ZAZ
In the short term I'll probably go back to v2. Any better browser suggestions? Another non-negotiable requirement is the ability to turn off javascript.

I use Mozilla Seamonkey
While it uses a lot of the same code as Firefox, I prefer its user interface because it doesn't hide some settings as much from the (average) user as Firefox does.

Not being able to type filenames sounds like another thing that was done to dumb down the interface so the average user - usually scared of typing - won't be confused.

There are also a lot of extensions that still (or again) support both Seamonkey and Firefox - like, for example, adblock and noscript.

CPU question: Which is "better", a core 2 quad q6600, or a core 2 duo E8500? They are the same price, so maybe they're pretty much equal? I'm doing a lot of transcoding lately, plus some gaming, if those are important things to know.

gayb: CPU question: Which is "better", a core 2 quad q6600, or a core 2 duo E8500? They are the same price, so maybe they're pretty much equal? I'm doing a lot of transcoding lately, plus some gaming, if those are important things to know.

It really depends on what you do. For games, the E8500 will be better. For the transcoding, and anything involving video/audio editing, the Q6600 will be better. For most desktop stuff, you won't notice a difference, unless you're a very heavy multitasker.

The E8500 will run cooler and use less power. Personally, I'd go with the Q6600, but I'm a freak.

FuturePastNow: I'm a freak.

Thanks. I'm more of a mono-tasker, and thanks to my awesomely screwed up priorities, gaming strength gets the nod. Woo.

Mike: Yeah, depends on the apps you're running. My gaming box is an E8400. I have eight servers with Q6600's in 'em.

For transcoding I'd go quad, for gaming I'd go dual, unless the specific game scales to multicore well (many don't)

but some will. eventually. something to think about is when your next upgrade will be after this.

Is it just me, or is the Dreamhost FTP puckmuckled for anyone else?

TwistedIvory
It has been years since I've really diagnosed any computer problems so I'm very rusty. Would anyone care to hazard a guess?

First suspects: mainboard, power supply (and maybe, maybe CPU; I'm not quite sure anymore what my PC did after my Athlon turned into smoke due to me being an idiot).

First thing is to open the case and look where all that smoke comes from ;)
Well, if you lack the magical smoke, check if the CPU fan is working, if there are scorch marks or if a capacitor has grown fat.
Or remove the dead rat that's shortening pins on the PSU-mainboard connector.

General rambling:
With ATX, it's the mainboard that tells the power supply "dude, gimme some juice"; looks like your board can't make up its mind for some reason.
If you have a spare PSU, try that one in case it's not the board or any of the other components that has issues.

Wow, the internet looks so much different without all my adblock filters. But not better. Louder. How does anyone stand it? It's kind of nice to go back to unfiltered internet temporarily just so one can appreciate things like adblock.

Oh, and congratulate me on successfully installing my first RAID. It's raid-0. Someday, I hope to attempt a real array.

gayb: Wow, the internet looks so much different without all my adblock filters. But not better. Louder. How does anyone stand it? It's kind of nice to go back to unfiltered internet temporarily just so one can appreciate things like adblock.

I work in a small office, and still the twits at work won't let us install Firefox.

Web pages at work are always an experience. Wow.... is THAT what that web page really looks like?

geekybroad: I work in a small office, and still the twits at work won't let us install Firefox.

Bribe them. I got a tech to enter his admin credentials on a few installs for a $5 sandwich.

I don't understand it either - 2009's knocking on our door, there's a boatload of literature regarding the fundamental security flaws, and yet it's corporate policy to only use Internet Explorer 6.

Question about external mass storage devices and XP Pro.

Today I purchased a inexpensive portable media player, a Sylvania deal. It was about 60 dollars for a 4gb model.

After letting it charge I powered it down and plugged it into my computer to start putting files on it. I then unplugged and found that some files (which it advertises as being able to play) would not work. I intended to remove them because they appeared to cause the player to crash. I plugged it in and windows told me that it did not recognize the device. I plugged it into a different USB port, and it worked fine, until I unplugged it again. Now, windows simply will not recognize it plugged into any of my USB ports at all. I constantly get the error message and am invited to trouble shoot but I'm not getting anywhere. There are no drivers, it's supposed to be as simple as a drag and drop.

I was wondering if there was another trick to getting Windows to recognize that the folder is there for me to put the files in and to remove the files from. When it was working windows assigned it drive letters I: and J: (why two?) and now that it is not working windows is not assigning it any drive letters.

Fortunately, it has an expansion slot for microsd so I have my fingers crossed that worse comes to worse I just use the expansion slot and not the internal memory... but if I could use both it would be triple bonus word score.

