.Custom Computer's.'s topics - tribe.net

EIDE to SATA -ouch

Zippi — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:06:12 GMT

Long story short:
I got a new SATA drive but, my OS is on an EIDE drive.
They don't work and play well together.

Tale of drunkeness and cruelty to follow.

-**************************************************
The System in question:
** new mobo. Asus M4A78-Pro.
**XP Pro (32 bit) SP3
**Got the Snazzy Corsair Dominator 6gig memory chipset (damn fan is squeaky at start up) Only 3.25 gig shows Hey, it's windows wha-da-ya-want?
**Got the AMD Phenom II X3 720
**Got the ASUS Lion Square cooler 'cause the Retailer told me the CPU was "black box" and didn't come with a heat sink. Never Trust a retailer. They never know what they are talking about. It came with a heat sink and fan.
(I may use the Lion Square to cool a Peltier TEC on my Beer Wort Cooling device. )
**LSP ultra 750 watt power supply
** slick black Elite case with a neat-O blue LED Power-On indicating light that can blind you.

******Skip to the end to leap frog over the problems and Fixes I had to complete this build.*****

Problems and Fixes f getting this mobo up and running
-********************************************************************-
First I had trouble getting the sound to work ( the mobo has sound built in) .

The Fix:
This problem is caused by a missing file in XP and has nothing to do with the hardware or the Realtek audio driver. Each time you boot XP it will detect new hardware and request you to install the Microsoft UUA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio. To fix the problem you have to request the hotfix for KB888111.

Click the following link then click where it says View and request hotfix downloads at the top left of the article next to the tools icon.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888111/

Don't bother reading the KB888111 article as that is not particularly helpful. It says that the hotfix is for XP SP1 and SP2 but it works fine with SP3.

When you have requested the hotfix you will be sent an email with a download link to download the hotfix. The hotfix is a self extracting cabinet so double click the file to unzip the contents. You need to enter a password and the password is in the email sent from Microsoft along with the hotfix attachment.

Extract the hotfix & find some directories. They are named for various languages. For English, select the directory named US (or whatever your language).

Open the directory titled US: inside find a directory titled “x86fre.”
In that are 4 self-extracting cab files.
Two of them are titled “kb888111sp1” -&- “kb888111sp2”
The last three characters of the file name denote which Service pack they are relevant to Select accordingly. ( SP3 users: select the SP2 file)

DO NOT double click the cab file~!!
Unzip only.
This because you ain’t going to install the HOTFIX.
All you want are the Cab Files and their data.

When you unzip the Cab files look for a directory titled “commonfiles.” and inside this find the files needed to install the missing Microsoft UUA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio.

Reboot XP
It will detect new hardware
IT will ask for system file “HDAUDBUS”
point to the commonfiles directory where the missing file is.
XP will install the file and that’s all she wrote..

-**-********************************************************************-

Then I had trouble with my Printer.
I have two the big dog is an HP laserjet 5 It's a workhorse.
It needs a parallel port. The MoBo hasn't got one.

I went to StarTech and did a pre-sales inquiry told them everything I has what I wanted to do etc.
The PCI parallel port card PCI1P which they recommended totally sucked. It couldn't even get Times New Roman to print right from Word and failed entirely to read PDFs.

Then I tried Perle Systems. I did the pre-sales inquiry; they recommended their SPEED1 LE1P Serial/Parallel Card.
The Perle was the ticket~!!
The Perle card prints PDFs substantially faster than I used to be able from the older mobo.
-*******************************************************************

************~!!~TO THE POINT~!!~***********
*************~!!~the EIDE to SATA issue~!!~*********

When I built the box I had a rather brand new WD 80 Gig EIDE hard drive.
I did not have a SATA drive.
I had an older near extinction WD EIDE 40 Gig drive too
So which drive do you guess I installed and used for my OS?

Yipper. the 80 Gig EIDE.

Recently I ordered a 500 Gig SATA from Western Digital.

With the usual excitement or boredom ( take your pick) I installed it and ZIP NUTHIN NADA ~!!!
I CAN'T FIND MY NEW SATA DRIVE~!!!
I even tried jumpering it - ha ha SATA's don't need jumpers.
Well it is not exactly correct to say I can't find the SATA Hard Drive.
I can find the drive in the BIOS and I can find the drive in my Device Manager.
And with the cover off I can see it with my eyes.

Ain't technology grand?

So what to do?
How do I migrate my OS to a SATA drive when I can't even see the SATA drive?
How do I boot the PC without the OS? I don't have a floppy drive.
When I built my box I couldn't find a SATA floppy drive for sale.
I could put the OS disk in the CD drive.

Do I need to take the old MBR from the 80 Gig EIDE drive and overwrite that onto the 500 Gig SATA?
Will that even work? Will I ruin my SATA?

Al of this os complicated by the fact of my antivurus/ firewall/bag-O-bolts being Symantec's 360 which is no longer available VIA the Digital River link 'cause they only keep it up for a year.

All my searching has told me that so long as an EIDE drive is set up as the primary with the OS on it you can't get a SATA drive up.
Oh great.

SO then what?
I ordered a VANTEC, IDE to SATA interface for $15.00
It's supposed to make it all better.
Yah I bet.

