Most hard drive manufacturers have diagnostic tools on their websites

No_47: Know how to change the speaker settings in Windows?

Control Panel - > Sounds or something

Oh yeah, I did that, but it's still making the noise. I had to do that several times with my first Dell, because they insisted that it had to do with a speaker setting, turns out it was a faulty pile of crap computer.

another stupid question that won't be answered .... but what do i need to hook up the pc to the flatscreen tv?

crunchief: another stupid question that won't be answered .... but what do i need to hook up the pc to the flatscreen tv?

Depends on the PC and the TV.

Many hi def flatscreen TV's have an HDMI hookup just like a flatscreen monitor. Connect them with a cable and you're good to go... unless you have a TV tuner card in your computer, which I would have to assume that is quite a bit different (never done either of these though).

I have a TV which has S-Video out (it's an older CRT) and a lot of cards ship with an S-Video out port and card, so all I have to do is use an S-Video cable to connect the two (I've done this a lot, and the video quality is not so bueno).

Oh, turns out that it's a DVI to HDMI cable.

I specifically bought a TV with a VGA input.

TehNacho: Oh, turns out that it's a DVI to HDMI cable.

Heh. I bought a 24" monitor earlier this year. The box said HDMI and DVI... turned out to be an HDMI port on the monitor and a DVI-HDMI cable.

Oh well. It was a really good deal.

maybe i should have asked about a site that would explain the compatabilaties and connections and any cards i may need, i'm running win xp w/ p/4 proc. and the tv is panasonic 32"

Do you know what sort of video card you have and what sort of inputs the TV has?

Anyone know a gesture control app...thingy? IDK if it's even something you can do, but something that lets you use mouse gestures (pen gestures akshully) to open programs and stuff?

I wuv Vista's penflicks, but I only get 8 flicks

videocard = geoforce 6200 , the tv has both hdmi and s vdeo jacks

The 6200 should have an s-video out, if it's half decent it should have an adapter with it that lets you plug into composite and component.

You can also find DVI to HDMI adapters, or VGA to HDMI adapters.

A DVI -> HDMI cable should work nicely. That's what I use for a computer monitor, after all. If that doesn't work:

No_47: The 6200 should have an s-video out, if it's half decent it should have an adapter with it that lets you plug into composite and component.

Specifically, if the S-video out on the card only has four little holes, it really is S-video. If it is a 7 or 9 pin connector, you can plug in a break-out box thingy with component, composite, and S-video.



That one came with my 6600 card. I'm sure you can buy them separately if you search right.

the 6200 has a 4 pin svideo connector, i don't remember an adaptor but i have a boxful of stuff [ don't we all?] ok so the deal is this.... s video cable from card to tv with an adaptor if necessary, is there a length problem? 25 ft. would work fine for my purpose, also what is the loss of signal/length. buying a better video card in not an impossibility either.also we use the tv for shows also, so just unplug the s video from the card and my monitor works?

S-video on a hi-def TV is going to look like shiat. Are you sure the video card doesn't have a DVI port?

With s-video you'd be able to watch porn on it, but you wouldn't be able to use it as a screen.

so just unplug the s video from the card and my monitor works?

It should be able to run both at the same time.

Barakku: Anyone know a gesture control app...thingy? IDK if it's even something you can do, but something that lets you use mouse gestures (pen gestures akshully) to open programs and stuff?

I wuv Vista's penflicks, but I only get 8 flicks

FVWM2 has mouse gestures built into the interface, doesn't it?

It's a Linux window manager though, and not for Windows.

MusicMakeMyHeadPound: Barakku: Anyone know a gesture control app...thingy? IDK if it's even something you can do, but something that lets you use mouse gestures (pen gestures akshully) to open programs and stuff?

I wuv Vista's penflicks, but I only get 8 flicks

FVWM2 has mouse gestures built into the interface, doesn't it?

It's a Linux window manager though, and not for Windows.

I kinda figured it'd have to be OS based-Vista has enough gestures (8 flicks, and one to open the onscreen keyboard) but I kinda hoped there was something where I could put in my own gestures and associate them with apps, like ^^ ears for firefox or something...

Windows media player 10 is SUCH a piece of crap.

