  The use is quasi-legal anyway, my wife needs to make a disc of some injury footage from some discs and wants to collate it onto one disc for teaching purposes.  This is not to say I won't use the information otherwise, but I am curious about any trials and tribulations I may have that others have already been through.

[Rob L]

If there is no copy protection, and the data will fit onto one DVD, then your software should have some sort of simple back-up option.  That is: read this disc, record a hard drive image of said disc, burn the image onto this blank disc.  Simple.

BUT, if there are any problems fitting onto a single-layer disc (most commercial discs are dual-layer), or any pesky Macrovision issues then you’ll need some more software.  I can tell you what to do if you want to shoot me a PM, but for the purposes of posting here, I don’t have any idea how this stuff works and can’t begin to advise you regarding how to backup a DVD.  

[Morgbug]

Thanks Rob.  

My software does come up with the immediate option of make an exact duplicate of this disc? so I suspected it was straightforward for the most part.  I'll see what happens with a test disc and will pm you if I have any specific technical issues.  Ahem.  

[Boba Binks]

I have an external LiteOn DVD Burner. It comes with software but any pre-packaged burner software sucks anyways. If you want to duplicate entire DVD's with everything you must buy DVD X-Copy Gold. It will allow you to copy an entire DVD to one disc at DVD quality.
You can get it here. http://www.nycsoftware.com/DVDxCopy/products_dxcgold.htm

I bought it and it is great. It is simple you put in your DVD and a blank disc, then hit the copy button. Within an hour you have a perfect duplication. I highly recomend this software. This particular software will be banned soon due to the copy technology it has. The ball already started rolling on that.
Better get it soon before it is taken off the market. What is nice about it, it will also copy some Computer, PS2, & X-Box Games.

[Logray2776]

Hello everyone, I was wondering if anyone here knows the proper steps in replacing a motherboard? I need to know if i need completely format my hard drive that i am switching over, or just remove all the drivers in the device manager? I just tried it by my HD from this computer to the new one and i cant seem to get windows to boot up it starts fine then it says that windows didnt startup properly, then when i go to choose to start under safe mode the computer just resets it self and i am back where i started from with the same message.   Any advice or help would be appreciated very much, thanks.

[SilverZ]

Oh my. Speaking from my past experience with swapping motherboards, it's one of the worst hassles to go through.   You basically need to re-register all of your system components since the board swap wreaks havoc with the Win registry, which calls for a bit of reinstallation or, ideally, a clean install.

First, have you attempted repairing Windows by running the OS from CD-ROM?

I'd suggest changing the boot sequence of your drives in the MB's BIOS so it boots from your CD drive first, with your XP CD inside. You can select a "repair Windows" option from the prompt, which will re-install Windows over your existing installation, but keep your existing settings. It's still not a pleasant or automatic thing however, and will require several restarts and you holding your PC's hand through the process.

Of course, when dealing with touchy problems like this, look before you leap! Read up as much as you can before you do it. Check out eldergeek's faqs, they can be pretty helpful:

Elder Geek

Hope you get your problem sorted out and good luck!

J

[Logray2776]

Thanks for the reply, and i did some research and thats where i headed, eldergeek that is, looks like i just might do format and reinstall of everything. Might go a little easier if i just start from scratch.


                       Thanks again for the reply


                                        C.B.

[JoshEEE]

One additional thing to beware of. Windows XP tracks the components of your hardware, so if more than just your motherboard (I think it may be three things) changes....it thinks you are installing it on a new computer, and accuses you of such. You then have to call MS or get online and punch in your PID to fix it.

Just one little pain in the butt that you might not have been forewarned about.

[Logray2776]

Thanks for the help guys i am going to try and reinstall winxp over the previous copy, and if that doesnt work ill do it the old fashioned way.

Format and reinstall from scratch.

I should have no problems gettin that to work.

[Logray2776]

All is well with the switch, and as Tydirium said, yes it was quite the hassle. I had to do a complete format and reinstall. But it is workin good now, the only problem i got now is it keeps freezing up on me, would the temp have anything to do with that?


                          Thanks,
                           
                              C.B.

[jokabofe]

i would say the most common reasons for freezing are (a) processor gets too hot, (b) ram memory is all being used and not being released by programs when you close them, or (c) trying to run too many programs at the same time.

when your computer freezes, does it just stay on a screen, or do you get the blue screen of death? if you get the bsod, try writing down any error messages that you see there and then research them online. usually gets me answers