Any one had this odd confluence of events? OS on an IDE and transferring to a SATA system?

Can I make an Image of my drive in Norton Ghost (Ver 14) and install that onto the SATA drive?
Could it possibly be that easy and simple?
Some how I rather suspect that it'll cause a nuke-you-ler explosion.

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 1 reply

Just installed "IDENTITY CLOAKER" Trial version

Zippi — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:42:49 GMT

And turned it on and selected the proxy and went off to a couple of sites that purport to test my PC's security

The program didn't fool any one.
I mean it totally failed:
One site reported my ISP's IP and another reported my IP that I get when I type "ipconfig/all" in a CMD dialog window.

I get better anonymous surfing from those free sites where you plug in the URL and visit.

This is totally fukin worthless. I ain't givin this bozo a dime.

http://www.identitycloaker.com/

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 0 replies

ASUS M4A78 Pro Main board

Zippi — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:12:17 GMT

My stuff came in so I set about to build:

If you get this main board maybe this post will help you:

The front panel connection pins are poorly marked.
If your power LED requires polarity ( mine does) you gotta put the green (+) wire on the far left pin.

The 4 pin speaker connector is not marked at all but it's sort of obvious when you get the rest in.

Zip Zoom will tell you that the AMD X3 720 ( what I got) is a black box edition and does not have a cooler.
It has a cooler. They are idiots.

Taking Zip Zoom at their word I also ordered the ASUS CPU cooler.
Asus sells a CPU cooler called the LOIN SQUARE and it's a big beast of a cooler. It comes with a bunch of heavy mounting hardware. The mounting hardware requires four holes in the main board.

Those holes are not installed in the ASUS main board.

Nice trick that: the ASUS CPU Cooler for over clockers can't be installed on the ASUS main board made for over clockers~!!!!

I also got the Corsair Dominator 4 gig memory.
It's got it's own little coolling fan kit that has three little fans that blow air over the radiating fins of the memory modules.

That ASUS Lion Square CPU cooler (if I can ever get it to mount) interferes with the Corsair cooler to the tune of about 3/16 of an inch. That's not a huge issue issue, I could trim the fins that interfered - but I can't mount the cooler on the board.

I'm asking ASUS it it is safe to let that monster depend from the itty bitty cooler Clamp that comes with most heat sinks. I think it's too much weight in a static load .
I'll see what the engineers say. The same engineers who designed a board that wouldn't take their own Cooler

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 5 replies

Making deleted data forever unrecoverable

Zippi — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:20:42 GMT

Can Intelligence Agencies Read Overwritten Data? A response to Gutmann.

Claims that intelligence agencies can read overwritten data on disk drives have been commonplace for many years now. The most commonly cited source of evidence for this supposed fact is a paper (Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory) by Peter Gutmann presented at a 1996 Usenix conference. I found this an extraordinary claim, and therefore deserving of extraordinary proof. Thanks to an afternoon at the Harvard School of Applied Science library I have had a chance to examine the paper ( http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/sec96/full_papers/gutmann/index.html ) and many of the references contained therein.

Of course, modern operating systems can leave copies of " deleted" files scattered in unallocated sectors, temporary directories, swap files,remapped bad blocks, etc, but Gutmann believes that an overwritten sector can be recovered under examination by a sophisticated microscope and this claim has been accepted uncritically by numerous observers. I don't think these observers have followed up on the references in Gutmann's paper, however.

Gutmann explains that when a 1 bit is written over a zero bit, the "actual effect is closer to obtaining a .95 when a zero is overwritten with a one, and a 1.05 when a one is overwritten with a one". Given that, and a read head 20 times as sensitive as the one in a production disk drive, and also given the pattern of overwrite bits, one could recover the under-data.

The references Gutmann provides suggest that his piece is much overwrought. None of the references lead to examples of sensitive information being disclosed. Rather, they refer to experiments where STM microscopy was used to examine individual bits, and some evidence of previously written bits was found.

There is a large literature on the use of Magnetic Force Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (MFM or STM) to image bits recorded on magnetic media. The apparent point of this literature is not to retrieve overwritten data, but to test and improve the design of drive read/write heads. Two of the references (Rugar et al, Gomez et al) had pictures of overwritten bits, showing parts of the original data clearly visible in the micro-photograph. These were considered by the authors as examples of sub-optimal head design. The total number of bits seen was 6 in one photo and 8 in the other. Neither photo-micrograph was a total success, because in one case only transitions from one to zero were visible, and in the other case one of the transitions was ambiguous. Nevertheless, I accept that overwritten bits might be observable under certain circumstances.

So I can say that Gutmann doesn't cite anyone who claims to be reading the under-data in overwritten sectors, nor does he cite any articles suggesting that ordinary wipe-disk programs wouldn't be completely effective.

I should qualify that last paragraph a "bit". I was unable to locate a copy of the masters thesis with the tantalizing title "Detection of Digital Information from Erased Magnetic Disks" by Venugopal Veeravalli. However a brief visit to his web page shows that this was never published, he has never published on this or a related topic (his field is security of mobile communications) and his other work does not suggest familiarity with STM microscopes. So I am fairly sure he didn't design a machine to read under-data with an "unwrite" system call. In an email message to me Dr. Veeravalli said that his work was theoretical, and studied the possibility of using DC erase heads. [Since writing this paragraph the paper has been posted. It is indeed theoretical but has quantitative predictions about the possibility of recovering data with varying degrees of erasure. There isn't any suggestion that ordinary erase procedures would be inadequate].