...oh and it's still charging it via USB, and it's still recognizing that something is plugged in, but for some reason it's not letting me use it as a drive.

After trying all 12 of my computers USB ports I found one that after three tries worked again... so I'm pretty much going to put as much as I can on it while it's working... but still, if any of you have any advice for creating this volume so that it's always accessible, I am totally all ears.

No_47: buy a better one

Um, seconded. The crappiest media players I ever had always had problems syncing, but higher quality players never had any. You might want to check to see if the player has a USB mode or something, too. If it doesn't, get a real player from tigerdirect. Sansa doesn't make sh*t anymore--their early players were worthless, but I've got both 4gb and 8gb models (for super cheap), and they're rock solid.

You can get several gigabytes for only $10-$30.

Do I need to defrag the chunk of hard drive on an Intel dual-bootin' Mac that's filled with Windows XP?

N. S. Radieaux: Do I need to defrag the chunk of hard drive on an Intel dual-bootin' Mac that's filled with Windows XP?

If its formatted as FAT32 and not NTFS, yes you do.
You can do this by right clicking (control clicking) the Bootcamp partition (should be on your Mac desktop) and selecting Get Info. The file type should be listed under 'General' and next to Format.

No_47: buy a better one

I thought I could live with the difficulty in transferring files, but I could not live with the 1.5 hour battery life. I returned it and spent the money on an oil change. Somewhat anti-climactic if you ask me.

I just squeezed an extra 600MHz out of my Q6600, with the highest temps reaching about 47 degrees Celsius. I am one happy camper.

What games should I play?

Maddogjew: "What would Che have done".

Uh, overthrown Mike as the site admin, and then brutally murdered everyone who ever posted in the geek thread for being associated?

Monkeypillow: What games should I play?

I recommend SoF Payback. It's a bloody ass FPS that's surprisingly fun for a game over a year old. I played the original SoF in college instead of going to my classes, and still have fond memories of one of the Boobieso feature dismember-able bodies. Good family fun right there, let me tell you.

Far Cry 2 is interesting too. It's buggy and sometimes a little boring, but it's a great concept. I suspect there will be more games designed like that one in the future.

gayb: Far Cry 2 is interesting too. It's buggy and sometimes a little boring, but it's a great concept. I suspect there will be more games designed like that one in the future.

Dear god I hope not. If I wanted to have an Africa safari driving sim than I would have bought one. I have never experienced more boring gameplay than that game. It is worse than a billy mays infomercial. Don't get me wrong, it is a beautiful game but the gameplay is among the crappiest I have ever seen. Only play it if you can pirate it. Do not waste $50 on it.

Maddogjew: Do not waste $50 on it.

It was free. I like the sandbox-style of gameplay, not necessarily driving around for hours doing very little.

It's really satisfying to defeat some ridiculous DRM scheme, even when it's game that was purchased legally. I hardly ever play games off discs anymore. The effort it takes to replace a disc in the computer's optical drive to switch games is way too much of an effort for this lazy nerd. ...Uh, since no one asked.

No_47: If you steal PC games they will stop making them.

I remember that argument... from 1985. It's a shame that since I copied that floppy there have been no new games for the pc since then.

About to switch my parents' computer to a new case and install a video card that the company has abandoned (others have made updated drivers). Hope I don't screw anything up. Wish me luck.

//hai, hear for christmas, borked up your computer, going home now, k, thx, bye

That's true, but PC games have been in kind of a downward spiral for the last couple years, with the exception of MMOs and browsergames played by people in their 50s.

*cough*

So the reason I was going to switch my parents' computer to another (older) case was the On button rarely works (click, nothing). I had to kybosh that plan when I discovered the previous tech they took it in to took a whole bunch of stuff from the machine (including power supply and the drive bays). Bastard.

Then it occurred to me that I could switch just the PWRSW cord. The click button end would have to sit outside of the case as the end is different than the other. No big deal.

Still nada.

No matter which PWRSW cord is attached both have an audible click on the switch, but right after you can hear an audible click coming from the machine too. Um... yes the power cord is plugged in. The Ethernet card has a green light which is on, and it will flicker off then on whenever I poke the PWRSW button.

I notice too the red/data SATA cable connected to the HD is loose and comes off easily. Tried gently toying with that to no avail. Did not have a spare to try.

Tried hooking the alternate ribbon of power cable to the dvd burner/hd. The power cable has a SATA extension on it, but I didn't think to switch out that extension (doh).

Consensus? Borked motherboard, borked SATA cable, borked power supply? I checked other connections to the motherboard and everything *seems* to be in place.