After 10 minutes of 'installing', the install came back with an error. Upon researching, I found a 'solution' that had me go into dos mode and mess with file permissions. After all that and trying to reinstall again, it still failed at the same point. Now, whenever I open a wmv file with firefox, a new window pops up with a title that says 'ActiveMovie Window' and even it doesent play the video. Researching THAT comes back with more bugs. Jesustapdancingchrist. n|n you MS. (my attempt at an ascii art middle finger.. I know, fail)

the video card does have a dvi port so what next?

nosajghoul: Windows media player 10 is SUCH a piece of crap.

After 10 minutes of 'installing', the install came back with an error. Upon researching, I found a 'solution' that had me go into dos mode and mess with file permissions. After all that and trying to reinstall again, it still failed at the same point. Now, whenever I open a wmv file with firefox, a new window pops up with a title that says 'ActiveMovie Window' and even it doesent play the video. Researching THAT comes back with more bugs. Jesustapdancingchrist. n|n you MS. (my attempt at an ascii art middle finger.. I know, fail)

I haven't used Windows Media Player in about five years.

VLC

MPC

crunchief: the video card does have a dvi port so what next?

You said you needed 25 feet?

So either a cable like this, or an adapter like this plus a 25' HDMI cable.

DVI and HDMI are the same video signal, they just have different connectors, and HDMI adds audio to the same cable. So if you want sound, you'll have to run a separate line from the sound card to the TV.

thanks FPN , should i just buy a card to carry the audio also if one is available? this is for gaming , spore/ doom/ myst... etc and the sound is important, will the resolution be adaquate? sorry sp. but it's not a big deal i can buy the parts i need to make this work, we have a w ii and like it and the spore game is ton's of fun . now about the separate sound line.... how do i tranfer the sound back to the computer speakers or does the tv have to be on to listen to the chatrooms or play a game while the wife is watching tv. i know how to split the video

There are video cards with HDMI ports, and most of them either can do audio pass-through or have a sound chip on them... I don't know if you can upgrade your computer, though. That depends on whether it has an AGP or PCI-express slot.

If it is PCIe, and you want to play games on the TV, then a new video card would probably be a good idea. A Geforce 6200 isn't going to run Spore at 1920x1080.

i didn't realize that the agp slot was so much faster as being a stand alone, so i bought a pci card. silly me, so now i have no problem upgrading to an agp card but which one is best to play the games .. please note we're talking around 300 $ total fix k?

crunchief: i didn't realize that the agp slot was so much faster as being a stand alone, so i bought a pci card. silly me, so now i have no problem upgrading to an agp card but which one is best to play the games .. please note we're talking around 300 $ total fix k?

Here are the AGP cards Newegg lists as having HDMI... although it looks to me like they just include the adapter I linked to earlier.

The cheapest one there, the 3650, ought to be several times more powerful than your 6200 and able to play Spore on a big screen. I think I'd probably spend more and get one of the 2600XT cards. Then you need to buy an HDMI cable separately.

nosajghoul: Windows media player 10 is SUCH a piece of crap.

After 10 minutes of 'installing', the install came back with an error. Upon researching, I found a 'solution' that had me go into dos mode and mess with file permissions. After all that and trying to reinstall again, it still failed at the same point. Now, whenever I open a wmv file with firefox, a new window pops up with a title that says 'ActiveMovie Window' and even it doesent play the video. Researching THAT comes back with more bugs. Jesustapdancingchrist. n|n you MS. (my attempt at an ascii art middle finger.. I know, fail)

Um didn't WMP go to 11 already? I didn't care for 10, but I haven't had any problems with 11

thanks fpn, look i'm not a serious gamer, i just wanted to know if it was possible to hook the pc up to the tv. after reading all the the comments on various cards i think the ice might be my best bet, i don't build computers from the ground up but i know how to upgrade my hardware [kind of . thats why i'm here]. there was alot of comments about drivers not working, i have time to find the correct one. also going to my puter manuf. website i don't see mine listed. they talked about an agp based mother board in the comments... mine is an off the shelf p/4. it has pci slots and one agp. then they were talking about a power supply issue. is this really relevant to my final outcome? i mean i could just get a larger monitor with the 6200 still working fine right?

crunchief: i mean i could just get a larger monitor with the 6200 still working fine right?

Yeah. A 6200 should be fine with a larger monitor, except for the 30" computer monitors with their 2560x1600 resolution.

Could I have your thoughts on the following situation please?