Gutmann claims that "Intelligence organisations have a lot of expertise in recovering these palimpsestuous images." but there is no reference for that statement. There are 18 references in the paper, but none of the ones I was able to locate even referred to that possibility. Subsequent articles by diverse authors do make that claim, but only cite Gutmann, so they do not constitute additional evidence for his claim.

Gutmann mentions that after a simple setup of the MFM device, that bits start flowing within minutes. This may be true, but the bits he refers to are not from from disk files, but pixels in the pictures of the disk surface. Charles Sobey has posted an informative paper "Recovering Unrecoverable Data" with some quantitative information on this point. He suggests that it would take more than a year to scan a single platter with recent MFM technology, and tens of terabytes of image data would have to be processed.

In one section of the paper Gutmann suggests overwriting with 4 passes of random data. That is apparently because he anticipates using pseudo-random data that would be known to the investigator. A single write is sufficient if the overwrite is truly random, even given an STM microscope with far greater powers than those in the references. In fact, data written to the disk prior to the data whose recovery is sought will interfere with recovery just as must as data written after - the STM microscope can't tell the order in which which magnetic moments are created. It isn't like ink, where later applications are physically on top of earlier markings.

After posting this information to a local mailing list, I received a reply suggesting that the recovery of overwritten data was an industry, and that a search on Google for "recover overwritten data" would turn up a number of firms offering this service commercially. Indeed it does turn up many firms, but all but one are quite explicit that they can recover "overwritten files", which is quite a different matter. An overwritten file is one whose name has been overwritten, not its sectors. Likewise, partitioning, formatting, and "Ghosting" typically affect only a small portion of the physical disk, leaving plenty of potential for sector reads to reveal otherwise hidden data. There is no implication in the marketing material that these firms can read physically overwritten sectors. The one exception I found (Dataclinic in the UK) did not respond to an email enquiry, and they do not mention any STM facility on their web site.

A letter from an Australian homicide investigator confirms my view that even police agencies have no access to the technology Gutmann describes.

Of course it has been several years since Gutmann published. Perhaps microscopes have gotten better? Yes, but data densities have gotten higher too. A hour on the web this month looking at STM sites failed to come up with a single laboratory claiming it had an ability to read overwritten data.

Recently I was sent a fascinating piece by Wright, Kleiman and Sundhar (2008) who show actual data on the accuracy of recovered image data. While the images include some information about underlying bits, the error rate is so high that it is difficult to imagine any use for the result. While the occasional word might be recovered out of thousands, the vast majority of apparently recovered words would be spurious.

Another fact to ponder is the failure of anyone to read the "18 minute gap" Rosemary Woods created on the tape of Nixon discussing the Watergate breakin. In spite of the fact that the data density on an analog recorder of in the 1960s was approximately one million times less than current drive technology, and that audio recovery would not require a high degree of accuracy, not one phoneme has been recovered.

The requirements of military forces and intelligence agencies that disk drives with confidential information be destroyed rather than erased is sometimes offered as evidence that these agencies can read overwritten data. I expect the real explanation is far more prosaic. The technician tasked with discarding a hard drive may or may not have enough computer knowledge to know if running the command "urandom >/dev/sda2c1" has covered an entire disk with random data, or only one partition, nor is it easy to confirm that it was done. How would you confirm that the overwrite was not pseudo-random? Smashing the drive with a sledgehammer is easy to do, easy to confirm, and very hard to get wrong. The GPL'ed package DBAN is an apparent attempt to address this uncertainty without destroying hardware. Hardware appliances with similar aims include the Drive Erazer" and the Digital Shredder.

Surveying all the references, I conclude that Gutmann's claim belongs in the category of urban legend.

Or it may be in the category of marketing hype. I note that it is being used to sell a software package called "The Annililator".

An updated copy of this memo will be kept at http://www.nber.org/sys-admin/overwritten-data-gutmann.html. Additional information may be sent to feenberg at nber dot org.

Daniel Feenberg
National Bureau of Economic Research
Cambridge MA
USA
21 July 2003
24 March 2004 (revised)
22 April 2004 (revised)
14 May 2004 (revised)

"Magnetic force microscopy: General principles and application to longitudinal recording media", D.Rugar, H.Mamin, P.Guenther, S.Lambert, J.Stern, I.McFadyen, and T.Yogi, Journal of Applied Physics, Vol.68, No.3 (August 1990), p.1169.

"Magnetic Force Scanning Tunnelling Microscope Imaging of Overwritten Data", Romel Gomez, Amr Adly, Isaak Mayergoyz, Edward Burke, IEEE Trans.on Magnetics, Vol.28, No.5 (September 1992), p.3141.

