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I just installed Windows Vista again on my (now auxiliary), and I made an error. Instead of doing what I should have done and leaving AHCI on on the bios and loading the drivers for it on Windows install, I forgot that step and instead disabled AHCI in the bios and installed using standard ATA. Now Windows is installed and I don't know how to configure it for AHCI now. I can't install the Intel Matrix Storage drivers since they don't detect that AHCI is enabled... I shoulda known better because I just went through this with my other PC. Somehow I got it working there without reinstalling Windows, but I can't remember how.
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Nov 28, 2010 07:46
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Open up regedit, go to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci, and set the value of Start to 0. Restart, enable AHCI in BIOS setup, and Windows will boot normally with AHCI enabled.
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Nov 28, 2010 08:10
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Space Gopher posted:Open up regedit, go to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci, and set the value of Start to 0. Restart, enable AHCI in BIOS setup, and Windows will boot normally with AHCI enabled. edit: wait no, it didn't. It asked me to restart after finding the AHCI, then bluescreened. I checked the registry and it is still set to 0. What do I do now? Samurai Sanders fucked around with this message at 08:24 on Nov 28, 2010 |
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Nov 28, 2010 08:17
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Samurai Sanders posted:It worked, thanks! Now, will I remember that for the next time I have to go through this... You might need to do the same for HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\IastorV, although I would expect the Intel driver to enable itself once it was detected. The bluescreen on startup is normal if you don't have drivers for the boot device enabled. e: Did it start OK once, do the driver installation routine, and then fail to start on the second boot after you'd enabled AHCI?
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Nov 28, 2010 08:49
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Space Gopher posted:You might need to do the same for HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\IastorV, although I would expect the Intel driver to enable itself once it was detected. The bluescreen on startup is normal if you don't have drivers for the boot device enabled. I'm calling it a night though. Why can't I have problems like this in the middle of the day, instead of always right before I am about to go to sleep?
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Nov 28, 2010 09:04
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I've had a couple of weird issues lately, but I didn't think they warranted their own thread. 1) I've got a Vista Ultimate x64 system. Yesterday I upgraded my 32" TV to a 46" TV, going from 1360x768 to 1920x1080. After loading the desktop the computer became unresponsive - I could move the mouse pointer, but clicks had no effect, and the keyboard invoked nothing. I could hear hard drive activity and I realized it was writing an 8GB dump file. I let it finish and later saw that it rebooted, and that the error was caused by the video driver and the desktop manager was crashing. The video card is an ATI FireGL X1 256 (AGP Pro 50, baby!), connected to the TV by VGA with a DVI adapter. I managed to resolve the issue by rolling back the driver, from the 2008 ATI driver to the 2006 Microsoft driver. Any idea why this would suddenly start happening? The computer is rarely used and even then very lightly. 2) Same system has a Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic for a sound card (no onboard sound!). I know, over the years I'd heard plenty of bad things about these cards, especially with Vista, but the card was :tenbux: so I figured I'd give it a shot. Anyway I was playing a movie tonight, Inglourious Basterds, and in one scene the spoken parts became very tinny and quiet, while the background music was dominant. Was this an intentional thing in the movie? I tried the next scene and it was even worse, I tried it in WinDVD 4, WMP and WMC, all the same result, and then tried it in my laptop (Win7) and the speakers just spat out static noise.
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Nov 28, 2010 09:27
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What's the deal with connecting games consoles to pc monitors? I'm trying to connect my Wii to a monitor that only takes DVI or VGA. I thought I needed to get some expensive converter box but I've seen people on other, less reputable, sites saying that you can do it with a simple cable. Before I drop 40 quid on a box I don't need, these people are talking junk right?
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Nov 28, 2010 12:25
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Strom Cuzewon posted:What's the deal with connecting games consoles to pc monitors? I'm trying to connect my Wii to a monitor that only takes DVI or VGA. I thought I needed to get some expensive converter box but I've seen people on other, less reputable, sites saying that you can do it with a simple cable. Before I drop 40 quid on a box I don't need, these people are talking junk right? A lot of monitors have composite/component video inputs, especially in the higher ranges of larger monitors (24"+) They might just have that built right in, or, maybe are modding the cables to enable a VGA output from the RGB output?
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Nov 28, 2010 12:41
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Sniep posted:
I thought that was impossible, aren't they completely different signal types? Unless I'm mis-understanding what RGB output is.
