|
wasey posted:I am getting my dad an Ultrabook for Christmas, however I think he may have a bit of a rough transition away from discs. I'm going to pick up an external cd/dvd RW, is there a specific company or style I should avoid or go with anything? Thanks. I haven't had it for long, but I recently purchased the Asus USB 8x Slim external DVD-RW (there was a cyber monday deal on newegg). It requires two USB ports (for extra power), but it works fine on the half dozen discs I've burned with it. It's essentially a laptop DVD-RW in an external case so it's pretty small; it's a bit bigger than a jewel case. The only downside is that it's glossy black plastic so fingerprints show on the case, but it was pretty cheap and works, which is all I was concerned about. One nice feature is that the stand can be put on to use it vertically, or you can remove it and lay it flat.
|
#
¿
Dec 17, 2011 23:50
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2024 17:01 |
|
|
It's taken a number of years but I finally used up my Arctic Silver 5. What thermal paste do you guys use, or what is considered best.
Rexxed fucked around with this message at 03:27 on Jan 17, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Jan 17, 2012 03:07
|
|
|
Factory Factory posted:Mayonnaise works pretty well until it dries out (which takes about a day). I understand, and I'm not overly concerned with the most expensive thing that may or may not (usually not) save you 1 degree C, but I like to have something better than the cellophane tube of white stuff or huge blob pad of grey stuff you get with most hardware. I'm just not up on whatever innovations there might be, so your post is really helpful. I think I'm going to get a tube of Arctic Cooling MX-4 at some point.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 17, 2012 03:26
|
|
|
Carl Seitan posted:So, I'm cleaning out the closet in my second bedroom and I'm not sure what to do with all of the computer hardware that I've accumulated over the years that I'm no longer using. If the parts work you can check ebay for prices to see if it's either some old part that actually has demand and may sell for a decent amount, or if it's too old and unneeded so as to be nearly worthless. Some of the old video cards might sell to collectors, but things like optical drives, hard drives, and the CPUs are probably nearly worthless. RAM is one of those things that may be worth selling depending on its age. Jefferoo posted:Hey, I have an old hard drive from an old PC, doesn't work anymore, can't get it to start, (fried motherboard/processor/power supply) that has some files I need to pull off of it, and I only have a macbook pro. Is there anything I can do, maybe a cable I could buy? I use one of these IDE/sata to USB adapters to mount old hard disks I don't want to plug into a computer internally. Mine's some cheap chinese brand and it works fine, so something like: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002 should work decently. I do not know anything about Macintosh filesystem support, however, so if it's a windows disk with fat32 or ntfs filesystems you might need some software to read the disk once it's plugged in.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 22, 2012 01:22
|
|
|
Party Plane Jones posted:This is sort of an odd question. I have a Logitech Desktop 600 Mic that was working fine until I decided to unplug it from the front panel in order to plug something else in. When I plugged it back in, it doesn't seem to work. Furthermore, the front panel seems to be picking up a faint Catholic Radio station signal when I tried to see if it was picking up anything. I tried the back panel input and it also doesn't work. The audio card is a Xonar DG, I've installed and reinstalled the drivers several times so they don't seem to be at issue from what I can see. Did my mic become a 5 dollar AM antenna? I'm not sure what is causing all of your issues, but a USB microphone is actually acting as a separate audio input device from your sound card, so the sound card should have nothing to do with its behavior. Does the microphone have a mute switch that may have toggled itself on when you plugged it in? Is it showing up in the Recording Devices list in Windows, and if so, could it be muted there? Is the software you want to use the microphone with seeing it as a selectable audio input (it may have deselected it if you unhooked the USB mic while it was running)? The radio thing is a little strange.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 28, 2012 22:47
|
|
|
Party Plane Jones posted:It's the 3.5mm jack, not the USB edition. I should have stated that. Oh, in that case, I doubt any of the software things I mentioned would have an effect on it. 3.5 mm jack microphones are a fairly simple device, it's strange that it would just stop working correctly. What was the other device you plugged into the microphone jack?