Did I accidentally connect PWRSW to something I shouldn't have and fried it? Is it possible to do this if you hook it up on the wrong spot in the system panel header?

Anyway, want some ideas in case there is anything I could direct my parents to do before they take it in to someone else, or maybe give them an idea of what they can expect for repair. The live a few hours away from me and I don't head out there often.

I don't put together or toy around with innards often.

//http://download.asrock.com/manual/K8Upgrade-VM800.pdf

Thanks Mike

Alas, I am there no longer, but it's something I can convince my mother to check. Strangely enough, my Dad is still a luddite about these things.

--

Now for more computer shopping... need an inexpensive system, not a gamer. Some flavour of Linux will go on this baby
Intel kit or
AMD kit

From what I understand, Intel chips and WD drives have been nicer in the last couple years. AMD & Seagate = meh?

Sweet jeebus this is a lot of research if you've been out of the hardware-buying loop for a while. A lot of comparing going on, kind of like comparing gala to granny smith to macintosh apples for every freaking component. I'm leaning towards the Intel board with these goodies:

cpu fan
video card... uh, I think it was this one... stupid web page cache had expired (new window)

Other pieces (DVDRW..) will be added from my current machine.

//has learned to ask for help
//if I was too lazy to care these things would be much less stressful

Mike
I don't think there are any front panel things that can cause fryification if you plug 'em in the wrong spot.

Tell that to my mom's failing computer.
It's kinda difficult to diagnose (I'll spare you the strange details), but one thing that was clear is that one of the ancient hard drives might be giving up the ghost.

So I take my father's external 2.5" USB drive to back up mom's stuff just in case.
I connect it to the from panel USB port.
WHOMP!
The moment the plug touched the port, the PC's power was gone.
I hadn't even plugged it in yet, the metal of the plug and port only connected.

W-T-F

Oh. and geekybroad, regarding the on-switch issue:
My PC's case had a broken on-switch; I just switched the reset and power cables connecting to the motherboard so that the case's reset button became the de-facto power button and the old power button became the de-facto (broken) reset button.

The Voice of Doom
the from panel USB port.

Or rather: "the front panel's USB port."

Oh, this is what also confused me. There is a reset wire that is attached and leads to the front of the case, but no actual reset button on the case. Then I wondered if this is some sort of newfangled On button thing I don't know about.

As for Doom's issue, I thought USB's outer metal casing was exactly meant to be a ground? Shields all the goodies inside? Maybe a static charge jumped in the wrong spot or in a different area, regardless. Strange.

No_47
but that USB port... is it damaged in any way? sounds like a short

The popular theory is that there might have been a drop of water in it; the front panel connectors are barely an inch above the floor (great design choice..) and my mom had been moping the parquet the other day.
Or maybe the finger-thick layer of dust inside the case had something to do with it.

[long boring details]

..or there might be something wrong with the mainboard's USB; she uses a wireless USB stick connected to one of the ports in the back and the thing is occasionally losing connection with the router for no apparent reason.

..or it's something entirely else.
After all, it shut down for no apparent reason the night before while she was sitting on it (either the reason for or a consequence of the file system/hard disk issues chkdsk found).

And when I was tilting the opened case slightly to get a better look, a loud, steady, non-stopping whistling sound started.
Since I couldn't tell whether it was coming from one of the hard drives or the case speaker below them, I was lowering the case completely to the floor to be able to put my ears closer to the scene of the crime..

..but Idiot happened to gently lower it onto the off-switch of the power strip.
*facepalm*

[/long boring details]

Huh, my dad clickety-clicked the button until it worked (same as before). Don't want to guess how long that took. They'll just leave it on again.

Guess I'll try to find a spare power supply and drag it out there next time I'm going.

Hey fellas, where's a good site to get knowledgeable computer information from?

Anyway, how's this look for a new computer? This is my first time setting one up and I'm fairly sure I haven't added anything that's incompatible but it never hurts to check. I'd be getting this in the beginning of January. The only thing I'm not sure about is the power supply.
And I haven't picked the video card I want yet, almost forgot. It's one or the other, not both. Budget's around $1k.

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=14136147

Xinkz: http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=14136147


Pirate Vista so Microsoft stops making it.

For god's sake, at least give an easy (k/ubuntu) flavor of linux a try, even if you never boot into it a second time. Free. FREE!

Forgot to check your mobo, but if you get two of those 4850s (you'll need a crossfire-ready board), you'll get more explosion for your dollar than that single 260. But if a single card is your thing, the 260 will have slightly more horsepower. As you probably knew.