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Nov 28, 2010 12:57
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Strom Cuzewon posted:I thought that was impossible, aren't they completely different signal types? Unless I'm mis-understanding what RGB output is. VGA is just analog RGB - DVI is a digital format which also can carry RGB, hence why DVI-D is digital, DVI-A is analog. You've still got a clock and 3 channels of info going in an analog world, RGB is just meaning red green blue signal levels. If something outputs at a "component" level you can make that into VGA, but not DVI-D since that is digital. But many/most? monitors have analog VGA inputs, and many have straight up component and/or "yellow wire" composite inputs which could be used.
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Nov 28, 2010 13:24
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Strom Cuzewon posted:What's the deal with connecting games consoles to pc monitors? I'm trying to connect my Wii to a monitor that only takes DVI or VGA. I thought I needed to get some expensive converter box but I've seen people on other, less reputable, sites saying that you can do it with a simple cable. Before I drop 40 quid on a box I don't need, these people are talking junk right? The Wii is capable of 480p component output, and it's a reasonably simple circuit to convert YPbPr component to RGB. There are active elements, but the power requirements are low enough that the low-current 5V power available on the Wii's AV output is enough. However, there's a caveat: almost all monitors will refuse a 480i input on their VGA port. This means you'll need access to a regular TV (or a monitor with video inputs) to set the Wii to progressive output, unless you're good enough to navigate the menus by sound. Gamecube games will be limited (not all of them support progressive output, and you have to enable it each time you play by holding B on startup), and practically nothing on the Virtual Console will work (the output from most older consoles was either 480i or 240p, which almost certainly won't work with your monitor, and the Wii emulates that output faithfully).
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Nov 28, 2010 13:29
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Crossposting from AV Arena because I got no reply there and it somewhat fits here too:SMP posted:Not sure if I should be posting this here or in SC/SH but here it is anyway. I have my PC hooked up to my HDTV (32" vizio) and a computer monitor (20"something Westinghouse Digital), both via a VGA cable. Both of them have weird display issues. I've made a mockup of what's happening here. I still don't know if this is better suited for software small questions or hardware small questions...
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Nov 28, 2010 15:04
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Space Gopher posted:The Wii is capable of 480p component output, and it's a reasonably simple circuit to convert YPbPr component to RGB. There are active elements, but the power requirements are low enough that the low-current 5V power available on the Wii's AV output is enough. How reasonably simple are we talking about? For reference, I had to check wikipedia just to figure out what you were saying, and my attempts at soldering tend to destroy whatever I'm working on, so even if it's possible it might be out of my skill level.
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Nov 28, 2010 17:59
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SMP posted:Crossposting from AV Arena because I got no reply there and it somewhat fits here too: That looks like ground loop interference. The 60Hz coming from the power lines is a tiny bit slower or faster than the 60Hz scan rate coming from the VGA signal, so that's why you see the dark line moving slowly up the screen. Most people encounter this problem as a low-pitched hum coming through audio equipment, but it can affect video as well. This kind of interference happens when two devices reference ground from two separate points. If it isn't set up this way already, try plugging the PC into the same wall outlet as the TV. Also, try to rule out any other devices that may cause this or similar problems. Zorilla fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Nov 28, 2010 |
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Nov 28, 2010 19:35
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Space Gopher posted:You might need to do the same for HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\IastorV, although I would expect the Intel driver to enable itself once it was detected. The bluescreen on startup is normal if you don't have drivers for the boot device enabled. What kind of performance difference are we looking at for AHCI versus ATA anyway?
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Nov 28, 2010 19:43
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I guess this is the most frequented place that I am allowed to ask for troubleshooting help. Commence copypasta from Haus of Tech Support: Problem description: Applications that bind keys in a non-standard way, like games for instance, interpret any key I press as a button on the numeric keypad. So I can type fine in Explorer, Chrome and OpenOffice, for instance, but in uTorrent or games like Doom, pressing [W} a dozen times outputs in [Num0,Num1....Num9, Num0, Num1], without fail. Enter, the arrow keys and similar non-character keys work fine, as do the spacebar and mouse. Attempted fixes: Used regedit to set all instances of the flag InitialKeyboardIndicators under HKEY_USERS to 0 (NumLock off at system boot). No dice. It seems that the registry will not override the BIOS and the BIOS doesn't even have an entry for NumLock, so yeah. Also checked the documentation and online sources for ways to turn off numlock, again to no success. Most recently, used the onscreen keyboard to toggle NumLock and ScrLock a few times, and even tried switching the keyboard setting from US English to US International, and after this post I will be rebooting again to switch back to English. Nothing seems to help. Recent changes: My prevailing theory is that NumLock got activated through some combination of keys, and the computer, not actually having a numeric keypad or a NumLock key, doesn't know what the gently caress. A few applications (the ones I use most) are unaffected, so I can only assume they recognize the configuration rather than the NumLock flag. Operating system: Windows 7 Starter 32-bit System specs: Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3
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Nov 30, 2010 05:57
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Captain Walker posted:System specs: Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3 Fn-F7?