|
|
#
¿
Jan 28, 2012 23:27
|
|
|
Party Plane Jones posted:Nothing, the front of the case is just awkwardly laid out so in order to use one of the USB ports I had to take out the mic jack. You may have already done all of this, but first thing I would do is re-seat the microphone connector (unplug it and plug it back in and make sure it's all the way in), then shut down the PC and start it back up. This should prevent any hardware weirdness. If it's still not working, then I'm honestly not certain what it could be. Some sound card drivers can auto-sense when there's things plugged into the various jacks, and some don't. If it's one of the former, perhaps it's auto-sensing got screwed up and it has the microphone muted in the software (check windows recording devices as well as the sound card driver itself). If it's the latter, it should have just worked like it was previously when it was plugged back in, since it wouldn't have known to change anything.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 29, 2012 00:22
|
|
|
AntennaGeek posted:I seem to have accidentally acquired 4 Sunfire V20Z 1U rack servers. According to http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?InvtId=V20Z-220X2-R&utm_source=GoogleProducts&utm_medium=ShoppingSites&utm_campaign=V20Z-220X2-R they're 41.5 pounds shipping weight. This isn't their actual weight, but close enough to get some estimates. Doing a quick (and inaccurate since I picked random zip codes in Cleveland and LA) shipping calculation (with your packaging) on UPS.com, ground would cost about $61 per server (I tried all four servers in one package, but UPS says 150lbs is the maximum per package). Here's the link to the time and shipping cost calculator from them: https://wwwapps.ups.com/ctc/request Doing another quick and inaccurate check on the US postal service website has them charging around $44 for parcel post with the same 2x19x28 dimensions at 40 lbs: http://postcalc.usps.gov/Default.aspx In reality the size and weights may vary. Maybe you can get more than one per package and lower the overall price, but you'll need to pay for some packaging. If you really want them then it's probably be worth the shipping cost, but it won't be cheap.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 5, 2012 20:23
|
|
|
Hipster_Doofus posted:Strictly anecdotal here, but I've seen PSUs more or less "blow" 4 times (twice mine, 2 other times someone else's), and every time nothing else got hurt. It probably depends how the PSU was damaged. If it just died, it might not harm anything. I replaced one for my Aunt that died after power irregularities in a storm. When it died it killed the motherboard and processor as well as the PSU. The ram and drives were perfectly fine for some reason.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 14, 2012 05:10
|
|
|
Hipster_Doofus posted:A whole different animal than PSUs failing on their own. Not being snarky; just pointing out the huge difference. I do actually have a friend whose phone line was struck by lightning. It killed the dsl modem and the mobo's USB ports. No other damage, not even the PSU. I agree with you, I guess I didn't read the original post's description of the PSU itself dying in an "internal to the PSU" component failure situation closely enough. On another topic, I have a client whose motherboard has a HD audio connector on board. The case the PC came in has front panel audio jacks, but when you plug headphones into the port, there's no sound. I looked up the motherboard manual and saw that there is a pin for headphone detection, and that pin does have a wire on the connector, but none of the headphones we tried were recognized. I re-seated the cable and double checked the pin numbers with the MB manual. I also downloaded the vendor's sound driver package which has a system tray icon that runs their application that shows ports with devices hooked up and whatnot (the status wouldn't change from disconnected). I'm wondering if the extremely cheap and flimsy case provided by Systemax (the whitebox maker that put it together) simply has bad wiring on its front panel connectors, or if there's some secret to getting internal HD audio connectors working that I may be unaware of. The client needs to hook up headphones for transcription a couple of times a week so I went ahead and ordered a front panel audio adapter that will fit in a drive bay, but if it doesn't work, I fear I'm going to have to go low tech with a 3.5mm Y-splitter. Anyway, if anyone's had weirdness with HD front panel audio hookups with headphone detection on an MSI board with a cheap case, let me know.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 14, 2012 06:57
|
|
|
Rexxed posted:On another topic, I have a client whose motherboard has a HD audio connector on board. The case the PC came in has front panel audio jacks, but when you plug headphones into the port, there's no sound. I looked up the motherboard manual and saw that there is a pin for headphone detection, and that pin does have a wire on the connector, but none of the headphones we tried were recognized. I re-seated the cable and double checked the pin numbers with the MB manual. I also downloaded the vendor's sound driver package which has a system tray icon that runs their application that shows ports with devices hooked up and whatnot (the status wouldn't change from disconnected). Just as an update, I tried a third party front panel audio adapter today (SilverStone FP32B) and it detected the headphones with no problems when I plugged them in. I guess the one that came with the case was faulty, and there was no real way to tell.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 16, 2012 01:10