Wright, C.; Kleiman, D, & Sundhar S. R. S.: (2008) "Overwriting Hard Drive Data: The Great Wiping Controversy". ICISS 2008: 243-257 http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1496285 . See also a summary at http://sansforensics.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/overwriting-hard-drive-data/

http://www.nber.org/sys-admin/overwritten-data-gutmann.html

and more info here:
http://www.h-online.com/news/Secure-deletion-a-single-overwrite-will-do-it--/112432
http://www.springerlink.com/content/408263ql11460147/
http://sansforensics.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/overwriting-hard-drive-data/
http://www.mobile-computing-news.co.uk/tag/toshiba-overwrite-all-sectors-of-hard-drive

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 2 replies

64-bit Question

Xander — Thu, 07 May 2009 19:52:24 GMT

I just did a clean install of Windows XP Pro x64 on my home computer and, after a bit of a wrestling match, got all the drivers working, everything humming, etc...

Might be late in the game to ask this question, but will the extra RAM I will be able to have the OS recognize be used by 32 bit applications or is it "invisible" to them? I know my 64 bit apps can use it, but say, if I am running 5 of the 32 bit apps, will they only be able to see up to 3.22Gb or RAM and then start using the paging file?

AD

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 7 replies

Buillding a new box

Zippi — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 18:59:32 GMT

I've been surfing for pricing and dam,n if this isn't about the best I can get.
http://sysbuilder.com/mbbundles/amdathlon64am2asus.htm
They include memory and assembly and a bench test.

Any one know a better source?

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 3 replies

Hiding the IP

Zippi — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 14:40:22 GMT

What does this actually do? ( http://www.hide-my-ip-address.com/hideip/?pu=false )

Yes the IP is a number that identifies my computer but I can get the IP to change by unplugging my modem overnight and poof there's a different one.

Is there really such a thing as total anonymity? Wouldn't I need my own main network server and a ghosted satellite link-up to have a real anonymous internet presence?

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 2 replies

Computer Cases that run off 12v batteries

Bearterrible — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:10:27 GMT

I need to build a PC that can be powered of 12V batteries, but would like to avoid the whole 12V via inverter to mains into PC method.

Looking for brand names of such cases and motherboards that will run off DC batteries. Prefer not embedded products as I really need a generic PC, rather than a specialised logging device, etc.

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 0 replies

Trying & failing to run legacy DOS or Win95

Zippi — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:55:45 GMT

I have a smaller 6-gig drive upon which I wanted to run a legacy program. That legacy program wants DOS, native or that which is available under Win95 will do. I own licensed copies of both.

I used my boot disk for DOS 6.22 to start the computer (& not some boot disk from Win98 cause the dos is different and not downward compatible).

The drive got an FDISK and I formatted it.

When I try to load the Dos 6.22 ( not run but load) I get an error message that says that the program is too big for the memory.
That's not an accurate error message. The RAM memory is One Gig. So there's plenty. And it's only DOS 6.22. I used to run that on a 450 Meg hard drive with a whole Meg of memory . Woo Hoo~!!

While attempting to run ( after a successful load) Win95 I get an error message that says:

"Insufficient memory to initialize windows.
quit one or more memory resident programs or remove unnecessary utilities from your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files, and restart your computer

Press any key to continue . . . "

And then the system shuts off when I hit any key.

There is no autoexec or config file. There is a COMMAND.COM file which I renamed to take it out of the loop. When I tried to re-boot after that, the system offered the "6 boot options" ranging from "SAFE MODE" to "SAFE MODE COMMAND PROMPT ONLY"

In SAFE MODE or BOOTLOGGED it presents me the same error message.
In BOOTLOGGED
It fails when I respond YES to the message:
"Load all Windows Drivers [Enter=Y, Esc=N] ?"

I am thinking that I may have a hardware problem.

Will DOS and Win95 run on a newer power supply type mother board? The type that shuts down based on a software command?

What are the RAM thresholds that may be difficult for DOS and Win95 to live with~? Should I yank a memory card?

Any ideas?

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 4 replies

Broad-spectrum freeware system monitoring utility

Xander — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:26:16 GMT

I have been downloading various freeware and proprietary (but free with purchase of component) monitoring utilities for stats of my new system.

Anyone have a link to a one-stop total computer monitoring freeware that will give me all the vital components to monitor my system?

Cheers,

Alex

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 6 replies

OS Transfer Problems

Xander — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:34:58 GMT

Good Morning,

I recently got all my equipment for my new rig and put it together last night.

Last night I:

1. Installed my old IDE drive from my old comp into the new comp.
2. Installed my new, empty SATA drive
3. Installed one of my old DVD drives into the new rig so I can load discs that came with the different components of the new system.

Result:

1. Started the comp up, got a message that said my CPU config had changed and went to set-up.
2. Tried to change BIOS settings to accommodate new setup.
3. FAILED - Comp eventually would power off before I could even get into the BIOS each time I cranked her up.

Concerns:

1. Is the old IDE hardrive and the OS on it "locked" to the old cpu and MOBO?
2. New MOBO has only one IDE slot (I'm used to one for CD and one for HDs) I have the old IDE HD on the same IDE cable as the DVD player. Is this bad form?
3. Am I screwed?

Anybody have any tips on this?

I am planning on flashing the BIOS when I get home to (hopefully) stop the restarting issue so I can get things straight in the BIOS.

Attempted to boot from the old IDE drive in order to ghost to the new one using Seagate's utilities.