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Nov 30, 2010 06:21
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What's the ideal screwdriver head for case/chassis screws?
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Nov 30, 2010 16:57
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Quick question, I'm trying to use a HDMI to DVI adapter to get a signal from my 360 on my monitor, but I get a bunch of red dots around the screen. The cable is fine, as it works on my HDTV, and the monitor is fine, as it works perfect running straight from my graphics card. Is the problem likely to be the adapter? It was fine a number of months ago before I changed monitor, but it might have deteriorated since then I suppose.
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Nov 30, 2010 20:00
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Anjow posted:What's the ideal screwdriver head for case/chassis screws? The standard is the phillips screw head. If you're asking for a particular screwdriver, anything should work. Just find something you're comfortable working with. I use a long screwdriver most of the time and a shorter one in those smaller spots. A word of advice: you generally don't want to tighten the screws too hard. A snug fit is better than over-tightening and risking the chance of breaking something (like a motherboard's PCB) or stripping your screwdriver/screw.
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Nov 30, 2010 20:38
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Factory Factory posted:Fn-F7? Play/pause; opens WMP when I try and does not seem to affect the issue. I am dumb.
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Nov 30, 2010 21:13
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Ruklo Burosee posted:The standard is the phillips screw head. If you're asking for a particular screwdriver, anything should work. Just find something you're comfortable working with. I use a long screwdriver most of the time and a shorter one in those smaller spots. I've got a few screwdrivers and they have different sized heads, but they're either too big or too small. I was wondering if there was a number for a head that would fit the screws exactly.
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Nov 30, 2010 21:18
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Captain Walker posted:Play/pause; opens WMP when I try and does not seem to affect the issue. I am dumb. Are there number keys printed on any of the letter keys? If so, one of the F# keys should be num lock.
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Nov 30, 2010 21:30
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Anjow posted:I've got a few screwdrivers and they have different sized heads, but they're either too big or too small. I was wondering if there was a number for a head that would fit the screws exactly. #2 phillips / 1/4" hex combo is the standard for most computer stuff, although sometimes the M3 screws (the ones with a finer pitch) use a #1 phillips.
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Nov 30, 2010 21:35
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Triikan posted:Are there number keys printed on any of the letter keys? If so, one of the F# keys should be num lock. The only number keys are the basics 1/!, 2/@, and so forth on the second row of the keyboard. There is no keypad or keypad substitute.
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Nov 30, 2010 21:52
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Urgh... so HMonitor is telling me my power supply's 12 V rail is giving power at 9 V (8.98 V, to be exact). Yet I'm not noticing anything wrong with the computer's operation. Is this a reporting error, or should I be RMA'ing my PSU and high-fiving all the manufacturers whose poo poo works despite this? PSU is a Corsair 750 W, mainboard is a refurbished XFX nForce 680i LT, box is running 4 hard disks, one Radeon 4850, an E8400, a SATA DVD burner, and two expansion cards, plus a ~5 USB devices. Other voltages seem okay.
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Nov 30, 2010 22:33
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Factory Factory posted:Urgh... so HMonitor is telling me my power supply's 12 V rail is giving power at 9 V (8.98 V, to be exact). Yet I'm not noticing anything wrong with the computer's operation. Is this a reporting error, or should I be RMA'ing my PSU and high-fiving all the manufacturers whose poo poo works despite this? Motherboard voltage sensors can be weird. Unless you've checked the rail with a good multimeter, and it returns the same numbers, I wouldn't worry about it.
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Nov 30, 2010 22:41
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It's networking, but it's also hardware, so I'll put it here. After heavy use of Bit Torrent, I notice that my page loads are slow. If I release and renew the IP from command line, it works fine. Is my NIC just freaking out because of the heavy traffic that BT creates?