|
|
|
Eptar posted:I'm pretty sure this doesn't deserve it's own thread: basically I decided to do this exact build minus the PSU, HDDs, and sound card: http://techreport.com/articles.x/21876/4 and being myself I of course managed to improperly connect the one area that's not specifically keyed to prevent retards from damaging stuff: the system panel where the case LEDs and whatnot connect. I've hooked up the front panel buttons and LEDs of many PCs backwards (they don't adequately show which side is + on those connectors) and I haven't had issues like you're describing. The power and reset switches are either on or off, so backwards shouldn't cause them too much trouble. The LEDs are diodes and won't let current flow backwards, so they should just not work unless you run way too much current through them, which won't happen without something crazy going on. The speaker (if I remember electronics well enough) should simply vibrate the wrong way if it's hooked up backwards, which is bad for it but I don't think it should actually get hot. If the USB headers were connected properly, it's possible that the USB ports on your case were simply wired incorrectly by the manufacturer or had some bad soldering done. If that's the issue, there was an electrical short somewhere in the wiring of those ports. USB is only specced for 5v and 500ma to one connector, which isn't a lot of current but could be enough to melt some wires if there's a short going on. Is it a new case? If so, I'd suspect those USB ports of having been manufactured defectively. Definitely stop using those front ports immediately. Smoke means bad things happened and there's probably a short going on now (if there wasn't before). I'd unplug them from the motherboard's USB connectors as well, as if there is not currently damage to it, they could cause damage. There could be some damage to the USB controller on the motherboard due to the 5v shorting with one of the data lines or something, but it's possible that it survived. Your best option to test this would be to get another USB connector that will work with the motherboard pins and try it instead. If the motherboard's USB controller still seems okay you could purchase a third party front panel port plate as a work around (something like http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JK7FMW), or RMA the case (this will likely be expensive because cases are large and most RMAs require you to pay shipping). Some case manufacturers might send you just the USB port panel internal stuff if you're comfortable with replacing it and they understand the problem. Bottom line the case manufacturer is responsible if those ports are defective. If the USB controller on board is also damaged, then RMAs for both the case and motherboard are probably the worst possible scenario for you simply due to the shipping costs and waiting time to get replacements in.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 17, 2012 08:51
|
|
|
by.a.teammate posted:My Computer: Mixing different brands of memory can be a problem due to the sticks having different timings. I would try the new ram again by itself to see if it's compatible, but it sounds like it isn't. Some motherboards can be finnicky about what memory they support. The manufacturer will keep a list of memory that it has tested with each motherboard, but they generally don't update them frequently. The current lists for your board are available here: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8P67/#MSL. I don't see any Crucial 4gb ram on that list (the P8P67_EVO_PRO_Basic_Memory QVL, second up from the bottom), but that doesn't necessarily preclude it from working on that board, the manufacturer just hasn't tested it, probably because the last update they made to that list was in January, 2011. If your system won't boot with just those crucial sticks, you could put the G.Skill back and flash the bios to the latest version just to be sure that it's not a bios issue. The latest bios in the list here: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8P67/#download does say: quote:P8P67 BIOS 2103 If they don't work even with the latest BIOS, look at those QVLs from the first link before you purchase more memory to make sure it's on the list, and be aware that the new memory may not work with your old memory. Also, always be sure to ground yourself before you handle memory as it can be static sensitive. Touching a plugged in (and grounded) computer power supply right before you reach for the parts usually does the trick.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 17, 2012 12:36
|
|
|