On the computer and technology section of a local forum that I read there is a discussion about somebody getting his comp infected with a virus/trojan called "W32/Sinowal-based!Maximus virus" (sic). Apparently this thing is responsible for over half a million compromised bank accounts

It turns out that of all the scanners and anti-virus products tested (33) only 2 (F-Prot and Authentium) could detect and remove it. As the discussion continues the moderator of the forum asks for it to be sent to him. Once he receives it he announces that he has infected a machine running Windows 2000 with it and then connected it to the internet to test the various on-line detection and removal tools.

Does it strike anyone else that deliberately connecting an infected machine with an 8 year old OS to the intertubes is a tad irresponsible if not downright stupid?

if there's no sensitive information on the PC, and he cleans it out every once and a while so it doesn't become a bot, who cares?

security people do this all the time, it's called a honeypot.

Why?

The internet is just a series of tubes you can dump a whole bunch of infected PCs into. I'm not sure if there's any reason to worry about the health of the internet itself.

Unrelated question: how can I make my home theater pc do stuff remotely? Say from my laptop. Like... play music and stuff out of the music system the HTPC is connected to. Does what I want to do make sense? The laptop and the HTPC are network connected. I dual boot both with ubuntu and xp, but end up spending most of my time in XP, for gaming. Any ideas?

fpn, i didn't make lite of all the help and directions/links you gave me, nor did i try to opt out of an upgrade to my system. all i wanted to know was what was entailed to do the pc/tv link. i have alot of info thanks to you and others. if i was to upgrade my monitor to a 30" i might as well just rebuild from the ground up. i have an 18" monitor now and all the games run fine. upgrade to a 24"?, maybe and i know i'll lose frs. with the 6200. as for buying a $150 card and a 30' cable at around $250 for the pc/tv link, it's still an option.i'm still kinda at a loss about an agp based system. as i said before mine has only one agp slot. i was told that the agp was faster because it is a stand alone bus. there is no pci e slot on the board. this s a work in progress and i want to be sure i do it close to right the 1st time

gayb: Any ideas?

VLC

crunchief: fpn, i didn't make lite of all the help and directions/links you gave me, nor did i try to opt out of an upgrade to my system. all i wanted to know was what was entailed to do the pc/tv link. i have alot of info thanks to you and others. if i was to upgrade my monitor to a 30" i might as well just rebuild from the ground up. i have an 18" monitor now and all the games run fine. upgrade to a 24"?, maybe and i know i'll lose frs. with the 6200. as for buying a $150 card and a 30' cable at around $250 for the pc/tv link, it's still an option.i'm still kinda at a loss about an agp based system. as i said before mine has only one agp slot. i was told that the agp was faster because it is a stand alone bus. there is no pci e slot on the board. this s a work in progress and i want to be sure i do it close to right the 1st time

No, it's OK. Your 6200 should be OK for connecting to a TV to watch videos and stuff.

I would go with a DVI to HDMI adapter and an HDMI cable. A 30' cable ought to be about $30-$40 online. It really ought to be as simple as plugging the adapter into the card and connecting the cable to the TV.

fpn, so now back to square 1. i do want to play quake/ doom /myst / spore etc. on the tv.this is not a porn upgrade. upgrading the video card...not a problem. 30' hdmi cable... not a problem. in the ratings some purchasers said you need a bigger power supply , some said no. they also said the card ran hot even with the onboard fan.there was also a driver issue that looked like there was no support from hmi. i really just feel like going out and buy the stuff and see if it works. but if a p4 motherboard won't handle the load then what is the point?i could find a local guy around here i suppose and have him give me a hand but it seems real basic to me: adequate card, high end cable. i have a soundblaster audiocard so even if the sound isn't from the tv, np. soin essence can i turn this off the shelf pc into a gamer [of med -high satisfaction] or just screw it... buy a new pc devoted to what i want. again i'm not a hardcore gamer i just thought the bigger picture would be fun

Man, I don't know. Beyond a certain point, it's just not worth it to keep upgrading an old computer.

I will say that the cheaper cards in the group I linked to- the 2600 and 3600 cards- shouldn't cause any power supply problems. They should also be able to handle relatively un-demanding games like Spore and old games like Quake on a 1080p TV.

np and thanks , i have a direction to go in at least.my stepson had a hdmi cable so i'm just gonna hook that up 1st and go from there

Hey guys, possibly a strange spot to ask but where's a good site to absorb knowledge and ask questions about computer components?