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Dec 1, 2010 02:43
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Captain Walker posted:Play/pause; opens WMP when I try and does not seem to affect the issue. I am dumb. http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/IdeaPad-S-series-Netbooks/IdeaPad-S-Series-Latest-BIOS-Map/m-p/237096/highlight/true Captain Walker posted:The only number keys are the basics 1/!, 2/@, and so forth on the second row of the keyboard. There is no keypad or keypad substitute. Look on your specific F keys for something that looks like a 3x3 brick. Thats your numlock.
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Dec 1, 2010 03:03
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Zeitgueist posted:It's networking, but it's also hardware, so I'll put it here. Pardon me if this goes over your head a little bit... Your operating system could be out of source tcp ports. Meaning, every time your computer connects to a remote host it must use your ip address along with a source port. If an application opens up thousands of connections and doesn't close them, then they're essentially "locked out" for other applications to use. Perhaps bit torrent used them all up, and when you try and browse you're actually either waiting for a source port to become available, or your browser is having to fetch each and every file over a single connection rather than opening multiple connections like it usually does. Once you renew the IP, the OS probably flushes all those connections that were "stuck" or you're getting a new IP address in which case you have a thousands of new ip:port combinations at your disposal.
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Dec 1, 2010 03:04
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Could someone please point me to a good reference on what to look for in SMART data? I'm using speedfan to read it, but I'd like to learn a bit more about it. What are the best indicators of an impending failure?
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Dec 1, 2010 14:22
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Hillridge posted:Could someone please point me to a good reference on what to look for in SMART data? I'm using speedfan to read it, but I'd like to learn a bit more about it. What are the best indicators of an impending failure?
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Dec 1, 2010 14:28
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Is the "Warn" column in speedfan the number that each attribute should be below? Reallocated Sector Count on this drive has an OK next to it, but it has read fails all the time.
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Dec 2, 2010 04:31
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That's a pretty old drive and it looks like it's starting to wear out. The number in the "Value" starts at a number like 100 or 200 (in this case it looks like 253) and counts down as errors are encountered. If it hits the threshold labelled in SpeedFan as "Warn", the drive gives a SMART failure warning. I'd back up any files on it you care about, then run a Long DST with the Seatools Diagnostic.
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Dec 2, 2010 04:43
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I've got a dell mini-9 with bluetooth and a desktop PC without bluetooth. I want a bluetooth mouse for the laptop and bluetooth ability for the desktop. If I purchase a bluetooth mouse that comes with it's own adapter, could I use the mouse with the laptop and the adapter in my pc, or am I too optimistic? If the answer to that is 'no', where can I find a bluetooth mouse without an adapter?
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Dec 2, 2010 08:58
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Are CPU's still a factor when gaming these days? I remember the late 90's and early 00's when it was just as or in some cases more important than the GPU when it came to "can my system play this". Long story short, If I get your typical mid-range $200-$300 quad/six core cpu (i5/i7), is that going to be a limiting factor? It seems that a lot of people talk about 1/2 their cores going to sleep while gaming, but what about newer games (specifically Storm of War*). Am I ever going to kick myself saying, "why didn't I opt for that one CPU that was $50-100 more?" or is this something I'll more that likely be doing regarding my GPU? Or are all the people getting six cores really just wasting money since they're not decoding genes or simulating nuclear explosions? Thanks. *It's a flight sim coming out in Spring 2011 that is supposed to be pretty hard core when it comes to traditional number-crunching given the number of AI units and physics calculations it has to do.
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Dec 2, 2010 17:33
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I don't think having the best CPU is at all necessary anymore. And yes, you're correct, many (if not most) games do not take advantage of all the cores on these modern CPUs, they're kind of a waste. I'd rather than a CPU with 2 cores that are ultra fast than 4/6 cores that aren't as fast. Though, I heard something about the latest intel cpus having some kind of turbo mode available on the cores, so if a core shuts down it can boost the speed of another core. Interesting. Whenever I build a system, I get a CPU, motherboard, and video card that are below the top end because they provide a very nice price to performance ratio. If I splurge on anything, it's the disk and memory. The disk because well, it's usually my bottleneck: choppy game because of disk activity, or loading levels/zones/etc, or loading the game itself. And memory, because everything depends on the memory and it's a quick and easy way to increase performance.