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 3 replies

Top Twelve Vista Tweaks

Xander — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:10:52 GMT

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTMyNywyLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

I could have narrowed this list down to one tweak...

"Uninstall Vista"

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 1 reply

Monitors

Xander — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:23:31 GMT

I had gotten a free 19" LCD from someone and it frazzled recently. It was given to me because it was frazzling for him and I was just able to patch it up for a while, but I think it is on its way out.

Any recommendations on a good 19 - 22' widescreen LCD monitor?

I found a few candidates but word of mouth is best.

I guess a less than 5ms response and I found out today that contrast ratio is shite (for the most part).

Who has a brand loyalty they want to scream about?

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 2 replies

if everyone's flash work was this good~!!

Zippi — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:04:40 GMT

http://www.butagumi.com/shabuan/

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 0 replies

Got it going.

Xander — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 03:14:56 GMT

The rig is up and going.

WinXP SP2
Intel E6750 Core 2 Duo 2.66 Ghz
Asus P5N-D SLi 750 SLI MOBO
4Gb Gskill DDR2 RAM
1 8600 GT XXX 256 MB DDR3 Ram Video Card

I aint overclocking a thing!!!

I was showing temps of 140F when taxing the CPU and I don't want to risk frying 200 bucks worth of CPU. I'm using stock cooling and may consider upgrading... Who knows.. Right now I just am elated putting all my favorite Open Source doftware on it and seeing the difference this Proc and GPU make on some of my old standard games. Civ 4 is smoking fast!!! (I am not an extreme gamer).

Thank you folks for your advice and input.

Any idea on how to cool this puppy down? I have 1 200mm fan and 3 120s in the case along with the cpu fan. They are all running on high.

Well, maybe I am hoping for the moon.

AD

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 0 replies

My potential new rig

Xander — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:59:30 GMT

I have there is my cart at New egg and am ready to do the buying.

Anyone care to chime in?

HARD DRIVE: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

GPU: XFX PVT84JUDD3 GeForce 8600GT XXX 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card

MEMORY: G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBP

MOTHERBOARD: ASUS P5N-D LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard

PROCESSOR: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E6750

CASE: Rosewill R6AR6-BK 0.8mm SECC 120mm Fan ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

FAN: Rosewill RD550N-2DC-SL-SLV ATX Form Factor 12V V2.2 / SSI standard EPS 12V 550W Active PFC Power Supply - SLI Ready

I already have a DVD writer to add in and I think i may strip the card reader from my Compaq.

Anyhoo... does anyone see a problem in the config I'm getting?

The CPU comes with stock cooling and the reviews says it works... do CPUS usually coem with soem kind of thermal grease, or should I order that?

714.44 after shipping and all...

Sound good?

Thank in advance for the input.

Cheers,

Alex

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 7 replies

Video Cards

Xander — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 21:23:50 GMT

I am gonna build a new rig and want to make it capable of playing some of the newer games out there.

I am not so much into ultra-high end gaming, but I want something that has pep.

I was thinking of getting a SLI-capable motherboard and getting one video card and then add the second at a later date, so the video card must be pretty good to begin with.

I have narrowed the field down to a 7000 series or 8000 series, but that is where my understanding of GPUs kinda falls short.

GT, GTS, GTX... its pretty much greek to me.

Anyone want to venture to recommend a card for under 100 bucks that will get me playing most newer games that I can supplement later with a second card? Most bang for my buck, of course.

My thanks, in advance, for your thoughts.

Regards,

Alex

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 3 replies

DOS 6.22 needed

Zippi — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 15:18:18 GMT

I have a legasy application I now need to run. It' runs on DOS 6.22 and if memory serves well on the DOS inside Windpws 95.

I have both - sort of.
Soooo I figure on using an older drive and loading the OS on that and just swapping 'em out when I want to run the legasy stuff.

My Win95 copy wants to install over DOS. DAMNITALL!!
My DOS 6.22 disks have a corruption in the start disk. Double DAMMITALL!!

Any one have an idea how I can get a DOS copy?

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 9 replies

removing vista

MickD — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:44:55 GMT

I confess, I'm not much of a PC user (more of a Mac guy), but my office has asked me to remove vista from one machine and install XP. Any advice on how best to do this? Just go in with the XP discs and do a fresh install?

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 8 replies

Legacy

Zippi — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 14:23:07 GMT

I got my Dos ver 6. disks recovered. And I got my old Windows 95 disks recovered.
No data storage is forever.

I'm trhing to run a legacy CAD package that wants native DOS and won't run on 98 or XP.

I have a separate HD on which I loaded DOS. OK it works fine. It's a stand alone DOS run HD so I avoid all the Dual Boot issues between XP and DOS.

Then I loaded the CAD package.

Everything loads without a hitch except that when I run the CAD package The software's screen has an echo from the native dos prompt on the screen overwriting the CAD software's screen and all of the interactive functions radio buttons for the software package are missing.

Does this sound like the Video card is the problem?

I'm on the verge of reformatting the drive and starting over.

Another weird issue appeared:
I loaded Win 95 trying to overcome that above issue (Win 95 has native DOS and will run my CAD package VIA the command prompt).

