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What's going on with my computer? (The computer help thread)

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  • I'm running Vista on a Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop with a 150 gb hard drive. It's filled up pretty far, with only about 5-7gb of space left. I check it daily just to see how much space I have left and some days it'll be like 7.5gb left, and others it'll say like 5gb. I don't download and/or delete 2gbs worth of files daily (and no one else uses the computer). What is causing this to show up like this?
  • Things like podcasts and your Firefox cache probably. Monitor what your usage is when you first turn your computer on and then after the day's browsing.

    You really need to to either upgrade your HDD or shift some of that stuff onto an external drive.
  • So both of my -ROM drives suddenly vanished today.

    Nothing new has been installed, with the exception of WinXP updates.

    I turned on my computer and my D: and E: drives were completely gone. Device manager says that the drivers are properly installed, but the devices are not connected.

    Any ideas?
    I think the consensus here so far is that you need to nuke the OS. It's easy, and it's the very first thing you should do at the very first sign of trouble.

    In fact, I've added nuking the OS to my list of things to do in the morning: Shower, shave, nuke the OS, get dressed.
  • I think the consensus here so far is that you need to nuke the OS. It's easy, and it's the very first thing you should do at the very first sign of trouble.

    In fact, I've added nuking the OS to my list of things to do in the morning: Shower, shave, nuke the OS, get dressed.
    That's only if you have virii or malware.
  • But how would you know?!
  • I think the consensus here so far is that you need to nuke the OS. It's easy, and it's the very first thing you should do at the very first sign of trouble.

    In fact, I've added nuking the OS to my list of things to do in the morning: Shower, shave, nuke the OS, get dressed.
    That's only if you have virii or malware.
    But what if you want to reset your desktop wallpaper back to the default? It's simple, just nuke it.

    Your internet went down because of your ISP? Just nuke the OS, It'll be back up by the time you've finished.

    Got dumped by your girlfriend/boyfriend? Nuke them.
  • virii
    Wut? Scott's account got hacked? Or has he been going high on troll-enhancements?
  • virii
    Wut? Scott's account got hacked? Or has he been going high on troll-enhancements?
    I believe they both talked on the show about how it is "Viruses", not "virii". lol.
  • That's what I mean by checking cables. If it was really a bad cable, it wouldn't get power or be recognized to install drivers in the first place.
    I wouldn't think that was the case. Power comes over the molex connector and it would only take one of the data wires going bad to corrupt data being sent, that depends on whether or not the same wires are used for data transmission and identification.

    Either way, replacing an IDE cable is pretty simple so it's a good place to start.
    Are both drives connected to the same IDE cable?
    I believe they are. There's a single ribbon cable that runs to both. Maybe I'll stop at a computer shop this week and try switching out the old for a new one.
    Okay, I want a second opinion on my ROM drive issue:

    Will this do the trick?
  • edited July 2009
    You may want to get an 80 wire cable, the extra cables are just connected to the ground to cut down interference (According to this.). How much that is going to help? I dunno. $10 seems a bit pricey though.
    Post edited by Omnutia on

  • Okay, I want a second opinion on my ROM drive issue:

    Will this do the trick?
    If that's the kind of cable you need, don't buy one. Between me and Scott Johnson, we must have like, 1000.
  • Too late. Bought it.

    ALso, I tried installing a drive emulator. Daemon Tools used to work just fine for me. Now, no emulated drives appear either. I can mount .iso images to the virtual drives, but they don't appear in 'my computer'.

    I'll switch the cable today and see if there are any changes.
  • edited July 2009
    I don't see how a cable would make virtual drives fail. Did you look in Device Manager? Disk Management?
    Post edited by lackofcheese on
  • What do all of you use for password management? I'm reaching my critical password mass in terms of what my memory can handle, and I need a way to control stuff with a master password. My university will give me Password Vault USB free because I'm a student, but I'm not sure if it's the best choice.
  • edited July 2009
    Supergenpass works pretty well for me. You input a master password and it generates a unique pseudo-random key based on the domain you are visiting. The whole thing runs from just one bookmark.
    Post edited by Omnutia on
  • Supergenpassworks pretty well for me. You input a master password and it generates a unique pseudo-random key based on the domain you are visiting. The whole thing runs from just one bookmark.
    I also use it, but it's only helpful if you are using a normal web browser. iPhone Safari doesn't really support bookmarklets so well.
  • GeoGeo
    edited July 2009
    So something is wrong with the laptop I use. Nothing with performance or internal hardware at all, but something on the outside. I've noticed a little crack on one of the hinges that keeps the laptop screen up and allows me to adjust it's position. Is there any kind of hard fix or something I can put on it to prevent it from breaking or something like that. This really worries me immensely and I need some help.
    Post edited by Geo on
  • So something is wrong with the laptop I use. Nothing with performance or internal hardware at all, but something on the outside. I've noticed a little crack on one of the hinges that keeps the laptop screen up and allows me to adjust it's position. Is there any kind of hard fix or something I can put on it to prevent it from breaking or something like that. This really worries me immensely and I need some help.
    Duct Tape.
  • So something is wrong with the laptop I use. Nothing with performance or internal hardware at all, but something on the outside. I've noticed a little crack on one of the hinges that keeps the laptop screen up and allows me to adjust it's position. Is there any kind of hard fix or something I can put on it to prevent it from breaking or something like that. This really worries me immensely and I need some help.
    Duct Tape.
    Nuke the Os and Reinstall.
  • So something is wrong with the laptop I use. Nothing with performance or internal hardware at all, but something on the outside. I've noticed a little crack on one of the hinges that keeps the laptop screen up and allows me to adjust it's position. Is there any kind of hard fix or something I can put on it to prevent it from breaking or something like that. This really worries me immensely and I need some help.
    Bondo or some Fiberglass Filler
  • GeoGeo
    edited July 2009
    So something is wrong with the laptop I use. Nothing with performance or internal hardware at all, but something on the outside. I've noticed a little crack on one of the hinges that keeps the laptop screen up and allows me to adjust it's position. Is there any kind of hard fix or something I can put on it to prevent it from breaking or something like that. This really worries me immensely and I need some help.
    Duct Tape.
    Nuke the Os and Reinstall.
    I just said nothing was wrong with the performance!
    Edit: Sorry if I flipped out there, but it's kind of a pet peeve of mine when people don't read between the lines. I'm guilty of this too at times and I truthfully admit that, but still it is a pet peeve of mine.
    Post edited by Geo on
  • I just said nothing was wrong with the performance!
    Edit: Sorry if I flipped out there, but it's kind of a pet peeve of mine when people don't read between the lines. I'm guilty of this too at times and I truthfully admit that, but still it is a pet peeve of mine.
    Yes, I read that part. But If you read a few pages back in this thread -
    I think the consensus here so far is that you need to nuke the OS. It's easy, and it's the very first thing you should do at the very first sign of trouble.