Eptar posted:Great advice, thanks a ton for the reply. I'm gonna take one of the drives I killed to a data recovery place tomorrow since I just found out it had several months worth of un-backed up wedding planning data. The place I called quoted me $180 to recover the data if it's recoverable, free to diagnose; does that sound about right? If this was a USB flash drive, I wouldn't hold out a ton of hope for it surviving, but maybe you'll get lucky. If that's the case, $180 is reasonable as they might replace the drive controller in hopes that your flash cells still contain data (I'm guessing here, I've never tried to recover a flash drive, but I imagine soldering integrated circuits is involved). If it was an external USB hard drive, the disk is probably fine and the sata to usb controller thing inside the external drive case may have just gotten toasted. Putting the disk into a new external enclosure might allow it to just spin right up again, and it would be cheaper, but of course I can't guarantee anything, and the recovery place will certainly get your data off no problem if that is indeed the issue. External enclosures run in the $20-30 range on amazon (search external hard disk enclosure), but since I'm not sure which kind of drive you have, I'm not sure which to recommend. I'm cheap and do risky things with computer parts so if it were me, I'd buy an external case and give that a shot. However, if the data you may have lost is irreplaceable (or would take many hours to re-do) and worth the recovery cost to you, take it to the professional recovery guys. You wouldn't want to lose all of that time spent creating the data over that little money. After your current debacle is over, look into automated backup so something like this doesn't happen again. There's many free or cheap backup programs and services available, depending on your needs.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 18, 2012 07:02
|
|
|
bergeoisie posted:My mother has around 100 3.5" floppies filled with sensitive client data that she would like to dispose of securely. Is there a good way to erase the contents of these disks before trashing them (keeping in mind that she no longer has a floppy drive)? Would magnets work? Magnets should do it, just get a strong one.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 2, 2012 03:55
|
|
|
SplitSoul posted:My buddy has a set of brand new Razer Banshee Starcraft II USB headphones. Problem is he can't get them to work on his computer, but they seem to work fine on other ones. Says "No jack information" in the device manager. He's running Win7 64-bit. He tried reinstalling drivers, updating the firmware, even updated the audio drivers for his ASUS M4A77TD mobo, at which point he lost audio on all his devices. If they're USB headphones, they have their own built-in sound card. Updating the drivers for the sound card on his motherboard shouldn't have any effect on the USB sound device inside the headphones. I'd try a different USB port on his system, and make sure they show up in the device manager, and as a sound device in windows. It's possible that programs will have to be told to use them as a sound output device explicitly, but most of the times I've used devices like that they just start working right away. Check the USB port(s) he's trying to use with another device to make sure they're working correctly (flash drive or a mouse or something.)
|
|
#
¿
Mar 3, 2012 22:51
|
|
|
Xtanstic posted:Oh that's an interesting idea, I had not considered that at all. Would that be a problem though, using a superior videocard on my obsolete tech? Will that damage the video card? Or will the video card just run fine and basically the rest simply can't extract all of the potential out of the card? A new video card should run fine in your older PC. You may not get all of the FPS that it's capable of if the rest of your PC is the bottleneck to its performance, but it will work. I replaced my 4850 with a 6870 last year and it was a good performance boost for this PC I built in 2008. When I upgrade the rest of the system later this year I will probably just move the 6870 over to the new build.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 6, 2012 17:58
|
|
|
Xtanstic posted:Ah I see. Is there anything else I should double check, in terms of compatibility between video card and mobo or should it run fine since the only thing I need to check is that they both slot into a PCI-E? The only considerations are typically case size (some new cards are long and some take up two slots to support a bigger heatsink/fan) and power supply output. Personally, I got a 750 Watt power supply when I put this system together so it was more than capable of handling the new card. It's probably overkill, really, but I run 4 hard disks, SSD, optical drive, etc, so I wanted to be sure. If your old card ran, the new one probably will, too.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 6, 2012 18:51
|
|
|
spasticColon posted:My MSI HAWK GTX460 burned out...literally. I was having bluescreens while running games so I decided to run Heaven Benchmark while checking temps and there was a flash then a puff of smoke and there is a burn/scorch mark on the back of the video card. I put an old video card in the system to make sure there was nothing wrong with the rest of the system and it boots into Windows okay but I haven't run any games or put a load on it. So does that mean only the video card burned out? I don't need to worry about the rest of the system do I? There's no guarantees, having one component die due to an electrical fault can kill others. However, I have seen video cards die and the system continue on with a replacement. You may even be within the warranty period for an RMA on the card itself. If the system is working alright with a replacement card you might be lucky!