I was getting an error that the Config or Autoexec files were interfering I tried Step by step loading in safe mode nothing seemed wrong. But it wouldn't get Win 95 up.

So I went in from a boot floppy and renamed those two files to eliminate 'em from the boot process for 95.
Now after the files were renamed (using the REN command) they are gone - poof - disappeared. Can't find 'em.

I can't find 'em in native DOS and when I slave that Hard Drive to an XP HD and look at it I can't find 'em and I can't find the CAD software Directory.

I can't find the directory. Yet when I type the batch file I made to boot it, it boots. I get the flawed screen as described.

Have I stepped of into the twilight zone~?

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 3 replies

Laptops??

Zippi — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 14:59:23 GMT

Who is making a robust laptop these days?

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 3 replies

How does one prevent this??

Zippi — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 15:23:18 GMT

Go here and watch this video:
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2791168

It is astonishingly frightening.
Some kid on his PC managed to pick up 4 illegal images without his knowing
They were either encrypted in something innocuous he downloaded or planted there by criminals who wanted to use his box for storage and managed to plant malware on his PC.

The 16-year old kid Phoenix, AZ was looking at 90 years in prison.

Apparently YAHOO ratted him to the cops. They got a warrant and invaded his home.

Over the course of the investigation the family spent un-knowable tens of thousands of dollars on his defense.

What the kid had done was to visit conventional nudie adult websites. The FREE ones most likely.
However, some number of the images he looked at or downloaded were loaded with malware and encoded material allowing child pornographers to use his PC.

They placed him under house arrest with a shackled tracker.

They were fairly sure that he was in fact innocent but the Maricopa county DA
stated “He needed to be taught that he is going to be held responsible by the law.” lesson.” This in spite of the fact that the prosecutor was sure he was innocent.

They did lie-detector tests &psych evaluations by state and private experts. Every thing pointed to innocence. The fact that the illegal images were encrypted pointed to innocence.

The family hired a technical expert who found over 200 infected files were discovered on his PC that allowed hackers to gain access to his PC.

The DA’s case was falling apart and the DA pressured the kid to cop a plea or face trial and possible life in prison.
In the end the child pled guilty to a charge of “distributing obscene materials to minors.”

His was labeled a sex offender who has to register and self report.
The Judge in the case was outraged at what the prosecutor had done. The Judge wanted the kid to appeal. It took two more years to finally dispose of the case and get justice – sort of. They still lost years and many tens of thousands of dollars.

Music, Videos, & Photos can be encrypted with hidden images. If the cops find ‘em on your PC you will very likely face child pornography charges.

Defending such a thing will bankrupt most people. The costs can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 5 replies

Need help, lost my OS

Sat, 30 Dec 2006 03:33:30 GMT

Hi,

My apologies if this is the wrong tribe to ask for help with this. I'm not sure where else to go...

First off, I am a MAC guy who can use Windows. I have a MAC G5 tower (my I-net machine) and a laptop made by Notebook Computer. I bought this used with an OEM version of Windows XP Pro on it. No OS disc. The machine ran fine for a number of months and then froze up one day playing Halo. The bios page came up after a while and said it could not find the operating system. Since then I have had no luck getting it to run.

I purchased a repair disk from pcbegginer.com ... their Utilities Suite 2007. It's not helping a whole lot.

I was wondering if anyone out there might care to point me in the right direction so I can get my machine repaired? I'm pretty good at working things out and if it doesn't require any expensive tools and or text books, would like to repair the machine myself.

Thanks in advance and again, my apologies if I am posting this request for help in a bad place.

Happy New Year!

Ran D

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 2 replies

OMFG VIRUSESSS

Zippi — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 02:09:41 GMT

Is it my lack of recent exposure or have there been a dramatic and ( dare I say complete) drop off in worms viruses and such lately.
No new threats??
Just the old run of the mill CIH and well documented trojans??

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 2 replies

acer monitor power cord...

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 09:55:33 GMT

ive got an acer 17" flat screen lcd monitor and no power cord...havent had any luck in replacing it with an original...its power rating is 19v...2.6a...any suggestions on where to go to find a replacement or fabricate one will be greatly appreciated...

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 0 replies

CPU... What's practical?

maresa — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 00:26:54 GMT

What do you guys do, do you buy the fastest fkn chip you can, or do you buy the one with the best cost/speed ratio?? I'm not sure if it's smartest to buy the fastest, or to save some money on one that's a few months old.

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 7 replies

64 bit XP & HP 3380 !@#$@$#@#$$%%^

Zippi — Wed, 17 May 2006 22:09:31 GMT

I had a work around some time ago but I can't recall what it was.

I am running XP 64 bit and I have a HP 3380.
HP has been promising a driver sonce this version of the OS released. They are still promising.
Microsoft hasn't done a thing to run this printer.

Has any one got a handle of a workaround or compatable drivers? It's a PLC6 I think

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 0 replies

I wonder if I am doing somthing wrong.

Zarun — Sun, 14 May 2006 15:06:30 GMT

Just recently I rebuilt most of my computer.

Specs:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 x2 3800+
GFX: eVGA 7800 Gt
HDD: 2x Seagate 200 gigs
CD/DVD: Nec 16x DVD +RW
Mobo: Asus A8n SLI
Ram: 1 Gig 400 MHz ram.