Xinkz: Hey guys, possibly a strange spot to ask but where's a good site to absorb knowledge and ask questions about computer components?

anandtech.com

bit-tech.net

What's bigger, a Roomba or a Simon?

Man On Fire: Xinkz: Hey guys, possibly a strange spot to ask but where's a good site to absorb knowledge and ask questions about computer components?

anandtech.com

bit-tech.net

techreport.com is also good. They have a good forum.

I know it's a shot in the dark being Friday on thanksgiving weekend, but here's my woes.

I bought a new SATA HDD (1 TB) for my desktop (AMD Athlon 64 3700+). I ran the install on the live cd for Ubuntu 8.10 (64 bit) and when it came to the partitions, it listed absolutely nothing. I'm booting Windows from a separate HDD (200 GB) and Gparted on the live cd didn't find this partition either.

On the other hand, Partition Magic for in Windows found both hard drives. Any ideas? TIA

I unplugged the SATA cables and plugged em back in, started up the live cd again and it recognized the partitions. Who knows what went wrong. Feel free to ignore these posts :)

I have a printer question;

We just bought a stupid cheap printer on black friday, and I'd like to share it between our two computers... assuming I can get it to install on my machine without using the shiatty proprietary HP software... I just want to use the drivers and none of the "zomfg buy moar ink!"... anywho the question is;

Is there a device that I can plug into the Gigabit switch these two computers share which will allow me to plug in this USB printer to my network to share it, or will I have to move the USB cable all the time?

The printer does not have an ethernet port. I am also well aware of the stupidity of buying a printer on sale which I will have to buy extra hardware for, so please be kind and don't point this out.

TehNacho: I have a printer question;

We just bought a stupid cheap printer on black friday, and I'd like to share it between our two computers... assuming I can get it to install on my machine without using the shiatty proprietary HP software... I just want to use the drivers and none of the "zomfg buy moar ink!"... anywho the question is;

Is there a device that I can plug into the Gigabit switch these two computers share which will allow me to plug in this USB printer to my network to share it, or will I have to move the USB cable all the time?

The printer does not have an ethernet port. I am also well aware of the stupidity of buying a printer on sale which I will have to buy extra hardware for, so please be kind and don't point this out.

Yes. What you're looking for is called a USB Print Server. Here's an example of one that I've used in the past DLink Print Server (new window). Of course, your milage may vary, you will want to consult the manual to make sure your printer type is supported. Also any multi-function things won't work-just printing.

Fenis-Wolf: TehNacho: I have a printer question;

We just bought a stupid cheap printer on black friday, and I'd like to share it between our two computers... assuming I can get it to install on my machine without using the shiatty proprietary HP software... I just want to use the drivers and none of the "zomfg buy moar ink!"... anywho the question is;

Is there a device that I can plug into the Gigabit switch these two computers share which will allow me to plug in this USB printer to my network to share it, or will I have to move the USB cable all the time?

The printer does not have an ethernet port. I am also well aware of the stupidity of buying a printer on sale which I will have to buy extra hardware for, so please be kind and don't point this out.

Yes. What you're looking for is called a USB Print Server. Here's an example of one that I've used in the past DLink Print Server (new window). Of course, your milage may vary, you will want to consult the manual to make sure your printer type is supported. Also any multi-function things won't work-just printing.

Awesome. Quintuple word score. But unfortunately this is a multifunction dealy deal... mebbe knowing what to look for now I can google and find something that will do multi-function.

Surprisingly enough I managed to get it working with what I have- I just power it down and swap out the USB cables for the time being (the computers are set up, for now, for this to be easier than buying more stuff)... I tried installing just the minimum of drivers also, but I'm not sure if it's going to work, it looks like automatic updates are always on (which is weird because I was able to shut if off on the full install I did on my wife's machine)... but now I keep hearing the "doo... doo doo doo" of windows telling me something is being hooked up or not hooked up. It's not plugged into my machine right now... should I try to figure out what is causing this or just shut off that noise in the audio properties menu?

/and then, even though the computer was turned off and unplugged, the windows logo still appeared brightly on the monitor.
//that's not scary.
///it is if you're a laser printer.

TehNacho: //that's not scary.
///it is if you're a laser printer.

Hey now.