    In fact, I've added nuking the OS to my list of things to do in the morning: Shower, shave, nuke the OS, get dressed.
    In other words, It's just a joke.
  • I just said nothing was wrong with the performance!
    Edit: Sorry if I flipped out there, but it's kind of a pet peeve of mine when people don't read between the lines. I'm guilty of this too at times and I truthfully admit that, but still it is a pet peeve of mine.
    Yes, I read that part. But If you read a few pages back in this thread -
    I think the consensus here so far is that you need to nuke the OS. It's easy, and it's the very first thing you should do at the very first sign of trouble.

    In fact, I've added nuking the OS to my list of things to do in the morning: Shower, shave, nuke the OS, get dressed.
    In other words, It's just a joke.
    Well the way it ran, it was fine. You do know what I mean when I say hinges right?
  • Well the way it ran, it was fine. You do know what I mean when I say hinges right?
    Dude, I know a hinge from a bar of soap, it was just a joke.
  • Well the way it ran, it was fine. You do know what I mean when I say hinges right?
    Dude, I know a hinge from a bar of soap, it was just a joke.
    I just saw the words in white just now, sorry.
  • Problem: In Ubuntu (9.04), my PC randomly freezes, although I cannot figure out exactly what triggers it. The mouse is fully moveable and audio from videos playing continues normally, but the screen is otherwise frozen, with nothing clickable. This tends to be accompanied by a series of tiny, multicolored dots randomly appearing around the screen, usually accumulating more and more the longer the computer has been running.

    The freezes seem to have a high probability of occurring while windows are minimizing/unminimizing or when icons are moved around the screen. Now, after I installed 9.04, Ubuntu would give me errors upon booting that the proprietary Nvidia drivers included wouldn't work with my card (a GeForce 8600GT, something about the Nvidia kernel not starting due to a mismatched version number) despite working in 8.04 and 8.10, and I have to use the "default" configuration, and I think the problem lies here somewhere. That, or I worry my video card or power supply may be failing somehow, although I have no problems in Windows on the same machine.

    This isn't a high-priority problem, as I'm not really dependent on Ubuntu for much, but if anyone has any ideas, please let me know.
  • If you can't get your nvidia driver to work, then you should disable all the fancy desktop effects. If you leave them on, then it's going to try to render the fancy effects using whatever busted ass video driver is actually working, and that is ruining your X. Either get your nvidia to work, which should be really simple using the graphical restricted drivers manager tool thingy. If not, then disable all fancy effects in the appearance settings.
  • edited July 2009
    This problem is more network related than computer related, although there remains the possibility that it is still a problem with our computers.
    Me and my brother My brother and I connect to the internet with our laptops using a Linksys by Cisco wireless router. If I am the only one connecting, I can always connect easily. My brother, if no one else is connecting, can usually connect easily. However, if one of us is already online, and the other tries to connect, the one attempting to connect can't connect, and the one who was connected is disconnected. The network then disappears. Randomly, after some finagling, disconnecting and reconnecting, and unplugging and replugging, the internet usually starts working again eventually. Then we can both connect fine and stay connected.
    Is there any reason why you can think this happens? I operate on Windows XP, my brother is on Windows Vista. Our actual internet box is a DSL Frontier box. This is connected to the Linksys.
    Post edited by Andrew on
  • Is there any reason why you can think this happens? I operate on Windows XP, my brother is on Windows Vista. Our actual internet box is a DSL Frontier box. This is connected to the Linksys.
    Your router is probably misconfigured. Go to your router's configuration interface and reset it to the defaults. Then change only the necessary settings and leave the other ones alone.

    Also, your ISP might be dicks, but there's only a small chance of that. Even if they aren't dicks Frontier DSL is slow poop. Get thee a cable modem.
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