The ram is my first and most pressing concern. First of all this motherboard doesn’t recognize that its 400mhz Ram it registers it a 333mhz I guess this is a problem that is well known by Asus and is being worked on or something like that. I kind of assumed that well a dual core would make a huge difference in the way I do things and not bog down constantly.

But though it seems that I have everything put together and good specs this comp tends to bog down and have to sit there thinking semi frozen all the time. Now the oddest things about that is the CPU rarely gets above 20% - 30% however the ram usage does hang at a constant 500 - 600 megs.

I don’t have any idea if the ram usage is normal or if this comp shouldn’t ever be hanging with the amount of ram it has or what.

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 1 reply

no power to motherboard

jesse — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 21:58:13 GMT

I've got two motherboards that i think are bad because all that is working are the fans
one is a elite mini atx and the other is a msi mini.

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 3 replies

Building a computer!

mikencali831 — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 05:43:52 GMT

I started this tribe a long time ago, because I wanted to build a computer, and I thought it would be good for everyone to input on the setup I was planning. Well, I never did it. I just didn't have the money nor time. Now-a-days however, I have both, and I would like to start fresh and get some input from you guys, so here it goes.

Here was my strategy. I knew I wanted an AMD rig, so I found some websites that build computers for you, and checked out their specs.. They were "build your own" computers, I did just that, and here is what I came up with.

Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Pro
Main Board: ASUS AMD Motherboard (A8N-SLI Deluxe)
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 x2 4800+ 2.4GHz (2x1MB) L2 Cache Dual Core (ADA4800CDBOX)
Power Supply: Antec TruePower 2.0 (TP2-550 EPS12V)

Case: Still up for grabs (I need input)
Cooling: I'd like to go watercooled (Still researching)

Memory: CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM (TWINX2048-3200)
Video Card: eVGA Geforce 7800GTX (256-P2-N529-AX)
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum Pro 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface (70SB036000000)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Raptor (WD1500ADFD)
Optical Drive: Sony (DW-D22A)
Combo Media Drive: Mitsumi (FA404M BLK)

I changed some stuff during this post, but my original price estimate was 2300.00

As far as cases go...

Aspire X-Navigator Aluminum Computer Case - Blue (ATXA8NW-BL/500)
Thermaltake SHARK (VA7000BWA)
Gigabyte 3D Aurora Case, Black with Window (GZ-FSCA1-ATB)
CoolerMaster Stacker 830 (RC-830-SSN1)

I am currently using my girlfriends laptop:

Hewlett Packard HP Notebook PC
Intel Celeron 1.33 GHz
240 MB of RAM

It does the job we bought it for: Schoolwork

But I need something that can actually play a game.

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 4 replies

identifying parts

Sun, 05 Feb 2006 13:40:39 GMT

how do i identify my motherboard ?

i have an old p.c. i want to renovate (as a hobby )

lots more questions in the pipeline !

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 4 replies

Intels in Macs

LNZ81 — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 22:33:05 GMT

Its true.
http://www.apple.com/imac/

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 0 replies

Current "Best Parts for the Money"

AlienMental — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 12:50:33 GMT

Hello!

The first computer I built was a 286-12 Mhz, and thought it was great to expand RAM up to 8 MB! That really sped up my machine...
Anyway, now Im running some 1.2 GHz machine and will be building a new machine in about 3-6 months. I would love to have suggestions for individual computer parts that are EXCEPTIONAL, and currently the best thing going, for the money. I'm new to the group - - - building your own machine enables you to know what's under the hood.

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 3 replies

Replacing a motherboard

Wed, 30 Nov 2005 04:58:00 GMT

I have isolated a comp crash prob as a burned out system board for a Compaq Presario 7000Z (part # 207610-101). (Fans come on fine, power supply powers up, RAM works in other comp... just absolutely nothing happens other than that when i try to boot. No beeps, no signal, no hardrive work... nada!!)

I have no idea if processor is still working.

Does anyone have a good resource for finding replacement parts at a low price AND does anyone have a good resource for instructions on getting the processor out of my old one? I have tried ebay and knwo to look there periodically.

I also was looking for any sites that you could enter a part number and they would let you know what parts are compatible. Any info on that?

Obviously, i am a newbie.

Thanks, Alex

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 19 replies

Transferring OS

Sun, 11 Dec 2005 21:41:01 GMT

Hi all.

I recently purchased a new mobo and proc and custom built a new comp for my gf(thanks for all the tips and help, Blue Lobster!!). This new comp is networked to my comp.

I had a spare hd (60 GB WD) from the old comp (wiped and reformatted... I was using it for storage) and a 6GB HD donated from an old dell with win 98 on it.

I configured the new custom comp using the 6GB HD, upgraded to WinXP and slaved the 60GB storage HD to it.

SO... I know have a new XP comp with 6GB FAT32 master HD with a 60GB NTFS slave data HD.

I want to transfer the OS to the 60GB HD and then reconfigure the 6GB HD
to NTFS, then network it as shared data folder.

I would rather not have to buy Ghost or Partition Magic for this.

Any suggestions?

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 1 reply

Front Panel Switch

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 23:10:32 GMT

I bought a new mobo and proc combo and it arrived today.