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Dec 2, 2010 20:50
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Blistex posted:Are CPU's still a factor when gaming these days? I remember the late 90's and early 00's when it was just as or in some cases more important than the GPU when it came to "can my system play this". This is more a question for the parts picking thread, but here goes. Generally speaking, these days even a $100 budget CPU like an Athlon II X4 will play everything on the market pretty well. In terms of immediate "can my system play this game?" concerns, the video card is usually a more important factor. Looking forward, though, the CPU gives you a hard limit, while the video card's limitations are often softer: you can usually turn down visual quality settings to lighten the load on the video card, but if your CPU isn't powerful enough to run a game, you'll need to resort to overclocking. Some newer games are designed to take advantage of multicore CPUs; at this point, the market's about half and half. The previously mentioned turbo features can help even things out for tasks that only use one or two cores, although the differences are often academic when CPU-limited framerates are well above 60 fps. Right now, if you're building a high-midrange gaming system, an Intel Core i5-700 series CPU is probably your best bet. The CPU offers enough performance it will almost never be the limiting factor in today's games, it should remain viable for quite a while yet, and it's a pretty good overclocker with aftermarket cooling. That's not a concern right now, but in 3-4 years it might make a substantial difference. If you've got stricter budget concerns, the aforementioned Athlon II X4 is a good choice; it's not as powerful as the i5-760, but you'll get performance that's more than good enough for a hundred bucks. As for your specific game, it's hard to say. Nobody seems to have published system requirements for it, so you can't target that. Plus, it seems like it's been in development for a long time, so their engine might be developed with all kinds of requirements in mind. At any rate, though, it's always a good idea to hold off if you're upgrading for a specific game. Hardware gets cheaper and more capable, and there's always the "is it actually going to be any good?" factor. Plenty of people in the parts picking thread upgraded for games like Age of Conan and the latest Final Fantasy MMO, after all. Personally, I'd wait for reviews before dropping $1,060 on a game. Six-core CPUs and hyperthreading (the feature which distinguishes the i5 from the i7) aren't really useful in games right now. There are plenty of valid reasons to buy a Phenom II X6 or a Core i7, but for the typical home/office/media/gaming set of requirements that pop up, it's not money well spent. But, of course, we don't know the requirements for Storm of War, so it might possibly be an exception. arroze posted:I'd rather than a CPU with 2 cores that are ultra fast than 4/6 cores that aren't as fast. This used to be the conventional wisdom, but not so much any more. The market has been shifting of late, and "fast dual over slower quad" isn't such an ironclad rule - there are quite a few games out right now which see performance gains from 4 cores. You can often make up a clockspeed deficit with overclocking, and the "ultra fast" dual-cores generally don't lag behind the slower quads by more than 15% or so these days. However, if you need more cores, you can't magic up more silicon - and when you do need more cores, the dual-core is running at a roughly 50% performance deficit compared to a similar quad. Of course, it's always a good thing to focus on value for money, and you're right that top-end CPUs are absolute poo poo in that department, but skimping can be equally foolish if it forces you to upgrade more often. If you can buy a $100 quad right now, and not have to upgrade for a few years, you'll come out ahead over buying a $60 dual-core today and another $60 CPU shortly down the line.
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Dec 2, 2010 21:30
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Now that I think of it, this should have gone in the system thread. /\/\ Yah, I was probably going to wait a few months after it came out before building the system. Storm of War is the same company that made IL-2 and it was years before affordable machines could play it maxed. I was just looking at CPUs and prices and they're more of a mystery to me than the GPUs since they're pretty linear in performance. CPUs confuse me a bit since you have 2/4/6 options and then there are the individual clock speeds, and similar CPUs with similar looking specs can differ in price by $50 to a few hundred dollars. Example: 4 cores @ 3.5GHZ vs. 6 Cores at 3.0GHZ . . . does the top speed make the most difference or do the additional 2 cores more than make up for that. I guess like was mentioned a lot of it depends on the game and its support.
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Dec 2, 2010 21:44
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I'm building a new computer in January and I have put together a box for real backup now, so I'm feeling adventurous, but I need advice about how to express it. I have four hard discs: 2x 1TB WD RE3 and 2x 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F2. I would like to make a big stupid RAID array. What is the best way to do that of these options: 1. RAID 0 the identical pairs, then RAID 1 those arrays 2. RAID 1 identical pairs, then RAID 0 those arrays (probably not) 3. RAID 0 the identical pairs, then diff-image the RE3 array to the Spinpoint array each night/week 4. RAID 5 them sumbitches, woo, titties 5. Don't be stupid
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Dec 2, 2010 22:34
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