|
|
#
¿
Mar 8, 2012 23:10
|
|
|
Ra-amun posted:So I built a computer a few weeks ago, so it's still pretty new, but I've come across an annoying issue since I added another hard drive a couple days ago. I got it from somebody in SA-Mart and it works great aside from the weird problem. This is probably not it (as the rebooting to check overclock settings on boot is a likely cause), but double check that the power and reset switches aren't getting pressured somehow. I had an old case where the reset switch would randomly press itself, so the PC would randomly reboot while I was using it. That one was tough to figure out.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 10, 2012 15:25
|
|
|
Endymion FRS MK1 posted:I have a probably dumb question. I have an old PNY class 2 micro SD card and adapter. I am planning on buying a 16gb Pretect class 10 Micro SD card (no adapter): From this website: http://www.camerahacker.com/Digital/Inside_miniSD_Adapter.shtml it appears that the adapters are just pass through with no circuitry. Therefore, the adapters should work passively with all Micro SD cards.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 14, 2012 20:16
|
|
|
Roumba posted:I have these speakers where there is a bright blue LED light that is on when the speakers are on. While it's not an essential part of the circuitry inside the speaker, you would be messing with at least one powered circuit just destroying the LED. It's not a great idea to break it. The easiest fix will be to put some electrical or duct tape over the offending LED. You can even leave a little opening if you still want to see it a tiny bit. edit: oh if it's shining through the grille you might need to break it to stop all of the light, I guess. It's not a great idea but it might be okay.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 31, 2012 22:08
|
|
|
iceslice posted:I feel like this is a silly question but why does my Iomega 500gb portable harddrive have a dual-head usb cord? My first guess is that its for power consumption, but works fine if I just plug in one of the two. Is this for usb ports that don't supply enough power, or will it effect transfer speeds? I've only ever used the Firewire interface, but when I move it over to my HTPC I'm curious if there is any reason to free up two USB ports instead of one. It's for power. I've had those drives not work at all with unpowered hubs no matter how many plugs were plugged in, there was just a need for more current than was available. You should plug in the two USB connectors and then hook the drive up, instead of doing one at a time.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 2, 2012 00:39
|
|
|
himajinga posted:I have 2 case fans running off of a Y-splitter cable into a single 3-pin plug on my mobo. I want to get a speed controller because they're running at like 8k rpm all the time and sound like a goddamn jet engine. Can I just plug the controller in between the mobo and the Y-splitter and turn them both down simultaneously? It seems like it should work. It depends on the kind of controller you get. Most internal ones should be okay like this, but if you get one that sits in a 5.25" drive bay and has knobs or sliders, it will get power from a molex (standard internal power connector) and then give you 4-6 output power cables to run fans on. You could also check if your motherboard has support for internal fan speed throttling, it sounds like they're just going full speed the whole time so it's probably doesn't, but some can throttle the case fans based on the temps in the case automatically.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 2, 2012 23:03
|
|
|
himajinga posted:I tried playing around with the fan speed settings in the BIOS but it didn't seem to do anything, so I was thinking of just getting one of these. That should be fine.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 2, 2012 23:24
|
|
|
Stump Truck posted:I've been getting random BSODs every so often when playing BF3 (not all the time) and the file in question looks to be related to DirectX. I'm trying to fix it by doing an uninstall/clean install of my video card drivers using DriverSweeper. I've used it before, going into Safe Mode to sweep it, but this time I couldn't figure out how to get back in. I have an Asus P8Z68-V LX, and I tried pressing F8 at the post screen but it only asked me what drive to boot off of. I couldn't find an option for safe mode this time, even in my BIOS screen, so I ended up just using the msconfig boot menu to do it. Anyone have any ideas which button I'm not pushing? The key is F8 but you need to hit it right after the bios, when Windows just starts loading. F8 must be boot device selection in your bios, so hitting it too early gets you into that menu.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2012 00:48
|
|
|
Busy Bee posted:I have a question about replacing my Comcast Motorola modem. I replaced a rented modem with the SB6120. I'm not sure what changed from the 6120 to the 6121, but my 6120 has been fantastic so far, much better than the rented modem I had previously.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2012 07:34
|
|
|