Woohoo.

But.. I instantly ran into a problem.

It appears the plug on the mobo for the front panel switch has a 8-pin recepticle, the case I have has a 16 pin male plug.

Any quick fix or is this something I will have to order/salvage/shop for?

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 1 reply

Looking to Build a Computer..

TheIncredible — Sat, 03 Dec 2005 18:55:38 GMT

I want to get a computer for my music production.. I am totally software based.. I am wondering if it is best to build or buy..

I don't know much about computer so I am looking to you fine folks for some help..

I want a smoking fast Computer that will be able to run multiple programs and has a good sound card... That's pretty much all I know that I need.

Thanks for some input..

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 5 replies

Building a computer soon!

mikencali831 — Wed, 02 Jun 2004 21:20:03 GMT

Im in the works for building a computer, and before I start the actual buying process, I would like to get recommendations. This little tribe here, will hopefully help people out like myself, who are intersted in doing so. I have a list of components already, and I will be adding it here within the day, I just need to modify it so it will work on Tribe.

Mike

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 9 replies

Case thermometer

LNZ81 — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 23:31:34 GMT

My ATX came with a thermometer, but i'm not sure where to hook the cord up to. Do I place the end between CPU and heatsink?

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 0 replies

XP Pro issues.

Zippi — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 13:37:56 GMT

Looking to fix a few of those decisions that Microsoft makes for you.
This time it's the way XP causes your open web pages to all stack in one expandable block in the bottom tool bar (assuming like me you leave that one at the bottom).

The options are to tile horizontially, vertically or cascade them.

I prefer the idea of having them all lined up next to each other.

anyone know how to accomplish that?

Or even some good links for XP issues and fixes.

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 4 replies

migrating to linux - maybe

Zippi — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 18:06:19 GMT

Any one know of a killer app for emulating windows in linux?
I’m thinking of making the transition.
The hitch is I live and work in a universe of windows users. I have to share digital documents with all manner of screwy formatting symbols text boxes etc. That means I need a killer app as a windows emulator. I’ve heard of Wine but, haven’t had the chance to try it.

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 6 replies

ATX Cases?

urbaneezer — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 13:29:37 GMT

Hi all!

Just wondering if anyone has a favorite ATX case that they like?

I definitely want a mid-tower and I'm trying to maximize my dollar for the important stuff. I would really like something that is stylish, simple, not at all modded out. I love the look of the steel/aluminum boxes but have not found one that is relatively inexpensive.

Four 5.25 external, two 3.5 external and four 3.5 internal drive bays would be ideal.

Any suggestions or ideas would be extremely welcome!

~Rick

BTW...I plan to get a pretty hefty HD and partition it. On one partition I am going to use Ubuntu-Linux and I haven't decided which OS to load on the other yet. If any of you are Linux heads and have thoughts on system hardware, please share. This will be my first Linux install/distro and I can use all the advice I can get!

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 2 replies

Hi.. New here. Wanting to build a comp

Thu, 24 Feb 2005 13:12:39 GMT

I'm wanting to upgrade my computer, as I bought a "custom" compaq box in 2000 from a retailer and the processor speed is starting to limit me.

I have (of things I think would matter):

Compaq Presario 7000 series box
1.4 Gb Processor Pentium II? I think the 1.4 was the last Pent II)
512 RAM (I think I could max at 1 Gb, but it is a low pin DDR)

I want to:

Upgrade processor/motherboard so as to increase speed and allow for more, and more efficient, RAM.

Questions:

How do I go about finding out what motherboards I could use?

Where are good sources for motherboards?

Would anything else have to be changed to accomodate for new motherboard?

Shoudl I just start from scratch and get a new box and leave this comp as a clunker for my gf to play solitaire on (i.e. Is it cost efficient to upgrade this box instead of just getting new one)?

Sorry for the barrage when I first arrive, but any help woul dbe much appreciated.

I am new to this.

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 2 replies

Keyboard mod

jorga — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 23:22:38 GMT

I'm interested in turning my old C64 into a useable keyboard for my pc. Any advice?

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 0 replies

Building an SFF

maggyver — Tue, 28 Dec 2004 16:00:48 GMT

Hi, I'm about to build an SFF system. It'll be the first system I've built in about 4 years - I'm chomping at the bit! Parts are still being delivered and ordered, here's what I'm collecting:

Case: Hornet Pro Aluminum u-ATX (indigo, 'cos I like purple) with Topower 350W PS
Mobo: Intel D925XBCLK
CPU: P4 540 3.2 GHz (LGA775) 800 FSB
RAM: 1GB Corsair DDR2 3200
Video: ATI Radeon All-in-Wonder X600 Pro 256MB (PCI-Express)
Sound: Audigy ZS (eventually, will use integrated 7.1 for now)
HD: 2 x Hitachi 200GB SATA in RAID 0, 1 x Maxtor 200GB Ultra/133 USB 2.0 (for backup)
Speakers: Creative P7800 7.1 system

The parts simply can't get here fast enough. I'm upgrading from an old Dell Precision 420 with a P3 700, 512MB RDRAM, 32MB Nvidia AGP, and 78GB total HD space. This'll be fun.

posted in .Custom Computer's. - 3 replies