Gothmog1065 posted:Most of the modems provided by cable providers are pieces of poo poo. I would call and verify that Comcast allows your own D3 modems (I know Time Warner Cable doesn't, as of this moment in time, but I think they're about to). Comcast has been rolling out DOCSIS 3.0, I'm not sure if it's implemented in every area yet but they have an approved list of modems, and it seems that like they like the 6121: http://mydeviceinfo.comcast.net/
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2012 08:45
|
|
|
lilcasino posted:Is there any use for DDR memory, I have a lot from upgrades. I hate to just throw them away. The only real use is as memory for older PCs, so you'd do best to either ebay it or donate it to someone who's using an older PC.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 11, 2012 20:15
|
|
|
CancerStick posted:There was thermal paste, just what was left over. They didn't send me a whole new heatsink, just a fan. I had to unscrew the old one from the heatsink and replace that. So, like I said, there was thermal paste, just not a fresh coating. Yeah, as you pull old thermal paste up, it will stick to the heat sink and the cpu, causing it to split unevenly in patterns that could trap and hold air bubbles. It will probably be okay short term but you really want to get some thermal paste and reapply it while remounting your HSF.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 14, 2012 22:47
|
|
|
CancerStick posted:Good deal. One last question. I use a little bit of paper towel with some rubbing alcohol and q-tips and try to get both sides fairly clean. The old paste is usually pretty goopy, so you're kind of wiping it off onto the paper towel, using the alcohol to get it more malleable. You can leave the CPU mounted to clean it, I don't like to remove them unless I really need to, but you only have to get the top clean (and maybe dab up any that went over the side with the q-tip. It doesn't have to be perfect, but you should be able to get most of the paste off. There may be some residue on the underside of your heatsink, usually due to the paste seeping into any tiny grooves in the metal, which is okay really. The rubbing alcohol will evaporate pretty fast and everything will be dry and ready to remount.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 14, 2012 23:15
|
|
|
Fruits of the sea posted:I found two 386 comnputers while doing some spring cleaning. Is there any demand for these systems, or should I just recycle them? Prices on Ebay seem surprisingly high, but somehow I doubt that they are actually flying off the shelves for those prices. The bent pin can be fixed pretty easily, or you can get a new cord if it's removable, as Lovie said. Unicomp sells them (http://pckeyboard.com/page/Cables/1395110) and there's a guy on ebay making new ones with inline USB converters, as well. Plenty of keyboard enthusiasts would be happy to just open it up and attach a new internal cable if it's not removable, too.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 23, 2012 05:32
|
|
Unfortunately the other keyboard has a bent AT connector, so I doubt anybody would actually want it.
|
lllllllllllllllllll posted:My laptops bright LED is annoying me for some time and today I feel like opening the case and simply cut the wires that power them. While I'm at it I'd like to do the same with my PC (unless it's possible to disconnect the power-on LED there of course). I guess this is safe and will not damage the unit otherwise? Thanks. I wouldn't cut active circuits in anything, you might be okay but you might not. You could try something like: http://www.lightdims.com/index.php although they're pricey for what they are (essentially a sticker of some kind). A small piece of electrical tape would probably work just as well. The Power LED can be disconnected on your desktop PC, it's going to be with the block of connectors on the bottom right somewhere. You can probably look up which one is which online, or pull the cable and look for the one that says Power LED. The others will usually be HD LED, Power Switch, Reset Switch, and Speaker.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 23, 2012 14:26
|
|
|
Schmendrick posted:I'm build a pc from scratch for my first time, and I'm going with The Dolphin spec. Would I be able to switch the Tera hard drive with the the 500gb hard drive? I ordered both of them by mistake, and I honestly don't need a Terabytes worth of space. Yes, you should be able to use any size hard disk without issue as long as you don't have more data than the size of the hard disk.
|
|
#
¿
May 2, 2012 13:24
|
|
|
Weinertron posted:So my UPS is coming up on 4 years old, and I'm in an area where it gets constant use because of constant power flickers and brownouts due to surrounding construction. If your UPS has been good to you, I'd just replace the batteries. I have about 5 UPSes due to bad power here and previous issues with storms, and I replace the batteries every few years. I've found that with a new battery the units act like they were new again, and for me the batteries have cost around half as much as a new unit. The 500VA and 650VA units I have use batteries that cost around $20, while the 1000 and 1200VA usually use two batteries that are in the $25 range. If you unit doesn't have voltage regulation you might consider a new one just because it's useful to have some power conditioning (mine click on to bump the voltage up when the AC runs or we get brown outs in the summer), but most of what manufacturers have added recently seems to be LCD panels on the front that you won't look at anyway.
|
|
#
¿
May 8, 2012 18:15
|
|
|
JohnnyCanuck posted:I have a hard drive that occasionally just stops being detected, both in Windows and by the BIOS. (I get "Sata Port 2 Not Ready".) It's only got my games/Steam on it, so if it died forver I'd be okay, but I'd still rather avoid that happening. CrystalDiskinfo returns a "good" status for the drive when it can be detected, so I guess my question is what other troubleshooting can/should I be doing? The first thing to do would be to check the cables and make sure they're secure. Not being detected usually means it's not getting power or not being recognized by the controller. I'm not sure why it would be intermittent, but one possibility is also that the SATA cable is bad or not well connected.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 5, 2012 06:52
|
|
|
Red Robin Hood posted:Going to cross post this. My pre-built used system I bought has plenty of space for my HDs but I need these screws! Any idea where I can pick them up for cheap? Those look like some kind of case-specific rail-screw hybrid things, so you'd probably have to look for them by searching by the name/manufacturer of the case. I haven't seen them before.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 12, 2012 20:53
|
|
|
RVProfootballer posted:Super dumb question. I noticed my Zenbook Prime is missing a case screw on the bottom. Is it likely a standard screw I can find easily or will I have to deal with Asus? I have never messed with hardware, so I don't know if these things are standardized or what or how to go about finding a simple part like this. Most screws are pretty standardized, but the little ones used in electronics can be hard to find at your local hardware shop simply due to the massive size differences. It's probably okay without one since usually there's a bunch of plastic clips also holding the case of laptops together, but if you're concerned than you could find a screw. You'd want to unscrew one of the others (they look like a torx bit, usually it's a T10 or T20 size on computer stuff), then find one that matches the shaft size and number of threads on the screw, which will be the more challenging part. The replacement doesn't need to be torx, but the size of the screw should match in every other way.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 3, 2012 19:46
|
|
|
Ragingsheep posted:Got a 965BE on a ASUS M4A87TD with 4GB of RAM in dual channel config (2 2GB sticks). I decided to pick up another 4GB but now that it's been delivered, I realise that I ordered a single 4GB stick rather than another 2 x 2. The brand and model are otherwise the same (Kingston KVR1333D3N9). I haven't worked with varying sizes of DDR3 myself, but it looks like it should work. The motherboard manual (here: http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=M4A87TD/USB3&p=1&s=24&os=30&hashedid=nlWYrI9wlNIYHAaa) suggests that you can use different amounts of memory in each channel, it will be able to use one channel as dual channel and one as single if they're different sizes (if I'm reading it right). So, you'd miss out on dual channel from the 4gb dimm which is a small performance hit, but it should work as long as the memory timing is the same otherwise. Here's a snip of the page in the manual (page 1-9): 
|
|
#
¿
Aug 8, 2012 13:36
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2024 17:01 |
|
|
Xergiez posted:Growing weary of my massive setup and want something portable. I'm going to be making a switch to a Macbook Air 13" but only if I can sell off my current computer to cover a large chunk of the cost. I've been trying to sell it locally for a few weeks now on Craigslist at $1000 and I really don't want to screw myself by lowering the price too much. Would someone please help me put a fair price on my build? Here are the specs: Selling it together you will probably not get as much as the parts are worth. Selling them all separately will get you closer to what they're worth used, but will take a lot more time and you may be stuck with a few odds and ends. To keep it together you're going to have to lower the price; the average consumer will see that as "2.67ghz, 8 gigs of ram, 300 gig HD, 1TB HD" which objectively looks bad compared to the average $500 shitbox from Best Buy, because the average consumer doesn't understand that a prebuilt system from compaq or dell has the cheapest internal components they can find. Someone who wants a gaming system might want a newer video card. Folks who know about PCs are probably not going to pay full price for used parts. I can't really give you an estimate but I'd look at some of the prices on ebay for the used parts, look at the cheapest buy it now figures, but realize you may have to come down a little because the cheapest ones are also the ones that aren't selling that fast if they've been up a while.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 21, 2012 03:14
|
|
